Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Abortion activist uses watermelon to glorify 'easy' abortion procedure: 'Thank you for watching our abortion' In an act solely meant to glorify abortion, an abortion activist participating at the Netroots Nation conference on Friday used a watermelon to demonstrate how abortion clinicians abort unborn children 11 to 12 weeks old. Abortion clinic consultant Jen Moore Conrow provided attendees with the step-by-step early pregnancy abortion process, according to the Washington Times. Conrow claimed the procedure takes 3-5 minutes and leaves women feeling "OK afterward." Ironically, she did not perform the abortion process herself, but rather left that task to...

The border crisis appears to have inched the Democratic Party towards another episode of internal strife. Civil war? Well, I’m not so sure about that, but it’s been getting pretty nasty. The House passed a $4.6 billion border package that included strings attached, aimed at curbing immigration enforcement. This was pie-in-the-sky. Trump would never sign it, though he did sign the Senate bill into law, which provided the same funding but without the trash provisions against enforcing the law. It was also overwhelmingly bipartisan. Moderate House Democrats and Pelosi signed off on the Senate bill, which infuriated the far left....

Obama in a dress is really off to a great start, spending a lot of money on planning her presidential campaign, while strongly hinting that anyone who isn't on board is a racist. Sen. Kamala Harris accused critics of “identity politics” of weaponizing the term to diminish issues of race, gender and sexual orientation, pressing Democrats on Friday to address those issues head on. “I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, ‘identity politics,’” Harris told the progressive gathering Netroots Nation, wading into a messaging debate roiling Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. “Because let’s be clear, when people say...

Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris blasted critics of "identity politics," saying that those who use the phrase are attempting to "marginalize issues that impact all of us." Speaking Friday at the Netroots Nation event in New Orleans, Harris implored her supporters to instead fully address the issues of race and gender. "Let’s be clear," Harris told the crowd. "When people say [identity politics], it’s a pejorative. That phrase is used to divide, and it is used to distract. Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us. It is used to try and shut us up.”...

Here is the Founder of the “Netroots Nation” gathering – Markos Moulitsas – telling Chuck Todd that in the 2020 Presidential Campaign, Democrats must embrace “Socialism” or be “irrelevant.” He even said “Donald Trump doesn’t want his taxes to go up – but everyone else kinda does.” Moulitsas also said of Republicans, “They will be calling us Communists before it’s over with.” Well, yeah! Socialism? Tax increases on everyone? So this will be the message of the Democrats in 2020? The 2020 Democrat Presidential Nomination Battle is going to be a thing to behold! Bring it on!

Senator Cory Booker, who is one of the Democrats contending for his party's 2020 nomination for president, is pleading political negligence, claiming that he didn't bother to read a sign that he allowed himself to be photographed holding.  Booker, who has raised considerable money from pro-Israel Jewish groups, apparently got carried away with intersectional enthusiasm at the Netroots Nation confab and was unable to get a clue from the t-shirt on the woman standing next to him that proclaimed Palestine's virtue in the realm of "feminist/queer refugee racial justice" that he might be endorsing a radical point of view. The...

One of President Trump's most vocal critics in the U.S. Senate said Friday that he once cried “tears of rage” over the Trump administration’s rhetoric. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made the remark at the Netroots Nation Conference in New Orleans, where other liberal speakers were to include U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. The annual convention drew thousands of liberal activists and offered a chance for Democrats considering presidential runs to win over supporters, the Washington Times reported.

Speaking Friday at a historically black university, potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered what she called “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It’s racist … I mean front to back.” The Massachusetts senator identified some of the system’s failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete. Warren was participating in a Q&A session hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans. She was among several possible Democratic...

Liberal activists resisting the presidency of Donald Trump say they’d rather defeat him and other Republicans at the ballot box than see Trump brought down in other ways. Those gathering for the annual Netroots Nation confab this weekend in Georgia say obsessing over subpoenas and clamoring for impeachment distracts from larger policy debates. They believe it also takes away from congressional midterm elections whose outcomes will last beyond Trump. …

ST. LOUIS • Activists supporting the Black Lives Matter movement temporarily blocked westbound traffic on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) downtown Saturday afternoon as part of a protest to raise the issue of racial inequality. Earlier Saturday, several local groups, including the Organization for Black Struggle and the St. Louis chapter of Hands Up United, had organized a rally at the Old Courthouse. The Old Courthouse, a powerful symbol for activists, is the site where the slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the landmark legal case that he eventually lost. Slave auctions also were held on the courthouse steps....

Bill Reeves and Debbie Berger are behind Unbound Philanthropy, a group that has given tens of millions of dollars to pro-open borders activist groups both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Reeves and Berger are also both major Democrat donors, and they are their group also has connections to the exclusive Punahou School, the elite private school that President Barack Obama attended. To help understand just a little of the impact of the vast web of funding that Unbound Philanthropy is responsible for: Tia Oso helped shutdown events by Hillary Clinton's rivals - Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley...

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith diverged from talking about sports on Tuesday and veered into a rant about activists criticizing Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley for saying “all lives matter,” when confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters on Saturday. During the six-minute lecture, Smith, who is African-American said, “Where’s the noise about all black lives matter when black folks are killing black folks? You see, that’s where you lose me… So we mandate that folks say black lives matter,” he yelled. “But we got black folks dying at the hands of black folks.” “There’s nothing wrong with highlighting that all...

Instead of getting frustrated and, in O’Malley’s case, saying “White lives matter,” presidential wannabes O’Malley and Sanders should have been much more politically savvy when they were confronted by #BlackLivesMatter activists at Netroots Nation.Being a politician is a tough job because unless you’re in a dictatorship, of royalty or Dr. Doom, you actually have to deal with dissent, disagreement and protests from the people you rule. Is it fun? Of course not, but just about every elected official in America, right or left, has to deal with it. President Barack Obama got heckled by an undocumented transgender woman in his...

PHOENIX—Bernie Sanders is unaccustomed to being heckled by protesters. The self-identified democratic socialist was caught off guard here Saturday when African-American and Latino activists jeered him at Netroots Nation. Sanders’ inability to control the audience – he tried to shut them up and then he tried to yell over them – underscores his broader struggle to expand his appeal and highlights why his summer surge is unlikely to last. The huge crowds Sanders draws are overwhelmingly white, and polling consistently shows that virtually all of his support comes from whites. After Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests on...

A town hall for liberal activists featuring two Democratic presidential candidates was interrupted by dozens of demonstrators on Saturday who shouted down the contenders and demanded they address criminal justice issues and police brutality. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders planned to attend a public sit-down interview with journalist Jose Antonio Vargas in front of a left-leaning crowd here at the annual Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of progressives, when the tone of the program shifted just a few minutes into the event. O'Malley was answering questions from Vargas on stage when dozens of boisterous conference...

Looks like Martin O'Malley caused an interesting meltdown at Netroots Nation by saying, "All lives matter." My fellow White Progressives, please understand "all lives matter" is received as erasure not inclusion to #BlackLivesMatter. #NN15TownHall If a #BlackLivesMatter usage manual is written, who better to write the instruction book than the white daughter of a rich, white member of Congress?

The Daily Kos has come a long way since the days when  they merely rejoiced in being easily bribed at their YearlyKos conventions (now renamed Netroots Nation) by presidential aspirants such as Mark Warner who plied the Kossacks with free sushi and expensive liquor at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas in 2006. Yes, they have moved up in the world to the point where they perceive themselves as king, or rather queen, makers. Not only have they basically endorsed the presidential candidacy of Elizabeth Warren, they have even provided her with a campaign song, Run Liz Run. Oddly enough, even...

Organizers of Netroots Nation, America’s largest annual gathering of progressive activists, took the wraps off of a major and welcome surprise this afternoon with the announcement that Vice President Joe Biden would be coming to Detroit to speak to the convention during a special Thursday afternoon general session. It will also be Biden’s first appearance at Netroots Nation. He was invited to participate in the Presidential Leadership Forum held in Netroots Nation’s second year, in Chicago (back then, the convention was known as YearlyKos), but declined to attend due to his desire to participate in another event. The other contenders...

Reboot in San Francisco this summer with young Republicans.Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson, 29, are looking to do what Democrats have done for almost a decade: connect conservative and libertarian "technologists" with old-school political campaigns with like minds. There just isn't enough opportunity in Silicon Valley. For a dyed-in-the-wool, true-red conservative. So, a pair of Silicon Valley denizens with right-wing politics are planning their answer to Netroots Nation, according to the Huffington Post. Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson,...

Speaking to all 3,000 of the assembled "progressive activists" at this year's Netroots Nation conference, National Education Association vice president Lily Eskelsen Garcia boldly declared a "prophecy" about the eternal destiny of NRA and Second Amendment supporters, and of politicians and lobbyists working to promote gun rights: "I'm not an ordained minister; I'm not a theologian, but these guys are going to hell." Wow. Going to hell for supporting the Second Amendment? That type of radical thinking might explain the very high incidence of ridiculous cases involving over-zealous school officials misinterpreting and wrongly enforcing "zero-tolerance" rules--and doing so without exercising...