Free Republic

If 2020 stands, this is just the beginning, not the end of what the next generation of Democrats has planned. Understand that the next generation of the Democrat party has been raised on the idea that opposition to their ideas is illegitimate – it cannot be acknowledged or engaged. Opposition to “critical race theory” is racist. Opposition to mainstreaming LBGTQ lifestyle decisions is homophobic. Attaining the political power necessary to stamp out opposing views is a necessary step towards a fascist state that does not tolerate opposing views. Hiden Barris will be ineffectual from a legislative standpoint, and I expect...

Ever since two-time Olympic 800 meter runner Nick Symmonds, 35, retired from professional running in 2017, he has kept himself busy checking off tough—and sometimes wacky—athletic challenges in his free time. Last year, he announced that he wanted to become the first man in history to run a sub-4 minute mile and summit Everest. Then earlier this month, he ran the fastest known 100 meters run wearing ski boots, finishing in 13.71 seconds (the previous record was 14.09). While summiting Everest is still on the bucket list, his most recent challenge was a task most of us can relate to:...

A Chinese live-streamer recently demonstrated to us all the dangers of attempting to eat a live octopus. The woman from the Jiangsu city of Lianyungang is a lover of seafood and decided to demonstrate this affinity through an odd challenge involving devouring a cephalopod while it’s still alive. However, in this case, her meal wasn’t about to go down so easy.

Hillary Clinton has two important challenges in the final presidential debate on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Neither involves trying to discredit Donald Trump. The first will be to respond to and explain what has been learned from the hacking of campaign Chairman John Podesta's email account and other recent revelations. The second and perhaps even more important task will be to make a strong, affirmative and compelling case for a possible Clinton presidency. Clinton's strategy in the first debate was to poke and provoke Trump, knowing that his thin skin could be easily pierced and that, when it was, he...

The Affordable Care Act “is here to stay,” as President Obama said following the Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell that upheld the law in full. The justices could have ruled that federal subisidies—integral to the functioning of the law—were invalid in 34 states that rely on the federal healthcare exchange rather than running one of their own. Instead, the court ratified the status quo, which means nothing changes. But the controversial law still faces a bumpy future. Here are five challenges the ACA will face during the next several years: Healthcare costs are still too high. As many...

This could be the year that things finally turn around for President Barack Obama’s health care law. Yet it could start with another round of glitches that vex consumers and leave Republicans crowing, “We told you so.” The law’s major benefits take effect with the new year, along with an unpopular insurance mandate and the risk of more nerve-racking coverage disruptions. […] Although the stated goal of the law was to cover the uninsured, at least 4.7 million insured people had individual policies canceled because they didn’t measure up to new requirements. That forced an apology from the president, who...

A lawyer for Florida Republican Rep. Allen West’s re-election campaign said Saturday there is “absolutely no chance” of conceding the race despite Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy holding the lead by 2,429 votes. A complete but unofficial vote tally released Saturday put Murphy ahead with 166,799 votes to West’s 164,370 — giving him a 0.7 percent advantage, above the 0.5 percent threshold to trigger an automatic recount, the Palm Beach Post reported. But Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a volunteer lawyer for the West campaign, told TheBlaze there are significant concerns, particularly in St. Lucie County. St. Lucie is the only one of...

Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp issued a challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday: Adopt the same calorie restrictions and menu standards in the department’s cafeterias as the USDA now requires in the nation’s public schools. While students pick at their vegetables, USDA’s cafeteria menus are loaded with unhealthy options for government employees — from pesto chicken pizza to BLTs with cheddar cheese, Cuban pork paninis to Philly steak subs, cheeseburgers to French toast. (Snip) The Kansas Republican — who has introduced legislation with Iowa Republican

The Republican leader of the state Senate said Friday he expects recall elections to proceed against three of his colleagues, despite challenges they made to thousands of signatures on petitions seeking their ouster from office. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he is hopeful, though, that his election can be blocked through the challenges he made to the Government Accountability Board on Thursday. As for the others, Fitzgerald said, "They're not even close." Fitzgerald was the only one of the four who clearly challenged more than enough signatures to void an election. But whether to reject the signatures is up to...

Just a few months ago, FOX News reported on polling data which suggested that "[i]f Americans could cast a 'confidence' vote in the style of European parliaments, President Barack Obama would not fare well. A 56-percent majority would give his administration a vote of 'no confidence.'" Ample evidence abounds for Americans to have no confidence that the economic justice activist-turned-politician is working out for the good of the country. Even at the most fundamental level, doubt remains as to whether the man occupying the White House is constitutionally eligible for the job.

The D.C. area earthquake caused a huge scare in some of the major political centers of the nation, and, Sean Hannity argued, that “crisis” has already been adopted as a talking point by liberals to call for more spending on infrastructure. Citing Rahm Emanuel’s famous “never let a crisis go to waste” quote, Hannity and panelist Mercedes Viana Schlapp challenged Kirsten Powers to explain where the infrastructure came from and dispute the dubious claim that Democrats “get away with” more name-calling than Republicans. Hannity began the segment on the infrastructure point, which Powers explained

Thank Joshua Green of the Atlantic, who recently profiled Cain, for digging this up. I’m not sure if the clip was considered “lost,” exactly, but I’d never seen it before and a quickie YouTube search of “herman cain bill clinton” reveals nothing on point until Green uploaded this yesterday. He writes, “If this video goes viral among conservative activists, Cain’s candidacy will be even more interesting to watch.” Let’s see what we can do about that. This takes awhile to get hopping but stick with it for his rebuttal to Clinton at around five minutes in. You’re not watching for...

A New Orleans law firm is challenging government assurances that Gulf Coast seafood is safe to eat in the wake of the BP oil spill, saying it poses “a significant danger to public health.” It’s a high-stakes tug-of-war that will almost certainly end up in the courts, with two armies of scientists arguing over technical findings that could have real-world impact for seafood consumers and producers. Citing what the law firm calls a state-of-the-art laboratory analysis, toxicologists, chemists and marine biologists retained by the firm of environmental attorney Stuart Smith contend that the government seafood testing program, which has focused...

The first family should publicly submit to the new scanning device and "enhanced" pat-downs before requiring Americans to do the same, suggested rumored Republican presidential hopeful and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee while blasting President Obama this morning over controversial new airline security measures.(snip) "'If it's OK for your wife, your daughters, and your mother-in-law, then maybe the rest of us won't feel so bad when our wives, our daughters and our mothers are being put through this humiliating and degrading, totally unconstitutional, intrusion of their privacy.'"

Democrats have filed their first legal challenges before polls even closed on Election Day, asking for an extension of voting hours in Connecticut and questioning the denial of provisional ballots in Illinois. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCCC), told reporters at party headquarters that officials had gone to court in two states. In Connecticut, the party has asked for a one-hour extension of voting in Bridgeport, a Democratic stronghold where turnout was reported so high that officials ran out of ballots, Menendez said. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) is battling Republican Linda...

Read reports on the files at:Der SpiegelThe New York TimesThe GuardianIntro by Der Spiegel:Close to 92,000 US documents have been uncovered that shed new light on the war in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. They expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush. A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in...

About a half-dozen civil rights groups have asked a federal court to block Arizona from implementing its new law cracking down on illegal immigration until a ruling is made on its constitutionality. The groups' late Friday filing argues that delaying the scheduled July 29 implementation of the law would discourage other states from enacting similar legislation until the constitutionality issue is resolved. Other states including Texas, Utah and Minnesota have talked about passing laws similar to Arizona's, which requires police enforcing other laws to check immigration status if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. The groups that made...

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2010 – Stability in Afghanistan is no longer on the decline, and most Afghans believe that despite increased violence, security actually has improved since this time last year, according to a new report Pentagon officials sent to Congress today. The congressionally mandated Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan attributes the 87 percent increase in violence from February 2009 to March 2010 largely to increased U.S., coalition and Afghan national security force activity, particularly into areas where they previously had not operated. The report, which covers the situation on the ground from Oct. 1 to...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., April 22, 2010 – With a cocky grin and larger-than-life presence, Cornelius Madison commands attention when he walks down the high school hall here, always with a hint of a swagger. From left, Darien Crank, Chelsea Jarvis and Cornelius Madison head to class at Fort Campbell High School on Fort Campbell, Ky., April 15, 2010. DoD photo by Elaine Wilson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Bumping fists and cracking jokes, Cornelius seems impervious to stress or worry. It’s only when discussing his deployed mother in an interview does he reveal a small chink in his otherwise...

KABUL, March 31, 2010 – After visits to U.S., coalition and Afghan forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today that “never has our partnership … been stronger, or the challenges we face, clearer.” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen completed a rigorous three-day visit to Afghanistan that took him to the region of the recent offensive in Marja in Helmand province. Mullen also attended a “shura” – a meeting of community leaders -- at the governor’s palace in downtown Kandahar. In central Helmand, Mullen saw the results of the offensive. Though combined...