Free Republic

(Reuters) - The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters. The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates. Financial institutions that operate...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I played for you, an hour ago, a three-minute sound bite from my television show 1995 illustrating how Democrats use scare tactics to get everybody to agree with growing the budget and expanding government... By the way, this is a challenge for me. The Democrats are talking about what a great era the Clinton era was. They tell us now, when they want to come and raise taxes, "Well, look, let's go back to Clinton-era taxes. We had an economic boom and everything was great back then!" Of course, we played sound bites, a sound bite from...

Title shortened to meet FR guidlines. Full title... GOP Establishment Invites Its Own Extinction by Declaring War on Tea Party and Seeking Compromise with Democrats BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Eric Cantor is out saying the Republicans have to change. The Republican Party has to change. The Republican Party has to show that we want to help people. The Republican Party has to reach across the aisle. Karl Rove and his PAC. What is it, American Crossroads? Is that the name of his PAC? There was a New York Times story a couple of days ago that basically said they are gonna...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Look, folks, I really don't like being a "see, I told you so." I mean, I know I do it a lot 'cause it happens a lot, and I used to even have a little jingle with it. "Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah! See, I Told You So," because it used to be somewhat unique. Now it's not difficult at all. It is important, however. I do, when relevant, like to remind you of things that you've heard in the past on this program that you may have forgotten, things that I've said. Here's a story that leads into my point....

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Monday reiterated his call for a comprehensive package of steps against gun violence as the focus on possible Senate legislation appeared to narrow to expanded background checks and limited ammunition magazines, rather than a ban on semi-automatic rifles that mimic assault weapons. Obama took part in a discussion with Minneapolis officials before telling police officers and others that an increase in gun violence nationwide, including the Connecticut school massacre in December, made it vital to address the issue now. "No law or set of laws can keep our children completely safe," Obama said in...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Did you know that the unemployment rate went up last month? They just announced that today. It went up from 7.8% to 7.9%. But the Drive-Bys are not reporting that. The Drive-Bys are all reporting the number of jobs created. That number, 157,000. They're saying that the unemployment rate going up, that's a statistical anomaly. It's not really relevant. What's happening out there is that despite the best efforts of the Republicans in December to crash this economy, despite the best efforts of the Republicans to kill this country with all their spending cuts in December, the...

Missouri conservatives proposed a bill that will punish feds violating the Second Amendment with jail time. The Tenth Amendment Center reported: Introduced by Missouri State Representative Casey Guernsey, with 61 co-sponsors, is the Missouri 2nd Amendment Preservation Act. House Bill 170 (HB170) would nullify any and all federal acts, orders, laws, statutes, rules, or regulations of the federal government on personal firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition. The bill states, in part: “Any official, agent, or employee of the federal government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the federal government upon a...

JERUSALEM — Less than a week before Israel’s parliamentary elections, a fractured array of centrist parties has failed to join forces and offer a coherent alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Divided by personal rivalries and the lack of a shared agenda, Netanyahu’s centrist challengers remain at odds, and two have even signaled more readiness to join a future coalition under his leadership than unite with each other. While Netanyahu has focused on what he portrays as his ability to defend Israel militarily and diplomatically, his centrist opponents are trying to steer the campaign to other issues, targeting potential voters...

The Obama administration's current warpath against so-called "gun violence" -- which is Newspeak for non-violence committed by non-criminals with their non-illegal private property -- is a brazen challenge to America's manhood. The progressives have apparently decided that this is the moment when they can play their ultimate authoritarian hand, and let the chips fall where they may. They believe, in other words, that this is the moment when they may be able to break America at last, one way or another. Through Obama's forceful, smug insistence on taking action in defiance of Congress, along with the aggressive urging to do...

Take small victories; engage the grassroots; go viral before the State of the Union. As outlined in a column earlier this week, Republicans/conservatives should try to outmaneuver Barack Obama and his leftist allies via a new strategy consisting of guerrilla tactics, constantly keeping Obama on the defensive, combined with a re-crafting of how conservatives communicate our principles. Conservatives have proved inept at managing crisis-atmosphere brinksmanship, but we can consistently win smaller skirmishes and ward off societal disaster long enough to outlast the Democrats’ current hold on the Senate and the White House. It’s not that budget-cutters in Congress are wrong,...

When the Supreme Court, or any other court for that matter, makes a ruling in a case they first look for precedent, in other words to see if there has been a court decision rendered on the same subject in the past and usually defer to the old decision in ruling on the case. The greatest teacher in life is experience; it only takes one time of burning your fingers on a hot stove to know that you never want to touch another one. The next greatest teacher is observation, paying attention to someone else's experiences and profiting from their...

AFP - No one wanted to be president less than Mitt Romney, his son said in an interview out Sunday that raises new questions about the candidacy of the losing Republican nominee. In an interview with the Boston Globe examining what went wrong with the Romney campaign, his eldest son Tagg explains that his father had been a reluctant candidate from the start. After failing to win the 2008 Republican nomination, Romney told his family he would not run again and had to be persuaded to enter the 2012 White House race by his wife Ann and son Tagg. "He...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is resisting pressure from Republicans pushing for the Senate to take a more active role to avoid the “fiscal cliff” after House legislation stalled Thursday. Reid has rejected Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) assertion that avoiding the fiscal cliff now depends on President Obama working out a deal with the Senate. Reid’s allies said it is unrealistic to expect him and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to step in and hammer out an eleventh-hour agreement. On Friday, Reid dismissed McConnell’s proposal that he bring to the floor legislation extending tax rates that could be...

Demand for gold coins in the US has soared since the presidential election, as small investors fret about the lack of action to address America’s ballooning debt. The US Mint’s sales of American Eagles, one of the most popular gold coins, leapt 131 per cent in November, hitting their highest level in more than two years. The Royal Canadian Mint also had its strongest month of sales this year. Terry Hanlon, president of metals at Dillon Gage, one of the largest bullion dealers in the country, said sales had risen sharply “within a day or two” of the election. “You’ve...

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Sunday promised someday the PA flag would fly over “Jerusalem, eternal capital of the state of Palestine.” Thousands of people greeted Abbas rapturously upon his return from the United Nations, where the General Assembly granted the PLO, representing the PA, upgraded status as a nonmember observer state. "Raise your heads high, because you are Palestinians!” Abbas told the joyous crowd, waving PA flags in the PA capital of Ramallah, located in Samaria. "You have proof that you are stronger than the occupation, because you are Palestinians... stronger than the settlements, because you are Palestinians. "We were...

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri. Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning. Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day. The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6. The jackpot...

In just two quick meetings on Capitol Hill, Susan Rice may have blown up any goodwill she had with the very senators she’ll need for confirmation if she’s ever tapped as the next secretary of state.Over the past two days, four key Republican senators have emerged from private meetings to blast the United Nations ambassador’s explanation about what happened during and after the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It’s not clear what Rice said behind closed doors to anger all these senators, but it’s obvious the meetings went badly and this was hardly a nominee-in-waiting charm...

Art Ginsburg, who billed himself as Mr. Food in 90-second televised cooking lessons — attracting nearly four million viewers for each, selling eight million cookbooks and presaging today’s proliferation of celebrity chef shows — died Wednesday at his home in Weston, Fla. He was 81. His family announced his death, which The Associated Press said was caused by pancreatic cancer. Mr. Ginsburg disdained haute cuisine as irrelevant to the lives of hard-pressed working folks in favor of cake mixes and canned soups. His recipes had 10 ingredients at most, and he shared uncountable timesaving tricks. His “anybody can do it”...

GRAY, Maine, Nov 27, 2012 (Bangor Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- So many gun dealers called the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, on Black Friday that the system went down twice and was slowed for those who did get through, Maine gun dealers said Monday. Even with the glitches, a record number of guns were sold on Black Friday all across the country, Stephen G. Fischer Jr., director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, said Monday. "We had an awful time getting through all day, and sometimes we couldn't get...

MARENGO, Ohio — Salvation isn’t automatic — but it might be semiautomatic. In an effort to increase membership, a number of U.S. churches — including the Church of Christ congregation in this rural village 30 miles north of Columbus — are offering an unconventional public service: Concealed weapons training. “Church has done a good job with coffee klatsches or whatever, but we haven’t really reached out to guys,” said Jeff Copley, a preacher at the church. “And guys in Morrow Country, they shoot and they hunt.” Hundreds of students have enrolled in the 10-hour course, which meets the state requirements...

If you really want to understand how to fix something, you first have to take a realistic look at what is wrong with it. After the 2004 election, Howard Dean wondered how the Democrats would reconnect with men who flew Confederate flags and had guns in their pickup trucks. They didn’t, but have since won two presidential elections. After 2008, the GOP was filled with hand-wringing about connecting with minority voters, but it managed to win the greatest congressional swing election in generations in 2010. In the wake of Obama’s re-election, there is a lot of hand-wringing going on in...

It was reported over the weekend that the owner of a gun store in Arizona is telling Pres. Obama's supporters he doesn't want their business. Cope Reynolds, the owner of Southwest Shooting Authority, a gun store located in Pinetop, Arizona, took out a full page ad in a local newspaper that read: "If you voted for Barack Obama your business is not welcome." The New York Daily News reports that Mr. Reynolds also posted a sign on the store's front door: "If you voted for Obama, please turn around and leave! You have proven you are not responsible enough to...

I received this message yesterday. IF this proves to be true, it is impeachable grounds. It also may help explain why Petreaus was forced out a few days before the Benghazi hearings coming up. It explains a lot of behavior by Obama and his administration - the pulled security, the "stand down" orders, and blaming that stupid video. The fireworks are coming. It will be the first of many disasters ahead. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to sources in the State Department and the CIA, and intercepted communications from the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama "staged" the attack in Benghazi in order to create a...

FORT PIERCE — A St. Lucie County circuit judge has scheduled a two-hour hearing for Friday on Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West’s request for a recount of all 37,379 ballots cast during early voting in St. Lucie County in his tight reelection fight against Democrat Patrick Murphy. Murphy holds a 0.58 percent lead over West in unofficial returns from congressional District 18, which includes St. Lucie and Martin counties and northern Palm Beach County. West has not conceded, citing errors in St. Lucie County’s initial early vote tally that prompted Secretary of State Ken Detzner to send three officials to...

GILBERT, AZ - A Mesa woman was arrested Saturday after she allegedly chased her husband around a Gilbert parking lot in an SUV during an argument over the presidential election. The woman finally ran over her husband, leaving him with critical injuries. According to a Gilbert police report, the argument started over her husband's lack of voter participation in the recent election. Holly Solomon, 28, apparently believed her family was going to face hardship as a result of President Barack Obama's re-election. Solomon's husband, Daniel Solomon, told police his wife "just hated Obama" and was very angry he was re-elected...

A White House petition gathering force calls for citizenship to be stripped and exile for anyone who signs a petition in favor of a state's secession. "Mr. President, please sign an executive order such that each American citizen who signed a petition from any state to secede from the USA shall have their citizenship stripped and be peacefully deported," the full petition reads. The title of the petition is, "WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO: Strip the Citizenship from Everyone who Signed a Petition to Secede and Exile Them." As of this writing, 2,205 have signed the petition; 22,795 more...

Residents in Missouri and nearly two dozen states have filed petitions on a White House website seeking approval for their state to "withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government." The secession petitions were inspired by President Barack Obama's re-election to a second term. The petitions appear on a section of the White House website called "We the People" that invites users to submit or sign petitions about policy changes they would like to see. If a petition gets 25,000 signatures within a month the White House staff will "review it, ensure it's sent to...

Divided government still rules in the nation’s capital after last week’s Tuesday’s vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in cities such as Annapolis, Topeka, Concord and Little Rock. In a little-noticed footnote to last week’s election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now...

My post of this morning was published with a couple of Senate races not finally decided. But the Republican candidates (Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana and Rep. Rick Berg of North Dakota) have now conceded to the victorious Dems. (incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana and Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota). This nets out at a two-seat pickup for the Dems and a 55-45 majority heading into 2013 (assuming that, as expected, the Senate's two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine will caucus with the Dems). The net gain is especially impressive since the...

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development. The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation. The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is...

Many things went wrong with Romney's campaign for president, but one of the biggest was the epic failure of the campaign's big-data app for getting out the vote, called Orca. When the campaign needed it most, Orca was beached. Politico has an excellent summary of the problems it says that Orca had. Among them were that the Romney campaign kept it secret and didn't beta-test it before it was rolled out on Election Day. That meant that the people who it was designed for -- the thousands of volunteers across the country -- didn't have a chance to learn how...

Freedom Works has put together a list of companies that will be laying of employees as a result of President Barack Obama's health care law: Welch Allyn Welch Allyn, a company that manufactures medical diagnostic equipment in central New York, announced in September that they would be laying off 275 employees, or roughly 10% of their workforce over the next three years. One of the major reasons discussed for the layoffs was a proactive response to the Medical Device Tax mandated by the new healthcare law. Dana Holding Corp. As recently as a week ago, a global auto parts manufacturing...

BALTIMORE (CBSDC) — Attorney General Eric Holder might not be sticking around for a second term. Holder told law school students at the University of Baltimore School of Law that he does not know if he will stay in his job. “That’s something that I’m in the process now of trying to determine,” Holder said. “I have to think about, can I contribute in a second term?” Holder says he needs to sit down with his family and President Obama to see if he wants to continue on the job. “[I have to] really ask myself the question about, do...

The day after a presidential election is a time for soul-searching for the losing party. Republicans need to look in the mirror and seriously analyze the troublesome reality that they have forgotten how to win important elections. With unemployment stuck around 8 percent, economic growth basically nonexistent and the nation suffocating from record debt, the White House should have been the GOP’s for the taking in 2012. The elephants need a new dynamic leader. It’s vital they don’t pick a RINO. The biggest bull in the herd is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The moderate party establishment naturally gravitates toward...

Rush Limbaugh calls them "Democrats with bylines." Most voters who watched the second Presidential debate saw CNN's Candy Crowley jump in and bail out President Barack Obama when he stumbled on Benghazi and correctly concluded she was biased in his favor. Many conservatives noticed how the mainstream media has played the role of Nixon's henchmen rather than Woodward and Bernstein in the Benghazi coverup and reporting on the Hurricane Sandy federal response debacle. Now a new survey completed by Breitbart News and Judicial Watch on election night confirms that most voters have no confidence in the media. As the press...

A Pennsylvania judge issued an order Tuesday to reinstate Republican election officials across Philadelphia who allegedly were ejected or refused entry by on-site Democratic voting chief judges. One Republican official claimed that "just under 70" Republican election officials were blocked from Philadelphia polling sites Tuesday morning by Democrats on site. One of them, the official claimed, "was shoved out of the polling place." "For this many inspectors to be ejected from polling places is rare, even for Philadelphia," the official told FoxNews.com. It was one of several controversies surfacing in Pennsylvania's largest city on Election Day. One polling site in...

<p>A Pennsylvania judge is issuing an order to reinstate Republican election officials across Philadelphia who allegedly were ejected or refused entry by on-site Democratic voting chief judges, GOP officials tell Fox News.</p> <p>One Republican official claimed that "just under 70" Republican election officials were blocked from Philadelphia polling sites Tuesday morning by Democrats on site. One of them, the official claimed, "was shoved out of the polling place."</p>

With just hours to go before the polls close on this historic election season, the candidates and their campaigns have made their closing arguments. Voters will soon render their verdict, and the choice seems starker than at any point in this race. Mitt Romney has offered America a path to a better future and a detailed, specific “Plan for a Stronger Middle Class.” His policies would create 12 million new jobs and increase take-home pay. They would restore fiscal sanity to the nation’s capital and opportunity to an economy that has lacked it for four long years. Mr. Romney has...

With a new American Future Fund poll showing Mitt Romney with a one-point lead in liberal Minnesota, Paul Ryan went to the state President Barack Obama won by more than 10 percentage points in 2008 and drew a crowd of nearly 9,000 people on Sunday. A source who was at the event told Breitbart News Minnesota GOP Chair Pat Shortridge announced 9,000 people were in attendance, and Ryan said another 1,000 people had to be turned away because the venue was filled to capacity. Ryan's campaign appearance in Minnesota represents how the Romney campaign is aggressively playing offense on Obama's...

Barack Obama's promise to cure the ills of our health care system was obviously an important factor in his 2008 victory over John McCain as well as that year's Democrat gains in the House and Senate. Most of the electorate favored some legislation that would slow rising medical costs and increase access to care. However, when Obamacare finally slogged out of the congressional slough, it was greeted with consternation and outrage. Instead of the reform they were promised, the voters got a grotesque government behemoth reeking of corruption. They were not amused. They appeared en masse at town hall meetings...

A judge has ordered an early-voting site in central Florida to stay open an additional four hours Sunday, following lawsuits filed by the state Democratic party. The judge ordered the polling site in Orange County to extend its hours because it was shut down Saturday while authorities investigated a suspicious package. Bill Cowles, the county’s elections supervisor, said voters who show up Sunday will be asked to use a provisional ballot because the Republican Party of Florida had appealed the decision. The Florida Democratic Party filed separate lawsuits to get four counties to offer more time for voting before Election...

ASHEVILLE, N.C., — Evangelist Billy Graham told Mitt Romney today that he would do anything he could to help his candidacy. The two met at Graham’s North Carolina home. Near the end of thirty minute meeting, Graham led a prayer for the Romneys and said, “I’ll do all I can to help you. And you can quote me on that,” according to a Romney aide who sat in on the private meeting. Graham is 93 years old and is in frail health — he was hospitalized over the summer after he came down with bronchitis. He has had prostate cancer...

Intensity, which translates into enthusiasm and therefore turnout, is an important factor in elections. One of President Obama’s fundamental problems is that, while his approval/disapproval ratings have hovered around 50/50 throughout his term, the intensity of those who disapprove of his performance has consistently been greater. We have noted this many times by referring to Scott Rasmussen’s Approval Index, which compares strong approval with strong disapproval. An incumbent who is in negative territory by this measure is likely in trouble. This graph shows Obama’s Approval Index from his inauguration to the present; currently he stands at -11. His strong approval...

Two days after President Obama flew into storm-ravaged New Jersey on Wednesday for a 90 minute photo op with Governor Christie, parts of the state have descended into what one local resident calls "an apocalyptic vision." On Friday, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, this New Jersey resident described the situation there: New Jersey right now is experiencing an apocalyptic vision. Gas lines are a mile long. Hundreds are standing in line with gas cans. Fights are breaking out. Police and national guard have been called out. I've not had power or taken a shower since Sunday. Pray for...

The Justice Department said it does not object to a new round of legal arguments over President Obama's healthcare law. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court late Wednesday, the Justice Department said the court should clear the way for a possible new hearing in the lawsuit filed by Liberty University. Although the Supreme Court has already ruled that the healthcare law's individual mandate is constitutional, Liberty has asked for a new hearing because it challenged the mandate on different grounds. A lower court declined to rule in Liberty's suit because it said the challenge was barred by the...

Do not be seduced by the disproportionate emphasis on recent events with regard to Barack Obama's pending landslide loss. I submit that a more sober analysis indicates that November 2012 has been inevitable for at least four years. In some ways, it's been inevitable for even longer than that. You see, Barack Obama and his statist agenda have failed because they could not possibly succeed. In a way, electing Obama was liberal America's dash off a cliff -- and the 2012 election is merely the day they officially make contact with the ground. There has been no other outcome possible....

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Missouri voters can send a powerful signal to "the moneyed Republican establishment" by electing congressman Todd Akin over Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

A late surge of support and months of restrained spending have left the Republican National Committee flush with cash with little time to spend it — $68 million as of Oct. 17, which was nearly seven times the amount the Democratic National Committee had in the bank. Adding in the cash from other presidential campaign committees, the mismatch still was stark: $156 million for Mitt Romney and his GOP allies to $94 million for President Obama and his allies. State Republican parties also had 50 percent more cash than their Democratic counterparts, according to an analysis by The Washington Times....

Does anyone believe that when Barack Obama loses on November 6, he will go quietly? This election is shaping up to be a landslide loss for the president, and by the ever-present look of desperation on his face, he knows it. The nation should be preparing for how he might react when it happens -- there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered god. In 2008, Americans wholeheartedly bought the Obama dream. It's never easy to let go of a dream, but today, people have let go of Obama the dream -- and on November 6, they will let go...

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Stormy weather wasn't enough to prevent George Cullen from canvassing for Mitt Romney this week. Monday, while Ohio was hit by cold wind and rain, the Clermont County resident knocked on 25 doors -- but that's about half his average daily total, and Cullen has been knocking on doors in the suburbs of Cincinnati for the past five weeks. While the conservatives he speaks to during his door-to-door visits are "energized," says Cullen, "A lot of them don't want to do early voting. They're traditionalists. They want to wait until Nov. 6." Republicans are encouraging early-voting, but...