Free Republic

The young Navy lieutenant who apologized to the Iranians after U.S. boats entered Iran’s territory has been identified as Lt. David Nartker. The 27-year-old grew up in Chicago and now lives in Ohio. Videos on his Facebook page show him firing weapons. Read: Iran Releases Humiliating Photos of Captured U.S. Sailors On Their Knees Nartker was among the 10 U.S. sailors who were captured by Iran earlier this week. The sailors were later released. But he found himself at the center of an international uproar after Iran released footage showing an interrogator haranguing him about being in Iranian waters. “It...

WASHINGTON – Struggling to build a firewall against a Republican takeover, congressional Democrats are pouring money into roughly two dozen tight races around the country in the campaign's closing weeks while pulling it back from others where their chances seem slimmer. With polls showing Republicans increasingly well-positioned to seize control of the House, the Democrats are planning TV ad blitzes to shore up their best-positioned incumbents and a handful of challengers in races they believe they can still win.

During his first campaign for the Illinois state senate in 1995-96, Barack Obama was a member of, and was endorsed by, the far-left New Party. Obama’s New Party ties give the lie to his claim to be a post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist. Particularly in Chicago, the New Party functioned as the electoral arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). So despite repeated attempts to distance himself from ACORN, Obama’s New Party ties raise disturbing questions about his links to those proudly militant leftists. The media’s near-total silence on this critical element of Obama’s past is deeply irresponsible....

As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution. The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

It turns out that Keith Kerr, retired Colonel., U.S. Army; retired Brigadier General, California National Reserve, who submitted a YouTube question about gays in the military, is actually a member of Hillary Clinton's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Americans For Hillary Steering Committee. He's also part of a film production crew trying overturn the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. UPDATE: In the final seconds of the post-debate coverage, Anderson Cooper acknowledges that CNN messed this up and states that CNN did not know that Kerr has a position within the Clinton campaign and that had they known, they would have...

EASTER BUNNYSen. John Kerry did indeed receive the sacrament of communion during Easter Sunday services, and made sure his presidential campaign press people told reporters about it. Kerry has been thumbing his nose at Roman Catholic bishops, who of late have been complaining the Kerry should not be receiving the sacraments given his public support of abortion. But Kerry's latest foray into showing off his faith has revealed interesting political aspects that more people should know about. As one might expect from an elitist, when home in Boston, Kerry does not attend a traditional Roman Catholic parish church. Rather, he...