Free Republic

In the interest of helping out the editorial writers and pundits of media outlets who don’t think voter fraud occurs, I wanted to note just a few recent cases (and readers interested in seeing almost 200 more such cases can do so at this link). In McAllen, Texas, two campaign workers (known as politiqueras in local parlance) who bribed voters with cocaine, beer, cigarettes and cash during a 2012 school board election have been sentenced separately to serve eight and four months in prison, respectively. U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane called this election fraud “terrible” and said that “our...

During a press conference at a local hotel in Islamabad, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman asked the Pakistani armed forces to launch a military operation against women wearing jeans all over Pakistan. According to him, the immodesty of women is the cause behind earthquakes, inflation and other kinds of disasters. Fazlur Rehman went on to say that a woman who is not covered like a 'sack of flour' is a mobile weapon of mass destruction for her state and that Pakistan has multitude of such nuclear missiles in all its major cities. Rehman then blamed 'immodest women'...

While most Americans like the idea of drug testing for welfare recipients, they LOVE the idea of drug testing for members of Congress. According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, 64 percent of Americans favor requiring welfare recipients to submit to random drug testing -- a measure pushed by Republican lawmakers in recent years -- while 18 percent oppose it. But an even stronger majority said they're in favor of random drug testing for members of Congress, by a 78 percent to 7 percent margin. Sixty-two percent said they "strongly" favor drug testing for congressional lawmakers, compared to only 51 percent...

It is mostly not about trade, only 5 of the 29 Chapters are about traditional trade. The others are about regulating the internet, and what information internet service providers have to collect, they have to hand it over to companies under certain circumstances, the regulation of labor conditions, regulating the way you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital, health care system, privatization of hospitals, so essentially every aspect of a modern economy, even banking services are in the TPP. By putting it in a treaty form, there are 14 countries involved, that means it is very hard to overturn...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka testified before the Senate Finance Committee against fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with Japan, Australia, and nine other Pacific Rim countries. RICHARD TRUMKA: Key to reforming our trade policies is abolishing the outdated, unaccountable, and undemocratic fast-track process. The Trans-Pacific Partnership now being negotiated by our government includes 12 countries and about 40 percent of world GDP. The TPP is designed to be infinitely expandable. So it could very well be the last trade agreement we negotiate. So it’s especially crucial that we get the terms of this one right. And Mr. Chairman, the...

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance the USA Freedom Act Sunday evening, but too late to prevent Sen. Rand Paul from being able to force a short-term expiration of Patriot Act surveillance authorities at midnight. The overwhelming vote Sunday came after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., threw in the towel on advancing any short-term extensions of the Patriot Act authorities under the continuing objections of Paul, the fellow Kentuckian he has endorsed for the presidency. The Senate voted 77-17, far above the 60-vote threshold to advance the bill. Several more steps are required, however, before a vote on final passage,...

Sunday, I will continue my fight to end the illegal collection of American phone records. The Second Appeals court has ruled the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records illegal. We should not be debating modifying an illegal program. We should simply end this illegal program. How will we defend ourselves if the Patriot Act expires? Well, perhaps we could just rely on the Constitution and demonstrate exactly how traditional judicial warrants can gather all the info we need—and how bulk collection really hasn’t worked. We have all the tools we need to preserve both security and liberty. What we now...

Named counter-electronics high-powered microwave advanced missile. Weapon destroys electronic systems without hurting people or buildings. Champ is now an 'operational system already in [the] tactical air force.' Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range has been chosen as the delivery vehicle. From Ocean's Eleven to Star Trek, weapons that wipe out enemy electronics are a staple of science fiction films. For years, scientists have been attempting to create such a weapon as part of Champ, or the Counter-electronics High-powered microwave Advanced Missile Project. Now, the US Air Force claims it has advanced the technology, and says it can deploy it using...

The world is sinking under too much debt and an ageing global population means countries' debt piles are in danger of growing out of control, the European chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has warned. Andrew Wilson, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said growing debt piles around the world posed one of the biggest threats to the global economy.

Since 1791, there have been 22,155 known line of duty deaths in America. ODMP Research Volunteers constantly discover forgotten line of duty deaths throughout the country. Because of our efforts, this number includes 1,338 previously forgotten heroes, now honored on the ODMP and other local, state and national memorials. https://www.odmp.org/

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s time in Washington has been about building power for himself and his party, not representing Kentuckians. He wields that power to aggregate more power, doing what it takes to advance his chances of re-election and achieving the goal of running the U.S. Senate as majority leader. That ultimate goal is within reach. Nowhere is this more obvious than in his de-evolution on money-in-politics and the primacy he places on rigging the rules of the game to benefit his own party. McConnell believes the pathway to power is about one thing and one thing alone: one’s ability...

State nullification is the idea that the states can and must refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws. Says Who? Says Thomas Jefferson, among other distinguished Americans. His draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 first introduced the word “nullification” into American political life, and follow-up resolutions in 1799 employed Jefferson’s formulation that “nullification…is the rightful remedy” when the federal government reaches beyond its constitutional powers. In the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, James Madison said the states were “duty bound to resist” when the federal government violated the Constitution. But Jefferson didn’t invent the idea. Federalist supporters of the Constitution...

Rand is still standing. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian firebrand and GOP presidential hopeful, isn’t showing any sign he’ll relent and allow speedier votes in the Senate on controversial government surveillance programs, as weary and recess-hungry senators trudged through a rare Friday session with a packed to-do list. Paul said Friday that he hasn’t yet agreed to accelerate procedural votes — currently set for Saturday — on dueling proposals to renew expiring provisions in the PATRIOT Act. He had signaled that he might relent if he secured votes on privacy amendments, but shortly before 10 p.m. he said...

On life support as of early Thursday morning, President Barack Obama’s trade agenda has found new life. In a dramatic vote critical to the future of the president’s goal of securing new trade deals with Pacific Rim and European countries, the Senate on Thursday broke a bipartisan filibuster of legislation to give the president “fast-track” authority to negotiate new trade deals. The 62-38 vote preserves the possibility that the Senate can finish the trade bill before the Memorial Day recess, which would be a major boon to Obama and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. It came after a...

No wonder Washington never changes – 79 members of Congress have been there since Bill Clinton’s first term in the White House. This list includes names such as Reid, Feinstein, McConnell, McCain, Pelosi, Boehner, Rangel and Boxer. In this article, I am going to share with you a complete list of the members of Congress that have been “serving” us for at least 20 years. They believe that they are “serving” us well, but without a doubt most Americans very much wish that true “change” would come to Washington. In fact, right now Congress has a 15 percent approval...

The Fourth Amendment is getting attention that it's not gotten before, and by popular will, it will be defined in how it is interpreted and implemented. Unless conservatives participate and act to define it, it will be defined by liberals and/or libertarians. From NSA spying to publicized abuses by armed federal agents and even some local police, people are afraid and are speaking out. That's good. The debate is leading to federal legislation and even constitutional amendments in states to rein in lawless government investigations. The Fourth Amendment is one of the most important arrows in the quiver against bullying...

Two weeks ago I found myself in the backwoods of rural Florida standing in front of a bronzed bust of the pagan idol BAPHOMET. A few days later it would be attached to its eight-and-a-half-foot cloven-hoofed body and put to rest on a throne flanked on either side by a small metallic child. Eventually, its creators hope, it will be whisked away to Oklahoma, where it will be placed next to a Ten Commandments monument on the front lawn of the state capitol. The statue before bronzing. Photo by Mark Porter. I had come to this foundry in the middle...

A new car shouldn't have problems when you’ve owned it for less than a month. Yet Consumer Reports' brand-new $127,000 Tesla Model S P85 D, with the fancy retractable door handles refused to let us in, effectively rendering the car undriveable. After we’d owned the P85 D for a mere 27 days, with just over 2,300 miles on the odometer, the driver-side door handle failed. The door handles in the Model S retract electrically so they rest flush with the sides of the car when they’re not in use. Walk up to the car with the key fob in your...