Free Republic

Election day in Honduras! The day has arrived! Voting centers open in about 1h 30 min local time. The people are ready to say NO to King Hugo I and Z and to show the world that this little dwarf can give and example of the rule of law. Stay tuned for more live info throughout the day

Margaret Thatcher stayed up all night in her Downing Street flat throughout the three months of the Falklands War and never changed into her bedclothes, it has been revealed. She sat fully dressed, huddled round a two-bar electric fire, nervously listening to the radio for news of the conflict, nursing a glass of whisky while husband Denis slept in the spare room. Baroness Thatcher survived by taking 20-minute catnaps - a 'zizz', she called it - in the day and catching up on sleep at weekends at Chequers. The extraordinary account was disclosed when she returned to No10 last week...

The US Saturday disclosed to India new information linking the anti-terror plot hatched by expatriates David Coleman Headley and Tahawuur Rana with some elements in the ISI and said it will reveal the name of a key Pakistani national linked to the Mumbai carnage in a week's time. The disclosure came when National Security Adviser MK Narayanan held talks with CIA chief Leon Panetta in New Delhi on Saturday, reliable sources said. The new information given by the US reinforces Indian investigations that have pointed to links between Headley and Rana, who were arrested by the FBI in Chicago last...

"Pakistani Christian on Run from Taliban Death Threat Islamic extremist sermonizing leads to altercation at barbershop in South Waziristan." SNIPPET: "LAHORE, Pakistan, November 27 (CDN) — A young Christian man is in hiding in Pakistan from Taliban militants who seek to kill him for “blasphemy” because he defended his faith. In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan – a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest – when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam." SNIPPET: "He...

Photos included. # SNIPPET: "Cairo (AINA) -- In an effort to cover up the Muslim mob violence against the Copts which broke out last week in the town of Farshoot and neighboring villages (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009), and in view of the complete news blackout imposed by the Egyptian government, Egyptian State Security has intensified its pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi and the victims of the violence into accepting extrajudicial reconciliation with the perpetrators, and opening their businesses without any compensation. Similar State Security scenarios have been experienced by Copts in all sectarian incidents in the past, in...

'When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.'

Since Obama is rather attached to describing everything he does as “unprecedented”, “I have achieved an unprecedented level of transparency”, “I played an unprecedented amount of golf this year” and “I just wasted an unprecedented amount of money”... in honor of the Liar in Chief, we can make “unprecedented” the word of the day. First up is Obama’s unprecedented deficit. The current real cost of ObamaCare is up to 2.5 Trillion dollars and rising. The Senate Republicans’ chart demonstrates that the total for all of these costs—based on CBO projections for the bill’s true first 10 years—is $2.5 trillion. And...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair should sign by Dec. 1 a document laying out new responsibilities for the National Reconnaissance Office, builder and operator of America’s spy satellites. This will set in motion the first substantial changes to the NRO charter since 1965, four years after then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara created the NRO and drafted its charter. The NRO is led by former Air Force Gen. Bruce Carlson, The new document, called a statement of principles, lays out eight core ideas meant to guide the NRO, according to a source familiar with the document....

Entrepreneurs from Muslim World Sought for Washington Summit The 2010 summit follows up on President Obama’s pledge in Cairo to find ways to deepen ties between the U.S. and the Muslim world.By Stephen Kaufman Staff Writer Washington — Approximately 150 entrepreneurs from Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities around the world will be invited to a two-day summit in Washington in spring 2010 to meet with their peers and U.S. officials to explore areas of partnership and ways to drive economic and social innovation. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Dennis Hightower told reporters at Washington’s Foreign Press Center November 23 that the...

Former Congresswoman and U.S. Presidential Candidate (Green Party 2008), Cynthia McKinney, known for speaking truth to power, has again written to President Obama, this time with the subject headed: Please Bring Our Troops Home Now! (below) Ray Songree of Kauia Truth and the Paul Revere Email Campaign wrote to his email list: "Cynthia McKinney is one of the greatest heroines of our times. Very few elected officials have EVER spoke truth to power. That is all she does. There are many women on this email list. It really is your time to stand up and be heard, not as wannabe...

Swiss Vote On Anti-Islam Move To Ban New Minarets By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer November 28, 2009 Swiss voters are deciding in a referendum Sunday whether to accept a ban on the construction of minarets, which right-wing parties regard as symbols of militant Islam. The move — led by the Swiss People's Party, which has campaigned in previous years against immigrants — has stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries. Polls indicate growing support for the proposal, but doubt remains about whether it will pass. The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government has spoken...

End of an era: Aircraft depart Brunswick Naval Air Station as Maine base readies for closing. The two last planes at Maine's Brunswick Naval Air Station lifted off Saturday in blustery winds, ending nearly 60 years of maritime patrol operations at New England's last active-duty military air base. The P-3 Orions of the VP-26 squadron lumbered down an 8,000-foot runway before heading off to a six-month deployment in Central America. After that, they fly to their new home at Florida's Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The planes took off without any speeches or fanfare ... Brunswick, once home to 4,000 sailors...

Climategate: University of East Anglia U-Turn In Climate Change Row Leading British scientists at the University of East Anglia, who were accused of manipulating climate change data - dubbed Climategate - have agreed to publish their figures in full. By Robert Mendick 28 Nov 2009 David Holland is seeking prosecutions against some of Britain's most eminent academics for allegedly holding back information in breach of disclosure laws. The U-turn by the university follows a week of controversy after the emergence of hundreds of leaked emails, "stolen" by hackers and published online, triggered claims that the academics had massaged statistics. In...

How should one read Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the United States? Measured against the experience of recent predecessors — such as Mr Singh’s own trip to Washington, DC, in July 2005, when the India-US nuclear deal was announced and triggered one of India’s most important foreign policy successes — this month’s voyage across the Atlantic will probably seem a mild affair. There were no blockbuster moments and obvious game changers. However, what was worth noting was the Prime Minister’s sustained effort at attempting to talk up the American mood. For example, in an interview to Newsweek just before...

...the president’s promising [Middle East] peace initiative has unraveled... Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board. The president went public with his demand for a full freeze on settlements before securing Israel’s commitment. And he and his aides apparently had no plan for what they would do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no. ...What has President Obama learned from the experience so he can improve his diplomatic performance generally?...

It's a night and day difference between the media's scrutiny of former President George W. Bush and the current command-in-chief, President Barack Obama. And the coverage of three Navy SEALs now facing a court martial that captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, who allegedly was the mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah in 2004, is proof. John Scott, host of "Fox News Watch" noted this story on the show's Nov. 28 episode and asked why there hasn't been more coverage about this. "Pretty outrageous story came out, in my view, this week," Scott...

P. David Gaubatz, co-author of "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," will be a guest on "Coast to Coast With George Noory" tonight (Sunday morning) for three hours beginning at 2 a.m. Eastern time. Filling in for Noory will be guest host Ian Punnett.

The European Parliament is scheduled to give Wednesday the 'green light' on annulment of Schengen visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as of December 19, Slovenian MEP Tanja Fajon, who prepared the visa liberalization report for Western Balkan countries, told MIA. Fajon said she was certain that the European Parliament would adopt the report, including Slovenia's proposal for annulment of Schengen visas on December 19 instead of the European Commission proposal of January 1. "I believe it is very realistic to expect that citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro will be able to travel freely in the EU as of...

Brazilian Jewish teenagers this week protested what they called their "exclusion" from a national exam for high school graduates set to take place on Shabbat, after a Brazilian court said providing Jews with an alternative date would "undermine equality." "In some areas in Brazil, such a Rio de Janeiro, observant Jewish students cannot apply to some of the leading universities," said Alex Kingel, 17, from Sao Paulo, who will not be taking the test. Kingel explained that because Rio de Janeiro's leading university is a federal one - funded by the central government - applicants must take the test, known...

In the United States, Dubai World's portfolio includes several well-known properties, and the fallout could have a larger impact on the entire real estate market. The company is a partner with casino operator MGM Mirage (MGM.N) in the $8.5 billion CityCenter project, which would add 6,000 rooms to a Las Vegas Strip gambling corridor already saturated with unoccupied hotel rooms. Nakheel, perhaps best known as the developer of Dubai's palm-shaped islands, also carries the Mandarin Oriental and W hotels in New York in its portfolio, and has a 50 percent stake in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort. And, through its...

A TOUGH-talking Malcolm Turnbull has attacked his challenger Tony Abbott and Senate leader Nick Minchin ahead of Tuesday's expected leadership ballot. The opposition leader accused the "hard right" critics within the Liberal Party of waging a climate change war that could destroy the party, but declared "I will win on Tuesday". "I am unbowed," he told Channel 9, adding opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey had pledged his support on Saturday night. "Joe Hockey has told me as recently as last night that I have his complete support," Mr Turnbull said. "Joe is absolutely at one with me on the need...

Did The War Make Him Do It? Iraq veteran Jessie Bratcher shot the man he was told had raped his girlfriend. An Oregon jury found he had been legally insane at the time because of post-traumatic stress disorder. Kim Murphy November 28, 2009 Reporting from John Day, Ore. - When Jessie Bratcher's fiancee told him the baby might not be his, that she had been raped two months earlier, he went quiet. The former Oregon National Guardsman hung his head for the longest time. Then he went into the next room, put the barrel of an AK-47 in his mouth...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – President Asif Ali Zardari gave up control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal Saturday in a bid to fend off mounting pressures threatening to weaken his rule further and complicate the war on the Taliban.

Wagons brimming with logs accumulate in the Siberian railway station of Dalnerechensk, more than 8,000km (4,971 miles) east of Moscow. They are waiting to cross the nearby Chinese border. > Small logging brigades of some four men, with the help of trucks, are behind most illegal felling. The head of one of these brigades, a burly young former policeman calling himself Yevgeni, agreed to tell me how the system operated from the inside, on condition his identity was not revealed. "Quick, jump in the car! I'll be shot if I'm seen with a journalist," he orders as I arrive in...

aturday, November 28, 2009 Bibi's Bad Week By Caroline Glick Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu weakened Israel this week. And he did so for no good reason. Thursday's headlines told the tale. The day after Netanyahu bowed to US pressure and announced a total freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria for ten months, Yediot Aharonot reported that the Obama administration now wants Israel to release a thousand Fatah terrorists from prison. The Americans also want Israel to allow US-trained, terror-supporting Fatah paramilitary forces to deploy in areas that are currently under Israeli military control. Moreover, the Americans are demanding...

Nicolas Sarkozy has reignited the row over the appointment of European Union commissioners by branding Britain “the big losers”. The French President said the appointment of Baroness Ashton of Upholland as the EU’s new foreign policy chief was far less important than the elevation of Michel Barnier, France’s former agriculture minister, to the key financial post of commissioner for the internal market, which puts him in charge of supervising the City of London. In provocative remarks which are certain to inflame tensions, Mr Sarkozy told Le Monde newspaper that the negotiations which resulted in Tony Blair being jettisoned and Herman...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 15, 2009) — The Patriot Act passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was intended to enable law enforcement officials to track down and punish those responsible for the terrorist attacks and to protect against any similar strikes against our nation. In the years following 9/11, the Patriot Act has proven to be an important law enforcement tool and has enhanced our national security. Currently, Congress is reviewing legislation to amend and extend the Patriot Act. Provisions within the Act are set to expire on Dec. 31 of this year. As is...

The perplexity of Serbia's leaders is understandable. Nearly nine years after they hustled Slobodan Milosevic off to the Hague to face war crimes charges and the end of his life in a jail cell -- a middle-of-the-night act with questionable legal authority that met with much applause from the West -- Serbia's "democratic reformers" remain smeared with the tar of Washington's former policy delusions. They get no respect, even after holding democratic elections, remaking their economy on a Western model with more vehemence than most of the rest of the Balkans combined and slavishly doing almost all that the West...

Rombouillet, France- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won another victory for his aggressive energy diplomacy strategy Friday, signing a deal bringing French investment to a pipeline project. In a successful trip that worried Russia's nervous neighbours, Putin also secured French investment to save the struggling Lada car maker and a promise that France will consider selling Moscow a huge amphibious assault ship. "We have embarked upon complete cooperation with Russia," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared, as he and Putin addressed reporters after talks outside Paris with ministers and energy executives. Georgia and the Baltic states have expressed concern over...

YEREVAN -- Two leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party (Dashnaktsutyun) have criticized Russian policy toward Turkey and Azerbaijan, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. Vahan Hovannisian, a senior Dashnaktsutyun lawyer, said that Russian policy toward the South Caucasus is "dangerous" for Armenia. Hovannisian did not elaborate on his statement. Another Dashnaktsutyun leader, Hrayr Karapetian, who heads the parliament's defense and security committee, said Russia's deepening military cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan runs counter to its military alliance with Armenia. Karapetian said a 2010 plan for joint military exercises signed by Azerbaijani and Russian defense ministers is "at the least, strange and...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

Anti-capitalism protesters have brought havoc to central Geneva during a demonstration against the World Trade Organisation. They burned cars and faced up to riot police in a zone near the central bus station of the Swiss town. They also smashed the windows of shops, bank and cafés. The violent protesters were a fringe minority on an otherwise peaceful march of some 2000 people ahead of a three day conference of the World Trade Organisation which starts on Monday. They accuse the WTO of not doing enough to tackle climate change, claiming it is a mouthpiece for the interests of multinational...

ZURICH (Reuters) -- Scientists have smashed together proton beams for the first time in a 27-kilometre tunnel under the French-Swiss border in an initial step toward discovering how the universe came into existence, they said on Monday. Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) hope experiments will already start giving clues about the origins of the universe in the coming months as the world's biggest particle collider starts moving to full power. "It's a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer about the collision, achieved by sending...

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) – Commonwealth leaders representing two billion people on the planet on Saturday threw their combined weight behind upcoming climate talks, driving momentum towards a new carbon-cutting treaty. "We, as the Commonwealth, representing one third of the world's population, believe the time for action on climate change has come," Australian Prime Minister Rudd said as he unveiled an agreement struck at a summit in Trinidad. The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus, backed by all 53 member states of the Commonwealth, supported the December 7-18 climate talks in Copenhagen and committed to seeking a legally binding treaty...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 5, 2009) — Today, Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) announced that Congress has approved H.R. 3548, the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act. The bipartisan legislation would extend unemployment benefits for 14 weeks and for six weeks in states with unemployment rates above 8.5 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in September 2009. It would also allow military personnel to fully participate in the first-time homebuyer tax credit program and will make payments tax-exempt under the Military Homeowner Assistance Program, which helps military families recoup costs associated with selling a home that has declined in value and...

It only took them three years to figure it out, of course. The Gray Lady’s ire focuses on the disaster Obama has made of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which is usually a rolling disaster anyway. American Presidents haven’t been able to do much to make it better, but as the Times explains, this one’s made it a lot worse than it had to be — mainly because he’s a diplomatic novice with team full of incompetents (via Geoff A): Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move...

JOE Hockey sought out John Howard at his Sydney home for advice on whether to run for leader of the party to end the crisis enveloping the Opposition. During a two-hour lunchtime meeting, Mr Hockey asked his old boss about whether he should succumb to mounting pressure to unite the hopelessly divided Liberal Party at a special meeting of MPs in Canberra on Tuesday. Mr Howard said "good on you mate" as he farewelled a tight-lipped Mr Hockey. Mr Hockey arrived at Mr Howard's northern Sydney home shortly after 11.30am. The pair spent two hours in private discussions, with Mr...

JOE Hockey's stocks as future Liberal leader have surged after a new poll found he is Coalition voters' favourite to lead the embattled party. Thirty-nine per cent of Coalition voters said they preferred Mr Hockey, while 26 per cent favoured Tony Abbott and 25 per cent wanted encumbent Malcolm Turnbull to remain. The poll also shows Mr Turnbull's hopes of fighting off an internal rebellion to his leadership over climate change have been shattered with 60 per cent of Australians against rushing the Emissions Trading Scheme through Parliament. Despite Mr Turnbull insisting the ETS must be passed now - ahead...

Ten months into his presidency, we all know the presidents Barack Obama is not, as well as the presidents he does not want to be. It is clear that he is not a liberal mirror image of President Ronald Reagan, reshaping the political landscape. Neither is he, as he himself suggested immodestly, an Abraham Lincoln. He has a wonderful turn of phrase but any similarity ends there. With unemployment rising to beyond 10 per cent, thus far he is proving to be no President Franklin Roosevelt. Even Obama seems to have abandoned the grand historical comparisons he made before his...

Libya, or the Great Socialist people’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, is a country with a unique governmental structure that, although functioning under the same leadership for almost four decades now, seems to have made drastic changes in its foreign policies and external relations. From an isolated country considered, not long ago, by many Western countries as a state sponsoring terrorism, it has once again become a country with which it is good to do business.

Since Carly is grabbing some major news over the holiday break, one story that seems to be ignored is HP's selling of nukes-tech to Iran...and DeVore's charges. Assemblyman Churck DeVore sure isn’t afraid to make the charge that his opponent is unfit for office, and possibly her American citizenship. The ever-conservative Chuck DeVore joined me for a very brief conversation on Wednesday’s “Capitol Hour”; his short stint consequentially provided me with some long hours of news coverage. While we were discussing Carly Fiorina’s voting record to start our dialogue - the same type of conversation that Gubernatorial Candidate Meg Whitman...

DALI, China — Justin Franchi Solondz, an environmental activist from New Jersey who spent years evading charges of ecoterrorism in the United States by hiding out in China, was sentenced to three years in prison by a local court on Friday on charges of manufacturing drugs in this backpacker haven. After serving his time, Mr. Solondz, 30, who is on the F.B.I.’s wanted list, will be deported to the United States, where he faces charges stemming from what the authorities say was his role in an arson rampage that destroyed buildings in three western states as a member of a...

Frank J. Tipler, professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University The now non-secret data prove what many of us had only strongly suspected — that most of the evidence of global warming was simply made up. That is, not only are the global warming computer models unreliable, the experimental data upon which these models are built are also unreliable. As Lord Monckton has emphasized here at Pajamas Media, this deliberate destruction of data and the making up of data out of whole cloth is the real crime — the real story of Climategate. It is an act of treason against...

The Religion of Peace Strikes Again thelastcrusade.org The 22 women, who were among the 57 people killed in this week’s shocking massacre in the southern Philippines were sexually mutilated, government authorities have confirmed.“Even the private parts of the women were shot at,” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, said on national television. “It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women.”Muslims also sexually mutiliated their female victims in Mumbai, India last year.While work continued to identify all the dead, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has reported that 30 journalists...

Worse Than Dirty Diapers thelastcrusade.org In a prime-time speech Tuesday from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Obama is expected to announce that he is sending up to 35,000 additional troops to Afghanistan beginning next year. The figure is short of the 40,000 troops his top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has requested — but remains enough to anger many congressional Democrats, who oppose any potential troop surge, arguing that the mission is too expensive and lacks a clear objective.“I think there will be some disillusionment within his base,” said Paul Kawika Martin, political director for Peace...

BBC's reliable alarmist Richard Black tells us that the path has just been cleared for Obama's nervous lurch to commit the U.S. politically to Kyoto II energy-use reduction in the name of catastrophic man-made global warming (talk about doubling-down on the tone-deaf, after the job-killing health-care effort in the face of a recession and anxiety about employment). The reason, we are informed, is not only because of Obama's apparent response to ClimateGate, but the Chinese have committed to an "ambitious" emission reduction of their own!That's spin. China offers a non-binding promise to increase its emissions not beyond a certain rate...

BAGHDAD — The exchange of information between medical professionals is commonplace throughout the world. But after years of conflict and instability, many doctors here are out of the information loop. To help Iraqi doctors catch up on some of the latest medical information, U.S. Soldiers from the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, organized an alliance between U.S. military doctors and local Iraqi hospitals. "Our goal is to meet with the hospitals monthly," explained Capt. Gabriela Niess, a native of Davis, Calif., the brigade's medical planner. Currently the brigade meets with two hospitals, one in Abu Ghraib and...

Hussaen Haney Lateef pauses from playing with a soccer ball to pose with his ice cream during the October kids' day hosted by the U.S. Air Force on Joint Base Balad. Photo by Spc. Beth Gorenc, Task Force 38. JOINT BASE BALAD — Over the years and still today, while deployed here in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, many U.S. service members use their free time to mentor and assist the communities of Iraq’s youngest citizens and future leaders Airmen and Soldiers here hold monthly programs that bring children on base to learn from and interact with military mentors. During...

BAGHDAD - Thirty-nine women from the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior attended a women's issues conference here, Nov. 19, the first time an Iraqi woman moderated such an event. Ms. Iman Najid, director of Human Rights for the MoD, led the discussion about the struggles of Iraqi women who are still striving for equal treatment. "The purpose of this conference is to show how Iraqi women are participating in the Ministry of Defense", said Najid. Five Iraqi female leaders spoke about their experiences and struggles as a means to encourage and inspire the attendees. Dr. (Maj.) Noor Lath Saaed...

Brig. Gen. Gerald E. Lang (right), the Multi-National Division – South deputy commanding general for support and a Sauk Rapids, Minn., native, shares a laugh with Lt. Col. Clinton Moyer, the chief of Civil Operations with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, and a Clearwater, Kan., native, and Shaykh Uday, during lunch, Nov. 19, at a home in southern Iraq. Photo by Spc. Lisa A. Cope, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). COL ADDER — The Multi-National Division – South deputy commanding general for support recently visited local shaykhs near here to discuss how the drawdown of U.S. forces will...