Free Republic

The following is a report from a STRATFOR source in Hamas. Hamas, which formed in Gaza as an outgrowth of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), has an interest in exaggerating its role and coordination with the MB in this crisis. The following information has not been confirmed. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of concern building in Israel and the United States in particular over the role of the MB in the demonstrations and whether a political opening will be made for the Islamist organization in Egypt. The Egyptian police are no longer patrolling the Rafah border crossing into Gaza....

Not unexpected. The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in benefits this year than it will collect in payroll taxes, further straining the nation’s finances. The deficits will continue until the Social Security trust funds are eventually drained, in about 2037.Previously, CBO said Social Security would start running permanent deficits in 2016. In the short term, Social Security is suffering from a weak economy that has payroll taxes lagging and applications for benefits rising. In the long term, Social Security will be strained by the growing number of baby boomers retiring and...

A while back I laid out my "boxing the compass" premise that there were 32 different approaches or techniques Obama and the Left are using to throw Governor Sarah Palin off her game with the intention of eventually destroying her political career and chances of running for or being President of the United States in 2012. Well, since the 2010 midterms there has been a "ramped-up" MSM propaganda campaign launched against Sarah Palin but until now the reasons for the increased efforts on behalf of the Left have been offered in dribs and drabs. Well today I will endeavor to...

Two of the central promises of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law are unlikely to be fulfilled, Medicare's independent economic expert told Congress on Wednesday. The landmark legislation probably won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it, Chief Actuary Richard Foster told the House Budget Committee. His office is responsible for independent long-range cost estimates.

EXCLUSIVE. It seems that Obama might have borrowed his "Together We Thrive" slogan from Kenyan Prime Minister and fellow Luo clansman Raila Odinga. Odinga used the highly similar slogan "Fairly we share, together we prosper" in his party's 2007 manifesto and his campaign literature. The slogan conveys a plan for redistributing power and wealth to the lower economic classes in Kenya. This plan is explained in detail in Odinga's literature and that of his party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The relationship between Obama and Odinga is a close one. According to this Wikipedia page: In a January 2008 BBC...

[...] As a lifelong liberal democrat, I am no political supporter of Sarah Palin. I also oppose her use of rifle cross hairs as political symbols. Yet I have no problem with her use of the term blood libel to characterize what she perceives to be false charges that her rhetoric and symbols were partly responsible for the deaths and mayhem in Tucson. The term blood libel has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. [...] Language changes over time by usage. Whether Palin was or was not aware of the theological roots of the term she used,...

There is so much misinformation and grossly misleading talk about what will happen if the federal debt ceiling isn’t increased that, before any more unnecessary bloodcurdling language is used that increases everyone’s anxiety, it’s worth taking a few steps back from the edge. First, not raising the current federal debt limit absolutely will not immediately shut down the federal government. In fact, the federal debt ceiling has virtually nothing to do with whether federal departments and agencies continue to operate. Borrowing is just one of the ways the federal government finances its activities, and not increasing the debt ceiling only...

...Toward the end of the town hall meeting Saturday morning, one of the shooting victims, J. Eric Fuller, took exception to comments by two of the speakers: Ariz. state Rep. Terri Proud, a Dist. 26 Republican, and Tucson Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries...

The tragedy cycle is just about complete. It only took a week for the Arizona shootings to morph from stark violence to brand name, political vehicle, culture forum and dramatic press tableau - complete with a memorial service that sanitized grief while marketing instant national "healing" and commemorative T-shirts.

You would think this story would get more attention than what it is currently getting. "The Pentagon’s investigation of defense and intelligence employees who downloaded child pornography is being criticized in Congress after the Department of Defense acknowledged that its investigators failed to check thoroughly whether its employees were on a list of suspected porn viewers."

What was billed as a memorial for victims of the Arizona shooting rampage turned into a rollicking rally, leaving some conservative commentators wondering whether President Barack Obama's speech was a scripted political event. Not so, insisted the White House and host University of Arizona. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday he and other aides didn't expect the president's remarks at the school's basketball arena to receive as much rousing applause as it did. Gibbs said the crowd's response, at times cheering and shouting, was understandable.

Appearing on television recently, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and current public relations executive Mark Penn suggested that President Obama needs a moment "similar" to the tragic terrorist attack on the Oklahoma City federal building, in order to "reconnect" with voters. He didn't even seem to flinch in making the comment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF5_33WXSRs Penn is currently president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a multi-national public relations firm. He also served in 2008 as chief strategist for then-Senator Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. Before that, Penn advised former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his third run for the UK leadership...

"Palin “Target” Graphic" (vs. the DEMS' own!)

In a bizarre turn of events, the YouTube website of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords suggests she subscribed to the YouTube channel of her suspected attempted assassin, Jarred Loughner, at some point before the shooting incident. Given YouTube rules, for Giffords to subscribe to Loughner's YouTube channel would have required an affirmative action taken by Giffords or by someone with access to her YouTube username and password to establish the subscription link. Loughner's YouTube subscription channel under the username "Classitup10" was created on Oct. 25, 2010, and his last two videos were posted to the channel on Dec. 15, 2010, approximately three...

With five bodies barely cold in Arizona after a madman went on a killing rampage yesterday, hateful liberals are screaming for the death of Sarah Palin. Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate in 2008, has been in the limelight since her rise to nation-wide fame. Angry liberals are now blaming her for assassin Jared Loughner's rampage yesterday, and some are even calling for her death. And no, there was not just one insane person on one insane website, but many cases of wackos calling for the death of Sarah Palin. Like this one from a commenter on TMZ: Or this...

In 2006, the film "Death of a President" was released. Where was the media's outrage then? Sources: Internet Movie Database entryGeorge Bush assassination film wins top awardWikipedia entry, Death of a President Where has the media been while Leftists accused President George W. Bush of murdering 3000 people, and of taking the nation to war for "unjust" reasons? 911truth.orgFahrenheit 9/11, by Michael MooreWhat about Alec Baldwin's terrible rhetoric on the "Conan O'Brien Show," where he screamed that Rep. Henry Hyde and family, including children, should be dragged out into the streets and stoned to death?

The latest posting today of the National Debt shows it has topped $14 trillion for the first time. The U.S. Treasury website today reported that as of last Friday, the last day of 2010, the National Debt stood at $14,025,215,218,708.52. It took just 7 months for the National Debt to increase from $13 trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 trillion on Dec. 31. It also means the debt is fast approaching the statutory ceiling $14.294 trillion set by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last February.