Free Republic

"It is essential that our efforts support the strategies and policies of the President and the Attorney General and where possible, complement the strategies of other agencies." -- "Project Gunrunner: A Cartel Focused Strategy," internal ATF report, September 2010, Page 2. "Things like this happen because of meetings. People sit in meetings and they decide what they want to happen. And then they take decisions, make policy and implement that policy to achieve those ends." He added, "That's why State is so nervous. They signed off on this. In a meeting." Gunrunner, I pointed out to him, predated the Obama...

It probably would not surprise you to learn that the Obama administration is apparently using the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as a battering ram to aid powerful (and financially supportive) unions. The target is the Boeing Corporation. And Judicial Watch has launched a full investigation into the matter. On Monday, August 15, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the NLRB to obtain records concerning the agency’s decision to file its lawsuit against Seattle-based Boeing for opening a $750 million non-union assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina to manufacture its Dreamliner plane

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 22, 2011CONTACT: Levi Russell at Levi@FrontlineStrat.com, or (509) 979-6615TEA PARTY EXPRESS NATIONAL TOUR LAUNCHES FROM NAPA, CA ON SATURDAY!"Reclaiming America" bus tour will hold tea party rallies in 29 cities, span 17 daysThe Tea Party Express is making final preparations to launch their fifth national tour that will bring conservative rallies to 29 cities across the country. Billed "Reclaiming America," the latest tour will feature conservative singers, speakers, and entertainers, as well as local elected officials and candidates. The tour will help put a spotlight on the failed policies of the Obama administration, and call...

There may have been no rioting in the Highlands, but no one has been watching the arson and looting of Britain’s cities more closely than the Queen. With fewer than six months to her Diamond Jubilee, when celebrations are planned for the length and breadth of the kingdom, the disorder has alarmed aides planning the extravaganza. Central to their concern is not just the damage to the country’s image overseas, but also how quickly the feelgood factor engendered by April’s Royal Wedding has been lost. From her summer home in Balmoral, the Queen has kept in touch with developments and...

Golden State legislature says it will give its states electoral votes to the national popular vote winner. Providing a significant boost to an effort to end-around the Electoral College, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on Monday that would award the Golden State’s 55 electoral votes to the presidential candidate garnering the most votes nationwide. California, which has more electoral votes than any other state in the nation, is the eighth state to join the National Popular Vote compact, an effort to end the Electoral College's role in picking presidents.

The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates. The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are...

Debbie’s Daily Dose of Food for Thought The stars and stripes of our flag are known round the world. Here is the first stanza of a poem to ponder and a few things to know about our flag and Flag Day. “There’s a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are more dear to me Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty; And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue As the hope of a further heaven that lights all our dim lives through.” -- Julie Ward Howe (American Poet,...

Goshen - A small northern Indiana college has decided to stop playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at sporting events after starting to do so for the first time last year. Goshen College's board of directors says it will find an alternative that honors the country and the Mennonite Church-affiliated school's pacifist traditions. The 1,000-student college has been playing an instrumental version of the national anthem, followed by a peace prayer, before games and other events. Some were upset with the school's decision last year because the song's lyrics contain references to using war and military might to defend the country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say. The Defense Department, which runs its own worldwide eavesdropping, spying and code-cracking systems, says more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations have been trying to break into U.S. networks. Some of the perpetrators "already have the capacity to disrupt" U.S. information infrastructure, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who is leading remedial efforts, wrote last fall in the journal Foreign Affairs. Joel Brenner, the National Counterintelligence executive from 2006 to 2009, said most if...

Sunday, May 15 is the 30th annual Peace Officers Memorial Service. Law enforcement from all over the country gathered in Washington for National Police Week to honor fallen comrades-in-arms. Too bad President Obama couldn’t be there. Despite being invited to speak to the widows, children and friends of the 165 officers recognized this year as killed in the line of duty, he somehow didn’t think it was important to trek the two miles from the White House to the Capitol Building to participate. Perhaps it’s because Mr. Obama historically has had a conflicted relationship with law enforcement.

SEPANG: The special meeting or muzakarah of the National Fatwa Council has decided not to put a ban on the "poco-poco" dance among Muslims in the country as long as it is practised according to the stipulated regulations. The National Fatwa Council would remain respectful of the decision made by the Perak Fatwa Council to ban the dance in the state as their research showed that it had elements of Christianity and soul worshipping. National Fatwa Council chairman Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said the regulations referred to the guidelines issued by the council in 2007, which reminded the...

The National Geospatial Agency mapped bin Laden's compound, analyzed drone data, and helped the SEALs simulate their missionPresident Obama's first brush with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was ignominious. Out for lunch in May 2009, at a Five Guys burger franchise in Washington, the new President started to shake the hands of other customers, TV cameras in tow. Then he turned to men with government ID badges. "So what do you?" the president asked. "I work for at NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency," one said. "Outstanding. How long have you been doing that?" Obama wondered. "Six years." Obama then asked: "So, explain...

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound. Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals - who were not even told who they were preparing to capture - had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound. The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.

General Electric, along with General Motors, is the prototype of Big Business in the Age of Obama. GE bills itself as the world's largest industrial company; currently it ranks #4 in the Fortune 500, with revenues in 2010 of around $156 billion. All has not been well at GE, however. Since 2002, the company has laid off around 20 percent of its work force in the U.S., while expanding its overseas operations. And the company's financing arm, GE Capital, sustained massive losses and had to be bailed out by the federal government: General Electric, the world's largest industrial company

Yesterday's House vote to defund NPR wasn't remarkable for the fact that it passed—highly embarrassing videotapes of NPR's top fundraiser saying the network would be better off in the long run without federal funding were only released last week. What was remarkable was the closeness of the vote—228 to 192.

A group of conservative U.S. senators has introduced a bill to restrict unions from forcing workers to join and pay dues as a condition of employment. The move on Capitol Hill comes as several states consider what's known as "right-to-work" legislation -- proposals that have met stiff resistance. Indiana Republicans recently shelved their right-to-work bill after it sparked protests at the capital and after Democrats fled the state to block it, mimicking the tactic used by Wisconsin lawmakers holding up Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union proposal. But GOP senators in Washington said national legislation is needed to stop the "strong-arm political...

In this week’s show, I had the opportunity to interview former FBI agent, John Guandolo. John is an expert on Islamic terrorism and is the Vice President of Strategic Planning and Execution for Strategic Engagement Group, a national security consultancy & educational group. I asked him questions about the Holy Land Foundation trial, Suhail A. Khan of the ACU, who has ties to Hamas & The Muslim Brotherhood, Eric Holder and the justice department’s stance on terrorism, as well as the level of infiltration of America by radical Islamic groups as evidenced by the recent meeting of Deputy National Security...

Federal prison inmates are working for $0.23 to $1.15 per hour manufacturing parts for propulsion, guidance, and targeting systems of Lockheed Martin’s (LMT) PAC-3 guided missiles. They also make cable assemblies for the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing (BA) F-15, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s laser rangefinder. I've heard that most federal prisoners are Illegals. Your thoughts?

AMID THE animated rodents, smushed test-babies, snack-food perversions, and crude humor of Sunday’s Super Bowl ads was a powerful, two-minute homage to Detroit, America’s most abject city. Over a pulsating soundtrack of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,’’ viewers were treated to panning shots of some of Detroit’s lovingly restored landmarks from the days when the auto industry made it the richest city in the United States. Today it is the poorest, with a 36 percent poverty rate. Far from avoiding its grim, rust belt image, the ad — ostensibly to introduce a new Chrysler luxury sedan — celebrated the city’s guts-and-grit industrial...

We are less than one day away from the national debt crossing 14T Of course, this is the debt that they admit to, not the unfunded liablities portions... The Gross National Debt