Free Republic

...as she huddles with Democratic leaders in high-stakes meeting Hillary Clinton’s now-famous Scooby Doo van made an appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Thursday for a closed-door meeting with state Democratic Party officials – and it idled in a handicapped parking space from beginning to end. Footage broadcast by KETV-7 in the nearby city of Omaha, Nebraska, showed the presidential nominee emerging from a cafe, greeting onlookers and walking past the blue handicapped-parking sign to climb into the vehicle. Secret Service agents are technically federal law enforcement officers, so there was no chance of a parking ticket, even if Scooby...

Today, the faculty of my university told my class we had to view a movie in order to observe Sexual Assault Awareness Month, shown by our school's counselor. The film was a social documentary by a guy that was showing his opinions about changing mens' perception of their masculinity. As the film progressed, he started to blame the white male status quo for imposing media messages on vulnerable minds. He even compared John Wayne and Ronald Reagan in the film, portraying their respective appeals as white mens' desire to return to a past accepting of gender and racial discrimination (one...

Why A Convention Of States Is Safe: Debunking The Myth Of A Runaway Convention Our Founders wisely created the option of the Convention of States in the Constitution as a tool in case the federal government came to disregard the will of the people. Now some pundits are using scare tactics to misrepresent the Convention and what it could do to the U.S. Constitution.(Sarah Palin Channel) "I’ve happily been advocating that America call a Convention Of States to propose amendments to rein in the Federal government.""This is an option that our founders gave us in Article V of our constitution.""They...

So you've bought a turntable with hopes of hearing that warm vinyl sound, but you don't have a record collection just yet. What to do? If you're Jesse England, you 'cheat' using digital tunes. He recently built the Universal Record, a device that lets any Bluetooth audio source work with a record player by vibrating a vinyl disc. You can leave the needle stationary if you want relatively clean output, but get it moving and you'll hear crackles and pops -- a bit surreal when you're listening to songs from your phone. This is an artistic commentary on the "kinetic...

Nearly 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, during World War I. Turks by and large do not believe mass killings were planned. CUNGUS, Turkey — The crumbling stone monastery, built into the hillside, stands as a forlorn monument to an awful past. So, too, does the decaying church on the other side of this mountain village. Farther out, a crevice is sliced into the earth, so deep that peering into it, one sees only blackness. Haunting for its history, it was there that a century ago, an untold number of Armenians were tossed...

In January, the 89th Legislature convened to begin its work. With the elections behind us and the House under Republican leadership, we opened the session with a renewed sense of bipartisanship. Many suburban legislators, myself included, had high hopes for one particular bill that would inject some common-sense into a major concern of local city councils — the Metropolitan Council. The Met Council is an unelected body that has the power to tax and spend over $1 billion every year and inject itself regularly into local government decisions. It has the authority to dictate (among other things) where new trains...

In a car park outside a block of flats in Moscow, a dozen Russian teenagers in camouflage are practising army drills. A young lieutenant barks out orders. They form a wobbly line and march up and down on the spot. Inside another group of kids are learning how to handle weapons - firing blanks down an empty hall way to improve their aim. This after-school club is ostensibly part of a drugs prevention programme: a programme of evening activities with a patriotic military slant, aimed at keeping local kids away from drinking and shooting up. But for the club's organiser,...

CJ Pearson, a young black conservative making a name for himself online, has a message for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the nation’s other professional race baiters: “If you really care about black people, you would empower black people.”

WikiLeaks has made more than 30,000 documents from last year's Sony Pictures hack available to the public. The documents were put online in a searchable database on Thursday, which WikiLeaks says includes more than 173,132 emails from 2,200 Sony Pictures email addresses. "This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation," Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, wrote in a statement. "It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there." A Sony Pictures spokesperson said in a statement that it strongly condemned the actions of...

April 17, 2015Friday of the Second Week of Easter    Reading 1 Acts 5:34-42 A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel,a teacher of the law, respected by all the people,stood up, ordered the Apostles to be put outside for a short time,and said to the Sanhedrin, “Fellow children of Israel,be careful what you are about to do to these men.Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important,and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed,and all those who were loyal to himwere disbanded and came to nothing.After him came Judas the Galilean at the time...

Jeb Bush indicated on Thursday evening that President Barack Obama’s choice for Attorney General, Loretta E. Lynch, ought to be confirmed – putting him at odds with a number of Senate Republicans who’ve said they would try to block the nomination.

The Minnesota Senate will keep its rule forbidding members from looking at one another during floor debate and will continue to ban everyone from having drinks on the Senate floor.The issues arose Monday during the passage of the rules to govern the Senate. On a 15-44 vote, the Senate decided to keep its current requirement that all speakers must gaze at the Senate president.

2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. A lack of consistency on the issue contributed to her campaign’s downfall in 2008. “Hillary supports state policies to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants,” a Clinton spokesperson told The Huffington Post. During her last presidential campaign, the former senator from New York was not so clear.In a 2007 Democratic presidential primary debate, the late Tim Russert asked Clinton if she supported then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (D) proposal to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in the Empire State.This was her ultimate response: You know, Tim, this is...

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that “women appear to me to be more patient” and not as inclined to go to war as men in an interview broadcast on Thursday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suggested in New Hampshire on Thursday that Senate Republicans should allow a vote on Loretta Lynch, the White House attorney general nominee.</p> <p>“I think presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said at a “Politics and Pies” event in Concord, where he is testing the message he will deliver if he runs for president. “The longer it takes to confirm her, the longer Eric Holder stays as attorney general.”</p>

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest spent several minutes of Thursday’s news briefing lamenting the delayed confirmation of Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, via a scathing critique of an Iowa Senator.

It's an anti-testing tsunami. Thousands of families across the Empire State said no to standardized testing, boycotting the state-mandated English Language Arts exams which began Tuesday. While accurate figures were hard to come by, testing opponents, parents groups, and school officials from Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, to Buffalo all agreed the number is likely to far exceed the 60,000 students who refused to take the test last year.

Two videos uploaded to the Internet purportedly reveal RussiaÂ’s first truly new infantry fighting vehicles in decades and a new self-propelled howitzer. One of the videos even shows intriguing closeups of whatÂ’s probably RussiaÂ’s new Armata tank. If the videos are authentic, itÂ’s a sign that the KremlinÂ’s long-delayed rearmament plans are making progress. Unknown videographers captured the footage at the Alabino training grounds, a base about 29 miles southwest of Moscow where Russian forces rehearse for the annual May 9 Victory Day parade in Red Square. The parade celebrates the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany during World War...

Pentagon officials, who pride themselves on the care they take to avoid civilian casualties, have watched with growing alarm as Saudi airstrikes have hit what the U.N. this week called "dozens of public buildings," including hospitals, schools, residential areas and mosques. The U.N. said at least 364 civilians have been killed in the campaign. Although U.S. personnel don't pick the bombing targets, Americans are working beside Saudi military officials to check the accuracy of target lists in a joint operations center in Riyadh, defense officials said. The Pentagon has expedited delivery of GPS-guided "smart" bomb kits to the Saudi air...

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Hoping to build off of the Navy’s extensive inventory of existing anti-surface missiles, Boeing plans to compete a modified version of the Harpoon RGM-84 anti-ship missile (ASM) for the over the horizon ASM capability for the Littoral Combat Ship and the modified LCS Frigate program, the company announced on Tuesday during the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2015. Boeing’s bid would add a new warhead and a reconstituted engine for a range of more than 130 nautical miles — up from the about 70 nautical mile range of the current Block...