Free Republic

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” while discussing the recent protests and violence at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rallies, Sen. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Trump was “encouraging people to violence” and pointed to an instance where he said to “punch that guy in the face” as his proof.

"Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) isn't saying either way whether he's backing the new House immigration bill, but a hill source tells Breitbart News that he's "very encouraged" by what's happened thus far on Friday. “Senator Sessions is very encouraged by the significant developments in the House,” a congressional source told Breitbart News. Over the past week plus, Sessions has been a major player in the goings-on of this immigration war. When Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) introduced the House GOP leadership recommendations on behalf of the working group Speaker John Boehner set up, Sessions called the...

United States Secretary of State John Kerry insisted on Sunday that concrete progress has been made in peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinian Authority (PA), but said details will be kept under wraps, AFP reports. Kerry, who has made nine trips to the Middle East since March and helped launch nine-month direct talks between the two sides in July, said talking about any agreements could be counterproductive. "I'm personally encouraged that very tough issues are beginning to take shape," he was quoted as having said in an interview with ABC's "This Week." .....

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond. Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2012 / 06:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops are encouraging parishes to incorporate into their communities a new blessing for a child in the womb, which the Vatican approved on March 25. “I'm impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary’s ‘yes’ to God and the incarnation of...

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...

NATO is encouraged by the positive trends found in the most recent polling data from ABC/BBC/ARD, which surveyed 1500 Afghans in mid-December 2009, indicating greater popularity for NATO's mission and decreased support for the Taliban. "The increasing optimism of the Afghan people in their future is welcome news to NATO and the men and women of the the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Our population centric strategy and the commitment to add 37,000 more troops in 2010 is creating a new momentum for the mission, which is reflected in this poll", said the NATO Spokesman, James Appathurai. In the highest...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22, 2009 – Violence in Iraq has dropped to the lowest levels seen since 2003 as the Iraqi people prepare to vote in new legislative and general elections slated for January, a senior U.S. military officer said here today. “I’m encouraged now that violence is at an all-time low; that the levels are down to where they were in 2003,” Army Brig. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, Multinational Force Iraq’s deputy chief of staff for strategic effects, told reporters during a news briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Center. The reduced violence in Iraq today, Lanza said, indicates “continued...

President Reagan - Government is the Problem

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2007 – The Marine Corps’ top officer said yesterday he is “heartily encouraged” by the progress Iraqi and coalition forces are making in Iraq’s Anbar province. “We have seen large numbers of Sunni tribesmen, at the encouragement of their sheikhs and their imams, come forward to join the Iraqi security forces,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway told an audience at the National Press Club here. “We see that as a very positive thing.” The general said the past six months have seen a 60 percent decline in attacks, a 400 percent increase in enemy weapons...

The Republican base is being rejuvenated, some conservative activists say, by a flurry of congressional action on "values" issues such as marriage safeguards, flag protection and abortion restrictions, as well as President Bush's veto last week of stem-cell legislation. They warn against counteracting that progress with a comprehensive immigration bill that conservatives consider amnesty. Jim Backlin, vice president of legislative affairs at the Christian Coalition, said the spate of "values" votes "really, really helps rejuvenate our base -- especially Bush vetoing the stem-cell bill." In the past few months, Mr. Bush signed legislation against broadcast indecency, both chambers of Congress...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – Troop morale across the U.S. Central Command area of operations is high, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the end of a USO trip to the region. Marine Gen. Peter Pace took a weeklong trip to the region that ended Jan 3. He brought stars of screen and comedy and nine tons of Starbucks coffee to cheer the troops at the holidays. "American Idol" 2004 finalist Diana DeGarmo, comedian Reggie McFadden and country singer-songwriter Michael Peterson accompanied the chairman. Retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, an NBC News analyst who received the...