Free Republic

Transparency and truth are the fuels that run sophisticated civilizations. Without them, the state grinds to a halt. Lack of trust -- not barbarians on the frontier, global warming or cooling, or even epidemics -- doomed civilizations of the past, from imperial Rome to the former Soviet Union. The United States can withstand the untruth of a particular presidential administration if the permanent government itself is honest. Dwight Eisenhower lied about the downed U-2 spy plane inside the Soviet Union. Almost nothing Richard Nixon said about Watergate was true. Intelligence reports of vast stockpiles of WMD in Iraq proved as...

CNN's Managing Editor sent an email around the office today, praising Candy Crowley and trying to blunt criticism that she was unfair to Mitt Romney. The email -- sent by Mark Whitaker and obtained by TMZ -- is almost a series of talking points to address Candy's critics. Here's the full email: "Let's start with a big round of applause for Candy Crowley for a superb job under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. She and her team had to select and sequence questions in a matter of hours, and then she had to deal with the tricky format, the nervous...

A focus group of media professionals convened by Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly burst into a heated yelling match on Wednesday during a discussion of CNN anchor Candy Crowley’s performance as the moderator of the second presidential debate. RELATED: Candy Crowley’s Debate Moderation Exemplifies Why Americans Do Not Trust Their Media Several of the Republican focus group participants said that they believed Crowley’s fact checking was inappropriate, both because she was supposed to be the impartial moderator and because the fact that she checked was debatable. Media writer and entrepreneur Carol Roth said that it was “clear that she was...

Earlier today the left sent up cheers for an Alaska “teacher” that is seen on video attacking Governor Palin as “the worst Governor ever” as the sign she was putting up read. When Gov. Palin interacted with her, the woman told Palin she was a “teacher.” Looks like the woman, Kathleen Gustafson, is a liar. As we find on GatewayPundit, she isn’t a teacher but a theater tech. Even more absurdly, the woman belongs to a band that features drag queens as its attraction! Another blogger whose blog is named Mac’sMind did some digging and the only Kathleen Gustafson he...

In 2000, Slate magazine said of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal: “Blumenthal is blessed with every political virtue except recklessness and luck.” Well, we now know he has one, just not the other. Responding to the bombshell New York Times report that he lied about his military service record in various public speeches over the years, Blumenthal admitted Tuesday he has "misspoken" in claiming he served in Vietnam. From the AP:

On Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, in a televised speech to the OIC a 57-country block of Islamic States, President Obama named 31-year-old Rashad Hussain as his envoy to the OIC. “Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo,” Obama told the gathering in the video message. “And as a hafiz of the Koran, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work.” (A hafiz is someone who has memorized the Islamic text.) Soon as Rashad was named the controversy began, specifically because...