Free Republic

In the wake of an unusual trading pattern after the Federal Reserve's decision to continue economic stimulus last week, Fed officials have contacted certain news organizations to discuss rules and procedures for the central bank's advance release of sensitive information, CNBC has learned. On Sept. 18, the Federal Reserve shocked the financial world with its decision not to scale back its level of support to the economy as most market participants expected. Financial markets reacted at the speed of light, pushing stocks dramatically higher in just moments. But it looks like the speed of light just wasn't fast enough for...

A US institute tracking Iran's nuclear program says recent satellite images it has analyzed show further major alterations of a military site that the UN has long tried to access to follow up suspicions that Tehran may have used it in possible attempts to develop atomic arms. The four photos from satellite company Digital Globe and GeoEye were seen by The Associated Press ahead of publication by the Institute for Science and International Security planned for Thursday. The images show what ISIS said was progressive asphalting of an area of the Parchin complex that the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency...

The U.S. visa system will now treat same-sex married couples just as it does straight couples. Announcing the change during a visit to the U.S. embassy in London on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry said the State Department was “tearing down an unjust and an unfair barrier that for too long stood in the way of same-sex families being able to travel as a family to the United States.” The announcement came in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In June, the Court ruled 5-4 to end the federal ban...

In eight months since an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi left four Americans dead, a Republican-led investigation has focused on potential missteps by the White House — and come away with nothing significant. There has been little attention given, however, to covert actions by the Central Intelligence Agency that were partially uncovered during the September 11, 2012 attack. That may be changing. CNN's Jake Tapper argued this week that we should give more scrutiny to the CIA's presence in the Libyan port city. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said the same, according to CNN: "There are questions that must...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his vision on Monday for the final status of Israeli-Palestinian relations ahead of peace talks that have resumed in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building within the land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

Barely a month ago, The Stew posted about a man who spilled beer on himself and others at a Philadelphia Phillies game after he flinched when a ball was fouled back to the screen behind home plate. The post made fun of him. Perhaps he's owed an apology. A woman sitting in the front row behind home plate at Nationals Park on Saturday night was hit in the left shoulder by a foul ball after the net failed. Jerry Hairston of the Los Angeles Dodgers was batting against Rafael Soriano.

Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims from Iraq and beyond will take up arms against Sunni al Qaeda "savages" in Syria if fellow Shi'ites or their shrines come under attack again, a powerful minister in Iraq's Shi'ite-led government said.

In a sharp escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's bloody civil war, the White House announced late Thursday that it will provide military aid to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad after confirming that his government used chemical weapons on the opposition. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told reporters on a conference call that President Barack Obama had heard pleas from Syria's rebel Supreme Military Council (SMC) for more help. "Our aim is to be responsive," Rhodes said, underlining that the new assistance would have "direct military purposes."

The Pentagon has recently completed a series of field exercises on US soil as part of which a replica of an underground nuclear facility was destroyed, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday. The tests were declared a resounding success having exceeded all expectations. The results of the experiment were relayed to friendly nations with the aim of reassuring them as to the US's ability to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities in a single strike. It was also meant to convey that the US is serious in its intentions to attack Iran should circumstances allow it.

At midnight tonight, a bevy of steep spending cuts will hit the federal government unless Congress and the White House agree to an alternative deficit-cutting proposal. Although the national media has been relentlessly focused on this deadline, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it will only affect New York City if the so-called “sequestration” continues for a significant length of time.

BEIRUT (AP) — Combat raged near a historic mosque in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday while anti-government activists reported fresh clashes near a police academy west of the city. The fighting near the Umayyad Mosque in the walled Old City of Aleppo threatened to further damage the 12th century structure, part of which was burned during clashes last year.

BEIRUT (AP) — At least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into the northern province of Aleppo last week, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The international rights group said the strikes hit residential areas and called them an "escalation of unlawful attacks against Syria's civilian population." The statement from the New York-based group followed a visit to the area by a HRW researcher.

The alleged father of Iran's nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, is believed to have been present in North Korea last week in order to observe its third nuclear test, Britain's The Sunday Times reported citing Western intelligence sources. According to the sources, Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi was responsible for the development of a warhead "small enough to fit on to one of the ballistic missiles developed by Iran from North Korean prototypes," the report stated.

BEIRUT - Syria's ambassador to Lebanon said on Thursday that Damascus had the option of a "surprise decision" to respond to what it said was an Israeli air strike on a research center on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on Wednesday. Syria could take "a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes," Ali Abdul Karim Ali was quoted as telling a Hezbollah-run news website.

A secret State Department cable has concluded that the Syrian military likely used chemical weapons against its own people in a deadly attack last month, The Cable has learned. United States diplomats in Turkey conducted a previously undisclosed, intensive investigation into claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, and made what an Obama administration official who reviewed the cable called a "compelling case" that Assad's military forces had used a deadly form of poison gas.

One of our cats (LT - short for Little Thing) got out the other night while taking out the dogs. She is a very special cat and we have spent a lot of time trying to find her. Please pray for her safe return. If those on the kitty ping list have any suggestions that may lead her back home, I would appreciate it. We leave the garage door slightly up at night with food hoping she'll find her way. Picture below.

The White House on Saturday flatly denied that President Barack Obama withheld requests for help from the besieged American compound in Benghazi, Libya, as it came under on attack by suspected terrorists on September 11th. "Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News by email.

The IDF has refused to officially comment on reports that Palestinian terrorists fired a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile at an IAF helicopter over Gaza last week. According to the report, which appeared in Yediot Aharonot on Tuesday, the missile – identified as the low-altitude Strela SA-7 – missed its target. It was the first known attempt to bring down an IAF craft using advanced missiles in Gaza.