Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the GOP presidential field “losers” and compared Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to a “lump of coal” in a Wednesday interview. Reid said he wasn’t worried that Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a significant challenger in the Democratic primary. “I am not a big fan of primaries,” he said. “I don't think they help, especially when you're someone as noted as Hillary.” He was less kind to the Republican contenders. “I don't really care,” he said, when asked about the GOP field. “I think they're all losers." Reid said McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, thinks...

The US Air Force and Navy plan to pursue the development and acquisition of sixth-generation F/A-XX fighters; they consider the fleet of existing jets incapable of handling their Russian and Chinese fifth-generation counterparts, something which they feel constitutes a real threat to national security. The Chinese Chengdu J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA are becoming a real threat to the US Air Force and Navy, according to The National Interest, an international affairs magazine. "When you see these next-generation fighters, the PAK-FA out of Russia and the J-20 out of China, and some of their new missile technology, our...

Loretta Lynch is still waiting to be confirmed as attorney general, and her allies are hoping a hunger strike will do the trick. The advocacy group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, along with female civil-rights leaders, are launching the hunger strike – where groups of fasters will alternate days abstaining from food until Lynch is confirmed to replace Eric Holder at the Justice Department. Dubbed “Confirm Loretta Lynch Fast,” the new tactic is designed in the mold of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Cesar Chavez, organizers said.

FORT HUACHUCA — When it comes to Army noncommissioned officers, they like their ceremonies short and simple with the right touch of traditions. So it was on Tuesday, when two command sergeants majors — John Reinburg and Christopher Schultingkemper — stood on Brown Parade Field, with soldiers of the 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion before them, watching as the unit’s senior NCO position changed. Reinburg has deployed 10 times during his career, which will now continue with his reassignment to the Army Central Command at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

Marco Rubio announced his candidacy for president yesterday. He may be half of the makings of the 2016 GOP dream ticket. The Republicans have two big problems to solve if they hope to win the White House next time around. No, I am not talking about cracking the Latin American ancestry vote. It would be good for the party to do that, though probably more essential in the long run than right away. And there are questions about whether putting a Cuban-American on the ticket does that anyway. Cubans are already among the country’s highest turnout populations (67.2% in 2012,...

He is a veteran. He was thinking about committing suicide. But when he called the suicide hotline for veterans, he says he wasn’t helped — he was put on hold. Ted Koran experienced deep depression on Saturday night, so much so that he considered killing himself, the Florida Air Force veteran told WFTS-TV. “I was missing my wife,” he said of his life partner Karen, who died of cancer six months ago. In his pain, he turned to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Michigan business owners are running into problems with the state’s new online system for filing sales, use and payroll taxes, and some are worried that if they can’t make timely payments, they will be stuck with fines and interest charges. Asked if the state would waive penalties, Michigan Department of Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton said the “penalty and interest waiver will be accomplished systematically on a case-by-case basis.” The Treasury Department has also changed its stand on mail-in tax payments. Before the system went online, businesses were told the electronic system was mandatory. Now, Treasury is only requiring it for...

Becoming a “den leader” to kids in choppers is not how Mark Robinson foresaw his career, but that’s what the chief pilot of Revolution Aviation has been since opening his helicopter flight school in 2013. The school operates at John Wayne Airport, which caters to the wealthy in Orange County, California—where super-yachts dominate the harbor, Ferraris and Bentleys tool up the Pacific Coast Highway, and parents wanting helicopter lessons for their kids can easily front up to $1,000 an hour. Robinson, who was raised in a mud hut by missionary parents in the African country of Cameroon, finds the new...

Lawsuit alleges suspect wasn’t a threat when he was shot in the back Allegations of excessive force used on minorities are mounting against the South Carolina police officer recently caught on video fatally shooting unarmed suspect Walter Scott in the back. Julius Garnett Wilson alleges in a new lawsuit that he was tased by officer Michael Slager last August while lying face-down on the pavement.

... while the Treaty Clause was, in the original understanding, the exclusive way to make treaties, the Framers also apparently recognized a class of less-important international agreements, not rising to the level of "treaties," which could be approved in some other way. Article I, Section 10, in describing restrictions upon the states, speaks of "Treat[ies]" and "Agreement[s]...with a foreign Power" as two distinct categories. Some scholars believe this shows that not all international agreements are treaties, and that these other agreements would not need to go through the procedures of the Treaty Clause. Instead, the President, in the exercise of...

As six armed officers pour out of two unmarked Ford Explorers on a Long Island City street corner, you can see the confusion on the faces of gawkers and passersby. One woman looks up from her phone and does a sitcom-worthy double-take when she notices their windbreakers, embossed with the word "SHERIFF" in big gold letters, front and back. That might be because few have ever heard of the New York City Sheriff's Office. But those who have know what happens next. And, not surprisingly, when they burst into a corner store near 40th Avenue and 21st Street, the clerk...

The depth of Greece's financial woes have been laid bare as official figures showed the country has fallen further into the red following the election of its Leftist government. Greece's primary budget surplus, which excludes its debt interest payments, shrunk to just over €1bn during January and February, compared to €3.17bn over the same period in 2014, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is set to reintroduce legislation this week that would provide a $2,000 tax credit to people who chose to turn in an assault weapon to law enforcement. According to the Support Assault Firearm Elimination and Education of our (SAFER) Streets Act, the term ‘specified assault weapon’ that people could turn in for the tax credit includes a long list of pistols, rifles and shotguns including:

It is fair to say that Hillary Clinton is as liberal as Ted Cruz is conservative. This will explain why our so-called "objective" media are already treating Hillary as the Third Coming (Obama was No. 2) while Cruz merits hide-your-children alarms. Just the adjectives give it away. Hillary's Twitter launch on April 12 was received with words like "sleek," "savvy," "trending," "electrifying," and "approachable" She was packaged by the press exactly as she wanted it: a humble "champion of everyday Americans." Compare that to the Ted Cruz launch on March 23. These words framed the introduction: "scary," "dangerous," "slimy," "firebrand,"...

Let's take a look at some freebies and deals offered on Tax Day. Pizza Hut is getting creative with their P-2 form. Customers will fill out the P-2 form that asks questions like "how many pizzas did you order in 2014?" and "how many different combinations did you try in 2014?" ....Head over to McDonald's for the ultimate Big Mac deal. Buy one Big Mac or Quarter Pounder on Tax Day and receive a second sandwich for just one penny... Boston Market is offering a free dinner with a purchase of an individual meal.... Staples knows that after customers have...

Poor Barbra Streisand. Just last month the renowned economist (who also describes herself as a “singer,” “actress,” and “activist”) penned an opinion piece titled “Have You Heard the Good News?” about how well the economy is performing under Barack Obama. It was a pep rally of sorts, and all that was missing were the pom-poms. “President Obama’s administration, with only opposition from the Republicans,” she gushed, “has steadily helped put more than 11 million Americans back to work in the private sector.”

Talk radio host and author of “The Liberty Amendments,” Mark Levin argued that Hillary Clinton believes in the government “spending like drunken Marxists” on Tuesday.

A poverty simulation is going to be held at the Salem Methodist Church April 30, according to Pastor Doug Walter and Bank of Salem Vice President SN Ball. Walter and Ball visited with the Dent County Commission on Thursday to invite the commissioners to participate. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles as well as First District Commissioner Dennis Purcell and Second District Commissioner Gary Larson all said they would attend. The event is being held by volunteers with the help of the South Central Missouri Community Action Agenc

Nearly all politicians who support longstanding hardline U.S. policy toward Cuba tend to be Cuban-American, Republican or both. With one big exception: Weston U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who happens to be the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. On Wednesday, after President Obama announced an historic deal to thaw the Cold War-era hostilities with Cuba, Wasserman Schultz was eerily quiet. Then, when Wasserman Schultz spoke, she was clearly out of step with the DNC. Consider the statements each issued and their timing: At 7:14 p.m., Wasserman Schultz's congressonal office released the most-tepid of statements that stopped well short of...

When you think of the Fourth of July, what words come to mind? Holiday? Grilling? Fireworks? But 238 years ago, it was a different three words. Conviction. Courage. Sacrifice. On July 4, 1776, 56 men met in Philadelphia to pass a resolution declaring their independence from England. It was anything but a picnic. What they did that day at Independence Hall would cost them greatly in the years to come. But it paved the way for a radical new way of thinking about government that would change the course of human history. It’s not that the signers of the Declaration...