Free Republic

This article from Federal Times is linked at The Eye: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/eye_opener_federal_hiring_sala.html ___________________________________________________ The U.S. Postal Service, struggling with a massive deficit caused by plummeting mail volume, spends more than a million dollars each week to pay thousands of employees to sit in empty rooms and do nothing. It’s a practice called “standby time,” and it has existed for years — but postal employees say it was rarely used until this year. Now, postal officials say, the agency is averaging about 45,000 hours of standby time every week — the equivalent of having 1,125 full-time employees sitting idle, at a cost...

September 8, 2009 BY MARY MITCHELL Sun-Times Columnist Given Glenn Beck's powerful platform, it's amazing that the best he can do is forcing out President Obama's czar for green jobs. Van Jones, who was named a special adviser at the White House Council for Environmental Quality, was forced to resign after Fox News commentator Beck outed him as a black radical. Jones' biggest sin was calling Republicans the "a" word. He also signed a petition that questioned whether the Bush administration officials might have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen as a pretext of war. As ridiculous as that might sound,...

Odagma greeted by Patriots with sign stating, "Mr. President, stay away from our kids." This follows Dept of Ed retracting controversial materials that they admitted were of questionable intent. Wow this guy is tone deaf to what currently people want.

Introduction this week of the new video game "The Beatles: Rock Band" reminds us of an odd fact about these music artists who were once widely considered to be the definition of avant garde: the Beatles have often been, really, one beat behind. Believe it or not, up until now music by the Beatles has not been available for sale on the Internet. With "The Beatles: Rock Band," players will be able to download up to 45 songs that they can perform with the Fab Four in such reproduced settings as "The Ed Sullivan Show," Shea Stadium and the Abbey...

A leading Saudi cleric has called on Muslims not to pray for the destruction of unbelievers. A supplication to that effect is often reiterated at the end of every Friday prayer in Arab countries, something critics say can radicalise youth. Sheikh Salman al-Awda said such prayers were against Islamic sharia. But he added they were permissible if the interests of Muslims were harmed, so his words may have little effect on radicals who oppose the US or Israel.

Our readers, being the very informed and responsble citizens that they are, are well aware of the release of one Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, "the only individual convicted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. The event which killed 270 people, including all those on board, is now one of the most spoken of terrorist events in recent memory. On August 20, the British government released him on "compassionate grounds." Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer. Boo-hoo. The release of convicted terrorist Megrahi led the White House to issue a statement expressing "deep regret" for his release,...

I can't take much more of the people who are completely losing it because Barack Obama wants to make a speech to school children. I just heard someone who sounds like she's hiding in the hills on the radio. She was clearly a bigot, and an especially stupid one at that. Do the Democrats want to create a society of government-loving, dependent drones? No doubt. Is Barack Obama a megalomaniac? Look it up and decide for yourself. For goodness sake, what damage do you think one speech could do? Are your children's minds so empty that they can be warped...

(On 9/11) I said to myself, "We'll get you, you bastards," but I was wrong. We haven't. It has been eight years, two terms of Bush moralism and the beginning of Obama pragmatism, and the man who ordered the killing of Americans in Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon and in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania is still in his lair... ...and I wanted then, as I do now, revenge for what happened. Bring me the head of Osama bin Laden. That revenge would be my first thought surprised me even then...When we talk about Afghanistan, whether to stay or...

Some promising, surprising and ludicrous names are popping up in 2010 election conversations. In the coming weeks, I will be writing briefly about these names/people, what they are saying, and what is being said about them. ♦ PROMISING ♦ Carly Fiorina Republican, U.S. Senator for CaliforniaAlthough Fiorina hasn't officially declared her candidacy, it's all but certain that this former Hewlett-Packard CEO will duke it out with Sen. Barbara Boxer for the California Democrat incumbent's seat in the U.S. Senate. The Republican announced in mid-August that she filed papers to "start exploring a candidacy." Fiorina has been steadily increasing her presence...

If we do not believe that the President is stupid, then what do we believe? The only reasonable alternative seems to be that he wanted to get this massive government takeover of medical care passed into law before the public understood what was in it. Moreover, he wanted to get re-elected in 2012 before the public experienced what its actual consequences would be. Unfortunately, this way of doing things is all too typical of the way this administration has acted on a wide range of issues.

Teenager Jessica Maree Langford has pleaded not guilty to charge of culpable driving which led to the tragic death of her boyfriend Daniel Glover. Evidence used in the Melbourne Magistrates court against the 19-year-old included evidence of speeding, an unlawful blood-alcohol reading and the fact that she was naked at the time as means by which to commit her to trial. Miss Langford told the court she and Glover had been skinny-dipping around midnight at Shoreham on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula and had used their clothes to dry themselves. She denied any suggestion that sexual activity had taken place whilst driving....

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The mayor of Hartford, Conn., and three others charged in a corruption investigation last week have made a brief appearance before a state judge

Sowell flat out calls President Obama a "Liar" in his latest takedown of Zero. --- Key Excerpt: One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess-- for a program that would not take effect until 2013! Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date...

Living in Texas, there is absolutely no way I'm going to claim to have the best chili recipe. People here are serious about their chili and have very strong opinions about it. We even have complete festivals and cook offs for bragging rights revolving around this beloved Texas favorite. Having given my disclaimer, here's a quick and easy version that your family is sure to love!

I wasn't sure if there was going to be a live thread or anyone discussing this as it's going on, so....

"Some Boulder County residents said their afternoon at the Louisville Labor Day Parade turned sour Monday when a Regional Transportation District bus and a U.S. Postal Service mail truck crawled along the route bearing posters supporting President Barack Obama's health-care plan and labor unions. “They were basically supporting ‘ObamaCare,'” Ted Hine said afterward. “That's not what public funds should be used for.”

Tort reform and fixing the medical malpractice insurance system in the U.S. isn’t a “silver bullet” that will fix health care, but it’s a necessary element of comprehensive health care reform. No health care reform should pass without it.

Here is video of Fox News' Megyn Kelly this morning confronting Broward County, Florida School Superintendent James Notter for his decision to make it mandatory for students to attend President Obama's "School Speech" today. He also says students will face penalties for not attending. Kelly pressed him on why they are not making the event voluntary when Obama's own Secretary of Education has said it should be voluntary. Notter just kept repeating, "This is not an opt out part of our curriculum." Kelly pointed out that Broward County is the only school district they know of in the country making...

America is losing the war in Afghanistan. Rather than change course, President Obama is sending 21,000 additional U.S. troops. This will bring the total to 68,000 American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, bolstering coalition forces to 110,000. The troop surge, however, will not work. Afghanistan has become Mr. Obama's Vietnam -- a protracted quagmire draining precious American blood and treasure. August was the deadliest month for U.S. forces, with 47 soldiers killed by Taliban insurgents. More than 300 coalition troops have died in 2009. This is the highest toll since the war began in 2001, and there are still four months...