Free Republic

<p>Klein — who wrote a provocative biography about Obama last year entitled “The Amateur” — said White House insiders refer to Jarrett as “The Night Stalker” because she is the only presidential aide who frequently spends time in the family quarters and dines with the Obamas.</p>

How do you settle a rather sizeable bill for your milk delivery? If you are a cash-strapped superpower the answer is, apparently, to offer up a pair of fighter jets and a nuclear submarine as payment. The extraordinary offer was made by Russia to New Zealand in 1993, a new book reveals. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was struggling to pay the $100m it owed New Zealand for a range of imported dairy products. In a meeting with Russian officials to thrash out payment terms, Jim Bolger, then New Zealand prime minister, was "absolutely stunned" to be...

There is a deal being negotiated by Senators Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell that is purported to be a possible way to end the impasse in Washington and reopen the government. The fact that all legislation that deals with revenue is supposed to come from the House notwithstanding, I couldn't but wonder what these two yokels were coming up with. Thus, I started reading a few of the details with some interest. I wanted to see what we may be getting ourselves in to, if they are able to negotiate a final deal to end the government shutdown. What I...

Democrats may think they've won, but the nation will lose if warnings about spending, debt go unheeded. If congressional negotiators fail to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government, voters will blame House Republicans, but it's the president and fellow Democrats that are behaving like teenagers by wanting to spend irresponsibly. Studies by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and Medicare and Medicaid actuaries indicate if Washington continues spending and borrowing as current law requires, then all Americans, and not just the wealthy, will be paying higher taxes and more on private health care. Federal spending on Social Security and...

Del. Jolene Ivey After Del. Jolene Ivey told a Baltimore crowd she hopes to be Maryland's first African-American female lieutenant governor, she discussed what it means to be a fair-skinned black woman whose racial heritage is often questioned. Ivey, 51, is the daughter of a white woman who was raised by her black father and stepmother. She said her racial heritage was the "No.1 issue" when she launched her first political campaign in 2006 — repeatedly being asked by voters to "clarify" her racial identity. "As much as I'd like to believe that we're in a post-racial country, we're not,"...

On his radio show Monday morning, Bill Press took on this weekend’s Million Vet March by denouncing the participants as “idiots” who’ve been used by “right-wing organizations” to protest against their own best interests. Ultimately, he said, they shouldn’t be following people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), they should be expressing public odium towards him. “Absolutely drives me crazy,” Press said of Sunday’s protest activities. “Here’s what wrong with it,” he continued, “Those three idiots leading the protests, but they’re not the dumbest ones. The dumbest ones there are the idiots that are protesting. These are people, they call them...

The Republican Government Shutdown:13 Days18 Hours9 Minutes9 Seconds and counting...

Since 2008, the idea of third parties started to gain more popularity across America.  Principled conservatives and libertarians united against both the Democrat and Republican establishment started to explore methods of opposing Washington elites and the status quo. The Tea Party had some success – and has continued most successfully – with primary campaigns which put principled people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in races as the Republican candidate.  Once they won the GOP nomination, winning the general election was often pretty straightforward. Yet many liberty activists have become disenchanted by the two party system and are turning to other options....

WASHINGTON — Several Republican senators said Sunday a Democratic request to increase government spending is hurting chances of a deal to end the 13-day-old shutdown. Leaders of the Democratic-led Senate were dismissive of a proposal Saturday, in part, because it kept in place for too long the automatic spending cuts that went into effect earlier this year. Another round of those decade-long cuts -- dubbed the sequester and approved by Congress and the White House in 2011 -- is expected in January. The Republican complaints came as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spoke...

Unless you’ve been bamboozled by the frantic fictions of the right wing, you know that the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare, has begun to accomplish its first goal: enrolling millions of uninsured Americans, many of whom have been living one medical emergency away from the poorhouse. You realize those computer failures that have hampered sign-ups in the early days — to the smug delight of the critics — confirm that there is enormous popular demand. You have probably figured out that the real mission of the Republican extortionists and their big-money backers was to scuttle the law before...

Katelyn Fossett / Foreign PolicyYou may not have heard of Gennady Onishchenko, but if his own accounts are to be believed, he’s the Russian government official who single-handedly averts major public health crises posed by foreign countries’ dangerously lax and unsophisticated food safety standards (including those in a certain country where the federal government has ground to a halt). To others, Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary inspector, is also Russia’s chief manufacturer of elaborate food safety scares to wage geopolitically motivated trade wars with other countries, particularly former Soviet republics. On Wednesday, Onishchenko, the director of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer-protection agency, announced...

Senate leaders attempting to avoid a U.S. debt default remained at loggerheads Sunday and escalated the standoff by reopening the contentious issue of automatic spending cuts... Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), oppose retreating from those cuts. That set up a clash that seemed almost as intense as the one that caused budget talks between House Republicans and President Barack Obama to collapse Friday. Senate Democrats have been strengthened by the sidelining, at least for now, of House conservatives, who dropped nearly all their major policy demands only to see Mr. Obama reject their proposal for...

Journalism icon Bob Woodward wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed first that the sequester was the "brain child" of the White House...

It’s three years away, but the ongoing government shutdown and debt ceiling debate makes it clear that Democrats need to be thinking now about a candidate able to effectively counter the Tea Party caucus in Congress — which thanks to gerrymandering, isn’t going anywhere until 2020. While the Republican field is already loaded with possible candidates — Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush III and Bobby Jindal – the Democratic field is apparently sealed: Hillary Clinton. RealClearPolitics finds Hillary getting 61 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary against Joe Biden (11), Elizabeth Warren (7),...

The federal government wants to reduce the number of Americans diagnosed each year with cancer. But not by better preventive care or healthier living. Instead, the government wants to redefinethe term “cancer” so that fewer conditions qualify as a true cancer. What does this mean for ordinary Americans — and should we be concerned? On July 29, 2013, a working group for the National Cancer Institute (the main government agency for cancer research) published a paper proposing that the term “cancer” be reserved for lesions with a reasonable likelihood of killing the patient if left untreated. Slower growing tumors would...

Among the “non-essential” government functions shutdown during the last 10 days are the offices of leading members of the US Senate including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla). “When you get right down to it, all the essential functions of government can be carried out by the President,” Reid argued. “The police and armed forces all report to him. If push comes to shove he can simply order them to enforce his will. President Obama has shown a willingness to take on this responsibility. I believe he...

Looking for a distraction from the government shutdown and debt ceiling debate? I urge you to read Vanity Fair’s latest advertisement for “The New Establishment,” a list of “50 Titans Disrupting Media, Technology, and Culture,” the century-old magazine’s annual mash-note to the rich and powerful and self-satisfied. These disrupters innovate technologies, set the trends, define the limits of acceptable conversation in culture and politics and society, and pour money into the network of liberal foundations and Democratic campaigns around which our world is increasingly organized. They are the winners in the cognitive lottery that is the New Economy, the men...

<p>DETROIT (WJBK) -- A contractor convicted of tag-teaming with a Detroit mayor to commit corruption worth millions was sentenced Friday to 21 years in federal prison.</p> <p>Bobby Ferguson's punishment was more than double what his attorneys had sought. It came a day after former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison, one of the longest penalties in recent cases of public corruption in the U.S.</p>

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) would support a discharge petition on a "clean" spending bill if GOP leaders don't bring it to the floor soon, the centrist Republican vowed this week. King has long-pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to take up the Senate-passed continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. But he has refused to buck leadership further by endorsing the Democrats' discharge petition, which would force a floor vote on the bill. Until Friday. "If we have to do a discharge petition, ultimately, we will, but this is going to come [to the floor]," King said in an interview with...

In its first report on press freedom in the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists warns Obama has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for both reporters and their government sources. Among the case it details: six government employees - plus two contractors, including Edward Snowden - have faced felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press, compared with three such prosecutions in ALL previous U.S. administrations. ...

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety confirms it is investigating a potentially threatening call made to a Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) employee. The call came Wednesday night shortly after a 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS story about questionable spending of taxpayers' money by a top DHS official. The whistleblower told investigators Assistant DHS Commissioner Scott Leitz approved a deal that gave Fairview's Amplatz Children's Hospital extra Medicaid money it might not be entitled to receive. After we aired a follow up story Wednesday night, the whistleblower told investigators he received a threatening phone call at home. The call, he says,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are finding little they like about President Barack Obama or either political party, according to a new poll that suggests the possibility of a "throw the bums out" mentality in next year's midterm elections.

Political Director of ABC News, Rick Klein pleaded with investors today to tank the stock market in order to “shake things loose” in the GOP ranks. In his ABC’s The Note piece today, Klein seriously proposed a stock sell-off designed for the express purpose of breaking the will of Republicans. When does Wall Street cast its vote? Bipartisan meetings are nice, and new plans that depend on the other side budging certainly can’t hurt at this stage of a standoff. But there may be only one way to jolt the system: SELL. Klein’s rationale: recent talks with beltway strategists suggest the GOP is...

Lon Snowden visited his son, but the place and time of the meeting "are not being been revealed for security reasons", said Russia's state-run TV channels Rossiya 24 and Channel One. Meanwhile, Edward Snowden met four former US security officials in Russia late on Wednesday, it has emerged. The officials - who now campaign against what they describe as the misuse of state secrecy - said they had presented Mr Snowden with the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence award. The award is given annually by a group of retired CIA officers. The officials told Russian media Mr Snowden...

Poll Who is more to blame for the federal government shutdown? Thank you for your vote. Republicans 28% Democrats 29% They're both equally to blame 41% Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/#ixzz2hOCQZQ4Q

A classroom of 14 and 15-year-old Illinois high school students was assigned the task of deciding the fate of ten fictional characters in an exercise that critics called a lesson in death panels. The assignment was part of a sociology unit for freshmen and sophomore students at St. Joseph-Ogden High School in St. Joseph, just east of Champaign. The story was first reported by Champion News. The lesson involves 10 people who are in desperate need of kidney dialysis. “Unless they receive this procedure, they will die,” the lesson states. But there’s a problem. The local hospital only has enough...

Word came this week that the National Institutes of Health has suspended therapy-dog visits to sick children at its clinical center because of a 25% reduction in staff, even though volunteers run the program. It's comforting to know, however, that the House and Senate gyms are still open, that the government had enough money to buy a mechanical bull and, while the feds barricaded the open-air National Mall and threatened to fine and arrest those who walk there, they'll let an immigration amnesty rally take place on those same grounds.

<p>Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in prison for corruption, the apparent last step after a series of scandals destroyed his political career and helped steer a crisis-laden city even deeper into trouble.</p> <p>Kilpatrick, who served as mayor from 2002 until fall 2008, fattened his bank account by tens of thousands of dollars, traveled the country in private planes and even strong-armed his campaign fundraiser for stacks of cash hidden in her bra, according to evidence at trial.</p>

Here are a few random thoughts on King Barack and his shutdown. *In all of the lies, phony “polls” misreporting, failures to report and Democrat name calling since this shutdown started, one essential point is being buried: The federal parks and other installations and services King Barack has closed or discontinued are NOT his private property to close. These treasures are owned jointly by We The People. *When King Barack dispatched federal jack booted thugs to keep 90 year old American war heroes away from THEIR memorial he proved he is nothing more than a clean shaven Fidel Castro. *If...

In the current fight over the government shutdown, Republicans are simply representing the views of the American people. Americans didn't ask for Obamacare, they don't want it, but now their insurance premiums are going through the roof, their doctors aren't accepting it, and their employers are moving them into part-time work -- or firing them -- to avoid the law's mandates. Contrary to Obama's promises, it turns out: You can't keep your doctor, you can't keep your insurance -- you can't even keep your job. In other words, it's a typical government program, but this one wrecks your health care....

DC Mayor Vincent Gray Wednesday implored Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow the District of Columbia to function properly, asking Reid to release District funds being held up by the shutdown. As you may be aware, the federal government has substantial purview over DC’s finances.Here’s the exchange: Gray: Sir, we are not a department of the government . . . We’re simply trying to be able to spend our own money.Reid: I’m on your side. Don’t screw it up, okay? Don’t screw it up. Wow, check out the disrespect from Reid. I mean, the guy is mayor of Washington...

Dear patriot, There is no other way to put it. Democrats are curb-stomping veterans. My father served in World War II and fought the Nazis. He was cared for by the Veterans Administration until he passed away. That is why I am beyond outraged at the Democrats’ vote last night to cut off funding for veterans care during a government shutdown. I was here during the 1995 shutdown. Clinton worked with us to pass and sign a bill keeping VA claims funded. Obama? He publicly announced he would veto funding to process VA claims and Nancy Pelosi ordered Democrats to...

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vqDVy4Pk61oFeel free to reply or post with comments.

A semi carrying porta potties pulled up yesterday beside the WW II Memorial in Washington D.C.. The porta potties were donated by private citezens to help out the visiting veterans since the facilities are closed. However, the park rangers turned the truck away and they were not allowed to unload. Michele Tennery witnessed this event and was astonished that the rangers could be so heartless in their treatment of the veterans. Michele added, “The photos show the attempted delivery of Port-A-Johns by Don’s Johns. The NPS Ranger would not allow the Port-A-Johns to be left at the WWII Memorial site...

In the current fight over the government shutdown, Republicans are simply representing the views of the American people. Americans didn't ask for Obamacare, they don't want it, but now their insurance premiums are going through the roof, their doctors aren't accepting it, and their employers are moving them into part-time work -- or firing them -- to avoid the law's mandates.

Well I must say this one surprises me. Most of the people he interviewed all said Obama or the Democrats were to blame for the government shutdown. Watch:

– Some Catholic priests under contract or GS (general schedule) to the military are not allowed to offer the Catholic sacraments--including saying Mass, consecrating marriages, or performing baptisms--on military property during the government shutdown, and if they do, even on a volunteer basis, they risk being arrested, according to the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.

Public lands continue to draw attention in San Juan County. A series of public meetings in October will allow local residents to learn about several issues and make their voices heard. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has released an environmental assessment and an economic analysis of the Gunnision sage grouse proposals. ... Public comment on the studies will be accepted until October 19. It is expected that the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make a decision on designation by March 31, 2014. The federal agency is considering the designation of the sage grouse as an endangered species and...

MOSCOW, October 9 (RAPSI) - Greenpeace activists on trial for maritime piracy in Russia soon may face new charges after drugs were found at the Arctic Sunrise ship, Investigative Committee's official spokesperson Vladimir Markin told journalists on Wednesday. Markin added that the investigators have secured an official court order to seize the ship. Earlier, 30 members of the crew were charged with maritime piracy. "With this new evidence that came to light during the investigation, the charges against the accused will be augmented accordingly. It is very clear to the investigation that a number of participants will be chraged with...

Some things stay the same as they have been for years. In this world of politicians who almost never do what they say they will do, there is one political party who can be depended on to do the same thing every time a discussion is started about the amount of money our government spends. Whenever a fiscal conservative brings attention to the fact that our government is spending far more money than it brings in, you can always depend on what the Democrats will do. They will nod their heads in agreement and say the fiscal responsibility needs to...

Consumer confidence is crashing. If the economy goes south because of default fears, President Obama will be the big loser.So, people currently blame the Republicans more than anyone else for the government shutdown, but predicting the long-term political fallout is not as easy as that suggests. For one thing, the latest CBS News poll shows that while slightly more people believe the Republicans are at fault, a majority of them are upset with both sides for the inability to avert this crisis. The real story is not revealed by people's view of the politicians; it's contained in the indices of...

(CNSNews.com) – The Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health has suspended its dog therapy program because of the government shutdown, according to John Burklow, spokesperson for NIH. Burklow said the dogs, which pay visits to patients in the hospital, including children with cancer, have to seen by veterinarians, and a “team” on staff made the decision to suspend program. “A vet needs to evaluate the dogs, and given that there is a 25 percent reduction in staff (furloughed), we focus our activities and staffing on the care of patients already at our hospital,” Burklow said.

Illinoisans with a felony on their records will no longer be asked about their criminal past when they apply for state jobs. Promoting the decision to what he calls "Ban the Box," State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford (D-Chicago) says the governor's administrative order doesn't mean private employers will be required to hire ex-cons. It simply means applications for state government jobs will no longer include a box indicating whether an applicant has pled guilty, or been convicted of a criminal offense, other than a minor traffic violation. State agencies would still be allowed to conduct background checks, and request information...

Minnesota taxpayers no longer have direct control over more than $200 million worth of school levies they approved because of a shift in tax authority designed to give school districts more-reliable revenue sources. Changes in the latest education funding bill approved by the 2013 Legislature gave school districts the power to convert up to $724 per pupil of existing tax levies from voters' approval to school board members' control. In districts with no voter-approved property tax, school board members can levy up to $300 per pupil without a vote by residents. That means more than a quarter of the $831...

According to Boston Public Schools, school bus drivers in the city are staging an illegal work action. According to a statement from Boston Public Schools, "United Steelworkers of America Local 8751, which represents approximately 700 school bus drivers in the city of Boston, is staging an illegal work action this morning aimed at disrupting school bus service to students in BPS, private, parochial and charter schools."

Senate Democrats say they’ll advance a bill giving President Barack Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling unless two-thirds of Congress disapproves, according to a Senate Democratic aide. The issue of increasing the borrowing limit and avoiding an unprecedented default is fast becoming a central focus in Washington—and comes as ordinary Americans say they’re deeply dismayed with the week-old government shutdown, and are finding blame with both Republicans and Democrats. “It looks like there is more than enough blame to go around and both parties are being hurt by the shutdown,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. …

A new group bent on unmasking ‘leftists in the media’ has its first target—MSNBC’s ‘racial extortionist,’ the Rev. Al Sharpton. David Freedlander talks with the leader of the right’s answer to Media Matters. A group of conservative activists, tired of what they see as a persistent and little remarked liberal bias in the news media, are set to begin a series of boycotts aimed at advertisers who sponsor what they see as left-wing networks, outlets, and journalists. On Sunday they announced their first target, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader turned MSNBC talk-show host whose PoliticsNation has grown in...

WASHINGTON – A retired Social Security judge in West Virginia collaborated with a lawyer to improperly award disability benefits to hundreds of applicants, according to a report released Monday by congressional investigators. The report accuses retired administrative law Judge David B. Daugherty of scheming with lawyer Eric C. Conn to approve more than 1,800 cases from 2006 to 2010. "By 2011, Mr. Conn and Judge Daugherty had collaborated on a scheme that enabled the judge to approve, in assembly-line fashion, hundreds of clients for disability benefits using manufactured medical evidence," said the report by the staff of the Senate Homeland...

"We apologize for the inconvenience. The marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance andf will be back up Monday, 10/7/3013." That's the message New Yorkers received this weekened when they attempted to sign up for health insurance via the new online health exchange or marketplace, a key componenet of ObamaCare. ...

In an interview with Politico, Senator Harry Reid argued that the media is being unfair to Democrats in its coverage of the shutdown. Reid said he believes that there is no way someone viewing the situation objectively could conclude that Democrats are at fault for the shutdown. You and other journalists have a real shortcoming in that you are trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair,” Reid said. “Democrats have had almost nothing to do with the problems here. It’s all Republicans.” *SNIP** Media Research Center, a conservative media-watchdog group, found that in 39 stories in the...