Free Republic

It took just a few days after the stunning defeat of Obama's attempt to fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership bill in the Senate at the hands of his own Democratic party, before everything returned back to normal and the TPP fast-track was promptly passed. Why? The simple answer: money. Or rather, even more money. Because while the actual contents of the TPP may be highly confidential, and their public dissemination may lead to prison time for the "perpetrator" of such illegal transparency .... fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments,...

A soldier from the Louisiana National Guard who died alongside Marines in a training accident deserves to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, his father said Saturday. Former Green Beret Stephen Florich told Fox & Friends it is a “travesty” his son has been denied that honor because he was not on active duty at the time of his death. Most active duty or retired military members of military service are eligible for in-ground interment at Arlington. Members of the reserves or National Guard are not eligible unless they have been on active duty. “I think my son was very...

Multiple rescue boats ferried 18 young men back to shore early Friday from a houseboat set adrift by a severe storm. Shortly before 1 a.m., strong winds ripped part of a dock away from Sandy Creek Marina on Lake Travis. The broken section of dock, as well as the houseboat and another boat, remained attached by service cables, but floated farther into the lake.

iCarly and the RNC Pseudo-candidates I hope people realize iCarly is full on GOPe RNC and her role is to aid GOPe candidates.  As RNC talent, she is better than most. She is articulate,  concise, intelligent.  But don't think we can trust her long term any more than we can trust Prince Rebus, Boner or Mitchie-poo.  iCarly is not the only strategic pseudo-candidate.  Why would Huckabee run other than to dilute support for Ted Cruz.  It's win win win for GOPe, Huckabee and Fox  Huckabee gets to help Cruz lose and then gets to go back to Fox as a...

The words of the former New York Governor and Democrat icon Mario Cuomo rang out loud and clear some 30 years ago. "I am personally opposed to abortion but" would pretty much sum up Cuomo's message. Yesterday that message was echoed on the issue of gay marriage by the Republican governor of North Carolina in a statement entitled "Governor McCrory defends Constitution". Governor Pat McCrory noted his own 'sincerely held religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman'. But then we got this: "Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer, or magistrate, no...

New Orleans police are investigating a fight that broke out Wednesday (May 27) evening on a Central City street. Officer Juan Barnes said police were called to the 2400 block of Magnolia Street around 7:30 p.m.

Mark Levin addresses the talk about the type of candidate that the United States needs if we are going to have any chance of extricating ourselves from the overwhelming destruction of the Obama regime. He says it doesn’t really matter to him what the current employment of the individual that would assume the office of President of the United States. What matters are that person’s values, their vision and their leadership ability.He sees an agenda to restore the Republic, respect for the American people, stop ruling by the administrative state and regulation and the infamous pen and phone. He notes...

Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, who is a candidate for his party's 2016 presidential nomination, has created a national brand as a man unafraid of challenging party orthodoxy. That was on display Wednesday when Senator Paul credited the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group to hawks within his own party. "ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS," Paul said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that aired Wednesday on “Morning Joe.” "They’ve created these people."

RUSH: A new Gallup poll out. Headline: "Americans Continue to Shift Left on Key Moral Issues." Now, before you go off getting depressed about this, let me tell you what the reason for this is, after we give you the details. "Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Moral acceptability of many of these issues is now at a record-high level." It's a subtle message to the Republican Party, and...

It didn’t take long for a return salvo to be fired over Rand Paul’s contention this morning that Republican hawks “created” ISIS. Bobby Jindal blasted Paul as “unsuited to be Commander in Chief,” accusing him of “taking the “weakest Democratic position” while Americans are fighting ISIS. Jindal slammed Paul as a superficial, “cocktail party” thinker, and that the real origin of ISIS is the metastasizing cancer of radical Islam: “This is a perfect example of why Senator Paul is unsuited to be Commander-in-Chief,” Jindal said in a statement. “We have men and women in the military who are in...

Editor’s Note: University of Baltimore Law Professor Garrett Epps Strikes Out Again Governor Jindal’s attempt to protect individual rights from government intrusion has received the now all-too-familiar slander and cranky response from those who don’t like anything that stops marriage from steamrolling all individual liberties in its path. After the legislature refused to act on the Marriage and Conscience Act — not because of legitimate policy reasons, but simply because of “perceptions” about the bill — Governor Jindal took the step that is within his power, issuing an Executive Order to protect the rights of those who dissent from the...

Stephen Handwerk, the executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, may believe Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive order on religious freedom was nothing but a political stunt, but he should not have been surprised.If Handwerk didn’t see this coming, he needs to start reading the New York Times.Jindal vowed in a New York Times op-ed in April he would not be scared off by the “large corporations” that had joined with “left-wing activists to bully elected officials into backing away from strong protections for religious liberty” in Indiana and Arkansas.Turns out the Republican wasn’t bullied by the Louisiana Legislature, either....

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is joining the Washington lobbying firm Van Ness Feldman, the firm will announce later Tuesday (May 26). Landrieu said she will join Van Ness Feldman as a senior policy advisor, working closely with another recent hire, former Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the former top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. Former senators are barred from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after the end of their congressional careers. For Landrieu, that means she can't lobby colleagues until January, 2017. But she can lobby members of the executive branch, and is free to...

Hillary Clinton is heading to the Sunshine State this week to spend time with one of Florida’s most influential Democratic donors, trial lawyer John Morgan. Morgan is not just praising Clinton’s candidacy, but actively bashing her potential Republican rivals. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Morgan took shots at Wisconsin Governor and prospective 2016 candidate, Scott Walker: “Walker would be the first president with a GED.”The Democratic donor attempted to insult Walker for not obtaining a college degree, which he opted out of in order to get started with his career. Morgan continued, calling Walker cruel names in an...

A reporter in Texas recently asked GOP presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz this question: “Do you have a personal animosity against gay Americans?” Why would a reporter ask a Republican, running for president, such a question? I don’t know the reporter so I can’t say with certainty, but it wouldn’t shock me if he were trying to start trouble; if he were trying to trip up the senator into saying something negative about gays and getting some national publicity for himself in the process. But there’s another reason, I think, for the question. There’s no hiding the fact that some...

A New Orleans police officer was found shot dead in his marked patrol car this morning, city officials said. The shooting was reported around 7 a.m., the New Orleans Police Department said in a news release. The victim's car rolled forward and struck a curb after the shooting. The officer's name has not been released, but the New Orleans police identified the victim as a 45-year-old man who worked as a Housing Authority police officer.

A New Orleans police officer was found shot dead in his marked patrol car this morning, city officials said. The shooting was reported around 7 a.m., the New Orleans Police Department said in a news release. The victim's car rolled forward and struck a curb after the shooting. The officer's name has not been released, but the New Orleans police identified the victim as a 45-year-old man who worked as a Housing Authority police officer.

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly 10 years on, one might assume that the case of Hurricane Katrina is closed. That the catastrophic flooding of this city was caused not merely by a powerful storm but primarily by fatal engineering flaws in the city’s flood protection system has been proved by experts, acknowledged by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and underscored by residents here to anyone who might suggest otherwise. But the efforts to establish responsibility with ever more precision — to ascertain just how many of those flaws were due to engineering, politics or money — have not stopped....

A couple learns a new language to welcome a new addition to their family. See how Wells Fargo is always there to help you prepare financially for life’s biggest moments.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal issued new protections for businesses that refuse to serve same-sex marriages, embracing the "religious freedom" cause dear to conservative Christians even though it's stung other Republican politicians. Jindal, a prospect for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, issued an executive order on Tuesday after saying he was disappointed that a Statehouse committee had earlier in the day voted down a bill that would have accomplished the same goal. That panel's concern: that Louisiana would look much like Indiana, where concerns that a new "religious freedom" law would lead to discrimination against gays and lesbians triggered such a...