Free Republic

As people around the world react with shock to the horrific ISIS video of the burning of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the Islamic State had a viewing party for their supporters who watched the barbaric murder on giant screens and erupted in cheer. A video exclusively obtained by LisaDaftari.com, entitled ‘The Muslims’ delight at the burning of the Jordanian pilot,’ depicts ISIS supporters gathering in Raqqa, Syria, the headquarters of the jihadi group, cheering and chanting ‘Allah hu akbar!’ (Allah is great!) as they watched al-Kasasbeh consumed by flames.

MLive columnist Tim Skubick recently wrote about how the state could cut spending and mentioned the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the state agency that hands out subsidies to favored businesses. Rep. Earl Poleski (R-Jackson) was asked about the MEDC and said, “I think we need to be looking at whether that model is working for us.” ForTheRecord says: Politicians won’t have to look far to get an answer. Michigan's auditor general issued a report on the MEDC’s 21st Century Jobs Fund program in September of 2013, finding only 19 percent of the promised jobs came to fruition. In other words,...

Early last year, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity released this video, narrated by yours truly, making the case that the United States and other nations should shift from a tax-and-transfer entitlement scheme to a system of personal retirement accounts.Some left wingers criticized the idea, saying the big drop in the stock market in 2008-2009 is proof that personal retirement accounts are too risky.You won’t be surprised to learn, though, that they are wrong. It is true that retirement income fluctuates with a system of personal accounts, but that simply means that it is difficult to predict how much...

The wheels of justice in the District of Columbia are turning exceedingly slowly in enforcing the second amendment of the Constitution.  It was shortly after the Heller decision in 2008, that Alan Gura and SAF filed suit in what has become the Palmer case in the District of Columbia.    That suit was filed in August of 2009, only a little more than a year after Heller was decided in June of 2008.   It took almost exactly five years to get a ruling in the Palmer case.  Alan Gura, during that period, filed two petitions for a writ of mandamus....

No amount of false bravado, professorial sounding outrage or political denials can erase the truth about Common Core Dr. William J. (Bill) Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan from 1986 to 1988, advocates for Common Core in a CNN op-ed published on Dec. 2, 2014, and as recently as Feb. 1, 2015, in a televised debate with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In his CNN op-ed, Dr. Bennett concludes that because America “offers no better alternative”, we should accept Common Core. His argument dovetails closely with establishment Republican and Democrat ideology; one imbedded with flawed logic, compounded falsehoods...

The failure of Obama’s “degrade and destroy” strategy The bloodthirsty barbarity of ISIS has reached a new low. A video released by the Islamic terror group shows captured Jordanian pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, inside a cage. A trail of lit gasoline eventually engulfs him in flame, burning him alive. Yesterday, this exercise in brute savagery was confirmed by the Jordanian government. They revealed that al-Kasasbeh was killed more than a month ago on Jan. 3, less than two weeks after his F-16 fighter jet went down over northern Syria on Dec. 24. This reality put a full stop on...

Thanks to Obama, our enemies have been emboldened, our allies confused. He's an idiot who lacks any grasp of history’s lessons. He's a coward who cannot be expected to seriously respond You know something is terribly wrong when three former Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and Madeleine Albright tell a Senate Armed Services Committee that the President of the United States is an idiot with no idea how to conduct foreign affairs. Well, they didn’t say it in those words, but that was pretty much the message. That was January 29. Two days earlier retired 4-Star General James...

We need to rebuild a strong America with a sound energy policy ensuring strong energy security. Our energy and national security are too important to lose this opportunity. The U.S. currently maintains some 160,000 military personnel in approximately 150 countries worldwide with the majority serving in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This number does not include the thousands of troops involved in singular contingency operations at any time around the globe. All total, more than 2.6 million Americans have served in the Global War on Terrorism since 9/11, with many of these men and women serving multiple deployments. The...

Burn the platforms of both the terrorists and the cowardly politicians who refuse to name them--and do it ASAP It’s not the cheering audience, including children who cheered the torching death of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh on big screen in de facto ISIS capital Raqqa headquarters, that’s the worst problem, it’s the politicians and mainstream media whose futile angry words rush in to immediately fill the vacuum after the slaughter of each and every ISIS victim. “A sickening video has emerged showing Islamic State supporters gathering to watch Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burnt alive on big screen in the centre of...

A study paid for by the Michigan Corn Growers Association was recently reported in the news media as though it had been conducted independently. This public relations coup for the ethanol industry was pulled off by touting it as “a Michigan State University study” and omitting the fact that it was done on behalf of the Michigan Corn Growers Association. Reporters then assumed it was an academic study conducted independently of the ethanol industry. On Dec. 17, Michigan Capitol Confidential asked MSU spokesman Jason Cody if the study “Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Michigan Due to Ethanol Fuel Use,” was an...

The Venezuelan Ministry of Defense has authorized the Army to shoot any protesters that do not obey orders to disperse. Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino López defended the decree as both “necessary and proper. In this time of crisis everyone should be working together in support of the government. Public complaints alleging that the government has not fulfilled its promises encourages people to oppose the government’s measures to deal with the crisis. Such disloyalty cannot be tolerated.” There is also a pragmatic aspect to the policy. According to the General, “to the extent that shortages of food and other...

ulture: An unlikely issue has entered the infant 2016 presidential campaign: Vaccines and required vaccinations. Let's hope the fact there's no scientific link to autism or anything else isn't lost in the political fray. Candidates will often look for an edge over their opponents. Thus, both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky recently suggested that, while vaccinations are good, forcing parents to vaccinate their children might be too much. We believe vaccines are safe and should be routine, but concern about parents' rights is not unreasonable. What really gripes us, however, is listening to the...

“President Obama’s call for a $95 billion energy tax hike would thwart the very goals expressed in his State of the Union address,” American Petroleum Institute (API) Pres. Jack Gerard said today. “America’s oil and natural gas renaïssance has done everything on the president’s State of the Union wish list for the middle class,” Gerard said, responding to Obama’s proposed budget. “Opposition to President Obama’s proposals is strong and bipartisan. The president’s annual call to raise taxes on U.S. oil and natural gas development would hurt job creation, infrastructure investment, the federal deficit, seniors on fixed incomes and domestic manufacturing.”...

This is a story about two perfectly engineered inmates of the Democrats’ plantation. In many areas of the big cities run by Democrats it is dangerous for an honest person live or visit. One’s safety is not necessarily defined by skin color as a beautiful and industrious 18 year old African American woman named Marguerite La Joy Washington was to find out. On October 1, 2012, the college freshman was murdered as she sat in a New Orleans apartment. The gunmen who ended her life had come to kill her boyfriend but shot both of them during their attack. Two...

With His American Sniper Up For Six Academy Awards, Clint Eastwood, 84, Shows He’s Nowhere Close To Riding Off Into The Sunset Eastwood is back at the top of his craft. American Sniper is up for six Oscars at this month’s Academy Awards, and while he did not garner a fifth overall Best Director nomination, he’s one of the movie’s producers in the Best Motion Picture category. From his beginnings in those squinty-eyed, six-gunning genre-altering movies we all hold so dear, his quality work spanning many decades and categories across the film industry makes him one of Hollywood’s power players....

FRANCISVILLE, La. – A Louisiana teacher is out of a job after police allege she kicked and slapped one of her first grade students last month. Chanel Lemelle, 31, resigned from her position at Bains Lower Elementary School in St. Francisville last week as investigators looked into allegations she struck a student in the cafeteria during lunch Jan. 23, The Advocate reports. “She’s very sad that this is going on,” Lemelle’s attorney, Don Cazayoux, told the news site. “She loves teaching, loves her students and would never do anything to hurt any of her children.” Camera footage of the school’s...

Another hump day in Obama’s Amerika,another week of seemingly endless atrocities. Should I start internationally? With the barbarism of ISIS? I see some people, like this Gawker writer, are more concerned with the way the retaliation executions in Jordan might get spun than the atrocity itself.Butt don’t worry, Barry is on top of it. Obama on Tuesday said that if the video proved authentic, it would “redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of a global coalition to make sure [the Islamic State is] degraded and ultimately defeated.” Did he mention that GM is alive and Bin Laden is dead?...

In an April 3, 2013 statement, the White House boasted of how domestic oil production had climbed every year since President Barack Obama took office. Among other claims, the document stated, “U.S. production of oil is rising under Obama.” Advocates for increased domestic drilling agree, oil production has risen since the president first took office in 2009. But they also point out the biggest obstacle to even greater U.S. production has been the federal government. For example, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) says about 97 percent of federal acreage is not being used for energy development, and the American...

A Houston musician has been murdered by an illegal alien who had been allowed to stay in the United States, even though the alien had been convicted in Texas previously for selling narcotics. The suspect was killed by police following a second murder that he committed immediately after killing the musician. The illegal alien’s name was Victor Manuel Reyes. Court records indicate the alien was sentenced to five years for drug dealing in 2010 and had an immigration hold upon exiting prison....

The 2nd Amendment. While it was designed to be the last line of defense against a tyrannical government, it inadvertently is also a deterrent for radical Progressives who wish to fundamentally change our Constitutional Republic. Case in point. In 1988 Progressive author, Bob Zimmerman, ran for a Hawaiian Congressional seat and was soundly defeated. In 2015 Mr. Zimmerman has written a free “book” titled Common Sense. He modeled it after the historic pamphlet written by Thomas Paine which shared the same title. But instead of embracing individual Liberty, Mr. Zimmerman uses the words of the Founders to push a centralized,...