Free Republic

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Mitt Romney continued to drive a debt-oriented message here on Wednesday morning, extending his "prairie fire" of debt metaphor with the assistance of a prop. In a nod to the independent voters who pushed the Sunshine State into the Democratic column in 2008, Romney noted that both parties were responsible for pushing the debt to the "incomprehensible" levels – which were represented on a giant prop debt clock behind him. "There was another area during [President Obama's] campaign, he said he would focus on. You see, he was very critical of his predecessor for the debts...

Rep. James Clyburn, the House Democrat's third-ranking leader, said on MSNBC's Daily Rundown Monday that the question of legal recognition of marriage between same-sex couples should not be left to state laws, but instead ought to be decided at the national level, a position that puts him at odds with President Barack Obama.Clyburn told NBC's Chuck Todd, "If we consider this to be a civil right, and I do, I don't think civil rights ought to be left up to a state-by-state approach. I think we should have a national policy on this."

A Washington, DC, court has awarded $332 million in damages to an American-Jewish family whose 16-year-old son was killed in a 2006 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The court found Syria guilty of having supported the Palestinian terror group behind the attack and thus ordered Damascus to pay the damages. “It’s a great feeling. Justice was done for the terror victims,” said activist attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who heads Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center, Tuesday. The Israeli civil rights organization sues terror groups and their sponsors in courtrooms worldwide and helped the bereaved Wultz family in their legal struggle, which...

The European Central Bank has stopped monetary policy operations with some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalised, euro zone central bank sources said on Wednesday. The ECB declined to comment. The ECB only conducts its refinancing operations with solvent banks. With no access to ECB funds, the banks concerned must go to the Bank of Greece for emergency liquidity assistance (ELA).

WASHINGTON -- A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates - and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn't always show it. While differences still exist, the party is on the cusp of a generational shift in which the longtime foes of gay rights are replaced by younger party leaders who are more accepting. "It's an exponential change from a few years ago," said former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe. "It's happening, and it's going to continue to...

WFTV has confirmed that autopsy results show 17-year-old Trayvon Martin had injuries to his knuckles when he died. O’Mara wouldn't comment on the autopsy evidence, but WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said it's better for the defense than it is for the prosecution. WFTV has learned that the medical examiner found two injuries on Martin’s body: The fatal gunshot wound and broken skin on his knuckles. When you compare Trayvon’s non-fatal injury with Zimmerman's bloody head wounds, the autopsy evidence is better for the defense, Sheaffer said. “It goes along with Zimmerman's story that he acted in self-defense, because he...

The stunning repudiation of Sen. Richard Lugar's, R-Ind., bid for a seventh term has sent shock waves through Washington's internationalist lobby. A former Rhodes Scholar, Lugar has spent his career promoting a globalist agenda, since he succeeded the late Jesse Helms as the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. One day after Indiana Republicans handed Lugar his walking papers, an outfit called the Atlantic Council held a forum to promote the discredited Law of the Sea Treaty. As former Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Warner beamed their approval, Obama's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared that...

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has been considered America’s fastest growing sport, quickly becoming a national phenomenon. But a new economic study shows even NASCAR’s powerful engines haven’t been able to keep up with the Obama-era economy. The study, from the pro-market think tank Public Notice and Race Fans 4 Freedom, finds that the economic downturn of the last several years has directly affected how NASCAR fans watch and enjoy their sport. Since 2009, race attendance per year has fallen below 4 million people, and the number has been declining severely as the unemployment rate has...

Just two weeks ago, the battle for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska was between state Attorney General Jim Bruning and state Treasurer Don Stenburg. Neither inspired the growing base of conservative voters. They were, to be charitable, standard conservative-ish career politicians. Mama Grizzly Sarah Palin shook up the race with a late endorsement of state Senator Debby Fischer. It made all the difference. I follow politics very closely, yet I hadn't heard of the Fischer candidacy until Palin's endorsement. National tea party groups like FreedomWorks had put all their resources behind Stenburg, with nary a...

ATHENS, May 15, 2012 (AFP) - Some 700 million euros, equivalent to US $894 million, were withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday, President Carolos Papoulias said, warning that the situation would worsen in coming days. "During a telephone interview with the governor of the Bank of Greece, George Provopoulos, he informed me that the banks situation was very difficult ... and that the banking system was currently very weak," said the president in a transcript released Tuesday.

Audio and transcript at link. Also coverage by O'Reilly.

Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long. "All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va. Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover. "I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So...

The Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced it will drop health insurance coverage for students because the cost of the plan is expected to double under Obamacare. [...]The plan currently costs approximately $600 per year. However, Hernon said their health care provider informed them that under Obamacare, the policy would double in price to $1,200 and the following year it would triple. “We couldn’t believe the price (increase),” he told Fox News. “We had them go back and reconfirm it. They said it was dictated by coverage limits that were released by the Obama administration.” “At the end of the...

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning...

*snip* There are five crucial reasons for this: 1. Twitter is an equalizer in an eco-system where MSM types are no longer insulated in their bubble. We can now use Twitter to reach out to the media in order to challenge their biases, facts, lies, spin, and hypocrisy. The media is now accountable to their customers and you can bet this has an effect. Even the corrupt media types (which is most of them) are aware that these challenges posed on Twitter are potentially being tweeted and re-tweeted to thousands of readers. That's hard to ignore. 2. More and more...

Complete Title: The Soros Summit - Free Beacon exclusive: Inside the secret Miami meeting of George Soros’s liberal conspiracy ### A secretive network of left-wing billionaires and their political operatives descended on the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Miami over the weekend to discuss strategy for the coming elections. The location of the conference had been kept a closely guarded secret by the members and guests of Democracy Alliance (DA), a collection of ultra-wealthy liberal donors formed in 2005, and is reported here in a Washington Free Beacon exclusive. Attendees roamed the grounds at the 150-acre tropical resort on their way...

@ABC exclusive: medical report from morning after Zimmerman shot #Trayvonmartin. Show he had broken nose, swollen face blck eyes. 2 cuts 5:18 PM - 15 May 12via Twitter for BlackBerry®· For more on our exclusive new information on Zimmerman's medical report post shooting tune into @ABCWorldNews 5:19 PM - 15 May 12 via Twitter for BlackBerry®·

ST. PAUL, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After 15 years of taxpayer-funded abortions, Minnesotans have funded more than 58,000 abortions at a cost of over $18 million, according to a just-released report from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). Nearly all of these abortions have been elective. Since its successful 1995 challenge to Minnesota’s law that prohibited funding of most abortions, the state’s abortion industry has steadily increased its procedure numbers and revenue by marketing taxpayer-funded abortions to low-income women. Taxpayers now pay for 32.7 percent of all abortions performed in the state — the highest percentage ever. ......

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, has called for a hearing on the $2-billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that "policies are going to be derived out of what’s happened." Corker, who was a key participant in the debate over the 2010 financial reform law, said it was important for policymakers to get the facts about the situation and whether pending regulations would have prevented it.

Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist spoke about the use of drones for domestic spying last night. He blasted the idea: "A drone is a high-tech version of an old army. It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys but not in America. Yes you can say we have satellites, we have Google Street, we have everything else, but that is no reason to accept a society where you are always watched by the government. "I would predict the first guy who uses a second amendment weapon to bring a drone down who is hovering over his house...