Free Republic

Here's some family ties you may just be learning about: apparently Jenna Bush-Hager is related to Hillary Clinton. At least, that's what the former first-daughter said at a benefit for the Save the Children organization in New York earlier this week. Jenna was the emcee of the gala and spoke about the family ties she had with one of the evening's honorees -former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 'I'm not sure if you know this, but Secretary Clinton and I are actually related,' Jenna announced. 'Yes, she's married to by uncle Bill. Uncle Bill has become so close with my...

**SNIP** "People had to spend hours setting up barricades where there are never barricades to prevent people from seeing the World War II monument because they're trying to play a charade," Paul said. By Wednesday, members of another Honor Flight group from Chicago were concerned that the White House would ban them as well. Sen. Mark Kirk, the Illinois Republican and a retired naval intelligence officer, vowed to lead them through. News crews gathered for the story. "I think it's shameful," said Mary Pettinato, CEO and co-founder of Honor Flight Chicago. "It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're...

BOSTON -- A sharp-tongued Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday said he was "embarrassed" by having to explain the government shutdown to a group of visiting students from London this week, and hopes voters punish Republicans at the polls next year. "I think tea party Republicans are playing a big game with little people and I hope God forgives them for that, but I hope voters won't," Patrick told reporters after celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Well into the second full day of the federal government shutdown, the Democratic governor said his party shouldn't have to compromise by acceding to Republican demands...

A Superior Court judge in Bristol “expressed his contempt for the right to keep and bear arms’ in a closed door meeting in his chambers, the state gun rights group Connecticut Carry reported last Thursday in a media advisory. Judge Robert C. Brunetti “exposed his bigotry for fundamental civil rights in front of at least three defense attorneys,” the group explained. “No one in this country should have guns,” the judge reportedly stated, adding “I never return guns.”

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday denied he has poor relations with Vladimir Putin after canceling their Moscow talks, but said the Russian president can sometimes appear "like a bored kid in the back of the classroom." U.S.-Russian relations plunged to one of their lowest points since the Cold War this week after Russia granted temporary asylum to fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden. Obama retaliated by abruptly canceling a Moscow summit with Putin planned for early next month. At a White House news conference on Friday, Obama insisted that he does not have bad personal relations with...

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura couldn't enumerate just how a Navy SEAL sniper's book defamed him, but he said he'd had a hard time finding work since the book came out. He also said his main complaint about it -- that the late Chris Kyle's tale that he decked Ventura for badmouthing SEALs was untrue -- left him worrying if people think he's a traitor. "Every day of my life, I walk around looking over my shoulder now, wondering who believes that and who doesn't," Ventura said in response to a question from Kyle's lawyer, John Borger.

As President Obama and America move forward with full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, this nation continues to be embroiled in the fundamental struggle for human dignity that Dr. King addressed at the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago. Although the President did not stress this historic perspective during his seminal remarks on economic renewal at Knox College last week, he made it clear that the movement to assure affordable health care for every American is a moral, as well as economic, imperative. The President believes, as do I, that the harsh reality of too many Americans’ dying before their...

On Friday, New Jersey Democratic operative James Devine was arrested for attempting to snatch $22 worth of merchandise from a local ShopRite pharmacy. Devine tried to smuggle lettuce, shampoo and protein powder out of the store, perhaps trying to hide the fact that he was about to make the world’s most disgusting salad. To avoid detection, he stashed the goods in a reusable grocery bag. What seems to be just another edition of Democrats doing dumb deeds actually represents a nationwide problem. Thanks to laws in several major cities banning the use of plastic carryout bags in retail stores, there...

The not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman in the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin has outraged many people across the country, including "The Wire" creator David Simon. In an emotional, fiery post on his blog, The Audacity of Despair, Simon denounced the verdict, saying he was "ashamed to call himself an American." Simon knows a little something about race. He worked for 12 years as a crime reporter in Baltimore...

Jim Carrey to Assault Rifle Fans: I Love You and I'm Sorry I Called You Names As NewsBusters previously reported, actor Jim Carrey back in March called gun owners "heartless motherf--kers." On Sunday, Carrey tried taking it back writing on Twitter: Asslt rifle fans,I do not agree wth u,nor do I fear u but I do love u and I'm sorry tht in my outrage I called you names.That was wrong. 3^{ Carrey followed that up with: Btw I don't need a crisis mgr, just a conscience. Calling ppl names is inappropriate but my position on assault weapons hasn't changed....

On his show on Tuesday night, talk show host Michael Savage said that George Zimmerman, who is currently on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin, should be found guilty of second-degree manslaughter based on two things: 1) The state of his firearm and 2) The language he allegedly used on a 911 call when he was first reporting his suspicions about Martin. But first Savage explained why his insight should be valued over others in the media covering the trial. “I’m about to break an analysis that no one yet in the media has done, as you would expect...

The Internal Revenue Service has apologized for targeting groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names.An inspector general’s report scheduled to be released later this week reportedly says the IRS also targeted groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution.And if that weren’t bad enough, the IRS reportedly released conservative groups’ confidential information to the “independent” (that is, liberal) news organization ProPublica.But Bette Midler sees no reason for concern. No reason at all.She took to Twitter last night to announce (in all caps) that she thinks what the IRS did is just great, because in her view political organizations are...

Democratic congressman William Lacy Clay of Missouri blamed (Republican) congressional budget cuts for the terror attack on Americans in Benghazi. Clay made the statement at a hearing for whistleblowers on Capitol Hill. Video clip at link.

America’s top diplomat gets so many things wrong here that it’s hard to know where to start. He’s in Brussels, and during a press conference the subject of radicalization came up. Secretary of State John Kerry gets out in front of the facts. The question from the reporter, according to a transcript provided by the State Department, was, “Sir, with the problem we have that young people go to Syria (inaudible), does that matter also to the U.S., do you have the same problem?” “Well, of course we have the same problem. We just had a young person who went...

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw strongly suggested Sunday that America is partly to blame for the gruesome terrorists attacks in Boston, because the young, Muslim men involved may have felt “alienated” and angry over U.S. drone strikes on “innocent civilians” in Muslim countries abroad. Brokaw, who has been playing the role of media elder statesman since retiring, went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with host David Gregory to discuss last week’s Boston bombings, which killed three and injured 183. “There are a couple of things to remember here, David, I think for all of us,” Brokaw intoned. “With the...

nagging fears over exactly why you were so upset with the Brothers Tsarnaev and their recent actions in Boston and Watertown. I’m sure, like many, you were concerned that you might be unfairly judging them for their origins or Muslim connections. Fear not! You’re just fine. As MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry helpfully explains, these factors have nothing to do with recent events. "Making the point that the Tsarnaev brothers’ Muslim faith at the moment bears little relevance to the investigation into the brothers’ decision to attack the Boston Marathon last week, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry observed that Tsarnaev’s faith is about...

I’m not the kind of person who hopes to ever find conservative Fox News host Bill O’Reilly agreeing with me. But with my Salon piece on the Boston bomber now on the front page of Drudge, I think it is worth pointing out that last night O’Reilly effectively agreed with my piece by confirming the very simple self-evident truth that the Boston bomber’s demographic profile will, indeed, dictate how America responds to the atrocity. O’Reilly starts out by stating something every American almost certainly agrees with: We should all be first and foremost hoping that the perpetrator — whoever he...

PHILADELPHIA, April 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Before he opened his “house of horrors” abortion clinic in which he allegedly killed two women and “hundreds” of newborns, Kermit Gosnell justified his participation in the abortion industry on unusual grounds: upholding the sanctity of life. Kermit Gosnell said he acted out of reverence for life. Kermit Gosnell said he acted out of reverence for life. "As a physician, I am very concerned about the sanctity of life,” Gosnell told a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer during an October 1972 interview. “But it is for this precise reason that I provide abortions for...

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Monday evening pledged the full weight of the federal government to help protect Bostonians -- and Americans -- and to figure out who is responsible for the explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In a 3-minute address from the White House, Obama urged caution, saying “people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.” Significantly, reflecting caution about the unknown motive for the attack, the president did not call the incident a terrorist attack.“But, make no mistake,” he said. “We will get to the bottom of this. And we will...

The papal conclave is a gripping political story, and not just because reform-minded cardinals are pitted against old-guard “Romans.” The white-smoke watch resonates beyond the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics because the Vatican is emblematic of a 21st-century ill: the failure of social institutions to adapt to the times, and the public’s loss of faith in them. The parallels leaped to mind while I read this sentence in TheNew York Times’soutstanding analysis of papal politics: “The next pontiff must unite an increasingly globalized church paralyzed by scandal and mismanagement under the spotlight in a fast-moving media age.” Let’s play Mad Libs...