Free Republic

The long-running feud between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump escalated yet again Saturday, with the former Florida governor releasing a two-minute video on social media mocking the billionaire's fitness to be commander-in-chief. *snip* The clip is the latest salvo in the Bush-Trump rivalry, which has often been marked by bitter and personal exchanges between the two prominent Republican presidential candidates. On Friday, Trump suggested Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, shared in the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks because they occurred during his presidency. Saturday's round centered on a video set to the tune of circus music that...

President Obama's weekly remarks Hi, everybody. Thirty years ago, there were 500,000 people behind bars in America. Today, there are 2.2 million. The United States is home to 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Every year, we spend $80 billion to keep people locked up. Now, many of the folks in prison absolutely belong there — our streets are safer thanks to the brave police officers and dedicated prosecutors who put violent criminals behind bars. But over the last few decades, we’ve also locked up more non-violent offenders than ever before, for longer...

Georgia health officials on Friday retracted a job offer made to Pasadena's former public health director, who had come under fire for controversial remarks he made on homosexuality and evolution. Dr. Eric Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist preacher, interviewed for the position about two weeks ago and had received an offer letter with a start date of mid-June. But Walsh never mentioned that he had recently been placed on leave from his job in Pasadena because of controversial sermons he gave on homosexuality and evolution, Georgia officials said. The sermons were discovered during a background check that happens as the last...

Former President Bill Clinton, who in 1996 signed into law an act defining marriage as between a man and woman, said on Thursday the measure was unconstitutional and should be overturned by the Supreme Court. … Noting that the Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 27 challenging the constitutionality of DOMA, Clinton wrote the justices “must decide whether it is consistent with the principles of a nation that honors freedom, equality and justice above all, and is therefore constitutional. As the president who signed the act into law, I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those...

Breitbart News has exclusively obtained an email sent by the President and Publisher of the Indianapolis Star. It invites “community leaders” to help plan and coordinate an aggressive, highly orchestrated campaign to “persuade” the Indiana state legislature to adopt sweeping special protections for Indiana’s gay, lesbian and transgender communities. The email, sent personally by Karen Ferguson Fuson, President and Publisher of the Star, was sent early this morning to an undisclosed list of business and media elites, together with gay rights activists. It pulls no punches in its scope or its goals. The email, in its unedited entirety reads as...

Wednesday on Bloomberg TV’s “With All Due Respect,” host Mark Halperin and John Heilemann asked Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump what his favorite Bible verse is.Trump has said many times on the campaign trail the Bible is his favorite book.Heilemann asked, “You mentioned the Bible and talked about how it was your favorite book and you said, I think last night on in Iowa, some people are surprised you say that. I am wondering what one or two of your most favorite Bible verses are and why?”Trump answered, “I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very...

The progressive movement that has overtaken the Democratic Party gains its moral authority in a morally relativistic world in part based on its support of the “oppressed” over the “oppressor.” As Joshua Muravchik ably argues in his Making David Into Goliath, in this construct, Israel has morphed into the oppressor, swapping roles with the Muslim countries that have wished to destroy her from the time of her founding. The Leftist-Jihadist nexus of which Andy McCarthy writes, on display from elite college campuses to the president’s cabinet, is perhaps stronger than it has ever been. It believes in punishing the ultimate...

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz has dropped out of the 2016 governor's race. Ritz announced Friday afternoon that she will instead seek re-election for her current position. "The best use of my time and talents will be to serve our children, their families and the taxpayers of Indiana as superintendent of public instruction," Ritz said in a written statement. "I must continue to be 110-percent engaged in supporting public education." Ritz badly trailed former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg in collecting campaign donations in their race to represent the Democratic Party against incumbent Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican....

The final lineup for Thursday’s debate is nearly set, as well as the five o’clock &#F8220;pregame show” with the poorly performing candidates, and Mark Everson is objecting to the fact that he doesn’t seem to be included at all. In fact, he has written a letter to Fox News to complain about it. Wait a minute… Mark who?Yes, he’s a declared candidate for the presidency who has filed all the required paperwork. But just to be fully honest here, I do this for a living and I had to Google the guy. He declared back in March and has...

In the wake of last month’s Supreme Court ruling establishing same-sex marriage as a nationwide constitutional right, critics and supporters of the decision alike wondered what the future might hold for Americans of faith whose objections to such unions were unswayed by the judicial outcome. Will Evangelical photographers, Muslim florists, and Catholic bakers be coerced into serving gay weddings, or will they be sued and harassed into dust by the Left’s highly-choreographed pro-“tolerance” enforcement squad? Early indicators are mixed, so expect a lot more litigation on this front in the coming years, including lawsuits against churches and religious charities....

Announces August 21st Rally for Religious Liberty in Des Moines, IAHOUSTON, Texas – Today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released a video telling the story of Dick and Betty Odgaard, the Iowa couple who recently had to shut down their business as a result of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission’s efforts to force them to host a same-sex wedding ceremony in violation of their religious beliefs. The video highlights the Odgaards’ experience with government-sanctioned religious intolerance, as well as their reaction to being targeted. Cruz will host a special event in Des Moines, IA, next month featuring the Odgaards. “It...

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker joined the crowded field of Republican contenders vying for the White House in 2016 on Monday, and immediately stands out for having one of the poorest records on environmental and climate issues, according to green groups and political experts. Since taking office in 2010, Walker has dismantled several longstanding policies protecting wetlands and waterways, fast-tracked mining projects, fought climate action, slashed funding for dozens of state scientists and environmental education positions, and impeded development of wind energy in Wisconsin. "He's one of the worst," said Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Fund,...

Kansas Governor: State Can’t Punish Religious Groups Over Same-Sex Marriage Objections By Sandhya Somashekhar July 7 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) on Tuesday issued an executive order asserting that clergy and religious organizations cannot be penalized by the state for refusing to recognize or provide services for a same-sex marriage. The order comes nearly two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, paving the way for gay couples to marry across the country. It is the latest sign that the battle has shifted to the issue of religious liberties, and how much...

Even before the U.S. Supreme Court announced the previously unknown constitutional “right” to impose same-sex “marriage” on all 50 states, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was readying its next volley. For two decades, the ACLU has cited the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a defense of religious liberty in various worthy and some not-so-worthy cases. No more. The ACLU has decided that the unalienable right to religious freedom embodied in the First Amendment must give way to newly coined claims by newly empowered groups. In a Washington Post column, ACLU Deputy Director Louise Melling called on Congress...

Indiana will not comply with President Barack Obama's plan to battle climate change by requiring reductions in emissions from coal-fired power plants, Republican Gov. Mike Pence said Wednesday. The proposal as currently written, known as the Clean Power Plan, will make Indiana electricity more expensive and less reliable and hurt economic growth in Indiana and across the nation, Pence wrote in a letter to Obama. The plan targets pollution from the coal-fired power plants that Indiana relies on. Pence said the Indiana coal industry employs more than 26,000 people. "If your administration proceeds to finalize the Clean Power Plan, and...

NASHVILLE -- Nearly half of Tennessee's House Republican Caucus met "in a state of shock" Tuesday to discuss whether to hold a special legislative session in response to last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. They discussed topics such as what, if anything, state lawmakers can or should do in areas like protecting clergy who refuse to perform same-sex ceremonies because it would violate their religious beliefs. At least 33 of the most conservative members of the 73-member GOP Caucus packed into a conference room in Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell's office for more than an hour. They...

While the Supreme Court of the United States ruled Friday that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, several religious leaders in Corsicana said Monday they will not hold a same-sex wedding service in their churches. ... Pastors of several churches cited Biblical teachings for their stance. ...

The American Civil Liberties Union is withdrawing its support of a 1993 federal law designed to protect persons acting on their religious beliefs. In an op-ed in the Washington Post June 25, Louise Melling, the ACLU's deputy legal director, wrote that while the organization once supported the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, it is concerned now that the law can be used to trample the rights of others, particularly homosexuals:   For more than 15 years, we have been concerned about how the RFRA could be used to discriminate against others. As the events of the past couple of years amply illustrate,...

Come on. How many will truly be surprised to see the American Civil Liberties Union backpedal away from an enumerated civil right in the Constitution, now that the cognoscenti considers it a form of bigotry? I feel so old. I remember when the ACLU was a civil liberties organization. http://t.co/oe1EiYAXja— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) June 27, 2015 @Popehat @Lorienen @ACLU well now that Christians use it the ACLU can't support it— Clarence Whorley (@ClarenceWhorley) June 27, 2015 The organization that once went to court to ensure that the American Nazi Party could parade through Skokie, Illinois in an exercise of free...

Iknoor Singh, a student at Hofstra University, thought he had found his calling when he attended a campus meeting of the U.S. Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. But when he tried to sign up, he was told that he would have to shave his beard, cut his hair and remove his turban. When he asked for a religious accommodation as a Sikh, the Army refused, saying that these articles of faith would undermine unit cohesion and morale, readiness, health and safety, and discipline. ..................................................... Yes, religious freedom needs protection. But religious liberty doesn’t mean the right to discriminate or to...