Free Republic

Hours after President Trump signed a stimulus bill that includes $25 million for the Kennedy Center, its president Deborah Rutter told the National Symphony Orchestra that their paychecks would end this week. The Kennedy Center — a performing arts center and memorial for President John F. Kennedy — canceled performances from March 12 to May 10 as government officials restrict large gatherings to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In a conference call Friday night, Rutter told orchestra leaders that the 96 musicians would receive their last paycheck on April 3 and that they will not be paid until the...

America is doped up—and drunk. According to a shocking new report from the Health and Human Services Department, there were 24.6 million people aged 12 or older who used illicit drugs during just one month last year. “That’s enough people to fill every major league baseball stadium in the U.S. 19 times,” said the report. There are 30 MLB stadiums. Even worse: Of the 24.6 million dopers, 2.2 million were adolescents aged 12 to 17. …

Dismissing concerns over possible links between Libyan rebels and al Qaeda, the Obama administration has notified Congress it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to the rebels’ effort to drive Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime from power. “The president’s proposed actions would provide urgently needed nonlethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya,” said Joseph E. Macmanus, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, in an April 15 letter. A copy of the letter, sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was obtained by The Washington Times.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, is heading to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi for a meeting with forces fighting to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, an aide told The Associated Press. McCain was scheduled to arrive in Benghazi on Friday, said Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the senator.

Just a Little Genocide "I asked, "well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?" and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say "eliminate," I mean "kill." Twenty-five million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25...

Talks on North Korean banking row enter second week in China Mon Apr 2, 6:11 PM ET Negotiations over the release of millions of dollars claimed by Pyongyang dragged into a second week on Monday, with no sign of progress in the impasse that has held up North Korean nuclear talks. Top US Treasury official Daniel Glaser was still in Beijing after holding days of meetings with Chinese officials on the issue last week, a US embassy spokeswoman said. "I can confirm that he is still here. We don't know how much longer he is going to be here," spokeswoman...

Remember all that talk during the just concluded presidential campaign about this being the worst economy since the Great Depression? Or that President Bush's jobs performance is the poorest since Herbert Hoover was in office? Well, with the close of the 2004 calendar year comes the end of Mr. Bush's first term. Maybe without all the distractions and distortions that accompany a political campaign we can better determine what the real economic results are since our 43rd president was inaugurated. Let's begin with jobs. This past Friday's December employment report paints quite a different picture of the U.S. economy than...

For decades now, our bad neighbor to the south has aided and abetted its impoverished citizens to enter the United States illegally – a process that pays handsome dividends to Mexico, but results in massive trauma and social upheaval for the gringos. The latest attack on our sovereignty is a 32-page color comic book published by Mexico’s foreign ministry and designed as a self-help manual for illegal aliens. The publication (which should be titled “Juan and Miguel Join Mexico’s National Synchronized Swimming Team”) contains helpful advice on crossing the Rio Grande (wear light clothing), traversing the desert (carry salt tablets...

The woman who ended "Jeopardy!" whiz Ken Jennings' 74-game winning streak is a California real estate agent whose own 8-year-old daughter asked for his autograph when they met. But having an accountant-friend who's nearly impossible to reach at tax time paid off for Nancy Zerg -- big time. In a victory telecast Tuesday, Zerg beat a pop-culture icon who had achieved an aura of invincibility. Jennings won $2,520,700, a record for a TV game show contestant, since his first appearance June 2. During his streak, Jennings usually had opponents so thoroughly beaten that the Final Jeopardy question was meaningless to...