Free Republic

President Obama directing the arm of a Marine to hold an umbrella to protect him while he spoke to the press seemed to ooze with the symbolism of an Imperial Presidency. The common thread of the Associated Press Scandal, IRS Scandal, Benghazi Scandal, and now a revival of the Fast and Furious Scandal all speak to an Administration exercising unlimited power in the pursuit of their agenda, while also exercising unlimited power in punishing anyone that gets in their way. The Obama Imperial Presidency reminds me of the attitude of British King George III about the American colonies: “A traitor...

President Barack Obama is calling attention to his economic proposals and efforts to expand the middle class. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the U.S. should focus on attracting good jobs, educating workers and ensuring workers get paid a decent living.

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

The beauty of UN Agenda 21 is that Big Government collects lots more taxes that they can spend on their Big Business friends. That is why it is so instructive to watch Monsanto, the agricultural chemical behemoth that has long been a great partner with rural farmers, turn on its base and join the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Monsanto is now aligned with 200 major banks, oil companies, and other powerful corporate players committed to implementing the United Nations Marxist scheme to expropriate rural land and eliminate the suburbs by moving these unwashed masses to the cities where...

The European Union (EU) is pouring millions of pounds into organizations that advocate state control of the press. For many, the funding—uncovered recently by Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan—is yet further evidence of the EU’s increasingly Orwellian, authoritarian nature. The Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has for years referred to the organization as the EUSSR. … This is not the first time the EU has sought to control freedom of expression. In 2001, the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU was allowed to suppress political criticism of its institutions and of leading figures. The court ruled that the EU was...

Figures from Eurobarometer, the EU’s own polling organization, suggest that anti-Brussels feeling has spread far beyond Britain and is rising in both poor and better-off EU nations. It follows the continuing eurozone economic crisis, which has sent unemployment soaring and led to a string of multi-billion-pound taxpayer-funded bailouts. Results showed 66 percent of voters in Britain say they “tended not to trust the EU as an institution”. A majority shared that view in Italy (53 percent), France (56 percent) and Germany (59 percent), while in crisis-hit Spain, the figure has soared to 72 percent. The findings are understood to have...

Swedish defense minister Karin Enstrom has said her country is not in NATO partly because the EU treaty contains its own security guarantee. Speaking to EUobserver at the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava on Saturday (20 April), she said: “If you really read it, the Lisbon Treaty says you must support your EU neighbors with all the necessary means.” Referring to Lisbon’s article 42.7, she noted: “Since the EU is not a military alliance, it’s not like article five [NATO’s collective security clause], but there is this line which says all EU member states must support any other member state if...

In The Republic, Plato argued that philosophers must be made kings for the ideal city-state to be born. In the pages of The New Republic, Cass Sunstein argues for the benevolent paternalism of the nanny state and its philosopher-kings. It’s an old Sunstein theme and the one that brought him to the attention of politicians who dearly love to imagine themselves in the roles of those philosopher-kings. One of those politicians, Barack Obama, even made Sunstein his Regulatory Czar. Sunstein debuted as the philosopher-king of the technocrats with his book Nudge. Now having left his D.C. Czardom, Sunstein is back...

Do not annoy Jay-Z. The rapper has recorded a song that appears to take on those who criticized his recent trip to Cuba with wife Beyoncé.

Among all the media coverage of Margaret Thatcher's recent death, what has impressed me most are the scenes of communists, trade unionists, "occupyers", miners and assorted leftists "celebrating" collectively in the street (like in the video that can be seen clicking on the link just below the post title) or privately at home with a bottle of sparkling wine or a cigar. Where did you see analogous scenes? Among Muslims, of course, after 9/11 or some genocidal attack on Israel or other similar niceties. You never see Christians celebrating the death of anyone, or real conservatives doing that. All these...

Two boys allegedly kidnapped in Florida by their father turned up with their parents in Cuba Monday, officials said... ...the boys were taken by their parents, Joshua Hakken, 35, and his wife, Sharyn Hakken, 34, who had lost custody of the children after Joshua's drug-possession arrest in Louisiana.

Despite a long-standing ban on tourist trips to Cuba, Jay-Z and Beyonce were recently spotted on the island, sparking outrage for many Cuban-Americans and prompting a letter from two Florida Republican Congressmen to the Obama administration. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports....

Baroness Ashton will be entitled to £400,000 at the taxpayer’s expense over three years for doing nothing after finishing her five year term as the European Union’s foreign minister at the end of 2014. Research by The Daily Telegraph has established that the Labour peer, who finishes her job as High Representative of foreign affairs in October next year, will be paid £133,500 ($204,735.60) a year, 55 percent of her basic salary, until the end of 2017. The “transitional allowance” does not require her to do any work at all, and she will be paid under reduced rates of EU...

These are trying times. Never in the history of this country have we been so weakened and polarized by what many view as deliberate government policy. Now anti-gunners in the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, and legislatures across the country are seeking to exploit the Newtown tragedy to promote their “gun control” agenda that envisions federal, universal background checks on gun purchases, and that could lead to gun registration and confiscation. At the same time, the increasing militarization of law enforcement, most visibly demonstrated by the growing use of massive, SWAT-type raids on businesses and individuals, sometimes with federal

UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempt to get other member states to participate in a general review of EU laws has suffered an embarrassing rebuff from Paris and Berlin. France and Germany have refused to take part in Cameron’s much-publicized examination of whether some EU powers should be returned to member states, reports the Financial Times. The paper notes that Paris and Berlin consulted with one another on the issue before concluding that the exercise—known as the “balance of competences”—was more to serve Britain’s domestic political interests. … The review is the cornerstone of London’s EU policy, as Cameron attempts...

Agenda21Radio is hosted by Paul Preston and Chriss Street. The show airs Monday thru Friday from 9 to 10 PM Pacific Time on 1410AM Marysville, CA and is simulcast on YouTube at Agenda 21 RadioE-mail Paul Preston at paul@edtalkradio.com E-mail Chriss Street at Chriss@chrissstreetandcompany.com

Obama’s actions throughout his “presidency,” and the active support of Democrats, have made it crystal clear that he and the party hate free Americans. Everything they have colluded on has been aimed at harming We, the People, as free citizens of a capitalist, constitutional republic. From the daily attempts to shred the Constitution, to the total fraud of ObamaCare and the use of it to attack Christians, to the looting of the treasury and redistribution of our money to Big Banks and Big Unions, to the raising of already out-of-control taxes, to the destruction of our energy industries and much,...

Trying to cool down the resurgent property market, two of China’s biggest cities announced over the weekend that they would put in place a series of restrictions and penalties on housing sales. … The announcements came a few weeks after China’s State Council, or cabinet, said the government would take stronger action to ensure that property prices do not continue to soar, fueling what many analysts believe is a real estate bubble that could seriously damage the economy and exacerbate social tensions between the rich and the poor. …

Markets were generally steady Tuesday as European officials attempted to douse concerns that the main thrust of Cyprus’ bailout—a raid on deposits—could be used again in the future. On Monday, markets were roiled by a suggestion from Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings of the finance ministers of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, that the Cyprus bailout was a template for future rescue plans. … Other European officials, such as Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras and European Central Bank policymaker Benoit Coeure, sought Tuesday to ease fears that the Cyprus bailout strategy will be repeated, but...

Ireland's expected exit from a European bailout program later this year should be a morale boost to other euro zone countries in crisis, its European affairs minister said on Saturday.