Free Republic

There is a compelling divergence regarding President Obama's reelection chances when we consider what the poll numbers are telling us versus what the boots on the ground are indicating. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News nationwide poll taken during June 20-24 shows that Obama still leads the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney 47% to 44%. These results are within the poll's margin of error and are also close to the Real Clear Politics aggregation of major polls which finds Obama leading Romney 47.5% to 43.8%. The same WSJ/NBC news poll found Obama leading Romney 50% to 42% in twelve so-called...

GOP House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday the chamber will likely file a lawsuit to compel the Justice Department to release more documents related to the investigation into the federal government’s Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation. Boehner, R-Ohio, said the suit could be filed within the next several weeks, following the GOP-led House approving two resolutions Thursday that put Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to provide additional documents to congressional investigators. "The American people have a right to know what happened," Boehner said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” The criminal contempt resolution opened the door...

The relationship between conservatives and the Supreme Court is rather like that between Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt in autumn. She always holds the football as if Charlie Brown has a fair shot at kicking it, and then she always snaps the ball away at the last moment. How many times has this happened? It has been going on since the New Deal. When FDR began pushing through quasi-fascist policies administered by men who expressed a dreamy admiration for what Mussolini had been doing to "solve" Italy's problems, the Supreme Court actually functioned in its only useful constitutional role:...

Obamacare-like “Death Panels” are already emptying out hospital beds in the United Kingdom. According to one report last year the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) euthanized 130,000, mostly expendable seniors. Its benignly named “Care Pathways”, kills almost 360 people every day. Now it’s Obamcare’s turn to euthanize undesirables. The Supreme Court gave Barack Obama the right to start his own extermination program. Anybody who needs “a little bit too much care” will get put on Obama’s list. If you were born before January 1, 1953 he has put a target on your back. You had better not get sick and...

David Cameron could hold a referendum on Britain’s future in the EU on the same day as the next general election in 2015 under an explosive plan being hatched by senior Conservatives. The Prime Minister yesterday opened the door to giving people their first say on Britain’s membership of Europe since 1975, although he insisted now was not the time for such a vote. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2167489/David-Cameron-offer-EU-vote-election-day.html#ixzz1zTBIcoOZ

In a sermon posted on the web last Friday, Senior Pastor Frederick D. Haynes III of the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas blasted his congregation and other pastors for their outrage over Obama’s announcement, and, unflinchingly declared his support for the president gay community.Haynes said of Obama: “He swore to uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution – not the Bible, but the Constitution of the United States. He is not the pastor of the United States, he is the President of the United States. And for the first time in the history of this nation we have a president who...

“You are free to not eat broccoli, but if you don’t the government will impose a penalty on you. This penalty is really just a tax and since the government has the power to tax for all sorts of reasons, they can tax you if you don’t eat broccoli.”This is the logic of Justice Roberts argument in the Obamacare case that was handed down today.This should not surprise us because the Constitution is whatever the Justices wish it to be. Now they have handed the government another mandate to regulate our behavior. As we know they can and do regulate...

Mitch McConnell’s appearance today on Fox News Sunday was remarkably revealing — it showed as clearly as you could want that the Supreme Court decision is finally forcing Republicans to declare what, exactly, they would replace Obamacare with if they realize their goal of repealing it entirely. Pressed by Chris Wallace to say what he would do to insure the 30 million people who will get insurance under Obamacare, McConnell at first dodged the question, instead launching into a litany of complaints about the law. He repeated the debunked claim that it would cut $500 billion from Medicare. Asked the...

CINNAMINSON — A fight between two women broke out inside the Wawa on Church Road on Wednesday morning and turned bloody in the parking lot when one of the combatants stabbed the other several times with a box cutter, police said. Kartelina Holt, 32, whom police described as an undocumented immigrant living in the Sicklerville section of Winslow, Camden County, was arrested shortly after she allegedly stabbed Ashley Anderson, 25, of Pennsauken, seven times, Detective Sgt. William Covert said.

Via Gateway Pundit, here’s a moment that will live in the Cross-Examination Hall of Fame. Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace interviewed the current White House chief of staff, Jacob Lew, who served as OMB chief briefly before taking over for William Daley in the West Wing, about the Supreme Court’s ruling that ObamaCare can only stand constitutional muster as a tax. Wallace strings Lew along beautifully for almost three minutes, allowing Lew to argue multiple times that ObamaCare isn’t a tax, wasn’t passed as a tax, and was never intended to be a tax, before playing a recording of the...

The notion that we are all our brothers' keepers lies at the heart of our Judeo-Christian heritage. It also happens to be one of the fundamental tenets of socialism - which accounts in large parts for that perverse ideology's widespread appeal. Either philosophy can - and has been - used to justify the notion that health care is a "right" rather than a good tradable in the marketplace. Our nation's Founders, despite their religious backgrounds, rejected this communitarian ethos at the time of the writing of the Constitution. Instead, they placed strict limits on the power and scope of government....

Court decisions result in elections that have consequences. Who is going to pay a high price in November for last Thursday’s U.S. Supreme court’s ruling? Here in Massachusetts, it wasn’t a good day for Liz Warren’s ailing campaign. Not only does the decision re-energize Republicans and Tea Party patriots to rally around Sen. Scott Brown, but it also undercuts attempts of the millionaire house flipper to relate to the middle class. According to the Congressional Budget Office, “75 percent of individual mandate penalties will fall on those making less than $250,000.” That makes her endorsement of Obamacare and its 21...

COQUILLE — John McGuire didn’t take the normal route to priesthood. He was raised a Pentecostal in the Assemblies of God tradition before converting to Catholicism against the wishes of his family as a high school senior. And he had a number of jobs, served in the military, was a competitive roller skate dancer and was engaged twice before entering the seminary when he was 33. Father John’s 36-year career as a full-time priest ends Sunday. The last 22 years, he’s called Holy Name Catholic Church in Coquille home, and he will celebrate his retirement Mass there on Sunday morning....

Operation Plodding and Pointless might do. The probe into the failed federal effort to track U.S.-purchased guns trafficked to Mexican drug cartels has reached a new height of dudgeon. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives (along with a handful of Democrats) have found Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for withholding documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Issa. The committee’s hearings on Fast and Furious have droned on for more than a year now. Yet, to date, no testimony has been taken to address the problem that lay at the heart of the so-called...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Galway city has been warned a proposed statue of revolutionary Che Guevara will be a deep insult to many Americans by the influential head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. ... Galway’s beautiful beaches and vibrant arts festival will be marred with a memorial to a man who wished to end their way of life and violently replace it with tyranny.” Che, full name Ernesto Guevara Lynch, had Irish links. A festival in his honor was arranged for nearby County Clare earlier this year. Guevara's Irish links have been traced to Galway, and one Patricio...

Featured Term (selected at random):APOLYSIS The blessing by the Greek priest at the end of Mass, Matins, or Vespers. Called a Great Apolysis after the liturgy, baptisms, and marriages; a Little Apolysis at other times. (Etym. Greek apolysis, dismissal.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

As the nation celebrates American liberty on the Fourth of July each year, it would be appropriate for all Americans (including those who have come here from other nations in search of that same freedom), first of all, to reflect on the Christian foundations—including genuine creationism—on which our nation was built. In a previous article on this theme (see the July 1996 Back to Genesis article, “Sweet Land of Liberty”), it was noted that many of the founding fathers of our country were strict creationists and that this fact was reflected in the Declaration of Independence itself. In this article,...

ATHENS, Ga. — Three people in Athens have recently used firearms to interrupt crimes, leading police to say it’s preferable to call 911 if possible.

A group on Sunday afternoon walked through parts of downtown Erie, demonstrating their Second Amendment right of bearing arms. Around twenty individuals met for this Open Carry of Fire Arms walk, organized by Justin Dillon. Dillon had an encounter with an Erie police officer last week, after he was seen carrying his weapon. Pennsylvania state law does not prohibit openly carrying a weapon. Dillon said he did not organize this to cause any conflict with the police, he just wanted to public to be aware of the laws, along with their constitutional rights. "I just wanted to do this to...