Free Republic

East Germany, formally known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), wanted to be a paradise for the common folk. It called itself a “workers’ and peasants’ state.” Its anthem, “Risen from Ruins,” brought to mind a phoenix rising gloriously from the ashes of World War II. From cradle to grave, the East German government cared for its citizens, providing childcare, housing, and job assignments. Even now, shops peddling goods from the GDR years dot the former East. They appeal to those afflicted with Ostalgie, nostalgia for life under the bygone socialist regime. But despite the modern, sanitized images of East...

I meant to do a video in response to many of your questions concerning black flags and big buses at the US Capitol, but as is the case sometime when I’m out filming something else just pops up that is a bit more interesting. Today it was the US Capitol fence and the barbed wire FINALLY being removed. Work crews on one stretch of the road are taking off the barbed wire in preparation to reopen on section of the US Capitol area (a major road that many commuters are missing).

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boozes it up in Australia and the Pentagon grapples with more floozy eruptions, outraged military families are still waiting for answers about the forgotten 9/14 attack on Camp Bastion. Muckrakers and distraction engineers are having a front-page field day with the so-called "sex scandal." But for surviving relatives and colleagues of heroic Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, it's the national security scandal at Afghanistan's Camp Bastion that deserves headline coverage. There's been a virtual blackout of the alarming story in the national press. As I reported last month, the meticulously...

Homeland Security chief says that the program is not fully functional, but that security has improved. WASHINGTON -- -- A much-touted, high-tech system being tested along the border with Mexico failed to meet expectations and is being reworked, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. Still, he said, border security has improved dramatically. Chertoff said that SBInet, which integrates cameras, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the border, did not satisfy his department during initial tests and that he has asked Boeing, the contractor, to make improvements. The remarks came during a wide-ranging and occasionally contentious hearing before the...

Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and author of two books, of which her latest is In Defense of Internment (New York: Regnery Publishing, 2004). In it, she provides a defense of "threat profiling" already taken or contemplated since September 11. Ms. Malkin's earlier book was Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores (New York: Regnery Publishing, 2002). Her syndicated column appears in nearly 200 papers nationwide. Ms. Malkin addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia, on December 2, 2004. Millions of American schoolchildren have been taught that there was no evidence...

Footage of Japanese TV from Beijing showing 7 North Koreans escaping LAST NIGHT over tall BARBED WIRE FENCES (some barefoot on the wire and all apparantly without gloves) to get into neutral territory in Beijing, in a Japanese children's school, to safety and the West. Shades of the East Germans getting out of Berlin through the wire or over The Wall. Video Stream Link above and here (brief, in Japanese):http://www.bcast.co.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20041217-00000051-nnn-int-movie-000&media=wm300kChinese Communists put up extra security afterward and are trying to prevent more escapes by North Koreans, currently underground in China, to Freedom.MUST SEE VIDEO.