Free Republic

A few salient facts are known about the Americans whose lives might be changed by a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage expected this summer. About one in five gay and lesbian couples are raising children that are under age 18. Same-sex couples are less likely than traditional married couples to have health insurance covering them both. One in 10 men with a male partner or spouse is a military veteran. As many as 6 million Americans, roughly 2 percent of the population, have a parent who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. These nuggets of demographic insight into same-sex...

The only thing President Barack Obama can do now is wait. For the pain of the $85 billion in indiscriminate budget cuts to sink in. For the public to then demand that Washington fix it. And, lastly, for Republicans to feel enough pressure that they agree to raise taxes as part of a deal to turn off sequester... Obama’s decision Friday to remove the threat of a government shutdown in late March as a leverage point in the standoff means that the sequester will remain in place for weeks — if not months, or longer. He set into a motion...

Chuck Hagel, former senator from Nebraska, and now the brand new US Defence Secretary, has walked into a typical South Asian storm even before he formally entered office. From a partial revelation of a previously unreleased speech he made over two years ago, in 2011, at Cameron University in Lawton, Okhlahoma, Hagel appears to hold a brief for Pakistan. This is what he said in a video clip that runs for several seconds: “India for some time has always used Afghanistan as a second front and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the...

GOP strategist Karl Rove said Saturday that rebuilding the Republican brand in California will be a tough task that will require them to diversify and create a strategy to spread their message to a wider audience. Referring to the state party’s deep losses in recent years, Rove said it needs to focus on larger themes of restoring jobs and reducing government spending. He also said the party must recruit candidates who reflect the diversity of the country, and in particular, California. By next year, Hispanics will overtake whites as the state’s largest demographic group. …

<p>ERIE, Colo. – Unnoticed amid dozens of tract homes in the Denver suburbs, a nondescript industrial building is suddenly in the middle of the gun control debate in Colorado.</p> <p>The company, started in an ex-Marine's basement in 1999, is in a standoff with Colorado Democrats who want to restrict the size of ammunition magazines after mass shootings in a suburban Denver movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school. Magpul has issued lawmakers an ultimatum potentially worth millions: Pass the bill, and the business will move.</p>

Potholes and snowdrifts don't care what political party you belong to. For that reason, the Newsday editorial board cannot endorse either of the candidates running for the office of superintendent of highways in the Town of Brookhaven. The board also can't endorse the fact that the position is going to be filled by an election, rather than an appointment. --snip-- Assemb. Daniel Losquadro (R-Shoreham) has the Republican line on Tuesday's ballot. His opponent, Councilwoman Kathy Walsh, was elected as a Republican. For this race, though, she changed her registration to the Independence Party (a move that won't take effect until...

Obama, his team struggling with accuracy when explaining impact of sequester cuts Published March 02, 2013 | FoxNews.com President Obama and top administration officials are struggling with accuracy in explaining the impact of billions in federal budget cuts known as sequester that kicked in Saturday morning -- even getting called out by a Capitol Hill superintendent about furloughs for support staffers. Carlos Elias, the Capitol Building superintendent, sent out a memo Friday reminding staffers that the current sequestration plan does not include “reductions in force or furloughs” and that “pay and benefit of each of our employees will not be...

A Likud source responded Saturday night to a claim made by the Jewish Home party's Naftali Bennett, alleging that, "In the days immediately following the elections, Likud refused to speak with the Jewish Home," The source claimed otherwise. "The Jewish Home party was the first party to receive an offer to join the government led by Netanyahu,"...

Naftali Bennett responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's accusation that the Jewish Home party was making coalition negotiations difficult by excluding the hareidi parties. "In the days immediately following the elections, Likud refused to speak with the Jewish Home," said Bennett. "They excluded us. We knew if we sat quietly we would be in the opposition. I spoke with Yair Lapid... that Yesh Atid would not enter the government without the Jewish Home and that the Jewish Home would not enter the government without Yesh Atid."

Shooter takes VP Joe Biden’s advice — and lands in trouble with cops Vice President Joseph R. Biden told a Field & Stream reporter in a published report on Monday that if “you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.” That same day, a 22-year-old man in Virginia Beach, Va., did just that — and was charged with reckless handling of a firearm. WAVY 10 reported that the man was in his bedroom when two armed masked men leaned through the window and warned him to close the bedroom door. The 22-year-old...

Multiple rural county sheriffs from Utah testified Thursday about the abusive use of police power by Bureau of Land Management rangers or forest protection officers with the U.S. Forest Service. They are asserting it is time to rein in the authority the agencies should have never been allowed to exercise. Sheriffs from San Juan, Kane and Garfield counties spoke in favor of HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, which proposes to limit BLM rangers and forest protection officers from exercising police power over state and local laws unless someone's safety is at risk or federal contracts are in place...

The White House says its hands are tied by the $85 billion sequester, but budget experts counter that it will have some flexibility to choose what to cut and what to save. The wiggle-room is inviting accusations from Congress that President Obama is mismanaging the cuts. Critics also say the flexibility could allow the administration to make the cuts more painful, in order to pressure congressional Republicans to raise taxes as part of a sequester-replacement. Some of these critics point to the decision to not deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. The White House has made the...

 ✉ 0 Comments “The worst-case scenario for us,” a leading anti-budget-cuts lobbyist told The Washington Post, “is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens.” Think about that. Worst case? That a government drowning in debt should cut back by 2.2 percent – and the country survives. That a government now borrowing 35 cents of every dollar it spends reduces that borrowing by two cents “and nothing bad really happens.” Oh, the humanity! A normal citizen might think this a good thing. For reactionary liberalism, however, whatever sum our ever-inflating government happens to spend today (now double what Bill...

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Friday that pulling back on aggressive policy measures too soon would pose a real risk of damaging a still-fragile recovery. There has been some disagreement within the Fed of whether the central bank's bond-buying program, which is designed to push down long-term interest rates, should be phased out. Fed Board Governor Jeremy Stein argued recently there were signs of overheating in certain financial markets and that the central bank should consider using monetary policy to address such risks if they persist. The Fed chief was not convinced, saying that, even...

Why do presidents get in trouble in their second terms? They think they have a mandate when they don’t. They believe they’re stronger politically than they really are. They’re convinced they can get away with things other presidents couldn’t. They think too highly of themselves personally and act accordingly. President Obama hasn’t hit the second-term skids—yet. And he insists he knows the perils of four more years in the White House and how to avoid them. But there are signs of trouble ahead, signs that Obama and his advisers appear not to have recognized. Sign number one is the sequester....

Are you typically lost when co-workers discuss current events around the water cooler? Do you have trouble figuring out the national debt or who that Ben Ghazi dude is, but you know what’s on Kim Kardashian’s grocery list? If you think you only deserve fun answers to all life’s questions … you’re right! This primer will help you look smart and morally superior in any political discussion. Just memorize these big words, explained in easy terms you already know from TMZ and The Daily Show: BIASED: If you have a weird friend who goes to church and her parents are...

The United States of America, on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has filed with the Court a document entitled UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’S OBJECTION TO ORDER ON AMENDED DEMAND FOR SPECIFIC DISCOVERY, DATED FEBRUARY 5, 2013. The objection cites the “supremacy” clause of the United States Constitution to claim the Court has no authority to compel the production of documents. Moreover, the document states that the defense has not followed the proper procedure, and claims that “at such time as proper demand is made on the FBI, the FBI and the Department of Justice will promptly authorize the...

I don't always agree with Slate's Dave Weigel, but his withering piece on the willful obsolescence of the White House press corps came to mind today as President Obama fielded questions about the sequester.  Obama's initial remarks were filled with inaccuracies, misplaced blame and tendentious arguments -- but that's par for the course. The "question" and "answer" session was far more aggravating.  Let's review the transcript and recount just a few reasons why: (1) The president twice made glaringly misleading or false claims about deficit reduction pertaining to the 2011 Budget Control Act:   We’ve already cut $2.5 trillion in...

Good morning — despite all the doubts of late, we're confident the sun has risen — and welcome to Sequestered America. On your way to work, presuming the economy hasn't collapsed, don't be surprised to see mushroom clouds in the distance from America's exploding nuclear-weapons stockpiles. Which reminds us: If you work at a nuclear-power plant, you might as well stay home since your reactor by now has melted down and is on its way to China. If you are commuting, try not to run over all the old ladies, disabled children, unvaccinated preschoolers, emaciated mothers and infants, Section 8...

For the last four years, Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com and the American Freedom Defense Initiative have held events at CPAC featuring guests she invites to discuss the influence of Islamism on America. But this year, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has no room for Geller or her message. [...] In years past, the events were standing room only thanks to their popularity, but that apparently was not enough to counter pressure brought to bear from somewhere to exclude Geller’s message.