Free Republic

It appears that the second Monday in October being celebrated as "Columbus Day" is going the way of the Confederate battle flag and monuments to Southern soldiers – and for much the same reason. More and more cities are dropping the acknowledgment of the European discovery of America in favor of "Indigenous Peoples Day."

The Socialist vs. The Tycoon. Mr. Green Jeans vs. The Celebrity Insulter. The Radical vs. The Extremist. Is it possible that we’re headed for the most bizarre, the most distressing, the most unthinkable presidential race in history? A Donald Trump vs. Bernie Sanders contest in November of 2016 is no longer the stuff of nightmares and late-night talk show hosts’ monologue jokes.

As PJM’s D.C. Editor Bridget Johnson reports, Donald Trump once again hurled a personal insult at a rival for the nomination that questions the candidate’s intelligence.He said that Jeb Bush was “not a smart person” and Marco Rubio was “foolish and stupid.” He called John McCain a “dummy.” He said that Rick Perry should “take an IQ test.”Now he comes out and says Rand Paul is “a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain.”What is it with these sandbox epithets? Five year olds shout “stupid” and “dummy” at one another, not grown men seeking the most powerful office in...

The last two Republican candidates for president have been among the weakest GOP candidates in 50 years. Barack Obama presented Mitt Romney with a gift in 2012: A struggling economy, sluggish growth, a paucity of jobs, and a health care law that was extremely unpopular. In what should have been a landslide rejection of Obama's policies, Romney flubbed it big time and allowed his opponent to define him - and Republicans - in the most unlfattering way imaginable. You would have hoped that Romney would have retired from the public arena and kept a low profile as other losers have...

One of the most important religious freedom cases heard before the Supreme Court in a generation may see an opinion handed down tomorrow. Hobby Lobby, a Michigan based company, is challenging the Obamacare contraception mandate on the grounds that paying for coverage would violate their religious beliefs. Cleveland Plain Dealer: Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is likely to release its decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, a widely anticipated ruling expected to have far-reaching implications for businesses.

Governor Cuomo has signed off on the National Popular Vote Compact, giving New York's 29 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. SILive: Count New York in. The Empire State has joined the National Popular Vote compact with legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. States that have signed on to the interstate agreement will award electoral votes for president to the candidate who receives the majority of the national popular vote. "With the passage of this legislation, New York is taking a bold step to fundamentally increase the strength and fairness of our nation's presidential elections,"...

This matters in a political battle and the NRA can take advantage of there popularity relative to Obama with any wavering members. Newsbusters: Despite constant hammering by the national news media, the National Rifle Association has a favorability rating of 54 percent in the latest Gallup survey, slightly higher than President Obama's rating of 53 percent. While those figures are within the poll's margin of error, they show that the NRA's popularity is in the same range as that of the Democratic president who issued 23 executive orders to accomplish goals the gun-rights group has promised to combat in "the...

Nobody wanted it. Few expected it. Many are worried it will lead to armed confrontation in the streets of Beirut. The fall of the government of Prime Minister Said Hariri marks a significant escalation by Hezbollah in their effort to take control of Lebanon; it also ratchets up tensions between Sunnis and Shias that could explode into violence if not checked. Eleven opposition cabinet ministers resigned on Wednesday, constitutionally causing the government’s collapse. At issue: the Special Tribunal Lebanon’s (STL) imminent announcement of indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. It is widely expected that...

Do you have a a Negro friend and are you having trouble finding just the right gift to get him dancing and singing on Christmas Day? Well, the New York Times has come up with one of the great ideas of the 1950s: a holiday gift guide for the colored folk. You’ve probably struggled with what to give your doorman, or valet, or housemaid as an appropriate present. You want something not too expensive but something they can really use. This colored folk gift guide takes the worry out of your holiday shopping for servants and others who are complexion-challenged....

I didn’t want to write about Sarah Palin anymore. Really, I didn’t want to. God, I didn’t want to. But every time I think I’m out, she pulls me back in. Face it, my friends. If Sarah Palin’s nugatory understanding of everything from foreign affairs to economic matters doesn’t cause you concern, if her predilection to expand, exaggerate, or fudge the truth about herself and her past statements hasn’t yet convinced you that she is a lightweight prevaricator and doesn’t deserve your support, then this exchange with conservative talker Rusty Humphries should change your mind: Would you make the birth...

...it’s a good thing some Republicans are on the ball when it comes to those in the party who might be thinking “impure thoughts” and thus transgress against the “principles” for which the GOP stands... Looking over the list, I am happy to report that I support at least 8 and maybe 9 of the litmus test positions... But what’s the point? About 99% of Republicans support 8-10 of those litmus tests. Probably 90% support all 10. Instead of silly, stupid gimmicks, why not just come out and say, “Snowe, Collins, Crist, and the rest of you RINO’s get squat...

Those nasty elites are coming down hard on Sarah Palin for putting her name on a book with about as much heft as cotton candy. This means I get to add her to my list of “cotton candy conservatives” — which I hesitated in doing previously only because she had not proved herself worthy. In order to make it on my list of cotton candy conservatives, an applicant must have the opportunity to expound and explain her conservative beliefs in book form. It’s only fair, since we live in a media culture dominated by the soundbite and snappy interview. (No...

Reading this interview of Sarah Palin by Rush Limbaugh was alarming if you care about the direction of the conservative movement and the Republican party. It’s alarming because Sarah Palin is not living in this century. Example: RUSH: You mean that you don’t even hear it (tax cuts) being discussed on the Republican side or within the administration?GOV. PALIN: Within the administration, and as it is discussed on the Republican side, Republicans need to be bolder about it. Independents need to be bolder about that solution that has got to be considered and plugged in. This is the only solution...

Yes, but is Glenn Beck good for the conservative movement? After all, even if the man who seriously wondered whether the fasces symbol on the back of a 1917 dime meant that the US government under Wilson was promoting fascism is a little excitable, and, by his own admission, a “clown,” many rock ribbed conservatives seem to have adopted this paranoid waif as one of their own.

...I could start a blog and fill it with such reflections without any trouble - as could most of you, I’m sure. Learning from our mistakes is the essence of being human - probably the major factor in the rise of Homo Sapiens. Don’t get too close to that mammoth or you won’t come home from the hunt. Going after a Saber Tooth cat alone is not a good idea if you want to pass your genes on to the next generation. Trial and error not only advanced human evolution, it forms the basis of modern science and has led...

Face it, my fellow conservatives. We just don’t have what it takes to play the race card effectively. This was amply proven by that ample talk show host, cotton candy conservative, and pop righty Rush Limbaugh who took a story about a beating of a white nerd by black bullies on a school bus and tried to turn it into a spiel involving dire portents of a coming race war enabled by our president:

I’m sitting in the darkened study of my sister’s beautiful home in Bethesda this morning looking forward to a long day of renewing old acquaintances, making new friends, and participating (more like observing) the goings on at CPAC. I had an interesting discussion last night with my 17 year old cousin about the problem with conservatism today and was surprised that he pretty much nailed the reasons conservatism is in such bad odor with the public and specifically, with his generation...

The theme of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) should be “Cocooning our way to Irrelevancy” or perhaps “How to lose the next 5 elections in 10 easy steps.”

“Success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan” applies to just about every human endeavor with the exception of war. War usually has one father while making orphans galore.In our current situation, the father of this war is international Islamism and its adherents who seek to reestablish a Muslim Caliphate from the Middle East to Indonesia. They wish to bring the world’s one billion Muslims under one roof and impose Islamic sharia law on everyone – Jew, Christian and Muslim alike.Only the willfully self-deluded deny this. To them, the War on Terror is a gigantic conspiracy of George...