Free Republic

To be black is to be a victim – and then get blamed for it. To focus on the people’s resistance more than police repression devalues black life.We’ve had enough of the police brutality, of the colorblind mythologies and post-racial rhetoric, of the sweet-talk, of the calls for non-violence; of mass incarceration and systemic poverty, of trigger happy cops and crying black mothers, of the Eric Garners and Renisha McBrides, the Michael Browns and Tarika Wilsons; of black tears and white terror. Dr Martin Luther King Jr said in 1968: “A riot is the language of the unheard”. Today, nearly...

Reagan Aide Jim Brady's Death Ruled Homicide WASHINGTON — Aug 8, 2014, By BRETT ZONGKER This week's death of former White House press secretary James Brady, who survived a gunshot wound to the head in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, has been ruled a homicide by a medical examiner, District of Columbia police said Friday. John Hinckley Jr. shot Brady, who lived through hours of delicate surgery and further operations over the years, but never regained normal use of his limbs and was often in a wheelchair. His family said he died Monday at age 73 from...

OSCE representatives were NOT allowed to wreckage. The terrorists brought heavy equipment to the area around the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing 777 National Security Council reported. "The terrorists had been brought heavy artillery and mined the area around the crash site MH17. This makes it impossible [for investigation] of international experts," - said the Security Council. In addition, terrorists equipped new combat positions near the Torres where liner of Malaysian Airlines was brought down. Now today, the militants once again not allowed OSCE representatives to debris. It is reported that observers have been trying several days to get...

New applications for unemployment benefits plunged last week, reaching an eight-and-a-half-year low and suggesting increasing strength in the labor market. Initial claims for jobless aid, a proxy for layoffs, fell by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 in the week ended July 19...

GOP leaders say they won't appeal ruling that found Florida congressional map unconstitutional.

Since Republicans in Congress refuse to do their job and allow a vote on comprehensive immigration reform this year, Obama, on behalf of the American people, is acting on his own to address this important issue -- for the well-being of our country, our economy and the immigrant community that has contributed so much to our economic growth and prosperity and is suffering greatly from a badly broken system.

Judge Debra Nelson has ruled in favor of NBC in a defamation lawsuit filed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman filed the lawsuit in December 2012, saying NBC aired an edited version of the call he made to 911 right before his confrontation with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin...

National conservatives came up short Tuesday in Mississippi and Oklahoma. Maybe the Republican base just isn't as angry as they thought. Tuesday's Republican primaries were the Tea Party's last chance. And the Tea Party struck out. In Mississippi, challenger Chris McDaniel failed to dethrone six-term incumbent Senator Thad Cochran in the second round of their hard-fought contest. In Oklahoma, Representative James Lankford won by a massive margin over conservative favorite T.W. Shannon. The Tea Party industrial complex—groups like the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks, figures like Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz—invested heavily in both races and came up short. Now...

The globe just experienced the hottest May in recorded history, according to reports from multiple organizations. Ocean and land temperatures rose 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.33 degrees Fahrenheit) over the 20th Century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That makes May 2014 the warmest May since the agency started tracking those figures in 1880. Both NASA and Japan Meteorological Agency came to the same conclusion — this was the warmest May ever recorded. Overall, this was the second warmest spring ever, trailing only the March-May period in 2010, according to the NOAA.

The IRS—remember those jaunty folks?—announced Friday that it can't find two years of emails from Lois Lerner to the Departments of Justice or Treasury. And none to the White House or Democrats on Capitol Hill. An agency spokesman blames a computer crash. Never underestimate government incompetence, but how convenient. The former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations was at the center of the IRS targeting of conservative groups and still won't testify before Congress. Now we'll never know whose orders she was following, or what directions she was giving. If the Reagan White House had ever offered up this excuse, John...

BRUSSELS — Defense and intelligence officials told senators at a classified briefing on Wednesday that they kept secret from Congress the pending swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners because they feared for his life if the deal became public, a senior administration official said Thursday. “The Senators were told, separate and apart from Sgt. Bergdahl’s apparent deterioration in health, that we had both specific and general indications that Sgt. Bergdahl’s recovery — and potentially his life — could be jeopardized if the detainee exchange proceedings were disclosed or derailed,” the official said in a statement. Several senators...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended his decision to release five Afghan detainees from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for an American soldier's freedom, saying his administration had consulted with Congress "for some time" about that possibility. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff left open the possibility of desertion charges against the soldier.

A top aide to President Obama is now apologizing to Congress for not informing lawmakers, as required by law, that the White House was planning to trade an alleged deserter for five top Taliban commanders. The apology comes after Obama himself defended his actions this morning, insisting his administration had discussed the release with Congress “for some time.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told reporters that she received a call from Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken on Monday evening apologizing for failing to inform Congress about the deal to exchange five Taliban detainees for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl....

In a sweeping initiative to curb pollutants blamed for global warming, the Obama administration's EPA unveiled a plan Monday aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly a third by 2030. But it delays the deadline for some states to begin complying until long after President Barack Obama leaves office. The 645-page plan, expected to be finalized next year, is a centerpiece of Obama's efforts to deal with climate change and seeks to give the United States more leverage to prod other countries to act when negotiations on a new international treaty resume next year. Under the...

There comes a point where the Left’s calumnizing of conservatives, its endless quest to delegitimize ordinary words, and its determination to criminalize religious expression all combine to make me want to offend as many leftists as I can, in response, just for fun. But not only for fun: Deliberately choosing to offend them, and thus trying to shred their ideological straitjackets, is occasionally a necessary endeavor. We on the right must show that we need not cower; we can and must fight back. In that spirit: To 50-year-old men, 20-year-old females are indeed “girls.” Not women. Get over it. If...

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who suggested on Monday that "every institution" in America should ignore the nation's immigration laws until Congress passes amnesty legislation, said President George W. Bush will go down as the last Republican president in history if Congress does not act on immigration. "I give you George W. Bush--the man who will go down in history as the last Republican president in American history," Gutierrez said Tuesday on the House Floor. He added: If you do nothing on immigration, I guess you can take comfort in knowing that from Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, you had...

"With the news this week that more than 600,000 Washington residents have acquired new health care plans through the state exchange, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said it’s unlikely the Affordable Care Act will be repealed.... "...She also discussed... the feasibility of immigration reform this year..."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Internal Revenue Service told House Republicans on Wednesday that it would take years to provide all the documents they have subpoenaed in their probe of how the agency handled tea party groups' applications for tax-exempt status. The comments by IRS chief John Koskinen drew a frosty response from Republicans who run the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, one of several congressional panels investigating the controversy. The panel's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., warned him he should comply with the request "or potentially be held in contempt" of Congress, a sometimes threatened but...

Obama delivers remarks in Brussels Belgium

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 175,000 workers were added to nonfarm payrolls in December, well above Wall Street’s consensus estimate of 149,000. 162,000 of those hires were to private payrolls, above expectations for a 145,000 rise in the ranks of private-sector workers. The unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 6.7% from 6.6%. Labor force participation was unchanged at 63.0%. 610,000 were unable to work due to inclement weather in February, above the historical February average of 317,000.