Free Republic

A small but growing collection of companies has formed a coalition that will push the federal government to establish a standard system by which agencies categorize their data. Today’s official opening of the District-based Data Transparency Coalition rides on the heels of the Obama administration’s announcement last month that six agencies will commit $200 million to projects that help them better analyze their information. “Our members understand that if the government identified its data elements in consistent ways, there would be vast new opportunities for the tools that they are building,” Executive Director Hudson Hollister said. Multiple methods of classifying...

WLS Radio has learned that President Barack Obama faces three local challenges to his eligibility for the Illinois primary ballot. At least one involves a group that believes the fight will be worse than the one Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced with his residency challenge.

Our nation is suffering a crisis of accountability. My first job after law school was working for a talented criminal lawyer named Andy. He loved the rough and tumble of trials, and handled appeals with equal aplomb. He once told me that, in his experience, criminals had changed for the worse. When he interviewed appellate clients early in his career, their story was generally, “I took a chance, I did the crime and I got caught.” Later, he mused, their story degenerated into, “I had a lousy trial lawyer,” or “The judge hated me,” or “The jurors were all morons.”...

Professor You Lie, currently on academic leave from the Chicago School of Bureaucratic Socialism, last night arrogantly delivered his usual cookie-cutter Keynesianism Socialist Lecture Number 14.6T to a partial Joint Session of Congress. Judging by the long faces of the assembled Democrats, I sensed an air of defeat. Had their guy thrown in the towel? It was a very tense 32 minutes for them as You Lie brought up the painful subjects of "dismantling the Government," "not raising taxes on anyone during their lifetime," (I guess they could make it retroactive, but I'm not a lawyer), "no more earmarks," and...

Back in the day, Frankie sat by his cuddly fire and opined about "Fear" and the glowing virtues of his and Ellie's New Deal. He was a great orator - - - . Ah , those were the days! Today, The New Deal has successfully bankrupted America AND we still have a great orator! Yes, indeedy! Professor You Lie is on hand to wax poetic on the updated agenda of this day: that golden, luxurious solver of all problems - - - ABUNDANT DEBT! Oh, joy! Oh, Rapture! But wait! There is evil all around us - - - ....

Question of the day that the Liberal Intelligentsia Elite Media will never ask is will Zero go "All In"and break the Bank? Or just slowly bleed America into becoming a third world country that can be more easily ruled?

Surrounded by his lap-dogs of the left, Professor You Lie picks up the rough draft of his 9-8-11 speech. It is a tense moment: will authors Porky Pelosi and Reid-in-the-wind hear their words, or the pretty words of You Lie? The silence is deafening! Quickly laying down the rough draft, You Lie says: " People will tell you that I am a "bank-bashing-Bolshevik." If that is the case, then why am I creating the National Infastructure Bank? People will tell you that James Hoffa, Junior yesterday made a speech attacking the Taxed Enough Already Party. That is not what I...

'Frankie and Ellie weren't sweethearts, but oh how they did hate the USA. They stuck in to us back then while chatting, by the fire of the of The New Deal, on display.' Yes indeed, THE NEW DEAL! To bad the unemployment rate was still 20 % when Pearl Harbor blew up. It would have been one data point to support ol' John Maynard Keynes and his style of Socialism. Did he ever visit America? Probably not. KM* never visited Russia. Both were Brits - - - . Anyway, we damn sure aren't going to get a positive data point...

At 10:52 AM ET this morning, while preparing my helpful speech tips for Zero's "9-8-jobs-can-wait" speech I heard Ron Insana, ( no, neither "a" has a long prononciation), say the following: " - - - the mess that we saw over the debt ceiling debate - - -." In the L.I.E. Media, perception IS reality. To me, IMHBACO, the debt ceiling was a PROBLEM because Zero had spent to much of my grandchildren's future paychecks. The "Mess" was that the spineless RINOS made their typical Bipartisan Cave-In deal to "cut" only the projected, hypothetical spending increases, which meant squandering, AGAIN,...

The forces of Zero's Keynesianism and the tattered remnants of the Free Market proponents meet on 9-8-2011 to hear Zero arrogantly announce how HE plans to buy "jobs" with MY grandchildren's future paychecks. It will be an auspicious occasion I'm sure. Since I plan to watch The Packers whup up on the enemy, I though we could help Ol' Zero improve his " 9-8-jobs-can-wait" speech by including a few things that might, could work, and give us time to watch some FOOTBALL! All the L.I.E. Media wants to talk or write about is what Zero is going to say. At...

"Gov. Rick Perry’s ‘Seven Breakthrough Solutions’ would make for bad business, undermine meaning of a university" Last week, lawmakers in Texas were embroiled over a series of reforms – boldly named the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” – proposed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The governor’s wildly optimistic proposals seek to implement a business-like model for the Texas state university system to optimize efficiency by measuring student satisfaction, while pinning the blame squarely on professors. The proposals sound great, until you realize the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” are hardly breakthroughs and barely solutions. In light of rapidly dissipating state support for public higher...

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations...

Rick Perry is waging an undeclared war on higher education—in particular, on the state’s two flagship institutions, the University of Texas and his own alma mater, Texas A&M. He has delegated higher education policy to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank, which has produced an ideological blueprint for how the state’s universities should be governed. The objectives are accountability, transparency, and productivity. Several of the TPPF’s recommendations have already been put into practice at Texas A&M. UT has resisted so far, but the administrators I spoke with believe the battle is likely to be a losing...

An unprecedented press conference was held in Washington on Wednesday – one that should have been convened a long time ago. And no, it wasn't the one to announce publication of Barack Obama's birth certificate, but rather the first of its kind by the US Federal Reserve. Believe it or not, the Fed has never before made itself directly answerable to the fourth estate for its monetary policy decisions. Accountability and explanation have instead been pursued through official statements, speech-giving, congressional committees and selective background briefings. After nearly 100 years at the helm of the US economy, the Fed has...

... The "winner" of this survey will be recognized with an award announcement here on NaturalNews, along with a story exploring why that corporation is viewed as being so evil by people in the natural health community.

Proposal: Presidential Candidates Submit Handwritten Copy of Constitution Posted on September 9, 2010 at 5:27pm by Jonathon M. Seidl What if the president had to hand-write a copy of the Constitution before he took office? That’s the question Dr. David Corbin and Dr. Matthew Parks of The King’s College-New York City are asking. Corbin is an associate professor of politics, while Parks is the assistant provost. According to them, the presidential oath “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” is one that should be taken very seriously. But “you can’t do this if you don’t know...

Why Systems Crumple? by Ari Bussel We were going out to dinner in Tel Aviv, where there are thousands of restaurants catering to every taste and pocketbook. Living the moment has its benefits – midweek, eleven o’clock at night and all the restaurants are full. But the story is not about the economic success of Israel, nor is it about the culinary experience that was quite enticing. Rather, it is about the failure of attention to details, and people who simply do not care and do not take pride in their work and their word. Israel has excelled in promises,...

The people of the United States have been blessed to live in a country that has experienced, over the past seventy years, the most sustained period of overwhelming prosperity in the history of mankind. However, due to the staggering growth of government, unrealistic expectations of the citizenry, and a new global economy, the current makeup of the economic engine of the country is such that it will not be able to generate sufficient wealth to finance the nation's long-term financial commitments, jobs, and desires of the populace.

Dear XXXXX-- With Congress's August recess now under way, Republican members of Congress are starting to show up at Tea Party events and campaign rallies all over the country. We saw last year during the fight for health reform that this is a time when the extremists run rampant. Remember "death panels?" This year, Republicans are looking to have it both ways, trying to appeal to independent voters while making promises to the Tea Party crowd to pursue an extreme right-wing agenda if they regain control of Congress. Who knows what's being said when the cameras aren't running? We don't...

Stop blaming Obama. I have noticed a growing trend to attribute every crisis or failure to President Obama. Out of control spending, the leak in the gulf, sexual education in public schools are all Obama’s fault. Except, not really. While it is easy to blame the man in the White House for any number of problems in this country, and it is tempting to praise the Commander in Chief when things go right, there are more players in this grand game than the President alone. The obvious next step is to look at the President’s cabinet, those he has appointed...

Government Regulation vs. Self-RegulationBy: Larry Walker, Jr.The Progressive Obama Administration’s magical solution for all problems American is more government regulation. But is government regulation really better than self-regulation?Companies like BP have a direct interest in the safe, efficient drilling and harvesting of oil. Would it benefit a private oil company like BP to carelessly blow up its own oil well and lose millions of gallons of the precious black gold into the sea? No. Did it benefit Exxon to crash the Valdez and leak millions of gallons of oil off the coast of Alaska? No. So every company has a...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

FORTH WORTH, Texas — A state lawmaker wants to make sure that any candidate on the presidential ticket from now on can show proof they were born in the United States — or not be allowed on the Texas ballot.

Evaluating Higher Ed Transparency Bethany Stotts, March 10, 2010 How much will my education cost? Is it a good value for me and my family? Will I be able to get a job when I graduate? These questions and others are often at the forefront of parents’ and prospective students’ minds when picking a college or university, but a new study calls into question whether higher ed institutions who voluntarily reveal information about themselves are providing misleading information to consumers. The March report co-authored by Education Sector and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) education analysts alleges that the two public...

Now that we have pulled back sufficiently far from the near “destruction of the modern financial system” — as the former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson described the events of 2008 in his new memoir, “On The Brink” — to focus on how to prevent such a calamity from recurring, the time has come to hear from those players in the drama who really know what happened and why. Until people such as Warren Spector, the former co-president and head of the fixed-income division at Bear Stearns, and Dan Jester, a mysterious former Goldman Sachs banker turned Treasury official — among...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2010 – The Army will conduct a review to determine if leaders were negligent in their supervision of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Defense Department officials announced yesterday. Army Secretary John McHugh has directed Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe, “to conduct an accountability review to identify whether any personnel were responsible for failures or deficiencies in applying Army programs, policies, and procedures to the alleged assailant,” according to a Defense Department news release. McHugh also has tasked Ham to provide personal observations he may have developed as a senior...

As many as eight Army officers could face discipline for failing to do anything when the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood rampage displayed erratic behavior early in his military career, two officials familiar with the case said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to refer findings on the officers to the Army for further inquiry and possible punishment. The report on what went wrong in the case of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused in the shootings that killed 13 people at the Texas Army base on Nov. 5, is expected to be released Friday. Several midlevel officers...

An unapologetic Obama claims "the buck stops with me," but, suspiciously, refuses to fire anyone in a lack of accountability over the Christmas Day intelligence screwup and subsequent terrorism attempt. At a press conference to update the nation on what went wrong, Obama instead spread the blame out evenly over many agencies in order to conceal who's really at fault. The irrecoverable problem with this approach is since no one in the government is held accountable for failure, there's no motivation to do better next time and improve.

Westchester Citizens' Group Launches Petition Drive To Restructure County GovernmentGrassroots citizens group to gather Dec. 17 in White Plains Published on December 16, 2009 by Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi (OfficialWire) WESTCHESTER, NY Rethinking Westchester Government, a nonpartisan, grassroots citizens' group, is planning a county-wide petition drive to downsize Westchester County's government. The 400-member group was formed 18 months ago to research and recommend more effective and efficient ways of delivering services to Westchester residents. Founding members include Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and former Congressman Joe DioGuardi, who have been named the group's co-chairs. A press conference will be held on...

Tracking for Success Bethany Stotts, December 15, 2009 At a recent American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference on “Increasing Accountability in American Higher Education,” panelists argued that the key to increased postsecondary accountability lies with better tracking-systems for student learning outcomes and increasing use of standardized tests. “For those of you who don’t know it [a student unit record system] basically is a data system maintained at the state or system level which contains one record per student containing information about enrollments, behaviors, and so on,” explained Peter Ewell, Vice President of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS)....

The more I read about the aftermath of the horrific gang rape in Richmond, the more it becomes clear to me that this entire town is one big toilet bowl. Instead of focusing the rage on the attackers, whomever they may be, and calling for these lowlife animals to be strapped to a good old fashioned electric chair as soon as possible, I am hearing excuses.

A top White House economic adviser will make the case for healthcare reform this afternoon while taking shots at Bush administration policies. In a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress, Christina Romer, Director of the Council of Economic Advisers, will argue that the actions of the Bush administration--and not stimulus spending--were largely responsible for the current deficit. According to excerpts released by the White House, Romer will cite a study concluding that "roughly half of the long-run deficit is due to the policy actions of the past 8 years," while "just 3 percent of the long-run fiscal problem...

You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection....

A friend of my daughter recently said she could not understand why Mormons baptize children at such a young age, 8 years old. This got me thinking. ...We do not baptize infants or little children because, as taught in section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants, "little children are redeemed" through Christ and "cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children until they begin to become accountable before me." But why do we baptize at the young and tender age of 8? Why not wait until they are older and, as some would argue, more...

Where is Cecilia Ibru? By Ruona Agbroko August 21, 2009 01:56PMT For someone whose intimidating frame, trademark pearls and penchant for A-list events on Nigeria’s social circuit is legendary, Cecilia Ibru, the recently sacked managing director and chief executive officer of Oceanic Bank Plc, is doing an excellent job of going underground. On Friday August 14, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced her dismissal, alongside that of the CEOs and executive directors of Afribank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank and Finbank. Declaring that the CEOs came under the axe for acting “in a manner detrimental to...

BENTON COUNTY - U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., signed on to support and co-sponsor a House bill aimed at eliminating funding for so-called "czars" who hold senior policy-making positions by presidential appointment while bypassing confirmation to those positions by the U.S. Senate. H.R. 3226, the Czar Accountability and Reform Act of 2009, would bar the use of appropriated funds to pay either expenses or salaries of members of task forces, councils, or similar offices established by the president and headed by a person appointed inappropriately to such a post without Senate advice and consent. The legislation would not apply to...

Congressman Ron Paul is and has been spearheading the attack on the Federal Reserve with a bill that will amend Title 31 of the United States Code to allow the comptroller General of the United States to audit the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system: H.R.1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009. As the law reads today, Title 31 only allows the Comptroller General to examine an open insured bank or bank holding company if the federal regulatory agency consents in writing. There is thus no obligation for any agency to consent, allowing the public to be completely...

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.

Afew [sic] hours after California voters approved his Proposition 13 tax-cut measure on June 6, 1978, a bibulous and exultant Howard Jarvis dropped his pants for the benefit of a few reporters gathered in his suite at the L.A. Biltmore Hotel. A reporter had asked Jarvis why he was limping, so his ostensible reason was to show a large, ugly bruise, which he'd suffered in a fall a few days before, on his ample, boxer-clad behind. The surprise gesture, however, also afforded the earthy and profane Jarvis a chance to display his contempt for the press and, by extension, the...

When Bank of America, a financial institution with roots in Western North Carolina, acquired another financial giant, Merrill Lynch, our jobs and retirement accounts were decimated. I can appreciate that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve perceived Merrill's failure as a systemic risk to our economy but I have two primary concerns with the deal: -- The merger did not quarantine the risk as the feds intended; it spread the risk. Bank of America's shareholders took ownership of the heavy losses and debts of Merrill Lynch. As a result, more taxpayer dollars were needed to stabilize Bank of America. --...

Is the media holding Congress and the President accountable for their spending? A Daily PollWhat would the President of Iran do if he acquired nuclear weapons? A Weekly Poll

When Barack Obama decided that questions from the German press about his trip agenda in that country were too pesky, he told the reporters, "So, stop it all of you!" He just wanted them to ask things he wanted to talk about. Well, what politico wouldn't want that? OK, dad. We'll behave. And according to a new Pew Research Center poll, we are behaving...like fans. On domestic press, it showed that "President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush during their first months in the White House" with "roughly twice...

Shortly after the economic stimulus bill was signed, Vice President Biden was talking up the administration's Web site to track the spending, Recovery.gov, when he accidentally directed people to Recovery.org. As slip-ups go, this one had an upside: Unlike the government site, the privately run Recovery.org is actually providing detailed information about how the $787 billion in stimulus money is being spent.

The fine print in the stimulus bill authorizing the AIG bonuses, which was rushed through the U.S. Congress at lightning speed, has led to a renewed call for politicians to read legislation before they vote on it.

I just stumbled across this very well done summary of the Obama Administration so far, as viewed through the lens of his own rhetoric. Surely this won't be the last thing said about the disconnect between his rhetoric and his performance, but it is poignant nonetheless. Is is 2012 yet? Video after the jump.

Philip Chawner, 53, and his 57-year-old wife Audrey weigh 24st. Their daughter Emma, 19, weighs 17st, while her older sister Samantha, 21, weighs 18st. The family from Blackburn claim £22,508 a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a £30,000 salary.

...Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger... showed that Americans are hungry for good old-fashioned heroism and happy endings. Thanks to our convoluted legal system, however, they may not get what they crave. A case in point involves Nigel Haskett, an employee at a McDonald's in Arkansas. In August, Haskett came to the rescue of a woman inside the restaurant being beaten in the face by a man...

There is a RAT hiding inside the stimulus bill. Just when you think you could not be any more shocked by the things that got secretly stuck in the stimulus bill, Senator Charles Grassley finds a RAT has been "snuck" into the bill. RAT is an acronym for Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. A provision of the bill creates this board which will have almost total control over Inspector Generals. This board will have the power to force investigations or halt investigations they do not like. The Chairman of the board will be appointed by(drum roll) President Barack Obama. The...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/18/Setting-the-bar-high/ THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 3:28 pm Setting the bar high Just looking at Recovery.gov, it might not be immediately clear what an enormous undertaking it will be to ensure that the transparency and accountability that the President expects will be upheld. It's going to require an unprecedented level of vigilance, a fundamental shift in the way the federal government spends your tax dollars, from the Oval Office down to every department and agency awarding funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That's why Peter...

I've been talking to several people offline, and it seems there is a great deal of frustration with the fact that congress often votes for bills that no one has read. This frustration is all over the political spectrum. So, I'm asking for help in writing a petition, for which I think there is already a groundswell of support for: that all pieces of legislature must be read OUT LOUD before Congress can vote on them. (Personally, I also think that congresscritters who aren't there for the reading shouldn't be allowed to vote on said legislature, but that could lead...