Free Republic

I've long realized the key to identifying a fake from the real item, in this case person, is to study the real item so closely that you'll have no trouble identifying a fake – even if the fakes are sitting across from Tucker Carlson in custom suits with hair more perfectly manicured than the finest lawns in the Brentwood or Beverly Hills sections of Los Angeles. Treasury agents tasked with identifying counterfeit money don't study the counterfeits; they study and examine real money so much and so thoroughly that any fake is immediately apparent to them. Even if they cannot...

The Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) has been a rising star in the conservative constellation. It has been becoming a center for conservative networking and interaction. There appears to be an effort to stop the rise, at least at the New York Times. A recent New York Times (NYT) Magazine article (14 July) has painted the BRCC executives as, at minimum, moderates who despise their base but see them like sheep to be fleeced. Anything from the NYT is viewed with extreme suspicion by conservatives. There have been too many times where the NYT has lied, been slow or unwilling...

An internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by Breitbart News shows that the agency is aware of pro-amnesty American adults posing as DREAMer illegal aliens as a way to further their political agenda. The document says that such pro-amnesty American adults are crossing the border into Mexico then back into the U.S. with the intent of being captured by U.S. immigration authorities, detained and incarcerated. At a later time they will reveal themselves to be U.S. citizens. The document says they are conducting this activity with the goal of attempting to show America’s immigration system is broken, and...

The Miss World beauty contest, which has attracted fierce opposition by hardline Islamic groups in host country Indonesia, is now facing another challenge -- a rival pageant exclusively for Muslims. The Muslimah World contest to be held on Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is "Islam's answer to Miss World", the pageant's founder Eka Shanti said on Saturday. "Muslimah World is a beauty pageant, but the requirements are very different from Miss World -- you have to be pious, be a positive role model and show how you balance a life of spirituality in today's modernised world," Shanti told AFP....

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) will honor former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with this year’s Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center. The award will be presented to Clinton on September 10th, the eve of the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States mission in Benghazi that killed four Americans. The Christian Science Monitor reports that Bush, a potential GOP contender in the 2016 presidential race, is chairman of the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center located in Philadelphia.

The White House pushed forward aggressively on Monday for Congressional approval of an attack on Syria as President Obama got tentative support from one of his most hawkish Republican critics, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for a “limited” strike — as long, Mr. McCain said, as the president did more to arm the Syrian opposition. After an hourlong meeting with Mr. Obama at the White House, Mr. McCain emerged with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to say that the two senators’ discussions with Mr. Obama in the Oval Office had been “encouraging.” He also urged Congress to support...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it would be "foolish" to write of Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) presidential chances, despite the hit absorbed by the Florida lawmaker from conservatives upset with his championing of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Rubio and McCain served as two of the primary GOP negotiators in the Senate's "Gang of Eight," which crafted the upper chamber's bipartisan reform bill. “I think it’s just foolish,” McCain told The Arizona Republic in an interview Friday. “I’m not endorsing anyone, but I can tell you Marco Rubio is an articulate spokesperson for what conservatives believe in, in principle. And...

Former Republican Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, ex-Democratic Rep. Martin Sabo and one-time Democratic Rep. Tim Penny, who ran for governor under the Independence Party banner, disagree on a lot of issues, but the three political leaders have come together to champion one cause: lobbying Congress to rein in and reduce the federal debt. The tri-partisan trio announced the launch of the Minnesota chapter of the "Campaign to Fix the Debt" during a state Capitol news conference Tuesday, Jan. 15. Penny, the co-chair of the campaign, said the group wants to drum up public support for action on the debt problem "so...

Debate Aftermath (Associated Posers) – WASHINGTON DC – President Obama's supporters have blamed everything from the altitude in Denver to Jim Lehrer for his dismal performance at the first presidential debate against challenger Mitt Romney. For many Americans it was the first chance to see an unscripted Barack Obama and Mitt Romney without the media spin. For his part Barack Obama declared he hadn't debated Mitt Romney at all “That wasn't the real Mitt Romney!”. Later his campaign released a statement saying that a Mitt Romney clone had been used, the evidence they said was “self evident”. The supporters of...

-snip- Although Fehrnstrom is one of Romney’s longest-serving aides, he, like his boss, has no roots in the conservative movement. Fehrnstrom started out as a reporter covering alderman meetings in Boston and lives in liberal Brookline, Mass. His work as a GOP operative has been confined to New England — a region, as he often notes, that’s “pretty rocky terrain for Republicans.” To some influential conservatives, Fehrnstrom is an enigma. It’s not that conservatives don’t trust him. It’s that some don’t even know him. “I’ve never heard of him. I’ve been going to conservative meetings since I was knee-high to...

Erik Hayden of The Atlantic Wire much admires Mark Levin taking down a poser: The latest pundit to lambaste Douthat [aka Ross doo-TOT] is hard-right radio talk show host Mark Levin, who not only slams the Times' columnist's recent article on The Right and Climate Change, but also makes some incendiary attacks on his character, talent and position. All this in a 166-word Facebook note entitled What is a Ross Douthat? His answer: This is your typical pretender. He's not a thinker. He's not a scholar. He's not accomplished. What, exactly, does he know about climate in specific or science...

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday said he had "misspoken" in claiming more than once that he served in Vietnam, dismissing the furor that threatened to endanger a seemingly safe Democratic seat as a matter of "a few misplaced words." At a news conference backed by veterans, the popular Connecticut attorney general and front-runner to replace the retiring Sen. Christopher Dodd, said he meant to say he served "during Vietnam" instead of "in Vietnam." He said the statements were "totally unintentional" errors that occurred only a few times out of hundreds of public appearances.

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI. The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. listens during remarks of the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, hosted by President Barack Obama, not pictured, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman (R) speak to reporters during the Fiscal Responsibility Summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington February 23, 2009. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second fromleft, accompanied by, from left, Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. gestures...

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:5). The world settles into winter, at least in the northern hemisphere, and life to many seems increasingly bleak. Foreclosures, layoffs, government bailouts and financial failures, continuing war on two fronts, terrorist attacks, murders of some identified only by their faith -- this world is in abundant need of light. We know light that is not overcome by darkness, for God has come among us in human flesh. Born in poverty to a homeless couple, to a people long under occupation, Jesus is human and divine...

It's truly a shame that the panelists on the 9-11 commission were such self-important windbags -- their 41 recommendations, they never fail to remind, were (all bow) "unanimous and bipartisan" -- that they blew their chance to make this country safer. Don't' get me wrong. Washington has been unconscionably slow in doing the practical things needed -- such as providing a radio spectrum for emergency first-responders -- to make America more secure. The panel also was right to criticize the Senate for larding a homeland security spending bill with pork. That said, the panel's hodgepodge recommendations -- the radio spectrum...

Interview with Prof Paul Charles Merkley concerning the WCC divestment decision Re-post IsraPundit has had the privilege and honour of posting several articles contributed by history professor emeritus Prof Paul Charles Merkley (to see these article, enter the word "merkley" in our search engine, at the middle of the right-hand column). In this post, we bring to our readers an e-interview centered on the WCC divestment decision. Prof Merkley, my fellow-Ottawan, is eminently qualified to elucidate the issues involved, since Prof Merkley is at one and the same time a professional historian, a practising Lutheran, and an expert on Israel-Christian...

This is Marc Cooper reporting for Radio Nation.One of the more interesting groups that emerged in the protests around last week's Republican National Convention was the "Iraq Veterans Against the War". This is now just a small group, maybe 35 or 40 people, being helped and formed indeed by the "Vietnam Veterans Against the War", the group formed in the 1960's that John Kerry had a hand in. But these mostly young men, recently returned from Iraq, are having quite an impact on people's conscience with the stories that they tell.During the Republican Convention at one of the auxillery events,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two former presidents and the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson are calling on the History Channel to investigate a documentary it aired alleging President Johnson was involved in the Kennedy assassination. Lady Bird Johnson said the film "falsely and irresponsibly" accuses her husband of conspiring to kill President Kennedy. No accusation made against Johnson "has hurt as painfully," the 91-year-old former first lady said in a Jan. 29 letter. Her husband died in 1973. Copies of her letter were sent to the chief executives of three companies that own A&E Networks, which includes the History Channel....