Free Republic

The White House disclosed the other day that the fiscal 2009 budget deficit clocked in at $1.4 trillion, amid the usual promises to do something about it. Yet even as budget director Peter Orszag was speaking, House Democrats were moving on a dozen spending bills for fiscal 2010 that total 12.1% in more domestic discretionary increases. Yes, 12.1%. Remember, inflation is running close to zero, or 0.8%. The good news, if we can call it that, is that Senate Democrats only want to increase nondefense appropriations by 8% for 2010. Because these funding increases become part of the permanent baseline...

Downing Street has hit back at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for attacking the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous

According to Janet Napolitano, who succeeded the metaphor-happy Michael Chertoff as United States Secretary of Homeland Security, the term 'global war on terror' did not describe accurately the nature of the 'terrorist threat to the US'. "One of the reasons the nomenclature is not used is that 'war' carries with it a relationship to nation-states in conflict with each other," she told the Financial Times, adding: "and of course terrorism is not necessarily derived from the nation-state relationship." Reflecting the careful attention devoted to this matter at the highest levels of government, Napolitano concluded: "In some respects 'war' is too...

Run on the Banks Planned for 4/17/2009I have my doubts on whether the guys over at campaignforliberty.com will be successful, but they're attempting to organize a run on the banks on April 17th with the goal being a collapse of the Federal Reserve system - or at the very least to bring attention to Ron Paul's HR 833. They have a web site set up with some information here: http://libertyormayhem.com/

Amid a blizzard of disheartening polls a month out from the general election, the John McCain-Sarah Palin Republican ticket got some great news this afternoon: A clear go-ahead signal to millions of evangelicals across the country from Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of FocDr James Dobson founder and chairman of Focus on the Family who radio program and newsletters reach millions of evangelicals approves a vote for the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palinus on the Family, to vote for the GOP ticket. It couldn't have come at a better time given more polls showing a Democratic...

Loremo AG revises the look of its high MPG vehicle.’ - Loremo AG’s highly efficient Loremo LS and Loremo GT have been profiled several occasions time on DailyTech. When discussions started to brew about the vehicles, the topic quickly turned to fuel economy and then to their styling. There was no mistaking the bodywork for something other than futuristic with its low-slung profile, glass roof, and long, aerodynamic tail. With Loremo coming closer to providing a road going version of its vehicle, it made changes to the vehicle exterior to make it more feasible for production.

A study by an American organisation has claimed that in the three years after the 9/11 attacks, US military aid to Pakistan increased 45,000 per cent, soaring to $ 4.2 billion from $ 9.1 million earlier. The study by Center for Public Integrity, using information gathered through Freedom of Information requests, said more than half the money was provided through a post-9/11 Defence Department programme informally called Coalition Support Funds (CSF). Pakistan received $2.3 billion of the aid from CSF money in fiscal years 2002 through 2004 and $ 3 billion in 2005. Thus the country was at the first...

A Hawaii county erected a Christmas tree to protect a Chanukah menorah from a church-state separation challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union complained to Maui County this week after seeing the menorah, accompanied by a dreidel, in front of the county building. A local rabbi had asked authorities for permission to set up the menorah. The ACLU cited laws that say that displaying a religious symbol by itself could constitute endorsement of that religion. County workers scrambled Wednesday to find a Christmas tree, in short supply in Hawaii this late in the season. One was found at a local botanical...

Over the next two years, Republican leaders need to remember that they came to Washington to change it, not embrace it. We need an agenda that approaches issues from a conservative perspective and not one driven by politics. America is a conservative nation and wants conservative government. They don’t want corruption and power-hungry politicians.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A famous political name does not guarantee hassle-free voting, as former "first daughter" Chelsea Clinton discovered Tuesday. She turned up shortly after 6 a.m. at her polling site on West 20th Street -- in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan -- only to be told her name was not in the voter registration books there, a voting official said. It turned out the registration book for her district had been mistakenly sent to the wrong location, said New York City Board of Elections Executive Director John Ravitz. She filed an affidavit vote -- a paper ballot that...

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that the Western position in the nuclear dispute is getting weaker. 'The Western position against us is day by day getting weaker while ours is getting stronger,' Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the city of Shahriar, west of the capital Tehran. 'The West is getting unstable in its decisions. One day they threaten us, the other day they come with a smile,' the Iranian president said in the speech carried live by the news network Khabar. Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran's nuclear programmes would continue despite all pressures and intimidation, but stressed...

Thomas report - Download 525k Listen to Thomas report North Korea's claims to have detonated a nuclear weapon are expected to have wide-reaching effects on efforts to stem nuclear proliferation, especially with regard to Iran. Tehran will be calculating what the international response to the North Korean test will be, and how it will affect its bargaining position. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il The physical shock waves from North Korea's test may have been limited, but the political shock waves are far more profound, and no more so than in Tehran.Karim Sadjapour, an Iranian affairs analyst with the International...

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) - The situation regarding the Iranian nuclear problem was in the focus of attention during the conversation on Tuesday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak and ambassador of the Republic of Iran to Moscow Gholamreza Ansari. The diplomats also exchanged opinions on a number of international problems, the ministry noted. The meeting was held at the request of the Iranian ambassador. Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary of state, said earlier to the BBC that the drafting of a new Security Council resolution on Iran’s nuclear programme would start this week. He said the resolution would...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Dozens of protesters pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday after Danish television broadcast footage deemed insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, witnesses said. Denmark's state TV aired footage on Friday of a number of members of the youth wing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) drawing cartoons in August mocking the Prophet. Iran condemned the broadcast. Reuters witnesses said protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs into the embassy compound. The crowd chanted "Down with Zionists" and "God praise the party of God". Riot police guarded the embassy and two...

(Agencies) A NORTH Korean official has warned the communist nation could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, a South Korean news agency has reported. "We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," the unnamed official said, according to a Yonhap report from Beijing.

Mr Keating said . . . "My great concern is that Japan may use the impasse of North Korea and this testing of its nuclear weapons to move into nuclear weapons itself, eschewing the nuclear protection provided to it by the United States under its umbrella," he told a business breakfast.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, facing a new election-year foreign policy crisis, condemned North Korea's reported nuclear test on Monday and vowed the United States will respect its security commitments in Asia. Democrats eager to oust Republicans from control of the U.S. Congress wasted no time in accusing him of being in a "state of denial" about North Korea for several years as he pursued war in Iraq. They demanded a change in strategy. In his first reaction to the North Korean test, Bush said he talked by phone with the leaders of China, South Korea, Japan and...

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- South Korean stocks dropped sharply Monday after North Korea announced it had conducted an underground nuclear weapons test, raising concerns that investment money may flow out of its neighbor to the south over risk concerns.

LONDON (AP) - High-level representatives from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia are planning to meet in London on Friday to assess Iran's refusal to suspend uranium-enrichment. They are expected to refer the Iranian nuclear case to the UN Security Council, which will start discussing possible sanctions against Iran next week, some western diplomats said Thursday. Russia's foreign minister, however, said he believes it is too soon to impose sanctions and further efforts are needed to push Iran to negotiate. To avoid alienating Russia and China, any sanctions are likely to be relatively mild, including embargoes on...

The Anglo-American special relationship today faces one of its greatest challenges ever in rising British opposition to the United Kingdom’s close ties to the United States. The resurgent Conservative Party under David Cameron must do more to counter this change in public attitudes. British Conservatives should embrace their Party’s traditional pro-Atlanticist agenda and resist the temptation to adopt an anti-American foreign policy. The realistic alternative—spurning Washington in favor of closer ties to Brussels—threatens the effectiveness and leadership of both the United States and Great Britain on the world stage, as well as the progress of the war on terrorism. Changing...