Free Republic

Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application. “No,” the chairman said. “I know him too — and he is one of the truly great phonies of our time.” The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince almost anybody of almost anything — provided that they were not already knowledgeable about the subject. He had once spoken to me very authoritatively about Marxian...

Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application. "No," the chairman said. "I know him too — and he is one of the truly great phonies of our time." The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince almost anybody of almost anything — provided that they were not already knowledgeable about the subject. He had once spoken to me very authoritatively about Marxian...

After the news that the four State Department employees who had been superficially and symbolically ‘held accountable’ following last September’s terrorist attack in Benghazi are now back at work at the State Department, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa issued the appropriately scathing statement: “Obama administration officials repeatedly promised the families of victims and the American people that officials responsible for security failures would be held accountable. Instead of accountability, the State Department offered a charade that included false reports of firings and resignations and now ends in a game of musical chairs where no one misses a single day on...

“Heavens, I have staff who don’t make much money. This would be a really big bite for them.” That could be any employer talking about the costs of Obamacare. But it’s a Member of Congress—who’s happy the President will soften the blow for him and his employees. Ironically, when Members of Congress passed Obamacare, they kicked themselves and their staffs out of their current subsidized employer (federal government) coverage. As Robert Pear, veteran health reporter for The New York Times, noted back in 2010, “If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote...

President Obama said some rather strange things during his appearance on The Tonight Show last week, but one gaffe in particular has flown low under the radar. While he was attempting to downplay the resurgence of al-Qaeda, the President said, “The odds of people dying in a terrorist attack obviously are still a lot lower than in a car accident, unfortunately.” This was before he came up with the idea of sub-dividing al-Qaeda into a bunch of little micro-divisions so he could claim he was telling the truth when he repeatedly claimed al-Qaeda was decimated and on the run during...

The old adage says that where there's smoke, there's fire is getting truer with every new revelation in the ongoing IRS scandal. Since the onset of the scandal, America has been told a pack of lies from the Obama administration and various federal agencies. First they claimed that it was just a couple of rogue agents in the Cincinnati office, which has been refuted in that orders came down from Washington to interfere with conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Then we found out that other federal agencies got involved with harassing and intimidating tea party conservative groups. Next came the...

MARK KNOLLER, CBS NEWS: Jay, in his speech again yesterday, President Obama mentioned the phony scandals that are part of an endless parade of distractions. Can you tell us what phony scandals he’s talking about? JAY CARNEY: I think we all remember a few weeks ago when Washington was consumed with a variety of issues that, while in some cases significant, there was an effort underway to turn them into partisan scandals. I don’t think anybody here would doubt that. And what we’ve seen as time has passed and more facts have become known -- whether it’s about the attacks...

It is very difficult to ignore accusations of phoniness from the master of all things phony who has dedicated his entire life to one phony scam after another. But when this unprecedented level of criminal abuse of power is so flagrantly dictated from the most powerful man in the world, good Americans should be quivering in our boots. No, Mr. President, those are not phony tears from Brian Terry’s mother. Those are real tears, unlike your constant phony blather about caring about the middle class as you continue your well-orchestrated kamikaze economic swan dive for the average American family. And,...

The White House said bluntly Wednesday that it considers the controversy over the Benghazi attack to be among the so-called "phony scandals" that President Obama has been complaining about in recent speeches -- even as new questions were being raised about the lack of progress in the investigation. Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked at the daily briefing about Obama's repeated claim -- which he asserted most recently during a speech in Tennessee on Tuesday -- that Washington is getting distracted by phony scandals. Asked what the president was referring to, Carney listed the scandals over the IRS targeting of...

I feel like the tramp stamp is a nice touch...

Obama and the phony scandals neo-neocon July 26, 2013 Pat Smith has something to say to President Obama: The mother of a Benghazi victim is furious about the new White House strategy of calling the terrorist attack and many other scandals plaguing the Obama administration “fake” or “phony.” Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, who was slain in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack, lashed out on “Your World” on the Fox News… “I don’t believe [Obama] anymore,” Smith said. “He’s wrong. My son is dead. How could that be phony?” According to Smith, she has been given no answers...

“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball.” – Barack Hussein Obama, July 25, 2013 These are the words of Barack Hussein Obama during a speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., on July 25, 2013. Branding all of his burgeoning scandals ranging from Benghazi-gate, to Navy SEAL-gate, to IRS-gate, to NSA-gate, as simply “phony” is an attempt to deflect attention away from the seriousness of them all and their mounting disastrous effect on his presidency. If calling four dead Americans at Benghazi, the murder of 22 SEAL Team...

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio warned in an op-ed on Thursday that there is “mounting evidence” Obamacare creates more problems than it solves and he called on lawmakers to stop the “disastrous” law from taking effect. “It is time to admit that Obamacare isn't going to work, decide not to waste a single cent more on it, and replace it with market-based reforms that will give people more health insurance choices and options,” Rubio penned on the Fox News website. “It's still not too late. This September may be our last best chance to do anything about this disastrous law.”...

'Second Term Scandals - Phony?': Armed with 'redneck clipboard,' former governor Sarah Palin gives theory behind president and White House's claims that they have been distracted by 'phony scandals'

"With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball.” — President Obama, Wednesday Question: How many Americans have to be murdered in an al-Qaeda attack on a U.S. consulate before it stops being a “phony” scandal? Answer: If Barack Obama is president, more than four. Writers across the spectrum — from the liberal New York Times to the conservative Wall Street Journal — have beaten up on President Obama’s latest “dreadful, cliche-ridden” (James Taranto, wsj.com) speech on economic policy, the second-longest speech of his presidency. How can a man talk...

(After four and a half years, Barack is catching on.) In a "groundbreaking" speech Tuesday at Georgetown University, Barack Obama rehashed the same anti-Big Oil themes and half-baked energy policies that have marked his Administration since 2009. (See here and here for historical examples.) One change: President Obama has decided he likes natural gas*, and credits "Federally supported technology", an implicit endorsement of fracking (its name is still as taboo as that other F-word). HeÂ’s still not crazy about oil, but since weÂ’re producing more of it, he may as well claim credit. As for the Keystone Pipeline, more equivocating:...

We should only get mail delivered on Mondays and Thursdays. The Conservatives in the House should be drafting a bill concerning the number of taxpayer funded vacations any future president gets, and a cap on costs over which the President is responsible. Going to Camp David or their private home for extended times are fine, as they are considered “working vacations”. High priced hotels, lavish multiple, separate family vacations on the taxpayer dime must have some restrictions. Even the Royal Family in Britain has a set allowance. There is no reason our President’s, (and other elected officials perks), should be...

Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives — the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying “Wolf!” about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying “Hamster!” As in: Batten down the hatches — the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year’s $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar — spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre — we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25 billion larger than was just shoveled out...

In his State Of The Union address on February 12, President Obama made it clear that action by the federal government on global-warming legislation will be a major priority in his second term. He declared that “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” The president went on to regurgitate the standard boilerplate claims of the global warming alarmists. He averred: Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts,...

"I do skeet shooting." Of course you do, Mr. President. "I do skeet shooting all the time." Which is why skeet shooters (not "doers" of skeet or "skeeters" as you call them) took a quick look at your photo and noted your aim is straight ahead, not upward where the clay target would be. They also noticed you're pictured using a gun designed for trap shooting, wearing dark sunglasses on a cloudy day, holding the gun incorrectly, your shoulder shows no reaction to what should be the gun's recoil, and a few other oddities. There's also the White House press...