Free Republic

Learning nothing from his party's November "shellacking," President Barack Obama offers a 2012 budget that proves, yet again, he believes in government as fervently as President Ronald Reagan believed in the individual. Obama ignores the recommendations of his own bipartisan deficit-reduction commission, as well as polls showing voters want smaller government, and smugly proposes more spending, higher taxes and even bigger government. Obama then holds a press conference and, with a straight face that would have shamed Baghdad Bob, claims his budget "will not be adding more to the national debt." The Obama-loving leftist media won't be critical. After all,...

Just one day after a new poll by CNN included the startling revelation that six of 10 Americans doubt President Obama's birth story, a new report says a surging congressional candidate confirms he has the same doubts – and he'll tell people if they call him. The comments are from Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, who recently won a Michigan GOP primary for Congress over establishment candidate Paul Welday. He now will challenge freshman Rep. Gary Peters in November. According to a report in Politico, he is on tape telling a meeting of supporters in Novi, Mich., "You have a president that...

Washington, D.C., August 2, 2010. The Army has now referred charges against LTC Terrence Lakin for a General Court Martial. This action triggered the appointment of a Military Judge to preside over the trial, which will likely be scheduled before October, and held in Washington, D.C. at Ft. McNair. On August 6, 2010 at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C., the court will convene for the purpose of Judge Lind taking Lakin’s plea to the charges which consist of “missing movement” and of refusing to obey orders. Today Lakin stated: “I am not guilty of these charges, and will plead ‘not...

“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff. Any president has vast authority to influence policy even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat. And Mr. Obama’s success this week in pressuring the Senate to confirm 27 nominations by threatening to use his recess appointment power demonstrated that executive authority can also be leveraged to force action by Congress. “If the stalling tactics continue,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, “he’s not ruling...

CNET was the first to report on prospective tracking of American citizens using cell phone technology, but this week Barack Obama becomes the Dark Knight himself, seizing the opportunity to spy on every American through unfettered access to their cell phone records, physical locations and internet use. In the movie the Dark Knight, Batman uses cell phone technology to spy on the citizens of Gotham, following their every move in his quest to locate his nemesis. On Friday, the Obama administration will argue in federal court for the right, without a court-ordered warrant, to gain access to cellular provider records...

There is a saying in police work and in military service that certain very noxious, offensive substances always roll downhill. That is to say, foul-ups instigated by bad policy will always be blamed on the lowest possible links in the chain of command. Such is the case now in Afghanistan. Diana West writes extensively about U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal’s (pictured above with CIC Obama) “hearts and minds” Afghanistan counter-insurgency campaign: Sacrificing American lives by denying artillery and air support to our ground troops pinned down under heavy enemy fire is acceptable, because artillery and bombs may cause collateral damage...

OBAMA’S TERROR FRIENDLY ADMINISTRATION IS A “SYSTEMATIC FAILURE” On Christmas Day, 2009, the first of many terror chickens to come, came home to roost when a Nigerian member of Al Qaeda climbed aboard a US commercial flight headed from Amsterdam to Detroit and attempted to set off a chemical bomb mid-flight. Once again, civilians found themselves in the position of having to provide for their own safety and security as the folks whose primary purpose is to provide for the common defense of the people, came up sorely lacking. Had it not been for a handful of brave patriots willing...