Free Republic

Vanity Fair estimated the cost of the Iraq War to be $3 trillion. Iran has a population that is more than double the population of Iraq, and is much richer than Iraq was in 2003. A War with Iran will cost over 6 trillion dollars, without even factoring inflation since 2003. When inflation is factored in, that would add about $10 trillion dollars to the deficit. Can America afford the $10 trillion it will take to wage war and occupy Iran?

Yesterday I tried to post an article from Media Matters regarding the "Bush White House email controversy," which is an issue being raised now by Hillary supporters to counter the allegations around her email account. After I went through the whole procedure to set up the post, I finally got a message saying that Media Matters is not welcome on FR. I was disappointed, because I think that we all need to know what the Hillary supporters are saying in her defense, and certainly need to be able to counter their arguments when confronted with them. So today I looked...

An Obituary printed in the London Times Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as : - Knowing when to come in out of the rain; - Why the early bird gets the worm; - Life isn't always fair; - And maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend...

In the Middle Ages, there was a generally honored convention whereby criminals and political offenders could claim the Right of Sanctuary in a Church. Actually it’s an ancient tradition, up through the time of Henry the VIII, every civilization had places of Sanctuary. We have one, too. It’s called the United Nations. The laws are long and complex, and have all sorts of requirements. You can read a little more about it in this UN publication: Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. But generally speaking, you have to be on UN ground, and you have to...

There may be precedence of using private email accounts in government, but I don't know of anyone having their own hardware system at their private residence. Using accounts at google still allows subpoenas to be issued to the ISP such that data can be retrieved from archives, even if the user has deleted them. Quite frankly, I'm not concerned about Hillary's email to other .gov addresses. I'm sure they're benign. I'm also sure she knows when something is classified. As a Secretary of State, if you wanted to hand off something classified, what better way to do it than in...

Demanding Hillary Clinton’s E-Mail — Now The Canadian company TransCanada is hoping to win State Department approval of construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry “oil sands” oil to the Gulf Coast for refining. To this end, it has spent $310,000 this year lobbying in Washington for the cause. Its principal lobbyist is a man named Paul Elliott. Remember him? He was a deputy director of Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign three years ago. Environmental and ethics groups are crying foul. Last year they filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for any correspondence between the new...

Where is the server and what is the status of it? Why in the world isn't the server being tracked down and preserved? I haven't seen any mentions of this in all of the news accounts, which I find amazing. Have I missed something??

Don't miss Lanny Davis being interviewed by Chris Wallace today (Mar. 8, 2015) on Fox News Sunday. After you watch it, search for "Nathan Therm" in your favorite search engine. Mr. Therm is a fictional character created by Martin Short.

Am I the only one seeing the Drudge Report starting to pander to the left lately? Is he being threatened to change the way he does things with his website? No need to answer straight away but I would suggest a more critical eye. All this time Mr. Drudge has been a steadfast right of center website. He has always driven the left crazy with his way of framing any issue with an alternate headline meant to evoke a certain, um, right feel; for the lack of a better way of saying it. What say you after giving it some...

Is anyone else having a problem with foxnews.com? Every time I try to open I receive an error message that causes the site to stop working. Denial of Service??

I filmed and posted a video on Facebook with a commentary regarding the ATF Green Tip Ammo Ban. When I went to "boost" / advertise the post, Facebook came back with a denial saying that the ad didn't meet their advertising guidelines. Stating that you cant advertise the sale of firearms or ammo. This video didn't advertise either - it merely showed how ridiculous the possible ban on NATO Green Tip ammo is and in my opinion, sort of funny. Who else has had a run in with Facebook?

I saw this article in Newsweek about a Christian self-defense militia being formed in Iraq to protect themselves against ISIS: http://www.newsweek.com/4000-strong-christian-militia-formed-fight-isis-northern-iraq-304371 This should be something that we support. Please take some time to write to your Congressman and senators about this. It only takes you 5 minutes. I have a sample letter below.

FYI THERE HAS BEEN A NEW COURT RULING IN ALABAMA, THIS TIME FROM THE ENTIRE ALABAMA SUPREME COURT. IT AFFIRMS CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE'S PREVIOUS ORDER TO PROBATE JUDGES NOT TO ISSUE SAME SEX MARRIAGE LICENSES. A probate judge in Elmore County asked the entire court for guidance on issuing marriage licenses. Probate judges have five business days to respond to the 148 page order from the AL Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roy Moore wrote the order and six justices concurred. One justice concurred in part, but still concurred with the final ruling. One justice dissented. This appears to be...

It's over. After bringing us within hours of a shutdown on Friday, congressional leaders backed down and voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the rest of the year today. That didn't happen because they suddenly came to their senses and decided to stop playing political games. It happened because they knew they couldn't get away with it any longer. They heard the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans who stood up to let them know we were ready to hold them accountable. They saw reasonable members of Congress standing united, and refusing to budge. And you...

"Anti-Semites!" "Nazis!" "Show a little respect for the nation and the office he holds!" The MSM and Democrats would be howling. Democrats do it and the Kapos in the leftist media back them on this profound act of disrespect.

Are we seeing Cloward-Piven snowballing right now? My head has been spinning almost from the first day of Obama's presidency with the endless scandals, lawlessness, arrogance, destructive policies foreign and domestic, the breakdown of the system of checks and balances, the utter lack of accountability for openly corrupt behavior, attacks on the social fabric of the country, rabid race baiting and class warfare and on and on. But, it seems to me that these last several months since the midterms, everything seems to have accelerated and metastasized to a whole new level. Obama is openly pushing Iranian nukes, Obama is...

The case against “smart” bombs and drones in the war on terror. Every time we are shown a grainy picture of some Toyota or individual building being hit by a smart bomb, Tomahawk missile, or Hellfire from a drone we feel a little pride in our technological superiority and the satisfaction that we have taken the fight to the terrorists and killed one, two, or three of them. In short, we feel like we have accomplished something. Let me tell you what’s going on in the surviving terrorists’ tents that night. They are nervously celebrating the martyrdom of a few...

How do we win the DHS legislation? Simple. Every one of us and every one of our friends need to send a FAX or phone call to Mitch McConnell : Phone: (202) 224-2541 Fax: (202) 224-2499 Your Call or Fax should read something like this: Dear Majority Leader: You can pass a clean DHS bill, prohibiting the Obama adminsitstraion from spending money on his illegal executive order by using the Reid Rule to bypass the filibuster. I know you wanted to preserve tradition of the Senate filibuster rule, but the Democrats didn't care about tradition, only power, and they did...

Eliminate the current Rhino power group as GOP advisors and select a super leadership group for our next President in favor of a large power group of business leaders including the current candidates. Every one of the current candidates can add something to the next Presidency in terms of what has to be done to overturn the damage to our country by Obama. We need powerful, patriotic leadership to get rid of his damage. American patriotic leadership and powerful business leaders should all contribute to this effort.

. 2015-02-28 So the Obama Whitehouse and State Department are supposedly negotiating an agreement with Iran that allegedly gives Iran tacit U.S. approval to design, test and field a nuclear arsenal. Who knows what other gifts-concessions Obama (the stealth Islamic iman) will attempt to give Iran via this agreement. My question is: Doesn't the Constitution require that this agreement (treaty) be voted on and ratified (approved) by the U.S. Senate ? If so, then it's politically simple work for the U.S. Senate to just say "hell no" to Emperor Obama. Is this analysis correct ? Comments are invited. .