Free Republic

“The US is planning retaliatory strikes in Yemen against al-Qaida over its attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day. American officials [...] warn that finding those responsible is unlikely to be swift and say that identifying other ‘high-value’ al-Qaida targets for retaliatory attack would also be a priority.” – The Guardian (U.K.), 12/30/2009 As U.S. officials are quoted mulling cruise-missile strikes on Yemen, it should be noted that the Yemeni government, such as it is, has already been fighting the hard slog – on the ground, rooting out Al Qaeda in Yemeni neighborhoods and villages. Below is...

The liberal media is finally realizing Sarah Palin is a serious candidate and a major political force. We would normally expect ridicule from the LA Times, as they were one of the main collaborators in selling America the deception ‘Obama smart - Palin dumb’ but no longer. It naturally helps when Obama continues to show America he is completely incompetent as Sarah Palin keeps surprising (and disappointing) the Left that she is very very capable.

The White House should send a search party to track down Hillary Clinton. America’s foreign policy chief has been missing from the world stage for several days, and has become as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel at the height of the French Revolution. I wrote earlier in the year that Clinton had become the invisible Secretary of State, and her current absence certainly reinforces that impression. One would have thought that with a potential revolution on the streets of Tehran, and with scenes of horrific and savage brutality against protesters by the Iranian regime, that Washington’s official voice on international...

The US State Department on Monday said there was "insufficient" evidence to revoke the visa of a Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a US-bound jetliner, even though his father had raised concerns about him. The State Department said the father of 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had gone to the US embassy in Abuja on November 19 to raise concerns about his son. The embassy relayed those concerns the following day in a diplomatic cable to the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, which coordinates intelligence among various government agencies, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. But Kelly...

Wow, for the first time in my life I agree with Hillary Clinton. On a visit to Pakistan, a little while ago, she noted that she found it hard to believe that nobody in the Pakistani government knew where all Qaeda was, or if they didn't know where they were, that they could not find them if they really wanted to. Excerpt- "Hilary Clinton chastised Pakistan yesterday for not making enough effort to seize senior al-Qaeda leaders who she said were hiding in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan. 'I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government...

Former President Bill Clinton came within minutes of being assassinated in the Philippines by terrorists controlled by Osama bin Laden, a new book has revealed. ...Marisa Porges, a former government counter-terrorism advisor and an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, said the assassination plot, if true, would suggest al Qaeda was more developed than some thought it was prior to 9/11”.

The Conscience of Kansas radio program invites to listen to the political reading of "The Night Before Christmas" by host Paul A. Ibbetson.

From General McChrystal to Hillary Clinton to Chelsea Handler, Meghan McCain names the men and women who made a difference this year—the good, the bad, and the nutty. This year has been full of people who let us down—from politics to entertainment to sports. (Is it too late for Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford, and David Letterman to rent a ski condo for the holidays?) But not everyone has been a disappointment. There are plenty of folks who made the world a lot better, more interesting, and just plain fun in 2009 Here are people who made my year. (snip) Hillary...

Do As I Say proves that Al Gore is a phony and a fraud that does not practice what he preaches, as well as uncovering blatant hypocrisy and double standards of so many other leading liberals. Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar warning us about the catastrophe we will cause if we don't reduce our carbon footprints - but he travels the world in his private jet and racks up $30,000 in energy bills every year at his Nashville mansion. Al Gore parades around the globe condemning humans for causing global warming and destroying the earth. He...

This particular planet, along with the entire universe, is God’s. He is Maker and Owner. He is the one in charge of sun, moon, stars, seasonal changes and everything else related to creation. God has His hand upon it all. His claim is tagged to every part of it.

In response to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's announcement in Copenhagen earlier today that the U.S. will join rich nations in raising $100 billion in an annual fund to help poorer nations combat climate change, Republican Whip Eric Cantor sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag asking how the government plans to fulfill that pledge. The Virginia Republican put forth a half-dozen questions about where the administration expects to get the money given the growing national debt. "Given our current deficit and the projections of future substantial deficits, where is the federal government going...

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton yesterday rode in with an 11th-hour attempt to save the sputtering Senate health-care bill, as liberal backlash threatened to torpedo President Obama's top domestic priority. Clinton spoke out with the clock set to strike on Obama's self-imposed Christmas deadline for the Senate passing a bill. The White House aggressively took to TV to push back against liberal outrage -- while struggling, without success, to get the lone Democratic Senate holdout, Nebraska's Ben Nelson, on board. Clinton -- who saw his own attempt at a health-care overhaul crash on the shoals of Congress in 1994 -- wrote...

WASHINGTON: More than 11 years after their affair rocked America, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has claimed the then US President Bill Clinton lied under oath when he described their romantic encounters during his impeachment trial, according to a new book. In an email to law professor Ken Gormley, who penned 'The Death of American Virtue', Lewinsky has made it clear she believes President Clinton had lied about their liaison during his testimony to the grand jury. "There was no leeway (there) on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he...

Nebraska Democratic holdout Sen. Ben Nelson has declared "not sufficient" the compromise abortion language offered to him, and is digging in by raising numerous other objections to the Senate health bill. His fellow home-state Senator, Republican Mike Johanns, joined a GOP press conference today railing against the legislation, reading aloud condemnations from Nebraska's governor, also a Republican, to intensify the pressure on Nelson. He appears not to need it. Former President Bill Clinton, who a few weeks ago wowed Democrats in their Senate luncheon chamber, clearly agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's argument, and disagrees with Howard Dean's. He called...

In the years since their bitter battle, both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted they’d be vindicated in the history books. Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive – and neither man can be completely happy about his portrayal in its pages. “The Death of American Virtue,” due out in February, asserts that Clinton had yet another extramarital affair, with Susan McDougal of Whitewater fame. Also in the book, Monica Lewinsky tells author Ken Gormley that she believes the president lied under oath when he described their encounters. At...

The Kardashian girls can't find ways to spend money as quickly as Team Lightbringer. Reporting from Copenhagen - Attempting to revive climate negotiations that appear dangerously close to flat-lining, the Obama administration announced today that it would join allies in raising $100 billion by 2020 to help the world's poorest countries adapt to climate change. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a press conference here that the unspecified American share of the money would come from public and private sources, would fund measures such as protecting carbon-heavy forests from logging and would be contingent upon nations reaching a...

The planet may be saved after all, and it will only cost $100 billion. Just as the Copenhagen climate summit appeared to be on the verge of unraveling, the United States Thursday announced its support of an annual $100 billion climate protection fund, the Associated Press reports. “The US is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. Included in the conditions for the US' contribution, Clinton demanded that China's emissions reductions be scrutinized...

Hillary Clinton has given US backing to proposals for a $100 billion-a-year international fund to tackle global warming in developing countries in a boost for deadlocked talks at the climate change summit in Copenhagen. The US Secretary of State said the science for climate change is now “undeniable” and the world must agree a deal in the next 48 hours. In a move that will widely be seen as a grand gesture to force developing countries to sign up to a deal, she said the US would be willing to pay into a global fund of $100 billion (£60bn) per...

After side-stepping human rights concerns in China earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton firmly outlined the current U.S. diplomatic position on international human in her statement delivered at Georgetown University on Monday, December 14th. Confronting the issue head on, she underscored the State Department's commitment to human rights with a "pragmatic stance," asserting that U.S. human rights policy toward political and economic giants like Russia and China is often best conducted behind closed doors.

Although Barack Obama has a complete failure in his first year in office, the fact is that the American people owe this Marxist illegal alien a debt of gratitude for at least one positive accomplishment. Namely, because of Barack Obama, the most divisive and hated politician in America since Richard M. Nixon has been put in her bloody place before being able to invade the White House and do further damage to this great nation. By sending the “inevitability” soldiers of Hillary Rodham Clinton into retreat, Obama has defeated the most vicious and pointed threat to America in decades. For...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Latin American countries Friday to "think twice" about fostering ties with Iran because of its alleged support for terrorism. "I think if people want to flirt with Iran, they should take a look at what the consequences might well be for them. And we hope that they will think twice and we will support them if they do," the chief US diplomat said. During a question-and-answer session at the State Department's public policy forum on Latin America, Clinton said it was a "very bad idea for the countries involved" to...

Here is one of the MANY commercials we all had to see on switching from ANALOG to DIGITAL TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LjItFkWdgI Greta's show last night was asking why the government was paying for this. Does anyone know why? Why was a political flunkie given 6 million dollars in the stimulus 1 package to produce these commercials? I have found no answers but one and that is the online youtube video that claims that the new digital boxes are big brother watching equipped with mini-cameras and a microphone. Cameras in Digital Convert Boxes! BEWARE!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4iIM8Eljc As nuts as the above sounds. As...

According to its October 2009 quarterly finance report, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign has one outstanding debt: $995,500 owed to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, LLC, which is run by Democratic pollster Mark Penn. According to The Hill today, the same firm received a $2.8 million stimulus subcontract "for media services and outreach to help prepare 'unready' households for the DTV transition" -- a contract that Republican Senators contend was "pure waste." Thanks to Mark Penn, a handful of people avoided the inconvenience of losing a few days' television service. And thanks to the stimulus, Penn is not being...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stands with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, as Barack Obama met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The latest campaign-finance reports show that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign owes about $2.5 million to the firm of Mark J. Penn, who quit as chief strategist after embarrassing the campaign and left a leadership shake-up in his wake. The debt persisted on the campaign's ledger for February, according to reports filed for the March 20 deadline, despite payments of more than $3 million to Mr. Penn's polling firm that month, according to the most recent campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Mr. Penn, who has long been a source of internal strife at the campaign, stepped...

Mark Penn, who worked as Hillary Clinton's pollster during her 2008 presidential run, reportedly received $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus package so he could preserve three jobs at his public relations firm.

A top priority of DOI Secretary Ken Salazar was to settle the 13-year old Indian Trust lawsuit. That goal was just met and announced. The settlement says the Federal Government will: o Establish a $1.4 billion fund to settle historic trust mismanagement and accounting claims. o Create a $2 billion fund that DOI will use to buy back fractionated Indian lands to ensure the problems raised by Cobell do not occur again. To provide an additional incentive for account holders to sell their interests in fractionated lands, Interior will direct up to 5 percent of the value of fractionated land...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she hasn't had a chance to look into the case of the American college student in Italy who was found guilty of murdering her British roommate.

Wedding bells for Hillary's daughter 6 Dec 2009, 0431 hrs IST, ET Bureau Days after her daughter Chelsea got engaged to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is very excited about their marriage next summer which would be a private affair. “I am officially an MOTB, a mother of the bride. I’m very excited about it,” Clinton said. “It’s, for me particularly, an extraordinary moment to see how happy my daughter is and to have such a wonderful young man who will become my son-in-law,” she said. At the same time, Clinton acknowledged that...

This week, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to our core goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and prevent their return to either country. The US is sending an additional 30,000 personnel to Afghanistan, significantly increasing our civilian aid to the Afghan people, and broadening our partnership with Pakistan. Today in Brussels, I will discuss the way forward with our allies. And I will thank those nations that have pledged additional troops. This is a crucial test for Nato. After September 11, the alliance invoked Article 5 of its charter for...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gestures and yawns while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 2, 2009. REUTERS/Larry Downing/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES POLITICS)

Chelsea Clinton is Methodist. Her new fiancé is Jewish. From Ivanka Trump to Ed Koch, Jewish Americans talk to The Daily Beast’s Samuel P. Jacobs about the question every mother-in-law wants answered. “The great thing about America is everyone wants to marry a Jewish boy.” —Harvard professor of Yiddish literature Ruth Wisse All summer long, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky were dogged by rumors of an engagement. A Martha’s Vineyard wedding was in the works—and then it wasn’t. Over Thanksgiving, the couple at last made it official. So now that the former first daughter has finally announced her plans to...

Until recently, this political epitaph might have been written for Dick Morris: An amoral, but brilliant consultant, strategist, and analyst -- the man who kept Bill Clinton in, and Hillary Clinton out, of the White House. By selling the strategy of triangulation to Bill Clinton, Morris successfully neutered the Gingrich revolution of 1994. But he also neutered the worst political impulses of Bill Clinton (Morris couldn't do anything about the sexual ones) and forced Clinton to work with the Republican congress to balance budgets and reform welfare. But Dick Morris is doing his best work now in his crusade against...

Luis Gutierrez is sounding like a human kazoo, demonstrating what he calls the "evilbuster breath." As the speaker's hands tent his nose and he exhales in a loud hum, few of the two dozen freshmen at Overfelt High in San Jose are smirking or rolling their eyes. After the students try this newest yoga technique and report vibrations in their noses, throats and brains, Gutierrez explains the breathing will help calm their nerves

Another Goldman employee marries into the power-borg The former First Daughter and her investment banker boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky became engaged before Thanksgiving, ABC News' Jake Tapper reports. Via Tapper's "Political Punch" blog: The two sent out an email the morning of Friday November 27 saying: "We're sorry for the mass email but we wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! We also wanted to share that we are engaged! We didn't get married this past summer despite the stories to the contrary, but we are looking toward next summer and hope you all will be there to celebrate with...

NEW YORK -- Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton has become engaged to her longtime boyfriend. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton, confirmed that 29-year old Chelsea and investment banker Marc Mezvinsky got engaged on Thanksgiving and announced it in an e-mail to friends.

Governor Palin's interview with Gretchen Carlson aired this morning on Fox & Friends.

Only a year after he had helped Barack Obama get elected by eviscerating his close friend, Clinton White House colleague and Yale Law School classmate, Hillary Clinton, Craig was himself eviscerated by the Obama inner circle. Writing in Politico, Elizabeth Drew called it “the shabbiest episode of his presidency,” saying that it had caused people who had helped Obama rise to question whether he would behave in as classy and non-Clintonian a fashion as they had hoped. It is especially puzzling given that Obama faces tough midterms and a less-than-certain re-election — and given that we all now know someone...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has been mailing out fundraising letters on behalf of Bill Clinton accusing the GOP of lying and "playing politics with our lives." Oh my goodness! A politician lying? or a whole political group? Is that even possible? Maybe it is. It's kind of sad and pathetic, but isn't that what we kind of know and suspect from all politicians? And even though it's a sin, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? Bill Clinton accusing someone else of being a liar? It would almost be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical. For those...

Secretary Clinton won’t be in Washington to meet Polish foreign minister Posted on November 3rd, 2009 Due to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to prolong her stay in the Middle East, her scheduled meeting in Washington with visiting Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has been cancelled. The announcement of the cancellation was made Tuesday by the State Department spokesman Ian Kelly. The cancellation of the meeting is another diplomatic setback for Poland in her relations with the Obama administration. President Obama declined the Polish government’s invitation to attend the official observances in Gdansk of the 70th anniversary of the...

According to POLITICO, Obama’s fans in the Beltway are shocked, shocked that he and his White House minions scapegoat White House General Counsel Greg Craig for Obama’s failed promise to close Guantanamo in one year. The closing of Guantanamo – as Obama’s critics have long predicted – ain’t gonna happen, because there’s no place else to put the hardcore terrorists currently housed there. When Obama announced his dubious executive order closing Guantanamo by January 2010, the Kool-Aid drinkers were ecstatic. “See?” they said, “This is why we elected him. We were so right.” No, they were so wrong. It was...

Barack Obama’s special envoys have hardly blazed a trail on the international stage have they? George Mitchell has had as much success in the Middle East as Ireland had in qualifying for the World Cup. Richard Holbrooke, the AfPak envoy, is no Akhund of Swat. In fact, he is rarely seen in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. So who is it that will enforce the will of the West on the dastardly and corrupt Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan? Why, Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, of course. The New York Times says she has struck an “unlikely rapport” with the cuddly Afghan...

The US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates has appointed a special board to investigate the mass shooting of US soldiers at Fort Hood by a US Army Major two weeks ago. But look more closely at the details. The investigation is to be led by two retired senior officials, both Bill Clinton appointees, who made pushing “affirmative action” and special status for minority groups in the US military a central part of their careers. With former Army Secretary Togo West and former Navy Chief of Operations Admiral Vernon Clark at the helm of this investigation, no one should expect any...

We knew it was true all along. Bill Clinton loves Muslims–or any other force that undermines America. This is the liberal position. The historical betrayal. One of the greatest disgraces in modern American history: Bill Clinton is honored by the thieving Muslims of Albania, whose robbery of Serbia was aided and praised by Bill Clinton. The thieving Muslim masses of Kosovo have honored Clinton for his perceived loyalty to them, by naming a boulevard after him, and now hoisting an eleven-foot statue of him in downtown Pristina, capital of the Kosovo province. The American government leaders since Clinton, have all...

(IsraelNN.com) White House officials told the New Republic magazine this week that the Obama administration has been embarrassed at least twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for revealing in public information and policies that the State Department was supposed to keep private between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S. According to the sources, Clinton was not supposed to reveal publicly the U.S. demand that Israel institute a total building freeze in Judea and Samaria, fearing that it would lead to a confrontation with Israel – which it did, after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly backed Clinton. The second...

Oleg Volk photo Related Articles * Ft. Hood: When our defenders are defenseless * Fort Hood: Austin American-Statesman promotes gun control * Gun foes exploit Fort Hood tragedy to subvert vets' rights, Sen. Burr responds * Questions about Fort Hood shooter you won't hear from 'mainstream' press * Lessons from Fort Hood shooting Reason Magazine's Jacob Sullum recently wrote a scathing criticism of the policy that rendered the victims of the Ft. Hood atrocity defensless against their cowardly attacker. Neither Smith nor the other victims of Hasan’s assault had guns because soldiers on military bases within the United States generally...

Both Allahpundit and I referenced this blast from the past at the time Barack Obama bowed to Abdullah earlier this year. It’s worth posting again, not just because Obama pulled another boneheaded protocol violation and bowed to an emperor, but in this case bowed to the same emperor with whom Bill Clinton almost committed the same protocol violation. Douglas Jehr, in a 1994 New York Times report, made it clear that had Clinton actually executed a full bow, it would have destroyed a precedent dating to the founding of the Republic:

The United States has no long-term stake in Afghanistan and its primary aim is to defeat Al-Qaeda there, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday. "We're not interested in staying in Afghanistan. We have no long-term stake there. We want that to be made very clear," she told ABC news. "We agree that our goal here is to defeat Al-Qaeda. That has been a clear goal and a mission from the president ever since he made his commitment of additional troops back in the spring." "And we understand that the Afghans themselves need help in order to defend...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she's never met the one-time Republican vice presidential hopeful and former Alaska governor and thinks it would be very interesting to sit down and talk with her. WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she would be happy to talk to Sarah Palin over coffee. In an interview for broadcast Sunday on NBC television's "Meet the Press," Clinton says she's never met the one-time Republican vice presidential hopeful and former Alaska governor and thinks it would be very interesting to sit down and talk with her. Clinton was responding to a question...

Joel Brinkley is a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University Now we can say, with no real doubt, that the Obama administration has suffered its first major foreign-policy failure, and it's hard to see a way to recover. In fact, the administration's Mideast strategy has been nothing short of a debacle, borne of inexplicable naivete. Couldn't they see that presidents going back more than two decades had asked Israeli and Arab leaders to make exactly the same "gestures" - and none of those presidents had succeeded? Certainly it is...