Free Republic

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's brutal five years of captivity by Taliban allies carried significant weight in an Army judge's decision to spare him prison time for leaving his post in Afghanistan in 2009, legal experts said. Criticism of Bergdahl by President Donald Trump also appeared to push the judge toward leniency. Army Col. Jeffery Nance didn't explain how he formulated the sentence that also included a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank and a fine. But the judge had to consider a complex array of arguments for and against leniency. Prosecutors asked for a 14-year prison sentence,...

The lead defense attorney for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said he wants him to receive the Prisoner of War medal. His civilian lawyer, Eugene Fidell, on Friday said his client should be recognized for the five years he spent in Taliban captivity after deserting his post in Afghanistan, according to an article by USA Today. "We have long felt he was entitled to the POW medal," Fidell said, the newspaper reported. It wasn't immediately clear whether Bergdahl's defense team plans to push for the award as part of the process to appeal his dishonorable discharge.

Two days after an attacker opened fire on concert goers in Las Vegas, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) announced he was shelving legislation to deregulate suppressors. -snip- Ryan has now shelved the Hearing Protection Act, which was introduced into Congress on January 9; it is the legislation containing suppressor deregulation. The Act does not legalize suppressors–as they are already legal–rather, it removes the burdensome process for acquiring them and erases the federal tax that must be paid in order to receive permission to posses one. House Speaker Paul Ryan says NRA-backed bill to ease regulations on gun silencers is shelved...

My column this week is a collection of personal comments. Read it as thoughts from a brother in the faith, not as teachings from an archbishop. Presidential campaigns typically hit full stride after Labor Day in an election year. But 2016 is a year in which two prominent Catholics – a sitting vice president, and the next vice presidential nominee of his party — both seem to publicly ignore or invent the content of their Catholic faith as they go along. And meanwhile, both candidates for the nation’s top residence, the White House, have astonishing flaws. This is depressing and...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he did not reach out to Tabitha Speer in the wake of his government's decision to apologize and compensate Omar Khadr. Speaking to reporters in Rhode Island after delivering the keynote speech at the National Governors Association conference on Friday, Trudeau also would not comment on reports former prime minister Stephen Harper called both Speer and wounded U.S. soldier Layne Morris after the settlement became public. "I did not reach out and I have no comment on what the former prime minister did," he said. Earlier this month, the federal government formally apologized to Canadian-born...

Bill O’Reilly apologized on Tuesday after he sparked backlash for calling Maxine Waters’ hair a “James Brown wig.” “As I have said many times, I respect Congresswoman Maxine Waters for being sincere in her beliefs,” O’Reilly said. “I said that again today on Fox & Friends calling her ‘old school.’ Unfortunately, I also made a jest about her hair which was dumb. I apologize.”

The coward occupant of the Oval Office is still welcoming unvetted Muslim terrorists into this country. And he just rejected the idea that those fleeing communism should be helped.

Headline of the Day Poll Why won't the FBI recommend charges over the Hillary emails? There has been no crime committed FBI Director Comey is a coward FBI Director Comey is corrupt Poll Location: http://www.headlineoftheday.com/#ixzz4PGapXK4B

A video of Silicon Valley princeling Gurbaksh Chahal assaulting his former girlfriend could finally land him in jail. The video is high quality, as might be expected of a surveillance camera in the penthouse bedroom of a high-tech princeling. The footage was so clear that San Francisco police were able to determine that Gurbaksh Chahal punched and kicked his girlfriend 117 times in 30 minutes. He also smothered her with a pillow for 20 seconds.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will finally speak in front of members of the press Friday, but only to black and latino journalists. Clinton is set to speak Friday in front of the a conference between the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at the Washington Marriott in Washington, DC.

One of the Orlando shooting survivors has admitted to locking an exit door, putting dozens of revelers' lives at risk during the massacre. The revelations about Luis Burbano's actions the night of the shooting have come to light after he gave an interview, saying he 'regrets' his second chance at life. When gunman Omar Mateen first started firing inside Orlando, Florida gay club Pulse around 2am on Sunday, Burbano says he dropped to the ground and then looked for an exit. Nearby, he saw people moving through a small 'employee's only' door hidden behind a curtain, and followed after. On...

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich moved quickly Wednesday night to quell a firestorm of criticism he received after news leaked that he was holding a fundraiser at his home for presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The event, which was scheduled for Thursday evening, was abruptly cancelled on Wednesday afternoon after an inquiry from the New York Times. But that didn’t stop a host of negative articles questioning why the CEO of one of the largest tech companies—and one co-founded and run for decades by proud immigrant Andy Grove—would be backing Trump.

Senior Hamas politburo official Mahmoud al-Zahar reignited the war of words between his terrorist organization and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which have long been bitter rivals. Hamas and Fatah have remained violently divided despite the unity deal sealed by Abbas in April 2014 when he torpedoed the US-led peace talks. In recent days - even as Egypt is leading talks in Cairo to try and unify the Palestinian factions - al-Zahar upped the ante on Hamas-Fatah tensions by slamming Fatah founder and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat for being a "coward" and fleeing a battle with Israel, before...

It’s always a sad day when someone you admire tremendously, who has entertained and challenged you for years lets you down and reveals themselves to really stand up only for themselves instead of the ideas of freedom they claim to support. Reason Magazine highlights some deeply discouraging remarks from Penn Jillette, the libertarian co-host of the extraordinarily great Showtime show “Penn and Teller’s Bullsh*t”: Are there any groups you won’t go after? We haven’t tackled Scientology because Showtime doesn’t want us to. Maybe they have deals with individual Scientologists—I’m not sure. And we haven’t tackled Islam because we have families.

Are there any groups you won't go after?We haven't tackled Scientology because Showtime doesn't want us to. Maybe they have deals with individual Scientologists—I'm not sure. And we haven't tackled Islam because we have families. Meaning, you won’t attack Islam because you’re afraid it’ll attack back ...Right, and I think the worst thing you can say about a group in a free society is that you’re afraid to talk about it—I can’t think of anything more horrific. [...]

I don’t speak for all Libertarians any more than Sean Penn speaks for all Democrats. I’m not even sure my LP membership card is up to date. I’ve voted Libertarian as long as I can remember but I don’t really remember much before the Clintons and the Bushes. Those clans made a lot of us bugnutty. When I go on Glenn’s show he calls me a Libertarian, I think that’s my only real credential. There are historical reasons and pragmatic reasons to be a Libertarian, but there are historic and pragmatic reasons to be a Democrat, a Republican or a...

The outspoken atheist Penn Jillette destroys the modernist Piers Morgan in a debate on Catholicism and the papacy.

Did Penn & Teller Set a World Record for Most Falsehoods in One Show? Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, has said, "Penn & Teller's Nazi-like assault on Catholicism that took place on August 27 will go down in history as one of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation." However, will the show also go down in history for airing the most number of lies, falsehoods, and misleading statements in a single half-hour show? Not counting credits, the guilty episode runs less than 26 minutes. Here's a lie-by-lie list of the falsehoods that Penn Jillette...

From Tommy Smothers.

Jillette: "I sat on TV, while my hero Tommy Smothers yelled in my face how pissed off he was at me for appearing on Glenn Beck. It broke my heart."