Free Republic

Poor Barbra Streisand. Just last month the renowned economist (who also describes herself as a “singer,” “actress,” and “activist”) penned an opinion piece titled “Have You Heard the Good News?” about how well the economy is performing under Barack Obama. It was a pep rally of sorts, and all that was missing were the pom-poms. “President Obama’s administration, with only opposition from the Republicans,” she gushed, “has steadily helped put more than 11 million Americans back to work in the private sector.”

NASA's Administrator Charles Bolden acknowledged Wednesday there is no back-up plan to fly the International Space Station if Russia cuts off U.S. access to space. "We would make an orderly evacuation," Bolden said during a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. Because both countries are dependent upon one another, the $140 billion station would be lost.

What on earth is an ohbee-guynee? Apparently it is a weird Obamaspeak pronunciation of OB/GYN (pronounced oh-bee-gee-why-en). For the president’s benefit, let me specify that means a doctor who delivers babies and takes care of the lady parts.

Could this actually be a new low for the hyphenated huckster?

Ray Nagin received a sentence of 10 years in federal prison for public corruption Wednesday, but the former New Orleans mayor continues to deny that he is guilty of any wrongdoing. “Well, you know, all of this was pretty surreal to me,” Nagin told the WDSU TV news station. “I still maintain my innocence. We’re going to appeal this thing.”

William Devane (IMDb page), who plays “President James Heller” on Fox’s prime time 24: Live Another Day, told USA Today that “obviously I’m a big fan of Obama, as a guy who’s smart and articulate” and, in his acting, “I say to myself, ‘what has got to be going on in the private side of this guy’s brain’ – the pressure, the racism that is thrown out — and he handles it with such dignity.’”

Lawlessness: Attorney General Eric Holder's new tactic is to feign outrage at congressional Republicans demanding accountability from him. In fact, he and his lawbreaking administration have had it easy. Radicals must remember "that the target is always trying to shift responsibility to get out of being the target," far-left strategist Saul Alinsky advised in attacking one's enemies. The launch of a nasty attack on Republicans by Eric Holder comes just as House Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other House Republicans have been zeroing in on the Obama administration in their congressional investigations of corruption. Obama and Holder...

In the Netherlands this week, President Obama confessed a fear: “I continue to be much more concerned, when it comes to our security, with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.” It would be reassuring to think that the president worries about this (when he’s not busy filling out his NCAA brackets), except that he is failing to do the most important thing to prevent such a catastrophe.

The State Department is disputing claims by CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin that U.S. consular officials provided no help when she was detained at an airport in Cairo for more than 12 hours. During that time, the anti-war activist says Egyptian authorities badly injured her arm before deporting her.

On Wednesday, Washington Post opinion writer E.J. Dionne Jr. used the Michael Dunn conviction as “proof” that we need to repeal “stand your ground” laws. (Briefly: Michael Dunn was found guilty of three charges of attempted second-degree murder. After ordering the victims to turn down their “loud music,” Dunn shot into their vehicle, killing one. Dunn claimed self-defense, saying he thought they were going to attack him.)

Fox News host Megyn Kelly and former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner butted heads yet again Monday night, with the disgraced mayoral candidate exploding after Kelly asked “how somebody with a secret like that could go on TV and be that cocky?

"The United States is deeply concerned by Nigeria’s enactment of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement issued Monday. "Beyond even prohibiting same sex marriage, this law dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association, and expression for all Nigerians," the statement said.

In fact, a weird, recent phenomenon emerges from the perpetual miasma, confusion and drama composing the life and times of Barack Obama. Many strain at the question—What drives the man? In office he has appeared arrogant and self-satisfied to a degree remarkable even for a US president. Further, he has so often seemed ignorant or obtuse to his surroundings, and of the topics presented to him. Seemingly he is satisfied by the roar of the crowd as if this were the same thing as excellence. Obama is both the most disdainful of opinion of others, and yet the most dependent...

A full-time professor on the faculty of the newly-minted Texas A&M University School of Law called for the repeal and replacement of the Second Amendment on Friday. The professor, Mary Margaret “Meg” Penrose, made her controversial declaration during a day-long panel symposium on gun control and the Second Amendment at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford. UConn’s main student-run journal, The Connecticut Law Review, organized the event, according to Connecticut Public Radio. It was well-attended, primarily by law students, law professors and local attorneys.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have "contributed $25,000 apiece" to Washington's Initiative 594, which would effectively ban private gun sales in the state. The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) is pushing the initiative, claiming it "makes sure anyone buying a gun in Washington State passes the same background check, no matter where where they buy the gun and no matter whom they buy it from."

What's scary is how little Obama actually knows about the actual process of producing energy. One of the country's greatest energy entrepreneurs, Harold Hamm of Continental Resources (a visionary pioneer in the development of the Bakken shale), came away from a White House meeting convinced that Obama lives in a "fantasy world" when it comes to the nation's energy needs.

Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his frustration Tuesday with the fact that even in the United States, “a very educated country,” there are those who do not recognize the urgency of combating global warming.

MSNBC's erratic Hardball host, Chris Matthews, has again gone off the deep end with his nonsense talk about the Constitution's three-fifths clause. He's claiming that conservatives believe black people are, or once were, only three-fifths of a person. Why does a group of people that always loses elections or tends to do lately, why do they call themselves American people because - do they still count blacks as three-fifths? Three-fifths of a vote?

The exchange was maddening, but also humorous at times. Though Ayers didn’t participate in the interview in good faith, I am living up to the pledge I made during the interview that I would publish the exchange in full, typos and all. Enjoy:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Republicans are using scandals coming out of the White House to undermine President Barack Obama out of "fear," because he is “such a great president.”