Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against moving "overtly or covertly" into eastern Ukraine and said there was strong evidence that pro-Russian demonstrators in the region were being paid.

I posted this as Putin's Kiss yesterday, and it only got one hit. Maybe if I post its title as a movie on Netflix that might stir more interest, because like the Lives of Others, this movie/documentary is well worth watching. The parallels between Russian society and ours is not only instructive but frightening, and I wish our leftist youth could see themselves as Masha in Putin's Kiss. Want to see what America will become before the end of the Obama regime? Want to see where it is happening right now, and from which we are just days away? Want...

Want to see what America will become before the end of the Obama regime? Want to see where it is happening right now, and from which we are just days away? Want to see a society without law or legal recourse? Want to see how a government takes its cues from the winks and nods of its despot? Want to see how the low information voter idolizes its Dear Leader? Meet Masha Drokova who has been smitten with the kiss of Putin since the age of 15. Watch as she moves up the ranks of the Russian youth organization, Nashi,...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) resolutions committee approved a series of platform points at the annual winter meeting, including a measure on voter ID with an eye to upcoming midterm elections. Hundreds of members from all around the country converged in D.C. last week to debate resolutions and rules as well as organize their “ground game” ahead of November elections. Among the resolutions approved were those in support of some of the major issues on the Democrats’ agenda, including women’s rights, immigration reform, and the minimum wage. […] The DNC also introduced on Thursday a new voter expansion...

It’s now been two years since Andrew Breitbart died. Unlike many of Breitbart’s friends and admirers who initiated a relationship with him, I was forced to relate with him. And I don’t like being forced to do anything. I initially met Andrew Breitbart over the phone when I called him on September 8, 2009. That was the day before my daughter Hannah’s scandalous ACORN videos were released on the public’s head. Andrew was on the road, and I was in Vail about to speak at a men’s conference and wanted to know, from a man I didn’t know, if he...

When I look at the unmitigated disaster that has been the Obama Error, I have trouble deciding which one of Chairman Obama's crimes against the Republic is the most heinous. There's so much to choose from, it's like a buffet of evil. The NSA is reading your email as you read this column. The United States military was used to put the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Libya without any CONgressional approval whatsoever. Obamacareless has changed its appearance more times than a chameleon on LSD. And we could go on an on, with one outrage after another that would have...

EDITED......Albany pols are in a boiling dispute over who gets to spend a $600M housing foreclosure settlement from JP Morgan Chase. Sap-happy lefties want to help underwater homeowners victimized by the subprime debacle.....vote-crazed Gov Cuomo's infected with "higher office brain disease" -- plans $2 billion in tax cuts – though his plan doesn’t count on the $600M settlement money. Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Insitute and former head of ACORN, said, “What I want to know is WTF? Why take our funds? This settlement money was intended to help struggling homeowners in New York, too many of whom are...

We’re from the government and we’re here to help. One in seven Obamacare navigators in New Mexico is listed in the FBI’s crime information database.But these “experts” are here to serve you.New Mexico Watchdog reported: An investigation by the National Review, one of the leading conservative media outlets in the country, reports that one in seven navigators in New Mexico hired to help consumers work their way through the Affordable Care Act appeared on the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.But an official with the state’s Affordable Care Act Implementation Projects emphasizes that while a person’s name may turn up on the FBI database, it does not mean they pose any risk to...

As recently as 1998, New York State’s Republican party controlled the governorship, a United States Senate seat, and the mayor’s office in Manhattan. Today, it is greatly diminished, with its sole beachhead of influence in the state senate, where it shares a majority with four independent Democrats. In contrast, the Working Families party (WFP), a 15-year-old left-wing, union-fueled group with just 20,000 members, now holds the whip hand over much of the dominant Democratic party in New York — and is already spreading its wings to other states. The WFP not only was a major force behind Bill de Blasio’s...

The left-wing group crushed by the right is gone, but its members never stopped working. After four years of anonymity, the liberal veterans want conservatives to know they’re back.In 2010, ACORN, the grassroots organizing group, was reeling from a series of scandals, and with most of its funding pulled, shuttered the last of its remaining offices around the country. For conservatives, it was a triumph. The newly ascendant right-wing blogosphere caught ACORN reps on tape giving their low-income clients advice on how to engage in tax evasion, human smuggling, and child prostitution (the tapes, it was revealed later were heavily...

No Veritas: A congressional field hearing has confirmed that not only is ObamaCare a lie agreed upon, but that "navigators" hired to guide the unwilling are telling applicants to lie and ignore the legal requirements to enroll. James O'Keefe, the videographer who helped topple the community activist group Acorn, recently released a video showing ObamaCare navigators in Dallas advising applicants to lie about their income and otherwise evade legal procedures and requirements when signing up for health insurance in the Affordable Care Act's exchanges. That ObamaCare navigators, who receive a minimum of training and escape the background checks common in...

TALLAHASSEE – Christmas came early for 48 Florida health centers. Playing the role of Santa, the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services is doling out $4.4 million to Sunshine State community health groups tasked with Affordable Care Act “outreach and enrollment.” The funding is part of a $58 million national push that extends into territories and commonwealths such as Puerto Rico and Guam. Since July, HHS has awarded $150 million in health center grants. Florida groups have already received more than $8 million to hire 163 health center workers, or navigators, and to meet the grant program’s stated goal...

President Barack Obama spoke at Temple Emanu-El last month to promote the Affordable Care Act. To help the American people navigate the onerous and confusing requirements of signing up for Obamacare exchanges, the administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars to create the navigator program. Disturbingly, news reports from the last four weeks have highlighted numerous examples of fraudulent activity related to health navigators in Texas. So — who are these navigators and what is their role in Obamacare? To help answer that question, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding a field hearing Monday at the Charles...

Extortion: Just when we thought its post-crisis probe of banks couldn't get more corrupt, the Obama administration has cut radical Democrat groups in on the record $13 billion JPMorgan Chase subprime loan deal. On Page 5 of "Annex 2" of the recently released consent order, you'll find this little gem: The Justice Department mandates that JPMorgan fork over any unclaimed or unpaid consumer damages to a nonprofit group that finances Acorn clones and other shakedown groups. They stand to reap millions. The "consumer relief" portion of the deal by itself totals $4 billion. If the government "determines that a shortfall...

The Texas communications director for Enroll America has resigned after a conservative watchdog group posted a video of him discussing his Democratic leanings. A spokesman for the self-proclaimed non-profit, non-partisan group, which is leading efforts to enroll Americans in ObamaCare, confirmed to FoxNews.com Chris Tarango has resigned after the video by Project Veritas was posted online.

I thought I would post this here to see if anyone can help out. I'm not sure if anyone else caught it but I had Fox News' Journal Editorial Report on this afternoon while I worked. The panelists were discussing the record $13 BILLION fine J.P. Morgan Chase was just assessed by Eric Holder's Justice Department. As a point of reference, that fine is approximately FOUR TIMES LARGER than the fine levied against BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which, at the time, was the largest such fine on record. The discussion turned to the question...

WASHINGTON D.C. — Amidst troubling reports of Obamacare navigators urging consumers in Texas to lie on their applications in order to qualify for greater federal subsidies, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today wrote to President Obama demanding he terminate the troubled Navigator program. In the letter Sen. Cornyn also points to recent sworn testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in which she admitted to Sen. Cornyn that due to a lack of criminal background checks, it is possible taxpayer-funded navigators, who handle consumers’ personal and confidential information, could in fact be convicted felons. The full text of...

"@Sebelius did great fundraising for @EnrollAmerica, but will do even better for @Project_Veritas" (Daniel Francisco @DFrancisco7)

New questions are being raised about the tax-exempt status of an Obamacare enrollment group tied to Kathleen Sebelius after it was implicated in James O’Keefe’s most recent investigative probe. O’Keefe captured an official for Enroll America, for which Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to fundraising, being introduced at an event as “the official group for the DNC.” O’Keefe’s work also revealed that Enroll America might be working with the political action committee Battleground Texas, possibly sharing mined data between the two groups. O’Keefe’s footage was enough to prompt the legal advocacy group Cause of Action to...

WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act is the biggest new health care program in decades, but the Obama administration has ruled that neither the federal insurance exchange nor the federal subsidies paid to insurance companies on behalf of low-income people are “federal health care programs.” The surprise decision, disclosed last week, exempts subsidized health insurance from a law that bans rebates, kickbacks, bribes and certain other financial arrangements in federal health programs, stripping law enforcement of a powerful tool used to fight fraud in other health care programs, like Medicare. The main purpose of the anti-kickback law, as described by...