Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) – In a blunt warning to countries critical of the Egyptian military crackdown and considering suspending aid, longstanding U.S. ally Saudi Arabia suggested that the decisions they make now will have long-term consequences for their relationships in the Arab and Muslim world. Saudi Arabia has led the way in supporting the Egyptian military’s actions, first in removing the Muslim Brotherhood administration early last month and in its subsequent steps against supporters of the ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Its warning came as policymakers in the U.S. and Europe mull the question of continuing financial assistance to Cairo following the...

The CEO-in-waiting of the defense contractor who declined to issue WARN Act layoff notices on the urging of the Obama administration — sequestration-related notices mandated by law that would have gone out just before the election — has resigned, citing an affair. Christopher E. Kubasik, 51, today resigned from his role as vice chairman, president and chief operating officer (COO), effective immediately, Lockheed Martin announced. Kubasik was set to become CEO in January. He “resigned after an ethics investigation confirmed that he had a close personal relationship with a subordinate employee. His actions violated the company’s Code of Ethics and...

Barack Obama's instrusions on the constitutional powers of Congress, his failure to fulfill his own constitutional duties, and his willingness to sign legislation which includes provisions which violate the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution render him unfit to serve as President.

Want to violate the law? Yes! Enjoy paying for advice from your attorney? NO! Then Follow the Administration's advice and just say Yes! It's no Big F***** Big deal and Somebody Else will pay. Maybe. A legal blog that I follow has summarized and commented on the Obama Administration's "legal" advice that there is no need to comply with the WARN Act requirement that companies with more than 100 employees to give written notice of a facility closing or mass layoff to the affected employees (and certain governmental offices) at least 60 days prior to the facility closing or layoff....

In case you missed it over the weekend, the Obama administration’s Friday afternoon document drop was a memo from the Department of Labor telling defense contractors not to provide legally-required notice to thousands of employees that they are about to be laid off, if automatic spending cuts agreed to by the President and the Congress take effect. Translation: President Obama wants to prevent thousands of employees, especially in swing-state Virginia, from being told that they are going to be laid off due to Department of Defense funding cuts. Because of the timing of the cuts, those notices would have been...

In an effort to make the economy look a little rosier than it is, the Obama administration is basically coercing defense contractors so as to prevent news of layoffs hitting voters before the election. With sequestration about to result in some major cuts to the defense budget, contractors will lose government business -- and that means, employees will lose jobs. But to prevent poor numbers ahead of the November election, the Obama administration has made it very, well, fiscally unwise for companies to issue layoff notices too early. The Labor Department issued guidance in July saying it would be “inappropriate”...

Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors backed down from issuing layoff notices to employees on Monday after the Obama administration promised to pick up the tab for severance costs resulting from sequestration. The news provided welcome relief for President Obama, who faced the prospect of mass layoff notices in battleground states just days before the election, and outraged Republicans, who accused the administration of bending the law to hide job losses from the public. The White House issued guidance on Friday that said the government would cover the costs if contracts are canceled and layoffs occur due to the automatic...

MARIETTA — Lockheed Martin, which has about 8,000 employees in Marietta, announced Monday that it would not send out notices of possible layoffs to its employees right before Election Day. The move follows advisories from the Department of Defense and the federal Office of Management and Budget “indicating that DOD anticipates no contract actions on or about 2 January, 2013, and that any action to adjust funding levels on contracts as a result of sequestration would likely not occur for several months after 2 Jan,” a Lockheed spokeswoman in Bethesda, Md., said. The Budget Control Act of 2011 created a...

Corruption: Our lawless president tells defense contractors they can break the law requiring politically inconvenient layoff notices caused by sequestration defense cuts, and the taxpayers will pay their legal bills. When President Obama took the oath of office, he swore to uphold the Constitution and see that the laws of the United States were faithfully executed. He lied, and that lie was exposed in the administration's weekly document dump last Friday. It included a memo from the Department of Labor telling defense contractors not to obey the law and that, if they don't, U.S. taxpayers will foot their legal bills...

Politics: An administration that doesn't want layoff notices required by law going out days before the November election is telling defense contractors they don't have to send them for the cuts required by sequestration. As the heads of major defense contractors Lockheed Martin, EADS North America, Pratt & Whitney and Williams-Pyro testified recently before the House Armed Services Committee, they are bound by law to give employees 60 days' notice if their jobs are going to be terminated as a result of sequestration cuts scheduled for Jan. 2. Federal law under the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice) Act required...

It's difficult to understate the importance of Lockheed Martin's latest announcement on the race for the White House: the defense contractor said on Monday it will not be issuing employee layoff notices to 123,000 workers on Nov. 2—just four days before the presidential election. Amidst all of the super PACs and campaign ads, the threat of telling a sizable chunk of voters in key areas of the country that they could lose their jobs if the election didn't go Lockheed's way was one of the most potent examples of corporate electioneering. But the layoff threat was largely unreported outside of...

As we discussed on Saturday, the Obama administration has offered to cover expenses (court-ordered penalties, severence costs, etc) for contractors willing to ignore the WARN Act by delaying sending layoff notices to tens of thousands of their employees who will likely be hit by Pentagon budget cuts.

Officials warn DNC visitors of hotel, ticket scamsBy Meghan Cooke The Charlotte Observer Posted: Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 **SNIP** Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont President Tom Bartholomy said credentials to see President Barack Obama deliver his acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium, which were handed out recently, will likely go on sale on Craigslist and eBay. But the BBB warns that some credentials sold by third parties could be counterfeit. Bartholomy said legitimate credentials have security features. People with fake tickets will be turned away, he said.

Just when you thought unemployment was dropping and stock markets were surging back, these three analysts today sent out a stark warning to Americans to brace for another financial crash. Trend forecaster Gerald Celente advises buying a gun to protect your family, stocking up on gold if the dollar crashes and planning a getaway, so it’s no shock he’s preparing for an ‘economic 9/11’. Share prices and unemployment are posting their best figures in four years since the recession hit, but Mr Celente, along with authors Harry Dent and Robert Prechter, says the rebound won’t last.

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

BEIRUT -Syria warned the American and French ambassadors Wednesday not to travel outside the capital without permission, two weeks after they angered the regime by visiting a city that has become the center of the country's four-month-old uprising. If the U.S. and French envoys disobey the order, Syria will ban all diplomats from leaving Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said during a lecture at Damascus University. "We did not evict the two ambassadors because we want the relations to develop in the future and in order for their governments to review their stances toward Syria," al-Moallem said. "If these acts...

In the wake of the recent memo from the Obama administration which announced “prosecutorial discretion” in dealing with illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country have been speaking out what many of them are calling a “backdoor amnesty.” On Wednesday, ICE Union president Chris Crane told PRNewswire: “Any American concerned about immigration needs to brace themselves for what's coming. This is just one of many new ICE policies in queue aimed at stopping the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws in the United States. Unable to pass its immigration agenda through legislation, the Administration is now implementing it...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused Iran of physically aiding Syrian forces using brutal violence to put down the country's protest movement. Hours earlier, Iran warned the United States, “Americans are not allowed to launch a military intervention in any country of the region, including Syria.” Secretary Clinton issued a brief statement two years after the Iranian brutal crackdown on a massive protest movement in Tehran following the reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which the opposition charged was rigged. She did not detail what assistance Ahmadinejad has given Syrian President Bashar Assad, but several reports have...

Jewish donors and fund-raisers are warning the Obama re-election campaign that the president is at risk of losing financial support because of concerns about his handling of Israel. The complaints began early in President Barack Obama's term, centered on a perception that Mr. Obama has been too tough on Israel. Some Jewish donors say Mr. Obama has pushed Israeli leaders too hard to halt construction of housing settlements in disputed territory, a longstanding element of U.S. policy. Some also worry that Mr. Obama is putting more pressure on the Israelis than the Palestinians to enter peace negotiations, and say they...

GOP prods Justice on military vote A group of Republican lawyers and law students called Tuesday for the Obama administration to do more to ensure that members of the military are able to cast ballots in the Nov. 2 elections. David Norcross, chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association, said in a statement: “The MOVE Act was passed last year to ensure that these brave men and women would have a voice in this fall’s elections. It’s unacceptable that any state would fail to meet that obligation. The Obama administration must act swiftly to guarantee that every service member receives...