Free Republic

Across 166 pages of internal State Department documents -- released Friday by a pair of Republican congressmen pressing the Obama administration for more answers on the Benghazi terrorist attack -- slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and the security officers assigned to protect him repeatedly sounded alarms to their superiors in Washington about the intensifying lawlessness and violence in Eastern Libya, where Stevens ultimately died. On Sept. 11 -- the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed -- the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled "sensitive," in which he noted "growing problems with security" in Benghazi and "growing...

A far-right group in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is running a 'Muslim cartoon contest' and plans to display the works outside mosques. The move has alarmed authorities which fear it could incite violence and hurt German interests abroad, similar to the backlash that followed the 2005 publication of cartoons in Danish newspapers. The German government has voiced concern that far-right activists in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia may incite violence with plans to hold a so-called "Muhammad cartoon contest" and to stage demonstrations outside mosques in the run-up to a regional election there on May 13.

CBS News) Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said President Obama's comments about having more "flexibility" should be a sign of concern for allies, including Israel. "People have to worry about when a president who has already proven he is a radical says to a Russian president, 'Give me some space so I can get re-elected because then I'll have real flexibility' - you have to wonder," Gingrich said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Gingrich told host Bob Schieffer that "you also have to ask yourself how many foreign leaders has he said that to without an open mic. How...

With two weeks remaining before Iowa kicks off the 2012 campaign with its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, the state Republican Party is taking steps to secure its electronic vote collection system after receiving a mysterious threat to its computers. A video claiming to be from a collective of computer hackers has jolted party officials with a worst-case scenario: an Iowa caucus marred by hackers who successfully corrupt the database used to gather vote totals and crash the website used to inform the public about results that can shape the campaign for the White House. Watch the video here

A growing number of Israelis and foreign Jewish groups are expressing concern over the anti-Semitic flavor of some of the "Occupy Wall St." economic protests in the US. From the 13th century expulsion of Englands Jews to the 19th century Russian pogroms to the Nazi Holocaust, sour economic conditions have historically formed the backdrop of rising anti-Semitism.(snip) Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper called the anti-Semitic outbursts ''hard to watch,'' and an Israeli commenter said, ''It's just like pre-World War II Nazi Germany. You think blood libels can't happen in America?''

Among those polled, 65 percent voted for Obama, 24% for John McCain, and 5% did not vote, or voted for someone else. American Jews still have a favorable opinion of Obama, but are concerned about his policies regarding Israel’s future, a comprehensive bipartisan poll of 600 likely American- Jewish voters indicated. The poll, sponsored by SecureAmericaNow, was taken by Republican pollsters McLaughlin & Associates and Democrat Pat Caddell. Among those polled, 65 percent voted for Obama, 24% for John McCain, and 5% did not vote, or voted for someone else. Sixtyfour percent had a favorable opinion of Obama and approved...

As you may have heard once or twice before, it’s a marathon, not a sprint (unless, of course, you’re talking about a sprint, then it’s a sprint, not a marathon). But we digress. Mark Rosenthal, CEO of Current TV, uses the sports metaphor to express his lack of concern over the second-week ratings drop for Keith Olbermann’s Countdown. The show saw its ratings shrink by nearly a third during the week of June 27, averaging 93,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic.

New Hampshire Democrats conceded a dramatic loss of power to a Republican insurgency last November. Now another group is coming to terms with its sidelining. Moderate Republicans, the practical-minded mainstay of the state’s venerable GOP, have watched in dismay as conservative legislators have proposed restricting state education funding to English, math, science, social studies, and physical education and urged that officials no longer “bear faith and true allegiance’’ to the United States and New Hampshire, but rather, only to New Hampshire. With the recent ascension of Tea Party activist Jack Kimball to head the state Republican Party, many moderates now...

Washington (AP) – Even large-scale Russian cheating on a new nuclear arms treaty would not hurt U.S. security because U.S. nuclear strengths would more than offset any Russian violations, the Obama administration has concluded. James Miller, the Pentagon's leading authority on nuclear arms, on Tuesday outlined for the Senate Armed Services Committee how the administration came to this previously undisclosed conclusion.

If you were looking for a political wedge issue that could work to the advantage of the GOP, you could hardly do better than immigration, which has left a sniping and divided Democratic Party in its wake. It wasn't so at first. Democrats hung together in opposition to SB 1070, sticking to the general theme it doesn't do anything to really secure the border while opening up a Pandora's box of civil-rights violations. But then came polls showing the law had a wellspring of support, followed by boycotts and a federal lawsuit - areas that also don't poll particularly well...

sraelNN.com) Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said Thursday he was “very worried” by the applause that a Tel Aviv University audience gave Vice President Joe Biden when he expressed his condemnation of construction in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem. “I am concerned about the erosion of the red lines we set for ourselves and the lessening of the understanding of Israel's strategic needs, about which there can be no compromise,” he said. The moment Rivlin referred to can be seen in the accompanying video, when Biden says that Palestinian Authority leaders' “commitment to peace” is “an opportunity that must...

RLANDO, Fla. — As he walked out of an auditorium Sunday afternoon, Grant Irwin Sr. pretty much summed up the feelings of Chrysler dealers who had just spent two hours listening the automaker's new management. The 73-year-old dealer from Northwest Oklahoma said he's impressed by the executives installed by Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, and optimistic about new cars and trucks that are coming. But he's also wondering about the short-term, which he and other dealers somehow must survive with an aging model lineup that pushed sales down 36 percent last year.

I have been up since 2 am this morning worrying about the state of afairs in this country. 1) The health care is alive then dead still kicking a little 2) Do not feel safe with the current crowd we have 3) What will America look like when these jack booted thugs get finished with it. 4) What opportunities will be left for my children? Ah hell just ranting. I remember the gold old days when liberals were not raving leftist moonbats. Now that they control all three we see the real face of liberalism and I hope voters will...

As this page has long noted, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal of being revered as a global green giant has a potentially huge downside for California’s economy. The governor considers AB 32 – the landmark 2006 anti-global warming state law that forces increased use of cleaner but costlier forms of energy – his greatest achievement. But ever since the bill’s adoption, Schwarzenegger has found it increasingly difficult to reconcile his claims to support economic growth with his environmental policies, which add unique costs to California businesses not borne by their rivals in other states and nations. His cheerleading for ever-more-onerous regulations...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Not sure what to give Uncle Sam this Christmas? How about a nice, fat check to help whittle away at the $7.6 trillion national debt? The U.S. Treasury Department accepts gifts, payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt. Just mail them to the attention of Department G, Post Office Box 2188, Parkersburg, West Virginia, 26106-2188. Make a note in the memo section that it is a gift to reduce the debt held by the public. Yes, really. It's all on the Treasury's website, at the end of the list of frequently asked questions. Which raises a...

Obama said the main message he took from last week’s election results – with Republicans winning gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia – was that Americans are “nervous, and they’re worried and they’re anxious.” “I don't think there's any denying the fact that people are worried out there,” he said in an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper today. Obama said Democrat Bill Owens victory in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district, the one bright spot for the president’s party last Tuesday, “sent an important signal.”

WASHINGTON — The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration over the U.S. commitment to the war there. On Monday, McChrystal sent his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan to the Pentagon , the U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO . Although the assessment didn't include any request for more troops, senior military officials said they expect McChrystal later in September to seek between 21,000 and 45,000 more troops. There currently are 62,000 American troops...

Leaders of the Jewish community of Switzerland are deeply concerned about the sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts there, with little reprieve from "unresponsive" Swiss authorities, according to the general secretary of the Swiss Anti-Defamation League (CICAD), Johanne Gurfinkiel.

With just one month to go before Labour Day many Democrats fear that time is running out for Mr Obama to overcome the suspicions of this key swing vote. “We have got to move away from these beautifully choreographed speeches which appeal to groups of voters who are unassailably in the Obama camp already,” said a non-staff adviser to Mr Obama. “What plays well with the educated liberal voter sometimes grates with the blue-collar folk, whom we need on our side if we are going to win.” At this stage in the 1988 presidential race, Michael Dukakis, the Democratic candidate,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is worried about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons after President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule, prompting protests and arrests, a senior Pentagon general said on Wednesday. Asked if the U.S. military was concerned about the security of those weapons, Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "Certainly." "Any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that has experienced a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is a primary concern," Ham told reporters "However, we'll watch that quite closely and I think...