Free Republic

Don’t mess with Texas.The slogan used to be reserved for bumper stickers. But on April 3, Texas authorities showed the world a whole new meaning of the phrase—spreading out on a sprawling FLDS compound in Eldorado, ultimately taking more than 400 children of polygamists into custody. They did so, apparently, based on a March 31 phone call from a 16-year-old girl, who claimed to have been forced into marrying a 50-year-old man and to have had his child. Bam. Done. Round up the kids and many of their mothers. Give them safety and shelter. Detain the men on the YFZ...

The 47-year-old mother of two couldn't explain the sudden burst of strength that allowed her to get inside the home, where the elderly family friend lived alone. But Russo quickly swung into action after spotting the incapacitated Schwing through a window Thursday afternoon.

By now, just about everyone and their mother should be aware that Bushmaster Firearms (now wholly owned by seemingly unstoppable and more-than-a-little-ominous, voracious and rapacious gun-company-gobbling juggernaut Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.) will be manufacturing the multi-caliber MagPul Masada assault rifle/carbine under the name "Adaptive Combat Rifle", or "ACR" for short. But another MagPul item has been getting a good bit of press since the show, as well, and that's the slick little MagPul FMG9 (or, FMG-9) prototype folding 9mm Parabellum (9x19mm NATO ) mini / micro-submachine gun (SMG) that utilizes a Glock 17 slide and any factory Glock 9mm magazine,...

This is a video record of a couple of Thompson fans responding to the news that he had dropped out.

A customer has already assembled his above ground, Red Wood Hot tub, and I have already run the gas line for it. Now the customer an (architect) wants me to do the installation of the rest of it (excluding electrical). He already knows that I don't want to do it and that I will have to read the complicated directions and do a slow learning process to get it together, so my question is, what should I charge? I am a plumbing contractor and I prefer to give a total pre-agreed on price total, so that we can both relax...

Is this a surprise? Of course not. His position in the Iowa polls explains the decision entirely. He's trailing Huckabee in Iowa. A few weeks ago he was up by 14% - and he wasn't going to give the speech. Now that he's down, the speech is back on. This is par for the course for the Romney campaign, in my estimation. His candidacy has been the most transparently strategic this cycle. McCain is up? Go after McCain. McCain is down? Leave McCain alone. Thompson enters the race and seems a threat? Take a cheap shot about Law and Order....

Two members of the board that appointed Judge Kathe Tuttman now want her booted from the bench, charging that former Gov. Mitt Romney did not inform them of her involvement as a prosecutor in a botched case that freed a child rapist. “This is ridiculous. The Romney people didn’t do their investigation,” Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Pettito-Devaney said. Romney has not responded to numerous requests for comment about the case of child rapist Daniel Parra, who walked free after prosecutors headed by Tuttman missed deadlines in their failed bid to have him committed as a sexually dangerous person in 2005. Romney...

BRISTOL, N.H. (AP) — Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson said Friday that New York City isn't a model for the rest of the country and that Rudy Giuliani should stop basing his stances on his time as that city's mayor. Thompson, campaigning at a New Hampshire gun store with stuffed moose and deer overhead, told reporters that Giuliani too often turns to his time as New York mayor to explain his support for stronger gun restrictions. "He relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of the rest of the country, I don't think. I think...

WASHINGTON -- It is the kind of story you could write a book about: A 35-year-old single mother of three is fired from her state job after refusing to go along with a scheme to pardon criminals who bribe aides to the governor. The plot cries out for a good lawyer to save the day. All the better if he has charm and a commanding presence. Enter Fred Thompson, 6-foot-5 inches of cigar-chomping Southern gentleman. He saves the day; the woman is vindicated. And best of all, for a man with a presidential campaign in his future, it is a...

Fred is being interviewed by Medved.

The late-starting Fred Thompson presidential campaign has surfaced in Savannah with something very low-tech: Campaign buttons. State Sen. Eric Johnson, a leading local backer of the former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been sporting one on his lapel. And Chatham County Commissioner David Gellatly, the Republican candidate's local chairman, has been handing them out. He and Commissioner Patrick Farrell wore the buttons - which depict the candidate - at the commission's last meeting. But, except for an event or two open only to folks who ante up $1,000 or so, don't expect to see much of Thompson in Savannah. For...

"MANCHESTER, N.H., Oct. 5 — The two men were both leaders in liberal bastions. They both once held positions heretical to Republican Party orthodoxy. And they are both campaigning in large measure on their competency and ability to change Washington." " Now Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney are engaging each other as never before in the towns and villages of New Hampshire, from Derry to Nashua. It is a state where Mr. Romney’s regional appeal, bolstered by heavy advertising, helped him to early leads in the polls but is now being threatened by the autograph-seeking crowds that greet every...

With Saturday’s conservative-dominated Iowa straw poll nearing, Mitt Romney is frantically trying to convince the G.O.P. grassroots that his well-timed conversion from pro-choice Massachusetts moderate to devoted anti-abortion conservative was sincere, and not motivated by his ambition to play on the national Republican stage. I was not always pro-life,” he told The New York Times this week, “but I’m proud I made the same discovery that Ronald Reagan did and Henry Hyde and George Herbert Walker Bush.” Mr. Romney is politically smart to wrap his transformation in the conversions of those G.O.P. lions. But his 13-year public career tells a...

Washington, D.C. - President Bush is quietly providing back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in Iraq if elected president. In an interview for the new book “The Evangelical President,” White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said Bush has “been urging candidates: ‘Don’t get yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.’ ” Bolten said Bush wants enough continuity in his Iraq policy that “even a Democratic president would be in a position to...

My out of state friend is lazy about computer protection, but he just bought a new laptop that has wi-fi (he may never use that). I sent him what I hope is an easy, minimal list of actions to take, until he can look deeper into the subject. I know that everyone has their own preferences for programs, and many of you computer guys have had to deal with indifferent friends and family. How do you guys keep it simple and free for them, keeping in mind that an imperfect defense that is implemented, is better than no defense at...

I am not interested in the Ron Paul campaign, but in case you guys didn't know about this appearance, here it is.

How do I post the picture of Chloe that is at this link (scroll down a little)? http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/

Activist though he may be, Cromwell isn’t above taking a part for the cash, which is how he ended up on 24, the television series with which he says he has 'real problems’. On the show, Cromwell plays Jack Bauer’s father, a corrupt industrialist who runs – gasp – a multinational corporation. 'I can’t handle living in the United States of America’ – you can tell someone’s getting soap-boxy when they call it that, and Cromwell’s indulging in a moment of heartfelt theatre now – 'when I know the last two elections were rigged, and that we were denied our...

1/18/2007 Texas Border Patrol Shooting Case: Comparing Debra Saunders’s Columns to the U.S. Attorney’s Fact Sheet Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:01 am A few days ago, Bradley J. Fikes wrote me to ask whether I was going to write anything about the Border Patrol agents recently sentenced to double-digit prison sentences for firing on an alleged drug smuggler. He sent me a link to this October 22, 2006 column by Debra Saunders, who is, Bradley says, known for being careful with her facts. Saunders called the case “a case of blind and bloodthirsty federal prosecutorial overkill.” In looking...

Jury decides on life in prison without parole for sailor who murdered Marine The family of Marine Corporal Justin Huff now knows the man who murdered their loved one will likely never do what they can now: stand on a public street. Today a jury of nine recommended that 23 year-old Cooper Jackson spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole. Marine Captain Cory Picton was a prosecutor in Jackson's court-martial. "We believe the verdict was fair today and that justice was served," said Picton. Don Marcari, one of three defense lawyers, plans to appeal...