Free Republic

Three and a half hours. Three and a half hours from Jenin to Tul Karm. In three and a half hours you can fly to Rome, or drive to Eilat. But in the occupied West Bank today you’re barely able to drive between two nearby cities. That’s the time it took us this week to travel from Jenin to Tul Karm, 35 kilometers. At the end of every Palestinian road on the West Bank there is a locked iron gate since the war in Gaza started. Waze instructs you to travel on these roads, but even this clever app doesn’t...

A man who claims to be a former employee of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s foundation says that the Olena Zelenska Foundation was involved with child sex trafficking. As a driver of supposedly war-endangered children, the man says that he was forced to drive children from cities in Ukraine and deliver them to pedophiles elsewhere in Europe, including in extremely wealthy and well-connected areas in London and Berlin. A little-seen video on Youtube entitled “La Fondation Olena Zelenska est impliquée dans le trafic d’enfants” reveals the claims of a masked man who says that he transported children out of Ukraine...

Western pundits like to make fun of the supposedly “no limits” partnership between China and Russia. But if they really want to know what no limits means in a state-to-state relationship and how tremendous self-harm can result, they need to look no further than that between the United States and Israel. What Israel wants, Israel gets; and does not even have to ask first when it comes to emergency financial aid and weapons. As Israel bombs its way across the Gaza Strip and Jewish settlers commit murder to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank, the weapons they are using...

Predictably, the world has flown apart after October 7th, as tribalism in both directions is driven by escalating emotions. When I post neutral accounts of horrific events on both “sides” of the divide, someone always interprets what I have done as partisanship on my part — as if I am adhering to one or the other “position” in the conflict when I am simply showing that news is underway; that someone somewhere is getting hurt or dying. So of course, since I promised on my deathbed that if I was allowed to live, I would write what I was most...

Self-serving Representative Matt Gaetz had absolutely no plan beyond “oust House Speaker McCarthy.” Some America First Patriots who support Gaetz claim that his actions “exposes” RINOs in Congress. That makes as much sense as Titanic passengers being happy the ship hit an iceberg because that “exposed” that the luxury liner lacked sufficient lifeboats. Finally, after three weeks of chaos, Republicans have a Speaker of the House! We wish fourth-term Conservative Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana complete success. He is currently the vice chairman of the House GOP conference. An attorney by trainng, he’s a former conservative talk radio host and...

Herewith, an under-asked question for our friends on the progressive left: “Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?” I make this inquiry because, for a long while now, I have been of the view that the only thing that is likely to join conservatives and progressives in condemnation of government excess is the prospect that that excess will benefit the Right. Along with their peculiar belief that History takes “sides” and that improvement is inexorable and foreordained, most progressives hold as an article of faith that, because it...

Under Trump’s immigration plan, almost all of the 11 million illegal aliens (save for a small minority with criminal records) will get to return and get permanent legal status to stay here in America. Trump supports amnesty. On Fox News on November 12, Trump’s son Eric expressed frustration that the media overlooks this: "The point isn’t just deporting them, it’s deporting them and letting them back in legally. He’s been so clear about that and I know the liberal media wants to misconstrue it, but it’s deporting them and letting them back legally." Eric Trump is right. His father has...

The latest poll following the attacks in Paris, by Fox News, shows Donald Trump moving ahead of Democrat-front-runner Hillary Clinton (in a head-to-head match up if the election were held today), but it is the turmoiling below the surface of the GOP nominations that is garnering most headlines. After a week or two of hope for GOP leadership, as Ben Carson appeared to catch up to Trump, the retired neurosurgon's lies and weakness on foreign policy ("he clearly has no idea what he's talking about," as one Iowa GOP insider noted), have sent his poll numbers reeling... and Cruz surging....

Ben Carson is in serious political trouble, as his wacky and right-wing views on numerous issues draw more scrutiny and critical pieces of the “inspirational” back story he’s been telling for years get exposed as “fabrications.” A looming question now is what more of the political games of truth and consequences regarding Ben Carson is yet to be played. Nonetheless, it’s still worth exploring why Carson’s near lily-White base of supporters have found him so appealing. Conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg offers a partial – and revealing – answer why in a recent column praising the now retired neurosurgeon.

Former congressman Virgil Goode Jr. has qualified for the presidential ballot in Virginia, the State Board of Elections ruled Tuesday, adding a potential obstacle to Republican Mitt Romney’s hopes of winning the pivotal state. The state Republican party has already challenged the eligibility of Goode, who is the Constitution Party’s nominee, and could still get him knocked off the ballot.

“Deadly assault weapons … are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.” - Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney --IMAGE HERE-- As the Republican National Convention comes to a close, it is time for me to live up to the promise I made when I wrote about Why gun owners should fear a second term for President Obama. That promise was to give the Republican nominee the same skeptical scrutiny that I gave to President Obama. And just as in that previous article, I am limiting my discussion...

Watch Julie McCarty, President of the NE Tarrant [County TX] Tea Party and delegate to the Republican National Convention. Over strong grassroots opposition, Rule No. 12 was passed which gives the Republican National Committee the authority to change any rule between convention sessions. According to McCarty, “This rule was deliberately designed to suppress grassroots efforts.” "It is the Establishment Republicans saying to the grassroots, 'we do not want to hear from you, we want to do things our own way.'” They were able to defeat Rule 15. Under this rule, delegates to the National Convention would have no longer been...

Determined to neuter the grassroots and head off future insurgencies like those of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul, Republican party bosses have pulled off an audacious coup, high-handedly turning the GOP into a much more top-down, centralized party. Boehner with gavel Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact...

30 September 2001 = 5,807,463,412,200 30 September 2009 = 11,909,829,003,512 Total Increase = 6,102,365,591,312 Increase in by Fiscal Year FY 2002 = 420,772,553,397 FY 2003 = 554,995,097,146 FY 2004 = 595,821,633,587 FY 2055 = 553,656,965,393 FY 2006 = 574,264,237,492 FY 2007 = 500,679,473,047 FY 2008 = 1,017,071,524,650 FY 2009 = 1,885,104,106,599

Rasmussen will be releasing a poll this morning showing Akin costing us dearly in Missouri: McCaskill 48% Akin 38%. Time to pack it up and stop screwing us, big guy.

TAMPA — It’s an understatement to say Republicans are worried about losing the Senate race in Missouri. Amid the Todd Akin controversy, they’re terrified by the prospect of losing a state they previously thought they could win — and thus falling a single seat short of winning control of the Senate. Now, many of them view Mike Huckabee as the key player in the Akin situation. The former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate has supported Akin all along and has prominently refused to join in the Republican chorus — which includes virtually every office holder, former office holder, political operatives...

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican leaders may want to turn the page on Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about women and rape, but Democrats won't let them. Phone calls started Monday in 20 congressional districts held by the GOP, linking the incumbent lawmaker to the six-term Missourian’s suggestion that pregnancy “rarely” results from “legitimate rape.” Akin is running for Senate, in a close race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill

The latest line of attack from the left against Ryan. He needs to own it, and agree it was the wrong thing to do; chalk it up to a youngster's misguided party loyalty. The more R&R distance themselves from Bush's Keynesian flights of fancy the better.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US President George W. Bush has apologised to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over the shooting of a Koran by an American soldier near Baghdad, state television announced on Tuesday. "The prime minister received an apology from US President George W. Bush on the incident of shooting of a Koran by a US soldier," Al-Iraqia television said. US military authorities in Iraq have apologised to the local community west of Baghdad where the staff sergeant fired at the Koran during shooting practice on May 11.

Mr. Cain raised more than $5 million through September. Information on the financial activity since that time won’t be disclosed until January, but the campaign said it raised $9 million over a few weeks alone. The funds allowed Mr. Cain and associates to dine and travel in style, using $350,000 on private chartered air in a few weeks, spending thousands at hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons, and eating largely steak dinners, records show. One of the campaign’s top recipients was T.H.E New Voice, a company set up to sell Mr. Cain’s books and motivational talks, which...