Free Republic

Today's column came into existence, in part - due to my not being able to find an outline that suited my tastes, on the subject of what Constitutional authority a President has, to insert our military into a conflict. Necessity became the Mothers of Invention or Frank Zappa, at the very least, so I wrote one myself. I was also interested in what irresistible gravitational force compels an Imperial President into launching military action on flimsy premises of 'vital national interest'. I think with this, I'm changing the diaper on the Syria mess and putting the baby to bed for...

~2003~THREAT MATRIX~2011~ LAST 71 SEVENTY 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 SIXTY 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 FIFTY 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 FORTY 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 THIRTY 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 TWENTY 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 TEN 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 ONE MM THE OBAMA SUNDAY SPEECH To start off this new thread, it has been brought to my attention that FReeper, Dengar1, has spotted "suspicious" and...

Given the levels of illegal migration and narco-trafficking across its southern border, the State of Arizona deserves America's commendation for the remarkable restraint it has exhibited in dealing with what has become a most serious international and domestic problem. Arizona Senate Bill 1070, signed into law by Governor Janice K. Brewer on April 23, 2010, is a tiptoe exercise through an immigration minefield. In its essence, however, the law demands roughly no more of an individual than is required to open an account at the local video store. Indeed, the law presumes that one is not an alien who is...

Americans love to second-guess themselves. It has become a national sport since Vietnam. But it is dangerous business when we have so many Monday-morning quarterbacks in wartime. Two years after our dramatically successful invasion of Iraq, leading to the liberation of 26 million Arabs and Kurds, the second-guessing is at all time highs. They ask: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Where are the connections between the regime of Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001? Where was the threat Iraq posed to America? May I remind the second-guessers that no...

LONDON (AFP) - Only nuclear energy can slow down the rapid and potentially devastating warming of the earth, a veteran British scientist and environmental campaigner argued. "Only one immediately available source does not cause global warming and that is nuclear energy," James Lovelock wrote in an opinion piece published in the Independent newspaper. The 84-year-old is best known for fathering the "Gaia Hypothesis" in the mid-1960s that states the earth is alive and maintains conditions necessary for its survival. Lovelock warned that environmentally-friendly energy sources were not being developed quickly enough to replace coal, gas and oil, whose waste gas...

The latest revelation from the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding Iran proves what Western governments know well: Iran has neither stopped developing a bomb nor lying about its nuclear program. There is no real argument about the deceptions and intentions, only what to do about them. Last week, the IAEA announced that it discovered plans for a P2 uranium enrichment facility. Iran had admitted last fall to having a much less sophisticated enrichment capability, and had agreed to suspend enrichment in exchange for European promises of closer civilian nuclear cooperation. According to The Guardian, "The Americans, the Europeans, and officials...

<p>While news from Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terror dominate the headlines, here at home progress is being made on another important front: the critical work of military transformation. Today, President Bush will sign into law landmark legislation that will help bring the Defense Department out of the industrial age, and into the information age.</p>