Free Republic

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The leading Republican presidential hopefuls have spent the weeks since their first debate provoking one another, with distant taunts and tweeted insults.

One of New York City's most well-to-do streets is not immune to the growing panhandling problem. It is a sunny summer morning on E. 29th St. and Park Ave. Business is brisk for panhandlers who zero in on drivers stopped at the light on the busy crosstown route. It's almost like an unofficial toll. There's no shame to them as they panhandle, knowing Fox 5 News cameras are right there. A man who says he's an Army veteran works the corner by day and sleeps in a city shelter by night.

Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson has pulled to within 4 points of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, a new poll shows. In the New York Times/CBS News survey released Tuesday, Trump maintains the lead of the presidential pack, with 27 percent support. But Carson is within striking distance, at 23 percent, which is within the margin of error, making it a statistical dead heat.Carson's rise compared with his polling at 6 percent support in the pre-Aug. 6 debate Times/CBS News survey; Trump was at 24 percent in that earlier poll, showing Carson's gains the most significant in that time frame,...

**SNIP** But though the United States and Iran each face domestic pressures against closer relations, some analysts see a more collaborative relationship as an inevitable if uneasy consequence of the negotiations leading up to the nuclear deal — despite the insistence of leaders on either side that the American-brokered agreement would be limited to Iran’s nuclear program. “Both the Iranian and American governments are going to approach expanded dialogue very gingerly,” said James Dobbins, a senior follow at the RAND Corporation. “But there will still be a gradual increase in at least communication between the two governments on areas beyond...

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a statistical dead heat in a hypothetical general election matchup, a new poll shows. A Washington Post/ABC News poll of registered voters released Sunday shows the former secretary narrowly beating the bombastic billionaire 46% to 43%, but the three-percentage-point victory is well within the poll's margin of error. Clinton's margin of victory increases substantially, however, when pollsters survey the winder field of all adults. In that case, Clinton would beat Trump 51% to 39%. Nearly a year before the formal nomination will occur, Clinton remains the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, despite...

Not so much newsy as just something nice to share on a Sunday afternoon. Yesterday a massive number of folks showed up to continue to honor the memory of Deputy Darren Goforth, and perhaps equally to celebrate the lives of his fellow officers who remain on watch now that his has ended. The Police Lives Matter gathering was probably seen by some activists as a poke in the eye to the Black Lives Matter movement, but from the looks of things there wasn’t anyone in a mood to apologize for it. (Story summary after the video from USA Today.) HOUSTON,...

It probably made sense on paper: invite presidential candidates to visit the Iowa Republican Party’s tent in the parking lot before the big Iowa vs. Iowa State football game on Saturday. What planners did not anticipate was the portable mob scene that characterizes the candidacy of Donald J. Trump. Arriving more than an hour late, Mr. Trump offered a speech of less than a minute on the state party’s stage. But that was beside the point, as star-struck supporters greeted him like a stadium rocker during a sprawling tailgate party before kickoff. “Donald, you rock!” a young man shouted as...

LONDON — A veteran anti-war campaigner known for his unapologetically socialist views has won a landslide victory to lead Britain's opposition Labour Party — an outcome that delighted supporters and dismayed others who never imagined he could be elected. The overwhelming support for far-left lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn, 66, was one of the biggest shake-ups in British politics in decades. His win Saturday marks a sharp left turn for his party — and will significantly challenge the tone of mainstream British politics, which is now dominated by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives. "It's certainly the most high-profile position an overt socialist...

Radical feminist writer Jill Filipovic is not happy with Pope Francis. In the New York Times, she criticizes his recent announcement authorizing priests to forgive repentant confessions of abortion: "[M]ercy may actually be worse. While the pope’s announcement has been hailed as evidence of the church’s new, softer approach, it’s actually the latest example of the modern anti-abortion strategy: Portray women as victims who need to be protected from themselves with laws that restrict abortion rights. "Despite the concern for what the pope calls an “agonizing and painful decision,” research shows that a vast majority of women who terminate pregnancies...

Florida mother-of-four who ditched her family to join the Occupy Wall Street protest loses police brutality suit The Florida mom who left her banker husband and four kids to join the Occupy Wall Street protest just lost in court after a jury rejected her claims that police officers violently arrested her during a 2011 protest. Stacey Hessler sued the city of New York in 2013, claiming that NYPD cops dragged her around by her dreadlocks when she was being arrested. However, attorneys for the city said that the 42-year-old woman blocked pedestrian traffic and refused to move when the officers...

Mark Levin's new book "Plunder and Deceit" has been number one on the New York Times bestseller list for five weeks in a row. Like with his other best-sellers, no liberal journalist will read it, no liberal newspaper will review it, and no liberal network would imagine calling up Levin for an interview. They are too busy advocating tolerance and diversity. Why doesn't Mark Levin deserve a turn on CBS's "60 Minutes"? Why can't the conservative taxpayers be granted a forum for Levin or "Charlie Rose" on PBS or on NPR's "All Things Considered"? In short, why not a slice...

David Brock’s war against the New York Times just went nuclear — and the paper is responding with equal fury. Brock, the former right-wing journalist-turned-pro-Clinton crusader, takes aim at a top New York Times editor in a soon-to-be released book obtained by POLITICO. In the book, titled "Killing the Messenger: The Right-Wing Plot to Derail Hillary Clinton and Hijack Your Government,” Brock accuses senior politics editor and former Washington bureau chief Carolyn Ryan of helping to turn the paper into a “megaphone for conservative propaganda” by unfairly targeting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The founder of liberal watchdog groups...

Hillary Clinton’s sudden reversal on whether or not she would apologize for using a private email server while Secretary of State seemed inexplicable; on Friday she refused to apologize in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, but by Tuesday was apologizing to ABC’s David Muir. But The New York Times reported Wednesday on the impetus for the change; Clinton watched a video of a focus group that reacted negatively to her email rhetoric.

The great lie of the summer has been the Black Lives Matter movement. It was founded on one falsehood—that a Ferguson, Mo., police officer shot a black suspect who was trying to surrender—and it is perpetuated by another: that trigger-happy cops are filling our morgues with young black men. The reality is that Michael Brown is dead because he robbed a convenience store, assaulted a uniformed officer and then made a move for the officer’s gun. The reality is that a cop is six times more likely to be killed by someone black than the reverse. The reality is that...

So Jeb Bush is finally going after Donald Trump. Over the past couple of weeks the man who was supposed to be the front-runner has made a series of attacks on the man who is. Strange to say, however, Mr. Bush hasn’t focused on what’s truly vicious and absurd — viciously absurd? — about Mr. Trump’s platform, his implicit racism and his insistence that he would somehow round up 11 million undocumented immigrants and remove them from our soil. Instead, Mr. Bush has chosen to attack Mr. Trump as a false conservative, a proposition that is supposedly demonstrated by his...

Economist Paul Krugman thinks Donald Trump's presidential campaign actually gets a few things right. Krugman previously derided the Republican real-estate mogul as a "belligerent, loudmouth racist with not an ounce of compassion." But in a Monday op-ed in The New York Times, the left-leaning writer praised Trump's "heresies" from Republican orthodoxy when it comes to economic policy. "So am I saying that Mr. Trump is better and more serious than he's given credit for being?" Krugman asked, making it clear that he is still not a Trump supporter. "Not at all — he is exactly the ignorant blowhard he seems...

VALHALLA, N.Y. — It was quiet beneath the mountain laurel shrubs shielding the grave of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the late-summer sun. The furor is 4,500 miles away, in Russia, its indelible voice in every melodic line he wrote — a different Russia, a different sensibility, a different life, different time. Resolutely nationalistic Russians want his body back. His great-great-granddaughter, Susan Sophia Rachmaninoff Volkonskaya Wanamaker, says “nyet.” Or she might, if she spoke Russian, but probably not. In a conversation about where his remains belong, she repeatedly used words like “dignity” and “respect.”

There's a reason Bartolo Colon starts have become must-see events and social media happenings on the grandest scale. Every time he's on the field, there's a high probability of something strange, extremely unlikely or highly amusing happening, which essentially guarantees the viewing audience will be entertained. More often than not, Colon's batting provides the entertainment value. Whether he's getting a hit or just swinging and missing and losing his helmet, the internet rejoices all the same. ..." On Saturday, though, Colon changed things up and wowed us with his athleticism on defense. And in the process, he may have broken...

Jakarta. Indonesia’s parliamentary speaker and one of his deputies made a surprise appearance at a campaign event by US presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York on Thursday, in a stunt both the House and the Foreign Ministry said they were not aware of. Both Setya Novanto, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Fadli Zon, a deputy speaker, were seen standing in a group of people behind Trump as he spoke at the Trump Tower. Business Insider reported that after he finished speaking, Trump walked away from the podium only to return with Setya, whom he introduced to...

There is a solid argument to be made that forcing Donald Trump to sign the Republican Pledge was step one in this RNC/GOPe strategy. He’s now locked in the Thunderdome! When you fully understand the scope of how the Republican National Committee organized the entire road map to elect Jeb Bush, you begin to understand why Reince Priebus needed to lock the door behind Trump before unleashing the thugs upon him. Hundreds of millions will be spent on this RNC/GOPe effort to destroy Trump. It will be unlike any scorched earth campaign ever witnessed. The brutality of the intended targeting...