Free Republic

s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu nearing his second declaration in four years on a building freeze in the West Bank in order to facilitate the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians? The answer is probably no. An official source in Jerusalem told The Israel Post that "Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] received this opportunity once. This will not happen again." "If the Palestinians want to talk they know we are waiting for them at the table," the source said. After four years rounds of talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the last two months in an effort...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that peace between Israel and the PA is “still possible”, but continued to accuse Israel of “occupying Palestinian lands”. The AFP news agency reported that in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Abbas called on Israel to “end the occupation of our lands”, evacuate Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and free PA Arab terrorist prisoners. These are the same preconditions he has imposed for years on peace talks with Israel. … PA leaders have long accused Israel of “apartheid” policies, even though they themselves have clarified that if...

Husband Bill says, "Relax." Let his wife enjoy a bit of a private life for the first time in two decades. But as far as the pollsters are concerned, the 2016 race is underway. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is certainly acting like he's in the race. The latest poll out of Iowa has former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beating Florida Sen. Marco Rubio handily (48 vs. 37 percent), but could face a tougher race against Senator Paul (46 vs. 42 percent), according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee General Office has issued a directive entitled “Concerning the Situation in the Ideological Sphere” warning cadres to combat “dangerous” Western values and other ideological threats. The New York Times reports that a description of the directive, which was not openly published, was released from Chongqing’s Commission on Urban-Rural Development. It said officials must “fully understand the dangers posed by Western views and theories and cut off at the source channels for disseminating erroneous thought currents, strengthen internet management, enhance opinion guidance, purify the internet environment, give no opportunities for lawless elements to...

The People’s Daily, the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper, has published an article arguing that China has a claim to the Ryukyu Island chain, which includes Okinawa – home to major U.S. air force and marine bases and 1.3 million people. The Ryukyus were a “vassal state” that paid tribute to Chinese emperors until Japan annexed the islands in 1879, the article claims. “Unresolved problems relating to the Ryukyu Islands have reached the time for reconsideration,” it said, citing post-World War II declarations that required Japan to return Chinese territory. In response, Tokyo lodged a formal diplomatic protest with...

Until recently, if a pregnant woman wanted to determine the genetic health of her baby, she had to endure a series of crude and invasive tests. Early in her second trimester, she would be given a blood test called the triple screen, which measures levels of three hormones in her bloodstream. The results of that test, combined with other factors such as the mother’s age, weight, and ethnicity as well as information gleaned from a high-definition ultrasound, provided a clue to whether her baby was at risk of having a chromosomal disorder (such as Down syndrome) or a neural tube...

Worth listening to, especially in light of the two senators from Arizona's willingness to surrender their state-and the rest of the country-to criminal aliens.

That Gang of 8 thing may not have been such a shoe-in after all. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has come back to report that, despite having sailed through the Judiciary Committee and garnering the support of at least four Republicans, they may still be coming up short.. “We don’t currently have 60 votes identified in the Senate,” Menendez said in an interview with Univision. “We need to add more votes on the floor. That means that the community in your state, in every state, should be contacting your state’s two U.S. Senators saying that they want comprehensive immigration reform, that they...

One thing can be said about Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is that he attracts media ire as much as a Hollywood celebrity attracts paparazzi. If one’s worth is measured in the number of one’s enemies, Cruz is richer beyond the dreams of avarice. Chris Matthews, the MSNBC talking head, left a blog post on May 24, 2013 that stated, without apparent irony, “Pay attention to Senator Cruz because he is the unsmiling, contemptuous face of the wild, nasty, hard-right fringe of a party that once competed with the Democrats to be the country’s governing party.” Bill Maher, also without irony,...

Since the IRS scam has become the most momentous topic of the day, we now know, thanks to my father, that Obama’s brother, Malik Obama, is deeply associated with Omar al-Bashir, the one who was behind the attack on the US embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, which occurred at around the same time as the Benghazi attack ... Malik is the Executive Secretary for the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which is stationed in Khartoum, Sudan, and which has its primary focus in expanding Wahhabist Islam in the African subcontinent. It was also in Khartoum, as I have written on before, where...

Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. — the Denver-based U.S. unit of Canada's Encana Corp. — will move forward with drilling for oil in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which could be among the nation's newest oil plays. The San Juan oil play in New Mexico has similarities to Colorado's Niobrara oil play in that new horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques are producing oil from an area that's been well known historically for its natural gas production.

David Cameron is planning new powers to muzzle Islamic hate preachers accused of provoking terrorist outrages such as the killing of soldier Lee Rigby. The Prime Minister wants to stop extremist clerics using schools, colleges, prisons and mosques to spread their “poison”, and is to head a new Tackling Extremism and Radicalization Task Force (TERFOR) made up of senior Ministers, MI5, police and moderate religious leaders.The high-powered group will study a number of measures, including banning extremist clerics from being given public platforms to incite students, prisoners and other followers—and forcing mosque leaders to answer for “hate preachers”. It will...

As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned. Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to questions from The Daily Caller about whether Holder himself was armed — and if so, with what sort of weapon. Holder was then among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed...

So far, the rioting by mostly Muslims in Stockholm and its suburbs hasn’t spread to other immigrant ghettoes in other nations of Europe. But the longer the riots continue, and the harder the police try to crack down, the more likely it is that sympathy for the rioters will manifest itself in demonstrations and perhaps even violence in other countries where large immigrant populations remain outside of society and segregated into slums. Friday marked the sixth day of violence in Sweden. USA Today: The unrest in poor, immigrant suburbs is the latest to break out in Europe over the past...

The world’s tallest tower swing ride, which sends those foolhardy enough to get on-board a whopping 400 feet up in the air, was officially opened on Saturday at the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park in Arlington. The Texas SkyScreamer allows up to twenty-four riders to sit in open-air swings while spinning in a 124-foot circle at speeds up to 35 mph. At its 40 story peak - and if the riders still have their eyes open - they can see not only Arlington, but also Dallas and Fort Worth. ‘We are thrilled to add the tallest swing ride in...

Start buying Chinese currency, guys. It's going to be big time.

Germany's push for wind and solar and its retreat from nuclear power is driving electricity costs to untenable levels and destroying support for the green agenda, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned. “The fact that German electricity prices are among the highest in Europe, must serve as a warning signal,” said the IEA. “The transition to low-carbon energy requires public acceptance, and therefore retail electricity prices to remain at an affordable level.” Germany’s so called “Energiewende” aims to raise the share of electricity from renewables to 50pc by 2030 and 80pc by the midcentury, a huge challenge for a...

Torrential rains swamped San Antonio with flash floods on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead as emergency workers rushed to rescue more than 200 residents stranded in cars and homes. “It was pretty crazy,” said Gera Hinojosa, a valet parking cars downtown after the storm. “It was pretty unexpected. We hardly got any warning about it.” For two women, the storm turned fatal. …

'Case exposes government system that is targeting military veterans' It happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently. A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government. According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members...

Scandal is the worst thing that can befall a president. Yet as debilitating as scandals always are, the ones Obama now faces are particularly so. They intimately and simultaneously strike at his public persona, which has been his strongest asset, while seemingly verifying his critics' worst accusations. Scandals leave a president weaker for four reasons. First, they are decidedly negative issues. No president, or politician for that matter, seeks out negative issues. All go after the overwhelmingly popular, which is why politicians so quickly and frequently embrace symbolic ones. When pressed, a president takes on "tough" substantive issues, which are...

Some call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror. Obama is not claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he is refocusing the long struggle against terrorism that lies ahead, steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat—a country in a state of perpetual war. In doing so, Obama recasts the image of the terrorists themselves, from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and resets the relationship between the U.S. and Islam. His speech Thursday was...

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - As Memorial Day weekend gets underway, law enforcement is out in full force to crack down on drunk driving. But SDSU grad Sennett Devermont, better known as "MrCheckpoint," is also working overtime, publicizing through social media the locations and times of DUI checkpoints throughout San Diego and the rest of Southern California, including Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. Devermont uses Twitter, Facebook, his own website and text messages to get the word out to his tens of thousands of followers. "When I realized the positive impact it had.... I decided to make the service...

DETROIT (WWJ) - Police say one person was killed when gunfire erupted outside of a gas station on Detroit’s west side. The shooting happened around 2 a.m. Thursday at a Citgo gas station near Linwood and Davison.A man was filling his tires with air when someone approached and tried to rob him at gunpoint, according to reports. The man pulled out a gun to defend himself and a shootout occurred. Both ended up firing at each other, with the victim chasing the suspect away from the gas station.Police say the suspect’s body was found in an alleyway across the street from the gas station....

As far as the pollsters are concerned, the 2016 race is underway. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is certainly acting like he's in the race. The latest poll out of Iowa has former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beating Florida Sen. Marco Rubio handily (48 vs. 37 percent), but could face a tougher race against Senator Paul (46 vs. 42 percent), according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University. The poll says that Iowa voters would give the race to either Senator Rubio or Senator Paul, if the Democratic Party candidate was Vice President Joe Biden. "In general Sen. Paul...

A 25-year-old Kenyan woman has come forward with allegations that she was kept as a domestic slave for three months by Saudi Arabian diplomats living in Northern Virginia. The allegations come to light two weeks after News4 first reported an investigation into possible human trafficking at a Saudi-owned compound in McLean, Va. The Kenyan woman -- who goes by the name Sheila -- said she was brought to the U.S. from Kenya by way of Saudi Arabia last summer, by people who forced her to work long hours each day, seven days a week, as a domestic worker. "I used...

Rioting spread to several Swedish towns on Friday night as police stepped up arrests during a sixth night of unrest and far-right vigilantes chased non-whites in southern Stockholm. In Linköping, central southern Sweden, police responded to 120 incidents as cars, caravans and two schools were set alight. At one point a blazing truck was rolled into a building, which caught fire. "We see the night's events as an offshoot of what has happened in the Stockholm area in recent days," local police told Swedish television. In Orebro, 120km west of Stockholm, police were stoned after cars and a school were...

According to the fundraising letter: “At one Tea Party rally this week, mobs chanted “Waterboard Obama, Waterboard Hillary!” At another, radicals waved signs with Nazi symbols.“ Of course, this did not happen. Anywhere. Democrats just lied to their donors for sympathy even though they knew these things never happened at the Tea Party protests this week.

Fears of a prolonged backlash against Muslims have intensified after dozens of Islamophobic incidents were reported in the wake of the murder of the British soldier Lee Rigby in south London. The Tell Mama hotline for recording Islamophobic crimes and incidents recorded 38 incidents over Wednesday night, including attacks on three mosques, with more reported on Thursday. The Metropolitan police put 1,200 more officers on the street on Thursday, with extra patrols deployed to mosques and religious sites as far-right groups reacted to the tragedy. The Tell Mama co-ordinator Fiyaz Mughal, from Faith Matters, said the service usually recorded three...

That’s the question asked by Katie Pavlich and Jim Hoft after the revelation that Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved the application for a warrant on Fox News’ James Rosen as a potential co-conspirator in espionage. Last week, under relatively friendly questioning from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) about the Department of Justice seizure of Associated Press phone records, Johnson asked about the potential to prosecute reporters under the Espionage Act of 1917. ”You’ve got a long way to go to try to prosecute the press for publication of material,” Holder responded. Later, though, he returned to the topic unbidden, emphasis...

It’s being asked: Did Eric Holder lie under oath during his congressional testimony last Wednesday? Here’s part of Holder’s sworn testimony: In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy. Fast forward to this headline from NBC News yesterday: If the reports are correct that Holder signed off on the Rosen warrant — which listed the Fox News reporter as a possible criminal “co-conspirator” — then Holder lied to congress… under oath. I’m sure Holder will get to...

The Justice Department on Friday admitted that Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the search warrant relating to Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal emails. That revelation has led many to speculate that Holder may have lied under oath while testifying before Congress last week. Michelle Malkin, Townhall’s Katie Pavlich and Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey have all asked that very question.

Police, politicians and activists in Britain are warning of rising anti-Muslim sentiment following the slaughter of an off-duty British soldier in a London street, an apparent act of Islamic extremism that has horrified the nation. Metropolitan Police investigating the killing of Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old soldier who was run over by attackers then butchered by knives, arrested three more men in the murder investigation Saturday. Stun guns were used on two of the three men, aged 24 and 28, police said. The latest arrests came as an estimated 1,500 members of an extremist right-wing group called the English Defense League...

SALT LAKE CITY -- When the Boy Scouts of America began a discussion earlier this year about lifting its ban on gays, some speculated it could lead to the severing of ties with the Mormon church that goes back 100 years. Those predictions ended up being off the mark. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints threw its support behind the new policy voted on Thursday by the Boy Scouts of America that opens the door for gay youth to join the ranks, while continuing to ban gay adult Scout leaders.

America loves its outlaws, and few are as admired and lionized as Willie Nelson. As the enduring American icon recently turned 80, he's been honored with lifetime achievement awards, serenaded at special performances and saluted by musicians from every genre of music. And Nelson has taken it all in with a bemused smile. "It's a nice thing to do for someone on their birthday, and I appreciate it," Nelson said in a recent interview aboard his bus. "Usually I like to forget my birthdays as much as possible."

Gene Burns, a long-time political talk show host and food critic whose sharp wit and eloquent speech garnered the respect of listeners for decades, died Saturday in San Francisco.

Elite U.S. troops were completely capable of saving Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi Consulate attacks on September 11, 2012. Elements of the highly specialized Combatant Commanders In-Extremis (CIF) units are always on alert, on forward deployment, ready to respond. Their job description is to hit the ground in 3 to 5 hours. CIF elements are ready to engage in active combat anywhere in their region, 3 to 5 hours after the call. Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense at the time, either misled the U.S. Congress or was incompetent. Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7,...

Gays and guns seem as likely to go together as Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. As a culture, even under attack, we are a peaceful lot -- you catch more bees with honey, right? "Wrong," says Gwendolyn Patton of Pink Pistols, a group that advocates gun ownership for the LGBT community. With taglines like "pick on someone your own caliber," and "armed gays don’t get bashed," Patton says Pink Pistols changes the perception that gay people are easy victims. "We teach queers to shoot, and then we teach the rest of the world we’ve done it," Patton told WBEZ91.5, a...

(OnMyHonor.Net is the nationwide coalition of concerned parents, Scout Leaders, Scouting Donors, Eagle Scouts and other members of the Boy Scouts of America who are united in their support of Scouting’s current membership policies and their opposition to the proposed resolution which requires open homosexuality in the Boy Scouts.) On May 9, 2013, pro-resolution BSA officials issued a document entitled “Membership Resolution Points of Clarification” which appears to be a direct response to OnMyHonor.Net’s “Ten Reasons Delegates Should Vote No”. This is a point-by-point response to the Points of Clarification written exclusively for voting BSA delegates.First, the single most important...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaqqhuB-M8I

Chinese economist Mao Yushi (茅于轼), a public intellectual known as a strong proponent of political reform and a vocal critic of the legacy of Maoism, has become the latest liberal figure this year to be heckled by leftists during a public appearance. Mao Yushi was delivering a talk in Shenyang Thursday at the invitation of the Liaoning Association of Industry and Commerce when two scholars objected to statements they felt were slights against Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. According to a post by Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, the scholars included Wang Xinnian, the deputy secretary of the provincial-level Party...

Chinese economist Mao Yushi (茅于轼), a public intellectual known as a strong proponent of political reform and a vocal critic of the legacy of Maoism, has become the latest liberal figure this year to be heckled by leftists during a public appearance. Mao Yushi was delivering a talk in Shenyang Thursday at the invitation of the Liaoning Association of Industry and Commerce when two scholars objected to statements they felt were slights against Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. According to a post by Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, the scholars included Wang Xinnian, the deputy secretary of the provincial-level Party...

Washington (CNN) - Two-thirds of Americans say that the nation's economy is in poor shape, but a new national poll indicates there are a few glimmers of optimism. According to a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday morning, a third of the public says economic conditions are good right now. That's up seven percentage points from the 26% who felt that way in a CNN poll from December. And the 67% who rate the nation's economic conditions as poor is down from 74% at the end of last year. The poll also indicates that the number who say that conditions are...

Just as the Obama administration continues to reel from three major scandals, Republicans are zeroing in on yet one more — this one involving Obamacare as it nears implementation. GOP legislators are targeting Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the solicitations she made to some of the nation’s top insurance companies and other groups for donations to Enroll America, the nonprofit group charged with selling Obamacare to the public. “Our guys on the Hill think this is the fourth scandal,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Reuters this week. “It fits into that narrative Republicans are building not only about incompetence...

Children are impressionable, and McDonald’s has managed, in the majority of cases, to make children prefer McDonald’s over all other fast food choices. Some people have decided that McDonald’s marketing is to blame for the fact that kids eat French fries and not fruits and veggies. Or, at least, the claim to believe McDonald’s possesses such awesome powers. And they even pretend that they think children are somehow wise leaders in society. Thus, from MSNBC and Morning Joe:“Nine-year-old Hannah Robertson doesn’t want a Happy Meal. She wants a healthy meal. And she’s not shy about saying it: Hannah took her...

The Justice Department begged a federal judge to not tell Fox News reporter James Rosen that it was tracking his telephone calls and emails in a probe regarding a national security leak. U.S. Attorney Ron Machen argued in 2010 that the traditional 30-day notice period did not apply to Rosen as Justice secretly monitored his Gmail account, according to new exhibits unsealed this week and disclosed by The Hill. “Where, as here, the government seeks such contents through a search warrant, no notice to the subscriber or customer of the e-mail account is statutorily required or necessary,” Machen wrote in...

Attorneys for Christian-owned craft store Hobby Lobby took on the Obama administration in court yesterday in its attempt to stop massive fines against it for not complying with the HHS mandate. The company has filed a lawsuit over whether or not the HHS Department can force it to comply with the mandate that compels it to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represented Hobby Lobby Stores before the an en banc hearing of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. World Magazine has more on how the hearing went: Although Hobby...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Sunday Chapel ~ MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2012 ~ TAPS Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. In honor of those who lost their lives while serving our country, we would like to share with you President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery: Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day...

In 2010 the LAPD completed an investigation into alleged gun purchases made by SWAT team members for the purposes of reselling the guns at a profit. Now the FBI has been called in to determine if any laws were violated. The investigation will attempt to determine why the LAPD's SWAT team, which has around 60 members, purchased over 300 specialized handguns from Kimber Manufacturing. The LAPD has a longstanding agreement with Kimber which allows the company to brand weapons with LAPD insignia and market them as "identical to" the ones used by LAPD's SWAT team. On the open market these...

Some call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror. Obama is not claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he is steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat: a country in a state of perpetual war. In a landmark speech Thursday in which he sought to refine and recalibrate his counterterrorism strategy, Obama asserted that al-Qaida is "on the path to defeat," reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels. That means that...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 24, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Democratic congressman has a unique solution for the atrocities perpetrated by late-term abortionists who botch their delivery in utero: Build more abortion facilities. CNSNews.com reported that New York Congressman Jarrold Nadler said, “Dr. Gosnell represented the poor quality of health care services available in poorer communities” during a hearing on Trent Franks' 20-week “fetal pain” bill on Thursday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee . Rep. Jarrold Nadler, D-NY Rep. Jarrold Nadler, D-NY “If that means funding a Planned Parenthood clinic in every neighborhood to put guys like Gosnell out of business, so...