Free Republic

Michelle Obama’s commencement speech at Tuskegee Institute was a shameless litany of all the problems Blacks HAD over their history in America and those she felt had personally harmed her. Allowing that Blacks have made ANY progress whatsoever, especially in the past fifty years, would be absolutely not possible in the world she and her husband inhabit. Tuskegee Institute is a relative success story among the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU.) It was founded in 1881 and one of its driving forces was a former slave named Booker T. Washington, a man who recognized the opportunities that were presented...

Yogi Berra may not be uttering his famous “Yogi-isms” anymore, but the Yankee icon summed up this day best years ago when he said, “I want to thank you for making this day necessary.” Lawrence Peter Berra, best known as Yogi — or Yog by his close friends — celebrated his 90th birthday on Tuesday at the New Jersey museum that bears his name, surrounded by close family and such New York baseball luminaries as Joe Torre, Ralph Branca, Willie Randolph and Mickey Rivers, to name a few. And he even received a call from former mayor Rudy Giuliani wishing...

Yesterday, we began our high-minded graduation speech to the Class of 2015. We explained how the young graduates were not only the most heavily indebted in history, but also the least likely to be able to pay their debts. Median wages have been going down since these graduates were about five years old… So have economic growth rates. Today, we continue the speech no one wants us to give… You are heirs to claptrap, nonsense, bogus theories, and trillions of dollars in debt. The systems, programs, and institutions your parents set up are mostly worthless scams. Worse, they produce outcomes...

Republican leaders, searching for a fair-minded but strategically wise way to conduct the presidential primary debates, are grappling with how to manage White House contenders in a sprawling field that mixes proven politicians with provocateurs and reflects an increasingly fractious party.The Republican National Committee’s decision last year to claim control of the 2016 debate process was welcomed by many in the party who believe that Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, was hurt by both the pummeling and the positions he took during the 20 debates in that primary contest.But by trying to impose order through party-sanctioned debates and limiting the...

Homosexual activists don't want Jesus' forgiveness for their sexual sin – they want his approval. This is something he cannot and will never offer.Homosexual activists are fond of quoting the first half of John 8:11: "Neither do I condemn you." They are not so fond of quoting the second half. In fact, they quite pointedly ignore it as if it weren't even there. But wishing it away doesn't make it disappear. John 7:53-8:11 preserves for us the record of Jesus' encounter with a woman caught in adultery. She was apprehended in flagrante delicto, in the act, and was dragged by...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) are proposing a compromise to move forward on President Obama’s trade agenda, which suffered a serious setback Tuesday. Reid and Schumer are proposing to pull language addressing currency manipulation from a customs and enforcement bill that Democrats insist must be included in a package of legislation along with fast-track authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance. In return, they want the Senate to hold a vote on standalone legislation cracking down on currency manipulation before moving to the larger trade package, which would include fast-track, TAA, a pared-down customs...

<p>VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.</p> <p>The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.</p>

Did you know that 89 percent of all minimum wage workers in the United States are not teens? At this point, the average age of a minimum wage worker in this country is 36, and 56 percent of them are women. Millions upon millions of Americans are working as hard as they can (often that means two or three jobs), and yet despite all of their hard work they still find themselves mired in poverty. One of the big reasons for this is that we have created two classes of workers in the United States. “Full-time workers” are entitled to...

Abandoned pet found on road with broken bones and deep bite marks Thrown from car after being used as bait for blood-thirsty killer dogs Somehow avoided traffic, but still broke leg and punctured lung Rescued by two animal lovers who took £3,000 loan to pay for his surgery Twisted dog-fighters got rid of a whippet used for baiting killer devil dogs by throwing it from a car at 50mph on a packed motorway. The cruel owners tossed the helpless dog out the window and on to the road surface of the M56 in Cheshire after it had already been badly...

Police Officers: Morale Is Low In Departments Across The Country Kerry Picket Reporter 10:05 PM 05/12/2015 Law enforcement officers at Washington, D.C.’s annual Police Week tell The Daily Caller that the anti-police climate is taking its toll on the men and women in uniform and that morale is low in departments across the country. One source told The DC Monday night that officers have stepped back from engaging in proactive policing, because they often see the same violent criminals they arrest immediately released on to the streets. President of the Fraternal Order of Police Chuck Canterbury told TheDC that he...

The evidence continues to mount..."Most since Lehman" has become the new meme for macro-economic data in the US as day after day brings another lacklustre superlative to be dismissed with some excuse by the cognoscenti of sell-side economists...  Of course, that is aside from anything related to aggregate jobs that is spewed by the government's official ministries of truth... (do not look at this chart)*  *  *So here are seven charts that scream "recession" is here...Retail Sales are weak - extremely weak. Retail Sales have not dropped this much YoY outside of a recession... And if Retail Sales are weak, then...

As soon as legendary journalist Sy Hersh's controversial story on the Osama bin Laden raid was published Sunday night, critics pounced and skeptics ripped his account because of its reliance on anonymous sourcing and its lack of documentary evidence. Now a respected New York Times foreign correspondent, who was based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, writes about a key detail "in Seymour Hersh's Bin Laden story that rings true." Carlotta Gall writes that she also learned from sources that Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, had kept bin Laden prisoner since 2006 and that the CIA learned about his location from a Pakistani...

A surveillance camera near the Tuesday night derailment of an Amtrak train caught the flashes of the accident. On grainy, dark video, the flashes of the actual accident can be seen, CNN is reporting

Starting on May 20, Domino's Twitter followers will be able to tweet the company to have a pie delivered to their house. In fact, they won't even have to type out the tweet. They can order a pie by tweeting a pizza emoji, said Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre. In order to do this, customers must set up a so-called Pizza Profile in the company's online delivery service, where they can save an Easy Order. "Customers who add their Twitter handle to their Domino's Pizza Profile will be able to re-order their Easy Order by simply tweeting #EasyOrder or the pizza...

I think it may be a good idea for Big Guy to lay low for awhile. It seems every time he opens his mouth lately somebody sticks his foot in it.Take yesterday for example, when he was whining about people in general and Cherokee Princess Senator Elizabeth Warren in particular for not supporting his Trade Bill:  NOW president: Obama’s Warren critique sexist. National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O’Neill on Wednesday called President Obama’s critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sexist.O’Neill told The Hill she took issue with Obama calling Warren by her first name during an interview with...

What is the political back-story to the Pacific Free Trade Agreement? I was not following this story, and I see that it is tearing Congressional Democrats away from Obama. Specifically: 1. Why is the Pacific Free Trade Agreement such a high priority for Obama's Second Term? 2. Why did so many Democrats oppose Obama on this bill? 3. Why did so many Republicans support Obama on this bill?

For months, and even before she declared her presidential candidacy, many have questioned whether former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is actually serious about running for president and not just locking down a vice presidential nomination. This speculation has been driving me nuts, especially since it's continued after she announced a run for the White House earlier this month. But over the weekend anchor Katie Couric, infamous for her interview with Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential cycle, brought up the notion again and asked Fiorina directly if she was really just running to be picked as vice president. "Really many...

Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to revitalize schools within the city of Detroit has school-choice advocates concerned about potential threats to school choice in the city. Charter school advocates fear that Snyder’s plan creates a bureaucracy with the authority to stop the growth of charter schools or even shut them down if different political leadership put anti-charter board members in charge. The governor’s plan calls for the old Detroit Public Schools to be kept in existence for the administrative purpose of paying off the district’s debt. DPS has $483 million in operating debt and a combined capital and bond debt of...