Free Republic

In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington. The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated. And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.

The latest case of black-mob violence in Chicago is far from the worst. We’ll get to that one in a minute. But when a mob of black people rushed into three Chicago-area Sports Authority stores this week and rushed out dragging entire racks of winter clothing, the local CBS affiliate dubbed that “unbelievable.” CNN said the videos were “shocking.” Not really: “That crime was only unbelievable or shocking to the reporters who spend all their time ignoring and denying black mob violence,” said one Chicago cop, who would rather keep his job than be identified as a source of stories...

The White House sent the administration’s chief technology officer to testify Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee on the botched ObamaCare rollout, complying with a subpoena issued by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Issa and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park appeared to share a laugh as they greeted one another ahead of the hearing. As late as Tuesday, the White House had declined to say whether Park would appear with other witnesses. Park’s subpoena has sparked intense political fighting between Democrats and Republicans. As Wednesday's hearing began, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the panel, thundered that Issa had...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Tuesday that troops and their families will be asked to sacrifice on pay and benefits to preserve readiness in an era of tighter budgets. Hagel listed politically-charged changes to compensation and personnel policy as one of his top six priorities in reforming the military following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the department gears up to meet new challenges. "This may be the most difficult" to achieve among his six priorities, Hagel said of proposals to trim pay increases, overhaul TRICARE and review retirement benefits while adapting to cuts in personnel.

What’s it going to take? I just finished reading Andrew C. McCarthy’s excellent article appearing in today’s National Review Online, titled “Obama’s Massive Fraud.” McCarthy points out that Martha Stewart was sent to federal prison for doing essentially the same thing Obama has done on a vastly larger scale, with his fraudulent sales pitch of Obamacare–intentionally misrepresenting a situation, knowing that the lie would harm others financially. McCarthy also describes how CEOs of various firms are routinely dragged into court, sued and prosecuted, even jailed for decades, by Obama’s own administration, for frauds based on omissions of information that utterly...

Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., slammed President Obama for committing "betrayal" in the weekly Republican address on Saturday, claiming the president misled Americans when he assured them that, under the new health care reform law, they could keep their insurance plan if they liked it. Young relayed stories of Indiana residents whose insurance has been canceled or become more expensive under the new law. "This is what betrayal looks like," he said. "Here you have hardworking people who were repeatedly told not to worry, that their coverage would stay the same and - if anything - their costs would go down....

That's right. Ted Cruz to be on Leno tonight. Looking forward to FReepers comments as they are always informative and many are very humorous at the same time. Buckle up FReepers. I'm sure that Ted and Jay will keep us both informed and entertained. Stay tuned or set your DVRs (NBC). This should be great. Go Cruz! Hopefully, this is posted early enough to give FReepers time to plan on watching or recording. I will do both :) TONIGHT 11:35/10:35c Mariska Hargitay, Senator Ted Cruz Musical Guest - Gavin DeGraw The LA Chapter is in the Audience led by Ron...

The government thinks you're stupid, or at least ignorant. This isn't just an indictment of the current government or an indictment of government itself. It's simply a statement of fact. At its core, the government exists to do certain things that people aren't equipped to do on their own. The list of those things has gotten longer and longer over the years. In 1776, the federal government's portfolio could have easily fit in a file folder: maintain an army and navy, a few federal courts, the post office, the patent office and maybe a dozen or two other pretty...

- President Barack Obama said Thursday he was "sorry" for Americans who had insurance plans canceled because of his health care law, even though he said they would not. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," Obama told NBC News in an interview.

At a fundraiser, Obama makes a chilling admission about the courts Posted at 5:07 pm on November 7, 2013 by Twitchy Staff I missed this line from Obama last night at DSCC fundraiser: "We are remaking the courts." — Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) November 07, 2013 Yep, at a fundraiser in Texas last night, President Obama said his administration is “remaking the courts.” Here’s the full quote for context via a WhiteHouse.gov transcript: We were able to reform our financial system so that the likelihood of taxpayer-funded bailouts is a lot less than it was. We were able to expand funding...

President Barack Obama’s approval rating has declined to an all-time low as public frustration with Washington and pessimism about the nation’s direction continue to grow, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Just 42 percent approve of the president’s job performance, which is down five points from earlier this month. By comparison, 51 percent disapprove of his job in office -- tied for his all-time high. The NBC/WSJ pollsters argue that no single reason explains Obama’s lower poll standing. Rather, they attribute it to the accumulation of setbacks since the summer -- allegations of spying by the National...

(CNN) -- White House officials have pressured insurance industry executives to keep quiet amid mounting criticism over Obamacare's rollout, insurance industry sources told CNN. After insurance officials publicly criticized the implementation, White House staffers contacted insurers to express their displeasure, industry insiders said. Multiple sources declined to speak publicly about the push back because they fear retribution. Can people keep plans under Obamacare? Keeping Obamacare's promises Obamacare's messaging problem But Bob Laszewski, who heads a consulting firm for big insurance companies, did talk on the record. "The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations,...

.........That wasn't what the president promised. But wait,the president can explain. It's not what we think. People won’t have the same insurance—they will have better insurance, administration officials assure. That's not the way some of the people receiving these letters see it. The president's original promise was so ironclad and repeated so often that any explanation now sounds like dissembling.[SNIP]In the summer of 2009,the president began to tailor his message to assuage these very people. If you liked what you had,it wasn’t going to change. That was a broad and simplified claim and the press called him on it. The...

Scandal: In recent days, President Obama has claimed ignorance about spying on allies and the ObamaCare meltdown. How can it be this president is always the last to know whenever anything goes wrong in his administration? Even though the NSA tapped the phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel some time ago, President Obama claims he didn't know anything about it until after an internal review he ordered earlier this year. Why should he? After all, "the president doesn't sign off on this stuff," one official said. If Obama's ignorance of this seems dubious, consider that a German weekly reports that...

The head of the agency responsible for overseeing the troubled HealthCare.gov repeatedly refused to disclose how many people have enrolled in ObamaCare -- during a hearing where she did not deny that officials have that information. Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, testified Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee. At the top of the hearing, she apologized for the failures of the main ObamaCare website and vowed to fix them. But, raising more questions about the administration's transparency on the project, she declined to cite enrollment numbers. She did not claim, as Health...

Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett, tweeted on Monday, “FACT: Nothing in #ObamaCare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.”

“Why can’t I keep my insurance?” Because you’re stupid, sweetie. Okay. This all goes to my screaming rants that people are responsible for their government. I’m getting really sick of people acting all indignant and acting like they’re being ambushed by this whole ObamaCare thing. “Er my gawsh, y’all! My insurance bill just quadrupled. I’m serious you guys!” Well, no kidding. What in the blue firey blazes did you expect? Let’s see. Insurance is risk pooling. A bunch of people get together and pay a small amount of money into a pool, and then when one of the people has...

I often try to find news stories that are not being reported on, trying to give my readers something to read that is different from other blogs. I don't necessarily want to write about the same subject matter I see on the rest of the Internet. That being said, that we now know President Obama has been lying all along about Obamacare is too important to not write about. Many of us have tried to point this out before, but the mainstream media refused to acknowledge it, much less report on it. The Obama administration has continued the farce, sticking...

Syrian Electronic Army, the hacker group of Syria that supports the Assad regime has undertaken responsibility for hacking the link of Obama’s campaign on Monday. The group said that it redirected the shortened service links of Twitter and Facebook accounts of the President to one among the propaganda videos of the group. This admission from the Syrian group arrives just a day before Obama hosts a discussion about cyber security with top notch CEOs who belong to various sectors such as Information Technology, defenseand energy. Syrian Hackers Claim Twitter And Facebook Accounts Of Obama

The big news out of Washington in the past 24 hours is that the Healthcare.gov website has been turned over to one of the project contractors, and that Healthcare.gov will be up and working by the end of November – which is to say, in five (5) weeks. Jeffrey Zients, a former top White House official pulled back into government to lead a so-called “Tech Surge” to fix the Obamacare enrollment website, told reporters Friday that the site will be fully functional by the end of next month. “By the end of November, HealthCare.gov will work smoothly for the vast...