Free Republic

President Barack Obama, who once considered government spending freezes a hatchet job, told Americans on Wednesday it's now part of his solution to the exploding deficit. He didn't explain what had changed. His State of the Union speech skipped over a variety of complex realities in laying out a "common-sense" call to action. A look at some of his claims and how they compare with the facts:

"We got our 11-member investigative team together to look into the Obama speech on the economy given today at the liberal think-tank, the Brookings Institution. They found 10 pieces of solid Brookings Bull very quickly…and they’re still coming up with more (there are plenty). Here’s the first glance... ...Obama’s Brookings Bull # 3 - Republicans Caused this Mess 12/8/9 OBAMA: We were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve. FACTS: While republican...

More than a few Times-Union readers want to know: Is Barack Obama eligible to be president of the United States? All the independent fact-checking sources, some of which did extensive original research on the issue, conclude that Obama is a natural born citizen, having been born on American soil in Honolulu, and is thus eligible to be president.

Sarah Palin -- the Associated Press wants folks to believe -- is so pat ently unqualified as a political leader that no one, absolutely no one, could possibly take her seriously. Except, it seems, the Associated Press. Indeed, the latest example -- in which the AP sent 11 (count 'em: 11) reporters to "fact-check" Palin's new book, "Going Rogue" -- suggests that the agency is pathologically obsessed with the former Alaska governor and '08 GOP veep candidate. Gee, what on earth are they afraid of? AP didn't send 11 reporters to fact-check President Obama's two books (it didn't bother to...

"I think Obama's in a league with TR," observes historian and presidential biographer Douglas Brinkley. "He created his political reputation through the written word." To be sure, no one has ever accused Sarah Palin, a defeated vice presidential candidate, of creating her reputation thusly. One has to wonder, then, why her book, Going Rogue, would merit a fact-check by no fewer than eleven Associated Press reporters when neither the AP nor any other mainstream outlet has spent a moment vetting the books of the "author in chief," as President Barack Obama was anointed in a November GQ article, "Barack Obama's...

[...] Hey, don't be too hard on the AP. CNN is also into fact-checking... SNL skit's that are "mean" to Obama. Here's some real fact-checking. Fasten your seat belts... On Governor Palin’s 2006 Campaign Financing AP “FACTS”: “Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC. Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.”...

WASHINGTON – In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of...

CNN is receiving criticism, of many different kinds from many different places, for a segment Monday on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." The segment "fact-checked" a Saturday Night Live sketch. The sketch, which has been deemed the show's first viral hit of the season, cataloged Pres. Obama's supposed lack of accomplishments. The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto called the idea "a bizarre exercise." The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik wrote, "Fact checking a comedy sketch -- I will say no more." FNC's Greg Gutfeld showed the clip on Red Eye and joked, "Seriously, reviewing an 'SNL' skit for accuracy is...

One of President Barack Obama's health care "horror stories" is about a woman who, he says, lost her health insurance on the verge of breast cancer surgery because she didn't disclose a case of acne to the insurer. That's not what happened. Robin Lynn Beaton, 59, of Waxahachie, Texas, indeed had her insurance suspended and then terminated when she needed it the most. Hers is a cautionary tale about how an insurance company can act in a seemingly arbitrary manner to revoke coverage for lifesaving treatment. But not for the reasons Obama cites.

Please excuse the vanity. Could anyone verify if Fact Check is legitimate? It was recently discovered that some internet fact checking website was nothing but two liberally biased individuals putting their spin on the information they were checking on and posting it to their site. I thought it was Fact Check. If this is not correct, I apologize for giving the wrong impression, but it would also be an opportunity to set that straight in the responses. If anyone could help me out and provide a link I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

By my count, they fact-check 7 of his statements last night and find that he was lying or obfuscating on 5 of them, which means he was telling the truth 28% of the time.

ED - UPDATED 4:20 PM - Factcheck.org endorsed analyst caught scrubbing false data after original publication of this report. See update below with screenshots and Google cache. We have retained a copy of the original cached web page. Screenshots are below.] Yesterday, Factcheck.org admitted they reported a false fact concerning the alleged expiration of President Obama’s Kenyan citizenship. They gave credit to this blog for correcting them: Our Aug. 29, 2008, Ask FactCheck item asking whether Obama has Kenyan citizenship… stated that Obama did have dual citizenship as a child but that it expired as an adult. But Leo Donofrio,...

We’ve burned through rather a lot of pixels combating the claims of those who deny that Barack Obama is eligible to be president of the United States. He is, by virtue of having been born in Hawaii, as attested to repeatedly by state officials and even by the flagship of conservative publications, the National Review. And, for the 10 percent of you out there who aren’t entirely sure, yes, Hawaii is part of the United States. We’ve given the denialists a lot of grief for the times they’ve been wrong. But we’d be remiss not to note when they get...

Back on November 20, 2008, I had reported on a posting from attorney Leo Donofrio in which he brought up the concept that an individuals’ at-birth citizenship is what counts when it comes to determining an ambitious individual’s eligibility regarding Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5. It has recently been shown — first via TheBirthers.org and then by Mr. Donofrio — and even reported in the Sonoran News that there appears to be a few problems in FactCheck.org’s reporting over whether or not Mr. Obama did, in fact, lose his Kenyan and/or British citizenship. From TheBirthers’ main page: Something FactCheck...

As far as I can tell, President Obama himself never publicly stated during or after the election that he isn’t a Kenyan citizen. In a now famous report, Factcheck.org, in response to a story originally published in The Rocky Mountain News, attempted to lay rest to allegations that Obama was currently a Kenyan citizen. In that report, Factcheck.org. stated that Obama had been a Kenyan citizen up until August 4, 1982 when they allege Obama’s Kenyan citizenship expired. Obama republished – at his web official site, Fightthesmears.com – only that part of the Factcheck.org analysis which stated that the President...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A nonpartisan web site that routinely serves as a watchdog for public officials, the media and political groups says President Barack Obama has it wrong. FactCheck.org says the current health care plans pending in Congress do authorize abortion funding, contrary to Obama's claims otherwise. "Despite what Obama said, the House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a federal plan and by federally subsidized private plan," the web site concludes.At issue are concerns from pro-life groups that the government-run health care plans would include abortion funding and coverage. Obama has said they don't and...

We already knew this, thanks to Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Barack Obama himself, but it’s nice to get confirmation from those fine folks at Factcheck.org — an Annenberg project, no less. After Obama tried to paint it as a lie, the National Right to Life Committee insisted that ObamaCare would use taxpayer money to fund abortions. It turns out that they were right: The truth is that bills now before Congress don’t require federal money to be used for supporting abortion coverage. So the president is right to that limited extent. But it’s equally true that House and Senate legislation...

We already knew this, thanks to Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Barack Obama himself, but it’s nice to get confirmation from those fine folks at Factcheck.org — an Annenberg project, no less. After Obama tried to paint it as a lie, the National Right to Life Committee insisted that ObamaCare would use taxpayer money to fund abortions. It turns out that they were right:

We already knew this, thanks to Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Barack Obama himself, but it’s nice to get confirmation from those fine folks at Factcheck.org — an Annenberg project, no less. After Obama tried to paint it as a lie, the National Right to Life Committee insisted that ObamaCare would use taxpayer money to fund abortions. It turns out that they were right: The truth is that bills now before Congress don’t require federal money to be used for supporting abortion coverage. So the president is right to that limited extent. But it’s equally true that House and Senate legislation...

Keep Your Insurance? Not Everyone. Obama's claim depends on what employers would likely do under several legislative scenarios. Summary President Obama has repeatedly said that under the health care overhaul efforts in Congress, "if you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan." But he can’t make that promise to everyone. In fact, under the House bill, some employers might have to modify plans after a five-year grace period if they don’t meet minimum benefits standards. Furthermore, some firms are likely to buy different coverage for their workers than they have now, or simply drop coverage and...