Free Republic

Christian News writer Heather Clark reports that a group of nine men who attended the Southern Decadence Festival in New Orleans were arrested and jailed for violating a new city ordinance that prohibits religious and other free speech after sundown on the city's famed Bourbon Street. The ordinance, which was passed in October 2011, is called "Aggressive Solicitation." Subsection four states, "It shall be prohibited for any person or group of persons to loiter or congregate on Bourbon Street for the purpose of disseminating any social, political or religious message between the hours of sunset and sunrise." (Nine Men Arrested...

The Secretary of State Project, the once influential group backed by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, has either gone into hiding or informally disbanded. What happened? Did the group just disappear? Well, before we investigate the group’s possible demise, perhaps a quick history lesson is in order. ... “In most states the secretary of state is the chief elections officer, so putting left-wingers in the often-overlooked but critically important office allows these political radicals to manipulate the electoral process,” writes Matthew Vadum for the American Spectator. “This is what liberals call ‘election protection,’” he adds. Add billionaire donor George Soros and...

GREENSBORO, N.C. –The Presidential election is just around the corner and voting issues have already become a problem in Guilford County. On Monday, several voters complained that their electronic ballot machine cast the wrong vote. All the complaints were made by people who voted at the Bur-Mil Park polling location. One of the voters, Sher Coromalis, says she cast her ballot for Governor Mitt Romney, but every time she entered her vote it defaulted to President Obama. “I was so upset that this could happen,” said Coromalis. Guilford County Board of Elections Director George Gilbert says the problem arises every...

A major Denver event planning company says the Alabama Democratic delegation still owes it about $60,000 for work performed in September at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. ... Invoices show the agreed upon cost was about $100,000. The Alabama Democrats paid about $40,000 up front, agreeing to pay the balance at the conclusion of the convention. Wright says Bradley Davidson, the executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, shook his hand and promised the money would be paid in Charlotte. “And I shook (Davidson’s) hand and he said, “100 percent you’re getting the money,” and he guaranteed it,” Wright...

David Richter, the president of Hill International (HIL), a mid-sized outfit that manages construction projects, was speaking last year at a private meeting with investors when he was asked about the recent success of his newest subsidiary, HillStone International. How was it that HillStone, a newcomer in the business of home building, landed a massive and potentially lucrative contract to build 100,000 homes in war-torn Iraq? Richter didn’t mince words. It really helps, he said, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to a person who was present. The “brother” Richter was referring to during...

American politicians are always on the lookout for "new sources of revenue," which sounds a lot nicer than "sinking their fangs into our necks." But however you describe it, they just can't stop sucking our blood with their unending tax increases on the national, state and local levels. They tax our gas, our houses, our sodas. They tax our smokes, they tax our roads, they tax our health care and our paychecks, and after we've paid, they even tax our deaths. Cutting government is painful for them. Their mantra? "Government can't afford a tax cut." So they tax us instead,...

Republican Sen. James Inhofe says the Environmental Protection Agency has delayed action or “punted” on numerous regulations while President Obama tries to “earns votes” for a second term. The Oklahoma senator and ranking Republican on the chamber’s Committee on Environment and Public Works has released a report stating that when the agency approves the roughly one dozen regulations next year in 2013, they will “spell doom” for jobs and economic growth. “The Obama-EPA plans to move full speed ahead to implement this agenda if President Obama wins a second term,” Inhofe writes. “These rules taken together will inevitably result in...

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The domestic violence in Shepard’s past is both shocking and repulsive in detail. On February 15, 1998, police were called to then-Mrs. Shepard’s house (the couple had been separated since June of the previous year) by a girlfriend. According to the police report (.pdf file), Mrs. Shepard said of her husband: Read on. Joseph entered my home. I told him to leave. He came up to me looking angry. I put my hands up to protect my breasts as they are sore (cancer). He has hit me before in the breast. He grabbed my wrist and arm and pushed me...

The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon, sent a yes/no questionnaire to commanders in our military to find out if they gave any advice or warning to the State Department over security in Benghazi. Though he gave them 24 hours to respond, the DOD responded by saying they wouldn’t be able to comply. McKeon says this is the first time he’s ever seen the Secretary of Defense prohibit uniformed military from responding to a congressional inquiry and it flies in the face of the president’s claim that he is getting the information out to the American people...

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is in a world of hurt ­— medically and legally — may be returning to Mayo Clinic for treatment. A source who claims to have visited Jackson said, “Jesse is finding it difficult to continue his treatment because the press is staking out his home and making access to his doctor, incredibly hard.” “His doctors are considering sending him back to Mayo Clinic for treatment.” The source added Jackson, who is being treated for bipolar disorder during his four-month absence from work, is trying “to stay focused and calm to enhance his treatment and...

It is no secret that President Obama’s and green-energy supporters’ (from both parties) foray into venture capitalism has not gone well. But the extent of its failure has been largely ignored by the press. Sure, single instances garner attention as they happen, but they ignore past failures in order to make it seem like a rare case. The truth is that the problem is widespread. The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of failure, cronyism, and corruption at the companies receiving the subsidies is substantial. The fact that...

....So far, 36 companies that have received federal support from taxpayers have either gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and are heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy. The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher. The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:...

One of the many tense moments in the second presidential debate turned on a new topic in the race: President Barack Obama’s pension account. Here’s how it came up: Early in the face-off, Obama scoffed at Mitt Romney’s pledge to crack down on unfair trading practices by China, saying Romney is currently invested in companies "that are building surveillance equipment for China to spy on its own folks." Romney later explained that, yes, he understands that his blind trust has invested in foreign firms, including companies in China. Then he confronted Obama. Romney: "Mr. President, have you looked at your...

Here she comes. Hearing Gloria Allred out there again, about to make a move. After all, it's her time of the campaign. Team O at the ready!!

UPDATE: Contact JUDICIAL WATCH as well: 1-888-593-8442 and email here. Don't underestimate Gloria Allred's ability to inflict damage. The media will "eat up" anything she feeds them and turn it into an endless scandal. Recall she took down Cain and RINO Whitman with NO EVIDENCE. Now, according to Drudge, she is prepared to launch an assault on Mitt (early warning here). We're doing too well to risk "an Allred." She can be stopped, but it will take action on our behalf. Please make these two calls. We will only get their attention if we bombard them. If you get VM,...

An appeal to the government of Saudi Arabia to stop publishing hate-filled textbooks was issued today by seven current and former heads of major American publishing houses. Leading it was Robert Bernstein, formerly chairman of Random House and founder of Human Rights Watch, who is now the chairman of Advancing Human Rights. He was joined by the publisher at Amazon, the publisher of Simon and Schuster, a Reuters editor-at-large, the editorial director of Broadside Books (HarperCollins), and other prominent publishers. I have researched and written about the toxic content of school textbooks published by the Saudi Ministry of Education for...

The economy, abortion, and national security took center stage, but the moderator stole the show at Tuesday night’s presidential debate at Hofstra University. While liberals were racing to announce, “Obama is back,” the debate resulted in a firefight that clearly highlighted the contrasts between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama. From their leadership styles, approach to governing, and national security strategies, to their domestic, foreign, and economic policies, the contrast could not be clearer. Regardless of the questions, President Obama found a way to steer them to the issues he wanted to discuss even if the answer was...

CNN’s Candy Crowley has always seemed like a tough, sharp and relatively fair reporter. So when she said earlier this week she was going to take an active moderator role in last night’s debate, that didn’t immediately seem like a bad thing. There’s no problem with an impartial moderator keeping the candidates on topic and pressing them with follow-ups. But by the end of the night, it was clear Crowley had done damage to her own reputation of objectivity. It wasn’t just because of the Benghazi question, either. Matt Latimer lays out the instances of bias at the Daily Beast:...

The recent fiasco in Libya and the manner President Obama’s media minions have abetted his deception provides an epitaph for the soon to be demised Obama administration: Four Americans died. Obama lied. The press complied. Republicans have been trying to highlight the terrorist attack on our Libyan embassy for weeks, but recognizing how damaging this episode was to Obama’s credibility, media coverage has been subdued. Who requested what security and when is important, but these things always appear obvious in hindsight. Much more telling is the way our hyper-partisan press ignored how the administration initially attributed Bengazi to some YouTube...