Free Republic

Baltimore Received $1.8 Billion from Obama’s Stimulus Law City burned despite ‘massive investment’ implemented by president BY: Elizabeth Harrington May 4, 2015 5:00 am The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention. President Obama claimed last Tuesday that if the Republican-controlled Congress would implement his policies to make “massive investments in urban communities,” they could “make a difference right now” in the city, currently in upheaval following the death of Freddie Gray. However, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found that the...

Time is running out.  The American people had better get a clue, and acquire an education about what is REALLY happening all around them. Obama is a thug who will NOT voluntarily give up his "throne". Remember all the talk and rhetoric about a "third term?" Maybe they're planning an "unelected third term." Consider: *  We have a sitting 2nd term President whose campaign started in the living room of a former leader of America's most violent and notorious Marxist revolutionary group, Bill Ayers.  *Ayers group, Weather Underground, bombed federal buildings, attacked police stations, and planned the extermination of 25...

Admitting that he's feeling some frustration over possible Congressional interference with the agreement with Iran that he's been working on for most of this year, Secretary of State John Kerry avowed that "it would be a lot easier if we had our own Ayatollah—someone whose say so was the final word." "It's an uneven playing field," Kerry complained. "Iran's supreme leader can just issue an edict and everyone in the Iranian government has to go along. President Obama doesn't have this luxury. He can issue an edict, but still has to put up with the possibility that Congress will tamper...

Thomas Cromwell was the principal behind-the-scenes fixer for much of the reign of King Henry VIII. He engineered the interrogations, convictions and executions of many whom Henry needed out of the way, including his two predecessors as fixer and even the king's second wife, Queen Anne. When Cromwell's son, Gregory, who became sickened as he watched his father devolving from counselor to monster, learned that an executioner for the queen had been sent for from France a week before her conviction, he asked his father what the purpose of her trial was if the king had preordained the queen's guilt...

Parents in South Carolina who are part of a nationwide revolt against Common Core say they are being threatened with “criminal accountability” if they prevent their children from taking the tests required by the controversial educational-standards program. Tamra Hood, a member of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, said the state Education Department’s chief Operating officer, Elizabeth Carpentier, warned parents could spend 30 days in jail if even a single day of testing is missed, Breitbart News reported. In addition, Hood said Carpentier warned that groups that encourage parents to refuse the Common Core-aligned tests could be charged with aiding...

Approximately 350,000 to 400,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. each year. Due to current policy, all automatically become U.S. citizens, Center for Immigration Studies legal policy analyst Jon Feere testified before a House panel Wednesday. “To put this in perspective this means that one out of 10 births in the U.S. is to an illegal immigrant mother,” Freere said at a House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security hearing titled “Birthright Citizenship: Is It The Right Policy For America?” He explained that, regardless of the foreign allegiance and/or illegal status of the parents, their children, if...

Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley (D) urged fellow council members to pass a sweeping gun-control ordinance despite doubts that it would be effective or enforceable. “Will this measure stop gun violence?” Kelley asked. “Probably not, but it is important that we pass it as a reflection of our values.” A key provision of the new ordinance is that it prohibits carrying a concealed deadly weapon or handgun, unless the person is a police officer or a bonafide criminal. Kelley conceded that “this provision might seem paradoxical, but we feel it greatly simplifies and clarifies the situation. If you are...

Many people think that the resistance to redefining marriage stems from a desire to be unfair to homosexuals. It doesn’t. Resistance mainly comes from the knowledge that when the State redefines marriage then this harms the ability of heterosexuals to get married and stay married. And if redefinition harms the ability of heterosexuals to get married and stay married then children suffer. And if children suffer then society finds itself facing more social problems and financial debt. The USA declines.

The Blue-City Model Baltimore shows how progressivism has failed urban America. April 28, 2015 You’re not supposed to say this in polite company, but what went up in flames in Baltimore Monday night was not merely a senior center, small businesses and police cars. Burning down was also the blue-city model of urban governance. Nothing excuses the violence of rampaging students or the failure of city officials to stop it before Maryland’s Governor called in the National Guard. But as order starts to return to the streets, and the usual political suspects lament the lack of economic prospects for the...

The IRS documents released by the government watchdog group on April 9 revealed that the senator, along with Senator Carl Levin, pressured the agency to go after political nonprofits – which turned out to be overwhelmingly conservative non-profits.. A May 1, 2013, email exchange between Lois Lerner and other top IRS staffers revealed that 11 days prior to Lerner’s admission in a ABA meeting that the IRS had “inappropriately” targeted conservative groups, she met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen....

(Reuters) - The Vatican and the United Nations teamed up to warn the world of the effects of climate change on Tuesday, coming down firmly against skeptics who deny human activities help change global weather patterns. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon discussed climate change with the pope before opening a one-day conference of scientists and religious leaders called "The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development".

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear 2.5 hours of oral arguments that may very well determine the fate of marriage equality in the United States.... a victory for equal marriage would be a narrow win in the broader landscape. So what does the movement for LGBTQ justice look like if the marriage question is finally settled? Remarkably similar, since many of the kinds of discrimination LGBTQ people currently face will remain unaffected by the change. This is particularly true for the decisions we tend to associate with getting married, like where to live, where to work and how to...

Traditional moral reasoning shows same-sex marriage creates immense harm in the social fabric. Politically correct moral reasoning shows redefinition to be fair - to be all well and good. If political correctness wins, we all have to go around pretending - under the force of the law - that all is well and good. Meanwhile society will be slowly collapsing all around us and we, and our children, will have to suffer the increasingly poor outcomes in silence. Help.

In yet another lesson from the information industry, automakers are learning it is the software — not the hardware — that is the key to success in the digital age. He who controls the information, as Microsoft, Apple and Google have proven, controls the cash flow. What’s new, however, is that the latest battlefield in the information age isn't to be found in your computer or even your cherished cellphone, but underneath the hood of your car. Autoblog.com recently revealed that the Auto Alliance — one of the industry’s main lobbying arms — is trying to prevent owners, the Do-It-Yourselfers...

You're invited to join the Tyranny Response Team and other real Tea Party folks at our final FREEP in defense of 2,000 years of real Christian marriage. This will be held in front of the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday, April 27, 2015 from 9:00am until 12:00 noon. Media inquiries, call 1-202-288-8011 Simple rules of conduct are: no violence, no racism, no profanity, obey the law and treat uniformed law enforcement officials with respect.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit demanding that religious organizations be compelled to provide abortions and contraception to illegal immigrants. “Whether to bear a child or not is a woman’s right under our laws,” said ACLU staff attorney Brigitte Amiri. “No religious organization has the authority to infringe on this right. For Catholic aid organizations to refuse to pay for birth control and abortions is an infringement. Forcing a woman to bear an unwanted child is, as President Obama has said, cruel and unusual punishment. It is unconstitutional and cannot be allowed.” “Rules derived from a mythical being...

Another Illustration That Tolerance Does Not Extend to Faithful Catholics By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn another show of selective tolerance from the cultural radicals, there comes the following story, as related in Crisis Magazine. Here are some excerpts from the article:In their zeal to protect students from any comments or opinions that may hurt their feelings, many professors [in this case at Marquette University] have created “safe spaces” in their classrooms—controlling all conversations in an effort to ensure that no one is ever offended …[Professor Cheryl Abbate]  made it clear that the classroom was not a [place for students doubting] the value of same-sex “marriage.” Such...

All CSUN students registering for the 2015 Fall Semester are being forced to participate in an online, SIMS-style character game about sexual assault before being allowed to claim a seat for any course. The game, titled “Agent of Change” and designed by feminist activists, does not allow students to complete the game until they have given enough “correct” answers as per the designers’ stated philosophical influences, such as “norms challenging,” and “social norms theory.” According to the Agent of Change website, the program helps users “see the connections between these power-based violations, how these problems affect their lives, and what they can do to challenge the cultural...

One of the more contentious ideas to recently emerge from the culture war is that of "safe spaces." We are said to be at risk of social dangers. Sometimes these dangers are labeled denialism (in which someone's identity isn't recognized) or triggering speech (speech that sets off traumatic responses in unwitting listeners). The way some students at elite colleges combat these social dangers is to create, or demand the creation of, safe spaces. And just as often, students demand that their entire campus become a safe space. Hence the wrong kind of speech is re-labeled as violence. The space only...

The NBA developing a relationship with Cuba is not especially big news in 29 of the league’s 30 cities. For all but one franchise.... Heat officials learned of the story via news reports, and were dumbfounded that the league would not have first spoken, at least as a courtesy, to the one franchise actually affected by any NBA/Cuba relationship. .....former NBA commissioner David Stern was extremely active in Democratic politics and a major financial contributor throughout his years in office. New commissioner Adam Silver also was an ardent early supporter of Obama and has donated to the party.....