Free Republic

The health care debate began for real in June when ABC devoted an entire hour to Obamacare in a special edition of ABC's Prime time hosted anchor Charlie Gibson and (now incoming anchor) Diane Sawyer. Called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" the special aired on June 24, 2009, from the East Room of the White House. Basically Obama was given solo airtime to pitch his health care agenda both in prime time and later that evening on Nightline. To make matters worse, Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) a group that opposes Obamacare tried to air commercials giving the...

There is a feeling that permeates throughout the law enforcement community that organized crime gangs are getting a free ride during the Obama Administration. While most of the focus of federal law enforcement is on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crime, federal police agencies must still contend with more traditional anti-crime operations including emerging organized crime gangs. "I may sound cynical, but I believe because [President Barack Obama] is from Chicago -- a city noted for it's history of organized crime -- he may be used to what's known as 'the Chicago way' and the casual relationship between organized crime and...

Tiger Woods’ devastated wife has called in California’s top celebrity divorce lawyer, say her friends. And Elin Nordegren – rocked by her husband’s string of alleged affairs – could get half the £337.5million he has earned in the five years they have been married. The 29-year-old Swedish model, seen out in Florida yesterday minus her wedding ring, is believed to be meeting celebrity lawyer Sorrell Trope next week. Trope, 82, a partner in Californian law firm Trope and Trope, has represented big-name stars including Cary Grant, Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Britney Spears in a 60-year career. And in another...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts...

A Democrat congressman from Ohio has introduced innovative legislation that would require foreign countries to reimburse American taxpayers for the exorbitant medical expenses of illegal immigrants. Appropriately titled, PAYBACK Act (Preventing All Your Bucks from Aiding non-Citizens is Key), the measure would save the U.S. government billions of dollars annually and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund health care services for illegal immigrants, according to its author, U.S. Representative Zack Space. Medical bills for illegal aliens would be passed along to their country of origin, according to the proposed law, which was introduced in the House this...

The President just finished a rousing speech to the AFL-CIO today and was given a standing ovation for his address on government run health care with a public option. There was no bi-partisan talk here, just plain and simple “Obamaspeak” to a friendly audience. He is speaking to an important core constituency here and must produce for them. Organized Labor is highly in favor of a government takeover of the health care system and wants the public option in the bill. It's one of the main reasons they helped put Obama in office. You would too if you had thousands...

Enjoy their sweet, sweet pain and lamentations. ... and, for those who prefer to watch KOSsacks suffer and writhe in delicious torment: here. ;)

An executive order issued by the Obama administration poses a significant challenge to nonunion contractors, right-to-work advocates and, those groups assert, American taxpayers. Issued in February, it has undergone several months of governmental review and enhancement and it could begin impacting federal contracting policy any day now. Nonunion outfits are weighing their options to oppose it. On February 6, President Barack Obama signed an executive order recommending that federal agencies enter into project labor agreements (PLAs) every time they hire a contractor for a construction project costing at least $25 million. These documents are accords between labor organizations and an...

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration will invest $2 billion (or more) in drilling off the shores of Brazil, of all places. The left does all they can to keep us from exploring off our own shores. Yet we’re suddenly investing $2 billion – that we don’t have – in a Brazilian oil company?

Rather than holding their ground, the Obama administration has decided to revise the restriction that did not allow lobbyists to meet with government officials to discuss potential uses for the Federal stimulus money they have been allocated. Under the..

The Department of Defense has compelled a private employer to fire a U.S. Army Reserve major from his civilian job after he had his military deployment orders revoked for arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office. According to the CEO of Simtech Inc., a private company contracted by the Defense Security Services, an agency of the Department of Defense, the federal government has compelled the termination of Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook. Cook's attorney, Orly Taitz, wrote in her blog that Simtech CEO Larry Grice said he would try...

Of his Social Security program, Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that the whole thing had nothing to do with helping the aged. "They were politics all the way through," he said of his Social Security payroll withholding taxes. In other words, the So. Sec. program was created solely to give the Democrat Party a permanent majority on the "we care" ticket. FDR knew from the get-go that the program was an unsustainable sham but it was all about politics, not old people anyway. Seventy some years later Barack Obama was praised as a second coming of FDR when he ran...

Is this what Time magazine meant with their July 6th cover, What Barack Obama Can Learn From FDR? Not one to let "a serious crisis to go to waste," Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the onset of the Great Depression as an excuse to immediately begin delivering New Deal dollars in unprecedented amounts - with laser-like political precision to electorally important parts of the country. He sailed to landslide reelection in 1936 on a federally-funded tailwind. The New Deal is now an old one - as direct mail guru Richard Viguerie describes it, "We've got money, you've got votes, let's talk."...

<p>Decades of lawmaking and court decisions restricting the flow of cash into U.S. elections are on the verge of coming undone, placing President Barack Obama in the unexpected position of presiding over the possible demise of the modern campaign finance regime.</p>

Oops! Such a reaction would be adequate if you locked yourself out of your car. It happens to most of us at one time or another. However, it is woefully inadequate as a response when you blow nearly $800 billion of taxpayers money on a government program that failed completely. Such was the response of VP Joe Biden on Meet The Press yesterday when he said that "everyone guessed wrong" on the economic stimulus package.Oops!And now the DUmmies are upset that Biden said this out in the open where it is sure to hurt their Beloved Barack bigtime as...

In New York yesterday, Joe Biden, Obama's overseer of the spending of the "stimulus" package, acknowledged the following: ... some of this money is going to be wasted ... Obama's words in February: ... unprecedented responsibility and accountability on the spending. Without waste, without inefficiency, without fraud...

On Monday, after a painfully long death spiral, General Motors (GM) finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Oftentimes, bankruptcy portends rebirth. Unfortunately, the politically-inspired GM plan holds no such possibilities. Under the current deal, the restructuring of GM will cost taxpayers some $100 billion (after the hidden costs of interest and refinancing are included). Even then, it is highly unlikely that GM will ever be competitive or that its debts will ever be repaid.

Like so many special interest groups, La Raza (‘the race’ in English ) purports to speak for “Latinos” wherever they may be… and nowadays, they’re just about everywhere. And why NOT everywhere? Latinos (short version: a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent) have been part and parcel of American Culture from our earliest times. So it should be no surprise that a person of Latin-American or Spanish speaking descent -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor (Puerto Rico) -- should have been nominated by President Obama to sit on the Supreme court of the united States. But one could ask why, specifically, was...

As the Wall Street Journal reports, and as we’ve written about before, the Obama Administration is getting ready to be much tougher than its predecessor in the anti-trust realm. The terrible irony is that a large number of tech executives and workers at Silicon Valley companies supported the Obama candidacy and now it may impact them in a very direct way. All this goes double for Google, whose CEO Eric Schmidt was an advisor to Obama on technology issues. The new head of anti-trust for the US Department of Justice, Christine Varney, has already used the “m-word” in connection with...

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) today said he was guaranteed seniority on committees by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) in the final negotiations before his party switch last week, talks that, according to Specter, also included a pledge that he would become the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee in several years. Specter stood by his version of the one-on-one talks with Reid, despite the Senate leader's contradictory statements on the matter and the resolution that passed last night placing Specter in the most junior slot on most committees on which he serves. "When I talked to Senator Reid he...

Former Supervisor Ed Jew was sentenced Wednesday morning to one year in county jail for lying on election-related documents about where he lived when he ran for office. The sentencing caps an arduous legal journey for Jew that began when the former District 4 representative solicited cash bribes from owners of Quickly tapioca-drink shops in exchange for promising to help them obtain city permits to operate legally. Jew was under FBI surveillance when he accepted $40,000 in bills marked by federal agents, as a partial payment from the business owners. Jew pleaded guilty in October to soliciting cash bribes and...

In a relatively unnoticed State Department press briefing yesterday, Acting Department Spokesman Robert Wood announced a delegation of new media executives that left for Iraq on an official, government-paid trip on Sunday. According to Wood, the purpose would be to “explore new opportunities to support Iraqi Government and nongovernment stakeholders in Iraq’s emerging new media industry.” All in all, this is a well thought out trip, and yet another implicit admission by the President that another thing he inherited from his predecessor is a budding democracy in the Arab world, one with a civil society to support. Exactly two years...

Much has been written about the struggle of U.S. veterans to get the proper care from the military's V.A. hospitals, but another class of returnees from the battlefront is facing similar difficulties obtaining care for injuries sustained in the war zone: civilian contract employees who suffered wounds while supporting the military's war efforts. In an alarming article co-written by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times, insurance companies responsible (under taxpayer-funded policies) for the treatment of civilian workers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are reportedly routinely denying medical claims for basic care, as well...

U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to make remarks on a proposed high-speed rail system in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, April 16, 2009. President Obama outlined his plan for developing "long overdue" high-speed rail on Thursday that would rival air travel, create jobs and help curb the U.S. transportation system's appetite for oil. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to audience members after delivering remarks on a proposed high-speed rail system in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, April 16, 2009. Vice President Joe Biden reacts to the audience after making remarks, with President Barack Obama, on expanding...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., frustrated at federally mandated pay caps, has been plotting for months to get out from under the government's thumb. On Monday, Goldman took fresh steps to break free: It announced, as expected, that it plans to raise $5 billion by selling new common shares to investors, and that it would like to use the money to repay government bailout money received last year. The firm also reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings of $1.81 billion. Goldman managers have a big incentive to escape the state's clutches. Last year, 953 Goldman employees -- nearly one in 30 --...

President Obama and congressional Democrats are avidly pursuing a sweeping agenda they claim is justified by the need for greater "fairness." This invites scrutiny of the various programs to verify if they do, in fact, promote fairness. "Free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice" is the standard meaning of fairness, which requires treating people similarly, perhaps not identically, but certainly not with purposeful difference. Apply this test to the tax changes proposed in President Obama's budget, and it seems clear he wants to punish higher-income earners for the benefit of others, namely lower and middle-income earners. Let's understand the pre-Obama tax...

Discussion Topic: Virginia Gun Shop Gets Sex-Shop Justice From The Washington Post: "To many in Old Town Alexandria, the sex shop that opened recently on King Street is nothing short of scandalous. . . . But to Michael Zarlenga, it's justice. Zarlenga spent $350,000 on plans to expand his hunting and fishing store, the Trophy Room. He worked with city officials for almost two years and thought he had their support -- until the architectural review board told him he couldn't alter the historic property. Furious and out of money, Zarlenga rented the space to its newest occupant, Le Tache....

Dear (Right to Work Supporter): This week, the CEOs of Costco, Whole Foods, and Starbucks plan to throw you and their employees "under the bus" to appease Big Labor, offering a so-called "compromise version" of Big Labor's top legislative priority: the "Card Check" Forced Unionism Bill. It's vital you act right now to help fight back against their scheme -- which will leave workers vulnerable to union-boss intimidation and make you pay the price in higher costs. With our economy already blasted with recession and nearly constant political agitation, attempts to "compromise" over forced unionism really could push our economy...

Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.

41 Senate Republicans Send Letter To President Obama Urging Consultation On Judicial Nominees March 2, 2009 President Barack H. Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C.  20500 Dear Mr. President: We look forward to working with you as you consider nominees for the federal judiciary.  Unfortunately, the judicial appointments process has become needlessly acrimonious.  We would very much like to improve this process, and we know you would as well.  It is in that spirit that we write early on to suggest two steps your Administration can take to achieve that shared goal.   First, in the beginning...

One of the things liberals love to do when making shrills against conservatives is to claim that they are backed by big business corporate capitalist elitists. Conservatives they say are interested in advancing the agenda of the rich against the poor. Conservatives are champions of the rich while they crap all over the poor. They only want to protect the privileged and elite. They give tax cuts to the super rich by cutting programs and putting our nation in debt. Also according to liberals, by electing Barack Obama, we would undo this and require that the rich pay their share....

Foundation VP Stefan Gleason appeared on CNN Wednesday with Lou Dobbs as part of a (piece) on the Obama Administration's new (Project Labor Agreement Executive Order), which discriminates against the vast majority of construction workers who have not chosen to unionize. The executive order is likely to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new forced union dues, while jacking up the costs shouldered by taxpayers. Check it out:

Dear Rush On Wednesday you spoke about conservatives taking power and visiting a heavy payback on the left (Our Time Will Come, Liberals). I must agree that the right has been far, far too passive and accommodating and the desire for payback is fully understandable. I fully support going after the left using all the tools available to maximum effect within the bounds of what is moral, legal, ethical, and in harmony with conservative values. It sounded to me like what you called for was to go much further than that. That shocked me and made me fear for the...

Simmering labor legislation reached a boiling point on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, February 4. Hundreds of union workers and other supporters of a bill that would make it easier for employees to establish bargaining units gathered in a rally across the street from the Senate. The event marked the launch of an aggressive effort by organized labor to gain congressional approval—and a presidential signature—for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that will be introduced soon. The measure would allow workers to form a union by signing cards and prevent companies from demanding a secret-ballot election supervised by the National...

GULFPORT — Jessica LeBlanc said she went to work Thursday with a butcher knife and wished she had had it with her the day before. LeBlanc, 22, said she is the victim of an alleged kidnapping Wednesday at a law firm on 21st Avenue. LeBlanc said she stabbed her assailant in the back with scissors and stabbed him under the left eye. “I threw the scissors at him as he ran out the door,” LeBlanc said. “If I hadn’t defended myself, I could be dead or raped.” Police said Paul William Boykin, a fugitive wanted in St. Paul, Minn.,...

Don't Blame Me. I voted forMcCainPALIN!

Saves money for the court system that's for sure.

Penny Pritzker is connected to the Hyatt family. She was head of Superior Bank in Chicago that went under and cost shareholders millions. She also helped develop sub prime bundling schemes. Oh, and she was one of Obama's campaign finance helpers. AND, NOW....she'll be running the COMMERCE DEPARTMENT!

Hispanics in swing states like Florida who boosted Barack Obama into the White House are now looking for a place at the table -- and within the Cabinet and federal agencies as well. As the president-elect's transition team plows through stacks of résumés to fill almost 10,000 federal jobs -- from the high-profile secretary of state to the less glitzy director of the Office of Personnel Management -- Hispanic groups are mobilizing to ensure that the nation's fastest-growing electorate is well represented in the new executive branch. ''We're calling for an administration that looks like America,'' said Peter Zamora, an...

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are pushing legislation to send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hope for quick passage of the auto bailout during a postelection session that begins Monday. Legislation being drafted by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would dip into the $700 billion Wall Street rescue money, approved by Congress last month, for the auto aid. President Bush is cool to that idea. But...

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to aid troubled U.S. automakers threatens to spark a final clash with President George W. Bush before he leaves the White House in January. Pelosi said yesterday she wants ``immediate action'' to give automakers additional assistance as shares of General Motors Corp. hit their lowest level since 1943 and analysts said the company faces possible bankruptcy. Bush hasn't said he would approve any further aid to those companies. Richard Shelby, the Senate Banking Committee's top Republican, opposes the measure. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid made clear the bill's prospects of winning...

Identity politics in the Democratic Party are already presenting challenges to President-elect Barack Obama, who is under pressure to appoint Hispanics and African-Americans to key posts in his administration. Both groups were crucial to Obama’s victory last week over Republican John McCain. Ninety-six percent of African-American voters cast ballots for Obama, while 67 percent of Hispanic voters. Both are now counting on Obama to appoint Hispanic and African-American politicians to his Cabinet as a way of rewarding their support. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination but later endorsed Obama, should be secretary...

For the nation's labor union leaders, it's time to cash in. Having mobilized an army of workers to help elect Barack Obama, top union officials have not been shy about their plans to push a legislative wish list blocked under President Bush, and they say they will not wait. On the other hand, business leaders have not been shy about warning the president-elect against such early moves. "American workers turned out for the election. American voters voted for Barack Obama. And American workers won this election," Anna Burger, chairman of Change to Win, an activist coalition of unions including the...

Mountain View police said someone is attacking registered sex offenders in the city and the attacks may be related. Two crimes against sex offenders have taken place in the past month. Detectives described the attacks as similar. The first crime occurred on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008, at 9:39 a.m., at an apartment complex on the west side of the city, officers said. A witness saw a man carrying a bat and placing a Molotov cocktail-type device at the front door of a registered sex offender. When confronted by the witness, the man indicated he was targeting the person living in...

DETROIT, Nov 6 (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on Thursday urged the U.S. government to provide another $25 billion in loans to struggling U.S. automakers so that they can meet their health care obligations to over 780,000 retirees and their dependents. "The U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve can help immediately by taking steps to provide liquidity to auto manufacturers so they can get through the difficulties caused by an across-the-board decline in auto sales," Gettelfinger said in a statement released by the union. Gettelfinger joined the chief executives of General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research,...

Remember when the left said that dissent is Patriotic? Well, I promise to be more Patriotic. Please allow me start now: IMPEACH OBAMA! IT IS OBAMA FAULT!!!! OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER!! OBAMA STOLE THE ELECTION!!! Illinois is missing and idiot! Help us return the idiot to the rightful owner!! These are my new Patriotic Battle Cries. Last night was a bad night. But today marks the beginning of payback time. Today marks the day I become more Patriotic in the left's eye. My dissent should make the left very proud of me. I will not allow a Fascist...

Richard Fuld, the disgraced head of Lehman Brothers, was punched in the face in the office gym amid the bank's collapse. Mr Fuld, who has been testifying on the financial crisis before the US House Oversight Committee, was attacked on a Sunday shortly after it was announced that the banking giant was bankrupt. Following rumours that the incident had occurred, Vicki Ward, a US journalist, said "two very senior sources - one incredibly senior source" had confirmed it to her. "He went to the gym after ... Lehman was announced as going under," she told CNBC. "He was on a...

WARSAW -- Polish analysts and a part of the political scene are linking the South Ossetia crisis to that in Kosovo, Beta says. The current armed conflict in the breakaway Georgian region is seen as the Russian answer to the western recognition of Kosovo Albanians' unilateral declaration of independence, the Polish media are saying. "This is the Russian answer to the recognition of Kosovo. That recognition was in fact a gift to Russia," Polish People's Party European MP Janusz Wojciechowski told TVN24. Wojciechowski, whose party is a partner in Donald Tusk's cabinet, warned that the case of Kosovo, where a...

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter. In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it. The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work. His death would have been instantaneous, as the warheads of the 5ft-long missiles, which travel at 950mph, are...