Free Republic

Finally! We have common sense in our public schools, at least in one Virginia school district anyway. After two boy were suspended for “using pencils like guns“, the Suffolk School Board decided to review their current weapons policy, which was a very strict zero tolerance policy which left no room for interpretation. According to 10News.com, Under the revised policy, school administrators can look at factors such as intentions of harm and whether the object is listed as a weapon to determine the punishment. Ordinary objects will not be considered weapons A local television station reports that school board members voted...

With the revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the phone records of millions of Americans, MRCTV wanted to find out how people would feel if a complete stranger asked for specific details about their phone conversations. We quickly discovered that most people are not all that comfortable with sharing even the most basic information about their personal calls. Of course, the major difference is that the government is simply taking your data. We just asked politely.

An Ohio man who rigged his Jeep Patriot to ram the White House gates has told authorities that he planned to spray paint the "don'' tread on me" snake somewhere on the White House complex or "die trying," according to court documents released today. Photos of Joseph Reel's wrecked car and the 200 rounds of ammunition, knives, machetes and other items found in his car were released today along with details of Reel's plan to spray graffiti on the White House. Reel, 32, of Kettering, Ohio, has been charged with destruction of property and is being held in federal custody....

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a man can sue the state of Oklahoma over its license plates. The man, Keith Cressman, has argued that the state's standard license plate, which depicts a Native American shooting an arrow into the sky, goes against the separation of church and state, according to a report from Tulsa World. He sued a number of state officials in 2011. That lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2012 but has since been reinstated by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. According to Tulsa World, the court ruled that the image of Allan Houser's...

It's a milestone any former president would love: For the first time since 2005, more Americans approve of George W. Bush than disapprove, reports Gallup. He now stands at 49-46—up 9 in the "view favorably" category and down 13 in "view unfavorably" since he left office in 2009. (He still registers only a 24% favorable rating among Democrats, 60 points below his score among Republicans.) All the recent former presidents are at 60% favorable or above, including Bush senior at 62%. He turns 89 tomorrow, incidentally, and his foundation wants everyone to wear brights socks (and photograph them) to mark...

“Celebrities provide us entertainment and escapism from the limitations of reality. But in real life, they’re still subject to reality, if barely,” NRA News contributor Colion Noir says in his latest video. In the three-minute video Noir blasts Hollywood for its stars taking a stand against guns while its product glorifies violence. “These celebrities couldn’t be more out of touch with reality. And then the arrogance, it’s just overwhelming,” he says. “No one’s saying celebrities can’t have an opinion,” he says later. “But hypocrisy is hypocrisy. Somehow our culture has given celebrities a pass on being hypocrites. These celebs literally...

The family of the 7-year-old boy from Ann Arundel County elementary school who was suspended for making a gun shape out of a pastry has tried to clear the boy’s record. This story made headlines across the country as the gun control debate has taken center stage among many elementary schools as some school administrators flex their muscles with a “zero tolerance policy” that excuses itself from common sense. But according to the Baltimore Sun school officials denied the boy’s family’s appeal on Monday, not allowing the boy’s record to be expunged of the incident. Robin Ficker, attorney for Park...

Eileen Hart, the New Jersey mother who was arrested and pressured to turn over her guns over a dispute at a local tax meeting has been ordered to pay a $100 fine for causing a disturbance. She will not be hit with any felony or misdemeanor charges, bringing an end to an ordeal the mother described as “hell on earth. Further, a court has ordered police to return all of her firearms. Hart, an orthodox Jew and mother of a 7-year-old daughter, told TheBlaze on Monday that she will be meeting with a defamation lawyer to prepare a lawsuit against...

Strobridge Elementary School in Hayward, Calif., held a toy-gun exchange program over the weekend, according to a report from CBS-5 San Francisco. Inspired by gun buy-back programs that focus on getting weapons off the streets, Principal Charles Hill felt a similar program for toys made a lot of sense. "Playing with toys guns, saying 'I'm going to shoot you,' desensitizes them," said Hill, "so, as they get older, it's easier for them to use a real gun." Students who participated were given books in exchange for their toy guns. They were also enrolled in a raffle to win a bike,...

After years of struggling to feel comfortable in his own skin, Chris Martin — who chooses not to label his sexual orientation — decided to wear black eyeliner, eyeshadow and lipstick on the 14-year-old's last day in the eighth grade. But as soon as he got to Meadowlawn Middle School on Wednesday, administrators told Martin he was violating the dress code. They wanted him to change his shirt and wipe off the makeup. The two women who raised Martin said they understand why the shirt's image — an anarchy symbol and sheath — was against the dress code. But the...

sheriff in Florida, Nicholas Finch, was charged for removing the arrest file of a suspect held on an unconstitutional gun charge. The 50-year-old sheriff was booked in his own jail on Tuesday with one count of official misconduct. He is accused of covering up the arrest of Floyd Eugene Parrish after releasing him from the Liberty County Jail. Parish was previously arrested for carrying a concealed firearm with no license. In Florida, this is a third-degree felony. Back on March 8th, Parrish was arrested and taken to jail after a traffic stop when a cop found a .25 automatic pistol...

BARF ALERT! Video at link.

I recently wrote to Sen Nelson, and my Congressman Richard Nugent(R-FL 11) asking how 0bamacare impacts House members' health coverage and if they would be exempt. Well, here's Sen Nelson's response: Thank you for contacting me regarding health insurance for members of Congress and their staff. Congressional health care has been the subject of some misinformed rumors. Members of Congress certainly have good health insurance, but it is not free, it is not exclusive to members, and it is not government insurance. Members of the House and Senate are allowed to purchase private health insurance through the Federal Employees Health...

The corrupt—even criminal—activities rife in the Obama Administration has panicked its staunchest defenders. Forget the comparisons to Watergate or even to classic TV sitcom’s “I know nothing; I see nothing” Hans Schultz. Oh so yesterday. The triage of scandals, which initially stunned Democrats and Obama apologists into uncharacteristic silence, has since been re-branded to be something quite different than it actually is. For this, they owe Groucho Marx a debt of gratitude. Lying and cover-ups regarding Benghazi; stomping on the First Amendment; the IRS criminally targeting American citizens? Time to roll out the “Groucho Defense:” Who are you going to...

Gov. Chris Christie is cashing in donations from top Democratic fundraisers and other traditionally liberal donors across the country, even nabbing the support of a handful of rainmakers aligned with President Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Star-Ledger review of state and federal records shows. The checks are flying into the Republican governor’s war chest from all sorts of unlikely places — the hedge fund run by liberal billionaire George Soros, for example, and the politically progressive halls of the University of California, Berkeley. The nascent support from Democratic donors is an early sign of Christie’s fundraising prowess in...

PHOENIX (AP) — A campaign to force a recall election against the polarizing sheriff of metropolitan Phoenix failed on Thursday after recall organizers said they couldn't collect enough voter signatures to bring the lawman to the ballot again. Organizers of the recall effort against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio needed to turn in more than 335,000 valid voter signatures by 5 p.m. Thursday to force a recall election. "It is a sad day," said recall campaign manager Lilia Alvarez. "It is a disappointment." Recall organizers won't reveal the number of signatures they gathered. That said, the last update they gave...

Terry Holdbrooks was deployed to the Guantanamo Bay detention center to guard detainees. The Phoenix, Ariz., resident has become a devout Muslim and an unlikely advocate for the prisoners’ rights. Death threats are just another part of life for Terry Holdbrooks Jr. The ex-U.S. Army employee converted to Islam in 2003, inspired by the faith of the Guantanamo detainees he was charged with watching. Since then, he says he has lost his friends, received violent threats, and been labeled a “race traitor” online. But he hasn’t gone quietly. The 29-year-old has done his fair share of media and has even...

LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) — It was a terrifying sight: hundreds of angry, armed men on motorcycles advancing up a dusty street with no one to stop them. Shouting at the top of their lungs, clutching machetes and iron pipes and long bamboo poles, they thrust their fists repeatedly into the air. The object of their rage: Myanmar's embattled minority Muslim community. Residents gaping at the spectacle backed away as the Buddhist mob passed. Worried business owners turned away customers and retreated indoors. And three armed soldiers standing in green fatigues on a corner watched quietly, doing nothing despite an emergency...

Several Rockland County and New York City-based lawmakers were arrested by federal authorities on corruption charges today. Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin (D) and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret (D) were among those arrested. The Spring Valley pair are being hit with charges for allegedly taking bribes on sales of village property and asking for a stake in a company as conditions in a deal. Bronx GOP Chairman Jay Savino, who happens to live primarily in Congers and is Clarkstown’s tax certiorari attorney, was arrested for allegedly selling the mayoral ballot line in New York City to Senator Malcolm Smith of...

In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight. They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped. As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S. In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop “Bridges TV”—a station “designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims”—beheaded his wife. In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering “Allahu Akbar. Beheading non-Muslim...

A Nyack High School security guard was arrested last week for allegedly threatening to blow up the school. Kenneth A. Carter, 51, of Central Nyack, was facing disciplinary actions from the school and angrily remarked to a co-worker that he would get his guns and blow the school up. He was taken into custody by police without incident and now faces a felony charge for making a terroristic threat. It has not been stated what Carter was facing disciplinary charges for, or whether he has been placed on leave or terminated. He was arraigned in Clarkstown Town Court and released...

As parents in several states have stood up against standardized education such as Common Core and CSCOPE, one teacher in the Chicago area (Highland Park) has taken a similar (although not necessarily directly related) stand that is now going viral. Last week, 15-year teaching veteran Ellie Rubenstein posted a 10-minute YouTube video where she decried the state of test-centric eduction after the district she was working in said it was going to be transferring her and several other teachers– a move she says came because those teachers were vocal about their issues and one she says the district has attributed...

Occasionally, we hear from people who believe that liberal media bias isn’t really that big of an issue because most people don’t really trust reporters to tell the truth. While public trust in the media is at an all-time low, that hardly means they lack the power to shape opinion. A perfect case in point is the notion popularized by environmental alarmist Al Gore that the Earth is experiencing more severe weather events supposedly caused by “climate change.” Like his earlier debunked claims that global temperatures were increasing, this statement is also false. But many people are simply unaware of...

'Case exposes government system that is targeting military veterans' It happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently. A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government. According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members...

We were raised with a set of core values and beliefs, and today's society is ran by a bunch of unGodly maniacs and delusional fools that's trying to force their twisted values on the rest of us. I say reject all of that crap and push back against everything they send your way! PUSH BACK! PUSH BACK!

Sixteen Palestinians, with ties to convicted terrorists, were indicted last Thursday in an alleged cigarette-smuggling scheme. One of the sixteen men has reported links to the 1994 murder of sixteen-year-old yeshiva student Ari Halberstam in a terror attack on the Brooklyn Bridge. Muaffaq Askar, who was arrested last week in New York, has long been suspected of supplying Rashid Baz with weapons he used to attack a van carrying 15 Lubavitch students on the Brooklyn Bridge. Baz reportedly called Askar his “Palestinian uncle. ” The cigarette-smuggling scheme is believed to have cost New York state millions of dollars in sales...

White House press secretary Jay Carney has been under serious pressure to handle the press’ grilling over the big scandals facing the Obama administration this past week, and when people get particularly stressed, they tend to do a lot of deflecting. In Carney’s case, he attempted to dismiss all the criticism of the Benghazi, IRS, and AP scandals (as well as an emerging one about Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius) by digging up what Bill O’Reilly would call an “old canard”: birtherism. During today’s press briefing, Carney sequentially smacked down the outrage over Benghazi, the IRS, and the...

A vomitous human being. This is really the only way to describe one Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. She’s also the author of following tweet that went out to her 75,000 followers not long after a two-mile-wide tornado destroyed the town of Moore, Oklahoma. Among the 51 dead (the death toll as of 11:40 PM EST Monday) are a reported 20 children–many of whom died at an Elementary School in town–along with mothers, fathers, whole families. Some may be buried alive The IRS targeted conservatives. God is doing the same with this tornado. Get it?...

Oday Aboushi leads a double life. On the one hand, he is an American football player with professional-level athletic skills. On the other, he is a fundamentalist Muslim with radical associations and a heritage that pushes him towards a destructive world of violence and hate. When the New York Jets football team chose Oday Aboushi with the eighth pick of the fifth round of the April 2013 NFL Draft (141st pick overall), the organization knew that it was getting an elite player who could wreak havoc on the field – one of the top offensive linemen in the entire draft....

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Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner has been arrested for extortion by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being held in Pulaski County Jail, the Associated Press reported Saturday. FBI spokeswoman Kimberly Brunell told the AP that Shoffner was arrested Saturday at her home in Newport and is scheduled for a federal court hearing Monday. Brunell said Shoffner was arrested on charges of "extortion under color of official right." Brunell said she would have more details Monday. The arrest comes four months after Arkansas Business reported that the Democratic state treasurer had been under criminal investigation for more than a year...

-with his bare hands' is investigated in Texas A second 'house of horrors' abortion clinic is being investigated in Texas, just days after Dr Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of murdering newborns at his Philadelphia termination center. Dr. Douglas Karpen, seen here in court, is accused of killing babies aborted in their third trimester Houston doctor Douglas Karpen is accused by four former employees of delivering live fetuses during third-trimester abortions and killing them by either snipping their spinal cord, stabbing a surgical instrument into their heads or 'twisting their heads off their necks with his own bare hands'. Other...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who apologized for targeting conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny is married to an attorney whose firm hosted a voter registration organizing event for the Obama presidential campaign, praised President Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners appointed by Obama to a key ambassadorship. IRS Exempt Organizations Division director Lois G. Lerner, who has been described as “apolitical” in mainstream press coverage of the IRS scandal, is married to tax attorney Michael R. Miles, a partner at the law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. The firm is based in Atlanta but has...

On Thursday, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) lashed out at Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), calling her recent comments regarding Fast and Furious "mind-numbingly stupid," and suggested she "schedule an appointment" with a doctor. On Thursday, Pelosi claimed that the contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder was part of a grand conspiracy to undermine his fight against voter suppression. “This is no accident. It is no coincidence. It is a plan on the part of the Republicans,” Pelosi said. “It’s really beneath the office of a member of Congress to say something that outrageous, and the fact that she was...

I’ve been dealing with this scenario for so long, I had forgotten how strange it was until just a few days ago when I was talking to Joe on the telephone and the topic somehow came up. What scenario am I talking about? Well, that would be a law enforcement call for service that those of us in law enforcement refer to as the “Dial-A-Dad”. The “Dial-A-Dad” is essentially when a parent, for one reason or another, calls the cops to come and discipline their child. I am not talking about the 6’ tall, 200 pound high school football lineman...

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed. GM was loaned $50 million by Congress as part of the restructuring included consolidating dealerships and closing some of the under-performing GM dealerships. In 2009 and 2010 there were several reports in the press raising the question whether...

TAMPA, Fla. (970 WFLA) - Beware of cranking up your car stereo in Tampa. City council has given preliminary approval to a new noise ordinance that would outlaw car stereo noise that can be heard 50 feet or more from the car. A first-time offiense will set you back $250. That goes up to $450 for a second offense. If you're cited a third time, it's 60 days in jail. Council member Lisa Monteleone thinks that's a bit too harsh. She believes that will put more young people behind bars. And she spars with Councilman Charlie Miranda over that fact....

On his Tuesday radio program, comedian Dennis Miller said that while President Obama is taking a lot of heat for the recent spate of scandals, the Department of Justice’s wiretapping of reporters is the only story that will keep the media’s attention. To back up his theory, Miller pointed to former Watergate Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein’s nonchalant reaction on Monday to the IRS-tea party targeted audit allegations, and his reaction 24 hours later to the DOJ’s monitoring of the Associated Press’ phone records. “Listen, a few more days like this — Obama’s going to claim he was born in...

Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval. Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting...

Would-be Belieber Anne Frank has been getting attention for all the wrong reasons lately. One suburban Detroit mom could have it so she gets no attention at all because of her "female genitalia." In Northville, a well-to-do suburb about 30 miles northwest of Detroit, a parent of a 7th grader takes issue with her daughter's classroom reading an newer, unedited edition of "The Diary of a Young Girl." Frankly, I'm surprised seventh-graders are reading any edition of "Diary"; it (and "Schindler's List," while we're on the subject) didn't reach my hands until high school. Besides the whole evils of the...

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I've decided to reprint a piece of work I did nearly five years ago, because it seems very relevant today given Hillary Clinton's performance in the Benghazi hearings. Back in 2008 when she was running for president, I interviewed two erstwhile staff members of the House Judiciary Committee who were involved with the Watergate investigation when Hillary was a low-level staffer there. I interviewed one Democrat staffer and one Republican staffer, and wrote two pieces based on what they told me about Hillary's conduct at the time. -snip- As Hillary Clinton came under increasing scrutiny for her story about facing...

It figures. This is what happens when you run out of other people’s money. The Democratic Party in Alabama faces eviction for not paying its bills. The water company wants their money, too. Blog.Al reported: Acting state Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley lowered her head and slowly shook it side to side when summing up the financial condition of her once powerful party. “We’re broke, broke, broke,” Worley told the party’s Executive Board in a special called meeting Frida. How broke is broke? Worley didn’t sugar coat the answer. “This is my 18th day as chair and thirty minutes after...

We’ve all seen Gone in 60 Seconds. The remake film from 2000 features an all-star cast and an elusive Mustang that always gets Nicolas Cage’s character in trouble. It’s a unicorn car – no matter how hard he tries to steal it, something always goes wrong. Joshua Nadelhoffer, 29, is not a professional car thief. If he was, he wouldn’t have been foolish enough to (allegedly) try to steal a 2013 Camaro SS from a Hertz Rent-A-Car parking lot at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Not only that, but he surely would have had the foresight to know that leaving...

During the 1950s and 1960s, the American automobile industry arguably peaked both in terms of sales and creativity. Americans were obsessed with cars, buying them as fast as they could be built, and many a television show had cars we today consider cultural icons at the center of the action. Wildly modified versions of street cars became ever more popular both with private collectors and Hollywood, giving rise to a growing custom car industry. Unfortunately that golden age of American cars is long in our past, and many key players are well beyond retirement age. Famed car customizer Dean Jeffries...

Dick Morris, who famously predicted that Mitt Romney would defeat President Barack Obama in a "landslide," has now joined the Beltway mob in blaming radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh for the Republican Party's woes, the Daily Caller reports. Morris also claimed that the Senate immigration bill "is not only a good solution--it's the only solution" to the nation's illegal immigration problem. He attacked Limbaugh for opposing the bill: "Stop losing the elections for us....Focus on the changes that are taking place in the country,

I have to say, I did not see this one coming at all. It's one thing to revive a series that's been dormant for many years, like TNT has done successfully with Dallas, but has there ever been a case of a show coming back only four years after it ended? But hey, I'm not a TV programming executive and I don't want to be. Hands up if you want to see Jack back! Entertainment Weekly reports: For 24 miniseries/limited series, we’re hearing Fox is actually currently looking at a 13-episode order for the show. For a cable series, that’s...

A pro-choice reporter who has been present in the courtroom listening to testimony in the Gosnell trial has changed his mind on abortion, according to one of his fellow reporters. “That's the power of the Gosnell trial,” reporter JD Mullane told former Gov. Mike Huckabee during a recent appearance on the Huckabee Show. Mullane, a pro-life columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, has been present in the courtroom from the very beginning of the Gosnell trial. His regularly-updated Twitter account has become the go-to place for breaking updates on the case. “There is one journalist sitting in that courtroom...

MSNBC isn’t a news organization. It’s a commentary company that uses the news to justify pro-establishment liberal statism. The news is just a tool to them, and they ignore the important headlines to push their agenda. It’s that simple. They aren’t here to give you the truth — their here to tell you what to people, and ignore the truth in order to do that. And now, even MSNBC is starting to turn on Obama, admitting that this was a terrible event, Benghazi was a cover-up, they lied to us all, and people didn’t have to die, and admits it...

Finally, Bill Maher got something right. Following the Boston bombings, Maher responded to Brian Levy, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino (a great example of needed reforms in public higher education), "[T]here's only one faith, for example, that kills you or wants to kill you if you draw a bad cartoon of the prophet. There's only one faith that kills you or wants to kill you if you renounce the faith." There you have it. Even a flaming atheist can recognize the difference between a religion of...