Free Republic

Last week a small and seemingly innocuous piece in The Times caught my eye. The short panel referred to the fact that Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's right hand man and the Republican Party nominee for Vice President of the United States, had just spent $100 on camouflage hunting clothes for his daughter, Liza, 10, to go with the rifle he bought her last Christmas. Aghast with what I had just read I blogged about it, commenting that buying a 10 year old a rifle for Christmas was insane, and anywhere in the world that it wasn't considered to be must...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize the FDA’s proposed new policy on blood donations from gay men, saying that while the recommendation is a “step forward” it is still “discriminatory.” The liberal legislator and potential 2016 presidential candidate tweeted that the FDA must “have courage to set policies based on science” in order to “commit to building a bigger, safer blood supply through risk-based screenings.” The policy, introduced Tuesday by FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, would replace a 30-year-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men with a new rule permitting donations from men...

Last week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush announced his intention to "actively explore" a run for president. That announcement spurred spasms of joy in some segments of the Republican Party who have been itching for an effective counter to the enthusiasm of the grassroots right. Those Republicans -- largely coastal donors who scorn social conservatives as rubes, and shun the supposed fiscal extremism of the tea party -- have been searching for a candidate who will buck the base on immigration, who doesn't mind hand-in-glove corporatism, and who, most of all, feels the same way they do about the grassroots....

Police will seek a criminal complaint in district court against a 27-year-old resident for threatening to commit a crime after police said he wrote the term "put wings on pigs" on his Facebook page. The phrase is the same one that Ismaaiyl Brinsley used on Instagram just before ambushing New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos on Saturday. The two officers were shot to death in their car, and Brinsley later committed suicide. "In the eyes of every police officer in America today, 'Putting wings on pigs' is a threat," said Michael Wilk, Chicopee Police Department spokesman. Members...

Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is asking a federal judge to clamp down on “self-appointed supporters” protesting on his behalf outside a Boston courthouse, arguing that their “inflammatory accusations” could hurt his right to a fair trial. In a court filing Monday, Tsarnaev’s defense team sought to distance themselves from the demonstrators, arguing they could have a “deleterious and prejudicial impact” on his trial, which is set to begin Jan. 5. The supporters, his attorneys wrote, “advocate various conspiracy theories concerning the marathon bombing, including that the resulting deaths and injuries have somehow been faked as part of a...

It is extremely notable that Manu Raju of the Politico has written that the establishment intends to destroy Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). Raju serves as the court stenographer for the Senate GOP leadership. His pieces are routinely littered with the conventional wisdom and talking points of the Senate GOP leadership. He has more than once anticipated Senate GOP leadership strategy based on their conversations with him. So when Manu Raju says the establishment intends to go on offense against the tea party by beating Sen. Mike Lee in the Utah Republican Primary, we can be sure Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY),...

One of the top possible candidates to lead Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has dropped out of contention. That has left the door open to the presidential of a leading pro-abortion group to become her campaign manager should she decide to run for presidential in 2016.Clinton is a longtime pro-abortion activists, opposing any pro-life limits on abortion and backing taxpayer funding of abortions. That gels with the views of Emily’s List, which opposes even a late-term abortion ban and requires that all of the candidates it endorses support forcing Americans to fund abortions.Now, reports indicate that Emily’s List’s president may run...

Before the Jets-Patriots game on Sunday, Jets Nick Mangold was seen wearing an NYPD hat in honor of the two NYPD police officers who were tragically killed on Saturday.

Barack and Michelle Obama, speaking to People Magazine, of all disappointments, shared the disheartening news that they have experienced what they called racism. Barack, for example, apparently has had trouble, before he was president, hailing a cab in Chicago, to which an immediate thought might occur to anyone who has been to Chicago: Who hasn't? Also, Barack, at a black-tie event, when he, too, was in festive livery, apparently was asked by another guest if he would get them a cup of coffee. For her recollection, Michelle came up with a visit to a Target store as first lady. She...

Elizabeth Warren for what? Granted, the American electorate has been significantly dumbed down over the past few decades — think Barack Obama and Deval Patrick. But is the country really so far gone that it would turn to a plagiarizing fake Indian who thinks western Mass. has a seacoast and that Jeanne Shaheen is from Vermont? Er, yes. So by now you know about this boomlet for the former one-32nd Native American who now claims to be Okie down to her toes. Hundreds of Obama aides (enough said) are swooning over her. Some of the moonbat groups have posted Internet...

Crony Capitalism: Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered a stemwinder speech last Friday on the need for government to rein in Wall Street influence. But it's big government that created the monster in the first place. Warren, D-Mass., was attacking a "dangerous provision" in the so-called cromnibus spending bill that, she said, stripped a part of Dodd-Frank that big banks, particularly Citigroup, don't like. Her speech had the left slobbering over itself. Michael Tomasky, writing for the Daily Beast, said Warren's "weekend heroics" made her the "most powerful Democrat in America." The Huffington Post ran a column calling it "the speech that...

The end times are upon us. I find myself in agreement with not just Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). It’s not just me. Right Wing News’ John Hawkins — not exactly a cheerleader for bipartisan consensus — is publicly standing with Warren, Pelosi, and their liberal allies in the House and Senate. As have conservative Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), Townhall.com’s Amy Otto, and Tea Party Patriots, among many others. And I’m not only opposed to the omnibus bill that squeaked through the House and may fail in the Senate. I’m...

Potential Democratic presidential candidates and the Hawkish Republican hopeful were fare better among the Jewish electorate in the State of New York, then the sort of moderate Republicans, according to new poll conducted by the Siena Research. While in general, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren on the Democratic side, and Chris Christie, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush on the Republican side, are seen as the best choices for President, among Jewish voters, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are the most preferred candidates for president. According to the poll, if the elections were to be held today, 51 percent of registered...

BUENOS AIRES, August 5 (RIA Novosti) – Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro dismissed Tuesday accusations of Moscow’s alleged role in the deadly Malaysian passenger plane crash as “primitive.” “Accusing the Russian Federation of destroying the Malaysian Boeing during the flight is horrifying primitivism,” Castro wrote in an article published in Cuba’s Granma newspaper. “Neither President Vladimir Putin, nor Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nor other Russian leaders could have ever done such a stupid thing,” Castro stressed. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17. All 298 people on board,...

By gum, he sounds like presidential material to me. Your move, Jeb. .@SonyPictures don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 18, 2014 More than 13,000 retweets as I write this. Clearly there’s a demand for countermeasures among an American public that doesn’t like the idea of foreigners, especially savages like the Kim cabal, holding veto power over their culture. (Too bad China, Kim’s chief patron, already sort of does.) Am I right, though, in thinking that no major Republican pol aside from Romney has said anything...

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that starting to trade with Cuba "is probably a good idea" and that the lengthy economic embargo against the communist island "just hasn't worked." Paul became the first potential Republican presidential candidate to offer some support for President Barack Obama's decision to try to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. The president's surprise announcement on Wednesday was slammed by several potential GOP candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who said it amounted to appeasing the Castro regime. Paul said in a radio interview with Tom Roten of...

Sen. Rand Paul broke with the field of Republicans considering a 2016 presidential run on Thursday, calling President Barack Obama's decision to normalize relations with Cuba a "good idea" since the American embargo against Cuba "just hasn't worked." Paul, a likely presidential candidate, made the remarks in an interview with News Talk 800 WVHU's Tom Roten, just a day after his potential competitors for the Republican nomination -- former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz -- slammed the decision to normalize relations as a dangerous move. Rubio and Cruz are sons of Cuban immigrants. Paul...

Rand Paul Breaks With Rubio and Bush Over Cuba Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the latest potential presidential candidate to weigh in on policy changes to Cuba and the libertarian leaning Republican's position splits from other Republicans who are also considering a presidential run. Paul told Tom Roten of News Talk 800 in West Virginia that the 50-year embargo "just hasn't worked" and normalizing relations with the island nation is "probably a good idea." "If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn't seem to be working and probably it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime...

The owners of Sichuan Garden –the Boston-area Chinese restaurant targeted by a Harvard professor who launched an email-tirade at the eatery for a $4 overcharge—say they are humbled by the overwhelming show of support by the public. Xing Yan Zhang, manager of Sichuan Garden in Brookline, Massachusetts, told FoxNews.com that "a lot people are coming in to show their support. We are humbled." Ran Duan, whose family runs Sichuan Garden and who is also an accomplished bartender, released a statement Wednesday evening detailing how they've been inundated with offers of help from around the world, including free website services, legal...

BOSTON — Two senior executives of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy were charged Wednesday with racketeering and murder in the production of tainted drugs that killed 64 people and sickened hundreds of others across the country with fungal meningitis in the fall of 2012. The United States attorney’s office here charged Barry J. Cadden, an owner of New England Compounding Center Inc. and the head pharmacist, and Glenn A. Chin, a supervisory pharmacist, with 25 acts of second-degree murder in seven states — Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. “Senior N.E.C.C. pharmacists knew that, despite the filthy conditions...