Free Republic

Judicial Watch has just released a new batch of documents forced out of the IRS that show the Obama administration’s scandalous misuse of the IRS to target Tea Party and other conservatives goes far deeper than realized. Included in the new batch of documents is a February 2012 email from Lois Lerner, who was then head of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Branch, asking that a special program be set up to “put together some training points to help [IRS staffers] understand the potential pitfalls” of revealing too much information to Congress. Amid the hundreds of released pages, Judicial Watch also...

EXCERPT- Knowing very well most Americans objected to the "end of life" measure in the new health care legislation due to fears it could eventually give doctors a government financial incentive or even mandate to encourage severely ill patients to make life ending decisions too prematurely, Congressman Blumenauer thumbed his nose to the masses. It must be painfully obvious to Mr. Blumenauer that Americans did not want his end-of-life measure, so the Oregon Congressman decided to run around the will of the people by bureaucratic fiat. Instead, he and his fellow Democrats eventually omitted the measure from the bill only...

I am sure this has been covered, but I have a couple of questions about the tax cut/extension debate. Why are the Dems worried about the Bush Tax cuts expiring, after all I can remember during the original debate that these tax cuts only benifited the rich. Now all I hear is that if these tax cuts arnt extented for the middle class, they will be hurt(which they will be). Which is it? Next Nancy Pelosi says that unemployment benifits are the best stimulus for the economy, (since the Bernacke just said that 10% unemployment may last for 5 years,...

Newly elected Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski is leaving the office of mayor of the Village of McCook, Illinois. Now, a few weeks after the election, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that he and his father before him have filled village government with relatives from top to bottom raking in a combined $350,000 in yearly salary (not including benefits), tax money elicited from a tiny village of only 200 some residents. Naturally, in another installment of the "name that party" game, the Chicago Sun-Times seemed to somehow forget to mention in its coverage of this outrageous nepotism that Tobolski is yet...

A House panel on Tuesday found Representative Charles B. Rangel guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, ruling that his failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to accurately report his personal income had brought dishonor on the House. After a public hearing Monday that was truncated by Mr. Rangel walking out in protest, an adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee deliberated for four hours before finding him guilty of all but one of the 13 counts against him. (Two other counts, involving Mr. Rangel’s misuse of House franking privileges, were merged into one.)

No bargaining, no deals, no compromise — that's the hard-line stance that Republicans have staked in the days since seizing control of the House. Their prescription for the sluggish economy — lower taxes, huge spending cuts, less regulation, and repeal of the sweeping healthcare law just taking effect — excites the party's conservative base. But a long and ugly fight with President Obama and Senate Democrats, starting with next week's lame-duck session, could end up alienating the large number of Americans more interested in jobs than ideological battles. The midterm vote was "an expression of anger and impatience," said James...

A senior Palestinian official accused Israel on Wednesday of having sought to manipulate US mid-term elections to further hamper stalled Middle East peace talks. "It seems that the right-wing Israeli government colluded with powers inside the United States for political manoeuvres and games," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said. It did so "in the hope that the results of the American elections would lead to a total stalemate of the political process or steer it in a direction that suits its interests," he said in remarks carried by an official Palestinian radio station....

"Mm, your tears are so yummy and sweet! Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! My-yummy!" -- Cartman, South Park Admittedly, it has been a lot of fun to watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Left after the savage beating they received on election day. However, it's more than a little disturbing that almost no one on the Left seems to think they lost because they actually did a bad job. In other words, according to liberals: Obamacare, the failure of the stimulus, Obama bowing to foreign leaders, the way they handled the BP oil spill, trying to...

[Snip] THE JOBS REPORT FOR OCTOBER was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, and at first blush was surprisingly strong, much stronger, indeed, than expected. Payrolls expanded by 151,000 and the two previous months' were revised upward. But hold the hurrahs. The unemployment rate was stuck at 9.6%, and, toss in the underemployed and the rate remains at an elevated 17%. Moreover, the household version of the employment picture was a real bummer, showing an employment drop of 330,000. That especially weird disparity between the household and the payroll reports made us do a double-take. Happily, the...

You know all that talk about whether Keith Olbermann would ever be back on MSNBC? Well whoever speculated about that (me) was totally off – Olbermann will return to Countdown Tuesday night. From Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC: After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night’s program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night. So basically he was suspended for two shows, and four days (counting the weekend). That seems like an amazingly short amount...

US women's groups Thursday were bracing for a fight over abortion rights and gender equality with the new conservative majority in Congress. "We now face an anti-choice majority and a new speaker of the House who will threaten to roll back hard-fought progress for women," said Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the largest women's group in the United States. Republicans by Wednesday had picked up 60 seats in the 435-seat House of Representatives, well more than the 39 they needed for a majority. At least 49 of the newcomers to the House are opposed to...

There is one African-American in the current Senate: Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, who was appointed to fill out the rest of Barack Obama's term after he was elected president... All three African-American candidates are projected to lose their races: Florida's Kendrick Meek to Marco Rubio, Georgia's Michael Thurmond to Johnny Isakson and South Carolina's Alvin Greene to Jim DeMint. (All three are Democrats.)... African-Americans are better represented in the House, where there are currently 41 black members.

~snip~ Honestly, though, I'm surprised that so many people have turned against the president. Obviously, if you've lost your job, life is tough, but did voters really believe the country was going to quickly and dramatically reverse course once he was elected? So he hasn't yet made good on every campaign promise—isn't this like being shocked that you didn't lose as much weight doing Jenny Craig as Valerie Bertinelli did, or that your new memory-foam mattress didn't magically cure your insomnia? ~snip~ But when I see Obama on television, I'm unfailingly struck by his intelligence and charisma, by his easygoing...

"Restore sanity and/or fear." That's the tongue-in-cheek slogan for a rally held on Saturday at the US Capitol, organized by liberal television comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Known for their satirical shows on the Comedy Central Channel, they attracted thousands of their moderate fans for a few hours of comedy and music--three days before mid-term elections Singer Yusuf Islam (C) preforms alongside Ozzy Osbourne (L) and comedians Stephen Colbert (2nd L) and Jon Stewart (R) during the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the Washington Mall, October 30, 2010. Former NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (L) joins singers...

With little doubt about the outcome of tomorrow's elections, the speculation turns to what the reaction will be to the historic GOP victories. Will President Barack Obama shift toward the political center? Will all those shiny new Republican lawmakers keep their campaign promises to shrink government and control spending? Will those in the Tea Party movement remain engaged and involved once this battle has been won? All those answers will come in time but what we'll probably find out instantly is will the mainstream media abandon its self-assigned role of liberal cheerleader and return to honest reporting?

A panel full of liberals on Wednesday's Good Morning America attacked the "angry, white" Tea Partiers and lauded the historical importance of Jon Stewart. Daily Beast editor Tina Brown gushed over the liberal comedian as " the only trusted branch of government." Previewing the comic's rally on Washington this Saturday, the former Vanity Fair editor hyperbolically enthused, "You know, I mean, in the end, Stewart and Colbert, really are like the Huntley and Brinkley of today in the sense that people really, really trust them."

New prognostications show Republicans easily overtaking the House next week, but Democrats are dispatching their top figures for a last round of campaigning and injecting fresh cash into the races, in an attempt to stave off a blowout. Republicans could easily pick up 50 seats on Nov. 2, far more than the 39 needed to win the majority, according to the Hill. The newspaper's 2010 midterm election poll surveyed 17,000 likely voters in 42 toss-up districts, and the results mirror those of other recent projections. Democrats face the potential of "a political bloodbath the size of which we haven't seen...

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager were arrested this morning and charged with absentee ballot fraud, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Henry, 41, is charged with two counts of absentee ballots/voting violations, nine counts of being a principal to absentee ballots and voting violations-one count of conspiracy to commit absentee ballots and voting violations. Genesis Robinson, 21, is accused of 11 counts of being a principal to absentee ballots and voting violations and one count of conspiracy to commit absentee ballots and voting violations. All of the charges are third-degree felonies. They will be taken...

By funding numerous rightwing organisations, the mega-rich Koch brothers have duped millions into supporting big business The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It is one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen – and the biggest Astroturf operation in history. These accomplishments are closely related. An Astroturf campaign is a fake grassroots movement: it purports to be a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens, but in reality it is founded and funded by elite interests. Some Astroturf campaigns have no grassroots component at all. Others catalyse and direct real mobilisations. The Tea Party belongs...

"The View" co-host Joy Behar flips out after Sharron Angle attacks Harry Reid on his position on illegal immigration. (video at link)