Free Republic

"The Pentagon has released new color photos as proof that Iran was behind last week's attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman," ABC News reported. Hours before that attack, Iranians launched surface-to-air missile at a U.S. drone monitoring the tankers. The missile missed. In response, 1,000 American troops are being dispatched to the region for the declared purpose of defending American forces already there. Reacting to these charges and U.S. military moves and threats, Iran has said it will resume (did it ever stop?) the enrichment of uranium by next week, which it had pledged not to...

Since the 2016 election, the intelligence community has been under greater scrutiny—and for good reason. The leaks emanating from this cadre of professionals in D.C. was not exposing government malfeasance from the Trump administration, but classified information that was putting America’s national security interests at stake. It seemed to have been done to hamstring a new administration. As apolitical operatives, this was not their job. If you can’t handle working under a new administration, then resign. Leaking to undercut the Trump presidency because you’re sore about Hillary Clinton losing is not an act of patriotism. Former investigative journalist for CBS...

The new president owes nothing to the ‘Bush Barnacles’ The media have paid much attention to how Donald Trump broke through to blue-collar voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and captured the presidency. Trump is certainly assembling what might prove to be a new GOP coalition. But one shouldn’t forget that Trump’s temperament cost him upscale Republican voters in key suburbs. To solidify his reelection chances, he will have to overcome their doubts with policy successes that assuage their concerns about his rough edges. Trump won an impressive victory, carrying 31 out of 50 states. But in several of them...

We all know Hillary Clinton used a private email address and server for official business when she was Secretary of State. She said she turned over her work-related emails to State, and deleted the ones she deemed personal. Her lawyers said they wouldn’t honor the request by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, to turn over the server to an independent arbiter for review, and that it’s been wiped clean, along with any back up systems connected to the server. This private email scandal has been a nightmare for the Clinton team since it has rehashed all...

One big question raised by IRS political targeting is whether Obama officials or their bureaucratic allies unleashed the power of the administrative state for partisan ends. Now evidence is emerging that officials at another agency, the Federal Election Commission, used their enforcement power as an anti-conservative sword. The House Ways and Means Committee this week released emails showing that, in 2008 and 2009, the FEC's general counsel staff sought tax information about conservative political groups from Lois Lerner of the IRS. Ms. Lerner is the IRS official who took the Fifth before Congress rather than tell her side of the...

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal... [T]he administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it...

Nicolle Wallace knows her politics. She served as White House communications chief under George W. Bush and also worked as a senior advisor on the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign. Her second novel, It's Classified, explores what would happen if a woman were plucked from relative obscurity and elected Vice President of the United States — only to find herself completely unprepared for the job. Wallace talked to TIME about the problem with likable politicians, why everyone in the White House eats constantly and her character's obvious similarity to Sarah Palin. This novel reads like a lighthearted novel for people interested in...

(CNSNews.com) – Ted Olson, former Solicitor General under President George W. Bush said he is “proud” of Lady Gaga’s support for same sex marriage and credited celebrities for raising public awareness of the issue. “Lady Gaga – I’m very proud that she announced last week that one of the songs on her album – I have no idea which, I don’t – was inspired by the Proposition 8 case – she really said that so I accept her,” said Olson on Monday during a keynote address at a U.S. Justice Department Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) ceremony called “Moving...

They told me in 2008 that if I voted for Sen. John McCain we would get the third Bush administration. They were right. I voted for McCain and now we have the third Bush administration under Barack Obama. Obama continued bailouts, stimulus payments, high deficits and presidential vacations. He convinced Congress to continue all the Bush tax cuts. Obama is carrying on Bush's efforts to weaken the Social Security system by reducing Social Security taxes in spite of the fact that many have had to delay retirement because the economic collapse damaged their private pension programs. If Obama were a...

When Vice-President Joe Biden says the Iraq war may turn out to be one of President Barack Obama's greatest achievements, Dick Cheney wants credit where he says it's due: the Bush administration. “If they're going to take credit for it, fair enough, for what they've done while they're there,” Mr. Cheney said Sunday. “But it ought to go with a healthy dose of 'thank you, George Bush' up front and a recognition that some of their early recommendations, with respect to prosecuting that war, were just dead wrong.” Obama opposed the war in 2003 and, as an Illinois senator, the...

Some public figures, if their judgment and ethics come under fire, retreat into solitude. Then there is John C. Yoo. The former Justice Department official, whose memos blessed the waterboarding of terrorism suspects and wiretapping of American citizens, has come out fighting, even as negative assessments of his government service pile up. Last month, a federal judge in California refused to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses Yoo of violating a detainee's constitutional rights.

It has been one year since Tony Snow died. How I miss this man! Just wanted to put up a thread to remember a very good man who kept the press people on their toes in the White House. How I wish we could see another Tony Snow there!

Just having the appearance of someone who might possibly vote for an opponent of Barack Obama could land them on the President's enemies list where proxies do the dirty work. Political appointees in the Justice Department killed a six-month investigation by career DOJ lawyers into the most blatant voter intimidation case in 40 years. Last November, jack-booted, uniformed, baton-wielding thugs from the New Black Panther Party calling themselves "security" obstructed a Philadelphia polling location and behaved in an intimidating manner toward white voters. Days after dismissing charges against the menacing thugs, the Justice Department moved in the opposite direction by...

n his audacious attack on a sitting president last week, Mr Cheney declared that America was less safe from terrorism after Mr Obama's decision to abandon violent interrogation methods and close Guantanamo. But once the cheering had died down on talk radio and cable television, discordant voices emerged from the Right to challenge Mr Cheney's defence of the Bush-era legacy. "Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney," said Tom Ridge, who was appointed by the Bush-Cheney administration to set up and run the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on America. Mr Ridge spoke out...

Any human being with a functioning conscience or a decent heart loathes torture. Its exercise has been a blight on humanity. With this in mind, those who oppose what the Bush administration did to some terror suspects may be justified. But in order to ascertain whether they are, they need to respond to some questions: 1. Given how much you rightly hate torture, why did you oppose the removal of Saddam Hussein, whose prisons engaged in far more hideous tortures, on thousands of times more people, than America did -- all of whom, moreover, were individuals and families who either...

Dana Perino, President George W. Bush's last White House press secretary, will join Clinton administration adviser Mark Penn at public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where she will be "chief issues counselor." Mr. Penn, the firm's CEO, said Ms. Perino's experiences in Mr. Bush's second term make her a valuable addition to the team of battle-tested public-relations veterans he is assembling. . . . Ms. Perino, 36 years old, likely will focus on communications strategies for clients in the looming Washington policy debates over issues such as energy, climate change and health care. She may also develop business among newer defense and technology...

WASHINGTON - Even as it pulls back from harsh interrogations and other sharply debated aspects of George W. Bush ’s “war on terrorism,” the Obama administration is quietly signaling continued support for other major elements of its predecessor’s approach to fighting Al Qaeda.

Rove now cooperating with Justice Dept. Karl Rove is still stiff-arming Congress by refusing to testify in the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal -- but he has suddenly changed his tune about cooperating with federal prosecutors, TPMMuckraker's Murray Waas reports: Rove will cooperate with a federal criminal inquiry underway into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and has already spoken to investigators in a separate, internal DOJ investigation into the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his attorney said in an interview. Rove previously refused to cooperate with an earlier Justice Department inquiry into the firings. The Justice Department's Inspector...

CBS) Vice President Joe Biden said that the Obama administration and Congress are "off and running" in getting an economic stimulus package completed and approved with bipartisan support, saying that the goal is to "get money out of the door as rapidly as possible" to speed job growth. However, Biden said he did not want to mislead Americans about the severity of the economic landscape the U.S. is facing: "It is worse, quite frankly, than everyone thought it was, and it's getting worse every day," he said on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday morning - his 53rd appearance on the...

Friends Of The Border Patrol Report offers Change #1 to newly elected administration and Congress Chino, CA – Friends of the Border Patrol has released a report uncovering corruption and security compromises within the government titled “Unjustifiable and Impeachable: The FOBP Report on DHS, DOJ, and the Courts. Andy Ramirez has authored this report with a section featuring 50 Exhibits documenting compromises, corruption and unconscionable incidents that go back 15 years in some cases. The report contains two volumes, with Volume I authored by Andy Ramirez, and Volume II written by Attorney John Cavicchi, which primarily addresses the court system....