Free Republic

Eric Harroun is an Arizona native who rioted with rebels in Cairo and fought in Syria for Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra. **SNIP** Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Muslim, according to people who know him.

This is an amazing story about a man with Down syndrome who has reached the American dream. Since he was a young child, 26-year-old Tim Harris dreamed of having his own restaurant.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, suggesting some traction in the labor market recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 344,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims figure was revised to show 4,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to fall to 360,000. Claims have seen large swings in recent months because of difficulties smoothing the data for seasonal fluctuations, making it hard to get a clear pulse of the labor market's...

I've looked at SSI Disability from both sides now, from in and out, and still somehow it's the scammers, the duped, and the resentful I recall. I have been involved in hundreds of SSI Disability cases. I have worked in the system providing mental status exams, called consultative examinations, in two states. I have done dozens of private psychological evaluations for people trying to get on Disability rolls. I have sent reams of case notes and reports to the Disability bureaucracy on behalf of therapy clients. There have been memorable examinations. One was of a sassy prostitute. She said she...

Jennifer Morbelli’s baby had a name. The baby registry was complete, filled with already-purchased items like the book “I’ll Love You Forever.” The nursery was set up. Jennifer Morbelli’s baby, Madison Leigh, was a wanted child—and only seven weeks shy of birth. Instead, mother and child both died last week from a botched late-term abortion. After learning that Madison had severe birth defects and a short life expectancy, Jennifer and her husband turned to Leroy Carhart, one of the only doctors in the country who performs third-trimester abortions. On February 7th, Jennifer was rushed to the emergency room. (When hospital...

The number of American workers collecting federal disability payments climbed to yet another record high of 8,830,026 in January, up from 8,827,795 in December, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

Social Security will eventually hit the wall, but Social Security Disability Insurance may hit the wall even before Obama heads off to a permanent vacation on the many golf courses of Hawaii or rewrites the Living Constitution to become Emperor of Post-America. Over the long term, Social Security and Medicare have promised tens of trillions of dollars more in benefits than the nation can pay for under current policies. But Social SecurityÂ’s disability trust fund is in even worse shape, and current estimates say by 2016 it wonÂ’t have enough money to pay full benefits.The fiscal security of the disability...

School districts that do not provide deaf students "a visual cue" alongside a starter pistol to enable them to compete on the track team or create basketball and tennis leagues for students in wheelchairs will be in violation of federal law and could lose government funding. On Friday, the Obama administration declared disabled students "have the right" to "an equal opportunity to participate in their schools' extracurricular activities." In essence, the Obama administration established the right for disabled students to play wheelchair basketball or wheelchair tennis. The U.S. Department of Education sent a guidance letter to schools, school districts, and...

This is what the State of Indiana Code states: IC 5-16-9-5 Violations; Class C infraction and Class C misdemeanor Sec. 5. (a) Any person who parks a motor vehicle which does not have displayed a placard of a person with a physical disability or a disabled veteran, issued under IC 9-14-5 or under the laws of another state, or a registration plate of a person with a physical disability or a disabled veteran, issued under IC 9-18-18, IC 9-18-22, or under the laws of another state, in a parking space reserved under this chapter for a vehicle of a person...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly jobs report. Now for the BLS Boogie. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 155,000 workers last month following a revised 161,000 advance in November that was greater than initially estimated. The unemployment rate printed at 7.8% which is up from 7.7% in November but the same as the UPWARDLY REVISED print of 7.8%. U6 partial unemployment printed at 14.4%. Labor force participation remained at 63.6%. And the civilian employment to population ratio fell to 58.6, still stuck are 1983 levels. That’s a lot of people for the 58.6% to support! The number of...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid fell last week to nearly its lowest level in 4 1/2 years, a sign that the labor market is healing. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported. After spiking in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast in late October, the weekly levels of new claims have now dropped to their lowest levels since the early days of the 2007-09 recession....

The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses, according to official data published by Social Security Administration. The Social Security Administration also released new data revealing that the number of workers collecting disability benefits hit a record 8,827,795 in December—up from 8,805,353 in November. The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries—including retired workers, dependent family members and survivors and disabled workers and their dependent family members—also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185...

After the Senate failed to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Senator John Kerry took to the airwaves with Chris Matthews on Hardball Wednesday, vowing to pass the measure within the first three months of 2013. and demonizing the Republicans who voted against the bill: They argued they were afraid we were giving up sovereignty of the nation and somehow the United Nations would be able to tell us what to do. Neither are true. There is no requirement in this treaty whatsoever that any law in the United States would be changed,...

The US Senate will be voting Tuesday, December 4th on whether to ratify a United Nations treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Beneath the surface of this important sounding effort, is a crafty attempt to bequeath more of our American sovereignty to the authority of the United Nations. America has some of the most stringent protections for those who are disabled. This treaty supposedly makes it a more global effort to support the disabled. Proponents say if the US signs the treaty other nations would be more likely to improve their own efforts with the disabled. But like...

Americans are very generous to people with disabilities. Since passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990, millions of public and private dollars have been spent on curb cuts, bus lifts and special elevators. The idea has been to enable people with disabilities to live and work with the same ease as others, as they make their way forward in life. I feel sure the large majority of Americans are pleased that we are doing this. But there is another federal program for people with disabilities that has had an unhappier effect. This is the disability insurance (DI) program,...

You won’t be surprised to learn this is a violation of a promise: It was one of the simplest, most poignant promises Barack Obama made in 2008 in his first campaign for the White House: He would fulfill “a sacred trust with our veterans” by significantly reducing the government’s lengthy backlog of pending claims for disability coverage. The goal: All veterans could get a decision on disability claims within 125 days. The results: Records obtained by the Washington Guardian show that as of Nov. 5, the day before Mr. Obama won re-election, 558,230 of the 820,106 veterans seeking disability coverage...

Mental Hospital Voter Sign-Up QuestionedPatients registered without local election officials' OK By Don Carrington Oct. 26th, 2012 RALEIGH — Cherry Hospital, a state-run adult inpatient psychiatric facility in Goldsboro, welcomed a federally funded nonprofit organization to conduct a voter registration drive of mental patients, likely a violation of state law. Moreover, a memo from a hospital administrator indicated the nonprofit, Disability Rights North Carolina, assisted patients in completing absentee ballots, which may have been illegal as well. **SNIP** North Carolina General Statute 163-226.3 makes it a Class I felony for anyone other than the legal guardian or close relative of...

We all know that the employment situation in the USA is horrible. Average duration of unemployment of 40 weeks and a 14.7% unemployment/underemployment rate. We do know that civilian labor force participation has declined from 65.7% in January 2009 to 63.6% in September 2012. That is a large drop in labor force participation. Let’s break it down. Since January 2009: 827,000 more people have been added to the labor force! (Blue line) 8,206,000 more people are NOT in the labor force! (Red line) That is almost a 10:1 ratio of people not in the labor force over those entering the...

The Wellendorf family. Credit The Catholic Messenger. Tiffin, Iowa, Oct 14, 2012 / 01:07 pm (CNA).- Matt Wellendorf’s favorite prayer is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass, he becomes reverent. And he won’t go to sleep before his mother prays with him. Despite a chromosomal abnormality that left him unable to walk or talk, the 27-year-old has a sense of spirituality, said his parents, David and Regina Wellendorf. Most people think those with developmental or mental disabilities have no faith life because they can’t understand religion, David said. “But they’re...

The Senate Budget Committee Republican staff under Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Thursday released a chart that should have you worried: “The numbers reflect the change in the total number of people employed and the total number of people on the two largest federal welfare programs, as well as Social Security Disability Insurance, between 2008 and 2012,” the senator’s report explains. “The employment figure was derived using the total nonfarm and seasonally adjusted number of people employed in December of 2008 (134.4 million) and the number of people employed in September 2012 (133.5 million) as reported by the Bureau...