Free Republic

NEW PORT RICHEY — The key to Donald Trump's success and whether Democrats can regain relevancy in governing Florida is tucked behind the shade-free sea of asphalt and strip malls stretching 20 miles along U.S. 19. In bucolic-sounding subdivisions like Jasmine Lakes, Beacon Woods, and Seven Springs live the voters essential to putting Barack Obama and Trump in the White House. The answers to questions about whether Republicans will lose the governor's mansion after 20 years or whether Rick Scott will win the U.S. Senate reside here. This working class area of West Pasco County is ground zero for Florida's...

President Donald Trump tried to stoke fears of socialism Friday as he bashed Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat pushing to upset Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in red Texas. Ahead of his Monday visit to Houston, Trump called the 46-year-old representative a "total lightweight compared to Ted Cruz" who "comes nowhere near representing the values and desires" of Texans. He suggested O'Rourke wants to "turn Texas into Venezuela" — deploying rhetoric he has used in an attempt to portray Democrats as dangerous leftists as the GOP tries to defend its congressional majorities on Nov. 6.

I’ll never forget the first time I voted.It was way back in the, ahem, 20th century. I remember how proud I was to finally carrying out my civic duty and vote. I actually decided before Election Day to be a volunteer on one of the campaigns.  A great man, Senator Frank Moss, had led the fight on so many issues I cared about: Medicare, Social Security, assistance for hospice care, money for special education. I signed up to help him.He’d been in the Senate for 18 years. His challenger’s platform was pretty much that 18 years was too long to serve...

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican ambassador who accused Pope Francis of rehabilitating a disgraced ex-American cardinal is doubling down on his claims, asserting that the "scourge of homosexuality" in the priesthood is responsible for sex abuse and that the Vatican is being hypocritical in refusing to acknowledge it. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano issued a third instalment Friday in the war of words over the cover-up of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Central American migrants traveling in a caravan broke through a Guatemalan border fence Friday, running into a wall of police in Mexico, whose government has promised the United States it will confront the caravan. Mexican television footage showed hundreds of migrants breaking through Guatemalan border posts and streaming onto a bridge connecting Mexico and Guatemala. The migrants were met on the other side by a line of Mexican police in riot gear. Witnesses say some of the migrants threw rocks and other objects at Mexican security forces, who used pepper spray to force the migrants to retreat.

These are the priests named Thursday by the Diocese of San Jose as credibly accused of abusing children during their time in the diocese. Leonel Noia While a pastor at the former St. Patrick parish in San Jose, Noia was arrested and convicted in 1976 after two boys reported he sexually abused them on a camping trip. When he got out of jail in 1978, he was transferred to three other San Jose parishes: St. Julie Billiart until 1982, St. Anthony until 1986 and Five Wounds, where he served for 16 years until 2002, when the church banned all priest...

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As The Mark Levin Show closes another week without him on Friday, WMAL talker Larry O'Connor does a "double shift": Larry has his own show on Washington's WMAL (105.9FM/630AM) from 3:00PM to 6:00PM weekdays and went right to The Mark Levin Show just after 6:00PM. Larry is also a frequent guest on Fox News Channel shows as well a CPAC favorite. Although O'Connor does have a slight lisp, he is not "light in the loafers" (not that there's anything wrong with that) despite having a Broadway background: https://hotair.com/archives/2016/11/21/and-this-is-why-i-was-a-closeted-conservative-when-i-worked-on-broadway/ O'Connor also has a Breitbart background as former head of "Breitbart TV",...

The San Antonio City Council approved a $450 million redevelopment plan for the Alamo, marking a new chapter for the nearly 300-year-old site. The council voted for the proposal on Thursday, signing off on disputed changes, including moving the 1930s Cenotaph memorial, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The vote comes after months of debate by city officials and residents over elements of the redevelopment plan, such as closing streets to vehicle traffic, moving the Cenotaph, and using fences or barriers to control public access. The council approved a 50-year lease that gives the Texas General Land Office management and control...

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker announced Friday he is dropping his bid for re-election and endorsing Democrat Mark Begich against Republican Mike Dunleavy. Walker made the announcement Friday afternoon at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, three days after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stepped down from both his office and the re-election campaign over unspecified "inappropriate comments" he made to a woman.

The history of American politics abounds with examples of leaders sunk by scandal, the dark details excavated by their enemies. Lee J. Carter, a Virginia state lawmaker with enough proverbial skeletons to crowd a graveyard, has taken it upon himself to beat any potential rival to the punch. In a whiplash-inducing confessional on Twitter, Carter, a Democratic delegate from Prince William County, recently told his 18,000 followers he needed to share details of his past before unidentified foes “try personal smears.”

Democratic Candidate Criticizes Agriculture Industry, Suggests Workers Transition To Renewable Energy Instead The Democratic nominee in Georgia’s gubernatorial election had to walk back comments that suggested the agriculture and hospitality industries weren’t worth working in. The controversy began when Stacey Abrams was giving a speech at Georgia Southern University as part of her “We Are Georgia” bus tour. “I want to create a lot of different jobs because people shouldn’t have to go into agriculture or hospitality to make a living in Georgia. Why not create renewable energy jobs because — I’m going to tell ya’ll a secret — climate...

Why has the media and much of the political establishment made the presumed murder of an Islamist Saudi dissident on Turkish soil a defining issue in American foreign policy? Jamal Khashoggi is not a U.S. citizen, despite his past residence in Virginia, nor is he a lover of liberty, despite his criticism of Saudi Arabia’s despotic regime. He previously served that regime as a mouthpiece for, and adviser to, the alleged al-Qaeda-tied Saudi intelligence leader Turki bin Faisal. Khashoggi mourned the death of Osama bin Laden, whom Khashoggi had been granted unusual levels of access for numerous interviews. Khashoggi was...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman reportedly dismissed a key royal adviser and a senior intelligence official the same day the country's state-run media admitted that journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. King Salman ordered for Saud al-Qahtani, an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to be removed, according to the state-run Ikhbariya television, which was reported by Bloomberg News. The news came as reports surfaced that the Saudis acknowledged that Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist, died after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. The Saudi government stated that 18 Saudi...

Could Republicans do the unthinkable on November 6th and keep a majority in the House? Politico’s Rachel Bade calls it “unlikely,” but not impossible. Bade hears from Republicans and “even a few Democrats” that the political winds have shifted enough this month that it might result in a slight GOP majority once all the votes have been counted. ....Just about every poll predicts it won’t happen: Suburban voters are too fed up with Donald Trump, and Democrats too awash in cash, for Nancy Pelosi’s party not to seize the House on Nov. 6. And yet House Republicans — and privately,...

Look at the map A thousand miles by election day is impossible for an army marching 25 miles a day.

BOSTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her Republican challenger, state Rep. Geoff Diehl, are set to face off in their first debate of the campaign. The two will go head to head tonight at 8 in the televised debate on WSBK-TV. The debate will also be streamed live on www.CBSBoston.com. Warren, a potential candidate in the 2020 presidential campaign, is running for her second six-year term representing Massachusetts in the Senate. Diehl, who co-chaired President Donald Trump's 2016 Massachusetts presidential campaign, is hoping to unseat Warren who has been a frequent critic of Trump. Warren on Monday released...

For the first time in 11 years, Moscow city authorities refused permission for an annual ceremony honouring victims of Stalin's terror. Memorial, the country's oldest rights group, holds a 12-hour ceremony every year on October 29, where hundreds of people read out names of those killed during Stalin-era repressions. The group said Moscow city authorities had refused permission this year for "The Return of Names" ceremony at the memorial on Lubyanka Square - outside the headquarters of the current security service and its Stalin-era predecessors. "Today, October 19, that is 10 days before the ceremony was due to go ahead,...

More than seven years after President Donald Trump launched his political career by questioning then-President Barack Obama’s citizenship, Democrats are still struggling to find the right strategy to fight back against his racially-charged rhetoric. After years of taunting from Trump, Sen. Elizabeth Warren revealed her DNA results this week proving her Native American roots. If it was an effort to take on Trump directly, it didn’t seem to work. The president continued his mocking references to her as “Pocahontas” and she managed to offend Native Americans who felt their heritage was being used as a political prop. […] As Democrats...

During the Obama presidency, the U.S. administration was wary of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had come to power in Egypt after the country’s first-ever free elections. Despite his declared support for democracy and change in the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring, then-President Barack Obama did not take a strong position and reject the coup against President-elect Mohamed Morsi. The coup, as we know, led to the military’s return to power in the largest Arab country — along with tyranny, repression, corruption and mismanagement. That is the conclusion that David D. Kirkpatrick arrives at in his excellent...