Free Republic

If Michelle Obama decided to run for president in 2016, she would pose the most significant threat, among likely contenders, to Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the Democratic nomination, according to a new Rasmussen poll. A telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted by the polling company found that in a hypothetical match-up between the current first lady and the former secretary of State, Clinton would best Obama 56 percent to 22 percent. That may seem like a significant margin, but according to the most recent RealClearPolitics polling average, Elizabeth Warren, a popular hypothetical challenger to Clinton, receives only 12.5...

The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., would announce Thursday she would be running for retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat. At last, it seemed as if California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the only name Democrat in the race, might face some competition. Then Sanchez claimed that the announcement email had been sent out by mistake. Oops, as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry would say. Then Team Sanchez sent out a press release that promised "a significant political announcement" Thursday. If Sanchez does throw her hat in the ring, she flubbed her entrance....

Eighteen months away from the 2016 presidential election, two Democrats and six Republicans have formally thrown their hat into the ring. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was the first Republican to announce his candidacy. Cruz is the son of Cuban immigrants who before his congressional career was the longest-serving Solicitor General in Texas history. This week, Cruz began his ground game in Michigan by announcing his new state chairman. Saul Anuzis served as chairman of the Michigan Republican Party from 2005 to 2009. Later, he was a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Now, as part of...

Microsoft's upcoming operating system Windows 10 will ship in three consumer editions and three Enterprise and education editions. The three consumer editions Home, Mobile and Pro are designed for the demands of end-users, professionals and small businesses. Windows 10 Home is the equivalent of the Windows 8 edition, a basic edition of Windows 10 that will most likely ship with the majority of devices the operating system comes pre-installed on. Microsoft notes that the edition will ship with Microsoft Edge, the new web browser, Cortana, the personal assistant, Continuum, a tablet-friendly mode for touch-devices, Windows Hello, a biometric authentication service...

James Taylor is backing Hillary for president By Associated Press Barack Obama supporter James Taylor doesn’t just think the U.S. president is great — he believes Obama is the greatest of all-time. “I’ve been watching politics since (Dwight) Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Obama is my favorite, favorite president,” Taylor said in an interview Wednesday. “I am just thankful for every day that he’s in office. I am so proud that he represents my country and I think he represents me — I think he represents the America that I know.”

<p>More than a decade after being swept from power by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban remain a potent threat in much of the country, including the heavily-guarded capital Kabul, where the insurgents killed 14 people, including nine foreigners, in an attack on a guesthouse late Wednesday. Here's a look at the Taliban's goals and strategies.</p>

Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University are making a bold claim: an entirely new state of matter. The team, led by Kosmas Prassides, says they've created what's called a Jahn-Teller metal by inserting rubidium, a strange alkali metal element, into buckyballs, a pure carbon structure which has a spherical shape from a series of interlocking polygons (think of the Epcot Center, but in microscopic size.) Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Buckyballs, which are somewhat related to other supermaterials like graphene and carbon nanotubes, are already known for their superconductive capabilities. Here, while combining buckyballs and rubidium, the researchers created a...

Tony Pierce’s May 5 column, “CFPB Must Prioritize People Over Payday Lenders”, drips with unintended irony, for the CFPB never actually visited any stores or talked directly with borrowers (i.e. people) to learn what actually goes on in the trenches.To review, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released its proposed rules for short-term small dollar loans, often known as payday loans and auto title loans. Despite the bureau’s repeated insistence that it recognizes the need for such products in the marketplace, its prescription to “eliminate debt traps” is akin to treating dandruff by decapitation. The proposed rules indeed accomplish only...

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has announced a Justice Department investigation to determine whether the Baltimore Police Department’s practices are unconstitutional and violate civil rights; in short, whether or not the police force there is racist. It will come as no surprise if the investigation concludes that it is, because accusing the department of racism diverts attention from the city's real problem: Baltimore, a laboratory for liberal policies, is a failed city that has shortchanged the poor for decades. Baltimore has received over $1.8 billion in stimulus money from the Obama administration, including $467.1 million to invest in education and...

Talk radio host and Fox News Contributor Alan Colmes said that he wants to “see full disclosure and transparency from the Clintons” and that “the FBI might want to look into” the foundation on Wednesday’s “America’s Newsroom.” Colmes said, “She’s got to answer questions. She’s got to stand up and answer to the press, whether it’s a news conference or an interview. … The FBI might want to look into this” regarding the questions regarding potential conflicts of interest between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary’s time as Secretary of State.

A decision last week about NSA spying by a panel of judges on the United States Court of Appeals in New York City sent shock waves through the government. The court ruled that a section of the Patriot Act that is due to expire at the end of this month and on which the government has relied as a basis for its bulk acquisition of telephone data in the past 14 years does not authorize that acquisition. This may sound like legal mumbo jumbo, but it goes to the heart of the relationship between the people and their government in...

The western Pacific has been hyperactive so far in 2015, and now Typhoon Dolphin is bearing down on Guam. The National Weather Service has issued a typhoon warning for Guam and Rota Island. This means typhoon conditions - including winds of 74 mph or stronger - are expected within 24 hours. A typhoon watch and tropical storm warning is in effect for Tinian and Saipan, where tropical storm force winds - 39-73 mph - are expected. Dolphin is currently about 340 miles east-southeast of Guam as of late Thursday morning, EDT with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, a strong...

Americans today are more than a little suspicious of Barack Obama. His Middle East policies are of no apparent benefit to the United States and leading from behind is not going to work. What exactly did Obama believe would happen during his Arab Spring? Do his policies stem from a Socialist, or Muslim background. Obama and the not so secret real power in the White House, Valerie Jarrett, are known to have been negotiating with Islamic mullahs since the pair’s first inauguration. America’s twin Quislings have bestowed blessings on the mullahs and their plans to destroy Israel and certain Middle...

Europe remains a sitting duck whilst it passively sits on the sidelines uttering pious platitudes Islamic State now has the potential to break out of Syria and Iraq and into the heart of Europe without a shot being fired in anger by the Europeans to repel Islamic State’s stated aims of re-establishing the Caliphate and with it the supremacy of Islam world-wide. This previously dismissed possibility has become an emerging reality with the record flow of hundreds of thousands of Moslems into Europe by boat in 2014 - seeking asylum as their homes and lives in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan,Yemen...

Let’s discuss Jeb Bush’s terrible week. I’m really troubled by his awful performances, and I’m generally a person who takes bad news about politicians pretty well. For instance, a friend just sent me a story about the Texas agriculture commissioner’s vow to bring deep-fried foods back to school cafeterias. (“It’s not about French fries; it’s about freedom.”) I would classify this as interesting, yet somehow not a shocking surprise. But today we’re talking about Jeb Bush. As a presidential hopeful, Bush’s most attractive feature was an aura of competence. Extremely boring competence, perhaps. Still, an apparent ability to get through...

There is no knowing what they are learning, for good or ill, in school In the 1940s and ‘50s, what passed for sex education was literally about the birds and bees as metaphors for inception and child birth. The emphasis was on waiting until marriage to engage in sex. There were instructional books with a mostly medical orientation to the information they provided but whether they could be found in the schools is anyone’s guess. Somehow that generation (and earlier ones) managed to learn enough about sex to engage in it within the context of a society that regarded sex...

Palestinians’ propaganda efforts to completely de-legitimize Israel and isolate it from the international community International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York, following her May 12th briefing to the UN Security Council on the ICC’s Libya-related activities, that her previously announced “preliminary examination” concerning the situation in Palestine is still open. She has not set any deadline for completing her examination. Ms. Bensouda is continuing to look into whether crimes subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction were possibly committed in the Palestinian territories since June 2014. She is considering information, if any, submitted...

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for...

GSA seems to be losing sight of the fact that it is membership and not pandering to the politically correct that keeps them going Wasn’t it only yesterday when we generally knew where all the boys were? Standing like shy colts against one end of the school gymnasium, pretending to be oblivious to all the girls hoping not to be wallflowers waiting to be asked to dance, at the other. It was the boys diving off rocks into the creek at the edge of town each summer, and the girls twittering like birds at pajama parties while their parents admonished...

You are real ! You are alive IN HIM ! And it is His pleasure to flow ~ through you unobstructed as a pure and virtuous stream ~ ~ ~ To replenish those parched traveling through dry lands but you to must drink deep from His eternal forgiveness And as you raise your head from these waters never look back as Lot's wife but "focus on His heart for His children" For you "ARE" an Oasis of Him as you mirror His water alone for Truly all flesh must be left behind. As His words speak "I only say what...