Free Republic

As Democrats voice growing confidence about their midterm election prospects, two trends suggest that the party’s newfound sense of optimism may be misguided. Taken together, unrelenting inflation and the potential for a 2020-like polling error that overestimates Democrats’ strength could indicate that the Democratic Party is in a more fragile position than most in the media are currently acknowledging or appreciating. Earlier in the year, a red-wave midterm election — on par with 1994, when Republicans gained 54 U.S. House seats and flipped control of both houses of Congress — seemed almost inevitable.

John Piper has issued a blistering condemnation of President Donald Trump, warning Christian voters that the president's “deadly behavior” will lead the U.S. to “destruction of more kinds than we can imagine.” On Thursday, the influential pastor and writer published what he referred to as a “long-overdue” blog post in which he pondered the implications of the 2020 election. Piper, who pastored Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for almost 33 years, reminded Christians that "it is not a small thing to treat lightly a pattern of public behaviors that lead to death." He pointed out that all of these sins...

PHOENIX – The federal government could give Americans $4,000 apiece to take a vacation if U.S. Sen. Martha McSally’s proposal takes off. McSally (R-Ariz.) introduced the bill, the American TRIP Act, on Monday, the day before President Donald Trump visits Yuma and Phoenix. The legislation is meant to act as an incentive to travel domestically. Couples would start at $8,000 in vacation tax credits and receive $500 for each child who is a dependent. Credits would apply for 2020, 2021 and 2022. “It will also encourage Americans to safely get out of their homes and discover or rediscover Arizona along...

Evangelist Franklin Graham says the practice separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border is "disgraceful.” But the North Carolina-based preacher isn’t blaming the Trump administration and its zero-tolerance policy toward people who enter the United States illegally. "I think it's disgraceful, it's terrible, to see families ripped apart, and I don't support that one bit,” Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said Wednesday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. "I blame the politicians for the last 20, 30 years that have allowed this to escalate to the point where it is today....

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 1975 with a BS degree in political science. I studied sociology at Merritt College under Melvin Newton, Huey Newton’s older brother. I have studied black history, Swahili, the African slave trade and understand the racial tensions in America. I understand that the current tension is manufactured, fake and designed to destroy America, not to unite us. Once again, black people are pawns of other groups. We are the cannon fodder to illuminate their causes while we still suffer. There is no nationwide, deep racial problem in America, but there is a well-funded effort to...

Starbucks admits that the initiative was birthed out of a company forum in which employees discussed racial tensions across America due to “police killing unarmed black men in Ferguson.”

I recently read an article entitled “What Black Parents Tell Their Sons About the Police” and I began to ponder the downward spiral in race relations over the past five years. According to the author Jazmine Hughes: “Such is the burden of black parenting. Being a black parent, especially of a black boy, comes with the added onus of having to protect your child from a country that is out to get him -- a country that kills someone that looks like him every 28 hours, a country that will likely imprison him by his mid-thirties if he doesn't get...

Ebony magazine has created controversy with the preview of its special September issue, which features bold cover photos related to the Trayvon Martin murder case. As part of its attempt to keep alive the conversation of race and Stand Your Ground laws, which became national issues following the slaying of African-American teen Travyon Martin last year, the publication is rolling out a special issue with four separate covers bearing the headline “We Are Travyon” and featuring Black celebrities and their sons. Appearing on the covers are the slain teenager’s own parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin with their son Jahvaris...

If the Republicans had been victorious in 2008, today would you be: A. Better off - 48% B. Worse off - 49% C. No different - 4% Total Votes: 334

Tea Party activists and other conservatives are planning rallies next month in support of Arizona's tough new immigration law, which has come under attack from Democrats, Latino groups and some maverick Republicans. But a growing chorus of conservative evangelical leaders has broken with their traditional political allies on the right. They're calling the Arizona law misguided and are attempting to use its passage to push for federal immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The group, which includes influential political activists such as Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, and Mathew...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama criticized Arizona's tough immigration bill as irresponsible Friday and said his administration is examining whether it would violate civil rights. Obama said the federal government must act responsibly to reform national immigration law—or "open the door to irresponsibility by others." "That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," Obama said.

Highlights of this article from the Bulletin: "The recently launched Two Futures Project is a collection of young Evangelicals who are dedicated to working toward a nuclear-weapon-free world. Although Evangelicals traditionally have supported nuclear deterrence the Two Futures Project believes that in a post-Cold War world, this stance must change. Accordingly, its members believe that nuclear weapons are morally bankrupt." Actually, nuclear weapons, like book matches, are morally neutral. It is when these things are in the hands of morally bankrupt people, arsonists, dictators, and tyrannical regimes such as North Korea and Iran, that is where the danger is.

As California grapples with a fiscal crisis, state lawmakers are facing painful choices about where to cut spending and how to increase revenues this year. California is one of only three states that require a "supermajority" vote to pass a budget, a constraint that results in deadlock and chronically late budgets. The economic downturn has contributed to a massive budget shortfall now estimated at more than $40 billion -- roughly $15 billion for the rest of the current fiscal year and $25 billion in 2009-10. Even in good times, California's outdated tax system does not bring in enough revenue to...

But the underlying causes of these monster fires aren't as well understood. Why do they keep happening at such intensity? One reason is that for years, groups that literally make a living by obstructing government efforts to manage forests have filed myriad lawsuits intended to delay, stall or stop anything resembling science. They seek to prevent the federal government from implementing balanced efforts to manage the land, including efforts to thin forests and brushland to help prevent catastrophic wildfire. Just last year in Southern California, an environmental advocacy organization filed a lawsuit against reasonable forest management impacting more than 3.5...

One of my favorite early Steve Martin routines went something like this: "Would you like to make a million dollars and pay no taxes? OK. First, make a million dollars. Now, just don't pay any taxes; and if somebody from the IRS asks you about it, just say … 'I forgot!'" Nonsense? Sure. But funny, especially as Steve delivered it? You bet. But there's some absurd nonsense, not especially funny, being taught our school kids every day, in almost every school in America. Darwin's theory of evolution. (Column continues below) "But it's science," you say. No, not really. Certainly, not...

An American member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, Tom Fox, was found murdered in Iraq today. He was kidnapped by the Islamist-oriented group known as the Swords of Righteousness Brigades on November 26. Iraqi police reported that Fox had "gunshots to his head and chest and signs of torture on his body." This incident begs the question: Do the Islamist terrorists respect all the appeasement offered them by leftist peace activists like Tom Fox? The answer is a categorical "no," "non," "nein," "nyet," "nr." After all that has happened, the Left still ignores the threat of Islamism, appeasing militant Muslims...

I am a fan of Limbaugh's but I think the soldiers don't need a 24/7 subscription. I think Limbaugh would've been a real mensch if he had just endorsed a standard Adopt- A - Soldier program that provided them with the normal TLC-- food, shaving kits, etc. He didn't have to get his beak wet... I would've gladly participated in a standard program, the subscription thing is a missed opportunity that risks appearing self interested. I don't care if a bonehead from Rio Linda gave him the idea.

The essence of modern liberalism is laziness. The idea of the American Dream is based on individualism and personal responsibility. If you work hard, play by the rules, and develop your God-given talents to their fullest, you will be successful in life. But Liberals do not hold to this ideal and would rather have you go through life sitting around passively waiting for something to be given to you by the government. Theirs is a principle according to which individualism is sublimated to the state and success is defined as relative comfort rather than doing the best you can do....

Now on display at Alperts in Seekonk with other high school art, the student's work is causing some controversy. Jeffrey Eden devised his award-winning project less than 30 minutes after his high school art teacher asked him to express a thought or two in a three-dimensional way. The award-winning artwork by high school student Jeffrey Eden compares President Bush's war policies with Adolf Hitler's pillage of Europe. So, in the wake of last year's polarizing election and the war in Iraq, the 17-year-old built an abstract scene comparing President Bush's war policies with Adolf Hitler's pillage of Europe. The student's...