Free Republic

Nigel Farage tonight claimed victory in the European elections, becoming the first 'insurgent party' to top a national vote. With results still being declared, Mr Farage broke cover to predict he will humiliate the Westminster parties, pushing Labour and the Tories into second and third. Support for Ukip has surged by more than 12 per cent, outstripping a more modest boost in votes for Labour, while the Lib Dems faced near-wipeout, with some calling for Nick Clegg to resign. Mr Farage said: 'Ukip is going to win this election and yes that will be an earthquake because never before in...

All over Europe, voters are turning in a conservative direction, and against the autocratic European Union and its big government enablers. New York Times reporters Steven Erlanger and Stephen Castle write a dripping-with-disdain account of local election results in the UK, which will be followed tomorrow by results for the European Parliament. To them, conservatgives are “right wingers” or “far-right” and those who object to EU takeover of sovereignty are “anti-Europe.” Voters in Britain sent a forceful message of discontent to established political parties on Friday, as returns from local elections showed an even stronger following than expected for the...

President Obama was not the first.You weren't the first, Barry. Do you care?He is, however, the worst. Jonathan Turley, a liberal in the old fashioned sense and not a librul, opines in an article titled A Question of Power: The Imperial Presidency that although He did not start the trend to an imperial presidency, President Obama has expanded it, in spades. Worse, few seem to care -- including even our "honorable' members of the Congress and our equally "honorable" members of the Federal judiciary. Even worse, few members of the general public seem concerned. Here are a few of Mr. Turley's observations: [M]any Americans misunderstand the...

It’s hardly news that “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak is an ardent conservative. He wrote, for instance, several articles with headlines like “Opposed to Obamacare? Then You Must Be a Racist” for the website Human Events between 2007 and 2013. But his latest rhetorical flourish is the most bizarre yet.

As the late-night comedy landscapeI> reshuffles, are right-wing comics being unfairly ignored? An investigation.You would have thought that President Obama had nominated Eric Holder to succeed John Roberts as chief justice, not that Les Moonves had named a successor to David Letterman. When Stephen Colbert was promoted to the Late Show throne last month, Rush Limbaugh called in the dogs: “CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America,” he said, by hiring a partisan who would bring about “a redefinition of what is comedy.” The vitriol on the right became so thick that a couple of less excitable...

Conservative comedian Evan Sayet explained why the American left is so opposed to argument or debate, arguing that liberals view thought as so inextricably bound to race, identity and orientation that they “have actually turned thinking into a hate crime.” Sayet spoke at the Unite IE Conservative Conference in Riverside, California this weekend, where he discussed how liberals consume and process information very differently from other political ideologies. “Liberals only do well when they lecture to you,” he asserted. “They do just fine on the 23-minute nightly news, where [NBC's] David Gregory dictates the truth to you. Take those same...

In today’s rapidly disintegrating, “do-your-own-thing” culture, our pundits, professors, and judges are in desperate need of some powerful doses of rationality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the conflict over the institution of marriage and what its definition is to be. What follows are several insights that hopefully will clear up some egregiously warped notions being bandied about by America’s “intelligentsia.” In a free and ordered society (which is what those of us on the political right maintain as the ideal) the defining of marriage cannot be left up to individual whim. It must be defined by the predominant...

A study released Saturday found that Americans tend to exaggerate their religious beliefs—and that liberals are more guilty of it than conservatives. The Public Religion Research Institute asked participants about their religious affiliation, their belief in God, how often they attend religious services and the importance of religion in their lives. Roughly half were interviewed over the phone and the other half answered an online questionnaire. Of the people interviewed over the phone, 43 percent said they attended religious ceremonies and 27 percent said religion is the most important thing in their lives. Among online respondents, those numbers dropped to...

The Trifecta predictions are gloomy, but not necessarily correct if we get enough conservatives -- who say what they mean and mean what they say -- into both houses of the Congress. We need to try. Beyond that, and also beyond whether the apparently archaic word "integrity" has been removed from the congressional dictionary, even RINOs might reject a few of Obama's left-wing judicial appointees, and that's important. Spending reductions? Maybe. Perhaps a Senate majority might even agree with a Republican controlled House. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VApNBu_cXxI]Video link

Stop listening to so much conservative talk radio. Take a break. Watch a cartoon. Go to a ballgame. Do anything else for a while but think, talk or argue about politics. Do what I do and listen to country music instead. I guarantee you won’t be so angry all the time. That’s what I told a bunch of riled-up conservatives the other day when I ran into them at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I think I really shocked them when I said I rarely listen to talk radio. What? You don’t listen to Sean or Rush or Levin every...

The year was 1982, and the location was the University of Wisconsin’s campus in Madison. While listening to cassette tapes of Louis Farrakhan, I was invited to a Bible study by a young man who came from what many of the blacks from Wisconsin called “Whitefolks” Bay (Whitefish Bay). He was immediately identifiable—from the crisply pressed blue oxford shirt to the perfectly tailored tan khaki pants, down to the shiny brown penny loafers. His appearance was the textbook definition of a preppy, conservative, Republican. I hated him on sight. But I witnessed him do something that I had never seen...

With decisive primary victories by U.S. Senate candidate Ben Sasse in Nebraska and U.S. House candidate Alex Mooney in West Virginia, the establishment’s dream of electing more status quo-supporting candidates has been stopped after just one week. Sasse and Mooney, both fine conservative candidates, ran smart races and closed strong. When Thom Tillis won the U.S. Senate primary in North Carolina last week (which took millions in establishment funds to make happen), D.C. elites, along with the mainstream media, were giddy as they wrote a seemingly never-ending stream of conservative candidate obituaries. I was entertained by the tone of the...

What’s all the crowing about regarding North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis’ victory in the North Carolina Republican Senate primary this week? I’m talking about the crowing that this is some kind of defeat for the Tea Party. Sure, Greg Brannon was the Tea Party candidate and endorsed by Rand Paul. And, yes, the Republican establishment big names – including, of course, Mr. Establishment, Karl Rove - came out and backed Tillis with endorsements and lots of money. But let’s not get carried away, folks. Tillis is an experienced politician with solid limited government, pro-family, pro-life credentials. And Rand Paul...

Chris Matthews mocked Republicans on Friday's Hardball over their hawkish stance towards Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist group that recently kidnapped hundreds of girls. Matthews made a thinly-veiled racial attack on the GOP during a panel discussion on the terrorist organization: " By the way, when did the Republican Party take this keen interest in Africa? I may have missed that one."

We need more conservative leaders and fewer Establishment types who oppose conservatives. The latter, including but not limited to Boehner, must go.This Bill Whittle video provides a brief history of two former conservative leaders who got to the roots of problems, led and were not hesitant to attack those who deserved attack. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgA5GtiKtU0] Video linkGood conservative leaders are difficult to find and hard to elect, at least until a crisis has already bloomed, become terrifying and far more deadly and otherwise onerous to deal with than earlier. Winston Churchill finally became Prime Minister after Chamberlain's peace in our time appeasement had failed miserably and Germany had greatly advanced her war-making...

Early in the morning on October 3, 2013, armed officers showed up at the homes of Deborah Jordahl and R. J. Johnson. Their homes were illuminated by floodlights perched on sheriff deputies’ vehicles as officers seized business papers, computer equipment, phones, and other devices. While their residences were raided, Jordahl and Johnson were restrained under police supervision and denied the ability to contact their attorneys. Jordahl and Johnson were not part of any illicit drug ring. They hadn’t been trafficking in human organs or distributing child pornography. Their crime? Supporting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Jordahl and Johnson run the Wisconsin...

A warning by the Federal Election Commission chairman that “some on the left” want to restrict conservative media outlets on the Internet underscores a long history of various efforts that set out to limit the impact of money on politics, even the playing field for minorities and provide equal time to conflicting political arguments but end up squelching free speech. FEC Chairman Lee E. Goodman said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that government officials are reacting to the growing power of conservative media, particularly independent news outlets with an Internet presence, by devising ways to curb the media’s...

The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on whether to hold Lois G. Lerner, former director of the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Division, in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Lerner pleaded the Fifth at committee hearings in 2013 and earlier this year. You can read a copy of H. Res. 568 here. Today's contempt of Congress resolution is not without precedent. In 2012, the House voted to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for failing to turn over documents relating to the failed...

It was pretty much a rout for Tea Party/insurgents in yesterday’s primaries, as establishment-backed candidate for the North Carolina Senate nomination Thom Tillis easily exceeded the 40% threshold necessary to avoid a run-off, while incumbent House members John Boehner (OH), Renee Elmers (NC), Walter Jones (NC), David Joyce (OH), and Susan Brooks (IN) defeated challengers from the right. But before concluding that all is hopeless, consider a few aspects of the situation.

The "John Doe" investigation into conservatives is dead. At least for now. In a monumental victory for targeted conservatives in the secret Wisconsin investigation, Judge Rudolph Randa on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction to stop the politically charged probe, ruling in favor of conservative activist Eric O'Keefe, his Wisconsin Club for Growth and "others." The probe had been looking into possible illegal coordination between conservative groups and Republican Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign, but came under fire for the opaque way it was conducted.