Free Republic

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm!" had a big meeting at the White House today where, all of a sudden, Barack Obama wants to make the government smaller. All of a sudden, Barack Obama's concerned about the inefficiency of the bureaucracy. All of a sudden, Barack Obama has realized that government isn't working for small business. All of a sudden, Barack Obama has realized the trouble that average people have dealing with the government. All of a sudden, Barack Obama has realized that there are one hundred... Oh. No, this is the way to put it. "The...

President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for authority to close the Commerce Department and create a new export agency, an overhaul that could save US$3-billion and help inoculate him against Republican election-year charges that he is a big-government liberal. White House budget official Jeffrey Zients told reporters the reorganization would fold together the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other trade bodies now spread across Washington, giving businesses a single point of contact and ensuring federal spending goes further to boost exports. Obama was set to deliver remarks at 11:20 a.m. on the new, yet-to-be-named department that...

Should energy consumers pay extra taxes to fund government-mandated and subsidized renewable energy technologies? "Absolutely yes," says John Bryson, President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary. He made the remark at a meeting of the Commonwealth Club of California in 2009 and went on to extol the virtues of hidden rates in California, a state encumbered with some of the nation's highest electricity and unemployment rates. Bryson, retired CEO of the electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE) and its parent company Edison International, excused the practice, saying, "That's been a part of the regulatory environment for the investor-owned utilities for as...

(CNSNews.com) – John Bryson, President Obama’s nominee to head the Commerce Department, told a University of California Berkeley audience in 2010 that a cap and trade system was a good way to hide a carbon tax from the public. Bryson, formerly the CEO of Edison International, said that a carbon tax was the new “third rail” of politics because politicians wouldn’t want to tax energy directly. “I think it’s still unlikely there’ll be a carbon tax bill because I think in the end a very high percentage of the members of Congress think it’s kind of the third rail to...

Post: The nominee for commerce secretary founded an anti-energy group and believes in redistribution of wealth to help poorer nations. At this rate, we'll be one of them. If personnel is policy, there can be no better choice to help implement President Obama's anti-growth energy policy and redistribution of wealth plans than his choice to be the next secretary of commerce, John Bryson. One would think that the former CEO of power company Edison International would have a more practical view of energy development and management. But he's earned Rep. Darrell Issa's description of him as a "green evangelist." Bryson...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will nominate businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, a White House official said Tuesday. Bryson's appointment brings another private sector player into an administration that has been making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the business community.

Double-dips are good for ballroom dancers and useful to economists. The first is obvious. If you can execute an elegant dip or two during a tango it goes a long way toward obscuring flaws in the rest of your routine. The same is true for double-dip recessions, which you will be hearing a lot more about over the next week. It's hard to find an expert who correctly predicted the economy would be sinking again this summer. OK, this column did. But my sources and I understood that much of the economic gains this past spring were an illusion caused...

Hoaxes: Despite failures at Copenhagen, the fraud of the IPCC and the farce of Climate-gate, the administration wants an agency to monitor climate change. Why must we fund one-stop shopping for climate charlatans? As the climate freezes, there's no freeze on federal employment that will grow even more with the establishment of a new agency, the Climate Service office. The new agency was announced Monday by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This ministry of climate change propaganda will operate in tandem with NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean...

Commerce Secretary nominee Gary Locke, whose job would include approving sensitive exports to China, has performed legal work for companies doing business with Beijing and was forced to refund several political donations that he received in the 1990s from key figures in a Chinese influence-buying investigation. The former Washington state governor is expected to face questions about both issues during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Senate aides and an Obama administration official familiar with the vetting told The Washington Times. Mr. Locke was the first Chinese-American to become governor when Washington state voters elected him in 1996, and he served...

GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- The Naval Historical Center’s (NHC) search for Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones' ship Bonhomme Richard received further support in early February, when it was recommended for funding through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration's competitive grant process. The NHC and Ocean Technology Foundation (OTF) plan to launch a search for Bonhomme Richard off the coast of England in July. "You cannot find an underwater archaeological site more important to the U.S. Navy than that of John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard," said Dr. Robert Neyland, head of the NHC's...

Last year was a record for the nation's home building industry . The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of single-family homes and apartments totaled 2.065 million units last year. The increase of 5.6 percent over 2004 pushed overall residential construction to the second highest level on record, exceeded only by 2.357 million units built in 1972. Meanwhile, single-family home construction hit an all-time high for the third straight year, rising to 1.714 million units, up 6.4 percent from the previous record of 1.611 million homes built in 2004. The record-setting performance came despite the fact that housing activity dropped...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge awarded conservative legal group Judicial Watch nearly $900,000 for attorney fees and costs stemming from suits for documents related to Commerce Department trade missions in the 1990s. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last week that the group should be reimbursed for some costs incurred during roughly 10 years of litigation with the department. Judicial Watch sued the Commerce Department in the 1990s for information about the department's trade missions in an effort to document whether businesses won seats on those missions in return for donations to the Democratic Party. The legal group sought...

Booming economic growth in 2005 flies in the face of economic “soft patch” WASHINGTON, D.C. – Another good piece of economic news came today as the Commerce Department reported retail sales grew at a torrid 1.4 percent pace in April. The gains far outpaced analyst’s expectations of 0.8 percent growth and continue to paint a picture of long term, sustained economic growth. Many left-leaning pundits and journalists have claimed in recent weeks that the U.S. economy was slowing down, but reality sharply contradicts this pessimistic outlook. “I have to question the intellectual credentials of anyone who looks at this economy...

Borrowing a page from President Bush, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton told a Boston audience this week that prayer has always played a meaningful role in her life - though accounts from her days as a student radical suggest that's probably not true. "I've always been a praying person," Clinton told a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza. According to the Boston Globe, the newly religious former first lady "invoked God more than half a dozen times" as she urged society to accommodate religious people who "live out their faith in the...

You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends tell us that the two are cheering Sis on and say she's making all the moves to get ready for the race--presuming she is re-elected by New Yorkers in 2006.

On the eve of President Bush's second inauguration, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is blasting him as the "fear factor" president who tries to sell his irresponsible agenda by scaring the voters. "The fear factor has become the overriding strategic approach that this administration uses," Clinton complained to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The likely 2008 presidential candidate told the paper that Bush has used scare tactics to rally public support on issues ranging from U.S. policy in Iraq to privatization of Social Security. On Iraq Clinton griped that Bush had even botched the election process, saying that regional balloting...

Hillary Clinton on Environment Supports oil reserve release & fund conservation Q: Do you support conserving energy?A: I’ve spoken about an energy policy that would include conservation tax credits that the Republicans have blocked. The administration has put forth an energy policy that we couldn’t get through that Republican leadership that my opponent is part of. We need a new Congress. I was pleased when the president did release some oil from the reserve. So we have work to do and it needs to be led by Democrats who understand that we shouldn’t be beholden to big oil. Source:...

WASHINGTON - Tomorrow night, with the nation's capital awash in inaugural events, Sen. Hillary Clinton will be delivering a high-profile speech in Boston about politics and youth. She is the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for a group headed by outspoken Boston minister, Rev. Eugene Rivers. Aides to Clinton, a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2008, said she agreed to give the speech a long time ago and said nothing should be read into the timing.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

NEW YORK, January 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion crusader and New York Senator Hillary Clinton condemned US President George W. Bush Tuesday, claiming his withdrawal of funding from organizations that commit or promote abortions is harming women. Speaking at an International Women's Health Coalition-sponsored dinner, Clinton claimed that "reproductive health care and family planning service is a basic right," and said this was based on decisions reached at the 1994 U.N. Population Conference in Cairo, as well as the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing, where Clinton gave a keynote address. She argued that the Bush administration has failed to...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson praised New York Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday as "Sister Hillary," after Clinton cited his efforts to overturn the presidential election by challenging the Electoral College vote in Ohio. Speaking at his annual Wall Street Project fundraiser, Jackson said "Sister Hillary" had been an important ally in his fight for those "traumatized by what happened to us as a people and a nation in Ohio." He called Clinton "a light in dark places," who has "stood on the right side of history," according to quotes picked up by the New York Sun. The praise for Clinton came...

Amid speculation that she might forgo a run for re-election to the Senate in 2006 in favor of a presidential run in 2008, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has sent an early fundraising appeal that, while directed toward reelection, reads like a trial run for a White House bid. "As the Republicans' number one target in 2006, I have to begin now building resources for the tough fight I face in my re-election campaign," Clinton writes in a letter to supporters. She says her task is made more difficult by "the Republican attack machine out to distract me...

George W. Bush Is Most Admired Man in 2004 Hillary Clinton tops list of most admired women; Oprah Winfrey a close second by Joseph Carroll GALLUP NEWS SERVICE PRINCETON, NJ -- President George W. Bush tops Gallup's annual survey of the "most admired man" for the fourth year in a row. Hillary Clinton leads the most admired woman list, with Oprah Winfrey close behind. Republicans and Democrats differ significantly in their views of this year's most admirable men and women. Republicans overwhelmingly say the president is the most admired man, and also name first lady Laura Bush and national security...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray announced today the unsealing of a four-count indictment charging David Rosen, the former National Finance Director for a candidate for United States Senate in the 2000 campaign, with causing false campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1001 and 2. The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the Central District of California and unsealed today. The indictment alleges that Rosen, an experienced professional political fundraiser, was responsible for all fundrasing, planning and costs for an...

[snip]The affidavit said the true cost of the event "was deliberately understated in order to increase the amount of funds available to New York Senate 2000 for federal campaign activities." Mrs. Clinton was first lady at the time of the gala.     The indictment comes at a time when Mrs. Clinton is considered a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, and faces potential challenges in 2006 for her Senate seat from former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani or New York Gov. George E. Pataki. [snip]Two of the event's organizers were Hollywood producer Peter F. Paul and charity fund-raiser Aaron...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former finance director has been indicted on charges of causing false campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department said Friday. The indictment of David Rosen, unsealed in Los Angeles, focuses on his fund-raising for an Aug. 12, 2000, gala for Clinton in Los Angeles. The New York Democrat was still first lady at the time. While the event allegedly cost more than $1.2 million, the indictment said, Rosen reported contributions of about $400,000, knowing the figure to be false. The indictment charged that Rosen provided some documents...

NewsMax.com http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/6/24/221543 Monday, June 24, 2002 11:15 p.m. EDT FBI Raids Hillary's Warehouse in Whitewater Déjà Vu Ten years ago, L. Jean Lewis, an investigator with the government's Resolution Trust Corporation, was able to piece together a complicated Arkansas bank fraud conspiracy from a treasure trove of documents she unearthed in an out-of-the-way Kansas City warehouse. The result was the Whitewater scandal, which, after six years' worth of twists and turns, ended in the first impeachment of an elected president in U.S. history. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton surely hopes that history isn't repeating itself with the raid conducted by...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (AP) - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's former finance director has been indicted on charges of filing fictitious reports that misstated contributions for a Hollywood fund-raising gala for the senator, the Justice Department said Friday. The indictment, rare for a political campaign, was unsealed in Los Angeles and charged David Rosen with four counts of filing false reports with the Federal Election Commission. The charges focus on a dinner and concert on Aug. 12, 2000, supported by more than $1.1 million in so-called in-kind contributions - goods and services provided free or below cost. The F.B.I. previously said...

Though Hillary Clinton's former finance chairman David Rosen was actually indicted in 2003, the Bush administration kept it secret till the indictment was unsealed late Friday, a move that spared the former first couple and the Democratic Party significant embarrassment during the height of the 2004 presidential campaign. "The indictment was handed down more than a year ago," the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Citing "sources familiar with the probe," the Times said the Bush Justice Department decided that any criminal charges would not be made public until after last fall's presidential election for fear they would be seen as...

WASHINGTON - A top aide in Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate race was indicted yesterday on federal charges of filing false documents that allegedly lowballed costs and hid generous assistance in putting on a star-studded Hollywood gala. The Justice Department alleges that David Rosen, Clinton's former campaign finance director, misstated the cost of the fund-raiser to free up more cash for the Democrat's 2000 election. Campaign staffers have denied the books were cooked. Rosen was indicted on four counts of filing false Federal Election Commission reports stemming from an Aug. 12, 2000, fund-raising dinner and concert for Clinton's Senate campaign....

WASHINGTON – The indictment of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s former Senate campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, on campaign finance charges was made possible by the cooperation of Judicial Watch client Peter Paul, the public interest watchdog group said today. Paul, a former Hollywood Internet entrepreneur and partner of "Spiderman" creator Stan Lee, spent nearly $2 million to produce the August 2000 Hollywood tribute to honor President Clinton and to help raise funds for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate campaign – the event at the center of the indictment. He was repeatedly assured that his expenses would be reported to the Federal...

"Is anyone really surprised that another Clinton confidante has been indicted?" said Stephen Minarik, referring to the indictment of David Rosen, who served as Hillary Clinton's finance director in her 2000 Senate race. The New York State Republican Party chairman added: "Hillary Clinton's public life reads like an instruction manual for breaking the rules. New Yorkers deserve better. The remarks by Minarik are but the opening salvo in a ramping up campaign to frustrate her reelection to the Senate and even nix a potential presidential bid by Clinton in 2008, says a report in the NY Daily News. Pundits are...

I anxiously awaited information about the indictment of my neighbor Hillary Clinton's Campaign finance director David Rosen. To my surprise, there was no mention of it in the local or national pages. I suggest to folks like me who want to hear the story, that they call or fax the Journal news here in Westchester County & ask them why they missed this huge story! Contact them at: Reader Services Editor The Journal News One Gannett Drive White Plains, NY 10604 Phone: (914) 694-3514 Fax: (914) 694-5018

The head of New York GOP blasted Hillary Clinton's ethics yesterday in the wake of the indictment of the junior senator's former finance director. "Is anyone really surprised that another Clinton confidant has been indicted?" said Stephen Minarik. "Hillary Clinton's public life reads like an instruction manual for breaking the rules. New Yorkers deserve better."

A few articles from a New York City Newspaper on the Clinton Fundraiser scandal. It's nice to see somebody besides the A.P. actually writing a story that doesn't fawn over this slimeball.

THE indictment of Hillary Clinton's 2000 campaign-finance director, David Rosen, may pose a threat to the senator's presidential bid. For now, the federal indictment is focused only on Rosen, but it is not hard to see the process creeping up the campaign food chain to the senator herself. [snip] While there is no indication that the Senate candidate knew of the understating of the cost of the event, is it credible that she would not be aware of a decision that gave her campaign more than a quarter of a million dollars as it entered the final three months...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton personally negotiated some of the fees for a star-studded Aug. 12, 2000 Hollywood fundraiser, the event's producer, Peter Paul, said in an interview aired on Sunday - as the event comes under increasing scrutiny by a Los Angeles grand jury and the Justice Department. And in another sign of potential legal trouble for the top Democrat, a spokesman for the lawfirm championing Paul's case said his client informed Mrs. Clinton that her finance director, David Rosen, had failed to accurately report costs for the event to the Federal Election Commission. "Hillary Clinton personally called the...

The man who organized a star-studded Hollywood gala to benefit then-first lady Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign has authored a riveting account of his life among the rich and famous, shining the light on members of the would-be presidential candidate's staff and the Democratic standard bearer herself. Aaron Tonken, who quickly became a friend to top celebrities after once living in an L.A. homeless shelter, penned the last portion of his tell-all book, "King of Cons: Exposing the Dirty, Rotten Secrets of the Washington Elite and Hollywood Celebrities," from behind bars. Part of his story includes what he considers a betrayal...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Recent polls show the public's image of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., gradually morphing from sharply controversial First Lady to centrist, constituent-minded senator. Although still a polarizing figure, the first-term legislator could use the makeover to position herself for a White House run in 2008. Political strategists say Clinton has impressed Senate colleagues and constituents by working on New York issues while taking moderate or conservative stances on controversies such as the war in Iraq. "A majority feel positive toward her," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. "She's being...

Commencement Speech, Wellesley College by Hillary Rodham Wellesley College - May 31, 1969 "I am very glad that Miss Adams made it clear that what I am speaking for today is all of us -- the 400 of us -- and I find myself in a familiar position, that of reacting, something that our generation has been doing for quite a while now. We're not in the positions yet of leadership and power, but we do have that indispensable task of criticizing and constructive protest and I find myself reacting just briefly to some of the things that Senator Brooke...

Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats say New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the party's strongest Presidential candidate in 2008. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 16% think 2004 nominee John Kerry would be the best bet for Democrats in the next Presidential contest. Thirteen percent (13%) named Kerry's running mate, John Edwards.Among unaffiliated voters, 27% named Senator Clinton as the Democrats' strongest candidate. Sixteen percent (16%) named Senator Edwards and 10% Senator Kerry.No other candidate reached double digits among Democrats or unaffiliated voters in the Rasmussen Reports survey. None of the three "Red State" candidates reached 5%. Those...

Maybe I haven't visited enough presidential libraries. And, yes, I do know they all inevitably have something worshipful about them; it's in their nature. But I can't recall anything - anything! - so blatantly partisan, so full of just plain bullfeathers, so completely . . . Orwellian in its approach to the truth as one display at the newly opened Clinton Library here in Little Rock. You really need to see it to disbelieve it. [snip]But as every apparatchik knows, the real trick to disguising propaganda as history isn't what's said but what isn't. Some terms are clearly verboten in...

When Hillary Clinton runs for president, she may have to face her own version of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth - in the form of her husband's accusers, the women the Clintons have been trying to erase from the national memory of Bill's presidency. snip...

Bill’s library is launching pad for Hillary By DICK MORRIS Syndicated Columnist Last week’s events in Little Rock had less to do with a library retrospective of the Bill Clinton years than a campaign launch for the prospective presidency of Hillary Clinton. Doubt it? Then why was it Hillary, not Bill, who appeared on all the talk shows? It’s his library. But it’s her candidacy. So she did all the softball TV interviews, not him — reminding voters of her availability for 2008 while seeming to talk about the ’90s. The timing is perfect: Democrats demoralized by John Kerry’s defeat...

Some Hillary supporters say the former first lady may not make a bid for the White House after all. Though initial polls show Sen. Clinton as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2008, U.S. News & World Report says Hillary may not seek the job. Paul Bedard's "Washington Whispers" column in the latest edition of U.S. news reports that ". . . some friends and allies advise against placing bets that the former first lady will be the nation's 44th president." Citing these close friends to Hillary, the magazine says Hillary has made no commitment to running, and some...

On the November 29 edition of CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, CNN correspondent Mary Snow reported that New York Times columnist William Safire, who is retiring in January 2005, "is praised not just for his columns, but for his journalism." Citing a 1996 column as one of three examples of Safire's praiseworthy "journalism," Snow stated: "In the Clinton years, he once called Hillary Clinton a congenital liar for her role in the Whitewater scandal." But Safire's January 1996 column calling Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar" was just one example of the numerous false accusations Safire leveled against Bill and Hillary Clinton....

Patti Solis Doyle. Recognize that name? Lady Shillary wants you to. It is the signature at the bottom of the first "Friends of Hillary" letter that is kicking off the Senator's appeal for campaign funds by asking donors to "fight back" against what it is calling the "new flood" of anti-Hillary rhetoric coming from conservative groups. Doyle says in the Shillary appeal letter, "We have to have funds on hand even before the campaign begins so that we can respond right away." And Doyle also paints the Senator as the "sacrifical servant" of the democratic party because she had...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 - In a race for the presidency, Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a problem that has dogged her since her days as first lady: an entrenched bloc of voters who simply do not like her. And her experience as a senator in New York shows that despite vigorous campaigning around the state since taking office, she remains an extremely polarizing figure who is unable to sway these voters to her side. One poll after another shows that roughly one of three New Yorkers has an unfavorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton, a statistic that has not changed since she...

Sen. Clinton strikes out The day before former President Clinton's library was dedicated in Little Rock, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democrats' front-runner for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, gave Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren her first sit-down interview since her party got pummeled in the last election. If Mrs. Clinton aspires to become president, it would be helpful for her to get her facts straight. The junior senator from New York could begin by settling upon a consistent explanation for what happened to her party on Nov. 2. From one moment to the next in the interview, Mrs....