Free Republic

Dear colleagues, The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into question whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional obligation to preserve and protect a free press in the United States. We reject the government's efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a "co-conspirator" in a crime. I know how concerned you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government make me afraid to use a work phone...

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The chief judge of the District’s federal court issued an unusual order Wednesday, apologizing to the public and the media for not making certain court documents widely available online. The gesture of transparency by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth comes at a time when the Obama administration is under scrutiny for an unprecedented number of leak investigations, including one showing that the Justice Department had secretly probed the news-gathering activities of Fox News reporter James Rosen. The investigation of Rosen was first reported Monday, after The Washington

During a panel discussion on the Department of Justice seizing the phone records of Fox News’ James Rosen, Bret Baier revealed that the seizure included the phone records of Rosen’s parents. The entire panel agreed the scandal was an outrage, with Kirsten Powers pointing out that there have been a number of high-profile leaks from the Obama administration, but the only ones they seem interested in going after are the ones that make them look bad. Charles Krauthammer found it amazing that the government would make such a “huge assault on the first amendment” in trying to go after Rosen...

Question: When does a Drudge story become a scandal? Answer: When the MSM says so. Question: When does the MSM say so? Answer: 1) When it involves Republicans; and 2) When it’s about them. (SNIP)   No, you shut up! How else to explain the Media’s sudden interest in the Federal Government’s abuse of power? They weren’t the least bit captivated by Fast and Furious (Gun running to Mexican cartels? No story there), Pigford (Massive fraud at USDA? Pass, story’s got no legs), Extortion 17 (Suspicious downing of helicopter filled with Navy Seals? Lunatic rightwing conspiracy theorists!) or Benghazi...

A Fox News correspondent was accused in a Justice Department affidavit of being a possible criminal "co-conspirator" for his alleged role in publishing sensitive security information -- in a leak case that takes the highly unusual step of claiming a journalist broke the law. According to court documents, the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Fox News' James Rosen's conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails. The effort follows that by the department to secretly obtain two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a...

It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions. But as last week's controversy over the DOJ's pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the newsgathering process in general.

See the video and learn more at www.RestoreOurFuture.com. Ann Romney raised 5 boys. She successfully battled breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. But what does White House insider Hilary Rosen say about Ann Romney? "Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life." And Bill Maher, who gave $1 million supporting Obama, attacks: "Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house." Happy Mother's Day from Barack Obama's Team! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6Dn8qMzig

“….has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing.” – Hilary Rosen, democratic operative, referring to Ann RomneyHilary Rosen’s indictment of Ann Romney was quickly – and rightfully so – disavowed by the left, and condemned by the right. However, when we look past the outrage and at Rosen’s words, she is quite correct: A quick scan of her and Mitt’s Wikipedia biographies show that they were both born to affluent households. (I should add, much like most of the...

Hilary Rosen, the Democratic National Committee consultant who told CNN last week that Ann Romney had “never worked a day in her life,” has used her power with the White House to swing special lobbying privileges for her friends – all without meeting reporting requirements. One senior Democrat told Ben White at Politico: Serious Dem operatives are aghast at Hilary Rosen’s misguided attack on Ann Romney’s work history. She and others at PR firm SKD Knickerbocker have represented many clients that have raised hackles with senior White House staff. It’s an open secret in the Dem consultant community that SKD...

Rosen V. Romney is an orchestrated DISTRACTION Bill O’Reilly & Charles Krauthammer were discussing the “Buffet Rule” which most everyone knows is the premise for Obama’s tax raising campaign on the wealthy. Republicans know that he is using this admittedly useless endeavor to foment class warfare. Krauthammer did a capable job explaining how 250 years worth of this additional tax would only amount to about one year of the current deficit spending. He explained that this is pure demagoguery (as we all know) and he added that “demagoguery works.” I will add that the reason why these trivial distractions work...

I know very little about Hilary Rosen other than her comments and that she's been very successful in her career, had at least 2 long term relations with another powerful lesbian and adopted 2 kids with Elizabeth Birch (seperaed from in 1966). Her current partner is Randi Weingarden the powerful head of the American Federation of Teachers (which tells you they really didn't toss her under the bus). I have some questions about her background: 1. Who are her parents and are they wealthy? 2. Was she a trust-fund kid? (if she's wealthy from a trust-fund and didn't really have...

Back up the bus! After throwing Hilary Rosen beneath the Greyhound, President Obama and friends might have to throw it in reverse again over the person of Dem surrogate Terry O'Neill. The NOW president told Ed Schultz tonight that Ann Romney, along with Mitt, lacks the "life experience" and "imagination" to understand most Americans. For good measure, in the very same segment Dem congresswoman Maxine Waters called the Republican candidate for president Mitt "Rot-ney." Classy bunch! View the video after the jump.

Whose job is it to grab the spatula and scrape Rosen’s flattened carcass off the road? (National Journal) — Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday continued the White House’s condemnation of Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney “hasn’t worked a day in her life.” “That’s an outrageous assertion,” Biden said during an interview that aired Thursday night on MSNBC’s The Ed Show. “Look, I fought my whole career … to get to one point where my daughter is able to make whatever choice she wants and no one question it,” Biden continued.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You want to hear a little Ann Romney? She responded to Hilary Rosen this morning. She was on Fox with Martha MacCallum who said, "I'm curious on a personal level because I know how it can feel when these kinds of things are said. What was your personal gut reaction when you heard Hilary Rosen say those words?" ANN ROMNEY: She should have come to my house when those five boys were causing so much trouble. It wasn't so easy. My career choice was to be a mother, and I think all of us need to know...

This is only getting uglier. The Democratic National Committee forwards a ThinkProgress story under the subject line: “Conservatives Attack Hilary Rosen For Raising Children As A Lesbian” **Please read what is at the site

First lady wades into controversyBy Alicia M. Cohn - 04/12/12 12:33 PM ET First lady Michelle Obama on Thursday advocated "respect" for women who work as stay-at-home moms in the wake of controversial comments about Ann Romney's decision to stay at home and raise her sons. Obama made the comments on her official twitter account. Every mother works hard, and every woman deserves to be respected. –mo — Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 12, 2012 It was the first time Obama weighed in on the controversy raging between veteran Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign. Rosen...

Obama Tries To Quell The Firestorm And SLAMS Hilary Rosen's Comments Brett LoGiurato April 12, 2012jamesomalley | Flickr President Barack Obama tried to quash a brewing political mess this afternoon by absolutely slamming Hilary Rosen's comments on Ann Romney. First, he told an ABC affiliate: "There's no tougher job than being a mom." Not even the President, apparently. Then he doubled down on past comments that a candidate's family should be off limits: “I don’t have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates,” he told KCRG. “My general view is those of us who are...

With the new reports today that DNC consultant Hilary Rosen has been an incredibly frequent visitor to the White House – at least 35 times, including five times directly with the president of the United States – questions are arising about her role in the furor surrounding the Sandra Fluke incident. As Bill O’Reilly first reported, Sandra Fluke’s press relations was run by SKDKnickerbocker, the firm of Anita Dunn and Rosen. Fluke testified before Congress in February; on February 29, Rush Limbaugh attacked her on air, using the word “slut,” for which he later apologized. The timeline suggests that Rosen...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPTRUSH: Well, this ought to be good. The spokeskid, Jay Carney, is now getting questions about what Hilary Rosen had to say about Ann Romney. I don't care what the spokeskid says. What's gonna really interest me more are the questions, because it's the media, and they're gonna side with Hilary Rosen. The media is gonna side with her. I guarantee you. (I could be wrong about this.) I got a couple of interesting e-mails during the break. I'm just gonna read one of them. "You amaze me. I thought the Hilary Rosen story would be worth a segment....