Free Republic

Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) Republican colleagues dealt him another blow Wednesday by killing a motion to allow a vote on his proposed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reauthorization. Nineteen House Republicans sided with Democrats Wednesday to defeat the rule, 228 to 193. Johnson called for a House Republican Conference meeting Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 Eastern to “regroup” as he tries to extend FISA’s authorization – with some reforms – before the April 19 deadline.

We’ve been hearing for weeks that Ukrainian forces were making some progress along the Dnipro River.Three weeks ago, the marines crossed the wide Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast and secured a bridgehead in the settlement of Krynky on the Russian-dominated left bank.From Krynky, the marines have advanced south—expanding Kyiv’s five-month-old counteroffensive and challenging foreign observers who seem eager to appease the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.What happens next is anyone’s guess. But what happened before to make the Krynky crossing possible increasingly is becoming clear. The Ukrainian military electronically and logistically isolated Russian forces in Kherson, repositioned...

BUCHA, Ukraine — The Russian forces that were intent on overwhelming Kyiv at the war’s start with tanks and artillery retreated under fire across a broad front on Saturday, leaving behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts. The withdrawal suggested the possibility of a major turn in the six-week war — the collapse, at least for now, of Russia’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and the end of its hopes for the quick subjugation of the nation. Moscow has described the withdrawal as a tactical move to...

As we all know, the President of the United States just signed a sweeping health care overhaul bill. Despite the polling clearly showing the majority of the public did not favor this bill, the democratic majority passed the bill with a slide of hand. Tax payers who were both for and against the bill hit the streets letting their voices be heard. Regardless of the poll numbers, the bill passed, and the majority party drank champagne. As we all heard today, politicians who voted for this bill were threatened with physical violence. Some of their offices were vandalized. Tensions are...

SACRAMENTO - As the state's GOP faithful gather today for their semiannual convention, the mood is far from jubilant as leaders grapple with Republican Party finances and a failure to make any major gains in November's election. Conservative activists also are continuing to grumble about the politics of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom they feel often acts more like a Democrat. "I think there's great concern over the dramatic turn to the left he's made in the past year and the damage that's done to the state and to the party," said Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to...

To paraphrase the often beleaguered Star War's character Han Solo, I had a bad feeling about this (the election outcome). Let's get real: What does it tell you when the Democrat takeover of Congress is roundly cheered by our enemies, the radial Islamists? Americans can choose to ignore the words of our enemies, but they do so at their peril. The political tsunami that swept away GOP Congressional leadership and installed the Democrats has been highly praised by the Iranian Islamo-fascist regime and al-Qaeda terrorists. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims that the election results are a victory for...

PARIS — Rioters pelted police with stones in the historic heart of Lyon, and youths rammed a burning car into a center for retirees in southern France in a 17th night of urban violence. Paris was calm, despite fears of a rampage in the capital.

Democrats Should Regroup, Reach Out to Voters August 30th, 2005 John Baer Remember the Democratic Party? No? How about the 2004 presidential election, where their candidate met a decisive loss against the incumbent President Bush? Ring a bell? It’s no real surprise that their current run of bad luck seems to have caused this formerly-reputable party to all but fall off the map. After news networks and talking heads decided to streamline presidential election coverage down to color-coordination, the branding of “blue-state” (Virginia not being one of these, FYI) on those that turned their electoral votes to the democratic side...

Liberals regroup after NARAL ad Alex Wong–Getty Images Posted 8/18/05 By Liz Halloran It was a rough week for liberals and progressives trying to build a case against Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, whose Senate confirmation hearings begin September 6. They were knocked on their heels last Friday when NARAL Pro-Choice America, under pressure from both sides of the aisle, pulled a controversial anti-Roberts ad that suggested he sympathized with abortion clinic bombers. The group's chief spokesman subsequently resigned, and just a few days later, anonymous aides on Capitol Hill whispered to Washington Post reporters that Democrats would abandon...

After a winter punctuated by scattered attacks, March and April saw the closest to a co-ordinated offensive the anti-Kabul opposition has yet achieved. This left no doubt that the predominantly Pashtun forces aligned against the western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai had used the winter to regroup, train and achieve a far greater degree of organisational cohesion than was evident in 2002. An ad hoc alliance comprising Taliban remnants, the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) faction of former mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and groups of Al-Qaeda stragglers now appears increasingly to be co-ordinating its command structures and support and logistics networks. Politically,...

Friday, 17 January, 2003, 11:30 GMT Taleban 'regroup' in Afghanistan Spin Boldak is home to many refugees who fled the war By Azizullah Khan in Spin Boldak The Afghan Government is taking steps to tackle a reported regrouping of Taleban and al-Qaeda factions in the south of the country. Around 5,000 police have been spent to the southern town of Spin Boldak, near the border with Pakistan. Sources have told the BBC that some former Taleban activists are trying to re-group in the region. There have also been reports of clashes between alleged Taleban activists and Afghan forces in the...