Free Republic

Video evidence that Planned Parenthood traffics in organs taken from the babies it kills has sparked a wave of revulsion across the country. This gory profiteering clashes with the organization's attempts to portray itself as a champion of women's health. While Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and ten other Republican senators have requested that the DOJ investigate Planned Parenthood's body snatching business, leading Democrats want an investigation of the organization that released the videos to the media. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) called the videos "a reprehensible invasion of privacy" and demanded that the Center for Medical Progress (the organization...

The Supreme Court's recent decision to make gay marriage legal nationwide was a significant victory for liberals. In next year's election, however, the decision will hurt Democrats. Success, after all, presents it own set of challenges. As sociologists Mayer Zald and Roberta Ash pointed out in their classic 1966 study of social movement organizations, the two biggest challenges of a social movement are complete success and complete failure (Social Forces 44 (March)). The ideal situation for maintaining a social movement, they wrote, would be to "over time always [seem] to be getting closer to its goal without quite attaining it."...

Governor’s races in South and Midwest could be lost if party brand becomes too liberal. Centrist Democrats were wiped out in the 2014 elections and in their absence emerged a resurgent liberal movement, embodied most recently by the surprisingly competitive presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But the suddenly ascendant left — its populist overtones becoming part of the mainstream Democratic pitch — is worrying Democrats who want to compete on Republican-leaning turf. The party lost every competitive gubernatorial and Senate race in the South last year. And Democrats didn’t fare much better in the heartland. Now, as Bernie...

Pop stars are definitely not shy about taking sides in American politics, as we saw when artists such as Madonna, Cher, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Beyonce all rallied behind President Obama in his respective campaigns. On their own, singers are just voters. They might not know a whole lot about politics, and you might not care what they think. But a lot of people, especially young people, do. And young people matter. The 2014 midterms saw the lowest youth turnout in 70 years, contributing to sweeping Republican victories a few short years after the youth vote helped President Obama...

Via the Weekly Standard, where were you the day Hillary’s campaign imploded? No, I kid. Drudge was pushing this earlier because the idea of lefty infighting over whether their nominee-in-waiting is a racist or not is simply delicious. Spoiler: She is racist, or at least the left used to think so. (A few of them still do.) Now that their hold on power depends upon her being absolved, though, absolution is freely granted via the memory hole. She’ll be given a pass on this partly for that reason and partly because her admission about fear of black men in hoodies...

Welcome back, everyone. This column went on hiatus last week, so we could attend Netroots Nation. So we've got two whole weeks to cover today, just to warn everyone in advance. Two weeks ago, we kind of went out on a limb (the polling evidence was not all that clear when we wrote it) and subtitled our previous column: "Donald Trump, Frontrunner." Since that time, such a statement has gone from being a wild prediction to becoming an equally-wild reality. The first Republican presidential debate is happening in less than two weeks, and Donald Trump is not only guaranteed one...

Friday at New York University, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addressed news reports today that two inspector generals requested the Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into Clinton’s use of private email and server during her tenure as Secretary of State.

Last month Matt Vespa covered the story of Democrats in Virginia who were talking about changing the name of their annual Jefferson Jackson dinner because of the Dylan Roof shooting or the Confederate Battle Flag or racism or something. That may have sounded rather silly at the time, but it’s turned out to be prophetic. Democrats in Connecticut also have an annual dinner named after the same prominent early Americans – as with their fellows across the nation – and have made the decision to change the name. (Because who would want to be associated with those guys, right?)...

America's two major political parties have a difficult task: amassing a 51 percent coalition in a nation that has always been -- not just now, but from the beginning -- regionally, religiously, racially and ethnically diverse. George W. Bush's Republicans in 2006 and 2008 were not able to hold together the 51 percent coalition that re-elected him in 2004. Barack Obama's Democrats in 2014 were not able to hold together the 51 percent coalition that re-elected him in 2012. And, while the media and the voters are transfixed by the antics of Donald Trump, and speculating on possible damage to...

Group takes a shovel to Confederate General’s grave Posted 10:18 pm, July 22, 2015, by Eryn Taylor MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group was fed up with waiting, so they got a shovel and dug up a patch of grass next to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave and statue in a public park in the Medical District. The group says they wanted the statue and remains removed for a long time, because he was a Confederate soldier, a KKK leader and a slave trader. “If he’s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone,” said Isaac Richmond with Commission on...

January 6, 2014 Group Run by al Qaeda Terrorist Invited to Brief Dems on Drone Policy Alana Goodman The representative of a human rights group headed by a designated al Qaeda terrorist was denied a visa by the State Department after being invited by congressional Democrats to discuss drone strikes.Mohammad Al Ahmady, the Yemen director for Geneva-based NGO Al Karama, was expected to brief Reps. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) the morning of the Nov. 19, according to press release from Grayson’s office.Ahmady, who also serves as a top official in an...

Hillary. She's JUST SO RELATABLE and down-to-earth and NOT icky and one-percenty at ALL, isn't she? I mean, she's a Democrat, so she can't be part of that one percent. (Listen, kids. According to the lamestream media, it only counts as evil if you're a Republican like Mitt Romney and you amassed your wealth in the private sector and didn't take it from taxpayers. But I suppose that's neither here nor there, because FANGIRLS OMG!)

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are history in Connecticut. Under pressure from the (NAACP) the state (Democrat Party) will scrub the names of the two presidents from its annual fundraising dinner because of their ties to slavery.

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are history in Connecticut. Under pressure from the NAACP, the state Democratic Party will scrub the names of the two presidents from its annual fundraising dinner because of their ties to slavery. Party leaders voted unanimously Wednesday night in Hartford to rename the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner in the aftermath of last month’s fatal shooting of nine worshipers at the historic black church in Charleston, S.C. The decision is believed to be unprecedented and could prompt Democrats in other states with similarly-named events to follow suit. “I see it as the right thing to do,”...

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are history in Connecticut. Under pressure from the NAACP, the state Democratic Party will scrub the names of the two presidents from its annual fundraising dinner because of their ties to slavery. Party leaders voted unanimously Wednesday night in Hartford to rename the Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner in the aftermath of last month’s fatal shooting of nine worshipers at the historic black church in Charleston, S.C.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed a state review team's finding that Wayne County is operating under a financial emergency. County leaders have until 5 p.m. July 29 to request a hearing on the governor's determination. Should a hearing be requested, it will be held at 10 a.m. July 30, in Lansing, before the state treasurer or his designee. Following the hearing (or if no hearing is requested by the county), the governor can either confirm or revoke his determination that a financial emergency exists. The Wayne County Commission then can choose one of four options to deal with this financial...

The Corner The one and only. ‘You Should Be for Americans’: Victims of Illegal-Alien Sanctuary Policies Tell Their Stories by Mark Krikorian July 21, 2015 7:39 PM @MarkSKrikorian The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today featuring family members of Americans killed by illegal aliens. The witnesses told the stories of Danny Oliver, Grant Ronnebeck, Kathryn Steinle, Dennis McCann, and Josh Wilkerson – all dead because federal, state, and local governments have abdicated their responsibility to protect American citizens from foreign criminals. The anti-borders activists were sensible enough not to disrupt the proceedings, as they have done so often before....

I'm sort of breaking my promise here. No news. Why no news? Because the news you read is almost always by uninformed reporters and is totally irrelevant in 99.999% of the cases. Example: Greece has not paid a single debt since Rome took over in 146 BC. And yet, everyone keeps asking me about Greece. News flash: They will borrow more money, and AGAIN they will not pay their debts. Nor should they. Greece is a subsidized beach resort, healthy food, etc but they aren't a real country - (sorry in advance to anyone offended by this) and then in...

She said it. She really did. Actually she typed it. But still, there was no hedge. In a live Facebook Q&A set up primarily for average people interested in asking Hillary Clinton questions, some reporters popped in too. Ok, a lot of reporters popped in, since Clinton hasn't exactly been too open about taking questions from reporters. Among the online attendees was the Post's own, Wesley Lowery. Lowery asked Clinton this question and got this response: "Black lives matter." With those three little words, Clinton acknowledged that there are myriad ways that race continues to shape life in America that...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump's incendiary comments - and the GOP response - are proving political gold for Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid jumped on both Tuesday, first attacking Trump for his criticism of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., then pivoting to a larger target: the growing GOP presidential field and the entire Republican Party. Reid, D-Nev., noted that while Trump's GOP White House rivals were nearly unanimous in denouncing Trump's suggestion that McCain is not really a war hero, they were more tentative in responding to his criticisms of Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists."(continued)