Free Republic

VLADIMIR PUTIN has suffered another bitter humiliation this week after a retired colonel admitted on live state TV that Russia is struggling to replenish its monumental losses in Ukraine and that even a mass mobilisation would not help. A retired Russian colonel, Mikhail Khodaryonok, has told Russian state TV viewers that the country's military cannot compete with Ukraine's equipment from NATO. In a stark admission on the tightly-controlled propaganda channel Russia-1, Mr Khodaryonok dismantled the idea that a mass mobilisation call-up would bolster Russia's war efforts in Ukraine. This comes amid growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin will announce a...

Prosecutors in Portland, Oregon, have dismissed charges on 90 percent of the protesters arrested during Antifa and anti-police riots in September. One had also been charged with attempted murder, assault, and arson. Of the 213 arrested that month, only cases for 19 are pending. In addition to dropping 9 out of every 10 cases in September, authorities dismissed more than 70 percent of the almost 1,000 arrests since May, a case tracker kept by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office revealed. The figure is worsened by reports from The Oregonian that more cases have been dismissed than those shown on...

CHICAGO—Terry Te pulled gleaming trays of wedding and engagement rings from a safe on Tuesday morning and arranged them in the glass cases of his jewelry shop that had been the site of chaos just the day before. Mr. Te, 36 years old, got a call around 3:15 a.m. Monday that people were trying to break into the building that houses his store, Imperial Jewelry, along Chicago’s downtown strip known as Jeweler’s Row. He grabbed his gun and bulletproof vest and rushed downtown. What he saw when he got there was a scene that played out along some of the...

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has dropped over 25,000 felony cases, including charges of murder and the alleged hate crime hoax from former Empire star Jussie Smollett, according to an analysis released by the Chicago Tribune on Monday. The Chicago Tribune reported: During Foxx’s first three years as the county’s top prosecutor, her office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor, the Tribune found. For the last three years of Anita Alvarez’s tenure, the rate was 19.4%. In all, a total of 25,183 people had their felony cases dismissed under Foxx through November 2019, up from 18,694...

Politics: The former Stuart Smalley becomes the 60th Democrat in the U.S. Senate, thanks to the community organizers at Acorn and the little-known Secretary of State Project. Is the system being rigged? Incumbent Republican Norm Coleman conceded defeat in the mother of all recounts in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race after the state's Supreme Court unanimously rejected his lawsuit. Arguably, his seat may have been lost the day in 2006 when Democrat Mark Ritchie defeated two-term incumbent Republican Mary Kiffmeyer to become Minnesota secretary of state. It was Ritchie who orchestrated the recount that gave Democratic challenger Franken a lead some...

Politics: The former Stuart Smalley becomes the 60th Democrat in the U.S. Senate, thanks to the community organizers at Acorn and the little-known Secretary of State Project. Is the system being rigged?Politics: The former Stuart Smalley becomes the 60th Democrat in the U.S. Senate, thanks to the community organizers at Acorn and the little-known Secretary of State Project. Is the system being rigged? Incumbent Republican Norm Coleman conceded defeat in the mother of all recounts in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race after the state's Supreme Court unanimously rejected his lawsuit. Arguably, his seat may have been lost the day in 2006...

Here is video of GOP Strategist Ed Rollins giving his assessment of Gov. Sarah Palin's decision to resign as Governor of Alaska. Rollins calls the timing of her resignation announcement "suspicious," referring to it coming on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, and because she is not finishing out her term. He does not believe this is any way to start a campaign for President. (Watch Video)

July 03, 2009 Sarah Palin breaks the mold again By Thomas Lifson. At this point there is much speculation about why Sarah Palin abruptly announced her impending resignation from Alaska's governorship. Her critics are already calling her "erratic" but she is consistent in one respect: she cares little for the established ways of doing things when she thinks she has a better course of action. The conventional wisdom holds that you bury news when it is announced at 4 PM on Friday of a holiday weekend. But the comparative news vacuum seems to be only amplifying the echoes reverberating through...

Palin 2012. Hypothetical narrative. If this is what she runs on — and does it well — then watch the hell out: I’m Sarah Palin, and I’m running to be Citizen-In-Chief. I entered politics to change something. I ran to serve my state, the great state of Alaska, and then for the vice-presidency because I care about this country. I saw first-hand the viciousness and pettiness that have made Americans fed up with politicians, politics as usual, and the destructive personal attacks that also go on far too often. Those sorts of things that public service should never be about....

Sounds far-fetched and, to some, totally implausible. But the Republicans are losing potential candidates at a pace that is downright alarming if you believe in a healthy two-party system. The demise of John Ensign’s political career a few weeks ago and the surreal downfall of Mark Sanford last week is enough to send chills through the even the most optimistic Republican strategist. We know that of the 2008 crop, only Mitt Romney seems likely to stay on as a contender. The old stalwarts like Newt Gingrich may get a lot of press, but it is unlikely they can mount a...

Knowing that many, many conservatives will absolutely dump on me for saying this, I can't help myself: Sarah Palin's resignation is an appalling dereliction of duty and a highly cynical move to set herself up for a presidental run for which she is manifestly unqualified.

Sarah Palin’s jaw-dropping announcement that she is quitting her job as Alaska governor before finishing even her first term has divided Republican ranks and the wider political community in a very familiar fashion. Many establishment GOP operatives and political commentators of various stripes were withering, both about the decision and the way she announced it—in a jittery, hyperkinetic news conference that rambled between self-congratulation and bitter accusations at the foes she says are eager to destroy her. The performance, by these lights, adds credence to the claims of some associates that Palin—burned by the intense scrutiny on her and the...

Sarah Palin: What I've Learned The full-length version of our controversial interview with Alaska's governor (first excerpted here last month) reveals the former vice-presidential candidate's perspective on John McCain's choices, her daughter's marriage, God's guidance, and her perceived "hotness."UPDATE: Scroll down for Web-only quotes on wisecracks, American priorities, and more By: Ryan D'Agostino We had flutes and trombones around the house. For my siblings and me, music was important to give us some balance. If it weren't for music, our entire social life, our avocations, all would have had to do with sports. Everything I've ever needed to know...

Andrea Mitchell reporting a number of sources tell her that Palin has notified her staff that she is done with political office for good.

"I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory," soon-to-be-former Governor Sarah Palin says at a press conference with her family, standing before a picturesque river and seaplane. She says she's looking forward to the swearing in of Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. "All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision," she says. "I cannot millions of dollars and time go to waste just so I can remain as governor of Alaska. "This decision has been in the works for a while. It comes after a great deal of prayer and deliberation." She said when...

With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails. As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it. So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this? In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin plans to remain extremely visible and will give serious consideration to running for president in 2012, but has made no decision, a close friend said after her startling announcement Friday that she will resign her office. Friends say Palin plans to spend time writing her book, which is due this fall, then promote it heavily when it comes out in spring 2010. Palin is by far the Republican Party's biggest draw for fund-raisers and conservative events, and the friends say she plans to spend a lot of time traveling in "the lower 48" states, as Alaskans...

If Rep. Ron Paul had his way, a lot of things would change. Abortion would be illegal. There would be no federal income tax, nor even an IRS. The United States would be out of the United Nations. The U.S. Supreme Court wouldn’t be messing with state law. The Federal Reserve and World Bank would disappear. And there would no longer be background checks to buy handguns. And should the Texas Republican win the White House, as he’s trying to do now, the war in Iraq would end, as would the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Pain Relief.”...