Free Republic

WASHINGTON — In the 14 years since Al Qaeda carried out attacks on New York and the Pentagon, extremists have regularly executed smaller lethal assaults in the United States, explaining their motives in online manifestoes or social media rants. But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New...

Yesterday’s procedural vote in the Republican-controlled Senate to give Obama Trade Promotion Authority, or “fast track” as it used to be called, passed by just one vote – that of Florida’s Republican Senator and presidential aspirant Marco Rubio. Why would Rubio vote to give Obama more power? No one knows for certain, but Senator Jeff Sessions, in a statement released after the vote gave us some insight into the dynamics of what went on on Capitol Hill prior to the vote. “Americans increasingly believe that their country isn’t serving its own citizens. They need look no further than a bipartisan...

Damascus (AFP) - The Syrian army has reopened a key oil supply route near Islamic State-controlled Palmyra, as the jihadist group has mined the city's ancient UNESCO-listed ruins. However, the advance toward the central city from the west, reported by a pro-government newspaper and a monitoring group, and stepped up air strikes, do not indicate an imminent offensive to retake it. IS overran Palmyra on May 21, sparking fears that the radical Sunni Muslim group might repeat the sort of vandalism it has carried out in Iraq and destroy one of Syria's most famous archaeological sites. "The infantry has made...

The Board of Visitors at the Citadel voted Tuesday night to remove the Confederate Naval Jack from its chapel on campus. The vote was 9-3 in favor of removing the flag from Summerall Chapel. A Citadel spokesperson says the school needs the General Assembly's permission to remove the flag. According to Citadel officials, the flag was presented to the military college in 1939. The removal of the flag will be done in accordance with the Heritage Act, the spokesperson said.

In the wake of the Charleston shooting, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) are considering ways to renew their failed push to pass meaningful gun control legislation. In separate interviews Tuesday night at a reception before a ceremony hosted by Sandy Hook families to honor Toomey, they discussed their desire to find a new way forward. “We want to make sure we have the votes. Pat’s going to have to, and I’ll work with him, to get some of our colleagues on the Republican side,” Manchin said, adding he hasn’t talked directly to Toomey about a revival. Manchin...

BROWNSVILLE — A U.S. District Court judge ordered federal immigration authorities on Tuesday to rescind three-year work permits for 2,000 immigrants in the country illegally that had been issued in violation of his injunction. “I expect you to resolve the 2,000; I’m shocked that you haven’t,” Judge Andrew Hanen told Justice Department lawyers at a hearing in Brownsville. “If they’re not resolved by July 31, I’m going to have to figure out what action to take.” Hanen has mentioned possible sanctions against the government after he learned it had issued the work permits and deferrals from deporation for three years...

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has penned a column for Breitbart explaining his shift from support to opposition on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the “fast track” legislation that would enable the current president and his successor to negotiate trade deals that Congress would then be able to vote up or down, but not amend. Senator Cruz, a contender for the GOP presidential nomination, still supports free trade and, in principle, sees fast-track as helpful to that end. Nevertheless, he says GOP leadership’s sleight-of-hand has convinced him that, if not amended, the current TPA bill will become a scheme for passing...

The Obama administration has ordered agents to begin ignoring many of the illegal immigrants they encounter in local prisons and jails, as the president begins to implement a lesser-known part of his deportation amnesty program — a move that’s not sitting well with either side in the immigration debate. The move is a nod to sanctuary cities, who had begun to refuse to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. After having court challenges, Mr. Obama bowed to those cities, counties and states and announced the changes as part of his November 2014 amnesty policy. Agents will still troll local...

President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine people killed in last week's shootings at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, the White House said Monday. Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will all attend funeral services Friday for Pinckney, a state senator and pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the oldest and most influential African-American churches in the U.S. Pinckney and eight other people were shot to death last week at a Wednesday night Bible study session.

The pilot of a small aircraft, which is believed to have been registered to famed film composer James Horner, was killed when the plane crashed into a remote area about 60 miles north of Santa Barbara on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether or not the pilot was Horner himself.

A search of APImages.com for “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)93% ” no longer yields a handful of photos from photojournalist Charlie Neibergall wherein the barrel of a gun on a poster points to the U.S. Senator and presidential candidate’s head.(snip) UPDATE: AP Vice President and Director of Media Relations Paul Colford confirms that the news organization has decided to prevent future licensing of the photos showing guns pointed at Cruz. Breitbart News asked whether AP had encountered any outside pressure from politicians to remove the photos. Colford replied, “this was entirely an in-house decision.”

Tomorrow the Senate will have to vote again whether to give President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements that will have an enormous impact on the U.S. economy and future job prospects for U.S. workers — and significantly constrain congressional authority over U.S. immigration policy. Republican leaders, who seem curiously eager to facilitate this deal for the president, have bent over backwards to assure the many skeptical Republican members that neither Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, or "fast-track" authority) nor the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, which would be the next trade agreement to be rushed through the approval process on...

Megyn Kelly is bucking the conventional wisdom of what it means to be a Fox News anchor. The take-no-prisoners newswoman isn’t afraid to throw hardballs at Republicans. She recently lectured Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul over his penchant for arguing with female reporters. She poked Jeb Bush about whether he would have invaded Iraq in 2003. She cornered Mike Huckabee for saying it was trashy for women to swear in public. Last year, she told Dick Cheney, “History has proven that you got it wrong” on Iraq. On Election Night 2012, she dared to question Karl Rove for claiming that Barack...

The Senate is set to vote on the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation the House passed last week that gives President Obama fast track trade authority to finalize his trade negotiations without Congressional amendments. Right now, Obama is finalizing negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). Under fast-track trade authority, Congress only gets an up or down vote on the final negotiation, and is not part of the negotiating process. The legislation passed the House because it did not contain TAA – Trade Adjustment Assistance – a...

Last week, the pro-regime forces in Hasakah city, northeastern Syria, stormed houses and arrested dozens of young men under the pretext of driving them to compulsory military service, local sources reported. This comes after the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decision demanding Syrian youth to perform military service, and allowing them to serve in their own provinces. In the pre-war phase, Syrian young men were obliged to serve in other provinces away from their hometowns. “The pro-regime militia of the National Defense Army formed a group entrusted with a mission of arresting the young people who are wanted to...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A top Mississippi lawmaker said Monday that the Confederate battle emblem is offensive and needs to be removed from the state flag. House Speaker Philip Gunn became the first top-tier Republican to call for a change in the flag, which has had the Confederate symbol in the upper left corner since Reconstruction. "We must always remember our past, but that does not mean we must let it define us," Gunn, a leader in his local Baptist church, said in a statement. "As a Christian, I believe our state's flag has become a point of offense that...

Deep, strong feelings exist on both sides of the Confederate flag debate, but a majority of South Carolina lawmakers dodged attempts on Monday to pin down where they stand...... The Post and Courier reached out to all 170 House and Senate members...... By 6:30 p.m., those in the House supporting removal outnumbered opponents by a 4-to-1 margin. But less than half of the chamber had returned calls or emails........ Across the aisle, only 19 of 46 Senators had weighed in. State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, said a lot of discussions are probably going on behind the scenes, but he thinks...

After days of dancing around the matter, a score of South Carolina legislators (including the governor and both of its senators) stood united to say the Confederate flag should be removed from the state capitol.The controversy over the flag renewed after pictures were uncovered of the Charleston church shooter having a Confederate flag license plate. People have argued the kind of hate the flag represents has no place in modern America.Well, now Walmart is taking action too. According to CNN, the retail giant will no longer sell any merchandise with Confederate flags on them.A spokesperson explained, “We never want to...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Monday the Confederate flag should be removed from the grounds of the state capitol, reversing her position on the divisive symbol amid growing calls for it to be removed. The Republican's about-face comes after nine black church members were gunned down, allegedly by a young white man who embraced the flag as a symbol of white supremacy. "150 years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come," Haley said after rousing applause, surrounded by Democrats and Republican lawmakers. "That flag, while an integral part of the past,...

Republican leaders, who seem curiously eager to facilitate this deal for the president, have bent over backwards to assure the many skeptical Republican members that neither Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, or "fast-track" authority) nor the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, which would be the next trade agreement to be rushed through the approval process on an up or down vote without possibility of amendments, includes or allows changes to immigration or visa law. Some might be willing to trust our leaders on that, but in fact the biggest danger is not that the TPA bill and the TPP treaty make direct...