Free Republic

Peter Weller on Star Trek, Getting His Ph.D., and Defending J.J. Abrams by Bilge Ebiri If you saw Star Trek Into Darkness this weekend and couldn't quite place Peter Weller, the actor playing Starfleet Admiral Marcus, allow us to refresh your memory: Weller starred in two of the biggest cult films of the eighties, Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and RoboCop, as well as in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs's The Naked Lunch. He's also had supporting parts on 24, Dexter, Fringe, and House. And if that weren’t enough, the man is currently finishing up a Ph.D. in art...

Libertarian activist and radio host Adam Kokesh is hoping to get 1,000 people to march on Washington on July 4 — armed with loaded rifles. The plan, launched with a Facebook group today, is to gather on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where gun laws are lax, and then march across the bridge with loaded rifles slung over their shoulders into the District, where openly carrying weapons is generally prohibited. “This will be a non-violent event,” the Facebook group warns, “unless the government chooses to make it violent.” Already, over 200 people have said they’ll attend the march. Here’s...

Although real-life circumstances of late may prove more illuminating to them than any words could be, students at Hilo High School will receive a presentation from peace activist Jim Albertini on 'participating in a democracy'

Obama’s Amazing AchievementsHis military intervention prompted some stunning reversals. By bombing Libya, President Obama has accomplished some things once thought absolutely impossible in America:(a) War-mongering liberals: Liberals are now chest-thumping about military “progress� in Libya. Even liberal television and radio commentators cite ingenious reasons why an optional, preemptive American intervention in an oil-producing Arab country, without prior congressional approval or majority public support — and at a time of soaring deficits — is well worth supporting, in a sort of “my president, right or wrong,� fashion. Apparently, liberal foreign policy is returning to the pre-Vietnam days of the hawkish “best...

Sometimes the news is what didn’t happen. It is worth noting, then, that Joan Wile and her cadre of graying activists did not stand curbside on Fifth Avenue late Wednesday afternoon in protest against America’s wars. In mid-November, after an almost-unbroken run of Wednesday vigils going back nearly nine years, this group, known as Grandmothers Against the War, decided to call it a day. What had gotten them started, the war in Iraq, was over. While the other war, in Afghanistan, does go on, it draws ever scanter attention. That was the case even in the presidential campaign. (Headline in...

The late George McGovern is best known for his disastrous 1972 campaign for the presidency which was built around his opposition to American intervention in Vietnam. Less well known was his proposal for a military intervention just six years later.

Exclusive: Joseph Farah admits how much his youth matched that of Barack Obama I have a confession to make. It might help explain why I fear a second term of Barack Obama so much. I understand what Obama is and what he is doing because I was once like him: I am a former communist. As a youth growing up during the Vietnam War, I was influenced by some of the more extreme, anti-American opposition to that conflict and began to identify with the enemy. I became convinced the U.S. epitomized all that was evil in the world. During high...

RALEIGH -- In an odd political bedfellows moment, three North Carolina congressmen - two progressive Democrats and one religious-right Republican - joined forces Monday to urge the Obama administration to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. At an anti-war town hall meeting in the Legislative Building, Republican U.S. Rep. Walter Jones and Democratic U.S. Reps.David Price and Brad Miller sought to keep the pressure on the administration to end the American combat operations by the middle of 2013. "Our concern is that too many times, administrations will say that the date for coming home is a year from now, 18 months...

Why Israel Must Not Attack Iran By Ari Bussel There are two ways to fight an enemy’s military superiority: brut force or ingenuity. Modern Israel, the infant country, had neither the means nor the power against her Arab neighbors that sought her destruction. Greatly outnumbered, she survived against all odds. What was the secret to her success? She was driven to survive, and that was stronger than her enemies’ will to destroy her. Her enemies heard they were winning, even before the fighting started: The Egyptian army walking onto Tel Aviv, and the Jews surrendering. The Jews, however, had no...

Labor Raid: The FBI raids the Chicago home of a local union leader looking for terrorist connections as the union's former chief is investigated for corruption. Why are we not surprised? Thuggery and corruption are not quite synonyms for unionism, but it gets very close when you consider the Service Employees International Union, formerly led by Andy Stern. From being involved in fraudulent voter registration in Texas to beating up Tea Party activists outside town hall meetings in Missouri, SEIU's reputation is well-established. Now we can possibly add a linkage to terrorism. On Friday, the FBI searched eight addresses in...

The former U.N. weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to 1½ to 5½ years in state prison. Following his sentencing in Monroe County Court on Wednesday afternoon, Scott Ritter was led out in handcuffs and sent to Monroe County Correctional Facility, where he will remain until it is determined which state prison he will serve his sentence at.

Anti-war protesters plan to storm the inside and outside of the Hart Senate Office Building at 11:30 a.m. today, with the intent of causing enough havoc to shut business down. David Swanson, one of the original organizers of the October 2011/Stop the Machine protests — which is distinct from the Occupy D.C. protests in McPherson Square — explained the plan to an assembled crowd of less than 100, mainly elderly and middle-aged protesters in Freedom Square Tuesday morning. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/11/anti-war-protesters-plan-to-storm-hart-senate-office-building-at-1130-a-m/#ixzz1aU9McCBe

Seasonal anti-interventionist, Sheryl Crow, has lost her antiwar T-shirts. Or she is making hypocrisy – not war. Curiously, the singer-songwriter supported Bill Clinton when he “dispatched the military overseas forty-four times during his eight years” – a modern record, according to historian Thomas Woods. Crow also traveled with Hillary and the comedian Sinbad to the Balkans. Bill Clinton’s anti-Serb campaigns were legendary. Yet, in 2003, Crow mysteriously advocated pacifism, pleading with Bush 43 to appease Saddam Hussein, because interventionism was evil. To make her point, she strutted around in her “War Is Not The Answer” T-shirt, at The American Music...

This is my first post at Freepers. (so if I'm doing it wrong, I'm sure several thousand of you will tell me so, LOL) Where is all of the Left's Astro Turf money going, since they quit funding the Anti-War protestors? Where have the professional hacks gone? Code Pink, ANSWER, and even ELF and the likes of them? Were they just told to 'shut up and sit down' by Soros after the current Administration took over the wars? As usual, not a peep from the MSM, to include FOX on this.

“Love your enemies!” Don’t execute anyone!

All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Herman Goering Nazi Deputy for Adolph Hitler Sometimes truth comes from unexpected sources. The above quote is one such example — how propaganda is used to manipulate public opinion and get ordinary, decent, people to support the criminal policies of their government. Don’t be like the “good” Germans. Don’t be dragged along by today’s propaganda. “Terrorists” have replaced “communists” as the modern enemy. The war on terrorism...

This time it was different for David Christian. Forty years ago, he attempted to pursue a law degree upon his return from Vietnam and rehabilitation in veterans' hospitals. He'd been through hell, and the last place he expected to face more of it was in academia. --snip-- Christian said certain of the deans had disputed the existence and severity of his war injuries, many of which are not obvious. "I was asked by the administration to disrobe in front of the student body because they didn't think I was a disabled veteran," Christian said.

Kansas City police arrested more than 50 protesters this morning as they peacefully marched onto the construction site of the billion-dollar Honeywell plant that will produce parts for nuclear bombs. Police warned the protesters several times to leave, but they refused. Police said the group waited until news cameras arrived and then walked in an orderly fashion toward the plant’s gates. When company officials closed the gates, the protesters surrounded a truck that was trying to leave the property. Protesters held hands and sang hymns before going peacefully with officers. Police transported the arrestees to police headquarters using a police...

he anti-war movement was all over the news before President Obama was elected. But apparently they weren’t really anti-war ... they were just anti-President Bush. Two college professors just released a study of national protests between 2007 and 2009. What did they find? … After January 2007, the attendance at antiwar rallies [measured in] roughly the tens of thousands, or thousands, through the end of 2008. … After the election of Barack Obama as president, the order of magnitude of antiwar protests dropped [...] Organizers were hard pressed to stage a rally with participation in the thousands, or even in...

The anti-war movement was all over the news before President Obama was elected. But apparently they weren’t really anti-war ... they were just anti-President Bush. Two college professors just released a study of national protests between 2007 and 2009. What did they find? … After January 2007, the attendance at antiwar rallies [measured in] roughly the tens of thousands, or thousands, through the end of 2008. … After the election of Barack Obama as president, the order of magnitude of antiwar protests dropped [...] Organizers were hard pressed to stage a rally with participation in the thousands, or even in...

After some quiet time following last year’s departure of union bosses Andy Stern and Anna Burger, it appears the purple behemoth known as Service Employees International Union, has been quietly plotting its own Egyptian-style revolution. Given the ever-shrinking private-sector union membership ranks, as well as the realization that its political influence has shrunk as well, the SEIU’s plan is apparently to engage in a class-warfare based campaign. According to a Politico piece, SEIU’s plan (called “Fight for a Fair Economy”) and will reach outside the union movement in order to “mobilizing underpaid, underemployed and unemployed workers” and “channeling anger about...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Since 2003, the antiwar movement in the United States has had much to protest with Americans fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, but the movement—which has dropped off sharply the past two years—may be more anti-Republican than antiwar, says a University of Michigan researcher. A new study by U-M's Michael Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas of Indiana University shows that the antiwar movement in the United States demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, first with Congress in 2006 and then...

"No blood for oil" was a popular slogan chanted by the left in opposition to President George W. Bush's push to send U.S. forces into Iraq. Now that President Obama has authorized Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, I have been waiting to hear chants of "no blood for oil." I am happy to report, I don't hear them. I went to the No Blood For Oil website; its lead item opposes efforts to strike wolves from the endangered species list. In fact, as NATO forces are lobbing missiles to enforce a no-fly zone over the country with Africa's largest oil...

In 2008, Democratic voters had their pick of many candidates for president -- from Hillary Clinton to John Edwards to Joe Biden. Why did they choose Barack Obama? After all, he had less experience in office than many of his rivals. He was not as well-known. He had the potential electoral liability of being black. No one knew if he was tough enough to stand up to Republican assaults in a nasty campaign. So what accounts for his success? More than any other reason, he won because he had opposed the invasion of Iraq -- which Clinton and others had...

Cal Thomas reminds us this morning of a very different period in President Obama's career: Instead of Saddam Hussein, Obama is going after Gadhafi. Is this the same man who delivered a stem-winding, anti-Iraq war speech almost nine years ago in Chicago when he was a state senator? Here is the full text of the speech delivered by Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator, at a Chicago anti-Iraq war rally as President Bush and Congress announced their agreement on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War: Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an...

Thanks to the helpful feedback I have received over these past two, or so, years, I have seen the enormous error of my ways. I used to be against ALL wars and the use of violence, but (and I must admit a little confusion on this one, at first) now it seems that I am against wars, acts of war, and violence ONLY if a Republican is president. Now I understand with perfect clarity that it was good to protest Bush—and if the US-UN resolution against Libya was done when Bush was president, it would have been wrong—but now it’s...

So three or four of Obama's advisers, all women, wanted war against Libya.   We'd like to think that women in power would somehow be less prowar, but in the Obama administration at least it appears that the bellicosity is worst among Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power. All three are liberal interventionists, and all three seem to believe that when the United States exercises military force it has some profound, moral, life-saving character to it. Far from it.

A Communication from Operation:Countertroll to Ann Althouse and “Meade” Because of their extensive, lifelong, union freeloading (Althouse, the breadwinner of their pathetic, sexual-frustration driven “family” is an AAUP freeloader, a public sectorsecondary education freeloader, a University of Michigan freeloader, a University of Colorado freeloader and, most disgustingly to us, a University of Wisconsin Freeloader),their movement freeloading (they have greatly enhanced their reputation and socialcurrency both within her nauseating Tory brotherhood they represent and across theinternet by wandering around Madison lying about all they see) their repeated lies andgeneral commitment to irresponsible citizen-journalism (how dare they sneak around anongoing citizen protest...

Working people are under assault and the assault will continue until we put an end to it. The protests at the Capitol are showing what working people are made of. That’s the idea behind the Madison Labor Notes Troublemakers School. How do we build on the protests, protect what we have--and lay the foundation to fight for more? Led by experienced labor activists, our workshops will explore strategies to fight back and give you the hands-on skills to make it happen. The idea is not just to talk about problems for a day and then go home, but to come...

The Rotunda continues to fill up as the 4pm deadline approaches. The Ustream video showed an almost empty Rotunda 35 minutes ago. Now the Rotunda is packed.

A prominent conservative activist group has given Ron Paul the boot. The Young Americans for Freedom has voted the Texas congressman off its national advisory board in the aftermath of his straw poll win at CPAC over his positions on national security issues. Continue Reading "It's a sad day in American history when a one-time conservative/libertarian stalwart has fallen more out of touch with America's needs for national security then our current socialist presidential regime," said the group's national director Jordan Marks. The dispute between Paul and the the group seems to stem from Paul's anti-war activities and the prominence...

Even as President Obama maintains close to 50,000 troops in Iraq and continues to escalate and expandthe war in Afghanistan, the antiwar movement in America continues to shrink (PDF). So, what happened? Reason.tv visited two antiwar protests—one left-leaning, one libertarian—in an attempt to answer that question. Author and historian Thaddeus Russell and Reason Senior Editor Brian Doherty also weigh in. War, it seems, is a bipartisan venture, which is reflected by the fact that Democrats have a favorable view of Obama’s foreign policy, despite its remarkable similarity to George W. Bush’s foreign policy. And though there have been rumblings of...

George W. Bush says Harry Reid badly irritated him due to his anti-war statement about Iraq. Appearing on Fox and Friends yesterday as part of his publicity stop for "Decision Points," Bush was asked about a notorious quote of anti-war defeatism that Reid had blurted out just when the former president was about to authorize the Surge strategy in Iraq. Looking at Brian Kilmeade intensely, Bush revealed that the comments by Reid—where he infamously stated that the Iraq war was lost and the Surge wouldn’t accomplish anything—irritated him a tremendous amount. He also chastised Reid for not voicing a mere...

President Obama imagines a world without nuclear weapons, but he does nothing while fanatics in Iran build nukes. On the contrary, Obama reversed longstanding U.S. policy, promising not to retaliate with nuclear weapons against an attack using chemical or biological weapons. We do not have chemical or biological weapons, so the threat of nuclear retaliation was the most effective deterrent we had. What is the result of Obama’s peaceful imaginings? He made chemical or biological attacks more likely, while doing nothing about the ongoing nuclear threat. Liberals confuse imagining something good with actually doing something good. In this, liberals resemble...

MINNEAPOLIS — Protesters gathered outside FBI offices in Minneapolis and Chicago, bearing signs and shouting chants condemning the agency's searches of anti-war activists in both cities. About 150 people protested in Minneapolis on Monday, holding signs reading: "Stop FBI harassment. Opposing war is not a crime." Roughly 120 people marched in Chicago. Search warrants had indicated investigators were looking for connections between the anti-war activists and radical groups in Colombia and the Middle East.

Note: Photo included, Wanted poster included, audio file and transcript include, and a link to America's Most Wanted included. (See below.) # Note: The following text (minus the photos) is a quote: Headline Archives The aftermath of the attack on Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin 40 years ago this week. TERROR AT STERLING HALL 40 Years Later, Fugitive Search Continues 08/23/10 Where is Leo Burt? You can earn up to $150,000 by helping us find him. Forty years ago—on August 24, 1970—Burt and three other young men protesting the Vietnam War carried out a pre-dawn bomb attack at...

Politics: Retailer Target found itself in the bull's-eye of a boycott over its donation to a pro-business group that MoveOn.org claims is anti-gay. Target said sorry, but MoveOn won't stop. So what's the real agenda here? Already something smells funny with the leftist radicals of MoveOn.org. The group, which claims to be member-run and grass roots, seems to have full-blown rebellion on its hands over its nonstop boycott of and harassment campaign against Target Corp. Last month, the Minneapolis-based retailing giant donated $100,000 to a pro-business group called MN Forward. MN Forward in turn donated some of its cash to...

In 2008 they barricaded the recruiting office in Berkeley with the blessing of the Berkeley City Council. We at Move America Forward had all we could stomach when we heard them tell the Marines they were unwelcome, unwanted intruders, not in Iraq or Afghanistan but on American soil in Berkeley, California. Americans from across the nation joined us in Berkeley to counter-protest these anti-war hippies. Numerous times they told me they support the troops but not the war, yet over and over when I asked if they had sent care packages, phone cards, written letters, or helped the families left...

Sen. Carl Levin was hit in the face with a pie this morning at a question-and-answer session on what should've been friendly ground in Big Rapids. The Democrat from Detroit was speaking to members of the Mecosta County Democratic Party when a young man -- who described himself as a student -- began chastising Levin for his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which helps direct military and war policy. After a few minutes of speaking at Pepper's Café and Deli, a woman who accompanied the student to the event walked up to Levin and hit him in the...

Congressional candidate Joe Malone took to the airwaves last night to blast the two Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School teachers who held up an anti-war sign Friday at a school assembly. Malone, a Republican candidate in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., appeared on 96.9 FM with host Michele McPhee to discuss the silent protest conducted by D-Y teachers Marybeth Verani and Adeline Koscher. When the school's police resource officer started talking about the six seniors entering the military, the two teachers stood up, while everyone else sat, and held an "end war" sign. Verani and Koscher remained...

Last week two Massachusetts High School teachers took it upon themselves to protest against the U.S. Military as students that had announced plans to join our armed forces were receiving recognition from their school. Incensed students and parents called for the teachers to be fired. History teacher Marybeth Verani and English teacher Adeline Koscher raised signs protesting the military during the June 11 ceremony at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School interrupting the proceedings and angering the parents and their students that were being recognized. Students were upset that these teachers decided to impose their anti-American, anti-Military view on the room full...

SOUTH YARMOUTH — Some students are calling for the firing of two Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School teachers who held an anti-war sign during a school assembly Friday. History teacher Marybeth Verani and English teacher Adeline Koscher made their silent protest during the part of the assembly in which school officials recognized graduating seniors who are entering the military. "They not only imposed their political will, they imposed it at the wrong time," said D-Y junior Andrew Bowles Jr., who organized an after-school protest yesterday that drew about 30 students. Parents and other community members have flooded the high school principal's...

At an assembly honoring students who enlisted in the armed forces, teachers held up anti-war signs.

Well, isn't this fun? Here's a video of Nancy Pelosi being heckled by her own left-wing America-hating base. I guess Nancy, Harry, and Barry aren't ruining the country fast enough for these ass-clowns.

This is my part of the presentation made to more than 150 activists today outside the gates of West Point while President Obama was outlining the future course of the war on Afghanistan. The entire program will be running on www.wbaix.org after 7am Sunday, May 23, 2010.

Many conservatives still have not forgiven Walter Cronkite for editorializing in early 1969 that the Vietnam War would end in a “bloody stalemate,� encouraging the S to abandon the fight at a time when the Communists appeared ready to throw in the towel. If a recently-released FBI file is true, Cronkite may have gone farther than editorializing. According to an FBI informant, Cronkite offered advice and CBS resources to assist the anti-war activists, including a helicopter to fly Edmund Muskie to a protest that CBS would then cover: Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite allegedly collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists...

<p>WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will nominate U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to serve as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, NBC News’ Pete Williams reported late Sunday night.</p> <p>Kagan, 50, served as the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009. Obama nominated her to serve in her current post as solicitor general early in 2009, and she won Senate confirmation by a vote of 61-31. She is the first woman to serve as solicitor general of the United States.</p>

Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970. As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode. The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three...

(Boy at left is on his father's shoulders. You can guess what the shirt says about the war, when unwrinkled) (A few seconds later, guy at left tore Cheney's head off.) (Female at left was leading children in song.)

The Washington Think Tank New America Foundation has been reporting on drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq for quite some time and its tally of kills by U.S. drones reveals an interesting thing. It shows that drone kills under President Obama are far and away higher than those under Bush. Reliable numbers of those killed by U.S. drones are obviously hard to come by. Strikes are deep in unfriendly territory and subject to obfuscation by both a U.S. government that isn't too keen on reporting kills as well as its enemies that try to downplay the strikes in order...