Free Republic

In the wake of a March 16 referendum in which Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation, Ukrainian leaders refused to cede any part of the peninsula, calling on their troops to prepare for war. “Crimea was, is, and will be our territory,” said Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh in a statement delivered at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on March 17. Former heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitali Klitschko announced that Ukrainian troops would remain at their bases, even after March 21, the end of a peace treaty signed by the interior ministries...

If you’re interested in the Convention of States Project and enjoy a good, old-fashioned debate, you’re in for a treat. Convention of States Project director Michael Farris will join Oklahoma State Senator Rob Standridge on March 19 and 20 to debate leaders of the Oklahoma John Birch Society on the efficacy of calling a Convention of States to stop the abuses of Washington, D.C. Questions have been swirling around the Convention of States issue, and Michael and Rob look forward to answering many of them. A Convention of States is our best chance to stop the overreach of the federal...

Time: March 17, 2014 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm Location: Calvary Christian Center Street: 2620 Colusa Highway (Highway 20) City/Town: Yuba City, CA 95993 Phone: (530) 755-4409 Event Type: meeting

I told you so. Thirty years ago Obama, my Columbia University Class of ’83 classmate, was rarely seen. Thirty years later he can’t be bothered to attend national security meetings about a crisis that could lead to World War III. Some things never change. You might ask, “What do Obama’s college days have to do with his Presidency today?” The answer is everything. By college, a person’s personality, attitude and behavior is usually fairly well set. That’s why Obama’s Columbia days tells us so much about his behavior as President today. What do I know about Obama at Columbia? Nothing....

A ballot measure in Montana that would require an equal number of men and women to serve in the state Legislature is a step closer to getting on the November ballot.

There are plenty of un-American activities going on inside the state of Illinois, at the local, state, and federal levels. Those activities involve politically active Muslim Brotherhood front groups and compromised politicians. Unfortunately, though there is an answer for dealing with both, itÂ’s nowhere in sight. Less than one month before the Benghazi attacks, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn celebrated the end of Ramadan with 15,000 Muslims at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL. The imam who presided over the ceremony was none other than Jamal Said, WalidÂ’s mentor and trainer, prior to WalidÂ’s conversion to Christianity. Walid can provide a firsthand...

Former Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs appeared on the “Meet the Press” roundtable Sunday and laid bare truths about Washington, and his former boss’s spokesman. As the show’s featured guest, White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer painted a ludicrously optimistic portrait of the 2014 midterm elections for Democrats, stating emphatically, “I believe we will keep the Senate.” Later in the show, Gibbs admitted the Democrats could “absolutely” lose the Senate. He added: “If [Obama] doesn’t get more involved in raising money and making this a choice, as Dan Pfeiffer said, you lose the Senate. And, if you lose the...

MOSCOW, March 17, /ITAR-TASS/. President Vladimir Putin on Monday, March 17, signed a degree recognising the Republic of Crimea as a sovereign and independent state. “1. Considering the will of the peoples of Crimea expressed at the all-Crimea referendum on March 16, 2014, I hereby decree that the Republic of Crimea, where the City Of Sevastopol has a special status, be recognised as a sovereign and independent state,” the decree said. The decree entered into force upon signature, the presidential press service said.

Pressed by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl to comment on a threat made last night on state TV that Russia is still “the only country in the world capable of turning the U.S.A. into radioactive dust,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissively said, “people say crazy things on TV all the time.” See below for the full exchange: JON KARL: And let me ask you just something on — that was on Russian television, state-controlled television, the main state-controlled channel. Dmitry Kiselev, prominent Russian television anchor, posed in front of a mushroom cloud and warned that Russia’s the only country...

Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader serving a life prison term for sexually assaulting two young girls at his sect's ranch in Texas, has been taken to a prison hospital, prison officials said on Monday. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Jeffs was transferred to the hospital in Galveston on March 11 and was in stable condition. The spokesman, Robert Hurst, said Jeffs was admitted with "a non life-threatening medical condition." Jeffs, 58, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway sect from the The Church of Jesus Christ...

Connecticut gun rights activists are using yesterday’s report of a home invasion by an on-line southwest Florida news service to bolster their opposition to the Constitution State’s new gun control law, and today Reason.com is reporting that one police agency is conducting an internal investigation of an officer who said he would like to “bang down your door and come after your gun.” This conflict is taking on all the earmarks of an approaching reckoning. The National Rifle Association last week discussed at length the confusion created around the new gun control law. It doesn't help when some folks apparently...

Confirmation that governments are squandering money on ill-advised programs fueled by the easy-money policies of central banks worldwide became all-too-evident earlier this week when a European business leader responded to a question I posed at a press briefing here in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday froze the U.S. assets of seven Russian officials, including top advisers to President Vladimir Putin, for their support of Crimea's vote to secede from Ukraine. The sanctions are the most comprehensive since the end of the Cold War. Obama said he was moving to "increase the cost" to Russia, and he warned that more people could face financial punishment.

As the White House scrambles to get people signed up for health insurance before the March 31 deadline, many uninsured Americans say they are still planning to take their chances and remain without coverage. A new study by Bankrate.com shows that about one third of uninsured Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the penalty. The survey results suggest that the administration’s outreach to uninsured people may be falling short, with more than half of people without insurance unaware of the March 31 deadline—and even more unaware of subsidies that could make their policies more affordable....

CAIRO — U.S. Navy SEALs seized control of an oil tanker that had illegally taken on a cargo of crude oil peddled by rebels in Libya who had earlier captured key oil ports, the U.S. military announced early Monday. The seaborne raid, staged off of the Cypriot coast, came at the behest of the governments of Libya and Cyprus, the Pentagon said in a statement. “No one was hurt tonight when U.S. forces … boarded and took control of the commercial tanker Morning Glory,” the statement said. The SEAL team, backed by helicopters, launched its operation late Sunday local time...

JFK won Macomb County, Michigan in 1964 by 75 percent. In 1980, Reagan won it by 66 percent. This heart of ‘Reagan Democrat’ country was closely split by Gore and Bush and Bush and Kerry… until Obama won it 53 to 45 in 2008 and by 51 to 47 in 2012. The Republican Party doesn’t need to worry about the Latino vote nearly as much as it should be worrying about its inability to connect with white working class Americans. The pro-amnesty GOP establishment’s electoral vision of a party of corporations and minority voters already exists.It’s called the Democratic Party.The...

WASHINGTON -- Listlessness is bad politics. Defensiveness is poor strategy. And resignation is never inspiring.You can feel elements of all three descending around President Obama as he fends off attack after attack from his conservative foes who vary the subject depending on the day, the circumstance and the opportunity.Obama and his party are in danger of allowing the Republicans to set the terms of the 2014 elections, just as they did four years ago. The fog of nasty and depressing advertising threatens to reduce the electorate to a hard core of older, conservative voters eager to hand the president a...

When it comes to federal government spending, we are almost back to normal.  According to the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government spent 20.8% of GDP in fiscal 2013.  That is not a rosy-scenario, computer-generated prediction, but an actual count of dollars already spent.That is the lowest level since President Obama was inaugurated, and down from the peak of 24.4% in 2009 – a drop of over $600 billion in today’s dollars.  It is almost back to the pre-Obama level of 20.2% of GDP in 2008.  And it matches the 24-year average from 1975 through 1998. It is...

The senior Army officer prosecuted in the military’s most closely watched sexual assault case, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, has agreed to plead guilty to sharply reduced charges, including that he disobeyed a commander’s order, misused his government charge card and mistreated his former mistress, a captain. In exchange for those pleas, prosecutors will dismiss far more serious charges against General Sinclair, including that he twice forced the captain into oral sex and threatened to kill her and her family. General Sinclair is expected to enter the pleas, outlined in a document endorsed by both sides and distributed by the...

Two U.S. Air Force commanders in the 422nd Air Base Group at RAF Croughton have been relieved over a loss of confidence in their abilities. Col. Charles Hamilton, who commanded the base group since 2011, and Lt. Col. Matthew Olson, who commanded the 422nd Communications Squadron since July, were relieved of command on Thursday by the 501st Combat Support Wing commander after an investigation, officials said. “It was loss of confidence in the commanders’ abilities to lead their units in the best interest of the Air Force,” spokesman Capt. Brian Maguire said in an e-mail. “This action was more about...