Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president's advisers are warning that if lawmakers won't work with the White House, the White House will go around them. President Barack Obama makes his State of the Union address on Tuesday. Top White House aides say Obama will try to work with Congress where it's possible. But press secretary Jay Carney and senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer say the White House will take action with executive orders if needed. On ABC's "This Week," Carney says the White House will "bypass Congress where necessary." Pfeiffer tells "Fox News Sunday" that Obama, quote, "has a pen, and he...

The U.S. military cannot hunt down and kill people responsible for the deadly 2012 attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya, as long as the terrorists are not officially deemed members or affiliates of al Qaeda, newly declassified transcripts from congressional hearings show. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey in testimony on Oct. 10 said the Pentagon’s hands are tied because the groups involved are not covered by the Authorization for Use of Military Force. The AUMF law allows U.S. attacks anywhere in the world only on al Qaeda and “associated forces.” “The individuals related in the...

Put me down in the Roger Simon camp on this one: without wandering into Birther territory or the inconclusive musings of Jerome Corsi… who the heck is this guy, really? To put it bluntly: nobody knows nothin’ about the president of the United States, aka the leader of the free world. And what little we do know is highly uninformative and often contradictory.

At this point, only the most disengaged and uninformed among us cannot see that America has been taken over by communists. You can call them socialists or Marxists if you like, but the bottom line is still the same: authoritarian, centralized government control of our nation. This is the culmination of at least a hundred years of steady, subversive communist infiltration of our federal, state and local governments and all our major institutions by those who embrace this evil, tyrannical ideology. There is no reaching across the aisle to work with these people unless you want to draw back a...

The Iran gambit has risks and, if a final deal isn’t achieved after six months, the possibility of war rises. World leaders say President Obama’s credibility to enforce the deadline has been badly damaged. The interim nuclear deal struck on Sunday morning avoids outright confrontation with Iran for six months, but foreign leaders and international experts warned that the gamble over reaching a final deal could substantially raise the risk of open conflict. Over 200 officials, lawmakers, and experts from more than 50 countries were meeting at the Halifax International Security Forum as news broke over the weekend, many...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening reiterated that the deal reached between the West and Iran over its nuclear program was dangerous and a mistake. “As we learn more and more details about the agreement that was achieved last night in Geneva, it becomes increasingly clear how bad and dangerous this agreement is to the world, the region and Israel,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the EMET Prize award ceremony in Jerusalem. “Iran is receiving billions of dollars in eased sanctions without having to pay any real price. Iran is receiving written approval to violate UN Security Council...

The United States released $8 billion in frozen assets to Iran on Sunday in a move meant to ensure Tehran’s compliance with a nuclear pact signed over the weekend, according to top Iranian officials. Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht confirmed on Monday morning that the U.S. government had unfrozen $8 billion in assets that had been previously blocked by the Obama administration.

"First of all, insurance companies are always dropping people from their plans. This goes on, this went on before ObamaCare went on, after ObamaCare. We’re losing a lot of perspective here. But, yeah, he probably should have not been so blatant about saying you iron clad guarantee." "On the other hand, since he got no Republican votes and no Republican help, and since three years after it’s a law they’re still fighting it, can you imagine what it would be like if he said, “Yeah, some people your rates are going to up.” I mean, he, the thing passed by...

One of Obama's preferred golf courses, the course on Andrews Airforce Base remains open during the government shutdown. The grocery stores on the base, where troops get discounted groceries for their families are, however, closed. They will shop "at local stores that cost about 30 percent more, Lieutenant General Raymond Mason, the service’s deputy chief of staff for logistics, said yesterday at a House hearing."

The current Washington shutdown standoff reveals an illuminating clash of worldviews.Risibly, the aha moment for me came Wednesday while dozing off to a Tonight Show conversation between Jay Leno and his “guest,” Newt Gingrich. Leno challenged the former Republican Speaker of the House with, “Here’s the part I don’t understand with the Affordable Care Act; Why should Obama negotiate? First it came out, it passed both houses.The Supreme Court said, ‘Yes, this is legitimate.’… It’s already a law.If you don’t like it, you wait four years, you vote the guy out.” Jay Leno’s statement exhibits the statist worldview of defending...