Free Republic

I suppose it’s better that this GOP laundry is being aired now, a year out from the first Republican presidential primary. Better now than an October Surprise by a malicious Democrat hack two weeks out from the presidential election. The Daily Mail’s David Martosko asked 10 potential GOP candidates about their past use of marijuana: Rick Perry, Donald Trump and John Bolton say they have never smoked pot; Rand Paul hints that he ‘wasn’t a choirboy’ – but won’t answer directly. Marco Rubio refuses to answer, saying no one will believe him if the answer is ‘no’; Carly Fiorina will...

The all-new, all-female Ghostsbusters are here. Melissa McCarthy, who was already in talks for one of the leads, has signed on for the Paul Feig-directed reboot, and the studio is now negotiating with Kristen Wiig, as well as "Saturday Night Live" players Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Negotiations are ongoing but the quartet are expected to sign on as the specter-seeking, poltergeist-punishing and phantom-phollowing foursome in the reboot, which is eyeing a summer shoot in New York. McCarthy and Wiig have worked with Feig before, both breaking out with the director's "Bridesmaids" comedy.

Just for a little background watch this from the end of September: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTHKGXpKQvA Fast forward to today: "CNN – Yemen’s presidential palace has been completely taken over by Shiite Houthi rebels, the country’s Minister of Information Nadia Sakkaf told CNN on Tuesday amid reports of renewed clashes. Sakkaf said the Prime Minister’s residence was also under attack from the street. She called the situation “the completion of a coup,” adding that “the President has no control.”" What a success story! Obama really knows how to pick’em.

The suburban Chicago mother of a 19-year-old American facing a terrorist charge for trying to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants accused the group on Tuesday of brainwashing youths into joining their ranks via social media. And she declared, "Leave our children alone!" Mohammed Hamzah Khan's mother cried softly as she read her statement....

Maybe they just really love their K9 officers. A Florida sheriff's office upgraded its headquarters' rugs with the bold proclamation, "In Dog We Trust." The mats, which feature the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office seal, should have read, "In God We Trust."

....White House photographer Pete Souza shared a photo on Instagram on Wednesday of the president donning a tiara with a group of Girl Scouts from the White House Science Fair earlier this year in May....

Facebook blocked a page calling for a demonstration in support of one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics after being pressured to do so by Russian Internet regulators.

Think you've got a hard-knock life? Try sitting through the new "Annie." A rewritten, re-orchestrated but far from revitalized version of the old Broadway musical, this latest edition moves it out of the Depression and into a modern, tech-driven New York..... Where's the excitement? They're not very apparent here, judging by the kids I saw at my screening. The row in front of me spent most of the movie talking....

By now you know President Obama announced yesterday he will unilaterally normalize the relationship between Cuba and the United States. Back in 2008, Obama said he would talk and negotiate with Iran and now, sources tell the Los Angeles Times that the president attempted to start talks with North Korea and failed last year. A White House official made two secret visits to North Korea last year in an unsuccessful effort to improve relations after new ruler Kim Jong Un assumed power, according to former U.S. officials familiar with the trips. The former U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of...

If you take the best of Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, the brilliance of Ben Carson, and add a touch of ethnic humor, you get James T. Harris, one of my favorite talk show hosts on the radio today. Broadcasting from the desert in Old Pueblo on 104.1, KQTH in Tucson, AZ, James T. is the quintessential Tea Party conservative, devout Christian and a dedicated father of three – all rolled into one . . . Oh yeah, and he’s black. He’s the kind of guy I hate to argue with, which is why I don’t. I recently sat down...

The number of homeless children in the U.S. has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report that blames the nation’s high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the impacts of pervasive domestic violence. Titled “America’s Youngest Outcasts,” the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by...

Favorability for the Democrats has hit a record low as things go from bad to worse for the party after significant midterm losses, according to a new poll. Only 36 percent had a favorable view of the Democratic party, a 6-percentage-point drop from before the midterms, the Gallup poll released Wednesday found. With the GOP standing with 42 percent favorability, it is the first time since 2011 the GOP has had a higher rating than the Democrats.

A few months ago I got online to pay on a new account I have at U.S. Bank.  I pay a certain amount every  month, like everyone does on installment loans.  U.S. Bank has a full-featured consumer website; I mean it’s got all the bells and whistles.  That’s what you’d expect from a bank with $19.6 billion in revenue (2013); the fifth largest bank in America, with assets of $353 billion.  U.S. Bank is bigger than American Express, SunTrust, and ScottTrade, combined. So I was surprised when I only saw the option to pay online, a single payment at a...

Voters will not see "Barack Obama" on the ballot on Tuesday, and the president might count himself lucky. A record low 44 percent of Americans report a favorable impression of him in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Today's six-point unfavorable-favorable margin matches the worst since Obama rose to the national stage. Tuesday's electorate is likely to be even less fond of the president: 53 percent of likely voters see Obama unfavorably, while 43 percent give him favorable marks. The poll finds those with strongly held views of Obama are most likely to turn out to vote.

**SNIP** We are seeing this play out right now. Obama’s coalition in 2008 was relatively large—at 53 percent of the vote—but unstable. In a country as vast and diverse as ours, all such coalitions are bound to be unstable. And what we have seen is Republicans poach a critical mass of the Obama vote away, in 2010 and likely in 2014, to foil his agenda. Just as Madison might have expected. It is well known that this president likes to golf and watch hipster favorites like Game of Thrones, so he probably is too busy to read dusty old books...

The New York Times will announce its third quarter earnings on October 30. It’s make or break time. On October 1 President and CEO Mark Thompson said 100 plus staff cuts would “safeguard the long-term profitability of The Times,” and were not the result of any short-term business difficulties. The Times seems more confident chopping its way to survival than developing new revenue sources, and sticking by them, until they deliver profitability on a consistent basis. The Times has not recorded consistent profit growth for five years and can’t realistically expect it again soon. For every bit of good news...

The New York Times Company said on Thursday that its third-quarter revenue increased by less than 1 percent from a year ago, as growth in its digital business offset declines in print circulation and advertising. The Times planned to spur revenue growth in 2014 with the introduction of several new digital subscription products, but those products have not caught on as the company had hoped. Total revenue during the third quarter increased 0.8 percent to $365 million, compared with $362 million in the same period last year. In a call with investors, the company’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, said that...

David Gregory, who was replaced as host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” in August, will appear in a Yahoo midterm election program with Katie Couric, the company said Tuesday. Mr. Gregory has not formally joined Yahoo, the company said, but will be a guest with Ms. Couric, the political journalists Matt Bai and Mike Allen, the political advocate Grover Norquist and others for an election special on Tuesday.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama is fighting his last campaign mostly at staid Democratic fund-raising events in hotel ballrooms and the private homes of donors, a far cry from the huge crowds who turned out in droves during his White House runs and helped elect him twice. This is not where Obama wanted to be in his second term. With the president's job approval near 40 percent, however, a public rally with Obama would be a liability for most Democrats in contested states where U.S. Senate control will be decided on Nov. 4 elections But it is striking it has...

A new audit has found major gaps in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) preparations for viral pandemics like Ebola: many of the supplies purchased by the government are expired. Officials have spent millions to stockpile medical supplies since 2006 without knowing exactly what to buy or how they would be used, DHS Inspector General John Roth said Friday. The agency also failed to track the supplies it did purchase. “We could not determine the basis for DHS’s decisions,” Roth told a panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as he presented the 43-page report. DHS, which is...