Free Republic

Pollsters misread Brexit, and now the 'Shy Tory' effect may be in play in 2016 contest As the presidential race emerges from Labor Day in a dead heat, there is one question that may matter above all others: Are there voters out there planning to pull the lever for Trump who just aren’t saying so? If there are shy Trump voters, it may be the GOP nominee is actually leading the 2016 race for the White House. There was a phenomenon during the first race of Barack Obama: Those polled said they would vote for the first black candidate, but...

The Western public doesn’t know it, but Washington and its European vassals are convincing Russia that they are preparing to attack. Eric Zuesse reports on a German newspaper leak of a Bundeswehr decision to declare Russia to be an enemy nation of Germany. According to a report issued on June 6th in German Economic News (Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or DWN), the German government is preparing to go to war against Russia, and has in draft-form a Bundeswehr report declaring Russia to be an enemy nation. DWN says: “The Russian secret services have apparently thoroughly studied the paper.   In advance...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), known as one of the most outspoken members of Congress, met with a congressional ethics investigator Wednesday and would not discuss the meeting when questioned by Politico. Grayson has come under fire in recent months by the media and watchdog groups for operating hedge funds bearing his name, actions that are prohibited by sitting members of Congress. Additionally, on the same day the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed an ethics complaint against Grayson, he made a $15,000 payment to a law firm using funds from his campaign, which he also refuses to...

A Durham, NC Police Officer narrowly escaped death Christmas night when two Black would be assassins fired six shots at him in an incident eerily reminiscent of the murders of NYPD Officers Liu and Ramos. Officer J.T. West was sitting in his patrol car completing a report when he noticed two suspicious men approaching from behind his vehicle. West exited his vehicle to speak with the men when one drew a gun and fired six rounds in his direction, striking his patrol car once. West returned fire with two rounds but it is unknown if he hit the shooters. The...

[Official Video] Silent Night (Live) - Pentatonix - YouTube

For their Christmas Holiday concert Kings Park school in Long Island cut several religious references from their music. It was too offensive. It’s an Obama world. “Silent Night” is now too offensive to sing at school. CBS Local reported: The song “Silent Night” is at the heart of a concert controversy on Long Island. Kings Park school officials removed several religious references, including “Holy infant” and “Christ the Savior,” from the popular Christmas carol before a student concert last week, WCBS 880′s Mike Xirinachs reported. The intent was to avoid offending non-Christians, but the change left others upset. “I’m not...

**SNIP** I suspect a number of factors are behind Hillary Clinton’s reticence. Firstly, a US military intervention in the Syrian civil war is strongly opposed by the vast majority of the American public. A recent poll showed just nine percent of Americans backing US military involvement. She probably doesn’t see another war in the Muslim world as a vote winner in 2016. Secondly, she may well be harbouring doubts over the White House approach, which beyond the talk of airstrikes, lacks a coherent strategy, and the president hasn’t exactly made a clear-cut case that taking America to war in Syria...

As Ariel Castro, the convicted kidnapper, rapist and baby killer, shuffled off in chains to the hoosegow, I thought why was there so little reportage or commentary about his idiotic statement made in an Ohio courtroom. Is it because the man himself is so repugnant? Is it because his transgressions against society are so repulsive? I think it is both and one thing more. Americans have heard all this claptrap before. We are familiar with the rumblings of a sociopath. A sociopath, in plain language unadorned by the psychiatrists' hocus-pocus, is a person who does not know right from wrong,...

Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether a suspect's refusal to answer police questions prior to being arrested and read his rights can be introduced as evidence of guilt at his subsequent murder trial. Without comment, the court agreed to hear the appeal of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the December 1992 deaths of two brothers in Houston.

BREAK The president has to date been unconcerned by how his agenda hurts congressional Democrats; he's unlikely to begin caring once he has been re-elected. Yet since the probable outcome of his approach would be continued gridlock, his real efforts will be devoted to fine-tuning the regulatory apparatus he has designed specifically to go around Congress—as the administration has done the past two years. The Environmental Protection Agency in particular will resurrect rules it delayed implementing before the election (see: costly ozone regulations) and move to take over new areas like natural-gas fracking. The same goes for other agencies, from...

The face of the Gunwalker Cover-up. No, not the one on the left, the one on the right with the big mallet. The night of the first day at Shiloh, when the battle had gone so very wrong for the Union, William Tecumseh Sherman encountered his commander Ulysses S. Grant under a tree, sheltering himself from the pouring rain. He was smoking a cigar while considering his losses and planning what had to be done for the following day. Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a...

There are now 34 members of Congress calling for Attorney General Eric Holder’s immediate resignation, as four more called for Holder to step down on Wednesday. The new members calling for Holder’s resignation are Republican Reps. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, Diane Black of Tennessee, Bob Latta of Ohio and Kenny Marchant of Texas. “I call upon Attorney General Holder to resign his post as our nation’s top law enforcement official,” Marchant said .. “Ever since the first details of Operation Fast and Furious emerged, Attorney General Holder has been less than forthright with Congress as to his knowledge of Fast...

Democratic Congressional leadership remains silent about a Democratic congressman's claim that Tea Party members of Congress would "like to see [black Americans] hanging on a tree." The top-ranking Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives - Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., - have not responded to The Washington Examiner's requests for comment on this issue. They have not supported or contradicted, or even acknowledged, the accusation leveled by Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., that their Tea Party colleagues in Congress would like to see Carson murdered. Repeated efforts...

Most Americans are probably unaware that Jews were the victims of more than eight times as many anti-religion hate crimes last year as were Muslims. And the reason is simple: anti-Muslim crimes receive far more media attention. Case in point: the media has been all but silent on a slew of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism at Indiana University, coinciding with the beginning of the celebration of Hanukkah (h/t Stephen Richer): A series of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism aimed at various Jewish facilities on and near campus has caused Indiana University police to contact local FBI officials and members of the...

In an earlier statement released before dawn, shortly after the attack, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called on North Korea to "to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the armistice agreement," the 1953 pact that ended the Korean War. Gibbs said the White House "is in close and continuing contact" with the South Korean government. "The United States is firmly committed to the defense of our ally, the Republic of Korea, and to the maintenance of regional peace and stability," he said.

Chicago - Jurors who handed down a single guilty verdict against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich have said there was one hold out who kept them from convicting Blagojevich of one of the most serious allegations: that he tried to sell an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama. Sources tell CBS 2 News that the holdout juror is Jo Ann Chiakulas, a retired state employee. She used to work for the Illinois Department of Public Health, had been a director of teen counseling for the Chicago Urban League

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz., March 12, 2010 – The Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon performs around the world, demonstrating discipline, precision and dedication to tradition. As drill master for the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, Cpl. Robert Dominguez is tasked with memorizing, teaching and passing down the platoon’s unique drill manual, creating a new drill sequence for the platoon to perform each year, and selecting new members and the 24 Marines who will drill during performances. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Austin Hazard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But who chooses these men? Who teaches...

To many Pakistanis the most shocking aspect of the latest Taliban bombing was not the death toll, or the injuries inflicted on survivors, but the question that it raised: what was a team of American soldiers doing in a tense corner of North West Frontier province? In a way, the attack tugged the veil from a multi-faceted military assistance programme that, while not secret, is rarely publicised – by either side. President Obama's public aid to ­Pakistan is transparent: $1.5bn a year for the next five years, mainly to boost the civilian government. But behind the scenes the US is...

The media gave President Obama credit during the campaign for promising not to raise taxes on the middle class. He was on the trail in New Hampshire when he made a "firm pledge" not to raise taxes on any family "making less than $250,000 a year." Obama is doing his best to break that promise, but the network news media haven't bothered to report it. On Nov. 6 when he endorsed the tax increase-laden health care reform bill that the House of Representatives passed on Nov. 7, Obama violated his pledge.

For the second time this week, a man was shot to death before a crowd of people, none of whom are cooperating with police. Isaiah McLendon, 21, of West Philadelphia, was sitting on the steps of a friend’s house in the area of Third Street and Darby Terrace in Darby Borough around 10 p.m. Monday when an assailant walked up and began shooting, police said. Shot numerous times, McLendon was transported to a Philadelphia hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. Investigators believe there were at least 50 witnesses to the shooting, but everyone interviewed by police has...