Free Republic

And then, finally, now what we've got is Republicans talking about the idea that they would shut down the government.... Nobody thinks that's good for the middle class. So the question is ultimately, if you are putting the American people first, if you are prioritizing them, then this shouldn't be that difficult. And I've made this argument to my Republican friends privately, and, by the way, sometimes they say to me privately, "I agree with you, but I'm worried about a primary from, you know, somebody in the Tea Party back in my district," or, "I'm worried about what Rush...

Obama: No Allegations NSA Is Trying to 'Listen in On People's Email' Daniel Halper August 23, 2013 7:21 AM President Barack Obama defended the NSA surveillance program in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo this morning. On the NSA surveillance program, Cuomo asked, "Are you confident that you know everything that's going on within that agency and that you can say to the American people, 'It's all done the right way'?" "Yes, but what I've also said is that it can only work if the American people trust what's going on. And what's been clear since the disclosures that were...

Saying the rising costs of college are punishing students who’ve played by the rules, President Obama on Thursday said he’ll ask the federal government to take a broader role in lowering tuition costs by rating schools based on their educational value, and trying to tie future taxpayer aid to how well schools do. Mr. Obama, speaking at the State University of New York-Buffalo, said he’ll cap student loan repayments at 10 percent of their future paychecks, but will also take steps to punish students who are attending school on federal grants by doling out the money in chunks to make...

Congress has been ceding power to the executive branch for more than two decades. In the 2008 presidential election, President George W. Bush was often criticized by then-candidate Barack Obama for his executive overreaches. Candidate Obama even promised to “reverse” the Bush Administration’s expansion of executive authority in 2007. However, no president in modern history has done more to circumvent Congress and rewrite legislation than President Obama has. While the Obama Administration’s rewriting of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to delay timeframes may immediately come to mind, perhaps the most blatant example of executive branch overreach is the Justice Department’s...

The White House issued a statement yesterday on the President’s meeting with the federal agencies that regulate Wall Street. Curiously, the phrase used to describe the agencies was “independent regulators.” The President’s Deputy Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, held a press briefing with reporters yesterday, taking questions on the meeting. In that briefing, Earnest referred to the regulators as “independent” seven times. If the President now finds it necessary to attempt to brainwash the American public through endless repetition of the word “independent” to shore up sagging public doubt that there are any real cops on the beat when it comes...

Obama administration and Mexican government officials recently discussed creating a three-tier security system designed to protect Mexico’s southern border from drug and human traffickers, according to U.S. officials. The border control plan calls for U.S. funding and technical support of three security lines extending more than 100 miles north of Mexico’s border with Guatemala and Belize. The border security system would use sensors and intelligence-gathering to counter human trafficking and drug running from the region, a major source of illegal immigration into the United States.

Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an "economic recovery", but the truth is that things have not gotten better under Obama. Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded. If we are really in the middle of an "economic recovery", why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years? Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama...

Over 200 Coptic Christians in Nashville, Tenn. took to the streets Monday in a mass demonstration calling out the Obama administration for its lack of response and begging Americans to “pray for Egypt” while calling for an end to the terrorism inflicted by the Muslim Brotherhood. Chanting, “Obama, Obama, don’t you care? Christian blood is everywhere,” and “We love Egypt. We love U.S.,” the crowd also shouted “‘eid wahda,’ an Egyptian phrase that translates as “one hand,” meaning that the Egyptian people, both Christians and Muslims, were united with the army against terrorism, which they blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood,”...

Scandal after scandal, coupled with an ongoing contempt for the law and the Constitution, demonstrated by high-level officials and the president himself, point to one deeply troubling conclusion: the Obama administration may be the most corrupt administration ever inflicted on the American public. And while the mainstream media have done a remarkable job deflecting much of that reality, even they cannot keep up with the avalanche of disturbing revelations that arise, seemingly on a daily basis. We begin with yet another report about the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation, courtesy of Sharyl Attkisson, one of the few remaining reporters who...

The following is a contribution from (Dan from Squirrel Hill). The original title of the article is “Obama supporters will go hysterical over this well sourced list of 252 examples of his lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc.” it’s lengthy, but is a ‘one-stop shop’ for all the dirty details on the Obama presidency. Every President, every politician, and every human being tells lies and engages in acts of hypocrisy. But Barack Obama does these things to a far greater degree than anyone else that I have ever known of. His campaign promises were so much better sounding than anyone else’s...

I have a case of the Obama blues, a nagging depression that is exacerbated daily by having to listen to the endless lies he tells about everything when he isn’t blaming Congress, the Republicans, and everyone else for the horrid state of the economy and his rejection of the leadership America demonstrated through both World Wars and since. Listening to Obama say that he intends to ignore Congress and selectively not enforce the laws it passes is such a serious threat to the Constitution and to our most fundamental freedoms that it is impossible not to be depressed by this...

Thanks to the delayed employer mandate in ObamaCare, we are now sixteen months away from enforcement of those statutes, even though they go into effect in four months. Are employers taking a break from ObamaCare prep? Not hardly. Today we have three new stories about how the perverse incentives of the ACA will impact workers, starting with UPS, which has just announced that it will stop offering health-care coverage to spouses — and explicitly cites ObamaCare as the reason (via Jim Geraghty and Jeryl Bier): United Parcel Service Inc. plans to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because...

President Obama has demonstrated leadership qualities ranging from poor to nonexistent. But is a president who lacks visible leadership qualities really such a bad thing? Or is he lazy like a fox? A lack of leadership -- whether deliberate or accidental -- can have a surprising upside, as none other than the French have historically exemplified. (And no, I'm not being facetious.) As a conservative whose heart leans firmly right, I would have thought the idea crazy until I moved to France four years ago, gaining insight into the mysterious French mind-set. I came to realize that there is a...

Barack Obama wanted to fundamentally change America. He is. The Obamacare law is already destroying full-time jobs in America. Democrats rammed through a law that will destroy at least 2 percent of all full-time jobs in America. We are already seeing jobs disappear. Even Reuters can’t hide the truth any longer: U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid. Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern that President Barack Obama’s signature health...

The true scope of the anti-firearm crusade of the United Nations, which began more than a dozen years ago, finally is coming into clear focus, as the White House readies to sign the Arms Trade Treaty adopted with U.S. support this past April by the U.N. General Assembly. The reach of this long-term, carefully crafted agenda is truly breathtaking, going far beyond the publicly articulated goals of even the most radical of homegrown gun-control groups. Since the first major U.N. meeting in July 2001, officially launching the so-called “Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in...

On Aug. 9, the Obama administration released a previously secret legal interpretation of the Patriot Act that it used to justify the bulk collection of every American's phone records. The strained reasoning in the 22-page memo won't survive long in public light, which is itself one of the strongest arguments for transparency in government. As the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." Recent revelations by the Washington Post emphasize the need for greater transparency. The National Security Agency failed to report privacy violations that are serious infringements of constitutional rights....

(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - In about seven weeks, Americans can start buying health insurance on the new exchanges that will be part of the Affordable Care Act. Thursday, the Obama administration announced $67 million in awards to more than 100 organizations that will help people understand their options. The key to the success of what the president himself calls "Obamacare" is getting young folks to sign up. Jordan Zavaleta is what the health care industry calls a "young invincible." He's 26 and has no health insurance, largely because it's expensive to buy on his own and he rarely gets...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks condemning a violent crackdown on Islamist protesters, were not based on "facts" and will strengthen and encourage violent groups, the presidency said in a statement on Friday. It said Egypt was facing "terrorist acts" in reference to recent attacks on churches and government buildings that Egypt blames on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

BELLEVUE, WA – -(Ammoland.com)- You heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. Jay Carney said Obama will sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty “before the end of August…We believe it’s in the interest of the United States.” This is very strategic timing considering Congress is on a 5 week vacation lasting thru the month of August! These back door tactics are nothing new for the Obama Administration, which is why we are using tactics of our own to stop his anti-gun agenda. We have the home fax numbers of every Senator so while they are absent from the Capitol we...

Evidence that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where Americans including U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens were killed, continues to mount. First, on June 26, 2013, I produced and partially translated what purported to be an internal Libyan governmental memo which was leaked and picked up by many Arabic websites. According to this document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including now ousted President Morsi, played a direct role in the Benghazi consulate attack. “Based on confessions derived from some of those arrested at the scene,” asserted the report,...