Free Republic

**SNIP** Reed's message to liberals--especially those who invest their hopes in the Democratic Party--is stark. Since the 1980s, he writes, liberals, activists and social movement organizations (the combination of which Reed labels "the left") have been on the defensive. Instead of determining how to advance a broadly popular and egalitarian vision, this left has narrowed its "social vision" and its time horizon, keying actions to the next election cycle. "Each election now becomes a moment of life-or-death urgency that precludes dissent or even reflection," Reed writes. "For liberals, there is only one option in an election year, and that is...

A Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy looks like a sure thing, with marquee Democratic donors and activists mobilizing for what they see as her inevitable entrance into the 2016 race. Yet some of Mrs. Clinton's closest confidants and allies aren't sold on the idea that she should run. Their cautions add an unpredictable element as Mrs. Clinton weighs whether to seek the presidency again, a decision she says she plans to make later this year. One of Mrs. Clinton's top advisers and former aides, Cheryl Mills, believes she should stay out of the contest and has told her as much, according...

When blacks gave 80 percent of their vote to the Democratic Party in 1964, black activist Malcolm X called them “political chumps.” White voters, X said, “are so evenly divided that every time they vote, the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. Which means that any bloc, any minority that has a bloc that sticks together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it.” Yet Democrats, said Malcolm X, failed to deliver on a promised and much anticipated new civil rights bill, knowing the party...

Insiders very close to House White House Press Secretary Jay Carney indicate that he’s on his way out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, The Mirror has learned. Carney has told people he’s leaving the White House soon. In 2008, Carney became Director of Communications for Vice President Joe Biden. In 2011, he became the nation’s 29th press secretary, President Obama’s second, replacing Robert Gibbs. Before that, Carney was a journalist for The Miami Herald and later TIME and CNN. In the last 48 hours, Carney has been getting press attention from outlets like The Weekly Standard and the New York Daily...

Perhaps we'll be seeing less of Lena Dunham on screen in the future: The "Girls" talent says she might consider quitting acting to focus on some of her other work. But don't worry, she's not going far. "I don't know if I'm going to want to act anymore. I'm always relieved on the days I don't have to. I'd rather give parts to other women than be the woman having the parts," the Golden Globe-winning 27-year-old said in the April issue of Glamour, which hits newsstands March 18. Appearing in the critically acclaimed HBO series about four 20-something women growing...

To protect endangered rodents, a Florida sanctuary will trap cats found on its land. Pets can be retrieved, but feral cats will likely be euthanized. While woodrats and cotton mice fall prey to native predators like snake and owls, Cove says the cats present a unique challenge.

Vice President Joe Biden has revealed that the President assigned him ‘every s*** job in the world’ but he still wasn’t able to win Obama’s full support and began being effectively frozen out after one of his infamous gaffes. The 71-year-old argued that he was happy to do the less glamorous tasks- like handling the at-times petty Senate fights and calming the fears of the infamously paranoid President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai- but only at a price. ‘When the president asked me what portfolio did I want, I said, “Base it on what you want of me to help you...

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) embraced President Obama’s lofty call for hope and change when he and other Democrats gathered in Denver six years ago to celebrate the Illinois senator’s nomination. The festive buzz has long since faded and Udall has dropped his talk of “our time” and “our moment” when discussing the president. He’s not even sure if he wants Obama back in his state after the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act left some of his constituents fuming. “Coloradoans are going to re-elect me based on my record, not the president’s record. Not what the president’s done but...

In 2012, grievously oppressed rabid rats convinced the Obama Administration to grant their demands. They may now be assisting Palestinians and Iranians. However, rumors to that effect have not yet been confirmed.An article about the successes of the Nation of Rabid Rats, posted here on September 12, 2012, may have been prescient. It is reprinted below with few modifications. Briefly, the Nation of Rabid Rats had persuaded the Obama Administration that its demands were fair and just. Taking into account geographical and other contextual differences, Palestinian demands resemble those earlier presented by the Nation of Rabid Rats and agreed to by the Obama...

**SNIP** This year, Democrats face a new problem. Traditionally, the party of a president loses seats in the mid-term election of the president's second term, largely due to some voter fatigue with the incumbent. According to the Gallup polling firm, since 1946, when presidents were above 50 percent approval, their party loses an average of 14 House seats in mid-term elections, When the president's approval is below 50 percent, like Obama's is now, his party loses an average of 36 seats. Since Obama's first term, Democrats have complained that he often seemed more interested in placating Republicans than his own...

Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races. In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly. They are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they’re concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations lawmakers collect, which must be...

NASHUA, N.H. — For better or worse, they are the class of Obama. Eight Democratic senators swept into office partly on Barack Obama's 2008 coattails are facing their first reelection bid without the benefit of having the president on the ballot and at a time when his approval rating is near an all-time low. The future of the Senate, and President Obama's ability to push through an agenda during his final two years in office, rests largely on their fate. Democrats hold a five-seat Senate majority, when two independents aligned with the party are included. That means Republicans hoping to...

**SNIP** Most notably, the president “stressed how important keeping the Senate is this year,” this person said. The discussion comes amid rising anxiety among some Democrats about how the president’s declining popularity might affect the party’s ability to maintain control of the Senate. Republicans are increasingly hopeful of picking up six or more seats to narrowly retake control of the chamber. Aides to two of the most at-risk Democrats – Mark Begich (Alaska) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) – confirmed that their bosses attending the meeting.

With Rep. Henry Waxman's retirement announcement, many of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's top lieutenants are abandoning ship. Waxman joins his California colleague, Rep. George Miller, and Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia as close Pelosi allies to retire after this Congress. And after last year's 2012 elections, Pelosi's leading in-house strategist Jen Crider left her office, later announcing she was working for Microsoft. Their decisions are as strong a signal as any that veteran House Democrats hold little hope of taking the House in 2014, and they probably are pessimistic about their long-term prospects for a congressional majority. Miller and...

Abandoned cruise ship filled with cannibal rats headed for British shore The Lyubov Orlova has been detected off the coast of Scotland. Its only passengers are demented, disease-ridden rats feeding off each other. An abandoned cruise liner teeming with inbred cannibal rats is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean and possibly about to run aground on Britain’s coastline, according to a new report. The Lyubov Orlova has been drifting east from Canadian waters since last year. Newly detected beacons off the dilapidated vessel’s rescue boats indicate it is was recently off the west coast of Scotland, raising concerns it could run...

(CNN) - A group that backs House Democratic incumbents and candidates released a new ad Thursday that praises a Democratic congresswoman for blasting the "stunning ineptitude" of the Affordable Care Act rollout. "Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick blew the whistle on the disastrous healthcare website, called it 'stunning ineptitude,' and worked to fix it," the narrator says in the ad. The spot was released by House Majority PAC, a group that's trying to help Democrats retake control the House of Representatives.

**SNIP** But all of these last-minute policy shifts confuse people who were already struggling to understand a complex new system, and they force insurance companies to take on more work, which would be difficult even if everything were going right. The cumulative effect is that at least some people — we hope not many — will misunderstand their responsibilities under the law or be deterred from seeking coverage. The biggest danger is that the Obama administration is encouraging politicians to meddle in the health-care system every time a few vocal constituents get upset about its requirements. Ms. Sebelius’s Thursday announcement...

Above: Illegal aliens made out like banditos thanks to Harry Reid and Senate Democrats. Disabled vets? Not so much.- They actually did it. They are on the record. Senate Democrats, led by their filibuster-slaying dictator Harry Reid, actually put the interests of illegal aliens above those of our disabled military veterans.Let that sink in for a moment. Now the details: The two-year budget deal brokered by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, would cut military pensions by $6 billion over ten years. Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, joined by several others in his party, tried...

In a study published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity, University of New South Wales researchers describe how lab rats rapidly began to show signs of serious memory decline after just six days on a sugar- and fat-laden diet of cakes, chips, and more. Specifically, the junk-food-eating rats had inflamed hippocampal regions, and they did poorly on spatial-memory tests long before they started gaining weight. "We were surprised at how fast it was," co-author Margaret Morris tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "Our preliminary data also suggests that the damage is not reversed when the rats are switched back to a healthy...

Ben Affleck is smart enough to know an actor taking up political causes can shatter the illusion movies are meant to conjure. Yet the Argo director and avowed liberal still sticks his foot in his mouth during a new interview with Playboy Magazine by insulting half of his audience. Seems he's not sure he can be friends with anyone who pulls the lever repeatedly for GOP politicians. The future Dark Knight (Affleck plays Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel) said he can't help but consider an actor's politics while watching movies, and he takes that information to heart....