Free Republic

I have become tired of living in the People's Republic of Kalifornia and am looking to move when I retire in three years. I visited Prescott AZ this summer and was impressed by the life style. Any opinions by people who live or have lived in the Prescott area? I am planning to check out Prescott in the winter and spring. Thanks in advance.

Hidden tax resulting from Obamacare. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) pre-tax deduction is now limited to $2,500. That's not $2,500 per person, that is the total allowed pre-tax deduction. This is effectively a tax on the $2,500 that is no longer allowed for a working person with a stay-at-home spouse. Last year's limit was $5,000. However, if both people are working, then each can elect the $2,500 deduction from their checks.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - The armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad on Thursday said it had fired an Iranian-built rocket at the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. "The Quds Brigades hit the occupied city of Tel Rabea (Tel Aviv) with a Fajr 5 rocket causing a large explosion to shake the city," the group said in a brief statement, shortly after an AFP correspondent reported seeing a rocket land in the water south of the sprawling coastal city. "What comes next will be greater," the statement added. In a separate statement, posted on the group's website, spokesman...

Initial jobless claims rose to 439,000, their highest level since May 2011. And no, it isn't due to SuperStorm Sandy. Rather, it was increases in Ohio and Pennsylvania that led the surge. Continuing jobless claims spiked as well, their highest point since March 2012. Meanwhile, the Empire State Manufacturing Survey of General Businesss Conditions improved from -6.16 in October to -5.22 in November. The Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook of General Conditions fell to -10.7 from an October reading of +5.7. Meanwhile, The Dow Jones Industrials continue their post election slide. Oogh!

Now that the election is over, the oil and gas industry is holding the president accountable for promises made during his campaign. American Petroleum Institute called on President Obama to move forward with the stagnant project and grant approval in a conference call with reporters Thursday. "In our exit polls last week … it showed that 73 percent of Americans support more American production of oil and natural gas," stated API's Executive Vice President Marty Durbin. "Ninety-one percent believe that that production will lead to more American jobs – and 75 percent support building the Keystone XL pipeline. We encourage...

Every vicious, Marxist idea the Dems have had for the past 40 years are included in their tax bill demand. Cavuto surmises that maybe they really want to take us over the cliff so they can get even greater control in the aftermath. The Republican response is that 'we have to work together to solve our financial problems.'

With regards to the David Petraeus scandal, as you dig through the very human details of a powerful man's dalliance with an attractive woman, an important question should occur to anybody with more than a National Enquirer-level interest in the matter: Wait ... The FBI did all of this digging over some bed-hopping? Yes. Yes, it did. And over at The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald wants to know why more people aren't concerned. Writes Greenwald: As is now widely reported, the FBI investigation began when Jill Kelley - a Tampa socialite friendly with Petraeus (and apparently very friendly with Gen....

AP story

President Obama praised the resilient New York attitude and the efforts of rescue workers during his talk after touring areas of Queens and Staten Island that were ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.‘I´m very proud of you, New York. You guys are tough you bounce back,’ he said while visiting New Dorp Beach in Staten Island. After a brief helicopter tour of Queens- passing over particularly devastated areas like Rockaway Beach and Breezy Point- they arrived in Staten Island where they examined the damage by foot.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The housing crisis hurt low-income communities and minorities more severely than other groups, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday. "Lower-income and minority communities are often disproportionately affected by problems in the national economy, and the effects of the housing bust have followed that unfortunate pattern," Bernanke said in prepared remarks presented at the Operation HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summit in Atlanta. Bernanke pointed to homeownership rates for African Americans, which fell 5 percentage points over the last eight years, compared to a 2 percentage-point drop for other groups. While there has always been a gap...

The death of a journalist’s 11-month-old son in Gaza on Wednesday has prompted a flood of poignant messages online -- and a media backlash -- when pictures of Jihad Misharawi, a BBC Arabic video editor, showed him carrying the body of his dead son. Mishrawi’s son, Omar, was killed after Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip fell on his Gaza home, according to the BBC. Omar is among 16 people killed in Gaza since Wednesday afternoon, including four children, according to Al Arabiya correspondents. Fighting began when Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari on Wednesday. Since then,...

As recently reported by USA Today, one third of millennials have earned four-year degrees. In my previous blog entry I discussed the financial perils facing these students, who often graduate unable to find a job in their major (unemployed or underemployed) and saddled heavily with debt. However, it looks like the job market for those with Bachelor’s degrees is creeping upward somewhat, according to a new report issued by Michigan State University (pdf). “The new college labor market inches ahead with a 3 percent gain over last year across all degrees,” it states. “Strong demand for marketing, finance, human resources,...

RUSH: We got this piece in The Daily Beast: "A Scarlet Letter -- the Monica Lewinsky-ing of Paula Broadwell -- When powerful men stray, the press continues to ogle, and shame, the women they do it with, writes Allison Yarrow." And this whole story got me to thinking about how the country's changed in terms of simple things like humor. What used to be harmless, clever humor, today is heard by the people who've been educated the last 30, 35 years, today causes legitimate anger and indignation and charges of cruelty and insensitivity and bigotry or sexism or what have...

Conventional wisdom: If you want less of something, put a tax on it. Obamanomics wisdom: Put a tax on... medical devices?! I.e., add another barrier to the industry whose slightest innovations can directly result in streamlined costs, improved efficiency, better health-care options, and saved lives? What the what?Embedded within the shadowy depths of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (sometimes, I like to use its official name just to re-appreciate the irony of "patient protection" and "affordable") is a 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of taxable medical devices by the manufacturer/importer --- and it's no small thing....

The scandal engulfing two of our top military and intelligence officers could not be coming at a worse time: the Middle East has never been more unstable and closer to multiple, interconnected explosions. Virtually every American president since Dwight Eisenhower has had a Middle Eastern country that brought him grief. For Ike, it was Lebanon’s civil war and Israel’s Sinai invasion. For Lyndon Johnson, it was the 1967 Six-Day War. For Nixon, it was the 1973 war. For Carter, it was the Iranian Revolution. For Ronald Reagan, it was Lebanon. For George H.W. Bush, it was Iraq. For Bill Clinton,...

Gaza City (CNN) -- A mix of explosions filled Gaza City's air late Thursday, but not all were blasts of war. A celebration erupted as a mosque loudspeaker chant proclaimed: "God is great. We have hit Tel Aviv." Rockets fired straight upward were not targeted at an enemy, but were aimed at raising spirits with claims that militant missiles launched from Gaza reached Israel's government center 45 miles (71 kilometers) away. One Gaza-launched rocket landing just south of Tel Aviv Thursday, in an open area near Rishon LeZion, the Israel Defense Forces said. Knowing that air sirens had sounded inside...

RUSH: Surprise, surprise, surprise: "Factory activity in the US mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly contracted in November." Isn't it amazing all of the revision we get, particularly in economic news, after the election? Factory activity contracts. Who coulda seen that coming? See, we were told the economy was back. In fact, the post-election analysis was that the reason why Romney's economic message really fell on deaf ears toward the end of the campaign was that the economy's back, everybody knew it. Jobs are being created, the unemployment rate was moderating, and the American people felt good about the direction the country was...

Apple plunged to a six-month low Thursday as funds rushed to take profits on the stock before it’s too late.

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning.

Last spring my husband and I put our home on the market in hopes of buying a home on a few acres with some woods for our children to play in. The local real estate market is not very good, and with Obama’s re-election, we have made the decision to ride out the coming storm in our current home…with a little modification. We are going to turn the backyard play set into an awesome fort. This fort will not be an adult’s idea of what a kids fort is…which according to the internet is a playhouse on stilts. The best...