Free Republic

Obamacare update: Plan from Sen. Baucus includes hefty taxes on unions' gold-plated healthcare plans. Dem senators saying that's unacceptable. Lefties screaming that unions must get special treatment; i.e. no taxes on their healthcare. Looks like the Baucus plan is already near death. Developing.

LONDON (Reuters) - Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear sites if Western powers cannot agree crippling sanctions against Tehran by the end of the year, a former Israeli deputy defense minister said on Wednesday. Ephraim Sneh, who holds no position in the current Israeli government and was speaking in his personal capacity, told Reuters it was not clear the United States and European Union had the decisiveness to take such steps, which should include tougher banking and oil curbs, by year's end. "We cannot live under the shadow of an Iran with nuclear weapons," he said in an...

The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet. Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the White House signaled that it would insist on open dealings with Internet users and, in fact, should feel obliged to disclose that it is collecting such information. "The White House has not been adequately...

If J Street, the new left-wing Israel lobby, wants to be taken seriously by mainstream American Jewry, I suggest it immediately withdraw the patronizing argument that all those who disagree with it are ossified Jewish knuckledraggers who see an anti-Semite behind every corner. The New York Times Magazine feature on J Street this past Sunday, which raised the group from near obscurity, may have misquoted its director Jeremy Ben-Ami. But if not, the quotes represent a breathtaking condescension toward ideological opponents that can only sow deep divisions within the Jewish community. Here are some choice morsels. On why most pro-Israel...

It helps to read history. We know, or should, that American life shows us nothing like the social and political conniptions that Germany experienced in the 1920s, France in the 1790s and the United States in the 1850s. But something is cooking. Indignant people -- I'm sidestepping the adjective "angry" so as to avoid connotations -- don't mysteriously materialize in the capital city to fulminate and castigate on their own nickels. They have to want to. What might make them want to? I would venture, the sense that something's badly, seriously, woefully out of joint in their beloved homeland. Note...

SALT LAKE CITY -- There's rising concern in Idaho about a religious cult that packed up and moved out of Utah earlier this summer. Neighbors near Pocatello are upset about the group's plan for a massive new residence. The group is called the Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven. It was based for years in a Magna duplex. In June, KSL News followed a caravan as the cult consolidated its members and moved to Idaho. They left Utah for greener pastures in Idaho, but their new neighbors worry that the pasture is getting too crowded. Church...

Jim O’Keefe and Hannah Giles are the new media. The old tired Democrat controlled media has been pushed aside. They’ve ripped the cover off the ACORN cesspool and done the job “ABCCBSNBCCNN” refuse to do. This is the type of journalism the Founding Fathers had in mind, not the garbage churned out by Michael Moore et al. Because of their clever and innovative attack on Obama’s shock troops, everyone who counts now knows a lot more about ACORN’s criminal activities. What they achieved Simply by wearing Halloween customs presenting Giles as a prostitute and O’Keefe as her pimp, they convinced...

The federal government’s consolidation of power along with out-of-control spending is a malignant tumor in America’s body. Strong & drastic treatment needs to be introduced now. Here’s what can be given to our patient for its critical condition: Force Congress to take its own medicine

Indian smoke shops are feeling the heat NEW YORK - After doing time for possession and an accidental killing, crack dealer Rodney Morrison decided he was finished with drugs. He threw himself a "retirement" party in 1993 and got into a new line of work: tax-free cigarettes. It was a business operating in a gray area of the law, and the riches were enormous. Within a decade, the smoke shop Morrison opened on Long Island's little Poospatuck Indian Reservation had become one of the state's biggest dealers in untaxed cigarettes. Other drug dealers soon took note and followed him into...

This pole wants to know the religion of those at Free Republic, well lets tell them. Looks like 270 have voted already and 25% are catholic, while 19% are Unaffiliated Evangelical Christians. Poll on Freepers Religion

When the list of donors to the Van Jones "Green for All" organization is examined, one name stands out-the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros. The Green for All 2008 annual report is also notable for the pictures of the powerful people who associated with Jones. They include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Al Gore

Dear UNC-Wilmington PRIDE: I am writing to express my interest in joining you during your appearances at UNC-Wilmington Resident Assistant (RA) training next semester. At the beginning of every semester, members of your UNC-Wilmington student group speak to all of our RAs. You describe yourself as an organization dedicated to the eradication of bigotry and the promotion of inclusion. But then you contradict yourself by saying you seek to "Improve the quality of LGBTIQA lives and increase understanding and acceptance of LGBTIQA individuals in the general university community." Unfortunately, you've excluded a very important group of students on our campus....

Check out this parody of Maureen Dowd's Joe Wilson column. [NOTE: It is a copyright violation to copy and paste this post in its entirety, so please click on the link to read it.]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC): "It's not the person I am objecting to, it's the issues."

The New York Times, which vociferously opposes the murder of noncombatants, was indirectly involved in the deaths of women, children and other civilians just a week ago. It happened near Kunduz, Afghanistan, when British and Afghani commandos liberated kidnapped Times journalist Stephen Farrell: Civilians were caught in the cross-fire and killed, as was Farrell's Afghani interpreter. Had the Times, a bastion of opposition to harming to civilians in war zones, known that civilians would be killed in the rescue, would it have preferred that the operation be called off, and that Farrell remain in the hands of his captors? What...

The other day, I was trying to figure out why the paycheck deduction for my health insurance was higher than I had expected. When I called my insurer to ask what the total premium was, the customer service representative said it was none of my business. Three-fifths of Americans, the share with employer-provided health insurance, are in the same situation: Since someone else buys insurance for them, using money they would otherwise receive as wages, they are in no position to shop around and typically do not even know the true cost of their coverage. This disconnect between payment and...

Israel called the Goldstone Commission Report "nauseating" on Tuesday, saying it created an unjust "equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organization" and lacked the context of a decade of terrorist attacks by Hamas. The commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council and led by former South African constitutional court judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during Operation Cast Lead from late December to mid-January. The report "concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity," by firing...

Given his writings and efforts to run us into the ground, could he just planning to bring down the system and declare "marshall law". Once declared he would retain power indefinitely. Your thoughts?

The Tarantula ZoneExplanation: The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years in diameter -- a giant star forming region within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). That cosmic arachnid lies left of center in this sharp, colorful telescopic image taken through narrow-band filters. It covers a part of the LMC over 2,000 light-years across. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are other violent star-forming regions with young star clusters,...

The House of Representatives voted along party lines 240 to 179 to issue a symbolic (this is to say, toothless) resolution stating that the august body “disapproves” of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) interrupting President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech by shouting “You lie!” during the joint session of Congress held on Sept. 9, 2009 ... House guidelines on the rules of debate say it is impermissible to refer to the president as a liar. ... Wilson called the president out for a particular lie about a particular aspect of his health “reform” proposal, and did not suggest that every word out...