Free Republic

With the imminent return of Ken Salazar to Colorado, and talk of his future political aspirations bubbling up in the papers, we thought it a good time to recount a brief history of Secretary Salazar’s failures at the Interior Department. ... First and foremost amongst Salazar’s fiascos is the BP oil spill. The Deepwater Horizons disaster is firmly etched in the American conscience as an example of bumbling incompetence and haphazard, if not non-existent, leadership. Salazar mucked up his role so badly that unnamed White House sources spanked him publicly in The Washington Post as an “erratic spokesman” who was...

The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET, which is Hebrew for “truth), held a series of discussions on Capitol Hill Thursday, to a standing room only crowd of over 80 Congressional staffers, foreign diplomats and citizen activists, focused on the geopolitical and ideological threats facing the nation of Israel. The talks were part of EMET’s Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Seminar Series, a monthly briefing series held on Capitol Hill, intended to inform members of Congress and their staff on Middle East national security matters. Speaking first was Mark Langfan, who specializes in producing 3d topographical maps of Israel and...

Energy: With a clean bill of health from the Cornhusker State's governor, only the president's green base and the State Department's shared belief in nonexistent climate change stands in the way of jobs and growth. As we noted earlier, Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality recently gave the revised Keystone XL pipeline route from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, through that state a thumbs up. Not surprisingly, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has approved the revised Keystone XL pipeline proposal through his state, seemingly removing the last excuse for the Obama administration to delay the economy-boosting pipeline. Yet even before the...

America has been creeping closer and closer to allowing women in combat, so Wednesday's news that the decision has now been made is not a surprise. It appears that female soldiers will be allowed on the battlefield but not in the infantry. Yet it is a distinction without much difference: Infantry units serve side-by-side in combat with artillery, engineers, drivers, medics and others who will likely now include women. The Pentagon would do well to consider realities of life in combat as it pushes to mix men and women on the battlefield. Many articles have been written regarding the relative...

An inaugural official who asked not to be identified told CNN Wednesday that pop star Beyonc233; lip-synced her performance on Inauguration Day. "She did not sing live," the official told CNN. A pre-recording of the artist's rendition of the National Anthem was played instead. What was heard by spectators and viewers was the sound of that recording, according to the official. The official said Beyoncé made the decision herself the night before Inauguration Day. Quick Clicks Famous lip-syncers caught in the act Beyoncé arrived so late Sunday night she did not have time to rehearse with the U.S. Marine Band,...

In May of 2009, Barack Obama made a "joke" at White House Correspondents Dinner. He said about those in attendance: "Most of you covered me (pause)... All of you voted for me." Mildly amusing if it weren't true. Not only do they vote for Obama, they are allied with Obama. They are his public relations people. They protect him. They defend him. In turn, he makes them giddy and tingle. Chrissie Matthews tingles whenever he even thinks of Obama: I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when...

As the world begins to lend international support to a French-led military intervention against Islamic terrorists in Mali, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday brought the issue home, comparing the situation in northern Africa to Israel’s fight against terrorism in Gaza. “France’s foreign minister said this month that his country was fighting to prevent the creation of an Islamist terrorist enclave ‘at the doorstep of France and Europe.’ If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in Israel’s living room,” Ron Prosor said. Speaking at the UN Security Council’s monthly open debate on the Middle East, the Israeli...

The battle over gun control has exposed a truth the mainstream media is apparently too shy to mention: A bunch of far right white mostly southern paranoid extremists are preparing for armed revolution and apocalypse. They speak treason: literally. They are preparing to “defend” America from America with arsenals of weapons and stockpiles of ammunition. Their “enemy” is everyone in America not like them. They think the world is ending and/or that the government is out to get them. That doesn’t mean it will happen. But expect violence and assassinations. Their ideology is made up of equal parts racism, evangelical...

Teddy Turner inherited his love of sailing from his father, media magnate Ted Turner. But there is less of a family resemblance when it comes to politics. While the elder Turner leans Democratic, Teddy Turner is running as a Republican in a crowded race for an open South Carolina congressional seat created by a U.S. Senate appointment. "My dad asked, 'What's the minimum amount I can give because you're a Republican?'" Teddy Turner, 49, said. "My dad has been asking for years, 'How the heck did you become so conservative?'"

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Hi, friends. It was a puke fest. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was right out of a banana republic. And I've seen it all. I mean, in my 62 short years I've seen a lot. I've never seen groveling, butt kissing, sucking up. I've never seen anything like Hillary Clinton's appearance before a joint congressional committee on that Benghazi guy who went nuts over there in Libya. And I guess everybody's favorite part, she lost her cool at one point. By the way, she opened up crying, which is part of the script. But...

Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.” Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of … not-life? That’s why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms. While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as “pro-life,” the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like “choice” and “reproductive freedom.” The “life” conversation is often too thorny to even broach....

I admire England’s Lord Christopher Monckton. He has an impressive history that includes careers as a scientist, editor and journalist, political leader, policy advisor and businessman. He is a strong, fearless voice of reason in the face of the tyrannical, freedom-robbing global warmist hoax. So, it was with great interest that I read his latest column at WorldNetDaily. His piece titled, “Obama’s ‘Inauguration’ Marks End of the Left,” makes the case that Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) and his atrocious, lawless behavior in the United States presidency will ultimately discredit the Left and end its political force. He...

New York City defended its groundbreaking size limit on sugary drinks today as an imperfect but meaningful rein on obesity, while critics said it would hurt small and minority-owned businesses while doing little to help health. The first courtroom arguments in the closely watched case ended without an immediate ruling — and with opponents saying they planned to ask a judge to delay enforcement during the suit, which has broached questions of racial fairness alongside arguments about government authority and burdens to business. The NAACP's New York state branch and a network of Hispanic groups have joined a legal effort...

SOUTH Australia is sitting on oil potentially worth more than $20 trillion, independent reports claim - enough to turn Australia into a self-sufficient fuel producer. Brisbane company Linc Energy yesterday released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil. At the higher end, this would be "several times bigger than all of the oil in Australia", Linc managing director Peter Bond said. This has the potential to turn Australia from an oil importer to an...

London - Veteran TV and radio broadcaster Stuart Hall has been charged with rape and 14 counts of indecent assault. The 83-year-old BBC presenter is accused of raping a 22-year-old woman in 1976. He is also charged with 14 offences of indecent assault against 10 girls aged nine to 16 between 1967 and 1986, The Sun reported. The charges are related to new alleged victims but not linked to his previous court appearance on sex abuse charges, which he has denied. Hall was arrested on Tuesday morning after attending a police station by appointment. He was bailed to face Preston...

the Lingerie Football League has announced plans to rename itself the “Legends Football League.” As part of the move, the LFL will be ditching the thing that made the league noteworthy in the first place: lingerie. Other changes include new team logos absent of "sexy female figures," redesigned shoulder pads to increase protection, and changing their slogan from "True Fantasy Football" to "Women of the Gridiron." The players will no longer wear modified bras, panties, and garters while playing tackle football on turf (ouch!), instead favoring more traditional performance wear which will “replace all lingerie aspects” of the league’s uniforms....

MSN.com Poll - 19% Yes - 77% No - 4% Not Sure - 560,000 Responses

"Hitler's Germany has conquered all of Europe; all except for one resolute island nation. And, with his eye on Russia, Hitler has no interest in fighting Great Britain, he simply wants to relegate it to the inconsequential. This means stopping the supply convoys from America.... . The terrifying armada of U-boats had already caused the American supply ships to huddle in close-knit convoys; perfect targets for the long guns of a battleship. And even if the convoy was accompanied by a cruiser, or even a battleship, that's not much of a challenge when your own battleship is so big and...

A man who lost his nose to cancer is growing a new one – on his arm, The Belfast Telegraph reported. Scientists are using the unnamed man’s bone marrow cells to grow a new nose on two nose-shaped scaffolds in the lab. Professor Alex Seifalian from University College London told Focus Magazine that an extra nose is being made “just in case someone drops one.” Once the noses are fully grown, one of them will be implanted in the skin on the man’s arm, which will give the nose some skin.