Free Republic

Last night, our nation was attacked by a radical Islamic terrorist. It was the worst terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11, and the second of its kind in 6 months. My deepest sympathy and support goes out to the victims, the wounded, and their families. In his remarks today, President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words 'Radical Islam'. For that reason alone, he should step down. If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words 'Radical Islam' she should get out of this race for the Presidency. If we do not get tough and...

A man has been found guilty of sexual assaulting a 14-year-old girl whose family he was staying with in McHenry County. Miguel Gomez, 37, was convicted Monday and now faces nine to 33 years in prison as well as deportation to Mexico. Authorities said Gomez was undocumented and was living with the family in southwestern McHenry County when he assaulted the girl last April.

Three Chicago police officers were recovering from wounds Tuesday morning after an exchange of gunfire with a suspect who was shot dead during a chase through a dimly lit courtyard in the Homan Square neighborhood on the West Side, authorities said. The shoot-out occurred around 9:40 p.m. as the officers were investigating "possible narcotics activity" in the 3700 block of West Polk Street, police said in a statement. They approached a man who took off running and then turned and fired, hitting one officer in the back, another in the foot and the third officer in the chest, possibly in...

"Methodology These interactive charts show which candidate is on target to win the Republican nomination and which ones are falling behind. They are based on our estimate of how many delegates Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz would need in each primary and caucus to win a simple majority of the 2,472 convention delegates at the Republican National Convention. We reached these estimates by developing benchmarks for each state in the form of a baseline estimate of the candidates’ support. These are based on an examination of polling data, including state-by-state polling from Morning Consult, a nonpartisan polling and...

Ben Carson said late Saturday that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas approached him during an off-camera break at ABC’s Republican debate to apologize for his campaign’s conduct during the Iowa caucuses and requested a one-on-one meeting with him. “He said he’s sorry that this happened and he wants to sit down and talk,” Carson said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He wants to discuss the whole thing and clear the air.” In the interview, Carson said pointedly that if the meeting with Cruz is scheduled, that does not mean the the senator will be absolved. “The evidence is...

In what has to be viewed as a major victory for gun owners, the United States Court of Appeals for 4th Circuit ruled that lower court judge in Kolbe V. Maryland must apply the standard of strict scrutiny in reviewing the case about Maryland’s “assault weapon” ban, duplicitously called the Firearms Safety Act (FSA). Laws banning “assault weapons” in Maryland and in other states with “anti-gun” legislatures have typically been upheld when lower court judges—almost universally gun-hating activist liberals—have cheated We, The People by applying the much lower standard of intermediate scrutiny. ... Chris W. Cox, the executive director of...

Donald Trump stays in first, with 36%; Rubio takes over second place, with 15%. Ted Cruz, now in third, has 14%. Jeb Bush, 8%; and John Kasich 7%. For the rest of the Republicans: Chris Christie, 5 %, Ben Carson, 4%; Carly Fiorina 3% and undecided 8%.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama says he is prepared to listen to all voices as he tries to rescue the U.S. economy from deep recession. He has also sought to portray himself as a unifier after the deeply divisive presidency of his soon-to-be predecessor George W. Bush. So, in that context, his attendance at a dinner party on Tuesday night at the home of George Will, one of the United States’ best-known conservative columnists, is probably not too surprising.