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Learning to Love (Tolerate?) Big Government (Link only, per rules)

Oklahoma drivers know a thing or two about potholes, but one Mississippi man got so fed up with the nuisance that he decided to get the city’s attention in a unique way. “After 14 calls to 311, I thought it was time to do something different,” said Eddie Prosser. Prosser says a huge pothole in the middle of his residential street has been a nightmare for drivers. Prosser told WJTV that the pothole appeared about 16 months ago, which caused two smaller potholes to form about a year ago. When his calls for help went unanswered, Prosser decided to throw...

Oklahomans whose assets are unjustly seized through the civil asset forfeiture process can recover their attorney fees under a new state law. Gov. Mary Fallin on Thursday signed legislation passed by the House and Senate that allows for the recovery of attorney fees in forfeiture cases. Republican Sen. David Holt of Oklahoma City authored the bill and says he believes it will encourage

RUSH: So we had the Trump speech yesterday and there has been all kinds of reaction to the speech, predictable and some shocking, some surprising. We'll get into it today. Trump used a phrase in this speech, and I'm gonna tell you, this is classic, folks. This little bit of information I'm gonna impart here to you is a great way to understand the dynamics of this race. Trump, in his speech, used a phrase "America first." Well, that phrase has a pedigree. That phrase is well attached to something very, very important and potentially very, very negative in...

Some Dallas police officers will soon be toting “sponge guns,” weapons aimed at reducing the chances of a deadly officer-involved shooting. Police booster group Safer Dallas Better Dallas announced Thursday that it plans to raise $250,000 to help pay for more than 100 launchers that shoot sponge pellets. The “less lethal” weapons are meant to disarm and incapacitate someone from up to 100 feet away, police officials said.

Russia, India Strengthen Ties With War Games Russia and India have agreed to hold joint war games involving all military branches this year. The agreement was signed in Vladivostok, with further details scheduled to be discussed next month. Consultations on the biggest of the three drills, Indra-2016, will be held in May, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Eastern Military District’s press service said on Thursday. “A joint protocol was signed in Vladivostok to hold the first planning conference for the Indra-2016 joint exercises,” Captain Roman Martov said, as cited by RIA Novosti. The two sides will set the...

Douglas Le, 25, was arrested at his home on suspicion of felony child enticement and booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose, police said. A teacher who allegedly posed as a female and lured juveniles to send harmful material online was arrested Tuesday in San Jose, police said. Douglas Le, 25, was arrested at his home on suspicion of felony child enticement and booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose, police said. Le is a teacher at Gilroy High School and has been placed on paid administrative leave, Gilroy Unified School District spokeswoman...

John Boehner sounded off a litany of insults for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz Wednesday night, labelling the Texas senator "Lucifer in the flesh" and a "miserable son of a bitch." "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends," the former House speaker said during a frank on-stage discussion at Stanford University Wednesday. "I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life." Boehner, who retired from Congress at the end of October, also let loose on the two other GOP candidates in the race. Of his relationship with...

Conservative commentators are up in arms over the State Department’s decision to deny a visa to a Catholic nun who was part of an Iraqi delegation supposed to testify before Congress about Islamic State (ISIS) atrocities. The US consulate in Erbil rejected the visitor visa application of Sister Diana Momeka earlier this week, saying she was “not able to demonstrate that [her] intended activities in the United States would be consistent with the classification of the visa.” However, visas were given to all the other members of the delegation scheduled to speak in Washington about the Islamic State’s persecution of...

A senior U.S. military official on Tuesday said Islamic State recruitment has decreased from up to 2,000 foreign fighters per month last year down to 200 a month as the Islamist militant group's financial structure has been decimated. "When I first got here, we were seeing somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 foreign fighters entering the fight. Now that we've been fighting this enemy for a year, our estimates are down to around 200" in both Iraq and Syria, Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten said from Baghdad during a teleconference. "We're actually seeing an increase in the desertion rates in...

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill naming the bison a "historical symbol," and moving it closer to being an official national symbol. The National Bison Legacy Act was passed in a bipartisan effort, and is expected to be passed in the Senate this week and signed by President Barack Obama. The legislation will move the animal that most Americans call buffalo, and was once near extinction in the late 1800s, into equal status with the bald eagle as a symbol of the country. "The bison will serve as a great national symbol for the United States as...

Maxing out maudlin to a pinnacle of banal that overshadows even audacious theft and exploitation, behold Ronald Reagan as heavenly sock puppet of #NeverTrump, breaking his own 11th commandment not to speak ill of other Republicans with a whopper straight from "Jimmy's World," brimming over with a tear too gaudy for Bambi. I think what they meant to say was: Congratulations to the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump, on his outstanding sweep of five states yesterday. Yuge! It's time for conservatives and populists in the Republican Party to come together and unify and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall. Laura...

Welcome to the Free Republic CaucusPlease read the rules, and participate according to the guidelines provided.  Thank you. REMEMBER:  To find the Free Republic Caucus thread for the day, search by title, "caucus". The Indiana Primary (57) will take place in five days. Only vote on this thread on: 04/28/2016.  This the 100th and last day of the Free Republic Caucus. Thank you for your participation. Wait to vote until 12:00 midnight EST, and don't vote after 12:00 midnight EST at the at the end of the day.  Look for the new thread. Votes outside the 24 hour period, will not be...

A photography ban is in place at all San Diego polling locationsIf you will be heading to the voting booth for the primary in June, do not take a selfie. According to the San Diego Registrar of Voters, taking photos inside a polling place during voting hours is banned. But for many voters, especially the younger generation, a voting booth photo is a must. According to an article published in the New York Times Tuesday, several states like Pennsylvania and Vermont have banned taking pictures inside the voting booth. Those who violate the ban can be fined up to...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ AFTERBURNER U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Draper inspects an F/A-18 afterburner in the jet shop aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the waters south of Japan, May 21, 2015. The Washington and its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing 5, are patrolling the 7th Fleet area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. EVACUATION TRAINING U.S....

Today, Governor Pat McCrory rejected the Obama administration’s request for North Carolina to reverse its state-imposed ban on investments in Iran “Under President Obama’s questionable Iran deal, billions have already been paid or released to Iran’s regime with little to show for it,” said Governor McCrory. “So long as I am governor, North Carolina will not subsidize a regime which remains the world’s lead sponsor of terrorism. It’s time for Washington, D.C. to put the safety, security and best interests of North Carolinians and Americans first Last year, Governor McCrory signed the bipartisan Iran Divestment Act of 2015, which prohibited...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he would cut hundreds of jobs and re-shift the focus of his campaign toward winning the California primary next month, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Sanders' comments came a day after he lost four primaries in Northeastern states to opponent Hillary Clinton, who already had hundreds more delegates promised to her campaign. In the wake of those losses, Sanders said he didn't need as many staffers around the country as he had before. “So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and...

Donald Trump is two for two with teleprompter-ed speeches. That is, he is batting 1000 with remarks that are carefully prepared and delivered. So for his sake, he should keep it up. And if he does, he can win the Republican nomination in July and the general election in November—by carrying 40 states. Trump’s speech today to the Center for the National Interest (CFTNI), an old-line “realist” think tank in DC, was well received. CFTNI was once known as the Nixon Center, as in, the 37th president, and it still includes on its board such legendary Nixon foreign-policy hands as...

Tell us how you really feel, Kimberly.FOX News host Kimberly Guilfoyle told The Five on Wednesday that she watched the Cruz-Carly Fiorina announcement on Wednesday and if felt a little like the “Children of the Corn” cult. "It was almost like, wait did I miss a couple weeks? or a couple months and this is what’s happening at – the convention? RIght? So it’s definitely putting the cart in front of the horse. But I thought it all went well. The singing freaked me out a little bit. It was a little unusual. Yes, it was a little ‘Children of...

What was once furious Republican opposition to Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the U.S. has turned to virtual silence in the face of widespread GOP voter approval. Exit polls from the nation's biggest Republican primaries show impressive majority support for Trump's proposal. In the latest example, in Pennsylvania Tuesday, 69 percent of GOP voters said they support "temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the U.S." In New York last week, the number was 68 percent. In Wisconsin, 69 percent supported Trump's idea. In Florida, 64 percent. Georgia, 68 percent. Ohio, 65...