Free Republic

With a roaring engine, 30-mm. cannon and nose painted like a toothsome, snarling beast, the A-10 Thunderbolt sends ISIS fighters scattering like cockroaches on the Iraqi desert plains, but the legendary fighter plane pilots call the "Warthog" may be fighting for its own life. The venerable plane, first built for destroying Soviet tanks, has been on the chopping block since the sequester of 2011 mandated steep cuts in the Pentagon budget. Although the planes haven't been built in more than 30 years, the Defense Department believes it can save maintenance costs by phasing them out. Air Force brass believes newer,...

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for Libya on Tuesday, overriding the previous warning issued in July 2014. In July, the U.S. embassy suspended all operations in Libya and relocated staff due to “ongoing violence between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the Embassy.” On Tuesday, the State Department said that “the security situation in Libya remains unpredictable and unstable.” Pointing to the inability of the Libyan government to “adequately build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution,” the State Department said that crime levels remain high and various groups have called...

Israeli police say they have shot an attacker who stabbed at least nine people on a bus in central Tel Aviv. The stabbing incident occurred on the Maariv bridge, police said, adding that the stabbings took place both in and outside the bus. At least two of the victims were in a critical condition......

Such a deal. Among the highlights of President Obama’s State of the Union address plans to pull the American family out of economic plight is a $500 tax credit for two-earner families.Here’s how the White House presented it in a fact sheet: “Provide a new, simple tax credit to two-earner families. The president will propose a new $500 second earner credit to help cover the additional costs faced by families in which both spouses work — benefiting 24 million couples.”The provision is included in his effort “to help middle class families get ahead.” Like who? Administration officials said families earning...

Iran and Russia signed an agreement Tuesday to expand military ties in a visit to Tehran by the Russian defense minister. Sergei Shoigu, in remarks carried by Russian news agencies, said Moscow wants to develop a "long-term and multifaceted" military relationship with Iran. He said that the new agreement includes expanded counter-terrorism cooperation, exchanges of military personnel for training purposes and an understanding for each country's navy to more frequently use the other's ports. Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan urged greater cooperation as a means of opposing American ambitions in the region. Moscow and Tehran have staunchly supported Syrian President...

Hot Air readers won’t be surprised by the lack-of-dynamic dynamic from the first big names testing the GOP’s 2016 waters, of course, but supporters of Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush might be — if they can be found. According to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, approval ratings for both men dropped after making clear they plan to run for the party’s presidential nomination. And that retreat comes from within the big tent of the Republican Party: Just 27 percent of Americans now offer a positive rating for Romney, the Republican party’s nominee in 2012, compared to 40 percent who...

Team Ted Cruz is taking shape, and the Senate first-termer's presidential campaign could start before this spring. The Republican senator from Texas tentatively plans to fill senior campaign positions with the triumvirate he signed last summer to expand his political operation. At the top is Jeff Roe, whose organizational title is undefined but who would be the campaign’s chief strategic and logistics decision-maker. Jason Miller would shape and oversee campaign messaging; Lauren Lofstrom would direct fundraising. Cruz is in the process of “feeling out” additional campaign hires and prospective donors in preparation to join the field of 2016 candidates. If...

Protesters invoking Michael Brown and Ferguson burst into an auditorium at Harris-Stowe State University early Monday afternoon and briefly shut down a Martin Luther King Day celebration. The protesters and Harris-Stowe students later confronted one another outside the venue, as police converged on the area. Shortly before 1 p.m., as the King observance was in progress in the crowded auditorium, about two-dozen protesters came in waving an upside-down American flag and chanting "No Justice, No Peace." They took the stage, and as the crowd began filing out angrily, they used a microphone to accuse the university and the clergy who...

Alberto Nisman, who on Monday was due in parliament to present his case against president Cristina Kirchner, found dead days after warning "I could end up dead because of this" An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Kirchner of covering up Iran’s involvement in the country’s worst ever terrorist attack has been found dead, hours before he was due to present his evidence in parliament. Alberto Nisman, 51, had spent the past decade investigating the 1994 bombings of a Buenos Aires Jewish centre, which killed 85 people. Two years ago he began working on a 300-page dossier – due to...

In his State of The Union address this week, President Obama will propose congress lower taxes on the middle class and close loopholes that the rich often use. A press release from the White House says Obama has a strategy that will “simplify our complex tax code, make it fairer by eliminating some of the biggest loopholes, and use the savings to responsibly pay for the investments we need to help middle class families get ahead and grow the economy.”According to a release from the White House Press Secretary, the changes President Obama will propose include: Closing One of the...

USSS: a vehicle drove near VP Biden's DE home last night and someone in it fired multiple gun shots. Bidens weren't home.

Here are some photos from the ‘Stand with the Prophet’ Rally at Texas Public School Center Curtis Culwell Center. Did they think DFW is nothing but dem voting libs? The "standers" were overwhelmed... The speaker... The next speaker Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. Random shots of the crowd. North side of the street. South side of the street and the crowd went on for a long way. On the west end of the parking lot the "standers" had about a hundred folks. The "standers" are on the left and the...

President Barack Obama has been making progress on his pledge to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, having transferred out more than 20 prisoners since last fall, leaving fewer than 60 the administration considers eligible for release if countries can be found to accept them. That would leave some 70 hard-core terrorists at the base. The president is reported to believe that Congress will then reject the high cost of keeping the facility open for these 70 prisoners, including the man who organized the aircraft attacks of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and agree to transfer them...

Republican lawmakers determined to counter President Barack Obama on immigration want to advance solutions of their own, starting with a border security bill and perhaps moving on to tackle other aspects of the broken system. It's a goal House Republicans have tried and failed to achieve for the past two years, even as the Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that ultimately died because of inaction in the House. But as House and Senate Republicans met for a joint retreat in this capital of chocolate and sweets, lawmakers said that with the Senate now under GOP control, they have a...

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2017, some 2 million currently undocumented immigrants will be eligible for certain federal benefits under the Obama administration’s executive amnesty. In a report released Thursday, CBO considers how changes to immigration policy could affect the federal budget. Its estimates are based on President Obama’s expanded deferred action programs to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants. The office estimates that between 2 million and 2.5 million undocumented immigrants will “have received approval for deferred action” by 2017. The CBO’s estimate is less than the 5 million the Obama administration estimated its executive amnesty would...

The manager of the Paris kosher shop that was attacked now plans to move to Israel, his brother told a German newspaper. Patrice Oalid, 39, who was shot in the arm and is recovering in the hospital, told his older brother, Joel, that after just surviving the Jan. 9 attack, and seeing his customers and employees murdered, he cannot stay in Paris any longer, Joel Oalid told the Bild newspaper on Sunday in what the German daily said was an exclusive interview. He expects many more French Jews to follow suit, Joel Oalid said his brother told him. The gunman,...

ICC prosecutor opens a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel. Netanyahu: This decision is scandalous. The International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor on Friday opened a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, including during last year's Gaza war, AFP reports. The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said her office would conduct its "analysis in full independence and impartiality". Depending on her findings, Bensouda will decide at a later stage whether to launch or quash the investigation, based on the initial probe, the report added. Israel condemned the decision as "scandalous", as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu...

A hostage taking is under way in a post office in Colombes, a suburb of northwest Paris. According to police, an armed man is currently detaining three hostages, but they insisted there was no link to terrorism. The man is known by the authorities, and had contacted the police himself, they said. The area around the post office has been sealed.

I stand with the Santa Barbara News-Press. How about you? The newspaper is under fire for refusing to kowtow to left-wing word police and militant propagandists who demand unfettered illegal immigration. Last week, in the wake of angry protests against the publication, vandals threw paint bombs and spray-painted graffiti on its offices. So, what exactly is the News-Press' unforgivable crime? Calling illegal aliens "illegals" in a headline for a story about illegal aliens descending on California DMVs. A new law went into effect last Friday allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses without proof of lawful residence. The article featured...

As the United States Senate prepares to vote on a non-binding resolution on whether or not manmade global warming exists, Pope Francis weighed in on the issue with his most extensive and forceful comments on the subject to date. Let's just say that the pope is not aligned with many Senate Republicans, who doubt the reality and threat of manmade global warming, on this issue. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane while flying to Manila from Sri Lanka, Pope Francis said the "majority" of global warming is manmade, which is a view that is consistent with mainstream climate-science findings. “I...