Free Republic

Prepare to be excited about a blockbuster economic report on Friday morning — but not too excited. Preliminary data from the Commerce Department is expected to show that United States gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of more than 4 percent in April through June. Some economists think growth may have topped 5 percent — a figure reached only once in the eight years of the Obama administration as the economy recovered from the recession. While he said he didn’t know the actual number, President Trump didn’t wait to herald the rosy news. At an event in Iowa...

Following news that vocally pro-Hillary Clinton Spanish language media conglomerate Univision, which had a Q3 loss of $30 million after revenues dropped 8% to $735 million, would lay off between 200 and 250 workers, in part driven by the media organization's recent acquisition of insolvent Gawker Media, on Thursday ReCode reported that the media bloodbath continues, with another 500 workers, or 5% of the total staff, set to be let go by AOL. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that most of the cuts will come in its corporate units, while resources will be shifted more at mobile, video and...

Here's the deal, kids: This is a Jeep Cherokee. This is not a luxury SUV, or a maintenance-free disposable import....

Kim Jong Un is having a good year. After taking over the leadership of North Korea from his late father Kim Jong Il, at the end of 2011, he’s solidified his control over the country, appeared on TIME’s cover and he was even named ‘Sexiest Man Alive.’ (OK, that honor was actually bestowed as a spoof in the satirical newspaper, The Onion, but a Chinese news service mistook the Onion piece for real news and the story went global.) Now, he’s gotten the most votes in TIME’s completely unscientific reader Person of the Year Poll with 5.6 million votes. Not...

President Obama and Vice President Biden released their tax returns today, ahead of Tax Day, which is on April 16 this year (since April 15 falls on a Sunday). According to the White House, "Together, [the Bidens] reported adjusted gross income of $379,035. The Bidens paid $87,900 in total federal tax for 2011. They paid $13,843 in Delaware income tax and $3,614 in Virginia income tax. The Bidens contributed $5,540 to charity in 2011." In other words, the Bidens donated less than 1.5 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity. The president and his family were more charitable, giving...

Mayor Bloomberg said by Occupy Wall Street protesters not reporting crimes in Zuccotti Park, they were “allowing the criminal to strike again.” Mayor Bloomberg ripped into Occupy Wall Street protesters on Thursday for not reporting crimes at Zuccotti Park - calling their inaction "despicable." Bloomberg said the demonstrators have a practice of surrounding a troublemaker and then evicting them from the park instead of calling the NYPD. "If this is in fact happening - and it's very hard to get good information - it is despicable," the infuriated mayor said. "I think it is outrageous and it really allows the...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...lies..........blah blah blah....applause....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

James Carville isn't happy with the pace of his party's convention and questions why his party isn't fighting harder. Carville, a CNN contributor and political adviser for former President Bill Clinton, appeared on CNN's August 26 "American Morning" and called the first night of the Democratic Party "wasted." CARVILLE: "[The Ted Kennedy speech] was a great moment, absolutely. But other stuff was wasted. There was no message that came out of here. Look, this is the fifth night in a row that we've had a Democratic convention since George W. Bush, the most disastrous, incompetent and corrupt administration we've had...

If in the run-up to last year's elections a poll identified a three percent approval rating for the way Congress - which was controlled by Republicans at the time in case you forgot - was handling the war in Iraq, do you think you would have heard about it? Maybe on every morning and evening news program for days, and on the front pages of every newspaper, correct? Well, on Wednesday, Zogby International released the results of a stunning new poll that got virtually no attention. Why? Because it identified that virtually nobody in America thinks Congress - which is...

His show gave many of them a way to reach a national audience of white males -- a crucial voting bloc. WASHINGTON — They came by the hundreds that hot August day in tiny Johnson City, Tenn., gathering on an asphalt parking lot to meet Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. It was not just that he might become the state's first black senator. More than that, even in Republican eastern Tennessee, the Democratic congressman was a celebrity — a regular guest on Don Imus' radio show. And today, with Imus' career in tatters, the fate of the controversial shock jock...

The GOP Should Dump Its Litmus Test By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | February 16, 2007 The philosopher Diogenes is said to have wandered around ancient Greece holding a lantern and seeking to find an honest man. My fellow Republicans, sans lanterns, are now wandering around the political landscape seeking to find the perfect Republican presidential candidate. I don’t know if Diogenes ever found that honest man, but I do know that those Republicans are never going to find the perfect candidate, simply because he does not exist. Some Republicans insist that the only perfect candidate would be a clone of...

The American Civil Liberties Union, that bastion of secular extremism, is fighting hard to bring down the Mt. Soledad Memorial Cross (part of the veterans memorial in San Diego, California built in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War). As usual, the ACLU is not about to let the truth, America's religious history or constitutional intent get in its way as it backs atheist Philip Paulson, who brought a lawsuit in 1989 to force removal of an object that is anathema to Satan, Osama bin Laden and him (among others). On July 19, 2006, the House of...

Last week, Gov. Mike Rounds of South Dakota signed legislation prohibiting abortion in the state except in cases where the mother's life is in danger. The bill passed in the South Dakota Senate, 23-12. It passed in the South Dakota House of Representatives with flying colors, 50-18. Members of both political parties voted for the bill; the bill's chief sponsor was Sen. Julie Bartling, a Democrat. Naturally, Planned Parenthood has pledged its opposition to the law. Sarah Stoesz, CEO of Planned Parenthood in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota, states that Planned Parenthood will gauge public feeling about the bill...

An odd thing happened in Washington this week. The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on whether the president has the authority to intercept international phone calls without first seeking a warrant. Very few people believe that the president has that authority -- which is different than asking whether he should have that authority -- but Gonzales, who is almost entirely a creation of George W. Bush, insisted the president does. He presented, by way of proving his point, this overwhelming piece of evidence: Bush has done it. The argument in favor of the National Security Agency intercepts...

Thank you, John Kerry. Or make that, merci beaucoup. Almost single-handedly, the Massachusetts senator turned a Democratic defeat into an instructive, five-star disaster. Everyone knew Democrats didn't have the votes to defeat Judge Samuel Alito in an up-or-down vote. Everyone knew they didn't have the 41 votes to sustain a filibuster of President Bush's Supreme Court nominee. But that didn't stop Kerry. Yes, as he might say, who among us doesn't want to launch a futile filibuster of an indisputably qualified nominee to placate the left-wing blogocracy and anti-Alito hysterics on The New York Times' editorial board? And Monsieur Kerry...

DOES ROE v. WADE STILL MATTER? FRONTLINE Presents THE LAST ABORTION CLINIC Tuesday, November 8, 2005, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS http://www.pbs.org/frontline/clinic/ This November, the Supreme Court will take up its first major abortion case in five years: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. This case will come before a changed court. But for Betty Thompson, a former abortion clinic director in Jackson, Mississippi, the concern is less about Ayotte and more that Roe v. Wade is simply becoming irrelevant as states pass hundreds of abortion regulations across the United States. "[Pro-life groups] are going to chip...

The first of an expected influx of Americans unhappy with the re-election of President George W. Bush have recived their visas to come to Canada.The Kilbourne family of Seattle has already been approved by Immigration Canada, and now they are looking around British Columbia for a home.Becky Kilbourne says she has mixed feelings about leaving her life in Seattle where she works as a state prosecutor.The Kilbourne family applied more than a year ago after deciding that they could not take another terms with George W. Bush as president.Tresney Kilbourne said they initially planned to withdraw their application if the...

There is a poll that needs freeping at MSNBC. Currently it shows that 67% believe the electoral college should be abolished.

Conservative author survives creamy stage-left attackOCTOBER 22--Meet Phillip Edgar Smith and William Zachary Wolff. The Tucson men, both 24, were arrested last night after throwing cream pies at author Ann Coulter during her speech at the University of Arizona. One pie connected with the conservative commentator's shoulder. Smith, a UA student, and Wolff were charged with criminal damage, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and assault. The felony charge resulted from damage to a backdrop that school officials estimated at $3000. The pie provocateurs were booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center--where the below mug shots were...

NEW YORK - Comedian Al Franken is baiting conservatives again, and this time he's bringing along a bunch of friends to back him up. Franken will be the lead personality on Air America Radio, a startup venture promising a liberal alternative to powerhouse radio talk show pundits like Rush Limbaugh. The backers of Air America announced their programming lineup on Wednesday and said they planned to launch the network on March 31 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. Franken will be joined by fellow TV comedian Janeane Garofalo (news), both of whom will have co-hosts for their...