Free Republic

[Note: This editorial published on Nov 10, 2012] We are now rushing down a course that is going to create incredible economic hardships for millions of Americans. The increase in the amount of debt that has been added to our economy is astronomical. And there is no end in sight. We now have over $16 trillion of debt, and with Obama’s policies it will be almost impossible to reverse that course. Debt is the problem. Big debt is a big problem. There are only four ways to tackle it: increase taxes to bring in more dollars, reduce spending to save...

As violent mobs shouting Islamist slogans rampaged against U.S. diplomats across the Middle East and Southeast Asia in the weeks following the fatal Sept. 11, 2012 attack on U.S. officials in Libya, Russian President Vladimir Putin saw a chance to kick the United States when it was down. He did it by expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development, whose work -- advising private groups on democracy, as it has done since the 1990s -- he evidently resented. For good measure, he just cancelled the longstanding Nunn-Lugar program of cooperation on destroying and securing old Soviet weapons of mass destruction....

With Obama complaining that Mitt Romney is "new" to foreign policy and that Romney's positions are "extreme," mainstream America might need to redefine the word chutzpah. Traditionally defined as stunning audacity, such as murdering one's parents and then pleading for clemency on the grounds of being an orphan, chutzpah will now have to be defined as spending one's career on the left-wing fringes of society and then questioning the qualifications of anyone with real-world experience.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces using a new Raytheon Co interceptor missile downed another missile in space in a high-stakes test of a shield built to thwart growing capabilities of countries like North Korea and Iran. The mission off Hawaii late Tuesday was against a medium-range, separating ballistic missile, the Pentagon agency responsible for it said. The mock warhead split from the target's booster section, presenting what is supposed to be a more realistic attack scenario. "Initial indications are that all components performed as designed resulting in a very accurate intercept," the Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, said in a...

Russian strategic nuclear bombers threatened U.S. airspace near Alaska earlier this month and F-15 jets responded by intercepting the aircraft taking part in large-scale arctic war games, according to defense officials. The Russian war games began the same day President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a frosty summit meeting in Mexico June 18. U.S. officials said the arctic exercises over the Russian Far East and Pacific appeared to be a further sign of Russia’s hardening posture toward the United States. The Obama administration made no protest of the bomber intrusions, according to the officials, in line with its...

The greatest danger to Obama is the potential collapse of the Democrat Party from the failed policies engineered by his Administration and the Party's progressive wing.

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ”Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events … by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.” Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought...

What will it take for the Obama administration to realise that their treasured "Reset" is the foreign policy equivalent of Monty's Python's dead parrot? The insults and harassment heaped upon Michel McFaul, the American Ambassador to Russia, apparently aren't enough. Ever since his appointment in December, Michael McFaul has been subjected to a steady stream of overall hostility from Kremlin-sponsored front groups and the media. Now, the Foreign Ministry itself has joined in. Their latest salvo has taken the form of a twitter war. Russian officials have issued a barrage of tweets berating McFaul for remarks he made to an...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he will boost military cooperation with China, including holding more joint exercises, after the United States announced plans to shift most of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020. Putin referred to recent Sino-Russian joint navy exercises in the Yellow Sea as an example of military cooperation which, he said, would go on. "We will continue cooperation also between our military," he told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where he is attending a security summit and meeting his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. "Recently joint navy exercises were held in the Yellow...

What if the government never took the Constitution seriously? What if the same generation -- in some cases the same human beings -- that wrote in the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech," also enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to criticize the government? What if the feds don't regard the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land? What if the government regards the Constitution as merely a guideline to be referred to from time to time, or a myth to be foisted upon the voters,...

President Obama just gave the world a glimpse into his future foreign policy plans this week, should he win a second term. On tap for Obama II: more faith in our adversaries, more betrayal of our traditional allies and more unilateral indulgence in nuclear abolition fantasies. Monday, President Obama told Russian President Medvedev that “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” Medvedev responded that he would dutifully report that tidbit to Vladimir Putin back in the Kremlin. The men apparently did not realize their discussion was being caught by a live microphone. Given that the...

The chairman of the House subcommittee on strategic nuclear forces slammed the Obama Administration today for what he called its lackadaisical approach to missile defense in the face of rising threats from North Korea, Iran, and – implicitly – China. "We all know that the world is getting less safe," Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) told reporters at a breakfast talk in Washington, D.C. "Look at North Korea, look at Iran," he said. "These are real and emerging threats that we need to stay ahead of," he said, "[but] if you listen to the hearings in our committee, there is a...

For the past four years, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, and his sidekick Dmitry Medvedev, who has the nominal post of president, have been engaged in a huge propaganda operation to fool Russians and the West. With much fanfare, they have pretended to reform their benighted land. Mr Medvedev denounced corruption, and they pretended to be friends with the West, particularly through a warming of their relations with the U.S. in 2009. But this has been a sham to conceal the truth: that Russia is shamefully misruled. The ruling former KGB regime has squandered tens of billions of pounds and...

In the last three years, the president has taught us a great deal about America, the world, and himself. Before Obama, many Americans still believed in massive deficit spending, whether as an article of fairness, a means to economic growth, or just a lazy fallback position to justify an out-of-control federal government. But after the failure of a nearly $800 billion “stimulus” program — intended to keep unemployment under 8 percent — no one believes any more that an already indebted government will foster economic growth by taking on another $4 trillion in debt. In other words, “stimulus” is mostly...

Virginia has a history that caused her to become the mother of FF presidents.That history still shows within the extraordinary beauty of Virginia’s constitution and statutes. Virginia’s law is still enables her to save the constitutional republic of the United States if she will first save herself from the custom of cavalier conceits of authority whose toxic culture came to the ‘Old Dominion’ with refugees from the English Civil War.Virginia appears to be the only state that has a law equivalent to VA18.2-481(5) where ‘Resisting the execution of the laws under the color of its authority’ is defined as ‘Statutory...

Boots-on-the-Ground to stand in the Gap - Agreement with God in prayer support of "Constitutional Reset"IMH observation "The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries."  from http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php is entirely within the heart’s desire of "God & Country".  Is this so?IMH observation it appears that the Constitution Party is entirely in agreement with the 912 Project's  9 principles and 12 values.  Is this so?IMH observation it appears that the Republican Party of Virginia has a large enough constituency that is mostly in agreement with the Project's 9 principles and 12 values that it is moving...

President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will aim its missiles at the U.S. missile defense sites in Europe if Washington fails to address Russian concerns on its missile defense plans. ... He also said ...that Moscow may opt out of the New Start arms control deal

This Country’s Time: Calling all Prayer Warriors to agree with God - 'Constitutional Reset' can be Va. Gov. McDonnell's gift to our country. DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U..S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view It is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!   DID YOU KNOW?As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved...

In China, Russia's Putin calls US a parasite AP– 8 hrs ago BEIJING (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is likening the U.S. to a parasite following his meetings with Chinese leaders to push ahead energy deals and draw the once wary neighbors closer. In an interview with Chinese state media released Tuesday, Putin said that the U.S. itself is not a parasite for the world economy but that its dollar monopoly is. Putin said his criticism was meant to help find a solution to problems in the world economy.

Russia must ensure the protection of its interests in case if radical Republicans come to power in the United States after the upcoming elections, Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. A Russian delegation has been holding talks on cooperation in building a European missile shield with high-ranking representatives of the White House, the Department of State and the Pentagon since last week. Rogozin visited the U.S. missile defense center in Colorado Springs and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters on Monday, and met with Republican senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk on Tuesday. "It was a very...

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a classified report late last year that Russia’s military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September. ... The Times reported last week that Shota Utiashvili, director of information and analysis for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the embassy blast and others in his country were the work of a Russian military intelligence officer named Maj. Yevgeny Borisov. “It is written without hedges, and it confirms the Georgian account,” said one U.S. official familiar with the U.S. intelligence report. This official...

U.S. hopes that controversies surrounding the probe into last year's Polish presidential crash in western Russia will not affect ties between Russia and Poland, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Friday. "We understand the sensitivities, the emotions that sorting through these issues can create," Philip Crowley said. "At this point, it is – we certainly would hope that this – the investigation of this tragedy does not in any way impede improved relations between Russia and Poland." Crowley said the crash "has been fully investigated" and remained "a matter between Russia and Poland." "I'm not aware that the United...

In Russia, the motherland of conspiracy theories, almost no one believes that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are free agents acting on a desire to crack official secrecy and broaden the horizons of public awareness. Although the more than a quarter-million secret US diplomatic cables spilled into cyberspace by WikiLeaks on Sunday include just 3,337 reports prepared by the US Embassy in Moscow, many Russians are already viewing it as part of a plot by American hardliners to discredit President Obama and, perhaps, to undermine his fragile efforts to “reset” US-Russia relations. .... “I have no doubt that this was a...

Russian officials voiced fear Wednesday that the rise of the Republican party could threaten President Barack Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. “We all understand the reason for this [defeat]: disappointment that Obama isn’t a magician,” said Sergei Markov, a senior legislator from the ruling United Russia party. “ Unlike voters in the U.S., we in Russia already knew he wasn’t a magician.” He and other Russian officials voiced fear that the rise of the republican party could threaten Mr. Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. On Wednesday, the chairman of a key committee in the Russian parliament said it...

The number of Americans who believe -- wrongly -- that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation's population. Those results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president's comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues. The president's religion, like his place of birth, has been the subject of Internet-spread rumors and falsehoods since before he began...

Getting Back in the Saddle: My Two Cents On Resetting the Reset Button By David J. Aland /// 22 May 2010 Osama bin Laden, the man whose dream is the ultimate destruction of the “Great Satan” United States, once noted that nations and people follow the “strong horse.” Setting aside his Charlie Manson intellect, let us consider his premise – is America a strong horse these days? Once, the displeasure of the United States was enough to deter rogue states and keep wacky heads of state in line. The threat of US retaliation kept North Korea in check, the Soviet...

President Obama has promised to “reset” relations with Moscow to find new ways to cooperate. While Washington and Moscow are cooperating to a degree, Russia is leveraging the new relationship to accelerate its dangerous resurgence at America’s expense. Under President Bush, Russia perceived the U.S. objective was to make Russia weaker by surrounding her with a missile-defense system, expanding NATO despite Russia’s objections and manipulating Moscow’s allies against her interests. At the same time Putin has reasserted Soviet-era control to a shocking degree through Russian actions against Georgia, Ukraine and Estonia. These actions combined to sour relations with the United...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2009 – As the U.S. military answers President Barack Obama’s order to reinforce efforts in Afghanistan, the Army and Marine Corps are adjusting their plans to redeploy working and serviceable equipment, top military officers told Congress today. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, and Gen. James F. Amos, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, testified on their services’ “reset” requirements before subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee. The proceedings were a continuation of a July hearing that was interrupted because of a prolonged series of House votes. The initial hearing focused on Iraq...

Russia in a new review of its policy on use of nuclear weapons will reserve the right to undertake a pre-emptive strike if it feels its security is endangered, a senior Kremlin official told a Russian newspaper. Russian and U.S. negotiators are in talks to find agreement on a new bilateral pact cutting stocks of strategic nuclear weapons. Both sides are working to a December deadline for a new treaty to replace the landmark Cold War-era START pact. While Moscow and Washington have made progress in strategic nuclear arms talks, Russia's security may come under threat from regional conflicts and...

The U.S. Ambassador in Moscow has lodged a formal protest with the Russian Foreign Ministry over an "attempted smear" of an American diplomat with a purported sex video recorded in a Moscow hotel room. "This kind of effort to discredit an American diplomat really has no place in the sort of relationship that we are trying to build with the Russian federation," Ambassador John Beyrle told ABC News in an interview to be broadcast tonight on World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TAPE IN QUESTION. American officials say the Russian intelligence agency that replaced...

"Payment-option ARMs are about to explode," Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said, according to a Reuters report."need for immediate change in the loan modification process is particularly acute at this time because a very large number of payment-option ARMs in Arizona is scheduled to reset in the near future."

Obama and Health Care: Time to Hit 'Reset'By Jane Sasseen Thursday September 10, 01:24 PM Can he do it? **SNIP** The Public-Option Problem But another question is who, if anyone, among his potential supporters Obama will be willing to anger. The two wings of the President's party are divided over the so-called "public option" for health care. Progressives in the House say they won't vote for a bill that doesn't include a public option -- that is, a government-backed competitor to private insurance -- while moderates in the Senate say including it will doom any bill there. So far, the...

EXCERPT: Poor Joe Biden. Just when the verbally-challenged vice president thought he had secured his position as the administration’s buffoon-in-chief, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called his bluff. Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a present today that was meant to symbolize President Obama’s promise to “press the reset button” on Russo-American relations. When Lavrov unwrapped the gift, he found a big, red push button imprinted with a Russian word “peregruzka.”....

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska, Feb. 23, 2007 – The 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team here is the first unit to employ the Army’s new “reset” process to rapidly refurbish everything from M-16 rifles to state-of-the-art Stryker combat vehicles. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is briefed about the reset of the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team -- formerly the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team -- at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Feb. 22. Photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, USAF  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Marine Gen. Peter Pace,...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2007 – The combination of available money and around-the-clock work is enabling the Army to increase the pace of refurbishment of equipment that’s damaged or worn out from service in Afghanistan and Iraq, senior military leaders testified before a joint U.S. House committee on Capitol Hill yesterday. Gen. Benjamin Griffin, commander of U.S. Army Materiel Command, shows Army Secretary Francis Harvey a metal vehicle track that was to soon have new rubber tread applied to it at Red River Army Depot, in Texarkana, Texas, on Jan. 25, 2006. Army equipment that’s been worn or damaged during...