Free Republic

“I was dreamin’ when I wrote this Forgive me if it goes astray… But when I woke up this morning Could’ve sworn it was Judgment Day. The sky was all purple, There were people runnin’ everywhere Tryin’ to run from the destruction You know I didn’t even care ‘Cuz they say 2000 zero zero party over, oops, out of time!” So begins the classic Prince song “1999.” Although it’s Monday morning as I’m writing this, yesterday was Judgment Day for conservatives throughout America. Hillary Rodham Clinton – former First Lady, former distinguished Senator from the great state of New...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, spoke in Portland Monday night about the loss of her son and the message she hopes his legacy will instill in others. The free event was sponsored by the YWCA of Greater Portland at Marantha Church on Northeast 12th Avenue. Fulton, whose teenage son was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in an incident that sparked a nationwide debate about race, talked about transforming the tragedy into social change. “It’s not a speech, it’s not a lecture,” Fulton said. “It’s a message.” The mother of two shared the...

No matter how much their adversaries have tried to pin them as the "party of no," the GOP is far and away the most dynamic of the two major American political parties today. As evidence of this, just look at how the 2016 primary campaigns are shaping up on either side of the ideological divide. Conservative voters will get to choose from the youngest and most philosophically diverse group of GOP candidates I’ve seen in my lifetime, while the left will get to choose—wait, there is no choice. Yes, that’s right: Unless something drastically changes, the very same liberals who...

President Obama officially removed Cuba from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House announced. The president submitted a statement to Congress that read, "I hereby certify, with respect to the rescission of the determination of March 1, 1982, regarding Cuba that: (i) the Government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding 6-month period; and (ii) the Government of Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future."(continued)

Is this anecdote from Byron York new or did I miss it when he first published it? Either way, can’t wait until Rubio gets asked whether he still believes this at his first presidential campaign townhall. Oh, by the way: What he says here is 100 percent correct. “Here’s my big worry,” Rubio told me during an interview while the bill was making its way through the Senate. “I fear that if this thing fails, the president will basically say to anyone in the U.S. who has been here more than three years, who has not committed a serious crime…he’ll...

Hillary? Rand Paul? Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio? Four major candidates have stepped forward to run for the Democratic and Republican nominations for president, and a few more are sure to follow soon. Their entrances into the race couldn’t be more different. Republicans Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz went the more traditional route with kickoff events. Hillary Rodham Clinton went big on social with a much anticipated video and tweet combination, but is keeping events low-key to start – except for a Monday evening visit to Chipotle. So who’s winning the media battle at this very early stage? Take...

The formal entry of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination could spell trouble for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, according to W. James Antle III of The Daily Caller. Walker has been running ahead of the pack of declared and undeclared candidates. The most recent Fox News poll of national Republican primary voters has him maintaining his lead, with 15 percent support. He is generally out front in Iowa and New Hampshire polling, too. Since he declared his presidential aspirations, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has also been pulling double-digit poll numbers. If the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)“When it comes to Constitutional rights, what matters is what the Bill of Rights says. It doesn’t matter what might be popular at the moment,” said presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz about voting against an expanded background check measure in April 2013. Cruz discussed his decision with Guns.com at the 2015 National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Nashville this past weekend, shortly after the Texas congressman spoke at a crowded convention center about gun rights. The legislation, often referred to as the Manchin-Toomey bill — introduced by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey — aimed to expand...

Studies find sexism slips into political coverage.Hillary Clinton is a presidential candidate, former first lady, twice-elected U.S. senator, ex-secretary of state – and a grandma. She is not the first candidate with some of those qualifications, including the grandparent part. When President George H.W. Bush – a former congressman, director of the CIA, ambassador and White House wingman - took office he had 12 grandchildren. While Mitt Romney was campaigning, two more grandchildren were added to his brood. Yet Bush and Romney’s roles as gramps were never headline worthy. Grandma Hillary, however, already has become part of the discourse. Sure,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-13/the-7-gop-long-shots-who-still-have-a-chance

As a child I saw an ad for movie — which I never watched — titled “Japanese Tank Versus American Armored Car”. All these years I’ve wondered what I missed by not viewing that extraordinary confrontation. But there was no need to worry as more bizarre spectacles awaited. Decades later Twitter is alive with matchups for the next presidential like “Two White Hispanics Versus One Elderly Woman” or “Elderly White Woman Versus White-Looking Native American”. If it sounds weirder than Nipponese Tank vs Detroit Armored Car it is because identity politics is being driven by the American kaleidoscope of identities...

If Ron Paul weren’t Ron Paul, I’d assume this denunciation was just a stunt orchestrated by him and Rand to put some foreign-policy distance between them before the primaries. Are you a mainstream conservative worried that President Rand would be too much like Ron in office? Well, here you go. Let your conscience be eased. The nation’s most famous isolationist thinks his boy’s a bit of a warmonger. But c’mon. With the possible exception of his vote for the Afghanistan AUMF in 2001, has Ron Paul ever endorsed a position that he didn’t sincerely hold? Of course he thinks the...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, which officially kicks off Monday, has so far attracted paltry support from Republican voters, according to polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as nationally. He’s down near Chris Christie! Yet, when we talk about him in the FiveThirtyEight office, we usually put Rubio in the top tier, in front of everyone except Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the two candidates at the top of the polls. Why? Rubio is both electable and conservative, and in optimal proportions. He’s in a position to satisfy the GOP establishment, tea party-aligned voters and social conservatives. In...

HILLARY Clinton announced on Sunday her intention to run to become the first female President in US history. She is the overwhelming favourite to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, despite recent controversies over her personal email use when she was US secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. Although general election day remains over a year and a half away, Clinton’s announcement is the clearest sign yet that the US presidential election has already begun. While the Democratic race is already hers to lose, the Republican contest could be the most competitive in a generation. In the last...

Ted Cruz remains a conservative favorite in 2016. In 2012, the establishment backed his Senate opponent in Texas, then Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. The conservative grassroots backed Cruz and pushed him over the finish line. Cruz has since remained a favorite of the grassroots with a continually antagonist relationship with the Republican establishment. In 2010, Rand Paul, before Cruz, was a grassroots favorite. The Republican Establishment backed his rival, Trey Grayson. Paul rallied a coalition of conservative grassroots and Ron Paul acolytes to trounce Grayson and win the Kentucky Senate seat. Since then, Paul has wobbled between maintaining grassroots support...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Ted Cruz arrived in Raleigh Monday to help dig an even deeper foothold with conservative voters. Since the junior senator from Texas announced he was running for president in March, he's shot up in the polls here. PPP, a Democratic pollster in Raleigh, showed a dramatic rise in support from North Carolina Republican voters. Cruz's support rose from 5 percent over the winter to 16 percent now. Cruz found a receptive audience at the North Raleigh Hilton where he addressed a crowd of conservatives from across the state at a $100 a ticket luncheon hosted by the...

Robert Mercer, a Long Island hedge fund magnate, has made some lavish investments over the years: There's his 203-foot super yacht, called the Sea Owl. There's the $2 million model train set he had custom-built in his mansion—and the lawsuit he filed against the builders, saying they'd overcharged him. And now there's the money he's putting behind Ted Cruz's presidential ambitions. Mercer is the main bankroller of a ring of four super-PACs supporting Cruz for president, the New York Times reported Friday. The PACs have collected $31 million in the four weeks since Cruz launched his campaign, giving the freshman...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) BROOKLYN, Iowa (CNN) - Hillary Clinton kicked off her Brooklyn, New York, headquartered presidential campaign on Sunday, but what she and her staff may not realize is that there is already a campaign HQ in Brooklyn. Iowa, that is. Standing on W. Front Street in Brooklyn, Iowa, is a nondescript building with a few small windows and red, white and blue lights outside. Above the door, the building is identified as "Campaign HQ," a company that is "Now Hiring!!" The business has little to do with Clinton, who currently finds herself road tripping from New York to Iowa for...

Presidential bid could be first in US history to make global warming key election issue, highlighting differences with Republicans. John Podesta, who recently quit his job as advisor to President Barack Obama, tweeted this would be “top of the agenda” for Clinton as she prepares her run for the White House. John Podesta ✔ @johnpodesta Helping working families succeed, building small businesses, tackling climate change & clean energy. Top of the agenda. #Hillary2016 3:45 PM - 12 Apr 2015 A Washington veteran who was also advisor to Bill Clinton, Podesta is widely credited as the brains behind Obama’s climate change...

As the ex-secretary of state announces her White House bid, Sky News looks at who she could be up against from both parties.Hillary Clinton is widely seen as a front-runner for Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and her resume makes her a strong rival to any Republican. Here is a look at some of her likely opponents in the White House race. The Republican field is already crowded. :: Ted Cruz Ted Cruz became the first candidate to launch the 2016 White House bid when he announced his campaign last month. The Texas senator, 44, is a conservative firebrand who frequently...