Free Republic

NEW YORK — Before the United Nations can save the planet, it needs to clean up its own house. And as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past decade, from Oil for Food to procurement fraud to peacekeeper rape, the size of that job has become stunningly clear. But any understanding of the real efforts that job entails should begin with a look at the long and murky career of Maurice Strong, the man who may have had the most to do with what the U.N. has become today, and still sparks controversy even after he claims to have...

We will soon know around 2pm Eastern (8pm in France) who the winners and losers were in the regional government elections. The National Front is hoping for a breakthrough in northern France led by Marine Le Pen and in the southeast of France led by Marion Marechal Le Pen. The media and political elites in France have pulled out the stops to attack the FN and put it in a negative light. Marine Le Pen has been subjected to hostile coverage as part of the media backlash against Donald Trump with attempts to trash Trump's immigration proposals and accuse Le...

Leaders of Venezuela's opposition are claiming victory ahead of official results in Sunday's crucial legislative elections that could alter the country's balance of power after 17 years of socialist rule. Hours after polls closed, several opposition leaders took to the Internet to announce that they had won a majority of seats in the National Assembly for the first time since 1998. But with no official results released and the ruling socialist party not commenting, their claims could not be confirmed. "The results are as we expected. Venezuela won," former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on Twitter. "With great humility, serenity...

France's far-right National Front was projected to win European Parliament elections in France on Sunday with 25 percent of the vote, with exit polls putting Francois Hollande's Socialists in a lowly third place behind the center-right UMP.

France's far-right National Front (FN) appears to have made big gains in the first round of regional elections, estimates show. They put the FN ahead in at least six of 13 regions in mainland France. The elections are the first electoral test since last month's Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed. The centre-right Republicans party led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to be in second place ahead of the governing Socialist Party.

What the West really needs to take on the Islamic State is ... a jobs program. That's what a top State Department spokeswoman suggested the U.S.-led coalition is doing to stop the slaughter of civilians by Islamic State militants across the region. "We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --"...

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, was arguably more intelligent and capable than 99.9% of the population. In a 1980 interview Jobs gave his vision for education: 'I am a very big believer in equal opportunity, as opposed to equal outcome….Equal opportunity to me more than anything means a great education….Maybe even more important than a great family life…It pains me because we do know how to provide a great education. We really do. If we got our act together, we could make sure that every young child in this country got a great education. But we fall far short...

So Brussels is on lockdown due to the heightened terror threat. Trains have been canceled, people have been told to stay away from crowded areas, meaning that the center is deserted and sporting events have been postponed. It's no surprise really, because about half a mile northwest of Brussels' city center lies the shabby suburb of Molenbeek. It is one of Brussels' nineteen districts. This run down area of the Belgian capital has become the epicenter of a media storm during the past week as a number of the terrorists behind the appalling Paris attacks came from Molenbeek. [...] In...

WASHINGTON -- So it has come to this. The party that once nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman to win the presidency -- the party that once nominated men of the stature of Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey to contest the presidency -- is now left with the Three Stooges vying for the highest office in the land. There they stood on a stage in Des Moines, Iowa last Saturday night. The Republican Party had put up eight plausible presidential candidates on a stage on Nov. 10. They even had a second tier debate a...

Following on the heels of the Swedish foreign minister, the chairman of the Dutch Socialist Party in the Netherlands justified the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists who conducted Saturday's brutal attacks in Paris that left 129 dead, blaming it on "frustration" at Israel. According to Jan Marijnissen, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs somehow ignited the attack on French civilians at cafes, show venues, soccer stadiums and restaurants. "Their behavior eventually is connected also to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," claimed Marijnissen in an interview with the Dutch NPO Radio1 on Monday. ...

Hillary Clinton and the other Democratic presidential candidates are being criticized for declining to use the words "radical Islam" during Saturday night's debate, following the deadly terror attacks in Paris. Former Secretary of State Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin '’Malley declined to use the words after being asked during the CBS debate whether they would agree with GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio saying, "We are at war with radical Islam." The front-running Clinton said using the term "radical Islam" would be "painting with too broad a brush." She also said the term was "not...

A Democratic Party presidential debate on CBS drew the smallest audience thus far among the series of primary debates - not much surprise given its Saturday-night slot. It scored a 1.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.22 million viewers. By comparison, the first Democratic debate on CNN in October brought in a 3.4 rating and more than 15 million viewers.

In the very midst of the Paris bloodbath Friday night, Salon Magazine published a shameful piece suggesting that the blame for such horrific terrorist attacks falls on the “incendiary rhetoric” of America’s conservative movement and “right-wing media” for using strong language against progressives.Such rhetoric, Salon warned, “does not float in the ether of the public discourse, harmless and unacknowledged. No, it does in fact lead to action.”In a bizarre comparison, the author of the rambling essay, Chauncey Devega, said that conservative criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement necessarily leads to violent uprisings like the one in Paris, and therefore...

Liberal commentator Peter Beinart offered a harsh critique of all the Democratic candidates’ answers on terrorism during the debate Saturday night, saying they did not offer any tangible solutions to defeating the Islamic State.“I say this as a liberal, I would be concerned as a Democrat about the entire terrorism part of this debate,” Beinart said.The crux of Beinart’s argument is that Republicans offer a clearer, more decisive vision for defeating the Islamic State than all three Democratic candidates.“The Republican line, whatever you think about it, is very clear. It’s that we left Iraq, the terrorists filled a vacuum, we...

Saturday nights are for parties, friends, and trips to the movies. Politics? Hardly. Yet, the Democratic National Committee decided to schedule the second Democratic presidential debate for tonight in Iowa. Because of the stunning tragedy in Paris, the debate discussion has been modified to focus largely on foreign policy and national security. The RNC, unsurprisingly, believes the Democrats' decision to host a debate on the weekend is an obvious attempt to shield Hillary Clinton from any kind of challenge on her path to the primary. Here's Communications Director Sean Spicer's take on it: If a tree falls in the middle...

The Democratic Party presidential candidates will hold a two hour long debate Saturday starting at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The debate will be broadcast by CBS News and can be viewed on over-the-air CBS television and radio affiliates as well as various online streaming sources. The candidates: Former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York. Co-hosting the debate are CBS News, the Des Moines Register and CBS affiliate KCCI-TV. Debate moderator: CBS News Face the Nation host John...

A gang culture of impunity and stricter gun control has led to off-duty police officers being killed for their weapons, motorbikes and even mobile phones.Not even the police are safe in Venezuela. In a country which saw 24,000 murders recorded in 2013 and whose capital city Caracas was runner-up for murder capital of the world, 252 security officers have been killed in the country from January until October this year, in most cases simply because they were carrying something valuable -a gun. [..]When President Maduro launched a disarmament plan in 2014, and security forces were also ordered to destroy weapons...

In days of yore the Lie was 'No one is talking about Confiscation', but something has changed as of late. Such talk is now common amongst the national Socialist elite despite the lack of a shooting being prevalent in the media. It is axiomatic that one does not call for confiscation until its foundational steps are in place: Intergalactic Background Checks and Registration. The reason should be clear to everyone, people need to be fooled into registering their firearms with the solemn promise that it won't lead to confiscation. This was the case in the UK for example, were the...

Gates wants giant carbon tax, says government 'somewhat inept' The world’s richest man thinks only socialism – and skyrocketing gas prices – can save the world from climate change. Bill Gates, whose net worth is roughly $80 billion, told the Atlantic for its November issue that only massive intervention by world governments can head off environmental disaster. “There’s no fortune to be made. Even if you have a new energy source that costs the same as today’s and emits no CO2, it will be uncertain compared with what’s tried-and-true and already operating at unbelievable scale and has gotten through all...

We've been a fed a myth about heroic individuals -- and that allows the 1 percent to prosper at everyone's expense. Americans have been deceived by the notion that individual desires preempt the needs of society; by the Ayn-Rand/Reagan/Thatcher aversion to government regulation; by the distorted image of 'freedom' as winner-take-all capitalism; by the assurance that the benefits of greed will spread downwards to everyone. Our current capitalist-driven inequalities will only be rectified when people realize that a strong community makes successful individuals, not the other way around. These are a few of the ways we would benefit with a...