Free Republic

When President Barack Obama and others on the left are not busy admonishing the rest of us to be "civil" in our discussions of political issues, they are busy letting loose insults, accusations and smears against those who dare to disagree with them. Like so many people who have been beaten in a verbal encounter, and who can think of clever things to say the next day, after it is all over, President Obama, after his clear loss in his debate with Mitt Romney, called Governor Romney a "phony." Innumerable facts, however, show that it is our Commander in Chief...

Concerning Obama’s Hampton University speech, just one observation. I don’t care so much about the down-home accent and style. Lots of people slip into different skins, for different purposes. It isn’t necessarily hypocritical or wrong. (That said, I’m not eager to hear Hillary Clinton’s “black voice” again. Will we be treated to it when she runs in 2016?)What is damnable about Obama’s Hampton speech is this: It perpetrates a racial lie. It furthers racial grievance and alienation. It hardens division in our society. It increases bitterness and mistrust.The charge that President Bush and Republicans generally were indifferent to black...

........the Obama campaign has relentlessly portrayed Romney as an inveterate scoundrel:a dissolute shylock—maybe even a felonious one—who fleeced mom-and-pop stores, secreted his ill-gotten gains in offshore vaults,.... The problem for our community organizer–in–chief is the debate setting. With no slavish Obamedia filter between the candidates and the viewers,the Obama campaign’s ludicrous distortion of Romney collided,one on one and for all to see, with the reality of Romney. The challenger’s upbeat energy simultaneously effused respect for the president’s office and sheer joie de vivre at the prospect of laying bare the president’s miserable record...When his moment came,the biggest in his political...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NYkfV8Rr6yo OBAMA - busted!!!!!

Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs dismissed claims from conservative media outlets that the president believed the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina was influenced by race. In an interview with "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday, Gibbs was asked about a video of then-Illinois Sen. Obama delivering a speech in 2007 in which he discussed the anger many African-Americans affected by the 2005 storm’s devastation felt at Washington’s mishandled relief efforts. “The president says the incompetence surrounding the federal government’s response to Katrina in 2005 was colorblind,” said Gibbs. “If the Republicans want to defend the Bush administration’s response to...

It's the Obama speech on race you probably haven't heard. In June 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama told a mostly black audience of ministers that the country's leaders "don't care about" New Orleans residents, suggesting the city was neglected in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because of institutional racism, according to an unedited video reported on by The Daily Caller. In the address, delivered during the upswing of the Democratic presidential primary season, candidate Obama specifically criticizes in outspoken terms the decision not to waive a federal law known as the Stafford Act that requires communities hit by disasters to match...

Aaron Broussard has capitulated. He disclosed via his attorney that he plans to plead guilty Tuesday to corruption charges stemming from his six-year administration of Jefferson Parish government. The former parish president, one of the dominant figures in Jefferson politics over the past three decades, will admit conspiring in 2003 to hire his girlfriend into a deadhead job that reaped the couple a total of $323,308 over six years and to stealing about $28,000, her excess pay for one year, defense attorney Robert Jenkins said. Broussard, 63, is the biggest fish of five netted in the federal investigation that ensnared...

In a heartwarming tale of reunion this 15-year-old white is to be returned home to its family after becoming separated from them in the midst of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Shorty's owner's Louisiana home was so badly damaged by the storm that they were forced to surrender their pet pooch to caretakers as they struggled to rebuild their lives. 'They (the owners) were hit really hard during Katrina,' Dr. Blake Peurifoy told NBC News. 'They lost their home and didn’t have the ability to take care of their dog so they gave it away. They don’t know where it went...

There are some arguments, of course, that could be offered against a simple comparison of timelines. However, given the political realities of hurricanes making landfall around New Orleans, I find it amazing that Obama delayed a visit to this area. In light of a levee being breached, massive flooding, and torrential rain damage, one really has to wonder whether political gamesmanship made him ignore these people for political points. Additionally, President Bush flew over the day before he visited. (Note the wiki timeline below: it seems to indicate a Bush visit on 1 September, but I could not corroborate that.)...

President Barack Obama took a veiled jab at his predecessor, George W. Bush, Monday during an appearance in New Orleans, where the former was touring damage caused by last week's Hurricane Isaac.  Here's what Obama said, according to the White House transcript:  

Would this remain a local DC story if the accused had been staff director of an important committee in a Republican controlled Senate? >>>>A former senior congressional aide was indicted this week in D.C. Superior Court on charges that he sexually assaulted two women after drugging them with a sedative that he allegedly put in their drinks. Donny Ray Williams Jr., 36, who served as staff director for a Senate subcommittee and worked in the offices of several members of Congress, gave at least one woman Ambien and assaulted her while she was unconscious, according to court papers. Williams was...

Press: As Isaac bore down on New Orleans, the administration's media toadies preferred to talk not about substantive issues, but on how the "shadow of Bush and Katrina" hung over the delayed GOP convention in Tampa. Those in the press whose legs tingle at every administration utterance apparently share the view that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Isaac, barely making it as a hurricane, was seen as yet another chance to blame George W. Bush for something and resurrect media falsehoods about Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans seven years ago. The Republican National Convention was pushed...

President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana (search) on Saturday because of the approach of Hurricane Katrina (search) and his spokesman urged residents along the coast to heed authorities' advice to evacuate... ...The president's emergency declaration authorizes the FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance in a number of Louisiana parishes, or counties.

Tampa and the Republican convention seem to have dodged the initial impact of Tropical Storm Isaac. But the full impact of its political spin has yet to be felt. Issac is building power over the Gulf of Mexico as I write this, and the power of the political spin builds as the storm approaches the landfall areas of Hurricane Katrina. While no one wishes for Isaac to follow the map track of Katrina, those living in its path need to prepare for the wind, rain and storm surges. Those following its political track need to brace for the impact of...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac closed in on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast on Monday, triggering some mandatory evacuation orders and disrupting U.S. offshore oil production as it threatened to make landfall between Florida and Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane. The wide, slow-moving storm swiped south Florida on Sunday and strengthened over the warm Gulf waters. It was expected to reach land Tuesday night or early Wednesday, the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina seven years ago. The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that the storm could push vast amounts of seawater over the shore, flooding the...

New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast faced the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina by hunkering down for new storm amid "a high level of anxiety," as the Crescent City's mayor put it Monday. Forecasters project Tropical Storm Isaac will reach hurricane strength before hitting the northern Gulf Coast early Wednesday, seven years to the day after Katrina slammed ashore near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line. Residents of low-lying coastal areas from the Florida Panhandle to southeastern Louisiana were ordered to evacuate ahead of storm surges and heavy rain, while the mayor of New Orleans -- which was flooded by...

Thousands in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were being told early Monday to leave their Gulf Coast homes ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Isaac as forecasters warned it was gaining strength as it followed the same path Hurricane Katrina took seven years earlier. The governors of the three states each declared a state of emergency, with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordering mandatory evacuations to begin at 8 a.m. for residents who live along the coast and for those in some low-lying areas inland. "I am urging everyone to take precautions now, monitor weather warnings, and be prepared for whatever...

On August 24th, we warned on Forbes that Tropical Storm Isaac could pose a threat to energy markets and even rival Hurricane Katrina in its destructive power (Could Tropical Storm Isaac Turn Into Another Katrina?). While the computer models are still showing a substantial spread in solutions, it appears more likely that Isaac will make landfall somewhere near the Louisiana, Mississippi Gulf Coast. This track will provide the storm more time to intensify over the very warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. The entire Gulf Coast from Lake Charles, LA to Panama City, FL should be aware of the...

NHC has been slow to adjust their forecast, but models in the last 24week hours have been indicating a possible Cat 3 hitting New Orleans. While dems have been rooting for the Tampa landfall to ruin our convention, a NO landfall catastrophe with Jindal running circles around 0, while 0 is playing politics during the aftermath... maybe it is their convention that gets ruined. I am certainly not rooting for a disaster, but it would certainly be ironic.

WDSU-TV reported this afternoon that former Mayor Ray Nagin has been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury on Friday. The source of the station's information is unclear; the report simply says that "the WDSU I-Team has learned" of the scheduled appearance. The station says that the subpoena went out last week. The report says that Robert Jenkins, Nagin's attorney, "declined to confirm the information." Jenkins frequently appears as an analyst on WDSU. He did not immediately return a phone call from The Times-Picayune. It's been well-publicized that the feds have been building a case against Nagin. The Times-Picayune...