Free Republic

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the correct location of the meeting between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Adelson, as well as a different characterization of the results of that meeting. Jewish life in New York is dominated by ritual. Holidays. A pastrami reuben on a hero at Katz’s. The reading of holy books in cycles that take a year (the Torah) or seven and a half years (the Talmud). And just as reliably, there’s the ritual of presidential candidates sniffing around for dough right after the midterm elections. That last one got going in earnest yesterday and today,...

It has been over three months since the horrific death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It has been over three months since Brown's parents and loved ones began awaiting a semblance of justice and closure on this painful chapter in their lives. And it's been over three months since a community started searching for answers and justice after another one of its children died at the hands of police.

Paul is the first potential 2016 contender to visit the city.Sen. Rand Paul met with civil rights leaders Friday in Ferguson, Missouri, the city torn apart by racial unrest following the August shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer. During his visit, the Republican Senator, who is seen as a likely presidential candidate, stated his concerns about long prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, the loss of voting rights for felons and military programs to give unused equipment to local police departments. “I wanted to find out what we could do to make the situation better,” Paul...

Halper believes that the Clintons’ effort to in effect keep their friends close while turning enemies into friends has been a masterful and hugely overlooked part of the rebuilding of their machine: "What has been little understood in the past decade, from 2001 to the present, is how successfully the Clintons undertook a systematic, comprehensive, and sustained effort to win over leaders in the GOP, especially figures who were once the biggest critics. In return, both Clintons were able to develop a bipartisan, statesmanlike image that had eluded them through eight years in the White House."

President Obama made a surprise video appearance at the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland on Saturday. Joining Greg Louganis, Lance Bass, the Pointer Sisters, and Broadway’s Andrea McArdle and Alex Newell in celebrating the event, Obama said, “Since 1982 the Gay Games have given lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender athletes and supporters around the world a chance to come together to compete, celebrate, and inspire others.” President Obama, who is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, noted how the country has changed since the games began in 1982. “We’ve also seen America change in that time, even since...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota Democratic congressman is leading efforts to bring to the state more unaccompanied children who've fled Central America for the U.S. However, immigration advocates and nonprofit groups that serve refugees are concerned Minnesota might not be able to handle a crush of children who need care and have complex legal issues. Rep. Keith Ellison says Minnesota is as well-equipped as any other state to handle the children. The Democratic congressman has been a leader in the national push for immigration reform. "We have capacity to help here and we should," Ellison said Monday at...

While we regular, cash-strapped taxpayers concerned about the well-being of our country stood on the overpasses Saturday protesting the total breakdown of our borders, where were a few of our stalwart conservative spokespeople and politicians? Were they holding anti-illegal immigration signs with ‘we the people’ on the National Day of Protesting Against Immigration Reform Amnesty and Border Surge?

The tell-tale sign Republicans expected to lose the Senate in 2006 appeared June 28 of that year. That was when the GOP turned to stunts to save themselves. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., brought to the floor a constitutional amendment banning the burning of the American flag. Flag-burning had not been a serious issue for years. But after Hurricane Katrina, and with the Iraq War going poorly, Republicans were desperate to change the subject. “Flag burning is a form of expression that is spiteful or vengeful,” said the late Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., whose chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is joining the parade of ambitious Republicans courting religious conservatives as the early jockeying for the next presidential contest intensifies. Christie was to deliver his first major address to an evangelical conference on Friday, the second day of the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual meeting, which brings hundreds of social conservative leaders to Washington. He’ll be joined on a packed agenda that also includes the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, and tea party firebrand Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. […] This group of potential presidential contenders largely represents a wing of the...

Somebody save Rand Paul from himself. At a time when champions for liberty are in short supply, someone has apparently convinced the original “wacko bird” that the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue isn’t “stand with Rand,” but “where does Rand stand?” Because, you know, it worked so well for President Romney or something. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Ambitious Republican wants desperately to be president, so he begins what amounts to a nationwide pandering tour. To show he’s not like all those other “spiteful conservatives” that inhabit his party, he pre-emptively apologizes for what his base believes,...

How Facebook Exploits Underage Girls in its Quest for Ad Revenue Sophie Bean, 14, of Sequim, Wash., said she was thought she was “liking” a Facebook ad related to fashion modeling. Instead, it promoted a Facebook page that recruited adult webcam models. “I just thought it was for modeling, and I’m interested in that, and I thought it would help me out,” Sophie said. Sophie wasn’t the only teen connecting with the page, which Facebook statistics show is most popular with users 13 to 17. Clicking on it didn’t pull the teens into nude webcam modeling, but did mean they...

The majority of sleazes in congress and the chief criminal in the White House talk of “doing the right thing” and “having a heart” by their plan to extend unemployment benefits yet again for the millions of deadbeats sitting on their fat rear-ends collecting checks for month after month after month after month after month after month after month…instead of simply going out and, if nothing else, finding and accepting menial or low-paying, humble work. “Waaahhh, if we don’t continue to pay them not to work, they might lose their house, waahhh, they might have to pull their kids out...

"I'm not a particularly ideological person," President Obama told an audience of donors in Seattle over the weekend. He added (in Reuters' words) that "pragmatism was necessary to advance the values that were important to him." This is an old refrain of Obama's. As he said in his first inaugural, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works." "What works" is a cruel standard for the author of Obamacare, which may be one reason the White House has taken to scrubbing the sobriquet from its website and the...

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - A large crowd gathered near the Federal Courthouse in Richmond as part of the "Justice for Trayvon" rallies happening all over the country. Mayor Dwight Jones and several other pastors spoke out at Saturday's event. It's been one week since a jury rendered a not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. City and community leaders took this opportunity to push for more peace in the streets. Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones shared his views on Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law to the crowd. "Stand your ground is something that doesn't exist in Virginia it exists...

Listen up folks, after you read the bankruptcy filing for Detroit. 1. Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its citizens. 2. Right now, the City cannot meet its basic obligations to its creditors. 3. The failure of the City to meet its obligations to its citizens is the primary cause of its inability to meet its obligations to its creditors. 4. The only feasible path to ensuring the City will be able to meet obligations in the future is to have a successful restructuring via the bankruptcy process that recognizes the fundamental importance of ensuring the...

A new poll undermines the conventional wisdom, relentlessly peddled by some Republican establishment types, that Republicans need to embrace Schumer-Rubio style amnesty in order to make headway with Hispanic voters. The poll, conducted by Republican pollster John McLaughlin, finds that, by a margin of 60 percent to 34 percent, registered Hispanic voters support granting legal status to illegal immigrants only when the goal of stopping 90 percent of future illegal immigration is reached. The Schumer-Rubio legislation grants legal status to illegal immigrants without regard to any metric of success in preventing illegal immigration. Indeed, as Andrew Stiles points out, the...

Marco Rubio has repeatedly claimed he "wants more" from the Amnesty Bill now moving through Congress. Yes, folks, it's an amnesty bill. Let's cut the crap and call it what it is, because only through calling something what it is can we debate it. "Legalization" of those who are here illegally today is amnesty. I don't care whether it leads to citizenship now or later, the fact of the matter is that it rewards criminal activity by allowing those who stole from Americans and their resources to keep what they stole and remain here in America. There is no restitution....

Even when we’ve tried through good intentions to make the world a better place our actions have often backfired. During the Iraq War, over a quarter-million Iraqi Christians fled Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator but his government was secular and therefore relatively safe for Christians. Christians, however, feared the Shiite government that we helped put in place after Saddam, and they fled in droves. Where did these Christians go? They headed mostly for Syria, joining the over one million Syrians who have lived as Christians since the time of Christ. Now, the senate is attempting to arm the...

(CNSNews.com) - In his prepared text for a speech he is delivering today at the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) said to illegal aliens who want to live and work in the United States: “[W]e will find a place for you.” Paul also said he envisions today’s illegal aliens becoming additional “taxpayers.” “Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers,” said Paul. Illegal aliens working in the United States today are not exempted from complying with the nation's tax laws anymore...