Free Republic

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Rep. Mick Mulvaney to lead the Office of Management and Budget under President Donald Trump, placing the South Carolina Republican in a key White House role that holds significant sway over the administration's spending priorities. Mulvaney is one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line group of some 40 congressmen who have yanked the GOP conference in the chamber to the right and were instrumental in forcing out former House Speaker John Boehner in 2015. The Senate approved Mulvaney's nomination mostly along party lines, 51 to 49, with Majority Leader Mitch...

Comedy director Judd Apatow threatened Americans who support Donald Trump that the riots that broke out at the University of California – Berkeley Wednesday night were “just the beginning.” In a now-deleted tweet, the “Knocked Up” director shared a link to CNN’s coverage of the riots with the message, “This is just the beginning. When will all the fools who are still supporting Trump realize what is at stake?”

Mike Pompeo was confirmed as CIA director by the Senate on Monday, putting the conservative Kansas congressman in charge of an agency that is bracing for its most contentious relationship with the White House in decades. As CIA director, Pompeo will be responsible for managing a global spying network at a time of escalating security problems, including renewed aggression from Russia, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and the splintering terror threat posed by the Islamic State. But, at least initially, Pompeo’s most vexing task may involve finding a way to establish a functional relationship between the CIA and President...

Full title: Former DNC chair Ed Rendell: Clinton campaign is making a mistake by attacking FBI director (CNN)Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania and former Democratic National Committee chairman, said Tuesday that Hillary Clinton's campaign was making a mistake by attacking FBI director James Comey over how he handled recent developments into the investigation of Clinton's private server. "I think that's, I wouldn't do that," Rendell told radio host Rich Zeoli on 1210 WPHT Philadelphia. "Again, you know, I'm not running the campaign by any means, but I wouldn't do that. I agree with you." Earlier in the interview,...

Sheldon Schorer, a representative of Democrats Abroad Israel, sat down with Arutz Sheva to discuss the decision by FBI director James Comey to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as Secretary of State. Schorer was highly critical of Comey's actions. "It's a gross departure from internal FBI procedures...not to comment on investigations that are current." He also said that FBI policy is "not to make a comment than can influence an election" when the election is less than 60 days away. Schorer agreed that the reemergence of the email scandal would be harmful to...

Who won the Cold War again? CIA Director John Brennan voted for the Communist Party candidate in the 1976 presidential election. Brennan told a congressional panel last week that he “froze” while taking a CIA polygraph test four years later when the questioner asked him if he had ever worked with or for a group that was “dedicated to overthrowing the U.S.,” CNN reported. “This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate,” Brennan said at a panel discussion regarding diversity in the intelligence community...

(CNSNews.com) - The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday defended her agency’s decision to return $113 million in funds allocated for the detention and removal of illegal immigrants in FY 2015. “Your organization operates with limited resources, and yet, in fiscal year 2015, you gave back to the Department of Homeland Security $113 million in funds that were specifically appropriated for detention and removal. Why did you give this money back given the problems that were decided by Mr. Smith and the fact as Mr. Conyers noted you have limited resources to begin with?” House Judiciary Chairman...

Canadian-born director Arthur Hiller, who spent more than a decade mostly working in television before a career in feature helming that included “Love Story,” “The Americanization of Emily” and comedy “Silver Streak,” died Wednesday. He was 92. “Love Story,” based on the bestseller by Erich Segal, was an enormous box office hit in 1970 and was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture. Though many critics dismissed the movie as too sentimental, it is No. 9 on the AFI’s list of the most romantic films of all time. Hiller served as president of the Directors Guild of America from 1989-93...

Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Inarritu says he feels sorry for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump—because Trump’s strong stance on illegal immigration stems “from ignorance.”

Quentin Tarantino is getting exactly what he wants. Over the last two weeks, he's made much-needed headlines for saying Hollywood-leftist things at a Black Lives Matter rally in New York City — conveniently inserting himself into the news before the release of his latest inevitably-terrible move, The Hateful Eight. Police groups are boycotting, and each new round of boycott and response is generating yet another day's worth of headlines, with each story conveniently mentioning his new movie. Congratulations, Quentin, you're an excellent troll. Your movies, however, are terrible. And I don't mean "morally reprehensible" or "too violent." I mean...

Wes Craven passed away on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. The iconic horror director known for his work on films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and The Last House on the Left was 76-years-old. He had been battling brain cancer.

Legendary horror director Wes Craven, known for the “Scream” films, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and more, has died of brain cancer. He was 76.

Ex-Planned Parenthood Director, Abby Johnson, reveals gruesome details.

CIA director John Brennan gave a staunch defense of the framework nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday, calling some criticism of the accord "disingenuous" and claiming Tehran had made considerable concessions. In his first public remarks since the outline agreement was announced last week, the spy agency chief said the deal would impose a litany of restrictions on Iran's nuclear work, reports AFP. "I must tell you the individuals who say this deal provides a pathway for Iran to a bomb are being wholly disingenuous, in my view, if they know the facts, understand what's required for a (nuclear) program,"...

The director of the Muslim rights group Cage has repeatedly refused to condemn the stoning of adulterous women by Islamic extremists. Appearing on the BBC’s This Week programme, Asim Qureshi was asked about a series of positions advocated by a Muslim scholar he has described as a mentor, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence and the stoning to death of women found guilty of cheating on their husbands. Last month, Mr Qureshi was criticised for describing Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as Jihadi John, as a “beautiful young man”. Pressed by Andrew Neil, the show’s presenter, to condemn...

...While the controversy-generating doc director doesn’t like Sniper or snipers, he is a big supporter of fellow Best Picture nominee Selma..."

Joseph Sargent, who directed The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and MacArthur for the big screen and captured three Emmys for his telefilm work, died Monday at his home in Malibu from the lung disease COPD, publicist Dick Guttman announced. He was 89 ...  In addition to the taut New York City subway hostage drama The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) starring Walter Matthau and the 1977 biopic MacArthur toplined by Gregory Peck, Sargent directed the features The Hell With Heroes (1968) starring Rod Taylor; White Lightning (1973) with Burt Reynolds; and Jaws: The Revenge (1987) ... He gained...

Millions of YouTube viewers have been captivated by the 'Syrian hero boy' who manages to rescue a little girl while under gunfire. Now a group of Norwegian filmmakers have told BBC Trending they are behind it. They say it was filmed on location in Malta this summer with the intention of being presented as real. Lars Klevberg, a 34-year-old film director based in Oslo, wrote a script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. He says he deliberately presented the film as reality in order to generate a discussion about children in conflict zones.

After nine decades in the business, the former collaborator of Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles is still looking for his next great role. The earliest surviving footage of broadcast television in America is a fragment of "The Streets of New York," an adaptation of playwright Dion Boucicault's 19th-century drama, aired by the experimental New York NBC affiliate W2XBS on August 31, 1939. All that now remains of the hour-long program is a silent, 11-minute kinescope, filmed off a TV screen and archived at the Paley Center For Media. And there, in those primitive flickering images, you can catch...

Bill O’Reilly went nuclear tonight on CDC Director Tom Frieden, calling him out for refusing to appear on his show and declaring that Frieden should resign for perpetuating a “dumb and dangerous ruse” on the likelihood that Ebola may spread in the United States. O’Reilly trashed the “total garbage” coming from Frieden, and called him a chief propagandist spreading a “dumb and dangerous ruse.” And not getting behind a travel ban while believing airport employees will be able to check for Ebola is “stupid and irresponsible and puts all Americans at risk.” And in the next two segments O’Reilly held...