Free Republic

The clumsiness and incoherence, if not madness, of this administration’s foreign policies are creating havoc around the world. No one wrapped up the story of the chaos better than Sultan Knish did this week: When Bush left office at the end of his second term, the region was mostly stable aside from Iran’s nuclear program. By the time Obama had finished his first term, it was in a state of endless war.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan is dropping his co-sponsorship of an immigration bill House Republicans have been quietly working to include in the upcoming Department of Defense authorization bill, saying the language should never have been considered to be added to the unrelated measure. Late Wednesday, Duncan said he hadn't been aware of efforts by the bill's author, California Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), to add the language to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – and that if it were added, “NDAA would lose my vote as well.” At issue is a proposal to allow so-called DREAMers to obtain...

Islamofascism: With an eye toward the 2016 election, the radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc. 'Muslim voters have the potential to be swing voters in 2016," said Nihad Awad in launching the benign-sounding U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, whose membership reads like a Who's Who of Brotherhood front groups. "We are aiming to bring more participation from the Muslim community." USCMO also aims to elect Islamists in Washington, with the ultimate objective of "institutionalizing policies" favorable to Islamists — that is, Shariah law....

State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) was charged Wednesday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and traffic firearms, part of a sweeping public corruption case outlined by federal prosecutors. The charges sent shock waves through the San Francisco and Sacramento political establishments, as FBI agents searched Yee's Capitol office. Last year the FBI raided the offices of Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), who was targeted in a bribery sting. SNIP The indictment alleges Yee and Jackson defrauded "citizens of honest services" and were involved in a scheme to traffic firearms in exchange for thousands in campaign donations to the senator. SNIP...

Liberal Democrats and the Republican establishment have disliked Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) mainly because of his staunch fiscal conservatism and his association with the Tea Party. Now, they may be colluding to try to oust him from his House seat by manipulating California's "jungle primary" system in which the top-two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Thanks to our Change.org petition (307,000-plus signatures and rising), millions of Americans have learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is about to allow U.S chickens to be sent to China for processing and then shipped back to the U.S. for human consumption. This arrangement is particularly alarming given China’s appalling food safety record and the fact that there will be no on-site USDA inspectors in those plants. In addition, American consumers will never know that chicken processed in China is in foods like chicken soup or chicken nuggets because there’s no requirement to label it as such. One...

.....and here’s the irony in Obama’s case — have the traditional white man’s view of that same Arab world — to wit, Arabs are crazy and primitive. (Yes, this is racist. And, in Obama’s case, undoubtedly leavened with a soupçon of anti-imperialist payback.) Ergo, pressure can only be put on Israel. This is not unique to the Obama administration. As was reported in the Jerusalem Post Monday:

WASHINGTON -- As Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flies to Washington - due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday - it's clear that there are several points of friction between Israel and the United States. The two countries are allies, but their leaders often differ on the details of key issues: Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, America's nuclear talks with Iran, how to approach political turmoil in Egypt, what might be done to limit Syria's horrible civil war, and a broader issue of whether the...

The United States is reportedly pressuring Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, a number of whom have been mysteriously killed in a campaign thought to be carried out by Mossad. According to CBS News, Obama administration officials have communicated to Israeli intelligence their wish for a cessation of the targeting of scientists in order to allow diplomatic negotiations aimed at rolling back Iran’s nuclear program to take their course.

and activist Jane Fonda has revealed that at 76 she’s become increasingly aware of her own mortality – and admits that she constantly finds herself crying over "the smallest things." In an emotional and sometimes eccentric blog entry titled "Crying" on her website, JaneFonda.com, the actress says, "How come pretty things, kind deeds, sad stories, acts of courage, good news, someone’s flax of insight, all get me crying or, at least, tearing up?" Editor’s Note: Rogue Investor Exposes Secret ‘250% Calendar’. See The Trades In the blog entry, Fonda didn't reference her political activism, including protesting the Vietnam War. She...

SNIPSoon after the attacks, Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf introduced HR-36, a bill to create a House Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks. Under Wolf’s bill, the special committee would have subpoena power and could force the issue of testimony and access to documents. If it did, we might yet see Obama exercise Executive Privilege just as he did in the “Fast and Furious” scandal. The bill has 177 sponsors, almost enough to pass the House today. The only problem is that House Speaker John Boehner won’t allow the bill to come to the floor. He has repeatedly blocked it...

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in...

Ukraine's western region of Lviv has reportedly declared independence from the central government.Hours after protesters seized the prosecutor's office in central Lviv and forced a surrender by interior ministry police, the executive committee of the region council - also called the People's Rada – claimed control over the region. Reuters A portrait of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich burns near the destroyed building of the security service in Lviv "The regime has begun active military action against people. Dozens of people have been killed in Kiev and hundreds have been wounded. Fulfilling the will of society, the executive committee of the...

A newly disclosed audio recording purportedly depicts a conversation between two American diplomats, in which one curses the European Union as they discuss how to handle turmoil in Ukraine. American officials were quick to suggest a Russian role in the apparent leak, which came as Russia is engaged in a tug of war with the E.U. and the United States for influence over Ukraine. The audio recording, incorporated into a video with Russian subtitles and posted on YouTube Tuesday, appears to be a conversation between the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey...

A high-ranking official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bureau met with representatives of the radical, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta haredi group on International Holocaust Day last week. The official met with four members of the group in Berlin when they were protesting the existence of the State of Israel and the Zionist exploitation of the Holocaust for political reasons. Ynet revealed that the official is a department head in the chancellor’s bureau, and against convention met with them openly. Members of Neturei Karta confirmed that the purpose of the meeting was to make it clear to the Germans that Zionism doesn’t...

In their latest interview with Michelle Obama, People magazine asked if there were role models the First Lady looked at to think "When I'm 70 or 80, I want to look and live like her?" Mrs. Obama thought of actresses: Cicely Tyson, and then that "politically savvy, sharp woman" named Jane Fonda, age 76: "I just went to see Cicely Tyson on Broadway. She is in her 80s [just turned 80 in December] and did a two-hour play with stamina and passion. I told her 'I want to be you when I grow up!'" And then she added: "There's Jane...

<p>The Clintons are known for holding grudges against their political enemies. But according to a new book, their aides went so far as to build a formal spreadsheet rating their friends and foes.</p> <p>The so-called "hit list" reportedly was entered into a Microsoft Excel document at the end of Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. In one draft, Democrats in Congress were even given a rating, from 1 to 7, with 7 being the worst.</p>

Representing the strongest nation on earth, Americans fought and died for the sake of Vietnam, a weak and distant nation, to prevent communist domination. My brother served in Vietnam, and I have worked with hundreds of Vietnam veterans. I have never spoken to one who is entirely at peace with his service, or who fully credits America's role in trying to prevent the communist takeover of southeast Asia. I am convinced that many of the few thousand people who actually watch MSNBC are Vietnam vets, understandably embittered to this day. These not so fortunate sons, who have not claimed the...

Congressional Republicans have been thinking up various clever ways to replace a cut in military pensions for under-62 military retirees with various other cuts in federal expenditures. This is a mistake. As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget explains, the cut is modest: Among the elements of the budget deal that passed Congress last month was a small $6 billion change to the way military pensions are calculated for military retirees younger than 62. In the face of lawmakers who would roll back this change, both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal editorial boards defended the provision...

Stephen Coughlin and Frank Gaffney on Islamic subversion of the US government (video).