Free Republic

A new poll shows a willingness by 4 out of 10 Americans to give up some civil liberties to fight terrorism. But they don’t want the government eavesdropping on their cell phone calls or emails. … When it comes to security versus personal freedoms, 81 percent favor expanding use of cameras on streets and in public places. That's up 20 points since 2001. Seventy-nine percent favor using facial-recognition technology to search for suspected terrorists at public events. …

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s failure to recognize political Islam as a driver of jihadist terrorism is partly to blame for the FBI not identifying one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2011 as a security risk, according to U.S. officials and private counterterrorism analysts. The FBI revealed last week that it was warned by a foreign government in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Friday, was tied to “radical Islam” but the FBI was unable to confirm the links. “The fact is religion has been expunged from counterterrorism training,” said Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism specialist with the Foundation...

Senator Mike Johanns said on Saturday he would support fellow Nebraskan Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense, becoming the second Republican in the Senate to express public support for President Barack Obama's embattled nominee. The Lincoln, Nebraska, JournalStar reported on its website that Johanns, a former Nebraska governor who holds Hagel's old Senate seat, issued a statement supporting Hagel. An aide to Johanns confirmed the report.

(1918 Bolshevik Poster by Alexander Apsit reads "Citizens, hand over your weapons!") Why I gave up my guns • A former firearm enthusiast explains his personal epiphany Late one night in the spring of 2008, I was jolted awake by the sound of yet another a burglar trying to break into my Atlanta home. We’d already had a series of scary close calls, but this time I was ready: I had staged my shotgun and a box of shells in a broom closet right by the back door, next to the umbrellas. While my girlfriend called the police, I...

House Speaker John Boehner has been afforded no rest after the passage of the fiscal cliff bill. (Snip) President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has been vacationing on the sunny beaches of Hawaii - leaving Washington just hours after the deal made it through Congress on Tuesday night. The White House released a series of year-end photos of the President on Wednesday. The first picture in the series was of shot of a jubilant Obama frolicking in the warm Hawaiian waters. Scroll down for video

For all the pissing and moaning over the fiscal cliff, there was never much of a "cliff" in the first place. Worse yet, every delay made matters increasing irresponsible in terms of addressing the deficit. The final result, as passed by the Senate, watered down budget cuts from $600 billion to a mere $12 billion. Moreover, the extension of the tax cuts will add almost $4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years according to CBO analysis of the American Taxpayer Relief Act. Nonetheless, that was not enough for liberal democrats who thought they did not get enough out of...

Ann Coulter used to be one of the shinning voices of the Conservative movement. She could be counted on to verbally joust and destroy liberal opponents. Suddenly she isn’t doing this. Suddenly she is saying we should give in to Obama. What has happened to Ann Coulter?

Negotiations about how to avoid the fiscal cliff have resumed between the staffs of President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Late last week, in a conference call with donors, Governor Mitt Romney said what we all know to be the truth: that Obama's reelection plan was to divide Americans across various lines and dole out government freebies, such as health insurance, amnesty, and birth control. The promise of these "gifts" (or the fear of losing them) would then drive out turnout, specifically among those who did turn out: blacks, students, and Hispanics -- and lo and behold, it worked. For days now, Romney's been blistered by the media for telling a truth about a political tactic that the media itself...

Next week may be Black Friday but sweets lovers across the nation hung their heads in sorrow on a dark Friday yesterday as Hostess announced they would cease making their line of products, which include the iconic Twinkies brand, because of the Bakers Union Strike. But now as the brand heads towards liquidating and selling off their assets, a Mexican company may be angling to resurrect the golden Twinkies. According to the Christian Science Monitor, while food producers ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, have expressed interest along with Little Debbie baker McKee Foods, MexicoÂ’s...

Defense: The fruit of unilateral disarmament, appeasement and promised "flexibility" patrols our East Coast near one of our largest ballistic missile submarine bases. Defense cuts and Russian subs — a double whammy. 'On June 1 or a bit later, we will resume constant patrolling of the world's oceans by strategic nuclear submarines," Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said in February. Keeping that promise, a Russian Sierra-2 class nuclear attack submarine cruised within 200 miles of our East Coast on the eve of a U.S. presidential election in which defense spending and priorities were a key issue. This is the...

A new issue has popped up in the Presidential race. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the state of the U.S. economy. It is about a new world order that has removed familiar (and in some cases pro-American) leaders from strategically important Arab countries. Further complicating matters is the recent terrorist strike on our embassy in Libya. A murdered ambassador and potential cover up as to the circumstances surrounding the attack have raised concerns about the resilience of al-Qaeda and its affiliates at a time the president is claiming the terror group is "on its heels."

After Hitler and Stalin, France bows to Islam. A new literary case easily explains what's going on in Paris. What eminent, now villified author Richard Millet has to say about it, talking to Meotti. The new French leftist government approved the mega project of the Islamic Emirate of Qatar to finance the disadvantaged suburbs, which are home to a significant number of France’s estimated 4-6 million Muslims. Is Paris on sale to the Gulf monarchies, which support - anywhere in the world - radical Islam and jihad? Qatar's $ 65 million objective is to peddle religious hatred and separation among...

(AP) TEHRAN, Iran - A senior commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned that Iran will target U.S. bases in the region in the event of war with Israel, raising the prospect of a broader conflict that would force other countries to get involved, Iranian state television reported Sunday. The comments by Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guard's aerospace division, came amid tension over Iran's nuclear program and Israel's suggestion that it might unilaterally strike Iranian nuclear facilities to scuttle what the United States and its allies believe are efforts to build a bomb. Tehran says its nuclear...

Half a century ago this October, for almost two weeks, the world dangerously slid toward war as the United States and U.S.S.R. played a nuclear chess match. The confrontation focused on whether Soviet missiles, secretly installed in Cuba, would be voluntarily withdrawn by Moscow. It was the closest the two Cold War adversaries would ever come to nuclear war. Washington was committed to not endangering its national security by the placement of missiles drastically reducing the distance required for Moscow to launch a surprise nuclear strike against the United States while also reducing U.S. reaction time to such a first...

TOKYO — Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its World War II surrender with a somber ceremony in the capital Wednesday, while renewed tension over territorial disputes and animosity over its wartime actions heated up across the region. Renewing Japan’s pledge to maintain its war-renouncing policy, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda mourned for the war dead and apologized to victims of Japanese wartime atrocities. “We have caused tremendous damage and pain to many countries, particularly the Asian people, during the war. We deeply regret that and sincerely mourn for those who were sacrificed and their relatives,” Noda said. “We will not...

<p>PARIS (AP) - It's a July evening on the terrace of the legendary Cafe Flore. A coiffed woman sips chilled wine, another savors her chocolate eclair.</p> <p>The one thing to complete a perfect picture of Parisian life? A dash of French rudeness.</p>

Hi. I'm America. I've decided enough is enough. This is my opus. You know, I've been on this continent for about 236 years. I've had some really great moderators (George Washington, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson) and some really awful ones (Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, Woodrow Wilson). But I just cannot take the administration that is currently in power. This Obama, or as I like to call him, OTrauma.... he's killing me. He's killing me and he's doing it on purpose. At this rate, if he is given another term, I'm dead! Not that the opposition is much better. I saw...

Just one month after President Obama signed a back door amnesty executive order for hundreds of thousands of young illegal aliens, his administration is now planning to shut down nine Border Patrol stations, something the people living in border states, Border Patrol agents, local Sheriffs and some Congressman are up in arms about. Critics of the move warn the closures will undercut efforts to intercept drug and human traffickers in well-traveled corridors north of the U.S.-Mexico border. Though the affected stations are scattered throughout northern and central Texas, and three other states, the coverage areas still see plenty of illegal...

Chief Justice John Roberts last week did something that, in polarized Washington, may turn out to be more important than saving Obamacare. He showed that compromise can be consistent with principle. More than that: He showed that compromise, for someone who respects and knows how to use the democratic process, can be the best way to advance principle.

Security: From leaks about Osama bin Laden to those detailing cyberattacks on Iran, a disturbing pattern of publicly disclosing classified material to give Barack Obama a political boost is emerging. Under this president, our enemies don't need spies. The fact that the Allies in World War II had the ability to intercept and decode German and Japanese military transmissions, leading to critical military victories at Midway and elsewhere, remained a secret until long after World War II was over, and it didn't matter who knew it. "Loose lips sink ships" was then more than a clever wartime slogan. The pattern...

Geopolitics: The administration begins the push for ratification of a 1982 treaty that would end America's sovereignty on the high seas, limit our freedoms on land and speed up the global redistribution of wealth and power. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Sen. John Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Wednesday that the freedom of the sea once guaranteed by the British Royal Navy and then the U.S. Navy should be in the hands of United Nations bureaucrats in Montego Bay, Jamaica, enforcers of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) he said we must ratify. It used to be that...

Federal Priorities: A new report shows we have spent $70 billion on climate change since 2008 while our strapped military is ordered to become energy-efficient. Imagine weapons that don't harm the environment. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took to the Senate floor Thursday to decry the green agenda being imposed on the military by the Obama administration at the same time the defense budget is being sacrificed on the altar of runaway deficit spending.

Sovereignty: Even if he's not re-elected, the president hopes to leave behind a treaty giving a U.N. body veto power over the use of our territorial waters and to which we'd be required to give half of our offshore oil revenue. The Law Of The Sea Treaty (LOST) has been lurking in the shadows for decades. Like the Kyoto Protocol that pretended to be an effort to save the earth from the poisoned fruit of the Industrial Revolution, LOST pretends to be an effort to protect the world's oceans from environmental damage and remove it as a cause of potential...

French Socialist Francois Hollande appeared headed to victory over President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to exit polls of voters released by Swiss and Belgian news media. Those polls showed Hollande with 52 to 53 percent of the vote in an election that turned on solutions for Europe's economic crisis amid record unemployment in France. French voters were still headed to cast their ballots when the exit polls were released in the early evening _ the results of exit polls cannot be published in France until voting ends at 8 p.m., 2 p.m. Eastern _ but the outcome seemed all but certain.

President Barack Obama made a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, the first anniversary of the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan. The president will make a televised address from Afghanistan at 7:30 p.m. ET. The trip was Obama's third to Afghanistan since taking office. He visited in March 2010 and returned in December of the same year. He also visited Afghanistan in 2008 as a presidential candidate. Tuesday's visit came at a particularly delicate time in relations between the United States and Afghanistan. The countries have been negotiating a strategic agreement that would outline...

National Security: The president tells his Russian counterpart to give him space until November when, if re-elected, he'll be able to give away missile defense and the rest of the store without political consequences. It seems President Obama has a space program after all, one in which the Russians cool it on the dismantling of U.S. missile defenses until the least transparent administration in history can razzle-dazzle, smoke-and-mirror and divide-and-conquer its way into a second term. One of the subtexts of the 2012 campaign has been the fear of what a second-term Obama will do unfettered by the need to...

President Barack Obama offered a private request Monday to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for some “space” on missile defense ahead of November’s elections. “On all these issues, particularly on missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space,” Obama said, referring to incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a TV pool reporter who heard audio recorded by a Russian reporter who was in the room moments before the two leaders spoke to reporters after their 90-minute meeting. “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you,” Medvedev responded. A...

The Obama Record: The president's shredding of the Constitution began at the Preamble's provision for the common defense. He gave away our missile defense to appease Moscow and betray our allies. Derided as Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative announced by President Reagan on March 23, 1983, was to be the fulfillment of his dream of being able to deter or even defeat a nuclear missile attack, rather than avenge one, with a multilayered system of defenses aimed at enemy missiles in all stages of flight. SDI and its concept of defending America and its allies were attacked as destabilizing...

Security: A deputy defense secretary tells Congress that the administration is indeed considering giving Moscow sensitive Aegis ballistic missile defense data. We've gone from "trust but verify" to "appease and surrender." Brad Roberts testified before a House Armed Services subcommittee Tuesday that the Obama administration was actively considering giving Moscow classified missile defense data to allay Russian concerns about the capabilities and intent of our proposed ballistic missile defense system based in Europe to guard against missiles launched from Iran. Roberts testified that the administration believes "cooperation could be well-served by some limited sharing of classified information of a certain...

To any American, dedicated to the promise of the Founders to secure the "Blessings of Liberty" to their posterity, a surrender of what those brave men achieved on the battlefield can never be acceptable. But that is not the only fundamental flaw in the Cousins "argument." There is an implied premise, in the claim that we must have World Government to prevent the Nations of the world from savaging one another, that there is no effective alternative, or alternatively that a World Government would be more likely to prevent the horrors of modern war than would, for example, the traditional...

Defense: The administration announces a leaner version of our military involving the cutting of tens of thousands of ground troops as a leading defense contractor closes a major plant due to budget cuts. In an unusual appearance at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Obama laid out his plans for a "leaner" military based on the need "to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength in the world." In other words, failed domestic policies require us to cut our military in a dangerous world. Obama insisted that even after the currently budgeted $460 billion...

National Security: Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers. Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Imagine a scenario in the not-too-distant future when an Iranian Shahab missile mated with an unexpectedly ready nuclear warhead is test-fired and detonates somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The next day Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as China announces a blockade of Taiwan. The administration's defense cuts, or shifts in priorities as President Obama would have us believe, leaves us woefully unprepared for the unexpected in...

This goes hand-in-hand with Biden’s comments last week that the Taliban aren’t our enemy “per se.” As I mentioned at the time, his remarks weren’t a “gaffe,” they were prepping the way for a complete surrender by our Golfer-in-Chief. Truly, there seems to be nothing Obama and his lackeys won’t do to damage this nation. Outrageous. The Unites States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed the name of Afghan Taliban supreme commander Mullah Muhammad Omar from its list of “most wanted terrorists”. Earlier, reports about the US establishing contacts with Omar had surfaced. The reports said that the US...

I'm James Kvaal, the new policy director for President Obama's 2012 campaign. You'll be hearing from me occasionally about the President's policies and those of our opponents, and how we can all help bring about change for our country. Yesterday, we accomplished one major change when President Obama announced that all American troops in Iraq will be home before the holidays. With that action, the Iraq war will end. And one of the President's central promises will have been kept. Both as Americans and as supporters of President Obama, this is something for us to reflect on, and be proud...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Sunday called for President Barack Obama to "sit down" with Republicans to find solutions to the nation's struggling economy.

Increase in critical habitat for a rare spotted frog ...

After pumping $2 trillion into the system, pushing interest rates to the floor and making a bold promise to keep rates low for two years, the Federal Reserve is running out of options.<snip>“It's a pretty critical meeting for the Fed,” said Jeffries market strategist David Zervos, a former Fed adviser. “It's one of those meetings where we know there's going to be a change. It's not just the perfunctory ‘Let's meet and greet and let's make a statement that we're vigilant and we know what we're doing.”<snip>As the U.S. economy falters, Europe has presented Fed officials with an even greater...

The rebel military leader of Tripoli, Abdelhakim Belhaj, has said that one of Gaddafi's son al Saddi called him two hours ago and asked if he can surrender. Al Jazzera's James Bays, reporting from Tripoli said: “We asked him [Abdelhakim Belhaj] about the military situation, remaining members of the Gaddafi family, and he said that he believes one of Gaddafi's sons, al Saddi, is preparing to surrender. "According to Belhaj, Saddi doesn't want to leave Libya, he wants to talk to the national council and negotiate his surrender. He thinks he knows the whereabouts of Saddi Gaddafi from the phone...

Some of France's richest people, including the billionaire heiress of L'Oreal and the head of oil giant Total, urged the government on Tuesday to tax them more to help to solve the country's financial problems. In a petition published on the website of weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, 16 company executives, business leaders and super-rich individuals called for the creation of "a special contribution" that would target wealth without hurting capital flows.

Panetta Says Defeat of Al Qaeda ‘Within Reach’ By ELISABETH BUMILLER KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who arrived in Kabul on Saturday, said that the United States was “within reach of strategically defeating Al Qaeda” and that the American focus had narrowed to capturing or killing 10 to 20 crucial leaders of the terrorist group in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Mr. Panetta, who took over as defense secretary from Robert M. Gates on July 1, made his comments aboard his plane before arriving on an unannounced trip to Kabul, the Afghan capital. They were Mr. Panetta’s first...

Vanessa Perez was a homework scofflaw. The Marshall High School senior didn't finish all of it — largely because she worked 24 hours a week at a Subway sandwich shop. Alvaro Ramirez, a junior at the Santee Education Complex, doesn't have his own room and his mother baby-sits young children at night. "They're always there and they're always loud," he said, explaining his challenges with homework. The nation's second-largest school system has decided to give students like these a break. A new policy decrees that homework can count for only 10% of a student's grade. Critics — mostly teachers —...

A bipartisan team of Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, will introduce federal legislation that would permit states to legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference. The legislation will be unveiled Thursday by Frank, an outspoken liberal Democrat, and the libertarian Paul, who is running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The bill would limit the U.S. government role in marijuana enforcement to interdiction of cross-border or inter-state smuggling. Citizens would be able to legally grow, use or sell cannabis in states which have legalized the forbidden weed. The legislation is the first bill to be...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he wanted his US counterpart Barack Obama to win re-election next year, fearing that the two men's efforts to improve ties may lose steam under a new administration. "I can tell you directly -- I would like Barack Obama to be re-elected president of the United States maybe more than someone else," Medvedev said in an interview with the Financial Times whose full transcript was released by the Kremlin early Monday.

These people disgust me. Absolutely disgust me.President or Former President notwithstanding, the United States of America not only publicly bowing in Asian subservience (their culture) earlier this afternoon to a much less powerful nation, but one with one of the worst human rights records on the face of the earth, complete with concentration camps as we speak.Carter arrived today. And did the deed immediately upon arriving at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, to a DPRK official. Go to URL here: LINK and hit the arrow to stream.Do these naive morons honestly believe we can gain the friendship with these...

Defense: As Russia invests in new weapons and China increases military spending by double digits, the administration conducts a new review looking to cut our nuclear arsenal even beyond misguided treaty obligations. The F-15 Eagle that lay smoldering in the Libyan desert was downed not by hostile fire but by "mechanical failure." It's a perfect metaphor for the current administration's downgrading of national defense from a constitutional imperative to an optional budget item. The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace our aging F-15 fleet, which is older than the pilots who fly them and whose wings are almost literally falling...

Supremacy: As Beijing resumes double-digit increases in military spending, a leading think tank projects China will achieve military parity in less than a generation. We'd better practice our bows. Back in 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt sent what became known as the Great White Fleet on a worldwide excursion that lasted almost 14 months. Four U.S. naval squadrons, consisting of four battleships each and their escorts, demonstrated America's arrival as a great power that would soon pass Britain as ruler of the waves. Then, the passing of the torch from one great power to another was peacefully presaged by a seemingly...

These are days of thunder once again for my children of light For I am forcasting bad weather for those that have taken me lightly yet plush fields of plenty for all those that have remained in my will and have waited and not doubted for I AM a God of Wonders both for the righteous and those lost in their own world ! These subject(fleshly) matters are merely the flesh rising up in manifestations as satan's vanity appeared before God for truly there is but one King and Kingdom and nothing else matters or carries any weight or substance...

As Congress prepares for a vital debate over debt, deficits, and government spending, there is reason to be concerned that the GOP is engaging in a bit of unilateral disarmament. Over the weekend, several Republican spokesmen, including House majority leader Eric Cantor and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, indicated that they would, in fact, support increasing the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit when it comes up for a vote in March. Of course, they also said that they would use the vote as “leverage” to demand spending cuts. But how much leverage is there likely to be if they...

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton appeared with Tucker Carlson last night on Hannity to discuss his strong disapproval of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Bolton believed the ripple effects of the treaty would cost America “for years to come” and Tucker even described alleged liberal rationale for the treaty as “grotesque.” The START treaty, if ultimately ratified by the Russian parliament, would require the drawing down of nuclear warheads of both the U.S. and Russia over the next seven years from current levels of 2,200 each to 1,550. Tucker was first annoyed that Obama rushed the...