Free Republic

It’s almost become expected at this point. In the nearly four years he’s been in office, Vice President Joe Biden has awed the country with his gaffes (see here, here, and here, just to name a few). And on Sunday, he struck again. During an interview with David Gregory on “Meet The Press,” Biden’s mind seemed otherwise occupied when it came to consistently and correctly referring to who he was talking about. For example, at one point, and much to the joy of Republicans, he referred to Mitt Romney as “President Romney.” But as if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he...

A Fort Myers principal involved Lee County sheriff’s deputies in an elementary school crush. Deputies were dispatched Wednesday to Orange River Elementary School in reference to what Assistant Principal Margaret Ann Haring called a “possible sex crime” — two students kissing. “This incident is more of a simple assault, though by definition there would have to be a victim,” Sgt. Stephanie Eller said. Haring told deputies she had two students, both under 12, who kissed while in physical education class, reports said. Haring said one of them was debating about who liked who more. The student then went over and...

Microphones accidently left on after G20 meeting pick up private conversation between US, French presidents. Sarkozy admits he 'can't stand' Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day! French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar." According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters...

President Barack Obama has forcefully rejected calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over a controversial federal law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed hundreds of guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and the National Rifle Association have called for Holder's resignation over "Operation Fast and Furious," the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigation that monitored suspicious gun sales. Several of the weapons have been recovered from drug gangs in Mexico and two guns were found at the scene of the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent last December. However, when...

Because BBM, which rioters are using to communicate, is not traceable by cops, PM David Lammy says it’s “one of reasons why unsophisticated criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police force.” LONDON – What, you might wonder, is the modern urban guerilla’s rioting weapon of choice? A machete? You might think so. But for most of the youngsters looting and ransacking the streets of London for the past three nights, cement blocks, iron bars and supermarket trolleys seemed to do the job of smashing in shop windows just as well. A balaclava? Perhaps. Per the multiple videos posted on Twitter...

The White House called for an end to the political gridlock blamed for the first-ever US credit rating downgrade as allies voiced confidence in the world's largest economy. Standard & Poor's cut the US rating for the first time in history Friday, by one notch from its top-flight triple-A to AA+, saying US politicians were increasingly unable to manage the country's huge fiscal deficit and debt. The agency added a negative outlook, warning there was a chance the rating could be downgraded further within two years if progress is not made in balancing the country's lopsided finances. Washington's allies in...

Given the presence of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., at Congress last night – and President Obama’s January 12 speech to the nation about the need for “more civility in our public discourse” – the White House has faced questions in the last day about Vice President Biden’s possible behind-closed-doors use of the word “terrorists” to describe Tea Partyers. As we covered yesterday, meeting with anxious House Democrats yesterday, the Vice President heard from Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Penn., who said “the Tea Party acted like terrorists in threatening to blow up the economy.”Doyle used the term several times.

A pro-life organization is set to release a series of 911 calls showing staff at the Southwestern Women’s Options late-term abortion center in New Mexico calling for help on various occasions over a 15-month time period after women were injured in abortions. Some of the calls show life-threatening situation where women’s lives and health were at risk as a result of failed abortions. The pro-life group, Operation Rescue, says the calls, which will be made public today and in the coming weeks, reveal a disturbing pattern of life-threatening abortion complications that routinely endanger the lives and health of women.

President Obama has a new term for the people he wants to tax more: jet owners. In his news conference today, the president said: “I think it’s only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that’s doing so well to give up that tax break….I don’t think that’s real radical.” (Courtesy of JetSuite Air) Asking private-jet owners to give up tax breaks may not be that radical. And it probably would be supported by the vast majority of the nonjet-owning voters. The problem is that most of the people that would be subject to the higher...

Bill O’Reilly keeps addresses to his media enemies at a bare minimum, but tonight he devoted an entire segment to declaring war on left-wing media criticism site Media Matters for America and their current tax-exempt status. Along with Washington Times reporter C. Boyden Gray, O’Reilly highlighted the fact that MMFA had not paid taxes since well into the George W. Bush administration and it would take an independent formal complaint to remove their status. O’Reilly, who defined Media Matters as an organization dedicated to war on Fox News, asked Gray to explain

Welcome to the new civility. At a Thursday rally in New Jersey protesting Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s pension deal that would cut pensions and benefits to public workers, a union leader charged Christie with acting like a Nazi. And not any ordinary Nazi, but Adolf Hitler himself. “Good afternoon brothers and sisters. Welcome to Nazi Germany,” Communications Workers of America District 1 Vice President Christopher Shelton is seen raving in a video posted on YouTube. “We have Adolf Christie and his two generals trying to make New Jersey Nazi Germany.”

Karl Vick’s anti-Israel partisanship continues unabated on the pages and website of Time Magazine. Vick, Time’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, self-assuredly insisted in a May 29 blog post that Israel continues to occupy the Gaza Strip: Cairo after all had control of the coastal enclave from 1948 to 1967, when Gaza was among the vast territory Israel conquered in the Six Day War. And though it remains technically under Israeli occupation, Israel Defense Forces pulled out in 2005... Israel, of course, fully withdrew its soldiers and civilians from the Gaza Strip in 2005, representing a self-evident end to the occupation....

California Republican Darrell Issa has called a hearing to look at the possibility that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may be committing obstruction of justice by ignoring a subpoena. On April 1, Issa, House Oversight Committee chairman, subpoenaed all documents pertaining to two Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) programs, Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious. Specifically, Issa was looking for documents and communications “relating to the genesis” of the programs and any information related to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two AK-47s ATF was tracking through Operation Fast and Furious were found at...

I thought for sure the Democratic line on this would be, “It’s over, he accepted responsibility, let’s move on.” Nope. So worried are they about the fallout that they’re willing to prolong the story as long as they can if it means they can get on the other side of it and isolate Weiner in doing so. Or is this simply Pelosi knowing/expecting that the GOP will launch an investigation anyway and figuring that she might as well stand up for “good government” while she can? But after his news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that she...

Is this a joke? Or has the mainstreaming of Sharia really advanced this far? If Shamci Rafani is real and not a hoax, is she a "moderate" because she is only calling for the killing of adulteresses, not actually carrying it out? Doesn't this article give the lie to the oft-repeated claim that no Muslims in America support the elements of Sharia that contradict American principles and laws? Can we get a statement repudiating the stoning of adulteresses and rebuking Shamci Rafani from the "moderate" Muslim establishment? Honest Ibe Hooper? Imam Rauf? Anyone? Anyone? And didn't anyone at the Visalia...

If a conservative politician does something or is alleged to have done something ill-advised of the sexual nature, chances are it will be on the radar of the mainstream media. But what about liberals – like New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner? According Andrew Breitbart, there’s a double standard not only in the mainstream media, but among members of Congress as well. On Tuesday’s “Follow the Money” on the Fox Business Network, Breitbart went right after those politicians. However, he also had a few words for CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who attacked Breitbart earlier in the day. “Look, there’s...

If the War Powers Act becomes moot, don’t blame Barack Obama, say the editors of the Chicago Tribune today. In order to curtail abuses of power from the executive, the legislature not only has to pass laws but also enforce them. And thus far, they’re not impressed with the Washington Way in Chi-town: Obama is on the horns of a dilemma. As a candidate, he said the president does not have the power to go to war on his own except in cases of actual or likely attack. But if he were to ask Congress to authorize the Libyan intervention,...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that the U.S. would not intervene militarily in Syria as it is doing in Libya, and drew a distinction between Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Syria's Bashar Assad. The latter, she explained, is seen by congressmen from both parties as “a reformer.” “What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning," she told CBS's Face the Nation regarding Syria, "but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities," as Qaddafi has done, and the violence by the Assad regime, which merely amounted to "police actions...

Washington - US President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to offer condolences for a bombing in Jerusalem that killed a British woman and injured at least 34 people, including six US citizens, the White House said. Advertisement: Obama also expressed ‘concern about the recent rocket and mortar attacks against Israel from Gaza,’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. Obama ‘reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,’ Carney said.

Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz asks that the Obama administration reconsider its position on health care reform in an interview published Tuesday by The Seattle Times. The coffee company and barista bigwig, often vocal about wanting health care reform, saw double-digit employee health care cost increases for five consecutive years. “That cost last year was $250 million,” Schultz told The Seattle Times.

(Excuse me for printing his words. I wanted you to see what the left is saying now.) This is infuriating. This clod deserves no respect. Bill Maher called Sarah Palin a “dumb twat” on his comedy show last night. His far left audience loved it. The Daily Caller reported: On Friday night’s airing of the show, host Bill Maher took a shot at one of the left’s favorite targets, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, by contemplating her reaction to the tragic events that have unfolded in Japan over the past nine days. (h/t Real Clear Politics Video) “Did you hear...

Despite some skeptics, many Islam watchers report that the Muslim Brotherhood is an extremist group—and no friend of Israel. Now, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is forming a political party called Freedom and Justice. Sa`d al-Katatni has been asked to lead the charge. This is a significant development because it marks the first time in the nearly century-long history of the Muslim Brotherhood that it has successfully organized a political party.

As the calls for clemency for Jonathan Pollard continue to intensify, Henry A. Kissinger, an elder statesman, well-respected diplomat, and experienced member of the United States intelligence community, has become the latest American governmental leader to issue a public call for Pollard’s release. Pollard has spent more than 25 years languishing in a federal prison for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. Kissinger, who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, sent a letter to President Obama requesting that he commute Pollard’s sentence to...

RUSH: Robert B. Reichhhh, you've got to hear this. Robert B. Reichhhh was on NBC live last night with the anchor Cenk Uygur, and he spoke with Reich, and Cenk Uygur said, "This isn't just about let's get the money from the rich because that's where it is and they've accumulated all the wealth up at the top. It also makes sense for the rich if we had more equal distribution of income because of the effect it would have on the middle class. Tell us about that, why do you think [it's better to redistribute the wealth?] Now if...

MADISON, Wis.--The head of Wisconsin's powerful teachers' union is calling on educators to return to classrooms Monday and Tuesday rather than continue being absent to protest an anti-union bill at the state Capitol. The protests against a bill that would take away public workers' right to collectively bargain for their benefits and working conditions forced several school districts to shut down last week after teachers called in sick to join demonstrators in Madison.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps made a case for a government hand in media policy in a speech to the FCBA on Tuesday. "The commission can act now. It should have acted on the media before now. I am disappointed that it has not," he said. The decline of "real journalism" justifies federal involvement, according to Copps. "The news is suffering from a bad case of substance abuse," he said. The Democratic commissioner pointed to Fox News' Bernie Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly as examples of the problem with today's media landscape,

Like the dog that finally catches the car, the radicals have become the establishment. Those free-wheeling students of the ’60s – fighting “the man,” bombing government buildings, burning draft cards – now work for that government and are counting the days when they’ll receive their taxpayer-funded pension and retiree health care. In fact, the radicals of the 1960s are now pushing retirement age, wrapping up careers that saw them control so much of American society — the news media, academia, government bureaucracy and Hollywood. When Obama told audiences during the 2008 campaign that “We are the change we’ve been waiting...

Noam Chomsky is a linguist and political philosopher of dubious repute, who remains, in spite of his errors and failed predictions, the Left’s “rabbi, our preacher, our rinpoche, our sensei.” This week at CounterContempt, David Stein announced the release of letters he says shed harsh light on one of Chomsky’s most troubling associations: his literary relationship with a Holocaust denier. As Stein explains: In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, leftist author, professor, and anti-Israel activist Noam Chomsky became embroiled in what would become known as “The Faurisson Affair.” In 1979, a professor of literature at the University of Lyon,...

A survivor of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China appealed to President Barack Obama during a press conference on Tuesday to push Chinese President Hu Jintao to end the practice of forcing women to have an abortion as part of China's one-child-per-couple policy. “President Obama, we’re speaking to you as the president of this great nation, we also speak to you as a great father for your two beautiful children,” said Chai Ling, who came to the United States in 1990 and founded All Girls Allowed, a Christian organization that helps Chinese victims of forced abortions and sterilization in...

Christine O'Donnell on Tuesday compared the "tragedy" of extending unemployment benefits to Pearl Harbor and the death of Elizabeth Edwards. "Today marks a lot of tragedy," O'Donnell, (Snip) "Tragedy comes in threes," O'Donnell said. "Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards's passing and Barack Obama's announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unemployment benefits."

WASHINGTON — A report released Tuesday may give nurses with advanced degrees a potent weapon in their perennial battle to get the authority to practice without a doctor's oversight. The report, released by the Institute of Medicine and sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says nurses should take on a larger and more independent role in providing health care in America, something many doctors have repeatedly opposed, citing potential safety concerns. It calls for states and the federal government to remove barriers that restrict what care advanced practice nurses — those with a master's degree — provide. The report...

In my Parish I work with the men of the Holy Name Society and also the women of the Sodality to ensure that the numerous sick in our parish are visited regularly. I try to visit the sick at least quarterly on a rolling basis to ensure they have had confession and anointing of the Sick. But, since I am without an assistant priest, as a general rule, I depend on them to bring communion regularly.We met as a group this past week and had an interesting discussion about a concern that a number of them expressed, that of reverence....

If Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, kids would be spending a lot more time at school — and a three-month summer would be a thing of the past. Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon at the National Press Club Tuesday in Washington that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. Then he told the audience of over 100 that he seriously supports longer school hours. “In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said....

WASHINGTON (JTA) – J Street has called for an investigation into American charities that fund Israeli settlement activity. J Street, the self-proclaimed political home for “pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans,” launched a campaign on Monday calling on the US Treasury Department to look into whether organizations named in a July 6 New York Times report have broken the law. The report identified more than 40 US organizations that have collected over $200 million in tax-deductible contributions for schools, synagogues and recreation centers in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The organizations support Jewish settlements in the West Bank and receive tax breaks...

On Monday good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked a House committee to look into whether the Obama White House violated federal laws regarding electronic records by using private email accounts to communicate with lobbyists and meeting with lobbyists outside the White House. CREW wrote a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asking it to investigate and hold hearings to determine any violations of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and Federal Records Act (FRA). The group’s letter is in response to an article in The New York Times on June 25 that...

A lone protester paced the state Capitol parking lot Tuesday holding a U.S. Marine Corps flag and sign that read, “Prosecute Blumenthal Stolen Valor Act.” The protester, Jim Bancroft of Windsor Locks, says he served in as a U.S. Marine from 1977 to 1981 and claims that he has defended Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in the past against accusations regarding his military service because during conversations, the two had Blumenthal had always said he served state-side as a reservist. While the two had nothing in common politically, “I thought he was a decent guy” until he watched the video,...

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday said he had "misspoken" in claiming more than once that he served in Vietnam, dismissing the furor that threatened to endanger a seemingly safe Democratic seat as a matter of "a few misplaced words." At a news conference backed by veterans, the popular Connecticut attorney general and front-runner to replace the retiring Sen. Christopher Dodd, said he meant to say he served "during Vietnam" instead of "in Vietnam." He said the statements were "totally unintentional" errors that occurred only a few times out of hundreds of public appearances.

In launching a Web site aimed at educating the United States on Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law, Governor Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) took umbrage with the president's joke at the recent White House Correspondents' Dinner. The event is an opportunity for its speakers to make light of politics, and President Barack Obama did so with Arizona's immigration law: "We all know what happens in Arizona when you don't have ID -- adios, amigos." It was this joke which became the target of Gov. Brewer's address regarding new steps the state government is taking to promote the law on a national level.

Amid Furor over State's New Immigration Law, Commissioner Defends Baseball's Record on Minority Hiring (AP) Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is ignoring calls to move next year's All-Star game from Phoenix because of Arizona's new immigration law. Asked about such demands at a news conference Thursday following an owners meeting, he responded with a defense of baseball's record on minority hiring. "Apparently all the people around and in minority communities think we're doing OK. That's the issue, and that's the answer," he said. "I told the clubs today: 'Be proud of what we've done.' They are. We should. And that's our...

President Barack Obama announced today his administration would pursue to expand offshore drilling (Reuters): President Barack Obama will announce on Wednesday he will stick with a Bush-era plan to drill oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia but will not pursue energy development in waters off the U.S. Northeast and the West Coast that were recently opened to drilling. Obama, who wants Congress to move a stalled climate change bill, has sought to reach out to Republicans by signaling he is open to allowing offshore drilling, providing coastlines are protected. Allowing offshore drilling also would create jobs and...

As the mainstream media hyperventilate over what is now regularly being referred to as rightwing hate speak, liberal talk radio host Mike Malloy Friday actually called for conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Bill O'Reilly to commit suicide. "You rat bastards are going to cause another Murrah federal building explosion," said Malloy. "[M]aybe at that point Beck will do the honorable thing and blow his brains out." He disgustingly continued, "Maybe at that point, Limbaugh will do the honorable thing and just gobble up enough - enough Viagra that he becomes absolutely rigid and keels over dead."

I've made some phone calls today to get through to representatives and respectfully ask them to vote against Obama's healthcare package. I declined to provide an address but asked them (nicely) to pass on my request. It may not have an impact but I know I've tried to do something. I didn't want to be mean to the folks answering the phone. Their lives would be miserable enough if this bill passes.

President Obama congratulated Republican Scott Brown Tuesday night for his win over Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate race, calling him to say he looks forward to working with him on economic challenges facing the nation.

RICHMOND, Va. — Attorneys for John Allen Muhammad released a May 2008 letter on Wednesday in which the mastermind of the deadly 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area proclaims his innocence. The rambling, handwritten letter was made available because of requests for a statement from Muhammad, his attorneys wrote on the Web page of their law firm. The letter was filed in federal court in connection with Muhammad's unsuccessful attempt to block his execution, the attorneys said.

Reporting from Washington - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress on Wednesday that delays in the release of H1N1 flu shots show that the United States is too dependent on other countries for the manufacture of vaccines and that the technology to make them must be improved. Four of the five manufacturers of H1N1 vaccines are foreign companies -- a fact that alarmed lawmakers, who expressed concern about the ability of the federal government to secure enough vaccine to prevent the spread of the virus, known as swine flu.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama called on Congress Wednesday to approve $250 payments to more than 50 million seniors to make up for no increase in Social Security next year. The White House put the cost at $13 billion. The Social Security Administration is scheduled to announce Thursday that there will be no cost of living increase next year. By law, increases are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year. It would mark the first year without an increase in Social Security payments since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

Bring on the war of words. In a frank conversation with MSN writer Lawrence Ulrich, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen has said that the Chevy Volt will fail and that anybody who buys the car is an idiot. Not only that, de Nysschen has lumped proponents of any type of electric car into a category of "intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are." I'm guessing that means a fair amount of the people reading this would be considered idiots and pompous intellectual elites in Mr. de Nysschen's book. Funny that. Hearing an Audi executive...

First the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet cited freedom of the press as its justification for accusing IDF soldiers of harvesting Palestinian organs. Now the Spanish daily El Monde is using the same argument to defend including Holocaust denier David Irving among its list of experts to be interviewed this week to mark 70 years since the start of World War II. An interview with Irving, who served time in an Austrian prison for his Holocaust denial, is scheduled to appear in the paper on Saturday, a day after an interview with Yad Vashem's chairman Avner Shalev.

(IsraelNN.com) Former Jordanian prime minister Abd Al-Raouf Al-Rawabdeh delivered a speech recently in which he called Israel “a cancer that must be eradicated.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House panel Wednesday that a government-run health care plan is needed to keep in check the private insurance industry, which she says wields too much power and often fails to best serve the public.