Free Republic

<p>For the first time since Election Day, President Obama is on the defensive. That’s because on March 1, automatic spending cuts (“sequestration”) go into effect — $1.2 trillion over ten years, half from domestic (discretionary) programs, half from defense.</p> <p>The idea had been proposed and promoted by the White House during the July 2011 debt-ceiling negotiations. The political calculation was that such draconian defense cuts would drive the GOP to offer concessions.</p>

Can you say 'Dereliction of Duty'? So Senator Ted Cruz (TP-R, Texas) is the man who FINALLY got to the bottom of what the White House/MSM have worked so hard -for months- to obfuscate: yesterday the GOP risingsoaring star forced Leon Panetta to admit in sworn testimony that SoS Hillary Clinton was simply not available on the day the Benghazi consulate was attacked... nowhere to be found. Yes, the US Secretary of Defense had ZERO contact with US Secretary of State Clinton until long after four American heroes were dead. Where the hell was she all day, partying with Huma?...

WASHINGTON -- Senior Obama administration officials have agreed that the number of nuclear warheads the U.S. military deploys could be cut by at least a third without harming national security, according to those involved in the deliberations. Such a reduction would open the door to billions of dollars in military savings, which might ease the federal budget deficit. It also would improve prospects for a new arms deal with Russia before President Barack Obama leaves office, those involved said, but it’s likely to draw fire from conservatives, if previous debate on the issue is any guide.

All America needs is yet another unexplained lone gunman non-terrorist killing of American Hero Chris Kyle. He was America’s most celebrated sniper of the Afghanistan conflict described by wikipedia: a United States Navy SEAL and the most lethal sniper in American military history, with 160 confirmed kills (out of 255 claimed kills) At the age of 8, Kyle’s father taught him to shoot. As a youth, he trained as a bronco rider for the rodeo, which he gave up after a serious injury to his arm. He had intended to volunteer and enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was...

Nothing. That is what President Barack Obama did on the night of September 11, 2012, as terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed four Americans, among them Ambassador Christopher Stevens. President Obama’s inaction was revealed in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday by outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. Under direct questioning by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Panetta admitted that he had no communication with President Obama after their “pre-scheduled” meeting at 5:00 p.m. EDT. The attack on the consulate had already been under way for 90...

Texas would have the toughest anti-drone legislation in the country under a bill filed by State Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Terrell). 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reports that Gooden has introduced a measure which would outlaw the use of drones by individuals, or state or federal law enforcement. Gooden tells 1200 WOAI news that his bill would have limited exceptions, including allowing drones within 25 miles of the Rio Grande for drug and illegal immigrant interdiction programs, or for use by law enforcement with a valid search or arrest warrant, with 'probable cause to believe that a person has committed a felony.'...

Ambassadorships are the fairy dust of domestic goodwill for every President, and usually go to either big donors or prominent political supporters. While some go to professional diplomats, a significant percentage usually go to cronies for loyalty, both present and future. With that said, the latest trial balloon from State and the White House is a bit curious: Caroline Kennedy is the “leading contender” on the short list of candidates President Obama is considering to be the next ambassador to Canada, a senior Democratic official tells Fox News. Kennedy, the daughter of the late President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,...

ObamaCare’s benevolent promise to help control and curtail healthcare-related costs is already going magnificently bust; why not just extend the consequences of heightened compliance costs and pricey taxes to an entirely other but equally indispensable economic sector while they’re at it, right? As the Federal Drug Administration so munificently explains, part of ObamaCare’s overall purpose is to help provide Americans with all of the tools they need to lead healthier lives (with a universal healthcare system that requires society to absorb the costs of individuals’ daily health-related decisions, what choice do they have but to butt into those decisions?) —...

While we pray for those murdered and everyone who might be in danger, we cannot forget that the media and its allies in the Democratic Party have set a standard when it comes to reporting on the possible political motives of mass murderers. Though they generally make things up to turn the death of innocents into a talking point against the Right, it's still the left who set this precedent. And what do you know, Chris Dorner, the former-police officer suspected of being behind the murder rampage presently unfolding in Los Angeles, has apparently left behind a manifesto addressed to...

While the search for fired Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner continues, several versions of a manifesto believed to have been written by Dorner have been circulating around the Internet. Many of the versions are redacted to remove the names of Dorner targets. But a version that was originally posted on Fox's Los Angeles affiliate KTTV also contained quotes on President Obama and support for gun control. The version of the manifesto was obtained and posted on Fox LA 12 hours ago, but the link now returns an error page. A representative of Fox LA told BuzzFeed they pulled most...

Do you know who was Speaker of the House under Calvin Coolidge? Herbert Hoover? FDR? Keep that thought in mind. CBS Political Director John Dickerson suggested that Barack Obama ought to destroy the GOP The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat. … Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a...

The Bloomberg Consumer Confidence Index was released this morning and it shows slight improvement to -36.3. Consumer confidence has not been above -30 since 2008. A still sluggish housing market (despite record low mortgage rates) is partly to blame. The worst recovery since WWII is also to blame. But what is really noticeable in the chart is that Consumer Confidence fell below 0 in the latter half of 2001 and only breached 0 on the upside for a brief time in Q1 2007. Apparently, the government’s efforts to push home ownership did not placate nervous investors after the recession of...

America is up to their eyebrows in debt and fixing to get worse. Well, if this were a normal American family, they would sell off some of the possessions they think could get their finances back on firm ground. Government doesn't seem to work that way. They just print more money (inflationary) or borrow money from other countries (exploding the debt). Not good. America seems to have no appetite for tightening their fiscal belts either so perhaps it is time to sell off a few assets. Alaska might be a good choice but it is a tough sell because it...

A comprehensive new Harvard University report on Americans under 30, the so-called Millennials, shows that the economy is having a crushing impact, with just 62 percent working, and of those, half are toiling at part-time jobs. The report, released by Harvard's Institute of Politics, paints a depressing economic portrait of young Americans, many of whom are stuck with huge college tuition bills and little chance of finding a high-paying job. But over half, or 59 percent of those aged 18-29, have gone to college and The report reveals that time in college is a better sign of social status than...

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta revealed on Thursday that he personally broke the news to President Obama that an attack was unfolding on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. Mr. Panetta said he was given an alert about the attack just before arriving at the White House for an unrelated and prescheduled meeting with the president. “It’s something I introduced to the president,” the defense secretary said, acknowledging for the first time that he and Mr. Obama were well aware that the attack was occurring while they met at the White House that day. Mr....

Today's hearing on Benghazi is just sad. We have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the outgoing Secretary of Defense testifying to the Senate hearing that even though it was 9/11, who everyone and their mother understood is the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil...even though, due in no small part to Obama's actions, Libya had become a hotbed of al-Qaeda activity, AND even though the ambassador to Libya had sent warning of impending threats, they did nothing to ensure the security of the embassy and our citizens. Their excuse? “The United States military is...

Isn’t “the only defense for a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” basically the premise for every Hollywood action movie? Well, I guess sometimes it’s “the only defense against a bad guy with kung fu is a good guy with kung fu.” In America, the president isn’t supposed to be like a dad. He’s supposed to be like a butler we order to do the things we don’t want to. The president isn’t the leader of the country; he’s the leader of the least part of the country: the government. He’s king of the...

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.” Aldous Huxley, Berkeley, March 20, 1962 Given the current debate over whether our world lists more towards...

Griffin just reported that during John Brennan's hearing, Senators are asking if Obama, The State Department and the Defense Department.. WERE ARMING SYRIAN REBELS VIA WEAPONS OUT OF LIBYA. Now Leon Penetta is admitting he and Hillary REQUESTED to do this. Even though Hillary said in her hearing she knew nothing about it. Hillary has been caught in a HUGE lie!