Free Republic

PLANS PROTEST AND MOCK TRIAL AT OBAMA’S “ALMA MATER” Dr. James David Manning, PhD, who has charged Columbia University with selling a Political Science degree to Obama — Dr. James David Manning, founder and pastor of ATLAH World Ministries in Harlem and outspoken Obama critic, contends that Barack Hussein Obama never attended Columbia University as he claims, that Columbia “sold” Obama a degree in Political Science, and that these allegations will be proven in a court of law in New York State. He also believes that Obama is ineligible to hold the office of President of the United States due...

Pastor James David Manning, one of President Obama’s most vocal and outspoken critics, has just released a video yesterday in which he is charging Columbia University with treason and is taking them to court. Pastor Manning alleges that Obama never went to the school and that he actually bought the degree. Pastor Manning states that Obama was instead in Afghanistan during the period of time from 1981 to 1983, working for Al Qaeda, when Obama was supposedly attending Columbia. Most of what we know about Barack Obama comes from Chicago corruption trial transcripts, Illinois records such as the IL bar,...

On the campaign trail in 2008, Senator Barack Obama famously proclaimed that his health care negotiations would be "televised on C-SPAN." It was part of his pledge to make openness and transparency a priority of his administration. We wish. In reality, the president has tossed aside his campaign rhetoric and dropped a veil of secrecy over issues that scream out for public participation and representative government. The secretive and non-transparent procedures used to ram ObamaCare through the Senate are the most high profile examples of how this president treats his promise of transparency. In October, President Obama sent a team...

In his breakthrough 1973 smash, Charlie Rich crooned memorably: "No one knows what goes on behind closed doors." But he also expressed his gratitude that behind closed doors his gal made him glad that he's a man. In other words, he gave us a pretty good idea what was going on behind closed doors. Andrew Malcolm reports that the Democrats are going (behind closed doors) to cobble together the final Obamacare bill that they intend to ram through Congress without needless procedural detours. Today C-SPAN's Brian Lamb wrote a letter to the leaders of Congress asking them to allow cameras...

James David Manning questions whether or not Obama ever attended Columbia. Heavy stuff .

Do you believe Obama is hiding or lying about something regarding his origins? Please elaborate.

We wonder what Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has to hide. Her confirmation hearing starts Monday, but the White House refuses to turn over boxes of documents for review about her past. Republican senators requested board meeting minutes of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, where Ms. Sotomayor served on the board of directors from 1980 to 1992. White House Counsel Greg Craig contends that all documents deemed "responsive" already were sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Contrary to White House dodging, these board meetings may be important in evaluating Ms. Sotomayor's legal and policy reasoning because the...

OUR OPINION: President Obama promised transparency but often sides with secrecy As a candidate for president, Sen. Barack Obama vowed to run an open government. He reiterated that pledge on Inauguration Day: ''Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,'' he said. Nearly six months later, advocates of open government are still waiting for the president to fulfill this promise. Compared to the Bush presidency, this administration is doing better. But what President Obama has done, compared to what he said he would do, are two different things, thanks in part to the unequivocal language...

America may be in the midst of a deep recession, and the nation may be facing unprecedented deficit spending and debt, but the White House will not reveal the cost to taxpayers of the European vacation that first lady Michelle Obama and the president’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, took last month. Travel by an American first lady typically includes the military passenger jet that carries her and the children, Secret Service personnel to provide security, and a separate cargo plane to haul official vehicles. First Lady Michelle Obama’s tour of Paris with her children included a convoy of 20...

It was a recurring theme of Barack Obama's presidential campaign — a call for openness: "Transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved, that's how we're gonna bring about change," candidate Obama said. And the theme continued on Obama's first day as president: "Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known." But for advocates of open government, the new era of openness has yet to dawn. "Once all the pretty speeches were over in the first couple...

Is President Obama's birthplace, wherever it is, destined to lie unrepaired and unrecognized in perpetuity? If the phalanxes of lawyers currently fighting a number of lawsuits seeking to open up detailed information about the president's origins succeed that's a distinct possibility, since the ordinary National Park Service recognition of presidents' birthplaces does not even begin unless members of Congress or a president seek the distinction. That's according to Kathy Kupper, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, who was interviewed on the subject by Greg Corombos of RadioAmerica/WND. "All 391 National Park Service sites are designated either by the president...

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports on the loophole -- big enough to drive the White House visitor's log through -- in the Obama administration's "transparency" policy: As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies.

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series

While Obama continues to blame Bush for problems being experienced in the United States, he continues many of his orders, such as withholding the names of visitors to the White House. Now the President wants to hide the names of people who spend time with him in the Oval Office. What happened to his promise about transparency? Apparently, Obama wants to keep hidden, the names of those who come to influence policy decisions. The fact is that two federal judges have ruled that the records are public, but the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all...

Obama blocks access to White House visitor lists... Developing...

[If this applied to Bush it ought to apply to King nObama] The White House must release its visitor logs and cannot hide behind a shield of privilege, a federal judge ruled Monday. The Bush administration has resisted public disclosure while it fights a lawsuit over alleged political influence by conservative Christian leaders. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth concluded the information is part of the public record and is subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act as "agency records."

WASHINGTON -- White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is declining to say what it cost for President Obama and his wife, Michelle, to eat dinner and take in a play in New York over the weekend. Asked if he would outline the costs, Gibbs said Monday the Obamas would have preferred using a commercial airline shuttle to New York and back but the Secret Service would not allow such unprotected travel.

On his first day in office, January 21, 2009, Obama signed Executive Order 13489. This order was entered into the Federal Register on January 26, 2009. What this executive order says, is that only the Attorney General (Eric Holder) and Council to the President, (Gregory Craig) are able to review presidential records requests and determine if they can be made public or not. (See Section 3) In other words, you aren't going to see any records or documents that Obama doesn't want you to see. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Obama's first official act was to deny access to his...

You paid $328,835 for the Air Force mission that forced the evacuation of Goldman Sachs and sent Jersey City office workers fleeing for their lives and now you'll never get the lousy snapshots that formed the entire rationale for buzzing lower Manhattan.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to keep things secret that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton found it expedient to politicize. The Obama administration wants to keep its metrics of progress for the war in Afghanistan under wraps.