Free Republic

The FBI cannot seem to stop trampling American citizens' constitutional rights. But some victims of government abuse have fought back. And their tenacity has left the bureau scrambling to save face. According to Rob Johnson, senior attorney at the nonprofit Institute for Justice, a landmark Fourth Amendment case pending in California might soon result in severe chastisement for the tyrannical FBI. In 2021, the bureau raided U.S. Private Vaults, a safety storage company based in Beverly Hills, California, on suspicion of money laundering -- a charge to which the company later pleaded guilty. While conducting their raid, however, FBI agents...

Catherine Austin Fitts (CAF), Publisher of The Solari Report, financial expert and former Assistant Secretary of Housing (Bush 41 Admin.), says the top story (out of 20 top stories) of 2023 was massive, documented pushback to tyranny and control by the evil Deep State globalists. CAF explains, “Our top story of 2023 is ‘The Year of Pushback.’ It was so long, and it was so big, we had to make a special page and move the other 19 top stories to a whole different section on another page.” Just a few of the 2023 stories that documented this massive pushback,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Atlanta News First) - In a rare sign of unity across the aisle, members of Congress want to make it harder for the government to take your cash without charging you with a crime. “You ought to be convicted before they take your stuff,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told Atlanta News First Investigates in his Capitol Hill office. The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly filed a bill to change civil asset forfeiture laws. That bill has never made it out of committee in the U.S. Senate, but the House of Representatives version of the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act,...

An FBI raid on private safe deposit boxes has triggered a significant legal battle over civil asset forfeiture and the lengths to which federal authorities can use the practice, which has often been referred to as “Policing for Profit.”The outcome of the court proceedings could turn this into a landmark case that helps to further define the parameters in which federal law enforcement can use the controversial procedure.FBI agents cataloged Cartier bracelets, Rolex watches and stacks of cash as they combed through safe deposit boxes seized from a Beverly Hills business accused of money laundering. But the owners of many...

After police in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, took her car, Malinda Harris did not get a chance to contest the seizure for five and a half years. After the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute threatened to file a lawsuit on her behalf last March, the county agreed within a week to return the car, which she finally got back this summer.The contrast between those two timelines shows how easy it is for the government to seize innocent people's property under civil forfeiture laws, which allow law enforcement agencies to supplement their budgets by confiscating assets they claim are connected to criminal activity. Harris'...

The owners of a new cafe in Greensburg hope that the lure of coffee, along with the cuteness factor of cats, will help more rescue animals find permanent homes. Katelynn and Rob Jones are looking to open Cattfeinated Cat Cafe around October in the former Shalimar Bazaar at 159 E. Otterman St. Katelynn Jones is president of Wayward Whiskers Animal Rescue, a volunteer-run Greensburg cat rescue. The couple started the rescue, which is operated through foster homes, in 2015. “We are cat lovers and rescuers,” Jones says.

The Appearance of the Fierce Lykoi Kitty! Scary as they might be, their appearance is really just down to the breed not having an undercoat, and beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Lykois have the roan pattern, which is an intermix of normal color hair with white hair, and the mandatory balding of the hair coat. Kittens appear quite normal at birth and only begin to lose their coats a week or two after birth when they start to look fluffy. At three to four month, the kitten will have the Lykoi appearance. Although the coat appears...

A business owner who posted a sign on the entrance of his eccentric Italian café in downtown Honolulu banning President Elect Donald Trump supporters, has removed the sign one day after FoxNews.com broke a story about the severe policy. “If you voted for Trump you cannot eat here! No Nazis,” declared owner Robert Warner on a bright yellow, handmade sign, which he taped to his Café 8/12’s front glass door. "This is my place and if I don't want to serve a Trump person, I can do that," he told Hawaii News Now on Wednesday, one day after the FoxNews.com...

Perhaps the omnibus passed last week had at least one small silver lining. The Department of Justice notified police departments that it would no longer provide them with an option of partnering with them on asset forfeiture cases and sharing the proceeds, thanks to budget cuts put in place in the final FY2016 budget. As the Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham explains, the partnership allowed local police departments to evade tougher scrutiny on forfeiture cases and use the lax federal law to keep much more from their seizures: The Department of Justice announced this week that it’s suspending a controversial program...

Late on the night of June 5, 1944, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain commanded by Lt. Col. John M. Donalson launched with 15 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division on board. They were the very tip of the Allied invasion spear, leading a formation of hundreds of aircraft carrying thousands of troops. Just after midnight on June 6, That’s All, Brother navigated through intense German fire and low clouds to drop the first Allied troops to land in Normandy, France, on D-Day, commencing Operation Overlord. Seven decades later, Staff Sgt. Matt Scales of the Alabama Air National Guard was researching Donalson’s...

Cat cafes, where patrons pay to hang out with cats, have become huge in Japan and spread around the world since the first one opened in Taiwan in 1998. Adorable felines, after all, may be the one thing that Starbucks can't match. Case in point is Cat Cafe Nekokaigi owner Mayuko Horii, who opened Kyoto's first cat cafe in 2008 with 13 stray kittens. The ancient Japanese city happens to be full of stray cats.

BANDUNG, Indonesia – Authorities in central Indonesia will ask a restaurant owner to explain his reasons for opening a Nazi-themed cafe that has sparked controversy among locals and tourists, an official said Thursday. Soldatenkaffee includes a red wall of Nazi-related memorabilia, including a large flag with the swastika and a giant picture of Adolf Hitler. Its wait staff dresses in SS, or Schutzstaffel, military uniforms, and can be seen posing in front of the cafe on its Facebook page. The cafe, located in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung, one of Indonesia's tourist destination cities, has been open since...

We are pleased to announce the beginnings of a new CAF group in the Coatesville area. This new group is forming just the way CAF started - concerned citizens coming together to determine what they can do to advance our freedoms. Do you or your friends live in Coatesvile? Honeybrook? Downingtown? Thorndale? Parkesburg? Then come out and get in on the ground floor of this new group ... and invite your like-minded friends. At this meeting you will have the opportunity to learn more about CAF initiatives. But we will also spend time discussing next steps for this new group....

A rising chorus of discontent – more a citizens uprising – shows Middle America’s deep suspicion of President Obama’s health care reform proposal. Average citizens have voiced their disapproval at townhall meetings hosted by Sen. Arlen Specter and HHS Director Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Tim Bishop, and staffers of Sen. Claire McCaskill. In a burst of passion-envy, Chris Matthews asked on Monday night’s Hardball, “Where the Hell are the people who want health care, the poor people out there…the union people? Where are they? I haven’t seen one placard, let alone one protest demonstration, for health care.” In...

The cocky left-wing group, the Campaign for America's Future, is trying to put a damper on the Republican Party's national convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, a Washington Post blog reports. CAF is so certain that conservatism is writhing in its death throes that it feels it can afford to blow money on extending a middle finger to GOP delegates in a TV spot that is running in delegates' hotels. To the tune of "Thanks for the Memories," the ad opens with a caption, "To the conservatives gathered in St. Paul:" followed by "Thanks for the memories..." It shows a flooded...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Jones 202-863-8614 “The Campaign for America’s Future is relying on fabrications and false assumptions in its political attacks against President Bush’s efforts to preserve Social Security for future generations.  The realities are President Bush has pledged not to change benefits for Americans over 55 years old and Social Security will go bankrupt unless action is taken.  If this out-of-the-mainstream interest group really cares about the future, it should stop misleading voters and start campaigning to modernize Social Security.” - Brian Jones, RNC Communications Director  Campaign For America’s Future (CAF) Underestimates Potential Market Gains From Personal Retirement...

Only on a panel sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future.Boston"ARE YOU ALL READY TO TAKE BACK AMERICA?" Robert Borosage, the co-director of Campaign for America's Future, asked on Wednesday, standing in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. And the crowd sure was ready. They hooted and hollared. They roared and screamed. They nodded their heads vigorously. The day before, Michael Moore had stopped by. On Wednesday, Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee, former senator Gary Hart, and Ambassador Joe Wilson took the stage.The occasion was a debate on the Iraq war, which may...

As we mourned the death of President Ronald Reagan and celebrated his triumphs, those who had been his life-long enemies -- the communists, the radical left and their money men -- emerged to scheme and plan. We were reminded by the former prime ministers of Britain and Canada, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney, of how their friend and our former president fought against communism. A fight that continued until the Soviet Union succumbed to American pressure and to its own failures. Reagan's opponents, however, have not given up. They see the control of their ultimate prize -- America -- within...