Free Republic

LIBERAL CORPORATE TAXATION Liberals whine incessantly about Citizens United and corporate personhood-- yet the signature achievement of their first administration in almost a decade, was to force everyone to pay taxes to corporations. What's worse exactly? Corporate Personhood or Corporate Taxation? When liberals whine about corporate control of politics, remind them that it was their party that created a tax to be collected directly by corporations for the profit of corporations. No Republican president ever authorized corporations to collect taxes and use those taxes for their own profits, their own bonuses and their own golden parachutes. It took a Democrat...

Thank you so much to everyone who replied to my thread "The World is Big and Scary and I am Small". I had to go to sleep after I posted it but this morning I checked FR and everyone's support brought tears to my eyes. I especially liked the quote from V for Vendetta. Thanks especially to Steve Newton. You are amazing and thanks for everything you've said to me and done for your country. Well, I'm off to work. Conservaliberty

In the end the Supreme Court of the United States didn’t untie the Gordian Knot, but as Alexander had done, they cut it instead. And by doing so they demonstrated what we have known all along: The only new ideas Democrats- and D.C. bureaucrats- have are new ways of taxing Americans and new bureaucracies for spending that money. I won’t read the Obamacare opinion. I’ll leave that to legal scholars. But I know this.A tax is a tax is a tax.Obamcare, when shorn of its Euro-Metro sophistication, is a tax.A really big, fat, ugly tax, with a really big, fat,...

House and Senate Republican leaders, collectively the Stupid Party, are yet again set to expand government, government spending, and engage in Keynesian economic policies they’ve criticized Barack Obama for. Somewhat wisely, they are releasing all this as the Supreme Court releases its Obamacare decision so no one will pay attention. Ironically, as we wait to see if the Supreme Court gives Congress plenary power through the Commerce Clause, Congressional Republicans are feeding the Leviathan on their own. Republicans and Democrats have agreed to a massive increase in federal gluttony with a highway bill. The Republicans decided to drop demands for...

When the tropical storm came in last week, our gate blew open and two of our puppies escaped. We immediately gave chase. We found one of our dogs in a neighbors yard and brought him back. We began searching for the smaller dog, but didn't see him. My four year old, my sister and I drove the neighborhood endlessly calling him. We thought we heard him bark a few times, but couldn't pin point where it was coming from. Eventually, a young woman came out of her house and started screaming at our vehicle that it was her dog. That's...

On Friday, June 29th, Local 1991 joined other organizations for a press conference to respond to the landmark US Supreme Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the sweeping national health reform legislation that has improved the lives of millions, including our patients at Jackson Health System. The press conference took place outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse in downtown Miami. Speaking to the press, President Martha Baker, RN, said it was an exciting moment for the community as our country takes the first steps toward healthcare reform. Such healthcare models are...

It seems CAIR is always offended by something. The latest is that they are upset because the US Navy SEALs are using likenesses of Muslim females dressed in Shariah-compliant garb, as targets in their training. CAIR needs to butt out of SEAL training. The SEALs endeavor to make their training as real as possible and, the fact is, in the past decade, the majority of the enemy fighters they have met on the battlefield were Islamic Jihadists. Muslims all. If that bothers CAIR, they haven’t said so yet. Maybe that’s because CAIR is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood...

The election of Barack H. Obama and his presidency has been a massive stain on the history of America, a severe threat to this nation and its future, and a debilitating time for many Americans economically. His frightening attacks on American values and wanton disregard for our Constitution rank with some of the most despicable political deeds in American history. This nation must remove him from the presidency in the 2012 election, but must also remember what the man and his followers did or attempted to do to destroy everything America has stood for over 230 years at home and...

Fresh off of my jaunt down memory lane with The Beach Boys, I decided to revisit another iconic group: Crosby, Stills and Nash. Sadly, the results were much darker than with the Good Vibrations crew. Back in 1969, CSN played at Woodstock and immediately became a counterculture sensation. Their anti-establishment anthem "Ohio" defined the Vietnam era for many Americans. While The Beach Boys were surfin' the days away, CSN was agitating for societal change using soaring harmonies and relevant lyrics. Along the way, the guys became millionaires, and David Crosby perpetrated a series of bizarre drug-fueled incidents. He only survived...

The audacity of the Obama administration never ceases to amaze. On Friday, they threatened to veto a defense appropriations bill because it, in part, does not include hikes in healthcare fees for members of the military. The House bill  passed 299-120 in May. The official policy statement offers this objection: TRICARE Fees and Co-Payments.  The Administration is disappointed that the Congress did not incorporate the requested TRICARE fee initiatives into either the appropriation or authorization legislation.  The Administration asks the House to reconsider the TRICARE fee proposals, which are essential for DOD to successfully address rising personnel costs.  The $1.8...

New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan is currently favored to win his first re-election race this fall in a district that was improved for the Republican by redistricting. But the former professional football player faces a unique political circumstance in the 3rd district contest against former town Councilwoman and PTA President Shelley Adler (D). The memory of Adler’s late husband, Rep. John Adler (D), who lost a close race to Runyan in 2010, has the potential to disrupt the dynamics of the race. New Jersey political observers said Runyan maintains the edge. But, they added, Adler has a path to victory,...

Do It Now! "Agree with your adversary quickly . . ." —Matthew 5:25 In this verse, Jesus Christ laid down a very important principle by saying, “Do what you know you must do— now. Do it quickly. If you don’t, an inevitable process will begin to work ’till you have paid the last penny’ (Matthew 5:26) in pain, agony, and distress.” God’s laws are unchangeable and there is no escape from them. The teachings of Jesus always penetrate right to the heart of our being.Wanting to make sure that my adversary gives me all my rights is a natural...

The U.S. government, understandably, doesn't want its drone technology to fall out of the sky and into other peoples' laps. But being able to hijack a drone and control it? That's even worse. And a team of researchers has done it for 1,000 bucks. The University of Texas at Austin team successfully nabbed the drone on a dare from the Department of Homeland Security. They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone's GPS.

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Isaiah 45 20. “Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. 21. Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

With the summer in full swing and temperatures rising into the mid-90s, it may seem like a great idea to take a cool dip in the ocean, but according to a new report, some beach-goers may be getting more than they bargained for. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a non-profit environmental group, published on Wednesday its 22nd annual report which showed that storm water runoff and sewage pollution continue to spoil many of America's shores. The study titled ‘Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches’ examined the results of water testing data at more than...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal refuses to implement Obamacare despite Supreme Court rulingBy Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 18 hrs ago The Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's health care law on Thursday, but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a possible Republican vice presidential contender who has refused to establish a federally mandated health care exchange in his state, said Friday that he will continue to ignore it. "We're not going to start implementing Obamacare," Jindal said during a conference call with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. "We're committed to working to elect Gov. Romney to repeal Obamacare." **SNIP** "Here...

Maxine Waters: ‘I have not decided’ whether or not to call Obamacare mandate ‘a tax’ [AUDIO]By Nicholas Ballasy | The Daily Caller – 14 hrs ago **SNIP** “What I have not decided is whether or not it’s better to call it a tax or a mandate. What I have decided is it’s absolutely necessary that it be paid for, that if we’re going to cover all of these preexisting conditions that I just alluded to, we have to have the income by which to do it and so I have not decided that one may be better than the other,”...

If roadside bombs and other hazards of war don't kill military dogs, senseless government regulations and red tape might. The United States is breeding 100 puppies a year to train for bomb sniffing and other soldierly duties, but many aren't making it back to happy homes because an obscure federal law classifies them as "equipment" rather than personnel -- and makes adopting them a financial and bureaucratic nightmare. A bill to require that the military ship the heroic dogs home and ease potential veterinarian costs for adopting families is currently bogged down in Congress, as dogs continue to be euthanized....

NedStark wrote: http://www.volokh.com/2012/06/28/was-scalias-dissent-originally-a-majority-opinion/ "Scalia’s dissent, at least on first quick perusal, reads like it was originally written as a majority opinion (in particular, he consistently refers to Justice Ginsburg’s opinion as “The Dissent”). Back in May, there were rumors floating around relevant legal circles that a key vote was taking place, and that Roberts was feeling tremendous pressure from unidentified circles to vote to uphold the mandate. Did Roberts originally vote to invalidate the mandate on commerce clause grounds, and to invalidate the Medicaid expansion, and then decide later to accept the tax argument and essentially rewrite the Medicaid expansion...

The mass-produced tomatoes we buy at the grocery store tend to taste more like cardboard than fruit. Now researchers have discovered one reason why: a genetic mutation, common in store-bought tomatoes, that reduces the amount of sugar and other tasty compounds in the fruit. SNIP But the new study, published this week in Science, found that the mutation that leads to the uniform appearance of most store-bought tomatoes has an unintended consequence: It disrupts the production of a protein responsible for the fruit's production of sugar. SNIP The study authors set out to pin down the genetic change that makes...