Free Republic

If you think the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon administration in 1974 was bad enough, just wait until you see THIS scandal that has Obama, Congress, and several others neck-deep in corruption...

With Speaker Pelosi caught in the web of her own deceit over what the CIA told her about “torture,” and the Obama administration in the middle of its latest 180-degree reversal over CIA interrogators (Attorney General Holder is now considering prosecutions despite Obama’s promise of no prosecutions), Democrats have trumped up a charge that the CIA, on the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney, failed to notify Congress that it was contemplating — not implementing, but essentially brainstorming about — plans to kill or capture top al-Qaeda figures. This is their most ludicrous gambit in a long time — and...

The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record "salons" was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility for what was envisioned as a series of 11 intimate dinners to discuss public policy issues. For a fee of up to $25,000, underwriters were guaranteed a seat at the table with lawmakers, administration officials, think tank experts, business leaders and the heads of associations. Promotional materials said Weymouth, Brauchli and at least one Post reporter would serve as "Hosts and Discussion Leaders" for an evening of spirited but...

THE Navy is facing a sex scandal involving claims male sailors took part in a contest to bed women sailors, assigning a dollar value to each conquest. Higher values were placed on officers or lesbians and scores were recorded in a book referred to as ``the ledger.'' Competitors were also encouraged to have sex in unusual places such as on pool tables. The allegations have been made against crew aboard HMAS Success, the largest ship ever built for the Australian Navy and the flagship of the fleet.

With each day Senator Chris Dodd's hold on the Senate seat he has held for almost 30 years grows more tenuous. As the Chair of the Senate Banking committee he deserves a share of of the blame for the economic mess we are in now, and on top of that there are the recent scandals in which he has been involved. Nine moths ago it was disclosed that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Received TWO VIP Loans from Sub-Prime Lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Then in February we learned of a new "funky"...

I expected the sky to fall after my July article linking the activities of Charles Keating and General Singlaub. Nothing happened. The reaction to my September article exposing Terry Burke, former top DEA in Arizona as a possible key element in the illegal narcotics network in Arizona, however, was immediate and unmistakable. Within days of my FAXing this story I was served with a court summons, a nasty death threat was left on my answering machine and my offices were entered, my files, book cases and furniture dumped and overturned. Read the full article at - http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/conspiracy/reststory/kempermarly.html

Politicians Are What’s Wrong With Politics So, Mark Sanford had an affair. Big deal. Who really cares? He screwed up his own life. He screwed over his wife and kids. It happens everyday. His family will deal with it. He will pay a personal price, either by losing his family, the mistress he claims to be in love with, or most likely both. The media and the Muckadoos on the Internet think that this is once again an example of “conservative hypocrisy.” I’ve seen no less than ten news segments dedicated to discussing whether or not the GOP needs to...

Former Beauty Pageant Queen Sues Over Release of Sex Video Hemingford, NB - Nebraskan beauty queen Melissa Rogers filed suit today over the release of videos believed to have been taken by her former boyfriend, Raymond St. James, during some of the couple’s more intimate encounters. In the suit it is alleged that Miss Rogers’ her modelling career has suffered irrevocable harm causing her to seek more than $1 million in damages plus an unspecified sum for emotional distress. ...

With the New York Times calling for the resignation of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, it is imperative that we consider some deeper issues at play. Each political scandal is unique, and thus, they cannot all be treated as the same. It is time for cooler heads to prevail and to consider a more balanced approach to the Sanford situation than the knee-jerk reaction of the NYT.

This is not the Athenian age for U.S. governors. Just in the past five years we’ve seen Jim McGreevey of New Jersey resign because he put his Israeli boyfriend on the state payroll as a homeland security adviser; Eliot Spitzer of New York resign because he had hired a prostitute, had her travel across state lines to entertain him, and attempted to contravene banking regulations; and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois bounced from office on charges that he had sought to sell a Senate seat. What all these cases have in common is that there were real acts of criminality and...

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission today that he had an extramarital affair strikes another blow to the GOP's brand as the party of family values, particularly in a region of the country—the Deep South—that has become ever more critical to Republicans, who've lost ground recently in the Northeast and the West. Outside South Carolina, "Sanford is most well known in states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which are growing more competitive for Democrats," says Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster who worked for Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 campaign season. "This is devastating for...

President Barack Obama (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) – The ousted inspector general who reported that his office found misuse of AmeriCorps funds granted to a charity run by a political ally of President Barack Obama sees an assault on the institution of government watchdogs, noting that besides himself, the inspectors general in both the Treasury Department and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have faced reported hurdles in doing their jobs. He says he wants Congress to hold a hearing on his firing. “I certainly don’t know the facts about any of the other IGs. But I don’t think you can find in the history of IGs such an administration attack on...

Goldman to make record bonus payout Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm. Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to...

The scandal brewing in Washington regarding the firing of an Inspector General who was in the process of investigating one of Barack Hussein Obama’s cronies is threatening to rock the very foundation of his presidency. Gerald Walpin, who until recently was the chief watchdog for Americorps and other service programs, was terminated because he exposed misuse of federal grant money by Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento and a close friend of Obama’s who heads a non-profit education group. Johnson also misused Americorps volunteers for personal purposes by having them work in political campaigns and wash his car. In a...

White House officials who fired whistleblower Gerald Walpin last week have sparked a series of investigations that pose both political and policy threats to the Obama administration. Describing the probe into the dismissal of the AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, one Capitol Hill source on Thursday compared Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s demand for facts in the case to a row of dominoes ready to tip over. Grassley is asking questions, a team of Senate investigators is poring over documents in the case, and where the investigation proceeds now “depends on what dominoes fall next,” explained the source, who spoke on...

School for Scandal? by: Deborah Lambert, June 18, 2009 Here’s a good story line for your favorite TV cop show: Get a school administrator to set up a drug deal between two middle-school students, and then deny your involvement. The Washington Examiner reported that Connecticut school assistant principal Amy Watson “told a student he could get out of detention if he bought drugs from another student.” “When the kid said he only had $2, Watson gave him more cash and passed along the plans to buy the marijuana,” East Hartford Connecticut police said. It turns out that Watson and a...

A leading Democratic Senator who wrote the law shielding the government's inspectors general from political pressure or retaliation says President Obama didn't abide by the law when he fired one of those watchdogs last week. This despite the fact that Senator Obama was a co-sponsor of the legislation when it passed Congress last year. Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat and longtime Obama supporter, says that in firing Gerald Walpin, Inspector General of the government's community service agency AmeriCorps, proper procedures were flouted. The law requires that any inspector general who is removed be given 30 days notice. The White...

Barack Obama the nation's bully-in-chief is at it again. Now the nastiest administration in history is going after Gerald Walpin, who until last week was the inspector general for AmeriCorps. Walpin made the mistake of Investigation a friend of Obama (FOB), Kevin Johnson former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California, for the misuse of AmeriCorps. Because he was investigating the president's friends, Walpin, whose position as an inspector general is supposed to be protected from political appointees and the White House, was fired. Pressed for a reasoning for the dismissal the Administration said the IG seemed "disoriented"...

"Picking fights with late night comics"

A popular U.S. Roman Catholic priest photographed frolicking with a woman on a Florida beach announced Thursday he had joined the Episcopal Church to pursue the priesthood in a faith that allows married clergy. "I've seen with my own eyes how many brothers of mine serve God as married men and with the blessing of having their own families," said Father Alberto Cutie, whose removal from his Miami Beach parish prompted public debate about the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement for priests. The charismatic 40-year-old is a well-known religious leader in Miami who dispensed relationship advice on Spanish-language television shows, church...

Illinois Senator Roland Burris, a democrat, was recorded on an FBI wiretap suggesting that he could write a check to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's political campaign before the ousted governor appointed Burris to the Senate.

Breakdown of the Vote The Committee does not formally publish the actual Roll Call Vote for the H.R. 2454, but our sources on the Hill confirm the following list of "yea" votes in favor of imposing the cap and trade Carbon Tax:[snip] We expect Waxman's bill to slowly work its way through the House toward a floor vote in late June or early July. So, in our assessment, with the bill limping out of committee grassroots citizens win Round One of this very important battle.

This has never happened before: I had nearly completed a piece for Pajamas Media and then realized it was totally out of date within forty-eight hours. I had been trying to posit that British society is not conducive to the tea party movement that has been sweeping America. First, this is a small nation without recent experience of throwing off a colonial power. Some would argue that the brave defeat of Hitler by the British nation led by Winston Churchill was the ultimate spurning of a conqueror; the American “tea party” campaign is a peacetime social movement and obviously harks...

Those interested in how we are governed have been pretty engaged recently with President Obama’s budget and the pork that is flowing out of Washington, D.C. British taxpayers’ attention is equally engaged with the misuse of their money at the hands of their own government officials. Blogs such as Guido and The Devil’s Kitchen have repeatedly delved into these machinations. Guido has even provided a handy chart of the worst offenders. The Devil’s Kitchen lists a guide to what you receive when you become an MP. A damning piece in the Telegraph on the whole subject of MPs’ expenses has...

Sensitive data files stolen from an RAF base detailed the extra marital affairs, drug taking and use of prostitutes by senior officers, it has been disclosed. The unencrypted data was stored on three computer hard drives that went missing from RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire, last September. Up to 500 senior staff have been warned by the MoD about the possible consequences to them and their families, amid concerns they could be targets for blackmail. The RAF disclosed the loss of the hard drives two weeks after they went missing, revealing only that the bank details and home addresses of 50,000 servicemen...

LONDON – A lawmaker at the center of Britain's growing expense account scandal said Saturday he has been humiliated by public revelations about his attempt to get taxpayers to pay for a duck hut on his country estate. Opposition Conservative Party legislator Peter Viggers' duck hut — used to shield ducks from predators — has become a potent symbol of expense account excess in recent days. He tried in vain to bill taxpayers 1,645 pounds ($2,600) for the structure — just one of many misdeeds in a scandal that has turned British voters against their elected representatives and led many...

Click HERE. Scroll down and watch the video...

A group of ACORN whistle-blowers known as 'ACORN-8' is making explosive allegations against their organization. The group contends that that ACORN has mishandled multi-millions of dollars of taxpayer funds and engaged in the breaking of federal law. The group is also calling on their fellow members to stop paying their dues until ACORN opens up its books for an accounting. And at the center of the whistle-blowers' concerns is an apparent conflict of interest that leads directly to Barack Obama.

My Day at Notre Dame Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests for Life Listen to the audio of this column Fr. Frank's columns are podcast.  Click here for more information.See pictures of this event There was an eerie stillness and silence across the Notre Dame campus as my colleagues, a few of the seniors and I walked across the campus very early on the morning of Commencement Day. It was the calm before the storm of what we knew was an historic day. I started with a national Foxnews interview along with Fr. Richard McBrien. We were asked our views...

STATEMENTS BY ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT  PDF Version (click here to download)May 18, 2009Archbishop Chaput on Notre Dame and the issues that remain  "I have found that even among those who did not go to Notre Dame, even among those who do not share the Catholic faith, there is a special expectation, a special hope, for what Notre Dame can accomplish in the world."~ Reverend John Jenkins, C.S.C., May 17, 2009 Most graduation speeches are a mix of piety and optimism designed to ease students smoothly into real life.  The best have humor.  Some genuinely inspire.  But only a rare few manage to be...

The president inserts himself into a religious debate Passionate debates over doctrine, identity, and the boundaries of “communion” have been a staple of the American religious landscape for centuries: Trinitarians vs. Unitarians in 19th-century New England; Modernists vs. Fundamentalists in early-20th-century Presbyterianism; Missouri Synod Lutherans vs. Wisconsin Synod Lutherans vs. Other Sorts of Lutherans down to today. Yet never in our history has a president of the United States, in the exercise of his public office, intervened in such disputes in order to secure a political advantage. Until yesterday, at the University of Notre Dame. The principal themes of President...

This past Sunday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd ran yet another scathing piece about Dick Cheney's role in the torture policies carried out by the Bush administration. But whether you agree or disagree with Dowd's call for an open accounting on "every awful act committed in the name of self-defense and patriotism", you might first consider a more fundamental problem with Dowd's piece itself: a portion of it was plagiarized. Here's the second to last paragraph of Dowd's column as it first appeared: More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to...

View video HERE!

18 More Anti Abortion Activists Arrested at Notre Dame on Saturday; More Arrests Planned for Sunday. Notre Dame Warns TV Networks that They Will 'Cut the Feed' of Any Network that Covers Disruption of Obama Speech on Sunday Dr. Alan Keyes to be available soon for interview - judge grants hearing and posts $1,000 bond each for 5 prolifers that have been held in jail without bond. They will be released soon. Contact: Kathy Veritas to schedule an interview with Alan Keyes after his release from jail. Contact: Kathy Veritas, 904-687-9804; stopobamanotredame.com SOUTH BEND, Ind., May 16 /Christian Newswire/ --...

About six months ago, veteran pro-life activist Steve Sanborn approached me about documenting the annual March For Life in Washington, D.C. Sanborn’s original goal was to put a couple of cameras on rooftops and count the marchers. It had long irked him how consciously and corruptly the major media under-reported the people gathered for this January event. The more we got to talking, the more we realized the value of creating a serious documentary about the March, the first ever high-end, high-def production. Convinced of the documentary’s potential, I brought in my long time producing partner, Michael Wunsch of Outpost...

Here is the video of Fr. Norm Weslin's arrest by University of Notre Dame police. He was carrying a cross and singing a hymn in honor of the mother of Jesus Christ ---"Our Lady" -- "Notre Dame." What evil deed did they think he was going to do if they didn't arrest him: launch a devastatng, full-scale Rosary barrage?

Fr. John Jenkins, President of Notre Dame University, sits on the board of directors of Millennium Promise, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty in Africa that promotes contraceptives and abortion, it has been revealed. The finding comes as the controversy over President Obama's award and speech at the University reaches a fever pitch in the last week before the event. As the president of Notre Dame, Fr. Jenkins has received the majority of the heat for the scandal. However, despite the criticism of over 70 U.S. bishops and over 350,000 petitioners, Jenkins has steadfastly continued to defend the university's honoring...

With her integrity increasingly in doubt, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should step down for the good of the country. It is clear as the story unfolds that she knew as much about waterboarding as anyone in the Bush administration, and thus, her only motive for hiding what she knew is for partisan political purposes. This is hypocrisy at its worst.

If only it were the worst thing that a Roman Catholic priest has been caught doing. The Mexican celebrity magazine TVnotas recently published 25 paparazzi photos of the Rev. Alberto Cutié, the popular Miami Beach priest famous for his Spanish-language television and radio talk shows, cavorting amorously on a Florida beach with an attractive woman. Over a three-day period, the pictures also captured him kissing her in a bar. In one of TVnotas's "in fragranti" shots [Note to TVnotas copy editors: it's "in flagrante"] the woman wraps her legs around Cutié; in another, Cutié has a hand down her swimsuit,...

While the directors of the Miss California USA pageant look into whether title holder Carrie Prejean violated her contract, a second topless photo of her has sufuraced. The second photo was released by gossip blog TheDirty.com on Thursday, days after Prejean said there was only one such photo in existence. Pageant spokesman Roger Neal said it appears Prejean has run afoul of several sections of the 12-page contract that all prospective contestants were required to sign before competing in the November state contest. The detailed document prohibits the titular Miss California from making personal appearances, giving interviews or making commercials...

The controversy over president Obama coming to Notre Dame continues. A national pro-life group was outside the gates of the University Tuesday, asking the bishop to consider removing Notre Dame from the Catholic directory. Officials with the American Life League held a "sins of Notre Dame" rally Tuesday night. The pro-life group thinks Notre Dame has been hosting anti-Catholic speakers for too long. They're asking that Notre Dame restore itself to a Catholic university or be removed from the official Catholic Directory. "I think it's crucial that the diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend, and all of the wonderful Catholics in...

It has been nine months since former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) put his megaphone down, stopped talking about the "moral shame" of 37 million Americans who live in poverty every day, and started addressing his own "moral shame." Since John confessed on ABC's "Nightline" to his affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, there has been a slow drip of stories: from timeline inconsistencies to Rielle's move from Santa Barbara back to New Jersey. And now a federal grand jury is looking into whether or not the campaign used money to cover up his affair. Most of America had forgotten about...

Zero Hedge is always happy to discover something rotten in the state of capital markets. We are even happier when others dig independently and come up with their own startling conclusions. Tonight - we are very happy. John Hempton, who writes the insightful blog Bronte Capital, has done some amazing dot connecting in what, if true, and not swept promptly under the carpet by the powers that be, could expose a hedge fund scandal that could rival the Madoff fiasco, for the simple reason that it implicates none other than Barack Obama's right hand man: Joe Biden.

For many members of the Notre Dame Class of 2009, the uproar surrounding the university’s decision to honor Barack Obama with this year’s commencement address, and to bestow on him a doctorate of laws, has provoked strong feelings about what the ensuing conflict will mean for their graduation. I know how they feel. Ten years ago, my heart was filled with similar conflicts as we came closer to the day of my own Notre Dame commencement and my commissioning as an officer in the United States Army. You see, I was three months pregnant. That March, I had gone—alone—to a...

Here is a summary. The whole entire NBC family, owned by General Electric, has been by far the most pro Obama network for a long time now. General Electric has been faltering ever since Jack Welch was succeeded by Jeffrey Immelt. The NBC family has been losing money for years. Furthermore, their finance divisions, GE Capital and the now defunct WMC Mortgage, have created billions in red ink. Right now, the company is heavily lobbying the administration for bailout funds. The stock is down near 70% since he took over nearly a decade ago.

Report: Jane Harman recorded vowing take action for AIPAC on wiretap @ 9:33 am by Jeremy P. Jacobs Congresswoman Jane Harman was recorded on a NSA wiretapped conversation agreeing to work to downgrade espionage charges against two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in return for help securing the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, according to Jeff Stein's anonymously sourced column in Congressional Quarterly. Harman, a California Democrat, was allegedly recorded in a conversation with a suspected Israeli agent. The conversation reportedly took place before the 2006 election, when Democrats seized control of the chamber and, therefore,...

In State Pension Inquiry, a Scandal Snowballs By DANNY HAKIM and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH The inquiry into corruption at the New York State pension fund started simply enough. Alan G. Hevesi, the former comptroller, was accused of using state workers as chauffeurs for his ailing wife. But by the time Mr. Hevesi resigned his office in late 2006, investigators for the Albany County district attorney’s office were examining a more troubling problem: allegations that Mr. Hevesi’s associates had sold access to the state’s $122 billion pension fund, using one of the world’s largest pools of assets to reward friends, pay...

Recent earthquake activity in Alaska provided “CBS Early Show” co-hosts with a ready-made metaphor for a segment on the personal lives of some of the those surrounding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. But their quake turned out to be barely a ripple. Hosts Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez couldn’t contain their smirks as they introduced the piece. “There's been an earthquake rumbling outside Anchorage, but there is some other rumblings, as well, near Wasilla,” Smith snickered. “Oh, indeed,” Rodriguez chimed in with her eyebrows raised. “Sarah Palin says that she is focused on one thing, governing Alaska. But it has been...

Multiple sources now confirm The ENQUIRER's report that a federal grand jury is investigating possible misuse of presidential campaign funds by John Edwards to pay off his mistress. U.S. Attorney George Holding revealed yesterday he "was not going to confirm or deny any investigation" regarding Edwards that was first reported by the ENQUIRER earlier this week. A Federal grand jury did convene on Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to multiple local reports. Grand jury proceedings are kept secret. Attorneys are liable for criminal prosecution if they discuss such investigations in public or to the press. Prominent Raleigh defense attorney...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is under increasing pressure from conservative Democrats to provide political cover from GOP calls for an investigation into PMA Group, a now-defunct defense lobby under firm scrutiny for questionable campaign donations and earmarks. Members of the conservative Blue Dog and centrist New Democrat coalitions are calling on Pelosi to fulfill her promise to set a new standard for congressional ethics by either shaking the ethics committee into action on the PMA controversy or providing an alternative resolution to the one offered repeatedly by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). “We have to have the ability to self-police or...