Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- We are seeing the stirrings of a cross-ideological revolt against American military involvement in Afghanistan. On the right, some who accepted the Cold War as a great moral cause view the war on terror as a bother -- even as a dangerous excuse for global social engineering. Such tinkering, the argument goes, is particularly doomed in Afghanistan, brimming with warlords both primitive and invincible. And because Afghanistan is now Barack Obama's war, no partisan motive remains to support it. On the left, some view every conceivable war as a "war of choice" that should never be chosen. With...

For Eric Holder the law never applies to Democrats. He whitewashed Gore, now Richardson. In September of 1997 the Clinton Department of Justice was stuck with a complaint of federal campaign finance law violations by Vice President Al Gore. Except for the allegations against Richard Nixon, Americans had not seen such a high reaching and potentially explosive criminal inquiry. AG Janet Reno ordered her best “cleaner” to get to work. She handed it off to Eric Holder. Al Gore was charged with violating federal laws against soliciting campaign finance “donations” from his office. The allegations were based on clear black...

Fourteen Centuries of War Against European Civilization Fjordman - 9/4/2009 The following essay is an amalgam of my previous online essays, among them Who Are We, Who Are Our Enemies — The Cost of Historical Amnesia, Why We Should Oppose an Independent Kosovo, Refuting God’s Crucible and The Truth About Islam in Europe. “The Jihad, the Islamic so-called Holy War, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East for more than 1300 years, but this is the first history of the Muslim wars in Europe ever to be published. Hundreds of books,...

Yesterday I got a notice that my computer was infected with a worm that gathers email addresses from a compromised computer, also a trojan. I started getting a critical warning on the desktop. I have long been a customer of McAfee and thought that McAfee would keep these kind of vermin off my computer. However, now it appears that problems are getting through. Need any suggestions you may have. My field is analytical chemistry, not computer science. Does anyone have a better source than McAfee. I'm willing to change -- especially if I can get a vendor that provides a...

An American fugitive, accused of murdering an aide to the late Shah of Iran in the United States, was made an editor of Iran’s English-language television network in Tehran. Hassan Abdulrahman, who is wanted by the FBI for shooting dead Ali Akbar Tabatabai in Maryland, worked for Iran’s flagship broadcaster Press TV, which has bureaus across the world, including London. A Press TV journalist who resigned in protest over the channel’s coverage of the apparently rigged Iranian election in June told The Times yesterday that Mr Abdulrahman was chief editor at the head office of the network. The journalist, who...

I AM an Israeli-American, a dual citizen, born and raised in Israel and living in the United States On the Israeli political spectrum, I am a moderate, pragmatic dove — and a longtime critic of the settlement movement. Like most American Jews, I voted for Barack Obama. And like many who care about Israel, I am now wondering why the president is embarking on a well-intentioned but ill-conceived effort to advance peace between Israel and its neighbors. President Obama is especially misguided in pushing for a ban on Israeli construction in Jerusalem. Israelis have already proven their willingness to dismantle...

The legacy of Harvey Milk has had a very good year. Three decades after California's first openly gay elected leader was gunned down in San Francisco City Hall, Milk has been celebrated by an Oscar-winning film, named to the state Hall of Fame and lauded by President Obama. But despite those posthumous accolades, a legislative push to create a day of recognition for Milk became one of the most contentious issues in the Capitol this year. The proposal, which passed the Legislature on Thursday, is among more than a dozen gay rights bills offered in the aftermath of Proposition 8,...

Here is a CBS News video report on a Chicago "Cuddle Party," a movement that is supposed to help people gain the benefit of "human touch" through "non-sexual" contact with other people. Participants must pay $30 to attend, and each person must get verbal permission from another before touching them in any way. After the report, the anchors talked about it on the set, with one saying they would "never do that with you." Another asked, "Is there ever a buffet?" (Watch Video)

As if appealing for divine intervention in the health care debate, Vice President Joe Biden crossed himself when asked this morning about the prospects for enacting the plan President Obama wants. "I do foreign policy, I don't do health care," said Biden, sounding as though he was looking for a way to weasel out of the question. He said the reason he prefers foreign policy: "it's a lot easier than health care and a lot less complicated. And that's not a joke."

    On Sept. 25, Dar ul Islam, a mosque in Elizabeth, N.J., is slating a massive Friday "jummah" prayer event at the west front of the U.S. Capitol; on the very site that President Obama gave his inauguration speech not so long ago. This is not a joke. Click on this site and the strains of the sonorous Islamic call to prayer (which will be heard at the Capitol, I am guessing), will flow from your computer's loudspeakers. The mid-day summons to Allah will echo amongst Washington's most august monuments, the site says "for the sole purpose of prayer." And "the...

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has shown throughout her career that when it comes to voting, it's her principles and constituents that guide her, not her party. Sen. Olympia Snowe has received overwhelming support from her constituents in past elections. Those principles, analysts note, are guiding her to find a compromise on health care reform currently stalemated in Congress. Jennifer Duffy, who follows the Senate for the Cook Political Report, said Snowe's independent streak is "not new behavior for her." "I think they [Republicans] also realize that the only reason that the state of Maine has two Republican senators at all...

[Title was edited to comply with space requirements. Full, accurate title is: "Controversial Obama Administration Official Denies Being Part of 9/11 "Truther" Movement, Apologizes for Past Comments" A top environmental official of the Obama administration issued a statement Thursday apologizing for past incendiary statement and denying that he ever agreed with a 2004 petition on which his name appears, a petition calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into "evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur." Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at...

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — A NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, including dozens of civilians, Afghan officials said. The NATO command said a "large number of insurgents" were killed or injured in the pre-dawn attack near the village of Omar Khel in the once-calm province of Kunduz. In Brussels, the alliance's chief said it was possible civilians died. Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar said 90 people were killed. A senior Afghan police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of...

ROCK HILL A hostile crowd greeted U.S. Rep. John Spratt in his home county Thursday night, filling a 700-seat hall to voice anger over far more than health-care reform. Many in the Rock Hill audience lashed out at illegal immigration, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a federal government they say no longer deserves the trust of Americans. Outside, an overflow crowd of 200 listened on portable speakers. The loudest applause inside a packed Baxter Hood Center might have come when a Fort Mill man denounced Pelosi for one criticism of opponents of Democratic reform efforts. “One of the things...

OTTAWA -- Canada posted a surprising gain in employment in August as the economy showed signs that it was pulling out of a recession. Statistics Canada said Friday that 27,000 positions were added during the month, compared with more than 44,000 losses in July. The unemployment rate edged up to 8.7% in August from 8.6% the previous month. The gains were led by part-time workers and among private sector employees, the federal agency said. "Since employment peaked in October 2008, total employment has fallen by 387,000 (down 2.3%)," the agency said. "The trend in employment, however, has changed recently. Over...

Adding more heat to the boiling controversy in the US and UK over Britain's recent release to Libya of the only man ever convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, the senior FBI agent in the case has told The Jerusalem Post he believes Libya's Col. Muammar Gaddafi must have personally sanctioned the atrocity. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is shown meeting with Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Megrahi on Libyan TV. Photo: Screen shot SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World In a telephone interview from the United States, Richard Marquise, a 31-year FBI veteran who led the US task force probing the December...

As Democratic congressmen limp back to D.C. after bruising town hall meetings, and polls show Obama and the Democrats in Congress sinking fast in public opinion polls, the political team in the West Wing has surveyed the landscape and decided that what we need is another big Obama speech. "Under Fire" headlined The Politico, "Obama Shifts Strategy." Shifts? Obama has held four full-dress, primetime news conferences, granted God knows how many interviews, and delivered dozens and dozens of speeches on health care. A cartoonist featured an exasperated voter looking at the president on TV and asking, "Is he on again?"...

Listening to two briefings -- one by a Democratic pollster who had just conducted a survey for a group favoring health care reform, the other by a Republican pollster more skeptical of the reform plans -- I felt as if I were hearing a pair of reports by the National Transportation Safety Board on the same plane crash. But in sorting through the problems facing President Obama and congressional Democrats, focusing too narrowly on their disastrous handling of health care would be a mistake. Obama and Capitol Hill leaders don't need to worry too much about their modest drop in...

The High Court asked state prosecutors why the state discriminates between illegal Jewish and Palestinian building in the West Bank, citing the lack of enforcement of demolition warrants against illegally-built Palestinian buildings in the area. The High Court hearing on Thursday came after the right-wing "Regavim movement for the protection of national land", called for the court to force Defense Minister Ehud Barak to explain why he hasn't carried out the demolition of illegal buildings in the Palestinian villages of Asaviya and Yitma in the West Bank, which are located next to the settlement of Rahalim. The state said in...

Labor Department: Non-Farm Payrolls Drop 216,000 in August; Unemployment Rate Jumps to 9.7%, Highest Since June 1983