Free Republic

Has there been some change to Free Republic that I am not aware? Is everyone subject to these new rules? All of my post are now "subject to review." Is this a new feature for all posts or just mine? I notice I am not allowed to send mail. The message is my account is too "new" for this feature. I have been a member since August 29, 2010. I have posted 514 articles. I have made 390 comments. I have used the private mail since the day I started here. So. The question is: Is this new to everyone...

As has been noted on AT before, "...this blog by a retired State Department Foreign Service Officer seems a daily must read." His latest post reveals, firstly, that is now becoming clear that the Benghazi Scandal begins with the so-called "consulate" itself and its purpose, and, secondly, that there will be no "fall guys" at State, CIA, and the Pentagon: Our facility in Benghazi facility was a half-baked operation. It was not a consulate. It was a "facility" with an ambiguous purpose....(with) a stunning lack of even basic security despite the rapidly deteriorating situation in Libya....Security levels for our facilities...

Full Title:..Report: Fast and Furious a product of DOJ ‘deliberate strategy’ laid out by Eric Holder, other senior Obama officials... The latest congressional report on Operation Fast and Furious found that the gunwalking-program-turned-scandal was the result of a “deliberate strategy created at the highest levels of the Justice Department aimed at identifying the leaders of a major gun trafficking ring.” The report is the second installment in a three-part series from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley and House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa. That “deliberate strategy,” congressional investigators argue, sprang from “a series of speeches about...

Via NRO, from Morning Joe: “If I’ve won, then I believe that’s a mandate for [purportedly reducing the deficit] in a balanced way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts. We can do some more cuts. We can look at how we deal with the healthcare costs, in particular under Medicare and Medicaid in a serious way. But we are going to also need some revenue.” He doesn’t use the word “taxes,” natch, opting instead for the now-familiar platitudes of “balance” and “revenues” — but his message is unmistakable. If the president wins re-election, he believes he’ll have...

Mitt Romney’s lead in national polls — which he’s enjoyed since the first presidential debate — soon should be seen in individual battleground-state polls, strong evidence that Romney will win the Nov. 6 election, Republican strategist Karl Rove said on “Fox News Sunday.” And because the state polls reflect the national mood, Romney may begin to see states such as Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania come into play for his electoral vote count, Rove said. “If the margin is as big nationally as it appears in these national polls, then you will have the state polls follow,” he said. “Now we...

One week before the election that will likely determine Obamacare’s fate, Americans support its repeal by an even wider margin than they did in the immediate aftermath of its highly unpopular passage. According to newly released polling from Rasmussen Reports, by a margin of 15 percentage points (54 to 39 percent), likely voters now support the repeal of President Obama’s centerpiece legislation. In the first three polls taken in the wake of the House’s passage of Obamacare (on March 21, 2010), Rasmussen showed that likely voters then favored repeal by margins of 13 points (55 to 42 percent), 12 points...

- In light of President Obama's statement in an Oct. 26 interview that the "minute" he found out about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 he issued a directive to subordinates "to make sure we are securing our personnel," House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has sent a letter to Obama demanding that he reveal exactly whom he ordered to do what on that day. “Although this response did not specifically answer the reporter’s question, your first directive would appear to involve potential actions by the U.S. military,” McKeon said in a...

<p>Of the amounts still owed to public and private venues and vendors, the host committees owe $161,000 to the City of Charlotte — $133,000 for convention center operations and $28,000 for volunteer shuttles. The Charlotte Observer reports that, in the past, city officials have promised that taxpayers won’t be on the hook for these expenses, but is there any guarantee?</p>

The secretary of defense in his best grown-up voice says: “(The) basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on; without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” Panetta told Pentagon reporters. “And as a result of not having that kind of information, the commander who was on the ground in that area, Gen. Ham, Gen. Dempsey and I felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation.” It seems obvious that Panetta is trying protect Obama from responsibility for the administration’s Benghazi response. I don’t think...

Subscriber Content Preview... President Barack Obama signaled if he wins a second term he would appoint a Secretary of Business to oversee newly-consolidated government agencies, including the Small Business Administration, and predicted “a war” will break out within the Republican Party after the Nov. 6 election. “We should have one Secretary of Business, instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to SBA or helping companies with exports,” Mr. Obama said in an interview that aired Monday on MSNBC. “There should be a one-stop shop.” Mr. Obama blamed Congress for such consolidation not happening during...

We have two likely possibilities for what occurred, plus a subplot involving arms to al-Qaeda, which could be treason. Incompetence. Abandonment. Treason. It has been a sickening few days for those of us who have closely followed the revelations coming out about the Benghazi terror attack that killed not only Ambassador Chris Stevens and diplomat Sean Smith, but also CIA operators (and former SEALs) Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who died undertaking a rescue mission — unauthorized — to save the rest of the consulate staff. We’ve learned about the incredible heroism of a CIA force that repeatedly called for...

Why is President Obama casting aside the dignity of his office and sacrificing his likeability (his real firewall) with such a silly and tawdry closing campaign? Big Bird, binders, bayonets, bulls*****r, Romnesia, Lena: Why triple-down on triviality when it seems so counterproductive? It’s as if Obama were flashing a great big Biden-sneer at half the country. Is this any way to win an election, much less govern a nation afterwards? Actually, from Obama’s point of view, the answer is emphatically yes. The president’s campaign may look small, yet its ambitions are large. That is the BFD that voters had best...

video at link... Two days after the deadly Libya terror attack, representatives of the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center gave Capitol Hill briefings in which they said the evidence supported an Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-affiliated attack, Fox News has learned. The description of the attack by those in the Sept. 13 briefings stands in stark contrast to the now controversial briefing on Capitol Hill by CIA Director David Petraeus the following day -- and raises even more questions about why Petraeus described the attack as tied to a demonstration. The Sept. 13 assessment was based on intercepts that included...

President Barack Obama during a taped interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday refused to answer pointed questions regarding the recent attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Instead, he offered boilerplate assurances that a White House investigation will explain everything. “The fact of the matter is that this is a tragedy. There’s all kinds of legitimate questions to ask, because any time a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans who are serving our country get killed, we’ve got to figure out what happened and fix it,” the president said in response to “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski asking him...

A new Boston Globe poll shows the race between Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in a dead heat, with ample opportunity for both candidates to win the nation’s most expensive Senate race eight days from now. The survey indicates Brown holds a razor-thin 45 percent to 43 percent lead over Warren among likely voters, well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Brown’s lead evaporates, with 47 percent for each candidate, when voters who are undecided are asked which candidate they are leaning toward. The poll is a reversal from a September Globe...

Mitt Romney’s super PAC, Restore our Future, is launching an 11th-hour ad blitz in Pennsylvania, POLITICO has learned. ROF is going up Tuesday with a $2.1 million ad buy across every Pennsylvania market, including pricey Philadelphia. The group will air a spot, “New Normal,” that lashes President Obama on the economy and is already up in other parts of the country. The late push for Pennsylvania comes as some internal GOP polling has shown the always-elusive Keystone State to be within a few points. But other public polling, including a survey released over the weekend by the Philadelphia Inquirer, shows...

During a weekend press gaggle aboard Air Force One, White House reporters were naturally concerned about Hurricane Sandy and questioned the White House Press staff about the president’s hurricane preparations. But one reporter was anxious to know if they were prepared for Mitt Romney. “Are you worried about the possible politicization of the storm response?” the reporter asked. “We’re a week out from the election. Governor Romney might say something about how you guys are responding to it or going to rallies and that stuff.” “Well, I don’t want to predict what Governor Romney may or may not say,” Deputy...

Is it treason when you put your own reelection above the good of your country and the lives of its citizens? If so, Barack Obama committed treason in leaving the four Americans to die in Benghazi. Our Constitution defines it this way: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Aid and comfort to the enemy — what is that? When you ascribe an action to the protest of a video when it is actuality a planned terror attack by Ansar al-Shariah, an established...

Are you surprised that Vogue's Anna Wintour is squeezing fashionistas togo all out for Obama? It makes sense, since the icy-eyed editrix knows style, and Obama certainly has a presidential style that's all his own. After all, Obama isthe only commander-in-chief to ever manipulate Americans into getting killed so that he can kill the Constitution. We first saw Obama's murderous stylings in Operation Fast and Furious, a brazenly criminal scheme in which he cuddled up to Mexican drug gangs, giving them thousands of state-of-the-art firearms. Obama's narco-killer partners then obligingly used their new presents to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent...

Is President Obama willing to incite civil unrest to win re-election? As we have all been encouraged to wear our dog-whistle decoders these days, one can hardly be blamed for wondering. Worse yet, we know the answer. He is already doing it. Please bear with me, as this topic requires considerable delicacy. According to Rolling Stone, Barack Obama has now called Mitt Romney "a bull*****er," on the record. His anger at the challenger was palpable -- that is, carefully staged -- during each of the last two presidential debates. And he has made a central theme of his campaign the...