Free Republic

Human rights groups and Venezuela’s opposition are criticizing the government’s new authorization for riot police to use firearms to control protests. […] Venezuela’s constitution bans the use of firearms and toxic substances to control demonstrations, although in practice such means have long been used, including during last year’s deadly street battles between police and anti-government demonstrators. …

01/30/2015 Michael Ramirez Cartoon

A new poll commissioned by French magazine Marianne reveals that if presidential elections happened today, Le Pen would gather the most votes and France’s unpopular incumbent President Hollande would be knocked out in the first round. It’s the first opinion poll on voting intentions this year, and the solid advantage enjoyed by Le Pen and her traditional-conservative Front National (FN) party appears to have been confirmed in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris earlier this month. Front National is the only mainstream French political movement that shows willing to tackle the problem of rising Islamism, and this...

The campaign to deny Mr. Romney another chance began almost immediately after he mused to donors at a Friday get-together in New York City on Jan. 9 that he was open to the possibility of another run. By that Sunday afternoon, William Oberndorf, a prominent California investor who supported Mr. Romney in both of his previous presidential campaigns, had emailed a group of 52 powerful Republicans, including former Secretary of State George Shultz, the investor Charles Schwab and the Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos with a blunt message: we need to support someone else.

Legislators in North Carolina did the right thing in July 2013 when they voted to raise the quality standards for abortion clinics in the state. The hand-wringing response from the abortion industry was entirely predictable, with Planned Parenthood’s vice president for public affairs, Melissa Reed, calling it “the most restrictive access to safe and legal abortions this state has ever seen.” That was then. Inviting the Fox to Guard the Henhouse But now, more than a year an a half later, the North Carolina abortion industry is perfectly fine with the proposed regulations, which were submitted by the state’s Department...

Considering that he has given our enemy Iran 80% of what they want in negotiations that were supposed to curtail their nuclear enrichment program, you bet I would. The guy is a pushover and if I played my cards right, I might end up walking off the lot with a free car. According to Channel 10 in Israel, Israeli officials believe that the American president is so desperate for a deal, he will give away the store — and American and Israeli security — in his quest to “make history” with the Iranians. Jerusalem Post: Israeli officials told Channel 10...

On matters of policy, Ms. Lynch called capital punishment “an effective penalty� and said she disagreed with Mr. Obama’s statements that marijuana was no more harmful than alcohol. She called the National Security Agency’s collection of American phone records “certainly constitutional, and effective.� – From the New York Times article: Criticism of Holder Dominates Hearing on Loretta Lynch, Attorney General’s Possible Successor Eric Holder made a career out of protecting and coddling financial oligarchs (his 1999 memo essentially invented “Too Big to Jail�). This was such a lucrative decision for Mr. Holder, that it allowed him to climb all the way to...

Left-leaning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has come under fire from conservatives over his criticism of "American Sniper," but it turns out his cold war with the biopic's director, Clint Eastwood, started ten years earlier. Moore took to Facebook to confirm a report on Salon that Eastwood had threatened to shoot him during the 2005 National Board of Review dinner. Moore had been in attendance to receive an award for his scathing indictment of the Bush administration, "Fahrenheit 9/11," while Eastwood was being honored for "Million Dollar Baby." "Ten years ago this past week, Clint Eastwood stood in front of the...

Beirut (AFP) - A Syrian woman stoned by the jihadist Islamic State group for alledged adultery and left for dead has miraculously walked away from the brutal punishment, a monitor said Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadist group sentenced the woman to be "stoned for adultery" in the town of Raqa, the IS stronghold in northern Syria. Militants carried out the punishment and "stoned her until they thought she had died," said the Britain-based monitor. But just as they had stopped pelting her with stones, the woman stood up and tried to flee. "An IS militant...

Here are five reasons Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should politely decline House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress: � It’s inappropriate. It doesn’t matter what good allies the United States and Israel are, and it doesn’t matter how bad relations may be between Netanyahu and President Obama. Allies don’t go big-footing around in each other’s politics. It also doesn’t matter how worthy the cause. In 1793, when Citizen Genêt traveled through the United States, drumming up support for revolutionary France (and overtly violating President George Washington’s policy of U.S. neutrality), he no doubt thought...

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Artillery fire killed at least 12 civilians in the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Friday amid fierce fighting between pro-Russia separatists and government troops as hopes for a break in hostilities were dashed when an attempt to call a new round of peace talks failed....(excerpt)

Huckabee is essentially attempting to become to the Right what the likes of Neil deGrasse Tyson have become to the Left: namely, a proxy figure who can be used as shorthand by the lazy and the lost to signify their allegiance to a set of cherished cultural values

10. The dog ate my cash. 9. We celebrated Christmas on January 30 this year. 8. Obama Said my refund would be delayed. 7. I discovered Big Jim Thompson is NOT a real person! 6. The Super Bowl Doggie Ad would generate a lot of money. 5. The NSA is listening and taking names. 4. David Letterman is funnier than a freep-a-thon 3. A moderator made me cry! 2. I am cheap. (drum roll) 1. I secretly support Hillary for President!

He declares that Democrats offer the “most realistic electoral vehicle” in the fight against greedy Wall Street capitalists, the Tea Party, white supremacists and right-wing evangelicals. “He” is the chairman of the Communist Party USA, John Bachtell, who says that American Communists are ready to align with the Democrat Party to achieve their goals. As writer Eric Owens points out in a piece for The Daily Caller, Bachtell wrote a 2,000-word essay detailing his reasons for embracing the Democrats. It was a manifesto of sorts published at People’s World — a “daily news website of, for and by the 99%...

Seattle pot supplier rolling thousands of joints for Seahawks fans Double doobie time! Solstice employees are trying to roll 12,000 joints for the retailer's special edition 12 Pack. The pot packages are targeted to fans who are medical marijuana users. BY DEBORAH HASTINGS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, January 29, 2015, 5:38 PM A A A For Seattle Seahawks fans who want to be stoned while watching Sunday's Super Bowl XLIX, there's a new pack of pot for you. A Washington marijuana supplier has doubled its production time to keep up with demand for its 12 Pack special edition —...

JUNEAU - In a move geared toward increasing awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, nine bars throughout Alaska volunteered to participate in a University of Alaska Anchorage study on FASD. "It's a full academic research study, on the effectiveness of a pregnancy test dispensers located in bar bathrooms," said Ryan Ray, aide to state Sen. Pete Kelly (R-Fairbanks). Most of the nine bars participating are located in rural Alaska. Kelly Spokesperson Heather Shadduck says $500,000 was allotted in the FY2015 Mental Health Trust budget for the FASD awareness campaign, plus another $400,000 out of the capital budget for the UAA...

A US-led coalition air strike killed a chemical weapons specialist with the Islamic State group in Iraq who once worked for Saddam Hussein, US military officers said on Friday. The air raid carried out last Saturday near Mosul took out Abu Malik, whose training "provided the terrorist group with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability," the military said in a statement. Malik had worked at a chemical weapons production plant under Saddam's regime and later forged an affiliation with al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, before joining the extremist IS group, according to Central Command. "His death is expected...

We will find out the answer to the question posed in the title in the outcome of the contest between the new Greek government, formed by the political party Syriza, and the ECB and the private banks, with whose interests the EU and Washington align against Greece. The Spartans, whose red cloaks and military prowess struck fear into the hearts of both foreign invaders and Greek opponents in the city-states, are no more. Athens itself is a ruin of its historical self. The Greeks, who were once to be contended with, who were able with 300 Spartans, supplemented with a...

The photo above, via Cosmopolitan on January 23, shows progress on building an 8,000 sq. ft Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in New Orleans has obviously stalled. Compare it to the photo taken by Louisiana Coalition for Life in August 2014 (click all photos to enlarge)…. It appears only the grass has been cut in the past five months. Before that, Fox8 reported in January 2014 “the lot sits untouched” eight months after Planned Parenthood’s big ceremonial ground-breaking (in a church, no less – photo, right), this apparently because it had trouble finding anyone to build. This means the facility’s estimated...

The House vote next week to repeal ObamaCare in full will include a critical difference this time: instructions for committees to develop a GOP healthcare reform alternative. The announcement came as part of a February memo from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to Republicans outlining the next month's agenda. Absent from the list are contentious bills on abortion and immigration. [Read the memo below.] Next week's ObamaCare vote will be the fourth stand-alone, full-scale repeal vote in the last four years. The vote will serve as an opportunity for the new House GOP freshmen who pledged to repeal the...

According to a criminal complaint, police officers in Chaska responded that night to the Cedar Creek Apartments on a domestic assault call. When they arrived, officers found a 42-year-old woman covered in blood, shaking and cowering in the corner. The woman told police that Trudeau, whom she’d been dating for about two years, had severely beaten her after drinking vodka all afternoon. She said that Trudeau assaulted her while the two were arguing about their relationship. He reportedly choked her, slammed her head onto the ground and told her repeatedly she was “going to die tonight.”

Richard Richards, a key player in Utah Republican politics for three decades, was the first GOP chairman to endorse Ronald Reagan for president and was instrumental in Reagan's successful presidential campaign in 1980. An Ogden native who rose to become chairman of the National Republican Committee in Reagan's first term, Richards died at his home Friday. He was 82... Richards' work on Reagan's campaign earned him the chairmanship of the National Republican Committee in 1981-82.

So, tell me again why our President is threatening to veto any new sanctions against Iran? Why our Marxist leaders are insisting that Iran has a right to nuclear power, which in reality is nuclear warfare capability? Are we on the wrong side, suicidal or both? Obama is knowingly releasing the worst of the worst from Gitmo to go back and actively command and assist these terrorists. This isn’t some far off battle that doesn’t affect us. Iran’s missiles can now reach the United States! And it isn’t just them – it’s Russia and China too. They are literally salivating...

January 30, 2015 Biden Laments What The Obama Administration Has Done To America Jim Treacher If you don’t like what you’ve seen since Election ’08, you’ve got company. Tell ‘em, Joe! BIDEN VIDEO“To state the obvious, the past six years have been really, really hard for this country.” Yep. I called it even before these idiots got elected: Biden Clarifies Earlier Remarks on His Dread of an Obama Administration.

<p>NEW ORLEANS — In three months it will no longer be legal to smoke in bars and while gambling in the Big Easy.</p> <p>On Friday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed into law a new ordinance that does away with smoking inside bars, gambling halls, stadiums and hotels in what will be a big change for a city known for its libertine ways.</p>

One inescapable conclusion from President Obama's confrontational State of the Union address this week is that he expects to reach few legislative agreements with the Republican Congress. There's probably a better chance of Republicans designating an "Affordable Care Act Appreciation Month" than of passing legislation to raise capital-gains taxes or to provide tuition-free community college, as the president proposed. This suggests that while Obama is hoping to frame a broader debate with his new proposals, he anticipates that he will make his greatest "fourth quarter" impact through executive actions that bypass Congress. He's already signaled that intention in recent months...

After the 2014 midterm elections, a lame-duck session of lawmakers got together to strike one final blow against the citizens of Michigan who voted them out. They are pushing for a new tax reform that would tie Michigan for having the second-highest state sales tax in the country at 7 percent. The lawmakers claim that the revenue is needed to fund government services like and local schools and roads despite the fact that it would also double Michigan’s fuel tax, making it the highest in the country. For the sake of the Great Lake State’s economy, Michiganders should reject such...

Worse than Eric Holder? - She might not be any better...Racist Loretta Lynch taking the baton of anti-white activism from Eric Holder and Hussein Obama.

Israel is working to create "free trade zones" with Communist China and the Eurasian Union, as the world is being divided into geographic "regions" for the eventual New World Order. Globalism Wins as Israel Plans "Free Trade" With Putin, Beijing The New American 30 January 2015 As the world is increasingly divided up into geographic “regions” under regional regimes cobbled together under the guise of pseudo-“free trade,” Israeli authorities are now quietly working to create what they call “free trade zones” with both the Communist Chinese regime and the Kremlin-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (member countries shown in green). The...

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“Has President Obama launched a political campaign against Prime Minister Netanyahu and his representatives?” Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, also a Republican, asked Sec. of State John Kerry in a letter Thursday.They asked “for information regarding media reports that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to fund efforts to influence upcoming elections in Israel.�The Jewish Press reported here this week that non-profit and tax-exempt leftist groups  are campaigning to dump Netanyahu.Sen. Cruz asked: This administration’s relentless harassment of Israel is utterly incomprehensible. The Islamic Republic of Iran is pursuing the deadliest weapons on the...

In the past I’ve been critical of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, but in his questioning of President Obama’s choice for attorney general, Loretta Lynch–which occurred during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee–was not just skillful but superb.Senator Cruz’s tone was respectful but firm. He stayed away from theatrics and polemics. He didn’t personalize the line of inquiry. In doing so, he kept the focus right where it needed to be.But more than that, Senator Cruz exposed the lawlessness that is at the core of President Obama’s executive amnesty, and he did so in a logical, step-by-step manner. Senator...

Who do you want to run for president on the Republican side? Poll is on middle of page right-hand side.

resident Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch was a charter member of an all-black Harvard sorority — and so was Eric Holder’s wife. ... can Lynch as an investigator really be objective when it comes to her predecessor, who is currently in contempt of Congress over Fast and Furious scandal document obstruction and would probably warrant investigation from an unbiased successor? After all, Lynch goes way back with Holder’s wife. “The Xi Tau Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,

A T-shirt could cost this firefighter his job. A judge has recommended the FDNY sack Brooklyn firefighter Thomas Buttaro for wearing anti-affirmative-action T-shirts to work, creating what she called a hostile work environment. “The FDNY is a para-military organization and may restrict a uniformed member’s appearance so long as the restrictions are rationally related to the department’s legitimate interests,” Administrative Law Judge Alessandra Zorgniotti decided. Modal TriggerA veteran smoke eater is in hot water over his choice to wear a T-shirt promoting the Merit Matters group that opposes changes to the department's entrance exam. ...Buttaro, of Ladder Co. 123 in Crown...

As the Department of Defense considers the question, former Navy SEAL Ray “Cash” Care says he has an answer: Hell no. A few weeks ago, it was reported in Navy Times that the Department of Defense will make a decision on opening the SEAL and SWCC ranks to women in January of 2016. If the DoD decides in favor of allowing women, the Navy would then notify Congress by July 1, and Congress would then have 30 working days to respond with any concerns. I'd like to jump ahead of Congress, save them some trouble and tell them right here,...

Rosstat just released its latest tranche of demographic data, including its first estimate of Russia’s population as of January 1, 2015. When you subtract out Crimea, as I think is perfectly appropriate to do, the total population was just short of 144 million, or 143,975,923 if you want to be precise. This represents an increase of about 275,000 on last January’s estimate of 143.7 million. That is decidedly lower growth than Russia recorded during 2013, but as the following chart shows it’s still a heck of a lot better than most of its post-Soviet history, when, even accounting for immigration,...

A small school in northern Texas is under investigation by its superintendent after 20 students were apparently forced to drop their pants so that staff could inspect their underwear. The students at Gustine Elementary in Gustine, Texas, were subjected to partial strip searches Monday after staff repeatedly found feces on the floor of the school gym. Boys were taken to one room and girls to another, and then they were ordered “to pull down their pants to check them to see if they could find anything,” Maria Medina, a mother of one of the children, told ABC-affiliated WFAA 8. Her...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Friday that ordinary Americans are tired of the heavy hand of Washington and are yearning for elected leaders to take a “fresh” bottom-up approach to governance that empowers states and localities. Mr. Walker’s message coincided with the news that Mitt Romney was taking a pass on a third White House bid — setting the stage for a royal rumble over the fundraisers and high-dollar donors who had been waiting to see what the former Massachusetts governor would do. *** “To transform America, we really need to transfer power from our nation’s capital here in Washington...

Author, founder of Salon.com, and Bernal Heights resident David Talbot recently made a speech at Stanford which was then published in 48HillsOnline.com decrying “Stanford douchebags”, gentrification, and Mayor Ed Lee. Talbot’s strong words for Stanford students have struck a chord up north in San Francisco, and his speech is rapidly going viral.

Lindsey Graham: 'I Would Be Good Commander-in-Chief — God Knows We Need One' Friday, 30 Jan 2015 By Courtney Coren Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was promoting his own presidential candidacy on CNN Friday after former presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced that he will not run in 2016. Graham told CNN that while he was "surprised" by Romney's announcement, it won't change his decision to explore the possibility of running and that it means "one less good person to choose from."

ight to free speech? Nope. Right to bear arms? Forget about it. Right not to buy ObamaCare? Ha. But illegal aliens do have a right to take your job. It’s in the Obamastitution. Right after locking up filmmakers who mock Islam. And children who bite pop tarts into the shape of a gun. Just ask Obama’s AG nominee. Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch backed up President Obama on his controversial immigration executive actions during her confirmation hearing Wednesday — while going as far to say she believed in an illegal immigrant’s “right” and “obligation to work.” Under questioning from Sen....

The precision medicine initiative proposed by President Barack Obama last week would center on a huge new biobank containing medical records and genetic information for perhaps a million Americans. It would not be created from scratch by enrolling new volunteers, however, but would instead pull together existing studies into one giant database. That’s according to several scientists familiar with the broad outlines of the project who spoke on background with ScienceInsider. The biobank would be used for studies ranging from finding new disease-gene associations to working out how to use genomic and other molecular information in routine medical care. On...

US lawmakers propose PM move speech to joint session of Congress until after Israel election on March 17.WASHINGTON – Democrats in the House of Representatives are suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postpone his speech to a joint session of Congress until after the Israeli election on March 17. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said it was “not appropriate” for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to invite Netanyahu without first notifying the White House – a move that angered the Obama administration.Netanyahu is expected to advocate for a different policy on Iran that the president has thus far pursued. “Such...

Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to swiping a card to do all these things. But at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, they are trying a different approach - a chip under the skin. Felicio de Costa, whose company is one of the tenants, arrives at the front door and holds his hand against it to gain entry. Inside he does the same thing to get into the office space he rents, and he can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier....

Antisemitic British Baroness Jenny Tonge Pressures UK Jews to Condemn Israel JANUARY 30, 2015 11:50 AM Ben Cohen Baroness Jenny Tonge, a member of Britain’s House of Lords with a long record of inflammatory, often antisemitic, statements against both Israel and the British Jewish leadership, has again been pressuring British Jews to collectively condemn Israel. Earlier this week, Tonge tabled a written question in the House of Lords in which she asked “Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to encourage Jewish faith leaders in the United Kingdom publicly to condemn settlement building by Israel and to make clear their support...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared February 2nd to be “Chris Kyle Day” to honor the Texan who became known the most lethal sniper in American history. Kyle was also recently immortalized in the blockbuster film “American Sniper.” Kyle was credited with 150 sniper kills during his four tours of duty in Iraq as a Navy Seal. He was tragically shot and killed on February 2, 2013, while trying to help a fellow veteran who was allegedly suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Taya Kyle, the widow of Chris Kyle, was recently honored by the organization AmericanSnipers.org with a donation of $62,000....

As the 2016 GOP presidential primaries get closer, many conservatives have been growing increasingly hopeful that this will be finally the year they determine their party's nominee. It's a tall order. The Tea Party has shown it can push GOP politicians to the right and win one-off Senate primaries. But taking on the establishment in an expensive, months-long slog of primaries and caucuses across the country is a more difficult proposition. Even when Mitt Romney looked weak in 2012, the Tea Party didn't manage to coalesce around a viable alternative. This time, things feel different — candidates like Scott Walker...

Perry Weitz and his $30 million Challenger 605. / Photo: Facebook / PatrickMcMullan.com The high profile Weitz & Luxenberg firm paid disgraced Democrat Sheldon Silver nearly $4 million, but there's plenty more where that came from. Weitz brags about $8 billion in asbestos and defective drug settlements. The Brooklyn-born Weitz describes himself as “a clenched-jaw champion of justice for the little guy” — proudly lives lavishly, with a private jet, two huge yachts and a 44-acre ranch outside Aspen, Colo, flying-in at some $40,000 per trip. In a gushing profile in New York magazine, Weitz downplayed greed as his...

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Senate voted 31-3 Thursday to reject an 11.1 percent pay raise for lawmakers and a 16.6 percent raise for statewide elected officials after an opponent of the raises threatened to invoke a rarely used rule to force the vote. On Wednesday, lawmakers supporting the raises blocked the resolution sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, which would reject the raise recommended by the Missouri Citizens’ Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials. That seemed to put the matter to rest until Schaaf announced he was looking for four other members to sign a...