Free Republic

“Hands off” list allowed individuals with potential terrorist ties to enter the United States. Judicial Watch announced today that on February 13, 2015, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to obtain a copy of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report about an alleged “hands off list” used by the Obama administration to allow individuals to enter the U.S. who had previously been barred because of suspected terrorist ties. ... On May 6, 2014, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) released internal DHS emails revealing an alleged terrorist “hands off” list allowing...

OAKLAND -- After a massive and mostly peaceful demonstration against large corporations Wednesday eroded into late night clashes with police and 80 arrests, people on both sides of the fence were in damage control mode, with Occupy Oakland organizers and city officials trying to figure out what to do next. And in a press briefing Thursday afternoon, it appears that as far as Mayor Jean Quan is concerned the city will maintain its hands-off status quo. She blamed the destruction on a small group and said the larger Occupy group was not the problem. ... She also said that because...

Back to the Constitution Melissa Barnhart, April 12, 2010 The GOP’s weekly conference call on Thursday included a discussion with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-Va.), who is one of more than a dozen state attorneys general who have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the health care bill President Obama signed into law on March 23. Cuccinelli filed on behalf of the state of Virginia in the case of Commonwealth v. Kathleen Sebelius in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and represents the only state that has passed a law to protect its residents from any obligation...

One-Twoing Working Poor Tilla Bradley, March 1, 2010 The Cato Institute hosted a discussion of the current Senate Healthcare bill entitled, “Will the Senate Healthcare Bill Keep the Poor Poor?” to consider the unintended effects in the proposed piece of legislation. The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon answers the question with a variety of well researched and thorough graphs and pie charts that answer that question with an unequivocal “Yes!” Most of this research was based on calculating tax rates and lost subsidies. By requiring the general population to purchase health coverage, the government is effectively levying a new tax on...

Protesters Call Code Red Bethany Stotts, December 16, 2009 At yesterday’s Code Red Rally, hosted by Americans for Prosperity, health care reform protesters met in Upper Senate park, in a demonstration which Human Events & National Review’s Jim Geraghty say brought thousands to D.C. I’ve included a couple panoramas of the scene....

Rep. Michele Bachmann on House floor with Hawaiian lei

Grooming the next generation of entitlement-seekers By Michelle Malkin  •  October 27, 2009 09:52 PM  Organizing for America, Team Obama & the DNC’s perpetual campaign arm, is holding a health reform video contest.They’ve chosen 20 finalists. Continuing the human stage prop theme plied by the White House over the past year and trotted out again by Michelle Obama and David Axelrod over the weekend, many of the video finalists use children to shill for Obamacare.Here’s a disturbing glimpse of the future — featuring the next generation of government entitlement-seekers declaring “I deserve health care” (hat tip - Right Wing Sparkle) Parents,...

Tort$ are not pastries by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 14, 2009 With politicians and protesters right and left screaming about Obama’s proposed health care reform, Bill Batchelder and Lawrence J. McQuillan have another idea: focusing on tort reform instead. This was the idea investigated at a recent Heritage Foundation forum entitled Tort Reform in the States: Protecting Consumers and Enhancing Economic Growth. In introducing the panel speakers, Hans van Spakovsky of Heritage briefly discussed some of the problems relating to tort. The American tort system, he related, cost two-hundred and fifty-two billion dollars in 2007—or about one thousand dollars...

Rush to Rationing by: Brittany Fortier, September 30, 2009 Health Care Industry leaders are bent on transforming America’s doctor’s offices but vague on what will happen to folks in the lobby. On September 3, 2009, a panel discussed their expectations for the next 100 days of the debate. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on a September 3, 2009 panel hosted by the Alliance for Health Reform (AHR), said that this is a “crucial time” to be having the health care discussion. She added that “having the equivalent of 24 states” without health care coverage was “unacceptable.”...

Illegal Immigrant Health Care by: Sarah Carlsruh, September 14, 2009 The new health care reform bill explicitly bans healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants, but it lacks a key component, which is some way to enforce it. According to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies, “there are 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants in the United States who could be covered by the new health care reform bill.” Steven Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, states that “even though HR 3200 states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the proposed taxpayer-funded affordable premium credits, there...

Patients in Health Service hospitals are far more likely to go hungry than criminals in jail, scientists warned yesterday. They say frail and elderly patients do not get the help they need with meals, and nobody checks whether they get enough to eat. Despite years of Government promises to tackle poor hospital nutrition, food still arrives cold, and patients often miss out because meal times clash with tests and operations. The Daily Mail has been highlighting the scandal of old people not being fed properly in hospital as part of its Dignity for the Elderly campaign The latest figures show...

Xxxx - Democracy for America is hiring state-level Public Option Field Organizers for an intense three-month pressure campaign to pass a public option as part of healthcare reform. We're upping the ante and are looking to put full-time, hired, grassroots field organizers, on the ground to pressure elected leaders to pass healthcare reform with a public option in your state. You can see the entire job description here: DemocracyForAmerica.com/PublicOptionApply You know your state better than anyone and you have better contacts. We need your help to get the word out because time is critical and we have a very tight...

A paedophile with a 30-year history of abusing children is being prescribed Viagra on the NHS - and there is nothing the authorities can do to stop him. Roger Martin, 71, merely has to visit his GP to obtain the libido-enhancing drug, even though experts warn it will enable him to continue preying on children despite his age. The probation officers who oversee Martin are powerless to interfere with the administration of prescription drugs. He does not have to tell his GP about his criminal past and even if he does, doctors cannot take convictions into account. Martin suffers from...

Socialized Medicine Under Siege by: Anthony Kang, August 18, 2009 Tim Phillips, President of Americans For Prosperity, recently spoke at The Heritage Foundation, indicating the great optimism and encouragement about the health care front which conservatives haven’t felt for months. “The left is strategically stunned, and their actions over the last ten days show it. The best hope for them is to demonize us and we have seen a whole sales-pitch shift,” Phillips stated on August 11th. “The most recent Gallup poll shows a record [number] of Americans have joined us on global-warming and cap-and-trade,” Phillips said. “And virtually every...

Listen to ACORN’s Voice by: Mytheos Holt, August 11, 2009 On August 4, Campus Progress, the youth arm of the Center for American Progress (CAP), released a document to its subscribers entitled “A Guide to In-District Lobbying,” which is designed to give young voters tips on how to fight for particular public policy issues. And while the Center’s bloggers recently denounced town hall criticism of the Obama health care plan as being “coordinated by public relations firms and lobbyists who have a stake in opposing President Obama’s reforms,” its “Guide” includes instructions which were developed with the help of...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said that even before its enemies "get their hands on the trigger" the country's military would cut them off, media said on Sunday, in a growing war of words that has intensified Middle East tension. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also suggested Iran would consider any proposal by the United States for a U.S. interests section in the Islamic Republic, if it was forthcoming. The two countries have not had diplomatic ties since 1980. Amid the mounting tensions over Iran's nuclear plans, U.S. media have reported that the State Department was considering opening an interests section...

The debate over controlling access to the Internet took center stage in the U.S. Senate this week during a hearing that focused on "network neutrality" and possible new legislation that advocates say would protect the Internet from being fractured by special interests. The crux of the issue is a growing interest among telecom and cable companies, including AT&T and Comcast, which are the primary broadband service providers in the U.S., to charge content and service providers, such as Google, Yahoo, and Vonage, for use of those high-speed networks. At a hearing held Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,...

From the outset, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a creature of direct democracy. He was elected via a recall election, one of the tools the state constitution gives voters to take matters into their own hands. But when the Republican governor suggested last week that California voters also ought to be responsible for "difficult" decisions heading his way, such as whether to legalize assisted suicide, he raised significant questions about the role of representative government in California. His position, a variety of academic and political experts contend, reflects two factors at play in California politics: Schwarzenegger is in political jeopardy...

"The Queen's Guard" Teresa Heinz Kerry and John Kerry political cartoon.  May 11, 2004... The ketchup queen According to a Reuter’s article, John Kerry says his wife Teresa is off limits and his opponents should not attack her. "They're going to have to go through me," says Kerry. The article goes on to say: “Mrs. Kerry has been criticized for her outspokenness and candor...” Indeed. A Newsweek article about Teresa Heinz Kerry -- titled, She’s No Hillary -- points out: “she drops expletives in interviews and shoots daggers at her political opponents.” And as one comment on FreeRepublic notes,...