Free Republic

Democratic leaders in Congress echoed President Obama’s promise in 2009 that people would not lose their healthcare plans if they liked them. Republicans have pounced on Obama’s repeated pitch for the healthcare overhaul, especially after plans across the country recently mailed out policy cancellation notices. The president wasn’t the only one making big promises on ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who rallied all members of his caucus to support the landmark law, promised the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would let people keep the insurance plans they had at the time. Reid touted that aspect of the law among...

HARRISBURG — Voters' anger at Congress is boiling over because of the government shutdown, polling shows, but it's unclear whether the foul mood will have any impact on statewide judicial elections, political analysts say. Retention races for Supreme Court justices and Superior Court judges are the top races in the Nov. 5 election, which will include city, county, township, borough and school district races. Two Supreme Court justices and two Superior Court judges are running for 10-year terms in contests decided by “yes” or “no” selections. “Pennsylvania judges have nothing to do with Congress,” said Justice Max Baer of Mt....

The total number of illegal immigrants who have been deported by the federal government is at its lowest point since 1973. According to a Center for Immigration (CIS) report, the 364,700 projected removals in fiscal year 2013 "are the lowest since fiscal year 2007." And those numbers are most likely inflated because reportedly "more than half of those are immigrants caught at the border but put through ICE deportation proceedings.""Total deportations in 2011, the latest year for which complete numbers are available, numbered 715,495 – the lowest level since 1973," the report also found. CIS obtained the information even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is under...

According to Gallup 58% of us are in favor of the legalization of marijuana. With poll numbers like these, our Washington masters will certainly be moved to grant us bread and circuses. Here's a novel idea, let's legalize liberty, return to a limited Constitutional government and learn what it feels like to really breathe free. Even the huddled mass of pot-heads should be able to get their minds around such a simple concept.

Only now -- five years into his presidency -- are we seeing some cracks in the protective shield surrounding President Obama, and then only after the abuse of reporters' privacy has been threatened. Mainstream journalists have not scrutinized his controversial policies, nor have they held him accountable for questionable actions that have caused outrage among fair-minded critics and produced irreparable harm to the nation. Some facts are irrefutable, but the president has, by and large, deflected all blame and few in the media have dared question his policies and actions. Investor's Business Daily reports that we are becoming a welfare...

The LA Times carried a column on Wednesday by Robin Abcarian containing incredibly offensive comments toward Suzanne Somers, author and star of the 1970s hit sitcom Three’s Company. Somers’s mistake, in Abcarian’s view, was penning an op-ed critical of the president's deceitfully passed healthcare bill. The op-ed was published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday and was titled “The Affordable Care Act is a Socialist Ponzi Scheme.” Before offering a single rebuttal of Somers’s position, Abcarian uses the recent declaration by Somers that she and her husband of 36 years continue to have an active sex life as cause...

You have to give it to CBS. On Benghazi, they are the network holding the Obama administration’s feet to the fire. At some point, Americans will have to begin to realize that there is a scandal hiding in all of the BS that the Obama administration has been peddling about the 9-11 Benghazi attack and its aftermath. Just this past weekend, CBS ran an explosive report providing first-hand accounts that the White House and the State Department (headed by Hillary Clinton) knew full well that the Benghazi attack was indeed an al-Qaeda orchestrated attack right from the start. Even more...

As Turkey rapidly re-Islamizes, it appears to be trying to create the justification for a new jihad offensive against Israel. "Turkish military ‘trying to provoke an incident’ with Israelis in Mediterranean," from the World Tribune, October 31: TEL AVIV — Turkey has been challenging Israel’s military throughout the Mediterranean. Military sources said Turkey has used its Navy and Air Force to disrupt Israeli operations around the Mediterranean. They said the Turkish Air Force and Navy harassed Israeli warplanes during patrols and exercises over the last six months. “They are trying to provoke an incident with us that could have strategic...

Jessica L. Wright, the acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said today that the Defense Department must maintain its commitment to diversity and inclusion, which contribute to mission success. She asserted that diversity helps civilian and military employees perform well because they “represent the nation in our workforce.” The Defense Department not only talks “about diversity in terms of race and gender, and ethnicity, but it is much more than that in my mind,” Wright said. She declared that diversity included “your thought process, how you grew up, [and] what you can add to the greater good...

(I received this the other day. It's written by Pastor Tom Brock) -Today I walked through my old alma mater, Luther Theological Seminary in St Paul, Mn. It is known as probably the most conservative of the ELCA seminaries. You wouldn’t know it from the number of gay/lesbian bumper stickers in the parking lot. Upon entering the main building a sign was up promoting a new book at Luther’s Bookstore, “Pastrix” by ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. She was a favorite speaker at the ELCA Youth Assembly and a few months ago spoke at the historic Central Lutheran Church in downtown...

I don't understand why I didn't see this before, but it has become clearer than the clouds and rain outside as I write this post. I first thought President Obama actually told a lie when he said Americans could keep their health care insurance plans, if they liked those plans. I thought surely he was fibbing when the insurance companies started sending out cancellation letters to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of customers. I just knew the regulations were written in such a way to nullify the grandfathering clause of Obamacare. I must have been wrong in all those...

Final, 6-1 Red Sox: It’s all over. The Boston Red Sox are world champions. David Ortiz had a World Series like few others, hitting .688 and driving in six, and was named the MVP of the series.

George Zimmerman’s ugly divorce took a disturbing twist Wednesday when his estranged wife said he nailed a bullet-riddled bullseye to a wall of her parents’ house. Shellie Zimmerman turned the marksman’s alleged target over to cops in Lake Mary, Fla., complaining it was a menacing message for her from the 30-year-old former neighborhood watchman acquitted of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin. Photos of the bullseye with 17 bullet holes in it surfaced Wednesday on RadarOnline. One picture showed the target nailed to a cream-colored wall of the in-law’s house in the Orlando suburb of Lake Mary. “This is the photo that...

The National Security Agency, responsible for U.S. electronic eavesdropping, said on Wednesday that it does not target the Vatican and called an Italian media report that it had done so "not true." Panorama magazine said on Wednesday that the NSA had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion. "The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement. According to Panorama, which did not cite a source for its information,...

Cool new device may end police pursuits.

You probably have fond memories of doing parking lot donuts with a Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda, watching Steve McQueen tear through the streets of San Francisco in a Mustang Fastback or pouring your blood, sweat and tears into restoring a ’68 Camaro inside and out. Whatever it may be, muscle cars were — and still are — a huge part of being a gearhead.

House Republicans on Thursday began a nearly two-week recess as they sought to solidify their political standing at home and clear the way for intense public scrutiny of Obamacare’s troubled rollout.Still smarting from a politically damaging government shutdown that hogged the spotlight and obscured problems with the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans have deliberately shifted strategies. Rather than instigate high-stakes, politically risky confrontations with President Obama, they have embraced a more traditional, low-key approach that focuses on achieving incremental conservative reforms. This legislative strategy has a second, equally important purpose: It’s unlikely to distract from the GOP's aggressive investigation into...

Almost seven months after the State Department released a blacklist of Russians accused of human rights abuses, lawmakers in Moscow are finalizing further retaliatory legislation targeting Americans they accuse of violating Russian citizens’ rights. Russian media reported Thursday that the measure has strong cross-party support, is backed by the upper house of parliament, and that President Vladimir Putin could sign it into law before the end of the year.The action is the latest response by Russians angered by a U.S. congressional initiative aimed at identifying and punishing Russian officials responsible for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally...

It is hard to find the words to adequately describe how much of a disaster Obamacare is turning out to be. The debut of Healthcare.gov has been probably the worst launch of a major website in history, millions of Americans are having their current health insurance policies canceled, millions of others are seeing the size of their health insurance premiums absolutely explode, and this new law is going to result in massive numbers of jobs being lost. It is almost as if Obamacare was specifically designed to wreck the U.S. economy. Not that what we had before Obamacare was great....

By now, many of you have read the tweet-saga outlining my experience with Healthcare.gov, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to lay it out in a format more conducive to the story. Yesterday, I was stoopid. I ignored the signals, the bright, flashing, red signals, my own instinct, and even Consumer Reports, and I created an account at the new healthcare website. Here's why: I am presently on long-term disability leave from my employer. Although I haven't worked in a year and a half, I am still, technically, an employee, but if I cannot return to work prior to...