Free Republic

Rorate Caeli has provided an English translation of excerpts from yet another interview of Pope Francis conducted by Eugenio Scalfari, the atheist publisher of the Italian daily, La Repubblica... ...Do the math, my friends; it all adds up to one thing… The atheist Eugenio Scalfari has never been anything other than a close collaborator to Pope Francis, and a loyal servant to his cause. As such, we do well to take this latest interview for what it truly is; a sure sign of things to come: A papal decree that makes of the so-called “internal forum” a license for inviting...

Six Texas Republican representatives joined with the eleven Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation to vote in favor of the bill to raise the debt ceiling. Nineteen Texas Republicans voted nay in attempting to block the measure. On a national level, 79 Republicans joined with all 187 Democrat members of the House to pass the measure back to the Senate. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX)64% voted in favor of the bill with the Democrats, according to GovTrack.us. He announced this week that he seeks to replace Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)58% as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ryan is...

Just days before Pope Francis lands in America for a three-city tour, a Vatican official stressed the Holy See approves of Obama’s highly controversial Iran nuclear deal, believing it will bring peace to the world.Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who serves as the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, addressed the 59th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Monday, and explained that the Vatican wholeheartedly supports America’s nuclear deal with Iran.“We hope that the full implementation of [the nuclear deal] will ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program under the [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] and will...

There are 28 Jewish members of Congress: 26 Democrats, one independent who caucuses with the Democrats and one Republican. Nine of them are senators and 19 are representatives. Eighteen — a majority — back the Iran deal, nine oppose it and one is undecided. Backing the deal Senate Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., elected 2010. Ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., elected 1992, retiring next year. Democratic chief deputy whip, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., elected 1992. Ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.,...

President Obama has earned enough Democratic votes in the Senate to filibuster a Senate effort to block the Iran nuclear deal, if necessary. On Monday, Sens Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) , Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) , and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced their support for the deal, tallying enough votes to successfully filibuster the deal. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced his opposition to the deal in a surprise defection from Obama, citing Iran’s support of terrorism and the death of American soldiers. “This regime has shown no signs that its deplorable behavior will change, and this deal does nothing to...

MORGANTON, North Carolina — Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s worst nightmare is on the rise here in rural North Carolina. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is gaining steam as a clearly coordinated, highly orchestrated effort to remove Boehner as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives—and fix a broken Congress that no longer represents the wishes of the American people—comes into much clearer focus. Meadows invited Breitbart News to accompany him on a district visit, and the concerns he discussed with his constituents offer a microcosm of the issues America wants Congress to address. Everyone here agrees: John Boehner needs to...

I heard on Bill Bennett this morning that we still have the medical device tax thanks to Democrat/Obama/MitchMcConnell Care. I thought that part of the beast had been ripped out, but apparently it was tabled like so many other conservative efforts thanks to McConnell not using Harry Reid's "nuclear option" to get the bill to the floor for a vote. Bills only takes 51 to pass the senate, but Reid's buddy Mitch won't let them come to the floor for a vote. What good is he for us?

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) haven’t spoken to each other in two weeks despite the shutdown fight gripping the Capitol, House Republicans said Wednesday.During a closed-door House GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning, Boehner told Republicans that he hadn’t spoken to McConnell recently despite the looming Feb. 28 deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).“He said he hadn’t spoken to Mitch McConnell in a few weeks. We gave them a good bill. It funds the stuff we’re supposed to do, secure the borders,” Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said after a morning conference meeting.Another...

During Stalin's reign, he used a particularly horrific manner of social engineering. It was ethnic cleansing.

Among the many 'Palestinians' executed by Hamas as 'collaborators' at the beginning of this week was Ayman Taha, Hamas' former spokesman. Meanwhile, Palestinian newspaper al-Quds reported that Hamas has executed its former spokesman Ayman Taha, who was arrested on suspicion of spying for an Arab country and financial corruption. According to the report, a firing squad executed Taha in Gaza on Monday. What nice people.... Maybe we should give them a state.... Oh wait, we did that already....

New details have emerged about the booby-trapped clinic explosion that killed three IDF Maglan unit soldiers in Gaza earlier this week - Sergeant First Class Matan Gottlieb, 21, from Rishon LeZion; Sergeant First Class Omar Chai, 21, from Savion; and Sergeant First Class Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv, hy"d. Over eighty kilograms of explosives were built into the UN-funded hospital's walls themselves, it was cleared for publication Thursday - revealing that the clinic itself was built to mask, and perform, potential acts of terror on the IDF. Moreover, the clinic was built over tens of terror tunnels, according to...

In Alaska we had a group of politicos who chuckled as they dubbed themselves the “CBC,” which stands for “Corrupt Bastards Club.” But it was no laughing matter. I, and many others, took them on. We won. When I served as chairman of our state’s Oil and Gas Commission, I reported on the cronyism of the chair of my own Party, who had been appointed by our governor to that same energy regulating commission. (Click here to see a reporter’s reaction to a short Newt Gingrich interview on the matter.) The whistle blowing resulted in him receiving the largest ethics...

When author Dinesh D'Souza diagnosed Barack Obama with anti-colonialism, he did so on the basis of Mr. Obama's seemingly inexplicable chip-on-the-shoulder attitude toward the country he himself leads, and his eager attempts to move America down the economic and political ladder toward international mediocrity. Where others were accusing Obama of being clueless or socialist, D'Souza concluded -- based on Obama's infatuation with his Kenyan roots -- that he was fundamentally an anti-colonialist. One thing is clear; Mr. Obama denies American Exceptionalism. In fact, he aggressively resists it, preferring the United States to be "one among many." While there are certainly...

Anwar al-Aulaqi and 9/11 Hijackers (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received documents on March 4, 2013 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that raise new questions about close ties between Anwar al Aulaqi, the U.S.-born terrorist assassinated by a U.S. drone in Yemen on September 30, 2011, and Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar, two of the five hijackers who attacked the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. In the documents the FBI describes al Aulaqi as “The Spiritual Leader of the Hijackers.” Judicial Watch received the documents in response to a June, 2012, Freedom...

Belief in radical Islamic ideology could be grounds to deport immigrants, even after they've naturalized, a provocative report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) says. The report, National Security Threats Should Be Denaturalized, comes from "a retired government employee with many years of experience in immigration administration, law enforcement, and national security matters" who writes under a pseudonym. People already can be blocked from naturalization for affiliating with totalitarian groups, or engaging in or advocating violence to overthrow the U.S. government. The report argues that the totalitarian prohibition can apply to adherents of radical Islam. "Why totalitarianism? Because under...

Oil-rich gulf state Qatar has a vested interest in the outcome of the north Mali crisis, according to various reports that have been picked up by French MPs, amid suspicion that Doha may be siding with the rebels to extend its regional influence. Since Islamist groups exploited a military coup in the Malian capital of Bamako in early 2012 to take control of the entire north of the country, accusations of Qatari involvement in a crisis that has seen France deploy troops have been growing. Last week two French politicians explicitly accused Qatar of giving material support to separatists and...

This Cannot be Discussed” My apologies for only getting to it now, but this one was at least as good as “I will transmit this information to Vladimir.” In fact, it’s better, since it comes from a representative of the “Land of the Free,” which in the past two decades has been trying to out-Sovietize the old Soviet Union. In case I thought there was only one meaning to my statement that you just can’t talk about Kosovo, on Halloween Hillary made it official in more ways than one: Kosovo is my personal matter, Clinton says (Oct. 31, 2012) U.S....

One of a series of lavish attempts to throw sand in the eyes of the West Even before the “Arab spring” revolts — indeed, ever since the 9/11 attacks on American soil by mostly Saudi terrorists — the Saudi royal family has assiduously waged a public-relations campaign to improve its image by sponsoring major cultural initiatives in the West. In 2012 alone, these included the opening of the King Abdullah interfaith-dialogue center in Vienna, an Islamic-art wing at the Louvre in Paris, and “Roads of Arabia,” an archaeological exhibition now on display in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution. All...

Before we heard that Al Gore's Current TV had rejected Glenn Beck's The Blaze TV as a buyer for, as Beck put it, "legacy" reasons and selected Al Jazeera as its white knight instead, Fjordman passed along this December 25 Deutche Welle interview with Aktham Suliman, Al Jazeera's former Berlin correspondent. Suliman argues that Al Jazeera's coverage is a policy instrument of its owners the Qataris, who, as he puts it, "tend toward the Muslim Brotherhood." Saudi-investor-funded Al Arabiya TV, on the other hand, is more Salafist. Big difference? Hah -- not when it comes to extending sharia. "Generally speaking,...

Esther Duflo is one of those people who are taken seriously by the sort of people who eat up TED talks with a silver spoon. Her big number is how to help people in the Third World up from poverty, which is a surprisingly profitable branch of economics when you consider the sheer number of NGOs and billionaires interested in getting into the aid business. But there’s one particular billionaire at Duflo’s back. Abdul Latif Jameel. Esther Duflo is one of the co-founders of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, more commonly known as J-PAL for the father of Abdul...