Free Republic

COCOA BEACH -- Several combat-wounded active duty and veteran service members will hit the waves Friday morning in Cocoa Beach. Operation Surf, run by the California based nonprofit Amazing Surfing Adventures, teaches service members and veterans how to surf. For the first time they have taken Operation Surf to Florida. Fourteen military members will participate in the week long surfing event in Cocoa Beach. Many of the military members have served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, continuing to suffer from physical and psychological disabilities. The goal of the event is to help them relax and rehabilitate. “It’s got its...

Marco Rubio let's Obama have it.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder says a man shot two people in self defense. On Tuesday night, the sheriff says, Joshua Anderson of Port St. Lucie was fishing underneath the Jensen Beach Causeway. While fishing, Anderson witnessed a fight between Brett Jowers and Zachery Sly. During the altercation, the sheriff says Jowers attacked Sly's girlfriend and pushed her onto the ground. That's when witnesses say Anderson stepped in to help. "He saw a woman being attacked at night, and he went to her aid. In my opinion I think he did the right thing," the sheriff says. He says the...

I'll even admit he's on the exact same page as me, re. Ukraine/Kremlin...  Trouble is: 1) I DO NOT trust him to do anything he says- there's something about the Jebster that seems shiftier and less genuine -at least to me- than Dubya. And there appears to be more of a sense of entitlement politically. 2) Jeb Bush is no conservative- he's denounced Ronald Reagan's legacy of practical common sense and towering achievement as somehow irrelevant, an unforgivable sin. 3) The Jebster is about as popular as a fart in an elevator... even within the Republican Party. 4) Others with actual conservative credentials/achievements/principlesoffer the same...

A South Florida high school teacher who allegedly called a student a "rag head Taliban" was given a five-day suspension Tuesday. Maria Valdes, a teacher at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, won't be paid during her suspension, the Broward School Board said.

Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida have released a blueprint for federal tax reform called “The Economic Growth and Family Fairness Tax Plan.” First, we should not embrace the language of progressive socialism in believing tax reform should have as a goal to advance “family fairness.” The plan should simply be entitled “The American Growth and Opportunity Plan.” That said, the Lee-Rubio plan is a great improvement over the current system. For the individual tax structure, the plan introduces a two-tier system to replace the current seven tax brackets. This plan moves America from a...

Just watched my first (and last) viewing of the new TV show, 'Fresh Off the Boat' last evening. After about 10 minutes, I couldn't believe what I was watching - had this show been about any other people group it never would have made it to the studio. The show is about a Taiwanese family that immigrates to America in the 1990's. It's main character retells his growing up in America. The father figure in the family works at a store for his brother in Washington D.C. but decides to open a restaurant in Orlando, FL. So he moves his...

But don't panic Jeff Atwater or Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Gov. Scott has told top fundraisers he's interested in running in 2018 - when Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson's third term ends - not 2016, when Scott will still be in the middle of his second term. As uncomfortable as Scott often seems in the political world, the U.S. Senate makes sense given that Scott initially seemed far more interested in federal issues than Florida issues. He started his political career with a committee attacking the Affordable Care Act and by the time he turned his attention to running for office in Florida...

Do you agree with the bill that would allow anyone with a concealed weapon permit to carry a gun on Florida public university campuses? Yes No Not sure

Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz will seek a seventh term in the House instead of running for Senate, a spokesman said Tuesday. The announcement ends speculation that she would run for the seat now held by Sen. Marco Rubio if he gives it up to run for president. Wasserman-Schultz believes she can be more effective in her current seat and wants to use her position as DNC chair to elect a Democratic president next year, spokesman Sean Bartlett said. She is in a safe Democratic district that includes parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

During a violent fight at a Florida middle school that was captured on cellphone video, a group of a suspected gang members teamed up on a 14-year-old girl and beat her up. The fight, which took place at Homestead Middle School in Homestead, involved Angelina Padron and a number of other students. Padron was able to hold her own against one of the suspected gang members, but when other girls jumped in she fell to the ground and was overrun.

A bill to allow weapons on college campuses is one big step closer to becoming law. Monday, the Senate Higher Education Committee approved it in a party-line vote - Republicans for it, Democrats against. The bill would let anybody with a concealed weapon permit carry a gun at any of Florida's public universities - right now, that's illegal. Backers say if gun-toting students and faculty had been in Florida State's main library last fall, they might have been able to take down the gunman behind that horrific shooting. But the hearing was packed with public safety advocates who warn the...

James Carville said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would be a waste of time for any Democrat to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016. “I’ve had maybe three people come up to me and say, ‘Well, I’m for somebody else other than Hillary,’ “ the Democratic strategist told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York. “And I know I run into more Democrats in more places than maybe anybody else in the United States,” he added. “Of course, Senator [Jim] Webb and Governor [Martin] O’Malley can say anything they want. But, in terms...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) asked individuals on Twitter to name their “favorite” Democratic policy — many replied, but it’s unlikely the response was what she hoped for. After the DNC chair tweeted her question, individuals on Twitter immediately started to poke fun at the question. Some skewered the Democratic Party for recent email scandals, while others took aim at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese Americans.

 Jacksonville sheriff Director Tom Hackney Citizens and police make an effective team to stop crime.  Where there is high cooperation with, and trust of the police, crime rates tend to be very low.  In this case in Brentwood, Florida, cooperation went a bit further than exchanging information.   The police and homeowner cooperated in returning fire against criminals that had broken into the occupied home, refused to follow police orders, and fired at the police. In the Brentwood case, the homeowner had been victimized the day before, on 11 March, 2015.  His house had been broken into, and guns...

You have to give a certain amount of credit to politicians who are able to maintain a level of consistency, if nothing else. Stopping in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush was faced with yet another series of questions on the subject which seems to have sunk his prospects with conservatives this cycle. When asked yet again about a possible path to citizenship for illegals and a chance to “come out of the shadows” in an orderly fashion, Bush doubled down and let all of you haters out there know that he’s the grown up in the room here. Jeb Bush...

March 13, 2015 Jeb Bush Slams Obama, Republicans in New Hampshire By Elliot Smilowitz Jeb Bush lobbed attacks at both President Obama and Congressional Republicans in an appearance in Dover, N.H. “Pass a budget for crying out loud,” the Republican former governor of Florida said, slamming members of his own party. “Let the process work again. That’s what’s missing.” Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at a party in the home of Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, Bush signaled his displeasure with the February battle over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding that nearly led to...

Talk about the Norfolk terrier tail wagging the Great Dane. If they are to have any hope of winning their party’s nomination, Republican presidential hopefuls better support ethanol mandates, Hawkeye State politicos told potential candidates at the recent Iowa Agricultural Summit in Des Moines. “Don’t mess with the RFS,” Republican Governor Terry Branstad warned, referring to Renewable Fuel Standards that require refiners to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. “It is the Holy Grail, and I will defend it,” said Rep. Steve King, another Iowa Republican. It is vital for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and preventing dangerous climate change...

Jeb Bush, making his first visit to New Hampshire as a likely presidential candidate, implicitly criticized his Republican rivals for the nomination for changing their positions on difficult issues. Discussing his support for the Common Core education standards, which are viewed unfavorably by many Republicans, Mr. Bush said, “you don’t abandon your core beliefs” just because a position appears unpopular. “The way I’ve sorted it out is: I think you need to be genuine, I think you need to have a backbone. I think you need to able to persuade people this is a national crisis, this is a national...

Jeb Bush said on Friday that his plan for reforming the nation’s immigration system is “the grown-up plan.” Bush kicked off his first pre-2016 trip to New Hampshire with a visit to the Integra Biosciences manufacturing plant in Hudson, where he took questions from local business leaders. The former Florida governor, whose position on immigration reform has come under criticism from members of his party, once again endorsed “earned legal status” for immigrants who entered the country illegally.