Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama is getting a number of critical report cards on his foreign and domestic policies lately. Here at home, Janet Yellen, in her first monetary policy address as the head of the Federal Reserve Board, said the labor markets were still weak, and that it will likely take two years or more before the U.S. fully recovers from its recession. Ouch. If Yellen's forecast proves right, this means it will have taken Obama's administration nearly eight years to lift our economy out of its long and painful lethargy.

A prominent super PAC of key allies of President George W. Bush and failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, formed to give Republicans who support amnesty legislation air cover, failed to raise any money during the first quarter of this year. Carlos Gutierrez, the former Bush Commerce Secretary, and Charlie Spies, the co-founder of Restore Our Future, which was the biggest pro-Romney super PAC, formed the Republicans For Immigration Reform super PAC "to provide political support for Republican candidates" backing comprehensive immigration reform. According to its Federal Election Commission report, which was filed on April 15 and covers the period from...

The mention of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was resoundingly booed when Donald Trump brought up Bush's comments about illegal immigration being "an act of love." Speaking at the inaugural Freedom Summit in New Hampshire on Saturday, which was organized by Americans for Prosperity and Citizens United, Trump said he has heard a lot of crazy things but that Bush's comment was “out there.”“And he was talking about people that come into this country illegally, they do it for love,” he said, according to The Hill. “And I said, say it again I didn’t get — that’s one I’ve never heard before…...

Tea party groups are organizing this weekend to protest the “betrayal” by GOP House leadership and twenty-five other members at a tropical summit organized by a group working to undermine the Tea Party. “Come to Amelia Island for our rally, and if you have time and resources, stay for a weekend of RINO hunting!” a local Florida tea party announcement touted. The summit, sponsored by a sub group PAC of the Republican Main Street Partnership, is taking place at the Ritz Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. Tea party protesters are expected to begin rallying Thursday evening and throughout the weekend...

Two House GOP moderates—Reps. David Joyce (R-OH) and Mike Simpson (R-ID)—made comments this week that are sure to infuriate the House GOP conference. In an interview published on YouTube as part of a series called “Solon Speaks” in Solon, Ohio, hosted by Terry Dean, Joyce said Obamacare is the law of the land—and here to stay: "The Affordable Care Act, like it or not, is the law of the land. The Supreme Court passed it. Now we’re struggling to implement what is the law of the land. In the last Congress, they put up 23 odd bills that tried to...

Ever the happy warrior of the left, Sen. Chuck Schumer is not giving up on his pipe dream: amnesty for illegal aliens in 2014. Appearing on MSNBC on Monday, Schumer said he thinks it still can happen this year thanks to a group of liberal Republicans—what he thinks is the majority of Republicans—who will stand by silently, letting amnesty pass while voting against it in the end. He called it the “vote-no, pray-yes caucus,” meaning that certain Republicans would publicly claim they are against amnesty, vote against it in the end, but behind the scenes either fight for its passage...

The clumsiness and incoherence, if not madness, of this administration’s foreign policies are creating havoc around the world. No one wrapped up the story of the chaos better than Sultan Knish did this week: When Bush left office at the end of his second term, the region was mostly stable aside from Iran’s nuclear program. By the time Obama had finished his first term, it was in a state of endless war.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan is dropping his co-sponsorship of an immigration bill House Republicans have been quietly working to include in the upcoming Department of Defense authorization bill, saying the language should never have been considered to be added to the unrelated measure. Late Wednesday, Duncan said he hadn't been aware of efforts by the bill's author, California Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), to add the language to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – and that if it were added, “NDAA would lose my vote as well.” At issue is a proposal to allow so-called DREAMers to obtain...

Islamofascism: With an eye toward the 2016 election, the radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc. 'Muslim voters have the potential to be swing voters in 2016," said Nihad Awad in launching the benign-sounding U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, whose membership reads like a Who's Who of Brotherhood front groups. "We are aiming to bring more participation from the Muslim community." USCMO also aims to elect Islamists in Washington, with the ultimate objective of "institutionalizing policies" favorable to Islamists — that is, Shariah law....

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was charged Wednesday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms, part of a sweeping public corruption case outlined by federal prosecutors. The charges sent shock waves through the San Francisco and Sacramento political establishments, as FBI agents searched Yee's Capitol office. Last year the FBI raided the offices of Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), who was targeted in a bribery sting. SNIP The indictment alleges Yee and Jackson defrauded "citizens of honest services" and were involved in a scheme to traffic firearms in exchange for thousands in campaign donations to the senator. SNIP...

Liberal Democrats and the Republican establishment have disliked Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) mainly because of his staunch fiscal conservatism and his association with the Tea Party. Now, they may be colluding to try to oust him from his House seat by manipulating California's "jungle primary" system in which the top-two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Thanks to our Change.org petition (307,000-plus signatures and rising), millions of Americans have learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is about to allow U.S chickens to be sent to China for processing and then shipped back to the U.S. for human consumption. This arrangement is particularly alarming given China’s appalling food safety record and the fact that there will be no on-site USDA inspectors in those plants. In addition, American consumers will never know that chicken processed in China is in foods like chicken soup or chicken nuggets because there’s no requirement to label it as such. One...

.....and here’s the irony in Obama’s case — have the traditional white man’s view of that same Arab world — to wit, Arabs are crazy and primitive. (Yes, this is racist. And, in Obama’s case, undoubtedly leavened with a soupçon of anti-imperialist payback.) Ergo, pressure can only be put on Israel. This is not unique to the Obama administration. As was reported in the Jerusalem Post Monday:

WASHINGTON -- As Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington - due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday - it's clear that there are several points of friction between Israel and the United States. The two countries are allies, but their leaders often differ on the details of key issues: Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, America's nuclear talks with Iran, how to approach political turmoil in Egypt, what might be done to limit Syria's horrible civil war, and a broader issue of whether the...

The United States is reportedly pressuring Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, a number of whom have been mysteriously killed in a campaign thought to be carried out by Mossad. According to CBS News, Obama administration officials have communicated to Israeli intelligence their wish for a cessation of the targeting of scientists in order to allow diplomatic negotiations aimed at rolling back Iran’s nuclear program to take their course.

and activist Jane Fonda has revealed that at 76 she’s become increasingly aware of her own mortality – and admits that she constantly finds herself crying over "the smallest things." In an emotional and sometimes eccentric blog entry titled "Crying" on her website, JaneFonda.com, the actress says, "How come pretty things, kind deeds, sad stories, acts of courage, good news, someone’s flax of insight, all get me crying or, at least, tearing up?" Editor’s Note: Rogue Investor Exposes Secret ‘250% Calendar’. See The Trades In the blog entry, Fonda didn't reference her political activism, including protesting the Vietnam War. She...

SNIPSoon after the attacks, Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf introduced HR-36, a bill to create a House Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks. Under Wolf’s bill, the special committee would have subpoena power and could force the issue of testimony and access to documents. If it did, we might yet see Obama exercise Executive Privilege just as he did in the “Fast and Furious” scandal. The bill has 177 sponsors, almost enough to pass the House today. The only problem is that House Speaker John Boehner won’t allow the bill to come to the floor. He has repeatedly blocked it...

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in...

Ukraine's western region of Lviv has reportedly declared independence from the central government.Hours after protesters seized the prosecutor's office in central Lviv and forced a surrender by interior ministry police, the executive committee of the region council - also called the People's Rada – claimed control over the region. Reuters A portrait of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich burns near the destroyed building of the security service in Lviv "The regime has begun active military action against people. Dozens of people have been killed in Kiev and hundreds have been wounded. Fulfilling the will of society, the executive committee of the...

A newly disclosed audio recording purportedly depicts a conversation between two American diplomats, in which one curses the European Union as they discuss how to handle turmoil in Ukraine. American officials were quick to suggest a Russian role in the apparent leak, which came as Russia is engaged in a tug of war with the E.U. and the United States for influence over Ukraine. The audio recording, incorporated into a video with Russian subtitles and posted on YouTube Tuesday, appears to be a conversation between the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey...