Free Republic

Former CIA official Jose Rodriguez joined Sean Hannity on "Hannity" tonight to discuss the release of a report on the CIA's enhanced interrogation methods.

<p>A YouTube video of a Texas professor comparing the rise of the tea party in the United States to the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany has drawn criticism from conservatives online.</p> <p>In the video, filmed during a Nov. 17 lecture, Blake Armstrong — psychology professor at South Texas College in McAllen — said, "In 1931, which was really interesting, the Nazis — people are kind of tired of them. They've been around since 1920, 11 years now, they've won seats — they're like the tea party. Look, that's such a good example. Don't tell anybody I said that, though. 'The tea party are like the Nazis.'"</p>

Through his attorney Aaron Minc, and for the first time since being placed under suspicion of rape by Lena Dunham's memoir, "Barry One" has released a statement. It is posted in full below.

<p>Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans alike threw a wrench Wednesday into congressional leaders’ hopes of quickly passing a newly struck budget deal, with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi demanding that certain provisions be stripped.</p> <p>The California Democrat had been coy for days over whether she would support the plan being hammered out in closed-door negotiations to fund the government past a Thursday-at-midnight deadline.</p>

This week, Rolling Stone printed an editor's note retracting one of the most highly praised pieces of investigative journalism in its history. That piece, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, alleged that several members of the University of Virginia fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, had raped a 19-year-old student named Jackie, including with foreign objects, as she lay on a floor covered with broken glass. The article resulted in the university suspending the fraternity's activities, and national outrage over the so-called "rape culture" on campus. That rape culture supposedly leads to one in five women being sexually assaulted on campus -- a...

Via the Daily Caller. He’s right, but … I’m not sure anyone, up to and including nutty Joan Walsh, is claiming otherwise. (If Al Qaeda ends up ratcheting down the barbarity, it’ll be because of lessons they’ve learned from ISIS, not from the U.S.) On the other hand, opponents of EIT do frequently say that we need to set an example for the rest of the world in renouncing torture and I’ve never understood that argument either. Who are we setting an example for? Which countries are going to change how they handle terrorists because Dianne Feinstein released the...

Mark the date, David Letterman fans: May 20 will be his final edition of "The Late Show." CBS announced the finale date on Wednesday, a full five months before it will take place. Letterman announced his retirement plans back in April, but did not specify a date. "It's going to be tough to say goodbye, but I know we will all cherish the shows leading up to Dave's final broadcast in May," CBS CEO Les Moonves said in a statement. The network is planning a triumphant departure for the acclaimed late-night host, who will be succeeded by Stephen Colbert of...

The technologies of the past, by replacing human muscle, increased the value of human effort – and in the process drove rapid economic progress. Those of the future, by substituting for man’s senses and brain, will accelerate that process – but at the risk of creating millions of citizens who are simply unable to contribute economically, and with greater damage to an already declining middle class.

Democrats Senate investigation of the CIA’s secret interrogations of terrorism suspects renders a strikingly bleak verdict on a program launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack in which 3000 people were killed, describing arbitrary violence. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairwoman of the intelligence committee, writes in the report that it is her "personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured." Senator Feinstein and the Democrats have issued details how we should treat the killers of 3000 people on 911, who use beheadings, rapes, murders, mutilation and terrorist attacks as standard...

Respondents got to choose among nine potential candidates in the survey: Clinton; Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Vice President Joe Biden; Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.); Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas); Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); former Governor Jeb Bush (R-Fla.); Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Governor Scott Walker (R-Wis.) Clinton gets the support of 38 percent of women millionaires and 27 percent of male millionaires. Among male millionaires of both parties, Hillary is the top choice, with 27 percent. Millionaires are sharply divided on their choice for the next President of the U.S., according to the second CNBC Millionaire Survey released today. Yet...

A congressional deal to avert another government shutdown contains a provision to stop the District of Columbia from allowing the sale of marijuana, angering supporters of a pro-pot initiative that D.C. voters approved overwhelmingly in November, The Washington Post reports. The anti-pot measure — a budget "rider" slipped into a $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill that would keep the government running past Thursday — could prevent the nation's capital from joining Colorado and Washington as legal weed havens. The measure does not overturn the results of Initiative 71, the legalization referendum that passed on Nov. 4 with more than 60...

The Department of Treasury is seeking to order survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation. The emergency supplies would be for every employee at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which conducts on-site reviews of banks throughout the country. The survival kit includes everything from water purification tablets to solar blankets. The government is willing to spend up to $200,000 on the kits, according to the solicitation released on Dec. 4. The survival kits must come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of...

In the aftermath of the violent riots that broke out following a grand jury’s decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown, storeowners in the small St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., say they’re almost as angry at their state government as they are with the looters who vandalized, robbed, and destroyed their stores. […] “We haven’t received one call from the state or the governor’s office at all—not one,” said Kurt Barks, owner of Complete Auto Body and Repair in Ferguson, one of dozens of businesses that were trashed...

"Citing Fear Of Torture, Obama’s Second Cousin Seeks Asylum In US8:31 PM 12/09/2014 ... Obama is 36 years old and has spent the last eight or nine months in the Rapphannock Regional Facility in Stafford, Va., according to his sister, as his appeal for withholding of removal sits before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Denied relief most recently on Nov. 6, Obama, who has been in the U.S. since 1997, hopes he can stay in the U.S., ... Obama initially applied for asylum, filing what’s called an I-589 form. But the application must be filed within a year of the...

The Department of Treasury is spending $200,000 on survival kits for all of its employees who oversee the federal banking system, according to a new solicitation. As FreeBeacon reports, survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States and includes a solar blanket, food bar, water-purification tablets, and dust mask (among other things). The question, obviously, is just what do they know that the rest of us don't? As Free Beacon reports,

A group of protesters held signs emblazoned with messages like “Stop the killing” as they marched Tuesday morning through Oklahoma City to protest a fatal officer-involved shooting. The protesters described the man killed, Jerry Demonte Nowlin, 39, as a kind, community-oriented family man. Nowlin died late Sunday at OU Medical Center after being shot by officers about 8:30 p.m. at the Heritage Pointe Apartments, NE 26 and Kelley Avenue, according to police.

Since stepping down as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has made hundreds of speeches for which she has been paid handsomely, but her ineffective delivery and frequent gaffes have some questioning her strength as a presidential candidate. “Given that she has been in public life since 1992, it’s a bit incongruous to consider that her speaking style is often so lacking. She has yet to master ‘the big speech,’ which is part of the toolbox of any major politician,” contends The Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson. While making speeches and appearances on behalf of candidates during the midterm elections has kept...

The U.S. federal budget deficit narrowed in November, helped by a strengthening economy that boosted tax receipts during the month, Treasury Department data showed on Wednesday. Washington spent $56.8 billion more than it took in last month, which was less than half the deficit in November of 2013. It was also narrower than analysts' expectations for a $72.5 billion deficit. After suffering from years of stagnant growth, America's economy has appeared to rev its engines this year even as the global picture has grown more troubled. Hiring by U.S. employers has picked up and the government is no longer engaged...

Witness this two-minute clip of outrageous conduct by protesters towards police. Beware: the language is deplorable. Should police have to take it?

In the wake of the Democratic Party’s second disastrous midterm election in a row, the progressive wing of the party is acknowledging that Democrats need to renew their focus on policy rather than politics. On Wednesday, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched the “Big Ideas Project,” an initiative aimed at soliciting proposals from the public. It’s not a bad idea; the president’s party needs all the help they can get. “After being diminished in Congress, wiped out in the South, and marginalized in the states Dems focus on gun control,” wrote National Review’s Charles Cooke on Wednesday. It’s true. “A...