Free Republic

Actress Ashley Judd's next role will not be as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky. Judd said on Wednesday she has decided not to run in 2014 to try to unseat Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, after considering such a candidacy for months. "After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities and energy at this time need to be focused on my family," she wrote on Twitter. Judd and her husband, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, announced in January that they had decided to end their 11-year marriage. Judd, 44, considers Kentucky...

As I mentioned yesterday, the medical device tax that went into effect last January is just one of the many insidious job-killing measures contained within ObamaCare, but it is an especially terrible one. The 2.3 percent excise tax is meant to raise a handsome $30 billion to pay for ObamaCare over the next decade, except that, added bonus: It’s going to stifle innovation and competition in an industry that provides all manner of life-saving medical devices, from MRIs to pacemakers to blood tubes.And this hasn’t just been a Republican refrain, by the way. Thursday night, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to...

In April, 2011, Wind 1 went online near Falmouth, MA's waste plant. The 262 feet tall structure -- 10 feet taller than the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown -- has blades that extend almost 400 feet, which is about half the height of the John Hancock Building in Boston, reported WGBH-TV. Complaints started almost immediately. According to Fox, Wind 2 is ready to go online but the town said 'enough is enough.' The 262-foot eyesores have created a storm of protests from residents, many of whom blame numerous health problems on the turbine already in use. The blades' low frequency vibrations...

Controversial reality show "All My Babies' Mamas" has been canceled by Oxygen after a Change.org petition against the one-hour special received 37,000 signatures. According to reports, Oxygen was planning to highlight Shawty Lo, an Atlanta-based rapper who has 11 children with 10 different women. The show -- which was not being developed as a series, just as a one-time episode -- would have featured all of the women and children moving into one home together. According to an Oxygen press release, the show would "leave the man of the house to split his affection multiple ways while trying to create...

Embattled U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next secretary of state after months of criticism over her Benghazi comments, she told NBC News on Thursday.

Many powerful Democrats, even some of the most liberal among them, are supporting what amounts to a dismantling of President Obama’s signature health care law. Using “Republican” language to make their case, these Democrats are attempting to repeal some of the funding mechanisms as well as the cost-containment measures that were purportedly inherent in the law. With some of their most influential constituent groups facing onerous tax increases that are slated to help fund the law’s mandates and regulations, Senators like Al Franken (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets. Blake Page announced his decision to quit the U.S. Military Academy this week in a much-discussed online post that echoed the sentiments of soldiers and airmen at other military installations. The 24-year-old told The Associated Press that a determination this semester that he could not become an officer because of clinical depression played a role in his public protest against what he calls the unconstitutional...

Toyota has scrapped plans for widespread manufacturing and sale of a new mini-car that was to be powered as electric only. Reuters reports that Toyota stated they “had misread the market and the ability of still emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.” We would all be a lot better off, if Only Barack Obama and Harry Reid had the same amount of guts as Toyota to admit to making gross errors in judgment. Takeshi Uchiyamada, the engineer who oversees vehicle development as Vice Chairman of Toyota, was frank in stating, “two years later, there are many difficulties.” Takeshi is...

The item, known as “Our Strips: Flag Poster” redesigned the American flag using the Obama for America logo. The print was the target of conservative backlash last week. A page where the flag was now returns as error page. A cached version of the website still shows the product but returns a error page when attempting to add the item to the cart.

The Obama campaign produced a poster of an American flag, with Obama’s “O” symbol replacing the field of stars, as an item of campaign merchandise, selling for $35. The image was tasteless at best. It is hard to imagine any other politician arrogant enough to remake the flag in his own image: Barack Obama, however, has never been one to be deterred by bad taste. The larger problem was that, as many pointed out, the flag bore an uncanny resemblance to this grisly photograph taken at the American consulate in Benghazi: So the Obama campaign has quietly ditched the flag...

What had been one of the lowest-performing, under-enrolled schools in San Francisco was little more than a pile of rubble as workers demolished Willie Brown Jr. Academy in the city's Bayview neighborhood. Loud hydraulic excavators bit off pieces of the few remaining walls still standing last week at the school, which served about 160 students in grades four through eight until June 2011. With blue sky visible above and gaping holes nearby, a paper sign directed visitors to the now-nonexistent counseling office. Soon, the tons of mangled rebar and concrete chunks will be carted off for recycling and the 4-acre...

The Obama campaign has canceled Vice President Biden's entire Florida trip. "This change in schedule is being taken to ensure that all law enforcement and emergency management resources across the state can continue

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State’s 2013 recruiting class lost one of its commitments on Saturday. New Jersey defensive lineman Greg Webb withdrew his oral pledge to attend Penn State in favor of North Carolina. UNC recruiting sites reported Friday that Webb had reopened his recruiting and planned to visit the Tar Heels’ Chapel Hill campus on Saturday. Webb — a 6-foot-1, 295-pound defensive tackle at Timber Creek High School in Sicklerville, N.J. — indeed visited UNC and committed when his high school teammate Dajuan Drennon also committed to the Tar Heels. A four-star recruit by Rivals.com standards, Webb was one...

Obama supporters at wikipedia have repeatedly deleted the following information from wikipedia’s Solyndra article:

ABC has canceled its freshman series with the controversial title "GCB," which some believed mocked Christians, as it failed to attract enough viewership.

Last week, Barack Obama delivered speeches at universities in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Iowa City, Iowa, and Boulder, Colo. The trip was, press secretary Jay Carney assured us, official government business, not political campaigning. It's part of a pattern. Neil Munro of the Daily Caller has counted 130 appearances by the president, vice president, their spouses, White House officials and Cabinet secretaries at colleges and universities since spring 2011. Obviously, the Obama campaign strategists are worried that he cannot duplicate his 66% to 32% margin among young voters back in 2008. Recent surveys of young people show inconsistent results. Gallup's tracking...

BELLINGHAM (CBS) – A presentation at an elementary school in Bellingham will go on next week following a controversy in which the words of a patriotic song were changed. Students at Stall Brook Elementary are doing a project on the 50 states and they planned to sing two songs at an assembly April 12. One was to be a tune about the states, and the other was the popular 1984 Lee Greenwood song “God Bless The USA.” But someone changed the chorus of Greenwood’s song to “We love the USA” for the assembly. That didn’t go over well with parents,...

Furious conservatives have taken to blogs and Twitter on Thursday to vent their ire against what they allege is a conspiratorial dumping of twisted and manipulated negative attacks on Newt Gingrich. The target of their fury: The Drudge Report. For the last 48 hours, the conservative Web site led by Matt Drudge has become a virtual campaign arm for Mitt Romney, featuring huge, screaming headlines about Mr. Gingrich and his past. That prompted conservatives who support Mr. Gingrich to accuse Mr. Drudge of selling out to the Republican establishment — many of whom have come to Mr. Romney’s aid as...

Why did you pull this thread?

Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner will not be marrying his Playmate bride-to-be Crystal Harris. "The wedding is off," Hefner, 85, tweeted Tuesday. "Crystal has had a change of heart."