Free Republic

An Oregon-based ad agency has been generating national attention for its ads promoting Cover Oregon, The Beaver State’s the version of an Obamacare health insurance marketplace. The generally pointless ads cost taxpayers $3 million, reports Fox News. They feature ostensibly catchy musical numbers and have sort of a hipster, granola, outdoorsy vibe. They offer no clue what they are about until the very end, when the words “Cover Oregon” appear on the screen along with a website. One version of the ad also bothers to list a phone number. Now, North, the Portland-based agency, wants high school marching bands to...

Snipped title: Fed-Up NY Man Sets Up Hidden Camera to Find Out Who Was Repeatedly Stealing His Pro-Gun Sign – What He Discovered Blew Him Away

A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that sits across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court was toppled by vandals sometime over the weekend. The monument sits in the front yard of 209 Second St. NE, the headquarters of Faith and Action, an evangelical Christian group led by the Rev. Rob Schenck. The 3-foot by 3-foot granite sculpture weighs 850 pounds.

Vince Gill did something on Sunday that not many country singers are willing to do: he courted controversy. Prior to a concert in Kansas City, Missouri, Gill confronted protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, who were picketing outside his concert to protest his divorce and remarriage, which they hold to be nothing more than a form of adultery. The church, which is nonaffiliated, has also protested against gays and Jews and at the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in combat, in the belief that God is punishing the nation for its immorality. At Kansas City’s Kauffman Center...

  A Seattle restaurant was burned by an arsonist – and that suspect was a hooded man who left graffiti believed to reference to the Trayvon Martin case. The fire was started about 2:15 a.m. at the corner of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street in Seattle's Central District. The first arriving engine company found flames coming from the back of the Med Mix restaurant near a storage area, and light smoke was found inside the restaurant. On the building the arsonist used red spray paint to write, "4 Pratt and Trayv." The owner believes that message refers to Trayvon Martin,...

Another business is facing retribution for declining service to a same-sex couple. Betty and Dick Odgaard, owners of Görtz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, are catching the ire of gay rights advocates after they declined offering their venue to Lee Stafford and his fiance Jared. Now the owners, who are Christians, are receiving vicious and threatening emails and phone calls — and they fear that their business could shut down because of the fierce reaction. It was less than one week ago that the Lee and Jared entered Görtz Haus looking for additional information about holding their wedding there. After...

“We have to monitor social media and the Internet to see if there are any rallies nearby that pose a specific threat, and we avoid them,” he said, adding that the threats sometimes average 400 per minute. Mr. Zimmerman found himself in a threatening situation in Washington, D.C., when Starbucks employees mistook him for his brother. . . . Someone finally noticed the receipt said Robert instead of George, or R instead of G, and they said ‘Oh, it’s not George Zimmerman‘ and they all calmed down. Someone then said ‘Yeah, but you look like that [expletive], and if you...

LEFTIST PLANT INFILTRATES HOUSTON PRO-ZIMMERMAN RALLY– Liberal Media runs with it A photo from the Houston pro-Zimmerman counter-rally of the NBPP anti-Zimmerman rally picked up by the AP shows a woman holding a sign that read, “Racist & Proud.” That looked incongruent with the other reports from the pro-Zimmerman side. The Houston Chronicle identified her as Renee Vaughan: One woman in the Zimmerman group held a sign that said, “We’re racist & proud.” Austin resident Renee Vaughan echoed the sign’s ugly sentiments by yelling, “We’re racist. We’re proud. We’re better because we’re white,” at the Martin group as they passed,...

Dream Defenders, the main group that has been agitating the protest movement surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, was spawned by activists employed by a who’s who of the race-hijacking radical left. From the socialist-oriented SEIU union to ACORN to Occupy to a litany of George Soros-funded organizations, the deep connections behind Dream Defenders raises questions about the motivation of an organization that claims to be a grassroots effort working to oppose racism. Dream Defenders has been leading Martin protests since the onset and has been credited with agitating for George Zimmerman’s arrest. The group was behind the protests that blockaded...

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Houston on Monday to protest against the acquittal of George Zimmerman, but what started as a peaceful rally turned terrifying for one woman who claims she was assaulted while trying to get her daughter to the hospital. “I looked up and I see all the protesters, they’re everywhere,” said Georgia, who asked Click 2 Houston that her last name not be used. “So, we got into the traffic and they’re stopping us and not letting us go.” Police told the station that protesters spilled into the road, blocking traffic for about 15...

... Such behavior from pro-abortion advocates suggests their fear of the inevitability of this bill passing. The higher-ups in the abortion movement no longer bothered encouraging their supporters to act appropriately, though it is questionable as to if they ever did. Abby Johnson, who was present at the Capitol, has been making updates on her Facebook page and posted this the day before the bill passed: I just wanted to post something in preparation for tomorrow. I have had a couple of legitimately concerned abortion clinic workers (from Austin clinics) contact me to let me know what is being planned...

PINK MAFIA BEATDOWN– An unhinged mob of raging lesbians and beer-muscled gays beat a street preacher (video) at the Seattle Gay Pride festivities this week.

Half of all voters consider radical Muslims the bigger terrorist threat facing the nation, but supporters of President Obama consider the Tea Party to be as big a danger. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters consider radical Muslims to be the bigger threat to the United States today. Thirteen percent (13%) view the Tea Party that way, and another 13% consider other political and religious extremists to be the larger danger. Six percent (6%) point to local militia groups. Two percent (2%) see the Occupy Wall Street movement as the bigger terrorist...

The Los Angeles Unified School District has a graduation rate of 66% well below the national average of 78.2%. Despite this, the LA school district is going to spend nearly a million dollars training kids to promote Obamacare. Heartland.org reported, via Human Events: The Los Angeles Unified School District will use a state grant to train teens to promote ObamaCare to family members. Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, announced grants of $37 million on May 14 to promote the nationally unpopular law. LAUSD will receive $990,000. The district listed as a primary outcome for its project, “Teens trained...

On Saturday, a plane carrying former President George W. Bush was diverted to Louisville, Ky., after the pilot smelled smoke, CNN reported. The aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt, but liberals were upset the plane did not crash and kill the former president, Twitchy reported Sunday. "What a shame George Bush's plane landed safely," one Twitter user said. "Dang bush plane made emergency landing. He has good pilots with his stanking a*s (sic)," added another Twitter user. "Too bad it didn't crash," said "Jay." Some readers at CNN also appeared upset that Bush survived the incident. "We need...

Students at the University of Colorado – Boulder (UCB) signed an enormous thank you card to the Internal Revenue Service for its apparent harassment of conservative groups during the lead-up to President Obama’s reelection. In the viral video, posted on YouTube Tuesday, conservative pundit Caleb Bonham asked students to sign the large card that read “Thank you IRS! Tea Party Deserves it!” “I’m asking people if they want to sign my board thanking the IRS for targeting conservative tea party and religious organizations,” Bonham explained in the video. Several students enthusiastically added signatures and personal messages. “Yes, totally,” responded one...

CARSON CITY — U.S. Sen. Harry Reid today renewed his threat to go after filibuster rules that have hindered President Barack Obama’s cabinet appointments, but don’t expect him to back eliminating the filibuster when it comes to legislation. Despite having watched Republicans scuttle gun control legislation by invoking the 60-vote filibuster rule and routinely complaining of GOP “obstruction,” Reid said he has no intention of seeking its elimination entirely. “I said when I left for recess that I was going to work with Republicans to try to get something done and I am going to do that,” Reid said for...

Authorities have confirmed that an apparent bomb addressed to Maricopa, Ariz., County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was uncovered and diverted, and now investigators are beginning to look into a list of his enemies for any links or connections. Those who have had conflicts with him, those who might be coming under investigation, those who have been unsuccessful in fights with him. That should be a job. Arpaio, who has described himself as the “toughest sheriff in America,” has had conflicts over the past few years with advocates for illegal immigration, those who don’t like his enforcement of state laws in Arizona,...

A suspicious package addressed to controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio contained a bomb that was powerful enough to maim or even kill him, his office said today. "Had someone opened that package, it would have caused a major explosion and caused serious physical injuries, burns and maybe death," Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jerry Sheridan said at a press conference. "That was a very serious threat, it was labeled to come here to this building and be opened by Sheriff Arpaio."