Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Baghdad and other key cities in Iraq marks the beginning of the end of the tragic war there. While it’s not over yet, the Iraqis are celebrating and happy -- free at last from American control. Well, almost. We have had six-and-one-half years of the on-going conflict, with American war dead totaling 4,320 and more than 31,000 wounded. More than 100,000 Iraqis also were killed and thousands more wounded. Add some 4 million refugees to those formidable numbers of human cost. Then there is the small matter of an estimated $682...

Democrats have big majorities in both houses of Congress, but cracks are emerging — both legislatively and politically — that threaten to pit liberals and centrists against each other. Where President Bush was able to enforce tight discipline on the Republican Conference while his political advisers exercised an iron grip on the national party, President Obama and his advisers have been less able to do so. That, political watchers say, is not unusual, especially for a Democratic president. “The Democrats have always been herding cats,” said Rhodes Cook, an independent political analyst. “They’ve always been considered to be the more...

The Iranian Supreme Leader, assailed by some of his country’s most prominent clerics and detested by millions of his ordinary citizens, has received a boost from an unlikely quarter: Joe Biden. One day after the American Vice-President said that the US would not stop Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear plants , Ayatollah Khamenei launched a fierce attack on “meddling” Western leaders, designed to rally his fractured people. “We warn the leaders of those countries trying to take advantage of the situation: beware. The Iranian nation will react,” the Ayatollah declared in a televised speech yesterday. “The leaders of arrogant countries, the...

Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world's tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found. Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles. They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone. The findings showed it now extended well beyond the traditional definition of the tropics, the equatorial band...

Should Secretary of State Clinton be meeting with ousted Honduran President? A Daily Poll.

...be more like them. All we've got to do is implement universal health care, sign on to global warming, sign all the international treaties we can, give amnesty to the illegals, give up on abortion, give up to gay rights, go along with the tax hikes on the wealthy, go along with taking over industry after industry, control the greedy CEO compensation plans, shut down our defense systems, scrap our nuclear weapons programs, scrap our navy, shut down the car companies, develop rapid transit, shut down the coal industry, switch to green power, etc, etc, etc. Oh yeah, support the...

Mass arrests over China violence [URL contains disturbing bloody video of Chinese crackdown] Beijing says ethnic Muslim Uighurs targeted Han Chinese Chinese police have arrested 1,434 people over rioting in Xinjiang province, official state media says. Rioting broke out on Sunday in Urumqi - the capital of Xinjiang - leaving 156 people dead and more than 800 injured. Unrest has continued, with hundreds of Uighurs facing off against police in Urumqi on Tuesday, and protests around a mosque in Kashgar on Monday. Beijing blames ethnic Muslim Uighurs for the violence, but exiled Uighurs say police fired on students. Demonstrators said...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Obama administration poured cold water Monday on any notion it is giving Israel the green light to attack Iran or that it is reconsidering plans to engage diplomatically with the Islamic republic.

What is the value of choosing to believe anything without being open to other possibilities? If being open to other possibilities is the primary requirement to learning and I choose to believe something without being open to other possibilities, then have I voluntarily limited my ability to learn? Is there awareness without contrast? If one was born in a fragrant garden, lived their whole life in the garden and finally died in the garden would that one be aware of the fragrance? May something be so common and pervasive that we may not be aware of it? If something is...

All Sound, No Fury What will Obama's visit to Moscow really accomplish? By Leonid Ragozin And Igor Prokopyev Jul 6, 2009 Leonid Ragozin and Igor Prokopyev write for Newsweek Russia. Translators were baffled by Vladimir Putin's recent response to President Obama. Leading up to his summit in Moscow, Obama had announced that the Russian premier had one foot in the old way and one foot in the new. "We cannot stand vraskoryachku," Putin replied in a steely voice. This rarely used idiom means "an awkward position," but even native speakers didn't quite know how to visualize it. For some, it...

See my url for the full blog, but why are the dems so concerned about the Palin resignation? My belief is there is some fear somewhere...http://blog.chadstafko.com

The past can never be predicted, and perhaps never more so than when it comes to the German left. Two years ago, we learned that Nobel Laureate Günter Grass -- the literary scourge of all things fascist, especially America -- had himself been a member of the Waffen SS. Now comes another zinger that casts the radical political and social upheavals of the late 1960s in new and revealing light. The historical surprise concerns a turning point whose ripple effects were felt in Europe and beyond. On June 2, 1967, a West German policeman fatally shot an unarmed, 26-year-old literature...

EGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya vowed Monday to widen protests and block trade nationwide as the deposed leader headed to Washington for a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Thousands of Zelaya supporters have demonstrated since his overthrow eight days ago, including 2,000 who rallied peacefully Monday near the presidential palace. Anger increased following the death of a teenager shot by soldiers Sunday as a crowd tried to break through an airport fence where a plane carrying Zelaya was prevented from landing.

They toured the building in Russia's capital as US President Barack Obama met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss nuclear arms control and other issues. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's wife Svetlana Medvedeva, right, and U.S. first lady Michelle Obama tour the Kremlin museums. The fortified Kremlin is a leading tourist attraction in Moscow as well as the location of the president's offices. Mrs Obama, dressed in a peach-coloured dress and belted coat, toured the Kremlin's Winter Garden and the Cathedral of the Assumption with Mrs Medvedeva, who wore a white ensemble with pearls. The US first lady and her daughters...

Gun dealers in New Jersey may have to limit handgun sales to one gun per customer per month if Gov. Jon Corzine signs a controversial law the state Senate passed on June 27, a measure that had its start in Jersey City. The “One Handgun a Month” bill was originally an ordinance proposed by Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and adopted by the City Council in June 2006. The intent was to cut down on “straw purchases,” legal bulk purchases of handguns which are then illegally sold to individuals who have not passed background checks for a license. The city...

While the recent Supreme Court decision in the New Haven firefighters' case will be welcome news to those who don't think that a gross injustice is O.K. when those on the receiving end are white, the reasoning behind the 5 to 4 decision is a painful reminder that the law is still tangled in a web of assumptions, evasions and contradictions when it comes to racial issues. Nor have these problems been clarified with the passage of time. On the contrary, the growing complexity and murkiness of civil rights law over the years recalls the painful saying: "Oh, what a...

On a 15 second show promo, David Letterman stated he will be commenting on Sarah Palin's resignation. Will he further attack her?

HOBBS, N.M. (AP) - Steve Pearce of Hobbs, who represented New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District for three terms, wants the job again. Pearce announced Monday he is signing paperwork to seek the Republican nomination for the seat he gave up last year to run for the U.S. Senate. Pearce did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Last week, he said that he was trying to decide whether to run for governor or Congress, but would do what was best for the Republican Party. Pearce lost in November to Democrat Tom Udall to fill the seat being vacated by longtime...

In the last few weeks we've seen companies like Amazon drop affiliates in a bunch of different states, due to proposals in cash-strapped state legislatures to force the online retailers to collect sales tax even if there are only affiliates in that state. Apparently, California politicians put forth a similar proposal, and following threats from Overstock to drop its local affiliates, Governor Schwarzenegger has promised that no such bill will pass (thanks Eric Goldman). It seems that the willingness for these online retailers to cut off affiliates (and the anger that creates among those affiliates) caught the attention of at...

If you troll around the internet you can find much evidence that the Global Warming, Global Climate Change ect. is all a scientific Hoax. Lets take a look at this past month of June. undefined * Former NASA Scientist Dr. Roy Spencer reports that global temperatures in June have fallen for the 8th straight year. June 2009 saw another - albeit small drop in the global average temperature anomaly, from +0.04 deg. C in May to 0.00 deg. C in June, with the coolest anomaly (-0.03 deg. C) in the Southern Hemisphere. * In my home town New York City’s...