Free Republic

It already happened once. What makes us think it will not again? On April 29, 1992, the United States experienced a mini civil war in which more than sixty people were killed in armed conflict, and 2,300 were wounded. Live television recorded the event, clips of which are available on YouTube. Other, even more dramatic scenes depicted full-fledged gun battles on the streets of Los Angeles, California. The location was an urban section known as Korea Town. Rioting and looting were sparked when a young black man was arrested for the violent robbery of a Korean-American business. Over a period...

Less than 24 hours after a GOP lawmaker filed an amendment to gun legislation that could potentially allow open carrying of firearms in Florida it has been withdrawn, disappointing Second Amendment advocates. That leaves the gun legislation, a permitless carry bill, to proceed to a vote before the full Florida House of Representatives later this week. That bill, HB 543, would repeal the requirement that Floridians who carry a concealed weapon must get a license through the state. It would also mean Floridians would not have to take a gun safety and training course. Luis Valdes, the state director of...

The Russian military is furious that Putin has downsized the invasion of Ukraine and called for a new escalation of the conflict. As the Kremlin's war effort stumbles against a dogged Ukrainian resistance, leading figures in the Red Army have reportedly begged Putin to take the country for good. Military and pro-war Telegram channels are now flooded with calls to commit greater resources to Ukraine and 'fight NATO', according to Russian news agency Agenta. Special forces veteran Alexander Arutyunov pleaded with Putin to upscale the invasion in a viral post, asking: 'Vladimir Vladimirovich, are we fighting a war or masturbating?'...

??? Biden: ‘CoVID has Taken This Year, More than 100 Years, Look… The Lives, When You Think About it!’ https://twitter.com/i/status/1300492468270632966

Voter turnout for Tuesday’s midterm elections may be affected as a potent storm unleashes rain, strong winds and potentially violent thunderstorms from the midwestern to southern United States. According to research, weather influences some voters' response when making a decision to head to the polls. "Weather was found to be, on average, nearly 20 percent of the change in voter turnout based on our analysis," according to AccuWeather Data Scientist and Meteorologist Tim Loftus. "Democrats are more weather sensitive, when compared to Republicans, and among the most weather-sensitive were African-Americans, those 65 and older and 18- to 24-year-olds," he said....

Iran will decide the level of uranium enrichment in its nuclear programme based on its energy and other civilian needs, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in remarks reported Saturday. His remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend, which states that the enrichment level must be mutually defined and agreed upon by both sides in further negotiations. "Iran will decide the level of enrichment according to its needs for different purposes," Zarif said late Friday night, according to the official IRNA news agency. "Only details of the enrichment activities are...

"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked," Secretary of State Dean Rusk famously said during the Cuban missile crisis. Barack Obama has been doing a lot of blinking lately. On Syria especially. "There would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movements on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons," he said back in August 2012. Chemical weapons were a "red line." Presumably the president hoped that his statement would deter Bashar Assad's embattled regime from using chemical weapons. And presumably he hoped that his demand in 2011 for Assad to relinquish...

The welcoming remarks of an unidentified member of the senior GOP House leadership to the assembled Republican conference gathering for a "retreat" in Williamsburg have leaked: Welcome to Williamsburg, Members of the House Republican Conference. We hope you enjoy your retreat. Perhaps we should begin with that age old tradition: Look to your left. Now look to your right. Either you or one of those two people won’t be here in two years. Perhaps two of the three will be gone. If you are sitting in the wrong row, all three of you could be looking for work with the...

A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn’t reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.” “I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added. “And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available to work through the details of getting a deal done.” Obama’s team may not include the president himself. Despite the impasse in Washington over federal spending, the president as of early Wednesday was scheduled to...

David Frum’s blog post connects his dismissal from AEI with Brink Lindsey’s and Will Wilkinson’s departures from Cato. In the post, Frum makes some important and well-articulated points about the GOP’s lack of direction and what a Republican majority could yield: We are likely soon to have a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, maybe the U.S. Senate too. And what will that majority do? The answer seems to be: They have not a clue. Unlike the Republican House and Senate majorities of 1994, unlike the Republican Senate majority of 1980, these new majorities will arrive with only slogans...

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‘No one was willing to embroil himself with … Russia over a small country, somewhere far away in the Caucasus.’ How many times did one read that sentence or come across that sentiment in news reports, analyses and opinion pieces on the conflict between Georgia and Russia or on the uneasy peace brokered by President Sarkozy, or on the current status quo, which sees Russia in breach of the terms of the ceasefire by still having troops in previously uncontested Georgian territory? But there was a crucial word left out of that first quote: Soviet. Here’s the full passage: ‘The...

<p>MICHELLE Obama gave her husband the silent treatment at one point in his campaign for president because so many women "pushed their bodies up against his, slipped phone numbers into his pockets" and whispered lewd suggestions in his ear, a new book out today claims.</p>

Much hope has been invested in Barack Obama's ability to strike a new course for the US following eight years of Bush administration unpopularity. Yet many in the US and abroad are impatient with the pace of progress under the Obama administration. The president made the rounds on five news talkshows on Sunday as he pressed his policies and vision, preparing for what is likely to be a difficult week.

Author and New York Times blogger Judith Warner took the term "Obama-loving media" to a new level Thursday when she claimed that many women are dreaming of having sex with our new president. This came a few sentences after she revealed her own fantasy about finding Obama in her shower, and moments before sharing a reader's opinion that the first couple "look like they like having sex." Caution -- you're about to enter a no shame zone (h/t Hot Air): The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get...

The California Republican Party can’t fund some political activities just weeks before the Presidential Primary in February. It has no money. Some months ago, the Party faithful were shocked when it was revealed that new State Chairman Ron Nehring had hired illegal aliens for top state Party positions. Nehring diehards publicly decried my efforts and those of the San Francisco Chronicle that exposed the dry rot in the Party. Many of the state’s newspapers ignored the story and printed nothing about it until Ron Nehring’s illegal alien Australian hire for Party Chief Operating Officer resigned in shame and was replaced...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seemingly taunting Osama bin Laden, President Bush's homeland security adviser said Sunday the fugitive al-Qaida leader is "virtually impotent" beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda. The provocative characterization came just days after bin Laden attracted international attention with the release of a video in which he ridicules President Bush about the Iraq war and reminds the world that he not been captured. Ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, White House aide Frances Fragos Townsend made a clear attempt to diminish the influence — or the perception — of...

LOS ANGELES Immigration protests that brought hundreds of thousands of marchers into the nation's streets this spring promised a potent political legacy a surge of new Hispanic voters. "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote," they vowed. But an Associated Press review of voter registration figures from Chicago, Denver, Houston, Atlanta and other major urban areas that saw large rallies shows no sign of a historic new voter boom that could sway elections. Even in Los Angeles, where a 500,000-strong protest in March foreshadowed demonstrations across the United States, an increase in new registrations before the June primary was more trickle...

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

Armed gangs turn "Palestinian Authority" into impotent oxymoron By Israel Insider staff and partners December 30, 2005 Kidnapping and kicking out foreigners, Palestinian armed gangs in Gaza and the West Bank are making a mockery of claims that leader Mahmoud Abbas is in control, raising fears of total chaos and social breakdown in the run-up to elections later this month. A British aid worker and her parents are still missing and EU monitors fled from their posts at the Rafah border crossing as rifle-toting paramilitary groups seized the station. Palestinian policemen angry over the killing of a fellow police officer...