Free Republic

The United States is prepared to provide more military observers, police, and civilian staff to beef up the U.N.'s far-flung peacekeeping operations, the U.S. ambassador said Monday. The United Nations has nearly 115,000 troops, police and civilians deployed in 16 peacekeeping missions from Africa and the Mideast to Cyprus, Kosovo, Western Sahara and Haiti, but it has had trouble finding soldiers, helicopters and other key assets for several important operations.

As you may or may not know, the New York City Council recently passed a resolution making two Muslim holidays mandatory holidays for the entire school system. This did not get major media coverage, but it was reported by Atlas Shrugs here: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/06/nyc-mayor-bloomberg-says-no-to-muslim-school-holidays.html#comments The important thing now is to block the bill at the state level, where it is headed next. In the Assembly it is called A 8108 and in the Senate, S 5837. You should call and write the sponsors listed below and tell them not to vote for it. Your opinion counts for something even if you...

I was reading the above linked article about our "UN sanctions" that allow us to track but not board north korean vessels without permission and thought I would pose the question... who is the greater threat N Korea or Iran here is an excerpt from the article Suspected NKorean ship changes course By PAULINE JELINEK – 6 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of...

The emperor with no clothes, Barack Obama, becomes a more frightening figure with each passing day. Firstly, the man has failed to reveal his long form birth certificate. Instead he touts his "certificate of live birth" as proving his birthplace in Honolulu. However, in 1961 many "certiicates of live birth" were obtained by foreign-born persons. In addition, the standard long-form birth certificate is needed to qualify for programs such as those offered by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The empty suits in the media are so in love with this guy they have gladly swept the issue under the...

The story behind the story in the Honduras Pres. case is not that only chavez, castro and obama support the dictator but round one has began between H.Clinton and Prez. Obama over what is a coup and what is not. Who will win, You make the call

We enter the mid year point of summer with a reminder of how badly the liberal economic fantasy policy of government funded stimulus have failed (vs the tried and true tax cut stimulus that has worked since John F Kennedy employed it). Tomorrow, as Tiernan Raye points out at Barron’s Blogs, is going to set the tone for a very bleak summer for this nation:

This looks like a french version of the Drudge Report. The tone seems similar as far as I can tell. Interesting...

Karl Greenfeld’s painful, eloquent memoir lays bare the disease’s toll.Boy Alone: A Brother’s Memoir, by Karl Greenfeld (Harper, 368 pp., $25.99) In the 1988 film Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman plays an autistic adult named Raymond Babbitt, a role for which he received an Academy Award. Hoffman’s performance has another distinction: 21 years later, it remains the phoniest portrayal of autism ever put on screen. Those who suffer from that affliction, unlike Raymond, aren’t all cuteness and intuition. Their rages don’t last three picturesque minutes; they can go on for days. In infancy, those stricken most severely retreat into themselves, never...

My Friend, As I travel around Arizona, I am always humbled by the dedicated men and women I meet in my home state. I am so honored to serve as one of Arizona's Senators and I want you to know that together, we have accomplished a great deal. We are taking positive steps toward economic reform and we are preparing for a vigorous debate on healthcare in the Senate. But there is still more to accomplish on issues like healthcare reform, national security and earmark reform and that is why I want to continue my service to our country as...

CNN, the network that invented 24-hour news, for the first time in its history has finished in third place in weeknight prime-time cable news ratings. The Atlanta-based channel was surpassed by MSNBC in Monday-Friday prime-time ratings during the most recent quarter, according to the TV ratings service Nielsen, and it continued to lose ground in the 8-11 p.m. slot to No. 1 Fox News Channel.

The nomination by President Obama of 2nd Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court is more than alarming to an innocent man who was convicted of murder and spent 16 years in prison before being cleared and released. Jeff Deskovic, whose pursuit of freedom has been chronicled by the New York Times and others, told WND that the last six of those years are directly attributable to decisions endorsed by Sotomayor. "I'm very alarmed," he said. "The rest of my life, as a result of my ordeal, is dedicated to preventing this from happening to other people."...

I've got two kids (12 and 10) and we are moving about 800 miles away from their friends. They want to be able to stay in touch so I am thinking about letting them have email addresses BUT with conditions. Is there a safe way to allow kids this age to surf the web and email? I just looked at my gmail spam box and I'm having second thoughts. What are your suggestions? Spam filters? Web filters? Is there a way to only allow access to specified incoming email and specified web sites? I'll take all the help I can...

by Jonah Kaauwai, Chair, Hawaii Republican Party www.GOPHawaii.com Union leaders are playing with their members livelihoods! And they are calling for an increase in GE Taxes! The union bosses are pushing their membership to rally at the Capital June 30th, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. We need you to call radio shows, write letters to the editor and call/email Senator Hanabusa and Speaker Say to let them know your cost of living is already too high. Want to be part of the solution? This is what YOU can do... June 30 5:45p HRP HQ “Jobs first!” This is an opportunity...

When the financial crisis struck the global economy last autumn, European governments moved swiftly to keep their biggest banks from falling into an abyss — never mind fears over nationalization. But now, as big banks on this side of the Atlantic show signs of recovery, a number of their counterparts overseas are sinking into a spiral of deepening losses that has prompted the European Union to consider a more aggressive approach to cleaning up its banking system. Few people outside Belgium have ever heard of KBC Bank. But the travails of this lender, based in Brussels, highlight the broader challenges...

LONDON // Britain should stop trying to be “a mini-United States” and give up maintaining armed forces capable of policing world trouble spots, a report from an influential think tank said yesterday. After a two-year review, the high-powered panel of experts said the UK simply could not afford its international role and recommended slashing £24 billion (Dh146bn) from proposed defence spending.

Germany's highest court set a new obstacle for the Lisbon Treaty when it ordered parliament to pass a new law before the controversial document can be ratified. In a ruling that could delay the ratification of the treaty for months, judges said it was broadly compatible with German law but they refused to grant it approval for immediate ratification. They said a new law was required to guarantee the rights of the German parliament in the European Union's decision-making process because MPs had "not been accorded sufficient rights of participation in European lawmaking procedures and treaty amendment procedures". The ruling...

The world of archeology is rocked by evidence of King David's palace unearthed in Jerusalem. How Jewish is Jerusalem? You might think that's a silly question, but in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism's intrinsic connection to Jerusalem. The Moslem Waqf, the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount -- the site of Judaism's First and Second Temples -- has been claiming for years that there was never a temple there. But the idea that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem its...

British and Irish people are among a group of 21 human rights activists arrested by the Israeli authorities, campaigners claimed. The group were on board an aid boat carrying humanitarian supplies near the Gaza coast when they were seized in international waters, according to the Free Gaza Movement. The small boat Spirit of Humanity was on its way to deliver medical supplies to Gaza when it was allegedly stopped by Israeli warships this morning with threats of gunfire. The people on board who were "forcibly" taken to Israel included eight from Britain and Ireland as well as fellow activists from...

When I first heard about the coup in Honduras, I immediately thought of something that Bill O'Reilly once said. He covered the war in El Salvador. He said that when he speak to common folk in El Salvador, they told him both sides, the military lead government and the leftists militias, were rotten to the core. The outbreak in Honduras has immediately turned partisan. Supporters of the president also now support deposed leader Manuel Zelaya. Here's an example of that support from the Huffington Post.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on consumer products like credit cards and mortgages and determine what fees, penalties and interest rates are fair. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency would be in charge of regulating those products in the same way other government agencies regulate the safety of drugs, food and toys. Obama said Americans are demanding it