Free Republic

2016 GOP candidate Donald Trump joins Morning Joe to discuss the state of his campaign, his opponents and why he's never getting out of the race. Duration: 11:13

A Texas high school marching band is facing criticism for a halftime performance that featured someone dressed like Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney getting assaulted.

(CNSNews.com) - Only in Washington, D.C.—home of a federal government that has dramatically increased its spending as a share of the U.S. economy over the last three years—did a majority of the people say they believe the economy was getting better not worse in the first half of this year, according to a survey released today by Gallup. In not one state did more than 41 percent of those surveyed tell Gallup they believed the economy was getting better. From January through June, Gallup asked 87,634 American adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia this question: “Right...

New Hampshire Democrats conceded a dramatic loss of power to a Republican insurgency last November. Now another group is coming to terms with its sidelining. Moderate Republicans, the practical-minded mainstay of the state’s venerable GOP, have watched in dismay as conservative legislators have proposed restricting state education funding to English, math, science, social studies, and physical education and urged that officials no longer “bear faith and true allegiance’’ to the United States and New Hampshire, but rather, only to New Hampshire. With the recent ascension of Tea Party activist Jack Kimball to head the state Republican Party, many moderates now...

A daughter to one of the royal families in the Persian Gulf is in Israel undergoing a complicated heart operation, according to Knesset Member Ayoub Kara. The royal patient insisted on undergoing the procedure here - after her doctors recommended one of Israel's leading hospitals as the best place to undergo the operation. For security and other reasons, the name of the hospital has not been published. MK Kara said he was contacted by a Druze doctor who has been working in Europe for decades, along with the head of a well-known European medical center, and was asked if he...

Americans with children aged 18 years or younger are less likely to exercise and more likely to be overweight or obese, according to a new report. The findings are based on more than 59,000 interviews with Americans, aged 18 to 50, from January to June 2010, conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Participants were asked "In the last seven days, on how many days did you exercise for 30 or more minutes?" The impact on exercise was most pronounced for those with very young kids, aged 0 to 4. About 28 percent of parents in this group said...

Getting ready for tomorrow's Christmas meal got me thinking about Christmases-past My son is doing really well in Boston and HIS new Christmas tradition is to bring the 'beef' for dinner: 3+ pounds of Prime Filet Mignon @ $36 a pound. He wants a Bernaise Sauce;he gets a Bernaise sauce. I was thinking about where I spent Christmases in the early 50's to 1960 when I met and married my lovely wife. Such haute cuisine dineries as Commanders in New Orleans eating the cheapest shrimp on the menu; the charming NAHA Hotel in Okinawa, home of the world's finest seaweed...

A powerful new film, The Stoning of Soraya M., is calling public attention to the Islamic practice of stoning adulterers in a way that only Hollywood can; while at least eight women await death by stoning in Iran today, none of their cases have drawn any significant protests from human rights organizations, and Western governments have remained largely indifferent. With a genocidally inclined nuclear Iran looming on the international stage, the victimization of women by Islamic laws prescribing stoning for adultery and other sexual crimes may seem to be the least of our worries. The Stoning of Soraya M., however,...

Reporting from Washington — In the short time Americans have come to know their new first family, they've learned that the president doesn't want a puppy sleeping on his bed, the girls hate green veggies but at least one loves peanut butter, and the first lady believes her husband should stay out of her closet. Like a reality show set on the glorified soundstage at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the details of one family's life have captivated the country -- if not the world -- making the Obamas seem within reach, an ordinary family that just happens to be living an...

Barack Hussein Obama is becoming less mystery messiah and more false prophet. Change? Hope? Give me a break. Even the Liberal press can't hide his specific positions and curious associations anymore. Hillary's stance that Barack is unelectable is gaining credibility as his disturbing anti-US guilt ridden beliefs are revealed. Too bad for her, but it's too late. Barring a miracle Barack will be his party's nominee. But now the electorate needs to examine Barack's positions. Some drink from the fountain of knowledge. Idiots gargle and spit. Jimmy Carter Move-On over! Obama must have crammed for his run watching old Carter...

Enough is enough. This poster is opposed mostly, to government mandates. But it's time for a government mandate to topple the applecart which is driving gas and oil prices ever-skyward. Overdue in fact. Time for Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians in our government to agree we cannot continue to send our national wealth to terrorists and communists - and simply decide that beginning in 2010, all new autos sold in America, must include some form of a "flex fuel" option. This will present escalating fuel costs the one thing, which will in fact solve the problem: COMPETITION.

(AP) OAKLAND University of California executives are still getting additional compensation despite withering criticism from lawmakers and others. Officials of the 10-campus system came under fire when it was revealed they had quietly been paying executives millions above their reported salaries. Since then, administrators have overhauled their system to make sure the decisions are made publicly and with the proper authority, but they haven't stopped the extra compensation. UC officials say they have to make the exceptions to stay competitive in the job market. In the 15 months following the revelations, first reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, more than...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.N. force in Lebanon will soon receive the first real boost in weapons and manpower: one battalion each of Italian and French troops with heavy armor, including tanks and artillery, officials said Thursday. Nearly 1,000 Italian soldiers are due in the war-battered southern port of Tyre on Saturday, the largest addition yet to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, spokesman Alexander Ivanko told The Associated Press. So far, only 250 extra French troops have arrived since a Security Council resolution promising an expanded U.N. force halted a month of fierce clashes between Israel and...

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2006 – The Armed Services YMCA is sending servicemembers free CDs with new and old popular country music hits that express pride in America. Under the "Send a CD to a Soldier" program, the Armed Services YMCA is sending the CDs to units supporting the global war on terrorism. "Since we can't send them to 'any soldier,' we send the CDs to units that were identified by the different branches of the services. The unit distributes the CDs to servicemembers," said retired Navy Rear Adm. S. Frank Gallo, national executive director of the ASYMCA. Gallo said...

Town N Country, Florida – A woman is in stable condition after being ejected through the sunroof of her SUV during an accident. Thirty-seven-year-old Ruth Matthews told paramedics that another vehicle cut her off in traffic, and she took evasive action to avoid a crash. Her Isuzu Amigo rolled over and she was thrown through the sunroof and onto the roadway. Investigators say she was not wearing her seatbelt. Paramedics initially tried to fly Matthews to Tampa General Hospital, but her weight, estimated at 600 pounds, made it impossible. Emergency crews were able to transport her to St. Joseph’s Hospital,...

SEATTLE, March 31 (UPI) -- Testing by U.S. scientists finds that the Pacific Ocean is getting warmer and more acidic, while the amount of oxygen is decreasing. Scientists with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the University of Washington say the ocean is becoming increasingly acidic because of its absorption of carbon dioxide, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Friday. "You don't have to believe in climate change to believe that this is happening," said Joanie Kleypas, an oceanographer with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a non-profit organization based in Boulder, Colo. "Acidification is more frightening than...

CHICAGO - Soaring numbers of American children are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs — in many cases, for attention deficit disorder or other behavioral problems for which these medications have not been proven to work, a study found. The annual number of children prescribed anti-psychotic drugs jumped fivefold between 1995 and 2002, to an estimated 2.5 million, the study said. That is an increase from 8.6 out of every 1,000 children in the mid-1990s to nearly 40 out of 1,000. But more than half of the prescriptions were for attention deficit and other non-psychotic conditions, the researchers said.

10/24/2005 - DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz -- The Air Force broke ground on a new combined air operations center here. There was the sound of sledgehammers swinging when workers started the conversion of an old ground-launched cruise-missile facility into the new Falconer CAOC facility Oct. 17. The new operations center -- scheduled to open in July 2006 -- will be the only “continuously operational” facility in the United States and one of only five Falconer CAOC weapon systems used to support combatant commanders worldwide. The CAOC -- an $11.35 million construction project -- is part of an Air Force...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be slumping in the polls and beset by conflict-of-interest charges, but the governor's fund-raising team continues to bring in sizable donations, including a $1 million contribution this month. Schwarzenegger said in January that he would need to raise at least $50 million to support his ballot initiatives in the upcoming Nov. 8 special election. The governor's top money manager said Wednesday the team is more than halfway to that goal. "We are on track with what we said publicly we would do," said Marty Wilson, a senior Schwarzenegger campaign consultant who oversees...

New Yorkers sue for the right to shimmy Fri Jun 24,12:52 PM ET People dance at a ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. A group of dancers jointly filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that seeks to declare a city ordinance forbidding dancing in clubs without cabaret licenses as unconstitutional.(AFP/File/Stan Honda) NEW YORK (AFP) - Despite living in a city renowned for its vibrant nightlife, a group of New Yorkers have deemed it necessary to embark on a legal battle to win the right to go out dancing. A group of social dancers, dance teachers...