Free Republic

We know from the Bret Baier interview with Hillary Clinton that she was physically located at her 7th floor office in Washington DC on Sept. 11th 2012, the night of the attack. Unfortunately we also know during the November 2012 Thanksgiving holiday a mysterious fire took place in that building. Well, actually directly above her exact office – cause undetermined. March 2011 through Pre 9/11/12 attack: Who knew of Operation “Zero Footprint”?: President Obama and Vice President Biden (both Dems) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Dem) CIA Director Leon Panetta (March 2011 – June 2011) *CIA Director General David Petraeus...

In the first week of April, 2017, a nostalgic nation watched as one of the grand old institutions crumbled into dust: the Senate filibuster was removed from the toolbox for presidential appointments. Many on both sides of the aisle shed a tear or two as the US Senate lost one of its most famous and romantic tools; until the Democrats overplayed their hand on the Gorsuch nomination, a single Senator could hold up a presidential appointee with a filibuster. No more. Before you shed any more tears, though, dear Gentle Reader, please consider who had long been empowered with this...

Our once Free Republic continues to reel from a one hundred and four-year-old mistake: the 17th Amendment. Pardon me if I don’t celebrate tomorrow’s anniversary. Republican theory demands the consent of the governed. From ancient Greece, republican Rome, Saxon Germany, and the English kingdom from which we declared our Independence, the component members of their societies had a place at the lawmaking table. Greek ecclesia, Roman tribunes and senators, Saxon Micklegemots, English commons, lords and king, encompassed the totality of their societies. By this, the consent of the governed was present in every law. Unlike simpler Greek or Saxon societies...

This is the first of twenty-five weekly articles in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Series. ...Madison knew one thing about human nature: Every person sought to advance his or her own interests, and every person could be corrupted. Studying the various forms of government deployed throughout history, Madison came to the conclusion–one that he thought should be obvious–that the only way to counteract the natural tendencies of human nature was to develop a system of checks and balances. In a pure democracy, every citizen has one vote, and decisions are made by the vote of a majority. That form of government,...

Check the polls for the last 10 years (at least): no single profession, nor any other group of people in America, is more universally despised than the US Congress and its members (although, thanks largely to their control over reelection variables, their constituents usually reelect almost all of them.) Their “approval” rating as a group is often in the teens and, today, is actually at one of its high-water marks – up to the low 20’s in some polls!

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said on Monday that he will buck party leadership and oppose a Democratic effort to block Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court nomination. “I will oppose efforts to filibuster the nomination, and strongly encourage my colleagues not to use the nuclear option,” he said in a statement.

The extraordinary longevity of Sparta fascinated 17th and 18th century political writers and philosophers. From Algernon Sidney, to Walter Moyle, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon of Cato’s Letters fame, the idealized lessons drawn from the Spartan experience in government had enormous impact on our Founding generation. Spanning some six hundred years, until the Roman conquest of 146 BC, the Spartan republic remains the longest lived in history. Legend holds that Lycurgus, (circa 800 BC) traveled the eastern Mediterranean to observe various governments. He visited Egypt, Crete, and city-states around the Aegean Sea. Sensing that he could design a better governing...

A month ago, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh wrote to federal authorities asking that they declare the state's courts, schools and hospitals off limits to immigration agents. Frosh, a Democrat, wrote that he was sending the letter in response to new immigration guidelines issued by the Trump administration that greatly expand the number of people considered a priority for removal from the country. However, all that was before AG Sessions surprise press conference last week in which he detailed the administration was stepping up its push back against cities that break the law by not enforcing actions against illegal...

Democrats in Congress have a new and somewhat surprising tool at their disposal in the era of one-party Republican rule in President Trump’s Washington: power. It turns out that Republicans need the minority party to help them avoid a government shutdown at the end of April, when the current spending deal to fund the government expires. And Democrats have decided, for now at least, that they will use their leverage to reassert themselves and ensure the continued funding of their top priorities — by negotiating with Republicans.

US Democrats and Lindsey Graham are VERY UPSET with unsubstantiated reports that Russia tried to interfere with the 2016 US election. Democrats call the alleged Russian interference an act of war. These same hacks had no problem with Barack Obama using taxpayer dollars in an attempt to swing the Israeli election. The Obama State Department gave $349,276 in U.S. taxpayer-funded grants to try to influence Israelis to vote against conservative Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2015 election. In fact the United States has worked to influence at least 81 elections around the world that we know of. The United States...

From a Renaissance fresco, “Take Rome as your example if you wish to rule a thousand years; follow the common good, and not selfish ends; and give just counsel like these men.” The Roman republic lasted several hundred years because it kept corruption of its institutions at bay. Its fall into empire and despotism began when the tribunate succumbed to corruption and no longer served to check the consuls. Once the senate was tamed through threats and promises of enrichment at public expense, there was no turning back. It happened quickly. Sulla marched on Rome in 82 BC and Julius...

When Mitt Romney selected Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, people cheered. He was young, attractive, idealistic, and — doggone it! — he did P90x. Images of him lifting weights bounced across the internet. Surely this is what the GOP needed, they said. New blood. Youth. Strength. The fact that his losing bid against Barack Obama and Joe Biden was the high mark of his career says a great deal about his legacy. His lack of true leadership has grown more and more evident. During the last week, Speaker Ryan's stature managed to shrink in regard to Congress, and...

SCIF” – Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. To understand the larger Devin Nunes briefing issues it is important to focus on the word “compartmented”. Intelligence information is housed by compartments. Each intelligence unit holds intelligence unique to that compartment. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Unit would hold the intel information specific to their task or assignment. The CIA would hold their own compartmented intel; again, specific to their task and objectives. So too would the NSA or Pentagon. ♦ The balance or civilian (representative) oversight into the compartmented intelligence falls to a very select group known as the Intelligence Gang of Eight. Here’s...

In parts 1 through 4, we learned the U.S. is a republican structure of government. Continuing on with the airplane analogy, our system contains a variety of control cockpits, or the best parts of various forms of government. For example, our system contains one aspect of democracy: voting once per year for five minutes; monarchy: U.S. president for four years; oligarchy: most school boards for four years. We also learned the architects reserved structural maintenance solely and exclusively in the hands of the governed – remember Mrs. Eliza Powel? After our introduction to her, we should be inspired to learn...

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Pierce College student Tuesday filed suit against the school and the Los Angeles Community College District, alleging policies that restrict student free speech rights to tiny zones are unconstitutional and infringe on First Amendment rights. Kevin Shaw, 27, contends the Woodland Hills community college violated his civil rights when he was barred from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution because he wasn't in the free speech zone -- an outdoor area roughly the size of three parking spaces -- and because he hadn't applied in advance to use it.

At their first sit-down as party leaders in December, Chuck Schumer pledged to tell Mitch McConnell exactly what’s on his mind going forward — no subterfuge or backbiting. "You and Harry didn't get along,” Schumer recalled saying, referring to his predecessor, Harry Reid. “Each of you thought the other was a liar. But I've learned in life if people think people are liars, sometimes they misconceive things when they don’t know the whole story.” Schumer went on: “Mitch, I’m from Brooklyn. I will tell you what I think. Sometimes you’ll like it, sometimes you won’t. But I’m not going to...

"Prior to this year, the House voted to repeal Obamacare more than 50 times ---when it was clear that President Obama would veto the bill. The problem we are facing is that some of the people who voted for repeal 50 times will not vote for repeal when it counts, when it is "our moment in time," with Republicans in control of Congress and the presidency." --Rep Dave Brat "This has been my complaint since before Obamacare became law. Nothing I’ve seen addresses the problem of increased costs of medical care. All these bills just shift the rising costs from...

After just two months, there is no question that the Donald Trump presidency is an unmitigated disaster. The FBI is conducting an investigation to determine whether members of the Trump campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to help elect Donald Trump last year. This by itself is extraordinary and unprecedented. As Republicans noted last year, it is very difficult to have a presidential administration under FBI investigation. No one knows what the investigation will find, but what we already know is bad enough. Senior Trump advisors lied about their contacts with Russian officials; one, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign from...

Don’t take this the wrong way because I actually like Congressman Louis Gohmert a lot. However, this sketchy all-over-the-map interview is at an almost Tippy Guam level of bizzarro. The sum total of this interview would be exhibit “A” in the sketchy trial of “methinks he doth protest too much”, the Broadway musical. Um, Louie.. dude. Rather than shout: “he lie”, “he lie”, “heeee lieeeee”; I’m left wondering if your hands or fingers are broken. Why didn’t Louis Gohmert, a sitting member of congress, just walk over to the Senate and ask the Parliamentarian herself – if he had a...

Free Republic stands for God, family, country. We generally look to Judeo-Christian* guidance on issues of law, morality, justice, freedom, life, family and civil society. And we have a Christian self-governing, self-reliant, individual accountability & responsibility, you gotta work if able-bodied and want to eat attitude on cultural and societal issues. And a Christian pro-Constitution, original intent, pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, restricted government, small government, states rights, individual rights, free enterprise position on political and civil matters. *Note: I say Judeo-Christian because Jesus was a Jew and referred to the Ten Commandments, Jewish law, beliefs and customs and the scripture...