Free Republic

The fiscal watchdog organization Club for Growth is calling the Congressional primary race in Arizona’s newly redistricted CD6 the most watched Republican congressional primary race in the country. Due to Arizona gaining a new House seat and redistricting, incumbent House Republicans David Schweikert and Ben Quayle saw their districts overlap. The redistricting committee, which is controlled by the left, did this to Republicans purposely. Quayle’s house ended up barely inside of Arizona’s new CD9. Since the new CD9 contains Tempe, which is not as conservative as CD6 in the Northeast Valley, Quayle announced shortly after the redistricting that he would...

DNC head: ‘Awesome’ that many voters see pro-gay marriage stance as political winner By Geneva Sands - 05/15/12 11:50 AM ET Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) called it "awesome" Tuesday that favoring same-sex marriage could be viewed as politically expedient, saying it shows advancement in people's perspective on the issue. "As someone that represents one of the largest LGBT communities in the country, I think it's actually awesome that we've come so far in advancing the rights of the LGBT community that people would question that it's a good thing politically for the president of the United...

A man in his 20s was shot in the buttocks by a neighbor after a dispute over squatting in a vacant home. The incident happened about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday night in the 3100 block of South 144th Street in SeaTac. The neighbor, 66, heard noises next door in the vacant house and went to investigate. “One of the doors looked like it was forced open,” Sgt. Cindi West said. “He found a guy in his 20s.” That man refused to leave and the neighbor went back to his house and armed himself with a shotgun, then returned to again tell...

A simmering controversy surrounding the "Ground Zero Cross" exposes the intolerance and absolutism behind ongoing battles over religious symbols on public property. Contrary to popular belief, it's not Christian conservatives who normally start these bitter disputes. It's more often atheist activists who seek to alter the long-standing status quo by scrubbing the landscape of the most visible signs of the nation's religious heritage. American Atheists, an organization representing the civil liberties of agnostics, filed suit in 2011 to block display of the Ground Zero Cross anywhere on the grounds of the new memorial museum planned for the World Trade...

BRYAN COUNTY, OK -- Come November, Oklahomans with a permit will be able to carry their guns out in the open in most places. Governor Mary Fallin signed the open carry measure into law Tuesday. The open carry law not only allows people to have their guns out in plain sight, but it also allows property owners without a permit to carry openly on their lawn for self defense. We talked to several people who all had strong and very different opinions about open carry. Raymond Coats has his concealed weapon's license and says he is excited about the new...

An Iranian newspaper tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently boasted that United States has “rejected” Israel within recent months. “It can be said that within the last 60 years, this is the first time that the Zionist regime, since its illegal inception, has had to endure rejection by the West over its vision and interest in the region,” wrote Sadollah Zarei, according to a translation by Reza Kahlili. The author writes that the only “obstacle” remaining is the Saudi Royal Family and once it falls, Israel can be destroyed. “With diminishing support for Israel and with the (upcoming) collapse...

Putting illegal entrants in jail would be “undemocratic,” MK Dov Henin of the extreme-left Hadash party said Wednesday. “I was very sorry to hear what the Minister of the Interior said… We need to deal harshly with criminals, but we also need to provide solutions for those who aren’t criminals,” he said. Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai proposed putting all illegal entrants in detention facilities or prisons to await deportation after being giving a monetary grant. Refugees who fear persecution should be allowed to remain in Israel...

Ever since the 2008 campaign, many voters, and some journalists, too, have felt they know Barack Obama's life story. In fact, the story they know is the one Obama told them. Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," published in 1995, has become the semiofficial record of his life. But it is not the complete record of his life. It's partially fictionalized, with composite characters who Obama has always acknowledged were created to make the story read better. It focuses on a few themes Obama wanted to present to the public about himself. And, as with any memoir, it is...

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday set the stage for an end-of-year debt showdown, saying he will once again insist any increase in the federal borrowing limit be matched dollar-for-dollar with spending cuts elsewhere. The last time he made that vow — ahead of last August’s debt deadline — the government teetered on the brink of a partial shutdown before he and President Obama agreed to a deal that matched an immediate debt boost to possible future spending cuts. Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said he considers that deal a precedent, and from now on every request for more debt...

Carlos Fuentes, Mexico’s elegant public intellectual and grand man of letters, whose panoramic novels captured the complicated essence of his country’s history for readers around the world, died on Tuesday in Mexico City. He was 83. His death was confirmed by Julio Ortega, his biographer and a professor of Hispanic studies at Brown University, where Mr. Fuentes taught for several years. He died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital after his doctor, Arturo Ballesteros, found him in shock in his Mexico City home, The Associated Press reported. The doctor told reporters that Mr. Fuentes had had an internal hemorrhage. Mr....

The Yuma Police Department confirms two people who were shot Friday night have died. It happened at 10:20 p.m. on the 2600 block of Donna Avenue. According to YPD Jason Snelling, 27, and Glenn Curry, 26, were shot and killed after a confrontation with another man. YPD has now released the identity of the shooter as Daniel Dillman, 23. The initial information suggests that Dillman's life had been threatened by Snelling and Curry immediately before the shooting. Curry was armed with a knife which had been utilized to break out windows on the vehicle that Dillman was seated in at...

The hard copy periodical industry is dying and about the only way they can boost sales is with incredibly controversial magazine covers. We saw a good example of this during the past week with Time featuring a mother breast feeding her son on the cover versus Newsweek declaring Obama, wearing a rainbow halo, as "The First Gay President." Have these magazines gone too far in their desperation for sales? This situation is analyzed in an incredibly humorous manner by the notorious Taiwanese animators who have developed quite a cult following with their funny take on the news. They have produced...

The Air Force wants its B-52s to keep flying until 2040, but the airplanes of that era won’t look like the ones we all remember from “Dr. Strangelove” — or even the bombers flying today. According to an official story from the weekend, Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski, the head of Global Strike Command, says the B-52 is set to receive a round of upgrades that will help both the airmen inside each one and also the top-level commanders moving them around on their maps. Even if that commander’s suit is a darker shade of blue: These upgrades are integral to...

t was May 10, 1970, in Se San, Cambodia. Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. and his platoon were ambushed by a large enemy force. The 22-year-old riflemen from Ellwood City, Pa., charged the enemy position, killing several soldiers, and then attacked an enemy flanking force, drawing fire away from his comrades. As the enemy retreated, a grenade landed near Sabo and a wounded American soldier. Sabo picked it up and threw it, while shielding his comrade with his own body. The grenade blast badly injured Sabo, but he continued to charge the bunker. Crawling towards the enemy stronghold he was...

The NBC Investigative Unit has raised questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone's sexual history. This is part of our ongoing series of investigations by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit into who got federal stimulus dollars, and why some projects did not break ground more than two years after receiving the grant. The Investigative Unit looked closely at the federal government's...

Perhaps Mitt Romney played it right when he was meek and contrite in response to the Washington Post's front-page allegations that he bullied a kid half a century ago in high school. Romney no doubt feels embarrassed by the charges, even if most of us struggle to understand their relevance or gauge their veracity. But the time is coming for Romney to get angry, very angry, with what is increasingly, quaintly called "the mainstream media." The Post's decision to play up the story as if it were major news -- front page, thousands of drably dull self-serious words piled high...

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

If you thought JP Morgan traders goofed when they made bad bets that resulted in $2 billion in losses for what Obama says is the best managed bank in America, well you obviously don’t hang out with the One-Percent-Occupy Wall Street group that met last night on Park Avenue in New York. 60 Wall Street-types, says Politico, paid close to $40,000 a pop to hear Obama, Man of the People, tell them whatever their guilt-ridden consciences wanted to hear. Why guilt-ridden? Who knows?Perhaps they weren’t held enough as a baby; perhaps they seek atonement in politics for the rapacity they...

When it comes to opposition research, there is often only one difference between a candidate's vicious negative ad and an "investigative" news report: the undeserved patina of media "objectivity" and respectability. Take the Washington Post's Jason Horowitz's 5,400-word "expose" on how Mitt Romney may have pinned a boy down and cut his hair in 1965. 1965? That's almost a half century ago. Even if every detail were accurate -- and they weren't -- a journalist could pull a muscle in the hyper-aggressive attempt to make it somehow relevant to the present moment or even the recent past. The family of...

Let's think about whether all acts of Congress deserve our respect and obedience. Suppose Congress enacted a law -- and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional -- requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month. Should we obey such a law? Suppose Congress, acting under the Constitution's commerce clause, enacted a law requiring motorists to get eight hours of sleep before driving on interstate highways. Its justification might be that drowsy motorists risk highway accidents and accidents affect interstate commerce. Suppose you were a jury member during the 1850s and a free person were...

When my wife was a liberal, she complained that libertarian reasoning is coldhearted. Since markets produce winners and losers -- and many losers did nothing wrong -- market competition is cruel. It must seem so. President Obama used the word "fair" in his last State of the Union address nine times. We are imprinted to prefer a world that is "fair." Our close relatives the chimpanzees freak out when one chimp gets more than his fair share, so zookeepers are careful about food portions. Chimps are hardwired to get angry when they think they've been cheated -- and so are...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized President Obama‘s experience before he became president in an interview Tuesday, and defended Mitt Romney, who has recently come under attack by Obama’s campaign for his record at Bain Capital. “President Obama hasn’t run anything before he was elected President of the United States. Never ran a state, never ran a business, never ran a lemonade stand. This job’s too important for on the job training,” Jindal said during an interview on FOX News’ “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. Jindal contrasted Romney’s experience with Obama’s record, arguing that, “In contrast, Mitt Romney’s been a successful governor, a...

After months of trading blame and criticism from afar, President Obama and GOPcongressional leaders will meet Wednesday to discuss the economy — and, presumably, trade blame and criticism in person, more politely. The bipartisan gathering at the White House, the first since late February, is billed as a discussion of legislative solutions to the sluggish economy. The White House says President Obama will push House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to embrace his congressional to-do list, a short list of relatively small initiatives the president has said will spur growth. Obama unveiled the...

Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long. "All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va. Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover. "I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So...

Dem: House will ride on healthcareBy Mike Lillis and Bob Cusack - 05/16/12 05:00 AM ET A senior Democrat said Tuesday that the key to winning back the House in 2012 is selling the party’s signature healthcare reform law. In an interview with The Hill, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Democrats have “a fighting chance” of grabbing control of the lower chamber. He added, however, that Democrats “can’t run from [healthcare reform]. You have to go out and say, ‘This is what we did and this is why we did it.’ And I think that you win like that.” Democrats...

The Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced it will drop health insurance coverage for students because the cost of the plan is expected to double under Obamacare. [...]The plan currently costs approximately $600 per year. However, Hernon said their health care provider informed them that under Obamacare, the policy would double in price to $1,200 and the following year it would triple. “We couldn’t believe the price (increase),” he told Fox News. “We had them go back and reconfirm it. They said it was dictated by coverage limits that were released by the Obama administration.” “At the end of the...

Before yunz head dahntahn to work, or start to red up the house n‘at, join us every morning for coffee (or whatever gets yinz started) and maybe some serious discussion of the issues (or not!) Listen to the Quinn & Rose Morning Show at: www.wpgb.com (104.7 Pittsburgh, Pa) http://wysl1040.com/ (Rochester, NY) http://www.640whlo.com/main.html (Akron, OH) (airs later from 9-12) http://www.wncoam.com/main.html (Ashland, OH) http://www.talkradio560.com/ (Frostburg, MD) http://wicofm.com/ (Salisbury/Ocean City, MD WOBX - Outer banks NC http://tunein.com/radio/The-War-Room-with-Quinn--Rose-p34761/ for archived shows And now on 166 XM

When friends suggest that the election in November will be close, I half-agree, with a twinkle. Because I don't think it will be close. That's because this lot, as the Brits say, don't have it sorted -- unlike Bill Clinton in the 1990s, who knew how to seduce the middle class. It's a point of pride among urban liberals around the president not to understand the ordinary American. It's been this way ever since John Kenneth Galbraith's bestsellers like The Affluent Society taught liberals how to sneer at the ordinary middle class rather than understand it. Of course, you can...

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning...

Aspiring apparatchiks of the coming world dictatorship, tiring of the hopeless race against facts in their anti-industrial carbon dioxide hoax, have finally given up the pretense of science in favor of pure, old-fashioned doomsday preaching. Having been outlasted by reality in the pseudo-science of "global cooling," undone once again in the pseudo-science of "global warming," and ultimately laughed off the stage in the unfalsifiable quackery of "global climate change," it is apparently time at last for the advocates of tyranny in the name of Gaia to play their last card: global mass hysteria. Consider a recent New York Times editorial...

Kayla Allen, the 10-year-old who was the lone survivor of the April 12 shooting at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Brooklyn, died Tuesday afternoon at her home in Strongsville. Jane Van Bergen, spokeswoman for Hospice of the Western Reserve, said Kayla died in the arms of an aunt at 3:40 p.m. surrounded by her family and friends. In a statement released Tuesday, the family said, "(We are) appreciative and grateful for the support and prayers of so many during this journey. Kayla has died peacefully at home. She has been surrounded by family and friends for the past few days,...

The New York Times believes the most interesting data coming out of the latest CBS News/New York Times poll is that the vast majority of Americans think President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage last week was a cynical ploy to gain a political advantage. That’s the lede in their story about the poll. Considering that the mainstream media — including the Times — gave the statement laudatory coverage, it is surprising to learn that 67 percent of Americans think he did it “mostly for political reasons” rather than believing his story about him evolving and doing what was right. But...

An online travel company has advised worried holidaymakers to 'get rid' of their Greek euros in case the crisis-hit country leaves the single currency. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded for the first time that Greece could be forced to quit the euro, DialAFlight warned travelers that their Greek euro notes could become worthless. However, while some experts predict that Greece could leave the single currency within weeks, there has been no official acknowledgement that their euro notes would become worthless. The blog post on the company's website—which has since been removed—was advising Britons to check the origin of their...

*snip* As recently as a week ago, Deb Fischer was dismissed by the establishment. Why? Because she is not part of the good old boys’ permanent political class. The message from the people of Nebraska is simple and powerful: America is looking for real change in Washington, and commonsense conservatives like Deb Fischer represent that change. I applaud Moms like Deb Fischer who are bold enough to step up and run on a conservative platform to restore America and protect our children’s future. Congratulations to the people of Nebraska. As the Huskers’ fight song goes: “The eyes of the land,...

For well more than a decade, Korea experts who specialize in international media have been examining the impact of foreign broadcasts and DVDs on users in North Korea. They have done so through a combination of in-country surveys and debriefings of defectors from North Korea, refugees and travelers abroad. In annual reports, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders invariably have ranked that country as having the “least free” media in the world. Yet the curtain of near total silence appears to be opening as never before in North Korea. In a landmark study released May 11, “A Quiet Opening,” Nat...

Rep. Barbara Lee on Tuesday went on the attack against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on behalf of President Obama's re-election campaign, blasting Romney's business record at Bain Capital. Lee, D-Oakland, said America doesn't need a president who got rich by putting the concerns of other wealthy investors over those of workers. "Like President Obama, I believe we need to restore middle-class security and create an economy built to last," she said on a conference call with reporters. "Unfortunately, Mitt Romney's economic policies would do even more damage to the middle class." Lee touted Obama's Recovery Act economic stimulus, which...

… Documents from the Kohl administration, kept confidential until now, indicate that the euro's founding fathers were well aware of its deficits. And that they pushed ahead with the project regardless. In response to a request by Spiegel, the German government has, for the first time, released hundreds of pages of documents from 1994 to 1998 on the introduction of the euro and the inclusion of Italy in the eurozone. They include reports from the German embassy in Rome, internal government memos and letters, and hand-written minutes of the chancellor's meetings. The documents prove what was only assumed until now:...

May 16, 2012 Obamacare's Patient-Dumping, Privacy-Meddling Scheme Michelle Malkin The stench of Chicago cronyism over the White House just got fouler. Inhale this: A shadowy $10 billion Obamacare agency with zero oversight just awarded first lady Michelle Obama's pet patient-dumping scheme at the University of Chicago Medical Center a $5.9 million taxpayer-funded grant. It will enable Mrs. Obama's cronies to build a government-sponsored electronic medical record-sharing system. The Chicago program, known as the Urban Health Initiative, is run by one of President Obama's closest golfing buddies, scandal magnet Eric Whitaker, who has been entangled with Illinois corruption celebrities Rod Blagojevich...

Despite the slow pace of introducing new or modernized weapons and equipment into the table of organization and equipment (TOE) in Russia’s Armed Forces, there are signs that progress is more sporadic and prioritizes one strategic direction. The South Military District (SMD) is receiving new combat hardware and weapons systems at a much faster rate than other military districts. In some areas of the TOE, the share of modern equipment has now surpassed more than 70 percent (Interfax, May 4). Russian T-90 tank (Source: freerepublic.com) According to the press service of the SMD, the district will receive over 40 new...

In an unusual effort to rebut bad news on the jobs front, the Walker administration is speeding up release of new numbers showing job gains rather than job losses in Wisconsin last year. The numbers come from a source familiar to many economists but one that hasn't figured until now in the state's highly politicized jobs debate heading into the June 5 recall election: the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The new figures, provided to the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday, cover the final three months of 2011. State officials said they show a gain of 23,321 jobs (public and...

May 15, 2012 Beijing Pledges to ‘Clean Out’ Illegal Foreigners Beijing has launched a 100-day campaign to “clean out” foreigners living or working illegally in the city amid a fervent online debate over the behavior, both good and bad, of outsiders inChina. The campaign, which kicked off on Tuesday and will run through the end of August, was announced in state media as well as on Peaceful Beijing, the official Beijing Public Security Bureau account on popular Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo. A screenshot shows the announcement of a 100-day illegal foreigner “clean up” campaign posted to the official account...

There is a modern parallel to Obama's new campaign slogan, "Forward!" It is the motto of the modern Socialist Movement "Forward!" (translated: "Vperiod!"), founded in Russia in 2005. Its declared goal is the socialist transformation of society.

Foreign holders of €422bn of Greek debt were warned to brace themselves for "killer losses" as coalition talks in Athens collapsed, threatening Greece's future in the eurozone. The euro tumbled to a four-month low and European stock markets dropped as political leaders and economists warned that the next round of elections called in Athens amounted to a vote on Greek membership of the euro “What’s at stake isn’t just the next Greek government,” said Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s foreign minister. “What’s at stake is the Greek people’s commitment to Europe and the euro.” “A second vote means Greece is edging closer...

Elizabeth Warren has pushed back hard on questions about a Harvard Crimson piece in 1996 that described her as Native American, saying she had no idea the school where she taught law was billing her that way and saying it never came up during her hiring a year earlier, which others have backed up. But a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described her as Harvard Law School's "first woman of color," based, according to the notes at the bottom of the story, on a "telephone interview with Michael Chmura, News Director, Harvard Law (Aug. 6, 1996)." The mention was in...

*snip* There are five crucial reasons for this: 1. Twitter is an equalizer in an eco-system where MSM types are no longer insulated in their bubble. We can now use Twitter to reach out to the media in order to challenge their biases, facts, lies, spin, and hypocrisy. The media is now accountable to their customers and you can bet this has an effect. Even the corrupt media types (which is most of them) are aware that these challenges posed on Twitter are potentially being tweeted and re-tweeted to thousands of readers. That's hard to ignore. 2. More and more...

State Sen. Deb Fischer has won the Nebraska Republican Senate primary, setting up a matchup with former senator Bob Kerrey (D) for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D). The result is a major upset; until last week, state Attorney General Jon Bruning was the overwhelming favorite in this primary. Throughout the race, he had the most money and establishment support. Many will argue that Fischer’s victory is the latest in a line of tea party upsets. But it was state Treasurer Don Stenberg who attracted support from conservatives put off by Bruning’s college liberalism, rather than...

Update, 8:30 p.m.: Pacquiao is "not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future." Full statement at the bottom. ==================================== Update, 6:50 p.m.: "We're canceling the event," says Grove spokesman Bill Reich. "Manny Pacquiao is not coming to the Grove." And thus the backlash begins. ==================================== Professional boxer Manny Pacquiao and "Extra" host Mario Lopez were blowing up Twitter today about their 3/3:30 p.m. interview at the Grove on Wednesday. But mall executives tell LA Weekly that the event may be called off. Pacquiao told the National Conservative Examiner over the weekend that...

Complete Title: The Soros Summit - Free Beacon exclusive: Inside the secret Miami meeting of George Soros’s liberal conspiracy ### A secretive network of left-wing billionaires and their political operatives descended on the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Miami over the weekend to discuss strategy for the coming elections. The location of the conference had been kept a closely guarded secret by the members and guests of Democracy Alliance (DA), a collection of ultra-wealthy liberal donors formed in 2005, and is reported here in a Washington Free Beacon exclusive. Attendees roamed the grounds at the 150-acre tropical resort on their way...

IT MAY ALREADY be too late to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro, Europe’s common currency. But there still may be time to prevent Greece’s woes from dragging down the rest of Europe, and the world. For that to happen, though, Europe’s leaders must think clearly about the issues before them, especially the great “austerity vs. growth” debate. When European and, indeed, U.S. critics condemn austerity, what they usually have in mind is the combination of tax hikes, spending cuts and structural reforms that Germany and other surplus-earning countries in the northern half of the...

OMAHA, Neb. - The Associated Press has projected Deb Fischer as the winner of the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. Most of the evening, Jon Bruning maintained a lead over Fischer; however, during the 9 p.m. hour, the lead switched in favor of Fischer. Just under 6,000 votes separated the top two candidates when the Associated Press called the race.