Free Republic

Willie Robertson BATON ROUGE, LA, August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The star of the top-rated reality show on television, Duck Dynasty, may make Louisiana's pro-life voters happy, happy, happy. Willie Robertson is considering running for a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, according to political insiders. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Republican who has ties to the multimillionaire duck call entrepreneurs, so he can take a post in Governor Bobby Jindal's administration. The bandana-clad Willie is known for his role as the down-to-earth one on the highest rated program in A&E's network history. Willie...

President Barack Obama is taking his economic message on the road next week with a bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania. The announcement of the bus tour was made as Obama and the first family takes an eight-day vacation on Martha's Vineyard, a resort island off the coast of Massachusetts. Specific stops for the bus tour in New York and Pennsylvania were not announced.

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Psalm 89:34

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity. A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study...

The United States ran a budget deficit in July, although government revenues increased from a year earlier due to tax hikes and a strengthening economy, a report from the Treasury showed on Monday. The U.S. government spent $98 billion more than it took in last month, with the deficit driven by spending on healthcare programs, pensions for the elderly and the military. One major reason is that Washington ratcheted austerity efforts by raising tax rates, which has helped tax receipts. It has also slashed the federal budget, although in July total spending rose to $298 billion from $254 billion in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKxnN9YBaw

As California Congressman Henry Waxman promised, he has introduced a Bill to ban the sale of “Parts kits” for “Assault Rifles, Assault Shotguns, and Assault Pistols." This also includes a ban on Receiver blanks. The Bill defines an “assault weapons parts kit as: “ any part or combination of parts not designed and intended for repair or replacement but designed and intended to enable a consumer who possesses all such necessary parts to assemble a semiautomatic assault weapon…” Which raised the question of vagueness in the law as to which components of an “Assault Weapons Parts Kits” could be sold...

Hospitals across the nation are being swept up in the biggest wave of mergers since the 1990s, a development that is creating giant hospital systems that could one day dominate American health care and drive up costs. The consolidations are being driven by a confluence of powerful forces, not least of which is President Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act. That law, many experts say, is transforming the economics of health care and pushing a growing number of hospitals into the arms of suitors. The changes are unfolding with remarkable speed. Two big for-profit hospital chains, Community...

Sales of iPads jumped with the introduction of the iPad Mini, but are otherwise stagnant. Ritchie King/Quartz Apple sold 5.4 million fewer iPads in its most recent quarter than it did in the same three months a year ago. That’s despite having introduced a whole new iPad, the Mini, in the intervening year. The drop in iPad sales, from 17 million to 14.6 million, is all the more surprising because iPhone sales continued to grow, from 26 million to 31.2 million.Use of those iPads, however, is running in the opposite direction. Data just released from Adobe show that, as of...

On Feb. 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida there was a shooting that would, for whatever reason, transfix this country and pressure how we as a nation understand our natural right to self-defense. I am of course referring to the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. It’s not my intention here to pour over the details of this case — I’m sure we have all heard those, time and time again. I personally have no desire to hear them again. Rather, I want to look at what we can learn, as a community of gun owners and concealed carry holders,...

I was shopping in a Target last night, when I spotted an unusual looking couple, with a bunch of little kids, in the school supplies area. They were stocking up on school supplies. The man was in his 30s or very early 40s, clad in a close-fitting black button-up religious garment which extended from his neck to his ankles. It flared out at the bottom and seemed to be made of some sort of shiny material, like satin. It certainly looked like some sort of official priest garb. He did not seem to have a white priest collar, nor did...

As a precondition for "peace" talks with the Palestinians that will produce nothing, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry demanded that Israel's government release over 100 long-term convicted terrorists and murderers, many imprisoned for vicious crimes committed long before either intifada. The "Elder of Ziyon" blog has compiled a list of those to be released--and their victims. Here is a sample: Atiyeh Salem Musa: killed Isaac (Aizek) Rotenberg, 67, Holocaust survivor, 1994 Isaac Rotenberg was born to Natan and Miriam Rotenberg in Poland on 15 March 1927. A selektzia was held in his city following the outbreak...

An inspired spell of fast bowling from Stuart Broad catapulted England to a 74-run win over Australia in the fourth Test and sealed victory in the Ashes series. Chasing 299 for victory, Australia were well placed on 168-2 but lost their next eight wickets for 56 runs as they collapsed to 224 all out. Tim Bresnan turned the tide when he had opener David Warner caught behind for 71 and Broad followed up with a devastating burst of 6-20 in 45 balls to finish with 11 wickets in the match. A breathless and barely believable evening session, in which nine...

On August 12, Joe DiGenova, attorney for one of the Benghazi whistleblowers, told Washington D.C.'s WMAL that one of the reasons people have remained tight-lipped about Benghazi is because 400 U.S. missiles were "diverted to Libya" and ended up being stolen and falling into "the hands of some very ugly people." DiGenova represents Benghazi whistleblower Mark Thompson. He told WMAL that he "does not know whether [the missiles] were at the annex, but it is clear the annex was somehow involved in the distribution of those missiles." He claimed his information "comes from a former intelligence official who stayed in...

<p>The judge who ruled that New York’s “stop-and-frisk” practice violated the Constitutional rights of the city’s citizens seemed to have had Trayvon Martin on her mind.</p> <p>Judge Shira Scheindlin references his death three times in her ruling in which she found the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy amounted to racial profiling. Scheindlin refers to Martin as “a black teenager” in the body of the opinion, but then cites his name in the footnotes as she quotes directly from three sources, including President Obama’s remarks following the verdict. She references Martin as a touchstone for the pain and frustration experienced by black men facing constant suspicion by the authorities.</p>

Who We Are When great evils arise in the course of human history and become legally sanctioned, socially normalized, and morally justified, the Spirit of God working within his Body and Bride will move people to stand up and speak out against them. Following in the footsteps of former abolitionist movements, we aim to end one of the greatest human miseries and moral evils to ever be entrenched in our world. To this end we seek to encourage informed, rigorous, and consistent thought and action in response to the rampant occurrence of abortion within our community. We seek to instigate...

<p>Former Florida Rep. Allen West had some harsh words for nationally known civil rights activists like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who have remained silent on a video showing black teens beating a white boy on a school bus.</p>

The most popular Confederate flag, besides the Battle flag--the soldier's flag, was probably the Bonnie Blue flag that a song was made about.

Now for some bad news: national meteorologists expect the drought to continue or worsen through late summer and early fall in Texas, and ocean patterns are troublingly similar to those during the “drought of record” in the 1950s. Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its latest drought forecast. It predicts the drought will persist or intensify in most of Texas from July through October. But there is one exception — in Far West Texas, August and September rains are expected to bring some relief to an area from Midland to El Paso, according to NOAA meteorologist Victor...

We encounter an incredible diversity of cultures, lifestyles, and faiths. Unfortunately our conflicting identities and beliefs often exclude others. Is there truth to real acceptance and inclusion? Join in discussion with renowned international speaker and Christian philosopher Ravi Zacharias. Extended Q&A following the dialogue with Dr. Zacharias and Michael Ramsden, speaker and Director at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Monday signed into law one of the nation’s most wide-ranging Voter ID laws. The move is likely to touch off a major court battle over voting rights, and the Justice Department is weighing a challenge to the new law. The measure requires voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls and shortens the early voting period from 17 to 10 days. It will also end pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-old voters who will be 18 on Election Day and eliminates same-day voter registration. Democrats and minority groups have been fighting against the...

<p>"New York to Beijing, China, in about 2 hours," said Daryl Oster, founder of ET3. "That's 8,000 miles, or 4,000 miles per hour. L.A. to New York would be in 45 minutes, with a likely speed of 2,000 mph."</p> <p>But because Musk has an established track record of developing and turning ideas that sound extreme into thriving real-world products and companies, his Hyperloop idea is not being dismissed.</p>

The mystery priest who recently showed up at a crash site, anointed a victim and then vanished has been identified. A press release provided to TheBlaze from the Diocese of Jefferson County reads:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo rejected allegations that his support for legislation granting tax breaks to a firm that made substantial donations to his political campaign is corrupt. “The fact that the Extell Development Company donated to my campaign is, by itself, evidence of their support of good government,” Cuomo insisted. “Don't we want supporters of good government to prosper? Shouldn't good corporate citizens reap the rewards of their civic virtue?” Ironically, the potentially illegal link between the campaign donation and the tax break came to light after the Governor established a commission to look into legislative corruption. “It appears...

The American Legislative Exchange Council released today a letter signed by nearly 300 state legislators from 39 states that expresses dismay over Senator Durbin’s letter inquiring into businesses and organizations’ participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council. The letter follows a statement released Friday by the American Legislative Exchange Council expressing concern over Senator Durbin’s inquiries. The letter, sent to all members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, can be accessed here.

The president said that Republicans have one unifying principle - denying 30 million Americans the right to health care. Ummm... The CBO said that there would be 30 million without insurance even with ObamaCare fully implemented. Obama. Mixed up. Fail.

For the past two months, I have intermittently been barred from Facebook. The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on, and removed from, my page. I was warned that if I continued violating Facebook’s “community standards,” I would be banned from the social network for good. The notice included a link specifying these standards, and a demand that I click to acknowledge I had read and understood them. Failure to do so, it said, would result in...

This article was originally published by watchdog.org. WASHINGTON – Car and Driver magazine, which generally steers clear of politics, doesn’t like what it sees under the hood of Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive.“Investors looking to score on the next Tesla Motors should start slapping themselves back to reality,” the magazine stated this week.The article lists a long line of electric-car companies that are “either dead or barely standing, fettered with poor management, little cash and exaggerated promises.”“Next up, according to our battery-powered crystal ball: GreenTech Automotive,” the magazine predicted.Representatives of GTA did not return requests for comment.McAuliffe, making his second bid...

According to the Costa Rica Star, the United States Air Force (Costa Rica Will Stop Sending Cocaine to Miami) of government-seized cocaine from Costa Rica to Miami, Florida, on July 27th. Commentary and official press releases from Costa Rica’s Organization of Judicial Investigations explain that the Central American nation had been encountering serious problems with the destruction of cocaine bound for the United States that local authorities had confiscated. With so much cocaine to destroy—and with their lone incinerator broken—, the government of Costa Rica had to resort to using a cement factory to dispose of the contraband. However, their...

The Mainstream (Establishment) Media is trying to once again do the Republican vs Democrat thingy: that Obama has proposed some serious (cough, laugh) changes to the NSA spying program, and those wascally wepubs (Rep. McCaul and Peter King (R-GOP-e) are trying to thwart him. I never thought that I would see a recent liberal rally where hundreds marched (not reported by the MSM-e) where a person would be carrying a sign that said Snowden, patriot and Pelosi, traitor. And even the New York Times (Editorial Board, June 6th: Obama administration has lost all credibility on the issue of the NSA...

The US Treasury auction went off better than last week’s 10 and 30 year auctions. ta36mth Particularly with regard to the bid/cover ratios. The 6 month bid/cover remains at 5.01 while the 10 year and 30 year are lower and at their 2nd lowest point since early 2009 when QE1 began. This is indicating that there are fears that The Fed will slow down the taper of $88 billion per month in Agency MBS and Treasury purchases. But at the long- and mid-section of the yield curve, not the short-end. Here is a chart of Expected Future Outcomes and Most...

If you’re graduating from college this year, count yourself lucky. Just 56 percent of college students complete four-year degrees within six years, according to a 2011 Harvard Graduate School of Education study. Among the 18 developed countries in the OECD, the U.S. was dead last for the percentage of students who completed college once they started it ― even behind Slovakia. College dropouts tend to be male, and give reasons such as cost, not feeling prepared, and not being able to juggle family, school and jobs, according to the Harvard study. An American Institutes for Research report last year estimated...

The dispute over the Falkland Islands may get a boost at the UN, thanks to Spain’s designs on Gibraltar. According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais and reported in the Telegraph, Spain’s foreign minister has traveled to Argentina to discuss the possibility of both countries supporting each other’s territorial ambitions at the expense of the UK — and self-determination: Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo will use a trip to Buenos Aires next month to raise the possibility of forging a joint diplomatic offensive with the South American country over the disputed territories, sources told Spain’s El Pais newspaper.Spain’s foreign...

From the Monday edition of the Morning Jolt: Why the Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe Race Matters to You, Even If You Don’t Live in Virginia First, does anyone want to argue that Ken Cuccinelli — Virginia’s attorney general, and current GOP candidate for governor — is not a conservative? Led the legal challenge to Obamacare.Defended Arizona’s immigration enforcement statute.Filed legal challenges to the EPA’s findings on greenhouse gases’ being a threat to human health and thus an emission they have the authority to regulate.Supports right to life from conception until death, supported and pushed several pro-life bills while in the state...

An Army officer writing in a prestigious journal says the services should not overemphasize physical strength when deciding whether a woman qualifies for direct ground combat. Col. Ellen Haring, on the staff of the U.S. Army War College, says commanders need to downplay obstacle courses and judge a service member’s ability to stay calm and think quickly. The Pentagon has lifted its ban on women serving in the infantry, tanks and special operations, and the branches are examining all their physical standards in preparation for introducing women into these units in 2015. Some military analysts fear the Pentagon will discard...

The Governor is taking his time, considering the entirety of his legacy. Even for Gov. Jerry Brown, on his third term as California's Governor, signing Bill AB-1266 is a big step. Essentially, Bill 1266, brought to the floor by Sen. Mark Leno and Tom Amianno, means any California student can use any bathroom they wish, regardless of their 'birth gender' on record. 1266 also means sports team positions and locker rooms must be open to all genders . This bill does not require a student to get a doctors' note declaring the student is Transgender, and therefore, needing to be...

The MinnowBoard community website reports that Intel is now shipping its MinnowBoard bare-bones PC. It's a bit heftier in price than the Raspberry Pi, costing $199 USD, and can be purchased at Digi-Key, Farnell, Mouser Electronics and Newark. Additional outlets will be added soon. Intel's MinnowBoard sports an Atom E640 SoC clocked at 1 GHz, integrated GMA 600 graphics, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, and 4 MB of SPI flash for system firmware memory. The I/O portion contains one microSD card slot, one SATA 2 (3 Gb/s) port, two USB host ports, one microUSB-B port, a serial (UART 0)...

I just got an E-Mail that .22 LR and other types of ammo are available. Sales are going fast and the Sportsmans Guide site keeps going down.

The Virginia Tea Party Patriots have invited me to speak before them along with the Executive Director of the Black American Leadership Alliance(BALA) and Congressmen Peter King on the dangers of amnesty. As a member of the BALA, I have committed myself to fighting against amnesty as we were lied to in 1986, when we were told it was a one time deal! The Pro-Amnesty Forces have been using all types of misleading tactics and bald-face lies to achieve their goal of open border and amnesty for all. The Pro-Amnesty are using every underhanded tactic to get the Senate Bill...

Following in the well-worn footsteps of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Blueprint for Federal Action on Illegal Guns, this week the Council on Foreign Relations released a memo urging the Obama administration to disregard the will of the American people and Congress and unilaterally enact a series of gun controls. Entitled, A Strategy to Reduce Gun Trafficking and Violence in the Americas, and written by CFR Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, Julia F. Sweig, the memo pins the ills of Central and South America on U.S. gun owners and urges the president to curb our rights to...

This is another “guest post” by The Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the State of Confusion Utopia. He was the first person of consequence to announce changes to the Bill of Rights enacted by President Obama and we are honored to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential Librul such as the Senator. He is a charter member of President Obama’s Go For It Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also justly proud of his expertise in the care and breeding of unicorns, for which his...

A new political dynasty might soon be joining the Kennedys, Clintons and Bushes: Duck Dynasty, that is. Some key Republican operatives are eager to woo one of the hit show's stars--Willie Robertson--to run for the seat given up by retiring Republican Rep. Rodney Alexander. Alexander, expressing frustration with divided government, is going to work in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's cabinet. He will leave at the end of September and a special election will be held to fill the open seat. He represents the 5th District, including Monroe, La., home to the group headed by Robertson, the game call and hunting...

A Brazilian-born researcher who runs minority health programs at a public university in Alabama has convinced the U.S. government to give her $1.5 million to help women quit smoking in her native country. A noble cause indeed, but likely not on the high list of the American taxpayers funding the project. Nevertheless, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s medical research agency, has given the Brazilian researcher, Isabel Scarinci, a five-year, $1.5 million grant to fund her international tobacco-control project. The goal is to better understand “women and their tobacco-related issues” in the South American country, especially in Scarinci’s...

GOP lawmaker: House has votes to impeach Obama ‘tomorrow’ By Blake Neff - 08/12/13 01:37 PM ET GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold (Texas) said House Republicans have enough votes to impeach President Obama, but warned the effort to remove him from office would be unsuccessful and could damage the country. “If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it,” Farenthold said at an Aug. 10 town-hall meeting. In a video of the event, Farenthold is shown responding to a constituent who asked if he would support an investigation...

Georgia Republicans are becoming increasingly worried that a divisive primary coupled with a strong Democratic candidate might lead to a loss of the Senate seat of retiring Saxbe Chambliss. The Hill: Recent polling shows the two candidates Republicans are most anxious about - Reps. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) - leading the pack. Whoever emerges from the clown-car primary, with seven candidates and counting, will face a candidate Democrats are high on in a state where shifting demographics benefit their party. "Gingrey has a history of making some gaffes, and Broun it seems like it's a gaffe every...

For a little sneak preview of where our ruling class’ obsession with amnesty for illegal aliens will lead us, take a look at what’s happening on the border right now. An astonishing surge of asylum seekers has literally overwhelmed U.S. Immigration in San Diego, forcing them to rent out hotel rooms to accommodate the overflow, while some aliens were “released to cities around the U.S.,” according to Fox News: Sources say one day last week, 200 border-crossers came through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry claiming asylum while and as many as 550 overflowed inside the processing center there and...

Police Monday in Houston were trying to determine why a man shot himself to death while in his wife's hospital room just hours after the woman gave birth. Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man, whose name hasn't been released, died Monday at another hospital.

Hall & Oates has never won a Grammy but the No. 1 selling duo of all time has won something else: hipster respect. Putting aside those shoulder pads for a moment, Daryl Hall and John Oates looked like hand-picked opposites: The lanky blond Hall called himself the "more flamboyant" one, while the shorter dark-haired Oates — with his distinctive 'stache — embraced his role as "worker bee." But their union came from no design, except by the music gods: The Temple University students met in an elevator, both trying to duck a gunfight that had broken out at the Adelphi...

When I first saw this story I didn't care enough to even consider a graphic about it...but then the MSM made a big deal and the liberal blogosphere started acting like their master (not naming names, just saying it rhymes with "sore holes") just let go of their leash....and now I'm annoyed.Hence this.