Free Republic

A Palestinian Authority lawmaker says a deal has been reached with Israel to end a hunger strike by Arab prison inmates. The announcement confirmed a statement made earlier in the day by the Hamas terrorist organization that an agreement was in the process of being formulated. Hundreds of prisoners agreed Monday to end their strike after concessions were agreed to by the two sides, according to PA Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe, who spoke with reporters. The agreement, brokered by Egyptian mediators, was reached at a prison in Ashkelon, with representatives of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and...

President Barack Obama has promised not to attack Pakistan-based al-Qaida leaders or fighters from bases inside Afghanistan. The surprising commitment effectively bars Obama and his successors from launching another nighttime helicopter raid like the one that that killed Osama bin Laden. That raid has proven to be Obama’s primary foreign-policy success because it killed bin Laden, scooped up much intelligence data and shocked Pakistan. Obama’s commitment will also end the use of secretive drone-attacks from Afghanistan. Those attacks have killed hundreds of al-Qaida leaders since the mid-2000s. They’ve also been very popular with U.S voters, and usually have had tacit...

The round of talks between the six powers and Iran over its nuclear program was held in Istanbul, and another round is scheduled in May. Despite a decade of empty dialogue, both sides have an interest in holding negotiations: Iran seeks to avoid a tightening of the sanctions against it, and US President Barack Obama wants to postpone hard decisions, at least until after the elections. Although the two sides' opening positions are far apart, it is in the nature of negotiations to bring the position of the parties closer. Both sides have a clear interest in creating the image...

In 2010, the state of Florida successfully passed legislation requiring welfare recipients to submit to a drug test in order to continue receiving governmental assistance. Since then, the state has decreased the number of applicants by 48 percent and saved just under two million dollars. It is only a matter of time before more states catch onto this age of new fiscal restraints. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has modeled this Florida law in his state. In a press release from his office on Monday, Governor Deal praised Florida for their success and defended the law in his state saying, “This...

(Reuters) - Al Gore's Current TV has bigger problems to deal with than a potential lawsuit from fired news anchor Keith Olbermann - namely not getting kicked off Time Warner Cable for low ratings. According to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Time Warner Cable Inc's carriage agreement with Current TV stipulates that, if the left-leaning political news network fails to meet a minimum threshold for overall viewers in a given quarter, financial penalties such as Current TV being required to increase marketing and promotion spending on the cable operator's systems are triggered. If Current TV misses the audience...

President Obama gave a hot mic supplication to departing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that Putin should give him more “space” and “flexibility” on such national security issues as Anti-Ballistic Missile defense. According to Obama, this will be his “last election,” after all. Of course, any mention of this eye-popping exchange outside the credentialed press will be spun by Pravda West as mere blog fodder for de-contextualized right-wing hysterics. Well, comrades, let’s at least make sure our hysterics are properly contextualized, shall we? The exposed convo between the two outgoing presidents runs as follows and was originally reported by Jake Tapper...

Running mates? Santorum campaign says Mitt Romney 'has done deal with Ron Paul' By Toby Harnden Last updated at 9:05 AM on 23rd February 2012 After Wednesday's GOP debate, in which Ron Paul and Mitt Romney repeatedly attacked Rick Santorum over his 16-year record in Congress, the former Pennsylvania hinted that something nefarious was going on. 'You have to ask Congressman Paul and Governor Romney what they've got going together,' Santorum told reporters in the spin room in Mesa, Arizona. 'Their commercials look a lot alike and so do their attacks.' Santorum's top strategist John Brabender went even further, charging...

Rumor has it that in a matter of days, after months of negotiation with big banks, the White House may announce a settlement that would let the banks off the hook for their role in the foreclosure crisis -- paying a tiny fraction of what's needed in exchange for blanket immunity from future lawsuits.

A Channel 2 report on Monday night said a deal had been worked out to legalize Ramat Gilad and prevent any future attempts at demolition. The report said five buildings slated for demolition would be moved several dozen meters, off land that Arabs dispute. In return for moving the buildings the state has agreed authorize the area as part of the city plan of Karnei Shomron, effectively turning the area into a new neighborhood for the town. The plan was reportedly worked out between Minister Benny Begin and Yesha Council head Danny Dayan. A report in Makor Rishon on Friday...

Now that the second phase of the Shalit deal has been implemented and 550 terrorist prisoners have been released, the Hamas terror group is already planning the next kidnapping. In a press briefing held on Sunday evening, the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing, Abu Obeida, welcomed the Shalit deal and called it “an achievement of the Palestinian resistance,” according to a Channel 2 News report. Abu Obeida then added, “Our wish was and still is to empty the prisons of the occupation of all the heroic prisoners. Our success in this historic deal will not cause us to never abandon...

Lawmakers reached an agreement Monday on the $662 billion Defense authorization bill they believe will satisfy White House demands to avoid a veto over the detention of terror suspects. House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders changed the bill to add a provision saying that FBI and other law enforcement’s national security authority would not be affected by provisions mandating military custody of terror suspects. A White House veto threat has been hanging over the Pentagon policy bill for the past month, but House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders said Monday the new language would address the Obama administration’s...

DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — An all-encompassing climate deal "may be beyond our reach for now," the U.N. chief said Tuesday as China and India delivered a setback to European plans to negotiate a new treaty that would bind all parties to their pledges on greenhouse gas emissions. The European "road map" toward a new accord that would take effect after 2020 is a centerpiece of negotiations among 194 countries at a U.N. climate conference in the South African coastal city of Durban. It has been presented as a condition for Europe to renew and expand its emissions reduction targets...

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that no one from the White House ever contacted him to make a political decision on a half-billion-dollar loan to a California solar company that later went bankrupt. Testifying under oath on a widening controversy, Chu said he was unaware of his staff predictions in 2009 that Solyndra was likely to face severe cash-flow problems. He said that market changes which led to a steep decline in the price of solar panels were "totally unexpected." Solyndra went belly-up after getting the $528 million loan from the government, and Chu told the House...

In an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

n an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

The writer, a veteran right wing newsman, analyzes the security aspects of the Shalit deal. They are better than the previous ones, he says, leaving moral and political considerations aside for now. Haggai Huberman The author is a noted military correspondent, a veteran reporter for Arutz Sheva and regular columnist in the Hebrew weekly BeSheva. â–º More from this writer If I were a cabinet minister, I would vote for the deal to ransom Shalit, not because it is a good one, which it most definitely is not, but because for once, just this once, this is a deal that...

Hamas has made additional last minute demands of Israel in return for freeing abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Analysts say the demands could imperil the deal or postpone its implementation. While Hamas kingpin Khaled Mashaal has boasted that all Palestinian Authority (PA) female terrorist prisoners will be freed, his organization appears to have discovered at week's end that there are more such prisoners that it thought. The number of female PA terrorists in Israel's jails is 35, not 27 as Hamas apparently believed until now. Jacqueline Alfaraja, a lawyer for the PA's Prisoners' Club, told the PA based Ma'an news...

My good friends John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson offer eulogies for the Tim Pawlenty presidential campaign today at Power Line, and as usual, they are quite insightful. Scott says that Pawlenty’s descent started when he backed down from challenging Mitt Romney in an earlier debate, and notes that Republicans in this cycle want a fighter. John laments the loss of the one candidate he thought could easily beat Barack Obama based on his record, and says that Pawlenty never got past “the first impression of him as just another guy in a suit.” Both are fair conclusions, and be sure...

As if trapped in one of those awful nightmares where we try to run from the bad guys and we find we can’t lift our feet, we continue to watch in terrific horror as our federal government fully morphs into a communist dictatorship, while we can do almost nothing to stop it. It is apparent that the communist Democrats of the Obama administration will not be checked. What unconstitutional moves will they not make? Who will restrain them? Is it possible that they could ever speak with anything other than lies? Sadly, the answers to all those questions are nothing,...

If you want less spending in the future, you will vote for Republicans next time around. If you want to continue with the big government philosophy, you'll vote Democrat. If the GOP wins the presidency, the Senate and holds the House, then we can expect a radical transformation in Washington. That is, massive spending cuts and hopefully a new tax code, which would raise far more revenue than the class warfare system we have right now. The truth is we need more revenue in America, and the far right should understand that. A New York Times editorial on Monday says:...