Free Republic

Carly Fiorina brings a Texas ranching legacy to the presidential campaign. And one Texas rancher has come forth to help. Although she’s known more as a California Republican, Fiorina was born in Austin to the Sneed family, Texans since 1839 and known for oil, cattle ranching, cotton farming and for an early 20th-century love-triangle feud and scandal. In the 1960s, she grew up spending summers with her grandparents in a historic home in Calvert, between Waco and Bryan. ~snip~ In a 2003 Houston speech, Fiorina said, “We had a little bit of cattle in our family, a little bit of...

Six people were killed and at least 23 others—including a 4-year-old girl—have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this Memorial Day weekend, police said. The 4-year-old, identified by her family as Jacele Johnson, was shot about 8 p.m. Friday in the West Englewood neighborhood. She and her 17-year-old cousin Romare Wilson were inside an SUV in the 7000 block of South Justine when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to their family and Chicago Police.The girl was shot in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was in critical condition, authorities said. The...

Pranksters be warned Eight-grader Domanik Green was arrested on felony charges in Holiday, Fla. Wednesday after breaking into his teacher’s computer to change the background picture to two men kissing. Green, 14, who was released the day of his arrest, said that he broke into the computer of teacher he didn’t like after realizing that faculty members’ passwords were simply their last names, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Green, who previously faced a three-day suspension for a similar prank, said that many students got in trouble for breaking into teachers’ computers.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) received a ticket for being a minor in possession of alcohol in 1987, when he was a senior in high school, BuzzFeed News reported on Tuesday night. The revelation was discovered in an application, obtained by BuzzFeed, which Cruz completed for the position of Texas solicitor general back in 2003. According to the report, police found an unopened case of beer in Cruz's vehicle and issued him a ticket for the offense. “Teenagers often make foolish mistakes, and that certainly applied to me as well,” Cruz told BuzzFeed News in a statement.

Wow! So, another police officer jumped out of his car in the ghetto for absolutely no reason, put a black guy on the ground with his hands up and then filled him full of lead? What a shame. Well, no, more like “what a sham”.

When Siskiyou County, CA Sheriff John Lopey tried to buy an M1 Garand rifle through the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), he was denied and told he failed to pass the background check conducted via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Lopey is a sheriff: he carries a gun and enforces the law for a living. Prior to being a sheriff, he spent 33 years with the California Highway Patrol and is a retired Army Colonel. He had Top Secret clearance in the Army. The FBI handles NICS background checks for firearms purchases. Ironically, Lopey recently went through and...

Members of Metro’s largest union — Local 689 — said they believe the transit agency’s practices of doing background checks on its new hires and employees is unfair and discriminatory. About three dozen people — some in their Metro uniforms — protested Thursday outside of Metro’s headquarters near Judiciary Square stop as the agency’s board of directors held several meetings inside. Some of the Local 689 members also addressed the board during its public input session at its monthly board meeting. The union members said they do not support Metro’s policy in which it conducts a background check of an...

Scientists have spotted swirling patterns in the radiation lingering from the big bang, the so-called cosmic microwave background (CMB). The observation itself isn't Earth-shaking, as researchers know that these particular swirls or "B-modes" originated in conventional astrophysics, but the result suggests that scientists are closing in on a much bigger prize: B-modes spawned by gravity waves that rippled through the infant universe. That observation would give them a direct peek into the cosmos' first fraction of a second and possibly shed light on how it all began."I see it as a big step forward," says Charles Bennett, a cosmologist...

President Barack Obama gave the Senate just one day to vet his new nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. The White House presented the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) with vetting documents for former AFL-CIO lawyer Nancy Schiffer and NLRB Democratic lawyer Kent Hirozawa on the eve of their confirmation hearing, according to Senate sources. Federal law mandates that NLRB nominees undergo tax, criminal, and conflict of interest background checks performed by the IRS, FBI, and Office of Government Ethics, respectively. The HELP committee rules require the White House to turn over vetting documents at...

The White House held a background briefing Friday to discuss Obamacare implementation with a handful of journalists from liberal and progressive outlets. Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias posted a photograph to Instagram Friday featuring himself and other liberal journalists at the White House, with the caption “#thistown.” Yglesias’ photograph features American Prospect staff writer Jamelle Bouie and MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin attending the briefing.

In advance of his successful reelection, President Obama took executive action to defer, for two years, deportation for illegal immigrants who entered the country as children. The result was a flood of requests to the immigration service for the temporary amnesty. As a result of this demand, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the Department of Homeland Security cut back on the legally-required criminal background checks of these immigrants. The revelation raises questions of how the agency could handle a blanket amnesty of all illegal immigrants. In October 2012, Judicial Watch, acting on a

You don’t even have to live in Nevada.But you should know that Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval (R) is trying to decide whether he should sign or veto SB 221, a bill so extreme that the left-of-center United States Senate even voted down a version of it.If he signs this Universal Background Check bill, it will have ramifications for you -- even if you don’t live in the Silver State.So please call 775-684-5670 and press “2” -- to vote AGAINST the universal background check bill (SB 221). You don’t have to live in the state. You don’t even have to give...

"Superficial" "A source close to the Senate negotiations [says] that two senators who voted against the background check bill would vote for it after minor, superficial changes." - Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC, May 6, 2013ACTION: Senators who voted pro-gun last month are under intense pressure - by Senate Democrats and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s hit ads - to switch their votes.  We need to keep applying the heat and let them know that gun owners are ready to help in any Senate campaign, no matter which state, to defeat ANY SENATOR who votes for gun control.LEGISLATIVE UPDATE FROM WASHINGTON, DC. It’s...

Senators who support expanding criminal background checks for gun buyers said Tuesday that they intend to revive the legislation for a vote by this summer, though the measure won't be exactly the same as the one senators defeated a month ago. The Senate last month fell four votes shy of approving landmark, bipartisan legislation authored by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would have widened background checks to include firearms bought at gun shows or over the internet. "Whenever the support and the time is right we will do it," Manchin said Tuesday. Senate Majority Whip...

Why is it that people who oppose universal background checks (UBC) for gun ownership get labeled as extremists? Not all people who oppose UBCs are militia-forming, government-hating conspiracy theorists who think that "the government" is out to turn America into a totalitarian regime. Some of us simply know they won't be effective and in fact will only hinder Second Amendment rights for law-abiding citizens. UBC legislation aims to close firearm sale loopholes at places like gun shows, enacting a universal background to ensure that no one owns a firearm who shouldn't. This includes every transfer, sale, purchase, trade, gift, rental...

After the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey background-check bill, and the subsequent demonization of the Senate, Senators Manchin and Toomey are reportedly back at work on bipartisan legislation addressing gun control. John R. Lott, author of the new book At the Brink, who has been researching gun policy for decades, talks about the state of the debate with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Gabby Giffords has accused the Senate of being in the grips of the gun lobby. Is there another explanation for the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey bill? JOHN R. LOTT: Yes, there is. The politicians...

Someone from Pipestone, Minnesota, asked “why did the toomey amendment have all the democrats bills.” Essentially, because the Democrats could. A persistent pattern of misspellings seen in bills introduced by long time anti-gun activist Chucky Schumer is also present in the “background check” part of S.AMDT.715. So the amendment was written by Schumer or his staff, and handed to Manchin to be filed. A hard line “false flag” Democrat, Manchin probably never looked at the Amendment – and would have approved it if he had. And of course Toomey had already been suckered signed on so he had no reason...

I found two good posters on Facebook today:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require background checks to be run on anyone buying explosive powder, a reaction to last week's Boston Marathon bombing. Reid introduced the bill, S. 792, for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been out sick for much of the year. But in a press statement, Lautenberg said the Boston bombing shows that background checks are needed for explosive materials. "It defies common sense that anyone, even a terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosive powders without a background check or any questions asked,"...

The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks. It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with 5 Democrats voting against it. Only 4 Republicans supported it. Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) voted against it. Reid supported the measure but voted against it to preserve his ability to bring the measure up again. GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Mark Kirk