Free Republic

As the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threaten Baghdad, thousands of slaughtered Iraqis in their wake, it is worth recalling a few of President Obama's past statements about ISIS and al Qaeda. "If a J.V. team puts on Lakers' uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant" (January 2014). "[C]ore al Qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated" (August 2013). "So, let there be no doubt: The tide of war is receding" (Sept 2011). Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to...

An Edmonton woman who says she’s being discriminated against because she has 22 visible piercings is reigniting the debate about workplace dress codes. Kendra Behringer, 24, complained that one prospective employer threw out her résumé in front of her, but lawyers believe her chances of establishing discrimination are slim to non-existent, while employment and image experts say businesses are entitled to set rules on how workers dress. “The [employer] is going to perhaps wonder, ‘Will this person be able to conform to the rules that we have, or is this somebody who is more rebellious?’” said Diane Craig, president of...

Leonardo DiCaprio to Speak at State Department’s ‘Our Ocean’ Conference by Andrea Seikaly Leonardo DiCaprio is set to speak at the State Department’s “Our Ocean” conference Tuesday morning. Secretary of State John Kerry will introduce DiCaprio, who will speak immediately after a video appearance by President Obama. “I’m pleased that Leo DiCaprio is lending his powerful voice to our call to action to work together to protect the world’s ocean,” said Secretary Kerry. Kerry invited the “Wolf of Wall Street” star to the conference because of the dedication that he and his Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation have demonstrated in efforts to...

U.S. officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence on Iraq told Fox News it "appears likely/probable" that U.S.-made Stinger missiles have fallen into the hands of Sunni insurgents. [....] Iraqi intelligence officials said ISIS fighters managed to take control of two big weapons depots late last week holding some 400,000 items, including AK-47 rifles, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and mortars. A quarter of the stockpiles were quickly sent to Syria in order to help the group's comrades there, they said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is welcoming members of Congress and their senior staff to tour a temporary shelter being used to house illegal immigrant children — but the invite comes with a list of rules, including a suggestion that members leave their cellphones in their vehicles. No recording devices will be allowed (We may ask you to leave your cellphone in our vehicle) No questions will be allowed during the tour, but questions will be addressed later No interacting with staff and children at the shelter >>>We will provide photos of the facility after the tour<<<

News of poor conditions at a holding center in Arizona for undocumented, unaccompanied minors whipped Sarah Palin into a fury Friday -- so much so that she said she was on the verge of renouncing her ties to the Republican Party. She then accused President Barack Obama of orchestrating the "crisis" in Arizona in order to advance his own immigration reform agenda. "In this case, Obama’s refusal to enforce immigration laws and his blatant suggestion that his chosen illegal activity will be rewarded are proof of his tyrannical tactics," Palin wrote.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, while held prisoner in Afghanistan, was locked in solitary confinement for two straight years and did not see another human face for that entire time, senior military sources with knowledge of his "reintegration process" told Fox News. Officials said Bergdahl, during that period, only talked to his captors through the wall of a six-foot-by-six-foot metal box, in which he was kept. The box was just big enough for him to stand up straight and stretch his arms. If he was ever taken out of the box, Bergdahl was apparently hooded. Bergdahl told officials that this treatment...

Few of us are inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth, and that applies in spades to journalists running with a sensational news story. But even by normal media standards, recent reports about the bones of 796 babies being found in the septic tank of an Irish orphanage betray a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility rarely surpassed by allegedly reputable news organizations. Although the media attributed the “dumped in a septic tank” allegation to Catherine Corless, a local amateur historian, she denies making it. Her attempt to correct the record was reported by the Irish Times newspaper on...

'British comedian and actor Rik Mayall has died aged 56. He played the obnoxious, poetry-writing anarchist Rick in The Young Ones alongside his friend Adrian Edmondson. The duo later went on to star in the sitcom Bottom. A pioneer of the 1980s alternative comedy scene, Mayall also appeared in Blackadder and The New Statesman.

If you think of the United States of America as a store, its recent decisions and scandals resemble a sale, perhaps a fire sale. Or maybe even a “Going Out of Business” sale. The list of dramatic markdowns is breathtaking. They include trading away five murderous terrorists for a likely Army deserter, an open invitation to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to cross the Mexican border, and a decision to recognize the terrorist group Hamas as part of the Palestinian government. On the home front, environmental regulations will cost thousands of coal miners their jobs and drive up the...

Not sure of posting rules for the Post. But this is George Will doing what George Will does best.

Controversy has surrounded newly freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl since his release from Taliban captivity, with some in the military, including members of his own unit, claiming he is a deserter, not a war hero. But Sherry Horton knows a different Bergdahl than the one the world has come to see in the chilling proof of life videos the Taliban released. "He's a very interesting guy, he was very quiet, he was an observer," Horton said. Horton, the artistic director of Sun Valley Ballet in Idaho, said she was Bergdahl's ballet teacher and later, she became his roommate in his...

The Taliban released a video Wednesday purporting to show the moment former prisoner Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to American custody. The 17-minute video, sent to NBC News by a known Taliban spokesman, shows both sides quickly shaking hands before a clean-shaven Bergdahl is handed over.

During the 2008 election campaign, Mr. Obama made two things clear. First, that the Constitution of the United States was a reactionary document that stood in the way of socialism. Secondly, that he was going to wage war on coal.

Following takeoff from Nashville Sunday afternoon, a United Airlines passenger warned a fellow flyer that, “I kill white people like you” when she was asked to turn off her cell phone, investigators allege. The disruption on Flight 4205, which was bound for Houston, resulted in the Embraer 135’s return to Nashville’s airport, where Lashonda Lee Williams was arrested for assault.

LGBT rights just got another big push from the president himself. The White House on Friday issued a proclamation by President Barack Obama calling on Americans to eliminate prejudice “everywhere it exists,” declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

What happens when the United States announces to the world that we’ll be passing amnesty soon? Massive numbers of illegal aliens start flooding the Texas border so they can get here before amnesty is passed. Filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch has chronicled the problems along the Mexican border in his documentaries, including his latest: They Come to America II. Lynch sat down with Megyn Kelly to reveal some new information about just how bad things are getting at the Texas border. Lynch said his information, which comes from “the guys who are down there” on the border, indicates that the Border...

The five Guantanamo detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for America’s last prisoner of war arrived in Qatar today. As Brian Ross reported on ABC: “The terror group is calling their release a major victory. New video posted this morning on an Afghan news website shows the five former detainees arriving in Qatar with no sign they are under any sort of custody or guard.… They received a hero’s welcome.”

Mullah Omar, the reclusive head of the Taliban, has purportedly released a statement hailing the transfer of top five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo to Qatar. Omar says their freedom is a "great victory."The five Taliban leaders were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held by the Taliban since 2009.A copy of the statement attributed to Omar has been posted on the Taliban's Urdu-language web site.Omar thanks the government of Qatar, as well as its emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, for his help in brokering the deal and for hosting the Taliban leaders. In earlier statements, both President Barack Obama and...

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a rare public statement hailing the exchange of five Guantanamo Bay detainees for a Taliban-held US soldier as a "big victory". Mullah Omar, who has made no public appearances or speeches since fleeing Afghanistan in 2001 when US-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks in the US, said: "I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire Afghan Muslim nation." Sources close to the Taliban say that the deal took so long to negotiate because of a US desire to widen the scope of the talks. They say that this precise...