Free Republic

Piers Morgan on Monday picked the wrong guy to toss Democrat talking points at. After the CNN anchor spoke the typical liberal nonsense about Paul Ryan's budget only benefiting rich people, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich scolded, "I do wonder sometimes if you guys all get off in a little club and learn a brand new mantra and then all repeat it mindlessly...You guys almost sound like you're an extension of the Obama campaign" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Snip NEWT GINGRICH: You know, I don't want to sound disrespectful, but I do wonder sometimes if you guys all...

There's little a mother wouldn't do to save her babies, and that includes rescuing them one-by-one from a house fire. Photos of a dog in Chile apparently carrying all five of her 10-day-old puppies from a burning house then placing them in the back of a fire truck made the rounds on social media Saturday.

Conservative Republican challengers Tuesday either unseated or were leading most of the GOP moderates in the Kansas Senate, improving their chances of reshaping the Legislature and ending a check on the political right’s agenda. The most prominent victim of the conservative surge appeared to be Senate President Steve Morris, the unofficial leader of the state’s moderatae Republicans. With one precinct yet to be counted in his southwestern Kansas race against state Rep. Larry Powell of Garden City, Morris — who had served in the Senate for 20 years — trailed by 300 votes as of midnight. Final, unofficial results showed...

“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” — Barack Obama, Roanoke, Va., July 13 And who might that somebody else be? Government, says Obama. It built the roads you drive on. It provided the teacher who inspired you. It “created the Internet.” It represents the embodiment of “we’re in this together” social solidarity that, in Obama’s view, is the essential origin of individual and national achievement. To say that all individuals are embedded in and the product of society is banal. Obama rises above banality by means of fallacy: equating society with...

--snip-- Unfortunately, the tax policies in the president’s signature health-care law ignore this advice. The Supreme Court’s decision last week does not change the fact that the scandalous new tax on life-saving medical devices (of all of the new taxes tucked into the law) had received the most prominent attention prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling, most notably when the House recently voted to repeal it.) As we continue to review last week’s sweeping decision and its consequences for the American people, it is worth taking stock of Obamacare, perhaps now better named “Obamatax,” starting with a less-well-known $87 billion...

Although former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was smeared as “racist” by many Democrats and members of the main stream media for declaring Barack Obama “the food stamp president,” it turns out that, according to the USDA, being a “food stamp president” is really hip. In fact, the nation’s agricultural agency says, in a recent video ad, that signing up for food stamps can make you look and feel your best. --snip-- Almost 48 million people received food stamps in 2011, an increase from the 28.2 million who received the welfare benefit in 2008. The cost to taxpayers...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - Lawyers for one of Jerry Sandusky's adopted sons said the man has told authorities the former Penn State assistant football coach abused him. The lawyers issued a statement Thursday naming Matt Sandusky, one of Jerry Sandusky's six adopted children, and saying that the 33-year-old had been prepared to testify on behalf of prosecutors at his father's sex abuse trial. "During the trial, Matt Sandusky contacted us and requested our advice and assistance in arranging a meeting with prosecutors to disclose for the first time in this case that he is a victim of Jerry Sandusky's abuse,"...

Press release from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (AP story below): Washington, DC (June 21, 2012) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 today, siding with nonmember California state employees challenging a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) political fee charged to them without notice and opportunity to opt out.   The case concludes a prolonged legal challenge affecting some 36,000 California government employees initiated by eight California civil servants who filed a class-action lawsuit with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.   In 2005, SEIU officials imposed a “special assessment” to...

President Bill Clinton veered sharply off message Thursday, telling CNN that Mitt Romney's business record at Bain Capital was "sterling." "I don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say 'This is bad work. This is good work,'" Clinton said. "The man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold." Clinton also went on to say that Romney's time at Bain Capital represented a "good business career." The Obama campaign is in the third week of an all-out assault on Romney's time as a corporate buyout specialist — accusing the...

TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday signed into law massive tax cuts that he says will boost the economy and create jobs. “Today’s legislation will create tens of thousands of new jobs and help make Kansas the best place in America to start and grow a small business,” said Brownback, a conservative Republican who made tax cuts his top goal of the 2012 legislative session. “My faith is in the people of Kansas, not the government’s ability to tax and redistribute,” he said. Brownback’s action came under harsh criticism from Republicans, Democrats and advocates for schools and children. “This...

A New Jersey dad got the scare of his life when his 5-year-old son almost ran off a steep embankment, and though the man saved the boy from falling, he couldn't stop his Jeep from going over the precipice and into a river below. Frank Roder, a construction worker from the town of Winfield Park, had taken his son, Aidan, down to the Rahway River to feed ducks Thursday. But when he stopped briefly before settling on a parking space, the impatient boy jumped out and took off -- straight toward a ledge 35 feet above the river, Roder recalled. "He...

Last Monday, a high school student in North Carolina engaged his social studies teacher in a heated debate about politics and the two leading presidential candidates. During the exchange, the teacher (an obvious Obama supporter) got very angry with the student and accused him of disrespecting the president. She even went so far as to tell the boy that he could be jailed for speaking ill of Obama.

CARLISLE -- Looking to hit the spot with a savory ice cream at Great Brook Farm State Park this week? You may be out of luck. The park's popular ice-cream stand was unexpectedly shut down by state officials over the weekend, after the stand's operator made building improvements at the site without getting permission first. Mark Duffy, who has operated the dairy farm at the state-owned park for 26 years and has a lease with the state to run the stand, said armed Environmental Police officers showed up at stand on Friday evening and stood guard throughout the weekend, turning...

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators restarted tax cut negotiations Tuesday, but senators quickly discovered they have less room than they'd hoped to bargain with House members as they try to modify aggressive income tax reductions that already have cleared the Legislature. Three senators and three House members discussed drafting an alternative proposal that would replace one approved last week. The previous cuts individual income tax rates and eliminates income taxes for 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who's pushed the GOP-controlled Legislature to lower income taxes, has encouraged lawmakers to keep negotiating.

(CBS/AP) One of the most successful artists of all time, prolific painter Thomas Kinkade - the self-described "Painter of Light" - died Friday at the age of 54. A spokesperson for the Kinkade family said the artist died at home in Los Gatos, Calif., apparently of natural causes. Kinkade's paintings were anything but controversial, depicting scenes of a light-filled America with a heavy emphasis on home, hearth and church. His sentimental scenes of country gardens and pastoral landscapes in dewy morning light were beloved by many but criticized by the art establishment. The painter once said that he had something...

Rush Limbaugh has been forced to deliver a humiliating apology for epithets he used against Sandra Fluke, a liberal activist and Georgetown law student. The apology comes as President Obama and the liberal media desperately try to paint Ms. Fluke as a victim of conservative male chauvinism - the latest casualty in a Republican “war on women.” According to the Democrats’ hysteria, women are being relegated to the Dark Ages. In fact, the opposite is true: Anti-Christian, anti-Catholic bigotry is rearing its ugly head, and it must be stopped. Recently, Ms. Fluke testified at a House subcommittee in front of...

In an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Monday, Georgetown Law student and women’s contraception activist Sandra Fluke told viewers to check out Media Matters for examples of over-the-top conservative rhetoric. When asked by co-host Joy Behar if she had anything to say to her critics, Fluke, who made headlines last because of the attacks and subsequent apology she received from conservative talker Rush Limbaugh, encouraged viewers to check out Media Matters’ website. “Well, I would encourage everyone to go to Media Matters because they have an excellent story on their website that gives a list of the various commentators...

Remember, as Byron York previously reported, Fluke was rejected as a last-minute substitute witness at a Feb. 16 committee hearing because staffers for Chairman Issa were unable to discover Fluke’s claim to expertise relevant to the subject of the hearing. This law school journal article is the sort of thing that might have been discovered about Fluke’s background, had the Democrats who put Fluke forward as a witness done so with the usual 72-hour advance notice. Here’s one brief quote from the article: Transgender persons wishing to undergo the gender reassignment process frequently face heterosexist employer health insurance policies that label...

Nine Republican attorneys general declared Monday that the Obama administration is riding roughshod over the law, and is using its regulatory powers to impose huge costs on the states. “You’re seeing now a federal government that’s doing everything in its power to circumvent the Bill of Rights,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson  said during a press conference during the Washington, D.C. meeting of the Republican Attorneys General Association. “We are constantly being forced to sue the federal government to protect our states,” added Florida AG Pam Bondi. Washington is waging an “across the board regulatory assault” on state governments, said...

<p>The only surprise that came with my screening of "Game Change" was in the realization that HBO chose to remake the sci-fi/horror film "The Hidden." For those of you who haven't seen this 1987 cult classic, it's about a dangerous alien who comes to Earth determined to become president of the United States. The alien is crass (it loves red sports cars), unsophisticated (it loves heavy metal) and it speaks in single, bewildered syllables because it doesn't understand the world around it. But while the alien might not be educated, its ruthless survival instincts manage to get it within grasp of its insidious goal, thanks to a senator seeking the presidency.</p>