Free Republic

While researching another matter, I came across this startling bit of legality ...

White House press secretary Jay Carney stumbled Thursday during a line of questioning regarding the legitimacy of the Iranian government, just hours after the beginning of the contentious confirmation hearing of Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel. "Excuse me, can you ask that again?" Carney responded when a reporter asked if Obama agrees with his nominee, who stated before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the Iranian government is "elected and legitimate." "Our views on the last presidential election were clearly expressed," he added, before criticizing Iran for its violations of United Nations resolutions mandatng it immediately cease...

The Palestinian Authority is losing legitimacy among its people because it is not creating a state, and as a result its institutions could "eventually collapse," the UN Middle East envoy has said. "The Palestinian Authority is quickly, in my view, losing its legitimacy in the eye of the public, if it is not able to bring also the political goal forwards -- the creation of a Palestinian state which lives side by side with Israel in peace and security," Robert Serry said on Monday. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process was speaking to students at the...

Governor Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) assured America that President Barack Obama was born in his state back in 1961. To-date, no one has been able to produce an official birth certificate for the President. “I haven’t seen the birth certificate myself, but others have assured me that something is written down about his birth in the Hawaii Department of Health files somewhere,” Abercrombie said. “I don’t really see what the big deal is. The evidence that Obama was born in Hawaii is at least as good as the evidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. I don’t think people doubt the...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on human rights activists who participate in Gaza-bound flotillas to sail to Tehran instead, where he says real human rights violations exist. "I call on all human rights activists in the world - go to Tehran, that's where there is a human rights violation," said Netanyahu during his meeting with the Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, in which he discussed Israel's ease of the Gaza blockade and flotillas planning on breaching Israel's Gaza blockade.

From House Republican Policy Committee: 9.2 million military personnel, families and retirees don't deserve a back room deal? "Although the health care legislation passed by the House explicitly exempted TRICARE from being affected, the Senate bill did not. Unfortunately, the parliamentary rules of tof the reconciliation process did not allow for the inclusion of language that specficially protects these programs." -- Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) On March 18, 2010, just days before the House votes on the Democrats’ government takeover of health care, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton announced he would introduce legislation to preemptively...

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure. However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree. Seventy-one percent (71%)...

I do believe the kenyan was born here, however I believe that there is something in his birth certificate he doesn't want published...so That got me thinking, what could be so bad? The only thing I can think of is that his mother and father weren't married...making him a bastard....anybody else have any ideas?

Why is America Discussing Sonia Sotomayor? President Obama is within his Constitutional purview to nominate anyone he wants as a Supreme Court nominee, even Sonia Sotomayor. He could have nominated Bozo the Clown or a “died in the wool” Communist like Bill Ayres, which he would have been more inclined to do. The fact is that that during the space of time between Obama’s announcement of her as a nominee and her confirmation hearings, she has, very publicly, had her judgment overturned regarding the firefighters in Connecticut. Those who overturned Sotomayer’s verdict knew exactly what they were doing and were...

In case you haven't noticed, the pro-gun lobby is working overtime to normalize abnormal behavior. Let us ask you a handful of questions. Would you be willing to: Sip hot chocolate with your toddler at Starbucks while a fellow patron openly displays a gun at the table next to you? Attend a church service with your entire family knowing that the fellow parishioner sitting next to you has a handgun tucked in his belt? Stand in line at a bank to make a deposit as two men enter with baseball hats on and what appear to be guns in their...

China's Coming People Power By Arthur Waldron Tuesday, October 11, 2005; A17 As the Communist Party's congress begins in Beijing, the media are full of speculation -- not about potential reforms but about power. The question: Who will succeed Hu Jintao as nominal leader of China if he steps down on turning 70 in 2010? A scholar-official from the Ming or Qing dynasties would understand the situation exactly. Classical historiography calls succession the guoben , or root of the state: the designation of the prince who will succeed as emperor upon his father's death. The scholar-officials knew that the passing...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Whether cowed by crackdowns, pacified by an increase in social freedoms or simply resigned, Iran's students are no longer the force that once spearheaded a revolution or agitated for liberal reform. With just over a week to go before a presidential election in which the Islamic state's clerical leaders have said it is a national and religious duty to vote, student leader Abdollah Momeni is calling -- quietly -- for a boycott. It appears the last resort of a group whose hopes for reform through the ballot box have all but vanished, at least for now. "Voting...

COMMENT: Beijing graft fight losing steam AFP May 20: The anti-corruption bloodbath in China shows signs of retreating. ROBERT SAIGET reports that the Communist Party is putting the brakes on the crackdown to save its image from further damage and ensure that some vested interests are protected. WHEN Chinese President Hu Jintao came to power in 2003, he vowed to crackdown on corruption. Since then, a bloodbath has taken place with 13 ministry-level officials jailed, sentenced to death or placed under investigation, and thousands more underlings arrested. The crackdown on the highest leaders in the pro- vinces of Heilongjiang, Anhui,...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...

WITH THE WORLD AT RINGSIDE, POWER AND LEGITIMACY FACE UP WASHINGTON -- Media reports of this week's multiple formal events reminded me of the way history used to be written: in journalese, dry prose and exact quotes. "The U.N. secretary general spoke to the press before the opening of the General Assembly in New York. ... The president of the United States addressed the United Nations on Tuesday. ... The newly appointed prime minister of war-torn Iraq traveled to the nation's capital on Thursday for a rousing reception by the American Congress ..." This was "the news." Encapsulated. Traditional. Like...

Many on the left, most visibly Presidential contender John Kerry, often claim that the "coalition of the willing" is weak and that participation from the international community has been minimal if anything. Opponents of President Bush use such claims in order to discredit the legitimacy of this noble endeavor for freedom. It may not be such a bad idea to look at the state of our coalition, not in an effort to attack President Bush, but rather to conduct a healthy reassessment and critique of the coalition and our allies. Several weeks ago, Michael Rubin returned from the Coalition Provisional...

UN staff in Congo face child sex claims By William Wallis in Nairobi Published: May 17 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 17 2004 5:00 One of the United Nations toughest missions in Africa is facing damaging allegations that peacekeeping troops as well as civilian UN personnel have been involved in the systematic sexual abuse of minors. William Lacy Swing, the Special Representative to the UN Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told the Financial Times on Sunday that an ongoing investigation into the allegations would be "thorough" and that strict disciplinary measures would be taken to ensure...

<p>While statewide polls of California voters reveal a uniformly negative attitude toward Gov. Gray Davis' performance, they also indicate that many of those who disapprove of him also are reluctant to vote to dump him from office through a recall election.</p>

TOP NEWS HEADLINES... U.N. INSPECTORS FAIL TO FIND EVIDENCE OF U.N. NEW YORK -- A stunned worldwide audience watched as U.N. Inspectors issued their final comprehensive findings in the search for the U.N., only to announce that they had, in fact, no evidence to prove the U.N. actually exists. "Reports of the 'alleged' U.N. Resolution 1441 are unsubstantiated at best," reported Chief U.N. inspector Jean le Claire. "Furthermore, we have no information regarding any activity involving this so-called 'United Nations' in the Persion Gulf region at any time in the last forty years." Speaking from a very large building...