Free Republic

U.S. Congresswoman Lois Frankel just bought herself a nice condo in downtown West Palm Beach — and she got a hell of a deal.... Frankel’s campaign...does claim she turned downtown West Palm Beach around when she ran the city... With her recent purchase, Frankel’s now living in District 22. Good thing, since she wants to be elected for another two years in Washington, D.C.... Margi Helschien, spokeswoman for Paul Spain, Republican candidate for the seat, says she smells a rat. “Either this is a sweetheart deal, or proof of Lois’ failed downtown strategy, including the Digital Domain disaster. Either way,...

We live in an era today where practically everyone is “famous.” It’s not just reality stars anymore; anyone can have their own blog at no cost, and use social media for free, where their every word and photo is broadcast to the entire world. Activists all across the spectrum have taken to these platforms, utilizing them to influence politics. If that is where the younger generations are hanging out, it makes sense to reach out to them there. Organizations like Americans for Prosperity were ahead of the curve several years ago, encouraging and teaching activists on the right how to...

Democrats routinely deride Republicans as extremists bent on coarsening the discourse. In January 2014, in the same interview in which he infamously claimed that ISIS was a “jayvee” team, President Obama blamed conservative media for polarizing the country: The issue has been the inability of my message to penetrate the Republican base so that they feel persuaded that I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, but I’m somebody who is interested in solving problems and is pretty practical, and that, actually, a lot of the things we’ve put in place worked better than people...

Although there seems to be an endless stream of stories about NFL player arrests and misconduct, this is largely because there are a lot of NFL players (and they’re famous). At the league’s peak (during training camps), there are about 2,560 players attached to NFL teams (limit 80 each). As I’ll show, arrest rates among NFL players are quite low compared to national averages for men in their age range — but there are some types of crimes that trail the pack significantly.

Twenty years after the since-expired assault weapons ban passed Congress, Washington’s leading liberal think says it’s no longer an idea worth pursuing. The Center for American Progress is waving a white flag on banning assault weapons in a study out Friday titled “Assault Weapons Revisited.” CAP authors Arkadi Gerney and Chelsea Parsons argue that gun control advocates focus their energies primarily on expanding background checks and firearms licensing laws instead of pushing to prohibit assault weapons like the AR-15 rifle. “The answer is not that assault weapons aren’t dangerous and people having access to them is a good thing,” Mr....

Two polls released Monday show Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan opening up a lead over Republican challenger Thom Tillis. Raleigh polling firm American Insights, which has Republican ties, had Hagan with a 9 percentage point lead among likely voters, while Elon University Poll gives Hagan a 4-point lead. The polls are the latest in a string showing Hagan gaining ground in the campaign. Of likely voters surveyed by American Insights, 43 percent said they would back Hagan, 34 percent said they backed Tillis, the current state House speaker, and 5 percent backed Libertarian Sean Haugh. "The race has unmistakably shifted...

In Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Alice says she cannot believe impossible things. The Queen of Hearts is surprised: “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Therefore, suppose we compare two events: 1.Global warming advocates argue that the oceans are absorbing the extra heat that their computer models predicted, which has mysteriously vanished. The missing heat over the last 18 years has been going into the oceans. 2.Yet, the Arctic Sea Ice Cap aound the North Pole has grown by...

Charlie Crist is siding with the teachers union — not African-American ministers — over a new lawsuit that seeks to dismantle the state’s major school-choice program..... Crist made his choice clear Wednesday when he refused to heed the request of a major Panhandle civil-rights leader, the Rev. H.K. Matthews, who asked the Democrat to “publicly denounce” a new teacher union-led lawsuit that seeks to dismantle the major school-choice program. “You cannot stay silent on this lawsuit,” Matthews wrote. “These families deserve to know if you support or oppose the lawsuit to evict 70,000 poor — and mostly minority — children...

DEMOCRAT SETH MOULTON'S defeat of US Representative John Tierney in the 6th Congressional District primary last week came right on schedule. The political newcomer, an Iraq War veteran with three Harvard degrees, was the first Massachusetts candidate in 22 years to vanquish a sitting congressman from his own party. It last happened in 1992, whenupstart Marty Meehan booted incumbent Chet Atkins in the Fifth Congressional District, then went on to win the seat in November. It was 22 years before that, in the Third Congressional District primary in 1970, that Father Robert Drinan, an antiwar liberal, toppled fellow Democrat Philip...

It’s hard to miss the WadeMobile. It’s the Nascar vehicle of Delaware politics. Flamboyantly wrapped in neon red, stark white and sky blue with an outsize portrait of Kevin Wade emblazoned on the side, it has been prowling up and down the small state of Delaware ever since Wade, a Delaware businessman and politician, filed at the last minute for the slot as the Delaware GOP’s candidate for the US Senate. The car is an intriguing surprise to generally cool Delawareans, loudly blasting as it plays Wade speaking of his messages of common sense conservatism mixed with the classic country...

Cue the 2016 speculations: The former president and CEO of Ford Motors isn’t ruling out a presidential run. Speaking at a radio industry conference in Indianapolis Thursday, former Ford head Alan Mulally kept his options open when he was asked whether he’d consider running for president, ABC News reported.

Scott Brown, the former senator from Massachusetts who moved to New Hampshire to run in a more friendly environment, appears to be in a dead heat with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a new poll shows. A CNN/ORC International poll out Monday finds Shaheen and Brown tied among likely voters, with both obtaining the support of 48% among 735 voters surveyed. A close race could mean bad news for Democrats, who are struggling to maintain control of the Senate. Keeping the seat in the Democratic column is crucial if the party want to maintain a slim majority in the Senate.

One touch is worth a thousand words in communicating the feelings, beliefs, and values of the person taking the liberty to touch another person’s body. Good touch arises in the mental states of respect, honor, and love; bad touch arises out of disrespect, exploitation, and hate. While serving in his official capacity as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, Barack Obama bestowed consensual “good touch” on the parents of probable turncoat Bob Bergdahl. And in the same capacity he has repeatedly bestowed non-consensual, “bad touch” on the highest order of military heroes, recipients of the Medal of Honor

Sen. Mary Landrieu's best hope for re-election? Change the letter behind her name from a "D" to an "R," says a Louisiana newspaper. Landrieu is one of the senators in one of the tightest rates this year — and if she loses, her loss could potentially flip the Senate to Republican control. An article in the Baton Rouge Advocate says Landrieu essentially acts like a Republican anyway but that the party label is a scarlet letter. “She has a letter behind her name, D, and it’s toxic,” Joshua Stockley, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe,...

When Barack Obama starts acting like a real American president and promises to destroy our country’s enemies instead of apologizing to them, you know he's worried about the upcoming midterms. He should be. Conservatives are going to win them going away, and it's going to be gloriously devastating to the progressive cause. Get ready to savor the delicious taste of victory. All the signs are there except for one – so far Dick Morris hasn’t predicted a Democrat triumph. That would seal it. It's not so much the polling, which remains tight as long as the people measured are those...

...Obama will visit U.S. Central Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, on Wednesday for a briefing from his commanders on battle plans against the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State. ....White House officials made it clear that there would also be no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria to coordinate airstrikes, nor have any done so in Iraq. But as the President continues to coalesce U.S. and international efforts to “degrade and ultimately defeat” IS, and Pentagon officials say they are making headway against IS in Iraq, two former Centcom commanders offer mixed reviews of his plans. “I...

Jeb Bush adviser and GOP hack Mike Murphy thinks it may be in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) interest to throw the Senate to Republicans. In an appearance on Sunday's Meet The Press, the conservative-bashing consultant who has yet to win a presidential election and once referred to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) as Reid's secret weapon, said if Republicans took back the Senate, it could turn into an "American idol of grievance." Todd snickered and egged Murphy on, showing nothing but contempt for conservatives. "Harry Reid may throw the Senate," Murphy said. "You can argue it's in his interest."...

Gary Painter, Sheriff from Midland County, Texas, warned Fox & Friends’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck that not only was ISIS poised to sneak into the U.S through the porous Texas-Mexico border, but that based on evidence he’d heard of, “Muslims” were already being smuggled across. He presented no evidence that the alleged Muslims were connected to ISIS or any other terror group. “Are you saying that ISIS is ready to come across poised to perhaps execute what they have threatened to do, attacks on the United States, drown us in our own blood?” Hasselbeck asked. “Is that what you’re saying?”

Confronted by an immigration activist at Iowa's annual Harkin Steak Fry (named for retired Democrat Sen Tom Harkin), Hillary Clinton hedged (then ignored a follow-up) when asked if she backs Obama's decision to delay executive action on immigration reform until after November. “You know, I think we have to elect more Democrats,” responded Clinton But Clinton studiously ignored a follow-up immigration question which latinos pressure groups keep regurgitating: “should we keep deporting families?” Copyright © 2014 Breitbart

MOSCOW, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The results of Sunday’s regional election in Russia prove that the presidential approval rating in the country is high, the head of the Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies said Monday. “The results of the election are a projection of the approval rating for the country’s president and the course that he has taken,” Dmitry Badovsky said at the Regions of Russia media forum. The outcome of the vote could have been forecast already in March when an opinion poll on Crimea’s reunification with Russia showed that over 90% of Russians across the country supported...