Free Republic

Posted on June 28, 2014 by sundance WOAH – BOMBSHELL !! The plot thickens. We might just have found a biggie…. In a recent Politico interview (publish date 6/27/14) with the Lois Lerner’s attorney William Taylor III an interesting aspect is buried midway through page #2. During part of the interview Politico author Rachel Bade inquires about the 1.1 million pages of documents Lerner sent to the Department of Justice that became an issue when discovered by the House Oversight Committee on June 9th 2014. BACKSTORY HERE. The documents were sent from IRS to DOJ on a series of 4...

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday is expected to approve the declassifying of the findings, conclusions and executive summary of its $40 million report on the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques, leaving it to the White House to decide just how much of the 6,300-page investigation will actually become public. President Barack Obama’s decision on what to release could either startle the nation with details already described by Sen. Dianne Feinstein as “un-American and brutal,” or offer a sanitized version of the controversial tactics used in questioning terror suspects.

The White House on Friday touted the story of a “staunch Republican” who says he’s getting the best coverage he’s ever had under ObamaCare. “I am a staunch Republican, a self-proclaimed Fox News addict, and I didn't vote for the President,” Mark Beard, a retired psychologist from North Carolina, wrote in a letter posted on the White House website. “And I'm here to tell you that ObamaCare works. I'm living proof.” Beard said he was paying $428 a month for chemotherapy treatment and was upset when he got a notice from his insurer saying his plan would be canceled. But...

It's Sunshine Week, so perhaps some enterprising White House reporter will ask press secretary Jay Carney why President Obama rewrote the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America. The rewrite came in an April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructing the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved "White House equities." That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the...

That’s right, the Obama White House has quietly rewritten a portion of the Freedom Of Information Act to exclude what it calls “White House equities” from being released without a White House review. The rewrite was inspired by a 2009 memo by then White House counsel, Greg Craig: The Greg memo is described in detail in a new study made public today by Cause of Action, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group that monitors government transparency and accountability.How serious an attack on the public’s right to know is the Obama administration’s invention of the “White House equities” exception?“FOIA is designed to...

Vote for your favorite reason (and GIF) to get covered Need health insurance? Go to HealthCare.gov right now. As millions of Americans scramble to fill out their March Madness brackets, we've got another big milestone coming up: the March 31st deadline to sign up for health insurance. If you need affordable coverage, head over to HealthCare.gov and #GetCoveredNow. If you've got insurance, help spread the word by voting for your favorite reason to get covered.

Click the link for an interesting 3 minute video interview.

Florida lawmakers are trying to turn the Obama administration’s attention toward two weeks of escalating deadly protests in Venezuela, where protesters frustrated with the socialist government have taken to the streets to demand a better country. The late Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian experiment, continued by his handpicked successor Nicolas Maduro, has resulted in an economy in tatters, sky-high crime, and massive government corruption. Maduro has put the world on “alert” that he’s “facing a developing coup plan against the democracy and the government that I preside over, orchestrated by a small group of irresponsible leaders, violent, full of hatred and personal...

President Obama is back on the offensive when it comes to promoting the Affordable Care Act. But White House aides may want to hit the spell-checker next time before they get carried away promoting the president’s message. On Thursday, the White House tweeted a picture of Obama holding a sign with the Twitter hashtag “#GetCovered Because.” The message on the president’s sign read: “Nobody should go broke just because they get sick.” The photo immediately launched a small social media tidal wave, with people creating their own “GetCovered” images. But the White House may have unintentionally created one of the...

On Thursday, in the aftermath of South African iconic leader Nelson Mandela’s death at age 95, President Obama’s White House account tweeted a tribute to Mandela – a picture of Obama in Mandela’s Robben Island prison cell, along with a quote from Obama about Mandela: (Photo/Tweet) Even in paying tribute to a historic figure, President Obama couldn’t help but make it about him.

Jerusalem considers administration’s confirmation of Israeli air attack on missile stores to be ‘scandalous’; TV analyst warns US risks starting ‘major flare-up’

Washington (CNN) - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Friday continued to defend the rule in the national health care law that may end up forcing millions of Americans from their health insurance. Carney's defense of the law comes amid revelations that a grand total of six Americans signed up for Obamacare coverage on the first day the online exchanges went live October 1, according to internal notes provided to the Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

(CNN) -- White House officials have pressured insurance industry executives to keep quiet amid mounting criticism over Obamacare's rollout, insurance industry sources told CNN. After insurance officials publicly criticized the implementation, White House staffers contacted insurers to express their displeasure, industry insiders said. Multiple sources declined to speak publicly about the push back because they fear retribution. Can people keep plans under Obamacare? Keeping Obamacare's promises Obamacare's messaging problem But Bob Laszewski, who heads a consulting firm for big insurance companies, did talk on the record. "The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations,...

Fox News confirms the administration was aware of the issue in 2010

(CBS News) WASHINGTON -- CBS News has been digging into the cause of the delays in preparing the website for the government's health insurance market and has learned was a major interruption in the months before President Obama's re-election. At the height of the 2012 presidential election campaign, it was crunch time for the Obama administration to release key instructions so contractors could work toward the October 2013 deadline. But a Health and Human Services official who was closely involved tells CBS News that in late summer, the administration stopped issuing proposed rules for the Affordable Health Care Act until...

You gotta love it. The one Republican who has the courage to tell it like it is. Ted Cruz lectured the president on the negative effects of Obamacare today at the White House. Earlier in the day Senator Cruz joked that Obama might abduct him when he attends the White House meeting. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Politico reported: Sen. Ted Cruz confronted President Barack Obama over his health care law during a meeting at the White House Friday attended by dozens of GOP senators. Cruz told Obama that any deal to reopen the government must also provide relief for those negatively affected by...

WASHINGTON — Shortly before the federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, a small group of top White House officials huddled in the West Wing for what turned out to be a discussion of critical importance: how to run the place. They listened as soon-to-be-furloughed junior staff members showed them how to send a news release, issue a proclamation and distribute daily reports of President Obama’s activities. One crucial piece of information was how to clear someone through the security gates for Oval Office appointments. “I didn’t know how to do that before Monday night,” said Josh Earnest, the...

WH official: ‘Doesn’t really matter to us’ how long shutdown lasts Posted By Vince Coglianese On 9:04 AM 10/04/2013 In Politics | No Comments The White House reportedly doesn’t care how long the government shutdown continues because President Obama is “winning” the political fight. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, an unnamed “senior administration official” revealed that the White House is more interested in a political win than getting the government reopened: Said a senior administration official: “We are winning…It doesn’t really matter to us” how long the shutdown lasts “because what matters is the end result.” White...

Place a call to White House press secretary Jay Carney these days, and it’ll lead to something surprising on the other end: Jay Carney. The White House is a building of gatekeepers — legions of assistants and special assistants and deputy assistants who protect their bosses and keep the place running. But the White House under the government shutdown, pared down to a fourth of its usual staff size, is a shadow of its hierarchical self. Carney, deprived of his assistant, has to answer all the calls coming into his office. “With great care,” he adds. (Shutdown showdown: Who's to...

Given the prestige of the White House within the federal hierarchy, one might assume that under a scenario in which only essential federal employees would remain on the job during a government shutdown, everyone working directly for the president would continue to report for work. But a shutdown would transform the workings of the president’s inner sanctum, idling three-quarters of its workforce. In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Katy Kale, assistant to the president for management and administration, explained how “approximately 436 employees will be designated as excepted or exempt to perform...