Free Republic

NAANTALI, Finland Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly rejected U.S. pleas to turn over National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday, saying he is free to travel wherever he wants and insisting that Russian security agencies haven't contacted him. Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, Putin said, meaning he is not technically in Russia. ... A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen...

The “tonight’s news” referred to by The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza comes via the New York Times: Wow, tonight's news dramatically escalates the war between DOJ and Fox. Somebody is not telling the whole truth.— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 27, 2013 News Corporation said on Sunday that it had no record of being notified by the Justice Department nearly three years ago of a subpoena for the telephone records of a reporter at its Fox News cable channel [James Rosen]. The company’s chief legal counsel at the time also said that he had never seen material from the government related...

The politically correct multicultural forces are attempting to hold back an angry tide that will ultimately sweep them away: The murder of soldier Lee Rigby has provoked a backlash of anger across the UK, including the attacking of mosques, racial abuse and comments made on social media. Eleven people have been arrested around Britain for making 'racist or anti-religious' comments on Twitter following the brutal killing in Woolwich on Wednesday. The incident has also prompted a huge increase in anti-Muslim incidents, according to the organisation Faith Matters, which works to reduce extremism. Before the attack about four to eight cases...

The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department. Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans' information from all news outlets.

Scandal In Libya: A new email dump shows that the White House, contrary to public statements, was heavily involved in editing the Benghazi talking points to remove all references to it being a terrorist attack. The limited, heavily redacted package of emails released by the administration Wednesday is noteworthy for what the emails don't say and reflect a concerted effort by the White House and State Department not to get at the truth but to put something together to help President Obama in an election two months out. The email package begins some 67 hours after the Sept. 11, 2012,...

May 12, 2013 Darrell Issa: House Oversight Committee to depose Pickering and Mullen over Benghazi Twitchy Staff Darrell Issa reports that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which he chairs, will depose Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen over Benghazi....

Conservative groups have rejected an Internal Revenue Service apology for unjustifiably scrutinizing tax-exempt conservative groups during the 2012 election cycle. The IRS apology has seemingly validated conservatives' fears of politically motivated regulation. House Republican leaders, meanwhile, have vowed to investigate. Lois Lerner, the director the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said that organizations had been given additional scrutiny if their applications included the words "Tea Party" or "patriot." The practice originated with "low-level" employees in Cincinnati, according to an Associated Press report. In a press conference on Friday, Lerner called the actions of these employees "absolutely inappropriate." "They didn't...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews. Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington. Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the...

During today's hearings, Democrats have suggested that cuts to the State Department's budget may have played a role in the lack of security in Benghazi. This claim was addressed during the previous hearings which took place on Oct. 10, 2012.

Hearing details:WASHINGTON – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today announced three witnesses who will appear at a full committee hearing, “Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage,” on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, at 11:30 AM in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. “I applaud these individuals for answering our call to testify in front of the Committee. They have critical information about what occurred before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks that differs on key points from what Administration officials – including those on the Accountability Review Board – have portrayed,” said Issa. “Our committee has been...

ACT NOW! See "ACTION: Go to the Federal Register" Below ...And sure enough, the Obama Administration is trying to unilaterally undo our recent victory in the Senate - and to undo the “damage” that all of us inflicted together.But first, a little history.Remember when Senators Pat Toomey, Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer formed an unholy alliance during the recent gun battle on Capitol Hill? Remember how their amendment would have encouraged your psychiatrist to turn you in to the FBI's gun ban list?And you remember how we stopped that provision, because over 40 senators found it to be odious and...

If anyone in the USA, for some extraordinary reason, is still in doubt about whom to choose for President [this was written before the last presidential election but is still topical], I recommend two things. The first is an empiricist approach: you have tried one candidate and he failed, you haven't tried the other. In experimental science it would be reasonable to choose the not-yet-tried possibility. The second thing is, if you haven't already done so, to read "Obama's Muslim Childhood" by Daniel Pipes.The discovery that Obama has been wearing for over 30 years a ring with the first...

According to lead Obama investigator Mike Zullo, fear of ridicule is the number one reason authorities are not acting on the mountain of verifiable evidence of document fraud concerning Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Appearing on the Carl Gallups, Freedom Friday call-in show, Zullo said, “We are dealing with a fraudulent document that would never survive scrutiny of the judicial process.” (1) Disinformation and the intentional dissemination of false information to protect Obama, will not survive in the face of what Zullo is calling a 100% fabricated document. He listed the following tactics used to discredit the research of Sheriff Joe...

Massachusetts Democratic governor doesn't want public records released about (Tamerlan) Tsarnaev's welfare habit...because of a right to privacy?!?Here's a newsflash Governor Patrick:1. if access to public money is suddenly a private matter then we know Tsarnaev was collecting welfare.2. Don't ever play poker.Like the title says, the welfare state liberals have created boils down to three words...

No argument for Obamacare’s repeal can top the simple fact that Members of Congress do not want it to apply to them. Today’s Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadership—both Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officials—have been secretly negotiating for months trying to find a way to exempt Members of Congress and their staffs from being forced into Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. Beginning on January 1, 2014, these exchanges, to be run by the federal government or the states (under federal rules) will offer federally “qualified” insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Ordinary Americans...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require background checks to be run on anyone buying explosive powder, a reaction to last week's Boston Marathon bombing. Reid introduced the bill, S. 792, for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been out sick for much of the year. But in a press statement, Lautenberg said the Boston bombing shows that background checks are needed for explosive materials. "It defies common sense that anyone, even a terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosive powders without a background check or any questions asked,"...

Harry Reid and Wal-Mart hope nobody will notice their online revenue raid. Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That's probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible. As early as Monday, the Senate will vote on a bill that was introduced only last Tuesday. The text of this legislation, which would fundamentally change interstate commerce, only became available on the Library of Congress website over the weekend. And you thought ObamaCare was jammed through Nancy Pelosi's...

Not long after Barack Hussein Obama first took office in 2009, I’ve been saying that he is a Muslim and not a Christian as he claims. He has done everything to assist Muslims and hinder Christians. He has hosted Muslim leaders who have vowed to destroy America. He gives billions of dollars and weapons to Islamic extremists, yet he refuses to help a Christian family that only wants to homeschool their children. I am convinced that Obama has been actively paving the way to change America from a Christian nation to Muslim nation, and I’m not the only one. Egyptian...

On NBC's Meet the Press last month, National Rifle Association honcho Wayne LaPierre, the face of the American gun lobby, delivered this message to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg: "He's going to find out that this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people, and he can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public. He can't buy America." The day before, Bloomberg had announced that he would spend $12 million of his own money on an ad blitz pressing members of Congress to pass new...