Free Republic

In a departure from typical political discussions along party lines, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute Inaugural Symposium kicked off the center’s first semester with a bipartisan look forward into political change... Veteran political journalist Cokie Roberts delved into the politics of partisan government while moderating a panel of political experts including Charlie Crist, former governor of Florida; Tom Daschle, former senator and senate majority leader; Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania; Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico; and McCain.

Addressing pilgrims on November 5, 2011, just over two weeks after President Obama announced U.S. troops would withdrawal from Iraq, Iran's Supreme Leader cited American "failures" in Iraq and Afghanistan as proof that, "Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went further, declaring the American retreat was not enough. "So long as the American empire based in the White House has not been overthrown, we have work to do," he thundered. In the weeks since, the Islamic Republic has ratcheted up both its rhetoric and its defiance. Whereas Iranian authorities...

Reuters reports that Egypt’s prime minister, Hisham Kandil, has magnanimously said the U.S. government should not be blamed for the film about Mohammed that is the latest pretext for Islamic supremacist savagery. And is Egypt’s government sorry about the attack on our embassy? No. Kandil says the attack was “regrettable” — but not because rioting over a film is barbaric. Rather, it is “regrettable” because “the people who produced this low film have no relation to the (U.S.) government.” So rioting against the filmmakers is fine, and if there were any nexus to the government, rioting at our embassy would...

A Pakistani protester shout slogans at an anti-American rally to condemn the U.S. for accusing the country's most powerful intelligence agency of supporting extremist attacks against American targets in Afghanistan, in Multan, Pakistan, Friday, Sept 23, 2011. The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, accused the Haqqani network Thursday of staging an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He claimed the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, helped the group carry out the two attacks. KABUL, Afghanistan -- Pakistani military units fired shots at American and Afghan government troops along the Afghanistan border several times over the past...

One of the few bright spots in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul was a political one: The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts argues that Obamacare is constitutional under the taxing powers of Congress. The Obama administration’s advocate before the Court, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, made this case during oral arguments, and Roberts bought it. The decision, in a sense, formalized what many conservatives had long argued: The Obamacare tax is a tax. [....] Fehrnstrom explained: “The governor disagreed with the ruling of the Court. He agreed with the dissent written by Justice...

But she again stressed the corrosive effect of the mounting U.S. debt, which she said threatened the United States' ability to chart its own course in the world and sends "a message of weakness internationally." "It poses a national security threat in two ways: it undermines our capacity to act in our own interest, and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable," Clinton said in response to a question after her address to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. The U.S. budget deficit is projected to hit $1.5 trillion this year and has become a campaign issue...

It’s clear that the White House team is thinking very big when it comes to President Obama’s Thursday visit to Ground Zero, his first since taking office. Obama invited former President George W. Bush and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to hear him speak at the former site of the World Trade Center. Bush declined, and Giuliani’s status is unclear, but those are the kinds of guests one would invite for a major political event. Bush has a strong defense for declining. He has kept a low profile since leaving office and largely limited his public events to...

How many minutes before the Debt Limit Increase does Speaker Boehner sell out the Tea Party?

Look, I’m a sensitive New Age guy — I cook, I do laundry, I choke up at movies (well, Gladiator, anyway). But does anyone think our enemies abroad are as enlightened as we are about feminism?... the specific lesson they’re learning is that nukes are the best insurance against invasion — but a broader one is that our commander-in-chief is an effete vacillator who is pushed around by his female subordinates. Prof. Althouse notes, “A feminist milestone: Our male President has been pulled into war by 3 women,”... One of the reasons Khrushchev gambled on missiles in Cuba is that...

My grandson, at two, recognizes the Eiffel Tower. Our daughter called us to report his new words and to say: "We know where he got this from." I confess. I taught the lad. The Eiffel Tower has a strange appeal to me. That's not surprising. When it was erected in 1889, it was denounced by French critics as American. No worse epithet could be hurled by the French elites. I will never forget my first view from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was a bitter cold night in November, just 44 days shy of the Millennium. Looking out...

After the 2010 elections, it’s not exactly news that Obama has lost America. But in a less public referendum, he also lost the world. Obama’s cocktail party tour of the world’s capitals may look impressive on a map, but is irrelevant on a policy level. In less than two years, the White House has gone from being the center of world leadership to being irrelevant, from protecting world freedom to serving as a global party planning committee. Even the Bush Administration’s harshest critics could never have credibly claimed that George W. Bush was irrelevant. He might have been hated, pilloried...

The victory of Egypt’s ruling party ... by a fantastic 95% majority, takes the Middle East years back. In the wake of the departure of the man perceived to be a menacing sheriff – President George W. Bush, who demanded democracy in our region – and in the face of a weak president like Barack Obama, leaders in our neighborhood are no longer scared of the United States or the West. The brutality is back, and along with it the arrests, abuse of the opposition, and the secret police. ... the implication is that the old regimes and their imaginary...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama pressed the US Senate in an interview broadcast Friday to approve a landmark nuclear arms control pact with Russia before wrapping up for the year-end holidays. And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs predicted the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) would easily win ratification, as a pair of swing-vote Republican lawmakers announced they would back the accord. "The START treaty is something that I absolutely think has to get done before Congress leaves for Christmas vacation," the president told National Public Radio in an exchange recorded Thursday. "It needs to get done." "We're going to...

Obama delivers only hot air By Donald Kirk SEOUL – Theodore Roosevelt, a great American president with a clearly imperialist agenda, uttered one of the most famous lines in US history in 1901 when he advised a crowd, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". These days, US President Barack Obama seems to have gotten that aphorism reversed. He speaks a lot but doesn't seem to be carrying a big stick. That was the impression he gave after winding up his 11-day Asian odyssey in Japan at a tepid weekend gathering of Pacific rim leaders banded together in the Asia...

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah will likely become the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee early next year. From that perch, he’ll oversee the GOP’s tax-writing policy in the upper chamber. Before then, however, Hatch is keeping busy: In coming weeks, he will be one of the leading figures in the battle over extending Bush-era tax rates, which are set to expire at the end of the year. As he looks ahead, Hatch predicts that there could be a “reasonable compromise” with Democrats and the White House. He urges the president to “come in good faith” to the negotiating...

PARIS — The United States used to call wayward members of NATO back to the reservation with a whistle or a shout. It decided what was deviation from doctrine, and that decision was pretty much law. When the Obama administration stamped its foot this time, no one snapped to attention. Rather, Germany and France, meeting with Russia in Deauville, northern France, last week, signaled that they planned to make such three-cornered get-togethers on international foreign policy and security matters routine, and even extend them to inviting other “partners” — pointing, according to diplomats from two countries, to Turkey becoming a...

24 hours in Afghanistan: 8 U.S. Troops Killed Taliban militants ratcheting up suicide attacks and bombingsVideo KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Eight American troops were killed in a series of attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday as Taliban militants pushed back against an effort to secure the volatile region. A suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the gate of the headquarters of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police late Tuesday in Kandahar, a NATO statement said. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Three U.S. troops, an Afghan policeman and five civilians died in the...

TOKYO — Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday in the high seas between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island in the southernmost prefecture, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday. The defense chief said the Chinese submarines and destroyers were navigating southeastward, adding that Tokyo has never before confirmed such a large number of Chinese vessels near Japan. The Joint Staff Office of the Self-Defense Forces later said that Chinese submarines were seen on the sea surface near Japan for the first time and that Beijing had not notified...

The Obama administration is locking up the country's nuclear weapons for all but the most "extreme circumstances," pledging in a new policy not to develop new nuclear weapons and to limit the use of the ones in storage -- even for self defense. The new strategy stops short of declaring the United States will never be the first to launch a nuclear attack. But officials said the goal is to move toward a policy where the "sole purpose" of nuclear weapons is to deter or respond to a nuclear attack. And Obama, in an interview with The New York Times,...

American nationals face worldwide threat from terrorists: US PTI, 13 February 2010, 01:09pm ISTText Size:|Topics:US Americans WASHINGTON: US on Saturday issued a worldwide travel alert to its citizens, warning them against threats from terrorists mainly al-Qaeda who may carry out attacks by employing suicide operations, kidnappings and bombings. Cautioning them to be alert, the state department said there had been several incidents in this regard in the recent past. It also said that demonstrations and riotings can occur with little or no warning. "US citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to...