Free Republic

Welcome to the Free Republic CaucusPlease read this page well, and participate according to the guidelines provided.  Thank you. Only vote on this thread on: 01/20/2016  another thread will pop up five minutes before: 01/21/2016Wait to vote until 12:00 midnight EST, and don't vote after 12:00 midnight EST at the at the end of the day.  Look for the new thread. Votes outside the 24 hour period, will not be counted.  Give it a minute or two on each end, so you are sure to get your vote counted. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, FREEP MAIL ME.  DO NOT DISQUALIFY YOURSELF...

Have you noticed just how violent professional football is? Does it strike you as odd that so many are excited about a game in which players are knocked senseless and many are maimed? The players strike each other with such force that the collision sounds can be heard high in the stands and on TV. The quarterback position is acknowledged as the most important, but rare is the quarterback who is able to play a whole season without significant injuries. More important than the broken clavicles, the shoulder dislocations, and even the gruesome orthopedic disasters like the career-ending injury of...

Over a decade ago, the New York Post's Ryan Sager published a blockbuster story, showing that "campaign finance reform has been an immense scam perpetrated...by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a "mass movement." Based on the astonishing testimony of Sean Treglia, who ran the campaign finance reform effort for Pew Trusts, Sager reported that...(continued at link)

(CNN)--Bernie Sanders' lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire is on the rise, with the Vermont senator leading the former secretary of state by 27 points, 60% to 33%, a new CNN/WMUR poll has found. The new poll, mostly conducted before Sunday night's debate, found Sanders' support has grown by 10 points since a late-November/early December CNN/WMUR poll, which found Sanders holding 50% to Clinton's 40%. New Hampshire Democrats' views on the race are solidifying as well, with 52% saying they have definitely decided who they will support, up from 36% who felt that way in early December. Among those...

Emails from Hillary Clinton's home server contained information classified at levels higher than previously known, including a level meant to protect some of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence, according to a document obtained by NBC News. In a letter to lawmakers, the intelligence community's internal watchdog says some of Clinton's emails contained information classified Top Secret/Special Access Program, a secrecy designation that includes some of the most closely held U.S. intelligence matters. -snip- Charles McCulllough, the intelligence community's inspector general, said in a letter to the chairmen of the Senate intelligence and foreign affairs committees that he has received sworn...

Liberal Media will never show the true Donald Trump, they are too busy attacking him. According to Political Insider: Back in 1995, a married couple noticed a limo on the side of the road that had a flat tire. The husband pulled the car over and fixed the tire. The limo belonged to Trump, who thanked the man and asked him how he could repay him for his kind gift. The man suggested sending his wife a bouquet of flowers. Trump agreed... and when the flowers arrived several weeks later, there was a note included that said, "We've paid off...

January 20, 2016 Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 Sm 17:32-33, 37, 40-51 David spoke to Saul:"Let your majesty not lose courage.I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine."But Saul answered David,"You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth." David continued:"The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear,will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine."Saul answered David, "Go! the LORD will be with you." Then,...

Decisions by hundreds of thousands of Hispanic immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship are driving the number of eligible Hispanic voters to record heights, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. The Hispanic electorate is expected to grow to a record 27.3 million voters in 2016, primarily because millions of U.S.-born Hispanics are coming of voting age, Pew found. But the second largest driver of growth is naturalization. (RELATED: White House Launches Campaign To Get Immigrants To Sign Up For Citizenship)

College presidents have always received a lot of mail. But these days we get more than ever. Much of it relates to student unrest, and most of the messages are unpleasant. Our usual practice is to thank the sender for writing and leave it at that. The combination of receiving more than 100 emails and letters a day and recognizing that the purpose of many writers is to rebuke, rather than discuss, leaves us little choice about how to respond. But that certainly doesn’t mean we don’t think long and hard about the issues being raised. Some writers ask why...

Where have you gone, Sarah Palin? The woman who just endorsed Donald Trump is not the rogue conservative I knew in 2008 Back in December, I was at a small event in a Las Vegas bar; CNN's Jake Tapper was interviewing Sarah Palin. He asked which candidate she'd most like to grab a beer with. Her answer? Donald Trump.Trump, of course, has been sober his whole life. But the moment perfectly encapsulates the Palin-Trump romance. Because in addition to endorsing a beer run with a man who doesn't drink, she also just endorsed for the presidency a man who is...

Republicans from various corners of the party are signaling their urgent desire to stop Ted Cruz from becoming their presidential nominee, a dueling indication of the Texas senator's formidable political strength as well as his severe likeability deficit within diverse quarters of the GOP. With less than two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, Cruz is under siege, attempting to fend off attacks on multiple fronts, unite conservatives and hold on to his narrow lead in the state over Donald Trump, who has predicted that a win by him there would induce a cascading effect toward the GOP nomination....

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war With the cross of Jesus going on before Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng Blend with ours your voices in a triumph song Christ, the Royal Master, leads against the foe Forward into battle, see His banners go… The warriors of radical Islam wish to destroy us. Anyone not murdered by them must succumb to Sharia Law and their twisted ideology. They will not stop until we are dead or under their control. The West has only one choice, to fight and vanquish the soldiers of radical Islam once and for...

Glenn Beck lit into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin after her endorsement today of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. The radio host then announced that he would be joining Sen. Ted Cruz this weekend for a campaign rally in Waterloo ... Beck and Cruz had previously worked together for a border relief effort in 2014 to bring soccer balls, teddy bears, and other humanitarian aid to illegal immigrant children.

Internet-connected industrial devices could be accessible to anyone, with no password, thanks to a coding error by a gateway manufacturer. Taiwanese firm Advantech patched the firmware in some of its serial-to-IP gateway devices in October to remove a hard-coded SSH (Secure Shell) key that would have allowed unauthorized access by remote attackers. But it overlooked an even bigger problem: Any password will unlock the gateways, which are used to connect legacy serial devices to TCP/IP and cellular networks in industrial environments around the world. Researchers from security firm Rapid7 discovered the vulnerability in the revised firmware, version 1.98, released for...

McDonalds is testing a spin on it's classic French fries, drizzling them with chocolate and calling them McChoco Potato. You can have your fries with two types of chocolate sauces: chocolate with cacao flavor and white milk chocolate. McDonald's hopes this combination will give customers a salty and sweet harmonious taste, so the customer can eat them as a side to a burger, or as a dessert.

There's really no way to sugarcoat this, moms and dads - your recent college graduate may be dumber than dirt. A recent survey showed that nearly ten percent of recent college graduates say that television star Judith Sheindlin is on the Supreme Court. Yes, friends - our best and brightest seem to think that Judge Judy sits on the highest court in the land. Parents your child's B.A. may in fact be a bunch of B.S. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni said their survey uncovered a "crisis in American civic education." The ACTA describes itself as an independent...

The nation's largest insurer said it booked $720 million in losses last year by offering plans under Obamacare, and warned Tuesday that it might still withdraw altogether from the health law by next year. UnitedHealth Group told investors that it expects more losses due to Obamacare in 2016, countering an otherwise upbeat earnings report for the company, and serving as a challenge to President Obama, who wants to leave the law on firmer footing. The administration brushed off the news, saying other major insurers are sticking by the exchanges and that it is focused on the final two weeks of...

In its latest act of illicit intervention in Israeli public life, the foreign (mainly U.S.)-funded "New Israel Fund" (where their 'New Israel" means Palestine) has filled the Israeli press and the country's billboards with a McCarthyist anti-democratic vilification poster that essentially endorses all who seek to deny freedom of speech in Israel to non-leftists.

AMES, Iowa- Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump received the endorsement Tuesday of conservative firebrand Sarah Palin, giving the billionaire businessman a potential boost less than two weeks before Iowa's kick-off caucuses. "Media heads are spinning," the former vice presidential candidate said after taking the stage at a Trump rally at Iowa State University. "This is going to be so much fun." Palin, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 GOP vice presidential pick, said that, with Trump as president, America would no longer apologize. "No more pussy-footing around," Palin said. The endorsement comes as Trump is locked in a dead...

I'll see your Sarah Palin with a Glenn Beck. According to ABC News just a few hours after Mrs. Palin announced her support of Donald Trump, another popular conservative media figure — radio and TV host Glenn Beck - will announce his backing of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Mr. Beck's opposition to Mr. Trump is no surprise — he last week called the billionaire tycoon and Republican presidential frontrunner a "monster much, much worse" than President Obama — but he had withheld an endorsement of anyone specific until now. According to ABC News reporter Tom Llamas, Mr. Beck will...