Free Republic

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom some pundits had written off as the GOP's nominee, may find a second coming in Iowa, if new poll data holds up. As Mitt Romney's campaign has suffered a startling decline in recent weeks, only to see Newt Gingrich eclipse the former Massachusetts governor's front-runner status, the battle for the Iowa caucuses set for Jan. 3 has become a wide-open race. New survey data prepared for the Perry campaign and shared by a source close within the campaign shows that the Texas governor may be poised to do much better in next month’s Iowa caucuses...

Rand PaulIn the midst of allegations of police brutality and police aggression at the OWS protests, the U.S. Senate approved a bill that is said to “explicitly create a police state”: the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA, passed by a vote of 93 to 7, virtually stated that all of the United States may be considered a battlefield, and therefore the American military is permitted to indefinitely detain any American perceived to be a threat. Several amendments were proposed by both Democrats and Republican Senators, which would have deleted the dangerous provisions that would allow the indefinite detention of...

As a journalist who’s covered American politics for the last 24 years, and who covered the Soviet Union as a foreign correspondent before that, I’ve learn to appreciate the dark art of political propaganda.....One of my all-time favorites is the straw man scam.... A recent example of the straw man scam came courtesy of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. At a Family Leader conference in Iowa on Saturday, Mr. Perry said that “there is a time and a place for us to intervene and intervene militarily.” Phew. Glad we got that cleared up. Mr. Perry went on: “But when we...

WASHINGTON/ATLANTA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - After months of grumbling behind the scenes, U.S. arms makers are now publicly criticizing Pentagon plans to change the way it buys weapons and make industry shoulder more of the risks of development. snip Chief Executive Robert Stevens told reporters after the earnings release on Wednesday that Lockheed would be reluctant to accept "unbounded liabilities for unpredictable or unknown events."

The US government should consider sending troops to Mexico to combat drug-related violence, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican nomination for US president, said Sunday. "It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these At present Barack Obama’s administration is providing serious financial support to Mexican security services, while the security services of two countries are closely cooperation, Radio Liberty reports.

<p>SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney castigated “career politicians” Tuesday as he tried to distinguish himself from chief rival Rick Perry while on the governor’s home turf in Texas.</p> <p>“I am a conservative businessman. I spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy,” Romney said told the Veterans of Foreign Wars annual convention in San Antonio. “Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out.”</p>

Defense: Tehran's navy deploys ships to the Atlantic capable of launching long-range missiles. This is not a joke. This is a dress rehearsal for the day an EMP attack ends our way of life. 'Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at "The World Without Zionism" Tehran conference in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a "war preparation plan" for, as he put it, "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." Electromagnetic pulse, or...

Presence in Mexico Based on a study done by Georgetown University, the number of immigrants from Lebanon and Syria living in Mexico exceeds 200,000. Along with Iran, Syria is one of Hezbollah’s strongest financial and political supporters, and Lebanon is its country of origin. In July of this year, Mexican authorities arrested Jameel Nasr in Tijuana, Baja California. Nasr was alleged to be tasked with establishing the Hezbollah network in Mexico and throughout South America. In April of last year, the arrest of Jamal Yousef – in New York City – exposed a weapons cache of 100 M- 16 assault...

Space exploration is not only critical in refusing to surrender the battlefield of space – our next serious theater of war -- to our present and future adversaries; it also necessary in retaining US technological superiority and being able to utilize the energy and mineral resources of the Solar system essential for future global prosperity. The major problem is that It is not just NASA but the whole of the US space industry that is in trouble. It is laying off men and women by the thousand; their skills and experience will be lost forever. Reconstituting the ability to build...

John King CNN interview: 5:19 minute video: Could Rick Perry shake up GOP W.H. race?GUESTS: Erick Erickson [Red State] and Mimi Swartz [Texas Monthly] discuss the potential presidential candidacy of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.Swartz: “Formidable campaigner. People on the East Coast underestimate him at their peril. He’s relentless. Perry will fight to the death if he wants this.” King: If he gets in, who gets hurt? Erickson: Pawleny has most to lose. Bachman loses. Hurts Romney -- explains in detail. Palin and Giuliani won’t get in if Perry gets in. Swartz: quoting another pundit re: Bush/Perry -- Bush aristocratic –...

Security: The Pentagon has disclosed perhaps the largest theft of sensitive data by an unnamed foreign government. The threat to our electronic infrastructure is real, growing and as dangerous as a North Korean missile. In outlining America's cyberwarfare strategy last Thursday at the National Defense University, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn disclosed that 24,000 sensitive files containing Pentagon data at a defense company were accessed in a cyberattack in March, likely by a foreign government. He didn't disclose the identity of that government, but in a bit of an understatement he acknowledged, "We have a pretty good idea." So...

With the media frenzy over the "big showdown" Sunday night between President Obama -- with Democrat lawmakers -- and Republican lawmakers to hash out a proposed budget agreement, few reporters are covering the deep, deep budget cuts for agencies that protect the United States, its citizens and its interests. In an effort to tell voters during the 2012 election cycle that he significantly reduced government spending, President Barack Obama is said to be considering national security budget cuts totaling upwards of $700 billion in a deal to raise the debt limit. That’s about twice the amount President Obama originally quoted...

America has become the despised superhero Among nations, we really are a superhero.  We assimilate immigrants like no other nation, we come to the aid of everybody, destroy dictators and kill bad guys...  Our frightful military prowess is unrivaled. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished We've earned nothing but hatred for our efforts.  We are Batman, fighting nihilistic Jokers but pissing everybody off in the process.  They level charges of torture, illegal prisons and habitually bombing Muslim wedding parties and killing innocent civilians. We are excoriated for invading Iraq and Afghanistan...  by the same crowd that urges us to kill Khadaffi...

Secrets: Good news of bin Laden's death may be followed by bad news of Pakistan giving China a peek at our downed helicopter. Will we be threatened by our own technology? They are something out of the latest Batman flick, the modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's Pakistani compound. With a curious hublike housing around the unusually configured rear-rotor, among other things, it was clearly designed to be as quiet and stealthy as possible. When one of the copters clipped a wall in bin Laden's compound, it had to be destroyed, leaving...

Why is it that Christian chaplains are not allowed to pray in the name of Jesus Christ but jihadi Major Hasan was allowed to stay in the military even after he issued violent gruesome threats against nonmuslims?

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) was booted off the Advisory Board of the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) over what the group calls his "delusional and disturbing alliance with the fringe Anti-War movement." According to a post at the organization's web site: “It is a sad day in American history when a one-time conservative-libertarian stalwart has fallen more out of touch with America’s needs for national security than the current feeble and appeasing administration,” said YAF’s Senior National Director Jordan Marks. Paul has served on the Advisory Board for the conservative organization for more than two decades, and was...

The national decline in education standards is starting to affect national security. “Almost a quarter of young people who tried to join the military between 2004-2009 did not pass the entrance exam, according to a study released last month,” according to a story which appeared in The Education Reporter in January. “The dismal pass rate is causing concern among military leaders about national security.” “The 23% military exam failure rate is even more disturbing because the exam is only given to people who meet other requirements; the Pentagon reports that 75% of 17- to 24-year olds don’t even qualify to...

The federal government has spent millions of dollars to help farmers nationwide buy greenhouse-like structures called high tunnels that can add valuable weeks and even months to their growing seasons by protecting produce from chilly temperatures. About $13 million has gone to more than 2,400 farmers in 43 states to help pay for the low-tech tunnels that look like a cross between Quonset huts and conventional greenhouses. The structures, also known as hoop houses, have been particularly beneficial in the north, where they allow farmers to plant as much as four weeks early and keep growing later in the fall....

President Barack Obama has made it very clear that he is not in the least interested in getting American government spending under control. A month ago he urged Congress to pass a $1.2 trillion spending bill larded with tens of billions of dollars for projects for Democratic Party core constituencies. Luckily, Senate Republicans found enough backbone to stop Obama’s latest binge spending programme as Mr Obama criticized the Republicans for their rare exercise of spending discipline. Now we have a new budget proposal by the President. He wants $78 billion in cuts in US military spending, with large cuts to...

Defense: While America has stopped production of its stealth fighter, China prepares to challenge U.S. air supremacy in the Western Pacific with its own. China is on another Long March, one it hopes will lead to military supremacy over the U.S. at least in the Western Pacific. It is deploying a carrier-killing mobile missile, the Dong Feng 21D, and is expected to launch its first aircraft carrier this year, the refurbished ex-Soviet carrier Varyag. China is also conducting preflight tests on a fifth-generation stealth fighter expected to challenge the best the U.S. has to offer. Photographs reportedly showing China's J-20...