Free Republic

Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the coauthors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill. The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, laments the complexity of legislation the Senate passed five years ago.

Embattled Nevada Assemblyman Ira Hansen was found innocent after facing a misdemeanor charge of illegally setting animal traps. A New River Township Justice Court judge ruled that Hansen was not guilty of a misdemeanor when he set four animal traps known as snares within 200 feet of public roadways in Churchill County. The decision caps what’s been a yearlong battle and difficult month for Hansen, a Sparks lawmaker who recently stepped down as the Assembly speaker-elect. In November 2013, the Nevada Department of Wildlife spotted Hansen removing traps that were within the 200-foot limit. The department assembled a case and...

Thousands of Ukrainians chanted “Putin is a douche!” (Poo-teen hooy-loh!) at a packed soccer stadium.

Excerpted from "Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident" “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin cried out to the agitated crowd during a 2008 campaign rally, referring to then-Senator Barack Obama. “We see America as the greatest force for good in this world” and as a “beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy.” This was how “real Americans” saw things, according to Palin. As for Obama, he’s “someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s...

Just when you thought Bill Maher couldn’t say anything more offensive than he already has, he outdoes himself.

Todd Harris, the usually gregarious consultant to Sen. Marco Rubio, uncharacteristically resisted eight days of calls and emails seeking his thoughts for this column. When he finally did reply, the answer was: “to be honest, another story about Marco and immigration is not high on Christmas list!!” No wonder. The very issue Rubio (and Harris) thought would be a game-changing, legacy-builder looks like a big liability for the Florida senator, at least right now. In the process, the self-confident presidential hopeful suddenly looks wobbly, even a little weak, as he searches for what’s next. Rubio spent six months working over...

While many Americans were tuned into news coverage of the massive damage from tornadoes ravaging the state of Oklahoma, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor to rail against his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Whitehouse spent 15 minutes chastising GOP senators and justified his remarks by alluding to states that seek federal assistance in the wake of natural disasters. “So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate...

Barack Obama loves the troops… To hold his umbrella. POTUS deploys Marines for rain in Rose Garden with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. (Major Garrett)

I have seen the light. After all these years, I now agree that it’s fruitless to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are so obviously corrupt, so clearly malevolent, so bent on hurting innocent people for their own sick gain. No more due process in the clear-cut case of insidious terrorism. When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice? Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in their own mental squalor....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – John Glenn fever has taken hold of Cape Canaveral once again. Three days before the 50th anniversary of his historic flight, the first American to orbit the Earth addressed employees at Kennedy Space Center. The NASA auditorium was packed Friday with hundreds of workers, many of whom stood along the walls to see the space legend. The 90-year-old Glenn was joined on stage by Scott Carpenter, 86, the only other survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. Glenn recalled how he and his fellow Mercury astronauts traveled to Cape Canaveral to watch a missile blast off....

The mayor stirred up another brouhaha yesterday when the Irish Voice reported that "The remarks were met with a combination of laughs, boos and groans" when those words emerged from Bloomberg's mouth Wednesday night at the American Irish Historical Society, where more than 100 leading Irish-Americans were celebrating publication of a book about the 250th anniversary of the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), a former congressional staffer who was elected to the House in the Republican revolution of 1994, has told colleagues he will resign Tuesday because of an affair with a female aide, a House GOP official told POLITICO. Souder has scheduled an announcement about his future for 10 a.m. today at his congressional office in Ft. Wayne. Souder is married and has three children.

U.S. Representative John Boccieri (D-Alliance) announced Friday that he will support the health care bill.

Last year liberals stripped the Patriot Act of enforcement and surveillance of "Lone wolf" terrorists in the US. Schumer: "After 8 years, this has not been fixed". Of course, he was not challenged on this total lie.

Conan has William Shatner read Levi's tweets as hip poetry. Conan said the tweets were real, but turns out they were fake. Link

I wasn't sure if i wanted to post this, but here goes. I've been holding onto this for a bit now, cause if it's real I don't know if I could get in trouble. I voted for McCain last year (by default, I wanted huckabee) because I knew Nobama would be a disaster, but i wasn't sold on the citizenship thing. on a whim, I asked a firend in the UK to see if she could find any old records from back when Kenya was a british colony. Well a few days later she emailed me this. it looks real...

It's one of those things that sneaks up on you in politics, a sense of things happening not quite as you expected. It started in April when our Times colleague Louise Roug called with a quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

by Mark Finkelstein February 10, 2006 - 07:55 Perhaps inspired by the discovery of new species in New Guinea, Katie Couric has made a discovery of her own: a new breed of terrorists that are "not as vicious." She interviewed NBC reporter Richard Engel on this morning's Today show in the wake of the release of a new videotape of Jill Carroll, the US journalist kidnapped in Iraq last month. The tape showed a composed Carroll speaking with a floral backdrop behind her. Katie, ever the fashion maven, declared "it's actually kind of a pretty setting." Engel explained that the...

She Has Called for an Investigation Into Why Soldiers Are Not Fully Protected Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Bush administration "incompetent" when it came to protecting the troops in combat and called the lack of adequate body armor for soldiers and Marines "unforgivable." So far in Iraq, more than 2,100 American troops have been killed. Critics like Clinton, D-N.Y., say that many of these deaths are the result of inadequate body armor. A secret Pentagon study of 93 Marines who were killed in Iraq found that 74 died after they were hit by a bullet or shrapnel in the...

November 09, 2005 Mary Mapes Names Names ("Anonymous" Ones) Posted by Bill An excerpt from page 201 of her new book: Within minutes of Buckhead's original posting, Freepers began to repeat and embellish Buckhead's thoughts. Not surprisingly, they all agreed with him, they all agreed with one another, and they all agreed this should be pursued aggressively. Freethinkers they are not. The Freepers and their lockstep like-minded fellow travelers moved as a group, like a school of sharks sweeping toward an unaware and unarmed victim. CBS was like some sunburned, overweight Florida tourist with a cut foot, floundering and flapping...