Free Republic

The Democratic Party on Friday adopted a call to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr as part of their established party platform heading into the 2016 election season. The move further polarizes the progressive wing of the party by moving them further to the left of both the Republican Party, and corporate centrist Democrats such as Hillary Clinton. In response to the Democratic Party’s vote, Terrence Wise, a Kansas City, Mo. McDonald’s and Burger King Worker and member of the National Organizing Committee of the Fight for $15, issued the following statement.

Jesus Cecena killed SDPD Officer Archie Buggs in 1978The man who shot and killed San Diego Police Officer Archie Buggs "execution-style" has been granted parole, according to the San Diego District Attorney's office. On Friday, the state Parole Board decided Jesus Cecena should be released after 36 years behind bar for Buggs' slaying. In 1978, Cecena was pulled over by Buggs, 30, for a traffic stop in Skyline. Cecena pulled out a gun and shot the 4-year SDPD veteran to death. Cecena was originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1979, but in 1982,...

LAS VEGAS — There are the people on his side on the Iran deal, President Barack Obama said Monday evening. Then there are “the crazies.” Back from a notably uneventful and restful two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Obama was immediately on the road for a short trip here, first to speak at a green energy conference hosted by retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, then to raise money for his preferred successor, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Ruddy from the sun, Obama described himself as “refreshed, renewed, recharged — a little feisty.” And he delivered, recounting the ride...

Business mogul Donald Trump told CNN Wednesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have sought to impeach President Bush when she had the chance. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Trump said the president and his administration deliberately lied about the Iraq war, and congressional Democrats missed an opportunity to impeach him when the party took control of Congress in 2006. "I was surprised that she didn't do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush," Trump said. "It was almost - it just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out...

The summer has not been kind to Hillary Clinton. The drip-drip-drip of revelations about her possible misuse and mishandling of classified information threatens to become a deluge in the fall. They have taken a serious toll on her reputation — and even more notably, her treatment by liberal media figures who surely would rather she be elected even if the Risen Christ were to be the Republican nominee. Democrats are worried — so worried five donors who raised millions for President Obama as well as Obama’s chief Florida strategist have both sworn off Hillary and joined an effort to draft...

Charlotte Ivancic, Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) top health policy aide, is leaving his office to join the lobbying firm Tarplin, Downs & Young, the firm announced Wednesday. Ivancic led the negotiations for Boehner on the repeal of Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate this year. The elimination of the annual Washington headache of automatic cuts to doctors under Medicare, after negotiations with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was a significant achievement. […] Tarplin, Downs & Young was founded in 2006 by former Republican healthcare staffers in the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill. It also has former Democratic staffers. …

Charlotte Ivancic -- the older sister of Cate Dyer who runs the biotech company StemExpress, and who discussed and laughed about shipping “intact” aborted baby parts in an undercover video released on Friday – is leaving her position as the health policy adviser to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to go to work for the lobbying firm Tarplin, Downs & Young. The resignation of Ivancic--who worked for Boehner and as legal counsel to the House Budget Committee–was announced on August 5, as reported in The Hill. In late July, StemExpress and its founder and CEO, Cate Dyer, were mentioned in...

Many advocates for revamping immigration laws have tried to coax Congress into action over the years, but a particularly powerful one will be arriving next month: Pope Francis. Lawmakers and immigration activists expect the pontiff’s message will resonate beyond Capitol Hill and inspire members of Congress and their constituents. The pope's U.S. schedule includes an address to Congress on Sept. 24 and a meeting two days later with immigrants and Hispanic families at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. “He’s been clear on our failure to respond appropriately to immigrants and refugees,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told CQ. “I don’t think anyone will...

Margaret Sanger is a saint in the feminist church. She is a charter member of the progressive hall of fame. Liberals revere this woman who preached “race improvement” and denounced what she called “human weeds”.Hillary Clinton glows that she is “in awe of” Sanger. She said so in 2009 upon receiving Planned Parenthood’s “highest honor” that year: its coveted Margaret Sanger Award.Likewise effusive was Nancy Pelosi when she proudly accepted the award in 2014.Speaking to Planned Parenthood a year earlier, President Barack Obama, hailed the organization founded by this racial eugenicist committed to creating a “race of thoroughbreds” and purging...

Dear Democrats: It’s too late to start over. As in, there’s no replacing Hillary Rodham Clinton as your party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination. Not with Vice President Biden — even if he runs. Not with former vice president Al Gore. (I mean, come on.) Not with your ideal rich-person-with-no-record-and-a-fresh-faced-appeal. This may come as a shock to some of you. After all, you argue, it’s only August! The Iowa caucuses won’t be until February! That’s, like, four political lifetimes. Sure. But modern presidential politics isn’t as simple as announcing that you’ve decided to run and watching yourself soar to the...

Driving across California is like going from Mississippi to Massachusetts without ever crossing a state line. Consider the disconnects: California's combined income and sales taxes are among the nation's highest, but the state's deficit is still about $16 billion. It's estimated that more than 2,000 upper-income Californians are leaving per week to flee high taxes and costly regulations, yet California wants to raise taxes even higher; its business climate already ranks near the bottom of most surveys. Its teachers are among the highest paid on average in the nation, but its public school students consistently test near the bottom of...

An incredible story involving Donald Trump has just come to light, and virtually no one knows about it because, unlike what almost any politician would do, the billionaire hasn’t used it to boost his public image. Years ago, now Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s private 727 took off from Los Angeles and landed in New York City, much as it had for years. But this time one thing was different. While Trump wasn’t on board, three other passengers were — 3-year-old Andrew Ten and his parents. What led to this trip is a story that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

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...