Free Republic

Likely Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Thursday that the GOP will lose the 2016 presidential election unless they win over Hispanic voters by supporting a “long, hard path to citizenship.” “If I were president of the United States, I would veto any bill that did not have a pathway to citizenship,” the South Carolina Republican told USA Today. “You would have a long, hard path to citizenship … but I want to create that path because I don’t like the idea of millions of people living in America for the rest of their lives being the hired help....

Contrary to some media speculation, top military leadership knew as early as late 2009 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had deserted. During an open-book question and answer session in Afghanistan, members of Bergdahl’s platoon directly asked then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen whether he was aware of Bergdahl’s desertion. Mullen “told me that he knew of the circumstances surrounding his walking off,” former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, one of the platoon members, told Fox News, and “that they were developing leads and following leads, trying to do everything they could to get him back.” Evan Buetow and Cody Full,...

New climate change records have come along to remind us that Earth's thermostat is steadily pushing upward. March 2015 was the warmest March since record-keeping began in 1880, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the first quarter of 2015 was the warmest first quarter on record in those same 136 years. That gives 2015 a stab at trumping the hottest year on record -- which was 2014. The uninterrupted continuation of the warming trend is no surprise. The 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the past 17 years. And though the rise in the last 10...

Norway is one of the most politically correct countries on earth, so this, via Eugene Volokh, caught me by surprise: The Local [Norway] reports: Norway has scrapped its longstanding blasphemy law, meaning it is now legal to mock the beliefs of others, in a direct response to January’s brutal attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The proposal to rush through the change [originally voted on in 2009, but delayed for technical reasons since then,] was made in February by Conservative MP Anders B. Werp and Progress Party MP Jan Arild Ellingsen, who argued that the law “underpins a...

Original full title/subtitle:Microsoft's secret weapon in browser wars: Mozilla's supercharged Asm.js Native-speed JavaScript available now in Windows 10's Edge browser Microsoft has included a surprise feature in its new Edge web browser for Windows 10, in the form of support for the ultra-optimizable Asm.js JavaScript dialect. First developed by Mozilla and championed by the nonprofit's former CTO Brendon Eich, Asm.js is a strict subset of JavaScript that aims to be the "assembly language of the web." By eliminating many of the vagaries of the JavaScript language syntax, Asm.js forces client-side web code into a form that is easy for Just-In-Time...

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Throughout the week Pam Geller has been singled out as someone who unfairly provoked Muslims into attacking her by having a Mohamhead drawing contest. Nobody will disagree that to Islam drawing a picture of their death cult leader is the same as poking a lion with a stick, the question is should she. The secular answer according to the media is mostly no, she should not yell fire in a crowded theater, in her case the theater is on fire while...

Baltimore is the latest American city to become a stage for the farce that is our national racial discourse. The swift, politicized indictment of 6 police officers for the death of Freddie Gray––which brought down, for now, the curtain on this performance by abandoning all the canons of procedural justice–– is a fitting end to this sorry spectacle. The winners of this shameful display are obvious, as they always are after these riots. Local thieves, gangsters, and thugs; bourgeois white “anarchists” out on a lark; junior-high posers indulging adult-sanctioned destruction; well-heeled black politicians fanning the flames and leveraging the...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and senior Republican officials are calling out a GOP firm that worked on a seven-figure ad campaign lashing Rand Paul over his foreign policy views. The problem? The firm’s co-founder is also working for a McConnell-backed super PAC that’s defending the GOP Senate majority in 2016, when Paul is also on the Senate ballot in Kentucky. Last month, the Republican firm Black Rock Group was hired to do communications work for the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, which bombarded Paul with a $1 million ad campaign calling him “dangerous” because of his positions...

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The Republican dog and pony show hits Upstate South Carolina on Saturday as nearly a dozen presidential hopefuls pitch conservative activists during a forum on economic freedom. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-cattle-call-rumbles-through-south-carolina/article/2564233

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the immense halo of gas enveloping the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest massive galactic neighbor, is about six times larger and 1,000 times more massive than previously measured. The dark, nearly invisible halo stretches about a million light-years from its host galaxy, halfway to our own Milky Way galaxy. This finding promises to tell astronomers more about the evolution and structure of majestic giant spirals, one of the most common types of galaxies in the universe. “Halos are the gaseous atmospheres of galaxies. The properties of these gaseous halos control the rate...

EDMONTON - Omar Khadr arrived at his new home Thursday after almost 13 years behind bars — four of them as a convicted war criminal — and asked Canadians to give him a chance to show he's worthy of their trust.

The initial attack caused these wounds. In Florida, a savage dog attack reinforced the efficacy of firearms for personal defense.  In this case, the person who used the firearm did not even own it.  He had been attacked by his Grandson's dog, and had jumped over a fence to escape the attack.   While there, he heard screaming at his house, and discovered that the pit bull was now attacking his roommate, David Brasher, who was 63 years old.  From wpbf.com: David Brashear was taken to Lawnwood Regional Hospital with severe bites and lacerations on his arms. He was listed...

Rep. Marlin Stutzman will announce an Indiana Senate bid Saturday, according to multiple sources with knowledge of his plans, making him the second Republican to join the open-seat race. Democrats are hoping Stutzman’s entrance into the contest will produce a bloody Republican primary that could endanger the GOP’s chances at holding on to retiring Sen. Dan Coats’ seat. Stutzman joins Eric Holcomb, a former Coats chief of staff, in the primary field. Reps. Todd Young and Todd Rokita also are mulling the race. Stutzman is a favorite of the conservative Club for Growth, while Holcomb, a former chairman of the...

A group of conservative House Republicans is pressuring the party's leadership to allow debate on changes to the Iran nuclear bill that's been approved by the Senate, a development that could jeopardize a bipartisan deal to give Congress a say in a potential agreement. The clamor comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rebuffed changes by some fellow Senate Republicans. The lack of a more robust debate in the Senate disappointed many party colleagues in the House, according to multiple House GOP sources. "For some of us, it really is about trying to make it a stronger bill. I have...

Rep. Ron DeSantis has only been in elected office for two-and-a-half years, but the sophomore congressmen from Jacksonville has decided he's ready for the next step. Today, DeSantis announced his campaign for the senate seat soon to be vacated by Marco Rubio, becoming the first major Republican in the race. Like Rubio, DeSantis is a Tea Party and conservative favorite and announced his decision with endorsement from three key groups: the Club For Growth, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and FreedomWorks, all of which are known for sticking to hardcore right-wing principals, and aren't afraid to criticize or take on mainstream...

Colorado elected Cory Gardner as our GOP Senator, and what a disappointment he is turning out to be....

The White House is planning to put spikes up along its existing fence in an effort to keep undocumented visitors off the grounds. It's a hateful and misguided effort rife with prejudice and discrimination. People who come to the White House do so as an act of love, to affirm their connection with our nation. Many do so in search of a better life, and their presence only improves the White House. A country that is a nation of immigrants must also contain a White House of immigrants, no? But with a stout fence keeping people out, who will cut...

After four years in the Senate, Marco Rubio, no doubt feeling he has accomplished everything he set out to in Congress, has aimed his sights higher, to the Presidency. Or, more pragmatically, to the Vice-Presidency; if an Anglo gets nominated, Rubio will be very high on the VP list; of course, if a Hispanic like Cruz or a virtual Hispanic like Bush gets nominated, then all bets are off. But in the mean time there will be an opening in 2016 for Rubio's senate seat, since he had decided not to run for two seats at the same time, like...

It is every parent’s worst nightmare, and according to a report on Police State Daily and the Medical Kidnapping site; for one homeschooling family in Kentucky, it has come true. On May 6, Kentucky homesteading Naugler family had their ten children taken into the custody of the state and are now fighting to regain custody and to prove their innocence. According to the family’s facebook blog page, Blessed Little Homestead, and other sources above, the police showed up, asked to see the children, and when the mother asked to see a warrant and what the charges were, the sheriff proceeded...

With less than 500 days until Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympic Games, construction of several venues has not started and some major contracts have not even been tendered, setting the stage for a last-minute rush that will likely drive up costs. It may seem like a familiar script for major sporting events. As the start date nears, the headlines invariably focus on delays and the scramble to get ready on time, and yet the games end up going ahead without major hitches. Rio 2016 may, though, end up being one of global sport's closest calls yet, resulting in a...