Free Republic

Barack Obama was the worst thing to happen to Hillary Clinton in 2008. Bernie Sanders may be the best thing to happen to her as she embarks on her second bid for the presidency. Sanders, an independent U.S. Senator from Vermont, announced his candidacy this week for the Democratic nomination for president. Like Obama in 2008, Sanders can serve to help define Clinton and make her a stronger candidate. Unlike Obama, Sanders can keep Clinton on her game without getting her tossed out of it. And here’s how: He’s Elizabeth Warren. But he’s not. Warren, the Massachusetts freshman Senator beloved...

The Obama administration reportedly has launched talks with Qatari officials about potentially extending security measures for the five Taliban leaders who were traded a year ago for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, with the agreement governing their supervised release soon set to expire. The Washington Post reported that talks began Thursday, and could lead to some aspects of the security arrangement being extended. That pact -- which keeps the former Guantanamo inmates under supervision in Qatar and prohibits them from leaving the country -- is set to expire at the end of May, raising concerns in Washington that they could soon return...

Is it up to the states attorney to decide? Or are there some rules about when a grand jury is necessary. Bottom line why was there a grand jury in Ferguson but not in Maryland?

It often seems that no one has the courage to say anything until after the fact. Genocide is the systematic and deliberate attempt to extinguish a race, ethnic group, social group or religion. After the most well documented and systematic act of genocide in recorded History, the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish Problem perpetrated by the death cult known as the Third Reich, the surviving Jewish people adopted the motto, “Never Again.” They had been the target of countless pogroms throughout History and this was their vow, this is their pledge to themselves, “Never Again!”

The notion that there is a threshold above which authoritarian nations would democratize is attractive, but our experience since the end of the Cold War suggests this view is too simplistic and results in a risky foreign policy stance for the West A narrative has dominated the West’s foreign policy since the end of the Cold War: if we increase per capita GDP in authoritarian nations, they will democratize. Most notably, this doctrine was applied to China, and yet China failed to move away from its authoritarian system. Russia has gotten wealthier and returned to authoritarianism. Both nations used the...

RUSH: We obviously start in Baltimore today with the Baltimore state attorney, Marilyn Mosby, a press conference a little over an hour ago, announcing that six officers are going to be charged with varying degrees of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the transportation death -- ah, ah, ah -- in the death of Freddie Gray. Now, many people are wondering what is really going on here. I would like to explain to you. I would like for somebody else to explain to you in one sound bite what is going on here. This is yesterday and the National Action Network...

The chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi said he might take former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at her word if she swears under oath that she’s turned over any relevant documents he’s seeking. “If she were, under some theory, able to say, ‘yes, I can promise you under penalty of perjury you have every single document you’re entitled to,’ that would probably shut off that line of inquiry,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, told USA Today’s “Capital Download.” “There may be other questions about the security of the server or why you gave this person...

Nearly half of the 17 insurance marketplaces set up by the states and the District under President Obama’s health law are struggling financially, presenting state officials with an unexpected and serious challenge five years after the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act. Many of the online exchanges are wrestling with surging costs, especially for balky technology and expensive customer call centers — and tepid enrollment numbers. To ease the fiscal distress, officials are considering raising fees on insurers, sharing costs with other states and pressing state lawmakers for cash infusions. Some are weighing turning over part or all of...

Nearly 50 mosques, Muslim organizations and student groups have signed a statement that highlights concerns with a federal pilot program to combat radicalization and terror recruitment in Minnesota. “While we support the right of all Americans to live in democratic communities free of violence, we cannot in good conscience condone or help refine programs that are fundamentally discriminatory and are likely to further subject our community members to additional civil rights abuses,” said the statement released by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The statement lists 44 Muslim organizations as undersigned supporters, as well as the National...

Hustler magnate Larry Flynt is ready for Hillary.In an interview with Bloomberg Politics, the renowned pornographer said he’ll throw his support behind the former secretary of state in the 2016 election.“I’m endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, but I don’t think she needs my endorsement,” Flynt told Bloomberg reporter John Heilemann.Flynt said that with Clinton as president, the makeup of the Supreme Court could be shifted left for the first time in decades.“We’ve had a right-leaning court for half a century,” Flynt said. “But if Hillary gets in, chances are she’s going to have an opportunity to appoint two, maybe three...

The Federal Reserve could well raise interest rates as soon as June, two top U.S. central bankers said on Friday, so long as economic data strengthens as expected from a dismal first quarter. That view—from the hawkish-leaning chief of the Cleveland Fed and from the centrist head of the San Francisco Fed—is at odds with the view of many traders, whose bets in the interest-rate futures markets suggest they have all but discounted a June rate hike and now expect the Fed to wait until December before raising rates for the first time since 2006. The Fed has kept interest...

An undersea volcano about 300 miles (480 km) off Oregon's coast has been spewing lava for the past seven days, confirming forecasts made last fall and giving researchers unique insight into a hidden ocean hot spot, a scientist said on Friday. Researchers know of two previous eruptions by the volcano, dubbed "Axial Seamount" for its location along the axis of an underwater mountain ridge, Oregon State University geologist Bill Chadwick said on Friday. But those 1998 and 2011 eruptions were detected months or years afterward, Chadwick added. Last year, researchers connected monitoring gear to an undersea cable that, for the...

The Islamic State in Yemen claimed credit for the brutal execution of 15 Yemeni soldiers who were captured in the city of Azzan in Shabwa province earlier this month. The treatment of the captured soldiers by the Islamic State presents a stark contrast to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) handling of captured Yemeni soldiers.The Islamic State’s “Media Office for Shabwa Province” released a short, two minute 19 second video called “Eliminating the Apostates” on Twitter today. The video was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.In the video, the Islamic State displays 15 Yemeni soldiers. Local media...

Apple Inc. said the European Commission’s investigation into Ireland’s tax treatment of multinationals could have a “material” impact if it was determined that Dublin’s tax policies represented unfair state aid. Apple said that if the EU’s investigations concluded against Ireland, the company could be required to pay past taxes for up to 10 years “reflective of the disallowed state aid.” The EU began a formal investigation against Ireland in June last year for alleged state aid to Apple. …

A former employee of Al Jazeera America has filed suit against the network for workplace retaliation, leveling a number of allegations that a manager engaged in discriminatory conduct toward women and made offensive remarks about Israel and the United States. Matthew Luke started at Al Jazeera America in 2013 in New York City, prior to the network’s U.S. launch, and served initially as its supervisor of media and archive management. In his early days on the job, notes the complaint, Luke was a happy employee, working closely with Jeff Polikoff, who now holds the title of acting executive vice president...

The .40-caliber pistol a Strawberry Plains homeowner used to kill a burglar Wednesday had been stolen last summer in a previous break-in, recovered by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and returned to its rightful owner.

Summary:iOS 8 has breached the 80 percent mark as Apple continues to push out record numbers of new handsets running its latest OS. iOS 8 is now powering 81 percent of all Apple smartphones, its share continuing to climb steadily since its release eight months ago. The latest iOS version distribution figures come from Apple's developer page, which gives a snapshot based on the iPhone and iPad devices that connected to the App Store on April 27. According to the stats, iOS 7 runs 17 percent of iOS devices, while the remaining two percent are on older versions of the...

An adviser for Public Safety Canada was suspended following a French-language TVA report that outlines his controversial views and relationship with organizations associated with terrorist financing, Point de Bascule reports.According to the report, Hussein Hamdani encouraged student activists to "Islamize campus politics" in a 1996 document published by the Muslim Students Association. He called for Muslim students to influence decisions concerning issues such as same-sex marriage."It is the duty of the MSA to bring morality back into the campus. For example, the Student Union should not have to debate over endorsing legislation in favor of same-sex benefits, this issue should...

Marilyn Mosby, the Maryland state attorney for Baltimore who on Friday announced charges against six city police officers for the death of Freddie Gray, said last year that a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown “breaks [her] heart” and that a special prosecutor should have been appointed to handle the case.The revelation comes as Mosby is being asked to recuse herself and appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case against six Baltimore police officers now charged with a range of crimes in the death of 25-year-old Freddie...

Krauthammer’s Take: Speed of Baltimore Charges ‘Looks Like Appeasement of the Mob’ May 1, 2015 Some people are questioning the alacrity with which Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby brought charges against the officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray. The problem in evaluating, says Charles Krauthammer, is that we know nothing. “We don’t know if she has the evidence because the report has been given to her confidentially,” Krauthammer said on Friday’s Special Report. “So we don’t know what happened inside the van. We don’t know what she was told happened inside the van. . . . We will know...