Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- Local government revenue has dwindled so severely that U.S. cities and counties will have to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming months, leaving communities without basic services and pressuring jobless rates, according to a new survey. The survey, released on Tuesday by three government associations, aims to press Congress on pending legislation that would give them $75 billion over two years to preserve jobs. Local and state government employment accounts for more jobs in the United States than construction and manufacturing combined. The survey by the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties and...

Germany's Jewish community on Monday warned of an "alarming" rise in anti-Semitic violence by Arab and Turkish immigrants after Berlin police reported two unrelated attacks against Jews over the weekend. "There's an urgent need to fight the roots of anti-Semitism, especially coming from young Turks and Arabs, and to effectively counter it," the Jewish Community in Berlin said in a statement. "That the violence from the immigrant community is being increasingly aimed at Jews or people they assume are Jews is alarming," it added.

The Navy and Marine Corps face a much larger shortfall of fighter jets than expected, four senior members of the House Armed Services Committee warned Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In a letter to Gates, the lawmakers said Pentagon assumptions of a shortfall of 100 fighter jets are “too optimistic.” Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) signed the letter along with ranking Republican Rep. Buck McKeon (Calif.). Two other panel members with jurisdiction over Navy programs, Reps. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) and Todd Akin (R-Mo.), also signed the letter to Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of...

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., center, flanked Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., discuss "the urgent need for health insurance reform". GRAND RAPIDS — Senior citizens will find it harder to find a doctor who accepts Medicare if Congress does not stop a 21.5 percent cut in payment rates, say physicians and hospitals. “We might as well start building bigger emergency rooms, because that’s where people will be if they don’t have access to a regular physician,” said Micki Benz, vice president of development for Saint Mary’s Health Care. “In the end, people’s care will suffer, and...

I have pieced together how much ACORN staff members make and what does the Job entails. All information from ACORN.

Two Jewish researchers, Joel Gallis and Dr. Robert Wolf, asserted with utter certainty in May 2007, long before Barack Hussein Obama had won his first primary and when it appeared that Hillary Clinton was a sure thing, that he would be the next president of the United States. More recently, in August 2008, the scholars reported that Obama's name "intersects" with a passage in the apocalyptic book of Daniel, Chapter 7, and specifically Daniel 7:25, which speaks of the last "king" who would oppress God's people under the rubric of bringing about "change" to the world. The scholars show that...

WASHINGTON - Intelligence experts scouring the latest video of Osama bin Laden for clues warned on Saturday that his message offers hints that Al-Qaeda is planning another attack on US interests. In his first video appearance in three years, the elusive Al-Qaeda chief mocks the United States as "weak" and vows to escalate fighting in Iraq, all the while using language similar to the kind used ahead of other past attacks. At times, bin Laden speaks directly to Americans, using plain language that "appears to be crafted in a way as to be understood by the average person on the...

CAIRO, Egypt - Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two European nations break ranks with the U.S. and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan, according to a Web statement. "Germany will face more threats and dangers if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Afghanistan," an unidentified speaker said in a video statement posted Saturday on an Islamic Web site used by al-Qaida-linked militants. The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it was released by the Voice of the Caliphate, which is said to be run by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group. The unidentified speaker,...

WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq. "What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches, without the American people understanding exactly what's taking place," Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., told John Negroponte, who is in line to become the nation's No. 2 diplomat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy....

Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim religious leaders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday warned Pope Benedict XVI that he must "accept" Islam if he wanted to live in peace. The warning, the first of its kind, came as many Christians in the West Bank expressed anger over a spate of attacks on churches in protest against remarks made by the pope about the Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. Two more churches in the West Bank were targeted on Sunday in protest against the pope's remarks, bringing to seven the number of churches that have been attacked over...

There's more than one bird flu, experts warn 16:13 03 May 2006 NewScientist.com news service Shaoni Bhattacharya, Singapore The deadly H5N1 bird flu which is currently sweeping across the globe is not the only potential candidate virus for the next human flu pandemic strain, experts have warned. At an international meeting of top scientists and policymakers in Singapore on Wednesday, several other avian flu viruses were highlighted. Hiroshi Kida, at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, told New Scientist he was concerned that only the H5N1 virus was being considered in terms of producing a human vaccine. “There are other possibilities,”...

WASHINGTON - A new variety of unusually powerful Internet attacks can overwhelm popular Web sites and disrupt e-mails by exploiting the computers that help manage global Internet traffic, according to security researchers. First detected late last year, the new attacks direct such massive amounts of spurious data against victim computers that even flagship technology companies could not cope. In one of the early cases examined, the unknown assailant apparently seized control of an Internet name server in South Africa and deliberately corrupted its contents. Name servers are specialized computers that help direct Internet traffic to its destinations. The attacker then...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Sacramento could suffer catastrophic flooding unless the river levees in the region are repaired quickly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other officials warned Wednesday after a helicopter tour. "We are literally today one storm or one big earthquake away from a major disaster," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference atop a levee separating the Sacramento River from a neighborhood just yards away. "Now we have seen what happened with Katrina - I think that woke everyone up." Sacramento has less than 100-year flood protection, the lowest of any large urban area in the nation, according...

Security analysts are warning computer users about a new and potentially destructive Internet worm that can obliterate important documents. The worm, called Kama Sutra, is making the rounds now, but is scheduled to execute its first massive attack on February 3. Detected last week, the malicious worm targets computers running Windows and spreads primarily by copying itself to shared network locations and then sending itself to e-mail addresses found on afflicted computers. With subject lines that read "the best videoclip ever," "give me a kiss," and "school girl fantasies gone bad," the worm entices computer users to open the attached...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2006 – Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have denounced the Iranian government's resumption of uranium enrichment research and urged that the matter be referred to the U. N. Security Council for more intense and effective diplomatic actions. The Iranian government "appears to be on the path to develop nuclear weapons," Cheney said on the nationally syndicated Tony Snow radio program Jan. 11. "This is an increasingly significant problem that the world is going to have to address." Speaking at a Washington news briefing yesterday, Rice agreed. The U.N. Security Council, she said,...

LA authorities warn of more booby-trapped pens Dan Glaister in Los Angeles Wednesday December 7, 2005 The Guardian (UK) The authorities in Los Angeles have issued a warning to pupils after the discovery of three exploding pens. The latest booby-trapped device went off on Friday morning when a pupil picked up a marker pen lying on the floor in the boys' toilets. It went off in his hands. In August two other devices went off at El Monte district schools, injuring two others. The victims suffered minor burns and scratches on their hands and faces. Article continues

Children"s Author: Warn Kids About Liberals Tue Sep 13, 3:00 AM ET (PRWEB) - Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 13, 2005 - – The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has exposed an ugly truth about liberals, and parents need to teach this to their kids, according to the author of a controversial upcoming children"s book. Katharine DeBrecht — the author of the soon-to-be-released "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" (Kids Ahead; hardcover: $15.95; ISBN 0976726904) — dismisses the notion that parents should not talk to their young kids about politics. If anything, she claims, the behavior of liberals following...

LECH WALESA stepped down from the barricades yesterday and issued a warning to the West: beware of Russia! One of the world’s best-known revolutionaries was giving his swansong — he will resign this week from Solidarity, the union he led to help shatter communism — to journalists eager to know whether his revolution was ready to roll eastwards. Warsaw is abuzz with rumours about how the West and in particular Poland, should force the hand of President Lukashenko of Belarus. Mr Walesa sounded an unusually nervous note. The Russian bear, he said, should not be provoked by an over-ambitious West...

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia and China warned other nations Friday against attempts to dominate global affairs and interfere in the domestic issues of sovereign nations in what appeared to be a veiled expression of their irritation with U.S. policy. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao signed a joint declaration after two days of talks calling for a stronger United Nations role in global affairs and opposing attempts "to impose models of social and political development from outside." The two leaders also urged other states to renounce "striving for monopoly and domination in international affairs and attempts to divide nations into...

California and federal energy officials warned Thursday that the electricity system in Southern California would face hard times this summer, especially if the weather was unusually hot, and that next summer might be even rougher. The southern half of the state "is the worst electricity supply situation in the entire country," Joseph Kelliher, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at an electricity conference in San Francisco. "It's indisputable that there are problems, and some problems have remained for some time," he said. FERC Chairman Patrick H. Wood III, reflecting on the chaotic blackout days of the California...