Free Republic

Pope Francis launched a fresh attack on economic injustice on Saturday, condemning the "throw-away culture" of globalization and calling for new ways of thinking about poverty, welfare, employment and society. In a speech to the association of Italian cooperative movements, he pointed to the "dizzying rise in unemployment" and the problems that existing welfare systems had in meeting healthcare needs. For those living "at the existential margins" the current social and political system "seems fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats," he said. The Argentinian-born pope, who has often criticized orthodox market economics for fostering unfairness and...

Many Arabs and Muslims see the meeting between Obama and Qatar's al-Thani as a gift to Qatar for its continued support of Islamic radical groups across the Middle East, including Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. On the eve of Obama's meeting, Egyptian sources revealed that Qatar was providing weapons and ammunition to members of the Islamic State in Libya. The sources said that 35 Qatari aircraft were involved in transferring munitions. Arab political analysts are also concerned about Obama's ongoing attempts to appease Iran, which continues to expand its presence in Arab countries such as Yemen, Iraq...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has pulled the trigger. In the name of “net neutrality” they have decided to assert regulatory control over the vast, sprawling, ever-changing conglomeration of economic activities known simply as the “Internet.” What will the FCC do now? Think of Nancy Pelosi’s infamous statement about the Affordable Care Act: Congress had to pass it for Americans to learn what it would do. The FCC has bitten off more than it can chew. Its task will be somewhat comparable to that of the old Soviet price-setting bureaucracy in which my friend, economist Yuri Maltsev, once worked. Barely...

With the anniversary of the 22nd Amendment on Friday, Constitution Daily looks at two hot-button topics: Should a President be allowed to serve a third term? And should members of Congress and the Supreme Court have term limits like the President? View photo .obamainaug1 The 22nd Amendment brought the idea of term limits into the Constitution. When it was ratified in 1951, the amendment limited a President from effectively serving a third term, by saying that a President who won two elections can’t run a third time. The 22nd Amendment also bars a President from serving more than 10 years...

Sightings of former Gov. John Kitzhaber and fiancee Cylvia Hayes have been few and far between since Kitzhaber resigned last Wednesday and the two departed Salem. But there was such a sighting one week ago. And it raised quite a stink. The former governor and Hayes showed up at the Knott Landfill southeast of Bend in a pickup and an SUV about 2 p.m. last Friday and spent a few minutes dumping trash, according to Timm Schimke, the director of the Deschutes County Solid Waste Department.

North Carolina’s State Ethics Committee has just opened up a major problem for their state — they just made it legal for lobbying firms to purchase prostitutes to service politicians. The Committee’s determination that sex had no value and that sex between a lobbyist and politician was nothing to report or in any way questionable means that a major loophole has opened up for lobbying firms. Now lobbying firms can hire people with the explicit goal to seduce and fornicate with politicians in order to garner favor. In other terms, lobbying firms can hire people who can offer sexual services...

Old and busted: Open-source war planning. New hotness: Strategic incoherence! A week ago, the Pentagon briefed reporters on the plan to retake Mosul from ISIS in April using mainly Iraqi Army troops, down to the timing of the attack and a rough estimate of the numbers and types of troops needed to accomplish the job. Just seven days later, the Department of Defense pushed off the date until autumn … if then. A DoD source told The Daily Beast’s Nancy Youssef that, er, they’ve belatedly discovered that Iraqi troops aren’t ready now, and probably won’t be ready for months: The...

.... Bathroom bill clears Senate hurdle Senate Bill 76, sponsored by Sen. C. B. Embrey, R-Morgantown, passed the Senate Friday with a 27 to 9 vote. The bill would require students to use the bathroom of the sex that they were born. Democratic opponents of the bill felt that the decision of what restroom a transgender child should use should be made at the local school level. “I don’t see anything wrong with letting our local school boards run their own school systems,” said Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort. Sen. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, is fearful that the state is taking way...

PARIS — AT dinner last summer with my brother-in-law, a grandson of Jews who fled Algeria for France, the conversation turned to the rash of anti-Semitic incidents plaguing the country. At such times, the question inevitably arises in the minds of many Jews: “Where could we go?” He mentioned Tel Aviv, London and New York, but the location mattered less than the reassurance that departure remained an option. He’s not alone in this thinking: 7,000 French Jews emigrated in 2014. Over the past year, as I watched with outrage at the dizzying spate of unpunished extrajudicial police killings of black...

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. Daily results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults; Margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

Boris Nemtsov: The political demands [for our march] are key: a quick end to the war with Ukraine. You know that Putin began aggression a year ago against Ukraine? Why do I say a year ago? Because on Feb 27 last year you know that armed men seized the parliament building of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Then 47 deputies without a quorum under the gaze of automatic weapons, voted for the referendum.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. is providing spy-satellite imagery to Ukraine to help in its fight against Russia-backed rebels, but with a catch: the images are significantly degraded to avoid provoking Russia or compromising U.S. secrets. The White House agreed last year to Ukraine’s request to provide the photos and other intelligence. But before delivering them, U.S. officials black out military staging areas on Russian territory and reduce the resolution so that enemy formations can’t be clearly made out, making them less useful to Ukrainian military commanders. Those steps, which delay the delivery of the images by at least 24 hours, are designed...

PM on eve of Washington trip says strength of US-Israeli relations will prevail over current disagreements. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to the Western Wall Saturday night, just hours before flying to Washington on one of the the most contentious visits there by an Israeli prime minister in recent memory. With the Wall as his backdrop, Netanyahu said that he wanted to visit Judaism's holiest site before embarking on his trip Sunday morning to Washington where his scheduled speech before Congress on Tuesday has placed him at loggerheads with the White House. “I want to take this opportunity...

Jeb Bush reminded a CPAC audience what a conservative isn't; Ted Cruz of Texas reminded them what a conservative is. Friday, Governor Jeb Bush began to speak before the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md., when a sudden shuffling of feet signaled the exodus of conservative Tea Party activists from the Patomac Ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Bush now knows what New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio feels when an army of police officers turn their backs to him at every speech. William Temple, a Tea Party organizer from Brunswick, Georgia, led...

To the editor:As a World War II veteran I am appalled by the lack of knowledge our Senators and Congresspersons have in discussing the threats that have been covering our nation for the past years. Every American that reads this letter should understand the background of the Marine Hymn and the phrase, “to the shores of Tripoli.”One has to wonder why our elected officials (The United States Congress) either fail to read history or tend to dismiss history as untrue facts. Over 200 years ago the United States declared war on Islam and it was Thomas Jefferson who led the...

He was killed within 200 m from Kremlin wall. Nothing happens within 200m from White House without secret service knowing it." And I made the same point today, that there are no political stature such as Nemtsov left in Russia today

Close allies of Speaker John Boehner are worried that his conservative rivals could move to oust him as soon as next week. Removing a sitting speaker is exceedingly difficult, and such an effort would almost certainly fall short. Yet growing speculation about the possibility of it – coming after Friday’s embarrassing defeat at the hands of conservatives and House Democrats on the homeland security battle — shows how vulnerable the speaker has become. Five years into the job, he’s a leader consistently buffeted by forces beyond his control. The legislative calendar guarantees it won’t get any easier: in the coming...

Urge Washington to stop ignoring the threats of radical Islam and a nuclear Iran: http://StandUpToIran.com

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reads a letter she sent to her colleagues in Congress urging support for a DHS stopgap funding bill.(T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)) February 28, 2015 House conservatives were told a shutdown-averting vote last night bought them a week reprieve to strategize a new fight against President Obama's immigration orders. Democrats believe they've been promised a vote on a full-year funding bill by next Friday. A week from now, one of those groups is going to be very disappointed—and likely irate at the deception of its own leadership.   House Democrats voted en masse Friday for a...