Free Republic

With just a day to go before the new Bond announcement, a newly- surfaced interview with Daniel Craig from 2012 may shed some light on where the series might be headed. When Craig was hired to help reboot James Bond, he knew that he wanted to make a serious film — both because he is a serious actor, and because a certain other spy spoof had made it impossible to do a goofy 007. "We had to destroy the myth because Mike Myers f—-ed us," the actor told Bond fan publication MI6, referring to Myers’ remarkably successful Austin Powers series....

Bill Powers, the president of the University of Texas-Austin, has announced that he will step down from his post in June 2015. The announcement brings to a close a power struggle that has shaken the state in the past week, signalling the twilight of the eight-year reign of one of the most powerful figures in higher education. The outcome is a compromise between Powers and University of Texas Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, who had demanded that Powers depart by October or else find himself fired at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting. By serving for another year, Powers will be able to...

Mayor-elect Mike Pantelides’ honeymoon as the new chief executive of Annapolis might end before it begins, as City Council members say that next term they plan to revisit legislation that would strip the mayor’s office of much of its power. Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8, said he will introduce a charter amendment to move Annapolis to a full council-manager form of government. This would create a position similar to the current city manager, except that the official would report directly to the City Council, not the mayor. He or she would also manage all department heads. The mayor’s post would...

Annapolis Alderman Ross Arnett insists the City Council's decision to take another look at making the mayor's job a more ceremonial role has nothing to do with party politics. But if the Democrat-majority council acts to remove the mayor's power, the timing will coincide with the election of Annapolis' first Republican mayor in nearly two decades, Mike Pantelides, who defeated the incumbent Democrat, Mayor Josh Cohen, last week.

Last night, Powers managed to work her way through the Washington DC exchange to find that she couldn’t keep the plan she liked, either. In order to keep the same deductible in place, her monthly premiums will almost double, from $160 to $300: That is an additional $1,680 a year, which doesn’t actually get her better coverage, and which Powers will have to pay out regardless of how much she accesses the health-care system. As a younger and healthier consumer, Powers shouldn’t be paying more; she should be paying less in a properly-managed risk pool. Thanks to the mandates of...

One thing that the past few weeks have accomplished is the total destruction of Obama's "towering intellect" persona.This is one the standard lenses through which Obama is viewed, with differing but complimentary angles from each end of the spectrum: the liberal "reigning intellect of his age" as opposed to the conservative "master chess player with a plan for destruction."The basis of Obama's reputation for intellectual superiority lies in a mixture of Democratic propaganda and PC indoctrination. The Democratic stance has been steadily maintained for years and prevails in some circles impervious to embarrassment or shame. Obama was an Ivy-league man!...

More golden oldies from Dear Leader on the eve of  his latest violation of the War Powers Act: I am actually pleased with the way things have evolved (re. leadup to Iraq war)... President Bush went through the United Nations... I also think us rushing into a war unilaterally would be a mistake If we overthrow Saddam... what's our long-term commitment there... how much is it gonna cost... how do we stabilize and make sure this country doesn't splinter into factions? If it (Iraq War Powers Resolution, empowering Bush to strike without consulting Congress) had came to me in an...

President Obama's nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is a late convert to the pro-Israel cause, but today she promised to fiercely advocate for the Jewish state, including fighting to help Israel obtain a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Power, a close confidante of President Barack Obama and a former top White House official, received a warm welcome today at her confirmation hearing to replace Susan Rice as the U.S. permanent representative to the U.N. But senators pressed Power on her previous statements that caused a rift between her and elements of the pro-Israel...

Samantha Power will take over at as ambassador to the United Nations following Susan Rice’s promotion to national security adviser. Here are Power’s five most embarrassing comments. 1. Power called for global apology tour Power wrote that U.S. foreign policy “needs not tweaking but overhauling,” in a 2003 New Republic article. Power recommended that United States officials should apologize to the world for its past failures in order to enhance credibility with foreign countries. “A country has to look back before it can move forward,” Power wrote. “Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility

TEL AVIV – A research center founded and headed by White House official Samantha Power had a seat on the committee that invented the military doctrine used by President Obama as the main justification for U.S. and international airstrikes against Libya, WND has learned. Power is the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights. She reportedly heavily influenced Obama in consultations leading to the decision to bomb Libya. As WND was first to report, billionaire philanthropist George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect, the world’s leading organization...

Meet Taylor Powers. The college student, 21, had to be rescued yesterday afternoon off a Colorado mountain after she ingested mushrooms, stripped off her clothes, and scuffled with two classmates with whom she had been hiking. After receiving a 911 call that a female hiker was “high on mushrooms and in distress,” Boulder County Sheriff’s Office deputies and other assorted rescue personnel (35 in total) responded to Chautauqua Park. Powers, seen above, was located by a park ranger who discovered that the University of Colorado undergrad had “removed all of her clothing and was being restrained” by two male companions....

Liberal Fox News Contributor and Daily Beast columnist Kirstin Powers on the Obama-Hillary Clinton "60 Minutes” interview: “It really was something you’d expect from the state-run media. It was that kind of level of propaganda… This was a joke. You look at it and just not challenging basic things…”

Senior White House adviser David Plouffe insisted Sunday that President Obama’s decision to defer deportation of certain illegal immigrants who came to the country as children was "fully within" the president's authority and not made with the 2012 election in mind. “This is not a political move. This builds on a lot of steps that we have already taken,” Plouffe said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” Mitt Romney, in an interview to air on CBS later Sunday, accused the White House of making the decision based on politics. Romney already faces a

(CNN) -- An American pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union will be posthumously awarded the Silver Star next week, 50 years after he was released from prison and returned to the United States. The award for valor is being bestowed on Francis Gary Powers for exhibiting "exceptional loyalty" during harsh interrogation while in captivity by the Soviet Union for nearly two years, the Air Force said. The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration awarded to members of any U.S. military branch for valor in the face of the enemy, the Air Force...

Two days before the second round of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in Baghdad, senior Israeli officials criticized the diplomats in charge of negotiations with the Islamic Republic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the upcoming talks, saying that "the Western powers must not reveal any weakness while dealing with Iran, and must not cave in on any aspect of its nuclear program.” “The west is bowing down to Iran, and at the same time the chief of staff of Iranian military chief is revealing Iran’s true intentions, as he calls for the destruction of Israel,” said one

Emergency powers for president dropped from cybersecurity billBy Gautham Nagesh - 02/14/12 01:55 PM ET A comprehensive cybersecurity bill introduced Tuesday abandons proposals that would give the president emergency powers over the nation's networks. “The nation responded after 9/11 to improve its security. Now we must respond to this challenge so that a cyber 9/11 attack on America never happens,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Public apprehension about the possibility of handing the White House a "kill switch" for the Internet has dogged the cybersecurity debate, fueled by a proposal that would have codified emergency powers...

Just a question I'm throwing out for the FR gang. When I watched Fox News last night, it was humorous to see the two Democratic pundits, Joe Trippi and Kirsten Powers so obviously minimize Romney's results while falling over themselves boosting Santorum. I almost had the impression that these two partisan Democrats (especially Powers who's as transparent as they come) were a cheering squad for Santorum and can't wait to run against him. Or at least they believe he will be an easy opponent to beat. Powers even let her guard down a moment and implied that the Dems' strategy...

Syria will strike Israel and "set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces choose to launch a military strike on the protest-ridden country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday. During a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad was quoted by the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars as saying that Syria would not hesitate to strike major Israeli cities if it was attacked. "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad

The D.C. area earthquake caused a huge scare in some of the major political centers of the nation, and, Sean Hannity argued, that “crisis” has already been adopted as a talking point by liberals to call for more spending on infrastructure. Citing Rahm Emanuel’s famous “never let a crisis go to waste” quote, Hannity and panelist Mercedes Viana Schlapp challenged Kirsten Powers to explain where the infrastructure came from and dispute the dubious claim that Democrats “get away with” more name-calling than Republicans. Hannity began the segment on the infrastructure point, which Powers explained

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Eurozone finance ministers opened the door to using the currency union's bailout fund to buy up distressed Greek bonds, thereby cutting the country's overall debt load as they scrambled to stop the region's debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain. The ministers' statement Monday -- which came after hours of discussions and was scant on details -- followed one of the worst days in the markets for Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest economies in the eurozone. The fear is that while Europe's euro750 billion bailout fund can support already bailed...