Free Republic

The United States is calling for a UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela for Saturday.... BREAKING NEWS: The arrest this morning of Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political operative who's worked with numerous political candidates from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to Bob Dole and Arlen Specter, among many others...... The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed under current rules and pass legislation to fund a barrier on the nation's southern border Thursday..... The Battle of Brexit or perhaps more appropriately the Sellout of Brexit...... And that brings us to a story from Her Majesty's realm about a...

Former French president François Hollande said on Wednesday he has not turned his back on politics, after criticizing his successor and former protégé in the Élysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron. “Even when I decided… not to stand (for re-election), I had said I would not retire from political life,” the Socialist Hollande, 63, told TV5 Monde television. The former president on Tuesday said the 39-year-old Macron should not “demand needless sacrifices from the French”. Macron, elected in May, has come under fire for budget and public spending cuts. …

PARIS — President François Hollande stunned France on Thursday when he announced that he would not run for a second term in next year’s presidential election. In a televised address from the Élysée Palace, Mr. Hollande said that he was “aware of the risks” of a candidacy that would not “rally” enough people to it. “I have thus decided not to be a candidate in the presidential elections,” Mr. Hollande said. Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, ended weeks of speculation about his intentions to participate in a re-election bid that few observers thought he could win. He has had some of...

Perhaps the Carter administration was comparably hostile to Israel, but the passive-aggressive, honor-deficient Obama administration has both caused and acceded to greater danger to the Jewish State than any other U.S. administration since 1948.Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he would not be attending the Mideast conference to be held in Paris on May 30, which was organized by France's socialist President Francois Hollande.According to State, Kerry is simply too busy.As a result, Hollande has postponed the conference and no alternative date has been set.Eager to force Israel towards negotiations with the bifurcated, terror-supporting Palestinian leadership, Hollande had...

The leaking of hundreds of pages of negotiating texts for an ambitious U.S.-European Union free-trade agreement is continuing to make waves in France and elsewhere in Europe, just days after President Obama expressed confidence that a deal – a key goal of his administration – is within reach. Already skeptical politicians and others see the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) documents leaked by the environmental group Greenpeace as confirming fears that the agreement would not be good for Europe. French President Francois Hollande responded to the leaks by saying he would not support the TTIP as it stands. The...

President Obama is so paranoid about linking terrorists to the Muslim faith that when French President François Hollande used the phrase “Islamist terrorism” at a meeting in Washington, White House officials posted their official press video with audio of the words cut out completely. The White House’s transcript of the event shows the French leader declared at the 4:49 minute mark that “the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq.” But rather than include Hollande’s remark in its entirety, the Obama administration posted footage in which his interpreter’s English translation of the words “Islamist terrorism” was...

 One would hope that today’s snowflakes would be outraged by the White House’s censoring of the words “Islamic Terrorism” from President Hollande’s remarks. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande met in Washington on Thursday to discuss ways for the two countries to work together to defeat terrorism. But the White House apparently had zero appetite for Hollande’s mention of Islamist terrorism, since it censored the phrase from the official White House video of the meeting posted on the White House website. – The Federalist Only, of course, they will not – be outraged that is. As they too...

White House staffers appear to have scrubbed the mention of “Islamist terrorism” from a video of a speech delivered by French President Francois Hollande at a bilateral meeting with President Obama. According to the White House translation of Francois’ speech, he said the following: We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination. But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq. We, therefore, have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within...

The White House website has censored a video of French Pres. Francois Hollande saying that “Islamist terrorism” is at the “roots of terrorism.” The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words “Islamist terrorism,” then begins again at the end of his sentence. Even the audio of Hollande saying the words “Islamist terrorism” in French have, apparently, been edited from the video. According to the official White House transcript of Hollande’s remarks,...

The White House website has censored a video of French Pres. Francois Hollande saying that “Islamist terrorism” is at the “roots of terrorism.” The White House briefly pulled video of a press event on terrorism with Pres. Obama, and when it reappeared on the WhiteHouse.gov website and YouTube, the audio of Hollande’s translator goes silent, beginning with the words “Islamist terrorism,” then begins again at the end of his sentence. Even the audio of Hollande saying the words “Islamist terrorism” in French have, apparently, been edited from the video.

Lower taxes, fewer labor rules, less state: in a country famed for its attachment to a protective social model, economic liberalism is the surprise trend among aspirants for France's 2017 presidential election. For decades, the French center-right eschewed the free market policies of Margaret Thatcher, sticking to the tradition of a strong dirigiste state and a generous public health and welfare system funded by high taxes. Now a neoliberal economic platform is the one issue on which a growing field of candidates for the center-right Republicans' primary planned in November all agree. This ideological shift is not confined to the...

Obama is not popular in either country, but to put it in positive terms, the U.S. President is a tiny bit more popular with Iranians than with Israelis. Israelis can't stand President Barack Obama even more than Iranians can do without him, but they like German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the most popular world leader, a new survey reveals. The poll in Israel was part of an international survey of 65 world leaders by WIN/Gallup International. Ma'agar Mochot, headed by Prof. Yitzchak Katz, carried out the survey in Israel. One of the questions posed was: What is your opinion regarding...

Marine Le Pen got a huge boost in France’s first round of regional elections this week, drawing upwards of 40% support in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie. Showing some unusual restraint after the initial results were reported, she said her party would treat the result with humility and a profound sense of responsibility. In the broader sense, her “far right” National Front party did far better across all 13 regions than in recent outings. (Mashable) France’s far right National Front won more support than any other party in the first round of regional elections Sunday, according to polling agency...

PHARES: ...the president has a different strategy. He's getting a lot of pressure by the Iranians. Otherwise he should have long time ago allied himself, partnered with Arab moderate forces such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, they are fighting terrorism very much and very well in Yemen, in Sinai, in Libya, elsewhere, but the reason that he's not going to these moderate Arab forces and asking them on the ground to be boots on the ground is because the Iranians are pressuring him because the Syrian Regime is pressuring him. They don't want those areas, those Sunni areas to...

resident Obama's reaction to the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris has been strange - and disturbing. Instead of rallying the country and calling for the United States to lead the fight to wipe out the Islamic State, what did he do first? He took pot shots at Republicans for their reluctance to open our borders to thousands of Syrian refugees. He even said some Republicans were helping ISIS recruit new fighters by suggesting that the United States should give preference to Christian refugees over Muslims. We're stuck with Obama and his failed leadership for another 13 months. Meanwhile, we'll have...

PARIS -- I'm getting tired of living in a guerrilla terrorist war zone and having friends ask me if I'm all right. If you think that I'm exaggerating in describing Paris as such, consider the 129 civilians killed (at last count) and 352 injured here in coordinated Islamic State-inspired terrorist attacks -- mass shootings, suicide bombings and hostage taking -- last Friday night while attending a concert, having dinner at a cafe or otherwise spending a night out in the city. It's the very definition of asymmetric warfare. In the aftermath, stores and movie theaters were closed, travelers faced long...

The horrific attacks in Paris prompted a swift response from French President Francois Hollande, as he dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean a day after airstrikes hit the key city ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. The United States responded with airstrikes on Monday, November 16, targeting hundreds of trucks that the U.S. military believes are used for smuggling oil. The NYT reported that 116 trucks were destroyed in American airstrikes by A-10 planes and AC-130 gunships in eastern Syria. ISIS generates millions of dollars per day by smuggling oil from Syrian oil fields, a source of revenue that has...

French President Francois Hollande today promised that "France will remain a country of freedom," defending his decision to honor a commitment to accept migrants and refugees despite Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. “Life should resume fully,” Hollande told a gathering of the country's mayors, who gave him a standing ovation. “What would France be without its museums, without its terraces, its concerts, its sports competitions? "France should remain as it is. Our duty is to carry on our lives." In the same spirit, he added, "30,000 refugees will be welcomed over the next two years. Our country has the...

French President Francois Hollande today promised that 'France will remain a country of freedom,' defending his decision to honor a commitment to accept migrants and refugees despite Friday’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. ... In the same spirit, he added, '30,000 refugees will be welcomed over the next two years. Our country has the duty to respect this commitment,' explaining that they will undergo vigorous security checks.

France will be grieving for a long time after Friday's bloodshed. The death toll is still rising, the current number a staggering 132. French President Francois Hollande addressed the tragedy before the French Parliament on Monday, making it clear his nation is not dealing with any ordinary enemy. "France is at war," says Hollande. "We are not in a war with a civilization, because these people are not one." Hollande said France will be increasing its military efforts to "destroy" the evil terror organization. France is sending an aircraft carrier to the Middle East, according to Hollande, and will be...