Free Republic

A convenience store clerk who was fired recently for refusing to sell cigarettes to a customer trying to pay for them with state welfare benefits has been fired, but her story has gained traction in local and national media. According to press reports, Jackie Whiton was working at a C.N. Brown Big Apple convenience store recently when a man in his 20s attempted to purchase cigarettes using an electronic benefit transfer card, which is issued to families in New Hampshire and Maine who are on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF program. Whiton, a six-year employee of the...

July 2, 2012   Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time   Reading 1 Am 2:6-10, 13-16 Thus says the LORD:For three crimes of Israel, and for four,I will not revoke my word;Because they sell the just man for silver,and the poor man for a pair of sandals.They trample the heads of the weakinto the dust of the earth,and force the lowly out of the way.Son and father go to the same prostitute,profaning my holy name.Upon garments taken in pledgethey recline beside any altar;And the wine of those who have been finedthey drink in the house of their god....

In a 5 to 4 vote, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the controversial provision requiring Americans to purchase health insurance was not unconstitutional, as its opponents had hoped, but amounted to a levy which Congress can issue based on its constitutional right to collect taxes. In a surprise move, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, long seen as a staunch conservative, backed the ruling and delivered the verdict. German healthcare experts have long had difficulty understanding the debate in the United States because mandatory healthcare insurance has been required for decades in Germany, just as it is in many...

The recent healthcare decision affects us all in different ways. But, let’s consider a very real person named Joe. Now, Joe is a nice fellow who lost his job during this recession and now works two jobs rather than rely on welfare. Joe is also a heart patient, and he does have limited but affordable catastrophic insurance. He hears on television that Obamacare will require him to buy a comprehensive policy that costs almost three times what he is paying now (source: Price Waterhouse), and that his much less expensive catastrophic insurance will be outlawed. Everyone must be the same....

Testy tyrant President Oblameless got to give a dress rehearsal of his The American President speech this afternoon in the Rose Garden. It’s not the first time we’ve seen it. After wiping his @$$ on the Constitution in front of the White House Stenography Pool, one brave reporter had the temerity to ask him a question in a stunning breach of lickspittle subservience etiquette that was adopted and strictly enforced immediately following the Peeved Prez’s Immaculation. Apparently asking a question is now considered “heckling”. It’s also very unpatriotic to yell out a question to the President before he can make...

Does anyone here have knowledge about space and how satellites work? How are they launched,kept in orbit and brought back to earth? I'm a science geek and really curious about the universe.

I should NOT watch pbs but I did :( Full Show: Confronting the Contradictions of America’s Past June 29, 2012 Bill opens this weekend’s Moyers & Company with a reminder that behind this Fourth of July holiday are human beings, like Thomas Jefferson, who were as flawed and conflicted as they were inspired, who espoused great humanistic ideals while behaving with reprehensible racial discrimination. That conflict – between what we know and how we live – is still a struggle in contemporary politics and society. No stranger to the contradictions of history and their racial touchpoints is Bill’s studio guest...

/begin my excerpts N. Korea's Gentleman Scavengers Devouring Leftovers at Restaurants because... In N. Korea's restaurant districts, well-dressed 'gentleman scavengers' are popping up. Rations are not enough to cover their (basic) need and they make up the shortfall at restaurants. According to 'Open Radio for N. Korea,' a female Pyongyang resident in her 50's conveyed, "To make up their need, rising number of people are getting their meals from leftovers at Pyongyang's restaurants." In Pyongyang, only those at a household whose head has a job, get food rations, but it is not enough for family members to last for a...

“Would You Take Away Guns From Law-Abiding Citizens?” Open Poll Causes Stir In American COP Magazine Will You Do It? I’ve known anti-gun cops, who seriously said things like, ‘They have no right to own a gun, it’s my job to protect them. If they have guns, it’s just a danger to me!’ I ike to think my “real” job is as the editor of our sister publication, American Handgunner magazine. A publisher wears many hats, but what I really like to do is write, edit and interact with readers. What I’ve never forgotten is we, you and I, are...

In March 2011 Hillary Clinton told “Face the Nation” viewers that the US would not interfere in Syria because Assad was a “reformer.” Later that week Assad ordered his army to open fire on innocent protesters. Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, July 1, 2012, 2:46 PM In March 2011 Hillary Clinton told “Face the Nation” viewers that the US would not interfere in Syria because Assad was a “reformer.” Later that week Assad ordered his army to open fire on innocent protesters. To date opposition groups claim more than 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President...

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Obamacare is now essentially upheld. There’s only one way it can be overturned. The same way it was passed — elect a new president and a new Congress. That’s undoubtedly what Roberts is telling the nation: Your job, not mine. I won’t make it easy for you.

Just wanted to check in with FR...terrible line of severe storms rolled through the state Friday ...hundreds of thousands including my family without power.. extreme heat... we are doing ok..on small generator

Devastating thunderstorms Friday left nine people in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia dead and hundreds of thousands without power in the region as residents across the area face more extreme temperatures and the possibility of additional thunderstorms this weekend. According to the Associated Press, the storms were blamed for the deaths of six people in Virginia; two in New Jersey; two in Maryland; one in Ohio; one in Kentucky; and one in Washington. More thunderstorms were expected in the D.C. area heading into Saturday night, and triple-digit temperatures were forecast for Sunday with highs expected to reach 100....

Before Midnight Mexico will announce the new President who will serve for the next 6 years. This ought to be of special interest to many people in the USA, especially those on the border states.

Leaked details of a plaintive phone call from President Obama to some of his biggest donors this weekend offered a rare and revealing look into the typically private rituals of big-dollar campaign fundraising. The pitch also affirmed the campaign’s anxiety about lagging behind in the money race. In the conference call made late Friday from a special campaign phone on Air Force One, a recording of which was obtained by the Daily Beast, Obama bemoaned the anonymous super PAC donations flowing to his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney. If Democrats didn’t write checks, Obama warned, such Republican PACs could permanently alter...

Michelle Obama speaks at AME Church conference in Nashville

Uriel Alberto was born in Mexico 25 years ago, but after 17 years in North Carolina he thinks of himself as a “Southern boy.” To Alberto, one of the many young immigrants brought to this country as a child by parents seeking a better life, his homeland is foreign. But in the United States, the place he considers home, he is foreign – and illegal. Alberto, one of three undocumented immigrants arrested in February after interrupting a state legislative hearing on immigration, is scheduled to appear in Wake County district court on Monday to respond to those charges

Alcohol, tobacco and firearms are legal in the United States, but there is a long history of the government classifying those who sell alcohol, buy alcohol, sell tobacco, use tobacco, sell firearms and possess firearms as a lower order of being. Democrats want anti-gun leadership at ATF - by the nature of what is legal and what is not, promoting an anti-gun-stance Agency Director is a Constitutional conflict. If proof of criminality isn't there, the BATFE-ATF will hound you anyway. For years, the ATF was under the Treasury Department. In 2006, a new law placed the ATF under the Justice Department,...

On Friday, TomKat jumped the couch. Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise after 5 1/2 years of marriage. Best-selling biographer Andrew Morton, author of "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography" (St. Martins Press), explains why it was a true Hollywood romance --because from the beginning, Holmes was playing a part. When Tom Cruise turned 42, his best friend, controversial Scientology leader David Miscavige, threw a lavish birthday party, costing an estimated $300,000, on board the church’s cruise ship. He flew in singers, dancers and even Tom’s favorite sushi chefs for the bash, where the actor was serenaded with the...