Free Republic

German retail sales bounced back for the second month, but not enough to prevent the aggregate eurozone sales from falling for the eighth consecutive month. Summary of June findings: The Eurozone retail sector remained in contraction mid-way through 2012, according to PMI® data from Markit. Sales fell on a month-on-month basis for the eighth successive month – the third-longest sequence in the survey history – and purchases of new goods by retailers declined at the second-fastest pace on record. That said, the rate of decline in sales slowed sharply during the month. Germany, France, Italy Sales The key sentence is...

THERE’S PLENTY to be said as a policy matter both for and against the Affordable Care Act, but it’s beyond reasonable debate that it complies fully with the Constitution...[Snip]... The one provision whose constitutionality is questioned is the individual mandate...[Snip] That mandate, too, is constitutional. Congress found that the cost of providing uncompensated care to the uninsured totaled $43 billion in 2008, raising annual premiums for the average family by over $1,000. Suppose Congress had required anyone who received medical care at public expense in 2010 to purchase insurance for 2011 or face a modest increase ($750 per year) in...

Dear Carrie: My son just graduated from high school and was planning to start college in the fall. Now he says he wants to work for a year before enrolling, but in the current job market, I'm concerned he won't find anything worthwhile. What do you think -- good or bad idea? --A Reader Dear Reader: Whether or not it's a good idea for your son to take a year's break before entering college depends on a lot of things: his maturity, his personal goals and of course, the job market. There's no question that a college education can open...

Yesterday was full of stunning decisions: First, of course, the Supreme Court delivered their decision on Obamacare() and the Commerce Clause () – more on that later... ...It’s probably because I was so distracted by all the blowback from the Supreme Court decision and wasn’t paying close enough attention. Fortunately, Clarice – American Thinker author, D.C. attorney and resident MOL - was all over the case. Here’s her final analysis; it’s an OUTSTANDING review of why yesterday’s Supreme Court Decision isn’t as bad as you might think. DO NOT and I mean NOT miss Clarice’s Pieces today on American Thinker...

I’m not a lawyer, or an expert on the Constitution, though I sometimes play one on TV. But I can read, and I’ll agree with my friends on the left that the federal government has a broad power to tax. I wish the 16th Amendment had never been ratified, but its language gives the federal government a green light to rape and pillage. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. That being said, the power to tax...

Do Democrats care about the dismal economy that is now in the fourth year of Barack Obama's jobless presidency? Despite mounting evidence the sluggish economy is slowing down further, unemployment is climbing, and the Democrats' core voting blocs are suffering the most under Obama's economic policies, he still holds a slight overall lead over Republican Mitt Romney in the latest Gallup polls. Even though Obama's approval/disapproval numbers are poor (45 percent/47 percent), Gallup shows him with a 46 percent to 44 percent edge over the former governor. And recent polling in three critical battleground states -- Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Gottstein, Director of Communication bgottstein@oag.state.va.us (best contact method) 804-786-5874 Cuccinelli says after analyzing Supreme Court decision: "There are some silver linings" RICHMOND, VA (June 28, 2012) -- Statement from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli after his analysis of today's Supreme Court health care decision: I am disappointed in the court's ultimate decision today. Virginia's legal argument has always been that there was no constitutional basis for the federal health insurance mandate, and that the health care law should be struck down in its entirety. The court's decision has saddled us with a budget-busting health care law...

Throughout the bribing and cajoling that swayed Democrats to vote for Obamacare, there was also the recurring theme pushed by Barry himself that if you don't vote for my health plan 'my presidency will fail.' The explicit implication being that you will be responsible for the failure of our first black president if you go against this. Any Democrat who wanted any kind of career knew they could not survive with that label. Better to risk their reelection chances; knowing if they lost their election they would at least have a seat at the graft table of cushioned government largesse....

Will Senator Mary Landrieu vote to REPEAL ObamaCare? At first glance this sounds like a silly question because most of you will reply, "Of course she won't since she voted for it in the first place." However, now that the mandate has been relabeled as a tax by Roberts, Landrieu and the other Senators who voted for it, would now be reluctant to support the BIGGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY. Their out might be that now that this is a tax increase, not a mandate, they no longer support it. Keep in mind that the senator whose vote was bought...

What would have happened if the voter were tied 4-4 if Kagan has recused herself from the case?

With some comments added in. 1. Social Security Trust Funds $2.67T (Twice as much as any other country) This amount is going up each year as well. 2. US Federal Reserve $1.659T (US is buying its own debt....what a trick!) This amount is going up not down. 3. China $1.169T (down from 1.314T or around $200 Billion or 20x the size of Mexico's economy or the entire GDP of Israel, Singapore, or Hong Kong) 4. Savings Bonds and “Others” They have essentially quadrupled the number of companies in this catchall category to create the illusion that US investment in US...

I’ve read all the arguments, some ingenious, for why the Roberts majority opinion is actually “good” in the long run. I don’t buy that at all, and worry that rationalizing defeats is no way to learn from them. From now on, the precedent has been established that U.S. citizens can be forced to buy a product that government deems necessary — period. Who cares what a particular president on occasion deems to call it — tax, mandate, whatever — at any given expedient time, or what a justice does to finesse that definition to protect implementation of the law? The...

Many people have asked Rush Limbaugh the question, "when is it time to worry" about this country falling into the hands of miscreants who mean to squander our national strength and wealth so as to rule over us as tyrants... to which Rush has always answered, "I'll tell you when its time, it ain't time yet". What say ye now Mr. Limbaugh Many on this and other sites have wondered out loud, "when will it be time to go drastic, to the point of armed resistance if need be, to protect and preserve our liberties, free enterprise and self determination....

We all saw how the media reacted yesterday. Overnight, Chief Justice John Roberts went from a pariah to, literally in the eyes of the media, one of the great justices in the history of the Court. We also saw how the media suddenly found the dreaded 5-4 Supreme Court decision perfectly acceptable. Do not make the mistake of thinking that what you witnessed yesterday was some sort of bias or double standard. It wasn't. It was a payoff to a tactic the media's been using for years to co-opt narcissistic Republicans desperate for affirmation. Explaining what happened yesterday is going...

Thank you Barry Obama - America's all time best gun salesman!

Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300 year-old year-old Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called “end date” for the Maya calendar on December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic find in decades, was announced today at the National Palace in Guatemala. “This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy,” says Marcello A. Canuto, Director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at the Maya ruins of La Corona. “This new evidence suggests that the 13 Bak’tun date...

Nigel Farage (MEP-UK) interviewed on Fox ... with commentary by Bill Still I could not find the Fox interview on its own.

As Americans of all stripes shake off their shock over Obamacare being upheld, a chilling realization will soon set in. The good news in the short term, is that the only answer for people who want to escape the federal government takeover of health care is to elect politicians of either party who solemnly commit to the rule of law and swear allegiance to the Constitution. The bad news is that the 1% just completed their utter takeover of the nation and Lord help us now. At first blush, Obamacare, the insultingly euphemistically named "Affordable Care Act", is a battle...

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions this week that cry out for Congressional action. In upholding the constitutionality of most aspects of President Obama's health care reform legislation and in reaffirming the federal government's role in immigration policy, the Court's decisions should be a call to action for Congress to pass new legislation on these two vital issues. It's important to recognize that the decisions were narrowly tailored to deal only with constitutionality of the two laws at issue: the federal Affordable Care Act and Arizona's S.B. 1070. Neither decision spoke to the wisdom of existing policy in...

www.FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com presents Yaron Brook came on today to discuss the ramifications of the upholding of Obamacare. The decision, while in and of itself a shocker, shows us that we now live under a government that knows no limits. If they want to mandate broccoli consumption, the Congress is free to do so. What other dastardly mandates will arise from this Obamanation? This is yet just another part of the systematic assault on personal liberty and freedom. The very idea of forcing people to engage in market place activities against their own will would have made the Founders fly into an...