Free Republic

When an initial report by a government oversight board claimed President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan had already resulted in 30,000 jobs, the White House said that was evidence the stimulus was working. Now the Associated Press has reviewed the stimulus contracts and found, oops, the government exaggerated the job numbers. You always suspected your money was being flushed away. Now you have proof.

This is the entire Glenn Beck show from Wednesday, October 21st, 2009. In this episode entitled “Progressives’ Three Tactics”, Beck discusses “wrong thinking”, “danger”, and “profit”. He also concludes that the White House war on Fox News is a distraction while ObamaCare is pushed through the approval process. He interviews John Stossel. He references USdebtClock.org. Video: Glenn Beck on October 21st, 2009

Here is video of Glenn Beck talking with John Stossel about ObamaCare. This was John Stossel's first appearance as a Fox News employee after leaving ABC....(Video)

I worked in TV news for 30+ years, and this is one of the best peices I have ever seen. This is a MUST WATCH! Send the link to everyone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9GMKK_fWKg

t's time for a change. Next month, I leave ABC News to start a weekly one-hour prime time show with Fox News. When I announced that on my blog, plenty of viewers said they were happy to have me leave. "Goodbye. You suck. You have found a much better home for your garbage reporting and backwards politics." "Congratulations on the move to the network intellectually suited to your quasi-libertarian corporate-apologist hackery!" Oh well, you can't please everyone. I don't expect that my libertarian beliefs will please everyone at Fox, either. Years ago, ABC hired me to do consumer reporting. When...

First on TVNewser: John Stossel, the longtime ABC News correspondent and co-anchor of "20/20," is leaving ABC to join Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. TVNewser has learned Stossel will host a weekly, one-hour program for the 2-year-old business channel. He's expected to signed a multi-year deal with Fox which will include regular appearances on Fox News Channel during daytime and primetime. He'll also host four, hour-long specials on Fox News, much like the business/consumer specials he'd hosted for years on ABC. Stossel, a libertarian, has been appearing on Fox News for years as a guest on shows including...

First on TVNewser: John Stossel, the longtime ABC News correspondent and co-anchor of "20/20," is leaving ABC to join Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. TVNewser has learned Stossel will host a weekly, one-hour program for the 2-year-old business channel. He's expected to signed a multi-year deal with Fox which will include regular appearances on Fox News Channel during daytime and primetime. He'll also host four, hour-long specials on Fox News, much like the business/consumer specials he'd hosted for years on ABC. Stossel, a libertarian, has been appearing on Fox News for years as a guest on shows including...

Here is video of another outstanding report by ABC News' John Stossel on Health Care Insurance, in which he suggests we should pay for our own Health Care. Stossel points out that insurance was designed for catastrophic circumstances, not to pay for everything. Essentially, Stossel says it is insurance itself that makes Health Care so expensive when it is expected to pay for every single thing. Stossel did an outstanding report last month that just destroyed Government Health Care by revealing what it will mean for Americans. . . . . (Watch Video of Stossel's New Report)

Whenever it comes time to check in with the antics over at “progressive” media “watchdog” group Media Matters I inevitably find myself recalling one of the rants of one of my comedic heroes, the late Bill Hicks. Blasting the pornography-criminalization position, Hicks said in one of his routines: Supreme Court says pornography is any act that has no merit and causes sexual thoughts. Hmm… Yeah… And… So…. What? Hicks would go on to elaborate that by that definition virtually every commercial on television would be considered pornography — a dead-on observation. (Hicks’ politics were all over the map — sometimes...

Here is video from a few days ago where ABC's John Stossel was on with Glenn Beck to talk about a segment he did for 20/20 on what Government Health Care (Socialized Medicine) has done to Canada. We posted Stossel's outstanding report a couple of days ago, and it absolutely devastates the idea that the Health Care of Americans will be better under a Government system. Stossel and Beck cover much of what is in the report in their discussion together. . . . . . (Watch Video)

It's crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It's even crazier to do it by August. Yet that is what some members of Congress presume to do. They intend, as the New York Times puts it, "to reinvent the nation's health care system".Let that sink in. A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system. Politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea how complicated markets are. Every day people make countless tradeoffs, in all areas of life, based...

Media types often have a habit of masking their true beliefs in their online blogs in attempt to maintain the fiction that they are "unbiased." One such blog that comes to mind is the Daily Nightly blog of Brian Williams in which he attempts (not always successfully) to hide his liberal bias to an extent that it comes off as quite inane. In fact, your humble correspondent has labeled the Williams blog as the Daily Dully. In stark contrast to the Williams ennui is the new John Stossel blog of ABC News, John Stossel's Take, which began less than two...

From pregnancy discrimination laws to doing less for senior citizens, from farming endangered animals to letting athletes do steroids, John Stossel brings us his take on tough subjects in an hour-long report, “You Can’t Even Talk About It,” airing on “20/20,” FRIDAY, MAY 8 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Reports include:America Needs to Do Less for Its Senior Citizens...The Best Way to Save Many Endangered Species Is to Eat Them.... Rescuing Risk Takers

which is worse? being waterboarded over and over.......... or being stuck between those annoying nags? lol (sic)

For John Stossel fans -- looks like it'll cover bailout stuff but maybe also libertarian whining about illegal immigration and marijuana legalization enough to get freepers raging. Nevertheless, looking forward to it.

Washington never changes, no matter who's in power. Give a gang of politicians a chance to spend our money, and they will spend it -- the more the better. An economic downturn is hog heaven; for now they have a justification to spend big time: "economic stimulus." Anything and everything can be proposed as long as it can be said to "inject money into the economy" and "create jobs." Does $819 billion sound like too much? Au contraire. It may not be enough. Ask Paul Krugman and the other Keynesians. The danger, they say, lies in spending too little. Not...

A college diploma is supposed to be the ticket to the good life. Colleges and politicians tell students, "Your life will be much better if you go to college. On average during your lifetime you will earn a million dollars more if you get a bachelor's degree." Barack Obama, stumping on the campaign trail, said, "We expect all our children not only to graduate high school, but to graduate college." Rachele Percel heard the promises. She borrowed big to pay about $24,000 a year to attend Rivier College in New Hampshire. She got a degree in human development. "I...

The $50-billion investment scam allegedly pulled off by Wall Street insider Bernard Madoff has ignited predictable calls for more regulation. The "massive fraud ... was made possible in part because the regulators who were assigned to oversee Wall Street dropped the ball," said President-elect Obama. "This scandal underscores the need for a 21st century regulatory approach," writes Arthur Levitt Jr., former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in The Wall Street Journal. Notice the disconnect. Regulation failed, so we need more regulation. I see it differently. Regulation failed, so let's try free markets. That would be a change....

Bernard Madoff, who stands accused of bilking sophisticated investors out of $50 billion, is reported to have told two of his executives that his business was "a giant Ponzi scheme." Perpetrators of Ponzi schemes lead clients to believe their money is invested and that their profits are the fruits of the money manager's savvy. But in fact, the "profits" are merely revenue provided by the next group of dupes. Eventually, when no more new dupes can be found, the scheme crashes. Political leaders say Madoff's alleged crimes show what's wrong with the country. President-elect Obama said the "massive fraud that...

Barack Obama wants to use the recession to remake the U.S. economy. "Painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people," Obama said. His designated chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is more direct: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." So they will "transform our economy." Obama's nearly trillion-dollar plan will not merely repair bridges, fill potholes and fix up schools; it will also impose a utopian vision based on the belief that an economy is a thing to be planned from above. But this is an...

If an athlete injures himself and suffers great pain, we'd recognize the shortsightedness of giving him painkillers to keep him going. The pain might be masked, but at the risk of greater injury later. That's a good analogy for the inflationary policies now pursued by Washington. These policies may temporarily "stimulate the economy," but they also disguise and aggravate the underlying problems. We will all pay a serious price. Policy makers have thrown caution to the wind. Twelve-digit dollar figures are tossed about casually. The other day, after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson changed course -- yet again -- and announced...

It's exciting that the world is so excited about Barack Obama. I'm excited, too. That he achieved the presidency says something good about America. But the excitement also frightens me. It reinforces the worst impulse of the media and political class: the assumption that all progress comes from Washington. In a free society, with constitutionally limited government, the president would be a mere executive who sees to it that predictable and understandable laws are enforced. But sadly, the prestige and power of the presidency have grown, and liberty has contracted. That is not something to celebrate. The infatuated chattering classes...

We keep hearing how important it is for everyone to vote and that voting is our civic duty. Celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diddy and Dave Matthews urge everyone to get out and vote. And to help people vote, voter registration groups such as HeadCount deploy volunteers to sign people up. HeadCount focuses on registering young people at rock concerts and music festivals around the country. During the concerts, famous musicians such as Eddie Vedder and Jack Johnson implore their fans to sign up to vote. Marc Brownstein, the bassist for the band The Disco Biscuits and a co-founder...

"Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect ... on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group's West Texas compound," The Los Angeles Times reported last week (http://tinyurl.com/6oenlz). The Associated Press and other media used similar words: "indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs ... charges of felony sexual assault of a child." Straightforward reporting? In my "20/20" special "Sex in America", polygamy activist Mark Henkel said no, it's an ignorant distortion. "The media kept saying, 'Polygamist leader, polygamist leader,'" Henkel told me. "But...

In a desolate public park in Columbus, Ohio, a man responded to the advances of a topless woman. She asked him to "show me yours." When he did, police officers arrested him. Columbus law says her being topless is OK; exposing his genitalia is not. Why did cops hide in the shadows to arrest a man no one but they could see? On last week's "20/20", Dr. Marty Klein pointed out that the police weren't protecting children. "There were no children anywhere in sight. In fact, there were no adults anywhere in sight." Klein says it's part of "America's War...

"Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, ... we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge" With that, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain threw his support -- again -- to a complex government program to reduce carbon emissions. He claims he can do this, without...

Friday's 20/20 aired a piece on liberal columnist Arianna Huffington in which ABC host John Stossel got to challenge Huffington's views on issues like welfare, OSHA regulations, and the "lunatic fringe" of the Republican party. When Stossel took her to task for living in a $7 million home that is "burning more carbon than 100 people in the Third World" even while she is part of the "war on global warming," Huffington responded: "There is no question that the fact that I'm living in a big house, I occasionally travel on private planes, all those things are a contradiction. I'm...

Threat to Homeschooling By John Stossel Wednesday, April 2, 2008 The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." There you have it; a primary purpose of government schools is to train schoolchildren "in loyalty to the state." Somehow that protects "the public welfare"...

My Thanksgiving column about how the pilgrims nearly starved practicing communal farming but thrived once they switched to private cultivation made some people angry. One commented, "Sharing of the fruits of our labor is a bad thing?" I never said that. I practice charity regularly. I believe in sharing. But when government takes our money by force and gives it to others, that's not sharing. And sharing can't be a basis for production -- you can't share what hasn't been produced. My point is that production and prosperity require property rights. Property rights associate effort with benefits. Where benefits are...

There's no need to ask Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, why his agency created the Defending the American Dream Summit. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. -- who actually could be president one day -- can tell you. At the NASDAQ stock market last week, Mr. Obama said the "'what's-good-enough-for-me-is-good-enough' mentality has crept into parts of the business world, while working men and women toil longer hours and still struggle to pay for health care, tuition and taxes," according to The Associated Press. "If we are honest, I think we must admit that those who have benefited from the...

John Stossel's 20/20 special "Whose Body is it Anyway?: Sick in America" is a fantastic piece of television journalism in what I see as a pretty sad age for that profession. I've always liked Stossel, not because his views often align with my conservative sensibilities, but because he just makes sense. I think that's why liberals hate him so much. There's a veritable mountain of good stuff in this piece, but his overriding point is that the individual should be in control of his or her health care, not the insurance companies and certainly not the government. Amen and amen!

Make sure to watch TONIGHT, Friday, Sept 14 ABC at 10 pm EDT And Stossel previews here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=446

The New York Times and Washington Post editorialize about America's "stinginess." Former President Jimmy Carter says when it comes to helping others, "The rich states don't give a damn." Standing outside the White House, the singer Bono told the press that America doesn't do enough to help the needy: "It's the crumbs off our tables that we offer these countries." It seems obvious to Bono and President Carter that America offers "crumbs" because the governments of most other wealthy countries distribute a larger percentage of their nations' wealth in foreign aid. Yes, the U.S. government gave out $20 billion last...

<p>IF dueling were still in style, it would be pistols at dawn for staunch environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and veteran ABC newsman John Stossel.</p> <p>Kennedy has been on the warpath for years over his belief that big-media journalists have played down global warming. Meanwhile, Stossel has had no qualms about using "20/20" to rip Kennedy as an unabashed hypocrite, citing the fact that he's part owner of a bottled water company and opposes alternative energy near the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts.</p>

I interviewed Michael Moore recently for an upcoming "20/20" special on health care. It's refreshing to interview a leftist who proudly admits he's a leftist. He told me that government should provide "food care" as well as health care and that big government would work if only the right people were in charge. Moore added, "I watch your show and I know where you are coming from. ... " He knows I defend limited government, so he tried to explain why I was wrong. He began in a revealing way: "I gotta believe that, even though I know you're very...

Last week, I bemoaned New York Times columnist David Brooks's eagerness to have government impose force on others. He was promoting programs like "National Service." Why are many conservatives so eager to wield force? Conservatives used to complain when so-called liberals did that. That same week I happened to interview filmmaker Michael Moore for "20/20." Moore wants government to monopolize health care. His new film, "Sicko," argues that Canada and France approach paradise because their governments provide health care and more. This brought him standing ovations in Cannes. "But government is force," I said to him. He was incredulous. Michael...

At a recent press conference Sen. John Kerry was upset as he snarled, "Oil companies in America are reporting record profits. Record profits." When did profit become a dirty word?" I wish the oil executives would face the media. They could say something like: "What are you complaining about? What do you think we do with our profits? Buy fancy cars and homes? Well, we do, actually, but nearly all the money goes to looking for more oil and following environmental rules that you want us to follow. You should want us to make more profit. Anyway, we make less...

Some people hate me because I defend free markets. Once someone accosted me on a New York City street and said, "I hope you die soon." Why the hostility to commerce? What could be more benign than the freedom to trade with whomever you wish? I suspect ignorance about economics leads many to believe that when two people exchange goods and money, one wins and the other loses. If rich capitalists profit, the poor and the weak suffer. That's a myth. How many times have you paid $1 for a cup of coffee and after the clerk said, "thank you,"...

This past Tuesday the governor of Virginia announced he would close the loophole that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to buy the guns he used to kill 32 people — and himself — on the Virginia Tech campus. OK, it's a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable. But be careful about how far the calls for gun control go, because the idea that gun control laws lower gun crime is a myth.

The Global Warming Myth? The End Is Not Near -- Instead of Panicking Over Climate Change, Learn to Adjust to It By JOHN STOSSEL April 20, 2007 — - The heavy breathing over global warming is enough to terrify anyone. Last week the Washington Post interviewed a 9-year-old who said the Earth is "just starting to fade away." In 20 years there will be "no oxygen" he said, and he'll be dead. The Post went on to say that "for many children and young adults, global warming is…defining their generation." How sad. Thirty-six years of consumer reporting have taught...

Spring is here, but you may have been too busy filling out tax forms to enjoy it. The unpaid job of gathering W-2 and 1099s, sorting through receipts, and tabulating deductions, credits, and exemptions takes a lot of time. Americans spent 6.4 billion hours complying with the tax code in 2005 — a chunk of time worth $265 billion, according to the Tax Foundation [The Rising Cost of Complying with the Federal Income Tax ]. That's more than the 2006 federal budget deficit. Those of you who do your taxes yourselves spend an average of eight to 27 hours toiling...

WE CAN scare ourselves stupid. Consider vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the mercury in them has "poisoned an entire generation! It's causing IQ loss, mental retardation, speech delay, language delay, ADD, hyperactivity!" The news media love this kind of story. They repeatedly invite Barbara Loe Fisher, who heads the Vaccine "Information" Center, to tell parents about vaccine risks. She warns of "seizures, brain inflammation, collapse shock, and of course the most serious effect is death." Causing autism is the biggest accusation. "Before kids received so many vaccines," says Fisher, "you didn't see autistic children. ... We can't build the...

Republicans give a bigger share of their incomes to charity, says a prominent economistIt's been a tough month for conservatives, with the Republican Party losing control of both houses of Congress, but a new book being released this week may help brighten their spirits.  In Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.  Some of his findings...

Preview: ABC's John Stossel Highlights Greater Conservative Charitable Giving Posted by Megan McCormack on November 29, 2006 - 11:35. ABC’s John Stossel is well known for his libertarian views and for challenging liberal conventional wisdom. On Wednesday’s Good Morning America, Stossel was at it again as he debunked the widely held perception that liberals are more generous in their charitable contributions than conservatives. As part of a 20/20 special airing Wednesday night, Stossel interviewed Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks, who conducted a study which found that conservatives, while making slightly less money than liberals, actually contribute more: John Stossel: "But...

This week's back-to-school ads offer amazing bargains on lightweight backpacks and nifty school supplies. All those businesses scramble to offer us good stuff at low prices. It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves. Education bureaucrats and teachers unions are against it. They insist they must dictate where kids go to school, what they study, and when. When I went on TV to say that it's a myth that a government monopoly can educate kids effectively, hundreds...

When he was in college, atmospheric-science professor John Christy was told, "it was a certainty that by the year 2000, the world would be starving and out of energy." That prediction has gone the way of so many others. But environmentalists continue to warn us that we face environmental disaster if we don't accept the economic disaster called the Kyoto treaty. Lawyers from the Natural Resources Defense Council (another environmental group with more lawyers than scientists) explain: "Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal areas." And Al Gore's new movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," depicts a future in which cities are submerged...

You've probably heard of Hooters -- the restaurant chain known for attracting male customers by hiring waitresses who are well-endowed and dressed to show it.The firm now employs more than 30,000 people. Some would consider this a success story, but our government didn't. Not because Hooters is using sex to sell -- but because its waitresses are -- get ready -- women!"Discrimination!" cried the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).The business of Hooters is food, said the government, and "no physical trait unique to women is required to serve food." EEOC lawyers demanded Hooters produce all its hiring data,...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 6/24 and 6/25/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.Sunday Shows for 6-25-06 ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: What is wrong with these Democrats?  We hand them the election on a silver platter and they just screw it up!Bush has had two good weeks - it's time to bring out the big guns and knock that fool down a peg Topics: Iraq Withdrawal?: In a pair of exclusive...

John Stossel, ABC's "20/20" anchorman, has a recently released book about the various untruths we accept, many from the media and academic elite. The book is appropriately titled "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity." As a longtime media insider, Mr. Stossel is well positioned to talk about the media's gross lack of understanding that often becomes part of the conventional wisdom. Mr. Stossel gives many examples. Let's look at a few.

Tony Snow and John Stossel were announced as guests for today at the end of yesterday's show. Plus Michael Medved's review of the DaVinci Code.