Free Republic

Today I went out into the field here in Chicago looking to talk to some of the striking teachers but no one in a red-shirt was anywhere to be found (or, if they were wearing one, they had nothing to do with the teachers’ union strike). A journalist friend of mine asked me to nose around and see if I could uncover anything about slain Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was rumored to be gay. A former “roommate” of Stevens by the name of Austin Tichenor lives and works in Chicago and while making calls to friends of mine in the...

A trend toward gushing about rather than analyzing political speeches was apparent during television coverage of the conventions even before CNN's Piers Morgan compared Bill Clinton to Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King Jr. Perhaps fueled by a pressure to stand out and a more partisan media, analysts frequently seemed star-struck by speakers and slipped into blurb-happy evaluations of the news in front of them. Morgan took to Twitter before former President Clinton's speech nominating President Barack Obama for a second term was even halfway through. "Already the best speech of either convention," the prime-time talk show host tweeted. "An...

Cast aside all fantasies of your house cat frolicking through flower-filled fields in the afternoon sun. When kitty scratches at the door begging to go outside, it's the killing hour. ... cats ate about 30 percent of their kills, brought home another 25 percent and left 49 percent of their prey to simply decay. So what are cats killing? Lizards, snakes and frogs (41 percent); chipmunks and vols (25 percent); insects and worms (20 percent) and, of course, birds (12 percent).

The economy has added more jobs than expected in each of the past three months, pushing down the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent and marking the best six-month streak of jobs numbers since 2008. But President Obama’s former economic adviser said today that this seemingly rosy economic picture probably won’t last. “I think the main thing that [President Obama] ought to worry anybody is that the growth rate is probably not as sustainable as at high a rate as it’s been, so the pace of expansion, which for six months has been pretty impressive, it may just slow down a...

ABC's Jonathan Karl Tuesday published a piece now prominently featured at the Drudge Report with a headline guaranteed to be the Obama-loving media's lead story concerning something Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich wrote over five years ago: "Gingrich ’06 Memo: 'Agree Entirely With Gov. Romney' on Health Care." Inside the actual document uncovered by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, the former Speaker didn't "agree entirely with Gov. Romney" at all (emphasis added):

A truck driver who won a $380,000 Lamborghini in a convenience store contest crashed the sports car six hours after he got it, and he now plans to sell the 640-horsepower convertible because he can't afford the insurance or taxes. "I already had offers on it. I'm going to sell it," David Dopp said Wednesday. "I have bills more important than a Lamborghini. I've got a family to support." Dopp, a 34-year-old truck driver for Frito-Lay, spun out of control just a few hours after taking the keys to the Murcielago Roadster that he won in a "Joe Schmo to...

Many in the media and some well-known politicians have characterized those demonstrating against Wall Street and big business as a spontaneous grass-roots movement similar in purpose to the tea party. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Let's start with the important differences. The tea party movement is universally consistent in its emphasis on the return to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and eager for the restoration of constitutional governance. The tea party protests are intended to bring attention to the unrestrained compulsion of our elected representatives toward boundless growth of the government and display a...

Russia: U.S. intelligence has apparently concluded that Moscow was behind last September's bombing of the U.S. Embassy in the nation of Georgia. But the Obama administration still thinks Russia is our friend. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the 1970s, President Carter celebrated America's liberation from its "inordinate fear of communism" and boasted after the 1979 Vienna Summit that "President Brezhnev and I developed a better sense of each other as leaders and as men." Less than six months later, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Today, President Obama takes Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Ray's...

Not there but @CBSNews producer on ground tells me #RollingThunder crowd pretty anti-media, very protective of @SarahPalinUSA7 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

MIAMI, Fla. – Are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal natural-born citizens of the United States, and thus eligible for the presidency? It's a simple question, but the answer may not be so easy. The next national election is less than 18 months away, and both rising Republican stars have been touted as potential contenders for either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot on a presidential ticket. But their eligibility is in doubt since both men's parents were not U.S. citizens at the time their future political children were born, WND can reveal. That...

White House: Revenge attacks for bin Laden death 'entirely possible' By Sam Youngman - 05/13/11 12:07 PM ET The White House said Friday that the U.S. intelligence community is "in a state of high vigilance" for revenge attacks after the killing of Osama bin Laden. White House press secretary Jay Carney responded to reports that more than 80 were killed in Pakistan Friday as a response to bin Laden's death by saying that it is "entirely possible, even likely" that terrorists "might try to respond with revenge attacks of some kind." The terrorist network al Qaeda has promised revenge for...

A respected economic expert is warning that a recession is definite by December and that U.S. stock prices are going to plunge, thanks to Federal Reserve strategies and the soaring price of crude. John Taylor, founder of the FX Concepts hedge fund and former vice president at Citibank, says the U.S. economic recovery has taken place thanks in large part to the Federal Reserve's money printing campaign, known as quantitative easing, which ends in June. "Recovery has never really gotten off the ground. It's all government stimulated," Taylor tells CNBC. "We'll be in a recession by the end of the...

Donald Trump believes the Koran teaches a “very negative vibe.” And, he’s also a Christian. That’s what he said during an interview with CBN’s David Brody that aired this morning on the “700 Club.” His comments, included below, were in response to Brody’s question about whether or not Trump has concerns about the Muslim holy book:

So it’s not all about the president’s birth certificate after all. It’s also the Koran. In an interview with CBN, Donald Trump reveals there’s a bit of a religious scholar under all that wonderful hair. Discussing the Muslim holy book, Trump says “The Koran is very interesting. A lot of people say it teaches love and there is a very big group of people who really understand the Koran far better than I do. I’m certainly not an expert to put it mildly, but there’s something there that teaches some very negative vibe.” Trump suggests that suicide bombings may be...

Potential Republican presidential contender Herman Cain is known for his straight-talking style and willingness to discuss issues other politicians dare not touch. In his latest interview with Christianity Today, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO opened up about his faith, his calling in life and his aspirations for political office. In blunt terms, Cain, a Christian, made no bones about his thoughts on the role of Muslims in modern American society and ... “God didn’t keep me here to go play golf, and relax, and take life easy,” he said, referring to his against-the-odds battle back against stage-4 cancer. “I believe...

Santorum is going to get a lot of heat for this. When the Islamic supremacist tools in the mainstream media challenge him on it, he should ask them if they think the death penalty for apostates, stoning for adultery, amputation of the hand for theft, the denial of the freedom of speech, and institutionalized second-class status for women and non-Muslims is not evil. They will then, following some smooth Islamic supremacist deceiver, claim that those things are not part of Sharia; Santorum should then challenge them to name one Muslim country that has ever implemented Sharia without implementing those measures,...

...and he filled tanks feeding the boat’s 200 horsepower Mercury engine with gas that had been blended with 10 percent ethanol. “I heard a station in Greenville had straight gas, but I just took it to the next one I could find. Within 10 minutes, my engine started failing,” Gray said. “(The ethanol) had crystallized and crumbled and had clogged my fuel line, and I had to tear out all of the fuel system.” Gray saved hundreds of dollars by repairing it himself, but his troubles with the motor are nothing new to marine shop owners, lawn mower mechanics and...

Republicans could relinquish a significant portion of the gains they made in the midterm elections if they "allow" the omnibus spending bill to pass, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday. The Arizona Republican said that Tea Party activists who helped the GOP make large inroads on Democrats are "enraged" about the $1.1 trillion measure to fund the government that contains nearly $8 billion in earmarks. "They gave us a second chance last November ... And if we Republicans allow this thing to go through, then I'm not sure they're going to give us another chance," McCain said during an interview with...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A relatively new state law bans registered sex offenders from using social networking websites like myspace and facebook, but prosecutors say it's rarely used in court. The law was enacted in December of 2008. Prosecutor Kelly Miller says the law is great idea, but difficult to enforce because registered sex offenders on probation typically use the internet in the privacy of their homes. They often use different screen names and don't have their pictures on the account. It often takes a court order for police to gain access to computer information needed to verify the account...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning