Free Republic

I live in Long Island and in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy my home was without electricity, heat or lights for 14 days, 2 hours, and 30 minutes.  Sitting in the dark every night shivering in my living room (which hit a low of 49 degrees), I had plenty of time to brood over the disastrous 2012 election results, the way Catholics voted in particular, and why it happened. Here’s what I came up with:GOP internal tracking polls that had Romney winning were wrong because pollsters could not factor into their mathematical formulas the effectiveness of Obama’s Election Day ground...

At 11:45 a.m. last Tuesday, the editorial staff of The Washington Post was summoned on short notice to an announcement on the fifth floor of its building to hear something they already knew — that Marcus Brauchli would be leaving after four years as executive editor. After Mr. Brauchli spoke, Katharine Weymouth, the newspaper’s publisher, told employees that he would be replaced by Marty Baron, the editor of The Boston Globe. As the meeting was concluding, Valerie Strauss, a longtime reporter, asked Ms. Weymouth why she was making the change. Ms. Weymouth, perhaps because of employment agreements that limited what...

Even though there was simply too much evidence that demonstrated Obama’s deep-rooted belief in the Socialist based redistribution of wealth, he continuously tried to walk it back or deny it. That is, until he found a way to sell the snake oil of “economic justice” in a manner that rallied his troops behind him and, as a result, tore a deep divide within this country. He changed the language to demand that the rich “pay their fair share”...

Everyone came away from the initial summit meeting between Obama, Boehner and Reid with big smiles and a public air of confidence that Friday's kumbaya moment would lead to The Big Deal. Call me a cynic, but I'm still not buying it. Yesterday, AP touched on a part of this story, tossing out some ideas about how everyone --- particularly Democrats ... might walk away with relatively clean hands if no deal is reached on the fiscal cliff this year. It's all true, but for some of us there's a bit more to the story. The Democrats, for their part,...

A new study from the Congressional Budget Office starts with the scariest graph you’ll see today. Source: Congressional Budget Office In other words, you’re not imagining it: This economic recovery has been a big disappointment relative to what the United States has usually experienced after a recession. Growth has been 9 percent below what was seen in past recoveries on average in its first three years. The CBO report tries to disentangle where that underperformance is coming from and its answer is deeply unsettling: The U.S. economy just isn’t as good at growing as it used to be. The new...

...Three stages are involved in the evolution of a military nuclear capability: a delivery system, a capacity to enrich uranium and the production of nuclear warheads. Iran has been augmenting the range and number of its missile systems since at least 2006. Its enrichment capacity — long underreported to the International Atomic Energy Agency — has been expanded to thousands of centrifuges (the instruments that enrich uranium to bomb-grade material). The level exceeds any reasonable definition of peaceful uses authorized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The inevitable culmination is a nuclear weapon. To draw the line at proscribing an Iranian nuclear...

The Washington Post reports that “the CIA and other intelligence analysts have settled on what amounts to a hybrid view” of September 11, 2012, “suggesting that the Cairo protest sparked militants in Libya, who quickly mobilized an assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi.”  What the Post doesn’t say is that the Cairo protest was itself an al Qaeda-infused, if not outright orchestrated, event.The “hybrid” explanation is a compromise, of sorts, between two competing narratives. The first suggested that a protest against an anti-Islam film in Benghazi led to a “spontaneous” assault on the US consulate there. We know that version...

Now it Gets Ugly (exerpt) The American public is being encouraged to focus upon the romantic dalliances of fallen CIA Director General David Petraeus with a predatory publicity hound, and obscure emails between an ugly Middle Eastern-American socialite, the publicity hound, and another general. This, I suppose, would be in lieu of focusing upon the effluvia of lies being fire-hosed from the mouths of President Obama and his administration (exerpt) These deceptions have been so blatant and so outlandish that I can only describe them as surreal. At House and Senate intelligence committee hearings this week, intelligence officials ostensibly tried...

Ladies and Gentleman, please start your musical interlude engines…   Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed   Everybody knows that the war Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed (snip)Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows that the captain lied (snip)Everybody knows that you love me baby     Everybody knows that you really do   Everybody knows that you've been faithful Ah give or take a night or two Everybody knows you've been discreet But there were so many people you just had to meet...

The cover up is worse than the original crime. When the president conspires with others in government to lie to the American people and claim "national security" as a defense, the congress has a duty and precedent to get to the truth. Lying to the America people and ordering subordinates to lie in a cover up attempt is historically recognized as high crimes and treason and IS definitely an impeachable offense. When the president of the United States commits high crimes and treason and then lies to the American people and conspires to hide it from congressional investigators and claims...

After yesterday's closed-door testimony of David Petraeus on the Hill, we now know for a fact that for two weeks the Obama Administration repeatedly and relentlessly lied to the American people about what they knew was the truth behind the September 11 anniversary attack on our consulate in Libya. Unfortunately, we also now know that they're going to get away with it. Within 24 hours of a coordinated assault that left four Americans dead, then-CIA Director David Petraeus was convinced the intelligence proved a local Libyan militia affiliated with al-Qaeda was responsible, and said so in his report. Then the...

After two foreclosures and two bankruptcies, Hermes Maldonado is as surprised as anyone that he's getting a third shot at homeownership. The 61-year-old machine operator at a plastics factory bought a $170,000 house in Moreno Valley, Calif., this summer that boasts laminate-wood floors and squeaky clean appliances. He got the four-bedroom, two-story house despite a pockmarked credit history. The last time he owned a home, Maldonado refinanced four times and took on a second mortgage. He put a Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz C300W in the driveway and racked up about $45,000 in credit card bills and other debts. His debt-fueled lifestyle...

When a million people knock on your door, you should pay attention. Since FDR’s dark days, the divide between Americans who keep faith with the Constitution and those who use it for personal hygiene has grown deeper. Many like to blame Barack Obama for our perpetual political antagonism. Yet he is merely the latest manifestation of that eroding evil known as concentrated power. The backlash Barack suffers from those who seek enforcement of America’s express written will started its current fevered pitch via bank bailouts under Bush the Lesser. His errors were preceded by Clinton not serving time for perjury,...

Court Halts Contraceptive Mandate for Christian Publisher Tyndale Sat, Nov. 17, 2012 Posted: 04:34 PM EDT A federal court ruled on Friday in favor of Tyndale House Publishers in a lawsuit against the Obama administration's contraceptive coverage mandate.U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton granted a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of the mandate – which requires employers to cover contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs in their employees' health insurance plans – against the Christian publishing company."Although there is arguably a public interest in the uniform application of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and the contraceptive coverage mandate there is...

In her "Sunday Roundup" post at the site which bears her last name, Arianna Huffington supported that notion that "This week, America finally began questioning the judgment of its generals," but lamented that the scrutiny is over "sexual conduct rather than military conduct." Fine, that's her opinion. But what's really odd is that she apparently thought that referencing a headline found at the Onion would be seen by readers as meaningful support for her argument (HT to a NewsBusters tipster): If our failed military strategy in Afghanistan had gotten half the airtime of Petraeus' failed marital strategy in Tampa, there...

Benghazi And Petraeus: Too Many Obvious Questions And Too Many Non-Answers, as Col Snodgrass lists them. The Obama administration is obfuscating the truth about the Benghazi and Petraeus issues. There are too many obvious questions and too many non-answers. There are at least 22 key questions that need to be answered. 1. Why was security for the U.S. mission in Benghazi so totally inadequate after the U.S. ambassador repeatedly requested that it be increased and improved following recurrent jihadist attacks against Western diplomatic and Red Cross activities in the area and because of the well-known and growing presence of al...

Do you remember the tale of "The Gingerbread Man"? It's a children's story in which a gingerbread man runs away from the baker, lots of people try to catch him as he crows, "Run, run as fast as you can/ You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man." In the version I remember a fox finally does catch the braggart and eats him piece by piece.This week, in defending the public statements of his UN Ambassador Susan Rice, Obama said we should come after him, not her. Pugnacious remark--just like the gingerbread man's. Last time I recall a politician making...

MONTGOMERY – Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday announced that Alabama will not set up a state insurance exchange under the federal health care law. “I am not going to set up a state-based exchange that will create a tax burden of up to $50 million on the people of Alabama. As governor, I cannot support adding such a tax burden onto our citizens,” Governor Bentley said. “The Affordable Care Act is neither affordable nor does it actually improve health care. Congress and the President have said they want to work together to solve the fiscal crisis facing this country, and...

Here’s the image of the day, courtesy of The Blaze: An Arizona gun store has a simple message for Barack Obama voters: you’re not welcome here. The Southwest Shooting Authority in Pinetop, Ariz. posted a sign on its door and took out a newspaper ad declaring that if you voted for the president last week, you’re not allowed in. “If you voted for Obama, please turn around and leave! You have proven that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm!” the sign states. Owner Cope Reynolds conceded that he can’t really tell who voted for Obama unless they...

The trajectory of conflicts like these are fairly clear. Israel bombs some terrorist targets and then launches a ground incursion into Gaza to suppress terrorist activities. But the Obama Administration is already working against a ground offensive behind the scenes, as a New York Times report mentions. Obama supposedly called Netanyahu to discuss options for “de-escalating” the situation, but all those options are going to involve signing on to another meaningless cease fire while Hamas continues carrying out attacks, on and off. Netanyahu has made calling off a ground operation contingent on an end to rocket attacks. Which Obama isn’t...