Free Republic

On a host of electoral integrity issues, the liberal position can be summarized in two words: enable cheating. You think thatÂ’s too harsh?How else can you explain the race-baiting rhetoric from President Obama on down against something as commonsense as voter photo ID laws, which the public supports by wide margins? Or the intense drive for Election Day registration, mail-in voting and earlier and earlier balloting, all of which make it harder to detect and prevent vote fraud? Or the opposition to any law ensuring that only citizens can vote? A case in point of the latter is the Obama...

Jeb Bush confronted one of the Republican Party's touchiest debates head-on Tuesday, telling Puerto Ricans that conservatives should be proud that America is "an immigrant nation" and value the contribution immigrants make to the country. The former Florida governor and 2016 GOP presidential prospect delivered a speech on economic opportunities peppered with Spanish, and his audience responded with hearty applause. He's fluent in the language, and often uses it in Florida, but it's rarely heard in Republican presidential campaign politics. Immigration is a delicate subject for Bush in the primacy race, with several potential rivals favoring a harder line on...

A gathering of about 350 donors to the prospective Jeb Bush presidential campaign finished up a two-day conference here Monday listening to a rare public statement from the candidate's media-shy wife, Columba. "It was touching and emotional," said one person in attendance who described the three-minute speech as "very personal." She talked about about "her husband and the family and Jeb's qualities as a father, a husband, a grandfather."

Florida has filed a lawsuit charging the Obama administration is trying to force it to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. Kicking off a legal battle involving both Medicaid expansion and a separate pot of federal funding for hospitals, Attorney General Pam Bondi filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The lawsuit was threatened last week by Gov. Rick Scott, who accuses the administration of trying to coerce him into expanding Florida's Medicaid program. Scott contends officials are pressuring him by threatening to halt an existing flow of federal funds used to reimburse hospitals for...

A nationÂ’s prosperity is determined by the quantity and quality of labor and capital that are productively utilized. Which means that it doesnÂ’t make sense to have policies that penalize either saving and investment or working. Yet that seems to be the favorite hobby of the political class. And there are real consequences. A new study by a pair of economists, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has some interesting findings on the link between redistribution programs and labor supply. ItÂ’s a bit wonky, given the way academics write, but they produce some important data on the negative...

Proof that Bruce Jenner is secretly Illuminati. Not really, but it's funny to watch people try to prove connections that don't exist. Watch as this video tries desperately to connect Bruce Jenner, The ABC News Interview, The Weimar Republic, JFK, and The World Banks. Crazy stuff!

WASHINGTON – The most dramatic moment in a historic case before the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage Tuesday morning came after the first attorney had wrapped up her argument. “Gay marriage is an abomination in the eyes of God,” suddenly screamed a protester in the courtroom.After continuing his protest, the man was escorted from the court room. Justice Antonin Scalia quipped, “That was refreshing, actually,” causing loud laughter to ripple through the courtroom. Scalia’s approval of ancient wisdom echoed his previous referral to the ancient Greeks and Romans to argue against government sanctioning of same-sex marriage....

Dave Says: God Is Whispering to You Dear Dave, I was recently notified that I am one of the beneficiaries of a class action lawsuit against a previous employer. The amount I can receive is just $200, but I donÂ’t feel like this past employer wronged me in any way. Everyone around me is urging me to take the money, but I feel kind of weird about accepting anything under the circumstances. What do you think I should do? Randy Dear Randy, I donÂ’t know all the details of the episode youÂ’re talking about, or what happened with this particular...

Jeb Bush, the potential GOP presidential candidate who once identified himself as Hispanic on a voter registration form, is marching into the Latino voter space this week. The former Florida governor who has yet to declare his candidacy was to visit Puerto Rico Tuesday for an event at the Universidad Metropolitana de Cupey and for a town hall with the Republican Party of Puerto Rico. Bush's trip to the island also includes a fundraiser at the home of Zoraida Fonalledas, National Committeewoman for the Puerto Rico Republican Party and wife of one of the island's wealthiest businessmen. Then on Wednesday,...

CONFIRMED: Court records show Freddie Gray was receiving a structured settlement from Allstate Insurance and attempted to convert it into one lump sum in early March ———————————————————————————————————————————– EXCLUSIVE: The Fourth Estate has learned that Freddy Gray’s life-ending injuries to his spine may have possibly been the result of spinal and neck surgery that he allegedly received a week before he was arrested, not from rough excessively rough treatment or abuse from police. The Fourth Estate has contacted sources who allege that Freddy Gray received spinal and neck surgery a week before we was arrested, and was allegedly receiving a large...

RUSH: Okay, now, wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen, the police chief of Baltimore is telling parents to keep their kids at home. The police chief of Baltimore -- let me get this -- I want to get the exact words. What did this guy say? Here it is. I got it. "Take control of your kids." Okay? What do kids have to do with this? Hang on. Now the mayor of Philadelphia has spoken up. And the mayor of Philadelphia says: "Parents are responsible for their kids. Parents need to keep their kids in line," something like that. And...

Airline giant Boeing said this week that it will not release correspondence pertaining to the State Department’s work in securing a Russian contract for the company, a donor to the foundation of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Boeing recently rejected a shareholder resolution proposed by David Almasi, a Boeing shareholder and the executive director of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research, asking the company to disclose more information about its charitable giving. At the company’s Monday shareholder meeting, Almasi asked chief executive James McNerney “to set the record straight that every communication between Boeing and the State Department was...

The untold – and terrifying – story behind the earthquake that devastated Nepal last Saturday morning begins with something that sounds quite benign. It’s the ebb and flow of rainwater in the great river deltas of India and Bangladesh, and the pressure that puts on the grinding plates that make up the surface of the planet. Recently discovered, that causal factor is seen by a growing body of scientists as further proof that climate change can affect the underlying structure of the Earth. Because of this understanding, a series of life-threatening “extreme geological events” – earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis –...

Baltimore's mayor came under criticism on Tuesday for a slow police response to some of the worst urban rioting in the United States in years with shops looted, buildings burned to the ground and 20 officers injured. Mayor Rawlings-Blake, an African-American and Democrat who grew up in the city 40 miles (64 km) from Washington, D.C., imposed a one-week curfew but stressed the need to respond in a way that did not incite more violence. "It's a very delicate balancing act, when we have to make sure that we're managing but not increasing and escalating the problem," Rawlings-Blake, 45, told...

. The One Word That Will Win Ted Cruz the Nomination In last November’s election, the Republicans campaigned on just one issue. Extreme opposition to Barack Obama and his big government, liberty stealing agenda. They said “If you put us in power, we will stop him. There will be no amnesty and no Obamacare.” Many conservatives, myself included, actually got suckered into believing that, and worked tirelessly to give Republicans a majority in both the House and the Senate. And what did we get? Fully funded Obamacare and amnesty. CRomnibus getting passed because of the yes vote of a guy...

The avalanche of ice and rocks fell on the village of Langtang just after the ground started shaking that Saturday morning. Even before the family of Dawa Tamang could run for safety the debris had engulfed them. Tamang, 35, has a dazed look on his face at the courtyard of Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) where his family was evacuated by helicopter on Monday. Tamang himself was in Kathmandu with his elder son. Doctors examine his two-and-half year old son Thindup who broke both his legs while the family tried to escape from their house. His five-year-old daughter Pasang Lhamu escaped...

BALTIMORE — Addressing questions about the police’s tempered response to unrest on Monday in Baltimore, a police spokesman said Tuesday that officers took a restrained approach early on because most of the people involved seemed to be minors. A social media campaign that appeared to be goading Baltimore residents into rioting on Monday afternoon was timed to 3 p.m., about when schools were being dismissed, Capt. J. Eric Kowalczyk of the Baltimore Police Department said Tuesday during a news conference. “When we deployed our officers yesterday, we were deploying for a high school event,” Captain Kowalczyk told reporters. “I don’t...

A Baltimore mother is being hailed for doing her part to quell the violence after a video of her smacking her son upside the head when she spotted him rioting and throwing rocks at police emerged on Monday. The unidentified mom recognized her son even though he was wearing a black ski mask that covered much of his face. She spotted him on TV throwing rocks and went after him like a heat-seeking missile. The encounter, which was captured by WMAR. didn't take long but it certainly looked painful for the regretful rioter. Blows rained down on the son's head...

New orders in the Dallas Fed manufacturing survey came in negative for the sixth straight month today.Weakness was expected due to collapse in oil prices, but the business activity range number was lower than any Bloomberg Consensus estimate. Texas Manufacturing Weakens Again The Dallas Fed reports Texas Manufacturing Activity Weakens Again Texas factory activity declined in April, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, posted a second negative reading in a row, coming in at -4.7. Other measures of current manufacturing activity also reflected continued contraction...

I am a student of history, and consider myself fairly well read on the subject. No expert by any means, so I ask the rest of you, particularly those who are older and/or wiser: are there not strange contrasts to the Cultural Revolution imposed by Mao and the race riots of Obama's tenure? Acknowledging some differences, too, I still think there may be some eerie parallels. I invite your input.