Free Republic

John Bachtell, chairman of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA, has penned a 2,000-plus-word essay explaining to his True Believers why the party has chosen to use the Democrats as its vehicle. Eric Owens of the Daily Caller noticed and excerpted some of the gems from the cant-laden prose, but let me offer my own summary.

Mexico’s drug war was completely rocked in February 2014 after news broke of the arrest of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the notorious long-time head of the Sinaloa cartel and arguably the most wanted man in the Western Hemisphere. But despite the U.S. government’s deep desire to prosecute and incarcerate Guzmán in the United States, Mexico’s attorney general announced the kingpin would not be extradited. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told the Associated Press, “I could accept extradition, but at the time that I choose. ‘El Chapo’ must stay here to complete his sentence, and then I will extradite him.”...

In what has been described as a new front in the battle over same-sex marriage, legislators in several states under judicial orders to confer marital status on same-sex couples have introduced bills to forbid state or local officials from issuing marriage licenses to couples of the same gender. The bills would also strip the salaries of employees who issued the licenses, the New York Times reported Thursday.The bills have been introduced in the legislatures of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, with South Carolina also considering a bill that would allow officials to opt out of issuing such licenses if it...

In Russia, Svetlana Vyazma resident of David (town in Russia), was accused of high treason because of her call to Ukranian Embassy in Moscow - she reported on sending Russian troops to Ukraine. She was charged with "treason in the form of espionage," said "Ukrainian Pravda" Anatoly her husband. "In APRIL 2014, she called the Ukrainian embassy," - he said. "In the case says that on a piece of 35 diary entry is dated APRIL 24, 2014, that the military GRU Russia on Monday arrive in Moscow in civilian clothes in private at his own expense. Weapons are planning to...

Sarah Palin is being smeared in headlines from the Huffington Post to the Washington Examiner for her 35-minute speech at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit. In 2015, Palinophobia is as palpable as it was in 2008. After six years, the media still tears into the superstar from Wasilla like rabid dogs. The Washington Examiner's Byron York called the speech "long, rambling and at times barely coherent ... By the time Palin finished speaking, it was hard for anyone to believe she truly is 'seriously interested' in running for president." From Huffington Post: "Sarah Palin's Bizarre Iowa Speech Gets Thanks – From...

Muslim persecution of Christians is at a high tide — and there are grave fears of more sectarian bloodletting as millions of people in Nigeria, which is half Muslim and half Christian, vote for their national leaders next month. These religious atrocities cry out for media attention and political awareness, said Raymond Ibrahim, author of the monthly report “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” which has chronicled attacks on Christians in dozens of countries since July 2011. Mainstream media rarely cover attacks on Christians, even though they happen “all around the Islamic world,” Mr. Ibrahim said Tuesday.

Were you hit this week by all the climate change? We here in the Baltimore/Washington area received just a light dusting, but Boston was covered in it. Actually, thanks to the mainstream media, the whole nation was covered in climate change. The only thing missing from the coverage was any proof, but that doesn’t stop the alarmists. The science is indeed settled: No one knows what’s going on with the climate, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something … or angling for a government grant. This week gave us more examples of just how clueless and dedicated the...

On January 28, The Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF) vice president, Sheldon Richman, reacted to American Sniper by writing that Chris Kyle “was no hero” and that he really couldn’t see a difference between Kyle’s actions and those of Adam Lanza. Richman, who is also the editor of FFS’s monthly journal Future of Freedom, wrote, “Despite what some people think, hero is not a synonym for competent government-hired killer.”

The Academy Awards is meant to be the world's most prestigious honors for achievement in movies. Politics should have nothing to do with it, but, increasingly, that's not so. Hollywood is now regularly treading beyond "artistic excellence" and letting political overtones sway the outcome. For months now the "diversity" crowd has wailed and gnashed its teeth over the lack of Oscar interest in "Selma," as if Hollywood harbors a racist underbelly. They will not accept that maybe the movie wasn't that good. Even worse, they won't accept that the studio executives at Paramount stupidly screwed up by not sending DVD...

<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pennsylvania liquor regulators say they've stopped the illegal sale of a bottle of rare bourbon at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.</p>

Former rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was fleeing for his life when he allegedly ran over two people – killing one of them – in Compton on Thursday afternoon, his attorney James Blatt says. A group of people attacked Knight and threatened to kill him and were “attempting to drag him outside of the vehicle when he made an effort to escape ... in fear for his life,” Blatt told the Los Angeles Times on Friday morning. But police have a different view. After interviewing the onetime hip-hop mogul, Los Angeles County detectives arrested him for murder.

Bookmark and Share RSS Permalink Read more: http://www.hannity.com/articles/news-476261/sign-the-petition-army-denied-clemency-13117287/#ixzz3QKA7xj4o This New Year’s Eve, while many Americans were gearing up for a night of drinking and partying, Anna Lorance was gearing up to tell her son, 1LT. Clint Lorance that the Army had denied his clemency petition and that he would be facing 17 more years in prison. That’s right. Of all the days the United States Army could have chosen to inform Lorance that he had been denied the clemency many Americans feel he so rightly deserves, they chose a day when they thought no one would be paying attention. The...

Boko Haram jihadists have reportedly closed in on the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, which has an estimated population of two million, along with another 200,000 who are currently taking refuge within its borders. Residents have said that the Boko Haram terrorists warned them that they are readying “a big grave” for Maiduguri’s residents and that “there will be no mercy.” A local resident told the CBC regarding Boko Haram, “They kept saying they were chasing us so that we can all run into the big grave they are preparing for us in Maiduguri.”

The front page of Thursday’s USA Today newspaper reported on a Susan Page interview with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The headline was “McConnell is unyielding on Iran, defiant on Kochs.” The media define “defiant” as “willing to suggest the media are free-speech hypocrites.” Page suggested the amount of Koch spending was inappropriate, just too large. She told McConnell “jaws dropped this week” when the Koch brothers announced they would spend $889 million in the 2016 cycle.

The measles outbreak continues to spread in California and beyond, with a case confirmed Wednesday in Fresno County. Fresno health officials say the man visited the area recently and may have had contact with county residents in public locations, including an area medical center and its maternity ward, potentially exposing babies to the extremely contagious disease.

A small, but elite group of Americans demonstrate signs of anti-Christian hostility, sociologists David Williamson and George Yancey claim in their new book, So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States? In an email interview with The Christian Post, Yancey, professor of sociology at the University of North Texas, explained that Christians are fortunate in one sense, because those with anti-Christian hostility are small in number; but in another sense, they should be concerned, because those with "Christianophobia" tend to be powerful elites with influence in certain important areas, such as higher education. The data...

If readers need clarification on what was the primary source of spending-based "growth" for the US economy in the fourth quarter, the same source that bumped up final Q3 GDP from 3.9% to 5.0%, please ping us: we will gladly explain the chart below.  And just in case it is still unclear what Americans are spending their "gas sasvings" on, here it is one more time.And just in case the fading impact of Obamacare is not already priced in, here is what Q4 inventories did: rising by $113.1 billion in Q4, this was the second highest quarterly increase in...

Haider Eid, an associate professor at al-Aqsa University in the Gaza Strip, who also has a blog with Al Jazeera, pre-recorded his remarks to the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in Vancouver, Canada. Eid apologized for not being able to attend the convention:“Unfortunately, I have not been able to leave Gaza” for at least eight conferences. He even remarked that he “had to think twice about participating in your extremely important panel” at the MLA, which had less than a dozen people in the audience. He then blasted Israel, “Gaza has been under a medieval siege by apartheid Israel since...

Americans support women in the pulpit and in senior leadership positions within the church. But they are more hesitant when it comes to supporting openly gay and lesbian religious leaders. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of American Adults favor women in the pulpit, while just 16% are opposed. Twenty-five percent (25%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Even more (74%) support women in leadership positions in their respective faiths. Just nine percent (9%) are opposed, with 17% undecided. Just 43% of Americans favor openly gay and lesbian individuals in the pulpit. Thirty-eight...

Yes you read that right, and an academic one, no less, much to the consternation of the circles he travels in. “I’m a philosophy professor specializing in ethics and political philosophy, and like many of my fellow academics, I’m a political progressive,” Philip Cafaro writes in The Chronicle Review. “I value economic security for workers and their families, and support a much more equal distribution of wealth, strong and well-enforced environmental-protection laws, and an end to racial discrimination in the United States. I want to maximize the political power of common citizens and limit the influence of large corporations. My...

The Obama administration has ordered immigration agents to ask immigrants they encounter living in the country illegally whether they might qualify under President Barack Obama's plans to avoid deporting them, according to internal training materials obtained by The Associated Press. Agents also have been told to review government files to identify any jailed immigrants they might be able to release under the program. The directives from the Homeland Security Department mark an unusual change for U.S. immigration enforcement, placing the obligation on the government for identifying immigrants who might qualify for lenient treatment. Previously, it was the responsibility of immigrants...

The leader of Pakistani politico-religious party Jamaat-e Islami is claiming that the Western "extremist standpoint" on the freedom of news organizations to publish "blasphemous caricatures" of Islam's prophet Muhammad will ultimately lead to World War III. In addressing the thousands in attendance at a Friday protest over the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which publicized cartoons portraying Muhammad, the influential chief of the Jamaat-e Islami party, Sirajul Haq, demanded that the United Nations make laws designed to prevent the media and others from mocking religious personalities. Haq explained that the West's leniency and tolerance in dealing with those who mock...

Close to 300 Muslim students armed with iron bars and sticks attacked a Christian boys' school in northern Pakistan, reportedly in retaliation to French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's controversial drawings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The attack left four Christians injured. "It is very sad that Islamic radicals attack Pakistani Christians because of Charlie Hebdo. Christians condemn the blasphemous cartoons. It is a shame that even after 67 years since the birth of Pakistan, Christians have not yet been considered Pakistani citizens, but are seen as 'Western allies,'" Nasir Saeed, director of the NGO Center for Legal Aid Assistance &...

Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news at last. Epstein is a Florida-based hedge-fund manager who, having raked in billions, used his money and his organizational skills to set up an international pedophile network, shipping young girls by private plane to interested parties across the planet. The physically repulsive Epstein (he looks like a Satanic Fred Gwynne) got away with this for years thanks to his money and his social and political connections. Implicated in his crimes is no less than Prince Andrew, the ne’er-do-well hustler scion of the British Royal house. Also involved is another member of the...

As world events threaten the comfortable lifestyles of the West's super-rich they have begun buying up fabulous 'bolt hole' properties in the far-away safe haven of New Zealand. The world's elite are snapping up properties in the tiny country, which they see as a shelter from the threat of terrorism, civil unrest and instabilities in the financial markets. Interest in pricey land and homes in the North and South Islands has soared in recent years following terrorist strikes and civil disobedience in North America, the UK and Europe.

A city Health Department form for new parents requesting birth certificates asks the “woman giving birth” if she’s male or female...“To be clear, it is possible for a person who has given birth to a child to identify as male,” said Susan Sommer, a lawyer for Lambda Legal, an advocacy group for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people.

Four years after an aggressive legislative effort to keep Planned Parenthood from receiving state dollars for health care for low-income women, the Texas Senate is back at it — this time over funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings. The proposed Senate budget would change how funding is distributed from the joint federal-state Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, which provides cancer screenings for uninsured women. The revised system would prioritize funding to state, county and community health clinics, followed by “non-public entities” that provide screenings as part of “comprehensive” primary and preventative care. Clinics like Planned Parenthood, which specialize...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during World War II. Churchill took up painting as a hobby in 1915, after the Gallipoli debacle, where 46,000 allied lives were lost over nine months of the campaign. He went on to paint more than 500 paintings during his lifetime. As wartime prime minister, he took a break from painting, focusing instead on the task at hand -- winning the war, no matter the cost.Churchill's output and accomplishments were extraordinary. He "produces more published words than Shakespeare and Dickens combined, wins the Nobel...

A patient showing “symptoms consistent with Ebola infection” was being treated Thursday at the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. According to local Fox affiliate KTXL, the patient originally went to Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento before being transferred to UC Davis Medical Center Thursday morning. Dignity Health, which runs Mercy General, issued the following statement: In coordination with the public health department and CDC, Dignity Health Mercy General Hospital has transferred a patient to UC Davis Medical Center, which is specifically equipped to care for patients suspected of having or diagnosed with Ebola as part of the...

Legislators in North Carolina did the right thing in July 2013 when they voted to raise the quality standards for abortion clinics in the state. The hand-wringing response from the abortion industry was entirely predictable, with Planned Parenthood’s vice president for public affairs, Melissa Reed, calling it “the most restrictive access to safe and legal abortions this state has ever seen.” That was then. Inviting the Fox to Guard the Henhouse But now, more than a year an a half later, the North Carolina abortion industry is perfectly fine with the proposed regulations, which were submitted by the state’s Department...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas House committee has approved a proposal that would require a doctor to be present when women take abortion-inducing medication. The Public Health, Welfare, and Labor committee Thursday voted to send the bill to the House. It would prevent any instance of the medication being administered through telemedicine and require that doctors attempt to schedule a follow-up visit.

Bay Area comedian W. Kamau Bell, a national figure on race and progressive politics, says a Berkeley cafe employee's order for him to 'scram' was likely racially motivated, prompting a strong online backlash against the business.

When Gov. Scott Walker remarked this week, while discussing proposed budget cuts to the UW System, that faculty and staff should be teaching more classes and doing more work, it bared one of the most enduring sources of friction in higher education. To listen to many university critics, the primary function of faculty members is that of a teacher in a classroom — someone who educates students in a model that is, in many respects, a continuation of high school. Working with students whose families may have saved for years and taken on significant debt to afford higher education is...

Here is another mark against sugary drinks: A new study has found that drinking them is associated with lowered age of menarche. Age of first menses has decreased substantially since the early 20th century, and studies have shown that younger age of menarche is associated with increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer in later life. [Snip] After controlling for birth weight, maternal age at menarche, physical activity, and many dietary and behavioral factors, [researchers] found that girls who drank one-and-a-half 12-ounce cans a day of nondiet soda or sugared iced tea had their first period an average of 2.7...

Islamic history is a pretty unique thing. It’s the story of how everyone hates and conspires against Muslims. Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian state. If the authorities found his views unacceptable, he wouldn’t have been able to preach them. This is mainstream stuff. Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon given by Imam Issa Assiri of the Sa’eed bin Jubair Mosque in Jedda, Saudi Arabia snip While the Imam might seem insane, he’s actually promoting a revisionist form of Islamic Supremacism in which the American Indians and the Australian Aborigines were really Muslims. So was everyone. Which is why they...

Vice President Joe Biden said four years of college should be free, rather than two years of community college. “We’ve been ahead of the curve, except now people are catching up, no other country in the world had universal education for 12 years, including Great Britain, for the first quarter of the century and only until recently have they started that in China and other countries. Nobody has the great research universities we have,” Biden told the U.S. Conference of Mayors in a speech at the organization’s winter meeting. “So what’s the next logical move to stay ahead of the...

Attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch won the backing of a senior Republican senator during the second day of her Senate hearings Thursday, a big step on her path to be confirmed as the first black woman to lead the Justice Department. [Snip] "I'm going to be a strong supporter of her nomination," Hatch told the witnesses. "And I believe she's not only qualified, but exceptionally well qualified, and a very good person, to boot." Two other committee Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona, have indicated they'll support her nomination, which would give her the...

On Thursday, The Daily Beast, which does not determine the news cycle, tut-tutted the influence of the Drudge Report—which does.

In the 90s, the Clinton Administration formed a bipartisan coalition to pass the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. Nineteen states followed suit. The legislation came in response to a Supreme Court decision that had seen an American Indian suffer legally for having used a drug during a well-established American-Indian religious ceremony. RFRA's framework was common sense. "Under RFRA, the government may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion unless it can demonstrate that the burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, and it is the least restrictive means of advancing a compelling interest." See Perez...

HALTING Islam’s March In America, A National/Western Imperative. Pro-action Mandatory! Commentary By Adina Kutnicki RATIONAL folks understand that “taking the bull by the horns”, so to speak, can often be a life-saving measure. Remedial. Hence, Shariah Law (Islam’s underpinnings) must be eliminated in America. BUT to extend the thought process even further, isn’t it a fact that Islam’s march into America poses a precipitous danger, as well as to the west at large? Yet, if flying heads – plus every other barbarism housed under Shariah Law’s banner - isn’t enough to spur westerners into action, then what else is there...

....Obama weighed into the ‘deflategate’ controversy by cracking a few jokes ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Speaking at the annual House Democratic retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday, Obama called on any supporters of the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks to keep it clean.....

Obama State Department hosts Muslim Brotherhood leaders WaleedSharabyMBStateDeptAfter the recent speech al-Sisi made calling for a reevaluation of the aspects of Islamic thinking that are “antagonizing the entire world,” the State Department should be working closely with him on strategies for teaching against jihad violence and Islamic supremacism in Muslim countries. Instead, it is meeting with his opposition, which is dedicated in its own words, according to a captured internal document, to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within, and sabotaging its miserable house.” “Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Hosted at State Department,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, January 28, 2015:...

Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was considered a person-of-interest in a fatal hit-and-run crash outside a restaurant in Compton on Thursday afternoon, according to authorities. ....“It looks like he drove backward and struck the victims and then went forward and struck them again as he left,” Corina said. “It looked like it was an intentional act and would be treated as a homicide. Witnesses at the scene put Knight in a red pickup in the same neighborhood around the same time as the crash.

....17-year-old Wisdom Williams was arrested in Hallandale Beach on outstanding warrants for burglary, aggravated assault and resistance..... ........It’s believed there are 100 members of the gang and that they are responsible for 100 burglaries. “They’re a group of kids, young adults breaking into houses stealing from us while we’re at work and school,” said BSO Lt. Steve Feeley.

HOUSTON — ConocoPhillips has told its employees layoffs could be on the way, as the independent producer looks to reign in spending amid lower crude prices. The layoffs and an accompanying pay freeze will supplement cost-control steps the Houston company has already taken, such as slashing its exploration and production budget, Daren Beaudo, a spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said in an emailed statement. The company did not detail how many workers would be let go or when the job cuts could take place. “As with our capital program we will be deferring, delaying or eliminating controllable costs where we can,” he...

Cameras rolled as armed police stormed the studio to arrest the suspect Footage of the dramatic stand-off and arrest are then broadcast on TV Gunman had earlier entered the building claiming to be a secret agent Suspect believed to be 19-year-old chemistry student from Netherlands He is not believed to be linked to Islamic extremism

Video - A fake slum was built in Davos at the gathering of the ultra rich so they could experience poverty first hand during a break from their 7-star vacation.

The state will pay the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the state’s ban on same-sex marriage $520,000 for their legal costs under a settlement the Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday. The law entitles the plaintiffs to recover their legal costs because they prevailed in the case. The plaintiffs’ claim for approximately $1.74 million in legal fees has been settled for a 70 percent reduction from their original claim, according to the Attorney General’s Office. The settlement lists four plaintiffs: Timothy B. Bostic and his partner Tony C. London and married couple Carol Schall and Mary Townley.

PUEBLO, Colo. - KRDO NewsChannel 13 has confirmed that Pueblo's only Planned Parenthood clinic will close at the end of February. The clinic is located off of Highway 50 West near Club Manor Drive. Carl Winder reports that the shopping center where the clinic is located was recently sold, and that the new owner decided not to renew Planned Parenthood's lease. Planned Parenthood said it was unable to find anywhere else in town to rent. The clinic will close for good on February 24.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan said in an interview Wednesday that his announcement that he now supports abortion rights was motivated by dealing with his wife's pregnancy last year, not politics. The thinking behind a column he authored in Tuesday's Akron Beacon Journal to announce his abortion switch "crystallized over the course of our own kid being born and going through that process," said Ryan, whose son, Brady, was born in June. The column explained that Ryan considered himself to be "pro-life" after being raised Catholic, but 14 years in political office gave him "a deeper understanding...