Free Republic

The United States has determined that Russia is suffering "severe manpower shortages" in its six-month-old war with Ukraine and has become more desperate in its efforts to find new troops to send to the front lines, according to a new American intelligence finding disclosed Wednesday. Russia is looking to address the shortage of troops in part by compelling soldiers wounded earlier in the war to return to combat, recruiting personnel from private security companies and even recruiting from prisons, according to a U.S. official who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the downgraded intelligence finding....

More than six months of war in Ukraine have led to huge losses of manpower and military equipment of the terrorist state of Russia. By the end of this year, the Russian Federation will run out of shells for artillery and armored vehicles, there are also very few guided missiles, and the state of military aviation does not allow for a full-scale air campaign. According to the Insider, due to Western sanctions, Russia cannot continue full-fledged industrial production of weapons and replenish supplies that are rapidly being depleted. It is noted that the Arsenal left in the Russian Federation since...

President Joe Biden popped into the press cabin during an Air Force One flight Wednesday afternoon, surprising reporters with an off-the-record appearance. But the president spent most of his time complaining about their negative coverage of his administration, according to Politico’s West Wing Playbook, citing “multiple people familiar” with the meeting.

WASHINGTON—High-stakes trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. were dramatically upended on Friday morning by inflammatory secret remarks from President Donald Trump, after the remarks were obtained by the Toronto Star. In remarks Trump wanted to be “off the record,” Trump told Bloomberg News reporters on Thursday, according to a source, that he is not making any compromises at all in the talks with Canada — but that he cannot say this publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.” In a remark he did not want published, U.S. President...

A top aide to Donald Trump is pushing back on a report that the president-elect ripped media executives and reporters during an off-the-record meeting on Monday.

Hopefully they'll wait till the plane lands . . . New York Times reporters should be thrown off the Trump plane. That's what Steve Schmidt and Joe Scarborough said on today's Morning Joe. Via a Gail Collins column in the Times and in conversations with BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith, portions of Donald Trump's ostensibly off-the-record interview with the Times' editorial board in January were leaked. Said Schmidt: "if I was running the Donald Trump campaign, every New York Times reporter on that plane would be off of it until and unless they clarify the attributional policies of the newspaper." Seconded...

Forty-eight hours ago, the campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and the super PACs that supported him had apparently found a cohesive, potent attack on Donald Trump -- that the mogul was a "con artist" who defrauded "the little guy." Any attempt to cohere around an anti-Trump message is gone. For the past 24 hours, Rubio and surrogates have eviscerated Trump for a rambling non-response to a question about endorsements from white supremacists. And for just the last hour, Rubio allies and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) have demanded answers from Trump on BuzzFeed's report that the candidate had more immigration...

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

Yesterday, we posted a photo of Abdul Rahman Ali Issa Al-Salimi Al-Harbi, a Saudi national who was a ‘person of interest’ in the Boston marathon bombings. In that photo, Al-Harbi doesn’t appear to be the least bit concerned about his fate. Now we have another photo (h/t Diana West) of Alharbi at the hospital, smiling while standing next to what appears to be a Saudi diplomat...

Bolstered by the backing of key watchdog groups, top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa is pressing House oversight committee Chairman Edolphus Towns to help investigate a mounting number of technology-related ethics problems for a White House that has prided itself on both transparency and its technological savvy. Issa’s latest move is a June 30 letter to Towns requesting the chairman join Issa in “launching a formal investigation” into numerous allegations the Obama White House has played fast and loose with its ethics rules and disclosure requirements under federal law. The letter comes two days after Washington-based watchdog group Citizens...

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is filing a formal complaint with chamber officials regarding what he considers an “unethical” broadcast of an interview with him by a CNN reporter Tuesday. ROLL CALL reports: In an incident that could have repercussions for TV journalists’ access to the chamber, Stevens is furious with CNN correspondent Joe Johns for an interview conducted outside the weekly GOP policy luncheons, but far away from the usual bank of TV cameras set up for such interviews next to the storied Ohio Clock.

Time Inc. editor in chief Norman Pearlstine, who made the controversial choice last summer to turn over the notes of a reporter threatened with jail for refusing to identify a source, is writing a book about anonymous sources. "Off the Record" is scheduled to be published by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday, in 2007. In a decision that brought criticism from his peers in journalism, Pearlstine agreed to comply with a court order to turn over notes by Time reporter Matt Cooper. They were sought by a special federal prosecutor investigating who in the Bush administration leaked the...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON – Today, the Republican National Committee released Off the Record with Chairman Ken Mehlman, the second installment of the web video series.  Off the Record, which is available exclusively on gop.com, features interviews with Party leaders, activists, and rising stars in the GOP.  In this week’s segment, Chairman Mehlman talks about his vision for the Republican Party, the RNC’s role in the 2006 election cycle and some personal history.  Off the Record can be viewed on gop.com and will be emailed to the RNC’s 7.5 million eActivists.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614WASHINGTON – Today, the Republican National Committee launched Off the Record, a weekly video series of candid interviews with Party leaders, activists, and rising stars in the GOP. This week, Off the Record features Senator John Thune (R-SD) speaking on a range of topics including his recent visit to Iraq and the importance of new media in politics. “Our new video series allows gop.com visitors the opportunity to learn more about Republican leaders and elected officials than they get from the typical TV soundbite,” said RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. “We look forward to helping...

Investigative Reporter Jason Leopold Exposes Dirty Politics, Corporate Scandal and His Own Double Life in Engaging New Book In Off the Record, Jason Leopold reveals in startling detail how his desire to land the scoop at any cost ended up costing him his career and how that made him come to terms with his past he had kept hidden for nearly a decade. (PRWEB) December 9, 2004 -- In "Off the Record", Jason Leopold reveals in startling detail how his desire to land the scoop at any cost ended up getting him tossed into the "buzzsaw." Leopold spent two years...

Between the end of the Republican National Convention and Election Day, the Houston Chronicle spent roughly 50,000 words on President George W. Bush and his campaign for re-election. Perhaps most impressive, one of its own columnists had major news to break on the race. He just didn't, umm, break it to the Chronicle. Russ Baker, a New York-based freelance journalist and contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review, had been circling the reporting waters around President Bush for several months, dialing up hundreds of possible sources for material on the commander in chief. "I just didn't think we really knew enough...

L’affaire Kerry and the Vatican continues to develop new layers of intrigue. In my last column on this subject, I discussed how the undersecretary for the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Augustine DiNoia, has been frantically backpedaling from a letter he requested that his friend, Fr. Basil Cole, send to an American canon lawyer, Marc Balestrieri, on the question of whether John Kerry has excommunicated himself because of his obstinate public promotion of abortion on demand. Fr. Cole’s letter concluded that Kerry was indeed excommunicated and was further guilty of heresy for denying an article of Catholic faith:...

"How do you get away with writing about constitutional issues when no one else does?" a conservative patron asked at a small meeting I spoke at last week "This subject is important enough to people. Why doesn't the national media ever mention the way Congress abuses the Constitution?" Why indeed. It's not necessarily because they're mostly a bunch of socialists, either. All are not. The answer is actually much simpler than that: It would be a very poor career move. First, many members of the national press -- the political reporters, anyway -- live in Washington. And most of those...