Free Republic

President Obama said in 2006 that he had stolen ideas "liberally" from the professor under fire for saying voter “stupidity” aided ObamaCare’s passage. Video unearthed by the conservative Washington Free Beacon Monday showed Obama praising Jonathan Gruber and other liberal policy experts as some of the "brightest minds" in academia. "Many of them I have stolen ideas from liberally, people ranging from [economist] Robert Gordon to [economist] Austan Goolsbee [to] Jon Gruber," Obama said in the clip. Gruber is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose past criticism of voters has gone viral in the last week. He...

Thomas Eric Duncan was remembered Saturday as a big-hearted and compassionate man whose virtues may have led to his infection with Ebola in his native Liberia and death as the first victim of the disease in the United States.

I was stunned by the anger and sarcasm Harry J. Mallory directed toward a dead teenager, Trayvon Martin, in the Sept. 17 letters. It was over the top and then some (“Cartoon comparing Putin to Zimmerman case went too far”). His reasoning seems pretty easy to understand: Trayvon was black; blacks are thugs; so all George Zimmerman did was create a “dead thug.” Sadly, this sort of (racism) seems pretty common among the far right these days. Here’s what I remember: Trayvon Martin was simply walking home. George Zimmerman targeted him because he was black. Zimmerman followed Trayvon, even after...

That was startling. I asked to speak to someone in the office to register my thoughts on a congresswoman lying on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. From there, it got crazy but not as crazy, and then a little crazier. I was transferred to a gentleman on Lee’s staff. When I again asked him about the contradiction and stated that perhaps I was confused, the man said “Oh look it here, we have one of those right wing, tea-bagger nut jobs on the phone taking his cues from FOX News.” He then accused me of being un-American,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the United States did things that were wrong and crossed the line. He says, quote, "we tortured some folks." Obama is commenting on a Senate investigation into the CIA's interrogation techniques.

While speaking out on the House floor yesterday against the House GOP lawsuit against President Obama, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said the move is a “veil for impeachment.” Jackson Lee also took the opportunity to point out that “We [Democrats] did not seek an impeachment of President Bush” when he was in office. Really? Not only did some Democrats seek an impeachment of President Bush, but Rep. Jackson Lee co-sponsored the bill? Classic!

A White House reporter asked spokesman Josh Earnest whether President Obama enjoyed himself at an infrastucture photo-op earlier Tuesday in Virginia, mocking Obama’s claim last week about not visiting the border crisis because he wasn’t “interested in photo ops.” The assembled press corps laughed as Earnest asserted Obama was in good spirits. “And is he likely to be just as unhappy with the photo op he has planned later this week on infrastructure?” the reporter asked. A flustered Earnest said he didn’t understand the question. “I’m getting back to his blowing off photo ops on the border,” the reporter said....

Despite growing outrage over the mysterious disappearance of former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner’s emails, the new White House press secretary sees nothing wrong with the government’s inadequate explanation. “I think it’s entirely reasonable. And it’s fact,” incoming spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, according to CNN. “You’ve never heard of a computer crashing before?” The IRS admits that it can’t find two years’ of emails requested during the time tea party activists claim they were targeted. Even CNN anchor John King found the explanation unbelievable. “Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?” he...

The perpetually delayed Keystone XL Pipeline is wildly popular. A Reason-Rupe poll conducted in April found that only 32 percent of Americans oppose the construction of the pipeline which would transport Canadian tar sands oil from the frozen north to the Gulf Coast. 61 percent of Americans support the pipeline. That 61 percent includes 82 percent of self-described Republicans, 57 percent of independents, and 50 percent – that’s right; a majority – of Democrats. However, one subgroup strongly opposes the construction of the 1,200 mile pipeline: self-identified liberals. 57 percent of that group opposed the construction of the pipeline in...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to explain — and recast — what she meant when she complained of her family’s financial struggles after leaving the White House. The subject was broached on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” when host Robin Roberts asked Mrs. Clinton if she could understand America’s head-scratching reaction to her claim that the Clintons were “dead broke” upon leaving the White House and needed to hit the lucative speaking circuit to build their bank accounts. “Yes I can, but everything in life has to be put into context,” she said, The Hill reported. “As I...

Richard Armitage. I repeat, Richard Armitage. One more time...RICHARD ARMITAGE. I just made Valerie Plame wince three times once she reads this article. Why? Because the name Richard Armitage completely destroys the myth she is desperately hanging onto after all these years that the Bush administration deliberately leaked her name as a CIA employee in order to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson who criticized the decision to invade Iraq. Unfortunately for both Plame and the Left who have been clinging to that myth for years, it was completely undone when the name of the real leaker, who was an...

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....