Free Republic

The spectacular rise of Donald Trump as leading presidential candidate should at last force Republicans in Washington to face the chronic ineffectiveness of their party: rank and file Republicans are turning to the Donald because he, unlike the party establishment, seems energetic, articulate, and determined to get something done. They have so long despaired of a party leadership that is inarticulate, somnolent, and inept that they are not deterred by the fact that Trump is dangerously unpredictable. The problem is not an insufficiently conservative party, as some conservatives think; a two-party system will always have a broad spectrum of viewpoints...

Why not? It worked for ObamaCare, didn’t it? The Hill reports that Speaker John Boehner’s latest strategy to thread the needle of demands to defund Planned Parenthood and yet avoid a government shutdown will take a page from the Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi playbook: Top House Republicans hope to convince their members to keep the government open by using a fast-track process known as reconciliation to try to defund Planned Parenthood.House Republican leaders are planning to target Planned Parenthood’s funding by immediately drafting a fast-track reconciliation bill, according to a senior House GOP aide.Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants...

Sources tell Breitbart News that several members of the House of Representatives are saying “the rumor is Boehner cut a deal with Pelosi.” According to those sources, outgoing House Speaker Rep. John Boehner and Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi agreed that her Democratic caucus would join Boehner along with a handful of Boehner loyalists and moderate establishment Republicans to continue Planned Parenthood funding, along with a few other budget items President Obama says were must-haves, in order to avoid a Government shutdown. Boehner resigned because he knew that after he cut that deal, conservatives in his own party would be...

House Speaker John Boehner’s time with the big gavel may be coming to an end in the next week or so. The Hill reports some Republican lawmakers think they have a shot at getting Boehner out, if the government shutdown over the funding of Planned Parenthood doesn’t happen. “That’s what tells you there’s something afoot. You know there’s some drops of blood in the water, because all the sharks are starting to circle,” said one conservative lawmaker who backs Boehner’s ouster. The key word in all this is “may” because there’s no guarantee it will happen. North Carolina Congressman Mark...

Pope Francis's address to Congress may have voters on both sides of the aisle seriously considering supporting Donald Trump’s immigration plan.  The pope stated that we must "not be taken aback by the numbers" of illegals he calls "refugees" invading our country.  Rather, we must apply the Golden Rule to the 11-30 million people openly defying our nation's rule of law. Unfortunately, Francis's "do unto others" dictum does not apply to cash-strapped lower- and middle-income Americans.  He says we must see the “refugees” as “persons … seeing their faces and listening to their stories,” but he exhibits no such...

Two of those Republicans, Rand Paul and Tom Cotton, opposed the bill not because of its Planned Parenthood provisions but because it didn’t meet their priorities on other government spending. Paul voted no because it would lead to another $400 billion in debt; Cotton opposed it because spending on defense wasn’t high enough to suit him.I haven’t seen explanations from the other six but five of them are among the most centrist members of the caucus. (Ben Sasse is an exception.) Did they take issue with some element of spending too, or was this in fact a vote to...

I don't see any other logical reason for him speaking the way he did.

Pope Francis today suggested to reporters during an airborne press conference that he is not a left-winger. “Some people might say some things [I said] sounded slightly more leftish, but that would be a mistake of interpretation,” the Pope said to journalists, according to Time.

Fiorina's story -- that she went from "Secretary to CEO" -- is more embellishment, than truth. In fact, Fiorina didn't rise from secretarial pool to CEO, like a real world version of "Working Girl." The daughter of the dean of Duke Law School, and top Nixon advisor, she took a part-time job as a secretary, while in law school, and then was put on the management track at AT&T. I worked in the dining hall in college, but I don't go around saying that I rose from burger flipper to Presidential Campaign press secretary. Then there is the now widely...

House Democrats are blocking their Republican colleagues from using Obamacare in letters mailed on the taxpayer's dime to voters, but who made up the term in the first place? Lots of people are asking this question, getting answers like "Certainly a republican, potentially Glenn Beck" and "I am about 80% sure it was Rush Limbaugh" and "Hillary Clinton's campaign coined Obamacare." Iowa Rep. Steve King claimed President Obama himself made it up. Free Republic posters want to claim credit. Lots of liberals suspect an insidious plot by Fox News. But the answer appears to be: a lobbyist.

Once upon a time, your origins were easy to understand. Your dad met your mum, they had some fun, and from a tiny fertilised egg you emerged kicking and screaming into the world. You are half your mum, half your dad – and 100% yourself. Except, that simple tale has now become a lot more complicated. Besides your genes from parents, you are a mosaic of viruses, bacteria – and potentially, other humans. Indeed, if you are a twin, you are particularly likely to be carrying bits of your sibling within your body and brain. Stranger still, they may be...

An Obama administration representative took a shot at a well-known conservative college Thursday, saying the school wasn’t included on its much-heralded new “College Scorecard” because it isn’t a real two-to-four year college. Hillsdale College, a 1,500-student liberal arts college in Michigan, is ranked by U.S. News and World Reports as the 67th-best national liberal arts college in the country. The college is well-known for the conservative identity of its student body and its focus on a core curriculum that emphasizes Judeo-Christian tradition and the U.S. Constitution. It’s also known for its refusal to accept any federal funding (including federal student...

0bama has called 0bama a Muslim. Anyone remember when StepOnallofus had to correct him, “You mean your CHRISTIAN faith?”. Problem is that 0’s statement doesn’t make sense unless he HAD MEANT TO SAY “Muslim”. “I am thankful that my opponent John McLame has not made an issue of my CHRISTIAN faith.” WTF? Its not like he was an such an outspoken bible-thumper that it could have been used against him. However if the word “Muslim” is used, it makes perfect sense that he would have given McLame a hat tip for not making an issue of it....

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed the Republican-controlled Senate on Friday for blocking action on Obamacare, tax reform and more while representatives are working hard to push conservative measures through. "The latest metric shows this is the second-most productive Congress of any Republican in the majority," the California Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Martha MacCallum, "but what's stopping us is the Senate." The House has two bills on the floor that could affect Planned Parenthood and the abortion services it provides, McCarthy said, at the same time many in the Senate are arguing about whether to shut down...

The abortion-friendly media are having a heyday challenging Carly Fiorina’s assertion during Wednesday’s debate that on the Planned Parenthood videos you can: “Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’” Planned Parenthood calls her a liar. Politico adds, “…at no point do they include footage of an entire aborted fetus.” Huffington Post said, “That footage doesn’t exist…” Vox said Fiorina’s claims are “pure fiction.” George Stephanopoulos told Fiorina to her face “…the harrowing scene you describe isn’t actually in those tapes.”...

SWANSEA, Wales, September 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- A former cast member of BBC3’s hit reality TV show The Call Centre is being investigated by police after she posted on Facebook earlier this week that babies born with Downs Syndrome should be executed. Ursula Presgrave, 24 years-old, posted on her Facebook page Sunday night: “Anyone born with down syndrome should be put down, it’s just cruel to let them lead a pointless life of a vegetable.” Pre-born children with Downs syndrome are highly discriminated against because of a genetic anomaly of having an extra 21st chromosome. A in utero diagnosis...

Many members of Congress are calling for an end to government funding for America’s biggest abortion mill, Planned Parenthood. Americans were outraged over the organization’s alleged sale of aborted-baby parts as revealed in undercover videos conducted by the Center for Medical Progress. But the money does not go just one way—members and employees of Planned Parenthood, as well as the group’s PAC, have been very active and generous in their donations to government officials who both funnel taxpayer money to the organization as well as ardently defend abortion.

In two wide-ranging new interviews, the pontiff discusses matters both weighty and personal, such as: the perils of his popularity, his plans to welcome divorced and remarried Catholics, and his fear that the church has locked Jesus up like a prisoner. Speaking Sept. 13 to the Argentine radio station, FM Milenium, Francis lamented those who posed as his friends to exploit him, and decried religious fundamentalism. And speaking to Portugal’s Radio Renascença in an interview that ran on Sept. 14, Francis said that a priest comes to hear his confession every 15 to 20 days: “And I never had to...

It is difficult to convey the excitement I first felt when it was revealed that His Holiness Pope Francis was invited to Washington D.C. to address the world from the floor of the House of Representatives. Many believed, like I did, that this was an opportunity for the Pope to be one of the world’s great religious advocates and address the current intolerance of religious freedom. An opportunity to urgently challenge governments to properly address the persecution and execution of Christians and religious minorities; to address the heinous and senseless murders committed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations. An opportunity...

The Hill and Wolf Blitzer call this Hillary Clinton’s “first live television interview since starting her campaign,” but that’s not entirely correct. Hillary has appeared on softball shows like Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon to dance and have her hair pulled, and while those might not have aired live, they had live audiences. Her interview with CNN’s Blitzer was the first live interview in which Hillary got asked tough questions, and in which Hillary did all she could to keep from answering them.Oddly, the first question Hillary ducks is an opportunity to offer up a few specific accomplishments during her...