Free Republic

When signs of a severe economic downfall emerged more than two years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama was quick to point a finger at the man he hoped to replace. Seventeen months into his administration, the message is often the same, and Republicans say it's time for him to drop the Bush bashing and take ownership of the problem. "Nothing makes a president look weaker than pointing the finger at past administrations," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "By blaming somebody, it looks like you are playing politics and people just want jobs. They don't care about whose fault it is. Playing...

Barack Obama is setting a record-setting number of records during his first year in office. Largest budget ever. Largest deficit ever. Largest number of broken promises ever. Most self-serving speeches ever. Largest number of agenda-setting failures ever. Fastest dive in popularity ever. Wow! Talk about change. Just one year ago. fresh from his inauguration celebrations. President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation's most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America's first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped...

Please ignore his opinions. The guest begins talking at about the 2 minute mark. Sadly, this comports with much of the stories we are hearing about information suppression.

According to Gallup, "White single women, unmarried, widowed, divorced, and separated" voted "overwhelmingly" for Obama. On this Memorial Day, this crucial slice of Obama's base of support without whom he would have been elected owe this nation an apology. Blacks; Hispanics; and Moslems voted tribal politics. But this group was more than liberal, it included a large segment of conservatives and independents who had soured on Bush. Today with $13 trillion in debt- almost $12 trillion of it accumulated in the last six months alone, a burgeoning government; a foreign policy in tatters from Iran, to N. Korea to the...

Women suffer harassment by men on Cairo's streets while the authorities and society choose to look the other way. Sexual harassment is becoming an everyday battle for women. I have to face this increasing problem every time I leave for my downtown work," said 34-year-old Mona Hassan, part of Egypt's large working middle-class. Like most Egyptian women, Mona is used to being harassed and grabbed by men in the crowded streets of Cairo. For women in Egypt, sexual harassment is an annoying but all too common part of life. In 2008, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) released shocking...

It is one of the most bi zarre searches since Bin Laden. Regulators are still looking for a Waldo (star, of course, of "Where's Waldo?") so they can pin the blame on someone -- and any old, fumbling fat-fingered trader will do -- for the near catastrophic decline in stock prices last Thursday. Now, in the latest apparent development in this case, The New York Times said the government is interrogating a trader -- probably at Gitmo -- about "heavy selling in the market for stock index futures." That's all well and good. Scapegoats are what makes America the land...

Senior administration officials say that Faisal Shahzad was put on the no fly list on Monday at 12:30 pm ET. So how was he able to board the Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai? “It takes a few hours for the airlines system to catch up,” a senior administration official tells ABC news. Another senior administration official adds that Emirates refreshes their system to update with US intelligence information periodically – but not frequently. In any case, the first official says that airlines were “within minutes” of Shahzad being put on the no-fly list told to “look at a web-board” and...

As appeals to bi-partisanship go, this could down as recent history's most contemptible and hypocritical . . . On this evening's Ed Show, bemoaning the lack of conservative support for Pres. Obama handling of the Times Square attempted bombing, Dem senator Patrick Leahy has accused Pres. Bush of having "dropped the ball" on 9-11, claiming "9-11 could have been avoided." View video here.

The more America huffs about the yuan, the less China will do about it It's always easier to blame someone else for your failings. By Liam Halligan Published: 6:19PM GMT 13 Mar 2010 Comments 22 | Comment on this article A test of true character, perhaps, is the extent to which one is prepared to blame oneself. As such, the Western world's response to this self-made "credit-crunch" has highlighted the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, their refusal to face reality and, above all, their lack of character. When sub-prime first hit, Hank Paulson, then US Treasury Secretary, said "this financial...

President Obama continuously tries to portray himself as a friend to the little-man, middle class and small business. Hence his attacks on "fat cats" who "just don't get it," while labeling the extravagant bonuses as "obscene," and "the height of irresponsibility." Meanwhile, members of his administration, in defending a sweeping small-business aid program Obama announced in his State of the Union, give reason to wonder if they really understand how to help small business. Among the administration's proposals for small businesses are a $5,000 tax credit to hire new workers, elimination of capital gains taxes, and new incentives to invest...

Once again a Democrat leader demonstrates the incredible hypocrisy for which that party and their media wing, the crumbling mainstream media, have become well known. Charlie Rangel, in a demonstration of unethical behavior that can truly be called sorry, now rightly condemned by a House ethics committee chaired and controlled by his own party, for violations of House ethics rules, has thrown his staff under the bus in a blatant attempt to save his own, sorry, fat butt. That is the equivalent of a Navy captain blaming the sinking of his ship on his enlisted crew or an Army general's...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2003— The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. .. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing. ''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people...

President Obama: No more 'finger-pointing' By: Josh Gerstein and Carol E. Lee January 5, 2010 03:30 AM EST President Barack Obama will deliver a stern warning to his appointees at a meeting Tuesday afternoon that he won’t tolerate efforts by the CIA, the State Department and others to shift blame for the recent intelligence foul-up to other parts of the government, said spokesman Robert Gibbs. “We are going to move beyond agency finger-pointing,” Gibbs told reporters. “The president will not find acceptable a response where everybody gets in a circle and points at someone else. The American people won’t accept...

President Obama will deliver a stern warning to his appointees at a meeting Tuesday afternoon that he won’t tolerate efforts by the CIA, the State Department and others to shift blame for the recent intelligence foul-up to other parts of the government, said spokesman Robert Gibbs. “We are going to move beyond agency finger-pointing,” Gibbs told reporters. “The president will not find acceptable a response where everybody gets in a circle and points at someone else. The American people won’t accept that.”

On the last day of 2009, that awful year, I was listening to a report on National Public Radio (yes, I’m a listener). Reporter Tamara Keith presented a by-now-familiar recap of the worst financial and corporate scandals of the decade, from Enron and Martha Stewart to Tyco and Bernie Madoff. It was a depressing slog of greed, venality, and theft. When the report was over, Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep summarized the report with a tart: “The decade in capitalism.” I don’t want to single out Inskeep, since he was doing what pretty much the entire media establishment has done,...

As GOPers begin increasingly using the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner to score political points, 2 Dems are blaming the Bush admin for events that led directly to the failed attack. While many Dems stay silent and let the WH lead the way, DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) say the previous admin let down their guard. "In general, we are facing the consequences of the Bush administration's failures to deal with al Qaeda," Van Hollen told Hotline OnCall. "The Republicans have no business in pointing fingers at the Obama administration on terrorism and national...

The head of the Secret Service accepted full responsibility Thursday for last week's security breach at President Barack Obama's first state dinner, but he said that the president and Vice President Joe Biden were never in danger from a party-crashing couple who shook hands and posed for pictures with them. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told the House Homeland Security Committee that his agents were at fault for allowing uninvited Washington socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi into a lavish state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sullivan told the committee that three uniformed agents had been put on administrative...

The Mayor of Chicago, whose our city is dealing day in and day out with violent crime, and not long ago lost the 2016 summer olympics bid, says that the recent Fort Hood masacre is to be blamed on guns. Does the Mayor honestly believe that a civilian ban on guns would have stopped this crazy Jihadist. Does the Mayor honestly think that a ban on possession would stop AQ from instructing and recruiting extremists to their cause in this country? It hasn’t stopped the drug lords from tearing up his city. Before you watch the video, read this from...

On Tuesday, Matt Drudge ran a headline about the weakening U.S. dollar on his website, Drudgereport.com. In and of itself, that would be unremarkable, except that it was the 18th time Drudge had posted a link to a story about the weak dollar this month. And October was only 20 days old. Clearly, Matt Drudge has developed a fascination with the declining U.S. dollar. “He’s fixated on it,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. “There’s no question that Drudge can alter what people are paying attention to.” Market watchers say it’s unlikely...

For weeks, the United States Olympic Committee and the national sports governing bodies it oversees had settled into an uncomfortable truce. Despite a year of upheaval and conflict, the parties had agreed to set aside their differences in solidarity for Chicago’s bid to win the 2016 Summer Games. The truce ended as quickly as Chicago was dispatched from the race won by Rio de Janeiro. In surprisingly frank terms, a number of influential people in American Olympic sports questioned the performance of the U.S.O.C.’s new management team and said its two top executives were ill-equipped to navigate the insular world...