Free Republic

After the debate last night, Trump flew to Iowa for interview with the Morning Joe crew at Java Joe's in Des Moines. He hasn't been to sleep yet (he said) but is sharp as a tack.Great interview!

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will announce on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official. The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already flailing industry. President Obama telegraphed the step in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, saying, "I'm going...

Moscow, January 12, Interfax - Christian refugees are exposed to harassment at the refugee camps in Germany, says Hegumen Daniil (Irbits) superior of the St. George the Victorious Monastery in Gotschendorf, member of the Integration Committee at the German Federal Chancellery."Christian refugees from Syria, Eritrea and other countries are exposed to humiliation, manhunt and brutal harassment at the camps for refugees by Muslim neighbors. This also relates to the Yazidi religious minority. The cases when humiliation comes to injuries and threats of death are frequent," the priest said in a letter to Federal Minister for Special Affairs and Head of...

Tax reform is a key part of reviving our economy so that the 21st century is another American century. That's why Senator Marco Rubio put together a tax reform plan that would generate economic growth, an employment boom, and rising wages for American workers. The Rubio tax plan would make the economy grow twice as fast as it has this century because it would lower taxes on hard-working families, allowing them to take home more of what they earn so they can use it to provide a better future for their children. It would reduce taxes on saving and investment,...

The National Transportation Safety Board wants to decrease the legal driving limit to one drink, lowering the legal limit on blood-alcohol content to 0.05 “or even lower.” The agency released its “most wanted list” on Wednesday, a laundry list of policies it would like implemented nationally. The list includes recommendations to reduce the current 0.08 blood alcohol content limit and outlaw all cell phone use while driving, even hands-free technology. “When it comes to alcohol use, we know that impairment begins before a person’s BAC reaches 0.08 percent, the current legal limit in the United States,” the agency said. “In...

"Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified." --- "Only 47 percent of all voters surveyed responded that they thought Cruz is qualified to be president with regard to his citizenship, with 26 percent saying they were not sure."

The heads of the Orthodox churches face several obstacles to consensus before the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church, scheduled to begin on June 19 in Istanbul, according to a report in L'Osservatore Romano. Giovanni Zavata, the article's author, cites the "slowness with which the preparatory works are progressing," "doubts expressed by high Orthodox representatives," "difficulties existing in relations between some churches," and "rising political tension between Russia and Turkey." In the two years since the council was announced, the Orthodox churches have reached consensus on only three of the eight agenda items, Zavada said, and the participation...

A Republican National Committeeman delivered a call-to-arms aimed at Donald Trump during a closed-door GOP meeting on Thursday, urging his colleagues to take a forceful stand against those who he said were destroying the party's brand. At a breakfast at the RNC's winter meeting, Holland Redfield, an RNC committeeman who represents the minority-rich Virgin Islands, rose to address party chairman Reince Priebus. In the five-minute impromptu speech, a video recording of which Redfield provided to POLITICO, Redfield did not explicitly mention Trump's name. But he made clear that angry voices in the party posed a grave threat to the GOP's...

COLOGNE, Germany -- In early December, the Cologne police made their New Year's Eve preparations. Drawing on the previous year's experience, they identified their biggest worry as pickpocketing and fireworks among the crowds. So they increased their holiday deployment, to 142 from 88, concentrating on the banks of the Rhine River, where revelers traditionally gather for a giant fireworks display. As 2016 neared on Dec. 31, however, some 1,500 men, including some newly arrived asylum seekers and many other immigrants, had instead assembled around Cologne's train station. Drunk and dismissive of the police, they took advantage of an overwhelmed force...

Alan Rickman was known for his villainous roles in films such as Harry Potter and Die Hard - but his acting experience began when he was a fresh-faced schoolboy in a string of school plays. An album of evocative photographs showing Rickman's starting steps in the dramatic world has come to light after it was released by his alma mater, Latymer Upper School. The star died yesterday aged 69 at a London hospital, surrounded by friends and relatives including his wife Rima, after waging a secret battle with pancreatic cancer.

Who's more stupid, the Swedish or German leadership?

Ted Cruz: undocumented Canadian candidate? Andrew Cuomo didn't quite go quite that far, but the New York governor surely took a birther shot at Cruz during his appearance on today's Morning Joe. Invited on to comment on Cruz's claim that Donald Trump represents "New York values," New York Governor Cuomo said: "You think the sign says only people from Canada that happen to come from Spanish-Irish descent? We said everyone is welcome." View the video here.

In an early morning ambush, Islamic terrorists of the radical al-Shabaab group attacked an African Union military base in southern Somalia Friday, breaching the walls by exploding a car bomb and overrunning the base. According to the officials of the Somali army, the blast demolished the entrance to the military base in in the town of El-Ade, Somalia, slaughtering dozens of Kenyan soldiers and allowing heavily armed jihadist militants to storm the base.

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". ReifyVerb To regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.... Review Threads: Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish (Be SURE to check out...

An anonymous German Police Officer reports that German Police are barred from arresting refugees because its "racist." From Russia Today: A German police officer told media that law enforcement cannot efficiently tackle crime among refugees without being accused of excessive violence or racism, while many dangerous incidents are played down or kept secret to maintain desirable statistics. The federal police officer, referred to as Bernd K., has shared his experiences with Bild newspaper, having worked for six months at Munich train station and also in the "refugee hotspots" of Passau and Freilassing in Bavaria. "At first, mostly families with children...

Director Michael Bay’s riveting, heartbreaking, and infuriating “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” opens with five simple words: “This Is a True Story.” What it should have read was, “This Is a True Story The Media Has Covered Up For Years.” God damn these people to Hell. Let me start things off by pointing and laughing at George Clooney, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tim Robbins, John Cusack, Leonardo Di Caprio, Paul Greengrass, Matt Damon, and Paul Haggis — all of whom made films critical of a sitting president’s foreign policy that ended up being, not only box office catastrophes,...

Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump blasted the unnamed "bastard" responsible for setting up a faulty sound system at a Wednesday-night campaign rally. "And by the way, I don't like this mic," Trump said after criticizing US trade policy with China during his speech in Pensacola, Florida. The Republican presidential front-runner then crudely instructed his staff to not pay the person responsible. "Whoever the hell brought this mic system, don't pay the son of a b----," he said. Trump added: "This mic is terrible. Stupid mic keeps popping. Do you hear that George? Don't pay him! Don't pay him. You know, I...

I have found that the site Replace smart quotes with regular straight quotes fixes the problem Free Republic recently has with quotes and dashes. For example, a New York Times article As Germany Welcomes Migrants, Sexual Attacks in Cologne Point to a New Reality that when originally pasted looks like this: COLOGNE, Germany — In early December, the Cologne police made their New Year’s Eve preparations. Drawing on the previous year’s experience, they identified their biggest worry as pickpocketing and fireworks among the crowds. So they increased their holiday deployment, to 142 from 88, concentrating on the banks of the...

It was the biggest dinosaur that ever lived, so when museum experts tried to reconstruct a life-sized skeleton of the recently discovered titanosaur it presented something of a challenge. The American Museum of Natural History in New York needed to use some careful spatial planning when it built a replica of the enormous creature for a new exhibition. At 20 ft (6 m) tall and 122 ft (37 m) long, the recently discovered dinosaur's skeleton is so big it does not fit in the museum’s warehouse-sized exhibition room.

resident Obama's last State of the Union address to the nation was filled with regrets and disappointments that he hadn't been able to sell his liberal agenda to the American people. He came into office hoping to unite the country behind his presidency and policies, but admitted that the country was far more bitterly divided than when he took office. "It's one of the few regrets of my presidency -- that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better," he complained. He rode into office on a hope and a prayer that he would end...