Free Republic

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a rare sight in Sacramento these days, but he occasionally finds time between hosting reality TV shows and crushing things with his tank for return visits to celebrate his legacy. A 10th-anniversary commemoration of Assembly Bill 32, which established California’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, marked one of those rare events. Schwarzenegger appeared Wednesday at the California Museum with Gov. Jerry Brown and other supporters of the landmark law he signed in 2006.

From the moment the segment opens, complete with the stereotypical "Oriental riff," you know this is not politically correct TV. But boy, does it go downhill quick. Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters has drawn swift outrage after the airing of his O'Reilly Factor segment on New York City Chinatown voters, with users on social media calling it "blatantly racist" and "nauseating."

A school has been criticised after punishing a whole cheerleading squad after a male student said he was distracted by their short skirts. The student at Timpview High School had “impure” thoughts after seeing the squad in their uniforms, People reports, and so his mother wrote to the school and complained. After the formal complaint was made, rather than helping the male student to deal with the thoughts, the Utah school’s administrators appear to have punished the whole cheerleading squad. Administrators told the cheerleading coach at the school, who told the 44-strong cheerleading squad that they should not wear their...

The FReeper Canteen presents.... October 7th, 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States military entered into a "War against global terrorism." The President began the US response in the War on Terrorism with the stroke of his pen to seize terrorists' financial assets and disrupt their fundraising network. Unlike most previous conflicts, this war was being fought on both domestic and foreign soil. Deployment of American troops to southwest Asia and countries surrounding Afghanistan came in the days following the attacks. The military response to...

The world’s biggest beer festival has recorded its lowest turnout for 15 years amid heightened security fears, while at the same time experiencing an increase in reported sex crimes. The Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany had around 5.6 million visitors this year, down 300,000 since last year and the lowest number since just after the September 11th 2001 terror attacks, according to FAZ. The drop in the number of attendees follows a series of attacks in the German state of Bavaria. In July, German-Iranian student David Ali Sonboly went on a shooting spree in Munich, killing nine people at a shopping...

I watched the entire debate and I believe Governor Pence won hands down. I also noticed some things that were said that requires some background commentary.

A minor bummer for Pence given his strong performance, but the ratings downturn from 2012 was probably inevitable. This was the first veep debate since 2000 to feature two politicians with low public profiles. In 2004 Cheney was the sitting VP; four years ago Biden was. In between, in 2008, you had massive public curiosity about Sarah Palin, producing the biggest audience for a vice presidential debate in history at 70 million people. Last night’s contest between Kaine and Pence drew barely half that. That’s what happens when you have two little-known vanilla candidates competing with the galaxy of cable...

Well, if there was one thing that was obvious, besides Gov. Mike Pence winning the vice presidential debate, it was that Sen. Tim Kaine had an appalling inability to shut the hell up. Pence won handily over Kaine, who often waffled as he tried to attack Trump—and place pressure on Pence to defend his running mate’s past remarks. Pence didn’t take the bait. Yet, it seemed as if every time Pence offered a contrary opinion, or his take on policy, Kaine interrupted him. It was pervasive. Then again, when you're defending Clinton, one might have to interrupt often in the...

Did Pence Fail Trump in Debate? Hell No!

During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, pro-abortion vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine made the claim that pro-life laws banning abortions prior to Roe v Wade punished women. It turns out that’s not true. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Kaine made the claim that states could pass criminal laws to punish women if they decided to have an abortion and indicated abortion bans prior to Roe did just that.“Governor Pence wants to repeal Roe versus Wade. He said he wants to put it on the ash heap of history, and our young people in the audience were not even born when Roe was decided....

Justice Clarence Thomas, the second black man to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, is practically absent from the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Human bones recently found in Napa County were positively identified as two missing Santa Rosa brothers, who investigators believe were killed when they became trapped in the Butts Fire that ravaged Pope Valley in 2014. The brothers — Mario and Florentino Avendano — were first reported missing by their family members in January 2015, seven months after the Butts Fire erupted northwest of Lake Berryessa.

Juanita Broaddrick, who accused former President Bill Clinton of assaulting her nearly four decades ago, said this week that Hillary Clinton needed to be held accountable for the comments she’d made about the women who had accused her husband of sexual misconduct. “It’s degradable . . . she needs to be held accountable for all of the things she did to us,” Broaddrick told AM560 “The Answer” hosts Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson for Upstream Ideas. Broaddrick, a former Arkansas nursing home administrator who worked on Bill Clinton’s gubernatorial campaign and supports Donald Trump this year, said she’d decided to...

The Left is relentless in its attempt to nail the label of “fascist” to those on the right side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump being the most recent victim of this deceitful tactic. In truth, it is the massive increase in regulations and cronyism brought about by the progressive Left, that has the U.S. more and more resembling an actual fascist state. Anyone wishing to experience this on a macro scale need only attempt doing business in California. Take just one industry as an example: construction, and one small sub-section within it: electrical -- the industry in which I...

Recently, Occidental College made headlines because some of its students posted support for the defiling of a campus 9/11 memorial. Coalition Oxy for Diversity and Equity (CODE) members wrote on Facebook: As students of color, this symbol of the American flag is particularly triggering for many different reasons. For us, this flag is a symbol of institutionalized violence (genocide, rape, slavery, colonialism, etc.) against people of color, domestically as well as globally… Historically, the American flag and subsequent American nationalist symbols, have been polarizing and marginalizing to people of color living within the United States. This has been most recently...

Five Chaplains Lose Jobs for Praying 'In Jesus' Name' ... Virginia Governor Tim Kaine Urged to Stop Persecuting Christians Contact: Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, 719-360-5132 cell, chaplaingate@yahoo.com RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name." Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty single-handedly created then enforced a strict "non-sectarian" prayer policy at all public gatherings, censoring and excluding Christian prayers, then accepted the resignation of five chaplains who refused to deny Jesus or violate their conscience...

The media are saying that it’s okay for them to abandon their “impartiality”, as though anyone believed they ever were, because Trump is such an abnormal candidate. That Trump is so horrible that no matter what illegalities Hillary has committed or how frail her health may be, she’s better than Trump. As a proud former member of #NeverTrunp I have no problem saying that Trump is a far more normal presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton. Like most previous presidential candidates, Trump actually likes America and Americans. After eight years of Obama, many Americans have forgotten what it’s like to have...

In a recent interview on the Politico podcast "Off Message," SNL's Weekend Update co-hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost defended Donald Trump, saying he's "super smart" and "super hardworking," and implying he doesn't deserve all the negative attention he gets. Che also said, "Let's not pretend that this guy is a mutant, you know, and he's the most evil, racist, mutant piece of crap that ever walked. Listen, there's probably somebody in your building way worse than Donald Trump, and you buy bagels from him, and it's fine." The argument that there are "worse" racists is blatantly stupid. None of...

The seemingly endless and sweltering Philadelphia summer was finally coming to an end. It is the 17th of September 1787 and for nearly four months delegates from twelve of the thirteen states, after many compromises and at times virulent disagreements, consented to what would become the Constitution of the United States of America. At the signing ceremony Ben Franklin gave an emotional speech using an anecdote involving a sun that was painted on the back of George Washington’s Presidents Chair. As recounted in James Madison’s notes: Whilst the last members were signing it Doctor Franklin looking towards the Presidents Chair,...

Shocking footage has emerged of bystanders laughing at a married couple as they fall unconscious after overdosing on heroin. The concerning video of the pair, taken in broad daylight in Memphis, Tennessee, was posted on Facebook Live by Courtland Garner on Monday and quickly went viral. It shows the husband and wife writhing on the floor after snorting the drug in the bathroom of a nearby Walgreens - while the crowd stands back and does nothing. Paramedics eventually arrived on the scene and revived Carla Hiers, 59, and her partner, who are both long-time drug addicts. The video is yet...

After the Drug Enforcement Administration announced an "emergency" ban on kratom at the end of August, a spokesman for the agency said "our goal is to make sure this is available." The spokesman, Melvin Patterson, also told The Washington Post kratom does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the law's most restrictive category, even though that is where the DEA had just put it. Patterson added that kratom, which the DEA says has "no currently accepted medical use," is "at a point where it needs to be recognized as medicine." Confused? You're not alone. The DEA's...

The U.S. government will, beginning this week, pay for soldiers to undergo treatment and surgery for gender reassignment. The policy, which was first announced in June, applies to active duty soldiers who have received approval for gender reassignment from a military physician and from their commanding officers, according to the Department of Defense. The military health program will cover therapy and hormone treatments along with surgery for approved service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The policy does not yet extend to military dependents.

PARIS -- Why has real democracy become so elusive in developed nations? Sure, you can still vote and feel as if you have some kind of say, but genuine democracy is getting further and further out of reach. The current climate in Europe should serve as a warning to America about what lies ahead if U.S. citizens don't reclaim power by choosing the anti-establishment candidate, Donald Trump, in November's presidential election. Hungary held a referendum last weekend on whether to allow the European Union to impose migrant quotas on the country in an effort to resettle millions of refugees from...

Twelve years ago, John Perkins published his book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.” Today, he says “things have just gotten so much worse.” ___ Twelve years ago, John Perkins published his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and it rapidly rose up The New York Times’ best-seller list. In it, Perkins describes his career convincing heads of state to adopt economic policies that impoverished their countries and undermined democratic institutions. These policies helped to enrich tiny, local elite groups while padding the pockets of U.S.-based transnational corporations. Perkins was recruited, he says, by the National Security Agency (NSA),...

I previously wrote a column stating that there was no reason precluding Trump from releasing his returns because of an ongoing audit. What I did not address is whether he should release his returns. The press commentary since, culminating in The New York Times column released Saturday night in time for the Sunday news shows, displays the media’s complete ignorance regarding taxes and their willingness to use it to destroy Trump in any manner. Unless you have been under a rock, you know The New York Times was somehow delivered three pages from Trump’s 1995 tax return showing a loss...

It isn’t cheap to get on Hillary Clinton’s good side, but if you’ve got enough money to make a million-dollar donation to the Clinton Foundation, you are set. Say goodbye to federal regulations or bureaucratic red tape. Make a donation, get on Hillary’s good side, and you are in. This is pay-to-play, and it goes against every ethics standard in the book. No wonder Hillary Clinton lives by it. In his new book, Guilty as Sin, Ed Klein exposes Hillary’s pay-to-play scandals and how she turned the Clinton Foundation into a subsidiary of the State Department. It didn’t take too...

A 25-year-old woman three years out of college earns a modest, but livable, salary in a professional position where she oversees the work of several other young people. She works eight-to-ten hours every weekday -- then goes home and takes a three-mile walk. When she is walking, she sometimes thinks about her job and how she can make those she supervises more productive. One night on her walk, she has a brilliant idea, which she starts implementing at work the next day. This idea makes the jobs of her subordinates easier, more enjoyable and more productive. It makes the family-owned...

Following the shooting at Umpqua Community College, the reactions have been, as they always are, predictable. It comes from all sources: guns bans, mental health screenings, article after article telling us what we can do to fix the horrors of gun violence, school shootings and troubled young people shooting up their communities. But there are a few things everyone could stand to learn about gun violence. 1. The Homicide Rate in the US Is At Its Lowest Since 1966.

AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke... it is time for... that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-The-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him — do NOT doubt him — with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name (that’s Rush, for those in Rio...

Weather Channel Meteorologist Jen Delgado is facing sharp criticism and some are asking for her to be fired after she blamed Haiti's deforestation in part to hungry children eating trees. In a weather report as Hurricane Matthew prepared to make landfall in Haiti, Delgado noted that Haiti suffers from a deforestation problem. "They take all the trees down, they burn the trees," and she continued with a curious claim, "Even the kids there, they're so hungry, they actually eat the trees."

I wanted to speak with this Baltimore Ravens tight end after his faith-based Facebook post on Ferguson unrest went viral ("ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem"). As he recuperated from injury we were able to discuss his book, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race--and Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

What would you think of an individual or a company that earned a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in one year, paid nothing in taxes and still received a $3.5 million refund? Am I speaking of Donald Trump? No, it is The New York Times Company. Forbes magazine studied the newspaper's 2014 annual report, in which the company explained: "The effective tax rate for 2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations." In other words the Times took advantage of tax laws...

Author Pamela Olson gave a talk in the Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall on Tuesday night to discuss her book, “Fast Times in Palestine: A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland”. The event was hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine and coordinated by UMass’ Leila Aruri. It featured a narrative slideshow, a Q&A session, and book signing... In the slides that followed, Olson described the grim reality of what she described as “the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” “You have about 500 checkpoints and roadblocks that cut through the heart of Palestinian land. This land, continuously being built on by...

If one were to count how many times in the last 40 years Congress has passed -- on time -- all the appropriation bills necessary to keep the government running and avoid a government “shutdown,” you would need but one hand. Only four times in four decades (1976, 1988, 1994, and 1996) didCongress successfully manage to complete the task for which the Constitution grants it exclusive power – appropriating the monies needed to fund all federal agencies and programs. This inability or unwillingness to do its job speaks volumes about the lack of leadership and resolve by what our Founders...

American media has been swarming for interviews with the captain of a freighter docked in Saint John, after his crew performed a stunning rescue more than 200 kilometres off Cape Cod. "I decided it must be trouble," said Capt. Zhao Hengdong, waving his arms over his head in a show of distress. He said that was how 22-year-old Nathan Carman first appeared to his crew members, while trying to get their attention. He was in a rubber life raft that kept him alive for eight days while he drifted at sea. Carman would later tell the U.S. Coast Guard that...

On Oct. 2, The New York Times published an admittedly "fragmentary" front-page story about Donald Trump's taxes. Just three pages were cited: the first page of the state tax returns Trump filed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in 1995. The Times reported that Trump claimed a $916 million loss, which could -- emphasis on "could" -- have allowed him to avoid paying federal taxes for "up to 18 years." The story was stuffed with speculation about what Trump may have potentially done. The Times was typically harsh in tone. The tax records "reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that...

As a young man, President Barack Obama made a trip to his father’s homeland in Kenya with his soon-to-be wife Michelle to meet much of his family for the first time after the death of his father. The trip took place in 1990, but video footage of the trip was only just uncovered by the research site WeSearchr. The footage, shot by Obama’s sister Auma, is a documentary made, apparently, to record Barack’s trip to meet his family. The footage includes the future president giving his grandmother, whom he’d never met before, a sweater, and many never-before-seen interviews. Obama describes...

The U.S. Navy’s decision to scrap its 240-year-old enlisted ranking system has roiled service members and prompted tens of thousands of dissenters to petition the White House to reverse the change. The Navy announced last Thursday that it would do away with its 91 enlisted ratings titles, unveiling new rules under which sailors are no longer identified by their job title and are instead subject to job classification similar to the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The decision ignited immediate backlash on social media and led over 47,000 critics to petition President Obama to restore the retired enlisted ranking...

As the vice presidential contest between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine began, Trump sent a rare compliment his opponents' way. Both are looking good! Now we begin!' he wrote. Then he started hailing his running mate and trashing Kaine. Pence 'is doing a great job - so far, no contest!' Trump wrote. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump live-tweeted the only vice presidential debate while his running mate fended off attacks on stage. Pence struggled at times to fend off frequent interruptions by Kaine who asked him repeatedly to defend Trump's comments.

...what a rude jerk you are. If the best casting director in Hollywood went in search of the perfect actor to play a typical know-it-all, smug, smarmy liberal to represent the Democratic Party on the vice presidential debate stage Tuesday night, he could not possibly have made a better selection than Tim Kaine. This was my first opportunity to see this potential president-in-waiting in action, and all I can say is that this sneering motor-mouth, who immediately began a pattern of repetitive and, I believe, intentional interruptions of his opponent and continued it as long as the moderator would let...

The feud between Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hit a boiling point when [she} accused the billionaire of sexism. Trump took to Twitter to slam Bill Clinton for his former sex scandals and had a “penchant for sexism." Here’s a run down: Eileen Wellstone allegedly was sexually assaulted by a 23-year old Bill Clinton at a pub near Oxford University. He admitted to the encounter, but claimed it was consensual. Nonetheless, he ended up leaving the school a year after the incident without a degree. According to Capitol Hill Blue, while he was dating Hillary at Yale University,...

State police raided the offices of Indiana’s largest voter registration operation Tuesday morning, a dramatic step in a fast-developing investigation that police say is about voter fraud and election activists say amounts to a Republican-backed attack on access to the ballot in the Hoosier state. According to organizers, nearly a dozen police entered the Indianapolis offices of the Indiana Voter Registration Project (IVRP) with a search warrant and seized multiple computers, the personal cellphones of employees and paperwork relating to the group’s get-out-the-vote operations in the state. The group alleges that police told a worker she was not allowed to...

I was invited, along with several other American professors, to deliver lectures at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1979. Pieter Willem Botha was the prime minister, and apartheid, though becoming a bit relaxed, was the law of the land. Under apartheid, intermarriage between blacks, coloureds and Indians on the one hand and whites was prohibited. There was the Group Areas Act, which determined where different races could live. In addition to many other racially discriminatory laws, there were job reservation laws that determined who could hold what jobs by race. My lecture sought to produce the...

The 25-year-old woman was punched by the stranger in an unprovoked attack as she waited to cross the road in Clapham, London. The man can be seen running towards her, striking her on the side of the head and running across the street as the woman stumbles away from him. She received minor injuries from the assault and managed to flag down police officers who searched the area but were unable to find the attacker.

Asked on a TV show to name a foreign leader he admires, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson choked. He couldn't produce a name. He said he had "a brain freeze." The media pounced. "Unable to name a foreign leader," sneered NPR. "Cannot name one," echoed USA Today. But that's just unfair. Johnson wasn't asked to name a foreign leader. MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked him to name one he admires. Why should he admire any of them? Johnson should have dismissed the question outright for its pro-government bias. Why presume that everyone should venerate "leaders"? If we're free, we...

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Colonial Media and Entertainment, which runs 100.1 FM and ESPNFayetteville.com, announced Tuesday that they will not air the East Carolina football game against South Florida on Saturday after the actions of some of the marching band's members. Almost 20 members of the Marching Pirates took a knee during the national anthem before UCF game as a form of protest. Some played their instruments, some did not. Many in the stands booed the band during the anthem and during their halftime performance. Company chairman/CEO Jeff Andrulonis for 100.1 FM said in a statement that the band members "disgraced...

Migrant families from camps in Greece and Turkey say they feel “cheated” to have been resettled in Lithuania, where benefits are lower than in Germany. One family is now looking into filing a complaint with the United Nations (UN). Despite families’ initially expressing gratitude to the Baltic state which offered them asylum, many have fled to richer countries, blasting asylum agencies for “deceiving” them by giving the impression that Lithuania is a “Class A” nation similar to Sweden and Germany.

It is a story of war between two nations, the conflict of love rivals and the looming fate of death. But the antagonistic themes of Aida seem to have spilled into the wings after a student production of the musical Aida was cancelled amid a row over suggestions of “cultural appropriation”. A theatre at the University of Bristol said yesterday it had cancelled all showings after a revolt by students.

Satellite footage suggests that the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Un has begun development of a massive new submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles further potentially threatening the US, reports the Telegraph.

"It could all come down to Colorado." That's the latest conventional wisdom from presidential poll watchers. But it may not be legal American citizens in my adopted home state who choose the next commander in chief. Instead, it could very well be foreign noncitizens voting illegally in the Rocky Mountains -- and in other crucial swing states -- who seal our country's fate. Former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler identified nearly 5,000 noncitizens in Colorado who voted in the 2010 general election. Gessler's office uncovered upwards of 12,000 noncitizens registered to vote. Liberal groups who oppose stronger election system...