Free Republic

1.) If they believe that the Taliban aren't terrorists, then is this behind their reasoning that no negotiations took place with terrorists in the release of Bowe Bergdahl for 5 GITMO detainees? 2.) If they state that there was a third party involved (Qatar) and thus neither side (the WH or the Taliban) spoke directly with each other, then does that constitute their position that no negotiations took place with terrorists? The problem with #1 is that when the WH slammed Karzai over some of his statements concerning joining the Taliban, what could/can the WH say to Karzai now? Breitbart.com...

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the U.S. did not negotiate with terrorists in the process of exchanging the transfer of five terrorism suspects for the release of the only American prisoner of war in Afghanistan. “We didn’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr. Hagel said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I said and explained before, Sergeant Bergdahl is a prisoner of war. That’s a normal process in getting your prisoners back.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban Saturday, with the government of Qatar serving as a go-between. Qatar is taking custody of five...

Imagine the press letting a Republican or conservative try to get away with trying to avoid uncondtionally calling something as infuriating and outrageous as the Veterans Administration waiting list scandal a real scandal. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did that on Monday (HT Patterico and Real Clear Politics) in an interview with Vox's Ezra Klein, who naturally let it slide right on by:

Jay Carney: I Wish Republicans Would Stop Talking About Benghazi by Charlie Spiering 2 May 2014, 7:21 AM PDT post a comment White House Press Secretary Jay Carney admitted on Thursday that he was tired of Republicans talking about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. "I wish that rather than spending so much of their time -- and we all have limited time -- Republicans in Congress on this and on repealing the Affordable Care Act, Republicans actually got about the business of helping the economy grow and helping it create jobs, and making the necessary investments for the economy to...

A wrongly imprisoned Dallas man, who just won his $1.1 million lawsuit against the city, would still be in jail if not for the discovery of video evidence, which proved that his arresting officer had attacked him and lied about it. In December of 2009, Dallas police Officer Matthew Antkowiak was dispatched to break up a fight between two white men. But on his way to the scene, he saw a black man, 62-year-old Ronald Jones, crossing the street. Antkowiak claimed that Jones was throwing beer bottles. He stopped his car and approached Jones. According to the officer, Jones tried...

In March 2006, Crystal Gail Mangum, a student at North Carolina Central University, who worked as a stripper and an escort, accused three members of the Duke lacrosse team — Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans — of raping her at an off-campus party. The case captivated the country, with the media breathlessly reporting the statements of prosecutor Mike Nifong, who was later fired, disbarred and imprisoned for 24 hours, and then those of the players' defense attorneys in a seemingly endless loop of contradictions. In April 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said there was "no credible...

Barack Obama has told us the border is “more secure than it has ever been”, and has even mocked those who say the border is unsafe: “Maybe they’ll need a moat. Maybe they’ll want alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied.” Well, just this last week, FOX 10  in Phoenix reported on a illegal alien who was apprehended in Arizona who had been deported 14 times. Yes, count that. Fourteen. If someone can cross the border illegally that many times, can the border really be secure? WATCH:

"Despite all that good news, there's plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue, but they're being told all over America," said Reid. "The leukemia patient whose insurance policy was canceled [and] could die without her medication, Mr. President, that's an ad being paid for by two billionaire brothers. It's absolutely false. Or the woman whose insurance policy went up $700 a month--ads paid for around America by the multibillionaire Koch brothers, and the ad is false. "We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the lives it's ruining in Republicans' stump speeches and in ads paid...

For Democrats Obamacare is the train wreck that keeps getting worse. For Republicans, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Obamacare premiums are expected to nearly double later this year. Keep in mind premiums already rose 50-400% compared to the old “junk” policies people had and liked before Obamacare. A massive price increase latter this year will more or less collapse Obamacare. We might know more about Obamacare enrollment in the next few weeks, though while the administration claims 5 million have signed up they claim not to know how many have paid. If you haven’t paid, you aren’t covered....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you remember -- and I've got the audio sound bites here to refresh your memory. Barack Obama lied, it's been calculated, roughly 25 times over three years. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Obamacare is not gonna affect you! You like your doctor, you like your plan, you keep it." I will maintain to you that Barack Obama would not have been reelected had he not made that lie. If people had known they weren't gonna be able...

Vivek Murthy, 36, complained as a teen that violent Saturday morning cartoons were feeding 'society's preoccupation with firearms' Murthy is attracting criticism for using his status as a physician to promote strong anti-Second Amendment views He founded Doctors for Obama before the 2008 presidential election Senators complain that he's agenda-driven and too inexperienced to be 'America's Doctor'

Police say a transgender teen who said he was beaten and sexually assaulted in a California high school bathroom has recanted the story. Hercules police spokeswoman Detective Connie Van Putten says detectives interviewed the student Tuesday and determined nothing had happened to him. On Monday, the 15-year-old student reported he was attacked by three boys in a bathroom at a suburban San Francisco public school. The teen, who is biologically female but identifies as male, had told officers he was leaving a boy's bathroom late Monday morning at Hercules Middle/High School when the assailants...

**SNIP** “The House Republican agenda feels like déjà vu all over again. As if the first 49 votes were not enough to satisfy the Republican fixation on undoing health reform, the Republican leadership is prepared to make yet another attempt – their 50th try – to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Americans deserve better. “On the same day that Republicans gathered to discuss an alternative to the health care law, five years later, the proponents of repeal still can’t help themselves. This latest Republican proposal would drive up premiums for millions of Americans. All the while, Republicans ignore...

“That information turned out, in some respects, not to be 100 percent correct," Rice said. "But the notion that somehow I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently false. And I think that that's been amply demonstrated." She was, at the time, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a top candidate to become secretary of state. However, Rice withdrew herself from consideration in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, after the firestorm of criticism she received for her response. Rice said Sunday she didn’t know whether her...

Tuesday night live on C-SPAN, President Obama outlines his agenda for the coming year when he delivers his fifth State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress. Leading up to the President's speech, C-SPAN sets the scene from the White House and Capitol Hill with perspectives from Former Speechwriter to President Obama Jon Lovett, Senate Historian Don Ritchie, and Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport. Following the State of the Union, House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivers the Republican response. McMorris Rodgers is in her fifth term representing Washington’s Fifth District. C-SPAN's live coverage...

US President Barack Obama has said he will not spy on EU leaders or conduct economic espionage, but will continue snooping on ordinary US and EU citizens.He made the pledge in a TV speech on Friday (17 January) in reaction to the Edward Snowden leaks. “I’ve made clear to the intelligence community that unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies,” he said. “We do not collect intelligence to provide a competitive advantage to US companies or US commercial sectors,” he added....

Dear Friend, As our campaign has gained momentum, our opponents have gotten more and more desperate. But now they’ve stooped to a new low by attacking my family, my education, and my personal story – playing politics with the journey that has been my life. Mine is a story about a teenage single mother who struggled to keep her young family afloat. It’s a story about a young woman who was given a precious opportunity to work her way up in the world. It’s a story about resiliency, and sacrifice, and perseverance. And you’re damn right it’s a true story.

(CNSNews.com) - "We're still a country very much addicted to tobacco," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a news conference last Friday, as she urged communities, schools and businesses to "help make the next generation a tobacco-free generation." A transcript of that news conference runs around 8,300 words, but there isn't a single word about the adverse health effects of marijuana smoking -- even as more states jump on the pot-legalization bandwagon. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana smoke is an irritant to the lungs, and "frequent marijuana smokers can have many of the same...

David Remnick of The New Yorker showed up on PBS’s Charlie Rose Monday night to discuss his long, mostly sympathetic profile of Barack Obama from the January 27 issue of the magazine. Near the end of the interview, Rose focused in on the president’s reported desire to be “big.” The host wondered, “[W]hat's his definition of 'big,' and does he believe in his deep recesses of his own mind that the chance of that has slipped away?” Remnick replied that no, Obama does not think his chance of being “big” has slipped away. The editor then rattled off a laundry...

Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, has admitted that a number of key details in her public personal narrative do not match up with the reality of the facts. The Texas state senator who rose to national fame for her successful 13-hour filibuster against new abortion restrictions, acknowledged to The Dallas Morning News that there are some chronological errors and incomplete details in what she and her advisers have said about her life. "My language should be tighter," she told the paper. "I'm learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the...