Free Republic

As a private citizen, I was always offended when I heard about tax dollars going to lobbyists. You may not be familiar with this practice, but any public institution can use your taxes to hire private lobbyists to lobby any other institution, usually for more taxes to be collected and spent. Cities can lobby the State, the State can lobby the feds, and the feds can lobby the cities. It becomes one endless cycle of forcing citizens to pay to subsidize their own tax increases. Imagine my surprise then to find out that Ada County had its own contract lobbyist...

Joe Biden Threatens to Veto Bill Stopping Taxpayer Funded AbortionsJoe Biden has threatned to veto a bill sponsored by a pro-life Republican that would stop illegal taxpayer funding of abortiona via the Department of Veterans Affairs.As LifeNews reported, the Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., which would block the Department of Veterans Affairs from providing taxpayer-funded abortions to retired service members.“Using our VA medical facilities to provide taxpayer-funded abortions is illegal and wrong,” Tuberville said in a news release exclusively provided to The Daily Signal. “The VA’s new policy is...

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that though she was “blessed” to have five children “as a devout Catholic,” “poor women” need taxpayer funded abortion. “As a devout Catholic and mother of five and six years, I feel that God bless my husband and me with our beautiful family, five children in six years almost to the day,” Pelosi said.She added: “But it’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should and it is an issue of fairness and justice for poor women in our country.” Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi...

CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) put out a statement on Wednesday—the “International Transgender Day of Visibility”—celebrating President Joe Biden’s decision to allow transgenders to serve in the military in the gender they identify as and the Biden Defense Department’s decision to provide transitioning surgery to transgender service members. “Today, on International Transgender Day of Visibility, the Biden Administration is reaffirming this truth: that our transgender servicemembers are American heroes, and their patriotic service should be honored with dignity and respect,” Pelosi said. “This important step keeps the promise made by President Biden in his first week of office...

Written in collaboration with the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition Civic engagement doesn’t begin and end at the ballot box. While voting is a critical part of making your voice heard, the work isn’t over after the first Tuesday in November. Whether that involves engaging in activism, advocacy, education, or something else, Antoinette Asimus from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition provided a list of suggestions for keeping civically engaged after the election. Join a local organization Asimus recommended several groups that center around voting and voters rights: - League of Women Voters - Cincinnati Area - Ohio Voter Rights Coalition -...

Those who are interested, let's talk about the games. We'll see if those who dislike/despise the NFL feel a childish compulsion to pester us - or not.

In a shock to no one, the liberal networks funded by taxpayers -- PBS and NPR -- have so far ignored the emerging new stories on the emerging new investigative stories on Russian involvement with the Clintons and the Obama administration. A Nexis search finds nothing there. PBS and NPR have hammered on Russia over the last two days, but only as it deals with the Trump angle. On Tuesday night's All Things Considered, NPR aired a four-minute interview with Yahoo reporter Michael Isikoff highlighting his finding that Russian social-media trolls were instructed to watch the overwrought TV series House...

A CBS news investigation found that the Obama State Department is sending millions of dollars to save mosques overseas — outraging taxpayer advocates and raising enormous questions about aid to potentially terror-supporting groups with U.S. foreign aid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama plans a weeklong solo visit to China this month that includes meetings with China's first lady and high school and university students. It will be her first visit to the Asian economic powerhouse. In an announcement Monday on the White House blog, the first lady says a China visit is important because it is the most populous country in the world, with more than 1.3 billion people, and plays an important role on the world stage.

When Colin and Joyce Elston bought their Florida dream home in May, they were confident they could afford the three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch with a pool and a backyard overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. Now they are not so sure. The retirees said they had enough in savings and investments to pay the mortgage and the $1,482 yearly flood insurance on the home, which sits on palm tree-lined Paradise Boulevard on Treasure Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. But within two months of moving in, they received a stunning surprise: Due to a recently passed federal law, their flood...

Under the cover of Obama’s campaign to sell his budget .. it is no coincidence that his visit is occurring at the same time Volkswagen is being pressured to accept the UAW into its Chattanooga factory. The United Auto Workers have tried every other option at this point including calling in a favor with the union that resides in Volkswagen’s home plant in Germany. ... it doesn’t look like the UAW’s normal campaign of propaganda seems to be succeeding; therefore, it’s time to call in the big dog himself and hope their investment of $148,967 into the reelection of President...

Undocumented Immigrants Pursue College and Professional Careers May 26, 2012 Higher education is becoming a more common endeavor for undocumented immigrants eager to pursue careers as professionals. Going to college seemed inconceivable when Adriana Sánchez, the 12-year-old daughter of farm workers, was brought from Mexico to Central California and the family overstayed their visas. Even though Sánchez excelled in high school, she was in the country illegally, lacked a Social Security number and work permit, and didn't qualify for financial aid. But she volunteered hundreds of hours and paid her way through college and graduate school with a dozen internships....

Sitting at the bar in Paolo’s Restaurant at 92nd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan Saturday afternoon, December 10th, I was shocked by the tone the conversation with my old ABC News colleague Lowell Bergman had taken. He was heading to London and had urgently requested that we get together before his afternoon flight from JFK. I remembered Lowell as a brave, competent, but hugely self-righteous old school investigative reporter, who famously produced the Mike Wallace expose of the major tobacco companies for ’60 Minutes.’ Al Pacino played him in the movie version of the saga, ‘The Insider.’ Although I...

In addition to severe reputational damage, Pennsylvania State University faces the prospect of huge financial exposure from lawsuits by sexual-abuse victims who can credibly charge the university had ample warning that its former assistant football coach preyed on children but did little or nothing to stop it, say trial lawyers who have been following the case. Particularly troubling for the university, at least from a legal liability standpoint, is that the broad parameters of a civil case already are being vividly laid out by state Attorney General Linda Kelly. Casey says the legal issues are relatively simple. The university had...

Gov. Mark Dayton says he will call a special legislative session for a vote on a Vikings stadium bill even if there is not a specific proposal tied to one of several proposed sites. The Democratic governor met Monday with legislative leaders to discuss the team's bid for a new, partially-taxpayer funded stadium. Dayton set a deadline of Wednesday, Nov. 23 for a special session, and says his only requirement to call it is the Legislature's four caucus leaders must agree to limit the agenda to the stadium issue. Dayton says he'll work in the coming weeks toward a specific...

DEVELOPING: NEW CASTLE, Del. -- Police on Friday afternoon came to the home of a 17-year-old high school junior to ask her about direct online communications she has had with Rep. Anthony Weiner. Two officers from the New Castle County Police Department arrived at the girl's home around 4:30 p.m. and asked to speak with the girl's mother about the daughter's contact with Weiner. Another officer appeared at the home a short time later. A FoxNews.com reporter was at the home when the police arrived. The girl, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, told FoxNews.com, "I'm...

JUPITER — Edward M. Ricci, an attorney who lives in Jupiter, has been named the new president of Jupiter's El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center. The position is voluntary. Ricci, an El Sol board member since 2009, is consumer justice counsel to Burman, Critton, Luttier & Coleman, LLP of West Palm Beach. He has served as volunteer counsel and member of the board of directors of Hope Rural School in Indiantown since 1980.

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority agreed Tuesday to a ``memo of understanding'' with the Falcons, the next step in negotiations to build a 65,000-seat facility just north of the team's current home, the Georgia Dome. How do you feel about having two football stadiums in downtown Atlanta? I like it I don't like it Both sides said the agreement does not mean a deal has been reached, but allows them to begin discussions about the business relationship that would be involved in whatever plan is developed. Falcons officials have made it clear they want a new open-air stadium, saying...

The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency, loaned more than $1 billion to the Mexican state oil company PEMEX in 2009 to support the company’s oil drilling in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The bank has another $1 billion in loans in the pipeline for 2010, unless Congress objects. On May 27, after the British Petroleum oil spill, President Obama imposed a moratorium on U.S. deepwater drilling in the Gulf, effecting 33 deepwater drilling rigs in the region. PEMEX was the Export-Import Bank’s largest borrower in 2009 and has borrowed $8.3 billion from the U.S. federal government since 1998....

The good-will tour of the Middle East by the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero is just part of the U.S. government's efforts to reach out to the Muslim world. This year, the Obama administration will spend nearly $6 million to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including mosques and minarets, in 55 nations.