Free Republic

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Hillary Clinton told voters in the latest Democratic debate there's "hardly anything you don't know about me." Just minutes later, she got tangled in a question about a part of her resume that is an enduring mystery. In the 18 months before launching her second presidential bid, Clinton gave nearly 100 paid speeches at banks, trade associations, charitable groups and private corporations. The appearances netted her $21.7 million - and voters very little information about what she was telling top corporations as she prepared for her 2016 campaign. What she said - or didn't say -...

Hillary Clinton has a simple explanation for why she accepted $675,000 from Goldman Sachs to give three speeches after she was secretary of state. “That’s what they offered,” Clinton said during CNN’s town hall event in Derry, N.H., on Wednesday. “You know, every secretary of state that I know has done that.” The Democratic frontrunner was asked by moderator Anderson Cooper if taking such a large payment from a Wall Street bank in 2013 was an “error in judgment” considering she knew she’d be running for president in 2016. “Well, I didn’t know,” Clinton insisted. “To be honest, I wasn’t...

By way of a disclaimer, I didn’t watch the Democrats’ town hall last night. (I’ve been sick since Tuesday, sorry.) It doesn’t sound like I missed much in terms of breaking news, new policy announcements or serious fumbles. In fact, the “biggest” moment of the night appears to have come from Hillary Clinton when Anderson Cooper took a swing at her out of left field, asking her why she had to accept all those huge speaking fees for the past several years. (Politico) Hillary Clinton gave no ground to Bernie Sanders over her progressive credentials at a televised forum...

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night defended accepting huge speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, arguing that it won't influence the way she treats the banking industry. Speaking at CNN's Democratic presidential forum, anchor Anderson Cooper pressed Clinton on whether it had been a mistake for her to reel in more than $200,000 per speech for three speeches to the Wall Street giant. "Look, I made speeches to lots of groups. I told them what I thought. I answered questions," Clinton said. "But did you have to be paid $675,000?," Cooper asked. "Well I don't know," Clinton responded. "That's what they offered."...

There is a short answer to the question: a lot richer than he admits. And the longer answer is even more interesting.  Writing at Doug Ross’s Director Blue, Cliff Kincaid explains: [former publisher of Campaigns & Elections Magazine James] O’Brien has analyzed the financial status of Sanders and his wife, including their financial disclosure report, and has concluded they have a net worth in the range of $1.2 to $1.5 million, not the $700,000 or less that is usually reported by the media. (snip) …his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, left her position as president of Burlington College under controversial circumstances and...

Former Rep. Ron Paul is lashing out at Ted Cruz, calling the GOP presidential contender too close to Wall Street. "People are liking Cruz. They think he's for the free market, and he's owned by Goldman Sachs," the former Texas lawmaker said on Fox Business Network's "Varney & Company," according to Politico. "I mean, he and [Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton] have more in common than we would have with either Cruz or [Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump] or any of them so I just don't think there is much picking," Paul added.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live last night, playing a character named "Bernie Sanderswitzky" who was upset at a passenger on a sinking ship was attempting to hop the line for a lifeboat due to his higher economic status. "Sanderswitzky" said that he was not a socialist, rather that the policy was "democratic socialism," and that the difference between the two was "yuge."

Bernie Sanders Spent Months at Marxist-Stalinist Kibbutz February 4, 2016 Daniel Greenfield Bernie Sanders has a complicated history with Israel. Back in the 70s, he called for denying weapons to Israel before the Yom Kippur War. His voting record on Israel in the Senate was spotty at best. He called for "aggressive normalization" with the terror state of Iran at the Democratic debate. But defenders keep mentioning that he and his anti-Israel brother Larry, who is with the Green Party in the UK, spent time at a Kibbutz in Israel. When Bernie Sanders entered the race, there was a good...

The Washington Post’s one-man Fifth Column, Dana Milbank, is at it again. Apparently, he has been shadowing Ted Cruz’s campaign. Unable to come up with anything substantive, what he’s produced is one of the most juvenile screeds ever to appear in any major newspaper: "When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) last month mocked Donald Trump’s “New York values,” it wasn’t entirely clear what he was implying. This week we got a clue: For Cruz, “New York” is another way of saying “Jewish.” At an event in New Hampshire, Cruz, the Republican Iowa caucuses winner, was asked about campaign money he and...

When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) last month mocked Donald Trump‘s "New York values," it wasn‘t entirely clear what he was implying. This week we got a clue: For Cruz, "New York" is another way of saying "Jewish." At an event in New Hampshire, Cruz, the Republican Iowa caucuses winner, was asked about campaign money he and his wife borrowed from Goldman Sachs. Cruz, asserting that Trump had "upward of $480 million of loans from giant Wall Street banks," said: "For him to make this attack, to use a New York term, it‘s the height of chutzpah." Cruz, pausing for laughter...

TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman whose four pit bulls entered her neighbors' yard through a hole in the fence and killed their 10-year-old beagle is suing them for $1 million.

CNSNews.com) - "I said I would provide all the emails. We are providing all the emails. The fact that three years ago, some of them -- not all of them, but some of them -- were not available, I never said I would provide you emails we didn't have," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told a Monday evening hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Frustrated Republicans and apologetic Democrats questioned Koskinen about Lois Lerner's vanished emails for several hours, beginning with Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who asked Koskinen if he knew those critical emails were missing when...

While President Barack Obama continued what the Weekly Address to accuse Republicans in Congress of going home for the holidays while less-fortunate Americans suffer. Just a few days after Christmas, more than one million of our fellow Americans lost a vital economic lifeline – the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet while they look for a job. Republicans in Congress went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire. And for many of their constituents who are unemployed through no fault of their own, that decision will leave them with no income at all. We make this...

Obama: 'I Didn't Set a Red Line' on Syria Daniel Halper September 4, 2013 9:31 AM President Obama said in Sweden today that he personally "didn't set a red line" on Syria: "First of all, I didn't set a red line," said Obama. "The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are [inaudble] and passed a treaty forbidding their use, even when countries are engaged in war. Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty. Congress set a red...

President Barack Obama referred to the country's troops as "my military" in Friday remarks about how the United States may respond to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria that Obama asserted violated international norms. "Now, I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm," Obama said. "But as I've already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options. We have consulted with allies. We've consulted with Congress. We have been in conversations with all the interested...

The former police officer who pepper-sprayed students during an Occupy protest at the University of California, Davis is appealing for worker's compensation, claiming he suffered psychiatric injury from the 2011 incident.

President Barack Obama accused Republicans of stooping to political stunts to block gun reform, in a fervent appeal delivered close to the site of the Newtown school massacre.[snip] In sharp, impassioned remarks, he contrasted the courage of parents whose children were killed by a deranged gunman with US lawmakers he said feared the wrath of the powerful American gun lobby.

United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud.

With Obama complaining that Mitt Romney is "new" to foreign policy and that Romney's positions are "extreme," mainstream America might need to redefine the word chutzpah. Traditionally defined as stunning audacity, such as murdering one's parents and then pleading for clemency on the grounds of being an orphan, chutzpah will now have to be defined as spending one's career on the left-wing fringes of society and then questioning the qualifications of anyone with real-world experience.

Maybe there's something about one of the Alameda County Board of Supervisor's five seats that attracts troubled Bay Area politicians. Less than a week after Nadia Lockyer resigned her seat on the board following weeks of scandalous revelations of drug abuse and a sexual affair with a meth adddict, disgraced Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, reportedly inquired about the post. Hayashi, who is termed out of the Legislature after this year, contacted three of the four remaining members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to gauge their interest in appointing her to fill out Lockyer's term until 2014, the Bay...