Free Republic

"[I]t's been noted often by pundits that the tone of our politics hasn't gotten better since I was inaugurated, in fact it's gotten worse; that there's still this yawning gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics. Which is why, in my final State of the Union address, and in the one before that, I had to acknowledge that one of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics. I was able to be part of that here (in the Illinois Senate) and yet couldn't translate it...

A group of protesters circled outside New Orleans Police Department headquarters Friday afternoon (Feb. 12), calling for the arrest and trial of two Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies who shot and killed a 22-year-old man during a nearly five-mile-long police chase Monday night that started in Terrytown and ended across the river in Central City. Sheriff's Office officials said two deputies, Kenneth Bonura and Henry DeJean, opened fire on Eric Harris in fear for their lives after Harris threw his car in reverse near Simon Bolivar Avenue and Phillip Street. But protesters, as well as Harris' girlfriend – who was in...

John Brennan, the CIA director, told a Senate committee Tuesday that the violence and instability in the Middle East was the worst it had been in 50 years, painting a dire picture of a region he said was facing "unprecedented" bloodshed. Brennan spoke at the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual worldwide-threats hearing, emphasizing the threats the US faces as the Middle East devolves further into chaos. "The Middle East right now I think is racked by more instability and violence and inter-state conflict than we've seen certainly in the past 50 years," Brennan said. "And the amount of bloodshed and humanitarian...

Cops kill man after machete attack at Ohio deli Last Updated Feb 12, 2016 8:17 AM EST COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police shot and killed a man who stormed into a central Ohio restaurant wielding a machete and randomly attacking people as they sat unsuspectingly at their dinner tables, authorities said. Four people were injured in the brutal attack Thursday evening at Nazareth Restaurant and Deli, a Mediterranean restaurant in Columbus. The victims were taken to an area hospital and were expected to recover. CBS News has learned that investigators have identified the suspected attacker as Mohammad Barry. CBS News homeland...

75% of Silicon Valley's Tech jobs go to Foreign born workers - Palo Alto Online http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/02/10/silicon-valleys-year-amazing-but-with-perils Palo Alto Online News Uploaded: Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 8:34 pm Silicon Valley's year: 'amazing' but with 'perils' 2016 Silicon Valley Index finds phenomenal economic growth but questions if it will last by Sue Dremann / Palo Alto Weekly Joint Venture Silicon Valley's annual economic study found that 2015 was a year of record-breaking growth and prosperity, but it cautioned that there are perils associated with this kind of break-neck trajectory. It cautioned that a fourth-quarter slowdown, raised the question of whether it marks...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Feb. 10, 2016) – Carrier plans to relocate its Indianapolis operations to Mexico over the next three years, a move that will affect about 1,400 jobs.</p> <p>Jobs will begin transitioning to Monterrey, Mexico, in 2017, with completion estimated in 2019. The company manufactures heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems at its plant located on West Morris Street.</p>

N. Korean Long-range Missile Launch [Video from State TV] Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVogypIs2Lk

In open defiance of recent US sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan on late Tuesday told local media that Tehran will soon be rolling out an upgrade of its nuclear-capable medium-range Emad missiles. The "next generation of Emad with improved precision" will be unveiled in the next Iranian year which starts on March 20, Dehghan said as cited by the semi-official Fars News Agency. Emad is said to have a 1,700 kilometer range, putting Israel and much of eastern Europe squarely in its sights. [...] In light of an Iranian Emad test on October 10,...

POLICE ARE crediting a vigilant gun owner with saving the life of an Upper Darby cop Friday after he saw the officer being attacked and surrounded by a large group of teens. "There were 40 kids. If it wasn't for the good Samaritan stepping forward, he'd have been dead meat," Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. "There's no doubt they would have attacked him." About 3 p.m. every weekday, from six to eight township police officers patrol the area near Upper Darby High School as nearly 4,000 kids pour out of the building on Lansdowne Avenue near School Lane.

Iran has released new photographs in which at least one of the recently captured U.S. sailors is crying, according to a series of the pictures posted on social media. The pictures, as well as an accompanying video, were released by Iranian state-controlled news outlets and disseminated on Twitter by Iranian reporters early Wednesday. The new photographs come on the heels of another set of pictures that showed Iranian military forces detaining the U.S. sailors at gun point and forcing them to place their hands upon their heads while kneeling on a ship.

Video at link. The nation's top intelligence official confirmed Tuesday that the Islamic State has succeeded in making and deploying chemical agents in Iraq and Syria -- calling it the first such attack by an extremist group in more than two decades. The confirmation of mustard gas use came during Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he spoke to the Islamic State's growing sophistication online and in the battlefield. He did not elaborate on where and when the chemical attacks occurred, though there has been mounting evidence the terror group was experimenting...

The top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that ISIS was likely to attempt direct attacks on the U.S. in the coming year and that the group was infiltrating refugees escaping from Iraq and Syria to move across borders. James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, estimated that violent extremists were active in about 40 countries and that there currently exist more terrorist safe havens "than at any time in history." Testifying on global threats at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Clapper warned that ISIS and its eight branches were the No. 1 terrorist threat, and that it was using...

North Korea, which in recent weeks has conducted a nuclear test and fired a long-range rocket in defiance of United Nations sanctions, has also resumed its efforts to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told Congress Tuesday. A North Korean uranium enrichment facility has been expanded, and a plutonium reactor, closed in 2007, is back up and running, Clapper testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The reactor could begin to recover plutonium "within a matter of weeks to months," he said. The dictatorship's growing menace also includes a growth in the "size and sophistication of its...

The name of Jesus is not welcome in the Johnson Space Center newsletter, according to a complaint filed on behalf of a group of Christians who work for NASA. The JSC Praise & Worship Club was directed by NASA attorneys to refrain from using the name 'Jesus' in club announcements that appeared in a Space Center newsletter. "It was shocking to all of us and very frustrating," NASA engineer Sophia Smith told me. "NASA has a long history of respecting religious speech. Why wouldn't they allow us to put the name Jesus in the announcement about our club?" Liberty Institute,...

Could this statement be any clearer? From ClickonDetroit: Abu-Rayyan posted. “It’s one of the biggest ones in Detroit. I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced reloading and unloading.” . . . “It's easy, and a lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus it would make the news. Everybody would've heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. If I can't do jihad in the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here." He had also told the undercover agent that a church would be an...

U.S. stocks tumbled Monday morning to their lowest level in 22 months as a fresh drop in oil prices amid continuing fears of economic slowdown pushed investors to the perceived safety of government bonds and gold. "Is the market throwing out the baby with the bath water?"said James Meyer, chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors, referring to the "rapid fall in prices for the high flying tech and biotech names that have been leading the market for the past 12 months." "The former leaders of the previous bull cycle are the ones that get taken to the woodshed in...

Recent reports suggest that over a thousand converts to Christianity from Islam currently live in Italy, but hide their conversions for fear of retaliation from the Muslim community against themselves and their families.

The reason Russia is possibly building a new airbase on the Turkish border inside Syria became clearer today as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Turkey could enter the war on the side of the anti-Assad forces who Russia has been primarily targeting. The Syrian government made major gains against the Sunni opposition in recent weeks as the Syrian city of Aleppo looked to fall from the opposition’s control. Turkey has repeatedly urged the American-led coalition against ISIS to do more to help the anti-Assad forces. “We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq,”...

Authorities have arrested a 21-year-old Michigan man whom they accuse of supporting Islamic State militants and plotting to attack a Detroit church. Khalil Abu-Rayyan of Dearborn Heights appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit and remains jailed pending a Monday hearing. He hasn’t been charged with terrorism-related crimes but has been investigated since May and faces marijuana and gun charges.

Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil. "In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil...