Free Republic

Shock and shame is the only way to react to the latest revelations of the Bush administration's brutal interrogation of suspected terrorists. As the world now knows, torture techniques -- approved by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- were exposed in four memos released by the Justice Department under a court order obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. Much as President Obama wants to move on and to forget the unsavory history of the preceding administration, he has to face up to its ugly reality. The Bush administration's legal memos...

The speaker was briefed on waterboarding and other torture techniques used by the White House. She was part of the select group of congressmen and women told of the program. She did nothing to stop it and now claims she was never told it was going to be used. Porter Goss has a different recollection: “We were briefed, and we certainly understood what C.I.A. was doing,” Mr. Goss said in an interview. “Not only was there no objection, there was actually concern about whether the agency was doing enough.” For what it's worth, I believe Goss. Getting to the bottom...

Obama Blames Obama Blames America Obama Blames 24 Hour News Cycle for America's Trouble Obama blames Europe for troubles, too Obama blames Bush for anti-US sentiments Obama Blames Iran for European Missile Defense? Obama Blames Bush for Socialist Policies Barack Obama Blames Deregulation Obama blames U.S. guns in Mexico Oooops . . . Record Cold Year But Obama Blames Global Warming For Flooding Anyway Obama Blames Industry Woes on Failure of Leadership in Detroit and Washington Obama Blames GOP For Bad Economy Obama blames Bush for his HUGE spending budget Obama Blames Bush for World Economic Trouble President Obama...

Let's reflect on the past few weeks. First Obama treats the Prime Minister of Britain - America's closest historic ally - like dirt and then has his State Department announce that "There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment." But that's okay; he's balancing that despicable treatment by doling out more of the same shoddy treatment to the 2nd greatest ally of the United States, Israel. Apparently, Obama seeks to appease the countries who despise us by turning his back on the countries who have loved...

Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying. However, a plurality (48%) of the Political Class believes humans are to blame. Forty-eight percent (48%) of all likely voters attribute climate change to long-term planetary trends, while seven percent (7%) blame some other reason. Eleven percent (11%) aren't sure. These numbers reflect a reversal from a year ago when 47% blamed human activity while 34% said long-term planetary trends. Most Democrats (51%) still say humans are to blame for global warming, the position taken by former Vice...

I keep hearing that the Bush economic policy was to blame for the economic crisis we now face. Lord knows Bush's budgets were way out of line, even though he had 9/11, Wars, Katrina, Power Outages in NYC and the like (secondary causes of recession). The fact is that the primary culprit behind the economic crisis was the statist policies from Carter & Slick Willy that Bush inherited: 1977 CRA Community Reinvestment Act - The act provided that banks have an "affirmative obligation" to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they are chartered. 1989 Congress amended the...

Graphic representation of the evolution of the Obama message this year.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez returned to blasting conservatives on Wednesday’s Newsroom program, blaming the murder of three Pittsburgh police officers on the Fox News Channel and other media on the right: “That weekend tragedy involves a man who allegedly shot and killed three police officers in cold blood. Why? Because he was convinced, after no doubt watching Fox News and listening to right-wing radio, that quote, ‘Our rights were being infringed upon.’” He tag-teamed with Media Matters fellow Eric Boehlert to argue that conservative media personalities like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity were offering “garden-variety fear and hate mongering...night in and...

It was President Bush's fault. And Newt's. When a student went on a rampage and killed 32 students at Virginia Tech in April of 2007, then-Senator Joe Biden, at the time running for the Democrats' presidential nomination, knew exactly who to blame. He pinned the blame squarely on the man in the Oval Office. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Now Vice President Joe Biden is silent on the topic of presidential responsibility for the mass murders in Binghamton and Pittsburgh. Nor has he laid blame at the feet of current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

[ Glenn as a Populist Glenn has been called a lot of “ists” over the years: Racist and fascist being the two most popular. But the latest batches of people calling him “populist” are particularly amusing. ](Stu's Blog) Reply to Glenn Beck: What about idiotist? That may sound a little harsh, but just enjoyed creating a new word for ya. I have a beef to pick with Glenn, despite the fact that I mostly watch his show when I can, and am a conservative pescetarian, and that is: Why do you go out of your way to make sure every...

Asked who was responsible for the economic meltdown, 80 percent in the poll blamed banks, financial institutions and corporations. Some 70 percent also blamed consumers for taking on too much debt and the former Bush administration for lax regulation. Only 26 percent said the Obama administration was not doing enough to turn the situation around. Two-thirds of respondents approve of the way Obama is handling the presidency, and 60 percent approve of the way he is handling the economy.

Teen Bites Students - Dad Blames "Twilight" Did a Middle School student take “Twilight" too seriously? His dad thinks so. This after a 13-year-old boy gets in trouble for allegedly biting 11 students. It sounds crazy – but that’s the story out of Des Moines.

FOR a guy who talks so much about wanting a new era of re sponsibility, President Obama spends an awful lot of time blaming Republicans for all the wild and reckless spending he crammed into his own budget. After running a campaign against the $1 trillion deficit he "inherited" from President Bush and the Republicans, Obama quickly matched it. During his first 50 days in office, he and his Democratic-controlled Congress spent $1 billion an hour. Under Obama's proposed budget, the overall national debt doubles in five years and triples in 10. Not exactly "moving from an era of borrow...

"AIG is Obama's 'Katrina' -- in terms of an example of government's failure -- and the failure of presidential leadership." ... That's according to former Ohio Secretary of State and Family Research Council Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell. Clearly the AIG bonus story has spurred a huge populist backlash -- building on angst which had previously only been manifest during the Santelli rant -- and subsequent tea parties. But anger over the AIG bailout appears to be just now reaching fever pitch, and it is starting to look like the bonus scandal may be laid solely at the feet of Democrats...

(CNN) -- Former President George W. Bush is writing a book focusing on defining decisions he's made in his personal and political life, a publishing house announced Thursday. The book, tentatively titled "Decision Points," is to be published in fall 2010, according to the Crown Publishing Group. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The book will focus on about 12 important decisions made by the former president. Topics will include his decision to run for president, his choice of his closest advisers, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina, the forming of his...

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — A woman accused of taking more than $73,000 from the Arlington church where she was an administrative assistant blames the devil. Papers filed with a theft charge Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court say the 62-year-old Arlington woman told detectives "Satan had a big part in the theft." The Everett Herald reported the woman was accused of forging the pastor's signature on 80 checks from the Arlington Free Methodist church. She was fired in February 2008.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday he takes responsibility for the controversy surrounding the payment of bonuses to American International Group employees. He repeated .. on CNN .. he first learned of the bonuses last Tuesday, March 10, and said that if fault was to be assigned for not knowing earlier, then it lay with him. "On Tuesday I was informed about the full scale and scope of these specific bonus problems," Geithner said. "You know, it's my responsibility, I was in a position where I didn't know about these sooner, I take full responsibility for...

President Barack Obama is grappling with the AIG bonus furor by both accepting responsibility for the government's failure to head off the payments and blaming it on the "big mess" he inherited. He is working to protect Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who began his tenure under a cloud over unpaid taxes and is now taking heat from Republican lawmakers for not heading off the bonuses before they were paid out. The flap over AIG's payment of $165 million in bonuses to executives after the insurance giant got up to $180 billion in government aid has inflamed Americans, already impatient with...

President Obama has mastered the art of employing rhetoric that makes it sound as if he's doing something uniquely virtuous and heroic when in reality he's doing stuff that political leaders often do. We've seen this with the way he touts bipartisanship while being unwilling to offer real compromises or the way he proclaims he isn't hiring lobbyists when he actually is. But he took this practice to more absurd proportions today when his big Harry Truman "buck stops here" moment was woven together with other statements blaming everybody but his administration for the handling of the AIG bonuses and...

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- President Barack Obama said he will take the blame for bonuses being paid at American International Group Inc. if it will settle an intense finger pointing under way over how such payments were possible at a company that has received tremendous taxpayer aid. "Washington is all in a tizzy and everybody is pointing fingers at each other and saying it's their fault, the Democrats' fault, the Republicans' fault," he said at a town hall meeting Wednesday. "Listen, I'll take responsibility. I'm the President." He added: "So for everybody in Washington who's busy scrambling, trying to figure...