Free Republic

Looking back at the unrest that followed Freddie Gray's death, Baltimore voters see events differently than do voters statewide, a new poll shows.City voters are less likely to sympathize with police, and they are more likely to see joblessness and racism as a cause of April's unrest, according to a poll of likely voters conducted for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore.Those living outside the city are more likely to blame "a lack of personal responsibility among residents" for the city's ills.The divided opinions were most pronounced when respondents were asked for their opinions of how Baltimore State's...

ISIS recently sent out a new video taunting America and threatening attacks. A new study says the U.S. should take those threats seriously. The Islamic State has recruited thousands of supporters in the United States, far more than previously thought, according to a scathing new report, raising the likelihood that supporters of the terrorist army could be plotting attacks similar to those carried out in Paris. And the "challenges of screening incoming refugees" from Muslim countries may be adding fuel to the fire, according to the report, authored by national security experts at the Threat Knowledge Group. The report...

The battle between Ohio Gov. John Kasich and GOP front-runner Donald Trump is heating up. A video released online Tuesday by the Kasich campaign attacks Trump for his rhetoric against various minority groups, invoking the theme of needing to stand up for people before it's too late. The video features retired Col. Tom Moe, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Vietnam POW, paraphrasing the famous words of late German pastor and concentration camp survivor Martin Niemoller: "You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with their government because you're not one. And you might not care if...

Jim Geraghty, no Trump fan, has already done a nifty job not just of picking apart the individual claims in this clip but of comparing Trump’s excesses to the left’s own fascist flirtations, from official White House policies on down to campus “safe spaces.” Did Trump say that all Muslims should register with the government? He insists he only meant Syrian refugees, not Muslim citizens. Did he ever call for deporting “Hispanic immigrants”? He called for deporting all illegal immigrants, not just the Hispanic ones — and then letting many of them back in eventually. Did he claim it was...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were caught illegally crossing the U.S. border with Mexico in October, almost double the number from October 2014, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Also, in the figures released Tuesday, the number of family members crossing together nearly tripled from October 2014 — from 2,162 to 6,029. The numbers spiked despite expectations of lower numbers due to the colder winter months coming, better enforcement along the border and efforts by Mexican authorities to stem the stream of Central American migrants to the U.S. Though tens of thousands of women...

Republican elites and their billionaire donors are in a funk. They don’t know where to turn, who to support or what to do with their money. Fearing Trump and Carson, they crave an establishment candidate—though the ones available are flat tires. One complaint is that Trump and Carson lack the temperament and the experience to be president. This is an argument of weakness that belies elite befuddlement. The argument says nothing about policy—what elites want and why they don’t want what large numbers of Republicans want. Instead, they talk desperately about getting a candidate who might showcase a hefty resume...

Latest polls show that Donald Trump is trusted more to deal with international terrorism than the squatters who refuse to leave Republican Party leadership posts. This is shocking to their narrow thinking. Their talking points tell them that voters are supposed to flock to a President with “experience” when the world gets dangerous. They have the talking points right there in front of them on their desk. Yet the voters aren’t following the script. What gives? Didn’t the grassroots read their talking points? Tone deaf, GOP officials keep pushing the stale old Christmas fruit cake with the texture of a...

Donald J. Trump will take the next step in his religious outreach effort next week when he announces the endorsement of a group of 100 African-American pastors and religious leaders at his Manhattan headquarters. The Republican presidential candidate has a private meeting with the group scheduled on Monday before they make their offer of support official, according to his campaign. The endorsement comes as Mr. Trump has faced criticism for stoking racial tension and has seen his support among evangelical Christians start to waver in polls as voters consider Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ben Carson. That tension was...

President Obama on Wednesday signed a $607 billion annual defense policy bill, even though it includes language that hampers the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison. As a presidential candidate Obama pledged to close the controversial detention facility, but has been thwarted repeatedly by Congress, which opposes transferring detainees to the mainland United States. In a rare move, the president issued a signed statement blasting provisions in the bill intended to block the president from moving Guantanamo Bay prisoners to facilities within the U.S. "I am, however, deeply disappointed that the Congress has again failed to take productive action...

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. abortions continue to fall, according to a new federal report released Wednesday. Federal statistics show abortions have been in a general decline for about 25 years. The number of reported abortions dropped 4 percent in 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. About 699,000 abortions were reported to the federal government that year. That's about 31,000 fewer than the year before. ... ...Declines were seen in states that have passed anti-abortion laws as well as in more liberal states.

“President Obama is a threat to our country,” Donald Trump told me in a recent interview. He’s right. Mr. Obama now poses a clear and present danger to America. His stubborn insistence on resettling so-called “refugees” from Syria threatens to Balkanize our country and subvert it from within. The president is willing to potentially sacrifice countless Americans on the altar of liberal multiculturalism. He is gambling with our lives.

Fans of mindless authoritarianism are having a pretty good month. The New York Times reports: Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters....

The real problem does not lie with these refugees seeking help from America. The real problem lies in the accessibility terrorists have to guns in this country. Rep. Tony Dale, a Republican congressman for the state of Texas, expressed that one of his top concerns about the refugee situation is how easy it is to buy a gun in his state. Dale is not wrong. The availability of guns for anyone in America, even legally, is nonsensical. According to the Government Accountability Office, between 2004 and 2014, 91 percent of the time suspected terrorists attempted to buy guns in America...

Stop me if you've heard this one before."This is the most important election of our lifetimes!"Washington politicians have been selling us that snake oil for as long as we can remember. And yet year-after-year, election-after-election, the parties in power may change but the results stay the same — the Washington Cartel wins and the American people lose.Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.The debt limit rises regardless of who wins. Middle class wages are stagnated regardless of who wins. Amnesty is championed regardless of who wins. The sanctity of life and marriage are abandoned regardless of who wins....

Four in 10 young Americans have no idea what America is. That's the takeaway from a new Pew Research poll showing that 40 percent of Americans aged 18-34 say that the government should be able to prevent people from making "statements that are offensive to minority groups." This same group of young people has granted broad awareness to the culture of "microaggression" -- unintended slights taken as grave insults by their victims; they've also called for "trigger warnings," alerts that certain communications may dredge up unpleasant past memories or ideas. With such ghoulish cruelties haunting the most privileged generation in...

If you have followed the news headlines lately, you know that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – the bureaucracy responsible for ensuring the safety of our nation’s travelers – has seen better days. An internal investigation released in June found that the TSA had a stunning 96 percent failure rate in detecting weapons and fake explosives. More recently, a report from “The Today Show” revealed that NBC producers were able to pass airport security with Swiss army knives and box cutters in tow. Comforting, huh? While knives and weapons may make it past airport security all too often, your handgun...

Recent events at the University of Missouri, Yale University and some other colleges demonstrate an ongoing ignorance and/or contempt for the principles of free speech. So let's examine some of those principles by asking: What is the true test of one's commitment to free speech? Contrary to the widespread belief of tyrants among college students, professors and administrators, the true test of one's commitment to free speech does not come when one permits people to be free to express those ideas that he finds acceptable. The true test of one's commitment to free speech comes when he permits others to...

What might have happened if a few of the 1,500 concert attendees in Paris' Bataclan theater had guns? The terrorists had time to kill, reload and kill again. The police unit didn't come for more than a half hour. If a few people in the theater were armed, might they have killed the killers? We'll never know. France's guns laws say you may not carry a gun unless police certify that you are "exposed to exceptional risks of harm" to your life. Few people even bother to apply. Fortunately, in America, laws in every state now allow adults to carry...

What might have happened if a few of the 1,500 concert attendees in Paris' Bataclan theater had guns? The terrorists had time to kill, reload and kill again. The police unit didn't come for more than a half hour. If a few people in the theater were armed, might they have killed the killers? We'll never know. France's guns laws say you may not carry a gun unless police certify that you are "exposed to exceptional risks of harm" to your life. Few people even bother to apply. Fortunately, in America, laws in every state now allow adults to carry...

Islamic State fanatics release sickening new footage of mass executions. Included are horrifying scenes of a child executing several prisoners. The 22-minute film shows wholesale slaughter of Iraqi military cadets. It was filmed at last year's notorious Speicher massacre, in Tikrit, Iraq. Men are machine gunned in mass graves, while others are shot in the head. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT Harrowing new footage has emerged of a young boy executing prisoners on the banks of the Tigris River, amid one of the biggest massacres ever committed by Islamic State fanatics. Filmed during the ISIS killing spree in Tikrit last year,...