Free Republic

More than 10 years ago, Barbara Zierten and her husband retired to a small town in California's scenic "gold country," in the Sierra Nevada foothills. "It's beautiful here," said Zierten, 73, explaining the attraction of the area east of San Francisco. They also were on a tight budget and reasoned that a small town would be cheaper. But as time has passed, they have decided the area isn't an ideal fit. For one thing, the library is open only part time. "I'm a reader," she said. "So it's frustrating." And a bad experience with a hospital has led her to...

In filling in for Rush Limbaugh on his Friday show, conservative commentator Mark Steyn scoffed at the notion Republicans would handle impeachment well enough to even attempt. The author of “The Undocumented Mark Steyn” responded a caller’s question about impeachment and acknowledge that Obama penalizes the lawful, while incentivizing the lawless, but was skeptical congressional Republicans would do anything about it. As it pertained to impeachment, he pointed to the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and explained that based upon the Republican Senate leadership’s handling of impeachment at the time, there is no reason to...

Obama went to pains to note that his executive order, giving five million illegal immigrants amnesty, would not qualify them for federal benefits. But new reports are casting doubt on Obama's claims. Despite claims to the contrary, Obama's amnesty will likely give millions of illegals access to Medicare, Social Security, and other benefits programs, several sources say. According to The Washington Post, Obama's amnesty order will give millions of illegals the status of being "lawfully present" in the USA. This status will require them to pay taxes, but as White House spokesman Shawn Turner notes, "If they pay in, they...

A social media campaign calling for a boycott on spending this Black Friday has caught the attention of celebrities. In an effort to protest the Missouri grand jury’s decision on Monday not to indict officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in August, US celebrities have taken to social media to use the hashtags #NotOneDime, #BlackoutFriday and #BlackoutBlackFriday to advocate for a retail boycott. They include actors Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Williams, Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler, actress Kat Graham, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and journalist Soledad O’Brien . The hashtags are meant to encourage people...

In the great progressive spirit, here are a few tips on how to talk to — and morally improve — your family this Thanksgiving: 1. Your crazy uncle complains in passing that the construction on Redlands Avenue is limiting the flow of traffic to his hardware store, and wonders if the job could be completed more quickly. This must not be allowed to stand. Ask your uncle if he’s an anarchist and if he has heard of Somalia. If you missed Politics 101 at Oberlin, refer to the Fact Cards that you have printed out from Vox.com and explain patiently...

Former England footballer Sol Campbell has clashed with Labour MP Owen Smith over the party's proposed "mansion tax" on properties worth over £2m. Mr Campbell owned a £25m house in London and a "country pile" in Northumberland. But Owen Smith said his party was only asking people like Mr Campbell "to pay your fair share". He also told Daily Politics people who were "struggling" under this government would have "zero sympathy" for people who complained about having to pay the tax. Mr Owen said there was a "gross inequality between those who've got the most, like Sol", and those at...

Whether it’s church liberals or political liberals, they have at least one thing in common—they often speak one way, but walk in the opposite direction. A prime example of that character trait comes from “Gruber-gate,” namely the recent scandal about remarks of Jonathan Gruber, a key architect of Obamacare. Mr. Gruber has stated that the bill’s passage was contingent on exploiting the “stupidity” of the American voter. As with Mr. Gruber, most liberals—whether they’re from mainline denominations or liberal evangelical churches, or from the political sphere—believe that the average American is stupid. As they view their world through that prism,...

My family and I just moved back to the Lone Star state so I didn't have time this weekend to write a column because of how chaotic things have been with the move. But, I did find some fresh – ripe – goofy lunacy via Liberal Chick that I'd like to share with you. Yep, Liberal Chick is back and this time she's singing, yes singing, a song about evil conservatives and Fox News forcing illegal aliens to "ride death trains to the US." Check it out for yourself…LIBERAL CHICK SINGS: "Illegals Are Going Off The Rails On A Death...

Only people Liberal Democrats will ever help, are themselves, and the only legislation they like to work on are illegal things which help to destroy our country It seems as though the one thing that should have killed Obama’s latest Amnesty Plan should also have killed anything else he has concocted in six usurped years in the office of POTUS is his never-yet-proven-legitimacy to actually hold that office. It is obvious by now that Americans have given up on proving that Barack Hussein Obama has usurped the highest governmental office in the United States and nobody seems to give a...

Back in the Reagan days the Republicans were the BLUE Party; the Democrats were the RED Party. Somebody changed it after Reagan left politics; the switcharoo has been attributed to Tim Russert. At the time I didn't like it, but, judging from today's politics, it may have been a good move. The Democrats are acting like the typical blue-bloods of history. Those were the elitists who made their own laws and own law enforcement system. They, as an aristocracy, kept a safe distance between their own properties and lives and those of the common man. This is what we have...

SAN DIEGO — PRESIDENT OBAMA’S executive order eliminating the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants is good policy. It is the right thing to do. But it is a dangerous move for the Democratic Party. Yes, immigration is an important issue for most Latinos and Asian-Americans. And yes, 63 percent of Latinos and 66 percent of Asian- Americans voted for Democratic candidates for Congress in the midterms. The executive order could solidify and expand that support for years to come. But Latinos and Asian-Americans made up only 11 percent of the electorate. Even if immigration were the only...

Seattle, Washington, one of the strongest remaining bastions of liberal philosophy left in the country, passed a phased-in $15 minimum wage law earlier this year. The highest minimum wage in the country. The vote was unanimous and the throng outside cheered, but for many this is a loss from which they will never recover. It is a blow to the profitability of business that they just can't take.

With rape allegations against Bill Cosby mounting, supermodel Janice Dickinson tells ET in a new interview that the comedian sexually assaulted her in 1982. Dickinson, now 59, recalls first meeting Cosby, now 77, when her agent set up a meeting with him to hire her for a role on The Cosby Show. After they had dinner, she says their next conversation was when he called her out of the blue while she was in rehab for drugs and alcohol. Following her stay in rehab, Dickinson says Cosby reached out to her during a trip to Bali and had her travel...

A few years back I worked with a guy who was probably a genius. In fact, he often struggled in life interacting with people because his brain simply performed at a higher level than the average person. I remember asking him what his biggest belief was in making life decisions and he always, without fail, told me “think of the bigger picture.” And while I’ve always tried to be a big picture thinker, knowing him when I did helped me understand it a little better. He always told me the biggest issue he faced when dealing with people was that...

A couple weeks ago, The Daily Caller completed its alphabetical tour de force showing that racism has seeped into every nook and cranny of American life including superhero movies, the weather and the very air we breathe. It was hard, arduous work. Now, some 19 articles later — and still feeling grimy and contaminated from multiple visits to obscure sites like Salon deep in the bowels of the Internet — it’s time to celebrate. It’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy the greatest hits of all the things someone, somewhere has deemed racist. A is for academic freedom, which...

Students and professors at DePauw University in Indiana met last week to voice their concerns about a lack of "diversity" and large amounts of racist "microaggression" on campus. A professor at DePauw wasted no time blaming people like himself for the problems the campus is facing. Professor of Sociology David Newman stated, “I’m a white man. I’m a white middle-class man. I’m a white middle-class heterosexual man. I’m on the right side of the equation. This is my fault. I didn’t do anything directly, but this is my fault. My silence makes this my fault.” Senior Jonathan Reyes, a member...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The fate of a little-noticed ballot measure in strongly Democratic Oregon serves as a warning to President Barack Obama and his party about the political perils of immigration policy. Even as Oregon voters were legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding Democratic majorities in state government, they decided by a margin of 66-34 to cancel a new state law that would have provided driver's licenses to people who are in the United States illegally. Obama is considering acting on his own, as early as this week, to possibly shield from deportation up to 5 million immigrants now living...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday unveiled data showing that many Americans with health insurance bought under the Affordable Care Act could face substantial price increases next year — in some cases as much as 20 percent — unless they switch plans. The data became available just hours before the health insurance marketplace was to open to buyers seeking insurance for 2015. An analysis of the data by The New York Times suggests that although consumers will often be able to find new health plans with prices comparable to those they now pay, the situation varies greatly from state...

Seven years ago I was talking to a longtime Democratic operative on Capitol Hill about a politician who was in trouble. The pol was likely finished, he said. I was surprised. Can’t he change things and dig himself out? No. “People do what they know how to do.” Politicians don’t have a vast repertoire. When they get in a jam they just do what they’ve always done, even if it’s not working anymore. This came to mind when contemplating President Obama. After a devastating election, he is presenting himself as if he won. The people were not saying no to...

A Republican congressman known as a pit bull in Washington said Thursday that he doesn't support the idea of impeachment proceedings against President Obama because winning that fight would elevate the vice president to the Oval Office. 'Have you met Joe Biden?' South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy asked during a Fox News Channel interview. Impeachment talk has swirled around Washington since the president announced that an executive order overhauling America's immigration system is imminent. But some in the GOP see Biden as Obama's hedge against removal from office, since much of his public exposure has come in conjunction with a...