Free Republic

DUBAI: The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaida urged Muslims to step up protests and kill more US diplomats in Muslim countries after a US-made film mocking the Prophet Muhammad which it said was another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam. "Whoever comes across America's ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar's descendants (Libyans), who killed the American ambassador," the group said, referring to Tuesday's attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi. "Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony," a statement posted...

A politician who leads with compromise is like a prizefighter who leads with his chin. If you’re in a real fight, you’re not going to last long. Some months ago, “compromise” was one of most popular words in political discourse. But the calls for compromise were suspiciously unidirectional. We were treated to portrayals of President Ronald Reagan as “the great compromiser” who, despite his professed intention to reduce marginal tax rates, actually “raised taxes 11 times.” Clearly this was a call to conservatives and Republicans, in the name of a man for whom they had great respect, to follow his...

<p>TAMPA, Fla. – Republican convention planners appear to have a surprise planned for those tuning in Thursday night. Buried deep in the convention schedule released Monday is a vague reference to a mystery speaker scheduled for the event’s final evening.</p>

If the experts agree on the existence and causes of climate change, why do some public opinion polls find that only about half or less than half of the American public is convinced that emissions from human activities bear responsibility? A small but vocal group has aggressively spread misinformation about the science, aiming to cast doubt on well-established findings and conclusions. Their goal is to create confusion and uncertainty, thereby preventing meaningful action to remedy the problem. The same strategy was used cynically for decades by the tobacco industry after research showed that cigarettes caused cancer. In fact, some of...

DOVER, Del. (CBS) – Three daycare employees were arrested on Monday for watching and encouraging toddlers to fight each other while under their care. According to Dover Police, three employees from the Hands of Our Future Daycare in Delaware were arrested after a cell phone video showed employees watching and encouraging two 3-year-olds fight each other. Tiana Harris, 19, Lisa Parker, 47, and Estefania Myers, 21, were charged with Assault, Endangering the Welfare of a Child, Reckless Endangering and Conspiracy for the incident, which occurred in March of 2012 and was captured on cell phone video.

Ask Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan how he became a conservative and he'll probably answer by citing a book. It might be Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Or perhaps he'll come up with Friedrich Hayek's "Road to Serfdom," or even Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative." All of these books are staples of the modern conservative canon, works with the reputed power to radicalize even the most tepid Republican. Over the last half-century, they have been vital to the conservative movement's success - and to liberalism's demise. We tend to think of the conservative influence in purely political terms: electing...

A threat to President Obama in the form of a burnt cat staked to a tree stump drew law enforcement officers from several city and federal agencies to a south Minneapolis park before dawn on Monday. The cat in Longfellow Park was staked with a handheld American flag on a small stick, according to a federal law enforcement official. Standing next to the cat was an Obama/Biden 2012 lawn sign, the official said. No arrests have been made. Obama's official schedule Monday shows him leaving Chicago for Omaha and then on to Boone, Iowa, about 230 miles south of Minneapolis....

It's been a week marked by mistakes, some new and some continuing. The pro-Obama Super PAC ad that essentially blames Mitt Romney for a woman's death from cancer is over the line, and if it's allowed to stand the personal attacks that have marked the presidential campaign will probably get worse. If the president rebukes the PAC and renounces the ad—and he should, and he'd look better doing it than not doing it—then we'll all know there's an ethical floor below which things can't sink. The ad was a mistake for a number of reasons, one being that it makes...

AURORA, Colo. – Police have a “person of interest” in custody in connection with the robbery of the Wells Fargo back at 15301 E. Hampden Avenue Saturday afternoon. Immediately following the robbery, police closed the intersection of Iliff and Buckley after reports the suspect might have taken hostages. According to our crew on the scene, police stopped and searched nearly two dozen cars. The adult occupants of the vehicles were handcuffed during the investigation.

The Republican National Committee had some strong talk about their chances next week in the Wisconsin recall and what a victory for Gov. Scott Walker would mean for their state’s going red in November. “Certainly [if] Wisconsin goes red, I think it’s lights out for Barack Obama,” said RNC Chairman and Wisconsinite Reince Priebus on Wednesday. This is on the heels of a new Marquette University Law School poll showing Walker over Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett by 7 points, 52% to 45%. Despite their tough talk, it’s not so cut and dry that a Walker win would automatically mean an...

Steven Cooksey says all he wanted to do was help other diabetics get healthy, but a North Carolina agency tried to censor his online healthy food advice column, saying he was not a licensed dietitian. Cooksey filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, saying the state violated his free speech rights. “When did it become illegal to tell people to eat meats and vegetables?” Cooksey said in an interview with The Associated Press. “How is it illegal to tell people not to eat grains? We’re talking about healthy eating. This is wrong.” The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition and several...

Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations. That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012...

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2012 — In one week, on Tuesday, June 5, Wisconsin voters go to the polls to decide if Republican Gov. Scott Walker will stay or be recalled. Once it looked like his goose was cooked. Angered when Walker eliminated most collective-bargaining rights for public employees to balance Wisconsin’s budget, 100,000 protestors took to the street for weeks. The battle pitted neighbors and families against one another, making Wisconsin one of the most polarized states in the country, and finally culminated in the petition drive to dump the Governor. 500,000 signatures were required to force a recall election...

Mitt Romney will officially clinch the Republican nomination for President when he secures the 1,144 delegates required to become the party's nominee in the Texas primary later tonight. Romney will also campaign today in two western battleground states, Colorado and Nevada. The former Governor will begin the day in the northwest Colorado town of Craig where he will hold a rally at Alice Pleasant Park and is scheduled to talk about the economy and energy policy. According to the Craig Daily Press, the owner of Deer Park Inn sent the Romney campaign a video called ”The Perfect Storm Over Craig,...

Facebook takes a lot of flack over its privacy issues, so it seems only fitting that the ever-watchful eye of China's media would inadvertently catch the company's famously private CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, out on vacation with his wife-to-be. The footage is from a documentary called Chinese Police which aired recently on China's CCTV network. However, the video makes no mention of Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who appear in the background during footage of police patrolling the streets of Shanghai. Although previous reports have shown paparazzi images of Zuckerberg sampling China back in March, this is the first video...

A prominent political scientist recently observed that "Wisconsin is a state in turmoil." Sadly, many objective observers of state politics from around the nation concur with University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato. It’s easy to see why. By summer, Wisconsin will have attempted to recall 15 state officials in a year. The number and frequency of these elections, the money spent, and the toxic rhetoric are all unprecedented in state and American history. In this polarized environment, Wisconsin cannot have a civil discussion about how to restore stability to state government. But, eventually, we will have to consider how to...

A recent Yale University study funded by the National Science Foundation found that those with opposing views on climate change don’t hold those views because of insufficient scientific understanding, but because of “opposing sets of cultural values.” To be specific, people have a rather solid foundation in science and mathematics, but they use scientific evidence to fit their cultural group’s values. In other words, global warming deniers aren’t stupid, they just want to fit in. “In effect, ordinary members of the public credit or dismiss scientific information on disputed issues based on whether the information strengthens or weakens their ties...

If polls are correct, the recall election that opponents hoped would rid the State Of Wisconsin from its present governor, Scott Walker, will end leaving Walker in office. Many analysts attribute Walker’s apparent success in overcoming this recall effort to the Big M — money. Millions of dollars have poured into Wisconsin from right-wing billionaires, money Walker has used to gain an advantage. He outspent recall advocates more than 10-1 before his recall opponent was even nominated and legally able to raise his own recall funding. It’s pretty clear to me, however, that money isn’t the only Big M explanation...

House lawmakers will consider an international proposal next week to give the United Nations more control over the Internet. The proposal is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, and would give the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet. It’s an unpopular idea with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and officials with the Obama administration have also criticized it. “We're quite concerned,” Larry Strickling, the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in an interview with The Hill earlier this year.

Lady Gaga has canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia over security concerns after Muslim hard-liners threatened violence if the pop diva went ahead with her "Born This Way Ball," promoters said Sunday. The Islamic Defenders Front said Lady Gaga's sexy clothes and provocative dance moves would corrupt youth in the world's most populous Muslim country. The group said supporters had bought tickets to the concert and planned to enter and force it to be stopped. It also threatened that thousands of protesters would confront the singer on her way from the airport. Police had said they would only issue the...