Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized the federal response to rancher Cliven Bundy, becoming the first GOP 2016 presidential hopeful to weigh in on the issue. Paul slammed the federal government’s show of force in the dispute, which culminated in a standoff at Bundy’s ranch between police and his supporters, including armed members of militia groups. Bundy is refusing to pay grazing fees for his cattle, which for decades have grazed on federal land. Paul sided with Bundy in that fight, arguing that Nevada and local authorities should control the land.

It is the responsibility of the federal government to protect the United States from "invasion." How is it possible that top administration officials have directed 21,000 border patrol officers to retreat or distance themselves and seek cover in response to thrown or hurled projectiles from illegal aliens or drug smugglers? They are directed to keep their weapons holstered when drug smugglers drive by, and agents can't use guns against a fleeing vehicle. Instructions also indicate that officers will be penalized if they don't step back. The new rules were issued this March by Michael Fisher, chief of U.S. Border Patrol....

Moscow (AFP) - The Kremlin is preparing a new culture policy for Russia focusing on its distinctive civilisation and traditional values, which observers say has political ends amid Moscow's standoff with the West. At the end of four hours of questions Thursday in his annual call-in, President Vladimir Putin waxed philosophical on what it means to be Russian.

The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a rule that would, if implemented, guarantee that even more Americans who like their health insurance plans cannot keep them. Fixed indemnity plans, which pay insured customers a set amount towards medical expenses and are often cost-effective relative to more comprehensive health insurance, are popular forms of coverage, and potentially becoming more popular in the wake of Obamacare. Health insurance industry representatives say that fixed indemnity plans have been attracting more interest as many Americans look for a way to mitigate against the high deductibles applicable to many insurance policies available...

The family of Justina Pelletier will not be allowed to visit their daughter on Easter Sunday. The news comes after attorneys working with her family released a letter Justina reportedly wrote saying she is not being treated well. Jennifer Pelletier, Justina’s oldest sister, alerted supported of Justina on the family’s Facebook page: “There are 75 young people in the Wayside Youth Facility. 74 of them will be able to spend Easter Sunday with their families. The one who will not is Justina Pelletier!”

While many have condemned the strong-arming and pseudo-military tactics of the Bureau of Labor Management in its standoff with Cliven Bundy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, reserved his criticism for the Bundy family and their many supporters — which he labelled domestic terrorists.Reid’s comments came during a live interview with Steve Sebelius, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review Journal. Reporter Jon Ralston, who attended the event, tweeted Reid’s statements regarding the dispute between Bundy and the BLM: “What happened in Mesquite was domestic terrorism.� @SenatorReid— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 17, 2014 Reid was referring to the...

...Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday again vigorously denied Western claims that Russian forces were operating in eastern Ukraine. But he also finally confirmed what had long been suspected and that he had repeatedly denied: that the well-armed forces with no insignia on their uniforms that took control of Crimea last month were in fact Russian troops.

<p>As Western Journalism reported yesterday, a series of photos from the scene of a federal government standoff in Clark County, Nev. indicate Bureau of Land Management agents slaughtered multiple cows on the Bundy Ranch. After alleging the ranch’s owner, Cliven Bundy, had failed to pay federal grazing fees for a number of years, armed BLM agents swarmed the area, resorting to physical violence against members of the family and threats toward those who arrived to support them.</p>

After the federal Bureau of Land Management agents backed down from their intimidating stance at the Bundy Ranch last weekend, ample evidence has surfaced indicating the standoff between the government and the Nevada ranching family is far from over. Throughout the weeklong stalemate, members of the Bundy family were physically assaulted by armed officers, numerous cows were shot dead, and protesters faced threats of gunfire for merely expressing their outrage. Immediately after what many considered a victory against a tyrannical federal agency, a number of leftist voices – most notably, Sen. Harry Reid – indicated the action against this family...

Folks, with Harry Reid calling the Bunkerville patriots "Domestic Terrorists" who are endangering children by putting them "out front", and with April 19th approaching I thought I would open this thread.With Jim's permission I ask all Nevada Freepers (potentially SoCal too) to report gathering Federales and unusual Military movements in the area. Keep a particular eye around Nellis AFB and especially Creech AFB (Predator Drones). If you see something, say something. Asking for tolerance and indulgence from the admins to put this on the Front Page News bar.

Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu initiated a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss bilateral issues, Iran and Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement. ... Netanyahu does speak to Putin by phone from time to time, so Tuesday night's conversation - though not a regular occurence - is by no means unprecedented. Russia is a major player in three areas of major concern to Israel: Iran, Syria and arms sales to the Middle East. ... On Monday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied a Haaretz report last week...

WASHINGTON — Driven by a last-minute flood of enrollments, particularly in California, sign-ups for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces hit 8 million in the law’s first year, President Obama announced Thursday. That beats the forecast by 1 million people and caps a remarkable comeback from a disastrous rollout last fall that gave rise to predictions the law would collapse in its maiden year. Instead, the health law, often called Obamacare, has helped bring about the largest increase in insurance coverage in the U.S. in half a century. “This thing is working,” Obama said from the White...

On Wednesday Tracy and Mary Finney of Marietta, Georgia were met by a police officer outside their children’s public school and informed they were trespassing on school property because they opposed the school’s process of testing all children. The Finneys, whose children attend West Side Elementary School, had decided to opt their children out of Georgia’s state test, the CRCT. ~~~snip~~~~ Meg Norris, an organizer of United Opt-Out Georgia, told Breitbart News she is “shocked” at how the mandates to test children are being enforced in Georgia. “It’s happening in schools all over Georgia,” Norris said. “Even children who are...

(GENEVA) — Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine. The agreement, reached after seven hours of negotiation in Geneva, requires all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions. It calls for the disarming of all illegally armed groups and for control of buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists during the protests to be turned back over to authorities. It also gives amnesty to protesters who comply with the demands, except those found guilty of committing capital crimes. Monitors with the Organization of Security...

There is no large Russian military presence in East Ukraine, head of EU intelligence, Commodore Georgij Alafuzoff, has said. The spy chief has dismissed multiple accusations from the West alleging Russian involvement in the unrest in the region. In an interview with Finnish national news broadcaster, Yle, Alafuzoff said the Russian military had nothing to do with the seizing of government buildings in eastern Ukraine. “In my opinion, it’s mostly people who live in the region who are not satisfied with the current state of affairs,” said Alafuzoff, referring to the situation in East Ukraine. He went on to say...

As Mein Kampf makes clear, Hitler sought to unite all the people of German speech and culture into one state, or Reich, preferably by peaceful negotiation, otherwise by war and conquest... Today’s drift toward war with Russia seems like a replay of the past. Putin is a Russian nationalist, who believes in a strong Stalinist state. His goal is to reverse the events of 1989–the end of the Soviet state and dissolution of its enormous empire... ...to wield against the various weak states that were part of the U.S.S.R... All have ethnic Russian minorities, who speak the language, boast of...

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a pro-life bill that the state’s pro-life groups were pressing for her to sign after approval by the state legislature. HB 2284 would make sure that abortion clinics are treated the same as other medical facilities by allowing for unannounced inspections. arizonalogoHere’s what Center for Arizona Policy President Cathi Herrod has to say about it in an email to LifeNews: “Arizona’s thriving pro-life movement has had another tremendous victory today as Governor Brewer has signed the Women’s Health Protection Act (HB 2284). This law ensures abortion clinics are subject to the same inspection standards...

Federal Fire Power: Instead of putting a lien on the property of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the Bureau of Land Management surrounded his ranch with 200 armed agents. It's not the only agency with a private army. Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama slipped a little-noticed line in a speech, proposing a national police force reporting straight to him. "We cannot continue to rely only on our military," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." As our military is slowly decimated by his policies and budget...

While distancing itself from the legal issues that prompted the Bureau of Land Management to round up Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s range cattle then release hundreds of them as the threat of violence loomed, the conservative Nevada Cattlemen’s Association issued a statement Wednesday that sympathizes with Bundy. “The situation in Nevada stands as an example (of) the federal agencies’ steady trend toward elevating environmental and wildlife issues over livestock grazing,” reads the statement from Ron Torell, the cattlemen’s group president. The statement adds that ranchers like Bundy, who graze livestock on multiple-use public lands, which include habitat for the threatened...

This Incredible New Footage Shows How Close Bundy Standoff Came To A Massacre The inside story of how one New Yorker may have kept the Bundy protestors from a bloody end Documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch was at the Bundy Ranch front line and has never seen that type of force at the border where drugs and people are routinely smuggled across.

Fox News toured the damage -- allegedly caused by the Bureau of Land Management -- which included holes in water tanks and destroyed water lines and fences. According to family friends, the bureau's hired "cowboys" also killed two prize bulls.

KRAMATORSK/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Separatists flew the Russian flag on armored vehicles taken from the Ukrainian army on Wednesday, humiliating a Kiev government operation to recapture eastern towns controlled by pro-Moscow partisans. Six armored personnel carriers were driven into the rebel-held town of Slaviansk to waves and shouts of "Russia! Russia!". It was not immediately clear whether they had been captured by rebels or handed over to them by Ukrainian deserters.

Lawmakers in Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestr on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on Moscow and the United Nations to recognise its independence. Transdniestr, a strip of land bordering Ukraine, broke away from Romanian-speaking Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Some analysts suspect Russia is eyeing the territory, which consists mostly of Russian speakers, in the wake of last month's annexation of Crimea. The resolution adopted unanimously by Transdniestr's self-appointed parliament on Wednesday called on the international community to recognise the region as a "sovereign independent state". "According to the universally recognised norms of international...

Sending scores of armed agents along with helicopters and dogs to confront an elderly Nevada rancher over grazing fees may seem like overkill, but critics say it’s not inconsistent with the federal government’s recent approach to environmental enforcement. The simmering truce between the Bundys and the Bureau of Land Management comes after high-profile raids last year by armed federal agents on small-time gold miners in tiny Chicken, Alaska, and guitar makers at the Gibson Guitar facilities in Tennessee. That doesn’t include more subtle threats, such as recent efforts by the Obama administration to raise grazing fees or pressure permit holders...

How the Left, here and abroad, is trying to shut down debate — from Islam and Israel to global warming and gay marriage ... At Brandeis University, we are learning the hierarchy of the new multiculti caste system. .... In theory, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is everything the identity-group fetishists dig: female, atheist, black, immigrant. If conservative white males were to silence a secular women’s rights campaigner from Somalia, it would be proof of the Republican party’s ‘war on women’, or the encroaching Christian fundamentalist theocracy ... But when the snivelling white male who purports to be president of Brandeis (one...

Russia and Israel seem to have a growing affinity for each other. A few weeks ago, Israel abstained from a vote in the UN censuring Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported [link at URL] that this is a sore spot for the White House and a diplomatic novum on the world scene. A senior Israeli official said that Israel's absence from the United Nations vote was viewed around the world as an extremely irregular measure, a departure from a long-standing Israeli policy of voting with the United States in the UN. While the Americans viewed...

The Connecticut teen who has been in state custody for more than a year after her parents were accused of medical child abuse after disputing a diagnosis has apparently penned a note, giving a look into how she says she’s being treated. “They hurt me all the time push me all the time and more,” the purported note from Justina Pelletier says. It also says “[they] do not let me sleep vary [sic] much. “Hury [sic]!” Keith Mason, president of Personhood USA, a group helping lead the Free Justina Coalition, told TheBlaze that Justina gave the note to her parents...

Dozens of Ukrainian army defectors rode into the disputed eastern town of Slovyansk today on a column of armoured troop carriers bearing the Russian national flag. The defectors, including highly trained paratroopers. were said to have switched sides after being persuaded to defect by pro-Russian insurgents in nearby Kramatorsk, where they were part of a Ukrainian force that secured a military airfield yesterday. With Russian flags flying, the soldiers headed on a convoy of six troop carriers into Slovyansk, stopping first outside city hall, which has been occupied by pro-Russian protesters for several days, before entering the police station.

On this April 15, filers and accountants alike are finding a new array of taxes resulting from the president’s health care legislation. These include at least 20 ObamaCare-related tax increases totaling $409 billion over the next ten years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The new taxes are especially irksome to ObamaCare opponents, because they are imposed by a law that passed on a straight party-line vote and are being enforced by an agency that some accuse of party favoritism. "I think it's rather unfortunate that the IRS has this huge role in the Affordable Care Act because it's...

15 April 2014 Last updated at 19:14 ET New York police disband Muslim 'eavesdropping' unit The New York Police Department has disbanded a secret programme designed to eavesdrop on Muslims to identify potential terrorism threats. The Demographics Unit had dispatched plainclothes detectives to listen to conversations and build files on places frequented by Muslims, US media say. The squad had been the subject of two federal lawsuits in the past, and drew ire from civil rights groups. It is also said to have sowed Muslim mistrust for law enforcement. "This reform is a critical step forward in easing tensions between...

The major news media, with the exception of Fox News, has been deafeningly quiet about the federal government’s thwarted raid last week on a Nevada rancher. Heavily-armed agents from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) descended upon Cliven Bundy’s ranch, seizing 389 of his 900 cattle. The BLM shut off access to federal lands, claiming he was illegally using them, and a no-fly zone was established for a 3-mile-square area around Bundy’s ranch. A sign was posted - unconstitutionally - limiting the First Amendment to a small designated area. The feds flew helicopters overhead to chase the cattle, knowing full...

The International Renaissance Foundation's mission is to foster an open, participatory, plaurlist society based on democratic values in Ukraine...

PRIMM, Nevada – As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above approach to energy, today Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar “flipped the switch” on the Enbridge Silver State North solar project, the first large-scale solar energy facility on U.S. public lands to deliver power to American consumers. This milestone is in line with the administration’s broad commitment to expanding production of all sources of American made energy, including from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, which has doubled in the President’s first term, as well as domestic production of oil and gas resources, which have increased each year the President...

Despite much diplomatic effort, the situation in Ukraine worsens. A coordinated Russian campaign, including an invasion threat, special operations destabilization in eastern Ukraine patterned on the Crimea model, and warnings of gas cutoffs document ever more clearly Vladi­mir Putin’s aim to cripple the Ukrainian government and control much or even all of this strategically vital European country.

KIEV, April 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Shots are being fired at the airdrome near the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, and one fighter plane has been shot down, witnesses report from the scene. As follows from what the people say four fighter planes, presumably Sukhoi-27 were hovering over Kramatorsk. At a certain point they opened fire at the local airdrome. Who commanded the planes and who downed the fighter remains unclear.

The Iraqi army began buttressing its defense lines on April 12 to save parts of the capital city of Baghdad from the approaching danger of falling to al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Iraqi intelligence reports that terrorist forces have broken through into the city’s western outskirts and preparing to head out to other parts of the city of more than seven million and the Green Zone government headquarters. In addition to the lethal bombings and shootings which have reduced the country to misery, Debkafile’s counter-terrorism sources describe a more insidious ISIS tactic of conquest: Armed...

Ukrainian armed forces on Tuesday launched a "special operation" against militiamen in the country's Russian speaking east, authorities said, recapturing a military airfield from pro-Moscow separatists. Gunfire could be heard from the airfield at the town of Kramatorsk after a fighter jet swooped low over the area. Ukrainian troops were seen disembarking from helicopters.

6:30 p.m. – Interfax Ukraine reports that Interim President Oleksander Turchynov has announced that Ukrainian troops have successfully freed the Kramatorsk airfield. According to the AP, "The mayor of Kramatorsk said Ukrainian troops have now occupied the military airport and are blocking its entrance." The freeing of the airfield is part of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's "anti-terrorist operation," which is being conducted throughout eastern Ukraine to quell Russian-backed separatist movements. Rossiya 24 reports that four Russian-sponsored terrorists were killed as a result of the operation. Further, according to Interfax Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense...

Following remarks Senate Majority leader Harry Reid made at the University of Nevada, Reno on Monday, the Nevada Democrat told Reno's KRNV TV his thoughts on the cattle controversy in Gold Butte. "Well, it's not over. We can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it's not over," Reid said. There is no question that there were a lot of things going on down there with breaking the law," Reid said. "And that is not over yet. We can't let that continue. So I'm sure it is not the end of...

Two pro-Russian militants were apparently wounded in a clash at a military airfield Tuesday as armored Ukrainian units began moving into the county's restive east, part of a military operation to take back control of cities seized by separatists. Soldiers riding aboard armored personnel carriers took up positions around the region at the heart of the unrest, setting up checkpoints along key roads, with transport helicopters parked in fields nearby. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said the "antiterrorist" operation began in the early morning hours in the northern part of the Donetsk region, where the majority of the cities commandeered by...

A recording proving that Russia is backing separatists in eastern Ukraine has surfaced online. The SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) taped the operatives, whose code names are "Nose," "Adler," "Shooter" and "Agath," discussing strategy, weapon stockpiles, and requests for reinforcements. The SBU has identified the number calling the separatists in Ukraine as having a Russian +7 area code.

Russia has asked the United States to use its influence to prevent bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, as Kiev threatened a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" to remove separatists from government buildings. Russian President Vladimir Putin made the appeal during a phone conversation with US President Barack Obama, in which the Kremlin said the two leaders discussed the escalating unrest. The Kremlin said the Russian president also rejected Western claims that Moscow is behind attacks on government buildings, saying they were "based on unfounded information." Earlier Mr Putin's spokesman said Russia had received several appeals for help from separatists who are seeking to...

The standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) deescalated on April 12, when the bureau announced that it will stop its operation to confiscate Bundy’s cattle.But another aspect to this ongoing story is jumping: The blogosphere is alive with allegations that Senator Harry Reid (pictured), and his son, Rory, have motivations of their own for wanting Bundy’s cattle off the disputed lands.Though the major media announced that a “deal” had been reached between Bundy and the BLM, Bundy explained what transpired differently in an interview with KLAS TV in Las Vegas: “There is...

Warning follows threat from Harry Reid that grazing dispute 'not over' The chief of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association says his sources inside the federal government are warning that Washington’s weekend retreat in a dispute over grazing land in Nevada was just to distract and defuse – because a raid on the family’s ranch still is being strategized. And there probably would be violence involved, said Richard Mack, the former sheriff of Grisham County, Ariz. “I don’t think it would be possible” to launch a raid without violence, he told WND Monday. “I don’t the Bundys would lie...

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday released a scathing report in response to a series of deadly police shootings that pointed to patterns of excessive force by the Albuquerque Police Department, serious constitutional violations and a lack of training and oversight of its officers. After more than a year of reviewing hundreds of cases handled by the Albuquerque police, the federal agency found that officers too frequently used deadly force on people "who posed a minimal threat" and used a higher level of force too often on those with mental illness.

New figures by the Congressional Budget Office released on Monday reveal that over the next 10 years the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will double to 78%. Over the last four decades America's average debt-to-GDP ratio was 39%. At the end of 2007, federal debt was just 35% of GDP. The CBO report says gross federal debt will soar from $17.7 trillion to $27 trillion over the next ten years. CBO warned of the dire consequences the nation's debt will have if gone unchecked. "Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences," says the report. "Federal spending on interest payments...

The United Nations (UN) has delivered its latest verdict on the measures necessary to save the world from global warming and the news is as grim as it is predictable and wearisomely familiar: More regulation from "experts", technocrats and bureaucrats at supranational organisations, such as the one whose initials begin with U and end with N.More taxpayer subsidies for expensive, inefficient renewable energy.More nuclear power (with shale gas used as a transitional fuel to replace coal). The abandonment of fossil fuels. Less meat consumption.A single, globally-regulated price for carbon dioxide. More local-government-enforced walking, cycling and public transportation. More back-door wealth...

Pro-Russia separatists who said they were part of a new “Donetsk People's Republic” in eastern Ukraine appealed on Monday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to help defend them against Ukrainian government forces. Speaking at a news conference at the headquarters of the city administration of Slovyansk, a separatist leader asked Putin “to personally direct your attention to the unfolding situation and help us as much as you can.” The plea for help came hours after a Kyiv-set deadline expired under which separatists occupying government building in eastern Ukraine were to disarm or face an assault by Ukrainian security forces. Meanwhile,...

Notice of Temporary Closure on Public Lands in the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the Northeastern Portion of Clark County, NVAGENCY: Bureau of Land Management,Interior. ACTION: Notice of Temporary Closure. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that a temporary closure to public access, use, and occupancy will be in effect for the dates and times specified in this Notice on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Southern Nevada District Office, Las Vegas Field Office, within the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the northeastern portion of Clark County, Nevada. This...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said little as federal agents seized and then released cattle last week from the Bundy ranch, but there is little doubt that the highly charged episode was threatening to become a political headache for the Nevada Democrat. The Bureau of Land Management is headed by former longtime Reid aide Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the Senate as BLM director on Tuesday, just as federal authorities descended on the cattle ranch outside Mesquite, Nev.