Free Republic

In what will be seen as another blow to immigration reform’s chances, a top pro-reform Republican in the House concedes House Republicans are not going to act on immigration reform this year, and he worries that the window for getting anything done next year is closing fast. “We have very few days available on the floor in the House, so I don’t think we’re going to be able to do it this year,” GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida told me by phone today. Diaz-Balart has been deeply involved in bipartisan negotiations over immigration for years now, and is thought...

NASA's checked its space rock maths and it's not good news "If you look at the number of impacts detected by US government sensors over the past few decades you find the impact rate of kiloton-class objects is greater than would be indicated by the telescopic surveys," said Bill Cooke, meteoroid environment office lead at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center at a press conference on Wednesday. "Over the past few decades we've seen an impact rate about seven times greater than the current state of the telescopic surveys would indicate."

An Obama administration website that allows people to engage in the federal regulatory process – including those Health and Human Services regulations surrounding ObamaCare – was knocked offline on Monday night. Regulations.gov wasn’t up and running again until Wednesday afternoon. At least one lawmaker, Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), took notice. My staff is wrking w/agencies 2get http://t.co/uXrmK0ayjY back up& running. Im frustrated my constituents cant access 2submit FSMA comments! — Ann McLane Kuster (@RepAnnieKuster) November 6, 2013 The website allows citizens to provide commentary and criticism on proposed federal regulations. According to a search, there are presently 10 Affordable...

A new poll being released later Thursday could send a warning to politicians nationwide: Oppose immigration reform at your peril. The results from the survey, sponsored by a trio of GOP-friendly groups and provided to POLITICO in advance, indicate that voters will be warmer toward politicians who favor immigration reform, an effort that faces an uphill battle in the Republican-led House. -snip- Organizations that put together the poll includes Spies’s group (Republicans for Immigration Reform), as well as the Partnership for a New American Economy, the pro-reform coalition headed up by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Compete America,...

The ruthless commander behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai as well as a series of bombings and beheadings was chosen Thursday as the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, nearly a week after a U.S. drone strike killed the previous chief. The militant group ruled out peace talks with the government, accusing Pakistan of working with the U.S. in the Nov. 1 drone strike. Islamabad denied the allegation and accused Washington of sabotaging its attempt to strike a deal with the Taliban to end years of violence. Mullah Fazlullah was unanimously appointed the new leader by the Taliban's leadership...

Advocates of immigration reform are calling on their House Republicans allies to adopt Tea Party tactics to force party leaders to bring legislation to the floor by the end of the year. A week after hailing a trio of Republicans for signing on to a comprehensive immigration bill, liberal advocates turned up the heat on two of them and vowed to campaign for their defeat if they didn’t do more to pressure Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Lovely as it is that three Republicans have put their names on H.R. 15, that’s not nearly enough,” said Tom Snyder, the immigration campaign...

FRESNO, Calif. — Bulldogs can be seen snarling from flagpoles, from baseball caps, from T-shirts and from tattoos — one man has the dog’s face inked across his torso, its behind across his back. Young men on street corners bark at passing patrol officers. They call their children “little dogs” or “bull puppies.” Police raids find their targets asleep beneath red blankets emblazoned with the dog. Fresno and the surrounding region have long been overrun by Bulldogs. And where the violent pack goes, trouble follows. The Fresno State Bulldogs college football team is exceedingly popular here in the country’s fruit...

The mystery started when astronomers spotted a really blotchy thing in space Aug. 27 with the Pan-STARRS survey telescope in Hawaii. The Hubble Space Telescope then swung over to take a look on Sept. 10, revealing all these tails of debris flying off the asteroid.

GOP rivals begin dishing on Christie: So this is what happens the day after you win a 22-point re-election victory and after the national media anoint you as the GOP establishment front-runner for a presidential race that’s still three years (!!!) away: Potential Republican rivals begin taking not-so-subtle shots at you. That’s exactly what happened to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) yesterday. "Clearly [Christie] was able to speak to the hopes and aspirations of people within New Jersey,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CNN. “That's important. We want to win everywhere and Gov. Christie has certainly shown he has...

This post originally appeared at Pew Research Center’s Fact Tank blog. Estimating the number of atheists in the U.S. is complex. Some adults who describe themselves as atheists also say they do believe in God or a universal spirit, according to Pew Research Center surveys. At the same time, some people who identify with a religion (e.g., say they are Protestant, Catholic or Jewish) say they do not believe in God. The debate over the definition and identity of atheists came up recently during Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Diana Nyad, a self-identified atheist who recently gained attention for her Cuba-to-Florida...

So Obama wasn’t aware we’d spent years spying on our ally Germany. Color me unsurprised. Throughout a career as community activist and several campaigns, he apparently didn’t know that numerous people and publications attributed his birthplace as Kenya. Rev. Wright, his spiritual leader of over a decade made numerous inflammatory sermons denigrating whites and damning the United States. What was the reaction? Barry wasn’t there those Sundays. Obama wasn’t aware about Benghazi. Hadn’t heard Americans under heavy attack were begging for relief during the firefight. Never knew rescue planes were assigned and mysteriously recalled. Where was he during all this?...

Excerpts: "CORNISH: Now, one of the criticisms that people level about this turnaround is that it's left people behind, that the poverty rate in California is higher than the national average, currently 23 percent. And while the unemployment rate is down, for instance, the percentage of people who are looking for work, who want full-time jobs, is still quite high - 19 percent - one of the worst rates in the country. BROWN: Well, that's true because California is a magnet. People come here from all over the world - close by from Mexico and Central America and further out...

(AP) FDA to ban artery-clogging trans fats By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON Heart-clogging trans fats have been slowly disappearing from grocery aisles and restaurant menus in the last decade. Now, the Food and Drug Administration is finishing the job. The FDA announced Thursday it will require the food industry to gradually phase out artificial trans fats, saying they are a threat to people's health. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the move could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year.

The workforce is even more stratified by race than you'd imagine. The differences in unemployment rates, participation rates, and average earnings between whites, blacks, and Hispanics aren't just stark. They're also sturdy, rarely yielding over the last 40 years. The racial gaps are stark at the job level, too. Whites account for about 81 percent of the workforce. But there are 33 occupations counted by the BLS (particularly those on farms, around heavy machines, in doctor's offices, and in C-suites) where whites officially account for nine in ten of all workers, or more. Here they are.

Looking back thru the past 4 years, many "Whens "pop up. Read them all to better understand where we are going as a country.. WHEN - he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter. WHEN - he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan, Muramar Kaddafi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter. WHEN - it was pointed out that he was a total newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't matter. WHEN - he chose friends and...

Reporters with the Society of American Business Editors and Writers received "training" on how to cover Obamacare's rollout from a policy expert who works with President Obama's former health information technology adviser. The Commonwealth Fund's Sara Collins claimed during the training that healthcare.gov's chronic dysfunctionality does not signify "deeper issues" with the law."I don't think it signifies deeper problems, I think it is a website issue," Collins told SABEW during the Oct. 28 training seminar.Her optimistic take on the law's difficulties is unsurprising since she works for an organization led by David Blumenthal, who was President Obama's national coordinator for...

A community is looking for answers after 19-year-old Renisha McBride was shot in the head after seeking the help of residents in what media reports are describing as a predominantly white Detroit suburb following a car crash in the early morning of Nov. 4. While Dearborn Heights authorities have refused to release details of the investigation, they have "identified the person who fired the shot and killed the woman." According to her family, McBride was likely forced to go door-to-door because her cell phone had died. "She probably wanted to ask him to make a call for her or if...

You’ve been hearing a lot about the most famous of Obama’s broken promises. No, you can’t keep your health care plan if you like it. But that’s far from the only promise he made repeatedly. He also promised to lower people’s premiums by $2,500 per family per year. In case you don’t believe me - courtesy of the excellent Avik Roy - here he is making that promise 19 times: So that’s what he promised. The envelope? Oops! Roy also exposes how big a lie that is turning out to be: One of the fundamental flaws of the Affordable Care...

Millions of Americans are being informed they're being dropped from their insurance plans because the plans don't meet minimum Obamacare standards, but President Obama so far has stood by his promise that "if you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance." Insurance plans that existed on the individual market before the passage of the Affordable Care Act were "grandfathered" in, the president and his supporters have argued, and consumers only lost coverage if insurers altered those policies after the law took effect. In that case, Mr. Obama said last week, insurers had to...