Free Republic

Yesterday they underlined this message by pointing to reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. There was also strikingly robust criticism from an independent Washington think-tank about a “disconcerting void” over transatlantic relations in Mr Obama’s foreign policy, as well as from a former British Minister for Europe. Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad. “The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I...

Friends, What an amazing few days on the road this has been. Your spirits have been high, your faith strong and your spine unbendable. I ended my multiday book tour at The Villages with what had been billed as a rally but could be better described as a candid citizen-to-citizen chat. Today, I have stopped looking for a leader to show us the way out because I have come to realize that the only one who can truly save our country...is us. To change America's course we need to change ourselves, our expectations and our willingness to accept the...

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--

At Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Oct. 29th press conference, a CNS News reporter asked, “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”

The release of Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" (HarperCollins, 2009) has brought out not only the Palin bashers, but also, of course,has increased chatter about whether she will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. What's missing so far in the "professional" chatter - which ranges from the snide and petty to the more substantive about her future - is whether she or any other potential candidate has grasped what conservative newspaper editor Seth Lipsky describes so astutely as America's "constitutional moment." Thanks in great part to the new, alternative and social media,people are talking and writing about the Constitution-certainly...

Public officials need to take seriously their oath to uphold the Constitution. Just as important, the people of the United States, charged with electing these officials to public office, should spend time on this exercise. After giving the Constitution proper consideration, we should ponder an important question. We should give serious thought to whether public apathy or indifference to the workings of the government has played a role in allowing heretofore acknowledged 1st Amendment Rights under the Constitution to become abridged.

People's rights are created through political processes -- as when the brand-new American states ratified the historic Bill of Rights, or when the French Revolution proclaimed the Rights of Man, or when the new United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a less-formal manner, most modern democracies have established another right rooted in morality and equality: the right of sick people and families to obtain medical care.

The Rev. James David Manning is the pastor of Atlah World Missionary Church in Harlem. He has been outspoken in his criticisms of Barack Hussein Obama's unwillingness to prove that he is in fact eligible under the Constitution to serve as president of the United States. He has accurately described Obama's intention to overthrow the Constitution and establish a national socialist dictatorship over the American people. He has presented scripturally based arguments aiming to show that Obama represents the evil whose emergence in human affairs Christ prophesied as one of the hallmarks of the last days. He has criticized the...

ObamaCare is so clearly unconstitutional that it's embarrassing, disgusting, shameful, and dangerous that 215 Congressmen would even consider proposing it. It's almost even more atrocious that the American people can so nonchalantly allow their Constitutional rights to be stolen from them.

When we were young, we learned about the best and brightest minds in the nation coming together to create the foundation of a new country and fundamentally change the role of government in the lives of the people. Now there is a proposal to have a similar Constitutional Convention in California, but without those great minds, how are we to be sure that we get a document that rewrites the Constitution for the better and not make our state’s problems even worse? It is important to note that according to recent article in the Ventura County Star by Timm Herdt,...

Just how much clout does the gun lobby have on Capitol Hill? This week may prove to be a crucial test: A House-Senate conference committee is about to take up a massive transportation-funding bill that is pitting advocates of gun rights against security-minded members worried about the threat of terrorist attacks on Amtrak trains. Tucked into the measure is a controversial National Rifle Association-backed amendment that would cut off $1.5 billion in subsidies to Amtrak unless the federally backed national passenger-train company reverses its post-9/11 security policies and permits train passengers to travel with handguns and other firearms as part...

The Seventh Circuit last week vacated a man’s conviction for possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. However, the court did not strike the statute down as unconstitutional, but remanded the case to the district court to give the government the opportunity to “establish a reasonable fit” between the “statute’s means and its end.” Addressing the record made before the district court, Judge Diane S. Sykes wrote for the court, “The government … has premised its argument almost entirely on Heller’s reference to the presumptive validity of felon-dispossession laws and reasoned by...

In an effort to rebut the idea that allowing law-abiding Americans to carry handguns in public helps prevent crime, the Violence Policy Center has begun compiling a list of homicides committed by people with carry permits. "Concealed handgun permit holders killed eight law enforcement officers and 77 private citizens (including 10 shooters who killed themselves after an attack) during the period May 2007 through October 2009," it says, based on news reports. "Contrary to the false promises of the gun lobby," says VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann, "the simple and deadly fact is that state concealed handgun systems are arming...

The Washington Times is reporting that The Obama administration on Tuesday had Obama's National Security Council (NSC) take control of congressional briefings on the Fort Hood killings and asked Democratic leaders to delay a probe, as top Republicans said intelligence shortcomings blamed for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks are re-emerging. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the NSC had taken over the briefings "due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood," and that Democratic leaders agreed to postpone any congressional action on the shootings. "This...

Texas gubernatorial candidate vows to defend Constitution video at site

Lawmaker decries U.S. demand to halt Jewish construction - JERUSALEM – A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party today slammed as "racist" President Obama's longstanding demand for a halt to Jewish construction in the strategic West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem. "President Obama should not interfere with the rights of the Jewish people to live in Jerusalem," said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon. "This ... is a racist demand, saying that Jews cannot live in Jerusalem, only Arabs." Danon continued: "Our duty is to the nation that chose to deepen the settlement across Judea and Samaria, and...

A message from Margarete W. Murphy to all members of Massachusetts on Oath Keepers! Continental Congress 2009 My Fellow Americans, I am one of the Continental Congress delegates for the State of Oregon, each delegate was elected through elections which were held on October 10, 2009, we are in session at present in St. Charles, ILL, and you can watch the live stream feed at www.cc2009.us or at www.freedom.tv. Please make this viral to all of your contacts in your email address book, the people of this Nation need to hear this message and need to know that there is...

A number of years ago I was in the unfortunate predicament of having to be in two places at almost the same time: Zurich and San Francisco. There was no solution it seemed until someone suggested I take the Concorde. I could think of nothing more appealing or more practical considering what was at stake. So I made the two-day trip: San Francisco to Chicago to Zurich, Zurich to London where I would board the Concorde to fly to New York and then home. Flying the Concorde was like booking a first class cabin on the Queen Mary I was...

Alan Gura, who successfully defended the individual right to keep and bear arms under Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller has now filed his brief in the case that seeks to apply that right to the states, McDonald v. City of Chicago. (Cato earlier filed a brief supporting Alan’s cert petition, the background to which you can read about here.) The question presented in this case is: Whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is incorporated as against the States by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities or Due Process Clauses. Remarkably, only 7 of...

Cicero's Prognosis -- by --THE HONORABLE MILLARD F. CALDWELL Justice - Supreme Court Tallahassee, Florida Presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. October 7-9, 1965, Columbus, Ohio Reprinted March, 1996 The Roman Republic, the foremost power of its day, had reached its zenith. Its leadership had attained unbounded wealth and unstinted power. The rulers were intolerant of restraint, indifferent to the demands of the middle class, and contemptuous of the Constitution which was designed to curb their ambitions. The time was some 70 years before the birth of Christ. Young Marcus...

Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion and did not see any 1st Amendment problem with governmental support of religion. Rather than depending upon external legal constraints and force to maintain order and peace, they had to rely upon individual self-restraint and self-control. But they realized that it is only reasonable to expect people to act that...

There is a battle brewing in California, should we count only those who are citizens, or should we count everyone that resides inside of the Glden State. So ponder this. When we take the census in 2010 should we be counting everybody or just U.S. citizens? There are non-citizens and illegal aliens in this country. What have we done in the past and why is it important? First of all just in California if we excluded counting non-citizens we would lose 5 House seats in Congress. Exclude counting illegal immigrants we would lose an additional 2 seats. In 1990 California...

Courtesy Oleg Volk, A Human Right Oregon Firearms Federation alerted its members about the Southern Poverty Law Center training Eugene police: The Southern Poverty Law Center, which considers opposition to draconian gun control laws to be "crackpot," has sent one of their "experts" to Eugene to teach police from multiple agencies about "Hate in America Today- a National Overview of Far Right Domestic Terrorism." You will recall that in the brave new world of Obama, "right wing terrorists" include gun owners, Constitutionalists, military veterans and supporters of limited government. Here's the EPD new release. Among other things, it says: The...

This is the final installment my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Click for parts one and two) After a break for lunch, Mark C. Henrie took up America's Britishness. Henrie wrote the ISI's A Student's Guide to the Core Curriculum that explains the value of a traditional core of studies in Western civilization and his session reflected that study. Capitalizing on Birzer's citation of Edmund Burke...

This is part two of my three part report on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s one day conference on The Roots of American Order. So here is part two of mine titled Lift a Glass to the Past: America Rooted in Tradition or a New Covenant? (Part one can be seen here) The second speaker of the day was Brad Birzer who regaled us on America's Judeo-Christian History. Bizer began his session by noting that historian Donald Lutz discovered that the founders used Christian references in their pre-war writing far more than any other source. St. Paul was the most referenced...

Is the United States a grand experiment, a new covenant invented out of whole cloth by the fertile minds of the founders from never before seen ideas or is it a nation spawned from deeply rooted traditions of western thought? This was the question posited in a one-day-long conference on classicism in America's founding sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and held in Skokie, Illinois, a near northern suburb of Chicago. The short answer is that the liberal mindset that holds that we should invent the USA anew with each succeeding generation is an erroneous conception of what the...

The government dumped tens of billions of dollars into General Motors, and then dictated a “political bankruptcy” that trampled the rights of senior creditors in order to cut a sweetheart deal for the Obama administration’s union pals. Americans expected to see that pay off in broader investment and job creation, and that’s precisely what GM has in mind … for Europe. ABC News reports that GM plans to spend billions restructuring its Opel subsidiary rather than its core American businesses, and that has some lawmakers seeing red: Specifically, at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels...

Barack Obama’s deep bow to the emperor of Japan and earlier bow to the Saudi Arabian king is so deeply offensive to America’s history and traditions that it cannot and most not be explained away in any fashion. The framers of the U.S. Constitution were particularly sensitive to the conditions under which a President could serve or any hint that a privileged, monarchal class might emerge. “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States. And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office...

...The Founders did not give us a government like the one we have today. The government they gave us was strictly limited in its scope, guaranteed individual liberty, preserved the free market, and on matters that pertain to our private behavior was supposed to leave us alone. In the Constitution, the Founders built in checks and balances. If the Congress got out of hand, the states would restrain it. If the states stole liberty or property, the Congress would cure it. If the President tried to become a king, the courts would prevent it. In the next few weeks, I...

The New York newspaperman says our founding document is especially vital today, in an age of expanding state power. Seth Lipsky has a knack for seeing the bright side of things. A nearly 20-year veteran of this newspaper, including its editorial page, he cheerfully acknowledges the obvious: This is far from a golden age of free-market conservatism. Of President Obama, he tells me over lunch, "I sense that he has a very leftist, socialist-oriented worldview." Yet this makes Mr. Lipsky anything but grim: "I for one find this very exciting. . . . We're just at a great moment." Why?...

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known by its acronym—ACORN—has filed suit against the federal government over the cut to its funding passed by Congress. The suit alleges that the cuts are both “inequitable” and “unconstitutional.” “First of all, the extensive history of government payments to our organization has created a financial dependency that it is the government’s obligation to sustain,” claimed ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. “Cutting us off is just as wrong as cutting off the benefits to a welfare mother whose income-earning skills have atrophied while she has been on the dole. Those who depend...

According to the Politico, an unnamed Obama aide is claiming that President Barack Obama did not actually bow to the Saudi King. But looking at the video, it seems to be a case if "Do you believe the White House or your lying eyes?" "It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," the aide is quoted as saying, suggesting that President Obama was just bending over to maintain eye contact with the King and not, in fact, But the video that accompanies the news stories clearly shows President Obama bowing before...

I am really not sure who Sandra Rose is. It appears she has some kind of Hollywood celebrity blog, but she sure understands prison, Nancy Pelosi and, it appears, the constitution. She writes: Remember kiddies, if ObamaCare passes and you don’t buy health insurance you’re going to prison. I keep forgetting that you think health care will be free! House speaker Nancy Pelosi (who I think has a touch of Alzheimer’s) confirmed this legislation again today during a press conference. Shomari Stone, KOMO reporter: “Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail for not buying health insurance?” Pelosi:...

Antitrust exemption: A 1945 law prevented the federal government from regulating all forms of insurance, leaving that duty to the states.[Huck's note--so did a 1787 law, called the 10th amendment]. As a result, the law also shielded insurers from federal antitrust laws that prohibit price-fixing and collusion. This is seen as a problem for residents in many areas where only one or two health insurers operate. Rather than go to a neighboring state where another insurer might be offering a better deal, residents are forced to choose between the insurers that are regulated by their state government. Buying across state...

After the release of my last column “Freedom’s Destruction by Constitutional De-Construction,� I received so many responses to my statement, “The people of the states [must] once again reject this national form of government and assert and defend the principles of federalism,� that I felt the need to develop this subject more thoroughly. The question I received was: “How can I choose federalism once again?� Indeed, answering this question is crucial to injecting a cure for the sickness and illness of tyrannical, national control over the people of the states. Undoubtedly, we are going to need an acute dosage to...

During the Constitutional Convention, from May to September 1787, delegates from the colonies were to gather together for the express purpose of amending the Articles of Confederation to form a “more perfect union” (NOT a completely different union!). The men that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were under direct and limited orders from their states to attend the Federal Convention explicitly to preserve the federation and State rights and to correct the errors of the existing federal government for the limited purposes of handling foreign affairs, commerce among the states and common defense. Yet, during that private and secret convention, there...

Pelosi "Health Plan" Should Be DOA Today at 8:40am We need to be vigilant in investigating the ramifications of the Pelosi Health Care Bill. Some provisions sound so outrageous as to be considered impossible to fathom, but they’re right there in the bill in black and white. For instance, page 297 of the bill explains the punishment for not purchasing government mandated health insurance. If you don’t buy what the government considers “acceptable health care coverage,” you’re going to be hit with a tax of at least 2.5% of your income. And if you don’t pay that new tax, you...

NEW YORK – ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on ACORN's behalf Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. It claims the law was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization. Messages for comment left at the White House and the federal agencies named in the suit were not immediately returned.

Back in late October, I wrote "Brady Campaign hypocrisy," chiding the Brady Campaign--specifially, their Vice President for Law and Policy, Dennis Henigan--for his accusation that the "gun lobby" tries to hide the truth. This accusation positively reeks of hypocrisy, on a couple levels. First, Henigan himself, in arguing on a video clip that the Second Amendment did nothing to protect the individual's right to keep and bear arms, recited the amendment in its entirety--except for the "of the people" part--the very part that poses the biggest problem for the now discredited "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment. Second, when...

Nowadays, we’re all familiar with the formula: Government alarms the citizenry with a trumped up crisis from which the only refuge is more and bigger government. But did you know that’s how our government was born? Here are excerpts from Patrick Henry’s speeches at the Virginia Convention, where he spells it out: Manufactured Alarm Where is the danger? If, sir, there was any, I would recur to the American spirit to defend us; that spirit which has enabled us to surmount the greatest difficulties -- to that illustrious spirit I address my most fervent prayer to prevent our adopting a...

The doctrine of "implied powers", which was understood at the time the Constitution was debated and eventually ratified, means that the national government's powers are NOT, as Madison assured readers in Federalist 45, “few and defined”. Rather, they are incomprehensibly vast. As Brutus wondered in Antifederalist 32, “how is it possible to understand the extent of that power which can pass all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying it into executions? It is truly incomprehensible. A case cannot be conceived of, which is not included in this power.” By 1791, the question of implied powers was already...

Alaska resident Dave Ross' flight into Pittsburgh Airport for a short visit to the Keystone State last July was uneventful - until, that is, he was arrested for retrieving his sidearm from checked baggage and holstering up on the way out of the airport. Mr. Ross told the Examiner.com that he tried to explain to Magistrate Judge Anthony Saveikis that Allegheny County's ordinance banning gun carry at the airport was "preempted by Section 6120 of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act," but Saveikis found him guilty anyway. Ross then hired Pennsylvania attorney J. Michael McCormick to appeal his conviction to the...

When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he “would have to check the specific sections” but said that it was like making people “sign up for the draft.” “Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance?” CNSNews.com asked Reed. “Let me see,” said Reed. “I would have to check the specific sections, so I’ll have to get back to you on the specific section. But it is not unusual that the Congress has required individuals to do...

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) says he is “not aware” of the Constitution giving Congress the authority to make individuals purchase health insurance, as the health care bills in both the House and Senate require. When CNSNews.com asked whether the Constitution gives Congress the authority to make Americans buy health insurance, Sen. Akaka said: “I’m not aware of that, let me put it that way. But what we’re trying to do is to provide for people who have needs and that’s where the accessibility comes in, and one of the goals that we’re trying to present here is to make it...

Washington- With a recent reading of prepared statements before the Washington DC chapter of the Friends of Bill Owens fanclub South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham made a few things perfectly clear. Among these things were that “Thomas Jefferson is not the head of the Republican Party” and he “won’t stand idly by and let the party that Rockerfeller built get hijacked by the Constitution.” Graham also went on to say “You know that election we had recently, you know that one in upstate New York, that shows we’ve got to build this into a big tent party. But I think...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is taking its first step toward trying to fix the ailing airline industry, mired in a severe economic slump and facing safety worries. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is holding a forum Thursday to discuss the state of the industry and ways government can help provide economic stability for air carriers. The industry has been rocked by repeated crises in recent years, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the SARS virus and the current economic downturn. "U.S. aviation is facing severe economic uncertainty and an open and frank conversation will help begin a continuing dialogue about the...

A Colorado sheriff who made headlines for his deliberate non-compliance with the politically correct attitude of his county toward Christmas, today honored the U.S. Marine Corps on its 234th birthday, along with veterans and members of other military branches. And he implored them to be vigilant now as ever, since their service is not over. The comments come from Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, who occasionally releases a personal column called the BullsEye. He was in the news in recent Christmas seasons when he scoffed at county rules about using neutral themes such as penguins for Christmas decorations and staged...

In states around the country, there’s a growing movement to address and resist two of the most abused parts of the Constitution – the Commerce Clause and the 2nd Amendment. Already being considered in a number of state legislatures, and passed as law in Montana and Tennessee this year, the Firearms Freedom Act (FFA) is a state law that seeks to do just that. The latest to join the FFA movement? Kentucky. Pre-filed for the 2010 legislative session, HB87 seeks to “Create new sections of KRS Chapter 237, relating to firearms, firearm accessories and ammunition that are made in Kentucky,...

Robert Yates, a delegate to the 1787 convention from New York, left on July 10, 1787. He became an Antifederalist leader. Under the nome de plume "Sydney" he wrote in the New York Daily Patriotic Register, June 13 and 14, 1788. TO THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Although a variety of objections to the proposed new constitution for the government of the United States have been laid before the public by men of the best abilities, I am led to believe that representing it in a point of view which has escaped their observation may be of...