Free Republic

While the three tea party incumbents who were being challenged by establishment politicians won big, liberal-leaning Republicans closest to House Speaker Joe Straus lost in race after race this week. Defeated Straus incumbents include State Rep. Lance Gooden in House District 4, Diane Patrick in HD94, Linda Harper-Brown in HD105, Bennett Ratliff in HD115, and Ralph Sheffield in HD55. Straus lieutenant Jim Keffer of HD60 did manage to hold on to his seat, but only after spending more than $750,000 and losing in the population center of the district. The key defensive races in the Texas House were those of...

The revolutionary guerilla network, the Sons of Liberty, was a grassroots reaction to unjust taxation. It got off to a roaring start in 1765 by burning the Boston commissioner of stamps in effigy, and burning his home and offices to the ground. These first Tea Partiers invented American gonzo. Some smeared with paint and sporting feathers, in December of 1773 they dumped the equivalent of $1,000,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor to protest the British Tea Act. But because the ships were owned by Americans, they were not damaged, and the decks were swept clean when the festivities ended....

National Democrats and liberal activists are taking enormous legal and political risks with the lawless activities in Texas caught on the Project Veritas tapes. But they see Texas as such a strategic prize that they believe it’s worth that risk, and that victory must be achieved at any cost. When registering voters, Texas law makes it illegal for a volunteer registrar to “transcribe, copy, or otherwise record a telephone number furnished on a registration application.” It specifically provides that you cannot copy the name, address, or phone number. Yet the latest video James O’Keefe has made public, focused primarily on...

According to Senator Ted Cruz, “Ken Paxton is a tireless conservative warrior.” Paxton is running for Texas Attorney General. As all of us know, we may not live in Texas, but Texas affects us and we all probably secretly or not so secretly want to live there. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott frequently describes his workday as, “I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home.” In fact, Abbott had filed 27 cases against President Obama’s administration as of the launch of his Gubernatorial bid last year. There can be no doubt as to the...

The mother of a former Lunenburg High football player who quit the team after a racial slur was spray-painted on the foundation of the family’s home lied to investigators and stopped cooperating with the probe when asked to make a formal written statement, police said in court papers unsealed today. The papers, written in support of yesterday’s search warrant at the home of 13-year-old Isaac Phillips and his family, said cops believe Phillips’s mother, Andrea Brazier, “made false statements misleading investigators” and “is in possession of any and all instruments pertaining to the crime of defacing property” being kept at...

The German newspaper Der Spiegel over the weekend revealed that not only did the U.S. monitor the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it also allegedly utilized the American embassy in Berlin as a listening station by means of a windowless structure filled with hi-tech gadgetry on the roof to monitor cellphone and other sensitive communications.An Israeli intelligence analyst has now discovered similar mysterious white structures positioned on the rooftops of many key American embassies including in Beijing, Moscow, and Tel Aviv and published the photos to support his claims. While the structures appear to have a solid exterior, they...

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is writing a bill that would grant legal status to America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants, The New York Times reports. “Republican Representatives Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida have been working on legislation that includes a process by which immigrants here illegally could ‘get right with the law’ and eventually become citizens,” the Times’ Eric Lipton and Ashley Parker wrote on Friday in a piece about immigration reform. While the Times reported here, and Politico reported on Friday morning, that the Speaker and other House GOP...

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital. Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

I[f] anyone had any doubt about the vicious and petty character of Barack Obama and his administration the past week should have put those doubts to rest. Not even Nixon’s “enemies list” can compete with Obama. Nixon’s list was focused on not inviting certain pustulent bags of crap, like Daniel Schorr, to White House function. Obama and his minions have effectively declared all Americans the enemy in an attempt to make the impact of the government shutdown artificially painful. This could not succeed without the assistance of a corps of facilitators, Little Eichmanns, if you will, who are willing to...

The charts on this page depict the progression of the Solar Cycle. The charts and tables are updated by the Space Weather Prediction Center monthly using the latest ISES predictions. Observed values are initially the preliminary values which are replaced with the final values as they become available.

People living near pig farms or agricultural fields fertilized with pig manure are more likely to become infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, according to a paper published today in JAMA Internal Medicine(1). Previous research has found that livestock workers are at high risk of carrying MRSA, compared to the general population2. But it has been unclear whether the spreading of MRSA through livestock puts the public at risk of infection.

National Public Radio reporter Ari Shapiro reports that liberal pundits were seen entering the West Wing:

Full title - "SHOCK: Obama was 'incapacitated' due to 'staggering, inapt activities' between the hours of 1800 and 2300 on the night of Benghazi... ""Two sources close to the inner circle of the Obama White House have communicated exclusively to RedFlag News that during the night of Benghazi, President Obama was 'incapacitated' due to 'staggering, inapt activities' between the hours of 1800 and 2300."

A hot microphone caught Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) coordinating which way members of the “Gang of Eight” who serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee would vote on immigration bill amendments, Breitbart News has learned. “Do our Republicans have a pass on this one if they want?” the microphone caught Schumer saying.

Yeah, I know it's The Nation, but you do want to read this. They don't cut any slack for one of Obama's main billionaire cronies.

Roger Williams, a former Texas secretary of state who made his name as a prolific GOP fundraiser, is one step closer to a seat in the U.S. House after handily defeating Central Texas Tea Party founder Wes Riddle in the Republican runoff Tuesday.

Boston Bruins all-world netminder Tim Thomas ignited a political firestorm — and drew a barrage of verbal slapshots from furious Democrats — when he brazenly snubbed President Obama by skipping the team’s Stanley Cup garden party at the White House yesterday. “My advice to him is to stick to hockey,” said Phil Johnston, a top state Democrat who served under President Clinton. “I think Bruins players are taken seriously for their hockey, not for their politics.”

Can any FReepers provide local knowledge relative to quality of life matters in and around the University of Arizona in Tucson?

full title - The Shadow Party: How a Washington-Based Liberal Activist Is Trying to Turn Texas Blue (Whether Texans Want It or Not) The "Colorado Model" and George Soros' "Shadow Party" have both landed in Texas in the form of a shady activist with a plan: attack the GOP's largest stronghold and destroy its limited-government success story.

Just got off the phone with Cong. Delahunt's office (again). Asked what his intentions were regarding the healthcare vote. Girl taking calls said he had not made up his mind yet. I asked her how the calls were breaking down. She said about 50/50. I asked her how many calls they had taken. She says about a hundred.