Free Republic

Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that he is no longer a target of federal scrutiny for his role in a bridge-closing scandal. “If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.” “To have that not hanging over his head puts him back where he started from,” said Chuck Laudner, an Iowa-based strategist for former Pennsylvania senator...

Without any objection, the Senate has passed a bill forcing the FDA to speed up the approval process for sunscreen technology, HAPPI reports.Sunscreen technology has stagnated in the United States since the 1990s, not because companies have failed to innovate, but because the Food and Drug Administration has been sitting on proposals submitted 12 years ago without even reviewing them.The proposals include new sunscreen ingredients, and since the FDA has dropped the ball, the Senate has picked it up with the passage of the Sunscreen Innovation Act on Wednesday night.Rates of melanoma have skyrocketed in the last 40 years, giving...

Did you notice the tone of our media when they broke the story of journalist James Foley’s beheading? It was like we’ve never heard of ISIS before. Thanks to their bias-by-omission, for most had not. WARNING: Graphic images the media chose to ignore.

The Free Syrian Army is on the wrong side. Here's its bloody track record and disturbing alliances. Video House approves Obama's plan to combat Islamic State in a 273 to 156 vote Demonstrating yet again that we do not have an effective opposition party in the United States right now, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama’s plan to arm and train “vetted” members of the Free Syrian Army. As expected,the Senate went along on Thursday. The Hill noted about the House vote that “vocal opposition” came from “both war-weary liberals and defense hawks who...

The Senate has refused to consider Sen. Ted Cruz’s bill that would strip Americans of their citizenship for joining the Islamic State (ISIS) or any other terrorist group after one Democratic member objected. “If we do not pass this legislation, the consequence will be that Americans fighting alongside ISIS today may come home tomorrow with a U.S. passport, may come home to New York or Los Angeles or Houston or Chicago and innocent Americans may be murdered if the Senate does not act today,” the Texas Republican said on the Senate floor, The Washington Times reports. [snip] Cruz proposed his...

I'm trying to look on the bright side of what passed for debate over another doomed effort to secure U.S. interests by embarking on the fruitless pursuit, cultivation and empowerment of Islamic "moderates," this time in Syria. We would get better results sending an expeditionary force after the Loch Ness sea monster. No matter. In deliberations resembling a stampede, we heard: The ISIL is coming, the ISIL is coming! Quick, leave our own borders undefended and save Saudi Arabia! That seemed be the subtext, anyhow, to much talk of Syria. There were odd glimmers of light as when House Appropriations...

Amarillo, TX - An incident involving a Clovis (NM) police officer accused of using excessive force is receiving a lot of attention. A video recently released shows what happen during the traffic stop. The officer in question is Brent Aguilar. He placed Jorge Corona under arrest during a traffic stop for concealing ID. According to a local attorney, that was just the first mistake. Dan Lindsey says the second mistake was slamming Jorge Corona to the ground when he was not resisting or evading an officer. "Jorge was falsely accused of concealing his ID, falsely arrested, falsely slammed to the...

Atlantic City’s city council just unanimously voted to ban selling or owning “realistic-looking” toy guns.The ordinance bans the “sale, possession or use of any imitation firearms . . . which aren’t bright, fluorescent colors or transparent,” according to an article published in the Press of Atlantic City.Anyone caught with an illegal toy gun can face a $50 fine and 30 days in jail.

Even after the Dow and the S&P 500 closed at new all-time highs, closely followed contrarian Marc Faber keeps sounding the alarm. "We have a bubble in everything, everywhere," the publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. Faber has long argued that the Federal Reserve's massive asset purchasing programs and near-zero interest rates have inflated stock prices. The catalyst for a market decline, as he sees it, could be a "raise in interest rates, not engineered by the Fed," referring an increase in bond yields.

The Senate adjourned Thursday for an extended break until November, having so far avoided this year to work a full week at a time. According to The Hill, threats by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to convene a two-week session in September and force lawmakers to work weekends have come to naught. Senators have not worked a single Friday in 2014, and both parties were keen to leave town Thursday until Nov. 12.

In one of America's richest towns residents are paying more than ten times the going rate for water in a desperate attempt to stave off California's "epochal" drought ___ Nestled under the Santa Ynez mountains and cooled by the Pacific Ocean breeze, the billionaires' bolt hole of Montecito, California, seems at first glance like a palm tree-strewn idyll. Here, in one of America's wealthiest post codes, celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas, Rob Lowe, Kevin Costner and Ellen DeGeneres live alongside CEOs too numerous to mention in some of the world's biggest and most outlandish homes. But look a little...

Boeing has walked away with the biggest share ($4.2 billion) of the money, as its design was further along than that of the SpaceX proposal and, in the opinion of NASA’s leadership, has the best chance of meeting the schedule. At first glance this looks wrong, because SpaceX is already flying its unmanned Dragon 1 on supply missions to the International Space Station, fulfilling its part of one of the original COTS contracts. While a manned version of the Dragon 1 was certainly possible, Elon Musk and the team at SpaceX chose instead to develop something far more ambitious. The...

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The polls may suggest Republicans will see gains in this November’s elections, but former Democratic strategist Bob Beckel thinks they shouldn’t get too comfortable. The Five co-host mysteriously signaled Democrats have something up their sleeve. “I’ll tell you: I would expect an October surprise,” Beckel said on Thursday. “I think I know what is — I’m not going to say it, but I think I know what it is — and it is going to shake things up, and it has to do with national security.” Beckel’s secrecy comes as President Obama faces perhaps the most significant foreign-policy challenge of...

Congress has returned to Washington after a 5 week hiatus to deal pressing problems facing the nation both here at home and abroad. Unfortunately, the definition of what constitutes a pressing issue is often different in Washington’s marbled halls than in Main Street America. In no case is that more clear than with the last minute extension of the controversial Export-Import Bank. The Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is an 80 year old New Deal relic that could only have been dreamed up in Washington. The banks sole purpose is to provide taxpayer backed government loans to foreign companies in the hopes...

We, the authors below, served on the Advanced Placement United States History Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee from 2008 through 2012. In that capacity, guided by continued dialogue with and input from the teachers who work each day with our nation’s most talented and dedicated students, we authored the Curriculum Framework that was published in October 2012 and that is at the heart of the College Board’s current Course and Exam Description for AP U.S. History.

In its fourth advertisement released this week, a pro-gun control group applauded a Republican congressman’s efforts to reduce gun violence. Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), the group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was critically wounded in a shooting outside of a supermarket in 2011, is urging Pennsylvanians to vote for GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in November’s election. As the narrator explains in the 30-second spot, “Not Afraid to Lead,” the incumbent congressman has attempted to encourage his colleagues — both Republicans and Democrats — in Washington to pass stricter gun control measures. Last year, Fitzpatrick co-sponsored a...

The US seems doomed to constantly forget and painfully relearn one military lesson: unclear goals invite escalation. The third Iraq war is the latest example. There are currently 1,700 US soldiers in Iraq - 1,600 more than were there in June. Just don't call them ground troops. So far, US forces in Iraq have been described as embassy security or "advisers". The euphemism undercuts Barack Obama's insistence that US troops will not return to combat in Iraq - a message he repeated yesterday. The growing troop total is not the only US escalation. Air strikes have expanded from Iraq's north...

The Senate approved a continuing resolution for the budget which included a provision authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels for the purpose of combating Islamic State terrorists. The legislation passed 78-22. Of the 22 Senators that voted no, here are the 12 Republicans that voted against the provision: John Barrasso (WY) Tom Coburn (OK) Michael Crapo (ID) Ted Cruz (TX) Mike Enzi (WY) Dean Heller (NV) Mike Lee (UT) Jim Moran (KS) Rand Paul (KY) James Risch (ID) Pat Roberts (KS) Jeff Sessions (AL)

I have read about 5 percent of the noise surrounding the upcoming governor’s race in Pennsylvania. As a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, I’m always amazed at what issues become amplified, minimized, and often buried. Less than 1 percent of the voters will read this little note, but as a son of teachers, and a friend to many current and retired teachers, administrators and state workers, I believe some facts deserve being said. There is no doubt; incoming governors and other elected officials inherit the good, bad and ugly of the preceding budgets and sessions. There is...