Free Republic

As we watch the 2016 Republican primaries unfold in often-surprising ways, it is clear that there is a strong desire among Republican primary voters for change within the party. Sick of what Ted Cruz calls "the Washington Cartel" and of the "election conservatives" who managed for so long to convince voters they uphold conservative values and principles, Republican primary voters are taking a stand. It began before Obama was elected, while President Bush was still in office, and has since only gained in strength and resolve, and the GOP establishment has been slow to notice or grasp what is happening....

A terrorist from Jordan briefly worked as an Obamacare navigator in Illinois while authorities remained unaware of her conviction for involvement in a deadly grocery store bombing and two other attacks. Rasmieh Yousef Odeh was convicted in Israel for her role in several bombings, including the 1969 attack on an upscale Shufersol grocery store, which killed two Hebrew University students who had stopped in to buy groceries for a hiking trip in the Jerusalem hills.

A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes. A chief investigator for the agency’s inspector general wrote a memo outlining eight cases that were derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.

Only two of al-Qusayr's Christians remain from an original population of 20,000 residing there prior to the outbreak of events, alongside 40,000 Sunnis. This was before the outbreak of events and the take-over of the city by the opposition a year ago, at which point the majority of Christians fled, fearing instability and the beginnings of Islamic fundamentalist movements that were starting to show signs in al-Qusayr and imposing themselves on Leftist, secularist groups in the opposition. Thus, when the Syrian Army and Hezbollah fighters entered the city yesterday, there were no Christians left in al-Qusayr aside from Talal Haddad...

In the history of American business, it’s difficult to find an industry that has enjoyed more political favoritism than the wind-energy sector now enjoys. The wind industry gets subsidies, mandates, and a de facto exemption from prosecution under some of America’s oldest wildlife laws. And the wind-energy lobby is doing all it can to make sure that this favoritism is maintained. With the lame-duck session of Congress now under way, the American Wind Energy Association and its allies on Capitol Hill have begun a lobbying effort to extend the Production Tax Credit, the 2.2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour subsidy that the wind sector has...

Recent research strikes a blow to the theory that humans and Neanderthals interbred. THE GIST Studies over the last two years suggest that Neanderthals vanished more than 30,000 years ago. This would mean that early humans and Neanderthals could not have interbred. enlarge Over the last two years, several studies have suggested that Homo sapiens got it on with Neanderthals, an hominid who lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for up to 300,000 years but vanished more than 30,000 years ago. The evidence for this comes from fossil DNA, which shows that on average Eurasians...

A NUN who has been superior at a Syrian monastery for the past 18 years has warned that media coverage of ongoing violence in that country has been “partial and untrue”. It is “a fake”, Mother Agnes Mariam said, which “hides atrocities committed in the name of liberty and democracy”. Superior of the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery of St James the Mutilated in Qara, in Syria’s diocese of Homs, which is in full communion with Rome, she left Ireland yesterday after a three-day visit during which she met representatives of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth. She told The...

A news report that stunned the world nine years ago about the discovery of possible ancient chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea is suddenly gaining fresh attention with new video claiming “irrefutable evidence” that corroborates the find. In June 2003, WND interviewed Bible enthusiasts who dove the waters of the Red Sea, alleging they found and photographed parts of chariots that may be the actual remains of the catastrophe brought upon the Egyptian army which pursued the Israelites, according to the Book of Exodus in the Bible. “I am 99.9 percent sure I picked up a chariot...

WATERLOO, Iowa — Joe Carpenter has more questions than answers about what happened on June 8, 1967 — but no question about the valor of his shipmates. Carpenter, a 1965 West High School graduate, was a crew member of the USS Liberty. The U.S. Navy ship was attacked by Israeli forces during the 1967 Six Day War, in which Israel defeated a host of Arab nations and captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Thirty-four of Carpenter's shipmates were killed and 174 wounded — two-thirds of the crew of 294. Carpenter himself was reported...

Mohamed H Dawod suffered a severe case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome today in Missouri. Dawod shot a passenger in the back and then was tackled by bystanders before he could kill anyone else. Police in Springfield, Mo., were seeking a motive in the killing there on Thursday of a man waiting to board a bus for St. Louis. Justin Hall, 32, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, was preparing to board a Greyhound bus when he was shot in the back. Mohamed H. Dawod, 25, of Glendale, Ariz., was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting, the Springfield...

A large umbrella group for Tea Party activists targeted Republican leaders Tuesday for what they called caving in on the deficit talks. The Tea Party Nation put House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on notice "for betraying the movement that put Republicans in charge of the lower chamber last year." In a press release, Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips drew a hard line for the Tea Party position. Phillips warned that his organization is on the lookout for Republicans voting to give away "more borrowing authority to President Obama" without also ensuring spending...

The US dollar will lose its status as the global reserve currency over the next 25 years, according to a survey of central bank reserve managers who collectively control more than $8,000bn. More than half the managers, who were polled by UBS, predicted that the dollar would be replaced by a portfolio of currencies within the next 25 years. That marks a departure from previous years, when the central bank reserve managers have said the dollar would retain its status as the sole reserve currency. UBS surveyed more than 80 central bank reserve managers, sovereign wealth funds and multilateral institutions...

HAWTHORNE, Fla. -- A 74-year-old man attacked by pit bulls Friday morning had his right arm amputated, his left arm partially amputated and suffered severe facial injuries, Putnam County deputies said. Deputies were called to the 200 block of Old Hawthorne Road in Hawthorne about 11 a.m. and found Roy McSweeney severely injured. McSweeney was taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville and was in surgery Friday afternoon. His condition was not available. Investigators said the two dogs responsible for the attack belonged to McSweeney's neighbor. They said the owner of the dogs gave both of them to authorities, and the...

Moscow, March 10, Interfax – Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, believes a state is entitled to use force to suppress a mutiny. "A state can use force in certain situations, for instance, in suppressing mutinies - I mean mutinies, not people's uprisings - or conspiracies, or attempts to subdue people against their will. When such things happen, the authorities, with support from society, should return force for force," Father Vsevolod said in taking questions from visitors of the Public Council website. The priest made this remark in commenting on concerns by a...

<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family's new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, allowing him to avoid paying roughly $500,000 in taxes to his cash-strapped home state.</p> <p>If the Isabel were kept at the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee's summer vacation home on Nantucket or in Boston Harbor near his city residence, he would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. He would also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes.</p>

Charlie Sheen's rep told TMZ Charlie is in rehab. The rep says, "He will take some time off from his series, 'Two and a Half Men.' He has asked that his privacy be honored." The rep says Charlie is checking into rehab as a "preventative measure," though he did not elaborate. Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/23/charlie-sheen-checks-into-rehab-brooke-mueller-two-and-a-half-men/#ixzz0gOev796b

President Barack Obama dropped his threat to bypass the Senate and install nominees to their positions through recess appointments -- at least for now. Recess appointments can be made while the Senate is out of session and are a way for presidents to get around the need for a confirmation vote. The president said in a statement Thursday evening that he is encouraged by confirmation earlier in the day of 27 high-level nominees. On Tuesday, Obama threatened to make the recess appointments to get around senators who had placed "holds" on his nominees, which prevent, or at least delay, the...

In the wake of a political setback for national health care legislation, Senator John McCain, the losing candidate in the last presidential election, advised his victorious 2008 adversary on Sunday that the way to get meaningful changes passed is to “start from the beginning” by meeting with Republicans. Mr. McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” that President Obama should sit down with Republican leaders and begin adopting some of their ideas for improving the nation’s health care system such as overhauling medical malpractice lawsuits, allowing residents of one state to buy health...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that it was time to start over on the health care debate - and that Republicans would be willing to try to meet common ground with Democrats on several key issues. Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," McCain said Republicans should "say we'd be willing to start over from the beginning," saying the party would like to address malpractice reform, and transportability of coverage across state lines. "There are many things we can do," McCain suggested.

7 Students shot leaving Summer school