Free Republic

BISMARCK – For the third time in six years, North Dakota lawmakers have killed legislation that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, despite warnings from some Democrats and Republicans that it could tarnish the growing state’s image and attract backlash similar to what Indiana and Arkansas have faced in recent days. Kevin Tengesdal, a gay U.S. Navy veteran from Bismarck who had testified for the bill and helped fill the House balcony in support of it Thursday, brushed away tears and hugged fellow supporters outside the chamber after the vote. “It was disheartening. When can our voice be heard?”...

HOUSTON, Texas — In the second part of an exclusive interview with Breitbart News after the public grand opening of his Houston presidential campaign headquarters, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Breitbart News that the modern Democratic Party is “so radicalized and so extreme” that it won’t stand up for the most basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution, including religious liberty as afforded by the First Amendment. “I’m proud that the state of Indiana stood to defend religious liberties,” Cruz said in the interview, which took place before the state of Indiana backed down to the institutional left’s calls for changes...

Gay wedding cakes! Yes folks, I did this. I went there. You have this now. Actually, I taped this video a long time ago but due to audio corruption issues, was never able to upload it. Now that my in-house whizz kid, Jared was able to salvage the footage, I am passing it onto you. What do you think happens when a gay, like SUPER gay Crowder tries to get a super gay wedding cake baked at a Muslim bakery? I’m pretty sure you can guess, but you might as well watch this week’s adventure to Dearborn, MI to find...

I flagged this story last night on Twitter but Matt Welch already wrote the post I wanted to write this morning about State Sen. Jim Arnold. I wonder if this schmuck is misinformed about what the pizzeria owners said, as so many people burning them in virtual effigy seem to be, or if he knows and is prepared to run them out of town regardless: “The vast majority of people in this country are not going to stand by and watch that kind of activity unfold,” [Arnold] said. “If that’s their stand I hope they enjoy eating their pizza because...

Appearing before a room full of Democratic partisans in his first speech as a 2016 Senate candidate, Rep. Patrick Murphy compared Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to conservative firebrand Allen West, took jabs at the tea party and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and cheered the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Murphy, who announced his Senate candidacy last week, made a brief appearance at Thursday night’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party meeting in West Palm Beach. Murphy was elected in 2012 by presenting himself as a moderate alternative to outspoken conservative West, unseating the Republican in a district where the GOP...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) In a video posted by The Dallas Morning News to YouTube on Wednesday, 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about the controversy involving Indiana’s “religious freedom” law. Cruz took aim at Democrats in particular for using the wedge issue of same-sex marriage for political gain, even at the expense of those with a “good faith religious belief” about marriage. “[H]ere’s what’s happened,” Cruz said. “Which is it used to be there was a bipartisan consensus. We’d defend the civil liberties of Americans, even those we disagreed with. We defended the religious liberty of people to seek...

Today U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the former Union City mayor, was indicted on charges that include conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud. Here's a list of some Hudson County politicians and power brokers who were charged and convicted on corruption counts:

Republicans are debating whether their path to the presidency in 2016 runs through the blue-collar Rust Belt states, or the demographically changing new South and Sunbelt states. For Democrats looking to retake the Senate, however, the formula is more clear-cut: Win back white working-class voters, or be consigned to a longer-term minority. Most of the Senate battlegrounds run through the Midwest—Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio—along with New Hampshire, which carries demographic similarities with those older, whiter Great Lakes states. To defeat the vulnerable Republican incumbents, Democrats have a challenging task ahead: Making inroads with blue-collar voters, who have been stubbornly resistant...

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that Social Security should be be made “secure” while increasing benefits in an interview broadcast on Tuesday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.

Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin argued that the left is being “intolerant” and making everyone adopt their newfound support of same-sex marriage on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in December, detailed the United States’ part of an ambitious joint pledge made by Mr. Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in November. The United States and China are the world’s two largest greenhouse gas polluters. Mr. Obama said the United States would cut its emissions...

In an unexpectedly difficult reelection campaign, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought to rally support by promising to rename the City’s two airports in honor of President and Michelle Obama. The two airports are currently named in honor of World War II Navy pilot Edward “Butch” O’Hare and the 1942 Battle of Midway—an upset US victory over Japan that many historians view as the turning point of the war in the Pacific. “I don’t mean to denigrate these earlier historic events, but they pale in significance to the impact that President Obama has had on this country,” Emanuel explained. “O’Hare was...

On May 15, 2013, the Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan, an anti-Semite, attended a ceremony a stone’s throw from our nation’s capital celebrating what he claims “will likely become the largest and most striking example of Islamic architecture in the Western Hemisphere.” Next year, when completed, the Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center, in Lanham, Maryland “US of A,” a project of the Islamist Turkish government, will be the grandest Islamic site in the Western Hemisphere. Allah Akbar! The 15-acre neo-Ottoman empire inspired complex will have five buildings and a mosque capable of serving over 750 faithful Muslim worshipers. I have...

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D – Illinois) clearly warned us a while ago that illegal immigrants would turn to unprecedented militancy if Barack Obama’s executive amnesty plans were foiled. We may not have seen that yet, but since the plans in question have been put on hold, Representative Gutierrez is remaining busy trying to get everyone ready for the flood of new Americans in Waiting and to ensure their smooth transition. Along these lines, he’s created a helpful toolkit which illegals can use in the unlikely event that anyone from ICE is rude enough to ask them any impertinent questions. In...

Emerging details of a possible nuclear deal with Iran have drawn sharp criticism from congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who say the U.S. and its international partners may be ceding too much as a key deadline nears. If reports are true, "then we are not inching closer to Iran’s negotiating position, but leaping toward it with both feet,” charged Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a vocal critic of the direction of the talks. “My fear is that we are no longer guided by the principle that ‘no deal is...

Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said. Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party's tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week.

Well, theyÂ’re not horrible. But Democrats canÂ’t be too happy about their present chances of replacing outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid with another Democrat in the U.S. Senate could certainly be better than they are right now. Reid was no lock to win reelection even if he decided to run again in 2016. He polls as poorly today as he did in 2010, when the Nevada electorate appeared ready to jettison the Silver StateÂ’s longtime senator, but a majority of voters just couldnÂ’t bring themselves to pull the lever for Sharron Angle. At the yearÂ’s open, veteran Nevada...

One of the worst kept secrets of President Barack ObamaÂ’ first term in office is how closely aligned that administration and the members of the Democratic Party were with the interests of the financial sector, despite party membersÂ’ repeated insistence that they wanted nothing more than to curb Wall StreetÂ’s excesses. The well-heeled bankers at Goldman Sachs had little to fear from Democrats who professed their appreciation for the promise of the Occupy Wall Street movement while the institutionÂ’s members were filling Democratic pockets with campaign contributions. The financial community could rest easy knowing that Democrats were aware of...

Illinois had the biggest decrease in population according to a new report from the Census Bureau. Between July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014, the state lost 9,972 people. On the other end, Texas saw the largest population increase adding more than 450,000 people during that time. Cook County saw a very slight decrease in population. It’s one of four counties with a population of more than 1 million to experience a decrease. Others include industrial counties like Wayne County, Michigan; Cuyahoga, Ohio; and Allegheny, Pennsylvania. The rate of people leaving Cook County for other counties has been increasing since...

In short: no. Just no. In fact, it could very well be the most horrific idea of the last ten years. Yes, that includes Obamacare and the president’s plans to negotiate with the Islamonazis in Iran. Whittle says that he considers voting a “civic duty,” but I disagree with that. It’s a civic privilege. We’ve made a major mistake in the West – in both Europe and America – by allowing people who live on the dole to vote. General voting rights – without any requirements except for being a citizen – have enabled the lazy and incompetent to live...