Free Republic

President Obama said he wanted Americans to gain perspective and be thankful there is less violence now than there was during the Cold War. Obama predicted Islam’s process to rid itself of extremism would be a “generational project,” he said in an interview with Chris Matthews. “I remind people that, you know, there actually is probably less war and less violence around the world today than there might have been 30, 40 years ago. It doesn’t make it any less painful but things can get better,” Obama said. The president set a high standard for himself: at least the United...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — If the presidential election were held today, it wouldn’t even be close. Hillary Clinton is crushing her potential Republican rivals by double digits in a new CNN/ORC International poll. The Republicans’ best showing is by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who trails the former senator and secretary of state by 14 points. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who hasn’t declared his candidacy yet, lags Clinton by 17 points. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are each 19 points behind Clinton. Rubio and Paul have declared their candidacies, but Christie hasn’t said he’ll run....

A "Saturday Night Live" skit about a male student having sex with his female high school teacher painted the relationship as every teen boy's dream, but drew a firestorm of criticism on social media. The reaction to the comedy sketch reflected a growing view among law enforcement and victims' advocacy groups that it is no laughing matter when a woman educator preys on her male students. In U.S. schools last year, almost 800 school employees were prosecuted for sexual assault, nearly a third of them women. The proportion of women facing charges seems to be higher than in years past,...

Northern California's car-clogged freeways run through thousands of acres of protected wetlands, creating a "ring of death" east of San Francisco, according to an ongoing study. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have plotted some 29,000 reports of roadkill to identify the most hazardous roadways for the state's wildlife. The volunteer reports, collected over the past five years, cover more than 40 percent of California's highways and roads. Tracking roadside carcasses may sound odd, but the endeavor can reduce deaths for both drivers and wildlife, the scientists said. For instance, the study found many hotspots where animals are repeatedly...

GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WWJ) – A west Michigan business owner claims he’s been the target of death threats after he announced he won’t serve gays. Brian Klawiter, who owns Dieseltec Automotive Repair in Grandville, posted a message on his business’ Facebook page saying that he is a Christian, and that his company does not welcome “immoral behavior” — including homosexuality. “Our rights as conservative Americans are being squashed more and more everyday. Apparently if you are white (or close to it), you have a job, go to church, and own a gun… That translates into racists, privileged, bigot, conspiracy theorist.

The Obama administration has issued more than half a million new Social Security Numbers (SSN) to illegal immigrants granted amnesty under President Obama’s Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals program. In a letter to Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ben Sasse (R-NE), exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, the Social Security Administration (SSA) reveals that by the end of Fiscal Year 2014 the Obama administration “had issued approximately 541,000 original SSNs to individuals authorized to work under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy since its inception” in 2012. The administration said it did not maintain a count of the...

Hillary Clinton seeks $2B to end big money politics [WTH?] The Clinton Foundation said late Wednesday that it will continue to accept donations from foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, despite concerns that such gifts will create a conflict of interest for the Democratic front-runner. The foundation's board said that donations directly to the foundation would only be allowed from six governments — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, other governments could continue to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a subsidiary program that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle...

Was TWA Flight 800 shot out of the sky?As a former pilot, that is a question I get asked about all the time. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but let’s be clear: Yes. I say it was. And I believe the FBI covered it up.

David Letterman is packing his final 28 shows as a late-night host with a who's who of Hollywood names and favorites leading up to his May 20 swan song. CBS announced Monday that his guests will include Bill Murray, George Clooney, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Downey Jr., Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Don Rickles, Julia Roberts, Ray Romano, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Short, John Travolta, Michael J. Fox and Alec Baldwin.

It is time for an honest discussion of immigration. The first “great wave” of U.S. immigration took place from roughly 1880 to 1930. During this time, according to the Census Bureau, the foreign-born population doubled from about 6.7 million to 14.2 million people. Changes were then made to immigration law to reduce admissions, decreasing the foreign-born population until it fell to about 9.6 million by 1970. Meanwhile, during this low-immigration period, real median compensation for U.S. workers surged, increasing more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In the 1960s, Congress lifted immigration caps...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's expected presidential campaign got some bad news in a new set of Quinnipiac University polls released Thursday. Quinnipiac surveyed three crucial swing states — Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia — and found Clinton's lead slipping against her possible Republican rivals. Peter Brown, assistant director of the polling outfit, said the shift is because voters increasingly see Clinton as a dishonest candidate. "Clinton's lead is wilting against leading Republican presidential candidates," Quinnipiac said in its write-up of the survey. "In head-to-head matchups, every Republican candidate effectively ties her in Colorado...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to act quickly once he receives a State Department recommendation on whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorism-sponsoring countries, a remaining obstacle to the restoration of relations between Washington and Havana. With just days to go before a hemispheric summit in Panama where Obama will come face-to-face with Cuban President Raul Castro, he offered no clear sign of how he was leaning or the timeframe for his decision. He ordered the review immediately after announcing a diplomatic breakthrough with Havana on Dec. 17.

AKRON, Ohio -- FirstMerit Bank is suing Coming Attractions Bridal and Formal, the store where Ebola survivor Amber Vinson infamously shopped in October 2014, to force repayment of a loan. The bridal store owes $34,469.98 on a $100,000 loan it took out in 2010, according to the FirstMerit suit filed Thursday in Summit County Court of Common Pleas. The bank closed the store's line of credit less than two months after store co-owner Anna Younker announced in January that she would close the business. Younker's blamed the publicity that followed Vinson's visit to the store for a fatal downturn in...

There are few things more beautiful - or terrifying - than the menacing flash of lightning bolts within a volcanic ash cloud. The latests picture, captured by an amateur photographer as the Colima volcano in Mexico spews out a plume of ash and lava, reveals the raw power of a volcanic eruption. Hernando Rivera Cervantes took the pictures as local authorities warned those living around the volcano, which is also known as the Fire volcano, to prepare for a possible evacuation.

A drug-resistant intestinal illness called Shigellosis is spreading in the US for the first time, according to a CDC report released today... People infected with Shigellosis go through painful bouts of watery or bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. It spreads quickly from person to person through food and recreational water, such as pools...But over the last year, international travelers returning to the US have repeatedly introduced the pathogen into the country.

Presidential Memorandum -- Delegation of Authority Pursuant to Section 1236(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Delegation of Authority Pursuant to Section 1236(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby order as follows: I hereby delegate the functions and authorities vested in the President by section 1236(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal...

Russia's latest armored prototype was recently spotted rehearsing for the nation's upcoming May 9th Victory Day parade following more than half a decade of top-secret development. Dubbed the Kurganets BMP-25 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), this amphibious personnel carrier has been designed to replace all of Russia's existing tracked assault vehicles, which have been in service since the Cold War. The 25-ton Kurganets-25 will carry about a half-dozen troops and protect them with modular armor that can be adapted to meet specific mission requirements. It is armed with a 30mm cannon and a quartet of anti-tank guided missile launchers, all of...

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most audacious physics experiment in human history. Now scientists are about to restart the giant particle collider for a new set of experiments. Last time, they did the almost-impossible and found the Higgs Boson. This time, they might find something even more exciting. Back in 2008, just nine days into its first run of experiments, there was a significant incident at the Large Hadron Collider. A faulty electrical connection between two magnets stopped superconducting, then melted and caused serious mechanical damage to the facility. The accident delayed use of the LHC for six...

With the publication of the House and Senate budget resolutions this week, the contrast between Republicans and Democrats could not be more stark. Democrats want to take care of you. Republicans want you to get ahead. It is not just that President Obama’s budget, released in February, projects an $687 billion deficit in 2025, up from $486 billion this year, and the Republican budget projects a surplus. It’s that Democratic proposals are centered on keeping people safe, and Republican proposals are focused on helping them get better jobs and higher incomes. Democrats are telling us that they gave us Obamacare...

The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, has been criticised by his Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny, for perpetuating the “stage Irish” stereotype that the country’s culture is synonymous with alcohol after his St Patrick’s Day message mentioned having “a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three”. The offending St Patrick’s Day video message was posted on YouTube on Friday and features Abbott cheerily waving his green tie, talking up Irish influences in Australian culture – which he described as songs and a sense of humour – and saying it was a good day for “anyone who cares to come to a...