Free Republic

Republican Mike Huckabee launched a bid for his party's 2016 presidential nomination on Tuesday, zeroing in on the plight of blue-collar American workers who have been left behind in the country's rebound from the Great Recession. The 59-year-old former Arkansas governor and former host of a popular Fox News television show is considered a long shot in the widening race to represent the Republican Party in the November 2016 election. He is the sixth Republican to make a formal run. Huckabee's emphasis on American workers marks an attempt to expand his base beyond social conservative voters who the former Southern...

ISIS recently released a statement boasting themselves of the attack in Garland, TX, stating their desire to kill Christians in America, and that the next attack will “be harsher and worse”. In the statement, released on Al Bayan radio, ISIS declared: We say to the defenders of the cross, the U.S., that future attacks are going to be harsher and worse… The Islamic State soldiers will inflict harm on you with the grace of Allah. The future is just around the corner. When ISIS references to the “nation of the Cross,” what they mean is their intent to kill Christians....

Attorneys for a transgender prison inmate said Wednesday that she could have sex reassignment surgery as early as next month if California correctional officials quickly approve the procedure. Corrections officials said they are working to schedule the surgery but need more time. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar last month ordered the state to pay for the surgery. Michelle-Lael Norsworthy’s lawyers said in a court filing that a qualified surgeon is available as early as June 5. Surgeons also are available in July and August to operate on the 51-year-old, whose birth name is Jeffrey Bryan Norsworthy. …

Pentagon employees are using their government credit cards to gamble and pay for escorts, according to an audit report.Politico reported Wednesday: A Defense Department audit has found that a significant number of Pentagon employees used their government credit cards to gamble and pay for “adult entertainment” — findings that are expected to lead department officials to issue stern new warnings.The audit of “Government Travel Charge Transactions” by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, which is to be made public in coming weeks, found that both civilian and military employees used the credit cards at casinos and for escort...

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake asked the Justice Department on Wednesday to conduct a full-scale civil rights investigation into the pattern and practices of the Baltimore Police Department — a probe that would examine excessive force, discriminatory harassment, false arrests, and unlawful stops, searches or arrests. "We all know that Baltimore continues to have a fractured relationship between the police and the community," Rawlings-Blake said. "I'm willing to do what it takes to reform my department." The Justice Department already is conducting a "collaborative review" with Baltimore police, but its recommendations will not carry the weight of law. Such reviews differ from...

Joe Carter’s home run to seal Toronto’s second World Series title remains an indelible memory for Blue Jays fans, almost 22 years later. And it seems at least a couple of players on the losing end are still fixated on it, too. Mitch Williams, the former Phillies closer, gave up the series-clinching blast to Carter in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1993 World Series. His thoughts on that moment sparked an ugly spat with former teammate Lenny Dykstra at the Philly Sports Roast in April. Yes, April of 2015. The video includes plenty of...

* Fiorina claims in Rising to the Challenge that John McCain asked her to help Palin 'get up to speed on the economic issues facing the country' * 'I never did get the chance to fulfill Senator McCain's request ... although I made numerous requests to meet with her during the campaign' * To this day Fiorina, a contender for the 2016 GOP nomination, says she still hasn't met the Tea Party superstar * Palin endorsed Fiorina in 2010 when she was competing in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in California, but it was via Facebook * A...

Carly Fiorina, who just jumped into the race for the presidency Monday, has spent the week coolly sitting for interviews and cleverly parrying jabs from reporters and critics. It is obvious that after losing her Senate race in 2010 to Sen. Barbara Boxer, Fiorina did some real hard work on improving her skills as a candidate, and it paid off. Nonetheless, the week was marred by a rather glaring mistake, especially for a tech-centric candidate like the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. Fiorina failed to register the domain carlyfiorina.org, and a critic promptly took it over and launched it as an attack...

ABC 7:30 Report on USA Mutiny on Australian soil. [Video]

Astronomically low crime rates may be one of the greatest public policy triumphs in history. All this time, liberals have been lying in wait, dying to undo all the accomplishments of the last 20 years. A quarter century of peace has lulled ordinary people into taking their safety for granted. They naturally assume that everyone regards it as a good thing that people are able to go about their lives without being raped, beaten, slashed or murdered. They don't know liberals. I've been warning you since 2001 that, as soon as we left the room, liberals would start emptying the...

Round and round it goes, but exactly where a failed Russian space cargo ship will fall to Earth on this week is a guessing game. On April 28, Russia's uncrewed Progress 59 supply ship streaked into orbit atop a Soyuz launcher, intended to dock with the International Space Station. But shortly after liftoff ... Russian mission control team could not command the cargo vessel packed with nearly 3 tons of supplies. Current forecasts predict that the Progress should fall to Earth in an uncontrolled, destructive nose-dive on Thursday (May 8) between 3:11 a.m. and 5:26 a.m. EDT (0711-0826 GMT). Some...

Fish! (A little early again this week, to get ahead of Mom's Day; but here is your weekly cookin' thread :-) I am not much of a meat-eater; in fact, I was largely a 'veg/fish-itarian' until I met and married my husband. I like a good hamburger now and then, or my husband's barbecued pork chops; and I like chicken pie and chicken and dumplings. But I'm not one to go into a restaurant and order a 'slab o' meat'. Steak, for instance, isn't near the top of my list. But I do love FISH! along with all the other...

It isn’t every day that judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declare themselves “shocked.” But that happened on Monday when an animated three-judge panel eviscerated the IRS and Justice Department during oral argument in a case alleging the agency delayed the tax-exempt application of a pro-Israel group due to its policy views.

ST. LOUIS • Dorian Johnson, the man who was with Michael Brown Jr. when Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer last summer, has been arrested on suspicion of drug charges and resisting arrest, St. Louis police said. Johnson was arrested on Wednesday and police are pursuing charges. The specifics of where and when he was arrested have not yet been released.

A Syrian woman accused of adultery, and sentenced by ISIS to death by stoning, has survived the wicked and cruel punishment. The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, proclaimed the Syrian town of Raqa its capital after invading it, as well as many other areas in Iraq and Syria, last summer. With already vicious laws against women throughout much of the Middle East, the notoriously brutal and often sickening treatment of women and children by ISIS certainly hasn’t made life any more forgiving for women in those occupied areas. In a miracle of sorts, however, one woman facing jihadist...

The Greased Lightning 10, or GL10, is a remotely piloted, ten engine aircraft that can take off and land vertically, and then rotate its wings for forward flight. This type of system has been developed before in full size, piloted aircraft like the V22 Osprey, but it’s never been done before in a small, remotely-piloted aircraft. Switching from vertical flight to forward flight is a complicated maneuver, and the aerodynamic challenges for vehicles like these are substantial. As a result, there’ve been some hard landings during the testing phase. But the NASA team, including aerospace engineer Bill Fredericks, have had...

Hold your breath forever waiting for Obama’s Justice Department to take action or even make mention of this hate group urging to kill white babies. Can you fathom what would happen if the colors were reversed here?It’s easy to call these hateful ignoramus’ but I think the important factor here is that they’ve become emboldened by the fact that their racist and violent actions and words in the past have been met with no resistance from this White House. Our guy Joe Newby has the story: In a video posted at Breitbart.com on Tuesday, a New Black Panther Leader identified...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said Wednesday he’ll make a “big announcement” regarding his 2016 presidential campaign plans May 27 in Pittsburgh.

TULKARM REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Like many Palestinians in this forlorn jumble of concrete buildings, Fakhriya Zeidan labored to recall when she last paid her power bill: maybe in 2001? “A chicken costs $6. I can’t afford it,” Ms. Zeidan, 59, said defensively as she rattled a bag of vegetables she had just purchased. “You think I can afford electricity?” Collectively, the 22,000 residents of the Tulkarm camp in the northern West Bank have amassed $15.2 million in unpaid electric bills over at least 10 years, part of a yawning Palestinian power debt of $430 million that is at...

Wanted: A Teaching Church from Daniel Hyde May 06, 2015 Category: Articles The Bible is the Word of God. All Bible-believing evangelical churches affirm this. In historic Protestantism, there is a theology of the Word that not only professes sola Scriptura but also professes the sufficiency of Scripture for all things concerning doctrine, worship, and godliness. What the church of the twenty-first century needs to be is a teaching church that plainly and powerfully proclaims the Word of God. Then the church will be equipped to fulfill its task in the world to worship and to witness to that world.As the “pillar...