Free Republic

In November of 2013, Russian media reported that U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul would soon resign; McFaul emphatically denied he was going anywhere. Yet today, he announced his resignation. Izvestia and Gazeta.ru reported the news back in November. […] McFaul is the chief architect of Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia, a policy that diagnosed Vladimir Putin not as a dangerous foe of the U.S. but as a misunderstood statesman who had been alienated by Republican policies inspired by Ronald Reagan. In practice, “reset” was McFaul’s euphemism for appeasement. The results of this policy were completely predictable: sensing weakness, Putin...

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews announced Tuesday that he is resigning from Congress after more than 23 years, a decision that could short-circuit a House Ethics Committee inquiry into whether the New Jersey Democrat used campaign donations for personal purposes. Andrews, who previously aspired to higher office, said the inquiry was not a factor is his resignation, which is effective Feb. 18. He is taking a job running the governmental affairs unit of a Philadelphia law firm where his wife has worked. …

For the second time in as many weeks, an official associated with Cover Oregon, the state’s troubled health-care exchange, has resigned. Executive director Rodney King submitted his resignation earlier this week after a month of medical leave In his letter, King explained that stepping down was “not an easy decision,” but cited the uncertainty of his health as his main reason. His resignation will go into effect in March when his medical leave ends.

Consider a country where banking interests balloon debt by lending to people who cannot possibly pay back their loans. These toxic assets then threaten to destroy the national economy. Banking interests plead with the civil government to rescue them for the sake of the economy. The civil government bails them out with taxpayer money. Sound familiar? Well, that’s where the similarities end between the banking crisis in Iceland which began in 2008, and the banking crisis that occurred in the States a year earlier.Taxpayers in Iceland didn’t just sit back and allow the bail out. They thronged the streets banging...

Just over two weeks ago, MSNBC host Martin Bashir delivered a harsh piece of commentary that culminated in the suggestion that someone should “s-h-i-t” in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s (R-AK) mouth. Bashir offered an abject apology on his next broadcast, but a chorus of critics continued to demand action against the host. After a reported “vacation” for the host earlier this week, Bashir announced, Wednesday afternoon, that MSNBC and Martin Bashir are parting ways.

Think about it. The POWER OF THE PURSE is a great thing to have. So, why is the US House being such wimps. The debt ceiling is a huge source of power. So, why ask SO LITTLE? If the GOP were to hold firm and we backed them up, we could ask for something more: We could ask for Obama and Biden to resign as our SOLE demand in exchange for raising the debt limit. If Obama stays, the debt limit stays where it is until he leaves office. Period. Obama and Biden would have little choice but to cave....

On February 28, 1993, 76 agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) arrived at the Branch Davidian compound just outside Waco, Texas. By the time they left on April 19th, more than six dozen men, women and children (including several infants) were dead; many burned alive in an inferno that destroyed the compound during the federal government’s final, massive assault on the flimsy structure. Despite then-Attorney General Janet Reno publicly accepting “responsibility” for the catastrophe, no agent or employee of the federal government was ever held accountable. I know; I participated in the lengthy 1995 congressional oversight...

<p>He was born of a mixed race parentage, who graduated from Columbia University, and worked as a community organizer, before being elected president. He has now announced his resignation.</p>

Bob Filner announced his resignation Friday as San Diego’s 35th mayor following a tumultuous six weeks in which lurid allegations of repeated sexual misconduct against women crippled his ability to lead and turned him into a subject of national ridicule. Filner will to step down on Aug. 30 as part of a deal approved Friday afternoon by the City Council on a 7-0 vote in closed session that limits his legal and financial exposure stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide. In a dramatic appearance before the council, Filner was both apologetic yet defiant, lashing out...

Report: San Diego Mayor Filner to resign By Blake Neff - 08/22/13 12:38 PM ET San Diego Mayor Bob Filner will resign, according to a local television station. Filner, who has been accused of sexual harassment and improper sexual advances by 17 women, has been in mediation talks on his future. ABC 10 News in San Diego reported the former congressman had reached a deal in which he will leave office. Filner has been under enormous pressure to resign in California and in Washington, where many of his former colleagues have torched him with criticism. The mayor faces the possibility...

Rep. Jared Polis, a progressive Democrat representing Boulder, Colo., has had enough of Attorney General Eric Holder and would be pleased if he resigned. … Polis offered four major reasons he has lost confidence in Holder, including: the Justice Department’s pursuit of reporters during leak investigations; Holder’s non-committal to respecting state marijuana legalization laws; his apparent approval of NSA surveillance; and the “abuse of prosecutorial discretion” by federal prosecutors. … Polis also specifically mentioned the prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the Reddit co-founder who committed suicide as federal prosecutors pursued severe charges after he downloaded research from the Massachusetts Institute of...

<p>Janet Napolitano to resign as Homeland Security Secretary on Friday. Developing ...</p>

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has led the embattled agency for the entirety of President Obama’s administration, said Friday she is resigning to run the University of California system. Ms. Napolitano, who had been governor of Arizona before being tapped to lead the agency, leaves with a trail of successes, but also has become a lightning rod in the immigration debate which is now raging on Capitol Hill. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/12/janet-napolitano-quits-homeland-security-post/#ixzz2YqRSTW7e Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Shaheen, 76, leader of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, headquartered just south of downtown St. Louis, in a pastoral center next to St. Raymond's Maronite Catholic Parish. Canon law requires bishops to submit their resignations at age 75. The pope named the Rev. Abdallah Zaidan, 50, rector of Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Maronite Cathedral in Los Angeles, to succeed Shaheen. The Maronite Catholic Church, an ancient Eastern Rite branch of Catholicism, is based in Lebanon. St. Raymond's is the seat of one of two eparchies, or dioceses,...

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch has resigned. His resignation is effective immediately. Michael Huseby will now be the CEO of NOOK Media and president of Barnes & Noble. Allen Lindstrom has been promoted and will serve as the company's new CFO. The news isn't a huge surprise. Barnes & Noble has largely failed to adapt to the growing tablet and e-reader market. And although its Android-based Nook tablets have received decent reviews, they haven't been selling very well. In May, Barnes & Noble made a quiet admission that its Nook tablets weren't selling as well as it had hoped...

The office of the new Palestinian prime minister says he has submitted his resignation after just two weeks on the job because of a conflict over authority, though it remains unclear whether he will actually step down. Former university dean Rami Hamdallah took office June 6 after being picked by President Mahmoud Abbas to replace internationally known Salam Fayyad. …

Chad Pergram ‏@ChadPergram 2m Deputy CIA Director Mike Morell resigns.

Presidential aides are privately admitting to a growing frustration inside the White House with Attorney General Eric Holder’s political ineptness in the press leak investigations and are hoping the embattled appointee will resign from office, The New York Times reports. “The White House is apoplectic about him, and has been for a long time,” said an anonymous Democrat source, identified only as a former government employee who acknowledged the White House staffers in question are his friends. President Barack Obama’s advisers are frustrated with Holder’s inability to foresee problems arising from his approval of a subpoena naming a Fox News...

Haaretz's Barak Ravid reports that US Secretary of State John FN Kerry has given Israeli and 'Palestinian' negotiators something upon which they can agree. About one thing, thereÂ’s no disagreement between Jerusalem and Ramallah: Kerry has a lot of good intentions and a real sense of mission; he truly wants to make peace in the Middle East. But despite his good intentions, Kerry so far looks like a naive and ham-handed diplomat who has been acting like a bull in the china shop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Or as former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan once put it, heÂ’s a good...

They were men of the cloth. But their cloth of preferance must have been silk -- as in lingerie. Lead Pastor David Loveless, who has been married for 33-years and was recognized as "one of the top 20 Christian leaders in the US to watch," has resigned from the Discovery Church in Orlando after admitting to having an affair, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Loveless is the third pastor of a major Orlando-area church to resign within the past six-months because of an affair.