Free Republic

WASHINGTON — When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of “the crust master’s” mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family’s personal chef and pal, Sam Kass, left in December, Michelle Obama heaped praise on Kass’ “extraordinary legacy of progress” in an official White House statement. But the recent exit of head florist Laura Dowling, who’d been in the job since 2009, has been a much quieter affair. So hush-hush, in fact, that most outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. knew nothing about it. There’s still no official...

What do you get when you combine Al Gore’s low performing lefty MSNBC alternative news channel with an oil state that sponsors terrorism? The answer is a cable news channel that even fewer people watch.Struggling Al Jazeera America is cutting jobs and replacing most of its daytime lineup with an overseas news feed in its latest reshuffling. The cable outfit told staff on Friday it’s canceling both its morning news report and “Consider This with Antonio Mora” at 11 a.m. It’s also scrapping its 4 p.m. news hour and pushing its 6 p.m. coverage an hour later to 7...

Life in the White House imitated Parks and Rec recently, as the identity of a staffer who ran an anonymous Twitter account critical of the administration emerged. But the real-life plot diverged from the show when the White House staffer, Jofi Joseph, was promptly fired instead of having a warm moment with Amy Poehler. Joseph, a director in the White House's National Security Staff, ran the @NatSecWonk stream, popular in foreign policy circles for its unabashed trolling of the administration, its allies, and various other political types. "I'm a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a...

In 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration abruptly stepped down from his post. According to a Foreign Policy report by Josh Rogin (now a reporter for Bloomberg), Gration was the subject of a whithering evaluation from the State Department: The impending release of a highly critical report by the State Department’s Inspector General’s office prompted the sudden resignation Friday of U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, according to administration and congressional sources. Very soon after the Ambassador’s arrival in May 2011, he broadcast his lack of confidence in the information management staff. Because the information management office could not...

The Secret Service has decided to remove four of its most senior officials while a fifth has decided to retire, the biggest management shake-up at the troubled agency since its director resigned in October after a string of security lapses, according to people familiar with internal discussions. The departures would gut much of the Secret Service’s upper management, which has been criticized by lawmakers and administration officials in recent months for fostering a culture of distrust between agency leaders and its rank-and-file, and for making poor decisions that helped erode quality. Acting Director Joseph P. Clancy on Tuesday informed the...

CNN's Washington bureau is suffering from low morale and high anxiety in the wake of weeks of layoffs and buyouts — with one employee likening the place to the Redskins’ locker room. In conversations with POLITICO, sources at the bureau spoke of tension in the office as several longtime staffers have been let go while others are being promoted and given raises. On Friday, during the most recent departures, "people were crying all over the bureau," one D.C. employee said.

Robert Malley, a top Middle East advisor that US President-elect Barack Obama promised months ago would play no role in his administration due to ties to Hamas, has reportedly been sent out on the next administration's first diplomatic mission. According to a report in Middle East Newsline, Obama dispatched Malley to Egypt and Syria late last week with a message that the he intends to mend and bolster relations with both nations, and to give greater weight to their concerns regarding regional conflicts than did President George W. Bush. During the Democratic Party primaries, Obama was lashed by critics for...

The commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa has been fired for misconduct. Army Maj. Gen. Ralph Baker was relieved of his duties on March 28, according to U.S. Africa Command spokesman Benjamin Benson. Gen. Carter Ham, AFRICOM commander, lost confidence in Baker's ability to lead, but the command isn't releasing any further details at this time because the alleged misconduct is being appealed, Benson said. "The allegations remain under adjudication, so it would be inappropriate to comment at this time," he said. Baker assumed command less than a year ago last May. This incident follows on the...

Three top officials in the State Department resigned Wednesday in the wake of a scathing report which slammed "systemic failures" and "management deficiencies" in the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, which resulted in the murder of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Assistant Secretary Eric Boswell, head of the bureau of diplomatic security, and Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary for international programs, have stepped down, CNN and CBS television said, citing unnamed department officials. Lamb, who was Boswell’s deputy in charge of international programs, denied requests from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli for an extension of temporary security...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, says the resignation of Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair “is the result of the Obama administration’s rampant politicization of national security and outright disregard for congressional intelligence oversight.” ABC News reported today that President Barack Obama would be accepting Blair’s resignation tomorrow, and the Associated Press reported that the administration has already interviewed several candidates to replace him. Hoekstra, who formerly served as chairman of the intelligence committee, issued a written statement saying that Blair’s readiness to step down, considering his record of service...

Share This Massive List Of Post-Election Firings And Layoffs With Everyone You Can By Michael Snyder on November 9th, 2012 The victory by Barack Obama on election night has resulted in a huge wave of firings and layoffs all over America. A large number of businesses seem to have suddenly shifted into panic mode. The number of layoff announcements that we have seen in the last 48 hours has been absolutely shocking. So why is this happening? Well, the truth is that the federal government is absolutely suffocating small businesses all over America with rules, regulations and taxes. If you...

The Quartzsite, Ariz., police officers who were being dismissed by a police chief described by the mayor as a "Nazi" have been ordered by a judge to be reinstated until after a show cause hearing scheduled Aug. 15 and after hearings before a "neutral decisionmaker." The orders came in two temporary restraining orders issued this week by LaPaz County Superior Court Judge Randolph A. Bartlett, who acted on emergency pleadings by an attorney representing the officers. The weeks-long confrontation erupted in Quartzsite when city officials ordered police to remove a woman from a town meeting, even though the mayor was...

President Obama yesterday fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top US commander in Afghanistan, replac ing him with Gen. David Petraeus. Obama, as commander-in-chief, had the right both in law and in custom to do so -- and, given McChrystal's injudicious remarks to a Rolling Stone reporter, it's no surprise that he did just that. We wish the president had retained McChrystal -- a brilliant field commander who is highly regarded by many political leaders in the region. At the same time, Obama did well in selecting Petraeus to assume battlefield leadership in Afghanistan. Time and again, Petraeus has proved...

WASHINGTON – The White House is not expected to announce the firing of any officials over intelligence failures — for now anyway — as President Barack Obama prepares to tell the nation more about a botched terrorist attack over Detroit and what else he will do to beef up security. Eager to fix a glaring breakdown in intelligence sharing and get the incident behind him, Obama will speak Thursday about a declassified account of the near catastrophe on Christmas Day. The White House also plans to release a copy of the report with some detail stripped away for security reasons....

WASHINGTON - Former Bush White House official Karl Rove was questioned by House Judiciary Committee lawyers Tuesday on any role he may have played in politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys.

Now that Congress has recessed, and since the conventions aren’t for a couple of weeks, Thursday’s The Situation Room turned back to the "hot" issue of what many liberals are calling on congressional Democrats to do: arrest and lock-up Karl Rove for his failure to testify on the issue of the firing of U.S. attorneys in late 2006. CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, as part of a report on this possible move by the Democrats, conducted a search for the supposed jail inside the U.S. Capitol. He also addressed the little-used power of the legislature to arrest and try government officials...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is asking for two more weeks to weigh in on whether former Bush White House officials must testify before Congress about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. The request comes after an attorney for former Bush political adviser Karl Rove asked the White House to referee his clash with the House of Representatives over Bush's claim of executive privilege in the matter. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has issued a subpoena requiring Rove to appear next Monday to testify about the firings and other allegations that the Bush White House let politics interfere...

SACRAMENTO - In his first direct responses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended dumping his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood from the state Parks and Recreation Commission - a step critics allege was taken in retaliation for their opposition to a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Park. Led by Shriver and Eastwood, the appointed and unpaid commission has been an outspoken opponent of the toll road, claiming that super highways have no place in state parks. There also are worries that it could irreparably damage a renowned surfing area called Trestles. In an interview with the Orange County...

WASHINGTON - The amounts of money involved seem small, almost trivial. Some of the East St. Louis, Ill., residents were paid only $5 or $10 for their vote. But handing out this old-fashioned walking-around cash still earned Sandra Stith a fine and a year's probation in a federal case wrapped up in 2006. According to Justice Department documents, Ms. Stith admitted that she had used money received from the St. Clair County Democratic Committee to influence votes for president and various Illinois races in the general election of Nov. 2, 2004. As this case shows, voter fraud still exists. Strictly...

Karl Rove fathered Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. In an unforgettable night fueled by alcohol, lust, a lion tamer outfit, a failed attempt to freebase "Sweettarts", an Al Franken blow-up doll and some crimes against nature with a very confused puffer fish, Karl fathered her child. I think we should all be ashamed of Mr. Rove (how much is she worth again?). Now, admittedly, there is no crime in having sex with Anna Nicole Smith. If that were illegal most of the Western Hemisphere’s male population would be perp walked into a future of Federal incarceration that includes forced labor, strained...