Free Republic

During her tenure as an Obamacare "navigator," Rasmieh Yousef Odeh had access to Illinois consumers' sensitive personal data. Unbeknownst to those citizens, and to her employer, Ms. Odeh has an extremely sordid past. She was convicted for her role in three bombings, including one that killed two innocent people at an Israeli supermarket in the late 1960's: Rasmieh Yousef Odeh was convicted in Israel for her role in several bombings, including the 1969 attack on an upscale Shufersol grocery store, which killed two Hebrew University students who had stopped in to buy groceries for a hiking trip in the Jerusalem...

Harold Ramis, best known for appearing in "Ghostbusters" and directing comedic films "Groundhog Day," "National Lampoon's Vacation," and "Caddyshack," died at the age of 69 early Monday. Ramis died from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, which is a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, according to his wife Erica Mann.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to reduce the size of the United States Army to its smallest force since before World War II, according to The New York Times. Hagel reportedly will unveil the plan Monday in his 2015 budget for the Pentagon, which will also call for an entire class of Air Force attack jets to be retired. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Army peaked at 570,000 troops, the Times reports. Hagel wants to shrink the force to between 440,000 and 450,000. That would mark the Army’s smallest force since 1940. Several Pentagon officials confirmed the budget...

Twenty-two jihadists were killed and fifteen were injured after their teacher, who was teaching them how to detonate a suicide bomb, detonated a suicide bomb strapped to his chest. The jihadists were members of “the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” a Sunni terrorist group that looks to have Islam control both of those nations. They have bombed multiple locations throughout Iraq. On Monday, the only people they were killing were themselves. The instructor, who was not named, was explaining to a class of new recruits how to carry out a suicide bombing. Somehow unwittingly packed with explosives, the teacher...

A man pointed a gun at a girl who was selling cookies door-to-door in Temecula on Sunday, Feb. 2, sheriff’s officials said. Police responded to an assault with a deadly weapon about 11:24 a.m. in the 31000 block of Strawberry Tree Lane, according to a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department news release. The girl, whose father witnessed the incident, was going from house to house when she knocked on John M. Dodrill’s door. Dodrill, 59, opened the door and pointed a gun at the girl, officials said. The girl’s father called the police, and Dodrill was taken into custody without incident...

Obamacare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out altogether, according to the latest estimates Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s a major jump in the nonpartisan budget agency’s projections and it suggests the health care law’s incentives are driving businesses and people to choose government-sponsored benefits rather than work. “CBO estimates that the ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 to 2 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024, almost entirely...

Behold, your chart of the day. This comes from Kaiser Health News, which has regularly polled on health-related policies, and in particular the uninsured in relation to ObamaCare. Since 2011, the support and opposition have remained fairly close together, but now that ObamaCare has been implemented, a dramatic change has taken place — and one the White House and Democrats won’t like:KHN says, presumably without irony, that the reason for the sudden shift is unclear: Uninsured Americans — the people that the Affordable Care Act was designed to most aid — are increasingly critical of the law as its key...

President Obama’s high school pot dealer who he thanked in his yearbook for the 'good times' was beaten to death by his lover after a series of fights over flatulence and drugs, MailOnline can reveal today. Raymond Boyer, known as 'Gay Ray' to Obama and his marijuana smoking 'Choom Gang', was bludgeoned to death with a hammer seven years after he sold the future president and his friends drugs. His lover Andrew Devere, a male prostitute, gave police a laundry list of reasons for the killing, including that Boyer, a surfer and unemployed chef, constantly put him down, made him...

The guest list for tonight's State of the Union Address just keeps getting better and more conservative. Last week we learned Sean Hannity will be attending as a guest of Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert and today Louisiana Rep. Van McAllister confirmed Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson will attend as his guest for the big speech. Vance McAllister ✔ @RepMcAllister I'm happy to announce that my friend, constituent & small business owner @williebosshog will be attending tonight's #SOTU as my guest. 11:07 AM - 28 Jan 2014 62 Retweets 30 favorites Only problem? I don't think they allow duck calls in...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remained vague on her 2016 ambitions Monday, but said her biggest regret while leading the department was the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. “You make these choices based on imperfect information and you make them to — as we say — the best of your ability. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be unforeseen consequences, unpredictable twists and turns,” Clinton said Monday during the National Automobile Dealers Association conference in New Orleans, according to video from CNN. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/hillary-clinton-benghazi-biggest-regret-102655.html#ixzz2re61Gm7X

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Trey Radel of Florida says the congressman will resign after pleading guilty to cocaine-possession charges last year. Dave Natonski says the freshman republican will step down Monday and will send a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. Politico first reported the upcoming resignation. On Nov. 20, Radel pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession and was sentenced to a year of probation. He admitted to purchasing 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover officer Oct. 29 in Washington. Several GOP leaders had asked him to resign. But Radel had pledged to stay in...

Two suspects wanted for French Quarter beating Police released surveillance video of two suspects wanted in connection with the beating of a man in the 800 block of Conti Street. view full article The musician, Doug Potter, is now in an induced coma. WWLTV reported: A well-known New Orleans musician is hospitalized and unconscious after being jumped in the French Quarter. Doug Potter’s family and friends believe he may have been a target of the “knockout” game. “Always here when we needed him. Really nice man,” said Chef Rick Tyler of Cafe Beignet. Steamboat Willie and his New Orleans Jazz...

Target Corp. announced on Tuesday it would no longer offer healthcare coverage to its part-time employees. In a blog post on the company’s website, Jodee Kozlak, the executive vice president of human resources, framed it as a positive development for part-time employees of the company. “The Health Insurance Marketplaces provides new options for healthcare coverage that we believe our part-time members may prefer,” she wrote. “In fact, by offering them insurance, we could actually disqualify many of them from being eligible for newly available subsidies that could reduce their overall health insurance expense.” Kozlak added that at present, fewer than...

Details: President Obama will meet with Pope Francis on March 27, capping a European trip that will take him to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy.“The President looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality,” said a statement from White House press secretary Jay Carney.During his trip in late March, Obama will participate in a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands and a U.S.-European Union summit in Belgium.Obama also traveled to Vatican City in 2009 to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.Carney’s statement in full:“As part of the United States’ ongoing consultations with our...

In pushing gun control for homemade guns and gun parts, California State Senator Kevin de Leon (D) spoke of the danger posed by a "30 magazine clip." Prior to using that description, he referenced the danger posed by a "30 caliber clip"--by which he presumably meant 30-round magazine. David West posted a video of de Leon's speech in which the senator holds up a compact, semi-automatic rifle and says: "This is a ghost gun. This right here has ability with a 30 caliber clip to disperse with 30 bullets within half a second: 30 magazine clip in half a second."

Movie producer Harvey Weinstein announced for the first time on Howard Stern’s radio show that he is making a full feature drama to try to destroy the National Rifle Association. Mr. Stern asked Mr. Weinstein on Wednesday whether he owned a gun. The Hollywood heavyweight replied that he did not and never would. “I don’t think we need guns in this country. And I hate it,” the producer said. “I think the NRA is a disaster area.”

Publicly, House Democrats declare confidence in their chances to retake control of the lower chamber in the 2014 election cycle, even though presidents routinely lose significant numbers of seats in their second midterms. Their actions speak louder than their boasts, however. Jim Moran, a 12-term Congressman in a safe Democratic district and a close ally of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, called it quits — the third House Democrat to do so this week: Senior appropriator and progressive stalwart James P. Moran will step down at the end of this year, making him the thirdHouse Democrat in just three days to...

Our Crazed Sexuality Standards By Mona Charen The New York Times brings us the "next frontier in fertility treatment." It's about dissolving the prejudice against transgender people having children. "Andy Inkster, a transgender man, had always wanted biological children. So when he embarked on the transition from female to male at age 18 — changing his name, taking testosterone and eventually undergoing surgery to remove his breasts — he left his female reproductive organs intact. In his mid-20s, he decided it was time. He stopped taking testosterone and started trying to get pregnant." Baystate Reproductive Medicine turned Inkster away, explaining...

Beleaguered New Jersey Governor Chris Christie faces a federal probe into the misuse of Superstorm Sandy relief money after his government supervised the funding of a 'Stronger Than The Storm' ad campaign featuring the governor and his family just weeks before his re-election, it was revealed on Monday. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials are probing the use of $4.7m of hurricane rebuilding funds on the self-congratulatory tourism ads. Christie is already under fire in his home state following revelations that at least four of his aides and political appointees were involved in a scheme to manipulate traffic...

<p>The Clintons are known for holding grudges against their political enemies. But according to a new book, their aides went so far as to build a formal spreadsheet rating their friends and foes.</p> <p>The so-called "hit list" reportedly was entered into a Microsoft Excel document at the end of Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. In one draft, Democrats in Congress were even given a rating, from 1 to 7, with 7 being the worst.</p>