Free Republic

Brendan Toller’s documentary I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store (2010) brings a good deal of personality and attitude (in the best sense) to the story of the demise of the independent record store, though it might just as well tell the story of the demise of the independent video or book store, all of which are victims of the same forces: box store encroachment followed by on-line revolution, all feeding the bottom lines of large corporations that don’t particularly give a damn about records, or movies, or books. The restaurant business has...

Despite a subpoena, the White House is still withholding records related to the failed $535 million federal loan to Solyndra, Republican investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Thursday. In a letter to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler today, Republican committee Chairman Fred Upton and subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns said the White House had not fully complied with the committee’s Nov. 3 subpoena for documents concerning the Solyndra loan. “[D]ocuments already in the Committee’s possession clearly indicate that you have numerous other documents in your possession which are responsive to the subpoena, but which have not been produced,”...

Massachusetts considering ban on Romney recordsBy Mark Hosenball | Reuters – Tue, Nov 29, 2011 BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts officials are reviewing a 14-year-old state court ruling to determine whether they should ban public access to paper records generated by leading Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney when he was the state's governor. Officials said the review, revealed to Reuters, began after they received a surge of requests for records from Romney's governorship. It was not prompted by a request from Romney camp, they said. The review follows reports by the Boston Globe newspaper last week that just before Romney left...

Link only - 'Second Mile' Records from 2000-2003 Missing; Prosecutors Fear It Could Hurt Case

Official Data Shed New Light on Pyongyang Population The Weekly Chosun has obtained detailed official records of some 2 million adult residents of the North Korean capital Pyongyang from a source in the North Korea-China border area. The data, which contains the names, date of birth and home addresses of 2,108,032 Pyongyang residents, was compiled by the North's State Security Department in 2005. The data does not include children up to age of 17 or an estimated 10,000 members of the elite including relatives of leader Kim Jong-il, or of soldiers stationed in Pyongyang from provincial areas, according to the...

According to Judicial Watch, Rep. Edolphous Towns (D-NY) has introduced the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011. That bill would do with Obama’s presidential records what Obama has already done to his personal and collegiate records: Seal them up. In an obvious effort to protect President Barack Obama, a group of congressional Democrats has introduced legislation to create an official process that will allow the commander-in-chief to keep presidential records secret after he leaves office. Ironically, Obama revoked a similar George W. Bush order in one of his first official acts as president. In 2001 Bush penned an executive order...

While the healthcare industry promotes enhanced transparency, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is taking a step in the other direction, shutting down the once-public National Practitioner Data Bank, reports The Kansas City Star. As a result, the public can no longer access information on malpractice and disciplinary actions against thousands of doctors. "We have a responsibility to make sure under federal law that it remains confidential," said Martin Kramer, spokesman for the HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the Data Bank. The HHS defends the shutdown, noting that the names of doctors were getting leaked...

This is a very interesting article! Obama: Where are his girl friends????? Where are his girl friends? Strange that none have popped up!!!! Strange to the point of being down right WEIRD! OK.. this is past the ‘birthers’ questions…this is just plain old common sense, no political agendas for either side. Just common knowledge for citizens of a country, especially American citizens, who even know that Andrew Jackson’s wife smoked a corn cob pipe and was accused of adultery, or that Lincoln never went to school or Kennedy wore a back brace or Truman played the piano. We are Americans!...

Whose I.Q. is higher Al Gore’s, John Kerry’s, George W. Bush or Barry Hussein Soetoro? You’d probably be surprised that “W” is not the low man in this grouping. According to sources president Bush may only be surpassed by one name on this list, care to guess who? If you guessed the former vice-president Al Gore you may be correct, but not so fast. Though Gore had an incredible hyped-up imagine of being smart , imagine isn’t everything. According to his college records he was a below average student. John Kerry whose I.Q. and academic achievements are reported to be...

A Georgetown University professor said Donald Trump is engaging in "retroactive bigotry" when he questions President Obama’s intelligence and background and called on Republicans to either embrace Trump or distance themselves. "This is racism by inference," Eric Dyson, a prominent African-American academic, said on CBS' “Face the Nation.” “Skepticism about black intelligence and suspicion about black humanity have gone hand in hand throughout the history of this country in feeding the perception that black people don't quite measure up." [Snip] “The reality is that Barack Obama has been called to account by a man who has nothing near the intellectual...

Donald Trump is “really proud” and “really honored” to have been the game changer in getting President Obama to finally release his long-form birth certificate on Wednesday morning. Trump said he was “really honored to have really played to have played a really big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue.” Touching down in New Hampshire for a few private meetings, Trump held a press conference at local airport to discuss the just-released documents. While he still needs to “look at it," Trump said he hopes the release of the certificate will put to rest not just...

In yet another segment where he is double-teamed by two liberals, Pat Buchanan defends why he is skeptical of President Obama's past. "I'll tell you what. He went to Occidental College then suddenly he ends up at one of the best schools in the country, Columbia. He vaults from there to Harvard Law School. Suddenly he's on the Harvard Law Review. Suddenly he's the editor of Harvard Law Review. We've never seen any grades of the guy. These are legitimate questions," Buchanan said. Key quote: Pat Buchanan to Chris Matthews: "You're supposed to be a journalist."

Grant Kruger was convicted of helping steal $13 million in military equipment from the federal government. He was hired by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development in 2008. Kruger is an unemployment insurance auditor, which means he has access to personal financial information like social security numbers, credit reports, income taxes and phone numbers for thousands of Minnesotans. Kruger also has access to sensitive corporate financial records.

Okay, I am so mad at O'Reilly. I thought he was going to investigate Obama's sad lack of records. Instead, in his talking points memo, he listed point after point, conceeding that data was missing, but then adding a 'but' to explain how it is okay. It was basically a coverup. I suppose that I should take consolation that Obama's camp must be desparate to solicit O'Reilly to do coverup work. Also, O'Reilly did say that Hawaii is not issuing 'long form' birth certificates, but he glossed over that.

Springs man's claim to have Obama records starts buzz A Colorado Springs “birther,” retired Air Force Col. Gregory Hollister, has Internet blogs abuzz with what may be an illegal foray into an online Social Security data base and how he obtained a copy of President Barack Obama’s draft registration from 1980. “Col. Greg Hollister, USAF (Ret.) contacted the Selective Service, falsely impersonated President Obama, improperly registered his own address as President Obama’s address, and by this false impersonation and identity theft he managed to obtain a duplicate registration acknowledgement card with President Obama’s Selective Service information on it,” a blogger...

Liberty Alerts, Gun Owners of America Sections 1501 and 1502 of HR 3590 — which contain the so-called “individual mandate” — require Americans to buy government-approved insurance and give the government carte blanche to require that these policies contain requirements like Barack Obama’s oft-stated goal of computerizing medical records in a national database. (Indeed, Fox News reported on March 26, 2010, that under the new federal health care law, our medical records will soon go online to be available to all doctors.) This would make it impossible for Americans to keep private, medical information out of the government-controlled medical database...

Abortion Business That Illegally Dumped Records Under Fire McAllen, TX -- A McAllen, Texas abortion clinic that was the subject of a three-month investigation by Operation Rescue and the Survivors pro-life group is denying any wrong-doing and is clearly in damage-control mode after a local television interview. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/09/abortion-business-that-illegally-dumped-records-under-fire/

Abortion Business That Illegally Dumped Records Under Fire McAllen, TX -- A McAllen, Texas abortion clinic that was the subject of a three-month investigation by Operation Rescue and the Survivors pro-life group is denying any wrong-doing and is clearly in damage-control mode after a local television interview. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/09/abortion-business-that-illegally-dumped-records-under-fire/

Abortion Centers in Texas Evade Laws, Dump Records and Waste Austin, TX -- A three-month-long investigation conducted by a pro-life group into abortion centers in Texas reveals a pattern of evading parental consent laws and illegally dumping both medical records and hazardous waste. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/01/abortion-centers-in-texas-evade-laws-dump-records-and-waste/

Attorneys for former governor Rod Blagojevich have asked a federal judge to order prosecutors to produce two phone calls his lawyers say are mysteriously missing from evidence. In a motion filed overnight, Blagojevich's attorneys say the calls would support the former governor's contention that he is innocent of charges alleging he attempted to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat after the November 2008 election. While much of the motion is blacked out to comply with orders that the conversations remain under seal, it appears at least one of the alleged conversations was between then Chief of Staff John Harris and...

Obama health IT guru leaving his post2.4.11 | Chris Seper Health IT change in Washington. Dr. David Blumenthal, who has overseen President’s Obama’s health IT around the adoption of electronic medical records, is leaving to return to Harvard. “He’s helped bring the industry back to life when it seemed to be failing, and he gave the industry a jolt of energy it lacked,” Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of Sage Health, told Kaiser Health News. Some are concerned about the impact of changing leaders in the midst of the national EMR adoption.

LOS ANGELES – A storm pounding California with record rain and heavy snow spawned minor flooding, mudslides, small evacuations and road closures Monday, but forecasters warned that the bad weather's worst impact may be yet to come. Virtually the entire state was affected, from coastal cities to the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada and southern deserts. Rainfall records fell, numerous traffic accidents snarled roads, trees tumbled and even some horse races had to be canceled. Some locations in Southern California received more than 12 inches of rain,.. The storm was expected to intensify Tuesday night and Wednesday, with between five and...

I think a better question than “Why is Julian Assange allowed to do what he does?” or “Why hasn’t the US government stopped WikiLeaks?” is the matter of “Why can’t WikiLeaks release the many, mysterious, missing documents Øbama hides from the public?” Let’s have a “Fun with Lists Friday” and use this thread to make a Christmas Wish List for everything we’d love WikiLeaks to release on Øbama. Maybe Santa will read this and do something about it. Stranger things have happened. Every year, Claire McCaskill asks Santa for “a sandwich made of all the colors” and last Christmas Oprah...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – Bay Area residents are hoping for a warmer weekend after a Thanksgiving cold snap broke or tied cold-temperature records — some more than a century old — up and down the state. The National Weather Service reports that San Francisco’s low of 42 degrees on Thursday tied a record set back in 1892. Across the bay in Oakland, 36-degree daytime temperatures shattered the old record of 42. The mercury in Los Angeles dropped to 42, tying a 1946 record.

Obama Visits School for the GiftedObama recently took a tour of the Obama School for the Gifted where the Dean, Mrs. Chandler, met him at the entrance. Mrs. Chandler began by showing Obama a row of rooms on the left side of the complex. She explained, "These are all private. In each room a student takes tests of different subjects and the results of the tests they fail are kept sealed." Obama replied, "That's like what happened during my university days." He joked, "That's also why no one will ever have any copies of my records." Mrs. Chandler looked at...

In the last two months or so, I decided to brush off my turntable. You know, those big heavy things that spin these black things around. Now I have over 200 CD's. And most of my records were kinda abandoned in the late 80's when I got married. But lately, I have been seeing (and buying) records again at garage sales, etc. I have the Bang & Olufsen 1602 with the MMC20EN cartridge, getting picked up by a Radio Shack (Believe it!!) STA-80 receiver into my main setup, dual Behringer A500 amps (460 wpc) into the Polk SDA-SRS original speakers....

For the record, "Music Man Murray" has tried his best to keep his rare 400,000-album collection intact. Murray Gershenz has spent 72 years amassing his music trove, after all. He has century-old operatic performances captured on Edison cylinder tubes, 1930s-era Big Band crooners on fragile 78-rpm discs, early rockers on 45s, show tunes on LPs and pop artists on cassette tapes and CDs. The collection is crammed into homemade shelves in a two-story cinderblock building on Exposition Boulevard, as well as two nearby warehouses. Last summer Gershenz, 88, announced his intention to close his walk-in and mail-order record business so...

Count me among those who’d really like to get a good long look at Barack Obama’s college transcripts — not because I think they would provide evidence for any of the crazy conspiracy talk that infests the fringes of our political discourse, but simply because I want to know what the man studied and what his grades were. For instance, I’d like to know whether he took any economics and how he did in those classes. I’m also curious about what his literary studies were: especially, I’d like to know whether the man who wrote two self-important memoirs before he’d...

The unusually cool summer continued in Southern California, where several new record-low temperatures were recorded on Wednesday. The 68-degree low at Los Angeles International Airport broke the old record low for the day, which was 70 degrees in 1991. Santa Barbara (68) and San Luis Obispo (69) broke records as well. The temperature at USC, 75, tied the record low set in 1999. UCLA also set a record, 56 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. While the region saw a heat wave a few weeks ago, temperatures have been gradually going down again as July comes to an end....

I have an uncle who recently passed away, he told me that during the war he was a paratrooper. I'm guessing 82nd Airborne, can anyone direct me to a website where I could research his service?

Bolstered by the backing of key watchdog groups, top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa is pressing House oversight committee Chairman Edolphus Towns to help investigate a mounting number of technology-related ethics problems for a White House that has prided itself on both transparency and its technological savvy. Issa’s latest move is a June 30 letter to Towns requesting the chairman join Issa in “launching a formal investigation” into numerous allegations the Obama White House has played fast and loose with its ethics rules and disclosure requirements under federal law. The letter comes two days after Washington-based watchdog group Citizens...

I have a couple of things to tell you about today. First off, we are excited to announce that Windows 7 has sold 150 million licenses to-date. As I’ve said before, Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history with 7 copies of Windows 7 sold every second. Earlier this month, I published a post about Tami Reller’s keynote at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference. One of the points that stood out for me was her comment that between companies actively deploying and evaluating it, approximately 75% of enterprises are looking at Windows 7...

When the administration slapped the wrist of one of its top technology officials this spring for violating Barack Obama’s ethics pledge, a spokesman claimed the breaches were isolated incidents. But a Daily Caller investigation reveals a cavalier attitude at the Obama White House toward longstanding safeguards designed to prevent abuses of the Presidential Records Act and other laws – including acts that carry serious legal implications. Two sources say a top White House technology official, Chief Information Officer Brook Colangelo, routinely asked technology vendors for special deals based on his position as a public official.

A 23-year-old former Harvard student, Adam Wheeler, stands accused of lying in his Harvard, Fulbright, and Rhodes applications, and now faces 20 criminal charges.

The State Senate records have been found. Wizbang has some of the juicier ones up

DES MOINES, Iowa — Nine people were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of accessing President Barack Obama's student loan records while they were employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa. The U.S. attorney's office said a grand jury returned the indictments in U.S. District Court in Davenport. All nine are charged with exceeding authorized computer access. They are accused of gaining access to a computer at a Coralville office where they worked between July 2007 and March 2009, and accessing Mr. Obama's student loan records while he was either a candidate for president, president-elect or president.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Nine people have been indicted in federal court on charges they accessed President Barack Obama's student loan records while employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa. The U.S. attorney's office says a grand jury returned the indictments Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Davenport.

Biden: Health IT Savings Will Be Bigger Than ProjectedVice President says e-health records will save more money than Congressional Budget Office has projected. By Nicole Lewis InformationWeek May 6, 2010 08:00 AM When electronic health records are fully implemented in 2014, along with health information exchanges and other technologies associated with healthcare delivery, the cost of healthcare will be significantly less than the Congressional Budget Office has calculated, vice president Joe Biden said. "We believe there's a lot more savings in the healthcare bill that we passed. The CBO, they only count what they can feel and taste. They only...

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010 “Birther Brigade” lands in Honolulu to continue Barack Obama investigation Andy Martin’s team sets up a “fighting camp” to continue looking into President Barack Obama’s opaque family history in Hawai’i. Martin plans to file a second lawsuit against Hawai’i officials this week, a “freedom of information” case exposing their conspiracy to promote Obama’s candidacy in 2008 and cover up their activity. Martin calls himself a “truth warrior,” based on his continuing efforts to open Obama’s personal records to public scrutiny and scholarly research. Internet powerhouse and “truth warrior” Andy Martin lands in Hawai’i Martin says Hawai’i...

As of April 2, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) had identified 998,422 current and former members whose personal information was included in the theft of 57 hard drives in October 2009 at the payor’s Eastgate location. As of the last update in January, BCBST estimated 500,000 patients' data had been breached. According to an update from BCBST, 550,873 notifications have been sent to members indicating that their personal information was included on the stolen hard drives. The total number of members includes an additional 447,549 current and former members recently identified in the Tier 1 category, meaning members’ names, addresses,...

Rep. Tom Huntley (D-Duluth) will try to mandate that every person's medical record be placed online and made available to state government, researchers, federal government and others. All without your consent.

I read he did this on his 2nd day in office...If this is true...where can I get a copy of this order?

“We the people” don’t need “leaders,” we need representativesWhen the Left says that they are giving power to the people—they lie. When governments say that they want to return power to the people—they lie. When politicians say they are for the people—they lie. There is only one source of power to the people, and that is “we the people” ourselves. “We the people” are our own strength, hope, power, and deliverer—with God’s grace and guidance. It is time to take our power back. One of the Left’s historic ploys is to drag out the hoary old slogan “Power to the...

Ever wonder about the military careers of famous people such as politicians Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan or George Wallace? Or maybe NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong, cowboy movie hero Gene Autry or cartoonist Charles Schulz, to name a few? The National Personnel Records Center has released a list of some 3,000 prominent former military service men and women whose service records may now be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The list includes officers and enlisted men, Medal of Honor recipients, astronauts, test pilots, actors, politicians, artists, executives and government officials who became famous after their military careers. Brief and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top aides to President Barack Obama have met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show.

As part of President Obama's commitment to government transparency, we are providing records of White House visitors on an ongoing basis online. In December 2009, we will begin posting all White House visitor records for the period from September 15th onwards under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. In addition, as part of our new policy, we will post records dating from January 20th that are specifically requested on an ongoing basis. For more information, read the White House blog post announcing the new policy.

Barack Obama has spent (or had spent for him) between $1.8 million and $3.2 million in legal fees to keep his personal records secret. These include his birth certificate, his college records and all else that could provide more insight into his past. But why? Who spends that kind of money to keep their records hidden unless they have something to hide? And if someone (especially a political figure, not to mention a sitting president) is willing to go to such lengths, it is reasonable to believe he has something to hide. It is reasonable to believe that whatever it...

Church records are one of our most important sources of information about the births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors. And before the 19th century, they are our only source of information on births, marriages and deaths—because churches were keeping records of important life events long before governments were. In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s Vicar General, issued an order that each parish in England keep a record of every baptism, marriage and burial it performed. The UK government, on the other hand, did not start keeping vital records until 1837. (To search indexes of most of the UK government’s...

Check out the second paragraph. No federal health record - no Medicare payment.

Dear Mr. 'President': ...Simply instruct your staff to order the release of the following: * The original, long-form birth certificate, not the short-form certification of live birth, which is obviously subject to claims of fraud; * All your school records dating back to kindergarten; * Your Occidental College records and transcripts; * Your Columbia University records and transcripts including your thesis papers; * Your Harvard Law School records; * Your Harvard Law Review writings; * Your scholarly records from the University of Chicago; * Your passport history; * Your medical records; * The files from your years as an Illinois...