Free Republic

When President Obama ran for office way back in 2008, he infamously promised to have the "most transparent administration in history." Fast forward to 2014 and the opposite has happened. Not only does the administration heavily control the narrative of information going out to the press, the White House does everything possible to keep reporters from getting their hands on important information. Not to mention, the Department of Justice has heavily monitored reporters through phone and email monitoring. Last week thirty eight journalism groups, including the Society for Professional Journalists, called on President Obama directly to "stop practices in federal...

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

Transparency in political TV ads just got a little easier for watchdog groups and others as a little-talked about FCC rule took effect Tuesday, requiring broadcasters to disclose online who paid for those spots. Exactly who is funding political ads has always been public information, but interested citizens used to have to physically travel to each television station to get it. Under the new rule, political ad buys will be available online from about 1,000 broadcasters around the country, Dennis Wharton, a spokesperson for the National Association of Broadcasters, told The Washington Post. "Suppose you're running a political campaign. Beginning...

President Barack Obama told his Cabinet on Tuesday to 'be creative' looking for areas where he might be able to govern by executive action given gridlock in Congress that is hampering his agenda. In a White House meeting, Obama brought together the top officials in his government a day after conceding that a deadlocked Congress will prompt him to act on his own authority where he can on an immigration overhaul. Obama said he wants to work with Congress where possible, "but if Congress is unable to do it," then he said his Cabinet officials and agency heads should look...

The emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials are gone forever. Therefore any more complaints about it are nothing but Republican nitpicking. Case closed. That pretty much sums up the attitude of Politico writer Rachel Bade whose Wednesday article title pretty much sums up what she portrays as the futility of any more investigation into retrieving those missing emails, "Sources: Lois Lerner’s emails likely gone forever." Got that? Or so she seems to hope. However, her writing off the possibility of ever finding those emails elicited a tidal wave of response from Politico readers with over 21,000 comments, many...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it can't provide emails sent between 2009 and 2011 that were requested by congressional investigators because of hard drive crashes. The agency said that emails stored on dead drives were lost forever because its email backup tapes were recycled every six months, and employees were responsible for keeping their own long-term archives. The IRS had a contract with email backup service vendor Sonasoft starting in 2005, according to FedSpending.org, which lists the contract as being for "automatic data processing services." Sonasoft's motto is "email archiving done right," and the company lists the IRS as...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is back in America, but it will be months before his future takes shape, according to both experts in the military's legal system and people familiar with the treatment of long-term captives. After nearly five years in the hands of the Taliban and Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the American soldier was exchanged for five top Taliban operatives, underwent medical and psychological treatment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and, Friday morning, landed at a military base in San Antonio. There he will undergo treatment to reintegrate back into society -- or possibly military...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is welcoming members of Congress and their senior staff to tour a temporary shelter being used to house illegal immigrant children — but the invite comes with a list of rules, including a suggestion that members leave their cellphones in their vehicles. No recording devices will be allowed (We may ask you to leave your cellphone in our vehicle) No questions will be allowed during the tour, but questions will be addressed later No interacting with staff and children at the shelter >>>We will provide photos of the facility after the tour<<<

The South Side lakefront jewel where Barack and Michelle Obama held their wedding reception vs. a rare, open downtown field set against Chicago's majestic mountain range of skyscrapers. These are just a few of the preliminary offerings area universities plan to present to the president, the first lady and the few confidants helping them as they begin to weigh where to locate the Obama presidential library and museum. Meanwhile, the University of Hawaii, where the president grew up, has said it wants to build the library on oceanfront property in Kakaako, a commercial and retail district of Honolulu between Ala...

Scrub-a-dub-dub. When Brandon Friedman took to Twitter to plant the seeds for another attack on Bowe Bergdahl’s whistle-blowing platoon mates, his bio proudly announced his role as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “What if [Bergdahl's] platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership?” he tweeted, before calling for everyone to “withhold judgment” about allegations that Bergdahl deserted. “I’m not a fan of such speculation,” he added. Uh huh. And then Friedman scrubbed his Twitter bio. Here’s the Google cache from Jun 3, 2014:

Administration officials showed senators video of Bergdahl to support claims that his health was failing. The Obama administration gave senators a classified briefing Wednesday night on just what thinking went into the prisoner trade to recover Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Afghanistan. But that won't end questions from Congress. "This gentleman needs to be looked into, quite extensively," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., following the briefing, referring to questions about whether Bergdahl deserted the military. During the classified briefing, senators were shown a roughly minute-and-a-half-long "proof of life" video of Bergdahl, which the Taliban had provided, in which the soldier "didn't...

(CNSNews.com) – Amid reports that Qatar will allow five senior Taliban terrorists freed from Guantanamo Bay in the controversial Bergdahl exchange to move around freely, a State Department spokeswoman on Tuesday repeatedly declined to discuss “specifics” of the agreement struck with Qatar. Marie Harf said the deal involved “very sensitive diplomatic negotiations” involving the Gulf state and there were “probably very good reasons” not to make the details public.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf engaged in a heated exchange Tuesday with a reporter over the circumstances surrounding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture five years ago, saying she does not think his squad mates have the best idea of what happened when he disappeared. When Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson asked, “Does the State Department consider Sergeant Bergdahl to be a deserter?” Harf replied, “The State Department — no, Lucas. Look, what we’ve said is we are going to learn the facts about what happened here.” “He’s been in captivity, Lucas. I think he’s probably the person who knows...

Newly freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is not being asked about the circumstances of his “capture” by the Taliban, though a note he left at his base back in 2009 could help tell the story, a senior defense official told ABC News today. The official, who spoke about the sensitive details of Bergdahl’s case on the condition of anonymity, said that Bergdahl is not being interrogated at the American military medical facility in Germany, to which he was brought this weekend after being released from five-year captivity by the Taliban. The official said there are legitimate concerns about Bergdahl’s physical...

"...If they truly fear the unchecked growth of presidential power, then their best option is to come to the table and force compromise. It's the one sure way to keep Obama from going cowboy (or, in their minds, tyrant)."

I have lost track of the DOJ action on General Petraeus. Is he still under investigation or have they closed it out? If still open has anyone in congress or the media asked the simple question: why? I assume if he is still under investigation that it is to keep him quiet about the Obama administration policies a d to kill any political aspirations.

Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, has a plan to become Republicans' "worst nightmare" if he is indeed appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the select committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. (clip) Grayson said he would use the Benghazi hearings as an opportunity to draw attention to other issues important to "ordinary Americans" that have not received as much attention. (clip) Following DeLauro's proposal, liberal groups hatched another idea: send Grayson. A petition on the CREDO group's website has already garnered more than 65,000 signatures. (clip) Grayson said it's up to Pelosi to determine...

Last Wednesday, as the House was preparing for its new investigation into the Benghazi attacks, House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers gathered Republican members of his committee for a meeting. While the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss surveillance reforms the committee was about to pass, Rogers also warned his colleagues about the upcoming select committee to investigate Benghazi. “He was saying this could be a rabbit hole,” one House member told The Daily Beast. “He was warning us that we should not let this investigation get into conspiracy theories.” Contrary to the caricature of Republicans, as singularly...

Hunter Biden, the younger son of Vice President Joe Biden, will be joining Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, the company announced in a statement. “The company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals,” Alan Apter, Burisma Holdings’ chairman of the board of directors, said in a statement, which was reported by The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Biden, joining the board, will be in charge of the legal unit, the company said and will provide support...

The U.S. Senate on Monday killed a measure that would have forced the Obama administration to provide the public with information each year on the number of persons killed or injured overseas in targeted strikes.Congress’ decision to abandon the measure, which would have been included in a larger intelligence bill, marks the latest in the federal government’s longstanding tradition of keeping information regarding targeted strikes, which are typically carried out by unmanned drones, from the public eye. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a letter to the Senate warned that the measure would compromise U.S. intelligence operations overseas, the...