Free Republic

On Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal justices in a 5–4 decision to maintain the block on President Donald Trump’s new restrictions on asylum. Trump issued a proclamation in November prohibiting refugees from seeking asylum if they entered the United States without authorization. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar swiftly halted the policy, prompting Trump to dismiss him as an “Obama judge.” Chief Justice John Roberts then issued a rare rejoinder, telling the AP: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges...

On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, marking the beginning of the United States’ war against Japan. @USSArizona marked the occasion with a series of “as it happened” tweets... However, earlier in the day during the live “as it happened” tweets, there was a problem that’s being looked into.

The graphic was splashy by the Census Bureau’s standards and it showed an unmistakable moment in America’s future: the year 2044, when white Americans were projected to fall below half the population and lose their majority status. The presentation of the data disturbed Kenneth Prewitt, a former Census Bureau director, who saw it while looking through a government report. The graphic made demographic change look like a zero-sum game that white Americans were losing, he thought, and could provoke a political backlash. So after the report’s release three years ago, he organized a meeting with Katherine Wallman, at the time...

Breaking: @joyent, Gab’s new hosting provider, has just pulled our hosting service. They have given us until 9am on Monday to find a solution. Gab will likely be down for weeks because of this. Working on solutions. We will never give up on defending free speech for all people.

The ongoing fight for territorial control between rival cells of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN or Northeast Cartel) and Zetas Vieja Escuela escalated over the weekend in the capital of this border state. Officials found six women — executed at the hands of the cartel and subsequently thrown into a deep ravine. Two of the victims were pregnant. The women had been kidnapped by a team of gunmen from the restaurant where they worked. The restaurant is located on a road called Rumbo Nuevo in the southeastern part of the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria. Ciudad Victoria is disputed by...

The current leadership sounds hopeful about continuing the organization under a different name with a different mission, but, as the Advocate explains, that's probably unrealistic. Bilerico reporter Andrew Markle initially reported that GOProud was shuttering on Sunday, and following initial denials on social media from members of the group, key organizers confirmed to Bilerico founder Bil Browning Monday that the group is indeed planning to close up shop. GOProud executive director Matthew Bechstein told Browning that the mixed messages were an attempt to calm members and stave off any problems with fundraising efforts. Nevertheless, "We're leaving GOProud behind and re-branding...

A 14-year battle over the care of Feld Entertainment's circus elephants ended Thursday with the Humane Society of the United States and others paying a $15.75 million settlement.The lawsuit was filed by a company the Humane Society acquired, along with other animal rights groups, against Feld, parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, over the care of its 43 Asian elephants.The settlement follows $9.3 million that the American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals paid in 2012 for its connection to false claims against Feld in U.S. District Court in Washington."We hope this settlement payment,...

This year voters in Scotland will decide whether to remain within the United Kingdom. Scottish sovereignty rides on two things: any eventual negotiations between London and Edinburgh and the gradually evolving position of the Scottish National Party, the primary backer of the independence bid. And if it happens, the resulting military reform is going to be a mess. If the vote is yay, the most optimistic date for negotiations is March 2016, but it isn’t out of the question that sticking points could push this back. Defense could be one of those points. In its white paper on a newly...

Earlier this week, GOProud founder Jimmy LaSalvia announced that he was leaving the Republican Party because of its “tolerance of bigotry,” but in an interview with liberal radio and television host Thom Hartmann, LaSalvia went a good bit further in denouncing the GOP. On Thursday night’s The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, LaSalvia said that the party is the “last place in America” where the “forces of intolerance” are left. LaSalvia and GOProud co-founder Chris Barron stepped down from their leadership positions in the gay conservative organization last April, and Barron recently blasted the group as a “sad shell of...

Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel has rejected a call from Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith to resign over Siegel’s statement that fundamentalist Christians want to see Jews “slaughtered.” Siegel instead will take an “indefinite leave of absence,” Smith said after huddling with Siegel and Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon and state Rep. Lori Berman for about an hour this morning at the Florida delegation hotel. “Today I asked for Mark Alan Siegel’s resignation. He has declined. He is embarrassed and humiliated by his inappropriate comments and has requested an indefinite leave of absence, which...

President Obama referenced a dubious statistical report at a campaign event on Thursday, claiming: “Since I’ve been president, federal spending has actually risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years.” The claim was drawn from a MarketWatch post by Rex Nutting titled “Obama spending binge never happened,” which has been resoundingly debunked and discredited by a number of experts. White House press secretary Jay Carney cited the same report on Wednesday when he told reporters that Obama “has demonstrated significant fiscal restraint” and urged members of the media not to “buy into the BS that you hear about spending...

The Romney campaign, renowned for its oppo-heavy strategy, didn’t even have an oppo book on Rick Santorum a few days before the Iowa caucuses, so surprised were they by his surge. Jon Huntsman nearly decided in November to leave the GOP and run as an independent. And before one of the debates, Rick Perry sang “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” in a restroom. These details are from Mike Allen and Evan Thomas’ new e-book, Inside the Circus, as are these additional factoids below. Mitt Romney raised millions in March by warning would-be donors a brokered convention could mean a...

This is a commercial (with the "Etch a Sketch" theme) that paints Mitt Romney is a devastating light. It's made by a liberal org, but it's all the more painful because it's honest and straightforward: it merely catalogs Romney's numerous flip-flops. Look for the Democrats to use this, probably with great effect. Our choices in November look to be the fire and the frying pan. How depressing.

We've seen Camp Lejuene marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and now they are joining the fight against Libya. 2200 marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or 26th MEU will take part. Their mission is to help end the violence directed at the Libyan people. "In Libya right now they are doing exactly what we need them to do. They are doing what they are told and right now that's protecting Libyan people against Qadhafi forces," said Captain Timothy Patrick, a marine with the 26th MEU. A press release from the 26th MEU reads, in part: "Protecting the innocent and...

I have, for me, shown an amazing amount of restraint in keeping my mouth shut on an issue about which I can stay silent no longer — GOProud and CPAC. RedState’s parent company, Eagle Publishing, Inc., is a long time sponsor of CPAC. RedState itself is helping FreedomWorks sponsor Bloggers Row. We were the sole sponsor of Bloggers Row last year. I will be speaking at CPAC at the Young America’s Foundation luncheon named in honor of Tom Phillips, my friend and also the big boss at Eagle Publishing, Inc. I have done my best to stay out of this...

'Asked for GOProud’s response, the group’s chairman apologized for his comments about Cleta Mitchell. “For the past six months, we have watched as unfair and untrue attacks have been leveled against our organization, our allies, our friends and sometimes even their families. Everyone has their breaking point and clearly in my interview with Metro Weekly I had reached mine. I shouldn’t have used the language that I did to describe Cleta Mitchell and for that I apologize,” said Chris Barron.' Still no apology to Sen. Jim DeMint or others for saying they belonged on the "island of misfit toys." No...

"...The Eliminationists quotes novelist Sinclair Lewis’s quip that fascism in the United States will come "wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." In the days since the shootings in Arizona, an image of the Lewis quote superimposed on an photo of Palin has made the rounds on Facebook and a number of left-leaning blogs. An attack on Beck, Palin, and Limbaugh appeared in letters page of today’s Seattle Times citing Sinclair Lewis’s supposedly prescient observation, and warning Americans not to ignore the signs of a fascist takeover—as so many “middle class Germans” did. Thankfully, Neiwert’s book footnotes the quote,...

A scientist and his wife who both worked at the leading US nuclear research facility were arrested Friday and charged with trying to pass nuclear arms secrets to Venezuela, the US Department of Justice said. The pair, both Americans, "have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela," the department said in a statement. The defendants, Pedro Mascheroni, 75, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, could face life in prison if convicted on all charges.

The Obama Administration is under political pressure to reverse its ill-considered deep water drilling moratorium, and the latest blowback comes from seven angry experts from the National Academy of Engineering who say their views were distorted to justify the ban. In the wake of the oil spill, President Obama asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to produce a report on new drilling safety recommendations. Then on May 27 Mr. Obama announced a six-month deep water drilling ban, justifying it on the basis of Mr. Salazar's report, a top recommendation of which was the moratorium. To lend an air of technical authority,...

As the United Nations worked to restore peace and protect women and children in Africa's troubled Cote d'Ivoire three years ago, it announced it was investigating "serious allegations of wide-spread sexual exploitation and abuse." Shockingly, the alleged perpetrators were with the U.N.—Moroccan troops serving as peacekeepers. A confidential probe by U.N. and Moroccan investigators turned up evidence that 14 soldiers were involved, according to a person familiar with the matter; DNA analysis showed some of them had fathered children with the victims. But the U.N. has never disclosed the results of the investigation or whether any of the soldiers were...