Free Republic

Glenn Beck predicted on his radio show Wednesday that the addition of Breitbart Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign would lead to “an absolute bloodbath.” Beck described Bannon, who took a leave of absence from Breitbart News to lead Trump’s campaign, as a “dangerous hatchet man” and “possibly the most dangerous guy in all of American politics.” The Blaze founder regularly touts his self-proclaimed skills as a prognosticator, urging his listeners to heed his often dire predictions. His latest augury is no different. “Look at the people that [Trump] has surrounded himself with,” Beck said....

Late at night this month, the pastor’s phone beeped with a text message from an anguished parishioner. Andre Taylor, the church member’s great-nephew, had been shot and killed. “Dre had just turned 16,” the message on the Rev. Ira Acree’s phone read. “I think that it’s time to call for action and solicit help, have the National Guard to take over and patrol the Chicago streets.” Four days earlier, another text had appeared. A different parishioner’s granddaughter, Daysha Wright, a 21-year-old nursing student, had been shot to death in a car, leaving a 2-year-old son. At his desk at Greater...

How did life on Earth begin? It's been one of modern biology's greatest mysteries: How did the chemical soup that existed on the early Earth lead to the complex molecules needed to create living, breathing organisms? Now, researchers say they've found the missing link. Between 4.6 billion and 4.0 billion years ago, there was probably no life on Earth. The planet's surface was at first molten and even as it cooled, it was getting pulverized by asteroids and comets. All that existed were simple chemicals. But about 3.8 billion years ago, the bombardment stopped, and life arose. Most scientists think...

Forty-four people were shot over the last three days in a bloody epidemic sweeping Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. Yet CBS has, thus far, ignored the crime wave. In contrast, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning on Tuesday both briefly covered the violence in the city run by Barack Obama’s former chief of staff. […] Even though CBS allowed no time for tragic news out of Chicago, the network’s morning show devoted four minutes to a possible maple syrup shortage. …

Barack Obama issued a statement today on the bloodbath in Egypt. Over 400 people have been killed, Christian churches have been torched, and thousands were injured in clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military government. Obama compared the Egyptian bloodbath with Sharia-supporting thugs to the United States. “Countries that are transitioned out of a military government towards a democratic government and it did not always go in a straight line and the process went smooth. Um. There are going to be false starts. There will be difficult days. America’s democratic journey took us through some mighty struggles to perfect...

This is a transcript from a meeting between Mormon church historians and some rather intelligent "disaffected Swedish LDS Saints." Once you get past the greetings and enter the question and answer phase, it basically transforms into a bloodbath for the official "church historians." Quite embarrassing and breathtaking for the LDS. One of the interesting things that came out from this exchange was, unlike most LDS, the Mormon defenders from the LDS History department admitted that Joseph Smith was guilty of polyandry. (Marrying women still married to righteous Mormon men.) Their response was not a response, but basically saying that "times...

One man has been arrested on suspicion of decapitating a referee at an amateur football match in Brazil. The referee was supposedly quartered and then had his head cut off before it was stuck on a stake. This shocking act of violence was in retaliation after he “stabbed” one of the players on the pitch in the Pius XII stadium, Maranhao. …

On the last day of testimony before the prosecution rests in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, a former worker at Gosnell’s clinic testified that she saw one late-term baby who survived an abortion “swimming” in a toilet and “trying to get out.” Kareema Cross, a “medical assistant” who worked at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society clinic for four-and-a-half years, testified in a Philadelphia court today, telling of the horrors of babies who survived abortions only to have their necks snipped with scissors. “Did you ever see those babies move?” asked Prosecutor Joanne Pescatore. “Yes, once in the toilet,” said...

Republicans are having a bad day. But it’s going to get a lot worse when they look beyond the White House and U.S. Senate and fully absorb what just happened in California. The future of American politics — a majority-minority coalition handing complete political power over all branches of government to Democrats — is written here for anyone to see, in big, bold, rainbow colored letters. California, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, may have delivered the most unexpected news in a night full of surprises: California Democrats appear to have picked up a supermajority in both houses of the state...

Egypt has enough foreign exchange on hand to cover six weeks’ of its imports (US$7.8 billion in liquid reserves, against a $5.5 billion monthly import bill). It would have run out of cash in June except for emergency loans from Saudi Arabia, which backs the Egyptian military but abhors the Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won Egypt’s presidential election last month. Total reserves are listed at $15 billion, but this includes gold, International Monetary Fund (IMF) drawing rights and other non-liquid items. The economic context is necessary to make sense of Egypt’s politics: it points to an important conclusion,...

Would there have been fewer victims? Was there an opportunity to stop the shooter?

Will Redistricting Be a Bloodbath for Democrats?Republicans See Historic Victories; Gain Control of At Least 19 Democratic-Held State Legislatures By HUMA KHAN Nov. 4, 2010 Republicans gained a historic edge over Democrats in state legislature elections that will have national implications for years to come. State legislatures in 44 states are responsible for one of the most important political processes: drawing district boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives. In a process that usually triggers partisan bickering, the reigning party usually has the upper hand, especially if the governor is also from the same party and cannot veto the legislature's...

President Barack Obama will assume some responsibility for voters' frustrations that boiled up in elections that cost Democrats dearly. A person familiar with the president's thinking says Obama at a White House news conference Wednesday won't be defiant, and will address the message sent by voters. The White House sees that message as a call for lawmakers to put partisanship aside and solve the problems facing the country. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president. Republicans scored sweeping victories in Tuesday's midterm elections to take a commanding majority in the House...

The point that many people seem to be missing in the Florida Senate saga is that this whole mess actually has very little to do with Rep. Kendrick Meek or the Sunshine State -- it's all about a much broader fear among senior Democrats that they may be about to lose control of the chamber.SNIP The real story is how bad the broader electoral map has gotten for Democrats heading into the final weekend of this midterm election: Top Democratic officials privately say they believe they are going to lose the House, but as they survey the country they are...

With the past few days given over to Democratic triumphalism, the reality is that the big picture remains roughly the same for Democrats. In Ohio, it's getting so bad for Democrats that the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are actively weighing their level of commitment.Public and private polling from the state suggests that Democrats will lose the governor's mansion, currently held by Ted Strickland, the Senate race (for an open seat that was held by a Republican), and at least four House races (OH 01, OH 15, OH 13, OH 16)....

Not a typo. I've been harping on my 1994-is-roughly-the-median-result for Republicans this cycle theme for most of the year. The latest SurveyUSA poll of Virginia's Fifth Congressional is more than consistent with this theory. SurveyUSA shows Republican Rob Hurt leading Freshman Democrat Tom Perriello by an astonishing 58%-35% margin. Now, Perriello was something of a surprise winner in 2008, and it was assumed that he'd have a tough race. But his district is "only" R+5, Obama almost carried it, and it is much more heavily Democratic at the local level. There are 41 Democrats in districts with more Republican PVIs....

A correspondent writes: I’m just in need of a helping hand from you, because I’m in the middle of a debate with a muslim friend. While we’re in the middle of discussion, he happen to addressed me with a question that blew me away, because I don’t have any idea on how I could tackle his question. This is what he said, “Could you also tell me that there are hundreds of Gospels, then how come only four made it through the New Testament?” I know that the “Books or Gospels” contained in the New Testament are all inspired by...

(Article in Spanish) My translation: The first violent incident of this day was discovered outside the Aristos Bar in the Historic Center of the city. Eight people were found dead there. None have been identified but it is believed that five were minors. The second incident occurred in the streets of the Bellavista township, where two men and a woman they were accompanying were attacked in their turn. The victims, identified as José Ángel Torres Ávila and Iván Gabriel Rodríguez Torres, both about 30 years old, and Ana Lourdes Sánchez, 31, were found dead in their sand colored 1996 Cadillac...

There Will Be Blood (White House Edition) ... My sense is that there will be a few minor departures in the first half of 2010 but that the president will wait until after the mid-terms to make major changes. One likely scenario: Democratic majorities in Congress shrink dramatically in November, Obama decides to lower the partisan temperature and replaces Rahm Emanuel with someone better positioned to cut deals with Republicans (in the mold of Tom Daschle). Cabinet Unmaking The safest bet I will make here is which Cabinet secretary will be first to go... Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was the...

Obama's Fury At Baghdad Bloodbath The ministry of justice was one of the targets US President Barack Obama has led international condemnation of Sunday's double suicide bomb attack in Baghdad that killed at least 132 people. Mr Obama branded the attacks - the worst in more than two years in Iraq - "hateful and destructive". UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said they were a "terrible reminder of the threat from violent extremism". The blasts hit the ministry of justice and a provincial government office near the heavily fortified Green Zone. Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC News, Baghdad Sunday's blasts present a problem...