Free Republic

"People are discouraged," said Susan Lamont, a Santa Rosa resident who drives a Subaru wagon plastered with bumper stickers. Donations that fund the nonprofit center were down 10 percent last year and another 20 percent this year, a trend that has crimped budgets for many nonprofit groups. But political activism has also waned, with many on the left now merely signing e-mail petitions, which Lamont considers a "worthless effort."

When Hemnecher Amen, a student, joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took any notice. "There's a lot of apathy and a growing disconnectedness to what's going on in world affairs," the frustrated Howard University junior said as around 200 people, including a handful of students, gathered for the march. "Students are more interested in trying to get a job and make money." With the US military several years into two faraway wars, American students like Amen are taking to the streets less...

President Barack Obama was surprisingly given the Nobel Peace Prize "primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament," according to Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician who served on the award committee. Valle told the Wall Street Journal that the stewards of the prize wanted to "support" Obama's goal, as expressed recently at the U.N., "of a world without nuclear weapons." It's tough to think of a goal more widely espoused than the dream of an H-bomb-free planet. President Ronald Reagan and activist Jane Fonda, political opposites, came together on this one — in his second term, Reagan stunned...

SIERRA VISTA — From the founding of America through today, the citizens of the nation owe veterans a debt of gratitude, an Army colonel said Wednesday. Speaking at the end of Sierra Vista’s 15th annual Veterans Day parade, Col. Timothy Faulkner said no less a person than President George Washington noted the need to appreciate veterans after the Revolutionary War. Faulkner, Fort Huachuca’s garrison commander, said it was Washington who set the tone that carries through to today when he said, “We owe veterans a debt of gratitude, indeed a debt of honor.” And the colonel noted that from Valley...

Any commemoration in the Knesset of the anniversary of Rabbi Meir Kahane's assassination would be harmful to the peace process, the US Embassy told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. The American comments came after the Post obtained a series of e-mails in which an embassy official told Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin's office that the possibility of such a ceremony was "something that Senator [George] Mitchell and his team are following with concern." Following a Post report describing Rivlin's denial that he had allowed MK Michael Ben-Ari to commemorate Kahane in the Knesset plenum, the US administration contacted Rivlin's office to keep...

Sorry for the vanity...but I have been here for awhile and I just cannot stay quiet any more...if anyone is wondering...there are hundreds like me...by personal contact...not CNN estimates.

Find out who is getting the next Nobel Prize!

On Sunday evening at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., J-Street opened its first ever-national policy conference. Officially founded over a year ago, the self-proclaimed "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby was birthed amid controversy. While J-Street positioned itself as the voice of mainstream American Jewish opinion on Israel, critics (myself included) argued it was a left-wing front far from the mainstream.

Dispersed between the speakers we bring in (great success with Amb John Bolton last week btw) and activist projects we work on, the University Republicans like to have some fun in adding to the political discourse on campus. This upcoming event is a great example. I thought readers would find the event info quite amusing and so pasted the event info below. Be on the lookout come Monday from 12:00-1:30 on the University of Chicago Quad as YOU have a chance to become a Nobel Peace Prize recipient! Yes, you could join the venerable ranks of activists like Henry Kissinger,...

Only in a parallel dimension.

As the African Synod opens its second week, by now the Aula's heard a word on seemingly everything thanks to the five-minute interventions from its 250-some bishop-members and non-bishop auditors, which comprise the first part of each global assembly. But even as the delegates have heard no shortage of strong comments calling for everything from debt forgiveness and inculturation to combatting corruption and advancing a greater role for women in the church, perhaps the most emotional and profound of the bunch came Friday, when the testimony of a Rwandan religious, Sister Genevieve Uwamariya, provided the monthlong gathering's most personal reflection...

President Barack Obama Rome, Italy, Oct 12, 2009 / 01:33 pm (CNA).- The semi-official Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, has called the decision to award President Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize premature and more of an invitation to choose peace through politics. The award is also questionable because of his position on various bio-ethics issues, especially abortion. The article points out that “the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama has taken everyone somewhat by surprise, first and foremost the U.S. president himself.” “During the last 90 years,” L'Osservatore noted, “the prize has never been awarded to a sitting...

"President Barack Obama's Nobel peace surprise was given "primarily for his work on and commitment to nuclear disarmament," according to Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician who served on the award committee. Valle told the Wall Street Journal that the stewards of the prize wanted to "support" Obama's goal, as expressed recently at the United Nations, "of a world without nuclear weapons." It's tough to think of a goal more widely espoused than the dream of an H-bomb-free planet. Ronald Reagan and Jane Fonda, political opposites, came together on this one - in his second term, Reagan stunned his own advisers...

TMZ Exclusive: Trump To Nobel Panel - "You're Fired!"Changes Format to Reality Show - Adds Paula Abdul as Judge Oct 11, 2009 - New York, NY: Donald Trump, American business magnate, socialite, author and television personality, assumed full control of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and its functions late Saturday evening, sources have informed TMZ. Trump, Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization, a US-based real-estate developer, serves as host and executive producer of his own NBC reality show, The Apprentice.After witnessing the botched awarding of this year's prize to President Barack Obama of the United States, an irate...

In recent years I have viewed the Nobel Peace Prize as being akin to Confederate currency. Now I’m sure of it. In his address following being conveyed with the supposed honor, President Obama said that he didn’t feel worthy of it. Brother, you said a mouth full there! Then again, considering it’s been also given to the likes of Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Kofi Annan, et all, perhaps Obie’s in good company after all. This vacuous backslap ironically comes right on the heels of “Saturday Night Live” doing a skit on how Obama has done nothing so far. Likewise, he...

Bishop Selim Sayegh Amman, Jordan, Oct 9, 2009 / 02:25 pm (CNA).- The Vicar of Jordan, Most Rev. Selim Sayegh, spoke to CNA in Amman last week about the tensions in the Middle East as well as the diminishing number of Christians in the area.  He noted that Catholics can assist those struggling in the region by praying for peace because “true peace comes from the Lord,” not Obama, or Israeli/Palestinian leaders.Sayegh, who has served Jordan as an auxiliary bishop for 27 years, addressed the plight of Christians in the Middle East, particularly the ones living in Iraq. He...

Hemingway kiddingly called the Nobel Prize “the Ignoble,” even when he won it. Too bad Papa’s nickname has become reality, given recent recipients of the Peace Prize: Yasser Arafat (a terrorist), Jimmy Carter (an anti-Semite and hater of America), Al Gore (an environmentalist poser and peddler of junk science) and now Barack Hussein Obama (a community organizer and America’s premiere apologist). The latest awarding is the biggest joke of all. In the past the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for accomplishment. The 1895 will of Alfred Nobel states that the prize should go to those who “shall have done the...

I woke up, read the New York Times website and thought I had come to the Onion instead. I hit refresh. Still there: "Obama Wins Nobel for Diplomacy." Maybe this is one of my weird work-related dreams, I thought. Maybe I am still drunk from last night's party. Better close my eyes and wake up again in the real world. Five minutes later...and still no dice. Yes, Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. My first reaction is that this is going to be a test of how much crazier Orly Taitz and the Republican Anti-Christers can get. Not...

I too woke up to the news about President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize and saying WTF several times. In an effort to bring some perspective and a warning to "Da Man" at a time of his glory, I want to remind all of a predecessor of his that DID NOT get the Peace Prize but should have and probably would have gotten it eventually except for a greater tragedy! At the start of World War 1, this man was an international business man, lecturer and author who by his own efforts had become a millionaire. In 1914 he...

From a reader: I just went to this link and, in the "Type your nominee here!" field, entered "Barack Obama." The winner of this Nissan-sponsored promotion will actually receive one official vote for the Heisman award as sort of the people's choice. You can actually go back and vote once each day between now and the Heisman award in December.

Well, that didn’t take long. But it was almost inevitable: the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama. As “the world” hated Pres. George W. Bush, “the world” loves President Obama. What do we mean by “the world”? We mean the editors of Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and the Guardian. The faculty at Brown University. The secretariat of the United Nations. We mean Lord Malloch-Brown, not Václav Klaus. When President Bush visited Iraq for the last time, a foe of his threw a shoe at him. The shoe-thrower was taken to be “the world.” Hugo Chávez even made...

I'm feeling a little verklempt. Here's a topic: Obama was only in office 11 days before the deadline of the nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Discuss.

I hope the members of the Nobel committee feel pleased with themselves for giving this year's peace prize to Barack Obama. I bet they do, the smug idiots. It is hard to imagine a more effective way to undermine him both at home and abroad. It smacks hugely of sentimentality and condescension. Disdain for the award from the Middle East, Pakistan and other regions that have felt the sharp edge of American hard power – bombs and missiles included – since the president was inaugurated on 20 January will more than outweigh the warm, fuzzy feelings that the news will...

Congratulations Mr. Obama apparently the Norwegeians caught the hope and change fever and reduced the Nobel peace prize to a set of promises. At least Gore (sort of) made a movie (8.0 on IMDB, well done)despite being debunked along with the "experts" at international climate change counil. At least Arafat once attempted to seek peace even if it was after waging terror on innocent civilians. Today's winner fittingly shocked observers because while he has not accomplished anything YET, he has fantastic potential. Why the shock? The Norwegeian commitee consists primarily of politicians who represent the political leanings of Norway's parliament....

(Newser) – Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize laureate? "They could have awarded it to Kylie Minogue and I wouldn’t have been half as surprised," writes Ben Brogan of the Telegraph, who thinks the "bunch of Scandinavian worthies" have made a silly, self-satisfied choice. Yet while the Norwegians have embarrassed themselves, the president doesn't have to—he's better than the caricature he's being made into, and he should tell the Nobel committee thanks but no thanks.

The award of this year’s Nobel peace prize to President Obama will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself. Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world. Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and...

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds) has classified as "shameful" the decision by the Nobel Committee in Oslo to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to Barack Obama. "The choice of Barack Obama as the recipient of the world's foremost peace prize is shocking," said the group's chairwoman Anna Ek in a statement. Ek conceded that the US president had sent "positive signals" with regard to his future commitment to global peace. "But at the same time Obama is the president of the biggest military power in the world and is waging two wars in the world....

Stunning. Befuddling. Disturbing. Words that used to be used to describe Nancy Pelosi’s plastic surgery record can now be applied to the Nobel committee once again. After choosing pseudo-religious environmentalist Al Gore in 2007 for his film, An Inconvenient Truth, the Nobel group has apparently decided to award the president its highest award for… hope? In a statement issued by the committee, Obama was being honored for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Also cited by the Oslo, Norway group was Obama’s push to make the United Nations a preeminent force in international relations. “Only...

President Barack Obama now faces a ... tough decision. The war in Afghanistan is not going well. The rebuilding effort isn't going well. The effort to create a competent government isn't going well. So should he commit American support if he isn't committed to doing what is needed to succeed? Mr. Obama owns the war in Afghanistan. He bought it, on credit. But he is fulminating at the cost now that the bill is coming due. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has made clear what the bill will be in terms of additional troops. And the president now wants a review to...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is trying to restore Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as the U.S. ace-in-the-hole in its decades-long effort to forge an elusive peace among Israel and the Arabs. After a serious falling out over Bush administration pressure on human rights and democracy in Egypt, Mubarak is back in the U.S. capital for the first time in more than five years to meet with Obama on Tuesday. The relationship is far from healed, despite Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton having eased back on those touchy issues and Egypt showing greater willingness to help with the...

Hamas is prepared to deal "positively" with US President Barack Obama's Middle East peace plan, a top political aide to Ismail Haniyeh, the organization's prime minister, said Thursday.... According to various reports, Obama is soon set to unveil his plan for comprehensive Middle East peace

Saudi Arabia has thoroughly rejected appeals by U.S. President Barack Obama that the Arab world make modest gestures to Israel to show it is interested in advancing a regional peace that would include the establishment of a Palestinian Authority state within Israel’s current borders. "The question is not what the Arab world will offer," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday. "The question really is: What will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer?" The Saudi rebuff, which also ignored an appeal by more than 200...

Sunday Poll: Are you at peace? A Daily Poll.

<p>Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.</p>

i think we could form a more perfect union if we could find peace in the nation and abroad.we should not be dictators.dictatorship ended in the early 1960's.some say cummnuism is where you share your countrys' wealth.i'm more in favor sharing wealth with the united and free world.

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Sunday, June 14, 2009. New Richmond, Ohio was the sight of the Flag Day Rally for Freedom, and gray sky and a late monsoon like downpour could not damper the spirit of about 500 people of like mind. Although I arrived late, along with muggs, I heard rousing, inspirational, informative speeches by Mike Wilson, organizer of Cincinnati Tea Party, and Tom Tabback, author of THINGS FORGOTTEN, and JOE THE PLUMBER. Cincinnati 912 Project was also represented. www.Cincinnati912Project.com. Photos coming

In his Cairo speech President Obama tried to convince Muslims that conflict with America was unnecessary. We can all get along, argued Obama, because, despite historical conflicts, the Islamic world and the West share core values: We just need to understand each other better. “Partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't.” But what exactly is Islam? Obama assures us it is a religion of peace, a religion that would never justify terrorist atrocities. “The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind;...

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's highly anticipated foreign policy speech, in which he called for immediate peace talks and endorsed the creation of Palestinian state without military capabilities. An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the speech "sabotages" regional peace efforts, due to Netanyahu's refusal to accept an influx of Palestinian refugees into Israel and his unwillingness to compromise on the status of Jerusalem. "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralysed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions," said Nabil Abu Rudeinah. He noted Netanyahu's demand that Jerusalem...

Netanyahu succeeded overnight in taking back a very major concession that previous Israeli governments had made and turning it into a significant bargaining chip. For years - surely ever since Ehud Barak made his famous magnanimous peace offer - Israeli support for a two-state solution was more or less taken for granted. In a surprisingly short period, Netanyahu has put Israel into a position in which if it agrees to two states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will be able to say that they and Obama have wrested a major concession from Israel's "right-wing government." Unlike Kadima, that offered 97%...

Just today there was an article written by Jpost staffer Elie Leshem entitled " MK's To Peres: Stop Talking Peace." That article has now completely disappeared from the Jpost site. It has the same link, but the link now leads to an entirely different article alltogether entitled, "Officials: Speech Reports Baseless", written by Herb Keinon. Below is the letter that was sent to Elie Lesham via editors@jpost.com: To Elie Leshem, Just read your article on the Jpost website: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371075266&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull You chose a "title" for your article that is both journalistically dishonest and factually incorrect. That title gives the false impression...

D-day, the Six of June, is a date that the world forever remembers, as the beginning of the end of Nazi tyranny, and the beginning of a return to democracy. D-day, the Fourth of June, is a date that will also go down in history as the day we turned our backs on the only true democracy in the Middle East. The “D” here signifies the day that an American President “Delegitimized” the sovereign nation of Israel, the only nation in the world that we can count on as being our true ally. No region on Earth has been more...

Sadly, most people choose their beliefs about how the world works the same way they choose most of their other actions: whatever makes them feel good. Nowhere is this more evident than in the assumptions of the Washington establishment about how to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The core premise of this establishment is that there is a 'peace process' and that if only this process could be gotten right, peace would result. Unfortunately, this is bald nonsense, and it is only believed because it enables that establishment to stage a pantomime in which it is both the...

Of many strange moments in President Obama’s Cairo speech, perhaps the strangest is the conclusion: The Holy Quran tells us, Mankind, we have created you male and a female. And we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. The Talmud tells us, The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace. The Holy Bible tells us, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. What does the idea of gender and tribe distinction have to do with peace? The answer is nothing, except that Obama’s speechwriters...

Citing what she called an “abnormally high birthrate for Jews,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bemoaned its impact on the Middle East “peace process.” “If Israeli Jews reproduced at rates similar to American Jews, demographics alone would resolve the issue in a couple of generations,” Clinton asserted. “At current Jewish birthrates, though, we’ll see Jewish control of the Israeli government stretching out for centuries to come.” Clinton suggested that “stepped up birth control measures among the Jews and opening the borders to Palestinian immigrants would help expedite a peaceful political settlement of the issue. It is the Jewishness of...

Of many strange moments in President Obama’s Cairo speech, perhaps the strangest is the conclusion: The Holy Quran tells us, Mankind, we have created you male and a female. And we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. The Talmud tells us, The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace. The Holy Bible tells us, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. What does the idea of gender and tribe distinction have to do with peace? The answer is nothing, except that Obama’s speechwriters...

London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat reports that U.S. President Barack Obama presented his version of peace in the Middle East to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visit to Washington last month, as well as to two Eygptian officials. The plan reportedly calls for a process that will finalize a Palestinian state within two years. The Arabic newspaper quotes an unnamed source as saying Obama wants Netanyahu to respond to his plan within six weeks from Obama's famous address in Cairo last week.

<p>Former President Jimmy Carter will visit Syria, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza this week to promote constructive dialogue on the Israeli-Arab conflict, a spokeswoman for the Carter Center said Sunday.</p> <p>Carter, 84, is already in the region, where he joined scores of foreign observers monitoring Sunday's elections in Lebanon, expected to present an early test of President Obama's efforts to forge Middle East peace.</p>

Instead of promoting peace through strength, Obama is extending his hand to every tyrant who will shake it.  President Ronald Reagan’s administration operated in light of Barry Goldwater’s mantra, “peace through strength.” The belief was simple: a strong military and the willingness to use it will prevent wars rather than incite them. After all, human nature dictates that people rarely, if ever, pick a fight with someone who will successfully retaliate. This is why bullies and thugs are always looking for someone whom they can easily overcome.Yet President Barack Obama has turned Goldwater’s premise on its head. Instead of...

the Institute for Economics and Peace rated the relative tranquility of 144 nationsaccording to 23 "indicators" - including gun sales, the number of homicides, the size of the military, the potential for terrorism and the number of people in jail.