Free Republic

Despite repeated, self-serving claims by Obama officials that the Administration did everything it could to head off and then respond appropriately to the violence against American facilities in Libya and Egypt last week, their blunders in policy, intelligence and security illustrates an incompetence every bit as profound as exhibited by the administration of Jimmy Carter in Iran 33 years ago. It appears nothing has been learned in more than three decades; despite significant gains in technology available to the U.S. government during those intervening years. In 1979, the Carter Administration precipitously abandoned the Shah of Iran, Washington’s long-time and loyal...

Complete title, too long to fit in space: Former Secret Service Agent Tells Wilkow Obama Administration Has Shown ‘Sheer Incompetence’ in Handling Libya Attack ### On Friday, TheBlazeTV’s Andrew Wilkow hosted former Secret Service agent and GOP Senate candidate Dan Bongino to discuss the facts surrounding the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya earlier this week. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff were killed when an angry mob of Islamists stormed the compound. Bongino said there are only two possible reasons the U.S. was as unprepared for the fiery assault as it was. “Either...

ihadi groups in Egypt, including Islamic Jihad, the Sunni Group, and Al Gamaa Al Islamiyya have issued a statement threatening to burn the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to the ground. According to El Fagr, they are calling for the immediate release of the Islamic jihadis who are imprisonment and in detention centers in the U.S. including Guantanamo Bay: “The group, which consists of many members from al-Qaeda, called [especially] for the quick release of the jihadi [mujahid] sheikh, Omar Abdul Rahman [the "Blind Sheikh"], whom they described as a scholar and jihadi who sacrificed his life for the Egyptian Umma,...

The closure of seven coal-fired electric plants in four states could be a sign of things to come as tough new emissions standards threaten to relegate America’s top energy source to the back burner. FirstEnergy Corp., headquartered in Ohio, closed power plants on Saturday in Albright, Rivesville, and Willow Island, W.Va., along with four others in Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania as the company phases out aging facilities that cannot comply with new environmental regulations. Three others in Ohio also will be closed in 2015, company officials told FoxNews.com. “We estimate that it will cost approximately $975 million to make our...

Poway residents want to know how a financing plan for school construction could end up costing almost nine times what was borrowed. Poway Unified School District board members listened Monday night as residents voiced their concerns about the $105 million loan that could take taxpayers close to a billion dollars to repay. The loan is part of Proposition C, a bond measure passed by voters in 2008 to complete renovations and repairs to 24 aging school that began in 2002 under Proposition U. The district promised the property tax rate would not go up again but with property values in...

Barack Obama has made it clear that he is a big believer in big government and has adopted a economic plan to run trillions of dollars in annual deficits for as long as possible. Obama remains steadfast against making any dramatic cuts in government spending and when pressed to announce some half-hearted effort to cut the size and the cost of government, his administration has resisted the cuts, and has transformed even the puniest efforts to cut federal spending into even greater demands upon taxpayer funds. The Obama Administration’s cost cutting efforts within federal agencies are so ineffective, they often...

MADISON – If something’s not rotten in the City of Racine, well, Republicans say something sure stinks. The smell could be something fishy, or merely sour grapes. Either way, it’s the second time in two years in Wisconsin that election results have sparked significant questions over management of its elections and whether Wisconsinites can trust election results. And the Racine allegations are simply the latest indication that Wisconsin election officials are struggling to fulfill their duties. “I think this whole (state election) system needs to be redone, remapped, because it’s not good for a huge portion of the population to...

The parents of a 17-year-old girl they say was coerced into prostitution knew that her pimp was in San Francisco but chose to take the law into their own hands rather than call police, a prosecutor said Friday. New evidence in the case in which the girl's mother, father and two other men are charged with murdering 22-year-old Calvin Sneed of Compton shows that the June 4 shooting was more a revenge slaying than an effort to protect a young girl, said District Attorney George Gascón. "I think when you look at the level of premeditation that went on, the...

The 3-year-old son of a San Jose police officer died after he was shot in his family's Gilroy home Thursday, police said. The boy, Preston Orlando, was shot with a handgun in the home on the 7500 block of Kentwood Court just before 5 p.m., Gilroy police said. He died on his way to a hospital.

William Lynch never disputed that he had punched a retired Catholic priest in an old folks home in Los Gatos. He said the cleric raped him nearly four decades ago, that he had simply snapped when he demanded an admission of guilt. He didn't expect a jury to overlook the letter of the law and let him go. But Thursday, in a verdict that drew gasps of astonishment in a San Jose courtroom, the jury said the 44-year-old Lynch was not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse in the 2010 attack on Jerold Lindner, 67. The panel considered a...

Growing concern about crime in the Oakland hills, and a withered Police Department's apparent inability to do anything about it, has given rise to a new neighborhood strategy embraced by both residents and police: Buy surveillance cameras. Lots of them. Since November, Oakland police have attended at least a dozen neighborhood meetings in Montclair and other hillside areas where they preach the benefits of wiring residential streets with security cameras, then make way for salesmen to pitch surveillance products to residents. For police, residents' cameras are a new way to collect evidence at a time when depleted staffing levels have...

I think it is time for the states to call for a Constitutional Convention. The Congress, the Executive and now the Supreme Court has overstepped their bounds. For my first amendment: Each Justice of the Supreme Court shall serve two terms only of two years duration. They shall stand for election by vote of the Electoral College. Comments: As we see in this SCOTUS decision, the SCOTUS can do so much damage in such a short period that their terms should be reviewed every two years. Additional Amendment: Neither the Congress, nor the Executive nor the Courts in aggregate shall...

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. 4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. 5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English. 6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they...

Just how inept is the White House these days? On Friday, President Obama was demanding that Congress put "teachers, cops and firefighters" back to work. But his own website says he's already accomplished that.

They really outdid themselves. In Wisconsin and across the nation, public school employee unions spared no kiddie human shields in their battle against GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s budget and pension reforms. Students were the first and last casualties of the ruthless Big Labor war against fiscal discipline. To kick off the yearlong protest festivities, the Wisconsin Education Association Council led a massive “sickout” of educators and other government school personnel. The coordinated truancy action — tantamount to an illegal strike — cost taxpayers an estimated $6 million. Left-wing doctors assisted the campaign by supplying fake medical excuse notes to teachers...

Poland had earlier insisted that Washington must do more than simply express the "regret" offered by another White House spokesman late on Tuesday, hours after Obama's use of words deemed offensive by Warsaw.... Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Obama's words had hurt all Poles and he expected more from Washington than just regret. "I am convinced that our American friends can today allow themselves a stronger reaction than a simple expression of regret from the White House spokesman -- a reaction more inclined to eliminate once and for all these kinds of errors," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw. "Today,...

Poles and Polish-Americans are having a tough time accepting Obama’s apology — the White House said he should have referred to “Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland” — for the gaffe Tuesday. They say they have spent a lot of time correcting the historical record that Poles, like Jews, were victims of the Nazis — not architects or staffers of the death camps during the Holocaust. “If a Harvard graduate can’t get that straight, shame on him. It’s unacceptable,” said Illinois Appellate Court Justice Aurelia Pucinski. “On the walk of honor at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, there are more...

Sean Hannity hosted a panel on his show last night, to discuss Barack Obama’s history, in his “own words.” Stephen K. Bannon was a member of that panel, and reminded viewers (around the 3:30 mark) that the McCain campaign failed to vet Obama during the 2008 presidential election. The decision to not vet the current president in 2008 by Steve Schmidt and other incompetent individuals within the McCain camp, played a role in outcome in that race. Governor Palin knew the American people deserved to know the facts about Obama’s history and associations. Schmidt & Co. simply wouldn’t allow it,...

UPDATED: COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even if Rick Santorum wins Ohio on Super Tuesday, he won’t be able to claim all of its delegates. In fact, he is at risk of forfeiting more than one-quarter of them. In three of the state’s 16 congressional districts, including two that are near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania, Santorum will lose any delegates he might have won because his campaign failed to meet the state’s eligibility requirements months ago. Those three districts alone take 9 delegates out of a total of 66 off the table for Santorum. But it gets worse: Nine more Ohio delegates...

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama has suffered the second embarrassment over oil imports within the space of a week. Brazil, whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration, has signed contracts with China for the product. According to the Washington Times, Brazilian offshore crude may number about 38 billion barrels. Obama went to Brazil last month to put in a bid for the oil, offering loans and other support to develop the oil in an "environmentally responsible matter," The Hill reported at the time. Republicans criticized that initiative, pointing out Obama has placed roadblocks in the way...