Free Republic

Glamour Magazine announced its decision to rank Linda Sarsour one of its ten "2017 Women of the Year" awardees. All of the awardees, Glamour claimed, are "game changers, rule breakers, and trailblazers." Sarsour, an Arab-American anti-Israel activist, misrepresented a Political Action Commitee (PAC) as a fund for Hurricane Harvey relief. Critics accuse her of trying to exploit the hurricane that devastated the region for political aims. In August, she tweeted, "Donate to the Harvey Hurricane relief fund." The fund's website stated that "your donation is vital to ensuring that we have the resources we need to organize and fight for...

The foundation of Houston Texans star JJ Watt on Monday said it has raised $41.6 million for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts, making its crowd-sourced fundraiser the largest in history. Watt in a statement said the millions of dollars have been used to fix and rebuild more than 600 homes and 420 childhood centers in the Houston area. The funds have also been used to distribute more than 26,000 meals and provide health care to more than 6,500 people. It has been one year since the category 4 hurricane made landfall at Houston, inflicting $125 billion in damage. Watt said on...

That's why it was so notable when Bush did himself absolutely no favors on a video conference call Wednesday with supporters of his father's presidential campaign, which has failed to catch on with Republicans in a crowded field.

Twenty-five years ago, Fort Bend County's assistant engineer emerged from a meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He had new information, and he was worried. Charles Glen Crocker, then 38, had learned that the footprint for Barker Reservoir was bigger than the land owned by the government, placing future homeowners in the Cinco Ranch and Kelliwood subdivisions within what engineers called "flood pools." The reservoir, dry much of the time, could fill during a major rainstorm and spread into the homes of unsuspecting residents. His resulting letter, written on July 6, 1992, was a warning to county officials:...

First Lady Melania Trump arrived at the Corpus Christi International Airport early Wednesday for a follow-up trip to areas that were first hit by Hurricane Harvey in August... Trump is accompanied by Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, among others... 11:38 a.m.: The motorcade is still en route to Rockport where the group will meet with a family that lost their home because of Hurricane Harvey.

We will remember 2017 as much for what athletes strove to achieve off the field as for what they achieved on it. And that was no small bar to clear. New champions were crowned, notably the Houston Astros, who ended the second-longest World Series drought by winning the first in the franchise’s history, while old champions (the Patriots, the Warriors, the Lynx, the Penguins) solidified their places in the pantheon.Even in a year of sublime individual performances—Brady and KD, Deshaun and Fed, all of them considered for this award—athletes spoke loudest in their actions and words off the field. .This...

After Hurricane Harvey hit, Islamist activist Linda Sarsour put out a call for donations. But instead of the money going to hurricane victims, it was actually being directed to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund. TOP is a spinoff of ACORN, a disgraced organization shut down in the wake of scandals involving embezzlement and internal cover-ups, and was backed by Hungarian anti-Semitic billionaire George Soros who continues to invest his ill-gotten wealth into a war against the Jewish State. Soros has blamed Jews for anti-Semitism and described his period as a Nazi collaborator as the “most exciting time of my...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he raised concerns with the American Red Cross following Hurricane Harvey that hundreds of millions of dollars in donations wasn't getting to people who need it. His comments heaped another powerful voice onto questions surrounding the organization's response to the Category 4 storm that struck Texas in August and left behind what may become the costliest natural disaster cleanup in U.S. history. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett have previously discouraged donors from giving to the Red Cross after blaming the organization for problems at emergency shelters. Speaking to reporters...

You don’t hear many good stories about free speech on our college campuses these days. So I am pleased to write and share one today. It actually comes from my own campus, UNC-Wilmington. In a rare display of support for free speech, the Student Government Association (SGA) has decided to fund a speech by an extremely unpopular conservative professor (Can you guess his name?). In the process, they will be supporting free speech and the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. This requires some explanation. So put away your handguns and go grab a beer – or grab a soda...

The hurricane devastation is severe. What should the federal government do? Give us lots of money, say many. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, demanded $150 billion -- just for Texas. So far, Congress has agreed to $15 billion in hurricane relief. But more will come. Few Americans will object. The House vote for the first $7.9 billion was 419-3. But let's take a breath. Why is rebuilding the federal government's responsibility? Clearly, only the feds can send in the military and some other first responders. After Hurricane Irma, 13,000 National Guard soldiers from 22 states helped rescue and evacuate people....

The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday that a record 64.58 inches of rain fell during Hurricane Harvey in Nederland near Beaumont during the storm’s five-day onslaught. The city’s record rainfall is the heaviest rainfall ever logged in the U.S. during a tropical storm, breaking Hawaii's 1950 record of 52 inches. The record was captured near Jack Brooks Regional Airport. Nederland is in Jefferson County — a county east of Houston where four people died, more than 74,000 homes were impacted and at least $73 million in damages to public property occurred. Just a little more than a month since Harvey...

During the 'Hand in Hand' relief benefit in Los Angeles last week, the singer and actress allegedly asked photographers to shoot her only from the left side. 'It was as if she was a salmon swimming upstream. There were a ton of celebrities on the red carpet, but she wanted to walk the carpet in reverse order, so the cameras would only shoot her good side,' a source at the charity event told Page Six. Streisand, 75, is known for having cameras only shoot her from the left, according to Page Six, even having Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon rearrange...

FULL TITLE: Outrage in Texas as healthcare clinics offer free ABORTIONS to victims of Hurricane Harvey - as pro-lifers say the offer is 'heinous' A healthcare clinic in Texas is offering free abortion services to women impacted by Hurricane Harvey. More than 74 women have already taken up the offer, according to Whole Woman's Health, which promised to offer transportation and accommodation, as well as the procedure, to women affected by the hurricane that flooded southeastern Texas. Pro-life organizations such as Texas Right for Life hit back at the offer saying it was 'heinous' and would take an emotional toll...

Pope Francis has warned history will judge world leaders who do not act as he blasted climate change sceptics in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The pontiff said the recent storms meant the effects of climate change could be seen "with your own eyes". There have been four major Atlantic hurricanes in less than three weeks. But US Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt said it was an inappropriate time to discuss what role climate change may have played. Mr Pruitt - who has previously said he "would not agree" carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global...

Like many Americans during the past three weeks, I've been bombarded by news about the destructive power of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida. The stories are of misery, death, and destruction. The misery, death, and destruction are acutely difficult to accept because they have been visited upon innocents. I say that knowledgeable of the ancient argument that our personal and collective sinfulness has merited our pain. Yet that raises this question: Does anyone really deserve personal ruination because of personal sin, particularly from a God whose Son said He came to call sinners and not the...

It was just a matter of time before our ideologically flexible president started making deals across the aisle. The result is a $15 billion Harvey relief package that includes short-term debt ceiling and government funding increases, along with the promise of a messy end-of-year negotiation process.President Donald Trump most likely equates making deals with getting things done. But all deals aren't created equal, and for anyone who believes in fiscal responsibility, this deal, which passed the House and the Senate in spite of many disgruntled members, was particularly lousy.First, considering our $20 trillion debt, the only acceptable deal would have...

A one-hour hurricane relief benefit originally intended to help Texas victims of Harvey but expanded to help people affected by Irma, is set to air across more than a dozen television networks on Tuesday. The "Hand in Hand" telethon will originate from Los Angeles but also will feature stages in New York and Nashville, Tennessee. Beyonce, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, Drake, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Timberlake are among the stars scheduled to participate.

The journalists on MSNBC and CNN on Tuesday continued to be annoyed that Donald Trump hasn’t connected Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to global warming. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle offered a snide aside in a story on Pope Francis. She began,“ In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Pope Francis is criticizing climate change deniers.”  Going off script, Ruhle mocked the head of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency: “You hear that, Scott Pruitt?” The co-anchor continued, “Speaking to reporters as he flew over devastated areas in the Caribbean, the Pope warned history will judge the world leaders who do not act.” Snide MSNBC Uses Pope...

Ben Franklin is quoted as saying to the Constitutional Convention in June of 1787: “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” The storm in Texas was lethal and destructive in countless ways. The misery, death, and devastation was on display for a week. Nothing can be said to ease the pain of those who...

As that massive storm battered Texas and other parts of the South, Mexico’s foreign minister reached out to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to offer assistance with the recovery efforts — something the nation also did following Hurricane Katrina. It was a gracious and humane gesture from a country that has received nothing but crude invective from Trump. And of course, Trump responded to the offer not with thanks and gratitude, but with zero acknowledgment of it at all as he unleashed more racist garbage about Mexico. And now, following that treatment and with its own natural disasters to contend with,...