Free Republic

(Reuters) - French troops advanced cautiously toward northern Mali on Sunday amid fears of ambush by al Qaeda-linked fighters, while its fighter jets pounded the Islamists' strongholds in the desert near Timbuktu. In the central Malian town of Diabaly, seized by Islamist fighters on Monday, the wreckage of the Islamists' charred pick-up trucks lay abandoned among the mud-brick buildings, television images showed.Residents of the town, some 350 km (220 miles) from the capital Bamako, said Islamists had fled into the bush after French airstrikes.The commanders of French and Malian forces, who set up their operations center in the nearby town...

One of the most transformative aspects of Obamacare is that it conscripts state governments for the purpose of providing subsidized health insurance to their residents. Most red states have done their best to refuse, by declining to expand their Medicaid programs, and by passing up the opportunity to set up state-based insurance exchanges, through which Obamacare’s subsidies would flow. But a handful of Republican governors are doing their part to implement Obamacare. Arizona’s Jan Brewer, in particular, is proposing to do so in a way that sheds a lot of light onto the trap that Obamacare has set for state...

<p>NASHVILLE-- Efforts to land the assembly of another Volkswagen model in Tennessee have been kicked into high gear following the German automaker's unveiling of its CrossBlue SUV prototype at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last week.</p> <p>Officials hope their chances won't be undermined by renewed efforts in the state Legislature to enact a law to guarantee employees the right to store firearms in vehicles parked at work.</p>

Five suspected members of the Islamist group which held foreign and local workers hostage at an Algerian gas plant have been arrested, reports say. The reports came a day after the Algerian authorities said all 32 hostage-takers had been killed at the In Amenas gas installation.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch is back in the hospital for the third time in recent months. Spokesman George Arzt says Koch went to the hospital around 10 p.m. Saturday with swollen ankles. He says tests on Sunday showed Koch also has some fluid in his lungs. …

For years now, Leftists and assorted "anti-racists" have been denying the existence of these Sharia patrols. These sharia law enforcement gangs have been roaming the U.K for a while now; it's only recently that they have decided to record themselves. (Thanks to Golem). Observe a gay man in the capital of ultra-tolerant progressive inclusive multicultural interfaith Britain being driven out of a "muslim" area. "Pro-Gay Equals Anti-Sharia" Pamela Geller, Yahoo, November 12, 2012 Gays in the U.S. Are Largely on the Wrong Side. It’s Time to Correct That Mashregh News, a government-controlled paper in Iran, recently claimed that Israel "spreads...

Gov. Cuomo stood with the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem on Saturday to tout the state’s tough new firearms laws — and how they can help neighborhoods plagued by gun violence. Cuomo, in an address to the National Action Network to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, suggested the gun control legislation was another step on the road to the slain civil rights leader’s vision of social justice. “We passed new gun laws, and we passed new gun laws on Martin Luther King Day,” Cuomo said. “Why? Because, it’s simple enough — innocent people have died.” “How many times as...

The UK and Australia will strengthen their long-standing relationship today with a new defence treaty to provide a framework for the many strands of co-operation between the 2 countries. The treaty, to be signed in Perth today, Friday 18 January, with the Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith, will see the 2 countries working together in areas such as cyber security, defence reform, personnel exchange, equipment, and science and technology. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and the Foreign Secretary William Hague are in Perth attending the annual Australia/UK ministerial summit. Last year the corresponding event was held in London. During their trip,...

Sen. Rand Paul said on Sunday that he will make a decision on a 2016 presidential run within two years and plans to be a force in the refashioning the Republican party regardless of whether he seeks the Oval Office. “We will continue to pursue and, you know, try to make that decision over the next two years or so,” the Kentucky Republican told WABC Radio’s Aaron Klein when asked about a potential White House bid. In the meantime, Paul said, he will “try to be part of the national debate” and added that he hopes to play a major...

The rush on firearms will continue this weekend after thousands showed up to the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show. The show opened Friday afternoon and thousands of people waited in line for nearly four hours to get in to the first gun show of the year in Indianapolis. The show is the first held just days after the president announced his plan on combating gun violence. Many gun owners fear the president’s plans, announced earlier this week, will ban certain firearms and restrict what’s legal right now. Since the announcement, folks have been hitting...

The international hacktivist group Anonymous today warned of “insurrection in America” as the government controls and twists the narrative on gun-related incidents. Known for the Guy Fawkes masks worn at protests, Anonymous has styled itself as an anti-authority crusader against government corruption and lack of transparency, and supported the Occupy protests. And now the hackers are stepping into the gun control debate, warning in a lengthy message today that “throughout history authoritarian governments have used gun violence as an excuse to take peoples firearms and control there population.” “Obama has been working hard to try and ban semi-automatic weapons and...

What amount of money will now have to be offered to non-Muslims to live and work in Muslim countries, and especially in the oil and gas facilities that are such obvious targets for Muslim terrorists? Perhaps it won't be possible to find enough foreigners willing, whatever the price, to work at such places. After all,there is great suspicion that the attack on the Algerian plant had inside help, among the Muslims working there, and it won't be possible -- or would it? -- to banish all Muslims from oil and gas plants all over the Muslim world? Wouldn't it be...

Eschewing the traditional snowman, sculptors utilized Jerusalem’s snowfall to fashion a replica M-75 rocket on the Temple Mount, causing a flurry of activity on the social media network Facebook on Thursday. **SNIP** When Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal visited the coastal enclave for the first time in December, for instance, he arrived on stage by popping out of a model of the rocket. At the time Hamas was celebrating 25 years since its founding and did so with a cake covered with frosting depicting, yes, an M-75 rocket. There is even an M-75 perfume available in Gaza that was described...

“Word on the national security street is that General James Mattis is being given the bum’s rush out of his job as commander of Central Command, and is being told to vacate his office several months earlier than planned,” reports veteran national security correspondent Thomas E. Ricks. It now appears likely that Gen. Mattis, a Marine Corps legend, will leave his post as head of America’s most important combatant command in March, several months earlier than planned. Ricks continues: Why the hurry? Pentagon insiders say that he rubbed civilian officials the wrong way — not because he went all “mad...

While Obama is officially sworn in today as President for another four years, smart strategists are keeping their eye on the 2014 ball. There are 32 senators up for reelection in 2014. Of those, 20 are Democrats and 13 are Republicans. With Senator Rockefeller's (D-W.Va) retirement in 2014, an additional senate seat is in play. Democrat resources will be spread thinner than the GOP's on account of this seven seat discrepancy; there will be a Republican advantage in the upcoming campaign season. Digging deeper, 12 of those 20 Democrat seats come from a state that is red or swing: Alaska,...

Friends, it's Sunday night again. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio programs... Listen Live Info

ALGIERS, Algeria – The death toll from the terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed to at least 81 on Sunday as Algerian forces searching the refinery for explosives found dozens more bodies, many so badly disfigured it was unclear whether they were hostages or militants, a security official said. Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the four-day siege, moving in to thwart what government officials said was a plot by the Islamist militants to blow up the complex and kill all their hostages with mines sown throughout the site.

By Mr. Curmudgeon:Back in 2011, when the town fathers of Columbus, New Mexico, announced they were disbanding their police department, giving Luna County sheriffs soul authority to protect and defend Columbus residents, they sighted cost savings as the primary reason. However, the citizens of this small New Mexico border town knew better.A federal indictment accused 12 people of forming a criminal organization that sold weapons to Mexico's notorious Juarez Cartel. Columbus Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Police Chief Angelo Vega and Blas "Woody" Gutierrez, a Columbus village trustee, were among the 12 named in the indictment, accused of aiding the Obama administration...

The number of Americans age 16 or older who decided not to work or even to seek a job increased by 8,332,000 to a record 88,839,000 in President Barack Obama’s first term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the number of retired workers collecting Social Security increased by only 4,234,480. The increase in Americans opting out of the labor force during Obama’s first term resulted in a decrease in the labor force participation rate from 65.7 percent in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated, to 63.6 percent in December 2012, the latest month...

"What really made Elmer special was not his skill with or knowledge of guns, but his commonness. Even though he was to be the most famous gun writer of all, he always had time to talk to the ordinary guy and often answered, personally, without a secretary....... In 1911, Elmer was burned terribly in a hotel fire ... with his left hand turned upside down on the back of his left wrist.... 'I told Father I had to have a left hand so I could hold a rifle and do normal things'. Father contacted every doctor in Helena to try...