Free Republic

PRESIDENT OBAMA: So Congress is going to be busy, and I’m looking forward to working with Democrats and Republicans, House members and Senate members, to try to continue to advance the economic recovery and to provide additional ladders of opportunity for everybody. But one of the things that I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for a legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone -- and I can use that...

[SNIP] .....Cruz, who is considered a potential candidate for president in 2016, was introduced by former Sen. Phil Gramm. Gramm compared Cruz’s effort to derail Obamacare — against the wishes of some in his own party — to the siege of the Alamo. Gramm acknowledged Republicans were hurt politically by the government shutdown, according to polls. Gramm noted that when Col. Travis drew a line in the sand, some volunteers crossed it and some did not. “The ones who didn’t cross the line died too. But no one remembered their names,” he said.......

Breitbart News has learned that in 2013 the Obama administration launched an under-the-radar project, 'Operation Choke Point,' which is designed to destroy three sectors of the private lending industry: third party payment processors ("TPPPs"), payday lenders, and online lenders. The operation is headed by political operatives and career bureaucrats at the Department of Justice, the FDIC, and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"). It appears to be the latest example of the Obama administration's successful efforts to weaponize the apparatus of the federal government against people and industries it opposes ideologically. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal...

Immigration: The Border Patrol and other agencies report a "surge" of unaccompanied minors coming across our border. It coincides with the White House's de facto amnesty via the Dream Act to reward such lawbreaking. The Office of Refugee Resettlement noted a "surge" in unaccompanied alien children in its year-end report last week, pointing out that 24,668 foreign minors in the country illegally were placed in the care of a federal de facto baby-sitting service because no parents were around to care for them. Last year's number was a near doubling from 2012, and nearly quadruple what it was at the...

I have been a whiner like many here and I'm putting down my rock inside my glass house in trust that we can have a rock & flame-free discussion of why it is so hard to do anything large scale/tangible against the tide of Marxism/fascism taking over our nation and populous minds. I hope all agree with that premise as it is hard to stop and it is fully intact as colonial west noted today. Fear of consequences is my #1 reason for being wimpy...my family well-being, my children and their future. IRS...NEA...EPA...DOE...HHS...DHS...all are armed with weaponry of copper and...

We all remember when Nancy Pelosi said that Congress needed to pass the Affordable Care Act in order to find out what's in it. Well, we just found another little socialist nugget. Benjamin Franklin famously said that only three things are guaranteed in life: Birth, Death, and Taxes. Well thanks to Obamacare, we can add a fourth… Estate Recovery. Deep within the thousands of pages of law and regulations for the Affordable Care Act is a hidden provision that allows the government to take control of YOUR estate after you pass away in order to pay for any medical bills...

Superstar MARIAH CAREY has come under fire from human rights campaigners after performing for Angola's president JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS last weekend (14-15Dec13). The Hero hitmaker was reportedly paid over $1 million for a two-hour concert on Sunday (15Dec13) at a gala for the Angolan Red Cross, which was sponsored by bosses at mobile phone company Unitel and attended by the president. The politician's daughter, Isabel, owns Unitel and is the head of the Angolan Red Cross. Addressing the crowd at the event, Carey reportedly said, "I am happy to be here in this room and I am honored to...

Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that President Barack Obama had shaken hands with Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. However, the UK Telegraph's Josie Ensor reported that Obama "was asked to take his seat just before reaching Mugabe." Complicating matters, another article in the UK Telegraph also claimed that Obama had shaken hands with Mugabe--in very similar terms to those used in the NBC article. Breitbart News caught the discrepancy--and suddenly the NBC News article was corrected, with no notice. Before: On his way to the rostrum, Obama also shook the hand of Robert Mugabe, the strongman ruler of Zimbabwe, and hugged...

The dark silhouetted trees appeared illusory, as if in a dream through the light fog, their irregular heights capping the rolling Alabama landscape on I-85 north of Montgomery. The cab's interior was awash in the soft green glow of the gauges, gadgets and screens adorning the instrument panel. Sunrise was three hours away yet, leaving a bit of quiet time to negotiate an endless supply of construction zones, and avoid haphazardly placed orange barrels while sorting through competing waves of thought and reflection. "Patience," as Ambrose Bierce flirtatiously advised us, is, "A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."...

Subtitle: The solution to a dysfunctional Congress is not for Obama to govern the country all by himself. In the face of congressional gridlock, President Obama has started taking more and more matters into his own hands. In recent months, he has announced new gun control measures, put in place limited immigration reform and made fixes to the Affordable Care Act — all without Congress. Many liberals who once worried about presidential overreach have applauded his robust use of presidential power. Yet the president's increasing unilateralism shouldn't be cause for celebration. Bypassing Congress means bypassing democratic checks. It also means...

In 1947, Sen. Harley Kilgore(D-W.Va.) condemned a proposed constitutional amendment that would restrict presidents to two terms. “The executive’s effectiveness will be seriously impaired,” Kilgore argued on the Senate floor, “ as no one will obey and respect him if he knows that the executive cannot run again.”I’ve been thinking about Kilgore’s comments as I watch President Obama, whose approval rating has dipped to 37 percent in CBSNews polling—the lowest ever for him—during the troubled rollout of his health-care reform. Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have distanced themselves from the reform and from the president. Even former president Bill Clinton...

Now that U.S. and Afghan negotiators have agreed on terms of a seemingly open-ended -- if reduced -- U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration alike breathlessly await the verdict of the world's greatest deliberative body. No, not the U.S. Senate -- the "loya jirga." It is alarming to realize that this treaty renewing America's military commitment to Afghanistan under wholly disastrous terms for the United States seems to hinge on the say-so of some 3,000 "village elders" now gathered in Kabul -- and not, apparently, that of our own elected representatives. News reports...

WASHINGTON - President Obama will allow insurance companies to continue offering individual health plans that do not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act through next year, according to a Democratic source on Capitol Hill familiar with the plans. The plan, which the president will announce Thursday morning, is intended to placate millions of consumers who have received cancellation notices from insurers in recent weeks. Obama had repeatedly promised that consumers would be able to keep plans that they liked. The president was under intense pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill to find a fix. House Democrats have increasingly...

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says she will recommend that President Obama act alone if necessary to create new national monuments and sidestep a gridlocked Congress that has failed to address dozens of public lands bills. Jewell said the logjam on Capitol Hill has created a conservation backlog, and she warned that the Obama administration would not "hold its breath forever" waiting for lawmakers to act. "The president will not hesitate," Jewell said in an interview in San Francisco last week. "I can tell you that there are places that are ripe for setting aside, with a tremendous groundswell of public...

As gun sales break records—partly because of fear of coming gun control from the Obama administration—supplies of ammo ran so low that gun stores and ranges have to ration ammunition. Meanwhile, rumors of mass purchases of ammunition made by government entities began to fly around the Internet. Making all this even worse is that fact that it hasn’t been a short-term supply problem. Now well over a year since the shortages of popular types of ammo began there are still empty shelves and rationing here and there around the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks briefly extended losses in late afternoon on Tuesday as President Barack Obama spoke about the political stalemate in Washington. The Nasdaq dropped more than 2 percent during his remarks.

Because there’s just no better way to show who’s boss than scaring the living crap out of a bunch of elderly tourists from numerous countries. What a bunch of fascist asshats: Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard. The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so...

On the seventh day of the shutdown, President Obama called on House Republican leaders Monday to allow a vote immediately on a short-term measure to reopen government operations. Mr. Obama said he strongly suspects “there are enough votes” in the House to reopen the government today. “The truth of the matter is, there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives right now to end this shutdown immediately with no partisan strings attached,” Mr. Obama said during a surprise visit to FEMA headquarters in the district. “The House should hold that vote today.” The president said he...

I was listening to Attorney Joe DiGenova this morning on WMAL and he pointed out how the DOJ had recently sent a letter to universities telling them they could ignore the June ruling by the Supreme Court on using race in admissions. The Supreme Court, in a nearly unanimous ruling, said that universities could use race in admissions but not as a dominant factor. But in this letter the DOJ is instructing universities to continue with the same racial preferences that the Supreme Court had just barred them from using: WSJ – Obama Administration regulators have made a specialty of...

October 6, 2013 #SpiteHouse: President Stompy Foot sparks new name for White House [Photoshops] by Twitchy Staff Dead-on. As Twitchy reported, citizens can see 2014 from the petulant president’s Barry-cades. His vindictive and teen drama queen behavior has inspired a Barry-cades definition at Urban Dictionary.Twitter users have had it with the president’s spiteful snit fits.