Free Republic

Obama, with Gov. Jon Corzine at the Susquehanna Bank Center in downtown Camden, rallied a crowd of 5,500 to turn out to reelected the Democratic governor on Tuesday in a race with Republican Chris Christie that polls show is neck-and-neck, and where turnout is expected to be key. "I know these are challenging times. Jon knows these are challenging times," POTUS said. "This is why he got into public service. He didn't do it for a pay check. He did it because he knew we can do better." Obama, who spoke for 24 minutes, called Corzine, who stood next to...

It seems Rocco Landesman, the head of the National Endowment for the Arts, didn't get the memo, literally. On September 22, stung by controversy over the administration's effort to turn the arts community into proselytizers of its very special brand of hope and change, the White House issued a stern warning to all government agencies: Keep politics out of the arts. White House denied that was ever the intent. Many in the media, as is their wont, took the Obama administration at their word. But not the website Big Government (which broke the story) and the Washington Times. They demonstrated...

Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer on Tuesday helped promote an upcoming HBO documentary on Barack Obama and allowed producer Ed Norton to gush over the "zen" presidential campaign of the Democratic candidate. Sawyer breathlessly teased the program as "the Obamas behind closed doors. The grandmother who raised him and the man you’ve never seen." Sawyer played several clips of the By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, a film that followed Obama and his family during the 2008 campaign. The segment, which ran six and a half minutes, will be supplemented by more promotion on Tuesday’s Nightline. When...

In October, for the third straight month, 39% Strongly Disapproved of the president’s performance. The number who Strongly Approved fell two percentage points to 29%, the president’s lowest full-month total to date. That leads to a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10, also a new low for Obama. Also in October, the president’s total approval slipped a point to 48%. His total disapproval remained stable at 51%.

Cap and Trade will be a disaster for what is left of manufacturing in this country. Right now, the Rust Belt is just rusty. With Cap and Trade, the rust will inevitably turn into dust. And, for what? Because some politically-driven environmentalists have trumped up a phony belief that mankind is completely killing the planet?

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - In a final campaign swing on behalf of the only governor seeking re-election this fall, President Barack Obama on Sunday pitched Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's bid as a key component for the White House to make good on its political promises. "He's one of the best partners I have in the White House. We work together," Obama said. "We know our work is far from over." An energized Obama told 3,500 people at a rally in Camden that they need to work hard to give Corzine another term in office so he can work with Washington...

The Rasmussen presidential monthly approval polls show a breathtaking drop in Obama's approval ratings, something we might miss in the daily reports: I don't remember ever seeing anything like this.

President Obama is within weeks of making a decision on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, Chief White House Advisor David Axelrod said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

Obama fans are in a tight spot. As the White House turns ever harsher and more divisive, supporters are scrambling to explain why President Obama sounds so very different from Campaigner Obama. There are two possible explanations, neither of which is flattering. The first is that Obama was insincere on the campaign trail. The second is that his advisors – David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel -- are in control. The latter view is bound to take hold and it will not boost the president’s flagging popularity ratings. Many who voted for President Obama feel deceived. When he said in Florida...

President Obama is pursuing a "radical" agenda that is putting the economy and national security in peril, talk show host Rush Limbaugh told "Fox News Sunday," giving the young president failing grades across the board and standing by his sustained criticism of the administration. The conservative radio host assailed the administration for its economic stimulus package, health care reform plan and alleged uncertainty over the way forward in Afghanistan. In a wide-ranging interview, he called Obama a "child" driven by his "out-of-this-world ego." And he predicted that Obama, who built a broad-based majority over Republican candidate John McCain a year...

Republicans are confident they can score three strikes against Barack Obama in elections on Tuesday in what could be a springboard for a party revival. Victories in the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey and a contest for a vacant House of Representatives seat in New York would deliver a blow to Mr Obama almost exactly a year to the day since he won the presidency. A rejection of Democrats in all three contests would be a major setback for Mr Obama because he has invested a large amount of time and personal political capital by campaigning extensively in...

From Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller Taking what officials call an "unprecedented" step in transparency, the White House released visitor logs today showing some popular names: William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, R. Kelly, and Malik Shabazz visiting the White House. But, no – those are not who you think they are, official say; these famous people never really visited the White House – these are other people with the same name. "There’s an important lesson here as well," Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform writes in a blog posting on the White House website, "This...

The 2008 election didn't exile Republicans to the political wilderness. Today, the party has already started its comebackAfter Tuesday, the Republican remnant in Washington is fearing the worst. Opinion leaders warn of a big, and perhaps permanent, shift to the left. But Obama, overspending, over-taxing and over-regulating could make this week's liberal euphoria as distant a memory as 2004's talk of Rove's majority-making genius. (After the loss, the recriminations, 6 November 2008) Does anybody remember the 2004 elections? Republicans enjoyed unified control of the federal government. George Bush boasted that he earned political capital with his landslide victory – actually...

DOVER, DEL. -- Earlier this year President Obama lifted the 18-year ban on media coverage of the return of fallen soldiers to Dover, a ban critics said hid the costs of war from the American people. Thursday morning President Obama -- who is weighing new strategy in Afghanistan -- saw those costs up close.

Obama Requests More Options for Troop Levels The Washington post reported two officials as saying late Friday Obama asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama grappled Friday with the costs and consequences of a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but reached no decisions about troop levels, a top aide said, as military advisers briefed the president on an armed services already taxed by challenges around the globe. The president reviewed his options with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and made clear he wants at least one more meeting with...

On Friday night's Hannity show on Fox, Rep. Michele Bachmann said (I believe) that an Arizona State University study reveals that in the last 9 months, the federal gov't has confiscated 30% of the private wealth of the country. She mentioned, of course, that adding health care to this would add another 18%, meaning almost 1/2 the wealth in the US would belong to the gov't. Does anyone know how to find this study? I can't find it.

FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat. My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original...

Barack and Michelle Obama: Mr&Mrs show irks voters As political woes mount, not all have been won over by the first couple’s intimate revelations Tony Allen-Mills in Washington With difficult state elections and a crucial military decision looming, President Barack Obama sat down with his wife Michelle last month to give an in-depth magazine interview about a subject that has hitherto not ranked highly on the White House political agenda — the state of the first couple’s marriage. The president used the occasion to complain that when he recently hopped aboard Air Force One to fly his wife to New...

Its make-it or break-it time next week when investors look to the Labor Department's Unemployment Report for October, let's hope its good. With the market jumping 200 points in either direction on bascially "headlines" this week, the October payrolls report that is delivered next Friday (Nov 6th) could really jolt the system. Even as other parts of the economy show signs of stabilizing, rising unemployment may keep overall wages and benefits subdued and weigh on consumer spending. The U.S. has lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and the government is scheduled to release the October...

Author's Note: Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out of next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election early Saturday morning. She did not endorse either of her two opponents, Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens. Would one-party domination in any combination of Tuesday’s off-year elections really indicate where this country is going politically? You’ve got gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, a congressional special election in upstate New York, and a state Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania. “I see no particular harbingers for 2010,” says Purdue University’s Bert Rockman. “While people are deeply unhappy about current conditions, they are...

President Obama is degrading the Oval Office. In recent months, his administration has engaged in puerile, partisan attacks on his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. Nearly every problem in America - the economy, health care, financial regulatory reform, Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo - is being blamed on Mr. Bush. For example, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently hinted on CNN that Mr. Obama's indecision regarding sending more troops to Afghanistan was caused by his predecessor's inept policies. "It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift," Mr. Emanuel said....

The problem of North Korea has bedeviled policy makers in Washington for years. The notoriously opaque Stalinist state that sits above the 38th Parallel represents one of the world’s most intractable security dilemmas. Starting this spring, however, the challenge posed by Pyongyang has grown more acute. The defiant series of nuclear and ballistic tests carried out by Kim Jong Il in May has brought into sharp focus the growing threat posed by the North’s strategic arsenal—and precipitated a frenzy of international activity in response. The Obama administration, still in the early stages of formulating its Asia policy, has reacted to...

President Barack Obama took office with an extraordinary set of promises as a candidate. He has fulfilled many of the promises to the left-wing base of his party, such as his executive order three days after he was inaugurated restoring the funding of abortions with foreign-aid money.  But how has he done with the popular campaign promises he made to middle America, the promises that got him elected? Candidate Obama pledged to cut taxes for the middle class, lower overall taxes, cut government spending, reduce the deficit, cut the cost of healthcare waste, eliminate most government secrecy, and reform ethics...

President Obama has signed into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Actually, he signed into law the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act tacked onto which was the hate-crimes legislation. Sen. Harry Reid, our brave Democratic majority leader, slipped the hate-crimes bill into the defense authorization bill to avoid having to have our senators consider the controversial hate-crimes legislation on its own. It's for good reason that our Democratic legislators wanted to hide under a rock while passing this terrible piece of legislation. It may help them with the far-left wing of their party. But weakening and damaging our country is...

USSR, 1959: I am a "young pioneer" in school. History classes remind us that there is a higher authority than their parents and teachers: the leaders of the Communist Party. The story of young pioneer Pavlik Morozov is required reading. Pavlik reported his father to the secret police for disobeying government regulations. His life exemplified the duty of all good Soviet citizens to serve their government. From the first year in school, all of us are made aware of our ethnicity (ethnic Russian, Jewish, Asian, etc.) and class (proletariat, intelligentsia), around which society is structured. This inherent divisiveness makes it...

... [T]he signature domestic issue in President Obama’s first year in office — health care reform — is shaping up to be the antithesis of President Reagan’s supply-side economics. The starting point for Ronald Reagan was the idea that people respond to incentives. The incentives that he most worried about were those provided by the tax system. According to his budget director, David A. Stockman, Mr. Reagan would regale the staff with stories of how he, as an actor, used to alter his work schedule in response to the tax code. “You could only make four pictures, and then you...

Facing a gubernatorial race in New Jersey that will go down to the wire Tuesday, Gov. Jon Corzine on Saturday brushed off speculation that the election is causing concern for President Obama, who is making an unprecedented number of campaign visits there. Corzine, who is seeking a second term, told Fox News that Obama's schedule has been set for awhile. "This is not a last minute decision," he said. "This is a decision that was part of a plan to work together." Obama has campaigned vigorously for Corzine in the state -- including launching television and radio ads in his...

Members of the protest group Code Pink taunt local school children with chants about the war in Afghanistan as the children and their families arrive for a Halloween reception by U.S. President Barack Obama and his family at the White House in Washington, October 31, 2009.

We all know that the US has lost 4.5 million jobs under President Obama's march to Socialism. But what about the aborted jobs?

Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan: Hillary Clinton * US taxes everything, and ‘that’s not what we see in Pakistan’ * Pakistan must start planning for challenges posed by population growth * US secretary of state meets COAS LAHORE: The leadership of Al Qaeda is in Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” she added. “Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know... As far as we know, they are in...

In a roundtable today with Pakistani editors, Hillary Clinton responded to a question about the Israeli-Palestinian issue with the now-familiar Obama administration litany: the problems are hard, they were inherited, they were ignored by the prior administration: I think that, look, we all know that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is one that is a very serious and difficult problem that we are working hard also to try to resolve. We inherited a lot of problems. If you remember, when my husband left office, we were very close to an agreement because he worked on it all the time. The next administration...

Trick or Treat: Obamas Expect 2,000 Children At White House For Halloween President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, invited more than 2,000 children to the White House on Saturday night for a Halloween party. 31 Oct 2009 Workers install Halloween decorations at the North Portico of the White House in Washington Photo: AFP/Getty Images [Pic in URL] The children, from Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, were to do their trick-or-treating on the most famous front porch in America, the North Portico. There was no word on what the White House treats might include; Mrs Obama is a vocal supporter...

The Boeing Co. announced Friday it will lay off a third of its 1,000-member workforce at Kennedy Space Center next year. The layoffs will come in January, May and August as the shuttle program heads toward retirement. Some 330 workers will be laid off from Boeing's Checkout, Assembly and Payload Processing Services program, which has about 500 workers, spokeswoman Susan Wells said Friday. "Boeing is committed to preserving as many jobs as possible for our valued, highly skilled employees, and the company has taken aggressive steps to lessen the impact of these potential reductions," a company statement said. "These steps...

Yet another example of the folly of assigning liberals to guard duty. Joining Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show Thursday to vent about that pesky wabbit Joe Lieberman was Fire Dog Lake blogger Jane Hamsher. Democrats wield considerable leverage over Lieberman, Hamsher opined, to keep him from joining a GOP filibuster of ObamaCare or punish him if he does -- MADDOW: ... I think you’re right to point out that other senators sort of gently expressing their disapproval of his proverbial toplessness at this point is a bigger deal than it would be in the real world, that their words...

CBS News skepticism regarding the number of jobs saved by the Obama Administration’s stimulus legislation raised ire at the White House. CBS News reporter Chip Reid aired a report revealing that many of the Administration’s claimed “job saved or created” totals were either exaggerated or false. Separately, CBS investigative reporter Stephen Stock worked undercover to expose a pattern of fraud at medical clinics operating in South Florida. This is part of an estimated annual $60 billion worth of fraud perpetrated in the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. “We’re putting CBS on notice,” said Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel....

Top aides to President Obama say that, yes indeed, he did have that 3 a.m. phone call that then-rival Hillary Rodham Clinton warned he couldn't handle. Before the Texas Democratic primary last year, Clinton aired a provocative TV ad that showed children sleeping peacefully and asking voters who they would trust to deal with a middle-of-the-night crisis. Senior adviser David Axelrod, communications director Anita Dunn, and press secretary Robert Gibbs told CNN that it happened in April, when Obama was in Prague and North Korea tested a long-range missile. "I think it was about 4:00 in the morning we were...

Kalpen Modi, the star of the Harold and Kumar Go To movies and the TV series House, made a big splash when he put aside his Hollywood career to take a White House position as “director of public engagement,” which everyone assumed would be more or less a liaison to Hollywood as an adjunct social secretary. Unfortunately for Modi, he apparently didn’t stick to those duties. According to new documents released as part of a FOIA request, Modi helped plan the notorious NEA call conducted by Yosi Sergant that attempted to link NEA grants with support for the Obama agenda,...

With Democrats poised to lose the governor's race in Virginia, and to possibly lose the governor's race in New Jersey and a special election for a House seat in New York, the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance. "Whatever the results are I don't think they portend a lot in dealing with the future," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday, pointing to the fact that Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races in 2001 despite a very popular President Bush, with Republicans picking up seats in Congress...

At today's White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.Gibbs says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time" thinking about the war in Afghanistan.Gibbs was asked about a statement by the mother of one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning....

Saturday, October 31, 2009 Obama DOJ shovels out more grist for foreign prosecutions of Bush officials   [Andy McCarthy] Well, the hyper-"transparent" Obama administration won't share any of its internal deliberations on matters about which there is no good reason to keep the public in the dark — e.g., its strong-arming in Honduras, its dismissal of a slam-dunk civil rights case against the New Black Panther Party, and the legal analysis by DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel that explains why the DC Voting Rights Bill is unconstitutional — but it continues to shovel out previously classified information about interrogation techniques...

Republicans on Capitol Hill are challenging an assertion by House leaders that their new health-care package comes in under President Obama's spending limit of $900 billion over the next decade. The true cost of the measure, the GOP argues, is more than $1 trillion. A House leadership aide dismissed the charge as "GOP spin." But, in this case, the spin is essentially true. According to a preliminary estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, expanding coverage to an additional 36 million Americans would cost $1.055 trillion over the next decade under the House plan, counting tax breaks for small businesses,...

So much for the most open and ethical government everFinally, it is clear what President Obama meant when he said this would be the most "transparent administration in history." -SNIP-After The Times' report revealed the administration's "donor maintenance" program, reporters from other news organizations followed up at the daily White House press briefing, where White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to dodge questions by referring reporters to the Democratic National Committee. But who controls every aspect of what happens at the DNC? The White House. And when the DNC sells access to government officials, who employs those officials?...

The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global leftwing assault on the freedom of information. Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control. The one thing leftists just can't bear is criticism. (Mass murder's fine, but don't stray from the party line.) As early as the French Revolution, the left grasped that a free press is inherently subversive to its doctrines. The Obama administration's aborted Fox hunt simply aligned our government with the hounds...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will lift a 1987 ban on foreigners with AIDS entering the country. "We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat," Obama said Friday. Obama said an order lifting the restriction will be issued Monday and take effect after 60 days. Poll on page!

It’s Halloween Everyday in Washington D.C. - This Halloween - and all year long - in Washington D.C., many politicians will be dressing up as concerned, moral, honest and Constitution-honoring representatives of the American people. Among these will be the rising American Left of the Socialist-Democratic Party. These are wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing. The Left has had an anti-American agenda which is being unfolded before our very eyes (government controlled healthcare, for example). They have a vision for America which is rapidly and rigorously becoming a tangible reality. This vision is a secular socialist state for America and...

Today marks a major milestone in government transparency -- and an important lesson in the unintended consequences of such vigorous disclosure.....A lot of people visit the White House, up to 100,000 each month, with many of those folks coming to tour the buildings. Given this large amount of data, the records we are publishing today include a few “false positives” – names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else. In September, requests were submitted for the names of some famous or controversial figures (for example Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert...

On Friday’s Situation Room, CNN forwarded an idea proposed by The New Republic’s Peter Beinart- that Democratic losses in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey this year would result in the reelection of President Obama in 2012. An on-screen graphic during a discussion of Beinart’s hypothesis read, “If The Dems Lose Next Week: How it might help them in the long run.” Anchor Wolf Blitzer read the New Republic contributor’s idea during a “Strategy Session” panel discussion with Republican Mary Matalin and Democrat Paul Begala 53 minutes into the 4 pm Eastern hour: “Peter Beinart, writing in The...

Catherine Herridge - FOXNews.com - October 30, 2009 Obama Administration Eyeing Navy Brig in South Carolina for Gitmo Detainees, Sources Say Sources tell Fox News that one scenario is that a "handful" of detainees who are already in the military courts at Guantanamo could be brought stateside as a "trial run" to test the system. The Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., is "very much in play" as an option to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees for military commission hearings in the U.S., multiple sources tell Fox News. Some sources describe the Naval Consolidated Brig -- which has housed at least two...

October 30, 2009 President Obama Alleged To Have Given White House Perks To Top Donors Tim Reid Senior Republicans demanded an investigation yesterday into reports that President Obama has given financial donors perks such as use of the White House cinema, golf games with the Commander-in-Chief and even the chance to shape policy. The allegations that Mr Obama may have carried on the practice of rewarding top donors — Bill Clinton and George Bush were criticised for it — was also condemned by campaignfinance watchdogs. They said that the President appeared to have reneged on his promise to change the...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records