Free Republic

n view of the public frustration with a decade of largely unsuccessful U.S. war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the impending cuts to the U.S. military budget, there is an active debate at present as to what military strategy and force structure should be fashioned for the future. Unfortunately, many taxpayers and most politicians are totally illiterate when it comes to the subject of warfare. (Judging from the dismal results in the last ten years, a similar conclusion might to drawn concerning the U.S. officer corps.) In an attempt to fill this critical knowledge void and perhaps raise the level...

Don Gwinn began his presentation with a rousing analysis of the state of gun control in America today. He said a headline in The Onion summed things up nicely: “Obama gives bold speech on gun control, alone, quietly, in his office with the lights off”. Gwinn cited Tom Shafer’s boiling anger at the mainstream media’s clarion call for gun control after a left-wing kook attempted to assassinate Gabby Giffords. Gwinn reminded everyone what happened in 1999 after Columbine. The Million Mom March sprang up overnight and George Soros and his allies poured tons of money into that and other gun...

Barack Obama is once again unleashing his formidable campaign skills as he prepares for the upcoming election. But facing shrinking poll numbers and growing discontent, this campaign is different from the one he ran in 2008. Gone are the calls for unity, the righteous rhetoric, and the hope and change. This time we see a more cynical and ruthless candidate, as Obama sheds all bi-partisan pretenses, accelerates his “transformation” of America, and at the same time attempts to expand his base. Desperation, it seems, is revealing more of his true character and his style of leadership.

I have to wonder if all the Romney haters on this site were the same people who ran home to mom when they lost at games as kids. I did not vote for Romney in the primaries. If you asked anyone that knows me, they would say I am right of Reagan. What I don't understand is all of you that love this country,which I truly believe you do, that are willing to not vote for Romney and potentially allow this country to fail by re-electing Obama!, how does that make sense?

Mitt Romney just felt like chatting. Just after wrapping up his final event in Iowa on day four of his five-day bus tour through battleground states, the Republican nominee briefly made an appearance in the back of his campaign plane to chat up reporters as he prepared to fly to his home state of Michigan for a final day of events. "When we land, you'll look around and see all the trees are the right height," Romney joked, making fun of a line he frequently used while he was campaigning in Michigan during the GOP primary. But Romney was cautious...

Former Republican presidential contender and Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum announced the formation of a new conservative group Friday, saying it will seek to thwart President Obama's bid for re-election in 2012. "The defeat of Barack Obama, and those who support his policies, will be our first priority."

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum launched a new conservative group on Friday with the goal of recruiting 1 million members to help get Democratic President Barack Obama out of the White House. The former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said the group, Patriot Voices, is committed to promoting "faith, freedom and opportunity" and will offer financial and other support to conservative candidates in the November 6 general election. "We're going to be holding candidates accountable and getting involved with candidates, supporting them and, of course, supporting Mitt Romney and making sure Mitt is the next president of the United States,"...

What happened in Wisconsin Tuesday night was not about an election or a politician. It wasn’t about collective bargaining or budget deficits. It was about something far more important and far more intangible. It was about who and what we are as Americans. The people of Wisconsin had a choice. Would they, and in turn the rest of America, whose eyes were riveted on this small northern state, be a people with their hand constantly extended to the public trough shouting “give me, give me, give me”? Or, as the Tea Party has tried to exemplify, would we become the...

In Puerto Rico, for the price of 20 delegates, Mitt Romney sold out his conservative principles. There is a long history of Congress requiring English to be the language of government and schools for territories seeking to be admitted to the Union — e.g., Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. For all of the territories that had large non-English speaking populations, Congress announced before the territories voted on the question of statehood that a change in language policy would be a prerequisite for statehood. In the case of Puerto Rico, where according to the latest Census only 15% of residents...

...WALLACE: The polls show a surprisingly close race Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi. Question -- are you going to win them both? GINGRICH: I think we'll win both. We are campaigning very aggressively on both states. As almost everywhere, you start a little behind because of Romney's money and the length of time he's advertising. And as you campaign, you catch up with him pretty rapidly, and I think we're probably polling ahead in both states right now. We have great organizations in both states and in particular in Alabama where Senate Majority Leader Jabo Waggoner has put together a...

A two-and-a-half-hour drive couldn’t separate Patricia Tayman from Newt Gingrich’s rally in Dothan. The Pensacola, Fla., resident left Sunday’s event with a smile on her face, confident Gingrich is the right man to lead the country in the years to come. “I’m psyched, and I’m just praying he can pull it off in Mississippi and Alabama and get back ahead of things,” she said. “I’ve watched the different debates, and after seeing him in person, I’m behind him 100 percent now.” Enterprise resident Tracy Bullinger said her trip to the Circle City was worth it as well. “I did not...

So, West Virginia has won three different BCS bowl games in the last six years - with three different coaches no less. What to make of this? Well, first of all, it puts the Mountaineers in a pretty select group of college football programs that have won three or more of these since the system was created in 1998 – eight programs to be exact. There’s Ohio State, USC, Florida, LSU, Texas, Miami and Oklahoma that have won at least three BCS bowl games in the last 14 years. And now, um, catch your breath here, West Virginia. That’s right,...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The White Castle hamburger chain is sipping on the idea of selling alcoholic beverages at its restaurants. The 90-year-old company is testing beer and wine sales at a location in Lafayette, Ind., that combines a traditional White Castle burger joint with a Blaze Modern BBQ, a new restaurant concept also being tried out. In other cities, Columbus, Ohio-based White Castle is testing an Asian food concept and a restaurant that serves grilled sandwiches.

The funny thing about Denver's success is that some people truly underestimate how hard it is for head coach John Fox and offensive coordinator Mike McCoy to do what they've done. [...] As one AFC general manager said: "A lot of coaches out there don't know how to win. They think it's more about their systems when it really is about what their players can do.

Obama and his gang of Alinskyite thugs are not as tough as they look when we know how to fight.Well, well, well, elections actually do have consequences, don’t they? Millions of Americans are indeed suffering the real consequences of the Republican Party’s mealy-mouthed, yellow-streaked performance during campaign ’08. Oh sure, both the Democrats and the willfully myopic media are most to blame for the Obama presidency, but it is high time that the Republican Party hotshots do a little introspecting of their own. How is it that the American electorate knew so little about Barack Obama that they could stay...

THIS IS NOT A JOKE, I WAS TOLD THIS AND CHECKED IT OUT MYSELF, I MADE A COMMENT AND WENT TO THIS PAGE, RELOADED IT AND THERE WAS MY COMMENT!!

That James Fulton Engstrom is celebrating his first birthday on Friday is amazing. In fact, some would call his life a miracle. Considered stillborn on Sept. 16, 2010 after a healthy pregnancy and “a beautiful, short labor,” James was without a pulse for the first 61 minutes of his life. It was only when doctors at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria were ready to call the time of death that his little heart started beating. His parents, Travis and Bonnie Engstrom, believe James is alive due to the intercession of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Servant of God. On...

Anti-Gadhafi fighters carry their wounded comrade during fighting at the frontline, in the north of the besieged city of Bani Walid on Friday. BANI WALID, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi's fighters beat back an attempt by Libya's new government Friday to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops into retreat in the mountains and turning Gadhafi's seaside hometown into an urban battlefield of snipers firing from mosques and heavy weapons rattling main boulevards. The tough defense of the holdout towns of Sirte and Bani Walid displayed the firepower and resolve of the Gadhafi followers and suggested Libya's new rulers...

[snip] ....The college students have gone home, and public school teachers clearly are much more inclined to protest on days when school is actually in session. [snip] Down the sidewalk from the west wing, random speakers take turns holding court at a rigged-up PA system. A rotund woman with a large knee brace, clutching an American Federation of Teachers sign, starts a semi-lucid, profane speech in which she urges the crowd to “do your f—ing homework” at campaign time. For some people, P.J. O’Rourke once noted, free speech is a curse. Her screed is made even more bizarre by a...

If either the GOP contenders or President Obama plan on dismissing Michele Bachmann’s candidacy out of hand because she represents the Tea Party, they ought to think twice.In the war of economics and business, where these campaigns will likely be won or lost, Bachmann has shown the strongest practical grasp on issues of the American economy vs. any of the candidates in the race. Certainly she has the academic and business experience for her views on the economy to be taken seriously. "After high school, meanwhile, the disciplined Bachmann spent time on a Kibbutz in Israel, graduated from Winona State University...