Free Republic

Senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett on Sunday predicted more minorities and women would be tapped for positions in the president’s Cabinet. “His cabinet, when he's finished -- and he's far from finished -- will have diversity, including women, including people of color,” said Jarrett in an interview with CNN. “He believes he makes his best decisions when he is surrounded by people who have different perspectives and give him their best ideas,” she continued. “And so, one picture does not speak a thousand words in this instance. I spent a lot of time in the Oval Office, and I'm in...

While the national obsession with guns takes a turn for the hysterical, an interesting duel is taking shape in Washington between Barack Obama and Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio. It involves an issue almost as incendiary as guns. Immigration.Luckily for us, neither Obama nor Rubio is being hysterical about it. They both recognize that 11 million undocumented immigrants can’t be wished away. Nor will they self-deport, in the unforgettably Stalinist phrase of the late Mitt Romney. And we can’t arrest them all and ship them across the Mexican border. Dwight Eisenhower tried that in 1954 with Operation Wetback, when the casual...

An Albuquerque shooting has left five people dead and a teenager charged, with investigators still combing over a home on the outskirts of the New Mexico city for clues as to what happened. In the Albuquerque shooting, a man, a woman, and three children were found killed in a home near the city. The victims were found on Saturday night at a home on the southwestern edge of the city, said Deputy Aaron Williamson, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department. Each victim was shot multiple times, and police found several guns at the home including what they termed...

**SNIP** But Clinton’s testimony before House and Senate panels is likely to be mostly forward looking, said National security expert Rudy deLeon. “What we are expecting to hear, in the secretary’s own voice, is the plan she has to reinvigorate and enhance diplomatic security services," he said. "What we are reminded of is how delicate the security situation is, and how attentively we need to stay focused.” Will the Benghazi attack be a permanent and defining stain on Clinton’s tenure at the State Department? Former U.S. NATO Ambassador Robert Hunter does not think so. “I do not think her image...

This Newsweek cover is just laughable. And offensive if you ever get around to stopping laughing. Yes, this is how they think of Obama in their hearts but in the end, this is just stunt journalism. This is the same as DC killing Superman back in the 90's. They've ceased caring about what they're writing about. Everything is good or bad simply based on how many heads turn to look. It's a stunt. They've clearly ceased to care about journalism in any way, shape or form. They don't care if what they do is impressive or a car wreck as...

Street vendors and souvenir stores across Washington, D.C. are selling posters depicting President Obama as Jesus Christ — and one national news publication called him the “Second Coming.” The poster, which does not have the official endorsement of the White House, features an image of the president in prayer with the headline, “Prophecy Fulfilled.” “Barak is of Hebrew origin and its meaning is ‘flash of lightning,” the poster notes, referencing a passage in in the Old Testament book of Judges. Hussein, they allege, is a Biblical word meaning “good and handsome.” “So you see, Barak was destined to be a...

Graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2007, Alexandra Mealer J.D./M.B.A. ’16 wanted a career path that would challenge her intellect. She became a specialist in defusing bombs. “As opposed to other things that were more about how strong you are, this was about how smart you are,” says Mealer, who, as an Army captain, spent 14 months in Afghanistan, first as a platoon leader in Kandahar, then as a company commander in Bagram responsible for 600 soldiers and civilian contractors. “You’re trying to take things apart, having to make quick decisions as safely as possible.” There...

A British court has sentenced a man to five years in prison for posting gruesome beheading videos on Facebook. The 42-year-old Craig Slee also put online links to a communique by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, that encouraged terrorism. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/19/uk-man-charged-with-terror-offenses-jailed-for-5-years-for-posting-beheading/#ixzz2IYfwpG7b

. . . "To this district and anybody who intends it harm, or anybody who wants to allow it to just exist and fester: This is a wake-up call for all conservatives, Republicans. This is a wake-up call for our nation," says Mack. "There is no other reason that we have allowed the issues to go this far, and to continue the dogma and lip service that we’re getting from some of our elected officials." In the midst of a challenging era, Mack won't be an ideologue bound by negative talking points. On the subject of making Alabama's budget more...

"The Walking Dead new video trailer shows things will be heating up in Woodbury when Season 3 resumes. The second part of Season 3 airs on February 10. A brewing war between Rick’s group and The Governor is expected to come to a head very quickly, if Walking Dead spoiler alerts are accurate. As all die-hard TWD fans recall, the first half of Season 3 cliffhanger ended with Daryl and Merle Dixon’s lives hanging in the balance. The Walking Dead videos previously released show Andrea standing up to The Governor and trying to get her new lover to spare her...

Obama's Inauguration Day: All That's Missing Is The Queen's Golden Coach Jonathan Freedland The Guardian, 20 January 2013 Barack Obama was treated to a performance by the cellist Yo-yo Ma at his first inauguration in 2009. America will on Monday witness its quadrennial act of political alchemy. The base metal of a previously partisan candidate is transformed by the incantation of a few, solemn words into gold, becoming not just a head of government but a head of state – the only figure capable of transcending low politics and representing the republic itself. That, at least, is the idea. Inauguration...

(Reuters) - French troops advanced cautiously toward northern Mali on Sunday amid fears of ambush by al Qaeda-linked fighters, while its fighter jets pounded the Islamists' strongholds in the desert near Timbuktu. In the central Malian town of Diabaly, seized by Islamist fighters on Monday, the wreckage of the Islamists' charred pick-up trucks lay abandoned among the mud-brick buildings, television images showed.Residents of the town, some 350 km (220 miles) from the capital Bamako, said Islamists had fled into the bush after French airstrikes.The commanders of French and Malian forces, who set up their operations center in the nearby town...

One of the most transformative aspects of Obamacare is that it conscripts state governments for the purpose of providing subsidized health insurance to their residents. Most red states have done their best to refuse, by declining to expand their Medicaid programs, and by passing up the opportunity to set up state-based insurance exchanges, through which Obamacare’s subsidies would flow. But a handful of Republican governors are doing their part to implement Obamacare. Arizona’s Jan Brewer, in particular, is proposing to do so in a way that sheds a lot of light onto the trap that Obamacare has set for state...

<p>NASHVILLE-- Efforts to land the assembly of another Volkswagen model in Tennessee have been kicked into high gear following the German automaker's unveiling of its CrossBlue SUV prototype at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last week.</p> <p>Officials hope their chances won't be undermined by renewed efforts in the state Legislature to enact a law to guarantee employees the right to store firearms in vehicles parked at work.</p>

Five suspected members of the Islamist group which held foreign and local workers hostage at an Algerian gas plant have been arrested, reports say. The reports came a day after the Algerian authorities said all 32 hostage-takers had been killed at the In Amenas gas installation.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch is back in the hospital for the third time in recent months. Spokesman George Arzt says Koch went to the hospital around 10 p.m. Saturday with swollen ankles. He says tests on Sunday showed Koch also has some fluid in his lungs. …

For years now, Leftists and assorted "anti-racists" have been denying the existence of these Sharia patrols. These sharia law enforcement gangs have been roaming the U.K for a while now; it's only recently that they have decided to record themselves. (Thanks to Golem). Observe a gay man in the capital of ultra-tolerant progressive inclusive multicultural interfaith Britain being driven out of a "muslim" area. "Pro-Gay Equals Anti-Sharia" Pamela Geller, Yahoo, November 12, 2012 Gays in the U.S. Are Largely on the Wrong Side. It’s Time to Correct That Mashregh News, a government-controlled paper in Iran, recently claimed that Israel "spreads...

Gov. Cuomo stood with the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem on Saturday to tout the state’s tough new firearms laws — and how they can help neighborhoods plagued by gun violence. Cuomo, in an address to the National Action Network to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, suggested the gun control legislation was another step on the road to the slain civil rights leader’s vision of social justice. “We passed new gun laws, and we passed new gun laws on Martin Luther King Day,” Cuomo said. “Why? Because, it’s simple enough — innocent people have died.” “How many times as...

The UK and Australia will strengthen their long-standing relationship today with a new defence treaty to provide a framework for the many strands of co-operation between the 2 countries. The treaty, to be signed in Perth today, Friday 18 January, with the Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith, will see the 2 countries working together in areas such as cyber security, defence reform, personnel exchange, equipment, and science and technology. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and the Foreign Secretary William Hague are in Perth attending the annual Australia/UK ministerial summit. Last year the corresponding event was held in London. During their trip,...

Sen. Rand Paul said on Sunday that he will make a decision on a 2016 presidential run within two years and plans to be a force in the refashioning the Republican party regardless of whether he seeks the Oval Office. “We will continue to pursue and, you know, try to make that decision over the next two years or so,” the Kentucky Republican told WABC Radio’s Aaron Klein when asked about a potential White House bid. In the meantime, Paul said, he will “try to be part of the national debate” and added that he hopes to play a major...