Free Republic

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that he would consider a 2024 presidential run during an interview from NBC’s “Meet the Press” that will air Sunday. Anchor Kristen Welker said, “Let’s talk about your future, because obviously you are facing a big decision. Can you take us inside your thinking right now? Are you seriously contemplating a run for the White House?” Manchin said, “Here’s is what i’m seriously contemplating. I’ve said this clearly, people say, are you going to run? I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure, and immobilize the...

Top Republicans are speaking about potentially impeaching President Joe Biden if they successfully retake both congressional chambers. “I think that’s definitely a discussion we have to have,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the Washington Times at the Republican retreat in Florida this week.

Tuesday, former Vice President Mike Pence said when the time was “right,” he and his family would consider his future political ambitions, including a possible 2024 presidential run. In the meantime, Pence said he was focused on the 2022 midterm elections.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) signaled he is willing to consider voting for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, in an interview airing Sunday on “Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren.” Scott said he is looking to meet Jackson and discuss how she sees the role of the judiciary branch.

NEW YORK – Members of the Electoral College should have the right to consider the alleged impact of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election when they cast their votes on December 19, a Democratic congressman has asserted. “To the extent that foreign interference in the United States presidential elections may have influenced the final result, I believe the electors have the right to consider that,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) told POLITICO in a statement on Saturday. Politico further reported: Cicilline appears to be the first member of Congress and the highest-ranking elected official in the country to endorse the notion...

On the Mysticism of the Simple Word “Consider” By: Msgr. Charles PopeEvery now and then a word just catches your ear. Several times in a day it jumps out at you and you’re tempted to say, “There it is again!”A few days ago it was the word “consider,” a very ordinary word. Or is it? Why did it suddenly strike me so? With my knowledge of Latin,  it occurred to me that “consider” has something to do with the stars, for the Latin word sidera means “stars” or “heavenly bodies.” How interesting! I have used the word for about fifty years...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Days after a Republican was elected mayor of Annapolis, City Council members say they will revisit legislation that would strip the mayor’s office of much of its power. Democratic Alderman Ross Arnett of Ward 8 tells The Capital he will introduce a charter amendment to move Annapolis to a council-manager style of government. The city manager would report directly to the City Council, not the mayor.

Young women and men supporting late-term abortions shouted ‘Hail Satan’ throughout the day as the Texas House and Senate convened a special session to discuss timekeeping measures following Democrat Wendy Davis’ filibuster de-railing the vote to limit abortions to 20 weeks and establishing stricter safety standards for abortion clinics. On one occasion some young women shouted ‘Hail Satan’ as Christians gave personal testimony about  abortion and sang ‘Amazing Grace’.Breibart reports:‘It would be difficult to argue that the pro-abortion crowd wasn’t an “unruly mob” — last week protesters shut down proceedings by screaming from the gallery and used social media to debate...

(Reuters) - North Korea has asked Russia to consider the possibility of evacuating staff from its embassy in Pyongyang due to increasing tension on the Korean Peninsula, a spokesman for the Russian embassy said by phone from Pyongyang on Friday.

Following the Bulgarian investigation which determined that Hizbullah was behind a July terror attack in Burgas which killed five Israelis, the EU announced that it would consider adding Hizbullah to its official list of terrorist organizations. "This is just one of the options and a decision has not yet been reached," said an EU spokeswoman. Foreign ministers of the European Union will meet on February 19 to discuss ...

Most voters still view Israel as one of America's leading allies. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 56% think of Israel as an ally, while just three percent (3%) view the country as an enemy to the United States. Thirty-six percent (36%) think Israel is somewhere in between an enemy and an ally of the United States. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Those numbers remain little unchanged from August when 60% felt that way. That same month, however, Americans ranked Israel third on a list of 12 nations in the news, behind...

A state senator from Cape May has introduced a bill (S-2264) to make it easier for New Jerseyeans to carry handguns. Jeff Van Drew, who owns two guns himself, proposes that New Jerseyeans should be able to carry guns if they take a gun safety class, pass a rigorous background check and pay an annual $500 licensing fee. Gun control advocates, unsurprisingly, hate the measure, which is modeled on a similar program in Pennsylvania. Gun groups think the $500 fee is excessive.

(IsraelNN.com) Hareidi and national-religious rabbis will meet Monday in Jerusalem to discuss ways of dealing with the Arab influx into Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, as well as the purchasing of agricultural land in the Galilee by wealthy foreign Arabs. The rabbis are expected to call for an end to the phenomenon of sale of land and houses by Jews to Arabs. The organizer, Aryeh King, who heads the Israel Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that he is hoping to see the rabbis issue a pronouncement that sale of land and houses to Arabs is forbidden.

There's potentially good news on the environmental front out of Washington D.C., but it's probably more than offset by a devastating announcement Friday. First, the good news. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Environmental Protection Agency, when upgrading older power plants, may consider costs before demanding use of the most advanced technology, as required by law. The ruling was a defeat for environmentalists, who challenged the Bush administration's discretionary practice. Hans Bader, special projects counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute think tank, told us the ruling permits continued cost-benefit analysis as an option in upgrades .. The group...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country. The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky — Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. — who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Baze has been scheduled for execution Tuesday night, but the Kentucky Supreme Court halted the proceedings earlier this month. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously made it easier for death row inmates to...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran is ready to consider suspending uranium enrichment for up to two months, diplomats told The Associated Press on Sunday. The diplomats, who insisted on anonymity to disclose confidential information, spoke shortly after senior Iranian and European Union diplomats held a second day of talks on Tehran's defiance of a U.N. demand that it suspend enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear arms. They said the compromise was mentioned by Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, during his meeting with the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. One diplomat said Larijani floated the possibility of stopping...

The Supreme Court's refusal Monday to consider a second lethal injection case suggests the justices are not ready to decide whether the drugs amount to cruel and unusual punishment, legal experts said. The denial was issued without comment, leaving court watchers to speculate over justices' reasons for rejecting an appeal by a Tennessee death-row inmate who claims lethal injection is unconstitutional. "The Supreme Court is plainly not ready to step into the lethal injection controversy yet," said Eric M. Freedman, a Hofstra University law professor. "It's kind of a puzzle," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools. The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday. His comments mark the first time any top administration official has acknowledged that new taxes could be needed to restore the quality of state services. "No one can look at the history of California education over the last generation and not notice we...

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a draft letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad. The Washington Post reported Nov. 2 on the existence of secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe for terrorism suspects. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report. "If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," stated the draft. The Associated Press obtained a...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he would consider supporting a voter-approved bond to help repair California's aging levee system. Hurricane Katrina's horrific damage and the subsequent levee break in New Orleans have focused attention on the Central Valley's century-old levees, which protect thousands of homes and millions of acres of prime farmland. A Record investigation in May found that in San Joaquin County alone, more than 30,000 new homes have been built or approved by local governments in flood-prone areas since 1997, when the last major flooding hit. In an interview Tuesday with The Record, the governor softened...