Free Republic

It’s unclear if the Clinton-Gore Confederate flag campaign button that has been prominent on social media was an official part of their 1992 presidential campaign. And Hillary Clinton isn’t clarifying, nor is her team responding to questions about her husband honoring the flag as Arkansas governor in 1987. TheBlaze left phone and email messages with the Clinton campaign Monday inquiring whether the button, and other similar designs sold on eBay, was part of the official campaign of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. TheBlaze also asked if the former Arkansas first lady opposed now or opposed then an act signed...

While some 2016 White House contenders are debating the propriety of the Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina state house, there's one candidate who won't join the fray. Speaking to NBC's Face the Nation Sunday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he won't become part of the argument because he believes it has nothing to do with running for president. "Everyone is being baited with this question as if somehow that has anything to do whatsoever with running for president, and my position is it most certainly does not," the Arkansas Republican told host Chuck Todd Sunday. "People want...

No actor or actress can match Meryl Streep’s 19 Academy Award nominations, and only Katharine Hepburn has bested her three Oscars for acting. So maybe it’s conceivable that Streep’s letter Tuesday to each member of Congress can somehow revive the Equal Rights Amendment, politically dormant since its high-water mark four decades ago. “I am writing to ask you to stand up for equality—for your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife or yourself—by actively supporting the Equal Rights Amendment,” Streep writes. Each packet includes a copy of “Equal Means Equal,” a book by Jessica Neuwirth, president of the ERA Coalition....

Washington (CNN)—The first black Republican woman elected to Congress is returning $1,000 in donations from Earl Holt, the alleged white supremacist whose writings have reportedly inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mia Love said Monday that she would be returning the three donations Holt made to her campaign immediately, after being contacted by CNN. Love made history last November when Utah residents selected her as the first black Republican woman to serve in Congress. Holt, who is president Council of Conservative Citizens, donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum...

Chuck Todd aired a racist video featuring all black shooters on Meet The Press, and in the face of a mounting public backlash refused to apologize. Before the video aired, Todd tried to deflect away the obvious problem with what he was about to air, “The circumstances you are about to see are very different from the racist violence in Charleston. In this case, the inmates are African American that you’re going to hear from. But their lessons remain important. We simply ask you to look at this be a colorblind issue, as about just simply gun violence. If the...

"The Values Voter Summit, a four-day orgy of people fundamentally opposed to orgies" (VIDEO-AT-LINK) Stephen Colbert ripped into the ninth annual Values Voter Summit, last night on “The Colbert Report.” Very few were spared. ”There were so many great speakers,” Colbert said. “Also Sarah Palin.” But the speeches were just part of the Values Voter Summit. It also holds the first large straw poll for presidential candidates....

The New York Times totally threw shade at Bill and Hillary Clinton's son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky. Matt Goldstein and Steve Eder wrote an article in The New York Times suggesting that Mezvinsky —who is married to Chelsea Clinton —had been able to gain access to investors with ties to the Clintons for the hedge fund he cofounded that has had "underwhelming returns."About a month ago, The Wall Street Journal published a report about the fund's underperformance since its inception. The Times' report focuses primarily on Mezvinsky and his role in fund-raising and strategizing for the fund. Back in 2011, Mezvinsky, now...

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) discussed the fatal shooting of nine parishioners inside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC and blamed the shooting on a “right-wing drift in the country” that has “gone too far.”

Witnesses say the white gunman who killed nine people at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., was quite vocal about his motives: He wanted to kill black people. Sylvia Johnson, whose cousin the Rev. Clementa Pinckney was one of three ministers killed in the church, said a survivor of the horror told her the shooter muttered, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." In Charleston, a slaughter in the sanctuary In Charleston, a slaughter in the sanctuary Facebook photos and other evidence suggest...

Why the senator’s brand of foreign policy is dangerous. The Republican Party is divided on foreign policy. There are “interventionists” like John McCain and Lindsey Graham who want America to more aggressively wage war—either directly or via proxies—in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and beyond. And there are “isolationists” like Rand Paul who worry that if America tries to fix the world’s problems through the barrel of a gun, we’ll become a bankrupt empire rather than a prosperous republic. Then there’s Ted Cruz, who unites both factions by embodying the worst of each. Take Cruz’s position on ISIS. Like McCain...

From immigration and the “Latino registration machine” to the GOP’s apparent inability to recognize the racial aspects of the Charleston church shooting, Real Time host Bill Maher had a field day with his panelists on Friday night’s show. Yet it’s the “Overtime” segment’s extra nuggets that made for some of the most WTF-worthy viewing, especially for this reaction from MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Of all the possible conversation topics, what could have triggered such a reaction from Reid? Oh nothing, really — just guest Ann Coulter‘s funny-but-serious answer to Maher’s question about “which Republican candidate has the best chance of winning...

WASHINGTON — In February 2008, an aide sent a news article to Vice President Dick Cheney reporting that former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell might vote for a Democrat for president. Sections were highlighted in yellow, and someone had circled a quotation from Mr. Powell in which he said America had lost “a lot” of prestige around the world. Mr. Cheney recorded no reaction, but one can imagine some consternation at what the vice president presumably deemed disloyalty to the administration that both of them had served. Mr. Powell had been the vice president’s chief internal adversary during President...

We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity's existence, researchers have declared. Researchers say a new study shows 'without any significant doubt' that we are entering the sixth great mass extinction on earth. The study says that the window for conserving threatened species is rapidly closing. The study shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event,' said Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment who led the research.The new study, published in the journal Science Advances,...

The world is embarking on its sixth mass extinction with animals disappearing about 100 times faster than they used to, scientists warned Friday, and humans could be among the first victims. Not since the age of the dinosaurs ended 66 million years ago has the planet been losing species at this rapid a rate, said a study led by experts at Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. The study "shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event," said co-author Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University professor of biology.

Humans will be extinct in 100 years due to overcrowding, declining resources and climate change, according to a prominent scientist. The comments were first made by Australian microbiologist Dr Frank Fenner in 2010, but engineer and science writer David Auerbach has reiterated the doom-laden warning in his latest article. He criticises the recent G7 summit for failing to deal with the problems facing the survival of humanity, such as global warming and exhausting Earth's resources. Mr Auerbach goes on to say that experts have predicted that 21st century civilisation faces a similar fate to the inhabitants of Easter Island, who...

Earth has seen its share of catastrophes, the worst being the “big five” mass extinctions scientists traditionally talk about. Now, paleontologists are arguing that a sixth extinction, 260 million years ago, at the end of a geological age called the Capitanian, deserves to be a member of the exclusive club. In a new study, they offer evidence for a massive die-off in shallow, cool waters in what is now Norway. That finding, combined with previous evidence of extinctions in tropical waters, means that the Capitanian was a global catastrophe. “It’s the first time we can say this is a true...

Consistent with our analysis of last year’s list, the New York Times has again apparently excluded any conservative or even right-leaning titles from its “100 Notable Books” of 2014. A disclaimer: While “conservative” or “right-leaning” are obviously subjective terms, a cursory glance at the Times’ list indicates books that lack a focus on individual liberty, free enterprise, traditional values, or many of the other tenets of Western civilization — unless critical of such tenets; further, the list is bereft of any titles authored by conservative or right-leaning authors. To give you a sense as to the kind of narratives/themes echoed...

Earth, I love you. I always have. You and your elemental inhabitants are the most beautiful beings that I have ever seen, met, felt and experienced. You are the most beautiful life experiment in this universe. You are music to my ears and soul. And your green! The sound of the leaves in the wind. The scents. The sunrise and sunset. The moon. The humming of the bees, the rushing of the waves. The infinite moments of sensory ecstasy and blissful encounters with other beings. Discovering woman-identification has been a constant dance of fire and joy. *** Alexis linked to...

Prince Charles warns of human extinction Mankind will become extinct, the Prince of Wales has warned, unless humans transform our lifestyles to stop mass consumption, run away climate change and destruction of wildlife. By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent 2:34PM BST 08 Sep 2011 In his first speech as the new President of the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK, Prince Charles suggested 'surviving ourselves' should be a priority. Referring to himself as “an endangered species”, he warned that the world is already in the “sixth extinction event”, with species dying out at a much faster rate than at any time since...