Free Republic

Just in case anyone believes President Obama's shout out to environmentalism and climate change during his inaugural address was just for show, here's a little something to dissuade that false hope. If you don't know who Sally Jewell is, you should educate yourself. She is Obama's choice to replace Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary. The head of REI, a fitness company, she lines right up with the rest of the Obama administration and their radical agenda of combating climate change and pushing environmentalism down our throats. (The Wall Street Journal via Human Events)In naming Sally Jewell as Interior secretary, President...

Let me be honest. I am not a fan of President Obama, or the tactics he has used in his four years as President. He continually strikes me as having his nose up in the air, looking down on the rest of us peons. That would include how he treats his political opponents and is especially true when he is "negotiating" with them over how to deal with any given issue. If you can call what he does negotiating, which is quite a stretch. While we are on the honesty track, I'll say one more thing. I don't trust President...

At what point does the ridiculous become absurd? When is it okay to call President Obama out on his complete and total foolishness? Since I am the one writing this post, this is my opinion. We are far past the point where Obama should be called on the carpet for the foolish statements he makes. His latest published gripe about the media really makes me wonder just how out-of-touch the President really is. Is he so naive that he believes the trite nonsense he is spouting? If we are to believe what he says, the media is biased, but it...

Here is a secret that isn't much of a secret. I have made it clear, both in my posts and in comments at other blogs, that I did not watch President Obama's second inaugural address. My reason is simple. I can not stand listening to someone whom I know is lying to me and the rest of America. I can easily glean what I need to know from reading the text of the speech and no, I haven't even been tempted to watch short clips of the speech on YouTube. From reading the speech and other commentaries, one thing is...

Today is the first day of the next four years of our lives. President Barack Obama was officially sworn in for his second term yesterday, but the festivities and lavish parties really get underway today. Lots of hoopla, etc. I care very little for all that, no matter who is being sworn in. I would contend it is all a very big waste of taxpayer money. But, I digress. One of President Obama's senior advisers was on most of the Sunday talk shows yesterday. David Plouffe was going around, basically letting everyone know what kind of administration would be occupying...

By now, I am sure most of us have read through the list of the 23 executive orders President Obama signed yesterday. If you are like me, you were left shaking your head and wondering what good any of them will do. If you would like to read a breakdown of all 23 orders, along with a common sense response to each one, you should visit Texas Fred. Be warned, he is very plain-spoken, but maybe that's just what we need. I have only watched a small portion of the news conference in which President Obama made his announcement, but...

Thank God, we finally have the fiscal cliff behind us. President Obama finally got his highly-touted tax increase, the one that is supposed to make the rich pay their fair share and help reduce the budget deficit. Conservatives aren't exactly happy about that, but we did manage to make the majority of the Bush tax cuts permanent, so that may count for something. As for the tax increases reducing the deficit, National Review Online has a well-written piece that debunks that myth, but most of us already knew how false it was. Even though most conservatives are not happy with...

I realize we are out of the election and there is no need to be in campaign mode. That is one of the reasons I have written very little since the election, and especially since the beginning of December. I saw no use to continue rehashing our loses and wondering what happened. Having said that, I never cease to be amazed at how inept our government is acting, in general, and how blameless President Barack Obama remains, specifically. He sheds blame for his faults and the scandals that should have arisen because of his actions like water off a duck....

I came across an article last night that started me thinking. It was talking about the negotiations that are now underway between the White House and congressional leaders on how to avoid the upcoming fiscal cliff. In this article, Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL, was rasing a question that I believe is more than a little relevant to the discussion. Exactly why are these negotiations going on behind closed doors? (The Hill) Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is calling on President Obama and congressional leaders to hold open talks to steer clear of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” “These secret talks violate the...

By now, we have all heard the rumor that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laughed out loud when President Obama's Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner laid out his proposal for "solving" the issue of the fiscal cliff. From what I can gather about the proposal, it is certainly laughable. $50 billion in new spending, $1.6 trillion in tax hikes, and only promises of addressing spending in the future. And don't forget, Obama also wants to tie this all to an increase of the debt ceiling, as well as taking that authority from Congress and into his own hands. Oh, they would...

A few days ago, I wrote a post about the campaign of rhetoric that is underway. It is a campaign to convince as many Americans as possible that the only possible way out of the fiscal condition we are in is to raise taxes. The only thing standing between Obama and his achieving the liberal dream of higher taxes is the Republicans in Congress and I'm not even sure they have the political will or capital to hold their ground. Some of them are already backing down, saying something has to be done to avert the fiscal catastrophe that is...

I like to think of myself as an observer. I like to watch people and I also like to watch how certain situations unfold in front of me. I find it fascinating to see how some things turn out, but I also get frustrated when I realize things are not working out how I believe they should. Such is the case in the ongoing and upcoming fight over raising our taxes. Make no mistake about this, President Obama wants to repeal the tax cuts now in place and by doing so, he will be raising taxes. He made it very...

The greatly anticipated testimony by former CIA Director David Petraeus is almost upon us. In less than half an hour, General Petraeus will be going behind closed doors to testify to before members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. Specifically, he will be asked about what he knew about the attack in Benghazi and when he knew it. According to CNN, Petraeus will also testify that the CIA was not responsible for the talking points used by Susan Rice when she famously went on five different Sunday talk shows and spread the false rumor that a video was responsible...

I can't help but believe the title to this post is so true. President Obama really is the luckiest President in the history of America. Imagine, if you will, what the reaction would have been if the scandal over CIA Director David Petraeus's affair with Paula Broadwell had broken before the election. What if the scandal had already emerged to show the involvement of General John Allen's involvement with Jill Kelley? If certain sources are correct, Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the Petraeus affair in September, but failed to tell the man who sits behind the desk in the...

I wrote yesterday about President Obama's second term and what it was likely to look like. Today, I would like to examine the paths the Republicans in Congress may possibly take as they confront what is largely an unchanged balance of power in Washington. If you listen to the President and his supporters, the election gave them a carte blanche mandate to pass their agenda of taxing the wealthy into oblivion. Obviously, that isn't the case but there are signs that many Americans believe the reforms that need to be made need to include some form of tax increase on...

I made a visit this past weekend to the University of California, Irvine to attend the Medjugorje Peace Conference, a gathering of very traditional, very conservative Catholics. The standout speaker during the two-day conference was Monsignor Jim Lisante, pastor of Our Lady Of Lourdes Parish in Massapequa, New York, whose homilies are available on ITunes (free of charge), and who often appears on FOX News to speak on matters of faith. The Monsignor offered the most scathing critique of President Obama’s social policies I’ve heard from any cleric in America – Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or other.. He began by recounting...

I guess I've never noticed him doing this. Probably because I have refused in the past to even watch him when he has been on TV. Well, now since the debate I've been watching closely and all I see is him running up on stage like a rock star and biting his bottom lip. It absolutely has gotten to an annoying point for me, so I decided to ask you all if anyone else has noticed this.

Under the Obama Administration, Big Labor has seized control of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) to drive its self-interested agenda – a truly unprecedented development in the history of the NLRB. In the past, Board law has changed when control moved from one political party to another. But never before has a Board majority conducted itself in such unprincipled partisan manner, ramming through an extremist agenda and dissembling about it. Three examples demonstrate the point: The NLRB stripped workers of their right to a secret ballot election to challenge their employer’s recognition of a union by card...

It's a Presidential love triangle gone awry. While Obama has openly dumped one of our most important ally's in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an appearance with the ladies of The View, he has also been showering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with gifts - such as free parking for his Boeing 747 in Washington. The plane, named "Iran Air", exchanged fleeting glances with the President's plane. Via the Washington Post: Free parking is hard to find in Washington — but not, apparently, for the Boeing 747 that ferried Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to this week’s United Nations General Assembly gathering in...

Tony Rezko's former development partner is broke. ### Dan Mahru -- a lawyer who became an ice peddler and real estate developer -- has filed for bankruptcy, declaring that he and his business partners, including Rezko, owe as much as $95 million to creditors. Mahru estimates his personal debts could be as high as $50 million. Mahru and Rezko split a few years ago. But they're still fighting dozens of lawsuits filed over housing developments they built. "I couldn't handle all the multitude of lawsuits involving Mr. Rezko,'' Mahru says. Mahru lists $48,970.61 in assets in the bankruptcy case he...