Free Republic

Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp issued a challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday: Adopt the same calorie restrictions and menu standards in the department’s cafeterias as the USDA now requires in the nation’s public schools. While students pick at their vegetables, USDA’s cafeteria menus are loaded with unhealthy options for government employees — from pesto chicken pizza to BLTs with cheddar cheese, Cuban pork paninis to Philly steak subs, cheeseburgers to French toast. (Snip) The Kansas Republican — who has introduced legislation with Iowa Republican

The Republican leader of the state Senate said Friday he expects recall elections to proceed against three of his colleagues, despite challenges they made to thousands of signatures on petitions seeking their ouster from office. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he is hopeful, though, that his election can be blocked through the challenges he made to the Government Accountability Board on Thursday. As for the others, Fitzgerald said, "They're not even close." Fitzgerald was the only one of the four who clearly challenged more than enough signatures to void an election. But whether to reject the signatures is up to...

Just a few months ago, FOX News reported on polling data which suggested that "[i]f Americans could cast a 'confidence' vote in the style of European parliaments, President Barack Obama would not fare well. A 56-percent majority would give his administration a vote of 'no confidence.'" Ample evidence abounds for Americans to have no confidence that the economic justice activist-turned-politician is working out for the good of the country. Even at the most fundamental level, doubt remains as to whether the man occupying the White House is constitutionally eligible for the job.

The D.C. area earthquake caused a huge scare in some of the major political centers of the nation, and, Sean Hannity argued, that “crisis” has already been adopted as a talking point by liberals to call for more spending on infrastructure. Citing Rahm Emanuel’s famous “never let a crisis go to waste” quote, Hannity and panelist Mercedes Viana Schlapp challenged Kirsten Powers to explain where the infrastructure came from and dispute the dubious claim that Democrats “get away with” more name-calling than Republicans. Hannity began the segment on the infrastructure point, which Powers explained

Thank Joshua Green of the Atlantic, who recently profiled Cain, for digging this up. I’m not sure if the clip was considered “lost,” exactly, but I’d never seen it before and a quickie YouTube search of “herman cain bill clinton” reveals nothing on point until Green uploaded this yesterday. He writes, “If this video goes viral among conservative activists, Cain’s candidacy will be even more interesting to watch.” Let’s see what we can do about that. This takes awhile to get hopping but stick with it for his rebuttal to Clinton at around five minutes in. You’re not watching for...

A New Orleans law firm is challenging government assurances that Gulf Coast seafood is safe to eat in the wake of the BP oil spill, saying it poses “a significant danger to public health.” It’s a high-stakes tug-of-war that will almost certainly end up in the courts, with two armies of scientists arguing over technical findings that could have real-world impact for seafood consumers and producers. Citing what the law firm calls a state-of-the-art laboratory analysis, toxicologists, chemists and marine biologists retained by the firm of environmental attorney Stuart Smith contend that the government seafood testing program, which has focused...

The first family should publicly submit to the new scanning device and "enhanced" pat-downs before requiring Americans to do the same, suggested rumored Republican presidential hopeful and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee while blasting President Obama this morning over controversial new airline security measures.(snip) "'If it's OK for your wife, your daughters, and your mother-in-law, then maybe the rest of us won't feel so bad when our wives, our daughters and our mothers are being put through this humiliating and degrading, totally unconstitutional, intrusion of their privacy.'"

Democrats have filed their first legal challenges before polls even closed on Election Day, asking for an extension of voting hours in Connecticut and questioning the denial of provisional ballots in Illinois. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCCC), told reporters at party headquarters that officials had gone to court in two states. In Connecticut, the party has asked for a one-hour extension of voting in Bridgeport, a Democratic stronghold where turnout was reported so high that officials ran out of ballots, Menendez said. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) is battling Republican Linda...

Read reports on the files at:Der SpiegelThe New York TimesThe GuardianIntro by Der Spiegel:Close to 92,000 US documents have been uncovered that shed new light on the war in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. They expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush. A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in...

About a half-dozen civil rights groups have asked a federal court to block Arizona from implementing its new law cracking down on illegal immigration until a ruling is made on its constitutionality. The groups' late Friday filing argues that delaying the scheduled July 29 implementation of the law would discourage other states from enacting similar legislation until the constitutionality issue is resolved. Other states including Texas, Utah and Minnesota have talked about passing laws similar to Arizona's, which requires police enforcing other laws to check immigration status if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. The groups that made...

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2010 – Stability in Afghanistan is no longer on the decline, and most Afghans believe that despite increased violence, security actually has improved since this time last year, according to a new report Pentagon officials sent to Congress today. The congressionally mandated Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan attributes the 87 percent increase in violence from February 2009 to March 2010 largely to increased U.S., coalition and Afghan national security force activity, particularly into areas where they previously had not operated. The report, which covers the situation on the ground from Oct. 1 to...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., April 22, 2010 – With a cocky grin and larger-than-life presence, Cornelius Madison commands attention when he walks down the high school hall here, always with a hint of a swagger. From left, Darien Crank, Chelsea Jarvis and Cornelius Madison head to class at Fort Campbell High School on Fort Campbell, Ky., April 15, 2010. DoD photo by Elaine Wilson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Bumping fists and cracking jokes, Cornelius seems impervious to stress or worry. It’s only when discussing his deployed mother in an interview does he reveal a small chink in his otherwise...

KABUL, March 31, 2010 – After visits to U.S., coalition and Afghan forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today that “never has our partnership … been stronger, or the challenges we face, clearer.” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen completed a rigorous three-day visit to Afghanistan that took him to the region of the recent offensive in Marja in Helmand province. Mullen also attended a “shura” – a meeting of community leaders -- at the governor’s palace in downtown Kandahar. In central Helmand, Mullen saw the results of the offensive. Though combined...

WASHINGTON - Scott Brown’s Senate victory Tuesday sent shock waves through the Massachusetts congressional delegation, many members of which saw key communities in their districts vote overwhelmingly Republican.....Gleeful Republican strategists said three House members looked particularly vulnerable after the strong Republican turnout for Brown in their districts: Niki Tsongas of Lowell, James McGovern of Worcester, and William Delahunt, of Quincy.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2010 – Kelly Henry was hoping for a picture-perfect reunion when her husband returned after a yearlong deployment to Iraq. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Michael Henry, his wife, Kelly, and four children enjoy a Hawaiian holiday vacation. Henry, a family medicine doctor, had returned home to his family Dec. 2, 2009, after completing a yearlong deployment in Iraq. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But what she got was far from a Hollywood scene. “All four [of my kids] cried within 48 hours of my husband coming home,” said Henry, wife of Army Lt. Col....

GENEVA, October 16, 2009 -- Today's emergency UN Human Rights Council debate on the Goldstone Report predictably saw a line-up of the world's worst abusers condemn democratic Israel for human rights violations. In a heated lynch mob atmosphere, Kuwait slammed Israel for “intentional killing, intentional destruction of civilian objects, intentional scorched-earth policy,” saying Israel “embodied the Agatha Christie novel, 'Escaped with Murder'.” Pakistan said the “horrors of Israeli occupation continue to haunt the international community’s conscience.” The Arab League said, “We must condemn Israel and force Israel to accept international legitimacy." Ahmadinejad’s Iran said “the atrocities committed against Palestinians during...

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2009 – The United States continues to face severe security and governance challenges in Afghanistan this year, but U.S. efforts remain fixed on defeating extremism and boosting the Afghan government. That’s the conclusion drawn in the latest Pentagon assessment of U.S. achievements and setbacks in Afghanistan. Congress requires the so-called “1230 Report” every 180 days. The report released today covers the first half of 2009, a period during which President Barack Obama’s administration assessed the multinational effort in Afghanistan, unveiling a new strategy in late March. The strategy has yielded the appointment of a new top U.S....

After his reelection as Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extends an invitation to his American counterpart Barack Obama for a debate before the eyes of the world. Addressing Iranian heads of medical universities on Saturday, President Ahmadinejad offered to debate President Obama at the United Nations headquarters in New York before the eyes of all nations of the world. President Ahmadinejad had previously urged a debate with former US president George W. Bush. The Iranian president wrote an 18-page letter to President Bush in 2006 that touched on religious values, history and international relations. The letter was viewed as an offer...

The Obama administration’s disputes with government watchdogs do not end with fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Behind the scenes, the Treasury Department is embroiled in a disagreement with Neil Barofsky, the watchdog for the $700 billion government bailout Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The dispute was revealed in a letter that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent on Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, first reported by the Los Angeles Times’ Peter Wallsten.

WASHINGTON – A White House document says EPA regulation of the gases blamed for global warming will have serious economic consequences throughout the U.S. economy. The document is a compilation of opinions from numerous federal agencies about the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health. It was released Tuesday by Republican senators. The nine-page document says that if the EPA proceeds with the regulation of heat-trapping gases, factories, small businesses and institutions would be subject to costly regulation.