Free Republic

Hillary Clinton permanently deleted all e-mails from her personal server — and it appears she did so after Oct. 28, when the State Dept requested she turn them over..... Rep. Trey Gowdy (Rep-SC) said she has failed to produce a single new document and refused to relinquish her server to a third party for an independent review.

PM Netanyahu at Cabinet: I just met US Senate Republican leader McConnell. Over the weekend I spoke with US Senate Democratic leader Reid. » I heard from both of them about strong and continuing bipartisan support for Israel and of course this is very important. » I expressed our concern over the agreement formulated with Iran in the nuclear talks, which appears to confirm all of our concerns and more» Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran's proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country, » and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb...

David Dies fears that if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in eliminating the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, the for-profit schools it oversees will ramp up practices that could harm students. “If you basically throw the rule book out, I can guarantee you that they will take advantage of their ability to market and recruit as aggressively as possible,” said Dies, the board’s executive secretary. The proposal to eliminate the EAB is part of Walker’s proposed 2015-17 budget. Since its unveiling in February, Dies has been trying to persuade state lawmakers to reject the idea. Dies said his small agency is already...

<p>An abscess of anger seems to gnaw at Hillary Clinton, but the reasons for her resentments remain unclear. The world’s oldest party, which governed the nation during two world wars and is the primary architect of America’s regulatory and redistributive state, is eager to give her its presidential nomination, in recognition of . . . what?</p>

Courtesy of BizPac: Secretary of State John Kerry allegedly responded in a most unusual way to a reporter’s question Friday whether a nuclear arms deal could be reached with Iran before the March 31 deadline. “Allah willing,” Kerry replied — in Arabic, according to Laura Rozen, a reporter covering the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the Washington, D.C.-based online publication, Al-Monitor. As news reached the public Friday that a deal may be forthcoming, Rozen tweeted:

Not much is known about what happened before gunshots disrupted a Panama City Beach house party, leaving seven people wounded. Even less is known about the alleged shooter, 21-year-old David Jamichael Daniels, or of his motivations. Daniels has been arrested at least six times over the last four years in Mobile County on a number of misdemeanor charges: gambling, drug possession, disorderly conduct and loitering. The seven counts of attempted murder would be the most serious charges he's faced. Daniels was never particularly violent, according to Sharon Daniels, his mother. "I've never known him to be violent towards anybody," she...

The NBA and the Indiana Pacers released a joint statement on Saturday in regard to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was recently signed into law in Indiana. The official release:

Oregon Inlet is closed to vessels drawing more than 2 feet, essentially shutting down the charter fishing fleet with four days left in the bluefin tuna season and Easter week approaching. Petty Officer Kathryn Bruner with the Coast Guard in Wilmington said Saturday that the closing was prompted by the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey, which showed that search-and-rescue vessels can no longer get out of the inlet. Emergencies will be handled by helicopters out of the Coast Guard’s air station in Elizabeth City, she said. A buffer zone of 100 yards on either side of the Bonner...

During a heated debate over an Indiana “religious freedom” bill, a Democratic representative took the opportunity to accuse the child of one of her colleagues of racism. The child is an 18-month-old toddler. “I told Jud McMillin I love his son, but he’s scared of me because of my color and that’s horrible,” Summers said, to groans. “It’s true,” she insisted. She urged McMillin to “introduce your child to some people of color so that he won’t live his life as a prejudiced person.”

President Obama will visit Boston on Monday to formally dedicate an educational institution named after Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass). The Boston Globe reported Saturday that Obama leads a host of notable speakers at the unveiling of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate early next week.Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a former Massachusetts Senator, will also give remarks. The Bay State’s two active Senators — Elizabeth Warren (D) and Ed Markey (D) — additionally plan on speaking. Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Mass.) rounds out the cast of scheduled participants.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) explains his shocking decision to not seek re-election and retire when his term ends in 2016 by telling the New York Times, “he was worried his race would consume campaign money that would be needed in other competitive states as Democrats try to regain control of the Senate.” “I think it is unfair for me to be soaking up all the money to be re-elected with what we are doing in Maryland, in Pennsylvania, in Missouri, in Florida,” Reid told the Times. Reid said neither his recent eye injury nor concern over his chances...

“I’m an internationalist,” Kerry told The Crimson in 1970. “I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQA4ww_AnQw

A former Google officer is the president’s chief technology adviser. Google employees contributed more to President Obama’s re-election than did employees of any other company except Microsoft. Google lobbyists met with Obama White House officials 230 times. By comparison, lobbyists from rival Comcast have been admitted to the inner sanctum a mere 20 or so times in the same period. Obama lieutenant David Plouffe boasts: “On Election Night [Schmidt] was in our boiler room in Chicago,” he told Bloomberg News, in a story that revealed that for the campaign Schmidt “helped recruit talent, choose technology and coach the campaign manager,...

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s announcement Monday that he will run for president has Donald Trump, the ladies on “The View,” and others in the birther crowd questioning Cruz’s eligibility to be president.Born in Alberta, Canada in 1970, Cruz is the son of an American mother and Cuban father. Anticipating these questions, Cruz released his birth certificate in 2013 and officially renounced his dual Canadian citizenship in 2014.This isn’t the first time a candidate’s eligibility has been questioned—the issue dogged President Obama in 2008, George Romney in 1967, and President Chester Arthur in 1880. But is there any merit in...

After the Senate gave approval to its budget plan early Friday morning, Sens. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, got a version of their energy efficiency legislation passed by voice vote. The measure, passed when only Mr. Portman and Ms. Shaheen were on the floor, includes provisions exempting certain water heaters from pending Department of Energy regulations, and requires federal agencies to develop an implementation strategy for employing more energy-efficient technology, among other items. Mr. Portman said the bill has garnered widespread support and is part of an energy plan for the country “that can help...

In the days since audio was extracted from the black box recorder of crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 suggesting that copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately downed the plane, investigators and journalists have rushed to find an explanation for his actions. Initially, many hypothesized about the possibility of an extremist religious or ideological motive. In his apparently lacking significant religious or ideological commitments, Lubitz is speculated to have been mentally unstable. A concealed health issue has been offered as a clue. Thousands of words pile up in dozens of news sources to make up for Lubitz’s silence in the cockpit. The pounding...

An Iranian journalist writing about the nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran has defected. In an interview Amir Hossein Motaghi, has some harsh words for his native Iran. He also has a damning indictment of America's role in the nuclear negotiations. “The U.S. negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal," Motaghi told a TV station after just defecting from the Iranian delegation while abroad for the nuclear talks. The P 5 + 1 is made up of United States, United Kingdom, Russia,...

(excerpt from)    Something weird is going on in the US economy, and it's not good...Despite experiencing a healthy pace of job growth, the US economy has largely disappointed economists' expectations by delivering a series of weaker-than-expected economic reports. The unexpected plunges in retail sales and durable goods orders stand out as they reflect weakness in both consumers and businesses. On Wednesday, Bloomberg LP Chief Economist Michael McDonough tweeted a chart of the unprecedented divergence between job growth and retail sales growth. This is concerning as personal consumption accounts for roughly 70% of US GDP. It's particularly concerning considering all...

An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurt their business, according to a classified document. The Trans-Pacific Partnership — a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s remaining economic agenda — would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and court rulings — federal, state or local — before tribunals organized under the World Bank...