Free Republic

“In the years since the Florida issue in the 2000 presidential election, there’s been increasing interest in how election officials get their jobs and how they do their jobs,” Chapin said. “Most recently, in the wake of a presidential commission report, there’s been a push to think a lot more broadly about the notion of professionalism or professionalization in the field of election administration.” A Connecticut official wants to require formal training for the state’s election administrators to try to avoid another election where voters have trouble casting their ballots. Denise Merrill, Connecticut’s secretary of state, pitched a plan in...

Don't count out the “primitive mezuzah kissers” that leftist speakers put down at their rally last Saturday night, Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett said in a new video message. In the video, Bennett warned leftists like Yair Garboz, who in a speech Saturday night condemned “the thieves and bribe-takers, those who kiss the 'lucky charms' and bow down at the graves of the dead (a reference to visits to the tombs of dead rabbis – ed.),” and the like for “controlling” and “ruining” Israel. But Garboz and his fellow travelers are likely to be surprised next week, Bennett claimed in...

Last night, author Trevor Loudon joined Glenn for an in-depth discussion on the growth of the progressive movement. In the interview, Loudon said that he believed Ted Cruz could be the leader America needs to lead it away from progressivism and back towards freedom. To secure his nomination, and eventually the presidency, Loudon suggested an unusual strategy: Cruz should name his cabinet and run as a team.

During his latest trip to Iowa, Jeb Bush worked to drum up support for a potential run for president. His struggle to win over the conservative grassroots of the GOP, however, was shown yet again in an op-ed in the Washington Post, in which he attempted to turn both the Common Core standards initiative and a potential reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into strongholds of federalism.

This Is How Hollywood Has Been Fooling You All Along When it comes to contemporary Hollywood films, there's often more than meets the eye. We're not just talking about an elaborate use of special effects and CGI, its those smaller more finite details that are so often easy to ignore. On the set of any movie, along with the crew, actors and stunt doubles you'll also have 'extra's' - people like you and I paid to simply be a warm prop, background fodder if you will. A crowd milling about in a scene or a customer in a shop. Extra's...

I think Mickey Gilley said it best. The girls all get prettier at closing time. That’s what I think about Jeb Bush. Right now, the night is young, I’ve not yet had my first beer, there are lots of pretty women all across the bar, and Jeb Bush is the crazy size-24 cat lady in the corner who smells of urine and eats her boogers. And has warts. And poor personal hygiene. And looks like she doesn’t like men anyway. I wouldn’t blank her with your blank. But I’m afraid I know how this night is going to turn out....

Here is one reason the GOP has a real challenge to win the Presidency in 2016 The large majority of big cities in the US, most with high minority populations, lean Democrat. These cities, with obviously large populations, are in in states with large numbers of Electoral College votes – taking the state almost certainly Democrat. There are at most 100 Electoral College votes in “swing states”. The Democratic candidate for President is almost assured of 191 EC votes going into the election while the GOP candidate is assured of only about 129. Thus the Democrat needs only EC 79...

I have seen several stories speculating on Hillary’s replacement if the email story is fatal to her presumed nomination. Elizabeth Warren, Martin O’Malley and even the horrible Algore have all been mentioned. Little has been said about the already announced Jim Webb, war hero, man-for-all seasons and perhaps one of the last “conventional” Democrats. But if the GOP nominates Jeb Bush and Webb somehow secures the Democratic nomination, who would you go with? I would probably go with a protest third party candidate (if viable).

‘We were never going to win’: House GOP caves on immigration Mar. 3, 2015 9:00am Pete Kasperowicz House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has told Republicans that he would call up and pass a “clean” Department of Homeland Security spending bill this week, and give up the fight to use that bill to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. The decision marks the end of a standoff that has lasted for several weeks — a standoff Republicans will lose to Democrats when the clean DHS bill passes.

I sincerely wish that GOP candidates who cannot win the presidency would simply not run and save us all the trouble. Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry — none of these people is going to be the next president of the United States and each of them could do his country and his party a service by staying out of the race. Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee both stand a slim shadow of a ghost of a chance but I wish they’d drop out, too. Presidential Candidate is not supposed to be a prestigious line on your CV....

Despite Donald Trump's seventh place finish during this year's Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, the business tycoon is adamant that he's the only Republican able to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Trump told Fox News on Monday that he has "a great team" in place for a potential 2016 campaign, and said, "If I run, I think I'll win." "I think I'll beat Hillary," Trump said. "I understand Hillary, I know Hillary. I know the weaknesses; I know the strengths. And I think I would beat Hillary, and I think it would...

House Republican leaders still don't seem to have a plan to avoid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the week. But they may have an escape hatch—one that could technically keep the department open without GOP fingerprints, but might infuriate conservatives in the process. An obscure provision of House rules would allow any member of the House to force a vote on the Senate-passed, full-year DHS funding bill now that the Senate has voted Monday evening against going to conference with the House. A message to reporters from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's...

US President Barack Obama said on Monday that the bond between the US and Israel is unbreakable, despite tensions over differences in opinion with regard to efforts to seal a landmark atomic deal with Iran. In an interview with Reuters at the White House, Obama said that a rift over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal on Tuesday was a distraction that would not be "permanently destructive" to US-Israeli ties. But he said there was a "substantial disagreement" between his administration and the Israeli government over how to achieve their shared goal of...

Hillary Clinton and her close advisers are telling Democratic donors that she will enter the presidential race sooner than expected, likely in April, a move that would allay uncertainties within her party and allow her to rev up fundraising.

There were so many violations of election rules in last November's election for Magoffin County judge-executive that the results must be thrown out, a judge has ruled. Preston also concluded county workers acting under the direct supervision of Hardin illegally spread gravel on private driveways in at least four or five cases shortly before the election. Also, the decision cited evidence that a few people sold their votes. In one case, a man named Larry Douglas Perkins, who operates the Handi Mart at Falcon, said he saw Simon Marshall the day of the election. Marshall had a $50 bill and...

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to...

Well, the Clinton Foundation isn’t “dead broke.” But it is complicating life for the woman who made that remark about the last time she left the White House. Has there ever been a situation where a presidential candidate is part of a global organization that is taking in so much money — including big bucks from interests that want to influence the next president? First the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea group has lifted its ban on donations by foreign governments, now that HRC is out of the State Department. Never mind that she’s trying...

As the White House sees it, if Herzog/Livni form the next government, then Jerusalem will dance to Obama’s tune. If Netanyahu is reelected, then the entire edifice of Obama’s Middle East policy may topple and fall.

Jeb "I Am My Own Man" Bush, declared today that he would shape his own foreign policy when he gave a speech in Chicago today. However, I'm not sure hiring almost everyone one of his father and brother's advisors is going to help him very much since they all have blood on their hands after the Iraq war debacle. The latest Bush to consider a bid for the White House promised that his foreign policy would be shaped by “my own thinking and my own experiences.”

Today, a chunk of staffers from the Tea Party News Network, a news site with nearly 12 million unique visitors per month, sent in their resignations over the company’s “despicable practices.” The resignation came soon after the publication of a Daily Beast exposé about the news outlet, which has seen incredible traffic numbers coupled with what its readers perceive as a decline in the quality of content, sometimes with little connection to tea party issues. (One recent headline: “Big Strutting Peacock Picks A Fight With The Wrong Guy.”) The exposé also shone light on some of their business practices, such...