Free Republic

Lost amidst the White House he-said-she-said of finger pointing, scandal, incompetence, venality, hubris, vanity, error, greed, gluttony, embarrassment, cover up, stupidity,  amateur bungling, brownnosing, grandstanding, photo-opting and hearings as the result of a few minor mistakes made by the Obama administration- an administration which rode roughshod over a several outdated laws, certain small parts of the Bill of Rights written by irrelevant white dudes; an administration that got people killed, violated civil rights, harassed government employees, ignored it’s basic responsibilities and common sense- are these small, little, niggling details: The folks in charge are freaking hypocrites; and because the are...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

According to the Department of Commerce, housing starts fell 4.8% in May to a 708,000 annual rate from a revised 744,000 rate in April. The previous month was the highest since October 2008. The forecast by economists was for 722,000, a substantial miss on the downside. This might explain why yesterday’s homebuilder confidence rose by only 1 point. With mortgage rates falling to new lows, home affordability is the highest its been in decades. Building permits rose 7.9% from a revised rate of 723,000 in April to 780,000 in May. Economists were expecting 780,000. This is a big miss to...

Property Rights: Few have heard of Agenda 21, the U.N. plan for sustainable development that tosses property rights aside. But Alabama has, and it recently secured a victory as important as that over union power in Wisconsin. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's stunning triumph over the excesses and abuses of public-sector unions, the London Telegraph's James Delingpole, an indefatigable opponent of global warming fraud, opined in a piece titled, "How Wisconsin And Alabama Helped Save The World," that we should take note of "an equally important but perhaps less well-publicized victory won in the Alabama House and Senate over the...

President Obama’s hot mic moment defined his trip to South Korea and may very well define his reelection bid. The reason his uncensored remark resonates is that it supports a pre-existing narrative that President Obama’s promises are not to be trusted. Before he backed off the campaign trail, no one made this argument more frequently than Newt Gingrich. After his second place finish in Florida, he said, “If he [President Obama] can have a record this bad, unemployment this bad, deficits this bad, policies this bad, gasoline prices this high, and still get re-elected, you can’t imagine how radical he’ll...

Veteran Indiana GOP senator Richard Lugar, faces a serious primary challenge this election cycle. Every patriotic American should be praying that “Dangerous Dick’” is soundly defeated and is never elected, or appointed, to any form of public office again. Richard Lugar is not merely a leftist Republican – there are plenty of those. ”Dangerous Dick” is in a league all of his own. What makes Lugar so dangerous is his long standing ties to an anti-American Marxist led “peace” Political Action Committee, which has campaigned to cut US military preparedness and defense capabilities for 50 years. The New START Disarmament...

According to Rebeccah Heinrichs, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request reveals that “that the president has utterly failed to make good on his promises” on nuclear modernization and missile defense. During the ratification debate on the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START), President Obama promised to modernize the U.S. nuclear infrastructure, claiming that such investment is “essential to facilitating reductions while sustaining deterrence under New START and beyond.” However, the Administration failed to include in its budget the additional $4.1 billion that was promised for the nuclear weapons...

President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will aim its missiles at the U.S. missile defense sites in Europe if Washington fails to address Russian concerns on its missile defense plans. ... He also said ...that Moscow may opt out of the New Start arms control deal

President Barack Obama's administration recently threatened to veto the defense budget, citing "serious concerns" over provisions that limit the U.S. missile defense know-how that the White House is permitted to share with Moscow. This is the sort of information that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in his earlier days, would have assigned his spies to steal. Through its single-minded pursuit of "resetting" relations with Russia, the Obama administration may simply be willing to hand over this information and, in doing so, weaken U.S. national security. Only two days after issuing the veto threat -- and as Obama tried to warm...

West to have 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020 - interview Russian military experts forecast that Western nations will have 80,000 cruise missile by 2020, a deputy commander of the Russian General Staff said on Saturday. "We expect Western countries to have at least 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020, including about 2,000 of them nuclear-powered," Gen. Igor Sheremet said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station. He added these missiles are clearly not simply designed for drilling or intimidation purposes. "They can deliver disarming or even 'decapitation' strikes," Sheremet said. Hence, he said, the plans to develop Russia's air...

SKOLKOVO, Russia -- President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday warned of a new Cold War era if Russia and the West fail to agree on missile defense, in the first major news conference of his presidency. Despite the startling warning to the United States and Europe, Medvedev confounded expectations he would use the event to finally announce if he intends to seek a new Kremlin mandate in 2012 elections. Russia is increasingly worried about US plans to build missile defense facilities in ex-Communist eastern Europe and is also offended that NATO appears to have shunned its proposals for a joint missile...

While briefing the US Senate Committee about Worldwide threats, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper was asked by Sen. Joe Manchin D-West Virginia on which country is the greatest threat to America. In Gen Clapper’s assessment was that Russia and China are the greatest threats. Their nuclear arsenals do pose a mortal threat to the U.S. mainland. However, the DNI did point out that the U.S. does have a Nuclear Treaty with Russia but not with China. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is an arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia. Like it or not it is...

President Obama has set the stage for an acrimonious relationship with the newly elected senators of the 112th Congress. As they come to Washington this week for freshman orientation, his welcome message amounts to, "I want to disenfranchise you." This "unwelcome" applies especially to those occupying six new Republican seats in the Senate come January. It bears most particularly on two issues that will profoundly affect U.S. security over the next six years of these newly minted senators' terms in office and far beyond: the so-called New START treaty and the repeal of a statute prohibiting homosexuals from serving in...

(snip) Among other criticisms, Tea Party activists have taken Lugar to task for supporting the new START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, claiming the U.S. is giving up too much and Russia is not giving up enough. "I've been working systematically for 20 years going to Russia trying to help direct a situation in which we're taking warheads off of missiles every day, destroying missiles that were aimed at us; destroying submarines that carried misslies up and down our coast," said Lugar. "I've got to say 'Get real'. I hear Tea Party or other people talking about they were against...

The bombast and bluster emanating from the office of Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana suggest that he knows he's going to have a fight on his hands to retain his seat. Lugar, current king of the RINOs in the upper chamber, is clearly unwilling to give up the perks of office, particularly the accolades slathered upon him by the beltway media. Like John McCain, Lugar simply doesn't comprehend the fact that he is lavishly praised by the mainstream press precisely to the degree he is willing to turn his back on the traditional American values of his constituents. Lugar's response...

The Special Relationship between the U.S. and Britain has many facets, but at its core is close cooperation in the military and intelligence realms. And at the heart of our military cooperation is the U.S.–U.K. Mutual Defence Agreement. Signed in 1958, and renewed every 10 years—most recently in 2004—the agreement provides for Anglo–American collaboration in nuclear technology. It provides the legal basis for the transfer to Britain of U.S.-made Trident II missiles—the launch platform for Britain’s nuclear deterrent—and for the much broader sharing of nuclear information between the two countries.

And continues the capitulation of the US to Russia. In 2009 Barack Obama scrapped plans for a missile defense of Eastern Europe, including the installation of the radar system. It was seen a a victory for Russia The shift is a triumph for the Kremlin, which has long and vehemently argued that the shield is aimed at neutralising its intercontinental missiles; Moscow had warned of a return to a cold war arms race, and threatened to deploy nuclear missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave, surrounded by EU states. and a betrayal by Eastern European allies But some in Poland and...

After extended wrangling among lawmakers in both countries, the new START treaty between the U.S. and Russia went into effect Saturday at the global security conference in Munich. "The principles of equality, parity, equal and undivided security lay a solid foundation for the modern Russian-American cooperation in various spheres," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, appearing with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to exchange the treaty documents, said, according to RIA Novosti.

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week. Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

President Obama signed the START nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia this morning. Despite the great attention the president has devoted to this treaty -- and the vast coverage of the treaty negotiations by the media -- the White House refused to allow reporters or TV cameras in the room. Still photographers were the only representatives of the free press permitted to record the historic moment. Those cameras captured President Obama signing the documents, seated at the Resolute Desk. Behind him stood Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,...