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As the U.S. Senate took up a bill to provide financial aid to Ukraine, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rose to object to an IMF bailout Majority Leader Harry Reid attached to the legislation. In the process he blasted Reid for repeatedly demonizing the billionaire Koch brothers - Reid tried to blame the Koch brothers for halting progress on the Ukraine bill. "I'm beginning to think [the Koch brothers] are a character almost out of Dr. Seuss in the majority leader's mind, they are the grinch who stole Christmas in his telling," Cruz said. Cruz accused Reid of "using his...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thinks it is a “mistake” for Israel to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize it as a Jewish state in order to achieve peace. “I think it's a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we've obviously made that clear," Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday, when asked to clarify the official position of the Obama administration on the issue, according to the Breitbart website. He further said that the...

Secretary of State John Kerry warned of serious repercussions for Russia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance. Kerry will travel to London for a Friday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of a Sunday referendum vote in the Crimea region to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. U.S. and European officials argue that Moscow is orchestrating the referendum and waging an intimidation campaign with thousands of Russian troops controlling the region. If Russian-backed lawmakers in Crimea go through with the...

Secretary of State John Kerry warned of serious repercussions for Russia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance. Kerry will travel to London for a Friday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of a Sunday referendum vote in the Crimea region to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. U.S. and European officials argue that Moscow is orchestrating the referendum and waging an intimidation campaign with thousands of Russian troops controlling the region. If Russian-backed lawmakers in Crimea go through with the...

On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the need to provide Ukraine with economic assistance during its transition from the government of deposed President Viktor Yanukovich. The aid bill has encountered resistance from House and Senate Republicans, particularly a provision to provide aid to the International Monetary Fund which would utilize funds already allocated to the U.S. military.

Secretary of State John Kerry warned the U.S. and its allies will pursue a "serious series of steps" against Russia if a referendum on Crimea's status goes forward as planned this weekend. --SNIP-- The secretary also said the European community will meet on Monday, and that Obama had indicated he has a strong list of sanctions at the ready in the event that diplomacy doesn't break the stalemate over Ukraine and the Russian incursion into Crimea.

Hysterics: Democrats from the secretary of state to Senate lawmakers can't let go of their climate change obsession. Meanwhile, a group of NASA scientists and engineers says there's no danger. To whom do we listen? We'd say the folks at NASA. It's unlikely the media will see it that way, though. They have too much invested in that other scientific "consensus" that says man is heating the planet to listen to officials at NASA who disagree with the press-feted, fanatically political James Hansen. What do get wide coverage, though, are the rants of Secretary of State John Kerry, who has...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wowed the beltway elite and even Democrats during Saturday's annual Gridiron event, showing why the Ivy Leaguer has confounded and been vilified by many with whom he shares the same intellectual pedigree. The annual D.C. roast is hosted by the exclusive Gridiron Club, which is composed of D.C.'s mainstream and "elite" journalists. Cruz has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, which those in the permanent political class covet, and he can do their social rituals better than they can. Yet Cruz refuses to be co-opted by them politically, instead choosing to be a staunch conservative who represents...

On February 23, five days before Russia invaded Ukraine, National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on Meet the Press and shrugged off suggestions that Russia was preparing any kind of military intervention: “It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence returned and the situation escalate.” A return to a “Cold War construct” isn’t necessary, Rice insisted, because such thinking “is long out of date” and “doesn’t reflect the realities of the 21st century.” Even if Vladimir Putin sees the world this way, Rice argued, it is “not in the United States’ interests” to do so. It was a remarkably transparent case...

Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto and 13 other young activists, including the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, are calling on Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline. After speaking with top State Department officials on Thursday, the activists sent a letter to Kerry, digging deep into the secretary's past when he testified in Congress against the Vietnam War. "In 1971, when you were roughly our age, you asked ‘How can you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?’ " the letter states. “We stand at such a point today,...

Air-dropping himself into Kiev Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Russian seizure of Crimea is "not 21st-century, G-8, major-nation behavior." He said Mr. Putin should allow "international observers" to enter Crimea. International observers? This calls to mind Humphrey Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs facing the gang of Mexican bandidos in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre": Dobbs: "If you're the police, where are your badges?" Chief bandido: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges!" We may assume Mr. Putin would say the masked Russians patrolling Ukrainian Crimea are "international observers." As of this week,...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - John Kerry’s Empty PromisesPosted By Ari Lieberman On March 6, 2014 @ 12:40 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 16 Comments Just days after his monomaniacal boss blindsided Israel with a scathing one-sided attack against the Jewish state, John Kerry assured a very skeptical AIPAC audience that he would not allow the West Bank to turn into another Gaza. Unfortunately, there is ample precedent to suggest that when it comes to Israel (or for that matter, Ukraine) international or U.S. assurances don’t amount to a hill of beans.In 1951, Egypt closed the Gulf of Eilat...

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" to respond to Russia's invasion of the Crimea region of Ukraine. "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext," Kerry stated. He added, "It's an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President (Vladimir) Putin to invade another country." So, what would the United States do about Russian aggression? America would consider dropping its scheduled attendance at the G8 meeting in Sochi, Kerry said: "He is not going to...

Kerry Lectures Russia Again on 21st Century G8 Behavior John Kerry pounded his hand on the podium today and once again lectured Vladimir Putin on appropriate 21st Century G8 behavior. “I’ve spoken as directly at President Putin today as I can. It is not appropriate to invade a country and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what your are trying to achieve. That is not 21st Century G8 major nation behavior.” Meanwhile, Vladamir Putin test fired another ICBM missile.

Simferopol, Ukraine (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of making up reasons for intervention in Ukraine, saying Tuesday that "not a single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims." "Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not," he said while on a visit to Kiev. He condemned what he called Russia's aggression in Crimea and urged the country to withdraw its troops. "We would like to see this de-escalated. We're not looking for some major confrontation," he said, while still promising sanctions on Russia if it refuses to step back....

The US Secretary of State spoke today of the unacceptability of invading a sovereign country on phony pretexts in order to assert one’s own interests in the 21st century. But no, he was not speaking about the United States, as one might have thought. “You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests,” Kerry said during an interview with NBC. “This is an act of aggression that is completely trumped up in terms of its pretext. It’s really 19th century behaviour in the 21st century.” Kerry has also threatened to isolate Russia economically and...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday reaffirmed America’s friendship with Israel and its commitment to the Jewish state’s security. Kerry, who spoke at the AIPAC conference in Washington, said that his peace efforts were “not about him” but were about the “dreams of Israelis” and the “dignity of Palestinians.” “People ask me why am I so committed to these negotiations and why am I convinced that peace is possible,” he said, adding, that it was wrong to ask him why he visits the region so much. “This isn’t about me,” said Kerry, adding that his peace efforts were...

Ukraine imperils Obama’s foreign-policy legacy How far the blunt and threatening posture US secretary of state John Kerry took in his interview with the CBS News toward Moscow — and President Vladimir Putin in person — over the Ukraine situation was genuine and how far it was intended to meet the domestic criticism of the Barack Obama administration being ‘weak’ in its foreign policies doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Kerry demanded virtual capitulation by Russia under the shadow of US retribution and that’s being plain dishonest and unrealistic. The history of the current Ukraine crisis didn’t begin with...

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned as “unacceptable threats” comments made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry over possible Russian military action in Ukraine. The Russian parliament granted a request from President Vladimir Putin to authorize deployment of military forces in Ukraine on Saturday. In a series of public remarks over the weekend, Kerry called the move a "brazen act of aggression" and threatened Moscow with devastating economic and political consequences. “We consider there are unacceptable threats against Russia in the series of public statements by Secretary of State John Kerry...

On This Week With George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning, the titular host pressed Secretary of State John Kerry for specifics as to the United States’ planned responses to Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula, and whether President Barack Obama had the ability to execute repercussions against Russia. “All those violations,” Stephanopoulos said, “what’s the penalty for what Russia’s already done?” “The United States is currently considering all options,” Kerry said. “This really puts into question Russia’s role in the world…They are inviting the possibility of very serious repercussions, on trade, on investment, on asset freeze, on visa bans, on the potential...