Free Republic

While Great Britain is holding its breath today to see if the Scots vote for independence, most Americans (51%) have no opinion about the referendum and only 33% think most of their fellow countrymen can even locate Scotland on a map. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 30% of American Adults favor Scotland becoming an independent nation rather than remaining part of Great Britain. Nineteen percent (19%) oppose them gaining independence, but half of Americans (51%) are undecided.

On the eve of the vote for Scottish independence, Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch explained that the election is merely a symptom of an ”anti-establishment groundswell” sweeping through the Western world. On Friday Murdoch spoke about the impending vote with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto. “I think there’s meaning in this, and I think it goes beyond Scotland,” he said via phone. “There’s a great anti-establishment groundswell which is seen in this vote in Scotland. You’re seeing it here in Britain in the anti-European party, whose one single issue is to get out of Europe. And I think you’re seeing it...

Only 36% of Americans could name all three branches of the federal government, while 35% “could not name a single one”. ... In addition, over half of Americans don’t know which parties control the House and Senate, and only 27% know that Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds vote. In addition, 21% of Americans think that a 5-4 Supreme Court decision can be reconsidered by Congress, which is actually not true. Interestingly, 54% of Americans would oppose a law that allowed the federal government to bar the media from reporting on national security issues without government approval.

The Democrats and the institutional left have a new political tool that allows them virtually to ignore moderates yet still win elections. This tool, the Catalist database, was employed in the 2012 election. That election defied conventional wisdom: Mitt Romney sought and won independent voters overwhelmingly, but still lost. If you wondered why the conventional wisdom about independents and moderates didn’t seem so wise in 2012, the answer is Catalist. Beyond winning elections, Catalist also allows the Democrats to turn the policy narrative upside down and suffer no political consequence for implementing radical policies which appeal to their base. The...

Scandal: The California Democrat who suggested that his party boycott the Benghazi Select Committee as a waste of time now accuses those who fought on the CIA annex roof of lying "to promote a new book." The last we heard from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, was in May. That's when he told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" he thought the planned select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attack was a "colossal waste of time." Calling the yet-to-be-approved committee a "tremendous red herring," Schiff said: "I don't think it makes sense, really,...

A proposed ordinance in Montville, New Jersey could give police officers broad powers – including entering private property – if underage drinking is even suspected.

<p>The union representing America's immigration caseworkers warned Thursday of the "real and serious threat" that Islamic State terrorists could gain entry to the United States, either by slipping through the southern U.S. border or exploiting "loose and lax" visa policies.</p>

It is a long-standing and often repeated lament on the right that academia and college campuses are self-declared enemies of conservative thinking broadly, and the Republican party specifically, and in a treacherous but overt and unrepentant manner. So it comes as no surprise to website The College Fix that some colleges are offering course credit for promoting socialist causes and participating in socialist recruitment on campus. Not a surprise, but still an outrage. Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) are coordinating with administrators to help YDS Leader program participants get college credit for their activities. According to The Fix, activities which...

Kenneth Palinkas, the head of the union that represents more 12,000 officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) bureau, says that terrorists from ISIS and other extremists are likely to try to exploit the immigration system that President Barack Obama has systematically weakened for over the past several years.

Sen. Rand Paul today took to the Senate floor to offer a unanimous consent request to separate the Syria rebel funding language from the Continuing Resolution. Senate Democrats objected to this request. Sen. Paul then delivered a foreign policy address outlining his opposition to arming the Syrian rebels. A video and copy of Sen. Paul's remarks as prepared for delivery can be found below. SEN. PAUL DELIVERS FOREIGN POLICY ADDRESS REMARKS: If there is one theme that connects the dots in the Middle East, it is that chaos breeds terrorism. What much of the foreign policy elite fails to grasp...

Since when does the Department of Justice coordinate with an obviously liberal media organization to go after a conservative reporter? It’s official: At least since 2011. In email exchanges obtained by The Daily Caller in two separate FOIA requests, a coordinated effort to slam Breitbart News reporter Matthew Boyle emerged. To be sure, Boyle is not a reporter who is beloved by other reporters and he’s been critiqued on any number of matters that include his youthful chipmunk cheeks, his previously questionable Twitter avatar and his TV skills. But his beat was DOJ and Eric Holder and shouldn’t a reporter...

I called former covert CIA operations officer Valerie Plame in Santa Fe last week to ask if I had reason to be anxious about the way something that in the context of history is so minor – an assassination in Serbia, a small civil war in Ukraine – can spin so out of control. “Other than the annihilation of the human race through miscalculation or mistake?” she replied. “Yes, the summer has been full of terrible news. This is an issue that because it is so big and truly existential in nature, we tend not to be able to absorb...

Watch ISIL facilities, guns and trucks get reduced to rubble by U.S. bombs. With rock music.

But less than 48 hours later the Gateway Pundit reports that the U.S. government did, in fact, apprehend four suspected terrorists with ties to the IS organization on the border. Congressman Jason Chaffetz broke this shocking news Wednesday that four known terrorists were apprehended at the US border in Texas on September 10 – the day before the 13th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Chaffetz questioned Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on whether he is “aware of any apprehensions of suspected or known terrorists.” Johnson dodged the question. Tonight, Rep. Chaffetz told Megyn Kelly there were four terrorists arrested crossing...

It’s official: the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an order declining a request for an en banc hearing in a case involving four students in at a California high school who were sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. The full slate of Ninth Circuit judges has thus agreed with a lower district court and with a trio of appellate judges that officials at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif. could censor students who wanted to wear flag-emblazoned shirts. The federal appeals court issued its denial of an en banc hearing...

Mysterious “interceptor” cellphone towers that can listen in someone’s phone call despite not being part of any phone networks have turned up near the White House and Senate. A company that specializes in selling secure mobile phones discovered the existence of several of the towers in and around the nation’s capitol. “It’s highly unlikely that federal law enforcement would be using mobile interceptors near the Senate,” ESD America CEO Les Goldsmith told the technology website Venture Beat on Thursday.

A team of acclaimed filmmakers is spearheading “Unfair”, a ninety minute documentary motion picture intended for all audiences. It will be the first major theatrical documentary to shed light on the certain damage the Income Tax and the IRS have wrought on our liberties, our businesses, our families, and our religious, charitable and civic organizations, while empowering a political agenda contrary to America’s heritage. This film will be promoted to mainstream audiences based on its factual and dramatic content. In addition, the Picture will be marketed heavily to interested grassroots audiences that identify themselves strongly with any and all of...

A South African opposition lawmaker wanted to get a point across to the deputy president during a parliamentary debate. So he raised his middle finger in a gesture widely recognized as obscene. South Africa’s parliament is supposed to be an enclave of orderly debate, but these days it’s better known for ruckuses associated with the Economic Freedom Fighters, a new political party that wants to redistribute resources to the poor.Floyd Shivambu, a deputy leader of the party, on Wednesday lifted his middle finger toward Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa while accusing him of involvement in the police killings of several dozen...

Sierra Leone is set to begin a three-day lockdown tonight at midnight to curb the spread of Ebola, according to Doctors Without Borders. Government authorities have ordered the country's 6 million people to stay in their homes from Sept. 19 through Sept. 21, while volunteers go door-to-door to screen for Ebola and take infected people in hiding to Ebola facilities, according to Doctors Without Borders, which called the endeavor "coercive."

KANSAS CITY Mo. (Reuters) - A Kansas City man was charged on Wednesday with trying to fire-bomb the local office of Missouri U.S. Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver using two bottles filled with charcoal lighter fluid, prosecutors said.