Free Republic

This is the first of two stories adapted from "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency," to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press. EXCERPT: "The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief. But they had not been asked to give their own written assessments of the legality of domestic espionage. They based their answer in part on the attorney general's certification of the "form and legality" of the president's orders. Yet neither man had been allowed to see the program's codeword-classified legal analyses [5], which were prepared by...

A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City on Tuesday names the governor, prison officials, and the doctor who performed the execution of Clayton Lockett, for the “brutal and barbaric” death of the convicted murderer. A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City on Tuesday names the governor, prison officials, and the doctor who performed the execution of Clayton Lockett, for the "brutal and barbaric" death of the convicted murderer. According to the lawsuit, Johnny Zellmer, a family practice physician in McAlester, Oklahoma, performed Lockett’s bungled execution. Other defendants in the lawsuit, filed by...

Even if ObamaCare survives Supreme Court scrutiny next spring, its trials will be far from over. That's because the law has a major glitch that threatens its basic functioning. It's so problematic, in fact, that the Obama administration is now brazenly trying to rewrite the law without involving Congress. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers "premium assistance"—tax credits and subsidies—to households purchasing coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. This assistance was designed to hide a portion of the law's cost to individuals by reducing the premium hikes that individuals will face after ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014. (If...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by Jan. 22 was followed by a series of mistakes and missteps by his administration that will delay the prison's closure for months, according to a report from a policy organization with close ties to the White House. Those mistakes — which ranged from initially having too few people on board to handle the workload to misreading Congress — have put the timetable months behind schedule and will push the prison's closure well beyond the January deadline, which Obama announced with great fanfare two days after...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by Jan. 22 was followed by a series of mistakes and missteps by his administration that will delay the prison's closure for months, according to a report from a policy organization with close ties to the White House. Those mistakes — which ranged from initially having too few people on board to handle the workload to misreading Congress — have put the timetable months behind schedule and will push the prison's closure well beyond the January deadline, which Obama announced with great fanfare two days after...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. securities regulators fumbled five probes of Bernard Madoff's operations and missed opportunities to uncover the financier's $65 billion investment fraud, a report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general said on Wednesday. The SEC received more than ample information over the years to warrant a thorough and comprehensive examination or investigation of Madoff and his firm, the report said.

No one in Hollywood quite knows where "The Golden Compass" is pointing, though it appears to be south of blockbuster status. ...Unlike "Narnia" or the "Rings" and "Potter" movies, most of which hauled in more than $60 million in their first three days, "Compass" may open in the $30-million neighborhood, or worse, according to market analysts. [Yet] it's unlikely to spell financial catastrophe for New Line. The studio admits to a production price of $180 million, though some industry insiders believe the true cost soared past $200 million... Even so, the film was cofinanced by Royal Bank of Scotland, and...

A sweeping civil investigation released Monday into San Jose's bungled $8 million deal to install Cisco Systems equipment in the new downtown City Hall found that at least one official in the City Manager's Office knew of alleged problems with the contract before the technology scandal enveloped city government last summer. The report also provides the strongest evidence to date that City Manager Del Borgsdorf knew of at least some of Cisco's early involvement in developing the contract. According to the report, Borgsdorf was at a May meeting with a Cisco vice president in which the lucrative network and phone...