Free Republic

President Obama must view the American Jewish community as a glorified ATM machine, completely oblivious as to how the money it dispenses will be spent. For reasons of history, Jewish Americans have become the only white ethnic group that has not permanently left the Democrat Party. It is probably also the only non-dysfunctional voting bloc that votes Democrat by a super-majority. Like most liberal Democrats, Obama can reliably lay claim to his 75% or 80% of Jewish voters every election cycle. This self-defeating support has left Jewish Americans in a conundrum: why do we support a President who is clearly...

The following article outlines case studies why we have no right to expect the police to protect us from crime, the government or the TSA. Who ever would have thought that ATF agents would have competition from another government agency over which was the worst offender of the people’s rights? Thanks to John Ainsworth for this information. Dial 911 and You Could Die! You have no right to expect the police to protect you from crime. The police don’t even have to come when you call. Depending solely on police emergency response means relying on the telephone as the only...

Looking back on what was right, what was wrong, and where we may go from here… Since our first interview titled “The President Is Losing It”, to the last interview, “He Ain’t No Democrat”, the tone of Insider has emerged as seemingly less calculated, more genuine, yet also more frantic to see some semblance of good come from all of this Insider “talk”. Whether or not that good will eventually result, remains to be seen. I make no secret of my considerable dissatisfaction with the Obama White House, and the Democratic Party as a whole. That being said, I have...

Two days ago, An elderly woman was murdered in front of her sister and onlookers on LA's metro gold line station in Little Tokyo. The station, recently opened a year ago under the new gold line extension into east LA now has its first big incident. An insane drug addicted and mentally ill homeless woman is now in custody for committing the murder. The killer, a woman named Jackkqueline Pogue committed the offense has a long history of mental illness not to mention an even longer criminal history. She had been thrown out of just about every shelter and welfare...

Parents and students who breathe a sigh of relief because the college of their choice is “accredited” may want to wait to exhale. “The main reason for this failure is that the system relies too heavily on colleges to self-regulate,” Andrew Gillen, Daniel L. Bennett and Richard Vedder write in a paper for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP). “For example 83% of the board for Middle States Commission on Higher Education is comprised of people that work for institutions that they then accredit.” “Similar numbers are just as pervasive in the other regional accreditors.” With insiders grading...

"...The estate tax has been hastily dealt with under the 111th Congress creating planning problems for family businesses and farms hoping to pass their business on to the next generation. Because no action has taken place this year, the tax is scheduled to swing from its current and proper rate of 0% to a confiscatory 55% on January 1, 2011. Congress’ inability to establish a sensible estate tax policy has added to the already uncertain and volatile economic environment America’s family businesses and farms now face. With the myriad of estate tax proposals on the table and short amount of...

Failing a cloture vote today in the Senate, the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.3772) was designed to close a purported “pay gap” between male and female workers. The Paycheck Fairness act looked to achieve this goal by facilitating litigation and levying small businesses with new paperwork—two policies which discourage hiring new workers. “The misleadingly named Paycheck Fairness Act was a solution for a non-existent problem,” said Christopher Prandoni, Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Freedom. “While proponents of this bill claim women make twenty percent less than men, when hours of work, overtime, education, and experience are accounted for, the...

...All discretionary spending (including defense) is rolled back and frozen at 2008 levels. This can be achieved practically by measures such as freezing federal salaries and benefits, bureaucrat attrition, an earmark ban, and continuing the phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq and AfghanistanSocial Security and Medicare are not touched relative to CBO’s baselineMedicaid and other entitlements are rolled back to 2008 funding levels, frozen, and block-granted to the states just like welfare was in the 1990s. Obamacare is not implemented.The lower deficits result in much lower interest on the national debtBy 2015, federal spending will decline from about 24...

...The dedicated website for the event – RNCdebate.org – allowed activists to propose and vote on debate questions. The site drew 60,000 votes on 925 different questions. The event details are as follows: When: Monday, January 3, 2011 from 1:00 pm – 2:30 p.m. ET Where: National Press Club (529 14th St. NW), 13th Floor, Ballroom Read more: http://www.atr.org/atr-host-rnc-chairmanship-debate-january-a5660#ixzz15ZFXqVNg

For many years, I’ve been a fan of Warren Buffett’s long term approach to value investing. Understanding the value of a company, regardless of its momentary stock price, is a great long term investing strategy. But it pains me whenever I read commentary from Buffett that glosses over reality or is somehow self-serving. His OpEd in the NYT today – Pretty Good for Government Work – paints an artificially rosy picture of the Bailout, ignores the negatives, and omits his own financial interest in government actions. What might he have written if Sir Warren was dosed with some sodium pentothal...

...Earmarks are the broken windows of budgets—though they may be considerably small in terms of spending, they pave the way for massive spending that would be unable to gain passage on its own merit. Otherwise conservative members of Congress will vote for politically sensitive spending packages because they contain pork for their districts. To end the deluge of federal spending, members must first end the practice of earmarking. Without the enticement of earmarks, taxpayers could have been saved nearly a trillion dollars in spending and debt on the so-called “stimulus” package, billions in the health care overhaul and the skyrocketing...

...There are eight states projected to gain at least one Congressional seat. Texas will gain four seats and Florida will gain two. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington are poised to gain one seat each. The biggest losers will be New York and Ohio – both projected to lose two seats – while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are on track to lose one seat each. The average top personal income tax rate among gainers is 116 percent lower than among losers. The total state and local tax burden is nearly one-third lower,...

"...The Paycheck Fairness Act would place onerous reporting and compliance requirements on small businesses and open the door for a wave of unwarranted lawsuits. The bill would require all employers with more than two employees and $500,000 of gross revenues to submit data on sex, race, national origin, and earnings of employees to the EEOC. These administrative costs coupled with the threat of litigation will discourage hiring, especially of new female employees. Under this law, small businesses would be able to justify pay differences between male and female employees only on the grounds of education, training and experience. These metrics...

The Obama Administration announced that it is adding an additional $150 million to the $900 million in aid the US Government granted to the Palestinian group Fatah last year. Though many consider Fatah to be a sponsor of terrorist activities aimed at Israel, the Obama Administration has accepted its claims that it is working toward a peaceful resolution of its disputes with Israel. “Unlike others that have vowed to exterminate every Jew living in the region, Fatah is willing to forbear if a peaceful means of removing them from Palestinian lands can be arranged,” explained US Secretary of State Hillary...

If there is one group of people liberals hate more than conservatives and libertarians, it has to be Veterans. These brave men and women have risked their lives many becoming maimed or injured in the process of protecting our God given freedom and liberty. Is it any wonder that liberals hate them so much? Returning overseas these days veterans wont come back to find grateful godly Americans but instead America hating hippies and socialists who will spit on them and curse them for daring to fight against a nation that murders its own people for the public good and that...

...We have detailed how slowing down the legislative process would stem some of the wasteful spending that makes its way through Washington. Opacity in procedure allows bills to be amended right before votes takes place. This lack of accountability allows lawmakers to push controversial legislation, stuffed to the gills with sweetheart deals, through Congress at breakneck speed. We have long been advocates for a five-day waiting periods for all bills with a fiscal impact and are enthusiastic regarding statements by Presumptive Speaker Boehner that he will implement a three-day waiting period for bills in the House of Representatives. Three days,...

...Members who are eyeing the cookie jar of federal payouts will continue to fill the jar with wasteful spending as long as they’re rewarded with the chocolate goody inside. Otherwise conservative congressmen vote for spending they would oppose if not for the temptation of earmarks — remove the pork and the incentive to sell-out on spending is gone. If new members want to take their mandate for smaller government and less spending seriously, they need to take the earmarks that sweeten government growth off the table entirely...

...People interested in saving the trust fund should first look to make it more efficient. One measure that would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars would be to repeal the Davis-Bacon law. This holdover from the New Deal mandates that federal projects pay workers the “prevailing wage” in a region. When actually implemented, Davis-Bacon ends up inflating usually unionized workers wages, thus, raising the price tag on federal projects. Repealing this law would bring down construction costs and give the federal government more bang for its buck. Furthermore, to focus on the $36 billion the CBO predicts the highway...

After having been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, I am encouraged to open this thread by others who would like to share information with others who have joined our sisterhood. There's so much to learn and so much to take in all at once. Lots of decisions to make, too. Please feel free to share your experiences and hope that we may save lives in the process, and lift each other up. -- Jane Reinheimer

It’s becoming an annual tradition–vandalizing the 4200 flag Veterans Memorial in Cathedral City, California. Cat City is next to Palm Springs. "The charred remains of a burned flag were discovered early Wednesday behind the Postal Connection, 69-115 Ramon Road, about a mile from the Healing Field display at Patriot Park in Cathedral City at Date Palm and Dinah Shore drives." This was the fourth–and most violent vandalism in as many days. "The annual Healing Field memorial honors troops killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Nearly 5,900 troops have died, but local Healing Field organizers had only enough flags to honor 4,200....