Free Republic

Thursday, March 26, 2015 Obama’s Two State Tantrum Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Obama’s two terms showed us that he was a sore winner. Israel’s election showed us that he is even more of sore loser. Ever since Netanyahu survived an election that he was supposed to lose, Obama has been throwing a floor-pounding, siren-shrieking and high-kicking tantrum over the Jewish State. Its latest kick and shriek had White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough sidling into the toxic atmosphere at the D.C. conference for the anti-Israel lobby J-Street to berate Netanyahu. In attendance at the...

Many in the politically correct media are becoming annoyed with questions regarding the religious beliefs of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Gunter Lubitz. Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cabin of an Airbus A-320 jet over the French Alps on Tuesday and crashed the plane into a mountain at 434 miles per hour, killing himself and murdering an additional 140 people. Questions about the religious background of Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings pilot who investigators said deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps this week, killing all on board, have sparked outrage and debate about whether such information is relevant...

To the editor: To use language similar to a reader opposed to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ("Ted Cruz's dream, America's nightmare," Readers React, March 24): Imagine a president eager to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power and what that means for the free world. Imagine a president who will get rid of the IRS and implement a tax code that will require everyone to pay a fair percentage tax rate above an established minimum income level. Imagine a president who will re-empower health insurance companies to implement sound insurance principles as opposed to allowing people who wait until they...

The Senate voted Thursday against a budget amendment that backs finding a way to pay for the military fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).Senators voted 46-54 on the amendment, offered by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), all potential 2016 contenders, as well as Sen. Ted Cruz, who announced his bid earlier this week, voted against the proposal.The amendment supported finding federal revenue to offset the cost of the war against ISIS.Coons cited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a reason to find a way...

London, Mar. 25, GNA - The government of Djibouti came in for strong criticism on Monday, as the High Court in London unfroze the worldwide assets of multimillionaire Djiboutian businessman Abdourahman Boreh who had been wrongly found guilty on terrorism charges in Djibouti. The English solicitor who represented the Djiboutian government, Peter Gray of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, was equally censured by Mr Justice Flaux for misleading the court, which led to the initial freezing order on Mr Boreh’s assets. Mr. Boreh, a former confidant of President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, challenged the freezing order. He had been charged...

Barna Group has released its 2015 study on the state of atheism in America, and has revealed that one in four unchurched adults in the country now identify as atheists or agnostics. The study also found that rejection of the Bible and lack of trust in the church are two main reasons why people are turning away from faith. The study was focused on those who have not attended church within the past six months, and found that the majority of such people identify as non-practicing Christians. One in four, or 25 percent, however, were classed as skeptics, which Barna...

The top Republican lawmaker on the House Science Committee issued a subpoena Wednesday to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to produce text messages and phone records for administrator Gina McCarthy. “Because EPA has refused to provide a complete production of records in response to the Committee’s repeated requests, I am left with no alternative but to issue a subpoena to compel you to produce, among other things, unredacted cellular phone billing records and e-mails relevant to the Committee’s oversight,” Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas wrote to McCarthy in a letter sent out Wednesday. Republican lawmakers have been trying to obtain...

Militia men loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi take photos near an army tank in Yemen's southern port city of Aden March 19, 2015.Saudi Arabia’s decision to send troops to the borders of war-torn Yemen has jolted global oil markets, sending crude prices up 6 percent on fears of supply disruptions.Higher oil prices are just what the Kingdom needs after months of having to take money from their reserves to finance government programs. News of Saudi air strikes on the Yemeni capital and an Arab offensive to push back the Iran-backed Houthi rebels sent oil up more than...

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, appeared on The Glenn Beck Program Thursday to defend himself against accusations that he is an “agent of influence” for radical Islamists. Norquist set up the Islamic Free Market Institute roughly 20 years ago, and through the organization, Beck said, he crossed paths with a number of controversial figures, including two now-imprisoned terrorists. “When we set up the Islamic Free Market Institute in the mid-nineties it was because I had seen in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the end of the war against the Soviet Union, this radical strain of anti-Americanism and...

NEW YORK — Mattel’s Hello Barbie, a new doll that can hold Siri-like conversations with kids, was meant to help spur a turnaround for the company. Instead, it’s drawn the ire of one of the toy industry’s most influential critics. The product, unveiled last month at the Toy Fair in New York, has been targeted by Susan Linn, the activist and academic who led successful campaigns against Baby Einstein videos and sexually suggestive Pussycat Dolls. Hello Barbie’s Web connection and speech-recognition software have the potential to violate children’s privacy, Linn alleges. And plus the doll is just plain creepy, she...

A small congregation in New York has voted unanimously to leave Presbyterian Church (USA) following the mainline denomination's recent vote to approve gay marriage. Brighton Presbyterian Church, a 200-year-old congregation in Rochester, voted Sunday to seek dismissal from its PCUSA regional body, the Presbytery of Genesee Valley. The vote to disaffiliate came not long after a majority of presbyteries in PCUSA approved an amendment to their Book of Order defining marriage to include same-sex couples. Kerry E. Luddy, spokeswoman for Brighton Presbyterian and wife of the head pastor, told The Christian Post that the decision to leave "is not a...

"Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory," Wall Street Journal foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephens writes • Stephens advises Israeli government to "repay contempt with contempt." In an exceptionally sharp critique published on Monday, Wall Street Journal foreign affairs columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Bret Stephens ripped apart U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy. The op-ed, titled "The Orwellian Obama Presidency," detailed the flaws of Obama's approach to foreign affairs. "To adapt George Orwell's motto for Oceania: Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory," Stephens wrote. "There is an upside-down...

A recently released undercover investigative video purports to show a dean at Cornell University telling a prospective Moroccan student that the school would welcome student groups to invite ISIS fighters to conduct training camps for students on campus, but the school has since decried the video as misleading. Project Veritas, an investigative nonprofit firm that claims to expose corruption, released a video on Tuesday where one of its reporters disguised himself as a student from Morocco looking to start a "humanitarian group." The undercover reporter went to visit with Cornell's assistant dean for students, Joseph Scaffido, in his office to...

Members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee (HVAC) have recently introduced four bills to bolster accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA doesn’t support any of them.The VA confirmed at a hearing Tuesday that it does not support the Increasing the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability to Veterans Act of 2015.Robert Worley, director of the education service at the Veterans Business Administration, cited legal issues as the main reason for the VA’s stringent opposition, but noted that the bill also makes it difficult to recruit top managerial talent. Specifically, the VA’s concerns surround the Due Process, Takings,...

EVANSVILLE -- Suzy Blesch has worked in a costume shop for almost 30 years, and she has seen many characters and creatures around, but it does not matter what anyone looks like or what anyone does. Everyone is welcome. "It's important to me that whenever you walk into Nick Nackery to understand that you will be treated with respect," Blesch, the owner of Nick Nackery, said. Gov. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday morning, which could give business owners the right to refuse services to people based on their own personal religious beliefs....

LAUSSANE, Switzerland—The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the administration’s position in the negotiations. U.S. negotiators are said to have given up ground on demands that Iran be forced to disclose the full range of its nuclear activities at the outset of a nuclear deal, a concession experts say would gut the verification the Obama administration has vowed would stand as the crux of a deal with Iran. Until recently, the Obama administration had...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts Institute of Technology aviation analyst says U.S. flight regulations make it unlikely that a single jetliner pilot could barricade himself or herself inside the cockpit. MIT expert John Hansman tells The Associated Press that U.S. safety procedures require two people in an airliner’s cockpit at all times. Hansman says if the pilot or co-pilot of an American carrier leaves the flight deck for any reason, a flight attendant goes in.

Obama Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) that reading the Koran reminds him of “quintessentially American values.”

A CF-18 Hornet fighter jet keeps pace with the CC-150 Polaris after refuelling for the next mission over Iraq during Operation IMPACT on February 4, 2015I first wrote about the necessity of extending Canada’s military mission in Iraq into Syria in my Feb. 5 columm.In fact, I advocated removing Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from power.That would address one of the criticisms leveled against extending Canada’s mission, as many critics contend air strikes over Syria would support a brutal dictator.In that column, I also noted ISIS is a self-declared state-within-a-state that has declared war on all humanity.It is up to the...

Sepang International Circuit First Grand Prix 1999 Number of Laps 56 Race sponsor Circuit Length 5.543KM Race Distance 310.408KM Lap Record 1:34.223 by Juan Pablo Montoya (2004)