Free Republic

It’s almost a cliché. First, someone talking about blacks makes reference to fried chicken, watermelon, monkeys or dogs—or even uses the indefensible N-word. Then, along with the inevitable apology, comes the kicker: I’m not racist. The latest denial is from golfer Sergio Garcia. Asked a joking question about having dinner with his adversary Tiger Woods, Garcia said: “We will serve fried chicken.” He later apologized for what he called a “silly remark,” then added, “but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.” … “I think it’s human nature that if you’re a racist, you don’t want...

The gilded lifestyle of MEPs has been compared to the uncontrolled excesses of ancient Rome after research showed their perks have not been dented despite biting austerity measures. From Italian MEPs who enjoy free haircuts to Maltese ones who get 52 free gallons of petrol a month, the perks—and expenses—continue unabated for the representatives of European Union nations. MEPs from the 27 EU nations are paid salaries of £137 million ($207 million) a year, according to research by German pricing watchdog Preisvergleich.de, and some earn 740 percent more than the average citizen. …

David Cameron warned restive Tory MPs he will not change policy on an EU referendum yesterday—but promised there would be no more divisive issues such as gay marriage. Seeking to draw a line under a turbulent fortnight, the Prime Minister said his party could now rally behind his pledge to give voters an in/out choice on British membership of the EU by 2017, following an attempt to claw back key powers. He warned Euroskeptics who may seek further concessions: “It’s a very clear, very decisive policy. [It] doesn’t matter the pressure I come under from outside the Conservative Party or...

Student activists at more than 200 colleges are trying a new tactic in hopes of slowing the pace of climate change: They are asking their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies. The Fossil Free campaign argues that if it’s wrong to pour pollution into the air and contribute to climate change, it’s also wrong to profit from it. The strategy, modeled after anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, aims to limit the flow of capital to fossil fuel companies by making their stocks morally and financially unattractive. In theory, that could lead to a slowdown in how much fossil...

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican bid to turn the federal food stamp program over to the states. The current program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is administered by the Agriculture Department and federal dollars are unlimited as long as recipients qualify. The program cost $78 billion last year, more than double the price in 2008. A proposal by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to a wide-ranging farm bill would have converted the program into grants to states, which could decide how to use the money, with certain restrictions. The Senate rejected the amendment 60-36. …

Kaitlyn Hunt, an 18-year-old high school student in Sebastian, Fla., is facing charges and has been expelled from school for having a same-sex relationship with a 15-year-old classmate, CBS Tampa Bay reports. PICTURES: Fla. teen charged over underage same-sex relationship Hunt is charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years of age after the other girl's parents called authorities when Hunt, a senior at Sebastian River High School, turned 18, according to the station.

Those who grew up during the Hungry Thirties, and fought in World War II, were called “the greatest generation” in a 1968 book by U.S. author and broadcaster Tom Brokaw. … Now it’s suggested that Tory David Cameron’s 2010 coalition with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats won’t last as long. In an interview, the PM mentions the possibility of it ending prematurely, and facing the new circumstances “in whatever way we should”. In 70 years, have we gone from the greatest to the weakest? In 1943, our coalition government was threatened by a Germany dedicated to our destruction. The 2013 coalition...

Police have come under fire for asking homeowners whether they were gay or bisexual—in a Neighborhood Watch survey. The questionnaire by West Midlands Police asked residents in Birmingham questions about their sexual orientation so they could help officers “detect crime and antisocial behavior.” The force claim that by asking whether people were straight, gay or bisexual it would help them decide where certain information about police initiatives should be best sent. But residents and politicians in the city have accused the police of being too politically correct. …

May 16, 2013 Dear : The VEA Fund for Children and Public Education Executive Committee (VEA Fund) and The VEA Fund Directors, your elected representatives from across Virginia, have offered recommendations for the June 11 Democratic primaries. The Democratic Party is choosing Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General candidates in an open primary on that day. Republican Candidates are being chosen by a convention this Saturday in Richmond. Regrettably, none of the Republican candidates chose to complete the candidate questionnaire required to gain a recommendation. In Virginia voters do not register by party, so our primaries are open. Any voter can...

A Nova Scotia school is causing controversy after deciding to stop celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, instead opting to recognize the International Day of Families instead. The Dartmouth elementary school said it is aiming to celebrate diversity and inclusivity while avoiding making children who are part of non-traditional families feel left out.

Michelle Obama criticizes the worship of celebrities, sports stars By Emily Goodin - 05/17/13 02:06 PM ET Michelle Obama on Friday urged black youth to stay in school instead of dropping out to become a "baller or a rapper." The first lady, speaking to graduates at Bowie State University, a historically black college, criticized the worship of sports stars and celebrities. "Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they’re sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV," she said of black youth. "Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader,...

In a groundbreaking resolution, the Los Angeles Unified District school board voted Tuesday to ban suspensions for “willful defiance,” making it the first district in the state to do so. This decision will stop suspensions for a variety of misbehaviors—anything from mouthing off to teachers, eating food in the classroom, or violating the school dress code—which critics have maintained are too broad and arbitrarily enforced. Instead, starting next year, principals will install alternative disciplinary measures while students remain in school. The ban in LAUSD, the second largest school district in the country, marks a major shift from a zero-tolerance policy...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday "House Republicans have truly lost their minds" under a popular definition of insanity. Reid, speaking of House GOP leaders' plan to hold a 37th vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act -- commonly known as "Obamacare" -- cited a statement often attributed to Albert Einstein, that insanity is defined as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.""If that's true, the House Republicans have truly lost their minds," Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor.Noting that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the 2012...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reacted to Republican outrage at the IRS targeting of conservative groups Tuesday, saying that when the Internal Revenue Service targeted liberal organizations, “we didn’t hear a single Republican grandstand the issue then.” “It wasn’t long ago that the IRS inappropriately targeted the NAACP, Greenpeace, and a California church which was really progressive, called the All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif. It was interesting. At that time, we didn’t hear a single Republican grandstand the issue then. Where was their outrage when groups on the other side of the political spectrum were

Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington’s most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency's campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials. And she thinks the president knew about the practice too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense. Mitchell, in an interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday, said she was told by a Cincinnati IRS agent that applications by two of her conservative clients were being processed by—and would ultimately be approved or denied—in Washington. She said she also is...

“Our survival as a species is dependent on women taking charge,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told a gathering at a campaign fundraiser earlier this month. She made the comment before introducing Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund … “I really do believe that we are at a tipping point from which there could be no turning back—a turning point that the traditional male hierarchy of the world ignores at their own peril. A peril that puts us all in the unacceptable danger—actually of extinction, so let us begin the era of the woman.” …

Federal tax revenues hit an all-time non-inflation-adjusted monthly high of approximately $406.7 billion in April, according to newly released data from the U.S. Treasury. Overall federal tax revenues in April 2013 were up 28 percent from April 2012, and individual-income-tax revenues specifically were up 36 percent. … Thanks to the record tax revenue, the federal government ran a $112.9 billion surplus in April. However, in the first seven months of fiscal 2013 (October through April), the federal government has run a deficit of $487.6 billion. …

Infamous rape hoaxster and court deadbeat Tawana Brawley got rock-star treatment in New Jersey yesterday, posing for photos with dozens of supporters honoring her as a courageous victim of injustice—as they stuffed envelopes full of cash for her. Brawley, 40—whose claim that she was raped by six men was revealed to be a fake 25 years ago—beamed as she and her mother, Glenda, were hailed for surviving society’s “lies since 1987.” “Let’s let this young queen Tawana know we love her to death,” said incendiary former City College professor Leonard Jeffries, the master of ceremonies for the event at the...

Archdiocese of Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley will boycott the commencement at Boston College because the Catholic educational institution is hosting the Prime Minister of Ireland at a time when the nation faces a government bill that would okay some abortions. The College is scheduled to award Edna Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Pro-life advocates, led by Students for Life of America, are galvanizing pro-lifers against Ireland’s first pro-abortion Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s planned address to Boston College graduates. It has launched a web site, NotAtBC.com, to gather supporters to protest the speech. “Since the university has not withdrawn...

The Minnesota Senate is expected to give final approval on Monday to a bill that would make the state the 12th in the United States to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest. Leaders in the Senate, where Democrats hold a 39-28 majority, have said they believe they have the support to approve a bill legalizing gay marriage. They set a vote for Monday on the measure that members of the state House approved last week. Democratic Governor Mark Dayton has said he would sign the bill, which would make Minnesota the third state this...

A timeline of Internal Revenue Service activities that was developed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and provided to congressional staff indicates that early last year—as the nation was headed toward a presidential election—the IRS issued a “be on the lookout order” (BOLO) for officials in its “Determinations Unit” to ferret out for heightened scrutiny organizations applying for tax exempt status that were involved in educating Americans “on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.” The inspector general’s timeline indicates that as early as March 2010 the IRS’ “Determinations Unit” had begun targeting for special scrutiny organizations that used...

One of the most liberal members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be expected to give a rousing defense of Roe v. Wade in reflecting on the landmark vote 40 years after it established a nationwide right to abortion. Instead, Ginsburg told an audience Saturday at the University of Chicago Law School that while she supports a woman's right to choose, she feels the ruling by her predecessors on the court was too sweeping and gave abortion opponents a symbol to target. Ever since, she said, the momentum has been on the other side, with anger...

Applying for federal student aid? The application no longer asks about a student’s “mother” and “father.” Instead, the U.S. Education Department is replacing those terms with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2.” “All students should be able to apply for federal student aid within a system that incorporates their unique family dynamics,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in the April 29 announcement. “These changes will allow us to more precisely calculate federal student aid eligibility based on what a student’s whole family is able to contribute and ensure taxpayer dollars are better targeted toward those students who have the...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) issued the following statement: The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable. The Committee will aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.

230.9. (a) It shall be unlawful for a large employer, as defined in Section 14199.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to designate an employee as an independent contractor or temporary employee, reduce an employee's hours of work, or terminate an employee if the purpose of the action is to avoid the employer's obligations under Article 7 (commencing with Section 14199) of Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

Add another one to the man's list of prudent business decisions. As relates to his previously documented loathing of Fox News, it's now known that the late Steve Jobs backed up his harsh words by wisely withholding Apple's advertising dollars, according to an upcoming book about the 2012 presidential campaign. The book's author, Jonathan Alter, a Bloomberg political columnist and contributor to MSNBC, tells of Jobs "personally ordering that Apple ads be removed from Fox News," according to a blog post in the New York Times over the weekend. Alter's book, "The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies," is scheduled...

“I don’t pretend to have all the answers,” President Obama told Ohio State students at their commencement on Sunday. “I’m not going to offer some grand theory on a beautiful day like this—you guys all have celebrating to do. I’m not going to get partisan, either, because that’s not what citizenship is about.” President Obama, stressing the theme of “citizenship,” said he would ask two things from the class of 2013—“to participate and to persevere. After all, your democracy does not function without your active participation. At a bare minimum, that means voting, eagerly and often.” … “Unfortunately, you’ve grown...

The Pentagon for the first time used its annual report on China to directly assert that Beijing’s government and military have conducted computer-based attacks against the U.S., including efforts to steal information from federal agencies. In a new report on the Chinese military, the Defense Department goes a small step further than it has gone in the past, when it said that cyber-attacks originated in China and may be linked to Beijing’s use of civilian experts in clandestine attacks against American companies. But over the past year, U.S. government officials and private cyber-security experts have increasingly stepped up accusations that...

A battle within the Republican Party over same-sex marriage is unfolding on two fronts, in public, and behind the scenes. In the latter case, one of the most influential players is a billionaire hedge fund manager largely unknown to those who don’t work in finance or mix with political mega-donors. That man is Paul E. Singer, who over the years has used his wealth to spur Republicans to support gay marriage laws. Now, Singer is expanding his reach with the creation of an advocacy group which aims to spend millions influencing the legislative debate over same-sex marriage across the country.

Doctors usually do not follow guidelines for treating very young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD). In the study, about 90 percent of doctors surveyed did not strictly adhere to new guidelines recommended for treating preschoolers with ADHD, such as when to start medications, and which medications to use.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is likening a powerful Michigan Republican to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Patterson referred to State House speaker Jase Bolger as “Adolf” as cameras rolled for the latest edition of the weekly “Off the Record” political TV show, hosted by WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick. His comments were: “Adolf Bolger has really become very arrogant and he’s throwing his weight around up there and I think he’s embarrassing himself. “If he thinks he’s going to be a candidate for governor, he better learn how to control his temper and he better learn better how...

Why can’t Obama defeat the GOP already? That’s the question we keep hearing from pundits like the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd and National Journal’s Ron Fournier. They have pushed Obama to show more leadership and, somehow, overcome Republican opposition. … What’s really happening here, as the Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky writes, is that the Republican Party has departed from traditional norms of political behavior. He notes that the GOP has become “a radical oppositionalist faction, way beyond the normal American parameters both in terms of ideology and tactics.” In other words, the GOP doesn’t behave like a party should—it...

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she "prays" Hillary Rodham Clinton will run for president. [snip] Emily’s List, a national group that focuses on electing pro-choice women, launched a campaign Thursday aiming to put the first woman in the White House that coincided with a poll showing Mrs. Clinton as the overwhelming favorite to win the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. In making the announcement, Stephanie Schriock, president of the group, said the nation is ready for a female president and is “hopeful” Mrs. Clinton will take another stab at the Oval Office.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending $4 million to increase the use of food stamps at farmers markets, claiming it is beneficial to the economy. As a record one-out-of-five households are on the benefit, the USDA says allowing food stamp use at farmers markets is a “win-win-win situation.” … The $4-million outreach is part of a two-year project that expires Sept. 20, 2013. With the funds, farmers markets can purchase equipment to accept EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards and wireless access in order to operate the equipment. Already, there are 2,091 farmers markets that accept food stamps, as...

It used to be that whenever an important news story broke, cable television viewers would quickly turn to CNN for must-see coverage of what was happening. However, according to a poll conducted regarding the five-day coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, that is definitely no longer the case. The survey, which was conducted by the liberal Huffington Post website and the international marketing agency YouGov, determined that former titan CNN came in as far less trustworthy than Fox News over which was the most believable cable news channel. During the poll, which was based on interviews of 1,000 adults last...

At MarketWatch this morning, Paul Farrell's hostility towards Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Milton Friedman and especially free-market capitalism boiled over. Farrell claims that capitalism “is destined to destroy the world, absent a historic paradigm shift.” The problem he describes really has nothing to do with properly practiced free-market capitalism, but is instead a combination of rampant cronyism and the abandonment of capitalism’s (and society’s) Judeo-Christian moral underpinnings. But that’s a long discussion outside the scope of this post. This post is about the opening claim Farrell makes: “Billionaires control the vast majority of the world’s wealth.” No they don’t. …...

The war on the English language from gender-neutrality advocates has reached new lows in Washington state, where the governor signed a new piece of legislation dictating that the terms “fisherman,” “freshman,” and “penmanship” all be replaced because of alleged sexism. “Fisherman” will now be “fisher”; “freshman” will now be “first-year student”; “penmanship” will now be “handwriting.”

The first openly gay man in a major American team sport may turn out to be former Middle Tennessee State kicker Alan Gendreau, who hopes to get a shot at the NFL this year. And, if he’s successful, that could translate into millions of dollars in endorsements and speaking engagements, experts say. Whether it’s the Sun Belt Conference’s leading scorer or someone else, the athlete who makes sports history by coming out will likely be sought after by companies that want to appeal to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, whose annual buying power last year was estimated at...

Is it my imagination or are ALL of our federal bureacracies controlled by the Democratic Party? Look at immigration--it is all about what Democrats want--more uneducated poor immigrants who will vote for them. Welfare--who controlls welfare? We can't find out what happens to our money even when it is going to terrorists. What is going on here and why haven't the Republicans put their foot down? Aren't they half of the government? How long have the Democrats owned our national bureaucracy?

The Newtown killings had anti-gunners licking their chops from CNN to Capitol Hill. Years of working to undermine the right to keep and bear arms had come virtually to naught for gun confiscationists, but they knew the deaths of 20 children could be manipulated any way they liked, allowing them to make the most asinine and unsupportable claims imaginable about the evils of gun ownership. Call it a benefit of owning the national media. So Barack and friends spent months dancing on the graves of 20 sons and daughters while cooking up senate bills and executive “actions” advocating every conceivable...

Grandparents are being roped into help, companies are turning themselves into temporary crèches, and employees are being forced to take leave as Denmark enters its fourth week of a teacher lockout. Since 1 April, around 875,000 children, aged from six to 16 years, have been unable to attend school after a breakdown in talks between the teachers’ union and local government over the setting of working conditions for the coming years. The deadlock, affecting 69,000 teachers, has had profound effects in a society where it is normal for both parents to work. … The standoff is over the length of...

Ex-CIA director David Petraeus is replacing one kind of intelligence work with another. Macaulay Honors College at City University of New York said Tuesday the retired four-star general has been named a visiting professor for public policy. He starts Aug. 1. …

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in a backyard about four blocks from President Barack Obama’s Chicago home, police said Tuesday. Cornelius German of Chicago was found unresponsive around 9:40 p.m. Monday. He had been shot in the back and was pronounced dead at the scene on the city’s South Side, police told The Associated Press. No arrests had been made as of late Tuesday afternoon, they said. The teen’s death comes about three months after the fatal shooting of another 15-year-old, Hadiya Pendleton, who was gunned down in a park about a mile from the Obama home in...

The federal government is spending $152,000 to study “voice therapy” for transgenders, saying it is incumbent to being “accepted as one’s preferred gender.” “This study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and inform the relationship between voice production and perception,” states a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, awarded to George Washington University. “The long term goal of this research is to inform and provide new directions for Transgender (TG) voice care, thereby improving the lives of TG people who feel their voice is a great obstacle to living as their preferred gender.” …

Leilani Munter, a race car driver, environmental activist and self-described “eco-athlete” was featured on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Earth Day website in a video promoting bike riding, using public transportation and veganism. “I’m aware of the carbon footprint of my race car and my lifestyle,” Munter said in the video. “For every race I’m in, I adopt an acre of rainforest to offset my effect on the environment.” …

Opponents of same-sex marriage resist it because it amounts to redefining marriage, but also because it will invite future redefinitions. If we embrace same-sex marriage, they argue, society will have surrendered any reasonable grounds on which to continue forbidding polygamy, for example. In truth, proponents of same-sex marriage have never offered a very good response to this concern. This problem was highlighted at the Supreme Court last month in oral argument over California’s Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday she “regrets” discussions on whether the surviving Boston bombing suspect should be interrogated as a potential enemy combatant. The California Democrat told “Fox News Sunday” the Obama administration’s High Value Interrogation Group will interview suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, he will be read his Miranda rights at a later date and federal courts, not a military commission, can handle the case. "I really regret all of this discussion, which is creating a conflict that need not be there,” she said. “The administration is ready. … I don’t think all of this is very helpful.” Two bombs placed...

MILWAUKEE - Gaylord Nelson, the former governor and U.S. senator from Wisconsin who founded Earth Day and helped spawn the modern environmental movement, died Sunday. He was 89. Nelson died of cardiovascular failure at his home in Kensington, Md., a Washington suburb, said Bill Christofferson, Nelson's biographer and a family spokesman. "He died peacefully. His wife was with him," Christofferson said. Thirty-five years after the first Earth Day, April 22 is still a day on which many people plant trees, clean up trash and lobby for a clean environment. A conservationist years before it became fashionable, Nelson was recognized as...

Several Republican lawmakers are calling for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings to be tried as an enemy combatant, rather than as an ordinary criminal. “It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” read a Saturday statement from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “The accused perpetrators of these acts were not common criminals attempting to profit from a criminal enterprise, but terrorists trying to injure, maim, and kill...

China slammed the human rights record of the United States in response to Washington’s report on rights around the world, saying that U.S. military operations have infringed on rights abroad and that political donations at home have thwarted the country’s democracy. The report released Sunday in China—which defines human rights primarily in terms of improving living conditions for its 1.3 billion people—also cited gun violence in the U.S. among its examples of human rights violations, saying it was a serious threat to the lives and safety of America’s citizens. … “American citizens do not enjoy a genuinely equal right to...