Free Republic

Congressional Democrats now have their unified response to increasing calls for oil exploration in Alaska and in the waters off our shores: The energy companies, they say, are already sitting on plenty of oil, refusing to recover it. But is that true? “Energy companies are not producing oil or gas on 68 million acres of federal land under their control,” claims Congressman Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat. “The fact of the matter is Congress has already allowed oil companies to drill, but those companies are refusing to drill because they want to lock up as much federal land as...

U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage. Put the fireworks in storage. Cancel the parade. Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time. This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement. For we have sinned. We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago. The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner. The America they founded should never imprison people for years without...

The SurrenderMedia recently misreported (there’s a surprise) that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda, when in fact the report the SurrenderMedia was trying to cover said just the opposite. As I noted at the time the analysis showed Saddam Hussein had long time ties with Ayman Zawahiri, who at the time ran the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. A group that was integrated into al-Qaeda when Zawahiri joined forces with Bin Laden in the 1990’s. Gateway Pundit has a link to a recent news article out of Iraq showing evidence that Saddam Hussein continued his ties with Zawahiri after...

New MoveOn ad: Don’t take my baby, John McCain! In which a 90-year-old Maverick, serving his fifth term as president after declaring martial law and suspending the Constitution, conscripts young Alex to walk the beat in Baghdad. Either that or mom here hasn’t yet grasped that (a) President McCain won’t be setting Iraq policy for the next 18 years, let alone the next hundred, (b) MoveOn’s candidate of choice has himself been dropping some dark hints lately about “tactical readjustments,� and (c) whether McCain and the military can have her son is, um, up to her son, not her. The...

Report Cites Increase in Attacks on Military Recruiting Centers Wednesday, March 26, 2008 By Melissa Underwood Shattered windows and bomb scares are growing threats for recruiters working to find young men and women to join the U.S. military, according to a new report that claims attacks on military recruiting stations are on the rise. The report, issued by a not-for-profit group that supports members of the military, calls the incidents — including the spray-painting of graffiti — "attacks," and claims there have been more than 50 since March 2003. "The peace protesters are not peaceful," said Catherine Moy, executive director...

Today, the NY Times has the first part of a special series - War Torn:Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles. It appears that the troops are coming home and becoming murderers. Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: "Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife." Pierre, S.D.: "Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress." Colorado Springs: "Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring." Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the...

The Manchester, N.H., Republican Committee has come up with a unique way of raising funds. It is hosting a "Machine Gun-Shoot" fund-raiser where, for $25, donors will be allowed to fire Uzis and M-16s. "It's a fun day. It's a family day," said organizer Jerry Thibodeau. "It's quite exciting." Democrats charge the event is in poor taste.

The American people are up in arms over the current push to legalize illegal migration from south of our border. But unless they are prepared to take up arms, they are likely to lose the battle over immigration reform. (snip) Washington is not listening - at least not to the American people. So who are they listening to? (snip) Democrats are fully behind illegal immigration and they have been for many years. It is a vital ingredient in their effort to build an unbeatable proletariat voting majority that will insure Democrat victories at the ballot box for decades to come....

Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea -- and Global Warming Democrats assess the threats to U.S. national security. By Byron York What a difference an election makes. Today the House of Representatives will debate whether global warming is so serious a threat to American national security that the Director of National Intelligence, normally busy with issues like al Qaeda, Iranian nuclear research, and North Korean missiles, should be ordered to put aside other projects to create a special National Intelligence Estimate on climate change. So far, majority Democrats have pushed the proposal through the House Intelligence Committee — on a party-line...

There was a time in American history when the Second Amendment’s “right to bear arms” promoted safety and a sense of well-being among the citizenry of the United States. Today, however, the Second Amendment seems to do nothing more than act as a precipitant of violent and life-threatening behavior. The days when the “right to bear arms” was relevant are now more than 200 years past, and furthermore, the demographics of America have changed beyond anyone’s wildest prophecy. We no longer live in tight-knit farming villages where family solidarity is vital. Nor do we live in a country where minutemen...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), citing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, pledged on Saturday to bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington, end the war in Iraq and transform American politics as the first black U.S. president. Launching his 2008 White House campaign outside the building in where Lincoln began his fight against slavery with a famous 1858 speech that declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand," Obama said it was time to "turn the page" to a new politics. "Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation,"...

On the eve of her historic presidential announcement, Hillary Clinton lost the support of liberal big-ticket donor George Soros to the Barack Obama campaign, the Daily News has learned. Soros' switch was a stunner in the Clinton camp, which had hoped to woo him back amid a flurry of exchanges. "There were e-mails and conference calls," said one Democrat familiar with the shock that met the Soros defection. A spokesman for Soros stressed that he would support Clinton if she wins the Democratic nomination and noted he supported Obama's 2004 Senate campaign. Soros' move was the latest sign that Clinton's...

BATFE DECIDES THE AKINS ACCELERATOR™ TO BE A MACHINEGUN Akins Group Inc. regrets to announce that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has reversed its position and has decided the Akins Accelerator™ to be a machinegun conversion kit, thereby subjecting it to strict regulation under the Gun Control Act (GCA) and National Firearms Act (NFA). ATF rescinded its previous determination that the Akins Accelerator™ was not a machinegun subject to the GCA or NFA (see http://www.firefaster.com/documentation.html for original documentation). Attorneys for the Akins Group Inc. are seeking reconsideration by ATF of its new position. In the interim,...

ATLANTA -- State Sen. Curt Thompson has been a strong advocate of immigration rights, once speaking in Spanish from the steps of the Georgia Capitol against the adoption of some of the nation's strictest immigration controls. Now Thompson's Colombia-born wife is in hiding as federal immigration officials try to deport her. Sascha Herrera, 28, has been in hiding since Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrived at her home Nov. 28 with an order to remove her from the U.S. She was not home at the time. Her attorney, Charles Kuck, claims she was duped by a man handling her immigration...

Robbery, assault wave is among worst in U.S.New York - Milwaukee is among the leaders in a spike in violent crime being reported this year in numerous cities across the country, according to figures presented at a conference here this week. In the first six months of 2006, robberies were up 36% and aggravated assaults were up 31.6% compared with the same period in 2005, according to a survey published by the Police Executive Research Forum. Of the 55 U.S. police departments in the survey, only Minneapolis had a higher combined increase in those categories.Certain cities, especially the largest, have...

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh police are investigating a death threat against the school’s College Republicans chair. Nate Nelson received an e-mailed death threat last month, the day after attending a political rally on campus. The e-mail threatened both Nelson’s life and the life of his wife, Kelly. The threat came after Nelson had notified police that organizers of the rally were in violation of meeting codes established on campus. “My initial reaction [to the threat] was shock,” Nelson told The Badger Herald. “I didn’t think people would go that far.” According to Nelson, the threat said, “Quit with your political bullshit...

(CNSNews.com) - More than one hundred of the nation's mayors are breathing new life into the gun control movement. The "Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition," a bipartisan group of 109 mayors in 44 states, is meeting Thursday in Chicago to "share strategies in the fight against illegal guns." According to the coalition's website, those strategies include "how to work with local law enforcement agencies and state representatives to maximize penalties for those who possess, use and traffic in illegal guns." The discussion also will focus on information sharing and "best practices on enforcement and legislative issues." Two more "working groups"...

MILWAUKEE (Cour t TV) — A Democratic political consultant for the 2004 John Kerry presidential bid told jurors Tuesday that the five campaign workers accused of slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans on Election Day boasted about the stunt. "They were boisterous, slapping high-fives, laughing and so forth," said Opel Simmons III, a campaign strategist, referring to the five defendants after they returned to campaign headquarters at about 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2004. Simmons, who said he saw the men leave the office about 30 minutes earlier, testified that he only learned of what they did after...

To the anti-war lobby, it was cause for jubilation. 'No Qa'eda-Iraq tie', crowed The New York Times. 'White House misled the world over Saddam', exulted our own Independent. And presidential candidate Senator John Kerry claimed that the Bush administration had 'misled America over the need for war'. The excitement was over a preliminary assessment of evidence about al-Qa'eda by the US commission investigating September 11. The only problem was that the press coverage was untrue. The report does not rule out links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'eda. On the contrary, as the commission's chairman, Thomas Kean, confirmed: 'There were contacts...

<p>Virginians would pay $2 billion a year in new taxes on sales, salaries, smokes and motor fuel under a plan tentatively approved yesterday by the state Senate on a voice vote.</p> <p>"I hate taxes, but I love Virginia more," said Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester. Capping nearly two hours of sometimes-testy debate, moderate Republicans teamed with Democrats to easily keep anti-tax Republicans from weakening the package, which also includes tax breaks for the poor as well as millionaires.</p>

FAIRFAX, Va., Feb. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Charles W. Jarvis, chairman and chief executive of Virginia's United Seniors Association, today announced an aggressive "Mark Warner Lied" campaign to expose Governor Mark Warner's flip-flop on taxes. "In October 2001, candidate Mark Warner said, 'I will not raise taxes.' In December 2003, Governor Warner proposed the biggest tax increase in Virginia's history. There's no way to deny it: Mark Warner Lied," Charlie Jarvis said. The "Mark Warner Lied" campaign includes radio and television ads as well as an aggressive grassroots campaign. "This is a critical battle in the fight against higher taxes,"...

<p>WASHINGTON - Claude A. Allen of Virginia received the lowest passing rating from an American Bar Association panel for his qualifications to sit on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.</p> <p>Allen, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was rated "qualified" by a "substantial majority" of the 15-member panel, and an undisclosed minority judged him "not qualified," a congressional aide said yesterday.</p>

Pickin' and Grinnin': College football goes to the courts June 12, 2003 The unthinkable has happened. College football is now mirroring society. Let's all officially welcome the group entering through the back door, with their shiny suits and plastic hair and their arguments for the sake of argument. Ladies and gentlemen, lawyers and politicians have their slithery sights set on our sacred game. The problem: They were invited by five jilted and jaded girlfriends from the Big East, who can't understand why The Bachelor didn't pick them. Officials from Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Rutgers have filed suit...

<p>WASHINGTON - Her publishing house isn't the only one hoping to cash in on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs.</p> <p>The Senate Republican election committee, led by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., would be pleased to see the former first lady's profile elevated in a way it can take to the bank - the fund-raising bank, that is.</p>

<p>Gov. Mark R. Warner yesterday prevailed in preserving Virginia's tax on dead millionaires' estates and giving raises to public employees.</p> <p>The Republican-controlled General Assembly overwhelmingly agreed with his proposal to guarantee 2.25 percent raises for public employees, including schoolteachers.</p> <p>And three Senate Democrats who had previously backed repeal of the inheritance tax switched their votes, denying the legislature the constitutionally required majority to overturn Warner's veto and put the controversial phaseout on the books.</p>