Free Republic

It’s all over for Hillary Clinton. It’s done. Finished. Finito. They are drawing chalk marks on the outline of her political career. How bad is it? Hillary is now more likely to wind up in “The Big House” than the White House. How bad is it? The cover-up of and conspiracy in Benghazi is the least of her worries. How bad is it? No one is even mentioning the Clinton Foundation – where she accepted $2 billion in bribes … I mean donations … while serving as secretary of state, much of it from foreign governments, while quickly awarding contracts...

Not so long ago, Hillary Clinton’s supporters main concern seemed to be a fear that her coronation as the Democratic candidate for president would leave her unprepared for battle with the Republican nominee. Now, by all metrics, the former secretary of state retains a historically strong lead in the race to secure her party’s nomination. She is well ahead of the other declared candidates in terms of poll numbers, money and endorsements. But a succession of setbacks and the possibility of another mainstream rival joining the race has, to some degree, checked the presumptiveness of the presumptive candidate. This was...

There is a haunting familiarity to the arguments defending Planned Parenthood’s sale of body parts from aborted babies for medical research: an echo of another era of medical innovation amid moral ambiguity. Then, as now, the response of cultural leaders — especially religious leaders — is a story about the corruption, and potential renewal, of Western civilization. Today we’re told there is no other way to achieve the research results we desire, because fetal tissue is a “uniquely rich source” of stem cells, which provide invaluable clues to human development. Second, we’re led to believe that research on aborted babies...

Forget the Twitter blog for emoji responses to how millennials feel about student debt. As the New York Daily News’ Alejandro Alba notes, the condescending approach didn’t generate much respect from Hillary Clinton’s target audience. The beleagured Democrat tried to shift attention to policy from the e-mail scandal, focusing on her $350 billion proposal to overhaul higher-education finances, which is in a shambles largely due to federal government intervention in the first place.Mission not accomplished: While some users thought the question was “relatable,” others believed the question was offensive and condescending.Many users began to reply to the tweet with...

Obama, Hu toast 'strategic mutual trust' at state dinnerBy Christina Wilkie - 01/19/11 10:30 PM ET President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao toasted U.S. and Chinese collaboration and mutual interests on Wednesday night at a festive state dinner for 225 guests at the White House. Their toasts marked the high point of an evening notable for its strict adherence to the protocol and symbolism valued in Chinese culture, but which, at the same time, managed to fulfill the Chinese delegation's request for a thoroughly American dinner party. Guests dined on a meal of pear salad, lobster, ribeye steak and...

Imagine if the Koch brothers had financed a group that was regularly disrupting and shutting down events of candidates that they opposed. Does anybody doubt that the Koch connection would come up in the first paragraph, if not the first sentence, of most news stories about such disruptions? Yet somehow, complete silence from the MSM on the connection of George Soros to #BlackLivesMatter even though he is the providing most of the finances to that organization. Also mysterious is how the MSM also fails to note that Hillary Clinton, whom Soros supports, has not had her events disrupted by #SorosMoneyMatters (also...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was booed onstage Saturday when she said former government contractor Edward Snowden broke the law by leaking classified documents on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs. Speaking at the NetRoots Nation conference in San Jose, Calif., Pelosi told the audience to reject comparisons between President Barack Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, on their oversight of surveillance programs. The top House Democrat said Obama is poised to reveal "in another few days, a few more proceedings" of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Pelosi received the loudest boos and heckles from the...

Kimberley Chambers burst into tears as soon as she laid a hand on her crew's boat. The physical contact signaled the end of a record-breaking 30-mile swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge. Chambers, a New Zealander who calls San Francisco home, made history Saturday as the first woman to complete the swim. Chambers, 38, spent 17 hours and 12 minutes in a stretch of water notorious for its great white shark population -- but didn't encounter any. "I guess they don't like Kiwis," she quipped, adding that she "slipped off the boat" instead of jumping into...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says fellow Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer’s (N.Y.) recent comments on ObamaCare are "beyond comprehension." Schumer caused a stir last month when he said Democrats “blew the opportunity the American people gave them” in 2008 by focusing on healthcare out of the gate instead of on measures to boost the middle class. In an interview with The Washington Post published Monday, Pelosi noted that Schumer wrote the 1994 assault weapons ban that was blamed for Democratic losses that year. She hit Senate Democrats for distancing themselves from President Obama in the midterm elections, and the...

On the day before Jews prepared to begin their sacred holiday of Passover, a pair of horrible events cast a pall over the Jewish community. The Kansas Jewish Community Center became a tragic scene when a gunman opened fire. The gunman’s rampage also took him to the nearby retirement community of Village Shalom. The word “shalom” in Hebrew has three meanings. It translates to “hello,” “goodbye,” and “peace.” Now three innocent Americans were forced to say goodbye to the world. For their families, there will be no more peace. Hours before the shooting took place, another hateful individual was engaging...

Planned Parenthood and its supporters have long repeated the mantra that, “women have control over their own bodies,” but what happens after PP helps them decide what to do with them? women betrayed by planned parenthood rally The recent release of the three documentary videos titled Human Capital from the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life organization, provides evidence that PP engages in organ harvesting after abortions take place at their facilities. In the videos, several actors are disguised as representatives from companies looking to buy unborn fetuses. They are then filmed eating and having meetings with Deborah Nucatola (video...

RUSH: A new Fox poll out yesterday, last night shows Donald Trump is just soaring. Trump is gaining ground on everybody in the GOP field and over Hillary. It's a Fox News poll, NBC poll, and in both of these polls, Hillary, the bottom is starting to fall out identically, exactly as it started to happen in 2008. And that's why the Democrats are starting to push out these stories about what a great guy Biden is and those gaffes that he makes, why, they just make him more lovable. That's old Joe. Telling the guy in a wheelchair to...

LOOMIS, Calif. — China is demanding that the Obama administration return a wealthy and politically connected businessman who fled to the United States, according to several American officials familiar with the case. Should he seek political asylum, he could become one of the most damaging defectors in the history of the People’s Republic. The case of the businessman, Ling Wancheng, has strained relations between two nations already at odds over numerous issues before President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States in September, including an extensive cybertheft of American government data and China’s aggressive territorial claims. Mr. Ling...

A legal battle has broken out in Oakland, California, over whether construction companies should be forced to pay for public art in building projects. An alliance of firms in Oakland is suing the city over laws that came into effect in February forcing them to spend between 0.5% and 1% of any project’s budget on public art. There are more than 200 such public art ordinances across the United States and construction bosses will be closely monitoring the outcome of the lawsuit. Artists in Oakland, meanwhile, are fearful that a victory for the firms will be a defeat for culture...

Former SC Democratic party chair Dick Harpootlian told MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki Sunday Vice President Joe Biden’s consideration of a presidential run actually gives Democrats the best chance of retaining the White House in 2016. Harpootlian said Hillary Clinton’s track record will cause her and the Democrats to “die a death of a thousand cuts,” yet Biden is “an inspirational figure” that voters can rally around. HARPOOTLIAN: I think Hillary comes into the race, as she did in ’08 with all kinds of baggage… There’s going to be distractions, we saw just this week with the Wall Street Journal about payments...

"Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), discusses the consequences of to the Iran nuclear deal, the Planned Parenthood controversy, and whether Trump is going too far on ... " Cavuto: do you think Trump is going too far? Cruz makes good comments back to a pressing Neil Cavuto. And Cruz comments about Nancy Pelosi over Planned Parenthood. An 8 minute video.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she believes Democrats will be able to uphold President Obama's veto if Republicans vote down his nuclear deal with Iran in September and she called the agreement "a diplomatic masterpiece." Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats will rally behind the agreement even after the long August recess, when outside groups plan a media blitz aimed at sinking public support. "More and more [Democrats] have conferred to me they will be there to sustain the veto," Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. Congress has begun a 60-day review of the deal, which would lift sanctions against Iran in...

RUSH: Craig in Scarsdale, New York. Great to have you on the program. Hello, sir. CALLER: Thank you very much, Rush. I can't believe all these reporters out there who are just dumping on Trump. It's unbelievable. They gotta go back 30 years to find something that can actually stick to this guy. RUSH: No, no. They have to go back 30 years to make up something. CALLER: I'm sorry? RUSH: They had to go back 30 years to make up something. CALLER: To make up something. And not just that. Why don't we go back 30 years and look...

Don't get into a pissing match with walls in San Francisco. The city's Public Works agency is testing a pee-repellant paint on walls in areas that have been saturated with urine. Anyone urinating on the specially treated walls will get the spray splashed back onto them. [Snip] "The urine will bounce back on the guys pants and shoes. The idea is they will think twice next time about urinating in public," said Rachel Gordon, a Public Works Department spokeswoman. She said the super-hard coating made the "bounce back" effect much stronger than when peeing on a regular wall.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi argued on Thursday that Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood over videos that discuss the alleged sales of fetal tissue from abortions is a phony controversy. The secretly filmed videos, which show Planned Parenthood official Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing how the health care group uses fetal tissues after abortions, has riled up congressional Republicans who are now pushing forward on legislation to strip the group of federal funding. Pelosi said it’s just another attempt by GOP lawmakers to target Planned Parenthood over ideological objections. “They’ve been out to get Planned Parenthood for as long as I...