Free Republic

Tempers flared in a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, with members on both sides of the aisle castigating the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups with special scrutiny, and then hiding the practice from Congress. Rep. Darrel Issa, the committee's chairman, said that the committee learned just yesterday that the IRS completed its own investigation a year before a Treasury Department Inspector General report was completed. But despite the IRS recognizing in May 2012 that its employees were treating right-wing groups differently from other organizations, Issa said, IRS personnel withheld those conclusions from legislators. 'Just yesterday...

The scandals appearing in the news are merely symptoms of THE most important problem at hand, which has yet to explode on the scene. The Democrats stole the last presidential election (they first tried with Gore) and have probably stolen many legislative elections. Evidence seems to be mounting as one reads about the many precincts in Philadelphia having not a single Romney vote (statistical impossibility) and then the latest news were "True the Vote" was harassed by not only the IRS, but the FBI, OSHA AND the ATF. Since no charges were filed, WHO sicced four Federal agencies on an...

WOW, YOU WONT BELIEVE THIS ONE!!

Media coverage of the South Carolina special election focused upon the candidates, Elizabeth Colbert-Busch and the winner, Mark Sanford. Yet the real winner could turn out to be somebody who isn’t from South Carolina: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.... ...Anyone who follows presidential politics knows that South Carolina is a key primary state. Ron Paul came up short both times, only getting one percent in the crowded primary captured eventually by Arizona Sen. John McCain with 33 percent in 2008. Four years later, Paul did much better, getting 13 percent of the votes. But Paul finished fourth of four candidates in...

Reuters) - The Justice Department will monitor voting in Charleston County, South Carolina, in Tuesday's special election to fill a House of Representatives seat, the department said on Monday. Former South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is facing Democratic newcomer Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of television political satirist Stephen Colbert, in the First District House race.

Anti-immigration, anti-European-Union, against wind farms and other absurd climate change policies, pro-family and anti-homosexual-marriage UK Independence Party, or UKIP, whose leader Nigel Farage you can see in this 1.30-minute video interview, (there is much more to be against than to be for at the moment in Britain) has today changed British politics, very likely forever. This far-right, real conservative party which not long ago had a support of barely 5% of the population has experienced a surge in popularity and is the triumphant winner of yesterday's local election in England and Wales, getting a quarter of the vote nationally....

The Rand Machine Ramps Up by Bob Costa Rand Paul’s chief strategist is leaving his Senate post to run the Kentucky Republican’s political shop. Doug Stafford, who is widely seen as Paul’s closest adviser, will soon resign as chief of staff to manage Paul’s national political operation. Today’s news is the clearest sign yet that Paul, a potential 2016 contender, is building a presidential campaign.

Who is right? Ann Widdecombe (whom I admire but not necessarily agree with on this point)? She says that, despite having found herself questioning her own loyalty "since Cameron forced through gay marriage against the wishes of his own party": At the General Election a vote for Ukip [right-wing UK Independence Party] will be a vote for Miliband and all that Britain has gone through in the interests of putting the economy right will be brought to nought. I make no apology for repeating what I have said before: the note from Liam Byrne, the outgoing Labour treasury minister, summed...

The retired justice acknowledges that the ruling that put Bush in the White House hurt the court's reputation ... Seven years after retiring from the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor is second-guessing what she says was the most controversial ruling of her 25 years on the high court — Bush v. Gore, which decided the 2000 presidential election. O'Connor — appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981 — was the swing vote who gave conservatives a 5-4 majority, and put George W. Bush in the White House. She says now that the court only "stirred up the public" and "gave the...

Officials found guilty in Obama, Clinton ballot petition fraud: A jury in South Bend, Indiana has found that fraud put President Obama and Hillary Clinton on the presidential primary ballot in Indiana in the 2008 election. Two Democratic political operatives were convicted Thursday night in the illegal scheme after only three hours of deliberations. They were found guilty on all counts.

Rand Paul, Kentucky’s junior Senator and Tea Party favorite, announced today of his plans to pursue the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Paul announced early Wednesday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, that he will be visiting the primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this summer – the first major candidate to make such an announcement from either side.....

Latin America: Venezuela's election on Sunday, which saw bus driver Nicolas Maduro declared the winner by a razor-thin margin, reeked of electoral fraud. Kudos to challenger Henrique Capriles for calling it out. Fraud is a strong word but, yes, it's the clearest conclusion from Venezuela's election Sunday to pick a successor to the late socialist dictator Hugo Chavez. Chavez's hand-picked successor "won" Venezuela's election Sunday, with what Chavez's anything-but impartial CNE electoral body declaring he'd gotten 50.6% of the vote, while his challenger, Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles Radonski garnered 49.07% — a gap of just 235,000 votes. That's suspicious...

Democrat Robin Kelly claimed victory tonight in a low-turnout contest to decide the successor to former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in a 2nd Congressional District with a history of scandal-plagued representation. With more than two-thirds percent of precincts counted, the former state lawmaker had about 77 percent of the vote to about 16 percent for Republican Paul McKinley, an unemployed political activist and ex-convict. The rest of the vote went to a Green Party candidate and three independent candidates who made the special general election ballot.

KRAUTHAMMER: The president is out there; it’s rather puzzling. He’s tilting at windmills and he will lose. The windmill is going to win on this one. He is not going to get anything of importance. He might eke out a weak compromise on background checks. But you have to ask yourself why is he doing this? You hear Pfeiffer implying that we’re going to blame the Republicans if this doesn't pass, as if that will be political success for them. Yes, the national polls show a shift, at least a temporary shift, after Newtown. But that’s not where elections are...

White House officials are now openly conceding that President Obama's gun control package could die on Capitol Hill, a development analysts said would cast a pall over the president's second-term agenda and weaken his leverage with Republicans. The president's trek to Denver on Wednesday was his latest attempt to regain momentum on the issue of gun violence, on which Obama has so far failed to close a deal despite a substantial investment of political capital. "There doesn't have to be a conflict between protecting our citizens and protecting our Second Amendment rights," Obama said, surrounded by law enforcement officers in...

Mark Levin opened his show tonight discussing Obama’s new executive order to create an election commission to study problems that Obama says exist on the local and state level, like people standing in line too long in waiting to vote. But Levin wants to know where the evidence exists to substantiate these so-called problems. In fact, he believes that Obama is trying to nationalize the election process so the federal government will have more control over it. Here’s an short excerpt: In the ratification debates in the states, after the Constitutional Convention ended, after they sent draft copies of the...

The White House announced Thursday the formation of a nine-seat Presidential Commission on Election Administration tasked with recommending changes to states’ election laws by the end of September. “The Commission shall identify best practices and otherwise make recommendations to promote the efficient administration of elections in order to ensure that all eligible voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots without undue delay, and to improve the experience of voters facing other obstacles,” said Obama’s executive order, issued March 28. State elections are conducted by states, usually under state laws. However, the federal Congress has the constitutional authority to “any...

A Democratic senator claims impostors pretending to work for his office are calling people in his state to ask how many guns they own. Sen. Mark Pryor, of Arkansas, took to Twitter Friday to clarify that he is not the one behind those calls.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Returning for the first time to speak to a party stung by his defeat last year, Mitt Romney told an adoring crowd of conservative supporters Friday that he made mistakes in his 2012 campaign—without listing any—and advised the Republican Party to look to its governors for its renewal.

Pat Caddell, the Fox News Contributor and Democrat pollster who engineered Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential victory, blew the lid off CPAC on Wednesday with a blistering attack on "racketeering" Republican consultants who play wealthy donors like "marks." "I blame the donors who allow themselves to be played for marks. I blame the people in the grassroots for allowing themselves to be played for suckers....It's time to stop being marks. It's time to stop being suckers. It’s time for you people to get real," he told the audience that included two top Republican consultants. Caddell stole the show as a panelist...

To give the Republicans a new lease of life requires an injection of youth to mix with experience. With Mitt Romney following his nominee predecessor John McCain’s fate in losing to President Obama back in November, the Republicans have another four years of soul-searching ahead of the next war for the White House in 2016. Many challenges face the party running up to the election. The inter-party divisions between the moderates, social conservatives and the Tea Party movement remain very much alive, they face a long four years of an emboldened Obama administration following its election victory, and the quest...

Before the conclave today in Rome, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the movement "We Are Church" for spoke in support of a cosmopolitan Pope. In an interview with the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" the ZMD-chairman Ayman Mazyek said he wanted a cosmopolitan pope who would introduce spirituality and a renewal of faith in God.

They all want a say in the election of the new Pope: In the Vatican, various interest groups among the Cardinals are in for tough fight. An overview of the factions in the Conclave. If the new man on the throne of Peter were to come from Europe or should he be a church leader from the southern hemisphere? Cardinals before their entry into the Sistine Chapel repeatedly emphasized that origin or skin color should not matter. At that point also various "factions" in the universal Church and different perspectives come into play. The 115 voting cardinals come from 45...

Hollywood cutie Ashley Judd is preparing to run for the Kentucky senate seat currently held by Mitch McConnell (R). The 44 year-old actress has no prior political experience, but exudes confidence she’ll win. “I’m pretty sure I’ll have the edge in the swimsuit and evening gown portions of the competition,” Judd bragged. “Talent-wise, I’m prepping by taking singing lessons from my Mom. The one iffy part I’m facing is the ‘poise question.’ There are so many worthy causes I’d like to promote during my reign that it”ll be hard to pick one.” Judd speculated that “McConnell’s ugliness is a definite...

President Peres gives PM 14-day negotiation extension. Netanyahu, in thinly veiled criticism of Yesh Atid-Habayit Hayehudi pact, says delay is due to 'some parties boycotting others' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Shimon Peres on Saturday evening and officially asked him for an extension in order to form the new government. Peres granted the request. In a short press conference held in the President's Residence following the meeting, Netanyahu criticized what he called the "boycott" imposed by certain parties on others. "The main reason I have not been able to finish forming the coalition until now is – and...

If you live in the 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday the 26th to replace felon resigned Rep Jesse, Jr. do you vote in Republican Primary with 4 Candidates left Eric Wallace, Lenny McCallister, Beverly Reid and Paul McKinney or do you vote in the Democrat Primary for former Congress woman Debbie Halvorson in a race with 14 candidates that includes convicted felon Mel Reynolds, Anthony Beale, Mayor Bloomturd’s gun grabbing choice Robin Kelly, Charles Rayburn, etc?

North Carolina’s Civitas Institute has revealed that the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the Obama campaign conspired to register at least 11,000 people via the internet in violation of state law. This has been confirmed through records requests filed with all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. The counting is not yet complete. North Carolina does not allow online voting, but according to Civitas, SBE staff authorized an Obama campaign website, Gottaregister.com, to use a web-based registration program. The SBE’s chief lawyer responded to the charge with a plainly disingenuous 1984-newspeak answer: Wright repeatedly denied that the SBE allowed...

After we learn of a morally-crippled poll worker named 'Melowese' voting for Obama at least six times in Ohio, now a report comes out that has the Obama regime itself working directly with like-minded scum at the North Carolina Board of Elections (BoE) to illegally register 11,000+ people. They also paid a company per registration to scrape-up voters, a blatant, in-your-face violation of federal law... ______________________________________________________________________________ The Examiner: North Carolina's Civitas Institute has revealed that the NC State Board of Elections and the Obama campaign conspired to register at least 11,000 people via the internet in violation of state law. This has been confirmed through...

So, the DC runs with a story about a college professor has been pegged for firing by the college's president. But once again, information is sorely lacking.It links to a report that summarizes, "Taken in its totality, Professor Sweet’s conduct constitutes "just cause" for termination based on Article 17.1(b) of the agreement between the District Board of Trustees of Brevard Community College and the United Faculty of Florida, 2012-2015. "What is interesting (not surprising to most normally-intelligent/non-liberal people) is what you get when you try to find out more about this professor and find a total void (avoiding needless metaphorical...

Critics of voter ID and other laws cracking down on voter fraud claim they’re unnecessary because fraud is nonexistent. For instance, Brennan Center attorneys Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt claimed last year: “A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.” Well, lightning is suddenly all over Cincinnati, Ohio. The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud that occurred when Ohio was a focal point of the 2012 presidential election. A total of 19 voters...

Someone altered Fulton County voter records after last year’s presidential election, using a red pen to add names to tally sheets of voters using paper ballots and marking that their votes all counted. Who is responsible remains a mystery, but it happened after managers from at least two precincts had signed off on the documents and submitted them to the main county elections office. “I know for certain that these additional names were added after,” Rosalyn Murphy, who served in November as an assistant poll manager at Church of the Redeemer in Sandy Springs, told the State Election Board during...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard surprised voters on Wednesday by announcing that national elections will be held September 14, in a country where governments have traditionally given the opposition little more than a month’s notice to keep a strategic advantage. September 14, 2013, falls on Yom Kippur, leading former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull to post on Twitter that he was “deeply disappointed that Julia Gillard chose to hold the election on Yom Kippur — the most solemn and sacred day of the Jewish year.”

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stunned constituents on Wednesday by announcing that national elections will be held on September 14. Gillard, who holds power by a narrow margin and is trailing in the polls behind the conservative opposition, broke from the country’s tradition of revealing election dates only a few weeks in advance. While Gillard’s surprising announcement aimed at ending political uncertainty surrounding her struggling minority government, she sparked outrage within the Jewish community, as September 14 falls out on Yom Kippur—the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

How the Republican candidate lost the presidential election. < snip > ..... [Republicans] are concocting explanations and excuses for what they see as Mitt Romney's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They should realize that it was economics that sank Romney. His crucial problem was his campaign's failure to make a sufficiently convincing case on the money issues. Most postmortems have focused on the demographics of the defeat. ..... < snip > But none of Romney's demographic defeats are as significant as the electoral potential Romney missed on money issues. Election Day exit polling by Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International...

After the last vote is counted, officials say Ahmad Tibi's party Raam-Taal drops from five seats to four, while Naftali Bennett's party gains one, Kadima party makes it over the threshold with two mandates. The count of the "double envelope" votes came to a close on Thursday afternoon, with Bayit Yehudi finishing at 12 seats, Kadima crossing the threshold with two seats and the Raam-Taal party dropping from five to four seats, officials said. The votes of 200,000 soldiers, plus those of prisoners and people in hospitals, were counted a day later than the regular vote. These ballots are called...

(Reuters) - Ending a self-imposed silence about the November election, 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that he and presidential running mate Mitt Romney lost not because of ideas, but due to ineffective communication.

Teddy Turner inherited his love of sailing from his father, media magnate Ted Turner. But there is less of a family resemblance when it comes to politics. While the elder Turner leans Democratic, Teddy Turner is running as a Republican in a crowded race for an open South Carolina congressional seat created by a U.S. Senate appointment. "My dad asked, 'What's the minimum amount I can give because you're a Republican?'" Teddy Turner, 49, said. "My dad has been asking for years, 'How the heck did you become so conservative?'"

JERUSALEM – In a stunning setback, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc fared worse than expected in a parliamentary election Tuesday, exit polls showed, possibly forcing the incumbent Israeli leader to invite surprisingly strong moderate rivals into his government and soften his line toward the Palestinians. TV exit polls showed the hard-liners with about 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a bare majority, and the counts could change as actual votes are tallied. The unofficial TV results had Netanyahu winning only 31 seats, though he combined his Likud Party with the far-right Yisrael Beitenu for the voting. Running separately four...

4 criminal incidents: man arrested for forgery in Jaljuliya. As Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday, the Central Elections Committee announced that by 4 p.m., 46.6% of Israelis had voted, compared with 39.0% at the same point in 2006. The police reported that by late afternoon they had received approximately 350 reports about irregularities or possible voter fraud that they were investigating, but the day was generally free of major issues. Police only reported three criminal incidents. In the Arab town of Jaljuliya, next to Hod Hasharon, a man who was overseeing the polling at his station was arrested...

CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama averaged a 49.1 percent job approval during his first term in office, among the lowest for post-World War II presidents, according to a new Gallup poll.

Chuck Hagel has been tapped by Obama for Secretary of Defense, which has resulted in a slew of push backs over his troubling record: criticism and lack of support for Israel; coddling of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran; and his almost immediate appointment after retiring as a senator to Deutsche Bank’s Americas Advisory Board, the mega bank that has been accused of funneling billions of dollars to Iran’s nuclear program. But the most troubling aspect of Chuck Hagel is the fact that he may have stolen both of his senatorial elections. In 1992, Hagel was CEO of Election Systems & Software,...

Stung by being called an “idiot” by Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) for his claim that victims of 2012′s Hurricane Sandy suffered more than victims of 2005′s Hurricane Katrina, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev) attempted to explain his way out the scathing characterization. “My colleague’s focus on quantitative data overlooks qualitative differences between the two events,” Reid argued. “First, New Jersey and New York are states where many important people live. Many of the homes that were destroyed were million dollar properties. The same could be said for the businesses.” “Most of the properties destroyed by Katrina were more like broken down...

An Interview with Dr. Larry P. Arnn Larry P. Arnn, the twelfth president of Hillsdale College, received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. From 1977 to 1980, he also studied at the London School of Economics and at Worcester College, Oxford University, where he served as director of research for Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill. From 1985 until his appointment as president of Hillsdale College in 2000, he was president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. He is the...

St. Lucie’s elections mishaps came to light in the razor-thin U.S. House District 18 contest that prompted a prolonged recount and at least two lawsuits. U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Democrat who was sworn in on Thursday, defeated tea party icon Allen West, who filed two lawsuits against Walker seeking a manual recount of nearly 38,000 early votes. Murphy was ultimately declared the winner by a slim margin of less than 1,800 votes.

From childhood it has been my nature to find that double rainbow in even the worst adversity I've experienced throughout my life, and like so many of you I've had my share. As an adult I am now well conditioned to find it immediately -- as I've learned that to do so I'm able to overcome a setback much quicker, press forward -- come what may. (Of note, this usually accompanies a very fast turn to Christ as part of the process.) But on occasion, life's disappointments refuse to allow such expediency and we are compelled to pause briefly...

NEW YORK, N.Y. - To his boss, Chris Matthews has become a statesman. His critics probably have other words. The veteran MSNBC host raised his profile as much as any member of the television commentariat during the presidential campaign. His 5 p.m. "Hardball" show has seen viewership jump by 24 per cent this year from 2011, 17 per cent for the rerun two hours later. Matthews symbolized MSNBC's growing comfort in being a liberal alternative to Fox News Channel. He engaged in an uncomfortable on-air confrontation with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, seemed nearly apoplectic when President Barack Obama...

All the mainstream country club “Bow Tie” Republicans are shaking their heads and wondering. “What went wrong?” The answer is really as simple as it is overlooked. In 2010, Republicans were swept into control of the House of Representatives and were within a stone’s throw of Senate control. Were it not for a few candidates who did themselves in as well as being done in by the establishment republican types, there may well have been a tied senate. Just two years later, Obama is re-elected and the Republicans lose ground in the House and Senate. What on earth happened? Click...

Politics 2012: It hasn´t been two months since Barack Obama won re-election, but already we´re finding out things that were kept from us during the campaign. Expect to hear more in the coming months. lElections are clarifying events, we´re told. But sometimes what they clarify is merely the gap between what we were told during the campaign and the reality on the ground. Often, the two don´t match. That´s certainly true with Obama. How often in recent weeks have we learned that what we heard on the campaign trail from the Obama camp, and which were echoed by

South Korea's Park seen winning tight presidential election By Jane Chung and Jack Kim SEOUL | Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:56am EST (Reuters) - The daughter of the South Korea's former military ruler appeared to be leading in Wednesday's presidential vote, putting her on track to become the country's first woman head of state although her narrow advantage meant the race was set to go to the wire. A win for the 60-year old conservative Park Geun-hye would see her return to the presidential palace where she served as her father's first lady in the 1970s after Park's mother was...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — CBS 2 has learned Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota will resign his post and run for mayor of New York City in 2013. Highly placed sources in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration and the MTA board told CBS 2′s Dick Brennan that Lhota will step down Friday and is expected to join the mayoral race for the Republican nomination.