Free Republic

As we approach the presidential election, you really cannot blame my neighbor Denise. The same way you cannot fault someone who has been kidnapped for cooperating with her captors because she fears that her life and future hang in the balance. Denise, of course, is not a kidnapping victim, but the Republican Party strategists have used fear and false promises in an analogously manipulative manner to get her on their side — even when it means voting against her best interests. This is not my analysis, but a phenomenon of human behavior diagnosed by psychologists and that’s known as “Stockholm...

The US insists that the death of an American ambassador and three others in Benghazi resulted from a riot spinning out of control over a cheesy YouTube video. The Libyan government insists that the operation that sacked the consulate and assassinated the four diplomatic personnel was a well-planned plot that exploited the rioting. Who to believe? Whatever you think, don’t bother asking the State Department, because they have told the media they’re done discussing it: The State Department told reporters Friday afternoon that it won’t answer any more questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that...

The patriots in Englewood Florida were excited and fired up when our Tea Party Express tour bus rolled into their town. Our rally was enthusiastic, upbeat and hopeful that real leadership needed to move America forward will be restored in November. Unlike the Democrats who have accused our troops of being rapists and murders, Tea Party Express celebrates and honors our military. Each of our rallies ends with a military tribute in which we feature Gold Star Mom, Debbie Lee. Debbie's decorated son, Marc Alan Lee, was the first U.S. Navy seal killed in Iraq. At our rally in Englewood...

CNN's Candy Crowley: What we know is, of course, Iran is allowed under agreements, international agreements, to go ahead and do what it's doing because there are legitimate peaceful purposes for enriching this uranium -- Benjamin Netanyahu: You think so? You think so, Candy? That's like -- let me. It's not legitimate. This is a country that talks about, denies the Holocaust, promises to wipe out Israel, is engaged in terror throughout the world. It's like Timothy McVeigh walking into a shop in Oklahoma City and saying, 'I would like to tend my garden. I'd like to buy some fertilizer.'...

Seriously? Why doesn't he just stand on the caskets?

Barbara Boxer, a top Jewish U.S. senator and the sponsor of major pro-Israel legislation, blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lashing out at President Obama on Iran. “I write to you as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress to express my deep disappointment over your remarks that call into question our country’s support for Israel and commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a letter sent Wednesday in a rare instance of a pro-Israel lawmaker making public an unhappiness with an Israeli leader. “Your remarks are utterly contrary to the extraordinary United States-Israel...

Also happening: Militants Storm International Peacekeeping Base in Sinai Enraged Muslims in the Sudanese capital Khartoum stormed the German embassy there, setting it partially on fire and raising an Islamist banner. The British embassy was also attacked, according to the BBC. The German foreign ministry confirmed all its staff in Khartoum were safe. One person was killed in Lebanon, and five were hurt in Cairo. There were also clashes in Yemen, Tunisia and Jerusalem. In Cairo, police fired tear gas at about 500 protesters, pushing them back from the US embassy. The streets nearby have been blocked with barbed wire,...

MSNBC Analyst: Romney Appealing To “Racially Resentful Whites”… Bonus: Tingles goes on yet another “Republicans are racist” rants.

Before Texans head for the polls in November, the state wants to know one thing: Are you dead? Election officials are sending letters to thousands of voters asking them to verify they are alive, in compliance with a 2011 law requiring officials to cross-reference the voter list with the social security death list, the Austin Statesman reported Thursday. So-called notices of examination are going out to 77,000 of the state's approximately 13 million registered voters. Because of the size of the "master death file" — with 89 million entries — the Social Security Administration "does not guarantee its accuracy," the...

......A Chicago Teachers Union news release late Saturday said the agreement includes: ◆ Raises of 3 percent, 2 percent and 2 percent over the next three years, with the option to extend the deal to four years “by mutual agreement” with another 3 percent raise. ◆ Preservation of extra “step’’ increases based on experience, with new increases in the three highest steps. ◆ The hiring of 600 additional teachers in art, music, physical education,world languages and other so-called “special’’classes. ◆ The requirement that teachers be allowed to “follow their students” to other schools if the teachers school is subject to...

From the Christian Post: Just two months ahead of the November presidential election, Pastor Rick Warren said Sunday that Christians should gain courage and not apologize for voting in accordance with their worldview. "You don't need to apologize for voting for a Christian worldview which stands up for the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex and the sanctity of marriage. You don't need to apologize for that because everybody votes what they believe," Warren told thousands of Saddleback Church attendees at the launch of a new sermon series. The Southern California pastor said those three issues (life, sex, marriage)...

Hopes that deaths of four US diplomats won't be the last The United States is positioning military forces so that it can respond to unrest in as many as 17 or 18 places in the Islamic world, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced late Friday. "We have to be prepared in the event that these demonstrations get out of control,” he said. Those words dashed hopes in Washington that the anti-US Islamist rampage by now sweeping 21 countries over a video deriding Islam had passed their peak. In fact, by their sixth day Saturday, Sept. 15,the street protests against American embassies...

Ronald Reagan clashed with Libya and its dictator Moammar Gadhafi for the first time over 30 years ago. The details of that encounter must be revisited —particularly President Reagan’s sense of resolve and clarity of purpose— as once again President Obama’s foreign policy grapples with the anti-American sentiment and attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in the Middle East. ... More than that, the Joint Chiefs of Staff established new rules of engagement for the U.S. fleet, which Reagan quickly approved. The rules stated that if U.S. forces were fired upon, they could fire back immediately, without seeking layers of approval....

The Wall Street Journal POTOMAC WATCH September 13, 2012, 7:10 p.m. ET Mr. Romney, Trust Your Pants Obama tells Americans the terrible things the Republican will do to them. The Republican remains silent about what he would do. By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL In the classic 1968 film "Once Upon a Time in the West," a villainous Henry Fonda shoots one of his lackeys, in part for the sin of wearing both a belt and suspenders. How do you trust a man, muses Fonda, who "can't even trust his own pants?" Mitt Romney is slipping in the polls because, when it...

A citizen, whose nephew attends Brevard Community College, reports that he brought home the below bookmark pledging to vote for President Obama. The bookmark and pledge was handed out during a mathematics class taught by Assistant Professor Sharon Sweet. This occurred “while the student was in class at the request of his College Algebra teacher, Sharon Sweet, from Brevard Community College in [Melbourne] Florida.”

Benghazi, Libya (CNN) -- Three days before the deadly assault on the United States consulate in Libya, a local security official says he met with American diplomats in the city and warned them about deteriorating security. Jamal Mabrouk, a member of the February 17th Brigade, told CNN that he and a battalion commander had a meeting about the economy and security. He said they told the diplomats that the security situation wasn't good for international business. "The situation is frightening, it scares us," Mabrouk said they told the U.S. officials. He did not say how they responded. Inside the U.S....

FORT HUACHUCA - The tips of fingers are sensitive, they can tell much to a person about what is felt and, in the world of intelligence gathering, ascertaining the intentions of an enemy many times requires a slight touch, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said last week. “It’s pretty stunning how far the intelligence community has come. How integrated we are. How interagency dependent we are,” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said Wednesday. But in a constantly changing, violent-prone world, those engaged in intelligence work not only have to be current but be ahead of interpreting potential changes, said...

<p>KABUL—The Taliban's weekend assault on a major coalition base was one of the most determined and effective ever seen in Afghanistan, according to details released Sunday, destroying six U.S. combat jets and damaging two others.</p> <p>In addition to the Taliban strike, which killed two U.S. Marines Friday night, two separate insider attacks by Afghan service members claimed the lives of six coalition troops. A lethal coalition airstrike, meanwhile, threatened to raise additional tensions in the country, amid reports of civilian casualties.</p>

If you weren't already uncontrollably furious over the debacle in Libya that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other embassy personnel, this is likely to send you over the edge.  From Breitbart News: In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt laid the blame for the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the Benghazi, Libya American mission on Hillary Clinton and the State Department:"The State Department just allowed our guys to get killed. If you approve no bullets in guns for the mission security guards...

"No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don't have the money," President Barack Obama told the Democratic National Convention as he accepted his party's nomination in Charlotte, N.C., this month. That sentence -- key in Obama's "college affordability" agenda -- says everything about this administration's approach to selling itself to the American voter. What's wrong with the message? Let me count the ways. --It ignores reality. There is no reason a qualified poor kid cannot get into college in the United States simply because of money. Richard J. Vedder, director of Ohio University's Center...