Free Republic

Poor, much-maligned Eric Holder. He should be able to implicitly approve an ultimately lethal operation without anybody ever asking questions about it. Luckily for him, the tax-exempt “watchdog” group Media Matters agrees with him. You know the story so far: The Attorney General received memos that clearly outlined the controversial tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious, a program to funnel firearms to straw purchasers in a purported attempt to track the weapons from the hands of the straw purchasers and into the hands of the leaders of Mexican drug cartels. The program’s credibility was called into question because the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Monday defended his administration’s efforts to cover its electronic tracks with the purchase of hard drives from state computers, saying he had no intention of providing ''opposition research teams'' with electronic communications from his term as governor. Meeting with the editorial board of the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, Mr. Romney was questioned about a Boston Globe story (snip) Last week, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades accused Mr. Patrick of running a ''dirty tricks''shop for the president’s benefit and requested documents on any contact his administration has had with top Obama White House or campaign operatives.

Mitt Romney may be the GOP presidential candidate that is most often criticized for flip-flopping , but as Newt Gingrich rises to challenge him at the top of the polls, the former House speaker may also be giving him a run for his money on that label of inconsistency. When it comes to global warming, Gingrich’s position seems to have changed faster than the climate. ... In the more than 30 years since Gingrich was first elected to the House, he has said there is both sufficient evidence to prove the climate is changing and also that there is no...

The State Department on Wednesday defended spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on books authored by President Obama, while White House spokesman Jay Carney called the book-buying an “embassy-based decision.” The comments followed a report Wednesday by The Washington Times that found the State Department had spent more than $70,000 on books by Mr. Obama. Most of the purchases came in the months after Mr. Obama won the White House, though the embassy in Paris spent more than $8,000 for copies of “Dreams From My Father” as recently as March.

NLRB Chairman’s Former Law Partner Defends Union Violence A little over a month ago, in a case that drew national attention, a man was targeted at his home, shot and injured, all because he dared to run union free business. Now, in Buffalo, New York, a case involving outrageous allegations of labor-racketeering and union violence aimed at non-union construction workers and company owners is proceeding through the judicial process. Its outcome, however, may have wide-ranging ramifications on a national level. Forget for a moment that a man was stabbed in the throat, hot coffee thrown on non-union workers, sand put...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has taken a lot of heat for his critical comments toward Social Security. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says that Social Security shouldn’t just be jettisoned but that the Texas governor is right to call for reform. "Well there's no need to frighten or throw under the bus our esteemed elders who have paid all of their working lives into the Social Security system. And the question should be asked of the politicians, where the heck is their money?" Palin said on Fox News. "What Rick Perry was trying to say I believe is that...

<p>It seems that Newsweek’s cover photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann has already proven to be a game-changer: it got Jon Stewart to defend the Republican presidential candidate for an entire segment– not an easy feat. Stewart blasted the magazine for deliberately finding an unflattering photo of the Congresswoman, arguing “you’ve got to go pretty far” to find an unflattering one, listing examples of Bachmann making “yelling into a bullhorn” look attractive, and giving editor Tina Brown a dose of her own medicine.</p>

Jesusopatriot crusader Anders Breivik (aka Andrew Berwick) comes to the defense of Our Lady of the All Caps Screech, Pam Geller and friends in his Manifesto (p. 625): I have watched, for the better part of a year, a number of decent human beings including, but not limited to, Pamela Geller, Paul Belien, Diana West, the Baron and Dymphna from the Gates of Vienna blog and many others, being at the receiving end of a vicious smear campaign from Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs which is unlike anything I have seen in my life.

In a letter to several pro-life groups complaining about President Barack Obama’s decision to drop some of the conscience protections for medical professionals, the administration is defending the decision. Several pro-life groups sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning her of the alarming effects on patients that will follow the Obama administration’s recent move to strip the medical community of key conscience protections on abortion. As LifeNews.com reported in February, the Obama administration overturned some of the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place to protect pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in certain...

President Barack Obama’s former “green jobs czar,” Van Jones, currently a staffer at the left-wing Center for American Progress, used and defended the term “Obamacare” Wednesday evening on Twitter. Jones said that “Obamacare is WORKING,” when retweeting a House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi comment – she claimed that “being a woman” is no longer considered a pre-existing condition because of the president’s health care overhaul. In a follow-up tweet, Jones defended his use of the term saying he “never condemned it,” that “normal folks don’t know what ‘#ACA’ [the Affordable Care Act] is,” and that “Obama’s good” and “care’s good,”...

Veteran reporter Helen Thomas turned up in Playboy magazine this month (fully clothed, don’t worry) as part of her ongoing anti-Semitic publicity tour. The former “dean” of the White House Press Corps sat down for an interview (link is to the Sun Herald’s summary) about her recent controversy. First she weighed in on the aftermath of her remarks about Israel last May (“I went into self-imposed house arrest”) and her views on the situation in the Palestinian territories (“the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way”). But then the interview took an uglier turn.

In which the President of the United States uncorks one bald, falsifiable claim after another regarding his calamitous budget proposal: "[My budget] puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade." To the average American, that sounds like we'll balance the nation's ledger within five years. If you parse the sentence carefully, though, you'll notice that the president only makes the questionable claim that his blueprint will "put us on a path" toward that goal -- which it never comes close to achieving. I'm once again compelled to quote ABC News' Jake...

In an exclusive statement, famed attorney and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz defended Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” from multiple detractors. As the Media Matters/MSM/Democrat narrative on the Tucson tragedy unravels, they are getting a lot more desperate in their attacks on Palin. Fortunately, there are still plenty of honest liberals around: The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations...

Sarah Palin found a very strange ally on Monday. With media outlet after media outlet disgracefully accusing the former Alaska governor of inciting Jared Lee Loughner to go on a shooting rampage in Tucson Saturday, Barbara Walters said on "The View," "To blame Sarah Palin as some are doing I think is very unfair to her" (video follows with transcript and commentary): CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says people should "be fair" to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after he revealed in an interview last week that he was unaware of a string of terror arrests that happened in Britain hours prior. Clapper had been working on Capitol Hill on issues involving START and North Korea and went into the interview before his briefer had a chance to relay the information, Napolitano told CNN Sunday.

Quick thinking and a cool head! Alyssa Gutierrez bravely defended her home and her life with her Mom's rifle. She was not going to end up, if she could help it, another victim of criminal violence. She first tried to hide from the criminal intruders, but when they discovered her, she ran quickly to a bedroom and retrieved her Mom's little pink single shot bolt action 22 caliber rifle to defend her home and life.

On NPR's weekend show On The Media (produced by radio station WNYC), New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller reacted badly to NPR's Bob Garfield suggesting Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was a "looter" or a smasher of windows. Keller insisted the document dump has "more value" than that metaphor, that the dump is "absolutely fascinating...like a graduate seminar" on international relations. It's a "ridiculous standard" to insist these finds must be Earth-shattering to be a positive development: BOB GARFIELD: Now, the stories so far have been revealing but unsurprising, it seems to me, and not especially indicting.

WASHINGTON – Facing a Democratic rebellion, President Barack Obama on Tuesday staunchly defended his decision to compromise with Republicans and temporarily extend about-to-expire tax cuts for all Americans. "There are some who would have preferred a protracted political fight," the president said at a White House news conference a day after the deal was announced. "And I understand the desire for a fight. I'm sympathetic to that." But, he said, a long political battle "would be a bad deal for the economy. And it would be a bad deal for the American people." Still, he promised a fight during 2012,...

Vice President Joe Biden is defending the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) controversial new pat-down technique, calling it a "necessary policy."

Meghan McCain went on Rachel Maddow last night to, er, discuss her ‘nutjob’ remarks about Christine O’Donnell on This Week. And to further respond to certain elements of the conservative blogosphere that defined her as a “self-indulgent set of mega-breasts.” Said McCain: I’m over when women say anything in any kind of public forum. It automatically go back to what I look like and how much i weigh. I don’t know at which point, it no longer bothers me but I worry about young women. I have a lot of young women followers,