Free Republic

I think the President is bluffing on his veto threat. Conventional wisdom: To achieve his desired fiscal policy outcome (big tax rate increases on the rich), the President is willing to risk tax increases on all income tax filers. He is also willing to risk the political blame for middle class Americans paying higher taxes because he thinks he can shift most of the political blame onto Republicans. He is therefore willing to veto a bill he doesn’t like and bear the consequences of having no bill, if that’s what is needed to gain negotiating leverage. His veto threat is...

The White House says President Barack Obama will meet privately Thursday with his vanquished rival Mitt Romney, their first face-to-face encounter since the election.

The Obama one is about to reach $10,000. Donations go to his charity.

Well, I don’t want to call it a lie… Butt it is beginning to look like a mis-misunderstanding. Probably because nobody knew about all the entitlements (like free condoms) that were in the bill until after we passed it.(snip) Well, I’m sure Congress will take care of everything. They always do. Or as Winnie-the-Pooh used to say: “Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” In other news, The US Ambassador to the UN must have skipped that Ambassador school class they have on “charm” because...

A hero to the end: Fearless Mexican mayor who survived two assassination attempts is murdered By ANDY SOLTIS Last Updated: 10:04 AM, November 27, 2012 Posted: 12:56 AM, November 27, 2012 Facebook TRUE COURAGE:As mayor of the town of Tiquicheo, Maria Santos Gorrostieta defied the area’s drug cartels, once baring her scars from two assassination attempts to rally support for her war on drugs. Her body was found mutilated in a ditch this month, days after she was abducted. Courageous Mexican mayor Maria Santos Gorrostieta cheated death twice when she survived assassination attempts by druglords — but three times was...

The Obama Administration is continuing its push to expand citizen access to health care--and it now seeks to accomplish that task on behalf of the citizens of Uganda. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) acknowledged this morning that soon it will seek a contractor to run its new Ugandan health program. According to a presolicitation notice released today that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research, USAID around Dec. 20 will release a Request for Proposals for the endeavor. The stated intermediate goals of the initiative are: 1) Expanded availability of health services by private service...

“If I wanted to be secretary of state,” Collins observed, “I would not go on television and perform what was essentially a political role.” Collins drew up a list of questions to ask Rice at their one-on-one hourlong meeting slated for Wednesday. She wants Rice to explain how she could promote a story “with such certitude” about a spontaneous demonstration over the anti-Muslim video that was so at odds with the classified information to which the ambassador had access. (It was also at odds with common sense, given that there were Al Qaeda sympathizers among the rebel army members that...

“Neither I nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in the process,” said Ms. Rice, who was accompanied at the 10 a.m. meeting by the acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael J. Morell. But Mr. Morell reinforced the perception of an administration that cannot get its story straight by asserting during the meeting that the F.B.I. had modified Ms. Rice’s talking points by removing a specific reference to Al Qaeda. At 4 p.m., the senators said in a statement, the C.I.A. called to notify them that Mr. Morell had erred,...

Throughout this year, as fighting intensified in Syria and antigovernment fighters grew in numbers and in strength, it had seemed inevitable that they would acquire heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles and turn them against the Syrian military aircraft. This blog had documented the part-by-part appearance in rebel hands of one old heat-seeking system, known as the SA-7. Since midsummer there have been occasional sightings of full systems but none, as far as we know, showing the system in actual use. Two videos recently posted on YouTube suggest that what had been expected is now occurring. The first video, embedded below and posted...

Surely, progressives will celebrate the artistic genius in this exhibit. Or, will they cry out that their savior has been defiled?

Obama's Eviction Notice: November 2012 "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." --Adolf Hitler, Quoted in John Toland, "Adolf Hitler", p22 4. The hand sign on the right is that made by The hands of the Führer Adolf Hitler as he organized his speech. This picture captures Hitler's hands as he speaks of the unity...

Barack Obama did not win the election. Mitt Romney and the Republicans lost it. Obama has no mandate. None whatsoever. Here's why: Obama received roughly 7 million fewer votes in 2012 than in 2008. He was perceived to be something much less than he had portrayed himself. No matter what the Democrats did, they could not turn out anything like the 69.5 million votes they got in 2008. The election was handed to Romney on a silver platter, but his campaign advisers — and a couple of Republican Senate candidates — wrecked his chances. Let's give the Republicans some credit....

If you ever used the term “whiz kid” to refer to Glenn Beck, you now have him pegged. The media giant is reacting to controversy over a painting of President Obama resembling Jesus Christ on a crucifix by putting a bobblehead doll of President Obama into a container of what appeared to be urine. “I like to call this ‘Flobama,’” Beck said with a faux French accent, as he played the role of an artist expressing himself on his television program Tuesday evening.

Are you happy with the GOP leaders' dealings with Obama re the fiscal cliff? No Hell no Yes

Despite stagnant markets and tepid approval marks, President Obama cobbled together a coalition of religious and ethnic minorities, single women, government employees and union members to attract 50.6 percent of voters. This prompted many pundits to proclaim there aren’t enough grouchy old white men for Republicans to remain relevant. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz chastised that Republicans, “got whiter and more male.” David Bositis told CNN earlier this year, “Their voters are white, aging and dying off.” The Left becomes increasingly ecstatic as the Caucasian majority shrivels. Minority populations are younger, expanding rapidly and demand action. But several factors are missed....

With the fiscal cliff looming, the deficit ballooning and the economy far from booming, the ongoing debate over how best to address the nation’s economic woes remains unsettled. Now, labor leaders and Occupy networks are agitating for what may be the fix: higher wages. This Black Friday, workers at Walmart and other big box stores in 47 states began unprecedented demonstrations calling for higher wages and benefits. Although widespread and formally organized strikes have yet to be seen, the growing movement is likely to drive a larger national conversation about the way tens of millions of American workers are compensated....

On the morning after Thanksgiving, I was driving over to Frederick, Maryland with one of my nephews. On the car radio, he was listening to a talk radio program from WMAL in Washington. The host of the program was a man who described himself as a conservative Jew. He was talking of the increasing religious persecution within the United States. Several times throughout the program he pointed out that it was the Catholics who are more and more being singled out and discriminated against. The First Amendment on religious freedom seems almost a dead letter when it comes to...

Nonetheless, many of the President’s most ardent supporters are so delusional that they are ready to ascribe supernatural powers to him. For example, entertainer Jamie Foxx used his role at the Soul Train Awards to praise President Obama as “our Lord and Savior.” He implored the crowd to show their support for the President by standing up for him. Foxx’s comments were included in a 30 second spot by BET to promote the awards broadcast and draw viewers to the program. Obviously, BET found Foxx’s comments to be both provocative and worthy of publicity.

WaPo has run an editorial conspiratorially half-baked suggesting that Democratic opposition to Rice's nomination are racially motivated: Rice’s nomination, noted the Washington Post, garnered “the most negative votes cast against a nominee for that post in 180 years.” As the Senate debated her nomination, Senator Barbara Boxer charged that Rice “frightened the American people” into supporting the Iraq War; Senator Jim Jeffords accused her of being part of an effort to “distort information” in the service of “political objectives”; and Senator Pat Leahy, who voted in her favor, endorsed her by saying that her tenure as national-security adviser lacked “strong...

After Hurricane Sandy hit along the New Jersey Shore and throughout New York City, President Obama traveled to the affected area and delivered a message to both victims and the federal government, advising the fed to use “no bureaucracy, no red tape … get resources where they’re needed as fast as possible.” To the victims, he promised assistance. “We are standing behind you and we are going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet.” It was that same day that an emotional embrace between the president and a New Jersey businesswoman, Donna Vanzant, was...