Free Republic

The journalists at CBS This Morning on Monday compared the violent, bloody attacks on African Americans during civil rights marches in 1965 to voter ID laws passed by various states in the last few years. Co-anchor Norah O'Donnell talked to Oprah Winfrey, producer/star of the new film Selma. O'Donnell marveled, "...Given the Voting Rights Act, 1965, I went back and looked. Thirteen states have passed more restrictive voter ID laws in the last three years, that states are trying to make it harder to vote." [MP3 audio here.]Actor David Oyelowo, who plays Martin Luther King in the film, slammed the...

Interestingly, they don’t specify that she’s going to re-report it *for Rolling Stone.* RS is supposedly revisiting the UVA story too but you would think at this point they’d want nothing more to do with Erdely, especially with her previous work for them and others newly under suspicion. What happens if they agree to let her “re-report” Jackie’s story for them and then her previous bombshell for the magazine begins falling apart under scrutiny?There are only two ways an Erdely mea culpa can go. She could in theory blame the whole thing on Jackie, but she won’t. “Rape culture” true...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- OPEC doubled-down on its commitment to current levels of oil production, triggering a fresh selloff in crude prices on Monday. The fall in commodities alongside nerves heading into the Federal Reserve meeting Tuesday pulled stocks lower to start the week. Crude oil prices were falling again after secretary general of OPEC, Abdallah Salem el-Badri, said the oil cartel had not set a fixed oil-price target. Separately, United Arab Emirates oil minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei said the group would stick to production levels even if oil falls to $40 a barrel.

For all of their foresight on other matters, America's founders were somewhat taken aback by the natural development of political parties. It happened anyway, even during George Washington's presidency. And although party ideology has fallen along different lines at various points in American history, it has long governed the allegiance of a majority of American voters in elections. In legislative matters, party ideology takes the form of the modern party caucus system. In order to achieve their goals, partisan lawmakers collaborate, choose leaders, and agree on strategies in advance. On Saturday, lawmakers demonstrated why this system evolved and is necessary....

If you had to imagine the communications between the two of them over the last few months what do you suppose they are up to? Leave you ideas in the comments.Three pieces were linked at the Drudge Report today on the rising Idol of the progressive political cult, first by Michael Goodwin at the New York Post: “Elizabeth Warren poses a challenge to Hillary in 2016“: The polls say it’s Hillary’s turn, but I’m starting to believe 2016 could be 2008 all over again, with Warren taking the nomination from her the way Barack Obama did. As Mark Twain said,...

One of the more irresponsible aspects of the reporting on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s long-awaited report on the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques is the prevalent suggestion that there is little debate over the efficacy of the tactics the report exposed, particularly among Democrats. A new poll suggests that there is a robust debate ongoing outside of America’s newsrooms over both the value of and the justification for the CIA’s interrogation methods. While 69 percent of those surveyed in a recent CBS News Poll said they believe controversial tactics like waterboarding are “torture,” 49 percent also said they think...

Depending upon whose estimate one accepts, anywhere from 1,000 to perhaps 1,800 Second Amendment activists turned out for a midday rally opposing Initiative 594 in Olympia Saturday, while the Washington Arms Collectors’ monthly gun show at the Puyallup Fairgrounds drew a couple of thousand more looking for pre-Christmas deals, and answers to questions about the state's new, and confusing, gun law.

HARTFORD, Conn. – The families of nine of the 26 people killed and a teacher wounded two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School filed a lawsuit Monday against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the rifle used in the shooting. The negligence and wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Bridgeport Superior Court, asserts that the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle should not have been made publicly available because it was designed for military use and is unsuited for hunting or home defense. "The AR-15 was specifically engineered for the United States military to meet the needs of changing warfare," attorney Josh...

The official White House holiday card was rather staid this year, with President Obama and the first lady writing: "May your family have a joyous holiday season and a new year blessed with hope and happiness."

DELAVAN, Wis. – The Delavan-Darien School District denied a family’s request to enroll their children in a neighboring school district by citing the “best interest” of the children. “We believe it is in the best interest of your children to attend the Delavan-Darien School District,” said a letter from Superintendent Robert Crist to Les and Carol Paur. “Your application for the above students to transfer out of the Delavan-Darien School District into the Williams Bay School District under the open enrollment program has been denied by the Delavan-Darien School District for the 2014-15 school year.” Carol Paur, the mother of...

A nation, a workplace, an ethnicity, a passion, an outsized personality. The people who comprise these things, who fawn or rail against them, are behind Merriam-Webster's 2014 word of the year: culture. The word joins Oxford Dictionaries' "vape," a darling of the e-cigarette movement, and "exposure," declared the year's winner at Dictionary.com during a time of tragedy and fear due to Ebola. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last on Merriam-Webster.com, along with notable, often culture-driven ? if you will ? spikes of concentrated interest.

CAIRO — Egypt’s government has aggressively cracked down on Islamist and liberal opponents over the past year. Now officials are increasingly targeting another group: gay people. Police raided a public bathhouse in Cairo this month and arrested at least two dozen men, parading them half-naked in front of television cameras before hauling them off to prison. It was the latest in a series of police busts at suspected meeting places of homosexuals across the country. Arrests of gay people have been on the rise since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi seized power in a military coup in 2013, but in recent...

I am deeply disappointed that Greenpeace engaged in an action at the sacred Nazca Lines in Peru. We have been hearing from many of you and I share your frustration and anger about this situation. The decision to engage in this activity shows a complete disregard for the culture of Peru and the importance of protecting sacred sites everywhere. There is no apology sufficient enough to make up for this serious lack of judgment. I know my international colleagues who engaged in this activity did not do so with malice, but that doesn’t mitigate the result. It is a shame...

I am deeply disappointed that Greenpeace engaged in an action at the sacred Nazca Lines in Peru. We have been hearing from many of you and I share your frustration and anger about this situation. The decision to engage in this activity shows a complete disregard for the culture of Peru and the importance of protecting sacred sites everywhere. There is no apology sufficient enough to make up for this serious lack of judgment. I know my international colleagues who engaged in this activity did not do so with malice, but that doesn’t mitigate the result. It is a shame...

Famed model Beverly Johnson made waves last week when she gave her Vanity Fair account of being drugged by beleaguered comedian Bill Cosby. She sat down for an interview with ABC News. Today, Johnson appeared on ABC’s The View to share her story. Comedian/actress Whoopi Goldberg, who has vigorously defended Cosby, gave Johnson the ‘3rd degree’ according to some viewers.

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’d think that Berkeley is the national hub for anarchism. You can see photos of ski-masked anarchists all over the place. Masked bandits are breaking windows, starting bonfires, and robbing and looting banks, stores, restaurants, and the like. (1)But there is one problem with this narrative. There aren’t any anarchists in Berkeley. OK, maybe there are a few UC Berkeley professors who call themselves anarchists. But while they talk the talk, they don’t walk the walk. This elite group only gets their hands dirty when they are in their leafy backyards, composting.But after...

A federal appeals court will reconsider a decision to order YouTube to take down an anti-Muslim film clip that sparked violence in the Middle East and death threats to the actors from those who considered it blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad. . . . . . Google is supported in its appeal by an unusual alliance that includes filmmakers, Internet rivals such as Yahoo and prominent news media companies such as The New York Times that don't want the court to infringe on First Amendment rights.

A story from New Hampshire reminds us once again that liberals are often willing to commit suicide to prove how liberal they are. It would be hard to imagine a more ridiculous scenario than a lesbian rabbi making a public stand in favor of adopting Sharia Law as the new ruling principles of any American state; but Rabbi Robin Nafshi of New Hampshire has done just that. With the type of smug,” I’m a liberal so I’m smarter than you” hubris only the sickest of liberals can muster, Rabbi Nafshi scolds her fellow Granite Staters in a piece she has...

First leg dates: 17 February: PSG v Chelsea; Shakhtar v Bayern Munich 18 February: Schalke v Real Madrid; Basel v Porto 24 February: Man City v Barcelona; Juventus v Borussia Dortmund 25 February: Bayer Leverkusen v Atletico Madrid; Arsenal v Monaco Second leg dates: 10 March: Real Madrid v Schalke; Porto v Basel 11 March: Chelsea v PSG; Bayern Munich v Shakhtar 17 March: Atletico Madrid v Bayer Leverkusen; Monaco v Arsenal 18 March: Barcelona v Man City, Borussia Dortmund v Juventus

THREE weeks ago Sony Pictures Entertainment was the victim of a massive cyberattack by an outlaw group calling itself the Guardians of Peace. They breached Sony’s security and stole tens of thousands of internal documents and emails. Then they left a threat. The Guardians said they were going to make these private documents public if the studio went ahead with its planned release of “The Interview,” a comedy with Seth Rogen and James Franco in which the two are tasked by the Central Intelligence Agency to whack the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.