Free Republic

Three years before Matt Drudge changed the world and how news would be consumed, President Bill Clinton's White House feared that the Internet was allowing average citizens, especially conservatives, to bypass legacy gatekeepers and access information that had previously been denied to them by the mainstream press. The infamous 1995 "conspiracy commerce memo" tried to demonize and discredit alternative media outlets on the right to mainstream media organizations and D.C. establishment figures. The memo notes that the "Internet has become one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication" and "can link people, groups and organizations together instantly." (snip)...

MOSCOW, April 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on rehabilitation of Crimean Tatars and other nationalities of Crimea, who were victims of Stalin-era repressions. “Taking advantage of an opportunity, I would like to inform colleagues that I have signed a decree on rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatars, the Armenian population, Germans, Greeks - all those who suffered from Stalin’s repressions,” Putin said. Other Crimean ethnic groups repressed by Stalin would also be rehabilitated, he said, listing Armenians, Germans and Greeks among them in a move reaching out to some 250,000 mainly Sunnite Tatars in a modern...

The protests continue. Off with their heads, says the Red Queen. When Venezuela reaches the bottom, will she be able to get back up?  Bello Monte when tear gas was dropped from far away the protest rally.Daniel at Venezuela News and Views posted an excellent article on March 20th titled First day of the dictatorship, referring to March 20th as the first day. An article at My Way titled Venezuela moves swiftly against opposition lists many of the same regime perversions and begins, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has used the military, legislative and judicial power consolidated during 15 years of socialist rule in a sudden series of blows...

Little new information escapes from Venezuela, beyond that protests and repression by the Chavista/Cuban regime continue.As Daniel reported today (Saturday), the Organization of American States (OAS) produced a resolution about the situation in Venezuela. The regime scores because not only the OAS will not send any mission or observation, not only the OAS will not go beyond an exhortation but the OAS also writes "Its appreciation, full support, and encouragement for the initiatives and the efforts of the democratically-elected Government of Venezuela ...". there is an "and" after that to include other sectors but the first part is the one...

The economy is almost beyond repair, with inflation exceeding fifty percent annually and getting worse. Shortages, corruption and censorship are endemic. Yesterday, approximately 10,000 demonstrators protested. The Chavista regime responded violently, the only way it understands.Daniel, as far as I am aware the only English language writer still blogging in Venezuela, posted an article late yesterday titled A new landmark date for repression in Venezuela: confirming the dictatorship. More from him shortly, but first these reports: BBC News -- Police were out in force at the anti-government rally in Caracas on Wednesday.According to the BBC News article linked above with...

You don't get something for nothing, You can't have freedom for free, You won't get wise, With the sleep still in your eyes, No matter what your dreams might be, “Something for Nothing” ... The biggest obstacle to economic recovery is ignorance, among the public and in Congress. Even reasonable proposals like those advanced by DeLong are basically frozen out by the strange logic that currently holds sway inside the White House and within the FOMC. In both cases, the idea of real debt restructuring and economic revival is shunned in favor of policy stasis and financial repression. The current...

TEHRAN – Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi announced on Wednesday that a 125-page indictment has been issued for Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeii had previously said, “As soon as the indictment is issued, efforts will be made to hold the court hearing.” Mehdi Hashemi was released from prison on December 17 on a bail of 100 billion rials ($8,156,606). He faces charges of inciting unrest after the 2009 presidential election.

The "King of Calypso," Hugo Chávez enthusiast, and "Banana Boat" crooner, octogenarian Harry Belafonte is so thrilled with the reelection of Barack Obama that he's taken to cable "news" network MSNBC to share his views on how President Obama should deal with political nemeses. In addition to singing, acting and songwriting, throughout his career Harry "Viva la revolucion" Belafonte has also promoted himself as a civil rights advocate and humanitarian. In addition to issuing indictments like: "Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet," Mr. Belafonte also heartily endorses the ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's socialist revolution. Once,...

ABSTRACT Historically, periods of high indebtedness have been associated with a rising incidence of default or restructuring of public and private debts. A subtle type of debt restructuring takes the form of “financial repression.” Financial repression includes directed lending to government by captive domestic audiences (such as pension funds), explicit or implicit caps on interest rates, regulation of cross-border capital movements, and (generally) a tighter connection between government and banks. In the heavily regulated financial markets of the Bretton Woods system, several restrictions facilitated a sharp and rapid reduction in public debt/GDP ratios from the late 1940s to the 1970s....

Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive. The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue if they think a company of 15 more employees denied them a job because they were unemployed. The provision would ban employment ads that explicitly declare the unemployed ineligible, with phrases like "Jobless need not apply." As The Lookout has reported, such ads appear to...

Pacific Investment Management Company co-founder Bill Gross is starting to talk about what "financial repression" means for the bond markets, which America has not seen since the darkest days of the 1930's when the term was first used. I'm starting to talk about what financial repression means for Americans. ~snip~ There would be no cash left in the vaults and no cash left in the drawers. Without cash reserves, banks would not be able to fund credit card purchases, debit card purchases, or supply ATM machines with dollar bills. They would not be able to underwrite small business loans either....

China hits back at Salman Rushdie China has hit back at the novelist Salman Rushdie after he argued that China had become "the world's biggest threat to freedom of speech" in an article published earlier this month in The Daily Telegraph. By Peter Foster, Beijing9:00AM BST 29 Apr 2011 In an open letter titled "Human Rights lecture not needed", China's embassy in London attacked Mr Rushdie's call for the release of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist behind the Tate Modern's Sunflower Seeds, who has been detained since April 3. "This is a blatant interference in China's judicial independence and violates...

[Viewpoint] An inconvenient truth about Jimmy Carter reserves comment on the denial of human rights, political brutalities and trampling of liberties by the Pyongyang regime. April 28, 2011 Jimmy Carter, the 39th American president, has a legacy of contradictions and mixed-up views. He is generally viewed as a decent and upright politician - in short, a good man. The 86-year-old former president, however, can’t escape a history of unfortunate words and actions that leave him open to charges of confusion and possibly hypocrisy. Carter’s presidency, from 1977 to 1981, came at a time when the United States was in a...

Aaron Proctor, a Philadelphia-based libertarian writer, can count himself the latest victim of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that ironically claims to work for civil rights. ... Aaron Proctor has become yet another victim of the dangerous trend of CAIR stifling public discussion of Islamism. Who will be next?

... In the long history of the Islamic empire, the wide gap between delusions of grandeur and the forces of localism would be bridged time and again by force of arms, making violence a key element of Islamic political culture. No sooner had the prophet Muhammad died than his successor, Abu Bakr, had to suppress a widespread revolt among the Arabian tribes. Twenty-three years later, the head of the umma, Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, was murdered by disgruntled rebels; his successor, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was confronted for most of his reign with armed insurrections, most notably by the governor...

Irritated by a rising tide of criticism of current government policies, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont) has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate organizations for what he termed “unwelcome political activity.” “These critics have crossed the line,” Baucus contended. “Just because they stop short of saying ‘don’t vote for candidate X’ shouldn’t let them off the hook. The American voter isn’t totally stupid. If he’s told that a policy is bad and that candidate X voted for that policy he can connect the dots and vote accordingly.” Baucus admitted that he was “a little uncomfortable setting the dogs of the...

The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression By Stephane Courtois, Mark Kramer (Translator), Jonathan Murphy (Translator), Karel Bartosek, Andrzej Paczkowski, Jean-Louis Panne, Jean-Louis Margolin (Contributors); Introduction to the U.S. edition by Martin Malia Published by Harvard University Press, 1999 Originally published in France, 1997 Reviewed by Claire Wolfe Examining the photos and reading their captions in The Black Book of Communism, you might expect the surrounding 700+ pages to contain a wail of outrage. The photos, though few, are as graphic and heart-rending as the worst from Nazi Germany. But the text is no impassioned partisan cry. It's something...

04/27/2010 15:26 CHINA With a growing economy, China becomes increasingly repressive In 2009, more and more people have been arrested, sent to “re-education” camps or “black jails” or subjected to internet censorship. As Chinese leaders feel more secure about the country’s growing economy and its international status, popular dissatisfaction grows, leading to clashes with police. Instead, human rights should be respected in order to build Hu Jintao’s “harmonious society”. Beijing (AsiaNews/CHRD) – China has become more repressive towards human rights activists, non-governmental organisations, online journalists and lawyers. Its economic success and rising superpower status are the main reasons. Yet growing...

TKACIK: China: No longer 'rising' John J. Tkacik OPINION/ANALYSIS: Beijing's 60th National Day celebrations last week featured a "Springtime for Mao" battalion of high-stepping, 5-foot-11 female army recruits decked out in hot magenta miniskirts, white boots and petite submachine guns. But that did not necessarily mean the event's organizers had a Mel Brooks sense of humor. The rest of the People's Liberation Army parade, in ironic procession down Beijing's Avenue of Eternal Peace, featured a solemn march of advanced military equipment - 52 brand-new weapons systems ranging from airborne combat vehicles to colossal intercontinental ballistic missiles on mobile launchers -...

Dong Hoi, Vietnam, Jul 28, 2009 / 09:29 pm (CNA).- Two priests were hospitalized in the central Vietnamese coastal city of Dong Hoi after being beaten brutally by plain-clothed police and a gang employed by the local government. One of the priests, who is now comatose, was thrown from the second floor of the hospital where he was visiting the first victim. On Sunday, Fr. Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu, parish priest of Du Loc, was attacked by a group of plain-clothed police and thugs when he was travelling to Tam Toa parish to concelebrate morning Mass with five other priests...