Free Republic

A top diplomat representing the Taliban terror organization ruling Afghanistan demanded representation for the group at the United Nations this week, insisting the Taliban’s participation in the global organization was a “necessity and a right.” Suhail Shaheen, who has represented the Taliban in negotiations with the U.N. in the past and now runs the group’s embassy in Qatar, noted that the Taliban has been the uncontested government of Afghanistan for nearly four years and insisted that the group deserves some say in the operations of the United Nations. “The presence of a representative from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan at...

Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday that he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat — leaving the door open for a widely expected presidential run in 2028, according to a report. The former Transportation Secretary, who earlier said he was “looking” at a Senate campaign to replace retiring Democrat Gary Peters in one of the most competitive seats in the 2026 cycle, plans to announce that he’s now not running at some point on Thursday, a person briefed on his decision told Politico. His decision was framed by allies as a move to put him in the...

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is considering a return to public life by running for the Michigan senate seat soon to be vacated after the surprise retirement of Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), Axios reported Tuesday. Democrat Buttigieg is “taking a serious look”at putting his name forward in 2026, an anonymous source told the outlet, adding “He’s honored to be mentioned for this and he’s taking a serious look.” He previously served as the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020, which earned him the nickname “Mayor Pete”. Peters, who led the Democrats’ Senate campaign efforts the past...

Some House Democrats have had enough of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) analysis of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Election Day loss to President-elect Donald Trump – and one lawmaker believes it’s time for her to “take a seat.” Pelosi, 84, ruffled feathers within the Democratic caucus after she told the New York Times last week that “Had [President Biden] gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” suggesting that an “open primary” to replace Biden, 81, on the Democratic ticket would’ve been her preference. “She needs to take a seat,” a senior Democratic lawmaker told Axios, in...

A former Dallas salon owner who was jailed for re-opening her salon during COVID-19 will now be the next state representative for Texas House District 62. Shelley Luther won the election with nearly 80 percent of the vote. Luther received nearly 67,000 votes to defeat Democrat challenger Tiffany Drake in the far North Texas legislative seat election. In April 2020, Breitbart Texas reported that Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins (D) ordered that Luther be jailed for contempt of his order to close her business during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Dallas police came to her salon several times allegedly responding to...

Republican Gabe Evans unseated Democrat incumbent Rep. Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s 8th District on Sunday evening. The GOP is now one seat away from winning the House of Representatives.

This was one action-packed scene. An irate moviegoer was caught on tape pummeling a fellow patron over a seat in a Florida theater earlier this month, authorities said. The unidentified suspect appeared to throw numerous punches at a 63-year-old man who stumbled to the ground during part of the unhinged attack on July 10, according to footage released by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. The confrontation between the two men began when the victim and his wife saw the suspect and his female companion in the VIP seats they purchased in advance before showing up at the AMC Pompano theater,...

House Democrats voted Thursday to make Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) the top Democrat on the powerful Oversight and Reform Committee in the next Congress, a pivotal role in the defense of President Biden as Republicans prepare to take control of the lower chamber next year. Raskin, a six-year House veteran, defeated Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in the closed-door, secret-ballot vote on Capitol Hill, where the full caucus gathered to finalize their committee roster heading into the 118th Congress.

It’s clear that Generation Z has earned a seat at the table. We’ve led the social movements that have shaped our current politic climate and helped elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris into office. Our growing political power is driven by our unique perspective on the future as we ask ourselves: What does the future hold? Too often, as young people we are underestimated due to our age, but in reality many of us have years of experience and our youth and age is not a detriment, but an asset providing our perspective as members of the...

Just when you thought he was out … Ex-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a state lawmaker he plans to run for New York’s newly drawn 10th Congressional district — the seat entrenched Rep. Jerrold Nadler is vacating to fight it out with former longtime ally Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the rejigged 12th.

In what could be an indicator of things to come in the 2022 mid-term election, the GOP flipped a state senate seat in a Connecticut special election on Tuesday night – the first flip for either party in 2021. The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) announced in an email: State Republicans tonight delivered the first flip of a state legislative seat in a special election by either party in 2021, as Republican Ryan Fazio defeated liberal Democrat Alex Gevanter in Connecticut’s state Senate District 36 – a district Joe Biden won by more than 25% in 2020.

Senate Republicans are actively courting New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan in next year’s midterms. Hassan (D-NH) was governor of the state until 2016, when she opted to challenge then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) instead of run for a third term. She won, and Sununu, a Republican, went on to beat Democrat Colin Van Ostern by more than two points in the gubernatorial race.

R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island is now just 157 residents away from losing one of its two seats in the U.S. House, which would give the state a single vote there for the first time since George Washington was president, according to an analysis of newly released population data. Kimball Brace, the reapportionment expert who has been involved in drawing legislative and congressional districts in Rhode Island since the early 1980s, ran the numbers Wednesday after the U.S. Census Bureau announced Rhode Island had added about 2,000 residents between July 2016 and July 2017.

Next Tuesday will see a "special election" in the Georgia, 6th CD, a race between 18 candidates, 11 Republicans & 7 Democrats. If there is a clear winner, she or he must achieve at least 50% of the ballots cast. This seat was vacated by Congressman, Tom Price, a Republican, appointed to the Trump Administration. It will be at best, a messy matter, but, The Republicans must do everything they can, to make certain a runoff occurs and they hold onto the seat. Bottom line is: every single Republican, Conservative and Independent voter must turnout for this gig in massive...

Rhode Island is likely to lose one of its two U.S. House seats after the 2020 U.S. Census, according to projections by reapportionment guru Kimball W. Brace, who has for many years helped Rhode Island lawmakers draw both state legislative and congressional districts

Don’t mess with pregnant Olivia Wilde. “NBD, able-bodied 🚇 [train] riders who won’t give your seat to a GIANT preggo,” she sarcastically tweeted on Wednesday. “I’ll just stand riiiiight next to your head and pray I go into labor.”

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson is running for the Florida Senate seat that Republican Marco Rubio is giving up to run for president. Grayson made the announcement on Thursday. "This is the it campaign of 2016. Just like Elizabeth Warren was the it campaign in her race," Grayson said. "I'm going to be running a Barack Obama style campaign. I am going to try and wake up and electrify the electorate with all the good we can do for each other." When WFTV asked Grayson how he is going to win, he replied, "By being the champion for...

LEBANON, TN (WSMV) - (video at link) If a Lebanon inventor has his way, the bathroom experience may never be the same. Dave Reynolds thinks toilets should glow in the dark, and he's not joking. "I kept telling this story over and over to people and they laughed," Reynolds said. "And I said, 'One day you're not going to laugh at me. One day you're going to go to the bathroom and think of me.'" For Reynolds, a glow-in-the-dark toilet just makes sense. "Not right now, but at 3 in the morning, that's when it comes together," he said. "When...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is talking like a man who will run for Senate in 2016. In an interview with The Hill on Tuesday, Grayson said he’s thinking about running. The often-controversial Democrat spoke at length about why he’d begin in a potential Senate race in position of strength, whether he’s going up against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or not. “We have some very substantial advantages,” Grayson said in an interview with The Hill on Tuesday. “I have over 100,000 individual contributors, no one else on the House Democratic side has anything like that. We have raised as much as...

It’s a sign of our air-rage times: three separate planes forced to divert in the space of two weeks when cramped passengers went ballistic over someone reclining their seat. In one episode, two undercover air marshals subdued and handcuffed the irate traveler in question. In another, a woman swore at the reclining passenger in front of her and screamed for the pilot to “put this plane down.” The dust-ups don’t shock Robert Mann, a former airline executive who now runs an airline-industry analysis company. “August is the highest load-factor month of the year for a North American carrier, and it’s...