Free Republic

As Cleveland prepares to host the Republican National Convention this summer, it's bidding on millions of dollars of security equipment and tactical gear for its police.

Zero women at the table. #shocking

Perturbed by their failure to truncate the Trump campaign, National Review is now doubling down in a coming issue with a truly toxic article (behind a pay wall) by roving editor, Kevin D. Williamson. Williamson apparently thinks blue-collar workers whose lives get turned upside down when their jobs disappear due to economic downturns or their manufacturing jobs getting shipped offshore or their mines closing due to new more restrictive government regulation, are all a bunch of worthless bums and crybabies who should just load up the pickup and become the new Okies. I'd give up Mexican food for a year...

A new Reuters poll of Republicans shows that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has expanded his national lead over rivals since his Jan. 19 endorsement by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The new poll of 2,508 Republicans, taken over several days, showed Trump at 40 percent and Cruz sharply down to 10.5 percent. That's a 29.5-point margin. Reuters' Jan. 19 results showed Trump at 33 percent to Cruz's 16 percent, which was a 17-point margin. The Reuters poll is here, and can be adjusted to show the candidates' popularity among various subgroups. For example, Trump scored 38.4 percent among marrieds, 39...

A special election will be held March 15 to fill the remainder of the term of former state Rep. Tim Krieger. Krieger, a four-term Republican from Delmont resigned last month after being sworn in as a Westmoreland County judge. His terms runs to the end of the year. Krieger's 57th District seat includes Greensburg, South Greensburg, Southwest Greensburg, Youngwood, part of Hempfield and Salem townships and Delmont. Officials from Westmoreland County's Democratic and a Republican committees will nominate candidates to run in the special election. Voters will return to polls on April 26 for a primary election when candidates will...

President Obama used his address to the nation on ISIS and terrorism to push for gun control. "This is a matter of national security," Obama said from the Oval Office. Watch here: "There are several steps that Congress should take right away. To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terror suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon? This is a matter of national security," said the president. "We also need to make it harder for people to...

A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has some troubling news for the United Kingdom: its health care system is one of the worst in the developed world for cancer survival rates. While access to care is "generally good" the quality of care in the UK is "poor to mediocre" across several key health areas, obesity levels are "dire” and the NHS struggles to get even the "basics" right, the report said citing a lack of investment over the last six years. Britain was placed on a par with Chile and Poland as countries still lagging...

Morning Consult has updated their latest national polling results utilizing 1,543 registered voters Sept 24th – Sept 27th. Consult has, over time, shown to be one of the few consistently accurate polling organizations when compared to regional and state level polls of similar scope. MC also, over time, has reflected the overall social media sentiment with accuracy. The latest poll shows Donald Trump maintaining 30% electorate support with Ben Carson coming in second at 15%. If this were Jeb Bush maintaining 30% (over two months) the GOPe would be demanding that all other candidates coalesce and give Jeb their immediate...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the wake of the deadly shootings at two Tennessee military centers, Gov. Rick Scott has signed an executive order meant to protect and arm members of the Florida National Guard. In the executive order signed Saturday, Scott wants "to ensure that all qualified full-time Guardsmen are adequately armed for their personal protection." The order calls for expedited processing of concealed weapons permits for Florida Guardsmen.

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, the media have bent over backwards to destroy him. It’s not just the New York Times and CNN, but outlets like William F. Buckley’s National Review, the Wall Street Journal, and other “mainstream” outlets of the right. To these media outlets’ consternation, despite their crazed efforts to demean, discredit, and deny the appetite among Americans for Trump’s message, more and more people are coming out to hear and support the one candidate who appears to have listened to them–and is leading the charge as opposed to opining from behind the RNC’s skirts....

Britain is one of only three major democracies in the world that lacks a written, codifed constitution. With the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta approaching June 15, 2015 and with the country facing profound existential questions, some in Britain wonder whether it's time to change that. At the request of Parliament's Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, King's College London scholar Robert Blackburn spent four years drafting blueprints for a full-fledged constitution. The results were published last year in a parliamentary report titled "A New Magna Carta?"

“Universal voting would counteract money more than anything,” makes as much sense as anything else Obama has said. The idea that people utilizing their freedom of association to pool resources in order to influence politics is somehow corruptive of the political process stems from the unspoken idea that the country is one big commons owned collectively by us all and the government's purpose is to decide how to fairly allocate the commons. In an actual free country there is no such problem. The country isn't one big socialized commons. But in a socialized country where the presumption is that everything...

Police officer cleared in shooting death of Dontre Hamilton.The Wisconsin National Guard is on standby Monday after a police officer was cleared in a shooting incident of mentally ill black man.

Now this… Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told FOX 2 anchors late on Monday night that he had repeatedly requested the National Guard Monday night… But his requests were ignored. “I know I’ve been on the phone in contact with the County Executive’s Office. I know he has requested. I am requesting. I’ve requested the National Guard troops to come out from their command post to help restore order along the business district. We have not seen that… Those calls have gone unheeded at this point… We need to have the governor step up and give us the resources that he’s...

U.S. Sen. David Vitter has been named a “Champion of National Security” by the Center for Security Policy. Vitter was one of only five U.S. Senators to receive a 100 percent score – the other four being Republicans Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Tim Scott and Montana Democrat John Walsh. The Center’s rankings are based on legislators’ voting records on issues from border security to terrorist threats. “ISIS and the Ebola virus are huge national security threats right now – but the biggest problem is that this Administration hasn’t put forward any real or comprehensive national security strategy on any...

Be sure to tune in as Roman Genn, Ricochet Contributor, National Review Contributing Editor, Genius caricaturist, and former “bad boy” from the Soviet Union, talks with radio host Doreen Finkle Sept 11 at 9 PM EST. The show can be accessed here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/students-for-a-better-future-radio/2014/09/12/caricaturistcomedian-roman-genn-on-current-issues-of-the-day Arriving in the United States in 1991 at the age of 19, Moscow-born Roman was graduate of the famous Soviet art academy system. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, Roman’s natural wit would not be repressed, and by the time he was a teenager, he was selling his irreverent caricatures on the streets of Moscow to tourists. He was...

On Wednesday, President Barack said that he was "happy to consider" deploying National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help local law enforcement officials stem the tide of illegal immigrant children flooding across it. After meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry in Dallas, Texas, Obama said sending National Guard troops, though, would be a "temporary solution." Obama said if Republicans wanted some National Guard troops to be sent to the border as a condition for approving the $3.7 billion in funding Obama requested, he "would be happy to consider it."

Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia attorney general, said states along the Southern border not only have the legal right to secure their properties by dispatching the National Guard — but they pretty much also have a constitutionally based responsibility. “When [illegals are] coming across your border, Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution [gives border states the right to] deal with this themselves,” he said during an interview on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Breitbart reported. Mr. Cuccinelli advised, too, that states could task their law enforcement to the borders, too. He also said the federal government couldn’t really prevent states from...

Federal Fire Power: Instead of putting a lien on the property of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the Bureau of Land Management surrounded his ranch with 200 armed agents. It's not the only agency with a private army. Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama slipped a little-noticed line in a speech, proposing a national police force reporting straight to him. "We cannot continue to rely only on our military," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." As our military is slowly decimated by his policies and budget...

The National Guard reservist charged on Monday with attempting to blow up the Los Angeles subway allegedly possessed terrorist manuals on how to be a “lone wolf” terrorist and was a frequent reader of al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine, which provides tips on how to make and detonate various bombs, according to FBI court documents. The FBI charged Nicholas Teausant, a 20-year-old National Guard reservist, with attempting to help al Qaeda carry out a plot to attack the subway system in Los Angeles. Teausant was a frequent Internet contributor to forums for would-be terrorists and is said to have owned a...