Free Republic

In spite of the embarrassing antics on full display during his first term in Congress, the voters in Florida’s CD09 saw fit to send Alan Grayson back to Washington, D.C. Naturally, the extreme elements of the far left supported Grayson’s return to office, but so too did many of our friends and neighbors. Perhaps even family members. He was also a recipient of overwhelming support from the Hispanic community, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent. And labor unions. There’s no doubt he also received a fair share of votes from the disaffected and disengaged for the sheer entertainment value such...

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors is giving its Chevrolet Spark a jolt of electricity. An all-electric version of the mini-car will debut this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It goes on sale this summer in California, Oregon, Canada and South Korea, where it's made. Other markets will follow. Unlike the Chevrolet Volt sedan, which can run in all-electric mode but also has a backup gas engine, the Spark EV is a pure electric. GM won't say how far the car will go on a charge, but says it will be a top performer among the small number of...

A group of Israeli-Americans has filed suit against the Obama administration, alleging that U.S. aid money to the Palestinian Authority funds terrorist activities. The lawsuit charges that federal aid money directed to the Palestinian Authority ultimately ends up in the hands of Hamas and other militant groups committed to war against Israel. Hamas is designed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The lawsuit charges that the State Department is ignoring congressionally-mandated safeguards to keep money out of the hands of such entities. "The American people are opposed to terror and do not want to fund it via...

A growing number of Democrats say they are willing to let the country go off the fiscal cliff if a deal cannot be reached by Jan. 1 that raises taxes on the top two percent of earners while protecting costly entitlement programs. Their theory in this game of chicken with Republicans is that it will be easier in January to lower taxes for 98 percent of the country while finding the best possible parts of the federal budget to cut — in line with long-held goals of the nation's liberal party. They also think they'll be in a better position...

Chinese paper congratulates Kim Jong Un on being named ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ by the Onion By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News Senior Media Reporter In a hilarious if increasingly common example of a real newspaper taking a satirical newspaper seriously, the People's Daily—the website for the Communist Party of China's newspaper—published a story on Tuesday congratulating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on being named 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive" by the Onion. "U.S. website The Onion has named North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un as the 'Sexiest Man Alive' for the year 2012," the story announces before quoting the Onion's...

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte meet with UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who is a leading candidate for secretary of state despite the controversy over her comments on the deadly attack in Libya.

The name of the program now escapes me. Several months ago, while flipping channels with the remote, I stopped on an MTV show about a working mom whose whole life was upended when her partner announced that he was splitting. It caught my attention because this mother lived in a nice apartment that looked like one in my suburban New Jersey town, and she was applying for food stamps. This wasn't your caricature "taker"—the woman had a real job. With her partner leaving, however, she could no longer afford the rent, and she would have trouble providing for her two...

As national Republican leaders fret about their party’s showing among Hispanics in the Nov. 6 elections and consider the GOP’s future, they might want to check in with a couple of prominent New Mexico Republicans. Rep. Steve Pearce, who represents New Mexico’s border with Mexico, and Gov. Susana Martinez, who hails from the border-area town of Las Cruces, both have plenty to say about their party and Hispanic politics. In a telephone interview Monday, Martinez said Romney’s weak result among Hispanics, who chose Obama by a more than 3-1 ratio nationally, isn’t necessarily a harbinger of things to come for...

<p>A Volusia County homeowner held his neighbor at gunpoint Monday after catching him stealing metal from his house, a 911 tape released shows.</p> <p>"I don't plan on shooting him, but if he does something stupid, what else am I supposed to do?" Benton Ledbetter, 59, asked a Sheriff's Office dispatcher.</p>

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin has a message for Republicans insisting on wholesale changes to entitlement programs in exchange for new tax revenue: not yet. In a speech later this morning that seeks to crystalize the progressive approach to deficit reduction, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat will try to split the debate about overhauling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from the negotiations over resolving the fiscal cliff. “Progressives should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of Medicare and Medicaid but those conversations should not be part of a plan to avert the fiscal cliff,” Durbin...

Marvin Miller, the most influential labor leader in sports history who ushered free agency into baseball, has passed away at the age of 95. The Major League Baseball Players Association this morning confirmed Miller's death.

When cadet Roberto Becerra Jr. walked onstage to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2007, the entire ceremony ground to a halt as he, before a crowd of thousands, transformed into a goat. For this achievement, Mr. Becerra received a rousing ovation and was handed an envelope stuffed with cash. In a 210-year-old military academy bristling with traditions, "the goat" is a curious custom that one might not expect to find at a school better known for its selectivity and high standards. Yet every year, the last-ranking cadet to make it through to graduation is...

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Washington state appeals court judges had lots of questions for lawyers at a hearing about whether a gun owner should be prosecuted in a Bremerton school shooting that critically injured a 9-year-old girl. Kitsap County prosecutors charged Douglas Bauer because he owns the pistol his girlfriend's son took to Armin Jahr Elementary. It fired through the boy's backpack, critically wounding Amina Kocer-Bowman in a classroom. Amina spent six weeks in a hospital and endured numerous surgeries for internal injuries caused by the shooting.

Someone once said that whenever the savages fight the civilized, the savages always win. The same can be said when professionals face off against amateurs: the professionals win hands down, leaving the amateurs with egg all over their faces. The current situation in the Middle East offers a clear example. Hamas, a terror group that is always for sale to the highest bidder (whether it be Shiite Iran or Sunni Egypt), did Egypt’s bidding by rocketing Israel. The reaction from Israel was predictable and absolutely necessary: defend its citizens at any cost from the deluge of Gaza bombs. Hence we...

Gun-related violent crimes drop as sales soar in Va. BY MARK BOWES | Posted: Friday, November 23, 2012 11:20 pm Gun-related violent crime in Virginia has dropped steadily over the past six years as the sale of firearms has soared to a new record, according to an analysis of state crime data with state records of gun sales. The total number of firearms purchased in Virginia increased 73 percent from 2006 to 2011. When state population increases are factored in, gun purchases per 100,000 Virginians rose 63 percent. But the total number of gun-related violent crimes fell 24 percent over...

It's a 34 page scanned pdf, so it is both detailed and slow to download. Reading the earliest versions of what happened, or was alleged to have happened, I find them incomprehensible. Bullets coming out of the trigger guard or the side of the gun? Then he changes to an out-of-battery discharge, but even that doesn't hold up. The judge doesn't fix a number, but orders the defense to file its documents on attorney fees (with a hint that they shouldn't be tempted to pad things out). I suspect this will be a VERY expensive mistake. Comment by James: Reading...

<p>Say again, neutral.</p> <p>As Ronald Reagan might say, there he went again.</p> <p>What was Jeb Bush neutral about?</p> <p>The choice between liberal Charlie Crist and conservative Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination for United States Senator from Florida.</p> <p>Oh, he finally came around. After then-Governor Crist endorsed the Obama stimulus, this was a bridge too far even for former Governor Bush.</p>

Over the last three weeks, I think I have read most of the post-election op-eds written on the Latino vote. I have studied exit polling, read sophisticated demographic analyses, and talked to as many Latinos in my hometown as I could. The result is that I would not advise Republicans to go down the identity-politics route. I don’t wish to live in an America where Steve Lara or Bob Martinez is reduced to an anonymous “Latino” and Victor Hanson is just a “white male.” But if Republicans really believe there is a monolithic Latino vote, and if those of Hispanic...

I frequently disagree with Financial Times writer Wolfgang? Münchau, especially on keeping the eurozone and EU intact. Today, I largely agree (but sometimes for opposite reasons) with Münchau's take in Britain’s bluster serves the eurozone well. Münchau: The singular importance of the budget negotiations, and of British prime minister David Cameron’s insistence on an EU budget freeze, lies in what they reveal about the future of the EU itself. A frozen budget means that the EU is stuck with what it does. Forget the Agenda 2020, or any other pretence at growth-enhancing policies. What the fraught budget negotiations tell us...

If you want to understand why President Obama was reelected despite a largely unsuccessful presidency and almost unprecedentedly high and continuous unemployment, just look at the Cuban-American vote. In fact, if you want to understand America today — specifically, why it is in decline — just look at the Cuban-American vote. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, “The president captured 48% of the Cuban-American vote in Florida — a record high for a Democrat.” Democratic presidential nominees went from 25 percent of the Cuban-American vote in 2000, to 29 percent in 2004, to 35 percent in 2008, to 48...