Free Republic

Iran making push into Nicaragua Web Posted: 12/18/2007 10:25 PM CST Todd Bensman Express-News MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses. "This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our permission...

The Obama administration has released details of a plan to infuse another $300 million into West Bank and Gaza construction projects, spending it deems critical toward attaining the “success of a future Palestinian state.” Despite combined U.S. and international donor-community efforts, a significant portion of the public infrastructure currently under Palestinian Authority control remains in need of expansion or repair, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the USAID. Obama, through USAID, is stepping in to meet the need as a successful Palestinian state “depends upon an infrastructure system capable of providing basic services to a growing population,” the...

Egypt’s new Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday used his first speech at the United Nations to demand curbs on Western free speech rights and “an end to all forms of occupation of Arab lands.” Morsi also used his U.S. speech to push his revolutionary mix of Islamic and progressive demands .. that UN countries establish a “new global economic governance”; and that Western countries continue to transfer aid and technology to Egypt’s government and poverty-stricken population. Much of his emphasis was on the establishment of a Palestinian state. “My duty [is] to support our Palestinian brothers and sisters …...

Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist slammed for radicalizing Washington Washington is more dysfunctional than it has been in 40 years, and while Democrats have deserved their share of the blame over the years, today "the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party," write Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein in the Washington Post. What makes their column particularly interesting is that Ornstein is not liberal, but a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Together, they call the GOP an "insurgent outlier in American politics" because of the...

Campaign finance reform bites the hand that passed it. Advocacy Groups Permitted to Use Unlimited Funds . . . Ruling Favors Democrats--New York Times, lead story, February 19  FEC Moves to Regulate Groups Opposing Bush--Washington Post, same day  (1) You know, I remember reading those stories. And I remember being totally confused by them. Should I be embarrassed? No: We're talking about federal election law, here. Almost nobody understands this stuff. And besides, the coverage itself was confused. Even people who do understand federal election law couldn't make heads or tails of it. According to the Times, the Federal Election...

During the 2000 campaign, I recall Vice President Cheney saying that there is almost nothing you can do to improve the quality of a force created by your predecessors. And then after the Gulf War, he wrote a letter to former President Reagan thanking him for building the military that fought so capably. Well, I don't know, but I don't think any letters have yet arrived on the desks of anyone associated with the Clinton Administration.

Original point: The answer to this question is critical to understanding whether the Administration's foreign policy is undergoing a shift, brought on by our experience in Iraq that views our allies and the international community as partners in the War on Terror. For a failure to learn the lessons from our policy failure in Iraq will be disastrous in the War on Terror. So, this morning, I'd like to talk about the dangers of pursuing a policy of unilateralism and the need for allies in every aspect of our security. Critical to fighting this new 21st century war is a...

Moving West is no longer the norm Wed Aug 6, 6:09 AM ET By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY The exodus of millions of people from California and New York in the late 1990s may signal the end of the nation's traditional settlement patterns from East to West. A series of reports released by the Census Bureau today shows that most of the people who moved out of New York are going to suburbs in New Jersey and Connecticut or to retirement havens and fast-growing job centers in the Southeast. Most of the people leaving California are going to other...

The D.C. Chapter of Free Republic invites all FReepers and lurkers in good standing to join us Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. until at least 10 a.m. as we freep the former Vice Perpetraitor Al Gore. Here is the announcement from his host, the Brookings Institution:A Brookings Newsmaker Forum Al Gore to Deliver Economic Policy Speech at Brookings Wednesday, October 02, 2002 10a.m - 11 a.m. Falk Auditorium The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC   20036 Washington, D.C.—Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a speech on economic policy issues at the Brookings Institution five weeks before the...