Free Republic

The inspector general’s investigation into the Department of Justice’s role in Operation Fast and Furious was not expected to be a blockbuster report. The primary interest in the document for members of the media, investigators, and the public alike was how Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz would choose to participate in a cover-up. Horowitz did not disappoint. The six-part, 471-page report dedicated an entire chapter to Operation Wide Receiver, a program that began in 2006 and did not terminate until mid-2009. Wide Receiver was an ATF operation started by local agents during the Bush administration which allowed hundreds of weapons...

The author of a study that says tax cuts on high-incomes and small businesses have little to no impact on economic growth has personally donated at least $3,400 to President Obama since 2008—a fact that the media outlets touting the study have failed to disclose. The author, Thomas L. Hungerford, also gave at least $2,450 to Democratic campaign committees during that same period. Hungerford is a public finance specialist at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan agency that provides “policy and legal analysis” for members of Congress. “CRS is well-known for analysis that is authoritative, confidential, objective and nonpartisan,”...

Fox News has obtained a three-page intelligence report showing that two days before the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, a statement incited "sons of Egypt" to pressure America to release the so-called blind sheikh "even if it requires burning the embassy down with everyone in it." The web statement, apparently posted on Sept. 9, was in reference to the embassy in Egypt. It preceded a throng of demonstrators breaching the U.S. Embassy wall in Cairo, supposedly in protest over an anti-Islam film. Obama administration officials claim that attackers in Libya then took their

A Marine spokesperson at the Pentagon denied reports that U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition in a statement to Fox News Thursday. Pentagon Lt. Col. Chris Hughes told the outlet: “The ambassador and RSO (Regional Security Officer) have been completely and appropriately engaged with the security situation. No restrictions on weapons or weapons status have been imposed. This information comes from the Det Commander at AMEMB (American Embassy) Cairo.” The statement came in response to open-source reporting that U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were...

Obama said hang on, but jobs report shows many Americans aren’tBy Chris Stirewalt Published September 07, 2012 FoxNews.com 368,000 — the estimated number of Americans who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, left the labor force in August. **SNIP** Biden, who literally used the word “literally” 10 times in his brief speech introducing Obama, accused the Republicans of talking down the country in a bid to gain power. “America is not in decline. America is not in decline,” shouted the vice president. “I've got news for Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan: Gentlemen, never ever — it never makes sense,...

ABC News president Ben Sherwood told staff today that last Friday's incorrect report by Brian Ross detracts from the network's otherwise excellent coverage of the Colarado theater shooting, network sources tell POLITICO. Sherwood's remarks, made on the network's daily editorial conference call, came the morning after Ross's report was picked up by late night comedians John Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central, both of whom used Ross's erroneous suggestion of a Tea Party link to the Colorado theater shooting as fodder for their Monday night routines. On Monday's conference call,

Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt At a time when voter ID laws in 30 states are coming under intense fire from the liberal media, the Obama administration and civil rights leaders, one of the strongest cases anywhere was offered for voter identification by the lone Republican on the three-member panel overseeing elections in Philadelphia. Wednesday, City Commissioner Al Schmidt unveiled a 27 page report that his office had commissioned entitled “Voting Irregularities in Philadelphia County, 2012 Primary Election.” The report, which focused on cases in 15 of the city’s 1,687 election districts, found cases of double voting, voter impersonation,...

ORIGINAL POST: Last economic datapoint of the day: April factory orders come out at 10:00 AM ET. Analysts expect an increase of 0.2%. That compares to a decline of 1.9% in the previous month. Given all the bad news in econ data-world these days, this one will be closely watched for confirmation or negation of the trend. UPDATE: The numbers are out and bad. Factory orders fell 0.6% in April, which is way worse than the 0.2% growth anticipated. Last month was revised to a decline of 2.1% from a decline of -1.5%. And ext-transport, the decline was a solid...

Alan Krueger, head of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, pointed out that the country has added jobs for 27 months in a row, including 4.3 million jobs in the private sector. The economy still has a few bright spots. Americans bought cars and trucks a strong pace last month, giving automakers their best May since 2008. Underscoring the challenge for Obama with five months to go in the campaign, a May poll by The Associated Press and GfK, a research company, showed that 52 percent disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy while 46 percent approved. Some financial analysts...

US and South Korean special forces have been parachuting into North Korea to gather intelligence about underground military installations, a US officer has said in comments carried in US media. Army Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of US special forces in South Korea, told a conference held in Florida last week that Pyongyang had built thousands of tunnels since the Korean war, The Diplomat reported. "The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites," Tolley said, according to The Diplomat, a current affairs magazine. "So we send (South Korean) soldiers and US soldiers to the North to do special reconnaissance."...

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation. Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for the Feb. 26 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old high school junior dead. Zimmerman has claimed self defense in what he described as a life and death struggle that Martin...

Report says 40 percent of the public breathes unhealthy airBy Andrew Restuccia - 04/25/12 02:53 PM ET More than 40 percent of the public lives in regions with unhealthy levels of air pollution, a new report from the American Lung Association says. The public health group, in its annual State of the Air report, said air quality has dramatically improved in recent decades as a result of the Clean Air Act. But it warned that more action is needed to better protect the public from air pollution like smog or soot. The report finds that more than 127.2 million people,...

A major Israel TV station on Sunday night broadcast a detailed report on how Israel will go about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event that diplomacy and sanctions fail and Israel decides to carry out a military strike. The report, screened on the main evening news of Channel 10, was remarkable both in terms of the access granted to the reporter, who said he had spent weeks with the pilots and other personnel he interviewed, and in the fact that his assessments on a strike were cleared by the military censor. No order to strike is likely to be...

Economists have worried all along that job growth couldn't sustain the strong December-to-February pace. They also worry that a 66-cent run-up in gasoline prices (to a national average $3.94 a gallon) so far this year will discourage consumer spending -- though American households are more resilient financially after cutting their debts. Most economists expect annual growth this year of just 2.5 percent. Normally, it takes annual growth of 4 percent to lower the unemployment rate 1 percentage point over a year. The job market is improving largely because the pace of layoffs has fallen sharply. The staffing firm Challenger, Gray...

Tweet from The Colbert Report: Nation! First Lady @MichelleObama will appear on The Colbert Report on Wednesday, April 11. Tune in at 11:30pm / 10:30c. Quite the media blitz the First Lady and the President have been on lately. You would think that if the First Lady wanted to reach a sizable audience, though, she would do a guest spot on a program that gets more viewers like "Pawn Stars" or a cartoon rerun on Nickelodeon or something on cable access. Well, Colbert is a true-blue friend to the Barack Obama re-election campaign and a fellow crusader in the left's...

At 7:50 am Friday morning, CNNMoney reported on the embarrassingly small number of jobs the “green” energy industry has contributed to the nation’s workforce. The story was titled “‘Green’ jobs just a small portion of workforce.” -------- “As Kermit knows, it’s not easy being green,” the story began. “There were only 3.1 million green jobs in the U.S. in 2010.” Translation: After receiving billions in federal subsidies ($100 billion from the stimulus program alone), “green” jobs account for only 2.4 percent of the nation’s employment. Seeing as how taxpayer dollars are being thrown at “green” energy projects under the guise...

The Visitation Report into the Church in Ireland, ordered by Pope Benedict XVI, the full text of which may be found here, says "It must be stressed that dissent from the fundamental teachings of the Church is not the authentic path towards renewal." The sexual abuse crisis which exploded throughout the Catholic Church in Ireland [and elsewhere] has its origin in a Culture of Dissent. For, as Father Vincent Miceli has reminded us, "falsity is the heart of immorality." Betrayal arises in man's heart and is soon manifested in his actions which often culminate in criminal violence. But, as Fr....

(CNSNews.com) - The definitive study of contraception use in the United States--which was produced by the U.S. government's National Center for Health Statistics and published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--refutes the claim President Barack Obama made in a White House briefing on Feb. 10 that “nearly 99 percent of all women” have used contraception. In fact, according to the study--which looked at the contraception use of American women between the ages of 15 and 44--13.9 percent had never had heterosexual intercourse, period. Also, according to the study, 38.2 percent of American women age 15-44 said they...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in the briefing room Monday to tout President Obama's energy policies and the increase in oil and gas production, but a new report from the Department of Energy (DOE), prepared in consultation with Interior officials undermines his claim. "On federal lands and water, we have moved forward in the last three years with a 13-percent increase in oil and gas production," Salazar said, dismissing Republican claims that production on federal lands has dropped, even if private production has increased. "I would say that those attacks are simply wrong. The...

Principal, counselor charged with failing to report abuseCounty News 9:08 p.m. Friday, March 2, 2012 By Alexis Stevens The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A Cobb County middle school principal and counselor were arrested for allegedly failing to report a student's abuse claims to police. Jerry Wright Dority, who was principal at Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs, and a counselor, Yatta Lynnette Collins, were both arrested Thursday morning and booked into the Cobb County jail, booking records show. The two have been placed on administrative leave, a school district spokesman said. Dority, 50, and Collins, 40, are each charged with one count...