Free Republic

With tea party Republicans threatening to shut down the government in an effort to roll back President Obama's healthcare law, several progressive groups are teaming up in a new effort to convince skeptical voters of the benefits of the new law. During the August recess, Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care plan to counter efforts by Republicans to disparage the law. The groups will stage protests at GOP events, organize their own town halls to publicize its perks, and provide “air cover” to the law’s defenders. Republicans “have overplayed their hand and that gives us the opportunity to...

News broke late last evening about the debate playing out over Obamacare and whether members of Congress and their staffs will get special treatment. Yet a detailed analysis of this issue by Heritage Foundation experts found that the Office of Personnel Management does not have the legal authority to do what the Obama Administration promised Congress last night. Furthermore, it is mighty curious that word of the Obama Administration “solving” Congress’ problem was suddenly leaked to a couple reporters at 9 p.m. — just hours before the release of Heritage’s report (embargoed copies of which had been given to the...

Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents proving that the Department of Justice played a major behind-the-scenes role in organizing protests against George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is on trial for second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the DOJ on April 24, 2012. According to the documents JW received, a little-known DOJ unit called the Community Relations Service deployed to Sanford, FL to organize and manage rallies against Zimmerman. Among JW’s findings: •March 25 – 27, 2012, CRS spent $674.14 upon being “deployed to...

In the White House’s latest efforts at transparency, the administration announced to reporters that it would brief reporters on the latest shocking developments about the Benghazi situation … behind closed doors. Politico reports that the meeting started at approximately 12:45 PM ET, and that it moved the normal press briefing to 1:45 PM ET. Jay Carney, White House press secretary, did not comment on whether the meeting took place. Politico reports: The off-the-record session was announced to reporters in the wake of an ABC News report showing that White House and State Dept. officials were involved in revising the now-discredited...

The White House held an off-the-record briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon to discuss recent revelations about the Benghazi investigation, sources familiar with the meeting tell POLITICO.

Dirty Business as Usual at California High Speed Rail From the article: Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California’s high speed rail boondoggle, who would stand out as the last person who would win it if there were no political patronage. Put another way, who is the most likely person to win it if there is political patronage? Both questions have the same answer: Richard Blum, the husband of California senator Diane Feinstein. So, who won the contract? Blum, of course, as the principle owner of Tutor Perini, the...

The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews. --------------snip------------------------------ The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police as the two attempted to avoid capture, do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization. Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were “self-radicalized” through Internet sites and U.S....

Time to put up, Glenn. From Friday

Gun debate triggered media bias By: Dylan Byers April 18, 2013 07:09 PM EDT If you thought President Obama was outraged after the Senate killed the plan to expand background checks on guns, you should have seen some members of the press. Even by the standards of today’s partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly. The decision by some members of the media to come...

Tribune Company’s moves to sell its newspapers—a string that includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune—has reportedly sparked the interest of a number of heavyweight financiers. These include familiar media moguls like Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch. But heads turned when another pair of possible bidders emerged early in March: the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers, of course, are best known for funding conservative causes and conservative politicians. Unlike Buffett, who has purchased 63 newspapers in the last 15 months, and Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York...

First lady Michelle Obama, surrounded by servicemen and women, made a surprise appearance at Sunday night's Oscar ceremony when she appeared via live video from Washington to present the award for Best Picture. Jack Nicholson was present on stage to hand off the award to Ben Affleck for Argo. Obama praised the nominees for the night's highest honor, saying the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar could teach lessons that "apply to all of us no matter who we are, what we look like, where we come from and who we love." She said she was excited to pay...

This rabble-rousing spew comes via Moonbattery: "The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat. … Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition’s most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will...

Let’s pretend that in the spring of 2012 Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, John Engler of the Business Roundtable, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, and Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association began to organize an assembly of right-leaning groups. Let’s pretend that in the months since there had been not one but two meetings where these luminaries joined with representatives of Christians United For Israel, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Tea Party Express, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the American Petroleum Institute to discuss strategy and promote a series of “structural...

As NewsBusters has been reporting for years, there is no objective press anymore - only sycophants gushing and fawning over the political leaders they agree with and admire. More evidence of this came Friday from the Washington Examiner's Charlie Spiering who shared with readers some startling observations in Buzzfeed reporter Michael Hastings' new book including journalists swooning over Barack Obama at an off-the-record event held at a bar in Orlando, Florida, last year: “The behavior of the assembled press corps was telling. Everyone, myself included, swooned. Swooned! Head over heels. One or two might have even lost their minds,” Hastings...

Fox News Watch host Jon Scott on Saturday asked his guests why President Obama typically ignores Fox News at his rare press conferences. Kirsten Powers smartly answered, "Because he doesn't want to be embarrassed" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Kirsten Powers: Obama Ignores Fox at News Conferences 'Because He Doesn't Want to be Embarrassed' JON SCOTT, HOST: Eric Ostermeier - to go to your point, Judy - at the University of Minnesota put together a piece called “Fox Still Shunned at Obama Press Conferences.” “A smart politics analysis,” he writes, “finds that ABC reporters have been called on the...

A second Environmental Protection Agency official stands accused of using a personal email address to shield communications with environmental activists from public disclosure. Court documents show that EPA Region 8 Administrator James Martin corresponded with the Environmental Defense Fund — where he previously worked as an attorney — through his private email account.

David Gregory walks free while Iraq vet was jailedIt’s been more than a week since police in Washington, D.C., opened an investigation into NBC’s David Gregory’s possession of a “high-capacity magazine” that’s prohibited in the District on on national TV. Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier’s spokesman refused Monday to respond to whether Mr. Gregory had even been interviewed yet. This is a rather curious departure for a city that has been ruthless in enforcing this particular firearms statute against law-abiding citizens who made an honest mistake. In July, The Washington Times highlighted the plight of former Army Spc. Adam...

President Obama wants more gun-control laws, but perhaps he should care more about enforcing the ones already on the books. He granted an exclusive interview to NBC’s David Gregory on Saturday, even though the “Meet the Press” anchor is under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for possession of an unregistered “high capacity” magazine in the District. It is also unclear how Mr. Gregory passed the Secret Service background check to enter the White House while under criminal investigation. **SNIP** Chief Lanier is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she does not charge Mr. Gregory with...

It has been said that no good deed goes unpunished. The converse appears to be true as well, at least if you’re liberal. Dylan Byers writes at Politico that David Gregory, who was originally reported by NBC to be heading out on vacation instead of hosting his weekly Sunday news program "Meet the Press," will indeed be at his anchor desk tomorrow. Not only that, but he has been granted an exclusive interview with none other than President Barack Obama.

NBC News asked D.C. police for a high-capacity ammunition clip to use as a prop on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” show, a request District authorities said Wednesday they denied. But host David Gregory appears to have obtained one anyway — and then displayed it on national television. Now D.C. police say they’re investigating whether the District’s gun laws were violated in the incident. -snip- It’s not clear where the prop used during the show was obtained, or who obtained it. -snip- Any request to use a magazine would have been turned down as a matter of course, the official saids,...