Free Republic

The picture below shows $15 trillion dollars worth of $100 bills on $10 million dollar pallets stacked on top of each other over an area that is one third larger than a regulation football field. An electronics van is parked between the stack and the Statue of Liberty. A single $100 million dollar pallet rests in front of the truck’s cab. See it?Recently, I reported that the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) secretly gave ten trillion dollars of interest-free loans to over a dozen European banks to shore up the Euro and keep them financially solvent. I later found out that...

Peace talks between the US and the Taliban broke down in March mainly because the Afghan insurgents refused to agree to a deal by which guerrilla commanders released from Guantánamo Bay would remain under Qatari government supervision in Doha, a senior US administration official said. ------------------------------snip------------------------ The collapse has been widely blamed on resistance in the US Congress and the Pentagon to allowing any Taliban prisoners to be released or transferred from Guantánamo. However, a senior administration official insisted the Obama administration had been ready to transfer the five prisoners to Qatar had the Taliban agreed to the conditions in...

Recent Chinese diplomatic maneuvers in Central Asia, both bilateral and multilateral, show that Beijing’s strategy treats the region as a corridor for reaching resource bases in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa. Central Asia is thus part of China’s broader blueprint of securing strategic resources and supplies to feed its developing economy (Z. Saipov, China Oil & Gas Monitor, Week 21, Issue 396, News Base, May 31, p. 3–4). Hu Jintao (L) and Islam Karimov Illustratively, Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu’s two-week official tour of Congo, Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on September 1–13 (English.sina.com, September 6) supports the premise that...

The US has angered vineyard owners across France with a plan to sell some of its wines in the European Union with a "chateau" or "clos" label. "What is at stake is the respect for tradition and quality," Laurent Gapenne of Chateau de Laville and president of the Federation des Grand Vins de Bordeaux told the Associated Press. For American vintners it is a question of selling more wine in their top export market, unshackled by historic language or restrictive terms in the world of 21st century globalization. "People use words in different ways," WineAmerica chief operation officer Cary Greene...

(title continued) Americans held in Egypt Shocking. This would be the nadir of Obama's craven foreign policy of surrender, releasing the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Treason. Al-Arabiya: US in talks to swap jihad terror Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman & 49 others for 19 Americans held in Egypt thanks to Robert Spencer

Terrorists aren’t supposed to get visas. But Hani Nour Eldin was apparently invited to D.C. this week to meet with top officials. Did no one Google him? It was supposed to be a routine meeting for Egyptian legislators in Washington, an opportunity for senior Obama administration officials to meet with new members of Egypt’s parliament and exchange ideas on the future of relations between the two countries. Instead, the visit this week looks like it’s turning into a political fiasco. Included in the delegation of Egyptian lawmakers was Hani Nour Eldin, who, in addition to being a newly elected member...

Jobs. That is the issue in the election – at least that is the issue Obama and Romney are focused on – who will create more jobs for a country in desperate need of them. During his convention speech, President Obama mentioned jobs 19 times, Romney did so 16 times. Obama promised a future where the U.S. will "outsource fewer jobs." Of course, Romney is known as someone who made hundreds of millions by outsourcing jobs. Former President Clinton put forth a job scorecard, arguing Obama and the Democrats will create more jobs. Neither candidate is arguing for a New...

Most of my columns are meant to expose the hypocrisy of self-described liberals who have taken over our institutions of higher learning. However, on some occasions, I attempt to address misguided thinking among self-described conservatives. An example is my recent column “Romney and the Rapist,” which was described by many readers as either “weird” or “convoluted” or both. Those descriptions are indeed accurate and reflect the intention behind the controversial essay. It was my intention to write a column that would identify absurd arguments as a means of drawing out the flawed reasoning of those who would support Romney’s...

A 3,300-year-old treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical. Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking veteran Social Democratic politician. Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet)...

The United States had a trade surplus every year from 1894 to 1970. The trade deficits started in 1971. 1975 was the last year the United States had a trade surplus. We have had a trade deficit every year since 1976.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement reacting to a leaked version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam: “These new trade agreements will place domestic U.S. firms that do not do business overseas at a competitive disadvantage. Based on these leaked documents, foreign firms under this trade pact could conceivably appeal federal regulatory and court rulings against them to an international tribunal with the apparent authority to overrule our sovereignty. If foreign companies want to do business in America, they should have to...

WASHINGTON — Senior members of Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — are reacting with shock and awe at the tsunami of national security leaks emanating from the Obama administration. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News Channel that the unauthorized disclosures of classified information are "the most egregious breach of national security" he ever has seen. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters this week, "The accelerating pace of such disclosures, the sensitivity of the matters in question and...

A document posted online early Wednesday morning reveals the Obama administration intends to give new political powers to multinational corporations, contradicting prior campaign promises. The leaked document was posted on the website of Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy group that has been critical of the administration’s trade objectives. The most recent leak follows growing controversy surrounding the secrecy of the Trans-Pacific trade talks. Members of Congress, including key Democrats, have complained the secrecy of the trade discussions is insulting. In addition to growing outrage in Congress, public health experts, labour unions and internet freedom advocates have voiced concern...

(Reuters) - The Defense Secretary Leon Panetta promised on Wednesday to let India buy America's best weapons technology and jointly produce and develop equipment in a bid to increase trade with the world's top arms importer. India last year agreed to buy a fleet of C-17 transport planes and P-81 maritime surveillance jets from U.S. company Boeing, as well as Lockheed Martin's Super Hercules. It is at a late stage of talks to buy more than a dozen Boeing Apache helicopters and last month cleared the purchase of 145 M777 Howitzer artillery guns. Panetta made no public mention of these...

BEIJING (CNN) -- China said Friday that the Chinese activist at the center of a diplomatic storm has the right to apply to study abroad... If Chen Guangcheng wants to go overseas to study, "as a Chinese citizen, he may apply like other Chinese citizens"... ....[SNIP].... The Chinese comments came as U.S.diplomats spoke by phone with Chen, who is currently in a Beijing hospital. The officials also met with Chen's wife,Yuan Weijing, in person, according to a senior State Department official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. The U.S. officials had been scheduled to...

New York's Freedom Tower reaches 100 floorsAFP Relax News – Wed, Apr 4, 2012 **SNIP** The Freedom Tower, scheduled to be opened in 2013, is being built to a height of 1,776 feet (541 meters), which is a symbolic figure reminiscent of the US year of independence. The glass walls have been built to the 70th floor while the concrete floors are poured to the 87th floor, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on its website. The building is planned to be the tallest in the United States when it is completed.

America is addicted to chocolate. Foreign chocolate. A majority of us consume chocolate each day. Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world’s cocoa, we consume more than 20%. The threat is obvious. It’s time for government to step in and promote alternatives. Any day now, President Obama will be barnstorming the country to tell us, “If we really want chocolate security and chocolate independence, we've got to start looking at how we use less cocoa and use sources that we can renew and that we can control, so we are not subject to the whims of what's happening...

Tim Tebow traded to the NY Jets for a 4th round draft pick with the Broncos.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (LID) – The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday will make a preliminary administrative decision on whether to impose additional tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese solar imports.

The U.S. government is embarking upon, and partly financing, a series of groundwater remediation initiatives in China -- despite the fact that China already plans to pump (USD) $5.5 billion of its own money into such actions through 2020. According to a Scope of Work (SOW) that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has located, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) initially will fund what is known as a "definitional mission," or DM, to China (#RFQ-CO201261140). The agency will outsource this preliminary endeavor to a private contractor, who would then travel to Beijing and two other cities that the Chinese...