Free Republic

Somehow the conclusion by State Department investigators that Huma Abedin, close associate and friend of former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was overpaid by some $10,000 as she worked at a State Department job specifically created just for her, does not surprise. Abedin, who is expected to assume the same Rasputin-like role in a Hillary Clinton administration as Valerie Jarrett does for President Obama, has done very well for herself. As the Washington Post reports: The finding -- which Abedin has formally contested -- emerged publicly Friday after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to Secretary...

  The Barack Obama career tree is decorated with ornaments of failure. Most notable among the early disasters is Grove Parc. Grove Parc was a housing project in Obama's district in Chicago. Obama used it as a springboard for his political ambitions. He enmeshed himself with the slumlords Valerie Jarrett and Tony Rezko and subsequently Obama got campaign funding while Jarrett and Rezko got wealthy. The residents suffered for it. Back in 2012 I said this would be the blueprint for the Obama Presidency: Grove Parc was the blueprint for the Obama Presidency. It’s a shame that no one in...

Ten federal agents will join the Baltimore police homicide unit, commanders announced Sunday, after the city followed its deadliest month in decades with a night in which 10 people were shot — seven of them in one incident. Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the addition of the special agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Secret Service represent a "flipping of the script of sorts." "That's a bit unusual because local police departments — and Baltimore is no different — historically send detectives...

President Barack Obama has authorized the use of air power to defend a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria should it come under attack from Syrian government forces or other groups, officials said, in a move that could increase the risk of the U.S. coming into direct conflict with the Assad regime. The decision ends a months’ long debate over the role the U.S. military should play in supporting its few allies on the battlefield and comes as the U.S. and Turkey discussed joint operations to clear a zone along the Turkish-Syrian border of Islamic State militants. Turkish officials wanted...

President Barack Obama has authorized using air power to defend a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government forces or other groups, raising the risk of the American military coming into direct conflict with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials said the decision ended a monthslong debate over the role the American military should play in supporting its few allies on the battlefield in Syria. Administration officials had been deeply concerned that defending the Pentagon-backed force could inadvertently open the first open conflict with the Assad government, which has denounced the U.S....

[Hussein] compares himself to Ronald Reagan as he strives for a 'transformational' presidency ...Obama told alumni of his White House staff on a private conference call this week, “we’ve got to make sure that we’re laying the foundation” for the next Democrat elected.... The call, organized by top aides including chief of staff Denis McDonough and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, was aimed at thanking staff members for their work in promoting Obama’s long-term presidential initiatives, a number of them reaching fruition over the past two weeks: Obamacare, trade, and strategic openings to Cuba and Iran, among others.

Would the fact that John–anti-war activist with pal Hanoi Jane Fonda–Kerry has a daughter married to an Iranian make any difference in this heated debate over getting Barack Obama’s nuke deal shoved through Congress? Kerry greeted the Iranian people on the occasion of Nowruz, the traditional New Year, by revealing “his daughter has married an Iranian-American who has KERRY SALUTE EXTENSIVE FAMILY TIES to Iran!” Kerry told those listening: “I am proud of the Iranian-Americans in my own family and grateful for how they have enriched my life.” Kerry went on to say he was strongly committed to resolving differences...

In my current book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage, I write of the phenomenon of Communist Party marriages. “Theirs was the first ‘party marriage’ that I observed,” wrote Whittaker Chambers in Witness, describing the decidedly non-sacramental marriage of two of his Communist Party comrades, before writing of his own “party marriages.” From Marx and Engels, to Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, to Betty Friedan and Kate Millett, to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, our comrades on the far left have bequeathed a legacy of noxious ideas on marriage and family. Their political-cultural...

(snip) My latest offering here is prompted by the fine work of Judicial Watch, which has obtained by FOIA request the FBI files of three crucial figures who formed Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s most intimate adviser. The three are Jarrett’s father, James Bowman, her father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, and her grandfather, Robert Rochon Taylor. Judicial Watch has posted these documents online, and I’ve suffered through them carefully with a mix of amazement, agony, and despair for what has happened in this country. They are at once disturbing and depressing, yet further confirmation that the most politically extreme individuals who once agitated and...

In my current book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage, I write of the phenomenon of Communist Party marriages. “Theirs was the first ‘party marriage’ that I observed,” wrote Whittaker Chambers in Witness, describing the decidedly non-sacramental marriage of two of his Communist Party comrades, before writing of his own “party marriages.” From Marx and Engels, to Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, to Betty Friedan and Kate Millett, to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, our comrades on the far left have bequeathed a legacy of noxious ideas on marriage and family. Their political-cultural...

Lately, I've noticed a new trend coming out of the Russian media and press releases from the Kremlin. The new narrative seems to be saying that the United States should stop lecturing other countries on foreign policy and foreign engagements because all you have to do is look at Iraq and Libya to see the American result — chaos. And you know what? They're right. As an American, it sickens me to see the complete waste of blood and treasure in Iraq. Libya is just a side-show, an add-on, but just a pathetic. Iraq was a stable democracy when handed...

FBI files confirm what we feared in 2008 — that the president and his closest advisor come from a long line of Communists. Not liberals or socialists, but Reds. And now we've all inherited their socialized medicine. FBI papers obtained by government watchdog Judicial Watch document hard-core communism in the family of Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's most trusted and influential White House advisor. Here's what they reveal about her Chicago kin, who were known as "concealed Communists": Her late father, James E. Bowman, was involved with Communist front groups and was in contact with a paid Soviet agent in the...

Federal Bureau of Investigation files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government. Jarrett’s dad, … Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals…. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Jarrett family Communist ties also include a business partnership between Jarrett’s maternal grandpa, Robert Rochon Taylor, and Stern, the Soviet agent associated with her dad. Jarrett’s father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett,...

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government. Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from...

Today we will continue our weekend theme of the wisdom of Monty Python. Butt first, a brief review of Daniel Henninger’s comments on Barry’s fundamental transformation of Amerika: The central feature of Mr. Obama’s rewrite of what one might call the Founding Fathers’ original vision has been to abolish Congress. (SNIP)Barack Obama, channeling decades of theory, says constantly that the traditional system has failed. He said it in his 2011 Osawatomie, Kan., speech: “It doesn’t work. It has never worked.” (SNIP)With Congress rendered moribund, the new branch of the American political system is the federal enforcement bureaucracy. So, what would Monty...

White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett is quietly working behind the scenes to build a coalition of major U.S. corporations to back President Barack Obama’s goal of hashing out a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming United Nations summit in Paris.The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a letter that outlines how, by the end of June, Obama is looking to build a coalition of businesses to show support for UN climate talks. After that, the White House will then try to grow this group of businesses to 250 in the run up to the Paris talks...

If you love your child, and I know you do, it’s time to say “bye bye” to the social pacifier that is free universal preschool. I understand. It’s tempting. Whether you’re a destitute single mother or an affluent married father, you’re a parent. And parents often feel wiped out. Especially in this economy. Sure, Michelle Obama has christened this the era of a “huge recovery,” but she’s not in the trenches like you—juggling the stress of being a provider and a caregiver for a 4-year-old. No matter how vulnerable you feel when you hear a certain Disney sing-a-long on repeat,...

The White House sought to quash concerns that the withdrawal of four of the six top leaders of Gulf nations from a planned summit later this week at Camp David signals strained relations between the administration and countries in that region. Of the six Arab states invited, only two of the those countries — Kuwait and Qatar — plan on sending their top leaders.

The ultimate handbook of Newspeak provides helpful guidelines to steer us through these troubling times: Employing the concept of doublethink, the Party gives ironic names to its branches as a way to euphemize what they actually are:The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty. – George Orwell 1984 The 2015 version:Minitrue:Secrets of success in Minitrue Media:1....

Words do have meanings. But the meanings do change. We all know the common usage of the word “brother” in differentiating siblings. Well, at least we used to. Now with all the trans-gender crossovers, I guess we can’t be really sure any more. Heard a good one the other day. “Sex” is what you is. “Gender” is what you thinks you is.” But I digress again. Baptist preachers like to have themselves called “brother.” Like, Brother John, or Brother Dave. A certain ethnic group addresses themselves as brothers, or perhaps more accurately, “bros” or “bruhs.” But I fear the word...