Free Republic

WASHINGTON — In a memo distributed today by James Bopp, Jr. of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, NRLC proposed a Post-Roe Model Abortion law for the states to adopt, in the event that, in the upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization or some future decision, the United States Supreme Court substantially expands states’ authority to legislate regarding abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade. “For decades, National Right to Life and its state affiliates have led the effort to pass life-affirming laws at the state level that protect unborn...

Politics Fact Checker Biden administration The 202s Polling Redistricting tracker June 8, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), has become a prominent protector of her boss and a fierce critic of the media. (Paul Hennessey/SOPA Images/Shutterstock) A spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week registered as a foreign agent of a former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, belatedly detailing work she performed for the politician between 2018 and 2020. The spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, made the disclosure following contact from the Justice Department, according to her attorney, Michael Sherwin. She...

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on Sunday warned Native American tribes not to create abortion safe havens if Roe v. Wade is overturned and his state enacts a near-total ban on abortions. Stitt told “Fox News Sunday” there was a “possibility” tribes could establish abortion havens if his state makes most abortions illegal. “Oklahomans will not think very well of that if tribes try to set up abortion clinics,” Stitt said, warning he is monitoring the situation. Stitt appeared on “Fox News Sunday” after the Supreme Court leak of a draft opinion showing the court was preparing to overturn the...

If two weeks is too long for you to wait for "Top Gun: Maverick" to fly into theaters, "Firebird" should satisfy your need for speed. Tom Prior, left, stars as Sergey and Oleg Zagorodnii as Roman in Peeter Rebane’s "Firebird." Tom Prior, left, stars as Sergey and Oleg Zagorodnii as Roman in Peeter Rebane’s "Firebird." The movie, set in Soviet occupied Estonia in the late 1970s, is a labor of love from first time director Peeter Rebane and co-screenwriter, producer, and star, Tom Prior. Based on a memoir by late Russian actor Sergey Fetisov, “Firebird” tells the story of a...

In a foreshadowing of America’s future under coercive secularism, a Finnish politician and Finnish bishop will go on criminal trial next week for merely upholding historic Christian teaching on sexual morality. The trial is a telling measure of the erosion of Christianity in Europe. Juhana Pohjola, a Lutheran bishop, and Päivi Räsänen, a member of Finland’s Parliament, stand accused of an act increasingly forbidden in the de-Christianized West: quoting the Bible. “According to the nation’s top prosecutor, the two people are accused of violating the equality and dignity of LGBT people,” reports Christianity Today. Simply quoting the Bible’s condemnation of...

REMINDER TO THE REPUBLICAN STATE LEGISLATURES, YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY OVER THE CHOOSING OF ELECTORS, NOT ANY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, SECRETARY OF STATE, GOVERNOR, OR EVEN COURT. YOU HAVE THE FINAL SAY -- ARTICLE II OF THE FED CONSTITUTION. SO, GET READY TO DO YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY

Alaska's @lisamurkowski said today she won't confirm a new SCOTUS justice until after the inauguration day. Fair is fair, she says. My colleague @kcgrove will have a story shortly.

Ethan Berkowitz headed to victory with a big lead over opponent Amy Demboski in the Anchorage mayoral runoff election Tuesday night. With 93 percent of the vote counted, Berkowitz had nearly 60 percent of the vote to Demboski’s 41 percent, a margin that was insurmountable. Berkowitz had held a commanding lead over Demboski throughout the counting Tuesday night. As his margin over Demboski held strong, Berkowitz stood on a chair at his campaign party in a downtown restaurant to wild applause and waving signs. He asked his supporters’s to continue to help after the night’s celebration to work on unifying...

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas delegation is arriving in Cuba with hopes of building a front-of-the-line position for renewed trade with the Caribbean nation long isolated by a U.S. embargo. The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1IX4MDi ) reports the delegation landing in Havana on Sunday is the first Texas has sent to Cuba since the U.S. and the communist island nation agreed to restore diplomatic relations. Texas industries with potential to expand trade with Cuba include agriculture, airlines, oil, technology and tourism, said Cynthia Thomas, president of the Dallas-based consulting firm Tri Dimension Strategies and leader of the delegation. "The last...

Tired of being duped by conservative-sounding Republican presidential candidates who secretly harbored support for gay marriage, abortion and other socially liberal issues, evangelical pastors plan to investigate the backgrounds of White House hopefuls and their top aides. "Personnel is policy," said David Lane, whose American Renewal Project is working with 100,000 pastors to push 80 million evangelicals and 40 million Catholics who typically don't vote to the polls in 2016 to elect a conservative Republican. "We need to bring these things up on the table," he told Secrets. "Evangelical pastors aren't as much interested in budget issues as they are...

Washington (CNN)A U.S. military campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities would only take "several days" of bombing, Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday.

Texas Republicans are trying, yet again, to undermine women's access to reproductive health care in their state, but this time they are getting some pushback from within their own party. On Tuesday, Republican state Rep. Sarah Davis spoke out against the state legislature's attempts to restructure the breast and cervical cancer screening program in the state to exclude Planned Parenthood, as part of the Republicans' endless war on that organization. “I don’t think it is appropriate to continue to fund the women’s health program so that we can make some type of a political statement as Republicans that we care...

Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback suggested Wednesday that he might consider proposals to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, provided the Legislature can identify a way to pay for it. "I’ve been pushing that anything we do on Medicaid expansion has to be 100-percent paid for," Brownback said during impromptu remarks to the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, who met at the Statehouse on Wednesday. Under the federal health law, also known as Obamacare, states are allowed to expand their Medicaid programs to cover all individuals in households with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level. That's...

President Barack Obama continues to speak out against mass incarceration, the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread. Obama's comments came today during his YouTube interviews with YouTube bloggers, Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green. Some Obama nuggets from today's interview include this on marijuana: "What you're seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they're experimenting with legal marijuana," the president said in response to a question from host Hank Green. "The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that...

Susan Hemeryck, 54, tried removing the display Tuesday, and when the Capitol Police told her she couldn't, she began ripping it apart. She was arrested and charged with criminal mischief. The display had been erected as a satire by an atheist group to counter a nativity scene, which was taken down the day the Satanic Temple installed theirs. "It's just wrong, when you remove baby Jesus two days before Christmas and put Satan in his place ? that just can't happen. I couldn't allow it to happen," said Hemeryck, who said she was wearing a shirt that said "Catholic Warrior"...

OKLAHOMA CITY – After legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, Colorado is at the heart of a lawsuit. The Denver Post is reporting that Nebraska and Oklahoma have filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to strike down Colorado’s legalization laws. The Colorado attorney general’s office says the lawsuit alleges “that Colorado’s Amendment 64 and its implementing legislation regarding marijuana is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.” “Because neighboring states have expressed concern about Colorado-grown marijuana coming into their states, we are not entirely surprised by this action,” said Colorado Attorney General John...

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – The St. Louis Rams took the field at the Edward Jones Dome in a show of support for the Ferguson protesters. Rams players including Stedman Bailey, Jared Cook, Chris Givens and receivers Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt took to the field with their hands up. The “hands up, don’t shoot” sign has been a hallmark of protesters since the August 9th shooting. The St. Louis Rams are playing the Oakland Raiders. The hometown team is leading 44-0 in the 4th quarter. The gesture made another appearance after a touchdown in the first quarter.

Alaska voters approved a ballot measure aimed at adding a hurdle to the potential development of a major copper and gold mine. The measure requires the state’s legislature to approve any proposed mining project in the Bristol Bay watershed. It targets the Pebble Mine, a planned copper and gold mine that would be the largest of its kind in the world. Environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and some Alaska native tribes want to stop the mine due to its potential impact on wildlife in Bristol Bay and the watershed, including a massive salmon population. Sixty-five percent of voters approved...

A string of Republican candidates for Senate are supporting an issue usually associated with Democrats: increased access to contraception. They're supporting it on the road and in ads, like this one from anti-abortion conservative Cory Gardner: YouTube In it, he says he believes "the pill ought to be available over the counter, round the clock, without a prescription." Tom Tillis and Ed Gillespie, also anti-abortion conservatives, have made similar statements. Some of them have been associated with state legislation to restrict abortions or with so-called "personhood" amendments that would give constitutional rights to fertilized eggs. So what gives? First of...

The Alamo flea market sits right off South Texas’s lengthy Highway 83; a sprawling, dusty, labyrinth of a place. Under canopies in the converted parking lot, vendors in dark sunglasses stand behind tables heaped with piles of clothing, barking in Spanish and hawking their wares. The air is hot and muggy, thick with the scent of grilled corn and chili. Customers browse simple items—miracle-diet teas, Barbie dolls or turquoise jeans stretched over curvy mannequins—but there are also shoppers scanning the market for goods that aren't displayed in the stalls. Tables lined with bottles of medicine like Tylenol and NyQuil have...