Free Republic

Outrage about HealthCare.gov and millions losing health plans should scare the wits out of liberals. With enough money, the morass can be fixed, but it lay bare the limits of tax and spend to buy voter allegiance. The liberal formula is simple. Target a few Americans to soak, and pander to the base instincts of the masses. President Obama's favorite mark is wealthy Americans who benefited most from recent economic growth. Characterize them as undeserving and exploitive — disdainfully he expounds those folks claim they did it with hard work, leaving his followers to conclude their affluence was built on...

When asked, "Are you in favor of scrapping [Obamacare] and going back to start over?", famed investor Warren Buffett said on CNBC March 1, 2010, "I would be — if I were President Obama.”

AAAN has long been tied to President Obama. In 2001 and 2002, the Woods Fund of Chicago, with Obama on its board, made grants totaling $75,000 to the AAAN—about a fifth of AAAN’s overall budget. Obama served in that role alongside Bill Ayers and received $6,000 a year from 1999-2002. AAAN’s founder Rashid Khalidi and his wife Mona hosted Obama in their home on at least one occasion. Obama praised Khalidi’s insights, which had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.” Khalidi returned the compliment, telling a mostly Arab audience, that Obama is...

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans have sparred for the past few months over what should be done about staffers’ healthcare: should they go on the healthcare exchanges, as a provision in Obamacare seems to require, or should they stay on the healthcare plan they have now, where they receive an employer subsidy help defray the costs? The deadline for members to make that decision arrived at 5 p.m. on Halloween. Members could either designate staff as “official,” in which case they would be required to go on the exchanges, or “unofficial,” in which case they could remain on the Federal...

Link to video: Colorado ObamaCare Navigator Hasn't Signed Up A Single Person Due To Sticker Shock

A man claiming to be Egypt's official executioner has spoken of how much he loves his job in a sinister interview. Hajj Abd Al-Nabi, who claims he has hanged some 800 people convicted of crimes ranging from adultery to murder, said: 'In all honesty, I love my work. I just love it! 'I never say "no" when they need me at work. This is my work and my livelihood.' But Mr Al-Nabi's exuberant commentary on his macabre profession takes an even more chilling turn as he explains how strangulation had been his 'hobby' since he was a teenage boy. 'When...

Left-handed people have a ‘strikingly higher’ chance of suffering from schizophrenia, research suggests. A study revealed left-handers accounted for 40 per cent of those with the mental illness. However, only around 10 per cent of the general population is left-handed. It is thought that the changes in the brain that make people left-handed may also contribute to schizophrenia. Famous left-handers include Prince William, Barack Obama, David Cameron, Sir Paul McCartney, Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie.

How about Google, Yahoo, Amazon, or Microsoft? Given all the trouble with the Obamacare website, we wondered why America’s biggest Internet companies haven’t volunteered to help fix it. (OK, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team did, sort of, in a recent Tweet, which they then deleted.) Surely Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, or Microsoft could design a more reliable site than the tangle of federal contractors who have bungled healthcare.gov. On the other hand, we can also envision a few drawbacks. Here’s how we imagine the site might look if each of those companies tried their hand at remaking it in their own...

Germany has hit back at US criticism of its export-led growth model, describing the attack as "incomprehensible". The rebuff came after a US Treasury report said Germany's dependence on exports for growth was hurting the eurozone and the wider global economy. It also said that domestic demand growth in Germany had been "anaemic". But Germany's finance ministry said there were "no imbalances" in its economy and that its current account surplus was not a cause for concern. A surplus happens when a country's income from exports is greater than its import bill. In its report, the US Treasury said that...

EU leaders are calling for the suspension of a trade pact with the US worth billions of dollars over NSA spying. The 28-nation bloc suspects the so-called ‘Safe Harbor’ deal is being undermined by US espionage and has demanded safeguards for EU citizens. The EU’s top politicians have slammed Washington for a “breakdown of trust” and seek guarantees for the safety of EU customer data. “For ambitious and complex negotiations to succeed there needs to be trust among the negotiating partners,” EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Wednesday in a speech at Yale University. The Safe Harbor agreement has been...

It is weird to entrust the same policy-makers who were caught lying publicly on the record to Congress in an internal review of NSA programs. As laughable as Wall Street banks regulating themselves, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser told RT. RT: Let’s listen to what General Alexander said defending the NSA policies. “It is much more important for this country that we defend this nation and take the beatings than it is to give up a program that would result in this nation being attacked.” He’s got a good point, hasn’t he? Eric Draitser: Well, to some degree that’s true, but...

Not long ago, I was approached by a man and woman from the UK who wanted some training and the chance to shoot guns. They were in the United States on vacation and one of the items on their vacation list was to find a certified instructor and have the once in a lifetime chance to “experience what it’s like to be American for a few hours with the legal right to shoot rifles and guns.” They told me that in the UK, they could not own guns and they really did not understand this “passion” Americans had for firearms...

Jiji Press WASHINGTON (Jiji Press)—The U.S. Treasury Department said it will “continue to closely monitor” Japan’s economic policies and the extent to which they support growth in domestic demand there. “It is important that Japan calibrate the pace of fiscal consolidation to the recovery in domestic demand and take ambitious and effective steps to increase domestic demand,” the department said in a semiannual report on economic and currency policies Wednesday. “Monetary policy cannot offset excessive fiscal consolidation or be a substitute for structural reform that raises trend growth and domestic demand,” it said.

Leaders of the massive candle-carrying protests against U.S. beef imports in 2008 do not have to compensate the government for the damage incurred during the demonstrations, a Seoul court ruled yesterday. The government in July 2005 requested some 517 million won ($487,726) in compensation for medical fees for injured police, lost police equipment and damage to buses and cars from civic groups and their leaders after they organized candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports between May and June 2008. The protesters believed U.S. beef posed a risk of infecting people with mad cow disease. The Seoul Central District Court ruled...

The U.S. airliner Boeing, which had made observation flights over Russia under the Treaty of Open Skies, has made an unscheduled landing in the city of Chita, East Siberia, on Wednesday, and will leave the air harbour of the Siberian city at 14:30 local time (08:30 Moscow time, 04:30 GMT) on Friday. The directorate of the airport permitted the departure, receiving the money for the fuel, representative of the airport’s directorate Sergei Kostin told Itar-Tass. "Finally, the money for the lubricants and fuels were transferred to us. The airport fees will be earmarked soon. The fuelling of the airliner Boeing...

Full Title: Obama Officials In 2010: 93 Million Americans Will Be Unable To Keep Their Health Plans Under Obamacare Obama administration knew that Obamacare would disrupt private plans Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a “grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection. “The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status...

Heavy smog blanketed Korea this week blown in by northwesterly winds from China. The concentration of ultrafine particles is often at its worst between December and March, with most of the smog comes from Beijing and surrounding Hebei Province. The smog crosses the West Sea and reaches the Korean peninsula anywhere between six hours and a day later. Meteorologists say the smog is diluted as it crosses the West Sea, but 40 to 50 percent still reaches Korea. On Thursday, the concentration of ultrafine particles in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province north of Seoul, reached 255㎍/㎥, five times the normal level in...

Four female members of Ankara’s Islamic-rooted government attended a parliament session on Thursday wearing headscarves, a first in 14 years in secular Turkey. The last time a headscarf was seen in Parliament was when Turkish-American MP Merve Kavakci turned up for her swearing-in ceremony in Islamic dress. She was booed out of the house and eventually had her Turkish citizen(ship) revoked. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted a decades-old ban on headscarves in the civil service in early October as part of a package of reforms meant to improve democracy and freedoms. …

Shinzo Abe raise eyebrows on Thursday by breaking away from a 20-year tradition of Japanese prime ministers expressing remorse over their country's wartime aggression and pledging not to let it happen again when they mark the end of World War II. Speaking on the 68th anniversary of the Japan's surrender in World War II, Abe instead highlighted the "sacrifices" of Japanese soldiers. Since Morihiro Hosokawa in 1993, all Japanese prime ministers have included acknowledgement of the damage and pain Japan inflicted on countries in Asia and their peoples, and promised that Japan would never engage in a war, in their...

Unsuspecting members of the public in Poland either burst into laughter or ran away frightened after falling victim to this epic Halloween prank. Hiding under some leaves amongst an outdoor jack-o-lantern display, Mr Pumpkin suddenly leaps to surprise his victims before launching into a bizarre dance routine. Is this the most epic Halloween prank of all time? Mr Pumpkin stars in epic Halloween prank video (Picture: YouTube / SA Wardega) The prankster’s dance to YMCA by the Village People has one group in stitches, but his Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball routine is too much for anyone to take. Dressed in...