Free Republic

As soon as I heard Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance smearing the military service of his opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, all I could think was: Seriously? Are we really doing this again? Are we really going to allow Republicans — who are freaking out now that their presumed glide path back to the White House has become a very bumpy road — to slime Walz the way they slimed Vietnam veteran John Kerry 20 years ago? “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, do you know what he did?” Vance said last week...

Of all the modern Supreme Court’s incredibly disappointing rulings, gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is near the top, second only to its catastrophic decision to rip away half a century of reproductive rights from American women.Until the court’s shocking 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder decision, states and counties with histories of racial discrimination were required to get approval from the Justice Department — known as “preclearance” — for redistricting or changes to voting laws. The conservative members of the Supreme Court changed all that with a 5-4 decision.“There is no denying,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote,...

Was I the only journalist in America who thought President Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday was hard to watch? At least until he departed from his script and began sparring with the nation’s rudest Republicans?Sometimes when Biden starts to speak, I involuntarily hold my breath, waiting for him to stumble over his words, or slur them or otherwise mangle his text in a way that will show up in clips on Fox News or MAGA Twitter. See, he’s incompetent! Worrying about this detracts from the pleasure of having a solid Democratic president after four years of Trumpian chaos...

A Los Angeles Times columnist wrote Wednesday that Melania Trump deserved to feel 'violated' by the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago and ridiculed the former first lady's sex life. 'This is simply the price you pay when you are married to a sticky-handed former president who is unable to grasp the difference between things that belong to him and things that do not,' wrote columnist Robin Abcarian. The columnist mocked how anonymous Melania pals told Radar Online that the former first lady bought new underwear after hers was rummaged through, snarking at the quote: 'This is her home ... it's her...

In the city of Los Angeles, where I live, you can’t enter a restaurant, a government building, a gym, a bar, or a coffee shop without showing proof of vaccination. I know some establishments are less apt to check than others, but each time I walk past a “no vaccination, no service” sign, my heart skips a beat.

I was sad for a lot of reasons when former Vice President Joe Biden emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. I had supported Elizabeth Warren and would have enthusiastically voted for Bernie Sanders. They have big ideas, passion and an unquestionable commitment to making life better for working people. Biden feels like a page from the past. But OK. Democratic voters are angry, exhausted and appalled by the presidency of Donald Trump. As the primaries wore on, they sought refuge in the comfortable, the familiar. They wanted a return to sanity, not a revolution. Like an old slipper, Biden...

Vice President Joe Biden has never lacked for passion. And his occasional failure to restrain his enthusiasm has sometimes gotten him in trouble. But his over-the-top rhetoric was right on point when he gave the keynote address Saturday evening at the Human Rights Campaign’s gala in downtown Los Angeles. Biden told a story I had never heard, about the first time he saw two men kissing (at minute 14 of the video above). He was in junior high, and his father was driving him to apply for a lifeguard job. “We stopped at a red light and I looked over...