Free Republic

That punch list isn’t getting any shorter. Software engineers and tech analysts scrambling to fix HealthCare.gov are discovering new problems by the day, as early fixes take hold and users are able to navigate more deeply into the troubled online application process, administration officials said today. “We are seeing volume go further down the application. What that means is we are identifying new issues.” Top Obama administration officials have promised Americans that come Dec. 1 the insurance marketplace will be “smooth functioning” for the “vast majority” of users, though they have not offered specific metrics for those goals.

The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to an inspector general's report released Thursday. The IRS sent a total of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in Shanghai. In the U.S., more fraudulent returns went to Miami than any other city. Other top destinations were Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta and Houston.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is pressuring the House to act on immigration legislation before the end of the year, calling the issue “a matter of great moral urgency” that cannot wait. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday that he was troubled by reports that immigration reform is delayed in the House since lawmakers have a responsibility to resolve the issue. … “As a moral matter … our nation cannot continue to receive the benefits of the work and contributions of undocumented immigrants...

A 22-year-old man serving a short jail stint for pot possession died after corrections staff neglected his intense dairy allergy and seemingly ignored his frantic pleas for medical assistance, according to videos obtained by a local news channel. Michael Saffioti was sentenced to jail time for skipping a court appearance relating to a marijuana possession charge. According to Saffioti’s mother, his extreme allergies gave him constant anxiety, and smoking pot helped calm his nerves. Video footage from the Snohomish County Jail in Washington seems to show Saffioti questioning a prison guard about the contents of his breakfast on the morning...

Inflation in Venezuela has surged above 50 percent as a plunge in the value of the currency deters investment and makes basic goods harder to find. … President Nicolás Maduro vowed on Wednesday to intensify efforts to stamp out currency speculators and hoarders he accuses of waging “economic war” against the government. …

Senator Mary Landrieu says she will be introducing legislation to make sure anyone who likes their health care plan can keep it if the wish under Obamacare, but she still supports the law. **SNIP** Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said about 80,000 Louisiana policyholders will lose their policies because of Obamacare. Landrieu’s legislation would allow policyholders to keep their insurance as long as they kept paying their premiums.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wants to install anti-aircraft weapons systems in hillside slums ringing Caracas to dissuade “imperialist” foreign powers from attacking the South American nation. The president says arming civilians and putting state-of-the-art artillery in densely-populated neighborhoods is an integral part of an ongoing defense buildup. …

De Blasio’s victory wouldn’t be possible without Giuliani’s successes and liberals’ short memories.The new mayor of New York City is a Red Sox fan. According to the rules of the New York I grew up in, I’d expect to see the Hudson turn into a river of blood and Zabar’s to close owing to a locust infestation before that happened. But if de Blasio’s remarkable rise proves anything, it’s that the rules can change. A liberal’s crazy liberal, de Blasio still waxes nostalgic about the noble struggle of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, for whom he raised money in the 1980s. He...

Now that Obamacare jokes have become the norm on late night TV, it was a no brainer for the Country Music Awards to open last night’s show with a parody song from hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood called “Obamacare By Morning.” But that didn’t stop The Five’s Greg Gutfeld from commending the “rare” sight of “Obama mockery” on TV. Eric Bolling was equally impressed with the “hilarious” song, but noticed a bit of a divide in the reactions from those sitting in the live audience. “You could see the real, true Republican conservatives, heart and soul of the country,...

Republican Mark Obenshain held a 219 vote lead in the race to be Virginia's next Attorney General, with results in from all the state's 2,558 precincts.The count is even narrower than Bob McDonnell's 327-vote lead over Creigh Deeds in the 2005 race to be attorney general, but it's as certain to end in a recount.Meanwhile, of the four House of Delegates seats where less than 1 percentage point separated the candidates with a handful of precincts still outstanding last night, the GOP has held onto three. One race, where John Bell is challenging Del. David Ramadan, R-Loudoun is still neck...

INDIANAPOLIS - The leader of the Indiana Senate has invited lawmakers from every state to join him Dec. 7 at Mount Vernon, George Washington's Virginia home, to discuss the state-led process for crafting amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, asks in a letter written to fellow legislative leaders that each state send a bipartisan group of three delegates to the "Mount Vernon Assembly." He said the meeting will lay the groundwork for a Convention of the States that would, when established by Congress, propose amendments to change various provisions of the Constitution. "The authors of...

Lay Catholics hold no sway in the selection or termination of an archbishop, with those decisions made solely by the Vatican. But it is rare for even a handful of influential members of the local Catholic community to step out so publicly against an archbishop. They join a handful of local priests who have publicly called for new leadership. Several major donors say they will not give to any capital campaign or other archdiocese-led initiatives until its leadership is replaced. “Given the present circumstances with the archdiocese and the current leadership, we don’t plan to continue contributing to the archdiocese,”...

Sniff! DUmmie feelings were hurt because ObamaCare was musically (and hilariously) mocked at the Country Music Awards as this VIDEO shows. You can see their outrage on this DUmmie THREAD, "CMA (Country Music) Awards Just Made Fun Of Obamacare In Their Opening Number....." Yes, Obama MUST NOT be mocked even when he LIES and ends up with a legislative debacle that just does not work. So let us now watch the DUmmies roar their outrage over CMA ObamaCare mockery in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, wondering when the Democrats will have their CYA ceremony, is...

Conservatism at bottom is resistance to the technocratic project, the modern attempt to turn the social world into a sort of universal machine for the maximum satisfaction of preferences.That project has been growing up for a long time. It comes out of an understanding of knowledge and the world with its roots in the early modern period, an understanding that emphasizes measurement and mathematics and accepts as real only individual subjectivity and objects of the kind studied by modern physics. The project is also closely associated with modern forms of social organization: the modern state, with its extensive bureaucracy...

Question: Can you “stand your ground” according to halacha as George Zimmerman allegedly did when he killed Trayvon Martin? Answer: According to halacha, if someone is running after you to kill you, that person is classified as a rodef and you may kill him. However, this is only the case if you have no other option. If wounding the rodef is sufficient to stop him, you may not kill him. If you do nonetheless, you are a murderer (see Rambam, Hilchot Rotzei’ach 1:6,7) The Mishnah L’Melech, however, takes a different position (see his comments to the Rambam’s Hilchot Chovail U’Mazik...

When President Barack Obama appears at the Port of New Orleans tomorrow, he won't be joined by Louisiana's only statewide elected Democrat, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. Landrieu will travel with Obama to New Orleans on the president's plane, Air Force One, but she doesn't plan to attend his speech about boosting exports. The U.S. Senator has a long-standing engagement in Lake Charles that takes place at the same time and she can't be in both places at once, staff said. Her absence at Obama's public appearance in Louisiana this year could raise some questions. Landrieu is expected to face a...

The nation's federal border protection agency announced this week it will begin using more military-owned equipment for surveillance along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The new equipment, set up at three locations, will include large balloon-like devices called “aerostats” that contain sensor equipment for viewing activity along the border. The sensor equipment is similar to what the Border Patrol already uses but will give the agency a greater viewing area so they can track drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.’s southern border. The announcement of the border balloons comes on top of recent announcements by...

American influence in culture, science and education around the world is facing a high-profile blow Friday as the U.S. is stripped of its voting rights at the world's cultural agency, UNESCO. And it would cost the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars to win this voice back. The U.S. hasn’t paid its dues to the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in three years, in protest over the decision by world governments to make Palestine a UNESCO member in 2011. … The UNESCO tension has prompted new criticism of U.S. laws that force an automatic funding cutoff for any...

Obamacare generates profits for the federal government by blocking Americans’ ability to get high-quality advice or services from outside their local area, according to health care experts. The Obamacare-compliant health benefit plans usually only pay for services within each citizen’s local region, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former government health care official and an expert at the American Enterprise Institute. Throughout 2014, the small regions will help regulators and executives narrow the variety, quality, number and cost of medical services available to at least three million Americans who already had plans on the individual market and are now being forced...