Free Republic

Venezuela's socialist government has quietly secured the backing of Latin America and the Caribbean to obtain a diplomatic trophy that long eluded the late Hugo Chávez: a seat on the United Nations Security Council. The unanimous endorsement of Venezuela's candidacy to represent the region on the Security Council came at a closed-door meeting July 23 in New York, said Amin Cruz, a diplomat at the U.N. from the Dominican Republic, which presided at the meeting. When Chávez last tried for a seat in 2006, the United States succeeded in torpedoing his campaign. This year, Washington has been mum.

The United Nations' human rights chief expressed concern on Thursday at what she said were plans by the U.S. government to deport tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who entered the United States in recent months. Navi Pillay-Wanker, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Washington to protect the child migrants and investigate dozens of reports of abuse against them by U.S. officials. "I am particularly concerned because the United States appears to be taking steps to deport most of these children back," Pillay-Wanker told a final news briefing in Geneva before completing six years in office on Aug. 31....

I agree with Mark Levin. As Levin pointed out on his show today, talking heads claiming Obama is "toast" because of low polling data are naive or delusional. (My opinion)

Ten members of the G20 have joined the United States in accusing the Syrian government of carrying out a chemical weapons attack on civilians last month and called for a strong international response.A joint statement by the 10 countries and the United States stopped short of explicitly calling for military action against the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad, as Barack Obama is advocating.But the tough language aligned half of the G20 members with the US president, who worked the sidelines of the summit in St Petersburg to build international support for a limited US military response. The 10 countries...

One of the repeating themes I kept hearing on the news for the past few days was how the White House was going to be really glad when this week was over because things really hadn’t been going very well. I assume Sunday is still part of the same week, because not only didn’t things get any better this morning, they seem to have taken a notable turn for the worse. We touched on this briefly earlier today, but the Obama administration dispatched Dan Pfeiffer to make the rounds of the Sunday shows and “clarify” what’s been going on with...

Maybe being "out of touch" isn't a bad thing.

Exclusive: Jane M. Orient, M.D., says political demagoguery is replacing science “From what I understand from doctors, that’s (conception as a result of rape) really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” – Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo. All decent people, including U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, agree that forcible rape is a heinous crime. Almost all would...

1. The Republicans have a deep bench from which Romney picked: 2. Paul Rahe suggests that the pick represents Romney’s declaration of war, and Professor Rahe is always worth reading. I think Romney has concluded he needs to go big and bold to win. 3. Paul Ryan is a remarkable man. He has made himself a national figure through his mastery of the federal budget. Who’d a thunk it? 4. Like the others on my putative short list, Ryan radiates decency 5. It would be nice to think that the Obama campaign played the murder card a little early, with...

A UN human official is urging the U.S. to turn over control of lands considered to be sacred to Native Americans, including the site of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, unveiled his recommendations in Geneva on Friday after completing a 12-day visit to the U.S. where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in six states. The fact-finder also had a chance to meet members of the Obama administration and briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but no member of Congress agreed to meet with him....

Calling solitary confinement "torture," California prisoners and advocates are asking the United Nations to investigate the segregated housing of gang members at prisons throughout the state. "We have California treating several thousand prisoners in much the same way the U.S. government treats enemy combatants held in Guantanamo," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing hundreds of inmates. Schey, who announced the petition at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday alongside prisoners' relatives, said solitary confinement was devastating to the physical and mental health of prisoners and was likely to increase their risk of committing more crimes upon release. The...

Gore: 'Our democracy has been hacked' By Daniel Strauss - 03/13/12 10:18 AM ET Al Gore said on Tuesday that America's democracy "has been hacked" and advocated for the use of digital tools to improve the government. Speaking to the high-tech crowd at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, the former vice president said that social media and digital technology should be used to "change the democratic conversation." "Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people." He also urged the audience...

TAMUNING, Guam – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked up nine more delegates Saturday, winning unanimous backing at the Guam GOP convention. Republicans on the tiny Pacific island decided to shun traditional paper ballots and all 215 eligible to vote at the convention backed Romney with a show of hands.....

Ordinary people are not putting enough pressure on governments to deliver a legally binding deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the U.N.'s climate chief said. "There is not enough well up from the bottom up. I don't see millions of citizens demanding climate action," Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said at a lecture on Friday. "The reality we have to deal with is the process is very slow and the urgency is every day growing. The only way out is to continue to push on the government side but we can't depend 100...

Gaza Strip - Palestinians tried to block the U.N. chief from entering the Gaza Strip and flung shoes at his armored convoy on Thursday, the second day of Ban Ki-moon's mission to the region. About 40 relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for a range of violent attacks gathered at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel. Some swung their signs and wooden sticks at Ban's convoy in protest. Three of them threw slippers at his car and another hurled a boot — an insulting gesture. Speaking to reporters, Ban thanked the people of Gaza for their "warm...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Okay, first things first… that is pronounced FOO-cue. Got that? Good. (Although let’s be honest, that’s not how you WANTED to pronounce it!) Suzanne Marques reports from this little hamburger gem (1634 Cahuenga, Hollywood, 90028 323-464-3858) that mixes big American beef flavors with Japanese inspired sauces and toppings. Take the “Lucky Burger” for example. Your typical all-beef patty, American cheese, onion, pickles and bun…but this one has a wasabi mayo and Fuku sauce. Or the “Karai” — one spicy burger topped with pickled cucumbers, avocado cream, and habanero kabyaki. Hot! And if you don’t like beef,...

Newt Gingrich tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would consider Mitt Romney to be a potential running mate (VIDEO). The interview is very much in keeping with Gingrich’s “keep it classy” campaign theme so far — and he treaded lightly, sounding neither overly enthusiastic about a VP Romney nor overly displeased with the idea. But why did he take the bait at all? He could just as easily have remained indifferent, have answered with a simple, “I’d have to give it thought.” He won’t win over Romney supporters — and he significantly owes his own surge to the appetite for an...

MSNBC has a new addition to its staff — Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain. On his Wednesday program, MSNBC host Thomas Roberts introduced McCain and asked her to address her back-and-forth with presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “Can you believe that?” McCain asked. “Former Speaker of the House I’m getting in fights with, I can’t believe it.” In a specific incident addressing some remarks McCain made about his presidential bid, Gingrich said, “How would she have a clue?” “I think he’s delusional,” McCain said. “And him calling me clueless I think is so sexist...

That's right. The "Republican take" was none other than uber-ditz Meghan McCain. TOTALLY! Among her pearls of wisdom: "Mitt Romney is, like, the most experienced candidate. He will be the nominee, and it's time that people learned to just deal with it." "We are going through each nominee one at a time like when you're...speed dating". "Herman Cain has never held public office before, and I find that, like, so disturbing". "Romney...Mitt..Romney...the best...Romney...." (ok I skipped the rest because I couldn't take it)

When Barack Obama draws criticism from Republicans and conservatives, it’s about as much of a breaking news flash as Dog Bites Man. We begin to move into Man Bites Dog territory, however, when a mounting wave of unrest comes from his own left flank – a scenario which has not only come to pass, but shifted into a significantly higher gear this past week. One of his latest detractors is found coming from the sector which would normally contain his biggest cheerleaders. This just in from Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast. More dispiriting news, this time about the White...

A poll released from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent national Democrats, found that former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is leading the pack of Republican hopefuls seeking their party’s presidential nomination in Florida. A PPP poll back in March found Romney tied in Florida with a rival from the 2008 Republican primaries, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, with 18 percent each. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was right behind them with 15 percent. Since then, Huckabee has announced that he is not running for president,...