Free Republic

Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA, has been out pimping his book The Great War of Our Time in which he spends 47 pages massaging the issue of Benghazi. I have not read the book, but I did read his recent column in Politico. If his book is anything like his column then it is clear we still need to dig deeper as to what happened and what was done by the U.S. government. Morell did not stoop as low as Julian Castro, current HUD secretary and prospective running mate for the anointed Hillary, in his comments...

The media has noticed that new HUD Secretary and former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro has upped his public profile as the presidential race heats up. He’s not jockeying for a position in the race itself, according to analysts, but attempting to position himself as a potential running mate for the Democratic nominee — specifically, Hillary Clinton. Part of that effort apparently entails rounding up Hispanic activists to pressure Hillary into moving him to the short list in case she wins the nomination, report Politico’s Gabriel DeBenedetti and Annie Karni. Team Hillary is less than amused at the power...

No Democrats are willing to go on the record with their doubts about Hillary Clinton’s electability – not even the gaggle of hopeless, sad-sack nominal opponents for the nomination: Lincoln “metric system” Chafee, Bernie “socialism now!” Sanders, and Martin “the guy who taxed rain” O’Malley.  But a shocking potential rival is waiting in the wings. The realization is dawning on many in the jackass party that they have an unappealing, gaffe-prone, self-entitled, scandal-ridden presumptive nominee on their hands.  I called out the growing  subterranean panic three weeks ago.  Now with CNN polling revealing movement away from Hillary, the conservative...

Two Canadian siblings have been barred from leaving Malaysia after being blamed for an earthquake that struck Mount Kinabalu, in Malaysia Borneo, on Friday. According to Malaysian police reports, Lindsey Petersen, 23, and Danielle Petersen, 22, are two of five tourists who have been identified as disrespecting the mountain, considered a sacred place in the indigenous culture of Sabah. According to a Malaysian news outlet, rescuers recovered the bodies of 19 climbers ...Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan, of the eastern Sabah state, blamed the earthquake on the group that included the Canadians because they “showed disrespect to the sacred...

In the continuing scandal brewing in the Archdiocese of Ottawa, Big Blue Wave is reporting that Father Andre Samson who has been defaming Raymond Cardinal Burke on CBC Radio Canada and Twitter has now said that the Cardinal's statements on homosexuality have been "violent." "What he says against homosexuality, I find that violent." A violence that not only targets gays in the general population, but also is also directed against priests and bishops. Samson reckons that many of his fellow priests and bishops are gay. "He is just as violent towards gay priests and gay bishops, and I find that...

Addressing the crisis of culture during his first visit to Canada’s national capital, Cardinal Raymond Burke stressed that defending human life and promoting natural marriage is the foundation of any truly human culture. The West’s preoccupation with death and destruction will not be “transform[ed]” until the “truth about the conjugal union [is proclaimed] in its fullness,” he said. “The defense and promotion of human life and of marriage and the family is at the foundation of a Christian culture, and indeed, of any viable human culture,” he told about 330 people gathered at Ottawa’s Conference and Event Center to celebrate...

Touted by uninformed, opportunistic politicians, they undermine effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissionsFor today, let’s assume anthropogenic climate change (man-made global warming) is a serious environmental problem requiring effective action.Here are five myths that undermine realistic and rational responses to it, globally and in Canada.Myth 1: Carbon taxes and cap-and-trade are effective means of lowering industrial greenhouse gas emissions.Demonstrably, they are not.Norway has the world’s oldest, most sophisticated carbon tax. Government researchers concluded 13 years ago this tax, introduced in 1991, has not significantly lowered emissions.Carbon taxes are ineffective for the same reason the world’s largest cap-and-trade market --...

The Clinton Foundation’s Swedish organization raised $26 million while the Scandinavian country’s government was lobbying U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to not impose further sanctions on Iran. The Swedish business dealings with the Islamic republic were at risk from the possible new sanctions according to the Washington Times. The William J. Clinton Foundation Insamlingsstiftelse had never been screened by the State Department ethics officials despite an agreement implemented in 2009 when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. The agreement was intended to implement a transparent review system of her husband, Bill Clinton’s, fundraising and public speaking activities. The review...

Through all of Hillary Clinton's recent troubles — emails, foundation, Benghazi — Democrats have taken comfort in their all-but-assured nominee's formidable lead over top Republicans in head-to-head matchups. Now that lead is shrinking, and the Democratic comfort level is falling along with it.But it's possible Clinton's big lead was never as big as Democrats thought. Yes, some of the margins looked enormous:* A CNN poll in March showed Clinton up by 15 points over Republican Jeb Bush, 13 points over Marco Rubio, 11 points over Rand Paul, and 15 points over Scott Walker.* An ABC News poll in March showed...

LATELY I’ve been running into people even more put off by the Clintons than the nefarious operatives in the “vast right wing conspiracy” ever were. They’re called Democrats. I had breakfast with one last week. I’d quote him directly, but The Times doesn’t permit profanity. He’s furious at Hillary and Bill, because they’ve once again created all these ugly, obvious messes that they could and should have avoided. He’s disgusted, because he has come to believe that they’re tainted. He’s also resolute: He’s voting — even rooting — for Hillary. Party loyalty motivates him. On top of which, he’s...

Longtime Hillary Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal will testify this month before the House Select Committee on Benghazi behind closed doors.The committee subpoenaed him a few weeks ago after a report revealed that he had sent misleading and sometimes inaccurate emails about Libya directly to Clinton while she was Secretary of State.According to Bloomberg, the Benghazi committee will speak to Blumenthal on June 16th in a closed session.The committee will presumably grill Blumenthal on the aforementioned emails, including one that made the inaccurate claim that the Benghazi attack could be sourced back to a YouTube video in an email Clinton...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans appear to be suspicious of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s honesty, and even many Democrats are only lukewarm about her presidential candidacy, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Is she strong and decisive? Yes, say a majority of people. But inspiring and likable? Only a minority think so. Clinton’s struggles to explain her email practices while in government, along with questions about the Clinton Foundation and Republican criticism of her openness, wealth and trustworthiness seem to have struck a nerve in the public’s perception of the dominant Democratic figure in the 2016 campaign. In the survey, 61...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Requiring photo ID is “racist,” except when it’s done by Obama, the NAACP, unions, or any other liberals Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee recently announced that he wants to be the Democrats’ 2016 presidential candidate.In July 2011, Governor Chafee signed a bill that requires voters to show photo ID. In March 2012, Obama’s Justice Department blocked Texas’s voter ID requirement, claiming that it was “racist.”However, the very same Justice Department requires photo ID for everyone who enters.So let’s say that someone is denied their right to vote because they don’t have voter ID, and they...

Reflections on isolationism and foreign policy, on Decoration Day... When the field is crowded, candidates find a way to differentiate themselves. No surprise there. One way that some candidates have chosen in recent years is to set themselves apart from the “war hawks” of the other party, or even of their own party, by preaching isolationism, and by declaring that isolationism is the true heritage of our Founding Fathers. They will quote Presidents Washington and Jefferson, who warned, on occasion, of the need to “avoid entangling alliances” like those of the Old World. And they will imply that isolationism –...

TORONTO – Tim Hortons is getting a crash course in brand association as it tries to extinguish a controversy over a decision to pull ads for pipeline giant Enbridge. The company has found itself caught in a tug-of-war of loyalties between environmentalists and oil industry supporters after an online campaign to yank Enbridge commercials from its in-store Tims TV ignited a fury. Richard Bingham, a marketing professor at Humber College in Toronto, says Tim Hortons should have seen this coming. He says for years the coffee and doughnut chain has been extraordinarily protective of its brand, mostly associating itself only...

Early-state Democrats are evenly divided over whether Hillary Clinton’s campaign should be worried about recent polls showing her highest unfavorability ratings in years. Exactly 50 percent say there’s cause for concern while the other 50 percent saw no reason for alarm. [Snip] “Twenty-plus Republicans beating her up, Elizabeth Warren talking about the working man issues that terrify her, a couple of candidates like Bernie [Sanders] and Martin [O’Malley] to fill in her policy blanks and a media that feels stiffed by her lack of access, so all we can focus on is emails and the notorious Clinton Foundation and newly...

President Obama's stunning declaration that the global image of the United States has greatly improved under his administration is another example of his ideology and narcissism's blinding him to his many policy failures. During a White House event with the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, he managed to turn the subject to himself, saying, "People don't remember -- when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barely above Russia. And today, once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth." As evidence, the White House cited a Gallup poll,...

Well, this is a new one.While announcing his candidacy for the highest office in the land, newly minted Democratic presidential candidate and former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee made the bold case for … the U.S. to switch to the metric system?Bloomberg's Dave Weigel was there: Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, gave a brief and chipper address that called for America to re-engage with "international community" with diplomacy and "symbolic" moves. That meant everything from barring campaign donors from becoming diplomats, to allowing Edward Snowden to come home without punishment, to bringing America into the Metric system."It doesn't take long...

About 10 years ago, Peter Hews stumbled across some bones sticking out of a cliff along the Oldman River in southeastern Alberta, Canada. Now, scientists describe in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 4 that those bones belonged to a nearly intact skull of a very unusual horned dinosaur—a close relative of the familiar Triceratops that had been unknown to science until now. "The specimen comes from a geographic region of Alberta where we have not found horned dinosaurs before, so from the onset we knew it was important," says Dr. Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum...

Ambiguity is merely a lack of presence that is you in My Presence for Truly as Isaiah all things are made clear and concise before My Spirit. For I AM The Voice of Holiness and Virtue is My Language and there is nothing less in My Kingdom for I AM The Foundation Stone and Grace its Cornerstone. So find favor in My Presence for it is Here I desire for you to abide and " Complete Surrender " is your KEY to the Voice of Virtue calling to you "Even NOW" . . . Psalm 24:3-5 3 Who may ascend...