Free Republic

Joe Biden delivered a commencement address at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut on Wednesday. After blasting the cadets for not clapping like seals, Joe Biden cited mass murderer Mao Tse Tung to inspire the young men. Mao Tse Tung, a Communist dictator, murdered up to 70 to 80 million Chinese last century, according to most accounts. Biden bragged about promoting women to leadership roles in the US military when he dropped his favorite quote from Mao ‘women hold up half the sky.’

President Obama in a speech on Wednesday cast climate change as a growing national security threat, accusing Republican skeptics of harming military readiness by denying its effects. Obama argued in his address to graduates at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy that rising sea levels and higher global temperatures endanger military bases and could force personnel to respond to conflicts around the world that are fueled by their effects. “Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security, and, make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” Obama told new...

Buried in the annual Coast Guard authorization act passed this week by Congress is wording that would strike from the U.S. Code the statement that all appointments to the Coast Guard Academy "shall be made without regard to the sex, race, color or religious beliefs of an applicant." Under current federal law the academy is "race neutral," but the change would put it on the same footing as other colleges and universities in balancing its enrollment by admitting students from specific groups. The other military service academies admit students by congressional nomination, while the Coast Guard Academy has traditionally admitted...

Eight years after the U.S. Coast Guard and the NAACP signed a voluntary agreement to work together to boost the number of African-Americans at its 1,000-cadet service academy, the annual enrollment and graduation figures for blacks remain in single digits. ... Under a House bill, sponsored by Oberstar and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the Coast Guard subcommittee chairman, members of Congress would nominate candidates for the academy. ... On a 385-11 vote last month, the House advanced the legislation to the Senate. The Coast Guard Academy historically has taken pride in viewing itself merit-based and choosing its applicants without regard...