Free Republic

Russia has become a danger to Britain and the country must be prepared to take steps to defend itself and its allies, the former head of MI6 says. Sir John Sawers, who recently retired after five years as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Russia poses a "state to state threat".

On Friday, Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said he “lament(s)” that the number of guns that are in America, including the guns that guns that people possess “legally.” Rivera said these things during an appearance on Fox & Friends, after being asked to comment on a mom who had pulled a gun to stop a fight where one girl pinned another girl on the ground and was punching her in the head repeatedly. The mother has been “charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.” After watching the cell phone footage of the incident, Rivera responded: “First, I’ll talk about the...

US officials were preparing to deport at least 150 Bosnians suspected of having played a role in the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Serbs during the war that raged in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the New York Times reported. Authorities identified 300 suspects in all, which included those who allegedly hid their involvement in war crimes when they came to the US as war victims fleeing the violence in the Balkans. As many as half of these were believed to have played a role at the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serbs killed 8,000 Muslim boys and men. The...

Even as the eastern U.S. freezes, there’s less cold air in winter than ever before Yet, in what may seem like a paradox, the amount of wintertime cold air circulating around the Northern Hemisphere is shrinking to record low levels. This winter (2014-2015) is on track to see the most depleted cold air supply ever measured. “We are still on pace to break the all-time record — no question about it,” says Jonathan Martin, a professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Despite the brutal cold in the eastern U.S., the whole hemisphere is warmer this winter than it...

Eliminate the current Rhino power group as GOP advisors and select a super leadership group for our next President in favor of a large power group of business leaders including the current candidates. Every one of the current candidates can add something to the next Presidency in terms of what has to be done to overturn the damage to our country by Obama. We need powerful, patriotic leadership to get rid of his damage. American patriotic leadership and powerful business leaders should all contribute to this effort.

Lost in much of the reporting about CPAC is that almost all of the likely presidential candidates—really, all of them, with the exception of Rand Paul—seemed to place themselves at the Reaganite hawkish-internationalist end of the foreign policy spectrum. The much-heralded return of Republican isolationism or anti-interventionism wasn’t much in evidence, except during Rand Paul's half hour on the stage. The other candidates all criticized President Obama for his foreign policy weakness and timidity, and made the case for greater American strength and resolve. Of course, most of the speakers didn't go into great detail, especially on the question of...

. 2015-02-28 So the Obama Whitehouse and State Department are supposedly negotiating an agreement with Iran that allegedly gives Iran tacit U.S. approval to design, test and field a nuclear arsenal. Who knows what other gifts-concessions Obama (the stealth Islamic iman) will attempt to give Iran via this agreement. My question is: Doesn't the Constitution require that this agreement (treaty) be voted on and ratified (approved) by the U.S. Senate ? If so, then it's politically simple work for the U.S. Senate to just say "hell no" to Emperor Obama. Is this analysis correct ? Comments are invited. .

Greece's new currency designs are ready. The green 50 drachma note features Cornelius Castoriadis, the Marxisant philosopher and sworn enemy of privatisation. The Nobel poet Odysseus Elytis - voice of Eastward-looking Hellenism - honours the 200 note. The bills rise to 10,000 drachma, a wise precaution lest there is a hyperinflationary shock as Greece breaks out of its debt-deflation trap at high velocity. The amateur blueprints are a minor sensation in Greek artistic circles. They are only half in jest. Greece's Syriza radicals have signed a fragile ceasefire with the eurozone's creditor powers. Few think this can last as escalating...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Republican voters rejected former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the straw poll, as he earned only 8 percent of the vote and came in fifth. That came as, according to reports and several other campaigns, Bush attempted to rig the straw poll by busing in “supporters” from Washington, D.C., and K Street. So, after subtracting out those his campaign packed into the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor, his support among conservatives is even more smaller than it appears. Bush faced a round of ridicule from pretty much everyone across...

On Friday, C.J. Pearson, a 12-year-old conservative from Georgia who posted a viral video supporting Rudy Giuliani, discovered that his personal Facebook page was locked. In an exclusive interview with Examiner.com on Saturday, Pearson said he received a message from someone about 6 a.m. Friday. That's when he learned his account and page had been locked for "suspicious activity." He jumped through all of Facebook's hoops, but wasn't able to recover his account. So he created a new profile to take its place. His public page was not affected, he said, however, he can no longer administer the page....

EDINBURG — The political squabble between President Barack Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over whether to negotiate with Iran will dominate the foreign policy conversation this year, agreed former presidential advisers Karl Rove and James Carville, who spoke Friday morning in Edinburg. The duo — one Republican and the other Democrat — had an hour-long conversation in front of a gathering of more than 100 Rio Grande Valley residents at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance. Moderated by Evan Smith, editor of The Texas Tribune, the event was hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership and IBC Bank....

Senator Ted Cruz spoke out against Common Core during a speech to a Florida conservative organization. “We should repeal every word of Common Core,� he said. “We should get the federal government out of the business of curriculum.� This was not the first time Cruz said “no� to Common Core, but it was a great opportunity for the presidential hopeful to express his steadfast opposition to the progressive education reform movement standards. Cruz’ remarks came one day after his potential GOP presidential rival, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, endorsed Common Core.Cruz described Common Core as “national standards being dictated from...

I have touched on the problem of the Middle East that is largely undemocratic, and part of it is strongly anti-democratic. Specifically, it is being radicalized and terrorized by a number of unreconstructed dictatorships whose governmental creed is based on tyranny and intimidation. The most dangerous of these regimes is Iran, that has wed a cruel despotism to a fanatic militancy. If this regime, or its despotic neighbor Iraq, were to acquire nuclear weapons, this could presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind. I believe the international community...

The Panthers opposed not only police brutality but also the economic injustice of everyday life.Protests over police killings of unarmed African-Americans continue to erupt across the nation, largely thanks to the organizing efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement. As Black History Month draws to a close, it’s worth asking what the movement can learn from earlier organizing efforts — in particular, the Black Panther Party. Nearly 50 years ago, activists were demanding not only the recognition that black lives matter but also the right to black power. In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther...

      HAPPY PURIM Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other...

My friends, the longer I walk with the Lord and exercise His Word in my life, the REALITIES of time and ETERNITY are ever more clear to me (Psalm 119: 98-100, Prov. 1:5-7, 1 Cor. 1:18-31). No matter who you are, whenever one seeks to abide and take on the Lord of ETERNITY'S yoke (Matt. 11:28-20), one will be illumined beyond ones wildest dreams to the REALITIES of time and ETERNITY. The REALITIES of time and ETERNITY are absolutely horrific! No wonder men love darkness instead of light. The REALITIES of time and ETERNITY are absolutely horrific! No wonder men...

SEATAC, Wash. — Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant told a SeaTac municipal court judge Thursday that she will represent herself in an upcoming trial for disorderly conduct prompted by her arrest in November during a protest. On Nov. 19, Sawant and three others were arrested for not leaving a roadway during a protest against big airlines for not paying their workers a living wage. Of those arrested, Sawant, Socrates Bravo and John Helmiere appeared together before a judge for a pretrial hearing. A judge exonerated their bail amounts.

As if foreign policy couldn’t get any worse. The President Piece of Crap Maduro announced that they have captured an American pilot that was trying to topple his regime. Watch below:

The FCC passed the internet regulating “net neutrality” rules on Thursday and questions abound. But there are some things we do know, and here’s a summary: No one but the administration knows exactly what’s in it. The vote passed on a party-line 3 to 2 vote, with one of the Republicans including a 9-page dissent.The internet will now be treated like a public utility.The most commonly understood regulation will be the elimination of a broadband provider’s ability to prioritize or adjust the speed of content based upon their noteworthy financial arrangements with providers.George Soros and the Ford Foundation donated almost $200 million to support...

Isaiah 40:30-31 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Once again our fearful leaders are terrified of the word “shutdown”. In spite of any proof whatsoever that a shutdown has lost any seats they act as if the mere mention of the word has them running for the nearest foxhole. It is not so much the politicians who are afraid of the...

Iran has ended its large scale Great Prophet 9 exercise in the Persian Gulf, test firing a “new strategic weapon,” which it says will play an important role in the future battle against the US. The test was performed on the final day of the exercise, staged by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil passes. "The new weapon will have a very decisive role in adding our naval power in confronting threats, particular by the Great Satan, the US," Admiral Ali Fadavi, Iran’s navy chief, told the Revolutionary...

Allen also said media companies add insult to injury by throwing money at Sharpton, "the least expensive negro," to "cover" up their track record of "blatant" discrimination. "Instead of spending real money with real, 100 percent African American-owned media, it is easier to give [Sharpton] $50,000 to give them a cover," he said.

California, New York, and New Jersey always rank near the bottom of these lists as intrusive, red tape-bound hellholes. The First in Freedom Index actually draws from a lot of the sources that have been cited here before, including the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of North America as well as Mercatus Center's Freedom in the 50 States, the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index, and measures put together by the Center for Education Reform, among others. To this, the North Carolina group adds its own weight and emphasis. The ultimate score is an average across the categories it examines....

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- A dispute over who leaked an affidavit detailing a corruption probe involving a state senator is heading to federal court in Los Angeles after a judge's action on Friday. Ron Calderon, then a Democratic state senator from Montebello, filed a complaint in November 2013 contending that federal authorities tried to ruin his reputation by raiding his offices and leaking an FBI affidavit alleging he took money in return for promoting bills. He was later indicted and faces trial in federal court in Los Angeles beginning Aug. 11 on charges that he accepted $100,000 in bribes, lavish trips...

Austria's parliament has passed a law banning foreign sources of financing to Muslim organisations and requiring imams to be able to speak German, in a move closely watched by other European nations facing growing problems with radical Islam. The text aims to promote what conservative Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz calls an "Islam of European character" by muting the influence of foreign Muslim nations and organizations, and offering Austrian Muslims a mix of increased rights and obligations in practising their faith in the central European country. But the law has generated opposition from several quarters, including Austrian Muslim groups that call...

A provision tucked deep in the House rule book could provide a way out of the Homeland Security funding mess for Speaker John A. Boehner — without the Ohio Republican actually having to do anything.

OLIVE BRANCH, MS (WMC) - As winter weather was being dumped across most of North Mississippi, one woman says she saw much more than just snow — Angela Ashton is convinced she saw a UFO. Ashton, who is a certified Paranormal Investigator with Cryptic Shadows Paranormal Research, is certain that the object she saw in the sky was extraterrestrial. When she saw the object just after midnight on Thursday, she ran outside to record it. "It was at least the size of a football field," Ashton said. "I was laying in my bed and I have a huge window that...

This week's Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, brought all the expected on and off the main stage in Washington D.C. — speeches by presidential hopefuls, debates and the annual straw poll. But there was one big addition: hundreds attended the conference's first-ever Activism Boot Camp, which trained attendees in the best practices of do-it-yourself campaigning. The boot camp, powered by American Majority, a nonprofit conservative organizing group, was split into two tracks: the "Candidate, Campaign Manager & Campaign Operative" track and the "Activist" track. It featured lessons on social media, fundraising, organizing and data and technology. Ned Ryun, American Majority...

Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) (AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday celebrated his 91st birthday with a lavish million dollar bash that was slammed by the opposition as "obscene" in a country wracked by poverty.Thousands of supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF, many wearing party regalia emblazoned with the president's image, sang and danced as he arrived for the jamboree at a luxury hotel in the famed Victoria Falls resort.

The commanding officer of the Pearl Harbor-based Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Mississippi was relieved of his duties Friday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command, the Navy said. Cmdr. Tory Swanson was removed from his position by Capt. Harry Ganteaume, commander of Submarine Squadron 1. A command investigation into the circumstances leading to Swanson's relief is ongoing, the Navy said. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force, said he was limited in what he could say, but that the removal "was a matter of professional nature — not a personal...

Paul wins. Walker 2nd.

Leaders of ISIS are now calling on followers to assassinate an American college professor in the group’s propaganda magazine.The professor is Yasir Qadhi, reports Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV. Qadhi, born in Houston, Texas, is a professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, a private bastion of the liberal arts in Memphis. He is also a Muslim cleric and the resident scholar at the Memphis Islamic Center.ISIS — also called the Islamic State — and its adherents don’t like Qadhi because he stands athwart the radical Muslim entity, yelling stop.“Contrary to popular opinion, ISIS does not have support in the American Muslim...

Jeb Bush with 8% in 5th place

The Justice Department's announcement in December that it would allow the nation's Indian tribes to legalize and regulate marijuana on their reservations brought notes of caution — if not silence or opposition — from many tribes. They were reluctant given the substance-abuse problems that already plague many reservations.

MOSCOW — It was near closing time on Friday at the upscale Bosco restaurant that looks out onto the illuminated red-brick walls of Moscow’s Kremlin. Boris Nemtsov and his young, dark-haired girlfriend were finishing dinner. A political reformer who had fallen foul of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nemtsov had been preoccupied for weeks with details of an opposition march planned for Sunday.

Pope Francis has once again spoken out about the global economic climate, decrying an economic system that “seems fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats.” Speaking in Rome, the Pope condemned what he called a “throwaway culture created by the powers that control the economic and financial policies of the globalized world.”

Before the end of March, Wisconsin will likely become the 25th state to allow workers the choice of whether or not to join a union. With the pending enactment of a so-called “Right to Work” law, Wisconsin will join Indiana, Iowa and Michigan as the only Midwestern or Northeastern states without compulsory union membership. It could also power Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to the Republican nomination. It could be said that Walker’s campaign for the nomination began in 2011, when he pushed Act 10, a law stripping public sector employees of many collective bargaining rights, through the legislature. The proposal...

William Shatner has revealed he will be unable to attend Leonard Nimoy’s funeral. The actor took to Twitter Saturday to lament that due to prior obligations, he will miss his “Star Trek” co-star and friend’s funeral on Sunday. “I am currently in FL as I agreed to appear at the Red Cross Ball tonight,” he wrote. “Leonard's funeral is tomorrow. I can't make it back in time.”

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Saturday that "scaremongering" by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won't stop the Islamic Republic and world powers from reaching a final nuclear deal. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the world should not allow the hard-line Israeli leader to undermine peace. He was referring to Netanyahu's planned speech at the US Congress next week on the emerging nuclear deal that he considers dangerous. "Through scaremongering, falsification, propaganda and creating a false atmosphere even inside other countries, (Israel) is attempting to prevent peace," Zarif told reporters during a joint news conference Saturday with his Italian counterpart, Paolo...

Being elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives by his Republican peers should have been the happy culmination of a long congressional career for Rep. John Boehner. Telling his story about rising from modest circumstances – the second of 12 children in a working-class Ohio family – to become a legislative leader and second in order of presidential succession frequently brought tears to his eyes. But so far, at least, it’s largely been a slog through political swamps. He’s had to fight off not only Democrats but tea partiers and other members of his own party – including the...

Herzog vowed that, if elected PM, in his first 100 days as prime minister he would focus on three issues in particular: solving the housing crisis, "renewing relations with the US and the (political) process with the Palestinians." "If need be, I will travel to Ramallah and present to the Palestinian Parliament a vision of hope," he declared.

ISIS has announced that Lebanon will be the next state to fall under the sway of its “caliphate.” According to Beirut's Daily Star newspaper, the only reason ISIS hasn't attacked yet in force is because they haven't decided on the mission's commander. The Lebanese army is one of the least effective in the Middle East—and that's saying something in a region where the far more capable Syrian and Iraqi armies are utterly failing to safeguard what should be their own sovereign territory. So France is going to send a three billion dollar package of weapons to Lebanon and the Saudis...

Another major media outlet has apologized after getting a story about Scott Walker wrong. Last week, it was the New York Times; now, it’s The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast has retracted an article from one of its college columnists that claimed that the Wisconsin governor’s budget would cut sexual assault reporting from the state’s universities. The post, published Friday, cited a report from Jezebel that wrongly interpreted a section of the state budget to mean that all assault reporting requirements were to get cut altogether. In fact, the University of Wisconsin system requested the deletion of the requirements to...

A string of errors on the part of troopers with the Nevada Highway Patrol resulted in a humiliating and frightening experience last year for a couple from Washington who were pulled over while cruising down the highway in their classic 1962 Chevy Impala. Now, the couple, Robin and Beverly Bruins, has filed suit against the troopers and the Nevada Highway Patrol. Trouble started for the Bruins when they were pulled over by a trooper after he initiated a “routine records check” on the car. When the check did not return a match, the trooper pulled the couple over, Las Vegas’...

Home is where the POTUS is: Al Sharpton returns to White House 'for his 73RD visit' with Obama to discuss problems facing minorities Reverend Al Sharpton apparently cannot get enough of the White House. The prominent civil rights leader and MSNBC talk show host was invited Thursday to a meeting with President Obama and other African-American activists, making it his 73rd visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since 2009, according to some estimates. In a press release sent out ahead of the summit, White House officials described the occasion as an 'opportunity to have a dialogue with the leaders about the...

here were violent clashes on the streets of Newcastle today as hundreds of demonstrators from controversial anti-Islam group Pegida were met by a 2,000-strong counter-protest. Around 400 people from the far-right group were shouted down by the counter-demonstration, with scuffles breaking out as the rally made its way through the city centre, leading to five arrests. The rival demonstrations against the anti-Islam march were led by Respect MP George Galloway who spoke at the pro-Islam rally, branding the far-right protesters a 'German Nazi group'.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Perhaps in fear that he didn’t have enough backers willing to show up on their own, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign organized to bus supporters to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to cheer during his appearance on stage and vote for him in the straw poll. The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin writes that Bush brought people in from Washington, D.C.: “Mr. Bush’s supporters organized caravans of his Washington backers to attend his speech, and they cheered whenever anyone else booed,” Martin wrote. Those same bused in cheerers also will likely be expected by Bush’s...

Op-ed: Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, Herzog is underestimating evil and its promises to wipe the Jewish state off the map, while the media and left-wing camp are concentrating on PM's so-called 'corruption.' Until the current election campaign and the daily vicious, personal attacks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, I think I never really gauged the media and center-left camp’s cruelty, or their recklessness in regard to the security and safety of Israel and the Jewish people. I never realized how low they are willing to descend to have an Israel without Netanyahu and to replace him...

"Islamic State murders 15 Christian hostages, beheads woman; 35 Christian villages now entirely uninhabited" The Islamic State (ISIS) has killed 15 of the Christians it took hostage in northeastern Syria earlier this week. The news was given by Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana to the Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need on Thursday. ”Many of them,” he said, ”were defending their villages and their families.” One woman was beheaded in the village Tel Hormidz and two men were shot to death. There is no information at the moment on how the other 12 were killed. Youkhana added that the number...

After having his leadership repudiated by his own caucus yesterday, last night Speaker Boehner turned to his best friend in the House, minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, for a life line. Using a procedural motion to suspend the rules, which required two-thirds vote, Boehner passed the Orwellian named Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act by a vote of 357-60. He did it with Democrat votes. Where he lost 51 GOP members on the earlier vote he lost 55 GOP members the second time around. The mind boggles. What is going to happen in one week that fixes this problem?...