Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was the home address of former President Barack Obama on the same day that a man with guns in his van was arrested near the property, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in revealing new details about the case. Taylor Taranto, 37, who prosecutors say participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, kept two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside a van he had driven cross-country and had been living in, according to a Justice Department motion that seeks to keep him behind...

DC Law enforcement arrested James Taranto today in Washington DC several blocks from Barack Obama’s home. CBS says he had “materials to make explosives” akin to a Molotov cocktail in his vehicle. Taranto allegedly has a January 6-related warrant out for his arrest. CBS said he was in Washington DC and attended the nightly vigils for the January 6 political prisoners outside of the DC Gulag. The Gateway Pundit on Thursday spoke to Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, about Taranto. Micki told The Gateway Pundit that her group kicked out Taranto from their nightly vigils. She said he was...

Archaeologists found a significant discovery at a Celtic sacrificial place near the village Slatina nad Bebravou. They discovered relief-decorated shoulder boards made from bronze that were part of a breastplate of a prominent Greek warrior. "It is the oldest original Greek art relic in the area of Slovakia," said deputy of director of Slovak Archaeological Institute in Nitra, Karol Pieta, as quoted by the SITA newswire. The relief was made in the Greek colony of Taranto in southern Italy in the middle of the fourth century BC. It came to Slovak territory about one hundred years later. "There is a...

“[Donald] Trump’s second-place finish to Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Republican primary may represent no ordinary setback,” write the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, Jose A. DelReal and Robert Costa. “It appears to be a pivot point—although it has yet to be seen whether the trajectory from here points downward or upward.” ~snip~ The last time he faced the prospect of venturing into hostile territory—when his rally in Chicago was overrun by left-wing disruptors—he ended up bugging out. If he fails to secure a majority of delegates, perhaps rather than endure defeat in Cleveland he will find a way...

On Monday, Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto expanded on themes he recently wrote about relating to Florida’s thin case against George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin in 2012. Taranto told WSJ’s Mary Kessel that the prosecution of Zimmerman, in the words of one Slate columnist, was supposed to serve as a “referendum” on racial privilege in America. “There’s a word for a trial that is held as a referendum – it’s a show trial,” Taranto said. “We don’t do show trials in this country.” “Why has the press been so convinced from the very beginning that...

The idea of the average mayor pole dancing would not appeal to most voters, but in the Italian town of Taranto, porn stars Amandha Fox and Luana Borgia both think it will get one of them the job.

Humiliated in Iowa, a desperate and angry Newt Gingrich is taking the offensive against Mitt Romney, whom he accuses of "looting companies when he headed the Bain Capital investment firm," reports NationalJournal.com, and "conservative interests are pushing back":...

To make sense of what's going on in Wisconsin, it helps to understand that the left in America lives in an ideological fantasy world. The dispute between the state government and the unions representing its employees is "about power," Paul Krugman of the New York Times observes accurately, before going off the rails: What [Gov. Scott] Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin--and eventually, America--less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that's why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be...

Why does their hatred of her burn so hot? Ask them, and they'll most likely tell you: Because she's a moron. But that is obviously false. To be sure, her skills at extemporaneous speaking leave much to be desired. But that can be said of a good many politicians on both sides of the aisle, including George W. Bush, John Kerry and, yes, Barack Obama. And don't get us started on the man who defeated her for the vice presidency. Whether or not she is presidential timber--and we are inclined to think that she is not--there is no denying that...

Obama voters have no reason for enthusiasm.. The Wall Street Journal puts some numbers to the "enthusiasm gap" that's favoring Republicans in next month's election: "Just 56% of voters who supported [Barack] Obama in 2008 say they are very interested in the midterm elections, compared with 77% of those who voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain." The numbers come from the latest WSJ/NBC poll, and the Journal notes that "Democratic leaders accept that the 'enthusiasm gap' between the parties is real," though they "are trying to counter it with tens of millions of dollars aimed at getting out the...

Campaigning against the voters backfires. Go figure! Another poll brings more bad news for Democrats. Ho hum, bottom story of the day. But wait. This survey, from the Hill, may tell us something about what's driving all the other polls: "Likely voters in battleground districts see extremists as having a more dominant influence over the Democratic Party than they do over the GOP."This is not a nationwide poll, but that makes it even more troubling for the Dems. Of the 10 "toss-up" House districts polled, nine elected Democrats in 2008. (One subsequently switched to Republican in a special election.) On...

Wonder Land Columnist Daniel Henninger and Americas Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady analyze the Chilean rescue.

How bad is it for the Democrats? So bad that they "began a strategy of triage on Monday to fortify candidates who they believe stand the best chance of survival," the New York Times reports today.So bad that this is the second "triage" story to appear in the Times. We noted the first Sept. 7.So bad that the Cook Political Report yesterday downgraded Rep. Barney Frank, the disheveled, fast-talking Democrat from Massachusetts, from "safe" to "likely" Democratic. Four other representatives were dealt the same indignity: Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Jim Oberstar (Minn.), Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.) and Solomon Ortiz (Texas). We noted...

In a district where Scott Brown won, Sean Bielat mounts a serious challenge. 'I don't consider myself a tea party candidate," Sean Bielat tells me over dinner. "I don't know what it means." But an hour later Mr. Bielat, Rep. Barney Frank's Republican challenger, receives a hero's welcome at the Spindle City Tea Party, a gathering of nearly 200 citizen- activists in this economically depressed mill town. As he approaches the stage, they stand, applauding and chanting "Go, Sean, go!" What he tells them is consistent with this reporter's view of the tea party: "I'm starting to think that people...

"Democratic poll-watchers were having a pretty good Monday," wrote the New York Times's Nate Silver yesterday. "Rasmussen Reports had shown Republicans with a relatively small 3-point advantage on the generic ballot--the narrowest advantage that Rasmussen has shown for Republicans in about a year." Of course, "pretty good" is a relative term. As we noted in June, generic polls tend to overestimate Democratic strength. The GOP "won control of Congress in 1994 after running roughly even in the generic poll. The Democrats, by contrast, led the Gallup generic poll by 19 points, 56% to 37%, in October 2006, just before they...

Why Michael Bloomberg is imitating Joe McCarthy. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, has an op-ed in today's New York Post defending the Ground Zero mosque. Actually, the Post informs us, it's an adaptation of "Bloomberg's prepared remarks for his annual Ramadan celebration at Gracie Mansion yesterday."It is a low performance. Bloomberg panders to his audience by slandering the two-thirds or so of Americans who take offense at the idea of a fancy new mosque near the site of an Islamic supremacist atrocity: Islam did not attack the World Trade Center--al Qaeda did. To implicate all of Islam for...

WASHINGTON -- The exposure of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as a hoaxster boasting of a nonexistent record of service in the Vietnam War is a splendid example of what is known as the Taranto Principle. Someday the Taranto Principle will be taught in all the journalism schools, assuming one or two survive the present detumescence of journalism. Formulated by the inimitable Wall Street Journal editorialist James Taranto, the principle posits that when the liberal mainstream press indulges a liberal politician's deceits or fails to hold the politician accountable for his misbehavior, it encourages the politician to ascend to a...

Here is video of the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight, where he charged Democrats with using accusations of "Racism" against Republicans as a deliberate strategy to keep African-Americans in the Democratic Party. Taranto contends that Democrats know they must have minority groups in the party to be able to win elections, and keep them in the party by repeatedly accusing opponents of racism. He said Democrats know it is even more important to make the accusations now because America has elected "a black President" in Barack Obama. That makes it harder to make the case...

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss man suspected of being involved in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In a documentary airing Thursday on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off U.S. intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. The 43-year-old Tinner...

He's omniscient and benevolent. Doesn't he deserve to be omnipotent too?