Free Republic

Independent watchdogs and critics of government are absolutely crucial to any democratic nation, state or local city/town.  Watchdogs interview experts, speak out, and "raise a lantern" over government operations to inspect its books, audit it, and keep their fellow citizens informed.Watchdogs fill a much-needed government oversight gap.  Truth is, the public influences businesses and governments in entirely different ways.Businesses are highly customer-conscious — They need to be because consumers "vote" with their dollars every day for the products and services they want.  So if a new business provides consumers a better deal or a more useful product/service, dollars will naturally...

An intruder was mauled to death by a pair of dogs after breaking into a Georgia home last week, according to local authorities. The homeowner, who was not named, discovered the body of 21-year-old Alex Binyam Abraha on his front porch around 10:30 am on September 24. Authorities said Abraha successfully entered the two-bedroom house in a rural area of Newnan the night before, and was immediately greeted by two pit bulls inside the home. The sheriff’s department initially called in homicide investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation thinking that Abraha's death was a murder. However, the medical examiner...

Two regular guys from Southern Illinois, Kirk Allen and John Kraft, became folk heroes after lawfully “citizen arresting” their park district board. Now, their fight against corruption threatens to shake the political establishment. Illinois’ number one manufactured product is corruption. More than 95 percent of the Illinois legislature is safe in gerrymandered districts. The incumbent governor has three current federal investigations of his administration, but the Attorney General/state’s attorney class can’t find public vice anywhere. So what can the law abiding citizen do? The answer is coming from some regular guys in southern Illinois who decided to hold public officials...

The Environmental Protection Agency will announce a change in automobile emissions standards next week, undoing a last minute effort by the Obama administration to lock in the rules through 2025. The NY Times reports: The tailpipe pollution regulations were among Mr. Obama’s major initiatives to reduce global warming and were put forth jointly by the E.P.A. and the Transportation Department. They would have forced automakers to build passenger cars that achieve an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, compared with about 36 miles per gallon today

They are the muckrakers of the farm fields, bloodhounds for small-town waste and corruption, self-appointed guardians of taxpayer money who comb through the books of municipal governments all across Illinois in search of misconduct and misspending. Kirk Allen and John Kraft call themselves the Edgar County Watchdogs. Others call them busybodies with too much time on their hands.

WASHINGTON — Justice Department watchdogs ran into an unexpected roadblock last year when they began examining the role of federal drug agents in the fatal shootings of unarmed civilians during raids in Honduras. From Our Advertisers The Drug Enforcement Administration balked at turning over emails from senior officials tied to the raids, according to the department’s inspector general. It took nearly a year of wrangling before the D.E.A. was willing to turn over all its records in a case that the inspector general said raised “serious questions” about agents’ use of deadly force. The continuing Honduran inquiry is one of...

The “independent” watchdogs that are supposed to root out waste, fraud and corruption inside U.S. government agencies often help cover it up, according to a scandalous newspaper exposé that reveals sometimes they actually become the lapdogs of the agencies they’re charged with overseeing. Published this month by the capital area’s conservative newspaper, the four-part series exposes the state of inspectors general tasked with keeping an eye on the government. In all there are 72 inspectors general—with heads appointed by the president—thanks to a decades-old law that passed with strong bipartisan support in Congress. The idea is to have a completely...

Clark County, Illinois — Sometimes citizens can be so frustrated with county board members they wish someone could just place them under arrest. Well, that is exactly what citizens in Clark County, Illinois did . Illinois’ number one manufactured product is corruption. More than 95 percent of the Illinois legislature is safe in gerrymandered districts. The incumbent governor has three current federal investigations of his administration, but the Attorney General/state’s attorney class can’t find public vice anywhere. Residents that voted in the recent election said they are hoping officials have learned from the past mistakes of others. So what can...

The Obama administration doesn't have watchdogs. It has whitewash puppies. The president's Chicago bullies have defanged true advocates for integrity in government in D.C. from day one. So the latest report by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee on corruptocrat Charles K. Edwards, the former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, isn't a revelation. It's confirmation. Investigators found that Edwards compromised the independence of his office by socializing and sucking up to senior DHS officials. "There are many blessings to be thankful for this year," the sycophantic Edwards wrote to the DHS acting counsel on Thanksgiving 2011, "but...

Bolstered by the backing of key watchdog groups, top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa is pressing House oversight committee Chairman Edolphus Towns to help investigate a mounting number of technology-related ethics problems for a White House that has prided itself on both transparency and its technological savvy. Issa’s latest move is a June 30 letter to Towns requesting the chairman join Issa in “launching a formal investigation” into numerous allegations the Obama White House has played fast and loose with its ethics rules and disclosure requirements under federal law. The letter comes two days after Washington-based watchdog group Citizens...

Oversight: After an unjust firing and campaign of character assassination, the former AmeriCorps inspector general has been cleared of acting improperly. Now where does he go to get his job and reputation back? On June 10, Gerald Walpin was fired with one hour's notice as the watchdog of AmeriCorps in violation of a federal law requiring Congress to be given a heads-up 30 days in advance. He then fell victim to a campaign of character assassination. When pressed for a reason for the sudden and improper dismissal of a federal watchdog, the White House responded with a letter to Sens....

Oversight: If the White House really believes that AmeriCorps' inspector general was "confused" and "disoriented," how about open congressional hearings where the American people can see for themselves?The storm that erupted after the firing with one hour's notice of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general overseeing AmeriCorps, has not died down. Pressed for an explanation as to the reasons for the firing and why the law requiring Congress to be given notice and reasons 30 days in advance was not followed, the White House has resorted to old-time Chicago-style political smears.

Warming: After stifling a report questioning the science behind climate change, the EPA is censoring two of its lawyers for saying the proposed solutions are also problematical. The debate isn't over. It's being suppressed. In the proud tradition of EPA whistle-blower Alan Carlin, whose leaked study blew the lid off the EPA's hyped and flawed science behind climate change, two EPA lawyers, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, have produced a Web video titled "A Huge Mistake." In it they say cap-and-trade in general and the Waxman-Markey bill in particular are the wrong answers anyway. Williams and Zabel do not deny...

Climate Change: A suppressed EPA study says old U.N. data ignore the decline in global temperatures and other inconvenient truths. Was the report kept under wraps to influence the vote on the cap-and-trade bill? This was supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Yet as the House of Representatives prepared to vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the largest tax increase in U.S. history on 100% of Americans, an attempt was made to suppress a study shredding supporters' arguments.

Junk Science: The EPA may be considering closing the watchdog office that exposed the flimsy evidence of man-caused warming. So much for the administration's promise to "restore science to its rightful place."Recently we commented on the plight of Dr. Allen Carlin, the EPA senior research analyst at the National Center for Environmental Economics who dared to say, in essence, that emperor Al Gore and his environmental sycophants at the Environmental Protection Agency wore no clothes. The EPA had been working on an "endangerment finding" that would say carbon dioxide, rather than being the basis for all life on earth, was...

Community organizing, such as that of ACORN, has gotten a lot of publicity since it spawned Barack Obama in Chicago. While discrediting ACORN for what it has done with that organizing, now its techniques are being used to train the 10 million radio and TV listeners of Glenn Beck to become a community of what he has titled "Constitutional Watch Dogs" to create a grassroots movement.

Lobbyists and government watchdogs are applauding revisions made by the White House on Friday to lobbying restrictions on stimulus funds. After completing a 60-day review last week, the administration modified the rules to extend a speaking ban not just to lobbyists but to others who contact government officials about specific stimulus projects. But that ban only occurs now after a grant application has been filed for the project. Those interested in the project have to file their views in writing with administration officials, which will then be disclosed on the Internet. All contacts with lobbyists will still have to be...

What has $4.5 billion and provides millions of dollars per year to the left in California and won’t stop until California has universal, government-run, and fully unionized healthcare? The answer, three foundations created by Blue Cross’ conversion from non-profit to for-profit status from the late-80s to the mid-90s: The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation. These three entities, hijacked by the liberal activists on their boards, fund political activity, liberal consumer rights groups such as the Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports), and the ACLU, the CTA teachers union, Planned Parenthood, the National Center...

In response to what some consider conservative dominance in the arena of media watchdogs, a new organization was launched Tuesday in an effort to keep an eye on the other side. Progressive luminaries praised the debut of Media Justice, launched by author Damian Brach, as, "a quantum leap toward eradicating the pernicious Right Wing bias that permeates television, radio, newspaper, magazine, wire service and Internet news today." Filmmaker Michael Moore, actor Alec Baldwin and singer Linda Ronstadt were among hundreds of guests attending a gala unveiling of the new enterprise in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night, ushering in Brach's efforts to,...

Hurricane Frances made landfall more than 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County earlier this year. But that didn't stop thousands of residents there from getting nearly $28 million in federal disaster aid. Top winds reached only 47 mph in Miami-Dade County during the Labor Day weekend storm, so damages were limited to some fallen power lines and uprooted trees, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency and other disaster relief officials. Yet residents used their relief checks to buy more than 5,000 televisions allegedly destroyed by Frances, as well as 1,440 air conditioners, 1,360 twin beds, 1,311 washers and dryers, and...