Free Republic

It’s difficult to gauge the ultimate impact of this past week’s Supreme Court decision invalidating much of Arizona’s landmark immigration enforcement law, with the exception of Section 2(b), i.e. the clause empowering local police to ascertain someone’s immigration status if ”reasonable suspicion” exists when he or she is detained. Even this seeming bright spot is obscured by Justice Kennedy’s muddled opinion, which seems to invite future litigation by the usual suspects, who will have their cases heard before the same judge who has thwarted the implementation of the bulk of SB 1070 for the past two years. Heather Mac Donald,...

Potential employers have to respond to the incentives and disincentives that exist in today's world, and those do not favor conventional permanent employees. I know you're hard-working, motivated, tech-savvy and willing to learn. The reason I can't hire you has nothing to do with your work ethic or skills; it's the high-cost Status Quo, and the many perverse consequences of maintaining a failing Status Quo. The sad truth is that it's costly and risky to hire anyone to do anything, and "bankable projects" that might generate profit/require more labor are few and far between. The overhead costs for employees have...

The Burj Khalifa—currently the tallest building in the world and a landmark on the Dubai skyline—was lauded for its luxury apartments and deluxe amenities when it opened in 2010. But the building has been a huge flop with investors, and real estate prices there have plummeted from highs of $2,450 per-square-foot to around $721 per-square foot, the Wall Street Journal's Tahani Karrar-Lewsley reports today. Investors called the building "distressed" back in February, bringing to mind other super-ambitious real estate projects that have failed in the emirate in recent years. The Burj, which has 903 residential apartments, opened at a tough...

The Obama propaganda campaign against Romney continues despite reports from FactCheck.org that the outsourcing accusations against him are false.

While their candidate is out bashing Mitt Romney's Bain Capital as a job outsourcer and greedy corporate raider, President Obama's campaign is endorsing the essence of one of Bain's biggest success stories, low-price office supply store Staples. Created in a 1986 partnership with Bain during Romney's leadership at the private equity firm, Staples was so successful Bain received a near seven-fold return on its investment and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade. The idea was a simple one: sell office supplies for less and direct to companies and everyday Americans. Team Obama turns out...

We can all agree that the one thing Barack Obama is skilled at is blaming others for everything. He wanted the most responsible job on Earth yet he takes no responsibility for anything. Before he was elected Barack Obama was Superman. He was faster than a speeeding bullet. He was more powerful than a locomotive. He was able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He could bend steel in his own hands. In fact, he could bend steel with his mind. Once he he was elected and he fell victim to Presidentile Dysfunction- a very special type of...

Another nail in the coffin of the foundational Protestant dogmaSola scriptura is dead, or at least is undead, a zombie still stalking the darkened hallways of Protestantism. Many well-meaning Protestant Christians don’t see the zombie-dogma for what it is; instead, they choose to see it as a being of light. My friend Dave Armstrong has returned to blow the old decrepit sola scriptura monsters one at a time in his latest work, 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura. Let’s recall the definition of the sola scriptura dogma – yes, it is a dogma – as...

Here's the CNN clip: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/02/dnc-chair-tells-cnn-health-care-is-a-penalty/?iref=allsearch From her mouth: "It's not a tax". The Internal Revenue Service would be the “easiest enforcer” of penalties against those who refuse to comply for those who fail to not pay the tax that isn't. “This is a penalty that will be assessed on the tax return if you choose to roll the dice and make us all pay for your being irresponsible and increase all of our health care costs...“We’re not going to tolerate that any more in America. You have to be responsible and you have to pay a penalty if you choose...

Righthaven LLC founder Steven Gibson insisted Monday he remains in charge of the Las Vegas company and asked a judge to block efforts to fire him as CEO. Gibson filed papers in federal court in Las Vegas challenging recent actions by Lara Pearson, a Lake Tahoe-area attorney appointed by the court last year to take control of Righthaven assets and to sell them for the benefit of creditors.

The US recovery "remains tepid", according to the annual report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It has cut its growth forecast for the US economy to 2% this year from an earlier estimate of 2.1%. The IMF warned of risks from the eurozone debt crisis and uncertainties surrounding domestic policies, with an election in November and the debt ceiling needing to be raised in 2013. But it said there was also a chance that the economy could recover faster. The IMF said non-financial firms could invest more than expected and the housing market recovery may accelerate. Its report said...

It is Scientology's higher order where members pledge their allegiance for one billion years - and may have cost Tom Cruise his marriage. Sending six-year-old Suri to the Sea Organisation, or Sea Org as it is known, is what is said to have been the final straw for Katie Holmes before she filed for divorce. The group is run like a military clique from the Scientology Gold Base in California which has sniper-style nest bunker that overlooks the entire property. Members are paid just $50 a week and banned from leaving their base or they are tracked down by a...

It's becoming clear that Romney has decided to focus on the economy at the expense of everything else, even issues that could play to his political benefit. He's avoided criticizing the administration's handling of the botched Fast and Furious operation, even as it threatens to become a serious vulnerability for the president. He's been silent in responding to Obama's immigration executive order, not wanting to offend receptive Hispanics or appear like a flip-flopper. He appears more likely to tap a safe, bland running mate like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty who won't do him any...

President Obama has spent more time raising money than any of his predecessors in recent history, crisscrossing the country on Air Force One to 175 re-election fundraisers so far in his first term. His campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their joint accounts reported more than $173 million cash on hand at the end of May, $61 million more than rival Mitt Romney and Republicans. And after smashing fundraising records in 2008, tapping $746 million from a historic donor roll of 3 million names, Team Obama has appeared on pace to do it again.

Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D., along with all the state GOP candidates, scream the party slogan: All the Democrats want to do is spend, spend, spend. We all know that when you spend money on your family, you are investing in them. Spending money on North Dakotans is an investment. That is a much more sound practice than the North Dakotan GOP’s activity was at the last legislative session: waste, waste, waste. The GOP wasted around $100,000 of the taxpayers’ money on the University of North Dakota logo issue. Are these the people we want in the Legislature again in 2013?...

Just to make sure people know California continues to lead the nation toward 21st Century societal collapse, the Sacramento Bee reports on the push by a San Francisco Democrat to amend state law presently limiting households to two parents. Senator Mark Leno, a leader in the effort to legalize gay marriage, contends his measure, which now heads to the State Assembly, would allow a judge to determine which of any number of adults could qualify as a child's parents. Present law limits a judge's choice to two adults, but that could soon end. SB 1476 resulted from an appellate court...

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts stated that if you don't buy health insurance under Obamacare you will pay a tax. If you don't buy insurance, you would be violating the law and have to pay a penalty Tax to the IRS. What other taxes in the future may you have to pay for doing nothing. Here is a potential list: Not putting solar panels on your house a $1000 tax. A tax of $2000 for not buying a electric car. Not driving a bike to work $500 tax.

The Army has been creating an island since 1998 on the Northeast coast of the United States. Slowly, the US Army Corps of Engineers built concrete dikes to establish its perimeter and then have spent more than decade filling them with mud. Its name: Poplar island. Fortunately, no weird stuff is going on there (that we know of, anyway). Poplar Island, which is being rebuilt in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, is 30 miles south of Baltimore Harbor, where all the mud is coming from.

China's economy is cooling off, the euro crisis has given investors the heebie jeebies, and US manufacturing contracted for the first time in 3 years in June.All this adds up to bad news for the president and for America.The Hill: The reports, just four months before voters cast their ballots in the presidential election, come amid a wave of bad news on the global economy, which is seen by both the White House and President Obama's critics as the most potent threat to his chances of securing a second term in office.China's economy, which helped pull the world out...

Following in the footsteps of fellow conservative Glenn Beck, it appears that former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is staking out his own terrain in the internet television world with a project called “Cain TV.” While much of the details are not available yet, Cain has teased that he will discussed the matter today on the Hannity radio show, launched a Twitter and Facebook site and, most importantly, a trailer. The trailer is the best and worst thing you will see all day. “Cain TV is Real American Everything!” the words shout through the screen. Then a bunch of Sandra...

Barack Obama has issued a plea for wealthy supporters to give him more money and stop his re-election campaign being outspent by Mitt Romney and the Republican's billionaire backers.