Free Republic

With the White House already reeling over the Solyndra collapse, a new scandal may have erupted today that could make the disappearance of $535 million in taxpayer funds look like a paperwork glitch. Eli Lake starts off his new gig at The Daily Beast with a huge bombshell — an accusation made to members of Congress from a four-star Air Force general that claimed the White House pressured him to change his testimony to boost a big donor to the Democratic Party: ... Rep. Mike Turner told Eli that this was definitely an attempt to influence Shelton, bias his testimony,...

Did Obama Overstep In Libya? Noted Lawyer David Rivkin Has Answer International law expert to host Federalist Society teleforum on Libyan debate Published on June 21, 2011 by Brent Baldwin (OfficialWire) WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) OfficialWire PR News Bureau 1 Constitutional lawyer David Rivkin Former White House lawyer, David B. Rivkin, Jr. has written extensively about the powers granted to presidents by the U.S. Constitution. Rivkin, the lawyer who successfully initiated the constitutional debate on the 2010 Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”), has achieved renown as one of the nation’s “staunchest defenders of the Constitution.” His legal opinions stem not from a...

Here it is, the night before the midterm elections and it all makes sense. As usual the comfort of deep reading of dusty old histories has brought to this feeling of comfort, of familiarity, of the love of an old pair of shoes, left and right - coup d etat and planned chaos. Obama, or should I say Barry boy, is circling the wagons and boy is the circle really small. In fact it has shrunk to a solid wall of Secret Service men and, perhaps, his wife and daughter. (Notice I am not counting the dog - Biden. That...

SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, attended a massive military parade with his youngest son and designated successor on Sunday as the ruling Communist regime celebrated the 65th founding of its Workers’ Party. The son, Kim Jong-un, wearing a dark suit despite his recent promotion to four-star general, watched the festivities and reviewed squads of goose-stepping troops with his 68-year-old father and other senior politicians and generals. The event was held in Kim Il-sung Square, named for Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, the founder of the North Korean state.

NKorea's Kim, heir apparent son at lavish parade Published October 10, 2010 | Associated Press Clapping, waving and even cracking a smile, Kim Jong Il's son and heir apparent joined his father Sunday at a massive military parade in his most public appearance since being unveiled as North Korea's next leader. Kim Jong Un, dressed in a dark blue civilian suit, sat next to his father on an observatory platform at Kim Il Sung Plaza as tanks carrying rocket-propelled grenades and long-range missiles rolled by as part of celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the reclusive state's ruling Workers' Party....

"Being an American is not a matter of blood or birth, it's a matter of faith," President Obama declared at a speech he gave on immigration. Obama also blamed "resentment" to new immigrants to poor economic conditions. "Now, we can't forget that this process of immigration and eventual inclusion has often been painful. Each new wave of immigrants has generated fear and resentment towards newcomers, particularly in times of economic upheaval," Obama said.

The radicals in Washington are giving the Marxists in Venezuela a run for their money. Senate Democrats have gathered in the Rules Committee to eliminate the filibuster. Republican.Senate.Gov reported: THEN-SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL): “What [The American People] Do Not Expect Is For One Party, Be It Republican Or Democrat, To Change The Rules In The Middle Of The Game So They Can Make All The Decisions While The Other Party Is Told To Sit Down And Keep Quiet.” “What they do not expect is for one party, be it Republican or Democrat, to change the rules in the middle of...

"I'm always worried about using the word, 'Victory' " - President Barack H. Obama We're not making that up. That's a quote from President Obama. Victory is bad when it comes to real wars. However, when it comes to his personal Health Care War, "Victory" suddenly is a good word to use?! "And of course, this victory was also made possible by the painstaking work of members of this administration."

One of the good things that resulted from this weekend’s unconstitutional Coup d’etat of the Private Sector’s Health Care Industry and one-sixth of the US Economy was that today’s Democrats can no longer hide who they really are… The extreme radicals running the government have forced the Democrats out of the tall grass and into the open where they are now required to reveal their true intentions and plans for changing America into a Socialist Utopia, an oxymoron if their ever was one.

I've updated my blog to include the e-mail from Janice Okubo confirming that they assign birth certificate numbers in the state registrar's office and the day they do that is the "Date filed by state registrar". The pertinent portion from Okubo's e-mail: In regards to the terms “date accepted” and “date filed” on a Hawaii birth certificate, the department has no records that define these terms. Historically, the terms “Date accepted by the State Registrar” and “Date filed by the State Registrar” referred to the date a record was received in a Department of Health office (on the island of...

The fire in front of IRIB was coming from a car's tyre. It's said ppl set fire on a police van #Iranelection Clashes in Qom, Esfahan, Najafabad, Kashan, Shiraz, Babol & Mashhad (as well as Tehran), reports & witnesses say #IranElection RT People are outside of the IRIB and it seems that they are getting ready to attack the building to take over the IRIB. Unconfirmed: clashes in front of Voice and Visage of Iran (broadcasting station) #IranElection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is Google's cache of http://lab.yaa.bpny.name/deadr.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Apr 10, 2009 04:35:04 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. *Update: Since this article came out today, the source of this content was also scrubbed from Google's Cache Server. Imagine that! Research was done as to the location of where this content originated. It came from Copenhagen Denmark. What you see below is a Danish-to-English translation of the text. The grammar was cleaned up in a couple spots, but nothing was changed otherwise. It should also be noted that,...

Six months after it announced its strategy for Afghanistan, the Obama administration is sending mixed signals about its objectives there and how many troops are needed to achieve them. The conflicting messages are drawing increasing ire from U.S. commanders in Afghanistan and frustrating military leaders, who are trying to figure out how to demonstrate that they're making progress in the 12-18 months that the administration has given them. Adding to the frustration, according to officials in Kabul and Washington, are White House and Pentagon directives made over the last six weeks that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military...

Because the mainstream press refuses to see anything wrong in the Obama administration, even the most outrageous actions are given astonishingly gentle treatment – if they get any treatment at all. So of course we hear almost nothing about the coup d'etat that is under way in the White House. People have been talking about a "historic realignment," but of course that is nonsense. Most Americans report mostly conservative viewpoints on most issues. That hasn't changed. What will change, apparently, is how many voters the Obama administration can produce out of thin air to swing the next election. And as...

WHO IS BARACK OBAMA? You will be shocked to learn what lies beneath the well-polished rhetoric of this slick orator. Obama speaks vaguely about “change,” but as this book reveals, Obama’s brand of change is a hostile attack on the Judeo-Christian values and freedoms most Americans hold dear.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.): Democrats made the bill available at 11 p.m. on Thursday night. At 9 a.m. Friday morning, the House begins debate on the bill. If members of Congress actually took the time to read the bill, they would have to read through the night at a rate of 626 words per minute before heading to the House floor. What are the odds of that happening? (w/video)

CONAKRY, Guinea — Coup leaders in Guinea issued a declaration on state radio Sunday saying all military generals of the former regime had been demoted, raising the spectre of instability in the country. The demotions included more than 20 military heads, including those who ran the country's army, navy and air force. The list also includes security force chiefs. .... The move comes amid questions about whether coup leader Capt. Moussa Camara is able to control the plethora of military units created under Conte's 24-year rule. Capt. Camara's group seized public airwaves and declared a coup Tuesday just hours after...

Hinman says that as long as Quebec separatists are calling the shots in Ottawa, Stelmach should do three things immediately: 1. Serve notice of Alberta's intent to withdraw from the current Federal Transfer Program. (brilliant!) 2. Initiate measures for Alberta to begin collecting its own taxes; (....again!) 3. Initiate discussions on a Regional Equalization Program involving the four Western Provinces. (three for three!)

OTTAWA–NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion have signed an historic accord to form a coalition government to replace Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives. In an extraordinary scene on Parliament Hill, Dion and Layton signed a formal deal to work together through to June, 2011. And they signed an agreement with Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe that commits the separatist party to support the coalition through to June, 2010. The opposition parties are threatening to defeat the Conservatives next week. However their plan to assume government would require the blessing of the Governor General. Under the deal, the Liberal...

Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed. "I regret it. I paid the price for it," he said. Mitchell was convicted last year and spent nearly three months in prison. He's one of the few ACORN workers convicted of voter registration fraud. Today, he lives with his wife and two boys, ages 3 and 1, in a small apartment in suburban Seattle, Washington. Mitchell said he scammed the system because, "I needed money; I had to support my family and I was new to the area. It was...

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe is now run by a "military junta", the country's opposition leader charged on Tuesday, vowing not to accept victory for Robert Mugabe in a presidential run-off later this month. There had been a "de facto coup d'etat" following the first round of the election in March, Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters, with a campaign of violence unleashed throughout the country. "This country is effectively now run by a military junta," the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said. "As a people we have been exposed to state-sponsored brutality." With the UN Security Council prepared for a special...

Is Ron Hutcheson, White House correspondent of the McClatchy Newspapers, dreaming of a coup d'etat? You'd almost think so, judging by the opening line in the litany of gloom that is his article of yesterday, entitled Another Setback for Bush. Writes Hutcheson: The Senate's rejection Thursday of President Bush's immigration plan was the latest in a series of embarrassments that have exposed Bush's political weakness and shaken his hold on power."Shaken his hold on power"? Just what does Hutcheson mean? Are we in the United States of America or a banana republic? Does Hutcheson harbor hopes of turning on CNN...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Lebanon's charismatic Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was in Washington this week seeking support from the Bush administration for the pro-democracy March 14 Movement and for the beleaguered Lebanese government led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The leader of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party who in the past tended to gravitate more towards the Soviet Union -- at least from a philosophical perspective -- thanked President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac for their help and support in getting the Syrians out of Lebanon. At the same time, Jumblatt raised a worrying...

The government has denied a Japanese report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could be ill or facing a military coup. A government official on Friday said that the Japanese report on Kim seems groundless as Seoul has detected nothing unusual in the North. The official added that there is no evidence to back the report, though he cannot confirm whether the North Korean leader is in Pyongyang now. Quoting a source in South Korea, Japan's Jiji Press reported that Kim may be under house arrest at his villa in Wonsan along the east coast.

Update 10.40pm: The Fiji Times Limited has suspended publication after the Fiji military ordered the paper not to publish any "propaganda" against the new political leadership. Armed soldiers came to the Victoria Parade officers at 7.30pm, and asked for "assistance". After a brief discussion outside, the soldiers entered the building for a discussion in the papers newsroom. When questioned, spokesperson Sergeant Talei Tora told Managing Director Tony Yianni and Editor Samisoni Kakaivalu they could not publish anything from the "deposed" Qarase Government. She said of particular concern was any material that might incite trouble. Mr Yianni and Mr Kakaivalu...

Army commander Commander Voreqe has taken over as head of state Bainimarama announced a short while ago that he was doing this to end the impasse. Dr Jona Senilagakali will be caretaker Prime Minister until an interim administration is appointed. Bainimarama said he had no intention of arresting the Prime Minister or other ministers. He said the 1997 Constitution was intact except for parts relating to the emergency powers.

Opposition Mass Protests as of 3 p.m. Friday in Downtown Beirut Hizbullah and allied forces called for mass protests as of 3 p.m. Friday in downtown Beirut in a bid to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's government amid heavy security in the capital to prevent chaos. "The opposition forces, on the basis of their constitutional rights, call on all Lebanese, whatever their religious confession, to demonstrate peacefully in an open-ended sit-in as of 3 p.m. Friday for a national unity government," said a statement released by the opposition leadership and carried by Hizbullah's Al-Manar television. The statement said the main...

Beirut - The assassination of Pierre Gemayel means that two more ministers need to resign or be killed in order to bring down the anti-Syrian government. As if one assassination were not enough bloodshed for one day, the murderers proceeded to target another anti-Syrian Member of Parliament - Michel Pharaon. Syria's allies in Lebanon are planning to take the streets on Thursday to demand the government resign. The pro-Syrian allies in Lebanon include Hezbollah, Michel Aoun's political party and Nabih Berri's Amal movement. Syria behind violent overthrow? As documented in the U.N. investigation, Syria has openly threatened Lebanese politicians...

Druze leader Walid Jumblat has warned that Lebanon was on the verge of a coup d'état as Hizbullah supporters were allegedly geared up for mass street protests on Thursday. The leading daily An Nahar said Monday that the demonstrations would most likely take place on Thursday, the day Premier Fouad Saniora's cabinet is to convene. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged his followers and pro-Syrian allies to be "psychologically" ready for mass demonstrations to topple Saniora's anti-Syrian government. Jumblat, in turn, warned that "we are on the verge of a coup … through gradual street protests and possible collective...

Druze leader Walid Jumblat has warned that Lebanon was on the verge of a coup d'état as Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged his followers to prepare for mass street protests to topple the anti-Syrian government. "We are on the verge of a coup … through gradual street protests and possible collective resignations from (public) sections and from parliament … then riots and civil disobedience," Jumblat warned in a speech published by Lebanese newspapers on Monday. His remarks came shortly before a speech by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was broadcast Sunday afternoon. Nasrallah, who did not set a...

Military coup leaders in Thailand — often called the "Land of Smiles" — apparently don't want to ruin that image. They've ordered soldiers to smile. Army radio broadcasts are reminding soldiers to be friendly and courteous, especially to children and anyone who wants to take pictures with them...

Thailand must negotiate with leaders of an ethnic Malay Muslim separatist insurgency if it wants to end bloodshed in its troubled Muslim-majority southern provinces, the country’s army chief said on Friday. General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin said the violence, which has claimed more than 1,500 lives, would not be quelled if authorities only arrested the foot-soldiers of the militancy, but refused to talk to its instigators. “It is necessary to talk to make lasting peace,” Gen Sondhi, the first Muslim to head the Thai army, told Thai journalists on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT The appeal for talks with insurgents came a day after bombs...

MEXICO CITY — A showdown looms in the streets today after a tribunal of federal judges ruled against a charismatic populist who lost a presidential election cliffhanger but inspires thousands of supporters camping in a downtown tent city that stretches for miles. With tensions already elevated by weeks of marches and blockades, Mexicans braced for what may come this morning when Andrés Manuel López Obrador is to announce how civil resistance to the election results will intensify. López Obrador rejected the tribunal's decision Saturday for a partial recount, rather than a full one, of the closest election in Mexico history....

KIEV, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - A charismatic leader of Ukraine's "orange" revolution said Monday that her party would go into radical opposition against what she sees an illegitimate coalition majority in the country's parliament. "People have not voted for such a coalition, so it has no political legitimacy," said Yulia Tymoshenko, the head of an eponymous bloc. The coalition was hammered out last week as the Socialist Party defected from an "orange" alliance with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party to join a leftist camp. The withdrawal was prompted by the surprise election of Socialist...

Military thinkers discuss the unthinkableEternal vigilance being the price of liberty, Americans—who spent decades war-gaming a Soviet invasion and have taken more recently to daydreaming about “ticking bomb” scenarios—should cast at least an occasional thought toward the only truly existential threat that American democracy might face today. We now live in a unipolar world, after all, in which conquest of the United States by an outside power is nearly inconceivable. Even the best-equipped terrorists, for their part, could dispatch at most a city or two; and armed revolution is a futile prospect, so fearsomely is our homeland secured by police...

Congratulations to Dummie steve2370! After over a year of probation, you have finally REDEEMED yourself and came up with an hilarious DUmmie thread again worthy of publication in the DUmmie FUnnies. Yes, DUmmie steve2470, you are back in the spotlight again with your incredibly ENTERTAINING cluelessness. For those of you unfamiliar with DUmmie steve2470, he is the author of two of the FUnniest threads featured in the DUmmie FUnnies. The first of the classic steve2370 threads appeared in the February 21, 2005 DUFU edition titled, Clueless about women, please help me out in which our boy couldn't figure out...

(italics/bold/< > mine) Zell Miller is my favorite Democrat. I started this long-running series here noting Miller's speeches, columns and books in March 2003. Yesterday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an important column by Senator Miller on the subject that is the current focus of my interest: "Rule can head off dirty tricks at CIA." The proposed rule is of less interest than Senator Miller's observation that the story underlying the saga of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame are the dirty tricks they have undertaken courtesy of the CIA to defeat the Bush administration. Within the journalistic trade, only Stephen Hayes...

Los Angeles mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that Mexico will play an important role in shaping his policies, reports Mexico's EL UNIVERSAL Online. "We are starting a new era. Instead of closing the borders, as stated by Schwarzenegger, we should look at our border as an opportunity," Villaraigosa said. "This is a time of great importance, not just for us to rediscover our roots, but looking to create a mutually beneficial relationship," added the city's first Latino mayor since 1872. The top L.A. Democrat lamented that the recent passage by Congress of The Real ID Act would prevent illegal aliens...

When Abraham Lincoln declared that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the earth, he could not have anticipated the times we live in. A time when politicians would allow themselves to be corrupted by money from the rich and powerful, whose desire is to stomp all over the rights of we the people. We the people, the citizenry, once the most powerful in this nation, have become the least powerful, and now the despised. Money is the name of the game, and money means power, and we the people have increasingly...

The Democratic controlled 2005 legislative session will definitely not be remembered as one that respected the will of the people. In just four short months of one-party control in Olympia, Democrats managed to amend no less than four initiatives passed by the people. Averaging one altered people's initiative a month, it's a good thing session ended when it did. Left by the wayside of the Democrats' 2005 tax-and-spend express are Initiatives134, I-402, the promises of I-728 (I-884), and the granddaddy of them all—I-601. Passed in 1992, I-134 was the people's attempt to reign in the campaign contributions of corporations and...

W ashington state legislators mustered just enough bipartisan energy Sunday to do something pretty remarkable at a time when oil prices have been steeply climbing. They passed an $8.5 billion transportation package -- the biggest in state history -- anchored by a phased-in 9.5-cent gas tax increase, also the biggest in state history. When the first phase of it, a 3-cent increase, takes effect July 1, those extra pennies won't make Washington fuel prices noticeably higher than Oregon's. The average price for unleaded regular in both states lurks just below $2.50 a gallon. But Washington's additional revenue, phased in over...

OLYMPIA--Breaking a legislative logjam on Sunday, state lawmakers approved a 9.5-cent increase in the state gasoline tax that will start with a 3-cent rise in July. Much of the 16-year, $8.5 billion spending package will be spent on "mega-projects" in the Puget Sound area, including replacement of Seattle's Alaskan Way viaduct, repairs to Interstate 405 and work on the state Highway 520 floating bridge. Gov. Christine Gregoire called lawmakers who voted for the package "courageous," braving a tough tax vote to fix some of the state's most serious hazards. It undoubtedly helped that Gregoire had threatened Sunday morning to veto...

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The state House passed an $8.5 billion transportation package today, a day after Republicans derailed it. The measure, which includes a 9.5 cent gas tax hike, passed on a 54-43 vote. It was defeated Saturday when leaders could only muster 45 votes, five shy of the bare minimum needed for passage. A revote was taken today, and applause broke out on the floor after it was approved. The package passed through the Senate earlier in the week with modest bipartisan support, but it melted down in rancor in the House on Saturday. Democratic leaders have been saying...

Since midsummer, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to solve the biggest mystery of the Iraq war: the disparity between the Bush Administration’s prewar assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and what has actually been discovered. The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went...

What if terrorists took over your government? What if they confiscated your private property, stole your income, and invited foreign forces to enter your country? What if they instituted a revolutionary regime with its roots in a repressive and brutal foreign order, and in so doing mandated economic and social policies that were tearing the most sacred institutions of your nation apart? And, worst of all, what if these terrorists had been legally elected? As a man, as a soldier, as a patriot — what would you do? Thirty-one years ago, one man faced these choices. One man, one soldier,...

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to intervene in the same-sex marriages law in Mass. Truly a sad day for America.

ZEYAD APPEARS TO HAVE ANOTHER SCOOP: A coup d'etat is taking place in Iraq a the moment. Al-Shu'la, Al-Hurria, Thawra (Sadr city), and Kadhimiya (all Shi'ite neighbourhoods in Baghdad) have been declared liberated from occupation. Looting has already started at some places downtown, a friend of mine just returned from Sadun street and he says Al-Mahdi militiamen are breaking stores and clinics open and also at Tahrir square just across the river from the Green Zone. News from other cities in the south indicate that Sadr followers (tens of thousands of them) have taken over IP stations and governorate buildings...

<p>Mutinous troops who seized a Manila shopping and apartment complex demanding the government resign ended a 19-hour standoff late Sunday and returned to barracks without a shot fired.</p> <p>President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced the crisis was over in a televised address, as experts defused explosives the mutineers had rigged up inside the financial district's Glorietta complex.</p>

It was reported on TASS and a couple of other news sources (I am reading them in Japanese), that former Chinese Premier ZHAO ZIYANG has died in Beijing. If true, he would have been 84.If you recall, he was removed from power as he sided with the students during the 1989 Tienanmen Freedom uprising. There is a famous photo of him (above) addressing the young Chinese protestors with a little bullhorn, down in Tienanmen, before Deng Xiaoping ordered the tanks in. From Tass, and others. Breaking. (9:05 am Eastern time Wednesday)

Shocked Iraqi spokesmen refused to believe the Third Division could be where coalition reports said it was, while Pentagon officials hailed it as the longest and fastest armour attack in military history Even his own officers thought Major-General Buford Blount III's plan for the battle of Baghdad was overly optimistic -- many in fact could not believe it. "We thought they were kidding when the battalion commander said we're going to drive tanks into the middle of Baghdad," marvelled Captain Jason Conroy, one of the members of Maj.-Gen. Blount's Third Infantry Division. When Saddam Hussein's capital fell to coalition forces...