Free Republic

In a new poll released Friday, the Kaiser Family Foundation found the one month after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges, more Americans want keep or expand the law as opposed to repeal or replace it, despite all of the problems with the HealthCare.gov web portal. The poll asked people to answer what they would “like to see Congress do when it comes to the health care law.” As the figure below shows, 22% said “expand the law” and 25% said “keep the law as is” for a combined 47% of respondents. 13% wanted to see...

The 17-year pause in global warming is likely to last into the 2030s and the Arctic sea ice has already started to recover, according to new research.A paper in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Dynamics – by Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr Marcia Wyatt – amounts to a stunning challenge to climate science orthodoxy.Not only does it explain the unexpected pause, it suggests that the scientific majority – whose views are represented by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – have underestimated the role of natural cycles and exaggerated that of greenhouse gases....

Generally speaking, government always grows -- it never shrinks -- whether times are good or bad. In each area it purports to "assist", government attempts to replace individual decision-making with central planning. In order to implement its grand central plans and solidify its power, government must take from one citizen to give to another; this is, in effect, lawful theft. No matter how many times central planning fails, the self-appointed masterminds in government assert that "this time is different" and that with only a few tweaks and more money, their delusional plans will succeed. Because it uses funds confiscated...

U.S. Inquiry Broadens Into JPMorgan’s Asia Hiring By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and BEN PROTESS A federal investigation into the hiring practices of JPMorgan Chase has expanded beyond the borders of China, where the bank faces questions about whether it hired the children of powerful Chinese officials to win lucrative business there. The bank disclosed in a securities filing on Friday that authorities were now looking into “its business relationships with certain related clients in the Asia Pacific region and its engagement of consultants in the Asia Pacific region.” JPMorgan did not specify where the inquiries were directed. But according to people...

ALBANY — In a major boost for the state, the federal government has awarded New York the low-interest loan it was seeking to help pay for the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The feds agreed to lend up to $1.6 billion — the largest loan ever given out under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act — to fund a third of the anticipated costs for the new bridge over the Hudson River. It’s everything we’ve been looking for and more,” Cuomo crowed on public radio. Earlier this week, Standard & Poor’s reduced the Thruway Authority’s bond rating...

Absolutely beautiful tribute to those that have fallen defending the United States of America.

“It would be a disaster for American-German relations if Snowden came to Germany and publicly testified before the Bundestag.” What Green MP Christian Ströbele ultimately is hoping for after his surprise visit with Edward Snowden in Moscow would be a nightmare for Stephen Szabo of the German Marshall Fund, as well for the Obama administration. The relationship between the two countries is headed towards “a deep, downward spiral,” says Szabo. This must be stopped. If Snowden were to come to Germany with official blessing, the situation would escalate further, warns the long-time Germany expert and vice-president of the German Marshall...

**SNIP** Whites lost their No. 1 status to Latinos in 19 suburban districts spread across the six-county area of Cook, DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane and McHenry. Blacks were displaced by Latinos as the leading group in nine other districts, including the city of Chicago. This year’s school report card shows that minorities make up nearly half the students in Illinois public schools. And, of those minorities, Hispanic students have eclipsed blacks over the last 10 years as the largest minority, 24 percent.

In the final weekend of the campaign for Virginia Governor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli has announced rallies with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Congressman Ron Paul, among other Republicans. The Cuccinelli campaign has put its hopes for a come-from-behind victory in energizing base Republican and conservative voters. Walker and Paul both have unique appeal with voters Cuccinelli needs on Tuesday. Walker will attend two rallies for Cuccinelli on Saturday, appearing in Spotslyvania and Woodbridge, two Northern Virginia suburbs were the Republican needs a strong vote. Ron Paul will attend an evening rally on Monday, the eve of the election in...

“Who We Are and What We Will Be” (1 John 3:1-3)Today as we observe All Saints’ Day, we look back and remember with thanksgiving the saints who have gone before us, who now rest from their labors and are with the Lord. We look around us, and even though we cannot see them, we know that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses to the faith, all of us united in the one great communion of saints, the whole church on earth and in heaven. And we look ahead, we look forward with hopefulness to the day...

Gay rights advocates from both parties are newly upbeat about the prospects for Senate passage of legislation that would bar employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. … In a sign of the times, the anti-bias legislation has traditional proponents such as the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay and lesbian advocacy group, plus the backing of a relatively new group, the American Unity Fund. That organization has the financial support of big-name Republican donors—hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer, Cliff Asness, Dan Loeb and Seth Klarman—and former GOP lawmakers Norm Coleman of Minnesota...

The one thing to emerge from the debt ceiling crisis has been to highlight the short-term debt focus. Every Thursday the US government has had to sell $100 billion of new debt rolling over short-term with 3 month bills. This may have helped to bring down long-term rates and it reduced the interest expenditures, but it has introduced extreme vulnerability to a sudden loss of lenders’ trust as lawmakers debate whether to raise a cap on public borrowing. U.S. Treasury will unveil its new borrowing strategy that will signal the shift in interest rates has arrived. The extreme short-term debt...

Senate Republicans, led by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, are pushing for a federal ban on abortions after the end of the 20th week of pregnancy. … The planned legislation, though, will face many challenges, not only from the Democratic-controlled Senate, but from some Republicans like Sen. Mike Lee, Utah, who has concerns about Congress’ authority to regulate commerce as the law’s basis. …

NEW YORK – While the US has “implemented unprecedented sanctions and pressure on Iran, we may very well have to use military force to back up our policy,” Leon Panetta said on Thursday night. The former US defense secretary and CIA director made the remarks while addressing around 600 people at the Anti-Defamation League’s 100th annual meeting Panetta, who was receiving the ADL’s William and Naomi Gorowitz Institute Service Award, said the US needs to “maintain a healthy skepticism” when negotiating to suss out Iran’s true level of commitment to negotiations over its nuclear program. “It is the Supreme Leader

Chris Crane, president of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council, which represents immigration enforcement officers, recently called on Congress to resist immigration reforms that harm his officers’ ability to do their jobs: "ICE officers are being ordered by [Administration] political appointees to ignore the law. Violent criminal aliens are released every day from jails back into American communities. ICE Officers face disciplinary action for engaging in routine law enforcement actions. We are barred from enforcing large sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act, even when public safety is at risk. Officer morale is devastated." If this were the U.S....

When Willard Romney, took on President Obama at the White House, the NSA had intercepted Will's "GOP Secure line", a feat the agency later reported as an “operational POC”, in a weekly internal brag sheet. We kept Romney campaign’s servers in a ha-cl-oud, the computers however, in the clean rooms were never connected to the Internet, so they were the exclusive province of NSA. What NSA trying to learn from the Romney campaign? What able to extract, if anything? How much information NSA extract from targeting emails? Was the Secret Service or a U.S. agency such as the CIA involved?...

Alex Seitz-Wald, the poor man’s Hendrik Hertzberg, has in the latest issue of National Journal heaved a Ciceronic sigh and declared that the Constitution “isn’t going to make it,” that it should be replaced by the wise men of our generation, who have “learned what works and what doesn’t.” This sort of essay is practically a genre unto itself. The print version of Mr. Seitz-Wald’s article is headlined “Get Me Rewrite,” as were the Boston Globe’s 2006 essay on the same subject, Lewis Lapham’s 1996 version in the New York Times Book Review, a 1999 San Francisco Chronicle version of...

Egypt to look beyond U.S. for arms: foreign minister Reuters By Samia Nakhoul and Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said on Saturday that Egypt would look beyond the United States to meet its security needs and warned Washington that it could no longer ignore popular demands in a changed Arab world. Speaking ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Fahmy said the United States must take a long-term view of its relations with Egypt and understand that in the wake of the Arab Spring, "it would have to deal now with...

A group of hunky men from all walks of life volunteered their time posing with their furry kitten friends to help their shelter in a fundraiser and bring up the awareness of shelter animals and adoption.“The Kittendales project was conceived in early 2007 when the board of directors at Hull Seaside Animal Rescue was brainstorming about how to raise money for their cat shelter. Chris Crotty, one of the founding members of the shelter decided it would be a good idea to put together a calendar of hunky men and cats. The concept was proposed to photographer Joanne Berman, who...

Washington (CNN) -- As members of Congress point to problems with HealthCare.gov, lawmakers are scrambling and, in and some cases, sparking cries of hypocrisy over how they'll handle one piece of Obamacare under their control: whether their own staff members should be forced into the exchanges. Members of Congress have until the end of the day on Thursday to make up their minds, and Democrats and Republicans are divided internally on the politically tricky issue. "We just learned (Monday) that we have to make the decision this week," one House Republican leadership aide told CNN. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert...