Free Republic

Secretary of State John Kerry surprised many reporters, as well as intelligence, law enforcement and military officials, when he conceded on Friday that some of the U.S. surveillance has gone “too far.” The Obama administration has come under intense criticism from many world leaders including some heads of state from NATO allies, according to Josh Hollander, a former intelligence-division police detective. Responding to increased questioning by major news organizations, Secretary Kerry admitted that at times the technological surveillance by the super-secret National Security Agency (NSA) “have reached too far.” However, Kerry quickly alluded to the Obama claim of ignorance when...

Netanyahu: 'a mistake of historic proportions' While conservatives can take some comfort in the fact that Obama's run out of steam politically -and now testing all time low poll #s- we all know this demented zealot will continue on a tear leftwards via executive fiat, regulations dictated by his highly-politicized fed agencies, and direct f.p. deals made with Russia and yes, Iran. This latest one that Lurch is attempting to negotiate (or rather, capitulate) is a nightmare-come-true for any strategically aware who are bothering to pay attention. What the deal reportedly entails is handing Iran almost everything on their short-to-medium-term wish...

President Obama this week apologized for problems that have plagued the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but it wasn’t the first time he expressed regret. Below is a list of Obama’s apologies, dating back to his time on the presidential campaign trail. Oct. 8, 2013 Obama apologized to the American people for the government shutdown. At a press conference Obama apologized for the shutdown, but refused to give in to what he characterized as “hostage taking” of House Republicans. May 2, 2013 Obama apologized to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. He had called her “America’s best looking attorney general.”...

A Miami Herald journalist was being held for a second night by Venezuelan authorities after he was detained by security forces while reporting on the country's economic crisis.

"our most important orientation toward time is a positive appreciation of the past. The more we savor memories of relationships and let go of grudges ... the more we connect to our roots and let go of our forebears' failings ... the more we treasure their legacy and let go of the myth that we are self-made: the stronger our sense of a positive past, the better grounded and centered we will be." ~ Dr. Dr. Christine Chakoian Doesn't this explain a lot of what professional and academic historians are writing these days?

Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign. "I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win." Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him. Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American...

ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia police are investigating the possibility someone set up a fake Facebook account in a student's name then used it to make racially offensive posts to two minority student organizations. The posts were made earlier this week to Facebook pages belonging to the UGA Black Affairs Council and the LGBT Resource Center. The posts sparked a protest Friday afternoon as more than 200 UGA students, faculty and administrators marched across the Sanford Stadium bridge on campus. "I thought it was disgusting and hateful," said UGA grad student Ethan Epps. "I was embarrassed to be a...

Reports that the Internal Revenue Service pays billions of dollars a year to those who don't deserve them were dismissed by IRS officials as “unimportant” and “a distraction from more important concerns.” An Inspector General's report issued this week revealed that the IRS paid over $4 billion to identity thieves. Examples of the fraudulent payments include 655 tax refunds sent to a single address in Lithuania and 343 to a single address in Shanghai, China. The massive number of refunds sent to single addresses might be expected to set off “red flags” at the Agency. Commissioner, Daniel Werfel said “they...

One of the most powerful storms on record devastated the central Philippines, reportedly killing an estimated 1,000 people in one town alone and leaving the airport in the hard-hit city of Tacloban in shambles. The Philippine Red Cross told Reuters that based on reports it estimates at least 1,000 dead in Tacloban, which is located about 360 miles southeast of Manila, and 200 in Samar Provice.

For the MSM, any excuse is good to push for ever-bigger government . . . Take today's Good Morning America. ABC used a run-of-the-mill bank robbery story to blame a national increase in violent crime on "a lack of federal funding." View the video here.

Initial Reaction The already wide discrepancies between the household survey and the establishment survey took a wild leap yesterday. The establishment survey showed a gain of 240,000 jobs but the household survey showed a drop in employment of -735,000. However, the BLS states that on unadjusted basis 448,000 of the drop in employment was due to temporary federal layoffs during the budget negotiations. Because of the way the BLS calculates overall numbers, one cannot subtract the seasonally unadjusted number of -448,000 from the reported seasonally adjusted number of -735,000 and arrive at any kind of meaningful number. Important Note: I...

Former Texas prosecutor and district court judge Ken Anderson agreed Friday to serve 10 days in jail, complete 500 hours of community service and give up his law license for hiding evidence in a 1987 murder trial that sent an innocent man to jail for nearly 25 years. Anderson hid two crucial pieces of evidence from the defense team of Michael Morton, who was accused of beating his wife to death, which would have supported their theory that Morton’s wife Christine was killed by a stranger who came into the house via an unlocked back door, not her husband. According...

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I went through a list that I had from a health website. Thirteen myths, thirteen health myths. One of them was that low-carb diets are bad. It turns out they're not. They're the best diet that you can do. Another myth was that eating a lot of salt is a guarantee for high blood pressure and stroke. Not true. It demonstrably isn't true. There were 13 of these, and one of them was that saturated fats are bad for you. It's a total myth. Yet here we come today and the FDA, which is the...

Two men claim the San Diego VA religiously persecuted themTwo men claim they were religiously persecuted by the Department of Veterans Affairs San Diego during a class meant for chaplains, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. In its lawsuit, the Conservative Baptist Association of America alleges that two of its members – a retired Army major and a sailor-- were repeatedly told by an instructor not to use Jesus’ name or quote the Bible as they went through the VA-run class, which applicants must take to become a chaplain inside the hospital. "Anytime you tell somebody you can’t pray in...

I'm guessing there are at least a few Downton Abbey fans out there, and you're probably eagerly waiting for Season 4 to start in January on PBS. Well, in the UK they are already well into Season 4, currently up to episode 7, and you can LEGALLY view the new season (as well as catch up on any of the old episodes) at www.couchtuner.eu . Here's the direct link to "Downtown Abbey" (as my son calls it): http://www.couchtuner.eu/watch-downton-abbey-online/ Enjoy!

‘If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.” How serious was this lie, repeated by Barack Obama with such beguiling regularity? Well, how would the Justice Department be dealing with it if it had been uttered by, say, the president of an insurance company rather than the president of the United States? Fraud is a serious federal felony, usually punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment — with every repetition of a fraudulent communication chargeable as a separate crime. In computing sentences, federal sentencing guidelines factor in such considerations as the dollar...

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/11/barack-obama-loner-self-reliant-closed-off

As we breeze into the second year of Obama-administration stonewalling on Benghazi, details surrounding the abject abandonment of American citizens under fire in that Libyan outpost remain scarcer than hen's teeth. The developments in the story have trickled out, effectively distracting from the larger picture. Of the reported 37 Americans trapped inside the consulate and CIA annex buildings in Benghazi, congressional investigators to date have been permitted to speak to nary a one. The CIA weakly maintains that "CIA employees are always free to speak to Congress if they want," yet sources familiar with CIA internal operations indicate that operatives...

New York City's freshly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) pledged to make New Yorkers' access to abortions “my top priority.” The City already has one of the highest rates of abortion in the country with an estimated 41% of pregnancies ending in elective termination of the fetus. Asserting that “excessive human population is the greatest environmental threat to our planet,” de Blasio vowed to “remove every impediment, no matter how minor, to a woman's opportunity to do her duty to fight this scourge on the planet.” One of the largest impediments to freely available abortions is, according to the...

Frederick Mackenzie's book is one that progressive historians love to flaunt amongst other progressive historians and among their students. But have you ever actually read the book? You should, because if you wish to challenge a progressive historian it will serve you well. I'll explain: I chose Robert B. Reich's 2010 book "The Work of Nations" to serve as my example, because his is a high profile name that's easily recognizable. At the end, I will list some others. On page 29 of "The Work of Nations", the following is written in a footnote: Beginning in the 1890's, the average...