Free Republic

President Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that was delivered by the administration's special envoy for North Korea during a visit to Pyongyang last week. The existence of the letter has been closely held, with the administration insisting to its partners in disarmament talks with North Korea that it not be publicly discussed. State Department and White House officials confirmed this week that envoy Stephen W. Bosworth delivered a letter from Obama for Kim, but they declined to describe its contents. "We do not comment on private diplomatic correspondence," said White House National...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as part of an intense effort to draw the reclusive nation back to nuclear disarmament talks, a senior State Department official said Tuesday. The letter was delivered to North Korean officials last week by Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, during a visit to Pyongyang aimed at restarting the stalled negotiations, the official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said...

Law Offices of Dr. Orly Taitz ESQ 29839 Santa Margarita parkway ste 100 Rancho Santa Margarita CA 92688 Phone 949-683-5411 Fax 949-766-7603 12.14.09. Via Certified Mail Attn Mr. Eric Holder United States Attorney General 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20530-0001 USA Dear Mr. Holder, On March 1st on behalf of my clients I have submitted to you a request to file Quo Warranto against Mr. Barack Hussein Obama. The request was filed due to following troubling facts: 1. According to a number of licensed investigators National Databases show Mr. Obama using as many as 39 different Social Security numbers,...

Video: In an interview yesterday (http://radioequalizer.blogs) on the Al Sharpton Show, radio guest Dr Boyce Watkins spells out Obama's increasingly shaky support from African-Americans. He says: "The people his plans are targeted to help, they're not getting help".

Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.”...

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama (R) sing next to Mary J Blige (2nd L) during the Christmas in Washington Celebration at the National Building Museum in Washington December 13, 2009.

President Obama has lost his 2012 bid for re-election. He has made key decisions in three areas that, unless he alters his approach (not likely), could well guarantee a Republican victory: an embarrassingly rolled-out, badly-compromised health-care reform bill; his continuing slavish subservience to those on Wall Street that took the country into the economic toilet; and his sad imitation of CheneyBush's imperial campaign in Afghanistan. (Obama's only hope for 2012 may depend on Sarah Palin getting the GOP nomination. Even better if Glenn Beck or Dick Cheney is her running mate -- been mentioned seriously. The Democrats can only hope...

Let me be the first: YOU LIE!

Declaring that insulation is "sexy," President Obama today pushed Congress to create a program giving homeowners cash incentives to improve their energy efficiency by replacing windows, caulking leaks and modernizing heaters and air conditioners. He traveled to a Home Depot store in Alexandria, Va., to pitch a job-creation plan some have dubbed "cash for caulkers" -- government incentives given directly to consumers to spur economic activity, similar to the popular "cash for clunkers" rebates that spurred a surge in auto sales last summer. Obama also held a roundtable at the store that included the chief executive of insulation-maker Owens Corning...

In the predawn hours this morning, over 30 people loaded a chartered bus in a parking lot across from Ross Park Mall were seeing red and it had nothing to do with getting up before 3:00 a.m. "We want to let Washington know that we are not going to let them pass legislation without them knowing how we feel," said Pam Smith of Evans City. Smith was part of a group of grassroots activists and concerned citizens heading down to Washington, D.C., this morning to issue a "code red" alert to stop the health care overhaul legislation from advancing in...

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government must craft a plan next year to get its ballooning debt under control or face possible panic in financial markets, a bipartisan panel of budget experts said in a report on Monday. Though the government should hold off on immediate tax hikes and spending cuts to avoid harming the fragile economic recovery, it will need to make such painful changes by 2012 in order to keep debt at a manageable 60 percent of GDP by 2018, according to the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Without action, investors could lose confidence in the...

The Obama administration will officially announce on Tuesday that some Guantanamo prison terrorists will be shipped to the Thomson, Illinois correctional center, according to ABC News. Despite polls showing 51% of Illinois residents oppose the move, the state's Democrats are elated.

Have you read the headlines the past few months? Obama has proposed trillions of dollars in new taxes, and trillions of dollars of irresponsible, unsustainable big government spending. With no way to pay for it all…except to wipe out small businessmen and women, and wipe out the upper middle class…and enslave our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt and heavy taxes for a lifetime. It is, plainly and simply, the VERY definition of Socialism. Let’s say it out loud- Obama is a Socialist. If liberals and the biased liberal media won’t face facts…I’m going to put the facts...

Rather KGBish of him, wouldn't you say?.... "The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters." So ominously began an editorial in Sunday's New York Times. Those with accounts at such Web sites should pay attention, for according to the Times, and other sources, Big Brother is watching you. So be careful with your next Tweet or Facebook status, for you never know who's watching. .....On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how Obama-loving media follow this story.

Obama continues to grade himself and Michelle.

Here is video of Oprah Winfrey's Christmas Special from the White House with President Obama and First Lady Michelle. The special shows a lot of the White House and some historical things about previous Presidents, as well as talking with the Obamas . . . (VIDEO)

This is how the 2007 amnesty bill died, you may recall. It wasn’t Republicans who killed it, it was Republicans plus big-labor Democrats plus a few pro-amnesty liberal Dems who thought the bill didn’t go far enough. Ultimately, the 60-vote needle was simply too narrow to be threaded. And now here we are again. From Kos’s Twitter feed: Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.Remember, the overwhelming nutroots CW to this point has been that something must be passed. What, precisely, gets passed is important but ultimately secondary to the task of passing something...

Making the rounds of conservative talk shows lately is the question, “What has Obama accomplished so far?” The question is asked of of Obama supporters and the answers range from ‘abolishing lobbyists’ to ‘securing world peace’ to ‘lowering taxes.’ One thing all answers have in common: They are all grounded in perception as opposed to reality. Obama has accomplished the amazing feat of convincing millions of Americans that black is white, that cold is hot, that the bad economy is the fault of George W Bush, and the only things standing between America and peace on earth are those darn...

Justice: A leaked memo exposes the hypocrisy of those who opposed indefinite detention of terrorists without trial at Guantanamo. For the right price, they're willing to hold detainees without trial indefinitely in America's heartland. The plan to ship as many as 100 unidentified terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a little used prison in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town of 450 people near the Mississippi River about 150 miles west of Chicago, is well under way, according to a Justice Department memo unearthed by Andrew Breitbart and biggovernment.com. The memo allegedly from Eric Holder's Department of Justice to Defense Secretary...

President Barack Obama’s approval numbers continue to plummet into the abyss. From Rasmussen Reports: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 24% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18. Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s the lowest level yet measured for this president. Previously, his overall approval rating had fallen to 45% twice, once in early September and once in late November....

Britain is the only European country President Barack Obama can really count on to respond positively to his plea for NATO to provide extra forces for Afghanistan. So why is it, then, that the Obama administration can barely conceal its disdain for a nation that, by its deeds, time and again proves itself to be America's staunchest and most reliable ally? Shortly before Mr. Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point earlier this month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Britain was sending another 500 troops to that beleaguered country, bringing the total number of British troops to around 10,000....

Just because no one is too worried about gate crashers showing up at the White House Hanukkah party doesn't mean the guest list isn't being watched very carefully. The annual celebration has grown in recent years into an important bellwether in American Jewish circles, a sign of which leaders are in good graces and who is losing clout. So the Obama administration's announcement that it was cutting the size of the Dec. 16 party by more than a third has left many wondering who will make the cut, and what some might do to get their name added to the...

War On Terror: Sen. Dick Durbin calls a plan to transfer 100 Guantanamo detainees to northwest Illinois "a dream come true." It would paint a bull's-eye on America's heartland in time for the 2012 Iowa caucuses. It seems the question of where to put the Guantanamo detainees is being settled as we speak, with liberal Democrats in the very blue state of Illinois welcoming them with open arms and outstretched hands for the federal dollars that will come with them. Federal officials last Friday inspected the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a town of 500 on the Iowa border,...

Grade President Obama on his first year in office (scroll down on the right): http://www.indystar.com/ Freep this Poll

Forget the dire economic consequences of a Copenhagen climate change treaty for a second and think about the fraud involved. Carbon Trading Fraud Take the European Union, for instance, which implemented a carbon trading scheme analogous to a cap and trade system. And it has been fraught with fraud. French officials are investigating a $230 million carbon trading fraud scheme and this is only the tip of the iceberg in what is a startling revelation and huge blow to the climate talks in Copenhagen: Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement arm against organized crime, announced on Wednesday that carbon-trading fraud...

Watching the Senate press last week toward passage of President Obama's universal health care, my Red Alert is forced to contemplate whether a socialist agenda is intending to bankrupt the United States with trillion-dollar social-welfare programs there is no way the country will ever be able to afford. In "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," I clearly established that Barack Obama is trained in the Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals" methodology of lying to voters to disguise a true intent to transfer wealth from the "haves" to the "have nots." But as we watch President Obama...

<p>US President Barack Obama has awarded himself a B plus for his first 11 months in office, stressing in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that there was still much to be done.</p> <p>"A good solid B plus," Mr Obama said during an hour-long, intimate soft-focus ABC network Christmas at the White House special, when Winfrey asked what grade he would give himself.</p>

Whatever happened to just opposing policy for the sake of it being bad policy, as is the case of many people's view of the current health care reform proposals making their way through Congress? That reason is just not good enough for some, particularly Washington Post blogger and food critic Ezra Klein. In a post on The Washington Post's Web site dated Dec. 14, Klein viciously attacked Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Ct., after reports surfaced that Lieberman would filibuster the current health care bill if it meant expanding Medicare (h/t Amanda Carpenter at The Washington Times) (emphasis added). "And if there's...

“Obstructing Obama Care is like obstructing the abolition of slavery!” Are them fightin’ words, or what?! And we, who want to “abolish” the tax-funded abortion contained in Obama Care, are the bad guys. We are apparently the Confederate States challenging the authority of our President of the United States. Of course, Obama is Abe Lincoln, women are enslaved by pregnancy and we are the rebels who keep them there, right? That, at least, is how Senator Harry Reid is setting things up for this showdown at the Barack Obama … uh … B.O. Corral.Isn’t there something rather wrong with this...

We'll see about that B+ when we get our chance to vote on election day, He says it will go to an A- if he gets Hell Care, Obama on ABC Special Tonight (Video)

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is giving himself "a good solid B-plus" grade for his first year in office. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Sunday night, the president claimed progress on economic and international fronts. Obama says the only thing that stands in the way of giving himself a better grade is the fact that some elements of his agenda—health care reform and putting more Americans to work—remain undone.

Are today's American Tea Party patriots anything like the Jewish Maccabees of ancient times? The Jewish eight-day holiday of Hanukah began Friday night. The holiday marks the successful BCE revolt of the Jews of Judea over their Greco-Syrian occupiers. For many years, the Jews of Judea were resigned to their fate and accepted the presence of their conquerors. With the passage of time, however, the Greco-Syrian occupiers began to force their pagan ways upon the Jews and prohibit Jewish religious practices. The loss of rights proved too much to bear for many Jews and a grassroots opposition movement began, led...

Chairman Obama: "It won't happen again."

On now.

The first year of the Obama administration is almost in the books, and pundits across the political spectrum are assessing its accomplishments. Any assessment must be placed in context of the overall political and class balance of forces, in Congress and within the multi-class, socially diverse coalition that carried Obama to the White House. The success, breadth and extent of President Obama’s new policy direction depend in particular on the strength and unity of the people’s forces and their ability to gain allies and mobilize at the grassroots and influence Congress. The Obama administration must work with and unite a...

At the White House, as the Obama administration is learning all too well, a party is never a simple affair. One bone of contention has been the guest list: Administration officials say they are inviting 550 people, just 50 less than President Bush invited to his White House Hanukkah parties. But reports in the Israeli press spawned fast-spreading rumors that the Obama White House was only inviting 400 – and that the Bush White House had actually invited twice that number. It was, some suggested, a snub – and one that critics said should not come as a surprise. The...

"So many big name stars, singers and sports legends have visited Washington over the years, the city is often referred to as “Hollywood on the Potomac.” So, that’s the title of my new book (available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders) featuring over 200 photographs and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players — from Presidents Truman through Obama." "Somehow late night talk shows became a logical first step for politicians to reach voters. Somehow rock stars became a political voice of the disenfranchised. Somewhere along the way, American politics and pop culture personalities...

Eric Holder arguing that Al Queda are not subject to Geneva Convention protections. He has since changed his tune.

A sign reading "Welcome to Obamaville Colorado's Fastest Growing Community" appeared at a homeless tent city in Colorado Springs this week. You probably didn't hear about it because outside of two Colorado television stations nobody found this newsworthy. By contrast, when word got out in March of a tent city in Sacramento, California, news media couldn't get enough of the story. Is it because that happened so soon after Inauguration Day that it could easily be blamed on George W. Bush, and that given the name given to this area that's no longer possible?

Obamangst continues to twist and turn citizens’ heads so that they hardly know what to expect the next month let alone the next week.

Anti-Obama sentiment brewing on internet as Tea party threatens boilover WHEN Stacy Mott, a stay-at-home mother of three children, started writing a blog after the election of President Barack Obama last year, she had no involvement in politics and simply wanted to vent her frustration at financial bailouts, healthcare reform and legislation to combat climate change. The former marketing executive at Toys R Us quickly found she was not alone. One year on, her blog, Smart Girl Politics, is an organisation with 23,000 members and co-ordinators in almost every state. "There are a huge amount of people out there...

NEW YORK - Eight years ago, President George W. Bush stood on a pile of rubble and told New Yorkers, "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Perhaps President Barack Obama should take a cue from his predecessor and hear what New Yorkers say about his administration's decision to prosecute five Sept. 11 suspects here. Finding a New Yorker who is happy about that is difficult. "I don't see the upside," said Louis Polanco, a retired New York City cop. "The unprecedented...

Hub-Bub has been awarded a grant for $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for the Hub-Bub Artists-in-Residence program. Only 30 other artists' communities in the U.S. will receive funding from the NEA during this grant cycle. Hub-Bub will also receive funding in 2010 from the Dedalus Foundation, which fosters public understanding of modern art by facilitating research, publications and exhibitions in the field. Funding from Dedalus will be used to bring six visiting artists to Spartanburg over the next year for community-based art projects.

In his first year, President Obama has marshaled the largest infusion of cultural funding in decades -- despite a few stumbles. Though art advocates contend more support is needed, they have high hopes this president could transform cultural policy, funding and arts education for years to come. ``I think and feel he's very much in the John F. Kennedy tradition -- he embodies the humanities, essentially,'' said Jim Leach, a former Republican congressman from Iowa whom Obama named chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. ``That doesn't mean a conservative leader can't also. Abraham Lincoln was a great conservative...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new Internal Revenue Service unit set up to catch rich tax cheats hiding their wealth in complex business entities is rapidly taking shape with the hiring of hundreds of employees..... President Barack Obama has proposed tightening tax rules for U.S. multinationals, including one in which companies delay paying taxes on income earned offshore, a legal practice known as deferral that officials say is abused.... "With any new thing, you never want to be the guinea pig," Mary Lou Fahey, general counsel for the Tax Executive Institute, comprised of business executives, said.

Current mortgage rates should be the answer to everyone's prayers--the chance to refinance at articificially low rates and enjoy artificially low payments into the hereafter. But, as David Streitfeld explains in the NYT, banks aren't refinancing all that many loans. Why not? They've raised lending standards to where they should have been on the first go-round, which makes many homeowners ineligible Many loans are underwater, and banks won't lend more than the house is worth (shocking, we know). Many loans have been securitized, so your current bank can't just modify them on its own. Some key stats: An estimated six...

He campaigned against private sector economic mismanagement, and the “harsh realities” of global capitalism. He pledged during his campaign to end corruption in both the government, and the private sector. After he took office, he claimed that he had “inherited” the worst economic situation in his country’s recent history. And then, the new President sought to consolidate his power. Once privately-owned enterprises became government-owned and operated entities, and were “restructured” so as to become, essentially, “workers’ cooperatives.” Not surprisingly, unemployment remained persistently high, even as the new was implementing his much-celebrated “reform” measures. And while private citizens had to struggle...

A senior official from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has recently met with Houthi rebels and Hizbullah activists in Yemen to coordinate joint military operations against Saudi positions along the border. Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, quoted on Sunday Arab sources as saying the three-way meeting also aimed at developing a plan to escalate the military situation along the Saudi-Yemeni border.

There comes a moment in politics when the blinders fall off the supporters of the other guy and they discover what you have known all along: He’s a fraud. The blinders just fell off Matt Taibbi, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. He just now noticed that while 26% of the money Barack Obama raised came from “small” donors, nearly 3 times as much came from big donors, who ponied up a half billion bucks. Where the 26% saw Hope and Change, the 74% saw Invest and Collect. Wrote Taibbi: “What’s taken place in the year since Obama won the...

It's bad business for Obama's party to reward him for rewarding Wall Street shills ___ Washington's favorite term these days is "moral hazard." Though this buzzphrase may seem like a complex and even intimidating idea, most of us, whether consciously or not, understand the principle because it's basic common sense. But financial moral hazard is only half the story. The other half is political moral hazard -- the mother of all other moral hazards. Consider, for instance, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. He's the top regulator who not only sowed financial moral hazard with the Fed's post-meltdown bailouts but openly...