Free Republic

Conservatives who have been wondering how Obama survived the 2012 election now have fuel for the common complaint that he stole the election by cheating. And no, I’m not talking about the vote rigging in precincts where he had more votes than voters. Nor am I talking about petitions where signature gatherers illegally forged names in order for Obama to qualify for a state primary ballot. I’m also not talking about Obama’s failure to vote on much legislation when he was an Illinois state senator, nor on his ability to produce any meaningful legislation for the three weeks he acted...

It’s not often that Donald Trump makes headlines in the tech world, but that’s what happened this week. Trump launched a new crowdfunding site, FundAnything, which is similar to Kickstarter. The difference is Trump said he will personally fund your project if he likes it - or if it promises to improves combover technology.

Below, Guy lays out the IRS' scandalous admission that it targeted Tea Party groups based on those groups' viewpoints -- a First Amendment constitutional violation if ever there was one.  One is tempted to hope that the unjustly-audited groups seek any redress that's available under law -- hopefully, with plenty of discovery -- to complement any other government investigations.But note that this is not the first time political gamesmanship at the IRS has been detected.  The late Robert Novak, writing in 2002, pointed out another IRS admission that it harassed conservative organizations during the Clinton administration.From this, two observations can...

FRESNO, Calif. — The rumor spread like wildfire via phone calls, text messages and social media postings and has persisted now for more than three weeks:

An IRS official apologized on Friday to tea party organizations and other conservative groups for inappropriately targeting them during the 2012 election, the Associated Press reports. The groups, which enjoyed tax-exempt status under the internal revenue code, were singled out for additional scrutiny of their tax exemption if their names included the words "tea party" or "patriot." In several cases, the groups were asked to provide a list of donors for review, usually a violation of IRS policy. "That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive, and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases,"...

Secretary of State John Kerry called Friday for greater efforts to "unfreeze" decades of tense stalemate between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, after meeting here with the foreign minister of the divided Mediterranean island. "The United States supports a bi-zonal, bicommunal federation. We would like to see us unfreeze this conflict and be able to move to a resolution," Kerry told reporters after meeting here with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides. "We also look forward to working with the foreign minister, and with President (Nicos) Anastasiades and others to try to move Cyprus forward on one of the world's frozen...

The Foundation for Individual Rights In Higher Education (FIRE) is the premier non-partisan organization fighting to protect free speech and other constitutional rights on campus.  The FIRE defends everyone’s rights, regardless of political affiliation.We have cited The FIRE numerous times here and at College Insurrection, and they have submitted a few guests posts on campus issues.The FIRE is not an organization prone to hyperbole.So when I received this email late this afternoon from FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley, it got my attention: THIS. IS. OUTRAGEOUS. The government has mandated speech codes on all campuses. I hoped I would never see this day, but...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) --- Recalling the devastating consequences suffered by workers and families affected by a 2008 immigration raid at a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa

With furloughs looming, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter this week paid tribute to the job done by the Pentagon's civilian work force while warning that there soon would be fewer of them doing it. In a series of appearances that fell during Public Service Recognition Week, Carter said the department had yet to come to a decision on how many furlough days to impose to meet the budget-cutting demands of the Congressional sequester process in the current fiscal year. Carter called the across-the-board sequester cuts "stupid," and said they would result in the loss of five to six percent of...

The 149 air traffic control towers that were slated to close this summer because of the federal sequestration will remain open until at least September, federal officials said Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration said legislation approved by Congress last month lets it transfer funds from other accounts to keep the towers open until the end of the fiscal year.

It was a brazen bank heist, but a 21st-century version in which the criminals never wore ski masks, threatened a teller or set foot in a vault. In two precision operations that involved people in more than two dozen countries acting in close coordination and with surgical precision, thieves stole $45 million from thousands of A.T.M.'s in a matter of hours. In New York City alone, the thieves responsible for A.T.M. withdrawals struck 2,904 machines over 10 hours starting on Feb. 19, withdrawing $2.4 million. The operation included sophisticated computer experts operating in the shadowy world of Internet hacking, manipulating...

When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced this week that he’s going after top banks Bank of America and Wells Fargo for violations of the national mortgage settlement agreement, he had a point. Unfortunately that point resides mostly at the top of his head. Schneiderman, like many New York Attorneys General, is playing politics for the bleachers even though he’s hurting their case.    “The settlement included 304 ‘servicing standards,’ or rules over how to conduct fair and timely service to homeowners applying for some sort of relief,” reported the Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Schneiderman said his office has...

Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum International have announced plans to build a $10 billion natural gas liquefication facility in the Gulf Coast port of Sabine Pass. The announcement comes as the two companies and the rest of the natural gas industry eagerly await permission from the U.S. government to begin exporting natural gas, which is cooled and liquefied before being shipped overseas.

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 9 (UPI) -- Israel's rapprochement with onetime strategic ally Turkey is a vital element in Ankara's drive to become the intercontinental east-west energy hub in the Mediterranean and many expect it to produce an energy alliance that will transform the region. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has, since taking power in 2002, transformed his country's economic prospects through a wide-ranging diplomatic drive aimed at restoring Turkish leadership in the region. He has long sought to transform Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, into the unassailable central hub for transporting oil and gas...

The immigration debate has taken a sudden and nasty turn with the publication of a new report by The Heritage Foundation claiming that reform legislation will end up costing American taxpayers $6.3 trillion. The Heritage Foundation, one of the most respected conservative organizations in the U.S., has sullied its reputation by lending its name to this tendentious piece of propaganda. First, the study grossly exaggerates the "cost" of immigration reform by assuming that all of those who gain legal status will claim welfare and other social service benefits as soon as they become eligible. While it is true that Hispanic...

NBC News is on the verge of naming Deborah Turness, the head of Britain’s ITV News, as its next president, according to several people with knowledge of the appointment. Ms. Turness, if appointed, would be the first woman president of a network television news division in the United States, succeeding Steve Capus, who stepped down from the position in February after a tenure of nearly eight years. A spokeswoman for NBC News, a unit of Comcast’s NBCUniversal, declined to comment. Ms. Turness responded on Friday to an e-mail, “I can’t comment on what is pure speculation.” But others with...

More groups organize against the Koch brothers buying Tribune’s newspapers Andrew Beaujon Published May 9, 2013 9:24 am Updated May 10, 2013 8:53 am The possibility of Charles and David Koch buying Tribune Co.’s newspapers “has struck a nerve in this liberal corner of the country,” The New York Times reports from Los Angeles.Ten unions sent a letter to Bruce Karsh, the chairman of Tribune’s board of directors and president of Oaktree Capital Management, saying such a sale “would provide the Koch brothers a powerful and influential platform by which to promote, at both the local, state and federal level,...

Consumers on Wednesday will finally get some answers about one of modern life’s most persistent mysteries: how much medical care actually costs. For the first time, the federal government will release the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the costs of services. In the District, George Washington University’s average bill for a patient on a ventilator was $115,000, while Providence...

Goldman Sachs recently confronted Bloomberg LP after learning that reporters for the business news service have been using the company’s terminals to monitor employees of the Wall Street bank, Mark Decambre of The New York Post reports. Specifically, Goldman officials learned that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals but also how many times they had used particular functions, sources told The Post. Form The Post: "In one instance, a Bloomberg reporter asked a Goldman executive if a partner at the bank had recently left the firm — noting casually that...

In the February 5 Morning Briefing, I outlined the Irrational Exuberance scenario as follows: “In a melt-up scenario, the market [S&P 500] would do just that, jumping to my yearend target [1665] or higher before the middle of the year. … The Fed’s critics, including dissenters on the FOMC, will warn that ultra-easy monetary policy is once again pumping air into a stock market bubble. So a melt-up could be followed by a meltdown, or at least a very nasty 15%-20% correction later this year if the Fed is forced to stop its quantitative easing by soaring stock prices…” Alternatively,...