Free Republic

Following in the well-worn footsteps of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Blueprint for Federal Action on Illegal Guns, this week the Council on Foreign Relations released a memo urging the Obama administration to disregard the will of the American people and Congress and unilaterally enact a series of gun controls. Entitled, A Strategy to Reduce Gun Trafficking and Violence in the Americas, and written by CFR Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, Julia F. Sweig, the memo pins the ills of Central and South America on U.S. gun owners and urges the president to curb our rights to...

The United Nations Says We Should All Be Eating Insects The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a part of the United Nations, has released a report saying that we should all get ready to start eating insects. There’s a certain amount of truth in the report but not all that much: “ World population is slated to top nine billion by 2050, and seeing as how arable land is being rapidly swallowed by towns and cities, oceans are increasingly overfished, and climate change is disrupting traditional farming, a new United Nations study proposes a twist on Marie Antoinette’s dietary advice:...

The idea that peacekeepers should not initiate military action has prevailed ... until now. Jeni Whalan says the new "intervention brigade" in the Congo has stretched the institution of peacekeeping to breaking point. There's a fine, but critical, line between keeping the peace and waging a war.For the blue-helmeted United Nations peacekeepers deployed in some of the world's worst conflict zones, it's a line that is constantly, violently tested - by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the early 1990s; by rebels who this month killed five peacekeepers in South Sudan. Yet the greatest challenge may have come from the...

The bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform is moving ahead with its plan to roll out an approximately 1,500-page bill this week despite the bombings that rocked the Boston marathon on Monday. The bill reportedly grants amnesty to the at least 11 million illegal immigrants in America. “Millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States could earn a chance at citizenship under a sweeping Senate proposal to be released Tuesday that would represent the most ambitious overhaul of the nation's immigration system in three decades,” the Washington Post wrote in a breaking news alert late Monday night.

With a diminished team at State, Defense, and the CIA, Obama can be Obama. John Brennan, Chuck Hagel, and John Kerry will be confirmed. The three will provide a force-multiplying effect on the Obama foreign policy of disengagement. The chameleon Brennan will be very different from David Petraeus at the CIA; Hagel is no circumspect Leon Panetta; and there was a reason why the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state was greeted with praise in a way John Kerry’s will not be. The trio is less competent than their predecessors, but also perhaps more representative of a country...

The Second Amendment got attacked this week from three sides, leaving gun owners scrambling to find safe ground. While President Obama has lost momentum for federal gun-control laws, he has picked up victories with his allies in blue states and at the United Nations. After Thursday, Connecticut should consider changing its state nickname from the “Constitution State” to the “Unconstitutional State” after Gov. Dannel Malloy signed an extremely restrictive gun-control law. The bill passed the state House Thursday morning and the Senate on Wednesday. Before the Newtown tragedy, the Brady Campaign determined that Connecticut was the fifth highest-rated state for...

DEBATE about the reality of a two-decade pause in global warming and what it means has made its way from the sceptical fringe to the mainstream. ... But the fact that global surface temperatures have not followed the expected global warming pattern is now widely accepted.

“The chatter is he's up to something,” says one Florida operative. If Jeb Bush decides to convert his media tour into a presidential bid in a couple years, he won't have to look far for a campaign staff: The well-funded education foundation he runs out his office in a Miami hotel is stacked with former political operatives, a large communications team, and a rapidly growing staff whose work stretches into 40 states. It is common practice for undeclared presidential candidates to build a campaign infrastructure under the guise of a political action committee, but Bush appears to be laying the...

On Feb. 10, the world was shocked to hear that Pope Benedict would step down from his Papal office on Feb. 28, and become the first leader of the Catholic church to resign from office in over 500 years. However, speculation for his replacement is already under way, and the front runner to become the next Pope has strong ties to the creation of a global economic system, as well as being a prime candidate to an ancient Catholic prophecy suggesting he would help lead the world into a new order. “The front runner to be the next pope...

As the Pentagon pours attention and resources into the conflict-ridden Asian-Pacific theater, it's made an unheard of command choice. The AP reports Australian Maj. General Richard Burr is now Deputy Commanding General for Operations at U.S. Pacific Command (USARPAC) out of Hawaii. It's the first time a non-American has served in such a high-ranking position at this type of command. This isn't some out-of-the way little military base — this is the command led by Major General George Moore in the days after World War II. Moore fought at Battan along with enough other dark Pacific campaigns to fill a...

Conflicts across the globe and an international respect for Barack Obama have created the perfect setting for establishment of “a New World Order,” according to Henry Kissinger, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former secretary of state under President Nixon.

Near-shoring refers to the practice of attracting global businesses to Detroit whose growth and expansion is otherwise hindered by restrictive U.S. immigration laws. American businesses, particularly in industries critical to the new economy, have faced significant hurdles to engaging the world’s most talented workers because of restrictive U.S. immigration laws. Since the H-1B skilled worker visa cap was rolled back to 65,000, the demand by U.S. firms for these visas has far exceeded the supply, usually surpassing the cap only days after the application period is opened. As a result, U.S. firms have been forced to locate facilities in other...

We believe that being welcoming is the right thing to do, but that’s not the whole story. Michigan is the only state that lost population between 2000 and 2010. Considering how high unemployment in Michigan has been, some might say that’s a good thing — fewer people to compete for the jobs we do have. In 2008, the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Skillman Foundation commissioned former State Representative Steve Tobocman to explore the idea of immigration as a potential strategy for reinventing the economy of that region. Fewer people to...

A young mother was senselessly murdered by three teens in western Pennsylvania after she told them to “get a job” and stop roaming the streets when they asked her fiancée for a cigarette, police say. Beaver Falls police have charged 14-year-olds Todavia Cleckley and Marcus Velasquez and 13-year-old Kyle Goosby Jr. with criminal homicide and other charges in Saturday’s shooting of 22-year-old Kayla Peterson. She was shot at about 3:30 p.m. that day and died in a Pittsburgh hospital two hours later.

Although it requires a measure of contrition on my part, I have become willing to consider that my days of advocating the advancement of conservatism from within the Republican Party may be over. In light of the deportment of Republican leaders since the general election, it is difficult not to see their methods and motives of recent years in a whole new light. After coming under specious race- and gender-baiting fire for criticizing U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s serial deception on television news shows following the Sept. 11, 2012, murder of our foreign service personnel in Benghazi, Republican Sens. John McCain...

International Land Grab Imagine waking up in a country where a high-ranking government official stands in front of citizens and rails against personal property rights: “The American system of justice must be changed to conform to that of the rest of the world, and there must be a shift in attitudes. Individual wants, needs and desires are to be conformed to the views and dictates of government planners. In the process of implementing Sustainable Development, individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” The shocking line that individual rights should be relegated to the rear has...

It is expected to be the mother of all cyber diplomatic battles. When delegates gather in Dubai in December for an obscure UN agency meeting, fighting is expected to be intense over proposals to rewrite global telecom rules to effectively give the United Nations control over the Internet.

The economic crisis is a chance to relaunch European political integration and bridge the perceived European democratic deficit, the Association of European Journalists said at its 50th international congress last weekend in Italy. … Marco De Andreis, member of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, imagines a reform leading to a “light federation”. Summarizing a proposal developed with Italian Senate Vice President Emma Bonino, De Andreis said that government functions such as defense, diplomacy, border control and management of trans-European infrastructure should be transferred to the European Union. In this way, Europe would gain advantages from economies of...

IN FOCUS: Russian's next-generation bomber takes shape Confirmation came on the occasion of the Russian air force centennial celebrations in August. Addressing media, air force commander-in-chief Lt Gen Victor Bondarev revealed that development of a new strategic bomber, the PAK-DA, had commenced. Its name is a Russian acronym that approximates to "future aviation complex for long-range aviation", and the aircraft is intended to supplement and partially replace the Tupolev Tu-160s, Tu-95MSs and Tu-22M3s now forming the backbone of Russia's land-based strategic bomber fleet. Vladislav Perminov Touching on a recent meeting with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, during which long-term procurement issues...

........Of all the waste by the Federal government and with all the other Federal agencies that could be moved to privatization, Obama selects our space program. This detracts from the progress of our missile technology that is shared with our military, it inhibits our national defense, and it damages our national identity.Space X is Obama's choice for supplanting NASA. It appears Obama has picked another loser. Move over Solyndra.Let's begin with the performance to date of the ersatz space program called Space X....."Thus far, NASA has awarded at least $2.1 billion in SAA money to private space companies,including a total...

Bill Gertz has the grim news in the Washington Free Beacon: Hackers linked to China's government broke into one of the U.S. government's most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident. One official said the cyber breach was one of Beijing's most brazen cyber attacks against the United States and highlights a failure of the Obama administration to press China on its persistent cyber attacks. Disclosure of the cyber attack also comes amid heightened tensions in Asia, as the Pentagon moved...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that a new world order needs to emerge, away from years of what he called American bullying and domination.

Obama "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility" Medvedev "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir"

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin oversaw the start of construction of one of Russia's newest generation submarines on Monday and vowed to boost nuclear naval forces to safeguard the country's position as a leading sea power. Warning that its navy would protect top energy producer Russia's interests in the oil-rich Arctic, Putin led the ceremony to begin building the submarine Prince Vladimir, named after the ruler who founded a precursor state to modern Russia. The vessel is the fourth Borei class submarine, designed to carry one of the country's newest and most powerful intercontinental nuclear missiles, the Bulava, or Mace....

The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. It's not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves...

<p>"And I confess the progress didn't come quickly, and it did not come easily," President Obama said about his time as a community organizer in Chicago. "Sometimes it didn't come at all. There were times where I thought about giving up and moving on. But what kept me going day in and day out was the same thing that has sustained the Urban League all these years. The same thing that sustains all of you. And that is the belief that in America, change is always possible. That our union may not be perfect, but it is perfectible."</p>

Moscow has recently reacted with caution and patience following the announced suspension of Uzbekistan’s membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), while leading Russian military officials and experts continue to emphasize that the General Staff regard the risk of military conflict in Central Asia to be growing. In fact, Moscow closely coordinated the resolution to the impasse with Tashkent in the CSTO through its strong defense relations with Minsk, in order to convey a message to Uzbekistan that it either had to cooperate more closely within the body or find a way to leave (RIA Novosti, July 5). Colonel-General...

The Obama Record: In pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons, the president finalizes plans to decimate our nuclear deterrent and reduce our warhead count beyond even treaty commitments. (snip) President Obama has decided that indeed we are going to tempt them with weakness. According to an Associated Press report on conversations with current and former administration officials, Obama is finalizing plans, perhaps to be released later this month, to cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal to between 1,000 and 1,100 warheads with the goal "in the longer term, (of) eliminating nuclear weapons."

Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers entered the U.S. air defense zone near the Pacific coast on Wednesday and were met by U.S. interceptor jets, defense officials told the Free Beacon. It was the second time Moscow dispatched nuclear-capable bombers into the 200-mile zone surrounding U.S. territory in the past two weeks. An earlier intrusion by two Tu-95 Bear H bombers took place near Alaska as part of arctic war games that a Russian military spokesman said included simulated attacks on “enemy” air defenses and strategic facilities. A defense official said the Pacific coast intrusion came close to the U.S. coast...

The Obama administration is moving toward decisions that would further cut the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, possibly to between 1,000 and 1,100, reflecting new thinking on the role of nuclear weapons in an age of terror, current and former officials say. The reductions under consideration are in line with President Barack Obama's vision of trimming the nation's nuclear arsenal without harming national security in the short term, and in the longer term, eliminating nuclear weapons.

George Soros -- One Evil Human FROM STEVE KROFT (60 Minutes) This article is written by Steve Kroft from 60 Minutes. It begins to piece together the rise of Obama and his behavior in leading the nation along with many members of Congress (in particular the Democrats, such as the election of Pelosi as the minority leader in Congress) Interesting read on George Soros If you have wondered where Obama came from and just how he quickly moved from obscurity to President, or why the media is "selective" in what we are told, here is the man who most probably...

Northcom says Russian nuclear bombers violated U.S. airspace during arctic war games The U.S. Northern Command and joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Command said two Russian bombers violated U.S. airspace near Alaska during recent arctic war games.Disclosure by the command in charge of U.S. homeland defense followed a report in the Free Beacon quoting U.S. officials who said the Russian aircraft had threatened U.S. air space but did not cross into it and were met over the Pacific by U.S. F-15 interceptor jets. “There was a single out-of-area patrol by two Russian
long range bombers which entered the Alaska...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces using a new Raytheon Co interceptor missile downed another missile in space in a high-stakes test of a shield built to thwart growing capabilities of countries like North Korea and Iran. The mission off Hawaii late Tuesday was against a medium-range, separating ballistic missile, the Pentagon agency responsible for it said. The mock warhead split from the target's booster section, presenting what is supposed to be a more realistic attack scenario. "Initial indications are that all components performed as designed resulting in a very accurate intercept," the Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, said in a...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security agenda has been boosted in recent years through promoting multilateral counter-terrorist cooperation. One important feature in this counter-terrorist cooperation is the staging of Peace Mission joint military exercises ostensibly designed to test and strengthen the capability of the SCO to respond to terrorist threats among member states requiring some type of joint operation. Skeptics within the SCO, such as Uzbekistan, regard the model and scenario of the Peace Mission exercises to be inconsistent with the official claims concerning the anti-terrorist dimension. Others ask what the nature of a crisis might prove to be that...

A new world order is coming and we are sleepwalking into it Posted By Richard Henley Davis On June 19, 2012 @ 8:00 pm For the past six years or so our leaders and economists have told us that no one could have seen this financial crisis coming, they were lying. There comes a point where you have to stick your neck out and say it as it is, regardless of what your peers and the media think about your conclusions and that is exactly what I am going to do today so here goes my reputation. Let’s start not...

The NGO Major Group Organizing Partners have finalized their key document for the Rio+20 Summit. “TheFutureWeWant” outlines the common vision for “sustainable development” throughout the planet sought by those nongovernmental organizations - mostly social and environmental activist groups. There are many noble sentiments in its 283 statements. There also is much that raises serious concerns. “Sustainable,” “sustainability” and “sustainable development” appear in the text an astounding 390 times. Like “abracadabra,” these amorphous words are supposed to transform even corrupt societies into Gardens of Eden under United Nations auspices. They will use less, pollute less, be sustainable, get along and save...

What is globalization? /snip In the article I extended one of the arguments I made in my book, The Volatility Machine, that the globalization process is driven primarily by monetary expansion and the consequent increase in risk appetite. What was new in this piece, because I hadn’t realized it when I wrote my book, is that every period of globalization coincided with a stage of the industrial revolution in which accompanying the expansion in international trade and capital flows is a major technological boom, driven also by monetary expansion. After re-reading the article I thought it might be useful to...

As the United Nations warns that Syria has descended into civil war, Russia continues to back President Bashar al-Assad in the face of growing international condemnation. Konstantin von Eggert, political commentator for Kommersant FM radio in Moscow, looks at why the Kremlin is steadfastly supporting the beleaguered Syrian government. Foreign policy analysts usually tend to explain Moscow's inflexible stance on Syria by evoking arms sales to Damascus (Bashar al-Assad's regime is said to have placed orders for Russian hardware to the tune of $3.5bn) and the Russian naval station in the Syrian port of Tartous. But this alone does not...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he will boost military cooperation with China, including holding more joint exercises, after the United States announced plans to shift most of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020. Putin referred to recent Sino-Russian joint navy exercises in the Yellow Sea as an example of military cooperation which, he said, would go on. "We will continue cooperation also between our military," he told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where he is attending a security summit and meeting his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. "Recently joint navy exercises were held in the Yellow...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a summit in Beijing next week as tensions rise over Tehran's nuclear drive, a Kremlin official said. "Meeting Ahmadinejad will let Putin personally feel the tension around the Iranian issue and how it is perceived in Tehran," Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters last week in comments that were embargoed for release until Sunday. Putin and Ahmadinejad agreed to meet over the phone and the initiative came "from both sides," Ushakov said. The meeting will come as Russia prepares to host the latest...

NEW RUSSIAN ICBM IS NO SOLUTION Russian plans to upgrade their "Voyevoda R-36M2 Satan" intercontinental ballistic missile began in 2009, but are only now coming to fruition. Russian weapons maker NPO Mashinostroyeniya predicts the creation of a new liquid fueled ICBM will take a decade to design and deploy. And when it does do so, it won't be a panacea for current Kremlin concerns over European missile defenses; Russian experts fear that the missile, as currently designed, won't be capable of piercing the missile defense shield currently under construction by the United States and NATO. (RIA Novosti, May 8, 2012)...

Hardly more than a handful of experts in Moscow paid attention to the G8 summit in Camp-David last week-end, and President Vladimir Putin’s absence accentuated the impression that Russia does not really belong to this exclusive club. The seven leaders had to work hard to find answers to the escalating economic challenges; it is clear that Moscow has nothing to contribute to this joint effort though Russia has been affected by the economic crisis no less profoundly than France or Italy (Kommersant, May 19). Ironically, the only good news around the G8 table, where Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev sat in...

A proposed Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which has been signed by President Obama but not yet ratified by Congress, will subordinate U.S. naval and drilling operations beyond 200 miles of our coast to a newly established U.N. bureaucracy. If approved, it will grant a Kingston, Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority (ISA) the power to regulate deep-sea oil exploration, seabed mining, and fishing rights. As part of the deal, as much as 7% of U.S. government revenue that is collected from oil and gas companies operating off our coast will be forked over to ISA for redistribution to poorer, landlocked...

Aviation authorities are scratching their heads over a mysterious flying object in the skies above Colorado that almost caused a mid-air crash. The object was sighted by a commercial jet pilot, who claimed to air traffic controllers that some kind of flying craft got too close for comfort on Monday. In a transmission that appeared on LiveATC.net, the operator of the Cessna Citation 525 CJ1 says: 'A remote controlled aircraft, or what? ... 9News reported the Citation was about 8,000 feet above sea level, or about 2,800 feet above the ground, at the time the pilot reported the seeing the...

Russia and the United States will begin their controversial first joint anti-terror military exercises on American soil shortly at Ft. Carson in Colorado. A special unit of Russian paratroopers departed for the United States over the weekend and will be working alongside American land forces as part of the war games. The Russian and U.S. special units will engage in joint gun practice as well as ... The drills are scheduled to end on May 31

Amid heavy fog and strong winds the Chinese and Russian navies conducted five days of joint live-fire military exercises codenamed “Maritime Cooperation-2012” in the Yellow Sea. The joint exercises, which began on April 21 when a Russian ship formation arrived at Qingdao, Shandong, focused on underwater and airborne threats. During a night drill an “enemy” submarine sent divers to attach a mine to a “friendly” ship’s hull. Depth charges were fired and a team of divers removed the hostile object. Then 11 Chinese warships and the Russian squadron detected a hostile submarine “hiding.” Hostages were also rescued from a ship...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Russia Wants Obama Re-ElectedPosted By David Meir-Levi On May 11, 2012 @ 12:46 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Well, now we know what the “hot mic” incident was all about. The Wall Street Journal’s “Moscow Raises Alarm over Missile-Defense Plan for Europe” (Friday, May 4, 2012), makes the connection.At an international conference on Thursday, May 3, organized at Russia’s initiative, the Russian delegates showed computer-generated images of a hypothetical Russian pre-emptive missile attack on segments of a missile defense shield and early warning system that the US and NATO want to put...

Bill Nye the Science Guy told the Daily Caller on Tuesday that climate change is a bigger problem than the economy or high unemployment. He also said that “this notion that government is inherently bad is new,” and after the November election, President Barack Obama will “have a freer hand.” Bill Nye, who was in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday speaking on behalf of the Planetary Society, said that he is “very concerned about climate change,” adding that, “you can talk about the economy and short-term jobs and so on — but there are much bigger problems.” On the president, who...

Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, in a visit to the Pentagon on Monday, met with United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and called for the two sides to continue to build upon their military ties. After meeting with Panetta, Liang told a news conference that the two sides are committed to continue building a sound, stable and reliable military-to-military relationship through more communication. "Facing the complicated and serious security situation in Asia-Pacific, both of us agree that it is in line with our own interests to strengthen the cooperation between the two militaries in order to protect the peace...

Russia’s most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would preemptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the developing system continue to stall. “A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials. The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled. “We have not been...