Free Republic

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called details of President Obama's leaked immigration proposal "half-baked" on Saturday and predicted that the measure would be "dead on arrival in Congress." Rubio, who is spending this week in the Middle East, was responding to a story published online Saturday by USA Today which revealed that the draft bill would allow illegal immigrants in the U.S. to apply for newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visas. The bill would also provide more security funding and require that businesses verify the immigration status of new hires within four years, according to the report. “It’s a mistake for...

Well-publicized instances of attempted voter fraud by high-profile Democrats in Virginia and Maryland have helped Republican lawmakers make a case for tougher voting requirements. In Virginia, Patrick Moran, the son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, has become the poster child for voter fraud after he was documented on a hidden camera last year coaching an undercover conservative operative on how to forge a utility bill to vote for someone else. At the time, the younger Moran was working on his father's campaign in Northern Virginia, though he stepped down after the embarrassing incident. Authorities did not file charges against...

Here are some amazing images taken of the USS Monitor in the early 1860's. Ready for Action 1 of 13 Sixteen men were lost when the USS Monitor went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras on Dec. 31, 1862, while it was being towed. The sunken ship was discovered in 1974 resting upside down on the ocean floor in about 235 feet (71 meters) of water; efforts to salvage artifacts from the site began in 1998. Here, a line engraving, published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the ship "Ready for Action" after her pilothouse was modified with angled armor...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that he has accepted a new disclaimer from President Obama’s defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) disavowing one of his many offensive statements about the state of Israel. Graham told “Fox News Sunday” that he received a new letter from the beleaguered nominee in which Hagel claimed he “did not recall” the odious statement-- allegedly made during a speech at Rutgers University in 2007-- in which he argued that the State Department is controlled by the Israeli Foreign Minister’s office. “Well, if in fact that’s true, that would end the matter,” Graham said, adding, “I...

The folks at the Associated Press have a lot of egg on their faces Sunday. Politico hours ago released a Bulletin Kill from the wire service withdrawing an article published earlier in the day with the inflammatory headline "Sen. Paul: Voters Want to Round Up Immigrants":

Ms. Perrin received a full scholarship to Clarion University of Pennsylvania. At 19, she became pregnant and gave birth to Archie, who was diagnosed with hemophilia, a serious blood disorder that prevents the blood from clotting. She quit college. Four years later, she would have a second child, Katheryn, to the same father, Gideon Beatty. In time, she placed her children in day care and landed a bank job, eventually becoming bank manager, a position that paid $50,000 a year. But Archie suffered a serious episode of bleeding in his knee while at day care and Children, Youth and Family...

Insurance chain State Farm is reportedly buying up substantial workspace in Texas, which may signal a coming exodus from the company's home state of Illinois. State Farm is keeping the move quiet so as not to alarm employees. But the Dallas Morning News reports that it is a “major business relocation” already underway and that this is “one of the biggest stories in the Dallas-area real estate market and will ultimately involve thousands of workers.” Texas-based real estate expert Bob Gibbons notes in a blog post that State Farm’s Dallas office space lease--about 2.5 million square feet of workspace in...

Today in America, we find ourselves in dire straits. The feeling of being among the downtrodden has extended itself beyond all social classes and economic status. Where there was once hope and dreams of a better life, it is a downward spiral we have reached. With aspirations of our children’s future being brighter than that of our own, a reality of darkness and desperation has set in. For the first time in our nations history since its birth, this generation of youth today will be the first generation to be worse off, than that of their parents. When Obama came...

A pact between Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid is causing serious consternation in Likud, and a senior source in the ruling party warns that new elections are a possibility. The improbable warning is a sign that Likud is feeling the pressure of the united front presented by Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, each of whom is saying he will not enter the coalition without the other. "Bennett should not pull the rope too much," the senior source told Maariv. "In the end it will snap." "Netanyahu is ready to head for elections," the source said....

Five love songs for February 18, 2014 I’ve really enjoyed the songs posted by fellow FRs these past few days, so on the First Monday of Lent, if you’re still game, I give you 5 more love songs, and ask you to give me some of yours in return, (please include a link to a performance of the song if it exists, and if you’re inclined, the name of the composer. If you're really moved, like beaversmom, include the lyrics :-)). 1. La La Means I Love You---The Delfonics (Try singing it like Nick Cage did) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_LORPebWG0 2. Nature Boy—Nat...

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is less than a month away and the now-annual kerfuffle over the participation of gay conservative group GOProud was in full swing on Twitter this weekend. When GOProud co-sponsored CPAC in 2011, several conservative groups boycotted the conference. Later that year, the American Conservative Union’s board of directors voted to exclude GOProud from formal participation in 2012 and the welcome mat is still rolled up. Naturally, the liberal media presented this as unimpeachable evidence of the Right’s “H8″ and intolerance. But among conservatives on Twitter, there’s little controversy over whether to embrace gay conservatives as...

A new gun law calls on sheriffs to search the home of assault weapon owners. A proposed Washington State gun law will call on the county sheriff to inspect the homes of assault-weapon owners. Seattle Times reported, via Free Republic: One of the major gun-control efforts in Olympia this session calls for the sheriff to inspect the homes of assault-weapon owners. The bill’s backers say that was a mistake. Forget police drones flying over your house. How about police coming inside, once a year, to have a look around? As Orwellian as that sounds, it isn’t hypothetical. The notion of...

So how is it possible that some of the most successful and intelligent people in the United States cansuddenly become stupid the moment they walk in the door of Congress? Or alternatively, how is it possible that these intelligent and successful people suddenly become unlucky? Is there any logical explanation? Isn't it much more likely that the people in congress are just as lucky and intelligent as they were the day before they were elected? And if that is true, how can you explain the "stupid" things that these intelligent and successful politicians do?

Explanation: What in heaven's blazes is that? Thousands of people living near the Ural Mountains in Russia saw last Friday morning one of the more spectacular meteors of modern times streak across the sky. Forceful sound waves arrived at the ground minutes later, knocking people over and breaking windows for hundreds of kilometers. The above video is a compilation of several car dashcams and includes real time footage of the meteor rampaging, smoke trails drifting, shadows quickly shifting, and even the meteor's light reflecting off the back of a bus. The fireball is thought to have been caused by a...

Officials with the Thomas More Law Center say they have filed a formal complaint challenging the accreditation of the National Defense University after officials there disciplined an instructor for teaching an approved course on Islam. ....... more at URL

Explanation: There it goes. That small spot moving in front of background stars in the above video is a potentially dangerous asteroid passing above the Earth's atmosphere. This past Friday, the 50-meter wide asteroid 2012 DA14 just missed the Earth, passing not only inside the orbit of the Moon, which is unusually close for an asteroid of this size, but also inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites. Unfortunately, asteroids this big or bigger strike the Earth every 1000 years or so. Were 2012 DA14 to have hit the Earth, it could have devastated a city-sized landscape, or stuck an ocean...

Japan has drawn criticism for its moves to weaken the yen against the U.S. dollar. NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors on Saturday pledged to monitor negative currency spillovers to other countries caused by monetary policies implemented for domestic purposes. “We will refrain from competitive devaluation,” the G-20 said at its meeting in Moscow. The G-20 fell short of any direct action related specifically to Japan, which has drawn criticism for policy moves that have caused the yen to lose 17.5% against the dollar in five months. See: Michael Casey's FX Horizons

Tough choice made by young citizen of Afghanistan Rui Ivaz Ali. Came to Russia with his parents at the age of 16, she secretly gave up their Muslim faith and converted to Christianity. Now this decision could cost her her life. Migration Service to deport her back to Afghanistan, where under Sharia law she could face the death penalty. Rui fled to Russia with her parents and younger brother three years ago. Breaking the border, the family settled in Ocher, Perm region. To learn the Russian language and get the basic knowledge, 16-year-old migrant went to sunday school. After her graduation, she...

Daniel Hannan cuts through the disinformation routinely spewed by the pundit class to reveal the true historical nature of fascism, albeit as it pertains to British politics. The lessons, however, are applicable here as well. 'I am a Socialist,' Hitler told Otto Strasser in 1930, 'and a very different kind of Socialist from your rich friend, Count Reventlow'. No one at the time would have regarded it as a controversial statement. The Nazis could hardly have been more open in their socialism, describing themselves with the same terminology as our own SWP: National Socialist German Workers' Party. Almost everyone in...

It is a matter of public record that the United States Senate is a terrible place where serious policy issues are ignored; routine votes are occasionally delayed over concerns about non-existent terrorist groups; and proverbial cans are proverbially kicked down the proverbial road of sadness, gridlock, and despair. What's less clear is why the Senate is such a congress of louts. Is it the endless pressure to raise money? The never-ending campaign? The fact that Americans hold lots of substantive disagreements on important things and are themselves—it's been said—somewhat dysfunctional? Actually, according to Georgia state Rep. Buzz Brockaway, the biggest...