Free Republic

When President Barack Obama takes Air Force One on a fundraising swing, he is required under the law to reimburse taxpayers for certain travel expenses. But as Mark Knoller of CBS News reports, the White House has made it a practice of not publicly releasing specific reimbursement figures, making it impossible for the public to see exactly how much they pay every time the president goes on a political trip. Knoller says it’s not about national security reasons, but rather about saving face. “Very simply, the White House doesn’t want to disclose the material because it might be embarrassing and...

The Army has no plans to release the results of an investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance and capture by the Taliban in 2009, a spokesman said Friday. "We recognize the importance of the media and the public understanding of our investigative process, and look forward to future discussions on this issue. However, the Army's priority is ensuring that our process is thorough, factually accurate, impartial, and legally correct," Army spokesman Wayne Hall said in a statement. The Army is looking into whether Bergdahl deserted his post or was absent without leave, both of which would punishable under military law...

VINDICATED TOM DELAY CONSIDERS LAWSUIT, RETURN TO D.C. After court win charges 'Marxist' Democrats tried to destroy him By Jerome R. Corsi On 10/02/2014 In Front Page,Politics,U.S. Tom DeLay NEW YORK – After learning the overturning of his felony conviction had been upheld by an appeals court, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay told WND he is considering bringing charges against the Travis County District Attorney’s Office for prosecutorial misconduct and he might run again for political office. DeLay said the Democratic Party’s attempt to destroy him over the past 11 years because of his conservative political views is a direct...

The latest polls suggest the GOP now has only a 50–­50 chance of retaking the Senate. There needs to be a mass layoff — of highly paid GOP consultants. Otherwise we risk a repeat of 2012, when overconfident Republicans in the middle of the worst economy since the 1970s became convinced that all they had to do to win was not be Obama. And they lost. Romney’s strategy was simple. On the social issues, avoid, downplay, mute. On the economic issues, sound vague, promise to help job creators, and wait for the other team to self-destruct. The RNC’s “autopsy” of...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered the state to remove U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Chad Taylor's name from the ballot

The Kansas Supreme Court sided Thursday with Democrats attempting to remove their candidate from the ballot in Kansas’s razor-tight Senate race, a blow to incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts’ reelection prospects. The withdrawal of the Democratic nominee in the race, Chad Taylor, clears a path for independent Greg Orman to challenge Roberts one-on-one. Polls show Orman leading in the contest in a head-to-head matchup. Although Taylor announced earlier this month that he was ending his campaign, Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach had ruled that Taylor’s name must remain on the ballot because his withdrawal failed to meet the precise...

Mohamed Elibiary announced that he has left his position as a senior advisor with the Department of Homeland Security. Elibiary, a stalwart supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood , said he was leaving so he can focus on “reforming” the conservative movement ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Under the Obama Administration, Elibiary served on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Homeland Security Advisory Committee for five years. He also served on the DHS Countering Violent Extremism Working Group and the DHS Faith-Based Security and Communications Advisory Committee. Elibiary is a long-time Texas Republican Party official and was a delegate for...

James Vanderbilt's Truth, the high-profile movie chronicling the scandal that derailed Dan Rather's career, has gotten the greenlight to begin shooting this fall. Brett Ratner's RatPac Entertainment and Echo Lake Entertainment will finance the movie, starring Robert Redford as the iconic news anchor and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, Rather's producer. At the same time, FilmNation has come aboard to represent international rights and will pre-sell the project to foreign buyers at the Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday night (based on the cast, it's sure to whet appetites). Mythology Entertainment is the driving force behind Truth, which was...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A former state lawmaker accused of accepting payments to change his support to a different presidential candidate in the 2012 election cycle has pleaded guilty to two federal charges. The Department of Justice says Kent Sorenson, a former Republican state senator, admitted to receiving “under-the-table” payments from Ron Paul’s campaign committee in return for switching his support and services from candidate Michele Bachmann. The payments totaled about $73,000 and were made monthly in the amount of around $8,000. They were concealed by first sending the money to a film production company, then through another company —...

The world finally knows how former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke views the 2008 financial crisis. “September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression,” said Bernanke in a document filed Aug. 22 with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, reports The Wall Street Journal. Of the 13 “most important financial institutions in the United States, 12 were at risk of failure within a period of a week or two.”

The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. ... “This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda [?], and assist in the preservation of open debate,” the grant said. ... “Truthy” claims to be non-partisan. However, the project’s lead investigator Filippo Menczer proclaims his support for numerous progressive advocacy groups, including President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action, Moveon.org, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, and True Majority. ... The government-funded researchers hope that the public will use...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Former Vermont U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, who in 2001 tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent, died Monday. He was 80. Jeffords died in Washington, said Diane Derby, a former aide to Jeffords. He had been in declining health, she said. Jeffords had announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term, citing his and his wife's health problems.

Mississippi's state Republican Party is refusing to hear challenger Chris McDaniel's effort to overturn his June 24 GOP runoff loss to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. The party says McDaniel would do better taking his challenge to court. In a Wednesday letter to McDaniel's lawyer, state Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef said a court is needed to ensure a "prudent" review of the challenge.

Tea Party hopeful Chris McDaniel lost his Republican primary challenge to six-term Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi on June 24. Cochran beat him by about 7,700 votes. On July 7, the state's Republican Party certified Cochran's victory. Six weeks after the run-off election, McDaniel is having a tough time moving on. On Monday, McDaniel, a state senator, announced he was formally challenging the results and asking the Mississippi Republican executive committee to declare him the party's nominee in the November general election. "Justice has no timetable, and yet here we stand," McDaniel, 42, told reporters assembled at a press conference...

(CNSNews.com) - Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday called out the IRS on holding back information regarding lost emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner, telling the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a House Subcommittee for Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Regulatory Affairs on Capitol Hill, “You guys were never going to tell us until we caught you.” At the hearing titled, “An Update on the IRS Response to its Targeting Scandal,” Jordan explained the timeline of events in the ongoing IRS investigation, citing how Koskinen knew about the missing emails in April yet waited until June 13, 2014 to...

Before she was allowed to register and vote for the first time in Franklin County, N.C., Rosanell Eaton had to read the entire preamble to the U.S. Constitution out loud in front of three men in the county courthouse. Eaton is black. The three men testing her were white. The time was the early 1940s, when trying to vote was difficult and even dangerous for African-Americans. Contrived "literacy tests" were one of the milder obstacles that were deployed to suppress the black vote in the South. Now 93, Eaton is back in court. This summer she is the lead plaintiff...

Fidelity Investments holds big fundraiser for Barney Frank, raising thousands of dollars for his campaign fund. Supporting Congressman connected to financial crisis, hate crimes bill, more. May 5, 2009 US Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is probably among the most despised members of Congress these days. As Chairman of the House Banking Committee, most people have seen his arrogant, condescending manner in various television interviews over the past several months. Barney Frank's recent activities seem to range across the spectrum (and this is just his recent stuff): Financial meltdown. Frank's complicity in this country's financial crisis has become legendary. This includes...

The existence of gay Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon. The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay men and women within the party, was founded back in 1977 in California. But every so often, the existence of gay conservatives gets media attention, particularly during election cycles. In more recent years, gay conservatives have been getting more attention as the Republican Party struggles with its identity. American opinion has shifted significantly to support top issues among gays and lesbians, particularly in support of marriage recognition. Support for gay marriage among evangelical Christians has doubled over the past decade, according to...

The IRS declared under oath and penalty of perjury on Friday that Lois Lerner’s hard drive is irrecoverable after being wiped clean by tech staff and recycled with an outside contractor, according to a court filing.

Federal employees, like all Americans, are entitled to hold passionate political beliefs. Most executive branch federal employees, however, may not engage in certain political activities, thanks to an anti-conflict of interest principle enshrined in a federal law called the Hatch Act. To wit, President Bush requested the resignation of his GSA administrator in 2008 after the US Office of Special Counsel determined she had violated federal law by participating in a video conference with Karl Rove and sending out partisan letters. (The New York Times was scandalized at the time, though I strangely can´t find their editorial calling for Kathleen