Free Republic

The death toll from an attack on Indian politicians by Maoist rebels has risen to 23, a day after the rebels fired at a convoy of cars carrying local Congress Party leaders in eastern India. Suspected insurgents fired at the vehicles Saturday in the Sukma area of Chhattisgarh state. Dozens of people were wounded in the attack. Local reports say some senior party leaders were among those killed. The Associated Press reported Sunday that several more bodies were found near the scene of the crash Sunday, including those of a party leader and his son who had been believed kidnapped....

The senseless and sickening killing of a British soldier in London by two radicalised Muslim youths earlier this week is a direct consequence of the UK going soft on extremists flourishing there. One only has to look at the alarming response of Britain's political establishment and mainstream media to the recent act to understand that such is indeed the case. Instead of calling out the attack for what it is — Islamist terrorism — and condemning it in unequivocal terms, the two have tied themselves up in knots. And so it is that Prime Minister David Cameron has not just...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

BEVERLY (CBS) – This Sunday, the streets of Beverly will look just like they always do. And that’s the problem, some veterans say. The city has cancelled its annual Memorial Day parade for what’s believed to be the first time since the end of the Civil War. Many veterans who were gathered at the Herman A. Spear American Legion Post on Friday night are upset by the decision. “It’s not right to me,” says Ron Innocenti. He is a Vietnam veteran who has not only marched in the city’s Memorial Day parade in the past, he says he has also...

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.

(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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger says he’s compelled to drop the department’s Boy Scouts of America charter after the organization opened its ranks to gay Scouts. Wolfinger said the organization is promoting a lifestyle that’s against Idaho law. The sheriff said he sent a copy of the state law banning sodomy to the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press. “It would be inappropriate for the sheriff’s office to sponsor an organization that is promoting a lifestyle that is in violation of state law,” Wolfinger said. Tim McCandless, CEO of the Inland Northwest Council, said...

We all drive on bridges, overpasses, and viaducts that we assume must be safe because, surely, somebody inspected them and determined that they are safe. We pay taxes so somebody makes sure the bridges and roads are safe, right? That trust is badly misplaced. For decades, we have been using up our infrastructure faster than we have been replacing it. Every day, cars and trucks carrying more than 200 million people cross over bridges in urban areas that remain in use even though they have exceeded their design life or are in such serious need of major repairs that engineers...

On Friday, television and radio host Tavis Smiley celebrated the 10th anniversary of his Tavis Smiley show on PBS and defended his right to critique President Obama, reports the Huffington Post (sic The AP). But Smiley says freedom of speech hasn't come without its price.Smiley contends that members of the Obama administration, whom he didn't identify, have pressured sponsors to drop their support of his projects, including his anti-poverty initiatives. The White House had no comment, said a spokesman, Kevin Lewis. Smiley declined to identify the companies, saying he wasn't authorized to disclose their names. SNIP (More from the AP...

YBOR CITY - Officially recognized by the Hillsborough County Commission for the first time, this year's GaYbor Days events continue Sunday in Ybor City. GaYBOR Days, a weekend packed with shows and events to promote gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses in Tampa, is hosted every year by the GaYBOR Coalition. The coalition is made up of almost 300 businesses throughout the Tampa Bay area, said Carrie West, the group's president. The weekend is meant to promote the Ybor City area, showcase businesses and show that Tampa is a good destination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. “We're doing very good,”...

The Turkish Parliament’s General Assembly adopted on Friday an alcohol bill proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), tightening restrictions on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages, the daily Hurriyet reported. The approval came despite strong objections against the bill by the opposition on the grounds of personal freedom and respect for lifestyle choices. Secularist opponents accused the Islamic-rooted ruling party of gradually imposing an Islamic agenda on Turkey. According to the bill, retailers will no longer be allowed to sell alcoholic beverages between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Advertising campaigns will be completely banned, such as...

KABUL - A would-be suicide bomber died when his explosives-rigged vest went off prematurely in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning, police said. The apparent failed attack came a day after a major Taliban assault on an international compound in Kabul left 10 people dead including the six attackers. Another blast in the country's east killed 12 people at a mosque during evening prayers late Friday. Authorities in Ghazni province say explosives transported by suspected Taliban fighters accidentally detonated while they were stopped at a mosque.

The trial involved an aging Philadelphia abortion doctor, a desperate and pregnant 13-year-old, and a baby born alive during an abortion and left to die. But this trial occurred 24 years before that of West Philadelphia's Kermit Gosnell, sentenced Wednesday to three consecutive life terms after a jury found that he murdered three babies born alive in illegal late-term abortions.

A Washington state Democrat is accusing Republicans of “throwing American infrastructure … under the bus” after a bridge collapse there this week. The portion of Interstate 5 in Washington that runs over the Skagit River collapsed on Thursday after a truck hit an overhead support structure, but Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) cited the incident in an interview as proof Republicans were blocking infrastructure investment to hurt President Obama politically. “Well, they have clearly spent the whole last five years trying to tear the president down, but they have done it by throwing the American infrastructure and the society under the...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A woman shot a man who tried to get into her home on 106th and Greenwood Thursday afternoon in Kansas City, Mo.Shirley Roberts, 52, told police three young men tried to break into her home around noon Thursday.According to Roberts, the men pulled in front of her home and went to her front door and tried to get in. When the men couldn’t, Roberts said the men then put on blue rubber gloves and tried to get into her back door.It was then that Roberts, home alone, grabbed a gun and fired a single shot through...

The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash. Two freight trains collided at a rail intersection in rural southeastern Missouri on Saturday, triggering the collapse of a highway overpass when at least a dozen rail cars derailed and struck a support pillar, authorities said. None of the seven people hurt in the fiery crash – two train workers and five people who had been in the two cars on the overpass – suffered life-threatening injuries, Scott County sheriff Rick Walter said in a statement. "One train T-boned the other one and...

Sweden is the best Islamic State." — Adly Abu Hajar, Imam based in Malmö. Hundreds of Muslim immigrants have rampaged through parts of the Swedish capital of Stockholm, torching cars and buses, setting fires, and hurling rocks at police. The unrest -- a predictable consequence of Sweden's failed model of multiculturalism, which does not encourage Muslim immigrants to assimilate or integrate into Swedish society -- is an ominous sign of things to come. ... At least 100 masked Muslim youths set fire to cars and buildings, smashed windows, vandalized property and hurled rocks and bottles at police and rescue services...

Car owners whose auto was torched during immigrant rioting aren’t getting sympathy from local officials… They’re getting tickets. The police chose to “wait” and “not to intervene” when the gangs burned cars. But those car owners who could not move their burnt-out wrecks, however, were fined. Rioting continued for the sixth straight night last night.

The Texas house and senate have passed a bipartisan bill that is on its way to Governor Rick Perry to sign which will allow schools to train and maintain teachers as “armed marshals” on campuses. A bipartisan 28-3 Senate vote gave final approval to the marshals bill, which was proposed after the December mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. It had already passed the House over the objection of the Texas State Teachers Association. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, had pushed lawmakers to help school districts provide teachers or other employees with special weapons and...

(First Published in Gay Community News, Feb. 15-21, 1987 and also put into the Congressional Record. Author - Michael Swift) We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions...

French Soldier Stabbed In Neck Near Paris Adam TaylorMay 25, 2013, 1:43 PM A soldier patrolling as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan was stabbed in the neck this afternoon, Reuters reports. A police source told the news agency that the soldier would survive the attack. He is 23 years old, according to CNN. Le Parisien is reporting that the attacker was of Northern African appearance, aged around 30 years old and wearing a jilbab, a type of Islamic garment. The man quickly fled the scene and has not been caught. The attack happened in La Défense, to the...

The complexity of Washington scandals as they unfold usually involves many moments at which it is possible to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Two such instances have come into sharper relief in recent weeks. One is that we still have no good explanation for U.N. ambassador Susan Rice’s talking points for her round of talk show appearances the Sunday after the 9/11/12 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. A second is that focusing on the question of whether the loss of four lives there could have been avoided is actually a clever diversion from a...

The 3,000-member NorthWood Church of Keller, TX is holding a “Global Faith Forum” in November. In yet another Islamist-attended interfaith event, Christians will hear from a former Saudi intelligence chief, a former director-general of Al-Jazeera, officials from U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities and the non-Muslims who embrace them. Pastor Bob Roberts. Jr. is known for his efforts to build bridges with Muslims. He spoke at the “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference put together by Palestinian Christians at Bethlehem Bible College. So did Florida Pastor Joel C. Hunter, who has been negative attention for his association with the Council on American-Islamic Relations...