Free Republic

Here is what you need to understand the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearings on Monday: According to Democrats, any investigation of possible Democratic corruption, or of Democratic collusion with foreign officials to interfere in our elections, is itself impeachable interference in our elections. Seriously. Numerous problems mar the impeachment process — not least the rush to judgment. Democrats have been rushing congressional proceedings until they catch up with the judgment that the president must be impeached, a judgment House Democrats have already drawn. The haste rubs many Americans the wrong way.

The Democrats believe that the 2020 election is too important to be left to the voters. It’s obvious that President Trump withheld defense aid to Ukraine to pressure its president to commit to the investigations that he wanted, an improper use of his power that should rightly be the focus of congressional investigation and hearings. Where the Democrats have gotten tangled up is trying to find a justification that supports the enormous weight of impeaching and removing a president for the first time in our history. They’ve cycled through different arguments. First, Trump’s offense was said to be a quid...

Poor Jerry Nadler: The House Judiciary Committee chief so wants to make the rush to impeach President Trump look respectable — but his hearings keep doing the reverse. Monday’s show, which nominally began the drafting of articles of impeachment, has to qualify as Democrats’ most blatant publicity stunt so far. It began with Nadler rejecting Republican demands to call various witnesses, such as Rep. Adam Schiff. Schiff ran the Intelligence Committee “fact-finding” hearings but refuses to explain many of his investigative steps, from his staff’s relationships with the whistleblower who kicked off the whole affair to his peculiar decision to...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, announced late Monday that she won't be attending the Democrats' next debate "regardless" of whether she qualifies. Gabbard, who previously flirted with the idea of skipping an earlier debate, appeared more assertive about bowing out of the upcoming debate being hosted by PBS and Politico on Dec. 19. "For a number of reasons, I have decided not to attend the December 19th 'debate' — regardless of whether or not there are qualifying polls," Gabbard tweeted. "I instead choose to spend that precious time directly meeting with and hearing from the people of New Hampshire and South...

Of the 50 states reviewed by the American Legislative Exchange Council-Laffer Economic Outlook, here are the five states with the best economic outlook.

Trump Invites Israel's Shalva Band To Sing "God Bless America" At 2019 IAC Summit 12-07-2019

In some instances, crime actually dropped Though popular belief holds that more guns on college campuses will lead to an uptick in gun violence, several universities have reported no such increase even after their states legalized the carrying of concealed weapons on school grounds. According to the website of Armed Campuses, a pro-gun-control initiative that tracks firearm policies at universities across the country, seven state legislatures have broadly permitted concealed carry on public university grounds. Five more have instituted limited campus carry regimes. Ten states prohibit campus carry altogether, while the remainder either allow the university to set the policy...

Democrats are expected to unveil two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday that will focus on abuse of power and obstructing Congress, and would be voted on by the full House next week, according to three officials familiar with the matter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and other committee chairmen Monday night after a nine-hour hearing in which a Democratic counsel laid out the party’s case against Trump. The three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, cautioned that the plan had not been finalized.

Right now is a pivotal time for unborn babies across the United States. $60 million was defunded from Planned Parenthood, we won victories for sidewalk counselors who counsel young women outside of abortion clinics, and we stood up for nurses forced to participate in abortions against their conscience. Despite our victories, the abortion industry is expanding their efforts both in the United States and abroad. Barbaric late-term abortion laws have been passed in New York and are spreading internationally, Kansas lifted its ban on dismemberment abortions, and Planned Parenthood has made it clear they aim to “double down on abortion.”...

<p>The amount that Lunden Alexis Roberts is asking Biden, 49, to acknowledge he reaped at the energy firm is redacted in the 47-point request for admissions her lawyers filed in an Arkansas court.</p> <p>But reports have said Biden was paid as much as $50,000 per month in the position. He sat on the company’s board of directors between April 2014 and April 2019.</p>

Police say Henry Harvey and his wife were waiting in line at the retailer around 7:15 p.m., when Harvey “became angry over the customers in front of them taking too long to check out at the register," per a news release. Harvey and another customer then got into a verbal argument, which turned physical when Harvey punched the victim in the head. The victim was not seriously injured, police say. Harvey then left the Walmart and went home, where police apprehended the 69-year-old and placed him under arrest. He was charged with battery.

Anglo-Indians are unlikely to be nominated to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies from now on with the government on Monday introducing a bill to amend the Constitution seeking to not to extend the provision that is in place for the past 70 years but expires in January next year. Earlier, Congress MP Hibi Eden had written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his "urgent intervention" to reverse the government move. "The Anglo-Indian community has contributed significantly to the country and they are a vital part of our vibrant and diverse population. The revocation of their rights for reservation even when...

A bill establishing a religious test for immigrants has passed the lower house of Parliament, a major step for Modi. India took a major step toward the official marginalization of Muslims on Tuesday as one house of Parliament passed a bill that would establish a religious test for migrants who want to become citizens, solidifying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda. The measure would give migrants of all of South Asia’s major religions a clear path to Indian citizenship — except Islam. It is the most significant move yet to profoundly alter India’s secular nature enshrined by its founding leaders...

Anti-abortion news outfit LifeSite said it's been locked out of Twitter for tweeting a link to an article about a transgender activist who still has male genitalia complaining about being turned away by a gynecologist. Jessica Yaniv — a transgender woman — made headlines earlier this year after filing numerous human rights complaints against salons in Canada that refused to wax Yaniv's still-male genitalia. Last week, in a since-deleted tweet, Yaniv was miffed over a gynecology office that apparently refused service to the transgender activist: What did LifeSite's tweet say? LifeSite provided a screenshot of its own tweet along with...

As Twitchy reported earlier, former CIA director John Brennan sent out another self-sanctimonious tweet about “how far we have fallen” by electing President Trump, who is inflicting tragic damage to our national conscience and our government by not being Hillary Clinton. We’re guessing Brennan was responding to Monday’s impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee and not the release of the inspector general’s report, which showed, according to NBC News’ Pete Williams, that the FBI “screwed up at every level” — at best. That’s not a good look for America’s intelligence community. In any case, we included the following tweet...

December 10 2019 Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent Reading 1 Is 40:1-11 Comfort, give comfort to my people,says your God.Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to herthat her service is at an end,her guilt is expiated;Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORDdouble for all her sins. A voice cries out:In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!Every valley shall be filled in,every mountain and hill shall be made low;The rugged land shall be made a plain,the rough country, a broad valley.Then the glory of...

A 110.2 per cent increase in the price of pork from a year earlier led to a further rise in China’s consumer prices in November, as African swine fever continued to take a toll on the country’s pig population, data released on Tuesday showed. The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 4.5 per cent from a year earlier, up from a 3.8 per cent gain in October, the highest reading since reaching the same level in January 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. ***** In contrast, the producer price index (PPI), reflecting the prices that factories charge wholesalers...

House and Senate negotiators on Monday released an agreement for the massive annual defense policy bill that would give federal workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave in exchange for creating President Trump’s long-sought Space Force. The $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) covers everything from how many planes and ships the military can buy to reforming privatized military housing. News broke Friday night that this year’s bill – the result of months of negotiation between the Democratic-led House, Republican-led Senate and the White House – also includes a historic deal to provide paid parental leave to all federal...

It’s now official: Russia, Russia, Russia really was fake news from the start. There was no factual basis for the FBI to spy on Donald Trump’s campaign. That means there was no need for the appointment of a special counsel and that Robert Mueller should have stayed in retirement. It means the two years of rumors and accusations and the giant cloud of suspicions over the White House produced by Mueller’s headhunters were unfair and unjustified. It also means J. Edgar Hoover can finally rest in peace. James Comey is now revealed to be the dirtiest cop ever to run...

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) - A Colorado woman was found guilty of killing her own newborn daughter and tossing the body into a neighbor’s yard. On Friday, a judge sentenced her to life in prison for the crime. Camille Wasinger-Konrad, 25, was found guilty in August of first-degree murder after deliberation, tampering with physical evidence and the position-of-trust murder charge. “Of all the many emotions of the magical first moments of a baby’s life, of all the many tender moments a mother shared in that first embrace with a completely helpless and fragile life, smothering a newborn, and pitching...