Free Republic

<p>First Amendment: The FCC has cooked up a plan to place "researchers" in U.S. newsrooms, supposedly to learn all about how editorial decisions are made. Any questions as to why the U.S. is falling in the free press rankings?</p> <p>As if illegal seizures of Associated Press phone records and the shadowy tailing of the mother of a Fox News reporter weren't menacing enough, the Obama administration is going out of its way to institute a new intrusive surveillance of the press, as if the press wasn't supine enough.</p>

WASHINGTON — Twitter photos and videos appear to be blocked in Venezuela as the government there attempts to reassert control amid widespread public protests. Three people were reportedly killed this week in massive student demonstrations in the capital Caracas, as protesters react to falling living standards. President Nicolas Maduro has called the protests a “neo-fascist” coup attempt, and sought the arrest of an opposition leader. The Venezuelan government has not commented on, or claimed credit for, the apparent Twitter block.

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) says that the newly launched Congressional Full Employment Caucus will “give President Obama a number of executive orders that he can sign.” Jackson Lee made the statement while gathered with Democrats on January 29th to announce the establishment of the Full Employment Caucus. “We will be answering the call of all of America because people need work and we’re not doing right by them by creating work,” Jackson Lee said. “I believe this caucus will put us on the right path and we’ll give President Obama a number of executive orders that he...

I know there were much more dangerous and important things said in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, but one relatively minor claim completely surprised and shocked me.But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Some require congressional action, and I'm eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. (Applause.) So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families,...

Webster’s defines a dupe as “one who is easily deceived.” But a misperception prevails among most people. They think of dupes as ignorant people only. On the contrary, there are large amounts of intelligent dupes in all societies. Brains are no protection against dupery. In fact, I would classify dupery as one of the deadly sins that curse all men and women no matter what level of class and smarts they possess. Dictatorships depend upon dupery to perpetuate themselves – especially dupery among the intelligentsia. There are, in this writer’s opinion, three forms of dupery afflicting the human race, or...

The American system of government has as it's chief executive, a president who is carefully checked by a watchful Congress and a consientious judiciary. Except, when it isn't. Case in point: Our president plans to rule us - not govern us - by using the vast powers of his office and absolute control of the federal bureaucracy to ram his vision of hope and change down our throats. Done without the approval of Congress and with little challenge from the judiciary. Can he get away with it? Watch him:

United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres opined that communist governments would be better suited to combat global warming than governments trying to operate under democratic principles. “The problem with democracy is that the ignorant masses have too much say in government policies,” Figueres complained. “Take the last 15 years in which there has been no increase in global temperature or the recent arctic type weather in the United States. This has caused many voters to discount the risk of global warming. Under communism, the will of the masses can easily be bypassed so policy can be determined by experts.” The...

Long gone may the days be where the people of the United States have the right to express themselves freely under the First Amendment. Obama just signed a bill into law secretly that allows for Secret Service to arrest anyone publicly protesting within their vicinity. The bill turned law, H.R. 347, has passed through congress with little objection from either side, or the American public. This could be on account of lawmakers sneaking it through congress allowing for no real discussion on the matter until after it was passed. The law effectively allows for secret service, or anyone under secret...

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- Former NBA star Charles D. Smith says he feels remorse for coming to Pyongyang with Dennis Rodman for a game on the North Korean leader's birthday because the event has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman's own comments. Smith and other former NBA players are scheduled to play with Rodman against a team of North Koreans on Wednesday that organizers say leader Kim Jong Un is expected to attend. Many of the players on Tuesday privately expressed second thoughts about going ahead because of an outpouring of criticism back home in the United...

The White House inched forward Friday with two new executive actions aimed at boosting the federal background-check system. The new laws will make it more difficult for “anyone who may pose a danger to themselves or others” to purchase a gun. NewsMax reported: Under the measures announced by the White House, the Justice Department will propose changes to the federal background check system to clarify who under U.S. law is prohibited from possessing a firearm because of mental health problems. The Department of Health and Human Services also will propose a regulation aimed at making it easier for states to...

One of the most disturbing things about Barack Obama's reign of lawless executive power is that it has people fantasizing about outright totalitarian dictatorship, and not in a faculty-lounge-B.S. kind of way. We've always had to put up with the likes of Thomas Friedman at the New York Times rhapsodizing about the joys of Chinese authoritarianism - provided a duly accredited Democrat gets to be America's temporary dictator, of course - but now we've got Jesse Myerson at Rolling Stone daydreaming about hard-core communism as the solution to America's ills. He's not fooling around, either. He wants the government to...

Because MSNBC long ago stopped being a news channel in favor of becoming visual left-wing talk radio, the "Lean Forward" network continues to make a fool of itself in ways both big (mocking a black infant) and small. On a slow news Friday, MSNBC rising star Thomas Roberts and a guest spit-balled on the air over how to "combat" the Duck Dynasty clan from doing something legal -- like releasing their own line of firearms:

The National Labor Relations Board has abandoned the administration’s attempts to force businesses to post pro-union notices in workplaces. Two federal appeals courts struck down an NLRB rule that would have forced employers to put up the signs. The NLRB had until Thursday, Jan. 2, to appeal the cases to the Supreme Court, but quietly allowed the deadline to pass. A NLRB spokesman said the agency was not prepared to comment on the matter. Critics of the posters celebrated the NLRB’s decision. The “unanimous voice of the judiciary has forced the Obama Labor Board to

President Obama’s Kansas speech is a remarkable document. In calling for more government controls, more taxation, more collectivism, he has two paragraphs that give the show away. Take a look at them.

Speaker John Boehner’s office ripped John Podesta, the incoming counselor to President Barack Obama, for comments he made to POLITICO, comparing House Republicans to followers of Jim Jones, who murdered five people, including then-Rep. Leo Ryan, before committing mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. “For those who’ve forgotten, a Democratic member of Congress was murdered in Jonestown and a current one, Rep. Jackie Speier, was shot five times during the same incident,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement to reporters. “If this is the attitude of the new White House, it’s hard to see how the president gets...

President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia's media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow's image abroad. The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin's hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule. Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin's...

Subtitle: The solution to a dysfunctional Congress is not for Obama to govern the country all by himself. In the face of congressional gridlock, President Obama has started taking more and more matters into his own hands. In recent months, he has announced new gun control measures, put in place limited immigration reform and made fixes to the Affordable Care Act — all without Congress. Many liberals who once worried about presidential overreach have applauded his robust use of presidential power. Yet the president's increasing unilateralism shouldn't be cause for celebration. Bypassing Congress means bypassing democratic checks. It also means...

According to our recently proposed treaty with the Iranian government, Iran keeps much of its nuclear program while agreeing to slow its path to weapons-grade enrichment. The Iranians also get crippling economic sanctions lifted. The agreement is not like détente-era arms reductions with the Soviets. After all, each superpower in the Cold War had enough nuclear missiles to reduce most of civilization to cinders. One mistake could have ended in Armageddon. In this supposed win-win deal, America does not have to worry about another costly and unpopular preemptive military action to stop proliferation. Iran keeps its nuclear program. It...

Industry Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said he wanted “more cooperation with foreign companies,” including French manufacturers Peugeot and Renault, both of which have had a long history of doing business with Iran. Nematzadeh said he hoped for the lifting of sanctions on the car industry “by the end of December.”

Elian Gonzalez, the object of a 1999-2000 custody squabble involving Washington, Havana and family members on both sides of the Florida Strait, holds a piece of U.S. legislation directly responsible for what he endured then, Cuban official media said Monday. "They were very sad times for me, which marked me for my whole life. I was never given the chance to have a moment to think about my mother, who as a result of that (U.S.) Cuban Adjustment Act died at sea," the now-19-year-old Gonzalez said last weekend during a Union of Young Communists event. ~snip~ The 1966 Cuban Adjustment...