Free Republic

The gist: With his antics, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson is making a mockery of his office and letting down constituents. * * * In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the 8th District Democrat asked that a Lake County woman behind a Web site critical of Grayson be investigated, prosecuted, fined and imprisoned -- for five years. * * * Being the target of rough criticism is an occupational hazard for public officials, especially those as high-profile as a U.S. congressman. Any politician who pursues legal action against critics, even critics who may not have followed the letter...

Violating its own guarantee of unprecedented transparency, the White House is blocking an investigation into the controversial firing of an inspector general who exposed one of President Obama’s political supporters—a California mayor—for misusing federal funds. First Lady Michelle Obama was reportedly behind the contentious June dismissal of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin and congressional investigators want to interview the aide (Jackie Norris) who may have given the order. At the time Norris was the First Lady’s chief of staff but the White House counsel’s office has blocked investigators from interviewing her, according to a national news report. Norris is currently...

A retired Florida couple would appear an unlikely source to have given $83,000 in campaign donations over a five-year period to members of Congress from all over the country. Both in their 80s, they lived in a $118,000 Daytona Beach house they didn't own; they each voted only twice since 1992; and they seemed to lack the financial means to make the contributions. Yet, both were listed as having given dozens of donations to lawmakers, nearly half of which went to members of the House Appropriations Committee - legislators who were especially important to their then-son-in-law, superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, who...

White House Blocks Testimony by First Lady's Ex-Top Aide in Walpin Case Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday Republican efforts to interview a former top aide to Michelle Obama in the controversial case of a fired inspector general have been stymied by the White House, the top Republican looking into the case said Tuesday. The White House counsel's office has blocked Republican investigators from interviewing Jackie Norris, former chief...

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reports tonight that Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris is claiming credit for inserting a provision that may benefit ACORN. But it’s not just the ACORN angle that’s scandalous. It’s the race hustler shakedown. Why, oh, why do we need to be funding massive new federal bureaucracies to create separate “Offices of Minority Health” in six separate health care agencies:

If you are under 30, you really need to read this column and pass it on to your friends. Your elected officials are dooming you to a new sort of bondage, a form of 21st Century slavery, if you will. First, some background. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln, then a former one-term Congressman, gave a three hour speech in Peoria, Illinois in which he decried the extension of slavery into the territories. The Republican Party was barely three months old. Lincoln warned that slavery was a “monstrous injustice” based on the raw principle of “self-interest” at odds with the...

Senator Roland Burris is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid's "manager's amendment," unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill. On December 9, Burris, an Illinois Democrat, pledged that he would filibuster a health care bill without a public option. "If we have to get 60 and it comes back and it does not have a public option in it, I will not vote for it," he said. Then early last week he said he could vote for the bill if there were changes made to achieve the goals of the public...

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) pointed out some rather astounding language in the Senate health care bill during floor remarks tonight. First, he noted that there are a number of changes to Senate rules in the bill--and it's supposed to take a 2/3 vote to change the rules. And then he pointed out that the Reid bill declares on page 1020 that the Independent Medical Advisory Board cannot be repealed by future Congresses:

As Senate Democrats proclaimed the 60 votes needed to pass health-care reform, Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer says the late senator would have backed this bill. Ted Kennedy thought this moment would come, though by this spring he did not expect to see it. In May, he wrote to President Obama that he was “confident… that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the president who at long last signs into law the health-care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society. For me, this cause stretched across decades; it has been disappointed, but...

President Barack Hussein Obama is proceeding to destroy America and has opened up a six-front war to do so: 1. He has a Democratic controlled Congress that is willing to rubber-stamp his wildest schemes, without even reading them…as we’ve already seen. The Democratic Party is now aiding and abetting the demeaning and destruction of America and has become the voice of leftist extremism. The moderates have disappeared or been transformed, issuing only occasional squeaking and whining before following the liberal party line drawn by Mr. Obama. Where have all the Democratic moderates gone? 2. Mr. Obama has immense executive authority,...

The United States Civil Rights Commission, an eight-member agency that investigates accusations of discrimination, has launched a new offensive against a most unusual target: the Justice Department. The commission is investigating why the Justice Department dropped charges in May against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in a voter intimidation case that the government won. The Justice Department has defended its actions, saying it obtained an injunction against one member while dismissing charges against the others "based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law." But that explanation hasn't satisfied the commission or Republican...

Senate Democrats are warning the House not to make any significant changes to the health care package heading toward a vote in their chamber if they want the bill to survive past Christmas. Speaker Nancy Pelosi smiles at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Nov. 7, as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer looks on. (AP Photo) Do not mess with this bill. That was the message Senate Democrats sent to their colleagues on the House side over the weekend, warning them not to make any significant changes to the health care package heading toward a vote in their chamber...

The United States has finally reached a pinnacle where the radical-left are cheering. With the complete domination of main-stream media, education, welfare, the unions and the Democratic Party we now have a group of liberal socialists that have moved from subliminal attack against humanity to full frontal assault against all people who stand in their way. Their final conquest was the United States government with its ability to tax, control, ruin and, in general, subvert the Constitution. Did the people in this country see it coming? Apparently not soon enough! Are these radicals destined for immortality? Absolutely NOT! Socialism never...

Per the link, buried on page 328 and entitled, "SEC. 10502. INFRASTRUCTURE TO EXPAND ACCESS TO..", there is an appropriation for an undisclosed state to receive from the Federal Treasury $100,000,000, to build or expand a state university medical school. The language reads... "(a) APPROPRIATION.—There are authorized to be appropriated, and there are appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services, $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, to remain available for obligation until September 30, 2011, to be used for debt service on, or direct construction or renovation of, a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or...

Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package. Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade. But another Democratic holdout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), took credit for $10 billion in new funding for community health centers, while...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a leading congressional advocate for immigrants' rights, has introduced a bill that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens and would end a controversial program that enlists local police to enforce immigration laws. The bill is widely viewed as too liberal to pass. Obama administration officials have said they are looking instead to a more moderate, bipartisan immigration-reform bill to be introduced in the Senate early next year by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).Still, the Chicago Democrat made it clear that he and his allies expect a seat at the...

Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., issued a public statement Thursday saying that President Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, has instructed staff attorneys to ignore legal subpoenas by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (CRC) requesting information about the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. This is in stark contrast to Mr. Obama’s pledge for transparency in government. “We understand that the attorney general has instructed his department to ignore ...

Florida FReepers and others beware! Dem operatives and other ne'er-do-wells are trying mightily to co-opt the Tea Party moniker. In Florida, a Democratic lawyer has registered the name "Tea Party" as an official party and has been recognized by the state as such. This clown is obviously trying to capitalize on the Tea Party name and fame and also trying to split conservatives and harm their effort to retake the Republican Party. Do not be fooled. Warning Will Robinson! Burn after reading...

Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback,” as the GOP is calling it, got all the attention Saturday, but other senators lined up for deals as Majority Leader Harry Reid corralled the last few votes for a health reform package. Nelson’s might be the most blatant – a deal carved out for a single state, a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade. But another Democratic holdout, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), took credit for $10 billion in new funding for community health centers, while...

The chairman of Nebraska's Republican Party predicts that Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to back sweeping health care legislation will be his downfall. "I think this is the end of his political career in the state of Nebraska,” says Mark Fahleson. On Saturday, the state party launched a Web site, givebentheboot.com, to collect funds to oust the Democrat in the 2010 election. Nelson said earlier Saturday that he decided to support the measure after winning concessions to limit the availability of abortions in insurance sold in newly created exchanges, as well as tens of million in federal Medicaid funds for Nebraska....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled Wednesday that she is open to health care reform that doesn't include a public option, "a strong signal that Congress could agree on a plan early next year," McClatchy reports. "Asked if she could support a bill that didn't have the public option, Pelosi said, 'It depends on what else is in the bill.' Her attitude is similar to that of many others who've pushed a public option. The mantra now among top Democrats is to find areas of agreement on health care, put them in the bill, declare victory and work in the months...

December 19, 2009 'Betrayed' [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Nebraska Right to Life on Nelson's choice: Lincoln——Nebraska Right to Life and pro-life Nebraskans have been betrayed by Senator Ben Nelson's agreement with Democratic leadership to become their 60th vote for cloture on the Senate healthcare bill, propped up by abortion compromise language which in no way resembles the Stupak amendment in the House bill or the Nelson/Hatch amendment attempt in the Senate. Both of those amendments had protections against taxpayer funding of abortion. "Senator Nelson had a chance to ensure that the longstanding principle of the Hyde Amendment against federal funding of...

Democrats felt the heat Saturday -- from some liberal groups on one side and Republican lawmakers on the other -- over a deal struck in the Senate to secure enough votes to pass a health care overhaul pushed by President Obama. The Senate's Republican leader called the bill a "train wreck of historic proportions," while liberal groups stepped up their complaints that Democrats gave up to much ground to court the last remaining party holdout. Obama, however, praised the compromise, saying it put the United States "on the cusp" of reforming the health care system, a goal that has eluded...

Obama speaking to reporters after securing the 60th vote for Health Care, they are gonna do this, and they don't give a D*mn what the American people think

Let's face it FRiends, if the unconstitutional healthcare bill passes, the socialist coup d'etat will have advanced well beyond the point of no return! There is nothing in the constitution that authorizes this illegal federal power-grab and plenty that forbids it. If the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Marxist attempted coup pulls this off without the people resisting to the hilt, then they'll have no restrictions whatsoever on implementing the rest of their Liberty killing Marxist agenda. America will be no more. The whole idea of our constitution is to severely restrict the federal government to only its dozen and a half expressly listed...

Proposed changes to the U.S. Senate's pending healthcare reform bill include measures targeting industry profits and taxes, and a move to ensure health insurers spend a certain amount on medical care, according to a document released on Saturday. The changes, proposed as a group of amendments, must be approved by the Senate before they can be added to the massive legislation that lawmakers are struggling to finish before Christmas despite delaying tactics by Republicans and a severe snowstorm in the nation's capital. Democrats appear to have pulled together the 60 votes needed to pass a final bill. The taxes are...

Nelson’s Nebraska To Receive Extra Medicaid Funds Under Senate Bill This morning’s managers amendment to the merged Senate health bill goes a long way towards satisfying the demands of Democratic hold-out and all-important 60th vote Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE). Nelson has recently complained that the proposed expansion of Medicaid to those earning below 133% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) would burden his state of Nebraska and suggested that states should be able to opt-in to the program. Under the current merged legislation (the version unveiled on November 18th), the federal government fully finances care for the expanded population for...

I just received a sad, two line E-Mail letter from a woman whose dedication to the fundamental human rights issue of our age is second to none: “In the week before Christmas my country gave to me, abortion, paid for by me.I guess Senator Nelson didn't read your article about him. Bart Stupak is our last hope.” She had apparently read the same report from the Washington Post which I had: ****** “Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill,...

SOLD: Sen. Nelson’s Bribeby Publius We’ll be blunt. The ‘health care reform’ legislation under consideration in the Senate is the most corrupt piece of legislation in our nation’s history. Yes, we understand that is a strong statement and there have been other abominations throughout our nation’s life. But never before did corrupt legislation threaten to radically and forever change the live’s of every American.Exhibit A is the outright bribe extracted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Corn Huckster State) from Sen. Harry Reid. As a result of Nelson’s performance in his role of Hamlet in the health care deliberations, we will...

Now that we know that the Democratic leadership in Congress and the Obama Administration have bribed Senator Ben Nelson into supporting the government takeover of healthcare, the question arises, who ARE these people, anyway? Are they aliens from outer space? They certainly don't act like normal human beings who are fully aware of reality. Senator Ben Nelson, for example, will vote in favor of the mammoth, debt-busting monstrosity in spite of the fact that in the latest poll Nebraskans indicate by a 61% majority that they will vote against Nelson if he votes in favor of this bill.

Nelson and Reid Agree to Phony Abortion Funding Compromise in Senate Bill Washington, DC -- Senator Ben Nelson announced today that he will become the crucial 60th vote that Democrats need to pass a government-run health care bill. Nelson has been holding out because of the massive abortion funding in the bill, but said today he will give the measure his support. The compromise Nelson agreed to with Reid makes it so states could disallow abortion coverage in the new health insurance exchanges. States that don't opt out will force taxpayers to fund abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5793b.html

Here's what I'm hearing. The deal for Ben Nelson includes additional Medicaid funding for Nebraska and carve outs for physician owned hospitals in Nebraska — and Nebraska only. Uncle Sam will take the hit for 100% of the Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, forever. Nebraska is the only state to get this deal. It profits a man nothing give his soul for the whole world, but for Medicaid funding carve outs....

With a self-imposed Christmas deadline at stake, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid engineered a last-minute compromise that has won the support of the lone Democratic holdout and clinched the required 60 votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the US health care system. Marathon negotiations with the White House and Senate Democratic leaders produced fresh concessions that will mean additional abortion restrictions in the legislation. Democratic leaders also offered Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska a deal similar to the $300 million in Medicaid aid Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got for her support, numerous sources told FOX News. When asked...

Here is video of the statement Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson made this morning announcing that he will vote for cloture and for final passage on the Senate Health Care Bill. Nelson appears to be the crucial 60th vote the Democrats need to pass the bill. . . . (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON – Jubilant Democrats locked in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as the 60th and decisive vote for historic health care legislation Saturday, putting President Barack Obama's signature issue firmly on a path for Christmas Eve passage.At the White House, Obama swiftly welcomed the breakthrough, saying, "After a nearly century-long struggle, we are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the United States of America."In the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid smiled broadly when asked if Nelson's decision gave him the 60-vote majority necessary to overcome solid Republican opposition. "Seems that way," he said. The Nevada...

The Washington Times reported last night Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) had told reporters no deal was agreed to after he emerged from a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other Democratic leaders. He went on to say health care talks were ongoing. What he failed to mention, through all of his rhetoric about his concern for pro-life language in the bill, was the huge Medicaid pay off to Nebraska being slipped into the health care bill. Essentially, the federal government will pay for Nebraska's new Medicaid recipients. The provision is worth about $45 million for the first...

Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.”...

If every great cause requires an even greater villain, Democratic greens have found one in Sarah Palin. House Democrats spent Thursday targeting former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for using e-mails, many from the 1990s, from English climate scientists to bolster her claim that global warming is “bogus” and ridiculing her op-ed in The Washington Post calling for President Barack Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate talks. Palin and other critics of Copenhagen have seized on a passel of stolen messages reportedly showing that scientists from East Anglia University may have fudged climate change findings. Progressives, in damage control mode, have...

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. -United States Constitution, Article III, Section 4, Clause 1 Former Vice President, Dick Cheney, not one prone to reckless outbursts , recently gave a sans teleprompter interview to Fox News host, Sean Hannity. The elder statesman has been openly critical of Obama’s dithering on Afghanistan, eventually calling the president out as having jumped the shark from dithering to dereliction. Shortly thereafter, Obama announced an increase in troops to the area. It’s not the first time Cheney...

Congress -- and possibly Citigroup -- may be gearing up to start funding the organized crime syndicate ACORN again. The current federal funding ban expires Dec. 18. On Tuesday evening the House Appropriations Committee rejected on a party line vote of 9 to 5 an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that would have blocked federal funding of the radical advocacy group. The amendment was needed because the Obama administration thumbed its nose at a provision in spending legislation that banned ACORN funding until the end of next week. In a ruling revealed late last month by the Justice...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

Treasury Department Releases Text of Letter from Secretary Geithner to Hill Leadership on Administration’s Exit Strategy for TARP WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury released the text of identical letters sent today from Secretary Tim Geithner to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid outlining the Administration's exit strategy for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). The text of the letter to Speaker Pelosi follows. December 9, 2009 The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Madam Speaker: I am writing to update...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has a justly earned reputation this decade for voter registration fraud, embezzlement and other illegal acts. Yet according to an eagerly-awaited internal assessment released yesterday, the radical nationwide nonprofit network's main, if not sole, problem is inadequate employee training and oversight. The audit, supervised by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, had been prompted by employees of ACORN offices in different cities caught in a video sting this summer giving advice on how to hide assets and falsify loan documents. The New Orleans-based "anti-poverty" organization and its defenders see vindication....

The majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, refused on Tuesday night to provide any details about the preliminary agreement among a group of 10 Democratic senators to resolve a bitter dispute over a proposed government-run insurance plan, or “public option.” But in a brief interview as he climbed into his black S.U.V. to head home for the night, Mr. Reid insisted that the proposal could unify his caucus, even as he acknowledged that most Senate Democrats had not seen it yet.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party end the year far weaker than they started it, according to a McClatchy-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Obama has the lowest approval rating of his presidency - 49 percent - slipping below 50 percent in the poll for the first time and entering a danger zone for presidents heading into a midterm election year. The sinking numbers extend to his party as well. The Democratic Party has lost double-digit ground to the Republican Party on every issue, including the economy, other domestic issues such as health care and foreign affairs. On the economy, for...

Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollster in the 2008 presidential election. Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson'Marsteller, the global public'relations and communications firm headed by Penn.

“Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress” is a FOXNews story by Ed Barnes. In short, “While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president.” The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be SentThe powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy." "There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to...

Health Care: Government of, by and for the people has apparently become a quaint concept to the World's Greatest Deliberative Body. Ramming socialized medicine through now comes down to cash payoffs. Jonathan Karl of ABC News has exposed what may be the biggest taxpayer-funded bribe in the history of the Republic. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has been skeptical of her party's proposed radical transformation of the U.S. health system. "I'm not at all surprised that the public option's been sold as free health care," she told MSNBC last month, for instance. "But there is no free lunch." But...