Free Republic

OUR OPINION: President Obama promised transparency but often sides with secrecy As a candidate for president, Sen. Barack Obama vowed to run an open government. He reiterated that pledge on Inauguration Day: ''Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,'' he said. Nearly six months later, advocates of open government are still waiting for the president to fulfill this promise. Compared to the Bush presidency, this administration is doing better. But what President Obama has done, compared to what he said he would do, are two different things, thanks in part to the unequivocal language...

• April 23, 2008: A memo from General Counsel Frank Trinity to Corporation Board Chairman David Eisner regarding an April 15 Walpin memo regarding how to handle improper end of term service hour certifications for AmeriCorps members. • April 23, 2008: A memo from Trinity to Walpin regarding how to handle improper end of term service hour certifications for AmeriCorps members. • April 25, 2008: A memo from Walpin to Eisner and Trinity regarding Trinity's response to Walpin's memo about how to handle improper end of term service hour certifications for AmeriCorps members. • April 30, 2008: Corporation for National...

A total of seven centers have been closed. Rita Diller is the new executive director of STOPP International, which is a part of the American Life League. "Most of these were abortion referral centers and they distributed morning-after pills and other devices that can cause early abortion," Diller explains. The centers also doubled as HIV/AIDS outreach centers. However, Diller says the facilities became a hangout for homosexuals. In one instance, Diller says a cross-dresser would arrive at a center, change into women's clothing, and cruise homosexual bars -- returning afterward to change back into men's clothing. That man, she says,...

A European filmmaker is warning the U.S. about the disastrous cost of cap and trade. The U.S. House last week passed the Waxman-Markey Energy Bill, otherwise known as "cap and trade." The legislation seeks to limit the emission of carbon dioxide from conventional power plants and seeks to produce more power from wind and solar. Opponents of the measure argued that implementation of cap and trade would destroy the American economy and dramatically increase energy costs for the average American -- something then-presidential candidate Barack Obama stated clearly while on the campaign trail in late 2008. "Under my plan of...

WASHINGTON, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In May of this year, a Supreme Court decision severely impeded the use of identity theft charges as an immigration enforcement tool. In June, several people were arrested after a fraud scheme was uncovered at a Florida driver's license bureau. In July, a new Utah law targeting illegal aliens and document fraud will take effect. As these examples show, illegal immigration is inherently tied to document fraud and identity theft. As states continue to search for answers, it is apparent that the Federal government has not yet found a working legislative solution to deter these...

Before taking her job as the White House health reform director, Nancy-Ann DeParle earned more than $6 million serving on the boards of major health care corporations, some of which were accused of fraud, mismanagement and regulatory violations during her tenure, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University reports on MSNBC.com. Some critics say the corporate relationships could be a conflict of interest for DeParle. Also, while there's no evidence DeParle was involved in or aware of allegedly fraudulent activities, in three cases, she served on board committees overseeing the companies' legal and regulatory compliance.

When a Leftist lunatic shot up the Holocaust Museum we heard predictable whines about the “need for SOMETHING to be done.” The Left’s preferred “something” is often a total ban on private ownership of handguns something we know is wrong on many levels. Writing “estrogen driven” laws against legal firearms procession is bad business. The clearest example of why it is bad, is the almost total ban on personal gun ownership rushed into law by the United Kingdom after a gruesome multiple homicide/ suicide involving handguns at a school. Dunblane Massacre On March 13, 1996 the United Kingdom received shocking...

He'll be the King of Chaos. Authorities fear that up to 1 million Jackophiles will descend on Los Angeles tomorrow and wreak mayhem, even though only a tiny fraction of them will actually have tickets for the Michael Jackson memorial at the Staples Center -- which were being offered on eBay for up to $20,000 late last night.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A postal worker who was shot in the face after encountering a bank robber Thursday spoke Saturday about the harrowing ordeal. Robert Norman, 54, has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years, but he will spend the next six to eight weeks recovering from the wound, 6News' Sarah Cornell reported. Norman and his doctors said he is very fortunate that the bullet struck right below his right eye. "God protected me. I could have died," Norman said. Norman was inside a Wanamaker Chase Bank, in the 8800 block of Southeastern Avenue, to get some spending money...

Rome, 2 July (AKI) - Italy's upper house of parliament on Thursday voted into law a controversial security bill making illegal immigration a punishable offence. The law also allows citizen anti-crime patrols in towns and cities and triples the amount of time illegal immigrants can be detained in holding centres from two to six months. Senators backed the bill by 157 to 124 votes with three abstentions and relied on confidence votes in both houses of parliament to pass the law. The lower house Chamber of Deputies had already approved the security bill in May. The measures, especially the criminalisation...

National Rifle Association Arizona - -(AmmoLand.com)- The Arizona Senate passed three important self-defense bills in a session that lasted into the early morning hours Wednesday. First, SB 1113 enables law-abiding Right-to-Carry permit holders to carry firearms for self-defense in restaurants. This NRA-backed bill passed by an overwhelming, bi-partisan majority of 19-8 and will now be sent to Governor Jan Brewer’s (R) desk for her consideration. “If this important, common-sense legislation is signed, Arizonans will have the ability to defend themselves and their families from criminal attack in restaurants,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox. “Headlines remind us that restaurants...

A bizarre shooting in Belen leaves a former corrections officer dead, and a former Marine in jail charged with his murder. The shooting is once again raising debate over what's considered self defense. The brother of the person who was shot and the suspect's friend each have very different opinions about what happened. The incident happened around 10:15 Saturday night at Enchantment Propane. Evidence of a break-in was still visible on Sunday. The murder that happened in the midst of the burglary is likely going to extend a long-standing debate for years to come. Louie Gabaldon still has a lot...

TAYLOR - A 40-year-old man has been charged in the brutal rape and attempted murder of a 5-year-old girl after a holiday picnic at her family's home, police said. Felix E. Montoya, of 270 Tamworth Drive, was discovered half-clothed in the child's bedroom early Sunday by a shocked family who kept him at bay until police arrived. He was charged with rape of a child, attempted homicide and other offenses. The victim was treated at a hospital for injuries to her face and head, adult bite marks on her thigh and shoulder and severe rape-related injuries, according the criminal complaint....

In various ways, America is on a fast-track towards its own demise as a freedom-loving beacon for us and the world. The problem is that now that the American people have by their own free will, placed the Democrats in power, the Democrats want to hold on to it, even if their future of being in power is against your will, so they are mobilizing and working feverishly, doing everything they possibly can to keep that power secure. That is only possible by creating an oligarchic type system.

Then there’s the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, which started out in life at a thousand pages, and then had a 300-page amendment tacked on to it in the dead of night. It was as if Dr. Frankenstein, after carefully inspecting his nightmarish creation, decided that what the monster really needed was a second head and a hunchback. Again, nobody had time to read the bill, but that didn’t prevent 219 congressmen, including eight Republicans who scurried out from under a rock just long enough to make certain that Christmas, or perhaps I mean Ramadan, would come early for the...

In a move set to infuriate and send many Zero Hedge readers over the top, the NYSE has taken action to make sure that nobody will henceforth be able to keep track of the complete dominance that Goldman Sachs exerts over the New York Stock Exchange. This basically ends our weekly Program Trading updates disclosed every Thursday indicating that Goldman has singlehandedly captured all of NYSE's program trading.

Back-up: This week's NYSE Program Trading report was very odd: not only because program trading hit 48.6% of all NYSE trading, a record high at least since the NYSE keep tabs of this data, and a data point which in itself was startling enough to cause some serious red flags as I jaunt from village to village in what little is left of Europe's bison country, but what was shocking was the disappearance of the #1 mainstay of complete trading domination (i.e., Goldman Sachs) from not just the aforementioned #1 spot, but the entire complete list. In other words: Goldman...

Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum joined Chuck Todd, filling in for Chris Matthews on Hardball, to discuss his recent article on Sarah Palin.

The TERRY ANDERSON SHOW.. Articulating the Popular Rage! Sundays - 12-1 AM EDT, 11-12 PM CDT, 10-11 PM MDT, 9-10 PM PDT KRLA - 870 AM - Los Angeles -- KDWN - 720 - Las Vegas -- KFNX - 1100 - Phoenix "Stupid People of America !!! If You Ain't Mad, You Ain't Payin' Attention!" Call-In Number - (866) 870-5752 Don't miss Terry's July 5th show... When Terry will say ... "Geraldo says 'the immigration debate has demonized an entire race of people'. THAT'S THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK !!!!!" Plus: Can you guess WHO the most Horriblest Clown...

Hundreds rally against taxes and big government By AUTUMN GROOMS Organizers were impressed with attendance Saturday at the second La Crosse area Tea Party to draw attention to lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty. About 400 people attended the event at Copeland Park. “We never would have seen these numbers (attending) in the past,” said Mark Block, regional director for Americans for Prosperity. “I think citizens don’t think elected officials are listening to what they are concerned about in Wisconsin,” Block said. The July 4 Tea Party was a continuation of the Tax Day Tea Party held April 15...

WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama is still looking for a church home more than a year after resigning from the Chicago church led by his controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the first family has yet to join a church because Obama doesn't want his attendance to disrupt other people's worship. Gibbs says Obama enjoys services led by Camp David's chaplain on weekends the family spends at the presidential retreat, but they're not members there. In 2009, the Obamas have only attended Sunday church services twice in Washington. Two days before the inauguration,...

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was" but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up. Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high." "The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there," Biden said. "We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery...

As research for an upcoming column on the many drawbacks of the cap-and-trade bill now before the Senate, I spent some time speaking with Christopher C. Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Horner is author of "Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed." Our discussion went on at some length and Horner made many excellent points about the hype over the threat of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. That discussion can go on forever and I can't include much of it here. But I will point to an interesting little item that's...

STATE GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER BEEN SO CLOWNISH, SO EVIL, SO IRRELEVANT Having witnessed the anarchy, chaos and lack of leadership that has engulfed the state Capitol during the past month, I have a painful confession to make. After three decades as a journalist covering state government, if I had to do it all over again, I'd find another job. I've covered Govs. Hugh Carey, Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson and for New York to wind up like this after 35 years of modern leadership, it's clear to me that my real job has been to chronicle...

Military ordered to turn back Zelaya's jetBy WILL WEISSERT and NESTOR IKEDA – 1 hour ago TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' ousted President Manuel said he was getting on a flight home to reclaim his post on Sunday, accompanied by the U.N. General Assembly president and a group of journalists. The interim government said it ordered the military to prevent the landing of Zelaya's plane. If turned away, it will likely land in El Salvador, where a separate flight was headed with Latin American leaders who support Zelaya's reinstatement. Thousands of protesters were gathering in the capital of Honduras in...

Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), President Obama’s choice to be Secretary of the Army, has secured more than $44 million in earmarks for New York-based companies and a large Army base in his district. McHugh, formerly the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, gave up his post in early June when Obama picked him to be the Army’s civilian leader. McHugh, who has yet to be confirmed, is still a member of Congress.

Hundreds protest taxesKeyes urges residents upset about government's path to spill some TEA at party By Craig Peters Last Modified: Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 1:02 a.m. Several hundred people filed into Boiling Springs Community Park Saturday for a Fourth of July TEA Party and picnic. Michael Brady, one of the event's lead organizers, took the stage in period attire of founding father Thomas Paine. Brady told attendees the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party movement across the country is a "protest against the overreaching of our government." "I'm not calling anyone to arms … yet," Brady said. He received cheers...

To think that Boris and Natasha lived right here in South Dakota, and we didn't even know it! Recently, Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Steingraber-Trebilcock-Myers - a couple who once lived in Aberdeen - were arrested for spying. The news rocked the nation. Well, actually, the nation immediately forgot the story. Still, South Dakota hasn't forgotten. It's not every day suspected spies are found traipsing through your own neighborhood. The espionage likely started after they left Aberdeen, but you still wonder if that abandoned shopping cart you saw in aisle 8 of Kessler's might have contained a coded message. The...

For Oregonians, many employers owe more benefits than their retirement plans can pay You think your 401(k) is in bad shape? Your pension could be worse off. Provided you even have one. Thirty-four of 36 large publicly traded employers operating in Oregon owe more retirement benefits than their traditional pensions can pay, an analysis by The Oregonian found. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/pensions_in_peril.html

WASHINGTON - Police say former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman. The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained that Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released.

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston city councilor charged with extortion alleges the state's former U.S. attorney targeted him at the behest of former Attorney General John Ashcroft. City Councilor Chuck Turner sent an e-mail to supporters before a court hearing Thursday suggesting Michael Sullivan sought indictments against him and former Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, another prominent black politician, because he was trying to ingratiate himself with Ashcroft — for whom he now works. "I personally believe that former Attorney General Ashcroft said to Sullivan that if he could take down Senator Wilkerson and myself, he would put up the money to...

Washington - They're known as "monuments to me," airports, bridges and courthouses named after the lawmakers who secured the federal funds to build them. Dave Obey says he won't allow any more earmarks for such projects - even though his name is already etched on a building back home in Wausau.The David R. Obey Center for Health Sciences at Northcentral Technical College features a water wall, atrium and a state-of-the-art surgical suite. It was constructed thanks to a $20 million earmark the Wisconsin congressman tucked into a federal spending bill in 2001.Obey did not specify that the building be...

ormer Secretary of State Colin Powell says President Obama's agenda may be too ambitious, and costly. "One of the challenges that President Obama has now is that he's got so many things on the table, and these are issues that the American people find important, health care and so many other issues," said Powell in an interview slated to air Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union with John King." "But I think one of the cautions that has to be given to the president -- and I've talked to some of his people about this -- is that you...

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's health authorities have seized over 20,000 dollars worth of coffee mixed with sildenafil, the main ingredient in erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, a report said Sunday. "The coffee mixture had been distributed in sachets nationwide," an official was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper. "Officers found 900 boxes containing more than 9,000 sachets of the coffee mixture which retailed for more than 80 ringgit (23 dollars) per box," the officer added without naming the coffee brand in question. Enforcement officials said the coffee was mixed with sildenafil to "perk up" drinkers beyond the usual...

Rioters in China's far west Xinjiang region burned vehicles and blocked traffic in the regional capital Urumqi, and police rushed to the scene to impose order, the state news agency reported on Sunday. Restive Xinjiang is divided between the largely Muslim Uighur people and Han Chinese...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Police worked Sunday to unravel the relationship between slain former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and his friend, a 20-year-old woman who was found shot to death alongside him in his downtown condominium.

Mickey Kaus writes: It’s seemed to me that the Obama administration has made a mistake in the framing of the health care issue: “We’ll raise your taxes and in exchange we’re going to cut your treatments.� I mean, how could that not have widespread appeal? It’s pain/pain! Yes, but that is the nature of what the Obama administration and those pushing for a government-controlled healthcare system are advocating. It isn’t easy to disguise what you are up to when the stakes are so high. (Well, they did for a while with the mumbo-jumbo about healthcare reform paying for itself, but...

LISTS IRISH HIDEAWAY'S WORTH AS MERE $638G Sen Dodd (D-Conn) may have low-balled value of Ireland vacation property. Dodd's financial disclosures claim $638,000 for his 3-bedroom cottage on 10 acres with breathtaking views of the Atlantic......Dodd's next-door neighbor was selling for $1.2M. "Dodd continues to mislead about the property's value," charged DC-based ethics watchdog, Judicial Watch. Dodd purchased 1/3 interest for $160,000 with William Kessinger, Kansas, who was a business partner of disgraced Bear Stearns principal Edward Downe Jr, Dodd's longtime friend. Downe pleaded guilty to insider trading and securities fraud in 1993 but was pardoned, at Dodd's urging, by...

... We must at once understand all of the evil political movements of history, the plague of human prejudice, long-standing geopolitical conflict, the effective demise of the American Bill of Rights, among other things. A population can be led, no matter how outrageous the claims being made to lead them. In the midst of the global warming hoax, we have seen incontrovertible evidence of the ease with which at least some followers are driven to fanaticism in support of a purely manipulative cause. ...

Madison — Gov. Jim Doyle and his staff failed to properly account for 145 travel expenses over two years, including a $5,200 business-class flight to Ireland and a $654-a-night stay in a London hotel. Nearly three-fourths of the time in 2007 and 2008, Doyle and his staff didn't supply receipts as required under state travel policy. By comparison, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and her staff didn't provide receipts one-third of the time during the same period. Travel records also showed Doyle spent more than $1,500 on two chauffeured vehicles in Canada. That expenditure did not violate state travel policy, however....

American Tea Party, Two Trillion Tons (video)

The National Debt Road Trip

The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8's agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities' suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hinted in a newspaper interview earlier in the week that the...

In the snow-covered parking lot of a McDonald's in Detroit two years ago, City Council member Monica Conyers met with a waste-management consultant who slipped her an envelope stuffed with as much as $3,000 in cash. The under-the-table payment, made shortly after she cast the swing vote on a $1 billion city sludge deal, drove Conyers's guilty plea to a bribery charge that could send the Democratic politician to prison for up to five years. Conyers emerged for her court hearing late last week in the same building where her husband, John Conyers Jr. (D), who has served in the...

Muslims apparently angered because a Christian man driving a tractor reportedly tried to pass a Muslim on a motorcycle have rampaged in one village in Pakistan, destroying Christians' homes and throwing acid on women and children as they fled, according to a new report from Barnabas Aid. The ministry reported that the violence this week happened in the village of Bahmani Walla in Punjab state in Pakistan, which is dominated by Islamic influences. The report said 600 Muslims used gasoline bombs to vandalize 117 homes belonging to Christians – including 48 damaged by fire, and sabotage water pumps and cut...

With Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) facing an uphill battle to win reelection next year after a series of Washington scandals battered his popularity back home, President Obama and other national Democrats are sparing no effort to help him. Despite the scandals which left his ethics called into question, the three-decade Senate veteran is not trying to shake his Beltway image. Instead, Dodd is working furiously to show the impact of his long service by racking up big legislative accomplishments - including, potentially, a health care reform bill - before the midterm elections. And some of the national Democratic Party's biggest...

Father Ly on trial in 2007 Hanoi, Vietnam, Jul 3, 2009 / 07:33 pm (CNA).- On Wednesday 37 members of the U.S. Senate called on President Nguyen Minh Triet to release Fr. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a longtime human rights advocate.The bipartisan group of Senators, led by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) cited “serious flaws” concerning the priest’s arrest, trial and imprisonment. They asked the Vietnamese president to facilitate Father Ly’s “immediate and unconditional release from prison” and to allow him to return home and work without restrictions on his “internationally guaranteed” freedom of expression, association...

TEMECULA: Protesters line intersection Obama, government were the subjects of much of the criticism By CRAIG SHULTZ - Saturday, July 4, 2009 8:28 PM PDT TEMECULA ---- Some of the people lining the corners of the Rancho California and Ynez roads intersection during a tax protest Saturday afternoon said their beef isn't only with President Barack Obama. "I don't think anyone here will tell you it's a Republican versus Democrat thing. It's an American thing," said Mike Horan of Poway. "It isn't so much politically motivated. People want to make sure they're being heard." A crowd estimated by organizers to...

Those who wish to keep the internet free and open had best dust off their legal arguments. One of America's most influential conservative judges, Richard Posner, has proposed a ban on linking to online content without permission. The idea, he said in a blog post last week, is to prevent aggregators and bloggers from linking to newspaper websites without paying: Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by...

Reports: Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry Arrested The charges against Barry reportedly involve a domestic situation, but allegations against him are unclear. FOXNews.com Sunday, July 05, 2009 Washington D.C. councilman and former mayor Marion Barry was arrested Saturday night, police told NBC 4 in Washington. "It's my understanding that he was taken into custody," Park Police Chief Sal Lauro told the Washington Post. The charges against Barry reportedly involve a domestic situation, but allegations against him are unclear. Barry served four terms as mayor and is known for brushes with the law.