Free Republic

President Barack Obama said Monday that his administration has lifted the U.S. to become “the most respected country in the world.” Obama made the claim during a discussion with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows at the White House. PRESIDENT OBAMA: People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth, and part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say that we want...

A majority of Democratic voters believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote, according to a striking new Rasmussen Reports survey. The national telephone survey released Friday reveals that more than one third of “Likely U.S. Voters” — 35 percent — say illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote if they can prove they reside in the U.S. and pay taxes. Sixty percent of “Likely Voters,” disagreed and five percent were undecided. Democrats were more likely to support illegal immigrant voting, with 53 percent supporting the idea. Republicans, however, also indicated support. According to the poll, 20 percent of Republican...

This week, Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur will go from being father and son to a married couple. Before you jump to conclusions, consider this: Novak and MacArthur are not father and son biologically. Rather, their relationship through adoption was solely a technicality to enable the rights they desperately wanted but were not legally able to attain as a married couple. The same-sex couple, who have been together for more than 50 years, registered as domestic partners in New York City in 1994. After moving to Bucks County, they learned that Pennsylvania law does not recognize domestic partners and prohibits...

Reading to children at bedtime: ABC questions value of time-honoured practiceTHE ABC has questioned whether parents should read to their children before bedtime, claiming it could give your kids an “unfair advantage” over less fortunate children. “Is having a loving family an unfair advantage?” asks a story on the ABC’s website. “Should parents snuggling up for one last story before lights out be even a little concerned about the advantage they might be conferring?” The story was followed by a broadcast on the ABC’s Radio National that also tackled the apparently divisive issue of bedtime reading. “Evidence shows that the...

Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley (D) urged fellow council members to pass a sweeping gun-control ordinance despite doubts that it would be effective or enforceable. “Will this measure stop gun violence?” Kelley asked. “Probably not, but it is important that we pass it as a reflection of our values.” A key provision of the new ordinance is that it prohibits carrying a concealed deadly weapon or handgun, unless the person is a police officer or a bonafide criminal. Kelley conceded that “this provision might seem paradoxical, but we feel it greatly simplifies and clarifies the situation. If you are...

Because Hillary Clinton is white and no longer young, a strain of political thought holds that she might lack Barack Obama’s inherent appeal to new and minority voters and thus that she won’t be able to ride the Democratic party’s demographic advantages to easy victory in 2016. Writing for the Washington Examiner, Philip Klein ably sketches the nightmare scenario for liberals. “If Hillary's performance among black voters retreats to more typical Democratic levels,” he writes, “it will hinder her efforts in swing states such as Ohio and Florida, where Democrats need to rack up huge margins in urban areas to...

What is your gender? Male Female Other Prefer not to answer

n the opening segment of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation,” host and notorious tax-evader Al Sharpton compared the newly-enacted Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act to Jim Crow and slavery. “This is a key moment for the country,” he said. “Too often in our history, we’ve seen religion used to justify attacks on other people’s rights, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to women’s right to vote.”

President Barack Obama criticized the House Republican budget proposal during a visit to Cleveland on Wednesday, mocking their fiscal plans as “a path to prosperity for those who have already prospered.”

ixteen-year-olds can drive, work, pay taxes and be sentenced to life in prison. Now, some want the right to vote, too. On Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos will attempt to make that happen by introducing a measure that would extend the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. Avalos and other supporters say it will encourage civic engagement among youths and instill in them lifelong voting habits at a time when turnout is low.

WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) — Wellesley College is joining a growing list of women’s colleges that accept transgender students.President H. Kim Bottomly and trustees’ chairwoman Laura Daignault Gates said in a letter Wednesday that “Wellesley will consider for admission any applicant who lives as a woman and consistently identifies as a woman.”

Calling substance abuse anything other than what it is--self induced mental illness--is just more of the same excuse making.

When a Texas jury rejected an insanity defense and convicted Eddie Ray Routh in the murder of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, it raised a question: If this guy isn't crazy, who is? Routh had a voluminous history of mental illness. After being discharged from the Marines in 2010, doctors hospitalized him because he thought a giant tapeworm was eating him. He had several more stints in psychiatric facilities and regularly took medications for psychosis. A few weeks before the shootings, doctors concluded he was a danger to himself and others. After his final release from a Veterans...

Bobbi Kristina will be taken off life support tomorrow ... on the 3rd anniversary of Whitney Houston's death ... TMZ has learned. Brown family sources tell us Bobby has finally made the decision, realizing there is no hope for his 21-year-old daughter to recover. A source connected with Houston's family told TMZ on Sunday ... Cissy Houston, Whitney's mom, wanted life support pulled on the anniversary of her daughter's death to "bond mother and daughter for eternity." We have not confirmed this, but the NY Post ran the story this AM. Members of the Brown family are extremely emotional, sobbing...

Americans’ views of President Barack Obama have improved slightly in the past two months, and opinions are more positive about the direction of the country and the health of the economy, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds. A slim majority now approves of the way Obama is handling unemployment, according to the poll, conducted before Friday’s release of a surprisingly strong jobs report. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed approve of how Obama is doing his job, compared with 41 percent in December, and 51 percent approve of his handling of unemployment, compared with 44 percent before. Nearly half say the economy...

The horror...the horror... As some of you might be aware, actor Randy Quaid seems to have taken a long mental trip up the river into his personal Heart of Darkness. The viral video he has just posted from there is at the same time fascinating, repulsive, scary, profane, and definitely quite disturbing so a warning  about the strong language along with images hard to remove from memory before watching it. An edited cleaned up version of the previous video is below followed by a description of the original video from USA Today:

(Reuters) - China will ban from March 1 internet accounts that impersonate people or organizations, and enforce the requirement that people use real names when registering accounts online, its internet watchdog said on Wednesday.

When they moved into the house in November 2005, Kofi was earning $82,740 as an IT consultant for a government contractor, and Comfort, then 43, was making $30,000 as an administrative assistant. But in the overheated mortgage market of the time, they said everyone told them that they could buy a $600,000 house. They made a $60,000 down payment and all their mortgage payments for more than 2½ years — through September 2008. But the house was financed with subprime loans, which reset to higher rates after short time periods, creating what are known as “shock payments.” The Boatengs said...

The couple thought that they finally had everything lined up: Their paperwork for a marriage license, their attendance to mandatory counseling, and — just to be safe — an order from Mexico's Supreme Court to honor their request to complete the first same-sex union in the state of Baja California. But on January 11, in their fourth attempt at marriage since June 2013 in Mexicali, Baja's desert capital, Victor Manuel Aguirre and Victor Fernando Urias were met with closed doors and once more couldn't get married. Instead, religious conservatives picketed the municipal registrar offices (along with alleged non-interested parties meant...

In response to the whitest Oscar nominations in 17 years, Al Sharpton has issued a statement expressing his disappointment in the nominations and calling for a meeting to address the lack of diversity in Hollywood. “The lack of diversity in today’s Oscar nominations is appalling, and while it is good that Selma was nominated for ‘Best Picture,’ it’s ironic that they nominated a story about the racial shutout around voting while there is a racial shutout around the Oscar nominations,” Sharpton said in a statement. “With all of the talent in Selma and other Black movies this year, it is...