Free Republic

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

Remember that ending scene out of Indiana Jones where the Ark of the Covenant is boxed up and wheeled through an endless government warehouse? Did you know that that place actually exists? It is located 30 minutes outside Washington, D.C., at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The building itself is very nondescript…

Congressional Republicans will return to Capitol Hill next week with Obamacare in their crosshairs. They’ll take aim at a provision in the law that defines “full- time employees” as those working 30 hours or more. Under Obamacare’s employer mandate, companies with 50 or more “full-time” employees will be required to offer health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty if at least one of their employees purchases a plan through the healthcare marketplace with a federal subsidy. In an Op-Ed published in the National Review Online, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House will be focusing on changing...

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit that claims Obamacare subsidies can only be paid to individuals in states that set up their own healthcare exchanges, even though the Affordable Care Act was worded that way. According to The Washington Times, four Virginia residents filed the lawsuit because the Obamacare subsidy in their state makes them subject to the law's individual mandate, which requires most Americans to purchase health insurance this year or face a fine. The decision has been a setback for Republican lawmakers and limited government advocates seeking to roll back the scope of the law, and who...

Robert McCartney slimed a Northern Virginia Catholic priest in a Sunday column in the Washington Post for his decision to end his parish's relationship with the Boy Scouts for letting openly-homosexual youth to join as scouts. McCartney blasted Father John De Celles, pastor of St. Raymond of Peñafort parish in Springfield, for his supposed "diatribes against gay behavior, liberal activists and similar targets in his weekly columns." The columnist later touted how "De Celles is in the minority" in disbanding his parish's Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop, and bringing in an alternative youth group that "discriminates against boys...

Another week and another judge telling us what he or she thinks of same sex marriage. The latest is a judge that has found the Virginia ban unconstitutional. First, how can something be "unconstitutional" that isn't in the US Constitution? Can anyone find the word "marriage" in the document? I only find that word in state laws. Unlike other countries, we do not issue a federal marriage license in the US. Second, why are judges sticking their noses in anyway? Who said that federal judges define what marriage is anyway? My position on same sex marriage is that it should...

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction. “In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his...

Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.) Videos linked or embedded may contain foul language and violence. Some were surprised to hear about the black mob violence on Valentine’s Day at...

Abandoning Michigan in the heat of the election was seen by major observers as presidential candidate John McCain effectively throwing in the towel.It also marked a very severe break with the strategists of McCain team ("McCain's tactically understandable but strategically stupid decision to visibly abandon Michigan was made without Palin.") by his running mate Governor Sarah Palin who, very publicly, decried the move. "Sarah Palin questioned Republican presidential candidate John McCain's decision to abandon efforts to win Michigan, a campaign move she said she learned about Friday morning when she read it in the newspapers. In an interview with Fox...

Using artificial contraception to avoid pregnancy is a mortal sin, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.While only the Catholic Church maintains this teaching on contraception, it would be a better world if everyone did.Paul VI was a prophet when he told the world that great societal evils would follow upon the widespread use of contraception: a loosening of morals, an objectification of women, family breakdown and all the rest of the pathologies that have visited us like furies.Many of us also hold that contraception also leads inevitably to abortion. After all, according to national statistics, 94 percent...

Listen to an audio version of this columnAs we continue to watch insanity reign in our nation on far too many levels, yet another activist federal judge, an Obama appointee who apparently does not know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, has overruled the will of the people in the State of Virginia and declared its ban on same-sex "marriage" to be "unconstitutional." So continues the warped, vicious assault on truth, reason, the family and our freedoms. We also have an example of what a Godless, morally relativistic university system produces. A third-year law student at...

The US army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training exercises. The 300 acre 'town' includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone. Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages. The subway carriages even carry the same logo as the carriages in Washington DC

Video at link. "Must-watch" (no transcript...only a minute & a half).

A federal judge in Norfolk struck down as unconstitutional Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage Thursday night, saying the country has “arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect.” U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen issued a sweeping 41-page opinion that mentioned at length Virginia’s past in denying interracial marriage and quoted Abraham Lincoln. She struck the constitutional amendment Virginia voters approved in 2006 that both bans same-sex marriage and forbids recognition of such unions performed elsewhere. She stayed her decision pending appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

The following Republicans voted Tuesday to raise the government's borrowing limit: John Boehner, R-Ohio. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy,R-Calif. Chief Deputy Whip Pete Roskam, R-Ill. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. Dave Camp, R-Mich. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Hal Rogers, R-Ky. Dave Reichert, R-Wash. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. Howard Coble, R-N.C. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. Pete King, R-N.Y. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. Buck McKeon, R-Calif. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa. Gary Miller, R-Calif. Ed Royce, R-Calif. John Runyan, R-N.J. John Shimkus, R-Ill. Chris Smith, R-N.J. David Valadao, R-Calif. Frank Wolf,...

There was a quiet and peaceful stillness about the cemetery this January day. It was snowing heavily and the pristine white was accumulating between thousands of rows of headstones marking the graves of our true heroes who gave their lives in battle or died in old age, having served our country for decades, fighting enemies to preserve our freedom. A very old general was being buried that day and the Honor Guard and the ceremonial horses were barely visible in the heavy snow. I could hear the cadence of the steps and the horse hooves beating rhythmically against the asphalt....

Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asked scientists at a climate change conference on Thursday in Arlington, Va., to help advance President Barack Obama’s agenda on climate change. […] Peter Saundry, executive director of NCSE, introduced McCarthy by noting Obama’s pledge to act unilaterally on climate change. “President Obama has announced that he will work with Congress whenever he can but will not be held hostage—will move forward and do the utmost, we hope, through executive authority and through the agencies,” Saundry said. “The Supreme Court has noted that EPA has authority under (the) Clean Air Act...

Democrats will take control of the Virginia Senate now that a recount in Hampton Roads has found Lynwood Lewis the winner of a special election. Lewis, who until now has served in the House of Delegates, beat Republican Wayne Coleman by 11 votes out of 23,000 votes cast. The State Board of Elections says the final totals are 10,203 votes for Lewis to 10,192 votes for Coleman in the district that covers Accomack, Mathews and Northampton counties and the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Coleman has called Lewis to concede the race. Lewis had been initially declared the winner...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Video: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits.Public opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted so dramatically in recent years that Democratic groups now see the issue as a critical way to mobilize voters in a slew of races up and down the ballot. Just a decade ago, widespread opposition to gay marriage did just the opposite, allowing Karl Rove to mobilize conservatives in 13 states and help reelect George W. Bush as president. The changing political dynamics were on full display...

Virginia's Attorney General Mark Herring recently stated his office will not defend the Commonwealth's Constitutional definition of marriage as solely between one man and one woman, approved by general referendum in 2006. By doing so, Attorney General Herring is in violation of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia - which provides for mechanisms to amend the Constitution by popular vote - an action that shows contempt for the will of the people of our Commonwealth by circumventing the people's will through legal maneuvering. Therefore, Attorney General Mark Herring demonstrated he is unfit for the office of Attorney General and...