Free Republic

Americans are resistant to the very idea of an “American empire.” It’s understandable. Our nation’s birth came through revolution against the British Crown and, by extension, the British empire. World War II and our battles against Nazi Germany’s Third Reich (or empire) and Imperial Japan remain in living memory. We still think of ourselves as the New World, and we associate words like monarch and holy war and empire with the Old World. Despite all of our problems, we still see the United States as the “city on a hill,” the shining example of liberty, virtue, and prosperity for the...

Photographer Joe Klamar has become the target of much scrutiny—and in some cases, ire—ever since the series of portraits he shot of U.S. Olympic team athletes was published by CBS News. The criticism is that the photographs fall short: they’re underwhelming both visually and from a technical point of view, especially when you consider that the occasion they represent (the Olympic Games!) has likely been a lifelong dream for these athletes. Not that you can tell from these awkwardly lit and posed shots. Also, note the torn seamless paper.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney attracting 47% of the vote, while President Obama earns 44%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. Last week, the president received an immediate bounce following the Supreme Court ruling on his health care law. On the night of the ruling, the single night poll results were by far the best recorded for Obama in many months. Over the past few days, the numbers have returned to where they’ve been for most of the past month—Romney up slightly among likely voters in...

New York, NY (CFAM/LifeNews) — Love him or hate him, Stephen Colbert doesn’t waste time getting to the point. In last Thursday’s interview with Melinda Gates on the Colbert Report, he asked Melinda about her newest initiative and cut straight to the chase: the new population control movement exists to save lives by erasing lives. Colbert: “But now you’ve got a new charitable hobby horse you’re on, and it’s not necessarily saving people’s lives, so much as it’s stopping people’s lives from existing. You want to provide family planning to 120 million men and women around the world.”Melinda Gates: “Right.”...

For the first time since April, President Obama has opened up a sustained lead over Republican Mitt Romney in Gallup’s daily tracking poll of the presidential race. Obama leads Romney 48%-44% in the poll, marking the sixth consecutive day in which the poll has showed him with a small, but statistically meaningful lead. The shift comes after almost two months in which the two candidates were essentially tied in the poll’s results.

With Independence Day nearly upon us, it's a great time to remember all the freedom fighters who battled (fictional) baddies in sci-fi movies and on TV. From battles against aliens to foreign forces, the quest for freedom has been a part of sci-fi for decades.

Editorial note: Mohammed Morsi’s victory as Egypt’s first elected civilian president—and first leader with a PhD—also brings the first traditionally Islamic First Lady. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.--The world now knows that Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party became the first civilian elected president in Egypt’s long history on June 24. But this isn’t the only “first” that Morsi has brought to the Egyptian political landscape. Morsi is the first Islamist to get to the presidential palace. He is the first Egyptian president with Mohammed as an actual first name—although Hosni Mubarak and Anwar Sadat injected “Mohammed” into...

Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer found that on his Sunday public-radio show with socialist professor Cornel West, PBS host Tavis Smiley thumped Obama chief of staff Valerie Jarrett for an apparently rude speech at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in New Orleans on  June 23. She came to describe Obama's "genuine love for black people," which Smiley thought was ridiculous since Obama did not show up. Several NABJ vets did complain to blogger Richard Prince about Jarrett reading a list of Obama accomplishments: "Why not just send a [campaign] video?" one said. "That was out of line," said...

The Dean of Students at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey died suddenly on Sunday after he was in a jet ski crash. Capt. Alan "Dex" Poindexter was 51. The accident happened when the astronaut's 26-year-old son, Zachary, collided into the back of a jet ski that Poindexter was riding off the coast of Florida. "They were both moving and for some reason Capt. Poindexter stopped his watercraft and Zachary for some reason didn't see him stop," said Stan Kirkland, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Zachary's watercraft went up and struck Capt. Poindexter." Another son,...

Do you know who Gen. Robert Edward Lee, Major Gen. George Edward Pickett and Major Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain were?

'Zombie Apocalypse' To Hit Detroit? Zombie Theme Park Hopes To Breathe New Life To City You may soon be able to pay for an afternoon of fear. Entrepreneur Mark Siwak is hoping to build a "zombie apocalypse" horror theme park in Detroit. Years of population decline has left parts of the city of Detroit rundown and abandoned, but Siwak is hoping to breathe new life into the urban landscape -- by bringing in the dead. According to the Huffington Post, the entrepreneur's idea is to build Z World, a live-action zombie theme park right in an abandoned Detroit neighborhood. Theme...

The suspicions of Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe were correct: Rather than sitting before the House Energy and Commerce Committee three weeks ago to explain theways he “crucified” oil and natural gas companies, insteadAl Armendariz – who cancelled his appearance at the last minute – met with the Sierra Club for a job interview. This time the recently resigned EPA’s Region 6 administrator will eagerly attack another fossil fuel, joining the litigious environmental group as part of its “Beyond Coal” campaign. If there was any question that Armendariz unfairly regulated the gas and oil businesses under his authority in Texas, Oklahoma,...

Citing a nationwide “voter suppression” movement, and standing in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, a phalanx of Hudson County Democrats appeared in Jersey City today to kick-off the group’s summer voter-registration drive. HCDO Chair Mark Smith called this “an important time for Democrats,” adding that he wants the county’s Democratic turnout in November to reach 55 percent. Turnout now is in the mid-30s, Smith said. “It’s important to get our vote totals up,” said Smith, the Bayonne mayor. “Ocean County just dictated the last gubernatorial election … I want (Obama) to walk out of Hudson County with a...

Ballot summaries for two measures that will appear on the November ballot were released today by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. **SNIP** Carnahan's approved ballot summary asks voters: Shall Missouri law be amended to deny individuals, families, and small businesses the ability to access affordable health care plans through a state-based health benefit exchange unless authorized by statute, initiative or referendum or through an exchange operated by the federal government as required by the federal health care act? No direct costs or savings for state and local governmental entities are expected from this proposal. Indirect costs or savings related to...

For legal buffs, the virtuoso performance of Chief Justice John Roberts ... not only shielded his branch of government from charges of rank partisanship with his ruling but also granted partial immunity to Obama from the indictment that he spent the first year of his presidency fiddling over an unconstitutional overreach while the economy was burning.

Big US banks submit "living wills" to regulatorsBy ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer – 1 hour ago Nine of the largest U.S. banks have submitted plans offering roadmaps for how the government could break up and sell off their assets if they are in danger of failing. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released summaries of the "living wills" on Tuesday for Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and UBS. The plans were required under the 2010 financial overhaul, which gave regulators the power to seize and dismantle banks that threaten the...

those metal detecTwo men using metal detectors discover hoard of 50,000 Iron Age Celtic coins Great news for all you hopeful amateur metal detectorists: Two men, who'd been searching the same field for nearly 30 years, have stumbled upon the largest hoard of Iron Age coins ever discovered in northern Europe. Inspired by legends that a local farmer once discovered silver coins on his land, the men unearthed the congealed chunk of 50,000 silver and gold coins after following a trail of pieces — that turned out not to be related to the cache. Reg Mead and Richard Miles found...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed election reform bills that sparked angry protests and cries of voter suppression during committee hearings. Snyder, in one day doubling the number of bills vetoed during his tenure, nixed bills that aimed to prevent voting fraud by requiring a voter to reaffirm U.S. citizenship before receiving a ballot and requiring photo ID when picking up an absentee ballot from a city office. He also rejected a bill that would have required training for people, companies and organizations participating in voter registration drives. Snyder in a release said he appreciates the issue of...

Midwest farmers were outraged to hear that the Obama EPA was spying on ranches in surveilance planes. Rep. Tom Latham sent a letter to the EPA demanding answers, “No federal agency has the right to treat the American farmer like the Taliban.” To the Obama EPA – Iowa farmers are the enemy. The AP reported: Midwest ranchers have never been enamored with environmental regulators, but they really began to complain after learning that federal inspectors were flying over their land to look for problems. The Environmental Protection Agency flies over power plants and other facilities nationwide to identify potential air,...