Free Republic

Bishop Audo says that almost everyone would leave Aleppo if they couldThe Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria has said that the people of Aleppo are increasingly losing hope. In an interview with Catholic News Service he said that over the past two months the people seem to have been losing all hope for an end to the war and the beginning of reconciliation. Bishop Audo admitted that he, too, used to talk about his hope, “but now I have a tendency to say I am in an attitude of faith. I try to maintain myself in my faith...

....Stephanopoulos was one of the most partisan of partisan warriors ever — just look at "The War Room," the documentary from the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. So it was something of a surprise in 1996 when ABC News hired Stephanopoulos, fresh out of the Clinton White House. And there was some confusion about what the deeply partisan Stephanopoulos' role would be: Analyst? Pundit? Straight news reporter? At the time, I asked ABC about it and was assured Stephanopoulos would be a pundit — like William Kristol, who was then with ABC News — and would not do any news reporting....

VIRGINIA DALE, Colo. (CNS) -- Sister Maria Walburga Schortemeyer is at home wading through the mud and manure of a barnyard in boots, work pants, a fleece jacket, and her white veil. Minutes later, in the black-and-white habit of a Benedictine nun, she is equally at home singing psalms and praying the Divine Office in a chapel with other nuns. Sister Maria Walburga is the ranch manager at the Abbey of St. Walburga in Virginia Dale. The town sits in the arid and isolated foothills of the Rocky Mountains, almost within shouting distance of the Wyoming border. This community of...

The leader of Islamic State has declared 'Islam is the religion of fighting' in a rare audio message which called on all Muslims to 'fight for the caliphate'. Islamic State released the message yesterday claiming it was from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the extremist group executed 26 civilians before reaching the gates of an ancient Syrian city amid fears they could destroy it. The audio message posted on militant websites features a voice that sounds like al-Baghdadi's exhorting all Muslims to take up arms and fight on behalf of the group's self-styled caliphate. In it the leader, who...

Texas open carry is moving again.  Because the licensed open carry bill had an amendment added in the House, the process in the Senate needs to be repeated.   The amendment seems to be simple common sense.  Police may not harass open carriers unless there is a crime involved.   Stopping them to check on a license is not allowed, just the same way that automobile drivers may not be stopped simply to check on their license.  Texas is only one of six states that does not allow the open carry of modern handguns in most public locations. In the Senate,...

President Barack Obama had the right words, only the wrong occasion. The president said, "I don't anticipate overnight changes. But what I know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome, and this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome." That is what Obama should have said when he talked about the rioting, pillaging and looting that took place in Baltimore, while police were held back, after the death in police custody of Freddie Gray. But, no,...

The surprising thing isn't that George Stephanopoulos donated to Hillary's charity/slush fund and didn't tell anyone about it. The really surprising thing is that Republicans continue to pick debate moderators who are clearly liberals. Regardless of whom George did or did not donate to, we know what side he's on. My radical suggestion is to pick debate moderators who are either conservatives or clearly impartial, who won't ask gotcha questions akin to "Why do Republicans hate the poor?" Here is my list of suggested moderators:1) Mark Levin. He's very tough on his radio show, but when he interviews people he's...

The following exchange set up by George Stephanopolous is a glaring example of hypocrisy. It is also an example of pure manipulation in the media. It is one of the provable moments in which network media is propagandizing the American people. In its own way, it is on a level with the Benghazi "Mohammed Video" propaganda effort -- also by Hillary Clinton surrogates -- to run an information campaign against the American people. STEPHANOPOLOUS: ...But I do want to ask a broader question. It's been reported that you -- you briefed several Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including...

Major U.S. companies that lobbied the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure were much more likely to donate to the Clinton Foundation than corporations that were not attempting to influence the agency. A number of major Clinton Foundation donors have defended their involvement by saying they gave to the controversial charity out of a sincere desire to do good. Most have dismissed suggestions that they did so to build political clout with the secretary of state and potential future president. But executives at many firms that were foundation donors wrote contemporaneous checks to Clinton's campaign and to lobbyists focused on...

After a rough start to the year, economists are counting on the U.S. to bounce back in 2015 much like it did in 2014. Forecasters in the latest Wall Street Journal survey estimated the U.S. economy contracted at a 0.3% pace in the first quarter because of hits from winter weather and the West Coast port slowdown. But the panel, on average, sees annualized economic growth of 2.8% in the second quarter, supported by stronger job gains and wage growth. They also see the drag from weak trade and a strong dollar dissipating by the second half, delivering average economic...

Video: 14 million Ukrainians who lost their lives in 1939-1945 were honored on May 8 in Kyiv’s Maidan Square without the traditional Soviet style sabre rattling. For the first time in its modern history, Ukraine commemorated the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation for all those who perished in the World War II.

Everyone knows that Congress has exempted itself from Obamacare so lawmakers and their staff can continue to receive employer-based subsides that Americans in a similar position would not be allowed to receive. But there's a new twist here that you need to know about. To secure its Obamacare exemption, the U.S. Senate had to submit documents stating that it was a small business with less than 50 employees. This is, of course, completely false. The Senate is a massive arm of the Federal government that is completely funded with tax dollars and that employs thousands of people across the country....

President Obama’s Camp David summit with the Gulf Arab states on Thursday will seek to boost arms sales to the Gulf neighbors but the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been taken off their wish list. White House officials on Monday sought to tamp down speculation that King Salman of Saudi Arabia canceled his attendance at Camp David when the U.S. made clear that his country would not be permitted to buy F-35s. “We do not and never anticipated this to be a summit that only focused on one capability, like the F-35, for instance,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy National...

At the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., William Duncan, the executive director of Marriage and Family Law Research Grant at BYU, tracked marriage language over the past fifty years in several U.S. Supreme Court cases, from Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 to the current case facing the court over same-sex marriage. Marriage was relatively uniform and widely accepted as a union between a man and woman whose goals were united. But, the Griswold decision was a “key shift” and “a tentative move away from the past” as the court’s language changed from marriage’s goal from being one of security...

In 2013, Steven Miller resigned as acting commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service amid a controversy over its alleged targeting of the Tea Party and other conservative groups.

These are not good times for the Republic (and if you laughed or scratched your head at me calling America a republic, I rest my case). But they are amusing times, at least for those of us capable of extracting some measure of mirth and schadenfreude from the president's predicament. With the sand running out on the Obama presidency, it's finally dawning on the president's friends and fans that he can be a real jerk. Consider the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. For the last six years, he's spent much of his time rolling his eyes and sneering at Republicans. His...

Islamic State fighters took over the main government compound in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday, giving them nearly full control over Anbar's provincial capital, the group and officials said.

A grass-roots offshoot of a progressive, “social changemaker” nonprofit is petitioning newspapers and other media to begin referring to climate change skeptics as “deniers” by default. Forecast the Facts, a climate change activism project of a larger nonprofit called the Citizen Engagement Laboratory, argues that media types who use the general term “skeptics” are “misleading the public” on climate change: Some members of the media are still misleading the public by wrongly using the term “skeptic.” The New York Times, for example, recently called Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) a skeptic — even though he believes that climate change is “the...

A new report, “When God Becomes The Weapon”, provides a detailed, unsettling first-hand account of religiously motivated persecution in rebel-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine. The report has been prepared by the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) and International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) in the framework of the Civic Solidarity Platform with assistance of the Institute for Religious Freedom, Kyiv. The new report, which is based on field monitoring undertaken by the CCL and IPHR, documents widespread and serious violations of the rights of religious believers, EXCEPT the Moscow patriarchy Orthodox Church, in the conflict-affected areas of Ukraine. The Orthodox...

...handful of Miami Beach police officers sent hundreds of racially offensive and pornographic emails and possibly jeopardized dozens of criminal cases in which they are witnesses.... 540 cases in which the officers were witnesses are being reviewed to determine if they are tainted racially. Some charges could be dropped as a result or prisoners freed from jail.... One officer also emailed an autopsy photo of a man fatally shot by police in 2011, possibly in violation of Florida law. One officer also emailed an autopsy photo of a man fatally shot by police in 2011, possibly in violation of Florida...