Free Republic

Almost all societies in the world have gone beyond the stage where they expect stability and linear progressions of the past to long endure. Some societies — almost en bloc — anticipate the end of their security; others anticipate the end of their suffering. Few expect insulation from change. That change, however, need not be entirely inscrutable if we look at global patterns and at historical human behaviour. Economic Patterns: What we now call “economics” determines power and conflict patterns because wealth, or the deprivation of it, determines survival, and, for those who survive, “economics” determines the relative control they...

This is well worth reading.

Attention GOP candidates: There is no need, this year, to load up negative ads with adjectives painting your opponents as evil big spenders in the thrall of the Washington establishment. The simple facts of your opponents’ voting records are enough to defeat them. Just the facts, ma’am. Republican negative ad writers always delight in describing the stimulus package as bloated, wasteful, government-growing and useless. The adjectives get in the way. The polling we’ve done indicates that the simple words “stimulus package” convey all that and more.

When Bill Clinton moved to open the military to gays in 1993, the GOP and conservative Democrats led the effort to oppose gay rights. In 1996, Hawaii flirted with gay marriage and the GOP again led the charge against gay equality, culminating in the federal response known as the "Defense of Marriage Act". Flash forward fourteen years to the present. Gay marriage is ruled a federal right for the first time and the response from the GOP is… tepid. Not one nationally prominent elected official thought the issue was important enough to get worked up over.... Complicating matters for social...

Voters along California's Central Coast on Tuesday turned back a Democratic attempt to gain more power in the state Legislature, electing a Republican to fill a vacant state Senate seat. The win by state Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee denies Democrats the opportunity to consolidate their power in the Senate and come within one vote of claiming the two-thirds majority needed to pass budget plans and tax increases. The special election drew interest from around the state, both in endorsements and campaign donations. Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman campaigned for Blakeslee, while President Barack Obama endorsed the Democratic candidate, former Assemblyman John...

New Democratic strategy for creating jobs focuses on a boost in manufacturingBy Lori Montgomery and Brady Dennis Wednesday, August 4, 2010 President Obama and congressional Democrats -- out of options for another quick shot of stimulus spending to revive the sluggish economy -- are shifting toward a longer-term strategy that promises to tackle persistently high unemployment by engineering a renaissance in American manufacturing. That approach, heralded by Obama last week in Detroit and sketched out in a memo to House Democrats as they headed home for the August break, is still evolving and so far focuses primarily on raising taxes...

The White House is revising its Afghanistan strategy to embrace the idea of negotiating with senior members of the Taliban through third parties – a policy to which it had previously been lukewarm. Negotiating with the Taliban has long been advocated by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and the British and Pakistani governments, but resisted by Washington. The Guardian has learned that while the American government is still officially resistant to the idea of talks with Taliban leaders, behind the scenes a shift is under way and Washington is encouraging Karzai to take a lead in such negotiations. "There is...

3 MILLION CUT OFF IN TWO MONTHS During the Senate impasse, from the week ended June 5 to the week ended July 10, more than 2.1 million Americans lost their benefits. Another million will join them by July 31. In Ohio alone, where unemployment stood at 10.7 percent in May, more than 83,000 people lost their benefits in June. Sister Barbara Busch, executive director of non-profit housing group Working in Neighborhoods in Cincinnati, 65 percent of the people who come seeking help with their mortgages are unemployed or underemployed. "I fear once the benefits run out, I suspect we'll see...

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December...

Union 'card-check,' cap and trade, and so much more Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an...

The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December they don't want to defend before November. Retiring or defeated members of Congress would then be able to vote for sweeping legislation without any fear of voter retaliation.

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority.

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December...

Early in 2008, the Atlantic Council released a report over the signature of its chairman, retired U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones that began, "Make no mistake: NATO is not winning in Afghanistan." After a firestorm of protest from Brussels, the word "NATO" was changed to "the international community." Legend has it that the report was read by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and put the general in contention for his current job, which is national security adviser in the administration of President Barack Obama. If that report were released in summer 2010, it could easily read: "Make no mistake:...

Many commentators on the U.S. left have tried to minimize the significance and importance of the Cloward-Piven Strategy, made famous by writer James Simpson and TV personality Glenn Beck. According to Simpson and Beck, Columbia University sociologists, husband and wife team Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, devised a strategy in the early 1960s, to crash the U.S. economy and bring on socialist revolution by deliberately overloading state welfare rolls to the point of bankruptcy. Many on the left regard this hypotheses as gross exaggeration at best, deliberate misrepresentation at worst. [caption id="attachment_732" align="aligncenter" width="404" caption="Richard A. Cloward"][/caption] Cloward and...

Cyberspace has become an indispensible component of everyday life for all Americans.  We have all witnessed how the application and use of this technology has increased exponentially over the years. Cyberspace includes the networks in our homes, businesses, schools, and our Nation’s critical infrastructure.  It is where we exchange information, buy and sell products and services, and enable many other types of transactions across a wide range of sectors. But not all components of this technology have kept up with the pace of growth.  Privacy and security require greater emphasis moving forward; and because of this, the technology that has brought many...

Note: The following text is a quote: New National Strategy Takes ‘Whole-of-Government’ Approach By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 27, 2010 – The Obama Administration has instituted a “whole-of-government” approach within the new National Security Strategy presented to Congress today. The security strategy is the first presented by President Barack Obama, and it builds on the lessons learned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and on the research conducted for the Quadrennial Defense Review issued in February. The National Security Strategy is used to formulate the National Defense Strategy and the National Military Strategy. “Our strategy...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is breaking with the go-it-alone Bush years in a new strategy for keeping the nation safe, counting more on U.S. allies to tackle terrorism and other global problems. It's an approach that already has proved tricky in practice. The administration's National Security Strategy, a summary of which was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, also for the first time adds homegrown terrorism to the familiar menu of threats facing the nation — international terror, nuclear weapons proliferation, economic instability, global climate change and an erosion of democratic freedoms abroad. From mustering NATO forces for Afghanistan...

I read an article by Malcom Gladwell, “How David Beats Goliath: When Underdogs Break the Rules,” some months ago and have been thinking about ever since. In it, Gladwell highlights an analysis of when Davids took on Goliaths in history. The Goliaths, the ones ten-times stronger in the fight, won the encounters over 70% of the time. But in instances when the Davids broke the rules and stuck to a strategy that played to their strengths, the Davids’ win percentage rose to almost 64%. In other words, the Davids won when they chose not to play by the assumed rules...

So far, in order to appease the Russians, President Obama has pulled the missile shield for Eastern Europe, signed a START II nuclear armament reduction agreement and pledged to not use nuclear weapons, even in defense against a chemical or biological attack. In return, President Obama wants help from Russia to contain Iran's nuclear weapons ambition. Obama wants Russia to cooperate with the US and Western Europe by imposing stiff sanctions against Iran. How is that working out? Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog explains how President Obama's strategy is failing. President Obama's "reset" of relations with Russia does not...