Free Republic

Our state-run media has really bit the big one on the Honduras story. Reflexively, they gobbled up what propaganda minister Gibbs fed them and dutifully regurgitated it. Where is the in-depth analysis? Where is the historical context?Instead, we get warmed over professors and analysts talking about Obama's stature in the region and how this affects the US. I haven't been in Honduras in years, but I've got news for you: Obama and the US are not at the forefront of Hondurans' minds right now. And this story is not about us or our dear leader: It is about a...

On orders from the Honduran high court, the military removed socialist President Manuel Zelaya from office last weekend to prevent him from shredding the nation's Constitution through an illegal referendum. Liberal journalists here and abroad insist upon calling it a coup, and it would have been had the military seized control of the government. However, not long after Mr. Zelaya was put on a plane to Costa Rica, the military prepared to stand down, and Hondurans followed the constitutionally prescribed rules of succession by swearing in a new president, Roberto Micheletti, a member Mr. Zelaya's Liberal Party, to complete his...

President Obama has tapped a prominent conservative legal scholar to serve as ambassador to scenic Malta while handing a big donor the opportunity to represent the United States in the Netherlands. Obama will nominate Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor and former head of the Office of Legal Counsel under President Reagan, to be ambassador to Malta, a small island nation in the Mediterranean just south of Italy. Kmiec caused a stir during the 2008 presidential election when he publicly backed Obama, citing healthcare costs and the Iraq war as his motivation. A committed Catholic, Kmiec was later denied...

Two senior Republican senators sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday expressing concern over reports that the administration negotiated "directly or indirectly" with terrorists for the release of British hostages in Iraq. In a letter made available to The Washington Times, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said that the U.S. release last month of Laith al-Khazali, a member of a militant Shi'ite group called Asaib al-Haq, may have been part of a deal to gain freedom for three British hostages held since 2007. On June 21, the group sent the bodies of two British hostages...

Two senior Republican senators sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday expressing concern over reports that the administration negotiated "directly or indirectly" with terrorists for the release of British hostages in Iraq. In a letter made available to The Washington Times, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said that the U.S. release last month of Laith al-Khazali, a member of a militant Shi'ite group called Asaib al-Haq, may have been part of a deal to gain freedom for three British hostages held since 2007. On June 21, the group sent the bodies of two British hostages...

Italy's parliament has given final approval to a law criminalising illegal immigration and allowing citizens' patrols to help the police keep order. The new measures have been strongly criticised by human rights groups and the Vatican. Illegal immigration will be punishable by a hefty fine and those who knowingly house illegal migrants will face up to three years in prison. The law also extends detention periods for illegal migrants to six months. It was passed in the Senate (upper house) on Thursday, with 157 in favour and 124 against. The lower house passed it in May. The unarmed citizens' patrols...

THREE new species of Australian dinosaur have been discovered in a prehistoric billabong in western Queensland. Premier Anna Bligh announced the discovery in the central western town of Winton today as she opened the first stage of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs have been nicknamed after characters created by poet Banjo Paterson, who is said to have written Waltzing Matilda in Winton in 1885. Banjo (carnivorous theropod), Matilda and Clancy (giant plant-eating sauropods) were found in a vast geological deposit near Winton that dates from 98 million years ago. The first new sauropods to...

While the world was focused on the death of Michael Jackson, the U.S. House passed the largest tax increase in our history. The "Cap and Tax" bill passed on Friday has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with tax and control. In his speech about it, Obama pointed to California as the example to follow. The amazing thing is that he did it with a straight face. While California lies in bankruptcy, we are now seeing a hostile government takeover of our banks, our finances and our car industry, and they are now aimed at our...

O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The...

The controversial climate bill that is set to be taken up by the Senate on Monday after its passage in the House will legislate home inspections by government regulators who will demand to audit every aspect of your property under the threat of substantial and repeated fines if their visits are denied or their demands not satisfied. The climate legislation is written in a manner that automatically assumes that global warming is taking place and that it is attributed to rising CO2 levels, despite the fact that this is a highly contentious question and is being rejected by more and...

A panel of federal judges admonished Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on Thursday for being "judicially imprudent" and "exhibiting poor judgment" by placing sexually explicit photos and videos on an Internet server that could be accessed by the public. Kozinski's conduct had "created a public controversy that can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary," according to the panel's opinion, written by Anthony J. Scirica, chief judge of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The judges ruled, however, that Kozinski's actions did not constitute...

Where would you go to buy a copy of Barack Hussein Obama's Kenyan birth certificate? You could try eBay. WoldNetDaily announced that it was for sale there June 27th. It was even picked up in a Kenyan newspaper which linked to a FreeRepublic story about WorldNetDaily's announcement. Since the story is over a week old now (July3), most will have heard about it, but in case you haven't here are the details. An eBay seller identified at that time only as "colmado_naranja" put up for auction the birth certificate for "president Barack Hussein Obama" which he claimed he had acquired...

A Colt Army Special revolver used by East Chicago, Ind., police Capt. Timothy A. O'Neil to fatally shoot John Dillinger could be yours for what auctioneers say may be much more than their conservative $8,000 to $12,000 estimate. The .38-caliber, 5-inch-barrel gun and its holster will be auctioned at noon July 28 -- six days after the 75th anniversary of Dillinger's fatal shooting -- at Chicago's Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, 1338 W. Lake. The new Dillinger movie, "Public Enemies," premieres in Chicago tonight and opens July 1.

The real issue that brought many of the Revolutionary patriots into the fight was a lack of representation. The government was passing laws while remaining deaf to the protests of its constituencies. Is this 1776 or 2009? Our current Congress and administration are the most elitist, most distant governing bodies our nation has yet known. In the midst of the highest unemployment numbers in 26 years, our president exudes confidence. “I’m absolutely confident that we can, at this period of difficulty, prove, once again, what this nation can achieve when challenged,” Obama told reporters Thursday. Attempts to spread confidence in...

A marketing scheme backfired on The Washington Post on Thursday, forcing the newspaper into uncharacteristic mea culpa mode. A headline in The Post itself tells all: "The Post's 'Salon' Plan: A Public Relations Disaster." In an age of excruciating transparency, revelations that the newspaper planned to pair up political insiders, business leaders, Obama administration officials and Post reporters for cozy, off-the-record "salons" at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth generated immediate, corrosive buzz -- and lots of reaction. A color publicity flier obtained by Politico revealed that The Post would charge up to $250,000 for these "collegial" encounters, billed as...

Whig Out: Obama won't meddle in American revolutionCiting a new era in wishy-Washington foreign policy, the Obama Administration will not choose sides during this July 4th celebration.President Barack Obama said he neither favors the English, nor the would-be Americans in the War of Independence."He essentially sees this as a battle between colonial powers," said Obama spokesperson Roberto "Glib" Gibbs."Obviously, one is a nascent imperial power, but the difference is negligible."Normally, during July 4th celebrations, the President is expected to back the democratically-minded American side against a monarchy with speeches and press announcements, but feels this insertion into the fracas may...

Pope Benedict XVI today announced the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. The declaration means that the Anglican vicar, who shocked Victorian England by converting to Catholicism, will be given the title 'Blessed'. It also puts Newman just one stage away from becoming the first English saint in about 40 years.

WASHINGTON — Mounting job losses rattled hopes Thursday that the economy is on track to grow this year, showing prospects for U.S. workers are terrible — and still getting worse. Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than the 363,000 forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent in May. And an additional 614,000 people applied for unemployment-insurance benefits last week. The rate of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists believe it is highly likely the unemployment rate...

Our government’s reckless assault on our liberty and way of life continues to threaten our Constitutional system of checks and balances. It’s clear that those in Washington care more about their power offices and positions than they do about the American people. The chief culprit of these assaults is the current commander-in-chief: Barack Hussein Obama. OK fondly remembers old Irwin Allen produced TV shows such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space, sci-fi yarns loaded with bombast and mayhem. Allen was so good at celluloid devastation that [he] was crowned the “master of disaster.” It’s...

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? REALLY READ IT. Understand what it really means, and how our founders thought that government should be empowered. How it starts off by saying that government serves at the will of the people not the other way around: Or that it says freedom doesn't come from government it comes from God and governments primary purpose it to protect these individual freedoms each and every person: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,...