Free Republic

First of all, kudos to CNN for sponsoring an informative debate. What we learned is that ANY of these Republicans would be far better than ANY Democrat for out future.And, we learned a couple of other things.1. Trump doesn't do details. Nobody killed him so he probably won.2. They all, truly, want to get along and are fed up with "x said you suck, what do you say in response?"3. Only money will determine who's on the stage come March, 2016.All in all, it's the best field the GOP has put up in decades. Too bad some of them still...

Last Wednesday, my daughter Alison was brutally struck down in the prime of her life by a deranged gunman. Since then, I have stated in numerous interviews with local, national and international media that I plan to make my life's work trying to implement effective and reasonable safeguards against this happening again. In recent years we have witnessed similar tragedies unfold on TV: the shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona, the massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut and of churchgoers in South Carolina. We have to ask ourselves: What do we need to do to stop this insanity? In my case,...

I imagine Trump is kicking himself now for sliding into the crowded Republican race instead of the Democratic race. But who knew a few months ago that Hillary would implode leaving the Democratic race with NOBODY as a possible? Sure Trump is enjoying a double digit percentage lead in the Repub polls, but imagine his ratings (75%? 85%?) if he ran basically unopposed as a Democrat?

There is little that happens in society in general and the market economy in particular that most on the political “left” do not think needs more government intervention, regulation, and redistribution to make “better.” One recent example of this is a lengthy “report” primarily prepared by Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, for the Roosevelt Institute. Released in June 2015, Stiglitz and his co-authors present an agenda for, Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity. The “Progressive’s” Agenda for Bigger Government Running for 100 pages, it is based on the premise that markets...

Kelly said, “You may have heard that there was a dust-up involving yours truly, and presidential contender Donald Trump. Mr. Trump was upset with a question I asked him at the debate last week about his electability, and specifically comments he has made in the past about women, a few words on that. Apparently, Mr. Trump thought the question I asked was unfair, and felt I was attacking him. I felt he was asked a tough, but fair, question. We agreed to disagree. Mr. Trump did interviews over the weekend that attacked me personally, I’ve decided not to respond. Mr....

Last night, instead of focusing on True Detective, I ended up getting into a bit of a flame war on Twitter with some Donald Trump supporters.  Oh my, those people have no clue and you really couldn't pin them down on anything.  Ask a simple question like "how do you know Trump will govern as a conservative?" and the responses you get are "do your homework", "you're not very bright are you" and "Trump/Cruz is the only hope for this country".  The last is would only be true if your hope is for a historic route of the Republican Party. ...

A yes or no answer: If Donald Trump ran for president as a Democrat in 2016, would you vote for him?

For marriage-equality activists, Friday's U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage rights for LGBT couples was an occasion for good cheer. But even as the pink-label Champagne flowed and the sounds of a long-sought victory throbbed inside New York's historic Stonewall Inn, their transgender brothers and sisters marched on, chanting in the sun just blocks away. Marriage equality is all well and good, Elliott Fukui said, but it was no time to party for dozens of trans activists. Not even close, he said. "The battle for trans rights has been neglected by the mainstream LGB movement," said Fukui, program co-ordinator for...

...As part of an annual photo project coordinated by Fishlove -- a U.K. nonprofit group devoted to protecting the Earth's marine ecosystems and promoting sustainable fishing practices -- stars ranging from Dame Judi Dench to Sir Richard Branson to Helena Bonham Carter were photographed in the buff alongside various sea creatures... ...Today, the images have taken on special significance across the Internet due to World Oceans Day, an international effort to raise awareness regarding sea life.

Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia graduate famous across the country as “Mattress Girl” after she hauled a mattress around campus for a year to protest the school’s handling of her alleged rape, has apparently released a sex tape recreating her alleged rape. Titled Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol (‘This Is Not A Rape’), the video shows two people, one of whom appears to be Sulkowicz, entering a dorm room and proceeding to have sex from four different camera angles. Timestamps in the upper corner of each camera are used to make the video appear dated to August 27, 2012, the date...

What he says is correct. We can’t continue on this way. His message concerns us all. Share this message with others so that it spreads.

I want to like Ted Cruz. He has all the right views from Obamacare to taxes to amnesty to Federal spending. He’s a gifted speaker, his speech yesterday was given without a teleprompter. He appeared genuine, frankly it appeared as though he had written the speech himself. The left hates Cruz, which of course makes him all the more likable. John McCain has called him a wacko bird, which again makes Cruz more likable. Anyone who annoys McCain must be good. Lost in the euphoria conservatives are having over Cruz is an objective look at whether Cruz will actually make...

Ted Cruz is set to announce is candidacy for President of the United States. Rand Paul is apparently going to announce early next month before going on a campaign tour. Until today technically the only candidate was Jeb Bush, who announced late last year his intentions. At the time everyone thought that Bush was going to force everyone else to declare their candidacy early. It doesn’t appear that has happened, Cruz and Paul have appeared in no rush to make a formal announcement. Scott Walker, perhaps the front runner in the race, still hasn’t formally announced his candidacy and there’s...

Benjamin Netanyahu won yesterday’s election in Israel. Polling last week seemed to indicate that the election was a dead heat. In reality, Netanyahu’s party won handily. There have been some allegations made that President Obama has been helping to fund Netanyahu’s opposition. Whether that is true remains to be seen. Congress should investigate whether tax money was used to fund the Netanyahu opposition. Ultimately even if Obama did send money to Israel’s leftists it didn’t change the result. If anything it may have riled some Israelis enough to get them to vote for Netanyahu’s party. It’s clear at this point...

The Hillary Clinton email scandal is now heading into its third week. Hillary has obviously been up to no good throughout this scandal. She admittedly had 30,000 emails deleted without anyone having read them. When you consider that President Nixon was chased from office for 18 minutes of missing tape, you would think that deleting 30,000 emails might at least be viewed with extreme suspicion. Especially so when the former Secretary of State and presumed Presidential candidate won’t let anyone near her email server. The question all along is who leaked the email scandal to the press. This is something...

Ferguson, Missouri is back in the news again. Last week the Justice Department released two reports about the Ferguson police department. In one report they completely exonerated Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown. Wilson did not shoot Brown in the back, Brown did not have his hands up and Wilson had no racial motivation. In other words, the entire cause for protest in Ferguson was inaccurate, fabricated or an outright lie. The Grand Jury got it right when they didn’t indict Wilson, even Eric Holder’s Justice Department had to acknowledge there were no facts indicating any crime was...

As with every other scandal in his administration, President Obama learned about Hillary Clinton’s private stash of emails via the newspaper. You have to give Valarie Jarrett credit, she does a bang up job keeping bad news from Obama until it’s already in the hands of the press. You would think the President would have been aware that Hillary was using a private email address considering he emailed her at it. Nevertheless, the President knows nothing. No doubt he’s disappointed and outraged over the lack of transparency. No one could be more upset than the President. In reality he had...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak before Congress this week about the situation in Iran. The Obama administration has loudly opposed the speech, believing it undermines their position in Iran. On some level the Obama administration has an argument. Foreign policy is the domain of the executive branch under the Constitution. It is not a matter that really involves Congress, particularly the House which does not vote on treaties or foreign appointments. Those on the right are more than willing to watch the Obama administration fall apart over this issue. The larger question, which will go unanswered,...

The FCC is preparing to take the internet down the pathway of Europe. The Europeans have been treating the internet like a public utility for quite some time. The end result has been slower service, less broadband reach and significantly less broadband investment. The Democrats on the FCC are prepared to regulate the internet like a utility, largely under the cover of darkness. They’re preparing to vote on 322 pages of regulations, none of which have been seen by the general public. This massive takeover of the internet will be done without public comment, despite the Democrats claims that the...

The Democrats on the FCC are working towards the creation of massive regulations on the internet. Preparing them in secrecy, they apparently have 322 pages worth of regulations that they’re prepared to vote on later this month. Meanwhile at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Democrats want to create massive regulations for speech on the internet. Apparently the Democrats aren’t happy with recent Supreme Court decisions which limit the government’s ability to prohibit people from donating money to campaigns and PAC’s. Their solution is to have government regulate internet speech. Some of the rules they’re talking about would regulate blogs, even...