Free Republic

In the 100 E-MAILS released by the Obama administration relating to Benghazi, THERE WAS NO MENTION OF THE YOUTUBE VIDEO IN ANY OF THEM.

WASHINGTON — The junior senator from Texas is still a Canadian. But he’s working on it, eh? Born in Alberta 43 years ago last Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz was unaware of his dual nationality until The Dallas Morning News explored the issue in August. Since then, he said in a recent interview, “I have retained counsel that is preparing the paperwork to renounce the citizenship.” He expects to complete the process in 2014. That time frame jibes with predictions from Canadian legal experts. He doesn’t dispute holding dual citizenship. “Not at this point,” he said. When Cruz was born, his...

Texas tea party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz tells ABC's Jonathan Karl on "This Week" that he has no regrets about the 16-week federal government shutdown. In fact, he blames President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders, ABC News reports in a story on its website.

Actor Andy Serkis is set to direct an upcoming movie adaptation of George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm. But there will be a slight deviation from the story’s original focus: rather than serve as a cautionary tale about Communist totalitarianism, this updated version will address Hollywood’s predictable, go-to embodiment of evil, the Darth Vader of our time: corporate greed. Orwell’s brilliant allegory Animal Farm was written during World War II as a satire on Soviet Communism (and very nearly wasn’t published, critical as it was of our Russian ally). It has since been adapted to film twice, a British animated...

The movement's structure means it can withstand low popularity and continue to exert a huge pull on the GOP.The demise of the Tea Party was loudly announced right after Congress voted on October 16 to lift the debt ceiling and reopen the federal government. “Finally! The Republican Fever Is Broken,” exulted Jamelle Bouie atThe Daily Beast, while Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson proclaimed President Obama’s “victory” over the Tea Party just as “devastating as Sherman’s march through the South.” With most Americans telling pollsters they do not like the Tea Party and its tactics, the GOP will eventually have to...

Maybe you’ve heard about the “bullet fee” that was supposedly charged to the families of prisoners executed by gunfire. The fee, which is almost certainly an urban legend, has been attributed at various times to Bolshevik revolutionaries and the governments of Iran and China. But even if the bullet fee is mythical, there is a very real price to be paid when a society becomes intoxicated by gunplay. What price have we paid for the bullets fired at Newtown and in the year since that tragedy? The financial estimates only scratch the surface.

He was bullied for his outspoken opinions and didn't care much for Republicans. Karl Pierson, 18, who stormed his Colorado high school brandishing a shotgun and bearing hatred for his debate coach, critically injured a 15-year-old fellow student before shooting himself to death Friday afternoon as he was cornered by heavily armed police. "He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who shared a class with Pierson during her freshmen year, The Denver Post reported. "I also heard he was bullied a lot." After undergoing surgery Friday, the injured girl was listed in critical,...

Let me begin with a categorical statement that, given current events and recent political history, can be easily defended: Barack Hussein Obama is a willful, indoctrinated child of the Left with strong Islamic sympathies who is not fit to govern. Indeed, he would not be fit to govern Lower Slobovia, let alone the United States of America. Obama is a historic disaster of the first magnitude and, if not restrained, he will see to the irrevocable decline of the country which foolishly elected him, leaving the world on the brink of a conflict — or in the midst of one...

Dayna Morales, the waitress who was fired after falsely claiming that patrons denied her a tip, is not the only person to falsely claim she suffered discrimination because of virulent homophobia. Megan Thode sued to have her C+ grade raised to a B – and to be granted $1.3 million in damages – alleging that her professor at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University gave her low marks because she supported same-sex "marriage." Thode also requested a written apology from her teacher, Amanda Carr. She got a zero in the mandatory classroom participation portion of her class because, according to Carr, she did...

<p>Have you had to ask Google “Is my husband gay?” recently? If so, a new opinion piece in this weekend’s New York Times by Seth Stephens-Davidovitz says you may be living in a state that’s less tolerant to LGBT people. Also, you’ve probably never seen any television show created by Ryan Murphy (that’s not from the study: that’s just this blogger’s guess).</p>

Whoops, there it is: Sarah Palin’s fear of enslavement to the Chinese may actually be true. “Don’t wish for something, you just might get it” is a paraphrase of the often-cited Chinese proverb. The former GOP vice presidential nominee had called on MSNBC to cancel Martin Bashir’s talk show. Bashir was, at the time, serving as the conscience of the network, striking fear into those who defied political correctness. Not since King George has a Brit been so brash. Leaving aside Piers what’s-his-name, perhaps. To no one’s surprise, a few weeks ago. Marty found something Ms. Palin said to be...

The media are currently filled with reports of students in the U.S. scoring poorly on international tests. The Program for International Student Assessment, which compares 15-year-olds in most industrialized countries, reports that American students dropped from 25th to 31st in math, 11th to 21st in reading and 20th to 24th in science. The solution consistently offered for these low rankings is to spend more money on schooling. But numerous studies examining the billions of dollars we've spent on education in the last decade show that money has not improved the performance of U.S. students, and higher-scoring foreign countries spend far...

The 113th Congress has stuck it to the poor at pretty much every opportunity. In fact, if you take all their past and future plans into account, it looks like they have accomplished that rare feat: To close in on enacting an overarching, radical agenda without control of the Senate or the presidency. How did they do it? Probably by escaping scrutiny through a piecemeal approach to legislation, a president who is willing to meet them halfway, and one diabolic word: Sequester. Let's drill down into each piece: 1. Kick 'em to the curb Congress will basically start kicking poor...

If I were going to write a dictionary, I might include this: vit·ri·ol·ic (adjective) 1.filled with bitter criticism or malice. 2. Example: read comments on YouTube. Unfortunately, YouTube does not have a corner on bitter criticism and malice. I can read it in the comments sections of almost every Internet blog and newspaper throughout this country. Sometimes it’s not easy to overlook some of the comments, but because of them, we need to thoughtfully consider our responses. We might give the most rational, well-constructed, evidence-filled line of reasoning. We might show from the evidence, from the premises, from the arguments,...

MSNBC host Chris Matthews said President Obama “came amongst us” in an awestruck voice during a post-interview analysis on Hardball Thursday.Panelist David Corn said Obama appeared to remain frustrated with the media culture in Washington, but Matthews countered with Obama’s appearance on his program.“David Corn, you skeptic,” Matthews said. “He came to us today. He came amongst us.”Full exchange: DAVID CORN: I saw a president who remains frustrated with the political media culture that he has to work within, and that he’s really looking to rally people, students here–CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, if that’s the case –CORN: – and supporters, and people within the...

Republican men in Congress “aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be” when it comes to running against female candidates and appealing to female voters, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday. “We’re trying to get them to be a little more sensitive,” Boehner said at his weekly Capitol press conference. “You look around the Congress, there are a lot more females in the Democratic caucus than there are in the Republican caucus. And some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be.” The Speaker was responding to a question about an article in Politico reporting that...

<p>DAVID CORN: I saw a president who remains frustrated with the political-media culture that he has to work within, and that he's looking to rally people, students here, and supporters, and people within the media.</p> <p>CHRIS MATTHEWS: But David Corn, you skeptic. He came to us today. He came amongst us.</p>

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at the various polls on Barack Obama’s performance and noted the dramatic decline in approval on both policy areas and personal qualities. Today, the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan take a look at the former, and inform readers that Obama is in much bigger trouble than just dropping below 40% overall approval: Recent polling from the Pew Research Center and Quinnipiac University has shown Obama’s approval rating on almost all major issues plunging into the 30s — below even his lowest-ever overall approval rating, which has stood around 40 percent...

On Thursday night, MSNBC host Chris Matthews will sit down with President Barack Obama for an interview which will, in part, focus on the problematic roll-out of the Affordable Care Act. Matthews said that he intends to grill the president on this failure and contended that this incident was akin to “a brilliant writer” who, despite a “great theme,” turns in an essay full of technical flaws. “I’ll be talking about executive accountability and the strange way of this roll out, as it has occurred,” Matthews told MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell. “I think I would compare it, Andrea, to a

The new and improved Obamacare website struggled under heavy traffic loads on Monday, but still appeared to operate pretty much as the Obama administration has promised: Okay, but not perfect. After a weekend of final, intensive fixes, officials unveiled a somewhat repaired HealthCare.gov on Sunday and promised that it will work well enough to serve the Americans who want insurance exchange coverage by New Year’s.