Free Republic

"With 51 Republican votes, the Senate narrowly approved a massive bill early Saturday that would cut taxes for many Americans, nearly double the standard deduction and dramatically reduce the corporate rate — all while adding more than $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Senate Republicans passed the measure just hours after having to rewrite the legislation Friday evening, providing them with their first major legislative win of the year. GOP lawmakers scrambled to revise their bill after the parliamentarian ruled the deficit trigger — a necessary component to sway key lawmakers to get on board with the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI failed to notify scores of U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their personal Gmail accounts despite having evidence for at least a year that the targets were in the Kremlin's crosshairs, The Associated Press has found. Nearly 80 interviews with Americans targeted by Fancy Bear, a Russian government-aligned cyberespionage group, turned up only two cases in which the FBI had provided a heads-up. Even senior policymakers discovered they were targets only when the AP told them, a situation some described as bizarre and dispiriting. "It's utterly confounding," said Philip Reiner, a...

'Attorney General Jeff Sessions is entertaining the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns — including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia — and has directed senior federal prosecutors to explore at least some of the matters and report back to him and his top deputy, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post. The revelation came in a response by the Justice Department to an inquiry from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who in July and again in September...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Police investigating a notorious gang in a city on California's central coast issued a fake press release that the chief credited with saving two men by deceiving gang members who wanted to kill them, but the ruse was criticized by news organizations who reported it as fact. Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin defended the rare tactic this week when it came to light, saying he had never done such a thing in his 43-year career, but he wouldn't rule out doing it again. "It was a moral and ethical decision, and I stand by it,"...

One person, a male faculty member, has been fatally stabbed on the USC campus and a suspect is in custody. The victim is a man, approximately 25 years old, says Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Just after 4:30 p.m., firefighter paramedics responded to a reported stabbing on the 3600 block of McClintock Avenue, located on campus near the Seeley G. Mudd building and the school’s running track. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, Stewart said. No other injuries have been reported. USC’s college newspaper The Daily Trojan reported on Twitter that police locked down the...

Arpaio on Obama's birth certificate "Bill explains to a BillOReilly.com Premium Member why he hasn't bothered to report on Arizona Sheriff Arpaio's assertion that President Obama's birth certificate is allegedly a forgery in this excerpt from our Backstage Conversation webcast." Transcript: Bill O'Reilly- "Erin, Bentonville, Arkansas: Why do you ignore Sheriff Arpaio's assertion that President Obama's birth certificate is a forgery? Well, Because Sheriff Arpaio has not presented any hard evidence to back up his assertion. Secondly, I am very busy. I looked into the birth certificate myself and found out there were two separate birth announcements made in Honolulu...

New Obama 2012 Campaign Flyer: "I was born in Hawaii to a Single Mother..."This flyer is currently being shared / "re-shared" on Facebook. I am curious as to where it originated and thought it might interest my fellow freepers. I have only posted once or twice.. long ago, so 'bare' with me. ;) The text reads: "I was born in Hawaii to a single mother. I was raised in Kansas by my two loving grandparents. I went to Harvard Law School and became a community organizer in Chicago. My story is one told a million times over in this country;...

Ortega denounced the U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's new Communist government in Cuba in 1961, a history of US racism and what he called suffocating U.S. economic policies in the region. In his 17-minute address to the summit, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega. "To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We've all...

Bachus says there's 17 'socialists' in House Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee, told a hometown crowd in Alabama today he believes there are several socialists in the House. Actually, he says there are exactly 17 socialists in the House of Representatives. according to the Birmingham News: But he said he is worried that he is being steered too far by the Congress: "Some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists." Asked to clarify his comments after the breakfast speech at the Trussville Civic Center, Bachus said 17 members of...

Hawaii Revised Statutes: §338-20.5 Adoption; foreign born persons. (a) The department of health shall establish a Hawaii certificate of birth for a person born in a foreign country and for whom a final decree of adoption has been entered in a court of competent jurisdiction in Hawaii,.. HRS_0338-0020_0005.htm"(b) If a new birth certificate is issued, the original birth certificate shall be sealed and filed with the decree or the abstract thereof, and the sealed package shall be opened only as provided in section 578-15(b).." HRS_0578-0014.htm