Free Republic

J.C. Penney Co., which is making major pricing and merchandising changes, said Tuesday that it swung to a first-quarter loss that was larger than expected and that it no longer expects to meet its previous profit forecast for the year. -snip- The net loss was $163 million, or 75 cents a share, compared with a profit of $64 million or 28 cents a share a year earlier. Sales in the quarter ended April 28 fell 20% to $3.15 billion.

As we move into the general election campaign, with Mitt Romney facing Barack Obama in the presidential race, it’s important not to lose perspective on the very real differences between the two. That starts with the recognition that Obama has made some astonishingly ill-conceived decisions as president, and that Romney would never have done these things. During a party’s nominating process for president – of which I was a part on the Republican side in this cycle – candidates do everything they can to differentiate themselves from each other. As the candidates focus on these differences and the media plays...

Lately, speculators have come under attack by Barack Obama. The president blames them for raising prices on oil and gasoline, and he has proposed new restrictions on oil traders. But this is a wrong turn on the road to a healthy economy. Back in 1958, onion farmers were concerned that speculators were taking advantage of them. They were especially concerned about the extreme volatility of onion prices, which could often double in a short period of time and then drop to a level below the cost of production. Farmers aimed their ire at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the principal futures...

GOVERNOR WRONG TO HAVE FLAG LOWERED TO HALF STAFF FOR CELEBRITIES NJLawman.com-Police and Law Enforcement News Thursday, February 16, 2012 Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ordered all New Jersey State and American flags to be lowered to half staff on Saturday in honor of Entertainer Whitney Houston who passed away this week. Last year, the governor did the same for Clarence Clemmons, the saxophone player for the E Street Band. In January, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett ordered the state flag to half staff for three days in honor of Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno when he passed. We...

(CBS News) J.C. Penney is trying to rebuild its customer base with help from a new spokeswoman, Ellen DeGeneres. But a group called One Million Moms is accusing the company of "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon." DeGeneres responded to the group on her TV show Wednesday, saying, "I'm happy about (being the spokesperson) J.C. Penney is happy about it. But there's this group called One Million Moms that is not happy about it. And normally I try not to pay attention to my haters, but this time I'd like to talk about it because my haters are my motivators. This...

Barack Obama joins Open Government Partnership for group photo Rich Shulman writes I don't know much about diplomatic protocols, but I would guess that waving during the group photo is something to avoid.

LONDON – It was all going so well. But when the time came for President Obama to deliver his toast to Queen Elizabeth Tuesday night, the meticulously planned state dinner at Buckingham Palace turned, well, awkward. As Obama began wrapping up his remarks, he put down his notecards and picked up his glass. “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand with me and raise your glasses as I propose a toast,” the president said, as the guests stood up. “To her majesty the Queen.” At this point, the band queued up “God Save the Queen.” But Obama wasn’t quite finished yet. So...

President Obama’s lack of experience with royalty was on full display today in England as he mistakenly began a toast to the Queen of England at the wrong time, resulting in “God Save the Queen” blaring over his words and no one getting to drink what was in their cups. Awkward.“And now I propose a toast to the Queen,” President Obama began in London today, but only got as far as “To the vitality of the special relationship” before “God Save the Queen” cut him off. He kept reading the toast, however, and finally raised his glass to her. No...

The biggest moment any singer can ask for: "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. And Christina Aguilera messed up the lyrics. At about 51 seconds in, as she was about to sing the fourth line ("O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming"), she accidentally sang a hybrid of the second line: "What so proudly we watched, at the twilight's last streaming."

Our 111th congress, in its lame duck session, has given America a Christmas present in the way of repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law. Signing the repeal into law, President Obama said he’s “never been prouder.” From my point of view, I’m feeling increasingly like a minority in our country. Not because I’m black, but because I am a Christian. As a Christian, I believe in the truth of traditional morality as transmitted to us through our biblical sources. And I believe, along with George Washington, who stated clearly in his farewell address to the nation, that religion...

I was just watching Hannity out here on the West Coast. Hannity had said to Bob Beckel that the polls were devastating for the Dems and Bob Beckel said, and I'm paraphrasing, "These (welfare and entitlement) programs that the Democrats have pushed...we thought we were doing the right thing but we actually have created generations of dependency, and now we have to admit that they have not worked and that they were mistakes." Hannity looked like he was in a state of shock when he heard Beckel say this and he responded that it was one of the most honest...

After her sterling public image took on some tarnish from her recent vacation to Spain, the White House announced that first lady Michelle Obama will appear with Laura Bush for Sept. 11 observances in Pennsylvania. The deft public relations move by the administration will place the two popular first ladies side-by-side for the first time since the 2008 inauguration. (Snip) An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll after the Spain trip found just 50 percent of Americans had a positive opinion of the first lady, down 14 percent from the same poll in April.

-- On June 25, 2010, Vice President Biden was visiting a custard shop outside Milwaukee when the shop manager told him his dessert would be on the house if he lowered taxes. "Don't worry, it's on us," the manager said. "Lower our taxes and we'll call it even." Biden replied: "Why don't you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?" -- On May 6, 2010, Vice President Biden said in an address to the European Parliament in Belgium that Brussels could be the "capital of the free world." The comment came at the top of a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has been deeply involved in the effort to staunch the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from the start but may have made a mistake by failing to communicate effectively about its efforts, Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday. "I think if there's any mistake made (it's) that we haven't communicated clearly enough what the president has done on this oil spill from the beginning," Biden said in the transcript of an interview with PBS' Charlie Rose television show. "We were there the first day, the first morning after that well ... blew and...

At first, it was Rush Limbaugh who tagged the gusher in the Gulf "Obama's Katrina" -- but now two lions of the left are warning the White House that the administration's handing of the environmental catastrophe is inflicting long-term political damage. James Carville, a stalwart Obama defender -- and Louisiana native -- and MSNBC's Chris Mathews both voiced concerns about the president's handling of the spill, and Obama's decision to allow BP to take the lead on plugging the pipe, which has been pouring oil into the sea for a month. Their statements came on a day when the press...

Hot Air explains how Solicitor General Elena Kagan muffed her argument in front of the Supreme Court on the Citizens United v. FEC case: In fact, the crux of the case was the issue of limiting expenditures as an expression of political speech, not contributions. Kagan started off her argument by misconstruing the issue and then offering a factually incorrect reading of precedent. Both Scalia and Kennedy objected to it before Kagan even had time to get the argument completed, although as the transcript notes, she didn’t pay much attention to them. Transcript below: ORAL ARGUMENT OF ELENA KAGAN ON...

Confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad was removed from the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list sometime after Barack Obama came into office. CBS reported:

Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned. Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC...

President Obama mouths the incorrect lyrics to our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." (White House Correspondents' Dinner)

NEW ORLEANS -- Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who has come under fire for his lavish spending, told GOP activists Saturday that he has taken responsibility for his "mistakes" and is now ready to "move on." In a speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Steele alluded to the controversy sparked by his committee paying a nearly $2,000 bill at a sex-themed nightclub in Los Angeles that led to at least one state party chairman calling for his resignation. "Now I'll be the first to admit I've made mistakes and it's been incumbent on me to take responsibility, shoulder...