Free Republic

Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday implicitly disagreed with Donald Trump's remarks from a day earlier in which the presumptive GOP nominee repeated his call for a policy banning Muslims from entering the U.S and condemned radical Islam in the wake of the Orlando nightclub attack. "I think there's a really important distinction that every American needs to keep in mind: This is a war with radical Islam. It's not a war with Islam," Ryan said when asked to react to Trump's terrorism speech on Monday. Watch: Donald Trump speaks on deadly Orlando shooting "Muslims are our partners," Ryan added. "The...

Top Republicans joined with President Obama and other Democrats Tuesday in sharply condemning Donald Trump’s reaction to the nightclub massacre in Orlando, decrying his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his questioning of Obama’s allegiances as divisive and out of step with America’s values. Trump — who just a week ago signaled an intent to snap his campaign into a more measured tone for the general election — showed no sign of backing down from his suggestions that Obama was somehow connected to or sympathetic with terrorists, telling the Associated Press that the president “continues to prioritize our enemy” over Americans. In separate...

Is the University of Wisconsin-Madison running the risk of having minority students viewed as being coddled and overprotected from “seemingly minor or unintentional” slights? gotprivilegeIs it creating an environment where the slightest statement or action could provoke a finger-pointing witch hunt for students who are accused of insensitivity? Is it encouraging minority students to become hyper-sensitive to the point where people of different skin colors are afraid to associate openly and freely, without having their speech constantly monitored for words that might upset someone? The university has announced that it will require about 1,000 incoming students to participate in “cultural...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Puerto Rico can't restructure the debts of its public utilities to avoid a financial crisis, closing off one of the island's last remaining options for avoiding default without help from Congress. In a 5-2 ruling, the justices said that although the government and people of Puerto Rico should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert a financial crisis, the Constitution does not allow them to rewrite a statute that Congress enacted in 1984. While states can allow municipalities to seek such debt relief, the lower court said, Congress had not given...

A Bible-based 'lunch club' is blocked for students, yet gender identity groups get a free passby Deirdre Reilly In the Middleton-Cross Plains School District in Middleton, Wisconsin, kids who want to be a part of a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) club have the full support of the district’s administrators. The weekly Jesus Lunch is a longstanding tradition in the community and is hugely popular. But if those kids or any other kids want to gather outside during school hours and have a “Jesus Lunch” — well, there’s a problem, folks. The district superintendent and other administrators recently blocked a group of...

Obama to campaign with Clinton in Wisconsin "I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office," Obama says in video UPDATED Jun 09, 2016 President Barack Obama has endorsed his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and plans to campaign with her in Wisconsin next week. The two will appear in Green Bay on Wednesday. Obama: 'I am worried about the Republican Party' Barack Obama President Barack Obama made the case for Democratic unity on the late night couch -- appearing on NBC's "The Tonight Show" to say he hopes Democrats are "able to pull things...

A coalition of civil rights groups planned to hold an event Monday attacking Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his rhetoric against Mexicans and Muslims, but cancelled it after 50 people were killed and at least 53 more wounded in a reported Islamic terrorist attack Sunday. The event was supposed to include leaders from several top rights groups including National Council of La Raza and Muslim Advocates, an advocacy group founded by American Muslim lawyers. The groups said in a press release promoting the event they planned to condemn Trump for “demonizing” certain groups and would demand an apology. The...

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin blasted House Speaker Paul Ryan for his gutless reaction on radical Islamic terrorism — and for his criticisms of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on Islam — during an exclusive interview with Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM. Ryan has barely condemned the terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando killed 50 and landed another 53 in the hospital. “Paul Ryan is out of touch with his constituents,” said the former GOP vice presidential candidate. “Those who have put their faith in with their sacred vote.” Leaders like Ryan have not...

FOX6 News has learned a campaign event involving Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama set for Wednesday, June 15th to kick off the general election campaign has been postponed due to the mass shooting Sunday, June 12th in Orlando.

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s primary opponent Paul Nehlen said the Puerto Rico debt crisis should not be a top priority for the representative of Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I don’t care about Puerto Rico,” Nehlen told TheDCNF. “I care about people in this country dying from heroin.” The businessman said the island, which faces a $70 billion debt burden and recently defaulted on a major loan payment, should be responsible for fixing its fiscal predicament, and slammed Ryan for supporting a bill Nehlen sees as a massive taxpayer bailout. “The...

Gov. Jim Doyle's deal with lawmakers to raise the statewide minimum wage in return for signing a law barring Madison and other communities from setting their own rates is drawing fire from some labor leaders. "All this really does is raise the minimum wage to $6.50 an hour six months sooner than if he had done nothing," said Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor. "In exchange for that, he's permanently negotiated away the ability of local governments to pass their own minimum wage laws to pressure the Legislature into raising the statewide wage," Cavanaugh said. Cavanaugh,...

Wayne Forler counts himself as one of the lucky ones. Forler, 57, who started at Webcrafters out of Monona Grove High School in 1966, now works as a head pressman and soon will mark 40 years with the company. "The best thing about Webcrafters is they never laid me off during slow times," he said. These days, he doesn't like standing on his feet too long during 12-hour shifts and said he sometimes regrets not getting into management because "it's air-conditioned and you sit." But, he said, pressmen earn $18 to $30 an hour at Webcrafters, a far higher rate...

(Accuse CleanPower of interfering with union talks among its workers at American Family Insurance...) Worker advocates are calling on American Family Insurance to prevent what they say are attempts by its cleaning company to stop janitors at American Family's Madison headquarters from organizing. As part of the Justice for Janitors movement, the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin is calling on the insurance giant to stop CleanPower, a large Wisconsin janitorial service company, from interfering with efforts by the Service Employees International Union to organize the janitors.A letter expressing surprise at anti-labor tactics at American Family's headquarters...

A proposal to guarantee all workers in Madison paid sick days got a warm reception during the first town hall meeting organized to help shape the potential ordinance. Only one speaker, an accountant who said he was representing only himself, criticized the "Healthy Families, Healthy City" proposal as the audience of 100 or so groaned around him Monday night. Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor and one of the leaders of the coalition that's pushing for paid sick leave, said the City Council could have a proposal by its Sept. 6 meeting. Other labor leaders were...

For generations, Madison has been a place where life is good. Plenty of good jobs with government and UW-Madison as the solid, steady anchors. Good schools, chock-full of middle-class, college-bound students. Easy to find a nice, affordable place to live. That was then. This is now: State government shedding jobs. Madison businesses moving to the suburbs. Companies facing business competition from Austin, Texas, to Shanghai. More families short on cash and stuck in low-paying jobs. Growing numbers of trophy homes priced exclusively for the rich. And a feeling among business people that Madison's city leaders are out to get them....

(Nationwide movement gets local for rally and march...) They talked about flags. They talked about the importance of not striking out if confronted by hecklers, about how they should not carry false IDs. But some 60 Latinos meeting to hammer out logistics for today's march and rally for immigration rights carefully considered what message they should send by the flags they carried. The marchers mobilizing this morning at Brittingham Park for a march to the Capitol were to join marchers projected at up to one million today in Washington D.C., New York, Phoenix and other cities in demonstrations of Latino...

On Friday afternoon, at an exclusive Republican donor retreat here hosted by Mitt Romney, frustration boiled over. During an off-the-record question-and-answer session with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Meg Whitman, the billionaire Hewlett Packard chief executive officer, confronted the speaker over his endorsement of Trump. Whitman, a major GOP giver who ran for California governor in 2010, compared Trump to historical demagogues like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and wanted to know how the speaker could get behind him. At another discussion session during the day, which featured top Romney alumni Stuart Stevens and Matt Rhoades, Ana Navarro, a Republican contributor...

MADISON — The state elections agency on Friday unanimously allowed a Republican challenger to House Speaker Paul Ryan to stay on the ballot for the August primary election. The Government Accountability Board met Friday to consider the challenge to Paul Nehlen along with challenges targeting nine other candidates across the state. Nehlen’s nomination papers were challenged by a conservative activist who said Nehlen should not be allowed on the Aug. 9 primary ballot for the 1st Congressional District race because he listed an incorrect address on his filing papers. The 1st District includes Racine County. Orville Seymer argued the longshot...

A flyer circulated before Donald Trump’s Friday rally in Richmond, Virginia, called for violence and declared “passive resistance … has no effect on heartless racists.” Under a headline of “Self-Defense,” the flyer reads: We fully support your right to self-defense, we do not expect you to take a beating by Trump goons in order to “look good.” Your safety is important, protect yourself. Fascism wants us to peacefully resist while it steamrolls us. We take our inspiration from the workers of Spain who rose up by the millions to fight fascism when it came to their country. Passive resistance works...

Extra, Extra! Republican Paul Ryan is an advocate for political correctness! That’s right. In commenting about Trump’s remarks concerning Judge Curiel, Ryan told George Stephanopoulos: “That comment is beyond the pale. That’s not political correctness. Suggesting that a person can’t do their job because of their race or ethnicity… that’s not a politically incorrect thing to do; that’s just a wrong thing to say.” For decades, conservatives and other decent, law-abiding Americans, have labored under the yoke of political correctness. They have been publicly shunned, lost jobs, had careers ruined, and been kicked out of universities. Why? Simply for exercising...