Free Republic

A Midway businessman is facing charges under Utah's commercial terrorism statute after investigators say he took scores of free tourism brochures out of stands owned by a competitor and replaced them with his own brochures. Scott Jay Eckersley is charged in 4th District Court with four counts of commercial obstruction, a second-degree felony. Wasatch County prosecutor Mckay King said the charges are appropriate, based on the allegations against Eckersley. Over the past year, Eckersley went to the Zermatt Resort & Spa in Midway four times and "totally cleaned out" a competitor's display of free tourism brochures, according to Wasatch County...

Donald Trump should bounce back in New Hampshire on Tuesday. His loss in Iowa at the hands of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was a setback, although it actually could have done Trump some good. But Trump cannot afford two losses in a row. You can always learn something from defeat. And a little humility never hurt anyone, and Trump, who is not used to losing, sure could use some. And he surprisingly flashed a little of it when he graciously congratulated Cruz, the man he had called a liar, on his first-place finish. But Trump still could not help himself...

Donald Trump is blaming rival Ted Cruz - wrongly - for President Barack Obama's health care law. Trump says Cruz is "the one that got Justice Roberts onto the United States Supreme Court. He pushed him, he approved him and Justice Roberts approved Obamacare twice when it should have been rejected." Trump says, "Ted Cruz gave us Obamacare." Cruz did indeed support John Roberts' nomination. But Roberts was confirmed in 2005, years before Cruz was elected to the Senate. Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler says, "Trump's claim is ridiculous, especially considering that he has advocated and supported a single-payer health care...

CNN's broadside of Ted Cruz is wrong. The network has denied that it bears any responsibility for Cruz's camp spreading rumors that Ben Carson might be quitting the presidential race. CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin even went so far as to call Cruz's explanation "BS" on the air. Yet the network's claim can be true only in the most deceptive - in other words, the most Clintonian - sense. Instead of what the meaning of the word is is, CNN is parsing what the word indicate means. Somewhat ironically, the network rests much of its case on tweets rather than on-air...

Not defeat, but rather how one responds to it, determines “winners” and “losers.” Winners say, “Congratulations.” Losers affirm their designation by barking, “You cheated.” Donald Trump, after uncharacteristic graciousness in defeat Monday night, emerged as himself by accusing Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses from him. At least Al Gore could claim he won the popular vote. The Donald lost convincingly to a man down five in the polls entering the contest. But he’s convinced he didn’t lose. Trump, using his preferred means of discourse, tweeted: “The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz from the most recent election...

Iowa, Donald Trump told a crowd in Little Rock, Ark., last night, is a great place. A great state, amazing people. Trump remains a big fan of Iowa, despite the results of the caucuses that took place there on Monday. Or, perhaps, because of those results. After all, Trump thinks Trump came in first.

Critics are calling former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a "disappointing" sellout to presidential candidate Donald Trump and her Facebook post denouncing Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign's "lies" about opponent Ben Carson unfair. "Sarah you disappoint me you sold out to a liberal big Government windbag and are spreading lies about a true conservative," one apparently former fan of Palin writes in one of the top comments on her post. "Ted Cruz was just reporting what CNN reported."...

....." Donald Trump: "I've built an unbelievable company worth billions and billions. I don't have to hear from this man." Norma Desmond: "No-one ever leaves a star. That's what makes one a star." Donald Trump: "We'll have so much winning, you'll get bored with winning." Norma Desmond: "Without me, there wouldn't be any Paramount studio." Donald Trump: "Let's see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me, okay?"..............

Veterans have come out against Sarah Palin after she said in a speech on Wednesday that PTSD caused her son Track’s alleged domestic abuse ‘As a combat vet, EXTREMELY disgusted by #SarahPalin blaming PTSD 4 domestic abuse,’ wrote one man on Twitter Another said: ‘Speaking as a combat vet who literally slept in the same barracks as Track Palin, his mother is wrong and her son is not a victim’ Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, also criticized Palin for blaming the incident on President Obama Brandon Friedman, former digital media director for the Department of...

Donald Trump does everything in a big way. Even losing. Not only did he lose to Ted Cruz in Iowa, but he came very close to a humiliating third place behind Marco Rubio. As recently as yesterday Donald Trump was saying he wanted to win in Iowa, and if he didn't, that it would all have been a big waste of time. "Unless I win, I would consider this a big, fat, beautiful-and, by the way, a very expensive-waste of time," Trump said this weekend, speaking to supporters during a whirlwind tour of Iowa. Well, I guess it was a...

Ben Carson, however, is taking a break. His campaign announced that he will leave Iowa on Monday night and head to Florida to get some clean clothes. His aides said he was not ending his faltering presidential bid.

f I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated? You’d be wrong. In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism. That’s right, Trump’s electoral strength—and his staying power—have been buoyed, above all, by Americans with authoritarian inclinations. And because of the prevalence of authoritarians in the American electorate, among Democrats as well as Republicans, it’s very possible that Trump’s fan base will continue to grow. My finding is the result of a national...

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson doubled down on his previous language this morning, saying that al Qaeda was not an existential threat to the United States in 2001 and 2003. Today, he told ABC News that ISIS is more of a threat now than al Qaeda was in 2001 and 2003. "They weren’t nearly as developed as they are now -- at that point,” Carson said in response to an ABC News question. "That was my point. This is so much greater a threat than that was.” Carson also said the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001...

Leading Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson believes that federal and state official overreacted in the case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who died in 2005 as her husband and family battled over whether to keep her alive despite her vegetative state.The case roiled the state of Florida and sparked an emotional national debate about the ethics, politics and spiritual significance of her life and death.(snip)After speaking at a Republican Party conference here on Friday, a reporter asked Carson what he thought of the infamous case -- one that Bush speaks about occasionally as he mounts his own presidential campaign."We...

SOURCES: POLITICO set to reveal details of Romney campaign infighting; Plans to publish portions of speech chief Romney strategist Stevens ordered and scrapped, just days before convention... Developing late...

Some Republicans Try Out a New Campaign Theme: Bipartisanship By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JONATHAN WEISMAN September 15, 2012 WASHINGTON — A woman who appears in an advertisement supporting Representative Jon Runyan, a New Jersey Republican, boasts about how he works “with both parties.” Richard E. Mourdock of Indiana, whose Senate campaign has been most notable for his derision of legislative compromise as feckless, now says he would “work with anyone.” While out and about on the campaign trail, Representative Bobby Schilling, Republican of Illinois, talks so much about all the great things he has done with Representative Dave Loebsack, a...

I’ve argued many times that the politician Mitt Romney most closely resembles is John Kerry, primarily due to the Mittster’s legendary penchant for flip-flopping, a trait Kerry is also known for. I stand by my Kerry comparison, but Jonah Goldberg has an excellent point when he compares Romney to another Massachusetts politician: Michael Dukakis. Meanwhile, the Republicans seem to have become Dukakified. It was Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, who insisted that the election should be entirely about “competence, not ideology.” Romney has avoided saying that in so many words, but it’s certainly how he’s campaigning. After running to the right in...

"Around the country, the Republican Party is mounting legal challenges to keep third-party candidates off the ballot in November. Writer Karl Dickey reports in the Examiner that “in recent weeks, with the full support and legal assistance of the Republican Party, [Gary] Johnson's ballot status has been challenged in Michigan, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Iowa and now Ohio." Gary Johnson (pictured) is the former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president of the United States. As of this writing, Johnson is on the ballot in 43 states."

We libertarians love to rail about government, and rightly so. But, tyrannical government can’t survive if people refuse to comply with its illegitimate demands. Ultimately, the actions of government reflect the willingness of the people it oppresses to comply with its dictates. Ultimately, we have no one to blame but ourselves if we continue to live in tyranny. This uncomfortable fact is perfectly illustrated in the newly released movie Compliance, which tells the chilling story of just how far ordinary people will go to obey a figure of authority. Watch the movie trailers here. . .

TAMPA, August 31, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – While political observers watched Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio, the Republican National Committee pushed through new rules that could change the face of the party for some time – including one rule that Rush Limbaugh said was designed to freeze pro-life Christians out of the GOP. Under rules proposed by election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who said he was acting on behalf of the Romney campaign, the presidential candidate who wins a state primary would get to select all state delegates to the convention and “disavow” anyone who meets his disapproval. The delegates,...