Free Republic

The California state Senate today took the unprecedented step of suspending three of its members who have been accused of crimes including corruption, perjury and conspiracy to traffic weapons -- a move that takes away their power but maintains their pay. With a vote of 28-1, senators ousted colleagues Democrats Leland Yee of San Francisco, Ron Calderon of Montebello and Rod Wright of Baldwin Hills with a resolution that says they can't resume office "until all criminal proceedings currently pending against them have been dismissed." Expelling them would be premature, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said, because Yee and Calderon have...

In the last year there have been a lot of conservative rumblings against the new progressive education agenda called Common Core. This is yet another in a long line of new progressive initiatives since they created modern government education a century ago. The last was Outcome Based Education, which as usual failed to produce increased learning or test scores unless the tests were dumbed down. You say that it was a failure, the progressive left views this a success. The goal of American government education has never been about learning, it’s been about indoctrination. It’s about separating the next generation...

Democrats control the Senate, but instead of bringing up a Democrat-sponsored climate-change bill, a few dozen of them pulled an all-nigher on the Senate floor to draw attention to the issue. It's a clear indication that Democrats don't have the votes -- or the public support -- to pass their own climate-change legislation. And they blame the lack of bipartisanship on billionaire Republican donors and "all that dark money," as one Democrat described it.

Bad news for burrito lovers: Chipotle warned in its latest annual report that climate change might lead it to leave guacamole out of its burritos and bowls. The chain blames the possible change on higher prices. “In the event of cost increases with respect to one or more of our raw ingredients we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas, rather than paying the increased cost for the ingredients.” The company acknowledged such a move would be a massive disappointment to some of its customers. But, as ThinkProgress points...

ThinkProgress writer Igor Volsky seems genuinely excited that fewer than 15 out of 92 federal anti-poverty programs are somewhat effective. The results came out of a report commissioned by Representative Paul Ryan to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs put in place to combat the problem. The War on Poverty, 50 Years Later evaluates the at least 92 federal programs the government has created and finds that, “Despite trillions of dollars in spending, poverty is widespread.”

First published on American Thinker. By Enza Ferreri Of all the myriad myths spread at light speed by the enemies of Christianity and astonishingly believed without much critical thought by vast numbers of people, one of the most surreal must be the idea that Nazism was Christian. This is part of an email I received from Tony, a supporter of my party Liberty GB, who sent me a long list of sharp attacks against Christianity after watching my video What Is Uniquely Good about Western Civilisation Derives from Christianity: For example Adolf Hitler was a Catholic and included proclamations...

BOSTON,—The family of Justina Pelletier was emotionally distraught after a judge sentenced their sick daughter to the foster care system without access to her previous medical care. Justina is at the center of a legal battle between the Pelletier family and Boston Children’s Hospital over custody and proper medical treatment. Attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel filed a motion for pro hac vice to represent the Pelletiers, but the judge took the rare move of allowing the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) to respond to the motion, effectively denying the specialist attorney from arguing in the hearing. To...

The thing I like about most sports are the rules and how the winner is determined are pretty unambiguous. Score more points, cross the finish line first, jump higher, whatever, and you win. Should there be any foul play or skirting of the rules, there’s an official or referee there to cry foul. It’s simple and, to borrow a word from President Obama, fair. Politics, on the other hand, is quite different. Truth used to be the most potent weapon in the game of politics. It was the best tool with which to garner the most votes, and whoever got...

If you’re a conservative, you don't need to silence the opposition. In fact, we conservatives want liberals to talk, to make buffoons of themselves, to prove their folly. We want liberals to expound upon their ridiculous ideas, to show the world exactly what they're about. Nancy Pelosi? Give that tiresome woman a microphone. Chatty liberals are the best advertisement for conservatism. But liberals just can’t have conservatives speaking. We’ll tell the truth, and that’s why liberals need to shut us up. Their traditional intimidation tactics are wearing out. Calling someone a “racist” used to be a devastating moral indictment. Liberals’...

The American left has never had it this good with two terms of an uncompromising leftist in the White House dedicated to its agenda, making and unmaking laws at a whim, siccing the IRS and federal prosecutors on his political enemies and transforming the country at a breathtaking pace. Obama is what generations of the left have worked toward. This is the flicker of hope they kept alive throughout the Nixon years, Carter’s collapse and the long stretch of Reaganomics. This is what Bill Clinton robbed them of by gauging his actions against the polls instead of blasting full steam...

Bloomberg's Private Militia. Former Mayor (and Czar) of New York City is starting his own private militia. Former Czar Bloomberg lives in fear in the crime ridden NYC jungle since he lost his police protection entourage when he left office. To rectify that he has decided to spend some of his own money to create a private militia. He has decided to encourage the 16 NYC police that previously guarded him to retire (and take their $80,000 or more yearly pensions) and come to work for him in his private militia at $150,000 or more per year. Although retired, the...

Are you dazed and confused by Barack Obama, the nominal Democrat, whose conduct as president since 2009 has seen him sink from nearly 70 percent to 40 percent or less in the national polling, from which he has seemed to learn nothing, but still marches on? Fear not, the doctor is in: Fred Siegel of the Manhattan Institute, whose latest book, The Revolt Against The Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class, explains all you wanted to know about Obama, and much else. It explains why he never became the new Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy or Lyndon...

Saying that life is hard is kind of like saying the sun is hot, water is wet, or noting that politicians lie a lot. It's so obvious that anyone who's paying attention already knows that it's true. That being said, life's even harder when you're working under false assumptions that have been drilled into you by your teachers, college professors, Hollywood, and politicians in D.C. Much of what liberalism drums into the young skulls full of mush simply isn't true and millions of lives have been ruined by people finding it out the hard way. The good news is that...

Both the same kind of unprincipled, vengeful,  mafioso-mentality thug that should never  be allowed anywhere near the levers of power... If we as constitutional conservatives somehow allow a Chris Christie nomination to become reality in 2016 after this latest scandal, then shame on us- the GOP Establishment golden boy's aides have been caught red-handed ordering bridge lanes closed for four days, creating traffic snarls  -and causing at least one death via ambulance delay- for no other reason than retaliation against a whole town (Fort Lee, NJ) because their Dem mayor (who Christie staffers referred to as 'that little Serbian') refused to endorse his...

"What do you mean 'Democrats are the real racists'"? How often has someone asked you this question? I get it all the time from younger people-- 30 and below especially. I used to recite the many instances of institutionalized racism Democrats authored and enforced to keep blacks slaves, then sharecroppers and segregated when it suited whites. I recite all the common talking points of Democrats voting against voting rights during the civil rights movement, rescinding voting rights 2 decades after Republicans gave blacks voting rights following the Civil War, the KKK being created by an elected Democrat as an enforcement...

In a column on the “remarkable lives” of some people who passed away in 2013, Republican strategist Karl Rove writes that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in concert with Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and Pope John Paul II, “transformed the world.” He’s right that Reagan, Bush, Thatcher and the Pope did transform the world. In saying that Thatcher stood up to Soviet communism, however, he neglected to mention that the Soviet Communists fought back, attempting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The Soviets lied about their involvement in this plot. Referring to Nelson Mandela, Rove says he...

There is a foul pestilence making its way across America today. Where once proud bastions of conservatism and traditional American values have stood the test of time, a lingering disease has penetrated and spreads its malicious infection. I'm talking about the progressive liberal plague that occurs when liberals pick up and leave bastions of liberal thinking and move to areas of the country where conservatism was the backbone of the culture. States such as Colorado, Texas, and Florida have all had an invasion of liberals. These entities have left behind states such as New York and Michigan after liberal policies...

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what a compliment Michigan AFL-CIO President Karla Swift just paid to the liberal Center for Media and Democracy. In an op-ed piece in the Detroit News published Wednesday, Swift breathlessly rails against the American Legislative Exchange Council and the State Policy Network, describing each as “corporate-funded, right-wing organizations that push an agenda focused on attacking workers’ rights, blocking access to affordable (health care), defunding and privatizing public education, suppressing voting rights, lowering taxes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, cutting essential public spending and destroying the environment.” Her critique certainly is not a...

A record number of Americans think that “big government” is the biggest threat to the country, according to a new poll. The Gallup survey released on Wednesday showed that 72 percent of people say that “big government” is a bigger threat to the country than “big labor” or “big business.” That’s the highest percentage of Americans who have expressed the preference since the pollster began asking the question in 1965. According to the poll, just 21 percent of Americans cite “big business” as the greatest threat to the country, and only 5 percent have concerns about “big labor.” The recent...

Examining the Portland, Ore.-based Bus Project, one could use plenty of adjectives to describe the operation’s tactics and activities: aggressive, unique and innovative. The one descriptor that group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, wants you to believe, though, is the least-fitting: nonpartisan. Sure, the group holds a banner that professes to soar above partisan politics. “Not left. Not right. But Forward,” preaches the site of The Bus Project’s Montana affiliate, Forward Montana.