Free Republic

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest parroted the talking points issued by Planned Parenthood this morning, dismissing the explosive investigative videos as the result of “extremists on the right.” Earnest described the investigation as a “tried and true tactic of extremists on the right to edit video and distort” echoing the Washington Post op-ed published under the name of Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Earnest asserted during the White House Press Briefing that Planned Parenthood was following the “highest ethical standards” describing the investigative videos as “essentially fraudulent.” “[B]ased on the essentially fraudulent way in...

“Secretary of Awesome” The first two Clinton email releases from State made clear her top aides often gushed over her work. More evidence surfaced Friday, including an exchange in which top Clinton aides praised their leader for her dance moves under the subject line: “Secretary of Awesome.” The group of aides was emailing about a New York Magazine video of her dancing in Kenya. “[S]he moves like a Sistah,” wrote Clinton adviser Minyon Moore. “This is fabulous.” Mills forwarded the conversation to Clinton: “You shake your tail feathers girl.” [snip] In an Aug. 3, 2009 email, Abedin told Clinton at...

Dodgy companies peddling pricey compound pharmaceuticals have fleeced the TRICARE program so severely this year, before tougher screening procedures took effect May 1, that they are largely to blame for a $2 billion defense health budget hole Congress is scrambling to fill. In fiscal 2010, military outpatient pharmacy costs totaled $6.6 billion, with only $23 million spent on compound drugs. By fiscal 2014, outpatient pharmacy costs had risen to $7.7 billion but compound drugs costs soared to $515 million. In the first nine months of fiscal 2015, compound drug costs tripled again for TRICARE, to $1.7 billion, or more than...

A Texas farmer finally received land back that was taken from him by a court and given to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) more than thirty years ago. The victory puts land back into his undisputed possession and control that has been in his family since 1904. It also brings hope and a pathway to victory for other farmers who stand to lose up to 90,000 acres of land to the BLM.Tommy Henderson met with BLM officials on the steps of the Clay County Courthouse in Henrietta, Texas, where he was presented a patent from the U.S. government...

The Audacity of Facts: that is what Mark Levin believes can save America. Facts can animate the rising generation that has the most to lose by the impending collapse of our constitutional republic. Levin concedes that the odds are against him. But Plunder and Deceit, his arresting new book, takes its shot. It is a clarion call to young people: “an appeal to reason and audacity”; an appeal that they “find the personal strength and will to break through the cycle of statist propaganda and manipulation, unrelenting emotional overtures, and the pressure of groupthink” that has atrophied their generation’s capacity...

Washington (AFP) - Urging Americans to curb trophy killings and not be "cowardly lions," US lawmakers introduced legislation Friday that would prevent the kinds of controversial hunting that brought down Zimbabwe's beloved beast Cecil. Senate Democrat Robert Menendez's bill would expand the import-export restrictions of the 1973 Endangered Species Act to include animals that are not just listed as endangered or threatened, but those that are "proposed to be listed" as such. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, which maintains the US endangered species list, last October proposed to list the African lion as threatened due to habitat loss and...

A Texas congressman has introduced legislation that would halt the resettlement of United Nations-certified refugees in the U.S. pending a full study on the program’s impact on the nation’s economy and national security. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, introduced the Resettlement Accountability National Security Act, or HR 3314, which places an “immediate suspension on allowing immigrants into the United States under the refugee resettlement program, until the Government Accountability Office (GAO) completes a thorough examination of its costs on federal, state and local governments.” According to US government data, nearly 500,000 new immigrants have come to the U.S. under the resettlement...

This summer, many people, including friends of mine, adopted the rainbow symbol and the message of human equality after the U.S. Supreme Court took it upon itself to redefine marriage. Actual leaders of “gay rights” organizations universally explain, in open partnership with Planned Parenthood, that their concept of equality likewise promotes “reproductive health,” which itself includes abortion. Thus, leading advocates to redefine marriage cite human “equality,” but believe it can coexist with their own diktat that only certain human beings are “equal,” while others can be torn apart. To rainbow equality leaders, defining some humans as abortable is an obvious...

MEXICO CITY, July 31, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - Tens of thousands of people marched in Mexico last Saturday to protest the country's recent Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex "marriage." The decision rendered void many pre-existing state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and woman. So Mexicans took to the streets under the "Mexico is One for the Children" slogan. Sofia Miranda, one of its organizers, sent a letter to Mexico's hostile media clarifying, "We are not against any person; we are against this Supreme Court imposition." She warns, echoing Pope Francis, that recognizing same-sex unions as somehow being a form...

Sen. Rand Paul says pro-life Democrats hold the key to passing legislation in the Senate that would completely defund Planned Parenthood. “There are several Democrats who say they are pro-life,” Paul tells The Daily Signal. “It’s not a guarantee that we get all the Republicans on this,” he adds. “The vast majority of Republicans will support this but we need a few Democrats. If we can get six Democrats and all the Republicans we can actually put this on the president’s desk.” Paul, along with Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and others are leading the charge after undercover...

At least according to one California congressman, all of this debate in Congress over the Iran nuclear deal is much ado about nothing. If Congress wants to approve it (or if they fail to override the President’s expected veto) that’s fine. But if they shoot it down there’s really no need to worry. Barack Obama can just ignore them. Kerry Picket reports at the Daily Caller. California Rep. Brad Sherman warns that even if Congress were to override Barack Obama’s veto of the Iran deal, the president could still get the deal he wants.Sherman, a Democrat who serves on...

Britain could face food shortages this summer thanks to the growing migrant crisis in Calais, hauliers have warned.Freight trucks have already faced severe delays, with queues now five miles longer than the Channel Tunnel itself, as they try to cross into Europe. Now haulage firms say the delays could cause shortages of key supplies, thus causing food prices to shoot up.The Daily Mail reports that some truck drivers have been stuck in their cabs for days, requiring emergency food and water supplies as well as chemical toilets. At its peak, the queue reached 36 miles and barely moved 500 yards...

We starting to learn new details about Jesus Deniz-Mendoza, an 18-year-old legal immigrant from Mexico who is accused of murdering a “Good Samaritan” couple and wounding their daughter during a July 29 attack in Montana. Deniz-Mendoza, who also goes by the name Jesus Yeizon Deniz, was admitted legally into the United State in 2013: And he was out on bond after a recent burglary arrest in Wyoming: ICE couldn’t do anything about his arrest, however, because he was a legal immigrant. (snip) Was then 16-year-old Mendoza admitted to the U.S. as a DREAMer? Did he actually enter the U.S. in...

Over the last four decades, if you’ve seen a World War II aircraft actually in flight, chances are pretty good that the Collings Foundation in Stow, Massachusetts had something to do with it. Wednesday, the town Planning board voted 3-to-2 that the Foundation’s living history events, tours, exhibitions and veteran roundtable discussions are not educational, and thereby denied it a permit to expand. The Building Department also issued a cease and desist order against the Foundation on March 26, 2015 prohibiting take-offs and landings from the airstrip it has maintained and flown from for 37 years.

•Trump campaign is ugly, and could be fatalDes Moines, Iowa: At her campaign launch in New York last month Hillary Clinton appeared polished and implacable, engaged but not engaging. At his in Miami, Jeb Bush looked better than he had in earlier appearances, but still something was amiss. He has yet to lose a certain flatness. Last weekend at a rally in smalltown Iowa, Donald Trump looked like he was having an absolute ball. So did his audience. Trump bounded onstage to the cheers of a full house of around 700 at a high school auditorium. Another 500 or so...

 Tips Are Owed, They're Not a Favor.  Not Tipping is "a Crime, the Blood of which Calls out of the Ground for Vengeance".  "Why Restaurants Are Eliminating Tipping", proclaims a news article headline. The claims include the ideas, that it promotes bad service, it's an obsolete concept, and is unnecessary because of the living wage movement.Restaurant owners are certainly entitled to their point of view, but they are probably poorly served by latching onto "living wage". But workers have a right to their own direct relationship with customers. Their independent legitimacy as professionals doesn't have to be dependent upon permission...

Things got very awkward today when Chris Matthews asked DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz what the difference was between the modern Democratic Party and Socialism.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The State Attorney General's office has charged a Honolulu Police officer shown in cell phone video body slamming a man in Palolo Valley in February. Only Hawaii News Now reported on the case months ago when 25-year old Eric Masrasrik was thrown to the ground by Officer Siave Seti, Jr.  Seti is charged with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor. The cell phone video doesn't show what led up to the confrontation, but Masrasrik claims it was unprovoked. He also says the officer punched him in the face. Seti, a two year veteran of the force, did not arrest...

State Dept. fails to release 1,000 messages The State Department admitted it was violating a judge’s order Friday in releasing only 1,356 new emails from former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s time in the administration, with officials saying they’re falling behind because they are having to run all of the documents by intelligence agencies to make sure classified documents aren’t being released. It’s the latest stumble for a department put on the spot by Mrs. Clinton’s unique email set-up, which saw her reject a State Department account and instead issue herself a private account, kept on a server she maintained at...

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order late Friday afternoon ordering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and two of her most intimate State Department aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, to account for, under penalty of perjury, their use of Clinton’s ‘home-brew’ server kept at her Chappaqua, New York home during Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary, as well as any official documents in their possession. The order came in a FOIA lawsuit by Judicial Watch that was re-opened by Judge Sullivan in June after Clinton’s circumvention of the FOIA laws was revealed when news broke of her...