Free Republic

Legislation that would prohibit abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, at which point science indicates that unborn babies are able to feel pain, has been presented in the U.S. Senate. “At twenty weeks, mothers are encouraged to speak and sing as the baby can recognize the voice of the mother,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who introduced the bill at a Nov. 7 press conference. “The question for the American people is, ‘Should we be silent when it comes to protecting these unborn children entering the sixth month of pregnancy? Or is it incumbent on us to speak up and...

You must understand, no matter what President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid say, that ObamaCare was designed for failure, not just for itself but all the insurance companies involved. When a poison pill is ingested into the system, the body starts to die, killing off the healthy organs and itself in the process... leaving a void for something far worse to take its place. It has been the progressive's dream since 1912 to introduce national healthcare and control one-sixth of the nation's economy. Now that they are so close to the finish line, they needed one final push to send it...

A spelling mistake in the words 'not recommended' on the Obamacare website led to the site going down, it was revealed today in internal notes from 'war room' meetings of experts scrabbling to breathe life into the shambolic operation. The error limited the choices Obamacare shoppers were offered in October and often presented them with overpriced options. Ultimately, at least some of the website's many outages were brought about by this simple typo, as technicians struggled to give the public an experience that mirrored President Obama's promises. 'In states where the federal government helps run these marketplaces, the average American...

The right loves to demonize unions, but economic factors are much more important to success in the classroom Google the phrase “education crisis” and you’ll be hit with a glut of articles, blog posts and think tank reports claiming the entire American school system is facing an emergency. Much of this agitprop additionally asserts that teachers unions are the primary cause of the alleged problem. Not surprisingly, the fabulists pushing these narratives are often backed by anti-public school conservatives and anti-union plutocrats. But a little-noticed study released last week provides yet more confirmation that neither the “education crisis” meme nor...

Moments after the Senate passed a historic measure to outlaw workplace discrimination against gays, activists turned their attention toward President Barack Obama and a long-sought executive order that would have the same effect, though on a much smaller scale. "We call on President Obama to send a clear message in support of workplace fairness by signing this executive order," said Chad Griffin, president of the gay advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. The quick shift underscores the reality that the bill is unlikely to ever reach Obama's desk. While the anti-discrimination measure passed comfortably Thursday in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it may...

The Republican Party of Iowa was blindsided by the Tea Party movement in the last presidential election, but party officials are already working hard to diminish the conservative movement's influence by the time the next presidential primary rolls around in 2016, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa said."I think the Tea Party people in Iowa caught them off guard," Grassley said of the state party in an interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers."Grassley said many Iowa Republicans "have been dissatisfied with the direction of the Republican Party in Iowa and are prepared to get more involved this time to counter the Tea Party influence.""What...

Though Democrats have railed against the influence of money in politics after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, liberals have accounted for 70% of the so-called "dark money" that has been spent this year. According to Open Secrets, "liberal dark money in 2013 makes up 70 percent of all the dark money spent so far. At this point in 2011, liberal money accounted for less than 6 percent of the dark money spent, and in 2009, the total was a little higher, at 6.5 percent." Open Secrets describes "dark money organizations" as "501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) nonprofits that don't have to disclose their donors."...

'The USA created history by beating the Cook Islands for a debut victory in their first match at the Rugby League World Cup.'

'There’s a World Cup on, America! And you’re a part of it! The 2013 Rugby League World Cup is currently being played in England & Wales, and the United States Tomahawks are in Group D, along with Wales and the Cook Islands. But before we get into that, I need to clear up a few things. Chiefly, Rugby League is not the sport that comes to mind when Americans think of “rugby.” The sport you’re thinking of is Rugby Union; Rugby League is its faster, looser cousin. There are only 13 players on a side, as opposed to Union’s 15,...

The Virginia governor’s race was yet another example of the massive voting gap in a huge demographic: single people, particularly single women. According to exit polls, Republican Ken Cuccinelli won handily on the “hard” issues facing Virginia voters, and won most other demographic slices, but Democrat Terry McAuliffe won big with single people, crushing Cuccinelli by nearly fifty points among single women. A similar dynamic could be observed in the 2012 presidential race, where the Obama campaign made a very concerted effort to win over single women – so concerted that it sometimes appeared ludicrously clumsy to critics. Rush Limbaugh...

I suppose the danger of AJ Schnack’s immensely entertaining documentary “Caucus” is that it retells all the hair-raising twists and turns of the 2012 Republican caucus in Iowa as human drama, with the things we’re supposed to care about – the ideology, the “politics” – stripped away. We know for sure that none of these clowns will ever be elected president, so we’re free to view them as flawed, interesting, crazy and sometimes even sympathetic characters in a larger narrative that’s beyond their control. I would argue, in fact, that this gripping and grotesque portrait of retail politics in the...

Obama: 'I'm sorry' Americans are losing insurance Associated Press By JULIE PACE 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to calm a growing furor, President Barack Obama said Thursday he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview with NBC News. Signaling possible tweaks to the law, Obama said his administration...

A committee of Florida lawmakers rejected a proposal to repeal the ''stand your ground'' self-defense law Thursday, following an hours-long hearing. The Florida House of Representatives Criminal Justice Subcommittee held a five-hour hearing starting at 3 p.m. to vote on a bill repealing the law granting individuals to use deadly force when they believe their life is in jeopardy. "Today, our state is a safer place and has the lowest crime rate in 42 years," Rep. Marti Coley, a Marianna Republican, said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "Florida's 'stand your ground' law is solid. It's good and should not...

Sen. Rand Paul was supposed to be a more politically savvy version of his father, former Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. The senior Paul energized a subset of the Republican Party, but the younger Paul was supposed to be a more mainstream advocate for limited government and a non-interventionist foreign policy. The Kentucky senator has even been touted as one of the leading candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Yet time and again, he has shown why he shouldn't be taken seriously. The latest controversy surrounding Paul, which has been detailed in a series of stories at...

The Council on the American Islamic Relations (CAIR) excoriated many of its critics in their "Islamophobia" report, but the group also had a "Best List Inductees" which included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. CAIR says the list was compiled as a way to recognize those who "deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions to pushing back against Islamophobic trends in 2011 and 2012." The report says Christie is receiving the accolade primarily for his nomination of a Muslim judge and statements in the ensuing controversy: Following Islamophobic criticism of his nomination of Sohail Mohammed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge,...

If you are stopped by a police officer in Cotati, the event will likely be captured on a video camera worn on the officer's shirt. The city's 10 police officers now carry the pager-sized cameras, joining law enforcement agencies around the world that are rapidly adopting the devices to reduce complaints and record valuable information. Santa Rosa police officers are testing models, with about 15 cameras now on the street. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office expects to start a pilot program next year with cameras on 11 patrol deputies and two jail officers. [. . .] Currently, deputies do not...

Democrats pulling for Wendy Davis to turn Texas blue in 2014 should hope she has developed a thicker skin since her first run for public office nearly two decades ago, which ended in a bizarre lawsuit against a local newspaper. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Fort Worth city council in 1996, Davis sued the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, along with parent companies ABC and Disney, for libel, alleging that the paper’s coverage of her campaign had been biased and “demonizing,” caused harm to her physical and mental health, and infringed on her “right to pursue public offices...

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the inter-Christian organization of mainstream Protestant churches, is at it again in its continuing campaign against Israel. In 2013, one of its units, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), invited WCC member churches, faith-based communities, and civil society organizations working for justice, to join together for a week in a proclaimed World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (WWPPI). The purpose was advocacy and action in support of an "end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and a just peace for all in Palestine and in Israel." Everyone with stakes in the Middle East,...

Rick Newman of Yahoo! Finance offers his solutions to "fix" ObamaCare.....:"As clumsy as the launch of the Affordable Care Act has been, the law is here to stay. But its numerous provisions aren't written in stone and President Obama himself has said he's willing to change the law in the future in order to make it work better.""Clumsy" doesn't quite capture what the ObamaCare rollout has been, but this is what passes for harsh criticism among mainstream pundits. More correctly,the launch has been an incompetent and hopeless failure and that fact is so obvious that Barack Obama,who is not known...

Americans love fine-sounding expensive social welfare programs. In New York City, where I live, it is almost axiomatic that government should build ever more affordable housing, force "greedy" landlords to subsidize tenants, supply shelters for the homeless and just about any nostrum that would somehow "help" the needy. Such addiction is even worse nationally where the public clamors for "free" medical care, non-stop "investing" in children, and guaranteeing millions of children free meals no matter how obese. Economists insist that there's no free lunch but don't broach that unpleasant reality to millions of American parents.The key to understanding this rapacious...