Free Republic

Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, says Tea Party Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are to blame for the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner. “I think he could of been influenced by the pope being here yesterday and that it’s just time to end the fighting that’s gone on, the needless fighting that’s gone on,” King said to radio host John Grambling on Friday. “But having said that I’m disappointed. I think John was as good as a speaker that you could find and he’s undermined by people in his own party from day one. It’s...

Britain says a new expert panel will report on the activities of the Irish Republican Army and other outlawed paramilitary groups as part of efforts to heal the rift in Northern Ireland’s unity government. […] The IRA in 2005 declared it had renounced violence and disarmed in support of power-sharing. Protestant leaders are threatening to end cooperation with the IRA-linked Sinn Féin party because of police assessments that IRA members killed a former Belfast comrade last month. …

His politics are that of principled rebellion. Between 2005 and 2010, when Labour was in government, Corbyn voted against party lines 25% of the time. Known for his anti-war politics, he has publicly supported both the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Irish republicans. In 1996 the Guardian editorialized that his ill-timed meeting with Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein made him “a fool whom the Labour Party would probably be better off without.” Now, with the party in disarray, Corbyn has come out of obscurity to become Labour’s next leader — and British Jewry is worried. In a recent Survation poll, 67%...

The future of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland is hanging by a slender thread with First Minister Peter Robinson’s decision Thursday to step down, along with all but one of his ministers, because of a series of disputes. Democratic Unionist leader Robinson left one party figure, Arlene Foster, in place as temporary first minister and finance minister, but the coalition government has been seriously weakened by developments and may ultimately be suspended, leading to a restoration of direct British rule from Westminster. The crisis stems in large part from a police finding that that Irish Republic Army dissidents...

Críona Ní Dhálaigh, Sinn Féin councilor and “Dub, born and bred,” has been elected as the new Lord Mayor of Dublin. Ní Dhálaigh replaces Christy Burke after an agreement was made that a Sinn Féin councilor would take over the position during the centenary of the 1916 Rising. Fianna Fáil councilor Jim O’Callaghan and independent councilor Mannix Flynn put their names forward to try to prevent this from happening. Ní Dhálaigh got 41 out of 59 votes on Monday evening and nine went to O’Callaghan and eight went to Flynn. […] O’Callaghan, who objected to the election of a Sinn...

The bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of coordinated car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan. A new Irish TV documentary has claimed that the purpose of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974 was to start a civil war. The bombings were carried out by Loyalists acting under orders from British Army agents the documentary revealed. The bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of coordinated car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan. Three exploded in Dublin during rush hour and a fourth exploded in Monaghan almost 90 minutes later. They killed 33 civilians and a full-term unborn child, and...

An armed man in his 20s being surveilled by the FBI counterterrorism unit was shot and killed by an FBI agent and a Boston police officer in Roslindale this morning, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. Evans said the suspect was wielding a large military-style black knife. FBI Special Agent in Charge Vincent B. Lisi is at the scene, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh is expected as well, FBI spokeswoman Kristin Setera told the Herald. Dozens of police officers have swarmed the small shopping plaza and officers are seeking surveillance video from a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, employees said....

An armed man in his 20s being surveilled by the FBI counterterrorism unit was shot and killed by an FBI agent and a Boston police officer in Roslindale this morning, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. "He was on foot, under surveillance," Evans said. "The officers have been surveilling him and again they wanted to speak to him ... and he turned and our officers gave several commands for him to drop the weapon and unfortunately he came at the officers and they did what they were trained to do and that's never an easy decision for any officer...

A man with ties to the Bay Area was shot and killed by police in Boston on Tuesday. Officials say the suspect was being followed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and was wielding a military-style knife at officers. Officials told NBC News the officer and agent had been investigating whether the man, identified as Usaama Rahim, had become radicalized by ISIS-inspired social media messages. The man’s brother, who is from Oakland, is asking for prayers. Back on the East Coast, the case remains under investigation.

A man arrested in connection with a terror investigation in Boston will be in federal court Wednesday. David Wright was taken into custody at his home in Everett Tuesday afternoon, hours after a Boston police officer and an FBI agent shot and killed a man who was under 24-hour surveillance by terrorism investigators in Roslindale. According to CBS News, Wright and the man killed, 26-year-old Usaama Rahim, were communicating about attacks in the U.S. and that’s why he was arrested. Investigators are continuing to look for other people both men were communicating with. Wright will face federal charges in U.S....

The man fatally shot by anti-terrorism officers in Boston on Tuesday and the suspect arrested Tuesday night in Everett had conspired to kill a police officer, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the case. “We believe the intent was to behead a police officer,” one official said Wednesday morning. “We knew the plot had to be stopped. They were planning to take action Tuesday.” (snip)They had a brief exchange near a bus stop, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, before Rahim lunged with the knife. The weapon was more than a foot long with a...

"....At a rainy press conference near the crime scene, Commissioner Evans described the man as in "mid 20s", travelling on foot, and carrying a black "military-style knife". Some US media have reported the weapon as a machete. The suspect was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The two officers are in hospital to be examined for stress, but did not suffer physical injuries, police said...."

The United States government could start seizing 401(k) plans, says one economist who believes a recent Supreme Court ruling sets the stage for Washington to initiate any such plans. Economist Martin Armstrong published a blog post Monday that took a look at the recent Tibble v. Edison case. The court concluded that employers have an obligation to protect their workers’ 401(k) plans from mutual funds that provide deplorable returns. Armstrong thinks this could give the federal government the arsenal to begin seizing private funds and take companies to court if mutual funds perform poorly. This comes as the Obama administration...

Rep. Peter King slammed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for speaking for hours Wednesday on the Senate floor against renewing the Patriot Act and the NSA's metadata programs the law authorizes, charging to Newsmax that he is "doing a disservice to the country and he's putting our national security at risk. "He's unnecessarily frightening the American people," the New York Republican, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an exclusive interview. "He's making the [National Security Agency] out to be the enemy.

The White House description of the fall of Ramadi to ISIS forces we have supposedly been busy degrading and destroying as a “setback” is like the British calling Dunkirk in World War II a strategic withdrawal. Ramadi is a defeat, the result of the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by President Obama against the advice of military minds who know better about these things than the former community organizer from Illinois. It is a defeat for President Obama’s foreign policy, a rebuke of his fundamental transformation of America’s role in the world from a leader who shaped events...

Six men have been arrested in the Republic of Ireland after police discovered bomb making equipment close to where Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit next week. Explosives and weapons were recovered at various locations as Irish police carried out more than 20 raids aimed at disrupting dissident Republican activity.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)New York Republican Rep. Peter King, who is considering his own bid for the White House, mocked Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz's announcement that he was running in 2016 and said the Texas Republican isn't qualified to serve as president. "Shutting down the federal government and reading Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor are the marks of a carnival barker not the leader of the free world," King said in a written statement on Monday. King's statement references a Cruz speech on the Senate floor that last more than 20 hours, railing against Obamacare in 2013. The New York Republican...

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has made no secret of his disdain for Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Speaking to the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) at their presidential forum, King lambasted the senators and implied they aren’t “responsible adults.” “[Rand Paul] is concerned about drones, he’s afraid the CIA might use drones to attack Americans drinking coffee in Starbucks,” King said, drawing a few laughs from the crowd. He suggested ISIS might be further emboldened to attack America if the commander-in-chief thinks the “real threat” is the CIA killing Americans with drones. “Then we have Ted Cruz,...

Under the false pretense of calling for new and tougher so-called fiduciary standards for financial brokers, advisers and retirement plan representatives, the White House once again horned in on Wall Street’s compensation formulas. However, what the president surely knows is that a vast majority of retirement plans — IRAs and 401(k)s — are in simple fee-based products like mutual funds. The commission-based accounts are for those who prefer to direct their brokers in certain purchases inside some of their retirement products. The key to the White House’s interference is in its nuanced language. Currently, a broker may make a recommendation...

On Feb. 2, 2015, on the heels of the State of the Union Address, the Obama Administration released its budget proposal for the 2016 fiscal year, accompanied by the Treasury Department's General Explanation of the Administration's Fiscal Year 2016 Revenue Proposals (colloquially known as the Greenbook).[1] Given the percentage of his previous proposals that have been passed and the newly-elected Republican majority in both houses of Congress, the vast majority of the proposals in the Greenbook are unlikely to become law during President Obama's last two years in office. However, they are worth noting, as they identify the focus points...