Free Republic

A government watchdog says the IRS has taken significant steps to stop agents from targeting political groups based on their names and policy positions. The agency’s inspector general says the IRS is doing a better job processing applications for tax-exempt status. In a report issued Thursday, he says the IRS has eliminated intrusive, unnecessary questions, and is processing applications faster. …

While America burns, self-professed civil rights activists feather their nests, and lib-left politicians solidify their power It doesn’t matter that Freddie Gray deliberately may have been trying to injure himself, banging about in a van. It doesn’t matter because the truth doesn’t matter to those rioting in the streets. It doesn’t matter because the violent protests in Baltimore have zippo to do with Gray’s death but everything to do with the anarchy that seeks to replace the blue line in Baltimore and in other American cities. Gray’s death, no matter how it came, was the excuse—not the reason—for rioters to...

Sen. Tom Cotton is insisting on simple majority votes on contentious amendments to legislation to provide congressional review of any final nuclear deal with Iran, apparently stymieing the possibility of moving forward, at least for now. The Arkansas Republican sought to line up a pair of amendments that supportive Democratic senators have said could cause them to remove support for the bill. One of those, sponsored by Cotton, would require Iran to allow inspectors full access to suspicious sites. The other, led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio, would require Tehran to recognize Israel’s right to exist. “I think some of...

Rioters in Baltimore tried to light a business owner on fire Monday, successfully burning his place of business. Luckily, they failed to murder him. Essam el Ghannam, the owner of Papa Palace, a pizza restaurant, was attacked Monday by Baltimore protesters. Rioters came to his place of business and screamed, "Fire him. Fire the dirty pizza man." They then sprayed him with lighter fluid. “Then they poured the lighter fluid on me, on my car and hit me with flames from lighters," Ghannam said. He was able to escape, but his business did not survive the flames. ...“This is my...

We thought it would be clear to most readers that the script was a fictional account. Interestingly, the blog article garnered attention on several web sites and a number of readers on those sites mistakenly thought the article was a non-fiction article. While we're sure some of the scenarios presented in the article have been encountered by parents of youth athletes, we also found it telling about the current state of youth sports that so many people took the script seriously. Installment one ended with a quote from the player who just left practice in tears that read, "Dad, I...

Two leading newspapers have posted incorrect reports regarding the role of Free Republic in the dissemination of a bogus story about an alleged pre-existing spinal injury to Freddie Gray that contributed to his death in Baltimore police custody. Those incorrect reports are being repeated by blogs. The Baltimore Sun falsely reported: "The Free Republic website said Wednesday that 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." The article also said the injury was the result of a car accident and cited...

An Assyrian bishop has confirmed that negotiations with ISIS have stalled after the group demanded $23 million (£15 million) in return for the release of 230 Christian hostages. The hostages, Assyrian Christians from the north-east of the country, were kidnapped by the terrorist group in February. They are now awaiting a “trial” in an Islamic court under Sharia law. According to A Demand for Action, the Assyrian rights campaigning groups, Bishop Mar Mellis spoke to SBS Radio in Australia about the negotiations between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Islamists. The Assyrian hostages were taken from Hassake on...

When police spotted Freddie Gray and he took off running through his Baltimore neighborhood, officers made a split-second decision to give chase, setting in motion his death in custody and rioting in the streets. Fleeing from police is not, by itself, illegal in America, and the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that in safe neighborhoods, people not suspected of criminal activity can ignore a police officer who approaches them, even to the point of walking away. But courts have set a different standard for places where street crime is common, ruling that police can chase, stop and frisk people...

American survivors of the Nepal earthquake are sharing their miraculous stories amid a stunning death toll that has passed 5,000 people. Three Americans who were trekking in the Langtang area of Nepal survived the earthquake then lived in a cave for five days with about two-dozen people before the U.S. military rescued them in a helicopter today. Della Hofman, 31, and Eric Jean, 32, of Denver, Colorado, and Cory Ascolani, 34, of Palos Hills, Illinois, described to ABC News the moment the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck and resulted in an avalanche.

Roman Catholic “presuppositions” on the early papacy are in retreat Galileo: “If I can do it, Bergoglio can do it” A “presupposition” is an elementary assumption in one’s reasoning or in the process by which opinions are formed… [In the case of Protestant/Catholic discussions], a “presupposition” is not just any assumption in an argument, but a personal commitment that is held at the most basic level of one’s network of beliefs. Presuppositions form a wide-ranging foundational perspective (or starting point) in terms of which everything else is interpreted and evaluated. As such, presuppositions have the greatest authority in one’s thinking,...

Mike Huckabee rallied a crowd of Hispanic evangelicals on Wednesday night, pushing back in the debate over religious freedom just one day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments to determine whether states have the right to ban same-sex marriage. "I respect the courts, but the Supreme Court is only that -- the supreme of the courts. It is not the supreme being. It cannot overrule God," he said. "When it comes to prayer, when it comes to life, and when it comes to the sanctity of marriage, the court cannot change what God has created."

The Navy ship skipper partially blamed for a fatal 2013 helicopter accident has been selected for promotion -- a move that the widow of one of the pilots says deepens her family’s wounds. “It’s not only disrespectful to those who gave their lives, it also diminishes the advancement opportunities for more qualified officers who didn’t err when the stakes were highest," said Theresa Jones, the widow of the late Lt. Cmdr. Landon Jones. Former San Diego destroyer skipper Cmdr. Jana Vavasseur was chosen this month for promotion to the rank of captain, a step that still must be confirmed by...

Congressional Republicans are divided over how to respond to an approaching Supreme Court decision on President Barack Obama's health care law, even as growing numbers concede that their long-sought goal of repealing the statute will have to wait. Should the plaintiffs prevail in the GOP-backed lawsuit, the justices could annul one of the law's backbones: federal subsidies helping around 7.7 million people afford health insurance in more than 30 states. Republicans broadly agree that Congress should react by temporarily replacing that aid, aware that abruptly ending it would anger millions of voters before the 2016 presidential and congressional elections. Yet...

May 23, 2013 In 2000, Ted Cruz was known as a Texas-raised, Harvard-trained domestic policy adviser to the George W. Bush campaign. Bush was a two-term governor from a border state who was determined to fix what he saw as a broken, inhumane immigration system. Cruz helped craft the campaign’s immigration policy, which called for speeding up the application process, increasing the number of work visas, and allowing the relatives of permanent residents to visit the U.S. while their applicants were pending. “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande,” Bush used to say. Bush, a self-described “compassionate conservative,” went...

I spent the day in Baltimore, the day after the riots that ripped the city apart. We were in West Baltimore, a poor area of the city that got hit badly by looters and vandals, and it was hard to miss some incredibly sad things. I saw a man who was nearly lit on fire by the protesters who torched his pizza shop.

The 16-year-old Baltimore teen who received the "slap heard round the world" from his mom for participating in Monday’s riots admits he’s “embarrassed.” "I understand how much my mama really cares about me,” Michael Singleton said in an interview with "ABC World News Tonight." "I just got to try to do better." Toya Graham, a single mother of six, was praised as “mom of the year” for her actions, which were caught on camera by ABC 2 News. "As long as I have a breath in my body, you will not be on the streets selling drugs,” Graham told ABC....

President Obama told a group of middle-school students Thursday that he’ll likely go back to his work as a community organizer after leaving the White House. “That’s the kind of work that I really love to do,” Mr. Obama said during a visit to the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in Washington. “I’ll still be a pretty young man” after leaving the White House, he added, and will go back to helping people, bringing business into communities that need it. Mr. Obama will be 55 years old when he leaves office in January 2017.

Georgia Police and federal agents have arrested Ebony Monique Dickens over a Facebook post in which she allegedly proclaimed her plans to shoot “every white cop” she can find.

This video was taken by our NBC 7 crew in San Ysidro. Several viewers also told us about the lights. Some said they appeared to be red, blue, and green and kept flashing and changing colors. Some who saw them say the lights didn't seem to move,like those on a plane or a drone. We put in calls to the military here to see if they could identify what these were. So far, no response. (Published Thursday, Apr 30, 2015) Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Mysterious-Lights-Spotted-Above-San-Diego-301729021.html#ixzz3YoUKeDVV

On Tuesday the Republican controlled Senate gave President Barack Obama the green light to sell out our security and place Israel in grave danger. Twelve quislings of the Republican wing of the Uniparty joined the anti-American Democrat wing in voting for an amendment offered by a Republican to insure that the Senate and the American people will have no say in whether Iran gets a nuclear weapons program or not. The Uniparty has again reminded us that the only difference between Mitch McConnell the current Senate Leader and Harry Reid the former Senate Leader is that Harry is the one...