Free Republic

In its first report on press freedom in the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists warns Obama has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for both reporters and their government sources. Among the case it details: six government employees - plus two contractors, including Edward Snowden - have faced felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press, compared with three such prosecutions in ALL previous U.S. administrations. ...

ohn McCain (R-AZ) is a hero of the Vietnam War. From everything we’ve been told about his harrowing experiences during his time as a Prisoner of War, he acted bravely -- heroically even -- and he should be given respect for that service to his country. Any man who is willing to lay his life on the line for his fellow citizen is worthy of our respect and admiration. All of that being said… it’s time for John McCain to ride off into the sunset. John McCain is becoming ( the Democrat’s best weapon) in their war on the Republican...

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rallied conservatives to keep up the fight to unravel ObamaCare, ahead of a White House meeting where his colleagues are expected to dial back their demands for changes to the health law as part of a possible deal to end the partial government shutdown. Cruz and his Tea Party-aligned colleagues spoke at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., Friday morning. The Texas senator, who along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, helped drive the showdown with the White House over ObamaCare, joked that he'll be heading next to the meeting with his colleagues at the...

For more than a week into a government shutdown, Paul Ryan kept a low profile amid the political uproar. When he finally emerged, the time was ripe for someone with his conservative cred and fiscal bona fides to step in and try to corral his bucking Republican Party. While a group of conservatives were driving the agenda in the quagmire over spending, Obamacare and the looming debt limit, Ryan dropped an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining the Republican path forward.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) channeled his inner-maverick Friday during an appearance on Fox News Channel, repeatedly reminding the conservative network that the government shutdown was brought about by the quixotic effort to halt the Affordable Care Act. When anchor Martha MacCallum asked him about the White House's handling of the suspension of death benefits to military families, McCain said that while the administration deserves blame it was a GOP-induced shutdown that caused the problem in the first place.

I posted this last night on the thread that discussed the NBC report, but it needs to be seen by some of our talking heads who lurk on here and later report things without looking at the details... So it has it's own thread. Go to the complete poll PDF on the WSJ web page on page 16 it has the demographics of the poll. 43% of Respondents are Democrats and 32% were Republicans. 44% voted for Obama vs 35% for Romney. And 5% did not know who the voted for? That right there should instantly put this poll in...

Quoting the NBC/Wall Street Journal Pollster, who says, "This is SHOCKING! You only see this once or twice in a lifetime." They follow with sob stories and fear-mongering, and haven't mentioned that it is OBAMA'S CHOICE that the death benefits are not being paid, and that VA offices are closed. Now, they are fear-mongering "VETERANS WON'T GET PAID!!!". Andrea Mitchell, "15 million people might not get checks!"

So it wasn’t a hoax after all? Organizers of the “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” rally say they are indeed coming to Washington on Friday — but whether they will shut down the Beltway or just make a lot of noise remains to be seen.[snip]The protest group’s agenda has evolved since the story began making the rounds of news outlets across the country early this week with a story in U.S. News & World Report, which said the truckers wanted members of Congress to be arrested, while others called for the ouster of President Obama. Andrews said the group still...

Missouri’s Republican U.S. Senator is expressing some frustration with his GOP colleagues in the House of Representatives over a temporary debt ceiling increase proposal and the partial government shutdown. Sen. Roy Blunt says the shutdown was a strategic error because it is overshadowing the troubled implementation of the Affordable Care Act. “The President had as difficult an August and early September as any president, second-term president, could have and we figured out how to change the subject,” he said Thursday in a conference call. Blunt says an offer by House Republicans to temporarily raise the debt ceiling is a missed...

Shutdown shuts down Do Not Call Registry website Today, I got a robocall. It’s a pet peeve of mine, those calls from some mystery credit consolidation company that not only can’t pronounce my name correctly, but also picks an under-the-gun-deadline moment to annoy me. As I’m on the National Do Not Call Registry, it’s a force of habit now to go to the website and fill out the complaint form. While it never stops the calls, just typing in the information is therapeutic. But today, the shutdown thwarted my efforts: “Due to the government shutdown, we are unable to offer...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's new health insurance marketplaces are drawing lots of rotten tomatoes in early reviews, but people are at least checking them out. ---SNIP--- Overall, just 7 percent of Americans say the rollout of the health exchanges has gone well. Far more deem it a flop ---SNIP--- Among those who've actually tested out the system, three-quarters of those polled said they've experienced problems trying to sign up. Only about 1 in 10 succeeded in buying health insurance. Overall, the poll found, 40 percent of Americans said the launch of the insurance markets hasn't gone well, 20 percent...

President Obama must stand firm. The Obama Administration Let Republicans Control Narrative. Since the Republican led House of Representatives shut down the government, polls show a continued shift in public sentiment away from Republicans and in favor of the President. According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll Americans disapproval of the way Congressional Republicans are “handling negotiations over the federal budget” has jumped to 70% with a mere 24% approving of Congressional Republicans. The disapproval rate of President Obama’s performance on the budget negotiations has narrowed, 51% to 45%. That’s a small improvement from the previous week’s 50% to...

DC Mayor Vincent Gray Wednesday implored Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow the District of Columbia to function properly, asking Reid to release District funds being held up by the shutdown. As you may be aware, the federal government has substantial purview over DC’s finances.Here’s the exchange: Gray: Sir, we are not a department of the government . . . We’re simply trying to be able to spend our own money.Reid: I’m on your side. Don’t screw it up, okay? Don’t screw it up. Wow, check out the disrespect from Reid. I mean, the guy is mayor of Washington...

The federal government is shut down, but that hasn’t stopped agencies from running lots of “help wanted” ads. More than 4,000 job postings remained active on the federal government’s hiring site as of Tuesday. Although many ads first ran before the shutdown began, nearly 500 posts were placed in the past three days. The vacancies include some high-priced positions: a media relations officer job paying up to $155,000 at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of implementing Obamacare ... The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau placed an ad Friday for a chief of staff...

Here are a few random thoughts on King Barack and his shutdown. *In all of the lies, phony “polls” misreporting, failures to report and Democrat name calling since this shutdown started, one essential point is being buried: The federal parks and other installations and services King Barack has closed or discontinued are NOT his private property to close. These treasures are owned jointly by We The People. *When King Barack dispatched federal jack booted thugs to keep 90 year old American war heroes away from THEIR memorial he proved he is nothing more than a clean shaven Fidel Castro. *If...

"Part of the atmosphere that allowed this shutdown to take place was this attitude that these folks aren’t providing important services and value to our country and they’re dead wrong about that," Obama said. "Those politicians who are always complaining about federal workers ... I guess they’re doing it for political reasons." He said he has seen the impact of the shutdown firsthand -- seeing younger staff get furloughed and struggle day in and day out. "There are people who are being impacted every day, and in the D.C. metro region that much more," Obama said. "I’ve got young staff...

No water for you! Via the DC: The National Park Service has actually had someone remove the handles off all the well pumps along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that runs 184 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland, according to sources. The NPS has also stationed officers in the park to make sure bikers don’t ride down closed bike paths and that no one can come near the scenic waterway.

Well I must say this one surprises me. Most of the people he interviewed all said Obama or the Democrats were to blame for the government shutdown. Watch:

Please note that the current debt limit is $16.699 trillion. Debt to the Penny Interestingly, the US Treasury website Debt to the Penny and Who Hold It shows the current public debt as 16,747,429,285,635.12 (the same as Nick shows in the above chart). Treasury Stops Updating National Debt You do not have to be a math genius to figure out that "debt to the penny" already exceeds the debt limit. I asked Nick about that and he replied ... Since mid-May, "debt to the penny" hasn't been rising. When they postponed raising the debt limit they stopped showing any increase...

In another edition of the polls the media won't cover, between September 29 and October 6, Democrats have lost a four point lead in Rasmussen's generic ballot that asks voters if they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in the upcoming midterm elections. That poll is now tied at 40% - 40%. At the end of last month, Democrats led 42% - 38%. The media continue to run headlines that read, "Poll Shows GOP Taking Share of Shutdown Blame," which is true. Most polls show Republicans are at a single-digit deficit when compared to Democrats (still, a vast improvement...

... “Don’t screw it up,” Reid told [D.C. Mayor] Gray in front of the cameras, reminding him that Democrats want the government open and are on his side. Multiple local reporters asked Reid what he meant by that, but the majority leader was ushered away by his security detail and staff. Gray then got into a verbal exchange with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who took a disapproving tone with the mayor... Virginia Democrats Tim Kaine and Mark Warner had to speak over the yelling protesters, whom Capitol police eventually tried to silence.

<p>A "very disturbed" President Obama has ordered his top aides to restore death benefits today for families of military service members killed in action.</p> <p>"The president was very disturbed to learn of this problem," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The president expects this to be fixed today. He was not pleased."</p>

The Democrats are chanting that Republicans must fully fund Obamacare because it is the law of the land, passed by Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Therefore, they say, it must be obeyed and can’t be altered by Republicans who want to defund it. That argument is both wrong and hypocritical. Any federal law can be changed, repealed, amended or defunded by our legislative branch of government, Congress. The Republican House wants to deal with the controversial huge “continuing resolution” bill in separate pieces, giving the OK to worthwhile federal spending purposes while leaving others...

Long ago, Ted Cruz earned the hatred of every elected Democrat in Washington. Now, he’s on his way to doing the same with nearly every Republican. He is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s quip about Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a bull who carries a china shop with him. He had barely begun his 21-hour filibuster -- or, to be strictly precise, 21-hour-long speech -- when he compared his doubters to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, and he ended it roughly a day later with a prickly exchange with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Cruz eye-rollers had plenty of occasions...

President Obama’s political base is getting worried as pressure builds on him to abandon his “no negotiations” stance over the partial federal shutdown and looming debt-limit breach. The Pentagon decision to suspend death benefits for families of troops killed in Afghanistan is prompting outrage over the Obama administration’s handling of the partial shutdown. Republicans continue to pass legislation that would restore full funding for essential programs, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid continues his blockade and the president has promised vetoes of several mini-spending bills. Obama told reporters Tuesday that he would not allow emergency funding because he wanted to...

New ideas that appeal to old principles - the "Tea Party" compares their motivations are often those of the "Boston Tea Party". Too much government, too little say - but even there the similarities stop.For Obama, it will seriously: When to 17 October enters no agreement in budget dispute, the United States is insolvent. Since 1 October, there is no approved budget, the government of the United States is largely closed. The reason: the U.S. has reached its debt ceiling, but can not set this higher. The culprit is a small group with a big effect: The "Tea Party". This...

“I am now occupying the building at this time.” And with that one decision – restaurant owner Glenn Helseth joined the ranks of Americans who’ve decided to defy the strong-arm tactics of the National Park Service. For the past 11 years Helseth and his wife have operated the Carrot Tree Kitchens Restaurant inside the historic Cole Digges House in Yorktown, Va. At least 20 of Helseth's longtime employees are facing unemployment. They can’t make rent and some are faced with choosing between buying food or buying medicine. The National Park Service owns and operates the building. So when the government...

Sen. Joe Manchin III said Tuesday that Democrats should negotiate a debt deal as part of the debt limit increase — a break from Democratic leaders and President Barack Obama. The West Virginia Democrat said he personally is “looking for a bigger plan” to reduce the debt as part of the discussion to authorize payment of the government’s bills. Manchin talked to a group of reporters before Democrats’ weekly luncheon Tuesday and said he supports using the debt limit debate as a vehicle to attach deficit reduction, such as the Bowles-Simpson plan — Democratic leaders and the president have vowed...

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison was arrested Tuesday by U.S. Capitol Police during an immigration rally on the National Mall. As protestors marched toward the U.S. Capitol, Ellison and several other House Democrats sat in the middle of Independence Avenue, blocking rush hour traffic. Police led Ellison away in cuffs shortly after 4 p.m. Ellison’s office said the move was an act of “civil disobedience” designed to urge Congress to pass legislation that would allow the nation’s undocumented immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship. The march was held on the National Mall even though the open-area park is closed due to...

Obama stayed home this week....his Asian trip was canceled, staffers furloughed, and he has refused to negotiate with Republicans until the govt reopens.... --snip-- Also notable is what Obama is not doing. Aware of the optics of even the most casual outing, the Obamas stayed in to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary on Thursday, and he stayed off the golf course over the weekend. “He’s hamstrung by the reality of the shutdown,” one WH spox said. “They don’t have the full advance team or the full communications team to fill up the calendar in the middle of a big fight...

"We apologize for the inconvenience. The marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance andf will be back up Monday, 10/7/3013." That's the message New Yorkers received this weekened when they attempted to sign up for health insurance via the new online health exchange or marketplace, a key componenet of ObamaCare. ...

In an interview with Politico, Senator Harry Reid argued that the media is being unfair to Democrats in its coverage of the shutdown. Reid said he believes that there is no way someone viewing the situation objectively could conclude that Democrats are at fault for the shutdown. You and other journalists have a real shortcoming in that you are trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair,” Reid said. “Democrats have had almost nothing to do with the problems here. It’s all Republicans.” *SNIP** Media Research Center, a conservative media-watchdog group, found that in 39 stories in the...

On the seventh day of the shutdown, President Obama called on House Republican leaders Monday to allow a vote immediately on a short-term measure to reopen government operations. Mr. Obama said he strongly suspects “there are enough votes” in the House to reopen the government today. “The truth of the matter is, there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives right now to end this shutdown immediately with no partisan strings attached,” Mr. Obama said during a surprise visit to FEMA headquarters in the district. “The House should hold that vote today.” The president said he...

If anyone is surprised about the government shutdown, Sen. Chuck Schumer said the tea party had it planned “almost a year and a half.” “The tea party was planning almost a year and a half before it happened. The issue of Obamacare is almost incidental. The real issue is they have almost a principle that they wanted to shut down the government because they hate it so, and that’s astounding,” Schumer said on CNN’s “New Day.” Schumer went further to say it was “meticulously” planned and that Speaker John Boehner has conceded to go along with it. “So anyone who...

Word came down the USFS has shut down all operations

Growing anger at congressional Republicans over the government shutdown could be enough to push the GOP out of power in the House, according to a new poll.

Tax-paying, hard-working families aren’t letting White House shutdown politics stop them from enjoying America’s beauty. They’re defying the orange cones at Mount Rushmore. They’re breaching the barrycades at Zion National Park. And now, the Badlands of South Dakota. Noelle Bruno tweets that she and her family made it through Mount Rushmore despite the White House obstacles:

Dracobama is not a creature to be feared, but deserving of laughter and ridicule “He dwells in the dark like a blood sucking ghoul, But Dracobama is naught but a fool. He stamps his feet like a petulant child, As around the world he is laughingly reviled. On our WWII vets fear he tried to impart, But our military heroes drove a stake through his heart. Against Dracobama no garlic is needed, As the garden of tyranny soon will be weeded. You’ll learn Dracobama the American people Will not cower from you like meek little Sheeple. Our resolve to defeat...

"Non-essential" federal employees head home, worry about pay Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/10/01/Non-essential-federal-employees-head-home-worry-about-pay/9971380658764/#ixzz2gWj4bGFM

Why can't we give Boehner a show of support? Will you call John Boehner and tell him we support him standing strong?

How did the Republican Party become so splintered and so infused with hard-line conservatives? Don't blame redistricting. Don't chalk it up to anti-Obama fervor.Republicans have become an unruly bunch of scorched-earth conservatives because the Tea Party smashed the business lobby's monopoly on GOP fundraising.Here's a story of where the GOP used to be:Back in 2006, I asked a couple of conservative Republican congressmen to give blurbs for my book on corporate welfare. “My boss loves the book,” one of their top aides said, “but we’re not going to put his name on it." Why not, I asked. "Who do you...

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Note: Petroleum production includes crude oil, natural gas liquids, condensates, refinery processing gain, and other liquids, including biofuels. Barrels per day oil equivalent were calculated using a conversion factor of 1 barrel oil equivalent = 5.55 million British thermal units (Btu). The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States will be the world's top producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2013, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. For the United States and Russia, total petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbon production, in energy content terms, is almost evenly split between petroleum and natural...

Washington’s grown a bit nastier and colder since the last government shutdown, and the casualties of the partisan fight are the family memories lost from being denied access to public landmarks that are supposed to belong to the people. The government doesn’t see it that way anymore – it’s all just a “damn game” and the folks running the Capitol are just toying with the American people. That’s right – public memorials, monuments and parks remained open under President Clinton and the Republican Congress in 1995/96, causing one to wonder how much inconvenience and financial hardship this partial government shutdown...

One of the big Democrat talking points about ObamaCare is to bleat that it's "constitutional," blessed by the Supreme Court, and is the "settled law of the land." They never explain how this is supposed to intimidate the nominally free people of the Republican from changing or repealing it - presumably it is meant to be taken as the first law in history that must be obeyed without question, forever, more powerful and permanent than the Constitution itself. But it's not true anyway. Andrew McCarthy at National Review reminds us that, contrary to Democrat rhetoric, ObamaCare was not held constitutional...

There will be some that may take exception to the tone this post will strike, but this is something that needs to be said. Have you ever witnessed a single politician with the ingrained pettiness we are seeing displayed from the White House. I have always felt whomever held the Office of President of the United States deserved respect. If for nothing else, for simply holding the highest office in our country. Even with Barack Obama, I have tried to show a modicum of respect for the office. That is no longer the case and my feeling has been brought...

David Stockman, author of The Great Deformation, summarizes the last quarter century thus: What has been growing is the wealth of the rich, the remit of the state, the girth of Wall Street, the debt burden of the people, the prosperity of the beltway and the sway of the three great branches of government - that is, the warfare state, the welfare state and the central bank... What is flailing is the vast expanse of the Main Street economy where the great majority have experienced stagnant living standards, rising job insecurity, failure to accumulate material savings, rapidly approach old age...

Free Republic:October 6, 2013-U.S. Expected To Be Largest Producer of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hydrocarbons in 2013What are the ramifications of America's newly emergent status as the world's largest producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2013?The conventional wisdom of America's preeminent status as global superpower being on the wane is a consensus difficult to deny even if one were to take the current wholly corrupt, dysfunctional, inept leadership out of the equation. It may very well be that the US economy has been irrevocably diminished, the reality of which would certainly take a toll on America's influence and...

Sen. Ted Cruz says he's being attacked by Democrats because his strategy on Obamacare has been successful. "The fact that you are seeing so many nasty partisan jabs from Democrats" and that Democrats ,including Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), "have not been shy in using all sorts of ad hominem inflammatory attacks" means that Cruz's message is gaining traction, he said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." The attacks, Cruz said, are "indicative of the fact that we're winning the argument -- Obamacare isn't working."

Simple and unadulterated hatred for Obama has driven the party to alienate the electorate by shutting the government down over their opposition to Obamacare.As I watched the deadlock over the approval of government expenditure finally lead to a partial shutdown of the US government, I could not help thinking how unfortunate it is that US lawmakers are behaving in ways unbecoming of their great and dynamic democracy. At stake in this incomprehensible showdown between Republicans and Democrats is the much-needed Congressional approval to government expenditure. The Republicans, under the sway of a minority of right-wing diehards, decided to use blackmail...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) pleaded with Congressional colleagues “to observe civility in our discourse with one another. Though we may disagree there is no need for us to resort to name calling.” Fresh from this heart-felt plea, Reid labeled House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “a coward.” The inspiration for this highly personal attack “is Boehner’s inability to break free of the Tea Partiers who are mounting a fundamental assault on the way our government operates. They are challenging the traditional processes and casting the leadership of both Parties in a bad light.” Reid was especially aggrieved that “Boehner...