Free Republic

His pilot's license fresh in his hands, an Indiana teenager set out in June for the adventure of a lifetime: an around-the-world flight with his father designed to break a record and raise money to build schools in his father's native Pakistan. Just days before the father and son were to return home to Indiana, the trip turned tragic when their plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean shortly after leaving Pago Pago in American Samoa on Tuesday night. The body of 17-year-old Haris Suleman was recovered, but crews were still searching Wednesday for the father, Babar Suleman. The Sulemans left...

In his commentary for Wednesday’s Opinion page, UC San Diego communications professor Gary Fields rebukes those who talk or write about what is happening in Gaza while offering “a very simple picture of Hamas as an implacable aggressor, and the state of Israel as an innocent victim of terror.” But nowhere in his essay does Fields detail why Israel has acted as it has in Gaza since it bulldozed Jewish settlements and withdrew soldiers from the 140-square-mile territory in 2005. The narrative he ridicules — of Israel feeling compelled to defend itself against a terrorist neighbor bent on Israel’s destruction...

Russia, Israel Joining Efforts to Improve International Terrorism Law RIA Novosti July 23, 2014 MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - At meetings in Jerusalem Russia’s Federation Council members, led by the council’s foreign affairs committee chairman Mikhail Margelov, raised the proposal for a unified approach to terrorism. “As lawmakers we could propose to the international organizations, first of all the UN, to finally define this term and the approach to eliminating terrorists,” Vladimir Kulakov, first deputy chairman of procedures committee and head of Russia’s delegation to the OSCE Parliamentarian Assembly, was quoted as saying by the statement. Russia’s Israeli counterparts...

Obama arrived in the Southland on Wednesday to fund-raise at an event organized by a high-profile Hollywood producer. Obama was attending a Democratic National Committee event for about 450 donors at the Hancock Park home of Shonda Rhimes, the producer of the Washington-based drama “Scandal.” Kerry Washington, who plays the lead role on the show, is among the hosts. Tickets start at $1,000. For $10,000, couples can get a photo with the president. Staying for dinner runs $20,000 per couple. ... Some people in Larchmont Village criticized the president for spending three days an a cross-country fundraising trip at this...

Articles July 24, 2014 BAGHDAD,— Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected an attempt by Iran to persuade him to step down, senior Iraqi politicians said Wednesday, underlining his determination to defy even his top ally to push for a third term in office and further exacerbating the country's political crisis. Al-Maliki has for weeks been resisting growing pressure for him to step aside, including from former Shiite political allies and from Iraq's top Shiite spiritual authority. His critics see the Shiite prime minister as too divisive to form a government that can win support from the Sunni minority against the...

Press Release – FAA Statement–FAA Lifts Flight Restrictions for Ben Gurion International Airport The FAA has lifted its restrictions on U.S. airline flights into and out of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport by cancelling a Notice to Airmen it renewed earlier today. The cancellation is effective at approximately 11:45 p.m. EDT. Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the Government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation. The FAA’s primary mission and interest are the protection...

The Communist Party of Ukraine will cease to exist on Thursday, the speaker of Ukraine's parliament announced. "We only have to tolerate this party for another day," Verkhovnaya Rada speaker Oleksandr Turchinov said on Wednesday in comments carried by online news portal Ostro.org. Discussion of the Communist Party's dissolution began in earnest in May, after party leader Petro Simonenko said that if he were in charge of the country, he would immediately call back the troops from eastern Ukraine, referring to the military operations taking place there as acts of "war against the people," RIA Novosti reported. Turchinov, who was...

Because the Kenyan squatter is in town, Tim Conway show was discussing fundraisers. Callers, who have attended fundraisers, were phoning in and telling what happens at the events. Here is the best anecdote. A young cadet from Cal State Fullerton was there with other cadets as part of the Honor Guard. When Reagan greeted them, he asked the cadet his name and was open to a question from him. The cadet said, "Can I ask anything?" The President said he could. So the cadet said (paraphrasing) - Cadet - Mr. President, do you remember when you were doing a sound...

by Brian Hayes | Top Right NewsA Texas State Senator revealed to radio host Laura Ingraham that we have an army of illegal alien gang members in Texas. His estimate was well over 100,000.On Monday, State Senator Dan Patrick , also Republican candidate for Lt. Governor of Texas, dropped a bombshell to Laura Ingraham. He stated that between 2008 and 2012 there were over 143,000 illegal aliens arrested for committing crimes in Texas. These are not run-of-the-mill criminals. “…hardened criminals, gang members, and other criminals that we identified as being in Texas illegally.”“We charged them with 447,000 crimes, a half-million crimes in four years, just in Texas, including...

A relative of an elderly Omaha woman who was raped and killed last year said Saturday that the brutal crime may have been prevented if the United States strictly enforced immigration laws. “What we’d like to have is the federal government to secure our borders,” said Bill Hartzell, 60, of Council Bluffs. “There’s a chance my grandmother would be still alive if our borders were secured.” Hartzell is the husband of Teresa Hartzell, a granddaughter of 93-year-old Louise Sollowin. Sollowin died three days after Sergio Martinez- Perez, a Mexico native in the U.S. illegally, broke into her South Omaha home,...

For the first time since an unprecedented diplomatic rift among Gulf powerhouses, Qatar's emir flew to Saudi Arabia late on Tuesday in a surprise visit and met with King Abdullah to discuss cease-fire efforts that have yet to bring an end to 15 days of war in the Gaza Strip. A senior Saudi official told The Associated Press that Saudi Crown Prince Salman, and Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin also attended the meetings with Qatar's Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in the coastal city of Jeddah. King Abdullah's security adviser Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the king's son who heads the...

In Torez, some say missile's journey through town has been a hot topic but people are scared of talking to outsidersClaims by pro-Russia separatists in east Ukraine that they have never been in possession of the missile launcher apparently used to down flight MH17 are looking increasingly flimsy, as several witnesses told the Guardian they had seen what appeared to be a Buk missile launcher in the vicinity of the crash site last Thursday. The sightings back up a number of photographs and videos posted online that put the Buk system close to the crash site on the day of...

Jake Tapper ✔ @jaketapper Follow AIPAC says FAA "decision appears overly harsh and excessive." Because local armed conflicts would never bring down a passenger jet? 2:40 PM - 23 Jul 2014 Jake Tapper ✔ @jaketapper AIPAC says FAA "decision appears overly harsh and excessive." Because local armed conflicts would never bring down a passenger jet? Amanda Carpenter @amandacarpenter Follow @jaketapper Flights are still going to all kinds of dangerous places. Makes sense to ask how/why the decision was made.

Rick Perry explained why Texas had to act

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has offered to house an additional 5,000 undocumented children coming across the border into the U.S. and to extend the leases of three bases while the federal government seeks to determine their status.

Since O is back in town, Timmy was asking his audience if anyone had ever been to one of these costly meet and greet fundraisers and met any of our Presidents. I'm going in and out of the room with the radio on, so I didn't catch the beginning of this one call, but the woman had been to one for Ronald Reagan. When she got her chance for the quick one-on--one moment with President Reagan, she asked him about the recent time when, at a sound check for a public event, he made that crack about dropping the bombs...

Gov. Terry Branstad told The Carroll Daily Times Herald his counterpart in Nebraska is on the right track with a demand to the federal government for identifying details on the unaccompanied, undocumented children who crossed the nation's borders, most from Central America, in the last year and ended up in Nebraska. Branstad said he is outraged by what he described as a lack of communication from the White House on the situation. "I find out through the Omaha World-Herald," Branstad said. "There's no transparency, there's no openness, they never told us. This is not the way the government of the...

President Obama has said most of the undocumented children in the U.S. from Central America will not be allowed to stay. The process of deciding which ones will stay and which ones will go is often decided in court, but Tuesday, 18 of 20 undocumented children failed to show up to their first immigration hearing in Dallas federal court. The judge could have issued immediate deportation orders as far as Tuesday’s no-shows are concerned, but he chose not to, and reset the hearing for next month instead.

Jim Jordan EXPLODES On Irs Commissioner John Koskinen. Commissioner John Koskinen testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) response to congressional oversight and investigation into alleged targeting of conservative groups.

ABU DHABI — Qatar could face Gulf Cooperation Council sanctions amid its support of Hizbullah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Officials and analysts said Qatar could be penalized by the GCC for Doha’s support of groups deemed threats to the region. The officials said the sanctions could include the closure of borders by Qatar’s neighbors. “Qatar could face sanctions imposed by the Gulf countries, including the closing of borders with Qatar, and air space to it if Doha doesn’t stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood,” Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a leading United Arab Emirates analyst, said. On March 4, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and...

Russian soldiers VK-page shows RUSSIA is shelling Ukraine with heavy artillery Valdimir Petrov @_hedder found evidence of a Russian artillery unit shelling Ukrainian positions from Russian territory, because a soldier from this unit is posting photos on his VKontakte page (the Russian Facebook). Or course immediately after discovering this, his page has been deleted. But the info is still here: "all night we were cannoning Ukraine"

The OC Weekly has reported that a woman who was under arrest was taken for late term abortion at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) abortion clinic in Long Beach. Following her visit to FPA for the 20 week abortion the prisoner suffered an incomplete abortion and had to be hospitalized. The botched procedure was performed in 2012 but is only coming to light after the Orange County District Attorney’s Office published their investigative report on the death of the fetus. From the story: On March 13, 2012, Huntington Beach police arrested a woman identified in the report as...

A 48-second YouTube video catching the swift reactions of a Sitka float plane pilot went viral this past week. KCAW tracked down the pilot and the man who took the video to bring us the full story of how a routine flight in Southeast Alaska made waves on news programs and websites around the world.

(CNSNews.com) - Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday called out the IRS on holding back information regarding lost emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner, telling the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a House Subcommittee for Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Regulatory Affairs on Capitol Hill, “You guys were never going to tell us until we caught you.” At the hearing titled, “An Update on the IRS Response to its Targeting Scandal,” Jordan explained the timeline of events in the ongoing IRS investigation, citing how Koskinen knew about the missing emails in April yet waited until June 13, 2014 to...

We're no longer a nation of laws, we're a nation of men, specifically those men who were the first to figure out legitimacy is no longer a serious constraint, and there are no other constraints. Absent legitimacy it's a sprint to whatever irreducible power center presents itself. As in any other no-rules fight, the violent prevail over the peaceful and the homicidal prevail over the violent. This isn't mere looting, major assets, even national assets, are in play. Mexico for example, one of the most violent countries on earth, is conquering—not merging with, conquering—the southwestern US. National borders are always...

The researchers traced 95 percent of canvas fingerprinting scripts back to share buttons provided by AddThis, the world’s largest content sharing platform.One in 18 of the world’s top 100,000 Web sites track users without their consent using a previously undetected cookie-like tracking mechanism embedded in ‘share’ buttons. A new study by researchers at KU Leuven and Princeton University provides the first large-scale investigation of the mechanism and is the first to confirm its use on actual Web sites. The mechanism, called “canvas fingerprinting,” uses special scripts — the coded instructions that tell your browser how to render a Web site...

While President Obama decries gun violence and presses for more laws to restrict ownership, his Justice Department has prosecuted 25 percent fewer cases referred by the main law enforcement agency charged with reducing firearms violence across the country, a computer analysis of U.S. prosecution data shows. Federal prosecutors brought a total of 5,082 gun violation cases in 2013 recommended by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, compared with 6,791 during the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2008, according to data obtained from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. The 2013 totals represent a 42 percent...

Why Would All These People Lie About Pope Francis? Steve Skojec7/19/2014   In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening...

The all-clear had sounded in Nir Am quarter of an hour prior but soldiers were still walking the kibbutz's paths in helmets and full combat gear on Monday morning. The fact that two Hamas attack teams had emerged from a tunnel exit only a few hundred meters away from the fence and in the ensuing firefight killed four soldiers, including a battalion commander, before they were killed themselves, was hard to shake off. For three hours the members of the kibbutz and guests at the small motel (mainly journalists) had to remain indoors while the soldiers made sure no Hamas...

Earlier in July, German politicians said they were considering going back to old-fashioned manual typewriters for confidential documents, in order to protect national secrets from American NSA spooks. Patrick Sensburg, chair of the German parliament’s inquiry into alleged NSA spying, said committee members are considering new security measures and are seriously thinking about abandoning email and returning to old school typewriters.

Lois Lerner has become the personification of the IRS targeting scandal.Which brings us to her infamous hard drive crash. Recall that the new IRS Commissioner first told Congress that all of Lerner’s emails were recoverable and would be provided to investigating committees.Sharyl Attkisson has a nice rundown of this explanation. Friday’s revelation that the IRS “lost” Lois Lerner’s emails in a computer crash came ten months after Congress first requested them and seven months after they were first subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee. But what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified about the emails at a hearing in March appears...

He is not Catholic, but Pentecostal, a part of those Christian communities which are in breathtaking expansion all over the world. Little by little the pope is meeting with their leaders. From rivals he wants to become friends, to the point of asking their forgivenessROME, July 23, 2014 – When the news got out, and was confirmed by Fr. Federico Lombardi, that Pope Francis intended to make a private visit to Caserta to meet with a friend, the pastor of a local Evangelical community, the city's bishop, Giovanni D'Alise, was thunderstruck. He hadn't been told a thing. Moreover, the pope...

Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 12:11 am By Andrew Creasey/ acreasey@appealdemocrat.com Sutter County is now an official supporter of the movement to secede from California and create a new state called Jefferson. The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday supporting a declaration and petition to the Legislature to redress a lack of representation and for the possible formation of a new, separate state. The resolution also reserved the right to place the issue to a vote of Sutter County citizens at a future election. As in past supervisor meetings when the issue was on the agenda, the...

In an interview recorded Wednesday with CNN’s Becky Anderson (@beckycnn), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of being a “terror state,” saying that the country’s operation in Gaza was “creating a wave of terror.”Erdogan also denied that the governments of Turkey or Qatar were involved in the funding of Hamas’ terrorist activities, saying the only support his country is offering to the people of Gaza is humanitarian.“Qatar’s cooperation with Turkey has always been to be on the side of the persecuted and to support them through humanitarian aid. This is what’s being done.”

An Iranian judge sentenced a Christian man to have his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, The Daily Mail reported. The barbaric punishment was carried out in public in a square in the city of Kermanshah. Five other Muslim men were also flogged in public with 70 lashes for not fasting during Ramadan, the city’s deputy governor Ali Ashraf Karami said. […] At least 49 Christians were among 307 religious minorities being held in Iranian jails as of January 2014, noted the UN, which also criticized the regime for...

President Barack Obama has sent a team to Texas to assess whether a U.S. National Guard deployment would help to handle an immigration crisis at the Mexican border, White House officials told Reuters on Wednesday, having so far resisted Republican calls for such a move. The team, made up of officials from the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, departed on Tuesday and will be on the ground through Thursday.

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Israel would not stand by while Qatar, which paid for the UN official’s private flight to the Middle East, continued to finance Hamas militants, and took Ban to task for the two UN-run schools found to be housing Hamas rockets in Gaza. In his last full day in office, Peres, a historically dovish leader, struck a defiant tone in a statement delivered to the media after meeting Ban at the President’s Residence, in Jerusalem. “Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and...

President Obama has said most of the undocumented children in the U.S. from Central America will not be allowed to stay. The process of deciding which ones will stay and which ones will go is often decided in court, but Tuesday, 18 of 20 undocumented children failed to show up to their first immigration hearing in Dallas federal court. That’s an unusually high number that raises concerns that it could be a trend.

Beijing (AFP) - Beijing on Wednesday closed the first of four large coal-fired power plants that are set to be shut down as part of efforts to curb its choking air pollution, media reported. The 50-year-old Gaojing Thermal Power Plant is to be replaced with a gas-fired power station, one of four that is to be built as the Chinese capital aims to boost its reliance on cleaner energy, Xinhua news agency said. The other three major coal-fired power plants in Beijing will be closed by 2016, the state-run agency added. A five-year plan was introduced in the city last...

This brief preview of “Politics Unplugged” gives a hint of the tone of the debate between conservative Attorney General Tom Horne and challenger, Mark Brnovich, recruited by establishment power brokers. Sticking to his script, Brnovich talks about “allegations,” and continually talks over Attorney General Tom Horne. In this TV 3 clip, Horne asks Brnovich, who has referred to himself as a “principled conservative,” why he “contributed to Pete Rios, the leading left-wing champion of illegal immigration, who actually had a bill to give licenses to illegals.”

An Edmond teenager faces a possible life in prison sentence after authorities say they learned about shocking crimes he allegedly committed on an African mission trip. The suspect was volunteering at a Kenyan children’s home when he allegedly raped and molested a number of young children. According to court records, 19-year-old Matthew Durham confessed to raping several young girls, forcing some boys to perform oral sex on him and even making other kids watch. “This is a young man in our community that made choices to exploit children in an orphanage,” said United States Attorney Sanford Coats. “It’s a...

Dead heat. That's what Wisconsin is staring at in the race for governor, with Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke neck-and-neck heading into the November election, according to the latest Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday. Among registered voters, Walker led Burke, 46% to 45%. Among likely voters, Burke led Walker, 47% to 46%. "The bottom line is that nothing has statistically changed from May to July," said Charles Franklin, the poll director. "We're seeing a dead heat in the race, well within the margin of error." "As the race really heats up with advertising and back...

Long Guns Turned In at Phoenix event in May, 2013 There will be a gun turn in event on 26 July, 2014 in Baltimore City, Maryland.  While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term "buyback" the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them. The location for the event will be at the New All Saints Catholic Church in the 4400 block of Liberty Heights Avenue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The event offers a $100 gift card for turning in guns.   From wbaltv.com: get a $100 gift card to ShopRite. Officials said no...

We’ve grown accustomed to senseless liberal logic insinuating that anything that has to do with the color spectrum is somehow racist or racially charged, however; the most recent attack by The Guardian filth-spiller, Tracy van Slyke, is so stupid it just made me chuckle. Check out what she said about the demonic Thomas the Tank Engine. From The Guardian: �For the record, all the “villains” on Thomas and Friends are the dirty diesel engines. I’d like to think there was a good environmental message in there, but when the good engines pump out white smoke and the bad engines pump...

A Massachusetts teenager charged with raping and murdering his teacher last year after following her into a bathroom followed a chillingly similar plan when he attacked a female jail counselor last month in the youth detention center where he was being held, authorities say. Chism's attorney, Denise Regan, did not challenge the bail or conditions of bail. She asked that her client be excused from his next scheduled court appearance on September 19 because of the stress it causes him.

After the Federal Aviation Administration extended its ban on U.S. flights to Israel for another 24 hours Wednesday following reports of Hamas rockets falling close to the Tel Aviv airport, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a statement suggesting the decision had motives outside of just protecting the safety of American travelers. Asked about his statement at a briefing this afternoon, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf called his comments “ridiculous and offensive.” “Did President Obama Just Launch an Economic Boycott of Israel?” Cruz asked on his website, before answering his own question affirmatively. “The facts suggest that President Obama has just...

Islamic Jew-hatred and genocide — it’s an Islamic imperative.What Rabbi or Priest ever talks this way? Islam is not like other religions. “Jihadi cleric calls for Muslim fighters to join the fighting in Gaza,” J Post, July 23, 2014“Our heart yearns to arrive and fight the sons and brothers of the apes and pigs,” says rebel fighter. isis caliphate,”A new jihadi media outlet called Al-Fawaris released a video calling on Gazans to endure the military operation, saying that victory looms and that Muslims all over the world support them.According to a report published on Monday by the MEMRI (Middle East...

Growing Strong in Faith Today's Scripture "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God." (Romans 4:20, ESV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria In scripture, Abraham’s circumstances were beyond his control. He was way too old to have a child, but God promised him that he would have a son. What did he do while he was waiting? Scripture says, “He grew strong in faith by giving praise to God.” He got up every morning and said, “Lord, thank You for Your faithfulness. Thank...

Rep. Wolf from Virginia made a speech yesterday at the House of Representatives in which forewarned the country on the current genocide of Christians in Iraq. He stated:Mr. Speaker, the international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.It says:Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the...