Free Republic

Since April, I’ve been predicting a House GOP pick-up in the low 50s. Subsequent months of data seemed to strengthen the likelihood of a 52-seat-or-so outcome without greatly expanding the field of Democratic representatives at genuine risk, but only recently has the direness of the party’s electoral predicament really crystallized. In all, a remarkably high number of Democratic seats — 118 to be exact — are now, in one way or another, in play. Forty-four seats are now pure toss-ups or worse.The last month has been particularly bad for Democrats. From April to August, the average rating (solid/likely/lean/tossup) of Democratic...

NEW YORK (AP) — A reporter for a Mexican TV network says on her Twitter account she felt "very uncomfortable!" at a Jets practice Saturday where a coach appeared to throw footballs in her direction and players called out to her in the locker room.

HAVANA — Cuba will let more than 500,000 state employees go by next March and try to move most to non-state jobs in the biggest shift to the private sector since the 1960s, the official Cuban labor federation said Monday. The layoffs will start immediately and run through the first half of next year, according to an announcement Monday by the nearly 3 million-strong Cuban Workers Confederation — the only labor union the government tolerates. The statement said eventually more than a million jobs would be cut and, due to efforts to increase efficiency in the state sector, there would...

Ok I know what one can't eat on the 5 days prior to a colonoscopy. What are some meals we can eat? How about compiling a list/thread of can chow down on foods/meal for the week prior? White Bread/Turkey/Mayo is one I can dig. Broiled White fish w/lemon and smoked salt If you care to and are a pro at the colon pre week diet mode please list some ideas other than the usual suggestions. We all now what we can't have the week prior seeds/leafy veggies/celery/fruit (basically things with peels or seeds) red/purple/orange dyes. And the need to be...

September 2010 marked the third anniversary of the promulgation of the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum. In the letter to the bishops of the world accompanying the document Pope Benedict writes, "...I invite you, dear Brothers, to send to the Holy See an account of your experiences, three years after this Motu Proprio has taken effect." To acknowledge this benchmark in the celebration of the ancient liturgy in the life of the Church, the Bishop of Albany Howard J. Hubbard presided over our Sunday Mass on September 12, 2010. The Extraordinary Form liturgy (offered by Father Romaeus Cooney) followed the rite...

The Second Amendment finally applies to the states. Now the fight over gun rights really begins. It was the morning of June 26, 2008, and Alan Gura had just won the first case he’d ever argued in front of the Supreme Court. Before taking a media victory lap to celebrate his historic vindication of the Second Amendment in D.C. v. Heller, Gura headed to the Court’s public information office for a moment of privacy. He called an old buddy from law school, the Chicago attorney David Sigale. “File it,” Gura said. “It” became, almost exactly two years later, Gura’s second...

After fighting an infection for several months, the woman with the largest breast implants in the US had them removed last week. According to a MyFOXHouston.com report, Sheyla Hershey had the M cup breast implants taken out along with most of her own breast tissue. The report claims Hershey had been suffering from severe infections after a recent surgery in Brazil to try to achieve the world record for the largest breasts. Surgery to enhance breasts to the size desired by Hershey is illegal in the US. Hershey underwent the surgery to have the implants removed in Richmond, Texas.

The student loan default rate continued to rise in fiscal year 2008, the latest period for which data is available, with default rates for students at for-profit colleges — already the highest — rising the fastest. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Monday morning that the overall student loan default rate for fiscal year 2008 was 7 percent, up from 6.7 percent the previous year. The rates increased to 6 percent from 5.9 percent at public institutions, to 4 percent from 3.7 percent for private institutions and to 11.6 percent from 11 percent for for-profit institutions. The default rates represent a...

A methane digester called "Park Spark" has been installed in a dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device produces methane by bacterial digestion of the dog excrement, and the methane is used to light a gas-burning street lamp. People walking their dogs are encouraged to collect the feces, place them into the supplied biodegradable doggie bags and drop them into the digester feeding tube. They then turn a hand crank to stir the mixture of excrement and anaerobic bacteria in the Spark Park digester and help the methane rise to the top where it is burned constantly in the lamp,...

ATLANTA -- A taxi driver received the shock of his life when a man who had hitched a ride in the cab asked to stop at an ATM, but later came running out of the bank with cash and a gun in hand, police said. ... Witnesses told Young that the taxi driver then got out of the cab and chased the man down the street with his own gun. The driver shot at the man five times, and missed, before police arrived at the scene, police said. They said that the cabbie will not be charged in the incident....

...so some people aren't thrilled with the idea of a stand-up airline seat. How about a saddle seat that threatens injury to your private parts? That's what one Italian company has come up with, CNBC reports. It's developed what it calls the SkyRider, a seat with a 23-inch pitch or less. A 23-inch pitch means there's 23 inches of passenger space between the seats. That's at least 8 inches less than what you normally get in economy class, writes Jane Wells. But that's not the worst part. The company, Aviointeriors, says sitting in the seat is similar to riding on...

Talk radio host Mark Levin is not very happy with my report yesterday on Christine O'Donnell's $6.9 million gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, a conservative group called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. In the 2005 lawsuit, O'Donnell alleged that ISI caused her to suffer severe "mental anguish" by demoting and firing her. O'Donnell also falsely implied in the lawsuit that she was taking master's degree classes at Princeton. On his Facebook page, Levin defends O'Donnell on many questions raised by yesterday's report (more on that in a moment), but he remains silent on O'Donnell's claim that Castle supporters may...

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Moscow Patriarchate has asked Dublin to change the status of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ireland and make it similar to that of Catholics, no longer as a "charitable organization", but a Church in every respect. The request, which affects 1,500 people, was made on 8 September during a meeting in Moscow between Irish President Mary McAleese and Patriarch Kirill. It was the first state visit to the Russian Federation for McAleese. "His Holiness raised the issue of granting the Russian Orthodox Church a similar status to that of the Catholic Church in Ireland. This is...

BP's incoming chief executive, Bob Dudley, has reassured the City that the company will probably end up paying out less than the committed $20bn in compensation for those affected by the Gulf oil spill. The White House ordered the company to pay $20bn into a compensation fund over three and a half years, making it clear that further payments may be required. Although BP still does not know how much it will have to contribute, Dudley's comments that the $20bn already pledged should cover these claims reflect BP's growing confidence that it can emerge from April's Deepwater Horizon disaster in...

The House Republican leader on Sunday suggested he may be willing to concede to Democrats who want to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the wealthiest Americans, but the Senate Republican leader today said he is standing his ground. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said on the Senate floor today that he is introducing legislation "that ensures that no one in this country will pay higher income taxes next year than they are right now." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for McConnell said today that every Senate Republican has pledged to oppose any attempt to extend the Bush tax cuts...

Senate Republicans have enough votes to block President Barack Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class while allowing those for the rich to expire, a spokesman for the Senate Republican leader said on Monday. Republicans on Monday scrambled to regroup on the tax issue ahead of November 2 congressional elections after House of Representatives Republican Leader John Boehner appeared to open the door for a possible compromise. Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said Senate Republicans are united on the issue. "There are no Republicans who support a tax hike," he said. Obama raised...

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index [.SPX  1119.94    10.39  (+0.94%)   ] has jumped more than 6 percent from its August low two weeks ago with credit being given to some slightly better-than-expected employment figures, an improving credit picture in Europe and a flight out of low yielding bonds into equities. But some on Wall Street believe another force is driving prices: a Republican Revolution. The Intrade contract predicting the Republicans long shot chances at actually taking the Senate has increased to as much as 30 percent this September, from a low of about 17 percent last month. The...

Iranian-backed TV broadcasts US Koran desecrations, inflames deadly Kashmir riots; 15 dead The Iranians seized on reports of Koran burnings near Ground Zero and elsewhere in the U.S. to fan deadly riots Monday in mostly-Muslim Kashmir. Indian forces killed more than a dozen people and wounded scores more rampaging rioters, who chanted "Down with Koran desecrators" as they attacked a Christian school in one town and government buildings in other cities. They also chanted "Down with America" and "Down with Israel," cries rarely heard in Kashmir where Muslim rebels have long waged a bloody rebellion against Indian rule. U.S. Ambassador...

Hillary Clinton and her Boss Obama have been sparring recently. Hillary Clinton said the violence in Mexico was beginning to look like Columbia (ergo the drug wars). Obama came back and said it didn't. Now, during election season Hillary speaks of the US national debt hurting the nation. There are some real good reasons for these statements. Hillary sees Obama going down. His polls are in the low 40's and going lower (and that's with all the help the mainstream media has given him). It's starting to look like Obama will lead the Democrats to their greatest electoral route in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_wVCrcZtlo Jim’s update: Missy mentioned on a recent video how parenting has changed for her without television’s anesthetizing influence over the children and the distractions provided by other electronic amusements in our home. I affirm her assessment. While the attitudes of the children are drastically improving – and we delight in that – we acknowledge that we, by necessity, are becoming more attentive, engaged parents. And that often means we are finding ourselves saying things that we wouldn’t normally say. For example… (Photo) GIRLS! DON'T PUT YOUR LIPS ON THE AQUARIUM! Harvest is well underway here in Rozetta and this...