Free Republic

By incentivizing the production and mandating the consumption of first-generation biofuels — predominantly corn-based ethanol — lawmakers hoped to create a transportation fuel revolution. Instead, they've created a legislative monstrosity that has ravaged our land, polluted our air, diverted our water, driven up food prices at home and abroad, put engines at risk and cost U.S. taxpayers billions. In order to meet the excessive ethanol mandates in the RFS, more and more land has been converted to grow corn for fuel — not food. In the 16 years prior to RFS implementation, corn acreage in the U.S. rose by just...

A ragtag band of US mercenaries, Ukrainian National Guard soldiers, and fighters from the radical Right Sector movement have arrived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk to raid a building occupied by anti-government protestors, a leader of a local militia group told RIA Novosti on Thursday. “About a hundred people from the National Guard are housed at the Donetsk airport,” said Sergey Tsyplakov, the deputy director of a local group called the People’s Militia of the Donbas. “Around a hundred Right Sector thugs are also in the city, as well as a hundred employees from a private US military...

Anti-Maidan activists have detained a foreign national in Kharkov’s Beketova Street and posted the video footage on the web. The same video features a group of aggressive people using strong language while interrogating an unidentified person wearing the uniform of the Sokol (Falcon) police task force. The unknown man, pinned to the ground, speaks English and says he is a US citizen. According to the activists, this proves the earlier reports that US mercenaries have indeed arrived to take part in a military operation in the southeast of Ukraine and that mercenaries have indeed changed into the uniforms of one...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against moving "overtly or covertly" into eastern Ukraine and said there was strong evidence that pro-Russian demonstrators in the region were being paid.

The relative calm of the last two weeks as US talking-heads proclaim Ukraine 'fixed', Russia 'under control', and Europe 'recovering' is being obliterated this morning. The storming of various non-Crimean Ukrainian city government buildings suggest round two of the push is beginning and Russia is wasting no time explaining how this will go down. Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov stated that "Russia has no right to [send peacekeepers] unilaterally" to Eastern and Southern Ukraine (unless the UN agrees)... but... "Russia is interested in stability in Ukraine. At the same time, the will of the people must be documented. A referendum is...

KIEV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government dispatched its highest-level police and security officials to the eastern part of the country Monday in an effort to put down separatist violence described as inspired by Russia and following a script that played out in Crimea. “The plan is to destabilize the situation,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told an emergency cabinet meeting Monday morning. “The plan is for foreign troops to cross the border and seize the country’s territory, which we will not allow.” On Sunday, pro-Russian demonstrations in the eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk that had been orderly the last...

Pro-Russian protesters who seized the regional government building in Donetsk, Ukraine are reported to have declared a "people's republic". Footage online showed a Russian speaker telling the assembly "I proclaim the creation of the sovereign state of the People's Republic of Donetsk." The rebels are reported to have called a referendum on forming a new republic. Earlier on Monday, protesters seized state security buildings in both Donetsk and Luhansk. SNIP From the Wall Street Journal:On Monday, the occupying protesters proclaimed the creation of the "Donetsk People's Republic," ruled by the self-declared "Supreme Soviet," the Interfax news agency reported. The protesters...

Law enforcement agencies have established individuals who participated in the seizure of administrative buildings of the Donetsk Regional State Administration and SBU in the Donetsk region. This was announced by Attorney Nicholas Frantovskyy Donetsk region, the press service of the Prosecutor's Office. "At present, law enforcement agencies established individuals who participated in the riots. Measures are all necessary steps to apprehend the offenders," - he said. "Action without exception all the participants in the events will provide a fundamental legal assessment" - added Frantovskyy . "I emphasize that each recorded a violation of the law and the investigators examined all...

GOOGLE TRANSLATION "I am now in Lugansk. The situation is as follows. Terrorists captured in the SBU approximately 300 machines, 100 guns, 20 sniper rifles. Criminals-mostly military and former Afghans, their indoors up to 150 persons. Zìvak around the building is still a man. Among the terrorists of Russian diversantìv, gives the accent and rub that they have. The perimeter of the building, another man 10-15 with racìâmi and with weapons. Strange, but seized the building of the SBU has not turned off the electricity, water, etc. Terrorists are freely enjoyed computers and mobile communication, coordinate its activities with the...

Fox is on the Bush push this weekend! Read MY LIPS! I will note vote for anyone with the last name Bush for President. PERIOD! Jeb Bush don't waste our time! You will not win.

(KIEV, Ukraine) — Crowds of pro-Russian demonstrators stormed government buildings Sunday in two major cities in eastern Ukraine, where secessionist sentiment has sparked frequent protests since Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president was ousted in February. In Luhansk, 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Russian border, hundreds of people surrounded the local headquarters of the security service and later scaled the facade to plant a Russian flag on the roof. In Donetsk, to the southwest, a large group of people surged into the provincial government building and smashed windows. A gathering of several hundred, many of them waving Russian flags, then listened...

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 flew around Indonesian airspace apparently to avoid detection after vanishing from radar screens on March 8, a media report said today, suggesting the possibility of a more sinister reason behind the jet's disappearance..... After reviewing radar data provided by neighbouring countries, investigators have now found that the jetliner curved north of Indonesia before turning south toward the southern Indian Ocean, CNN quoted a Malaysian official as saying. The official also suggested the possibility of a more sinister reason behind MH370's disappearance a month ago. The plane's flight path clearly showed that someone on the plane was...

Lead story on Drudge The uniparty at work!

<p>Unauthenticated, expletive-laden recording of pair joking about which countries to annex after Crimea is leaked online.</p> <p>A recording has surfaced online purporting to be a leaked conversation between two Russian ambassadors discussing which parts of the world they would like to annex after Crimea.</p>

<p>The U.S. and Europe have been emphatic in their support of the new Ukrainian government – but a significant number of Washington's new bedfellows are members of what some experts class as extreme right-wing parties.</p> <p>When Sen. John McCain traveled to Kiev in December, he told the crowd of 200,000 on Independence Square: "The free world is with you, America is with you, I am with you."</p>

There is a fierce battle brewing between three sects of a divided Republican Party. The Rand Paul libertarians and the Ted Cruz social conservatives are drumming up support for what could be a bloody competition to rule the roost of 2016. In the safe middle is the establishmentarian moderates and the elites of the Republican Party, like Chris Christie and Marco Rubio. The most watched and most important battle, however, will be the battle between the GOP's two rights – the battle between Paul and Cruz. In an interview with Vocativ, Rand Paul spoke of a Republican Party that requires...

It's time for a public hearing about what's going on with our stock market. I've said Michael Lewis' claim that the stock market is "rigged" is a gross exaggeration, but we can thank him for one thing: the megaphone he has with "60 Minutes" has helped revive a sleepy debate on what is right—and wrong—with our market structure. And now, it is time to strike while the iron is hot: It's time for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to convene a series of public hearings on the stock market. Read More Michael Lewis, 'Flash Boys,' and '60 Minutes' Bring...

Seven Decades of Nazi Collaboration: America’s Dirty Little Ukraine Secret Paul H. Rosenberg and Foreign Policy In Focus The Ukrainian nationalist party Svoboda holds a rally in Kiev, January 1, 2014. (Reuters/Maxim Zmeyev) As the Ukrainian crisis has unfolded over the past few weeks, it’s hard for Americans not to see Vladimir Putin as the big villain. But the history of the region is a history of competing villains vying against one another; and one school of villains—the Nazis—have a long history of engagement with the United States, mostly below the radar, but occasionally exposed, as they were by Russ...

Erick Erickson reported that Republicans John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy and 25 other Congress members will fly to Amelia Island next weekend to meet with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress. “Main Street Advocacy” is hosting the event at the Ritz Carlton – only the best for these sorts. Steve LaTourette, liberal Republican and former congressman, is the face of the group and a good friend of Boehner’s.

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was charged Wednesday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms, part of a sweeping public corruption case outlined by federal prosecutors. The charges sent shock waves through the San Francisco and Sacramento political establishments, as FBI agents searched Yee's Capitol office. Last year the FBI raided the offices of Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), who was targeted in a bribery sting. SNIP The indictment alleges Yee and Jackson defrauded "citizens of honest services" and were involved in a scheme to traffic firearms in exchange for thousands in campaign donations to the senator. SNIP...