Free Republic

DES MOINES — Iowans could soon purchase a license plate that features the yellow “don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag, with the fees collected going to fund training and education by National Rifle Association-affiliated groups. The flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake and the slogan “Don’t tread on me,” has become a symbol of individual liberty favored by Libertarians and conservatives. It has its origins in the American Revolutionary War and was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress. House File 2424, which would make the plates an option for drivers in Iowa, was passed...

Two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a ceremony in Iran on Wednesday looked like a "terrorist attack" of the kind ISIS has been responsible for in the past, a senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday. The official, speaking to reporters, said "it does look like a terror attack, the type of thing we've seen ISIS do in the past, and as far as we are aware that is kind of, I think, our going assumption at the moment."

There is a huge layoff at the Huffington Post. Key writers — 47 US writers — were fired. The failing leftist blog pushed for Trump supporters to be de-platformed and de-banked. It doesn’t seem to have worked for them financially. BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. Hillary Frey, the executive editor, and Louise Roug, the executive editor for international, will be departing in the restructuring effort. HuffPost Canada will also shutter operations later this month. They say they are fast-tracking the path to profitability.

Scotland’s leader says she doesn’t want to use a possible British vote to leave the European Union as leverage to achieve independence. But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon concedes that Scots’ secessionist spirits would be inflamed if English voters forced them out of the EU. Sturgeon spoke Sunday on the second day of her Scottish National Party’s spring conference, which is focused on strengthening nationalist control of Scotland’s Parliament in a May 5 election. […] Sunday’s published poll data suggested that Scottish voters appear much more enthusiastic than their English neighbors about staying inside the 28-nation bloc, with 50 percent planning...

Some people hate me because I defend free markets. Once someone accosted me on a New York City street and said, "I hope you die soon." Why the hostility to commerce? What could be more benign than the freedom to trade with whomever you wish? I suspect ignorance about economics leads many to believe that when two people exchange goods and money, one wins and the other loses. If rich capitalists profit, the poor and the weak suffer. That's a myth. How many times have you paid $1 for a cup of coffee and after the clerk said, "thank you,"...

Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades threatened Monday night to kill all of Hamas's leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as well as Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. In a message sent to news agencies, the group said that it considered Mashaal, Interior Minister Sayid Siam and another high-ranking member of the ministry, Yosef al-Zahar, responsible for the deaths of Palestinians killed over the last two days during Hamas-Fatah clashes. Eleven Palestinians were killed and more than 150 were wounded in fierce clashes that erupted between supporters of Hamas and Fatah over the past 48 hours in the Gaza Strip and West...

Is Wal-Mart a problem? The Food and Commercial Workers Union hired Paul Blank, who was political director for Howard Dean's presidential campaign, to lead a campaign to convince people not to shop at Wal-Mart until Wal-Mart pays workers more. "The average associate at Wal-Mart makes $8.23 an hour," Blank told me. "That's not a job that can support a family." Wal-Mart said its average pay is higher than that, but Wal-Mart workers do make a lot less money than Wal-Mart's owners. "They have taken the values, the morals, the ethics, fairness that are the fabric of our society and put...

Harriet Miers

Democrats Threaten to Stop Senate Business if GOP Changes Rules on Judge Confirmations By David Espo The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats served notice Tuesday that they will slow or stop most Senate business if Republicans unilaterally change the rules to assure confirmation of President Bush's controversial court appointments. Any such change would mark "an unprecedented abuse of power," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Reid, the Democratic leader, exempted military and national security legislation from the threat, and said Democrats would not block passage of measures needed to assure continuation of critical government services....

What Surprise? The Nuclear Core of North Korea's Strategy By Nicholas Eberstadt Tuesday, March 1, 2005; Page A15 North Korea's declaration that it possesses nuclear weapons and intends to hold on to its nuclear arsenal "under any circumstances" was greeted with shock and astonishment in much of the world. In fact, the most astonishing part of this momentous development was the fact that North Korea's bold move has come as a surprise, both in Washington and abroad. The North Korean government did not suddenly claim to join the world's nuclear weapons club on a bizarre and inexplicable whim. The announcement...

[Opinion. Open for Discussion.]The vitriol and passion are reaching unparalleled heights.Arnold Schwarzenegger feels he is close to an October 7th victory and that a knockout punch of both Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante is within tantalizing reach.Were it all not for one jagged pebble in his hiking boot. State Senator Tom McClintock.Both sides are polarized, even here and especially here, on Free Republic. And for damned good reason. One side, comprised of so-called "RINOs", (moderate-centrists), later joined by pragmatic conservatives who see the paramount need to dethrone the irresponsible and dangerous Socialist Democrat regime in Sacramento, have dug in their...