Free Republic

[The following is an excerpt.] Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet? Is it spreading in feed, or being carried on truck tires? Federal agriculture officials are looking everywhere they can think of for H5N2 bird flu, which has spread to poultry flocks in 14 states and killed or forced the slaughter of more than 39 million birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has never spread like this before in the United States, and it's flummoxed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has threatened the world claiming they are very close to acquiring a nuclear bomb from Pakistan to use in attacking the United States. They have threatened to smuggle it through the United State's porous southern border.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has threatened the world claiming they are very close to acquiring a nuclear bomb from Pakistan to use in attacking the United States. The claim was made in an article entitled "The Perfect Storm" which was published in the Islamic State's English language propaganda magazine Dabiq; it was penned...

Those attempting to conquer Syria and turn it into a jihadist, Shariah-compliant hellhole are all Sunni. So, first I have to ask myself why 93 percent of the “refugees” Democratic politicians in America are recruiting to the U.S. are Sunnis. It would be like recruiting Nazi “refugees” from Germany during World War II instead of Jews. The numbers of these so-called “refugees” from Syria are disproportionately Sunnis, even when considering the heavy percentage of the Sunni population there. What’s behind this madness? If we want to be a land of compassion to real refugees, I’m all for it. But that’s...

The United States is making headway on two historic trade agreements, one with 11 countries on the Pacific Rim and another with America’s friends in Europe. These two agreements alone would mean greater access to a billion customers for American manufacturers, farmers and ranchers. But before the U.S. can complete the agreements, Congress needs to strengthen the country’s bargaining position by establishing trade-promotion authority, also known as TPA, which is an arrangement between Congress and the president for negotiating and considering trade agreements. In short, TPA is what U.S. negotiators need to win a fair deal for the American worker.

U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) made headlines recently when he introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1735). The amendment allows for the transfer of surplus 1911A1 handguns to the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) for sale to the general public. Last week, in response, the U.S. army released a white paper voicing “concern” over this amendment and claimed that there would be “potential negative impacts on public safety from the large amount of semi-automatic and concealable pistols that will be released for public purchase.” These concerns included the traceability of the firearms after sale, and...

General Motors will likely be prosecuted over ignition switches linked to deathsFederal prosecutors are closing in on criminal charges against General Motors Co. over a faulty ignition switch linked to more than 100 deaths, but they are still weighing whether to charge individual employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office has determined GM likely broke the law by making misstatements about the ignition-switch glitch in older Chevrolet Cobalts and other cars for more than a decade and will likely extract a fine exceeding $1 billion from the company, the people said. GM will either...

During the 2010 campaign for governor, Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs in his first term. Toward this end, one of his first acts as governor was to privatize the state's economic development agency. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) opened its doors in July 2011. After a series of damning audits, which highlighted mismanagement and incompetence, and news reports of special treatment for Walker donors, on Monday Democratic state lawmakers called for a federal investigation of the scandal-plagued entity. Walker is the Chairman of the Board When walker created WEDC in 2011, he named himself Chairman of the Board....

Two supposedly landmark political events have occurred on the island of Ireland this week.Both were greeted with an element of surprise and excitement and were hailed as great victories for the “progressive movement”, both were inevitable.The referendum in which Ireland supported Same Sex Marriage and a departure with Catholicism was not today, it was in 2009, when Irish people voted to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. They had to vote for a second time of course, their first answer being wrong, but that was the last scism of the defence of their religion and nationhood.The decision on both the Asher’s Bakery...

Boeing's "CHAMP" (Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project) is a one-missile, flying blackout. Born into Generation X, I grew up with the threat of nuclear war -- and all its corollaries, from visions of mushroom clouds to "duck and cover" drills in high school to Terminator movies, and of course, the ever-present worry that one day a sneaky Soviet satellite would detonate way up in the sky and fry all of our electronics with an "electromagnetic pulse." So imagine my surprise when the U.S. Air Force confirmed last week that it's developed an electromagnetic pulse weapon of its own, and...

**SNIP** Much like Clinton’s speech to Salesforce, the former secretary of state’s speech isn’t available online nor would ISRI give video upon request. The speech of ISRI’s 2015 convention speaker, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, appears on the company’s YouTube page, but Bill Clinton’s 2009 speech to the same group does not. But such is the case for almost all of Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches from 2014 — though most were given to massive audiences, almost none are available in their entirety online. What’s clear is that most, if not all, of the companies and organizations that hired Hillary...

Deep into the seventh year of his tenure, Barack Obama is thinking about his post-presidential legacy. We know this because he’s telling us so. In an interview this week with The Atlantic about the potential deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, the president sought to use the fact of his relative youth and his consciousness about how history might judge him to his advantage: “Look, 20 years from now, I’m still going to be around, God willing. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, it’s my name on this. I think it’s fair to say that in addition to our...

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama banned the sale of certain military-style equipment to police departments. Brian Kilmeade reported tonight on "The Kelly File" that Obama also thinks that police officers should have "softer looking" uniforms. Kilmeade explained that Obama thinks that police officers are "making things worse" when they show up to inner city communities wearing military-style equipment and riot gear. "They're concerned about the helmet. They're concerned about the shield. It's sending the wrong message," Kilmeade stated. "I used to think from the civilian point of view that that would be a reason not to riot, because the...

CLEVELAND — Cleveland police made 71 arrests Saturday during protests against the Michael Brelo verdict, Police Chief Calvin Williams said Sunday. Authorities attempted to give demonstrators the space to exercise their First Amendment rights, but they had no choice but to make arrests when the protests became violent or when protesters refused to disperse, he said. Police arrested demonstrators in downtown Cleveland on Saturday night following the acquittal of a police officer who stood trial in the 2012 shooting deaths of two unarmed people. CNN video showed police in riot gear moving down East Fourth Street, a strip of restaurants,...

Ed Morrisey already highlighted some of the early news coming out of the first round of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department and there will no doubt be plenty more to come. But as the media covers these new “revelations” (such as they are) there seems to be a fresh narrative emerging. I noticed a few examples of this in the last 24 hours, one of them being the early morning show on CNN today, where weekend anchor Christie Paul was asking yet another guest for commentary about some of the Benghazi news which was showing up...

The “Affordable” Care Act may be looking for a new name in the near future. As Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are reporting, the next round of health care premium cost adjustments are coming down the pike, and you’ll never guess where things are heading. Okay… you probably guessed already. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Obamacare rates are about to shoot up, in some cases as much as 40%. The rate increases requested by insurance carriers vary state by state, but the overall picture is bad.“In New Mexico, market leader Health Care Service Corp....

At one of the most important events on the GOP calendar, Scott Walker showed his crash course in foreign policy is paying off. OKLAHOMA CITY — Like most other recent GOP presidential forums and meetings, the Southern Republican Leadership Conference this week teemed with 2016 candidates aiming for a breakthrough moment. Nothing like that happened here. But in attending one of the most important events on pre-primary season calendar — one that drew roughly 2,000 conservative activists, mainly from the Republican Party’s Southern heartland — the White House hopefuls revealed a little more about themselves and the paths they see...

Scott Walker and his legislative minions have no respect for local democracy. One of Walker’s early acts as governor was to sign a law that pre-empted Milwaukee’s paid sick days ordinance — which voters had approved by 69 to 31 percent and which the state Court of Appeals had upheld. Dana Schultz of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, described the state override of the Milwaukee law as “an assault on democracy, local control and working families." The assaults have continued, with Walker and his allies moving again and again to prevent Wisconsin’s towns, villages and cities from acting...

The feud between John McCain and Rand Paul worsened on Saturday morning after the presidential candidate successfully held up a temporary extension of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. McCain, a leading GOP hawk and Paul, the leader of his party’s libertarian wing, have never exactly seen eye to eye. But the relationship became even more toxic after Paul successfully blocked the Senate from extending NSA surveillance programs for even one additional day.

"............Chillingly, free speech, academic freedom, and the safety of Jews can no longer be taken for granted on college campuses. The deteriorating situation is described and analyzed meticulously in Volume IV of The Black Book of the American Left (subtitled Islamo-Fascism and the War Against the Jews). In the book, author David Horowitz assumes the mantle of fearless truth-teller, as he explores how Islamists and leftists work together to limit freedom of thought and speech, defame the only democracy and reliable US ally in the Middle East, and aid the spread of Islamist ideas and policies.The book aptly begins by...

Nothing quite so blatantly sums up the victory of neoliberalism in 21st-century London, and that city’s relentless commodification of every aspect of its literary and historical legacy, like Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross. If anything, the vulgarity and banality of Platform 9 ¾ are too blatant; it’s a crack in the façade that demonstrates how thoroughly London has become Londonland, a nearly convincing scavenger-hunt simulation of itself, chock-full of royal bones and references to Dan Brown novels. To enter Westminster Abbey – which is still nominally a house of worship for the Anglican Communion, rather than a historical theme...