Free Republic

Our late colleague Jim Boulet last year unearthed the facts here and here and here on how the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ‘localism' schemes could shut down or inhibit talk radio. Last Thursday, Ishmael Jones, nom de plume of a former officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) clandestine service, gave his take on the danger radio ‘localism' poses to free political speech in his American Thinker article "What the CIA's Censors Can Teach Us about Plans to Muzzle Talk Radio" here. Here is Ishmael Jones on this Administration and their possible ‘localism' approach to shutting down political speech on...

HAVANA -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro demanded on Thursday that President Barack Obama return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without conditions, and he accused the new U.S. leader of supporting "Israeli genocide" against Palestinians. Castro, who had recently praised Obama as "honest" and "noble", lashed out at his administration for stating that Washington will not return Guantanamo if it has any military use for the United States and without concessions in return. "Maintaining a military base in Cuba against the will of the people violates the most elemental principles of international law," Castro wrote in a...

President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press corps Thursday night, but got agitated when he was faced with a substantive question. Asked how he could reconcile a strict ban on lobbyists in his administration with a Deputy Defense Secretary nominee who lobbied for Raytheon, Obama interrupted with a knowing smile on his face. "Ahh, see," he said, "I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here." Pressed further by the Politico...

The Venezuelan National Assembly passed a constitutional amendment allowing unlimited re-election of the president and all other elected officials that must now be submitted to referendum within 30 days. The measure is President Hugo Chavez's second attempt at seeking unlimited reelection. The constitution was amended one year after he was elected in 1998 to allow him to run for a second term in 2006. A similar referendum was defeated in late 2007. Chavez has already stated he intends running for a third six-year term in 2012 if he is allowed to legally. Recently Chavez asked the no-term-limits measure be also...

Is the United States going to put dictatorship into effect under the guise of the anti-terrorist struggle? What may trigger another major transformation in 2009? The answer is obvious: another 9/11 in the USA. Terrible and bloody events are in store for the world in the beginning of 2009. Most likely, the world will witness a reality show with a nuclear blast, which will be used as a reason for the US administration to change the world order again and leave the new Great Depression behind. There is every reason to believe that the Russian Federation may suffer as a...

And now for a world government By Gideon Rachman Published: December 8 2008 19:13 | Last updated: December 8 2008 19:13 I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible. A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already...

Candidate Barack Obama promised "change we can believe in," but he never hinted that this change would all but circumvent Congress to impose on America the most dramatic liberal social transformation since the New Deal. While promising to lead, he did not suggest that he would create a kind of "imperial presidency" that would horrify the Founding Fathers. Based on their own direct experience with a sovereign, they were rightly concerned with any one man having too much power. This is the kind of power that Obama is now reaching for, following the same kind of "stealth strategy" that helped...

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez today announced he's seeking a constitutional amendment to allow himself to seek re-election, saying he hopes to remain in power until 2021. Mr Chavez said he was directing his ruling United Socialist party (PSUV) to seek a "constitutional amendment and re-election of the president of the republic", saying he was "ready (to govern) through 2021". "I give the PSUV and the Venezuelan people my authorisation to begin the debate and take the steps necessary to obtain that constitutional amendment and re-election of the president ... and I am sure that we will get it now," Mr...

Barack Obama, who has spent much of the time since his election closeted with his advisers in Chicago, sent a strong signal today that he intends to make a decisive break with George Bush on environmental policy once he moves into the White House The move was part of a carefully coded series of messages from Obama meant to reassure America and the world about the shape of his administration, which does not assume power until January 20. Also today, Obama appointed Madeleine Albright, who served as Bill Clinton's secretary of state, and Jim Leach, a former Republican member of...

Here are a few more details about Obama's plan, which had Joseph Farah scratching his head. First is Obama's quote. "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." Now, since I've never heard anyone inside or out of government use the phrase "civilian national security force" before, I was more than a little curious about what he has in mind. . . . What does it mean? If we're going to...

CARACAS, Venezuela — As the harp and maracas ease into life, a familiar voice suddenly booms over the music: "Listen carefully. Listen carefully to the words. They say everything." In Venezuela, they're singing along with Hugo. Chavez, that is. The Venezuelan president is lending his voice to a couple of revolutionary tunes -- literally -- on a new collection of songs and poems released by his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). It's what every youngster in Caracas will want on his iPod.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A Republican congressman from Georgia is calling President-elect Obama a Marxist and warning that he might be planning to form a Gestapo-like security force so he can rule as a dictator. Two-term Rep. Paul Broun of Athens cited a July speech that has circulated on the Internet in which Obama called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

The co-chair of Barack Obama's Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he's officially sworn into office. She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to "rule" on day one. It's a word that reflects the worst fears that people have for Obama the "arrogant," the "messiah," that imagines he's here to "rule" instead of govern.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set." Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said in a telephone interview. On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials...

I must confess I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident – a wholesome presidential package. It is so instinctive for most people to want to see blacks succeed. It is as if all humanity is carrying a collective guilt for what the ancestors of blacks endured. However, despite my initial interest in him, I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness...

The 'dictator' label By Jeff Jacoby Globe Columnist / October 29, 2008 IT HAS BEEN a favorite trope of the Bush-bashers: The 43d president's power-lust is so insatiable, his disdain for constitutional checks and balances so complete, that he has fashioned himself into a dictator. Crackpots can always be counted on to say such things, of course, but even non-loonies have played fast and loose with the D-word.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Saturday to imprison his main political rival, intensifying a campaign against a man he calls a crime boss just a month before he faces tough regional elections. Opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who lost to Chavez in the 2006 presidential vote, is governor of the oil producing state of Zulia and is running for mayor of its capital Maracaibo.

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Obama's "Truth Squads" are just another name for the "Thought Police" as portrayed in Orwell's prophetic novel 1984. See link below He is a truly scary individual... My new name for him is... THE BIG BROTHER http://www.kmov.com/video/index.html?nvid=285793&shu=1

Iron My Curtain! Clintons Explore The North Korean Option Hillary Clinton, the Democrat's discarded presidential candidate and jilted vice-presidential candidate, said she's ready to take the helm of the North Korean state, pending the revelation of current leader Kim Jong Il's incapacitating sickness and/or assassination. Clinton has been meeting with current North Korean government officials, her press secretary Franklin Beaumont Walters said. "I checked her calendar," Walters said. "She's free for the next four years." Walters also indicated she was getting ready for the job of North Korean strongman by walking in high heels and watching American pornography.

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas today and threatened to halt crude exports to the US on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers. Mr Chavez today ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within 72 hours, in a move he described as an act of solidarity with Venezuela's ally Bolivia, which also expelled its US envoy. "Starting at this moment the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela," Mr Chavez said at a public event in the port city of Puerto Cabello, 120km west...

It’s time for a sober reassessment of the Russian invasion of Georgia. This is more than a Putin power play or a cynical attempt to be taken seriously by the West. This is annexation. From the Wall Street Journal: Russian troops seized control of the economically vital Georgian port of Poti Tuesday morning, a day after Moscow said it had begun pulling its forces out of Georgia. At about 9 a.m. local time, some 70 Russian peacekeeping forces entered the port grounds on seven armored personnel carriers, according to Georgian government and port officials. They detained 20 Georgian soldiers stationed...

Barbara Walters: Syrian Dictator 'Charming,' 'Intelligent' By Justin McCarthy | July 7, 2008 - 15:31 Surprise! Barbara Walters visits an anti-American dictator and returns with very nice remarks about him. Returning from the week long break on "The View" July 7, Barbara Walters described how she spent America’s birthday, and the celebration of a document denouncing tyranny, with an anti-American tyrant.While most Americans celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and barbeques, Barbara Walters spent the occasion dining with Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad, whom Walters described as "intelligent" and "charming" who wants "very much to have good relations with us." Perhaps...

"If members of Congress don't pass my health care bill - I'll whoop 'em, I'll whoop 'em. That's right, you better not mess with me, and I'll have that stick."

• Obama enacts stronger “federal hate crimes legislation” to “reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section.” • Obama creates “a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners.” • Obama, following through on his pledge to “meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe,” signs a non-agression pact with the Hitler of Iran. • Obama doubles foreign aid to $50 billion to cut “poverty around the world in half by 2015.” • Obama removes our troops from Iraq, leaving a power vacuum filled by Iran. • Obama enacts socialized medicine,...

Loving The Dictators In a recent article ["The dictators are back ... and we don’t care", The Times (London), April 27, 2008] Robert Kagan bemoans the rise of authoritarian governments in Russia and China, among other venues. His reaction is natural — and typical of the post-Soviet generation. With the victory of the Western Allies over the USSR's Communist empire in World War III (aka the "cold war"), liberal democracy über alles was the watchword of the day. Papa Francis Fukuyama told us that we were at the "end of history", didn't he? Surely, the evil idea of authoritarian rule...

HARARE (Reuters) - The results of Zimbabwe's disputed presidential election are due to be released on Tuesday, a month after the vote, now a partial recount is complete, an election official said on Monday. The wait for the March 29 election result has led to a tense standoff that has raised fears of bloodshed and drawn opposition accusations that President Robert Mugabe is trying to rig the outcome to keep his 28-year hold on power. A win for Mugabe, whose ruling party lost control of parliament in the election, would deepen the economic collapse of the once prosperous country,...

We know most of our readers need no further proof that inter -nationalist organizations such as the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the African Union (AU) are nothing more than toothless debating societies. But those few who need more convincing need look no further than Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe is stealing last month's elections in plain sight, and not one of the major talk-shops is lifting a finger to stop him. Sunday will mark three weeks since Zimbabweans voted for a parliament and president, and still the official results have not been released. The country's national election commission, appointed by Mr....

It is easy to work up a head of hate against Robert Mugabe, the cruel president of Zimbabwe. He has destroyed a beautiful country and inflicted untold suffering on his people. He has so mismanaged the economy that the country's inflation rate is over 100,000 percent – the world's highest. He has expelled the productive people from the country. Others have fled. He has given choice land and accommodations to his family of thugs. More, he is a murderer. In the early part of his reign of terror, he killed tens of thousands of the Matabele people in the south,...

CARACAS, Venezuela | President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of Venezuela’s oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a socialist revolution at home. Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another — most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia, an important U.S. ally — many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last. Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country’s state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., known by its Spanish initials PDVSA. The state oil company is...

Venezeuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops on Sunday to the border with Colombia, accusing it of pushing South America to the brink of war and likening it to Israel for its U.S.-backed attacks on militants. Chavez called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a criminal and branded his government a terrorist state, over the killing of a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil. "The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America," an agitated Chavez said, reiterating his criticism of the Israel Defense Forces' strikes on Palestinian militants. "We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the...

Michael Moore: Fidel Castro, Would be Oscars Ratings Blockbuster

Fidel Castro Steps Down...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez sent a soothing message to American motorists on Sunday, saying that Venezuela is not preparing to cut off oil shipments to the United States. The socialist leader rattled oil markets last Sunday when he threatened to halt shipments to the United States in retaliation for Exxon Mobil Corp.'s success in convincing courts in the U.S. and Europe to freeze Venezuelan assets. "We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the United States," the socialist leader said Sunday during a visit to heavy-oil projects in Venezuela's petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last...

Here is an interesting question. Have most dictators/tyrants started as populist? I got to think the populist "I'm for the people" candidates or rulers come to power promising to end the special interests, elitist control, and promise the government will do something types, when they get control they widen the scope and end up enslaving the very people they said they were "fighting" for. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Chavez, & Castro all come to mind. I welcome your input and thoughts on the subject.

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley ended his attempt yesterday to remove Maryland public schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, after he did not appear to have the political support to get rid of the successful and longtime education leader. "I definitely wasn't going to support the effort," said Delegate Jill P. Carter, Baltimore Democrat. "Think we need checks and balances, that's what we're there for." Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, made the announcement during a last-minute press conference, in which he ended his political dispute with Mrs. Grasmick by shaking hands, then telling the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to drop legislation that would...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Former Indonesian President Suharto, the U.S. Cold War ally who led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86. Suharto had been ailing in a hospital in the capital, Jakarta, since Jan. 4 when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. Finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998, Suharto's departure opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable villa on...

When I prepare to write this blog I take pride in researching the issues and where the candidates stand on them. It scared me when I wasn't able to get any substantive information on Barak Obama concerning the issues. So I visited his website, where I thought I would get detailed positions on the issues that matter to him. Instead, I found that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had more depth on the first page of his blog than the entire Barak Obama site. It sent chills down my spine to see that a dictator gave more information, on a blog no less,...

NEW YORK — Russian President Vladimir Putin was named the Time magazine "Person of the Year." Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor, said the 2007 honor went to the Russian leader "for an extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability." Others in the running for the honor included Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore and author J.K. Rowling

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for 16 months, suggested on Monday he might give up his formal leadership posts, the first time he has spoken of his possible retirement. "My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less to obstruct the path of younger people," the 80-year-old Castro said in a letter read on Cuban television.Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, handed over temporarily to his brother Raul in July 2006 after undergoing stomach surgery.Cuba's National Assembly could formalize Castro's retirement as head of state...

I just read this great piece from Hoover about this week's Hugo Chávez referendum defeat. http://www.hoover.org/research/focusonissues/focus/12132331.html The article discusses the influences that made Chavez the way he is, what the vote may mean for the country, and how Chávez has been busy antagonizing not only the U.S. but Spain and Colombia as well. Some intriguing tidbits from the article: " 'Venezuelans have just lurched back from voting the end of their own democratic system...' says Hoover senior fellow William Ratliff. 'If resistance to authoritarian populism persists, the military continues to refuse to shoot citizens in defense of flagrantly dishonest politics...

A la página de VenezuelaPress.com nos han llegado los siguientes resultados: NO: 6.534.648 SI: 5.864.560 Dif: 670.088 (5,4%)

CARACAS, Venezuela — With polls showing a tossup heading into Sunday's referendum on changing the constitution, President Hugo Chavez is rallying the faithful by portraying the vote as a plebiscite on his nine years in office. The 69 amendments on the ballot would give him vast new powers to push the oil-rich country toward socialism. But several high-profile defections in his camp, a lackluster "yes" campaign, and a surprisingly strong opposition have produced a tight race just one year after he was re-elected by a landslide. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of the capital Thursday, shouting...

Venezuelan President released another attention-catching remark about his long-time foe U.S. President George W. Bush. Chavez also attacked Spanish King Juan Carlos I, with whom he had recently come into conflict in Chile’s capital Santiago. Chavez blasted the U.S. and Spanish leaders visiting Paris and Lisbon, ITAR-TASS reports. The Venezuelan president stated in Paris that George W. Bush should be placed in an asylum for his comments about a possibility to start Third World War if Iran developed nuclear weapons. In Lisbon Chavez said that the Spanish King could not make up with the fact that Latin American countries (former...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani assured a conservative legal group Friday that if elected president he would appoint federal judges who adhere to their principles. He also praised a judge who declared the capital city's gun ban unconstitutional and ridiculed efforts to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, Giuliani spelled out a conservative legal agenda in which he cited Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as models for the judges he would appoint to the federal...

On June 1, The New York Times published a front-page article titled, ONE PLACE WHERE OBAMA GOES ELBOW TO ELBOW. The feature detailed Barack Obama's love for pickup basketball, his jersey-tugging style, even the time he hit a long game-winning shot after getting fouled. The Obama camp clearly welcomed the humanizing glimpse at Obama's life; his rivals, probably not so much. In an ordinary campaign, that might have been it. But this is no ordinary campaign--not when Hillary Clinton is a candidate. And so, the Clinton team let Times reporter Patrick Healy, who covers the Hillary beat, know about their...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's National Assembly overwhelmingly gave final approval Friday to constitutional changes that would greatly expand the power of President Hugo Chavez and permit him to run for re-election indefinitely. The assembly approved 69 amendments with all but seven of the 167 lawmakers raising their hands in favor of the changes, which threaten to spur fresh political upheaval in this oil-rich South American nation. "Today the Venezuelan people have a pencil in their hands to write their own history, and it's not going to be the history of the elite," said pro-Chavez lawmaker Earle Herrera amid applause....

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed Thursday to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely. Led by university students, protesters chanted "Freedom! Freedom!" and warned that 69 amendments drafted by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly would violate civil liberties and derail democracy. It was the biggest turnout against Chavez in months, and appeared to revive Venezuela's languid opposition at a time when the president seems as strong as ever. Students promised more street demonstrations over the weekend, but no...

Hundreds of students and state railway workers were ordered to attend demonstrations in Russia calling for Vladimir Putin to stand for an illegal third term as president, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Regional government officials demanded that schools in Tver region and railway departments in Novosibirsk provided pupils and employees to cheer for the president at Soviet-style rallies in recent weeks. Prosecutors are examining official telegrams laying out requirements for attendance at the rallies. The papers were uncovered by opposition politicians and appear to be a blatant breach of electoral law. It is unclear whether the compulsory demonstrations...

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin said Monday he would lead the dominant United Russia party's candidate list in December parliamentary elections and suggested that he could later become prime minister. The statements were the strongest indication yet of Putin's plans after he steps down as president at the end of his second term early next year. Putin is barred from seeking a third straight term as president when he steps down in March. Heading the United Russia party list in the December parliamentary vote could open the door for him to become prime minister under a new system in...