Free Republic

A health insurance company headed by an old friend from Obama's days as a community organizer got a $340 million federal loan to establish Obamacare co-ops in New York, New Jersey and Oregon despite having a chronic record of consumer and regulatory complaints. The New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company has been rated the "worst" insurer for two straight years by state regulators, and data compiled by a national insurance association show an extremely high rate of consumer complaints. The firm was founded in 2008 by Sara Horowitz, who worked with Obama before his career in elective politics to launch Demos,...

Emigrant Bank was recently identified to receive a waiver that would allow the bank to opt out of rigorous Dodd-Frank requirements. These of course are the same new rules and regulations that Barack deems essential to the nation. Yet when the bank’s owner, Howard Milstein, who is a close friend and was a bundler for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, protested that the new rules would seriously crimp operations of his bank, the Obama Administration worked with members of congress to grant him a waiver from the new rules. Other financial institutions and banks have consistently and vehemently argued that...

An Obama fundraiser awarded a cushy European ambassadorship after bundling more than half a million dollars for his presidential campaign ran her U.S. embassy like a hostile dictator, spent government funds on booze and bullied staff.Here comes the good part. State Department leadership (that includes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) knew all about it but took no action, presumably because the wealthy donor—a Seattle philanthropist named Cynthia Stroum—is untouchable. At least that’s what an internal State Department investigation seems to indicate. Made public this week, a scathing report of the probe says that during her year-long tenure as U.S....

The mainstream media was dealt a devastating blow yesterday with the news that Times Square car bomber, Faisal Shahzad was not, as most of the fossilizing media had feverishly hoped, linked to the Tea Party movement. NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg hypothesized the bomber was expressing opposition to ObamaCare. Had he been right, capturing the terrorist would have been a daunting task indeed as two thirds of population hates ObamaCare. State controlled media fixates on the crudeness of the bomb— “experts” obsess over the bomber’s lack of “trade craft.” Shahzad obviously was not an adequately trained member of al Qaeda Local...

Breaking Headline on MSNBC Suspect in Times Square car bomb case has been arrested; identified as Shahzad Faisal - NBC News

Christine Pelosi, attorney, author and Democratic activist This is what a terrorist can look like: a balding white man in his 40s. Thanks to an alert street vendor and an NYPD officer who ushered in local and federal law enforcement, the Times Square would-be bomber was a bust. So far. They saw the parked car, engine running, hazards blinking, driver departing — in other words, they profiled behavior, not people. Take note, Arizona. Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, professor, Washington and Lee University I think the politics of this incident will turn heavily on who is found to be responsible. If, as...

A naturalized American citizen from Pakistan arrested overnight in the Times Square bombing investigation will appear in a Manhattan federal courtroom Tuesday morning to face formal charges in the case. Faisal Shahzad, 30, was on board an Emirates Airlines plane at JFK International Airport when he was taken into custody, law enforcement officials said. A law enforcement official told CNN Shahzad's final destination was Pakistan. Authorities removed three passengers from the Dubai-bound flight late Monday, according to a spokesman for the airline, but two were allowed back on board, officials said. Shahzad was arrested at 11:45 p.m. Monday, Attorney General...

CBS News is reporting the Pakistani-American allegedly tied by forensic evidence to the Times Square bombing attempt last Saturday is "familiar" to the Obama administration:A source told CBS News that investigators are looking at a possible suspect, a Pakistani American, in the botched car bombing incident near Times Square. The source said forensic evidence uncovered in the vehicle led them to a Middle Eastern man’s name that was familiar to counter terrorism investigators.Fox News reported the Obama administration knows the person of interest recently returned from Pakistan:Federal authorities have identified a person of interest in Saturday night's Times Square bomb...

Al Qaeda has reorganized its notorious paramilitary formations that were devastated during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. Al Qaeda has reestablished the predominantly Arab and Asian paramilitary formation that was formerly known as Brigade 055 into a larger, more effective fighting unit known as the Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, a senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The Shadow Army is active primarily in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Northwest Frontier Province, and in eastern and southern Afghanistan, several US military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal on condition of anonymity...

The Obama administration is scurrying to implement new procedures to find and keep potential terrorists off U.S.-bound planes, as results of a preliminary intelligence review flow into the White House. Emerging as a central focus are deficiencies in the U.S.'s network of watch lists, a system designed after the Sept. 11 attacks to keep tabs on potential terrorists and prevent them from boarding planes, according to a senior U.S. counterterrorism official. The official noted that government audits turned up problems in recent years, including gaps that kept suspected terrorists from being added to the U.S.'s no-fly list. President Barack Obama...

Homeland Security Touts 2009 Accomplishments, Including ‘Secure Flight’ Program Tuesday, December 29, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) – Just days before a Nigerian man tried to blow up a U.S. airliner as it descended into Detroit, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released its “2009 Accomplishments & Reforms” fact sheet, touting its “Secure Flight” passenger vetting program. The Obama administration has confirmed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on the U.S. government terrorist watch list, but the 23-year-old man was still able to board a Northwest plane in Amsterdam bound for Michigan. On the DHS fact sheet, issued...

CBS radio reporting new action at Detroit Airport.

When at first you don't succeed try, try again! A second Nigerian? Perhaps we can see where and why these terrorists can get on American airplanes. I know some will yell " racial profiling"...read more...

I probably should have just listened to Paul Harvey. Though it wasn’t actually Paul Harvey. It was Ron Chapman. And that’s probably the problem. I understand Ron Chapman is a radio legend somewhere, but I don’t live there. So, to me, he’s just an insufferable bore. But I should have been listening anyway. Instead I got an idea. An idea that had been kind of simmering in my head for a week or so. I was trying to think of a way to show that I wasn’t happy. That I was tired of bailouts. That I didn’t want to pay...

Her blatant nepotism at the taxpayer-bankrolled Harold Washington Cultural Center ...others are wondering how Obama's decision to back such a die-hard proponent of slavery reparations will play in Iowa and New Hampshire.

<p>Were on to your shenannagans. When ever a progressive posts a a very smart posts of you,re warped conservativeism, you bravely delete his arguments.</p> <p>However, when some body of the right wing mind set but some what flawed posted a less than brilliant screed, you leave that up and make fun of it just becausee it is typical of the intellect of progressives.</p>