Free Republic

Languishing Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush took a swipe at frontrunner Donald Trump in the billionaire's home town Tuesday, accusing him of "talking trash" and saying he would be demolished in a general election. "I'm the only guy confronting this," the former governor of Florida, the son and brother of two former presidents, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "Because people are anxious about their future they've latched onto the large personality on the stage, but the reality is he's not a serious candidate and he'll get wiped out in the general election."

A friend told me a co-worker and her family lost TriCare Coverage without notice in early January. When she investigated, she was told a “glitch” in the interface between DEERS and TriCare caused the problem and a quarter-million families were affected. There was no projected date for the problem to be resolved. I have heard squat about this in the media.Looking to my FreeRepublic family to report if you know of anyone caught up in this latest guberment snafu. It is being pursued through Congressional and American Legion contacts.

According to a just-released poll from Florida Atlantic University broadcast on MSNBC, in a 12 person Republican primary, Donald Trump is blowing the pack away in Florida with an incredible +32 point lead. The billionaire businessman currently enjoys 48% support in the Sunshine State, a +12 point jump from November.

Hundreds of mosques throughout France held open houses recently to offer a "tea of fraternity" and "create spaces of conviviality and exchange," according to a report in Le Figaro. The open houses typically attracted 100 to 300 visitors. Nationwide participation figures were not available. In eight of France's administrative regions, an estimated 75% of mosques participated, according to Anwar Kbibech, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith.

Two weeks after France began bombing Libya, in March, 2011, Hillary Clinton's old friend and advisor Sidney Blumenthal passed her an intelligence memo that supposedly revealed France's true — and quite unflattering— motivations for toppling Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. While France's then-President Nicolas Sarkozy publicly said he wished to free the Libyan people from tyranny, Blumenthal's memo argues that he was driven by a cocktail of less lofty incentives, including a desire for Libyan oil, and a fear that Qaddafi secretly planned to use his vast supply of gold to displace France's primacy in the region. It appears that Clinton's...

What Obama State of the Union show would be complete (complete disaster, that is) without a diatribe on Climate Change and further ruination of the coal and oil industries, with his call to "accelerate the transition away from dirty energy." However, climate weenies lamented that "there was no laundry list of bold programs and budding proposals this time." That is a shame. "It's time to not only reform our fossil fuel leasing program, we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, in a statement. Translation: the federal government must confiscate...

Devastating floods in Missouri and Texas have given a new impetus to lawmakers fighting for legislation to reform federal flood insurance. The late-December flooding in the Midwest and Southwest claimed more than 40 lives and caused millions of dollars in property damage, adding further financial strain to an insurance program that was already $23 billion in debt. With the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) set to expire in September 2017, some members of Congress say the time has come to pass legislation that puts the program on the path to solvency. "We need to get the private sector in the...

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) - Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared: The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State group's relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical. St. Elijah's Monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for U.S. troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches, prayed in the chapel, worshipped at the altar. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of...

Donald Trump on Wednesday said it is "sad" that no blacks were nominated for top awards at the Oscars. "I think it's a tough situation. I think it's really sad," the celebrity businessman and television personality said during an interview on "Fox and Friends." "It would certainly be nice if everybody could be represented properly," Trump continued. "And hopefully that's the case, but perhaps it's not the case. It's a difficult situation."

With stunning polls showing Bernie Sanders with a 60% to 33% lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire... 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%. As Liberty Blitizkrieg's Mike Krieger notes, the following "suggested searches" from Google pretty much sums up how the general public feels about the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination... And here are the facts, as dissected by Politifact:

Many fans were shocked when she was announced to be playing the most famous female super hero of all time. And Gal Gadot certainly seems to be quite the fit for the iconic tiara. The beautiful 30-year-old actress was shown in the entire iconic warrior princess garb of the Amazon in the first look for Wonder Woman aired on Tuesday night.

A just released poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University being reported by MSNBC on the Morning Joe show says that in a 12 person field Donald Trump is crushing the field. Trump gets an amazing 48 percent while “Surging Ted” Cruz has just 16 percent support and Marco “Senior Amnesty” Rubio has fallen to only 11 percent support in his home state. The other guy from Florida is close behind with 10 percent support. In the same poll conducted in November Trump was at 32 percent meaning he has climbed about two points week despite the attacks on him.

He's pumping iron - and squeezing taxpayers for $40,000 a year. An NYPD officer who retired with a disability pension now regularly participates in bodybuilding competitions - and pension rules permit it. Derek Huebner retired on Aug. 31, 1996 after six years on the force, according to the New York City Police Pension Fund. He receives $40,885.20, tax-free plus benefits, every year from the fund, which has come under scrutiny following reports in the Daily News. "There's no law against it," Huebner said when asked about his receiving a disability pension while bodybuilding.

Waco City Council signed off on the application Tuesday for a federal grant to offset the cost of responding to the Twin Peaks biker shootout last May 17. The city is seeking a $248,841 Justice Assistance Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The bulk of the requested funding, more than $240,000, would go to the Waco Police Department for overtime and equipment, with small amounts going to Waco Transit, the Waco Fire Department and the police departments in Robinson, Woodway, Hewitt and Lorena. "Based on the feedback we've received, I believe we will receive a portion or all of...

Endorsing Donald Trump last night in Iowa, Sarah Palin called him "the only one that has been willing [and] who’s got the guts" to take on the GOP establishment. "He is from the private sector, not a politician: Can I get a hallelujah?" the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said. The crowd answered back: "Hallelujah!" Today she and Trump will campaign together in Iowa and Oklahoma. A key Cruz ally acknowledged last night that Palin helps Trump: "He‘s a thrice-married, non-churchgoing billionaire, and she gives him credibility with conservative women," said Kellyanne Conway, who manages a Cruz super PAC. "It‘s...

Today, as predicted by many in the media who have been following this case, Klayman v. Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation (15-cv-80388 S.D. Fla), a federal judge appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, dismissed a lawsuit, filed under the Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO") and other causes of action, which was based on the Clintons' acceptance of money from foreign and other donors in exchange for favors while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. In addition to filing suit, Larry Klayman asked the judge, Donald M. Middlebrooks, to take into custody Hillary Clinton's private...

The Rev. Al Sharpton vowed Tuesday to organize a national "tune out" of the Oscars for its failure for the second year in a row to nominate a single black actor or director for an award. Sharpton's National Action Network said it plans to work with activists and advocacy groups in hopes that Americans "will turn off anything that does not represent the broad cultural and diverse contributions of American entertainment."

New York City’s tabloids have two different takes on Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.The New York Daily News slammed the endorsement on its front page, showing a picture of the two with the headline “I’m With Stupid,” with the smaller print reading, “Hate minds this alike: Palin endorses Trump.”The New York Post went in the completely opposite direction, showing Palin and Trump shaking hands with the headline “Lady and the Trump,” followed by, “Sarah, Donald make love in Iowa.”Trump received the endorsement Tuesday of conservative firebrand Palin, giving the billionaire businessman a potential boost less than...

Students at the Oxford Union voted on Tuesday night to remove the controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes with 245 ayes and 212 noes as part of a wider movement of "decolonisation" of the curriculum at the university. The vote followed a fierce debate between those who argue the statue of the Victorian imperialist is proof that Oxford is "institutionally racist" and therefore must be toppled and those who believe we can't erase the past and think the statue should stay. Arguing against the motion, Professor Nigel Biggar, who teaches moral and pastoral theology at Christ Church, Oxford, said that if...

An Ohio college professor who called Israel “the spiritual heir to Nazism” and spoke openly about “Jihad” is being investigated by the FBI for possible links to ISIS. An FBI spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the bureau was looking into Kent State University associate professor Julio “Assad” Pino for ties to the terrorist group, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Pino is an associate professor of history specializing in Latin American history and the third world. A Kent State spokesperson said the FBI assured the college there was no threat to the school. Pino has a long history of making controversial and...