Free Republic

The first audit in decades is coming for a state program that allows law enforcement to seize property without a conviction — and the administrator over the process is ready for whatever they may discover, while activist groups question its fairness. “The Attorney General is adamant about it being run above board,” said Deputy Attorney General Mike Vincent, supervisor of the civil recovery unit. His department is in charge of the process of civil forfeiture, where law enforcement can take property they allege as being used in or as the result of a criminal enterprise, without meeting the criminal standard...

Ballot Text: "A 'yes' vote shall have the effect of increasing distributions from the State Land Trust Permanent Endowment Fund in fiscal years 2016-2015 from 2.5% to 6.9% of average monthly market values to benefit Arizona K-12 schools, colleges, and other beneficiary institutions, including a $259,266,200 distribution in fiscal year 2016; includes protections for state funds in the case of a severe economic downturn. "A 'no' vote shall have the effect of retaining the existing 2.5% distribution formula from the State Land Trust Permanent Endowment Fund and maintaining funding levels for Arizona K-12 schools, colleges, and other beneficiary institutions."

A DOTD project manager has informed a citizen committee that they must limit their discussion to DOTD's selected proposals for the Interstate 49 extension or resign from the committee. The order, issued in an Tuesday email to the Community Working Group, came from Toby Picard, the engineer who is project manager for the proposed connection of Interstate 49 with U.S. 90 south. There currently are 14 versions of the connection, all of which include at least a partially elevated highway through the heart of Lafayette. These are the only options that are acceptable for discussion by the committee, Picard's email...

Outrage is growing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean following a massive new leak of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a globalist “trade” agreement negotiated between the Obama administration and the European Union. The leaked documents are being used, properly in some cases, to portray the treaty as a giant handout to Big Business cronies. Just as importantly, the almost 250 pages of text also confirm once again that the controversial new “trade” regime aims to merge the regulatory regimes of the United States and the EU under unaccountable transnational institutions. In short, the threats to...

There are few things I dislike more than paying taxes. As Americans, a third of all your hard earned dollars is confiscated by the U.S. government. Most of us get to determine what we do with our money – but not when it comes to taxes. However, there is the argument that taxes are a function of our democratic system. Those taxes are the result of laws implemented by freely elected representatives. If anything, we — the voters — are as much to blame for the muddied tax codes as are the nitwit politicians we elect.

A major problem with giving money and power to government is that you seldom get either one back. And when state agencies end up with excess budget, there is no end to clever ways bureaucrats find to keep control over your tax dollars. The current move to keep unused funds in Colorado’s Indigent Care Program (CICP) from reverting to the state treasury is a case in point. icon_blog_noteThe ObamaCare Medicaid expansion reduced the number of people eligible for help with acute medical care costs through CICP. The number of people using the program has fallen from 200,000 to 50,000. The...

Was talking to a recently-retired computer-science professor today; he said in the last few years he's been seeing students showing up in college who have literally Never. Used. A. Screwdriver. He has been teaching a higher-level class in automating control of a train setup. Part of the project is to assemble a train car from a kit. These kids have no idea how to do it.

I'm in a discussion about unemployment, and my "opponent" just declared that U3 Unemployment calculation has been the official measurement of unemployment for every president. Obviously, that's ridiculously wrong. But I was looking for a data point to help me drive that fact home, and I can't seem to find anything specific on when the US government began separating unemployment calculation into six categories, U1-U6, and specifically when the U3/U6 categories were established and first used. Do any of you have any information on this, and can you provide a source link? Thank you.

More than 850 families have transitioned out of public housing in Delaware since the state began limiting the length of time residents are eligible to receive housing subsidies, and hundreds more have become homeowners. “Before we started Moving to Work, we had people who were on their third or fourth generation of the same family who were at the same site,” Rebecca Kauffman, social service senior administrator at the Delaware Housing Authority’s Moving to Work program, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. -------------------------------- The contrast with the rest of the federal public housing program is vivid. The average resident currently...

We all have cracked jokes about the United States Postal Service, especially about their workers “going postal.” Most postal workers you’ve encountered are probably lethargic, short-tempered, half-asleep, or just plain rude. Well, that could be due to their work environment. These people are miserable, which is what the USPS painfully discovered when they gave Gallup to conduct this survey at the cost of $1.8 million (via Inside Sources):The topline results were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request after the USPS declined to provide the data to InsideSources when asked in January. Postal workers reported strong job dissatisfaction, and...

Tariffs as a source of federal government Revenue So there seem to be some conservatives that are scoffing at Trump talking about tariffs as part of reinvigorating domestic US Industries ... protecting them.... Yet tariffs are probably one of the most back to the founders concept that any candidate is talking about Look at the graph and then read the Wiki page you'll see that tariffs on Imports was the prime source of income for the federal government before the federal income tax system When America was young and weak, tariffs were the founding fathers tool to promote growth of...

Fascinating points from start to finish. Share widely. This lady needs to be heard by as many Americans as possible.

For the past seven years and counting the Obama administration has been engaged in a silent war on the rights of the American people at the hands of an organized network of fringe leftist lawyers working within the Civil Rights Divisions of the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as the Department of Education (DOE). These lawyers have been unleashed under the administration to push an ideological agenda that is far outside of the American mainstream all under the banner of protecting civil rights. As noted by J. Christian Adams and Hans A. von Spakovsky of PJ Media, if a...

Last month, I celebrated the beginning of my 81st year of life. For nearly half that time, I have been writing a nationally syndicated column on many topics generating reader responses that go from supportive to quite ugly. So I thought a column making my vision, values and views explicit might settle some of the controversy. My initial premise, when looking at all human issues, is that each of us owns himself. I am my private property, and you are your private property. If you agree with that premise, then certain human actions are moral and others immoral. The reason...

Ask a hundred U.S. citizens what the country needs more than anything and you’re likely to get a hundred answers. An end to poverty, an end to racism, an end to terrorism, free college, an end to liberals, an end to conservatives, an end to climate change, a balanced budget, and on and on. Most responses would be likely be well-meaning, pie-in-the-sky fantasies with little forethought as nearly all of us are inclined to do now and again. Including me. I know it’s hard to believe that the Artful Dilettante himself engages in such flights of fancy, with outcomes devoid...

"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."(Diogenes, Greek Philosopher, 412 323 BC) "All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth." (Aristotle, Greek Philosopher, 384 322 BC) "What is being taught in the classroom today to the children will determine the course of the nation 25 years from now."(Lincoln) I'm betting this MORON came out of the government schools! I'm also betting that this nation is closer to the drain than at any time in my lifetime. "YOU'RE FIRED!" Thus sayeth...

Speaking at the gala dinner of J Street, a George Soros-funded Mideast advocacy group that is critical of Israeli policies, Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged “overwhelming frustration” with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, saying the prime minister is leading the Jewish state in the wrong direction.

The U.S. government and those in Canada and Europe are openly discriminating against their own populations Are governments of the day like those in the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany and other European countries gaming the very populations they were elected to serve in what should be publicly identified as ‘Big Governments’ Immigration Game? While millions knock themselves out on the Internet, hurling insults at the enemy camp in the presidential election primaries, look what Big Government is doing in the U.S.: “The U.S. is aiding business start-ups—for illegal immigrants.” (Fox News, April 16, 2016) ... “It might come as...

I was a registered Libertarian for twelve years. While I probably still agree with much of what the party stands for, I left the Libertarians for the same reason I grow weary of the Republican Party: its philosophy, to the extent it has one, is sterile. By sterile, I mean its lack of appeal to higher law and our nobler passions. For instance, the libertarian assertion that my rights only go so far as to not impinge on those of others is all well and good. However, without at least introducing why this is so, that our rights are gifts...

If you are a longtime activist in the Liberty Movement then you are well aware that elections do not matter in terms of the future direction our nation takes. Presidents are puppets of international financiers, and so are most legislators. Whenever a president does attempt to go against the system, he either ends up shot by a “lone gunman,” or his office is disgraced by a conveniently-leaked scandal. Today, elections represent the illusion of choice; that is all. The leadership of both major parties seem different in terms of their rhetoric, but this is all cosmetic. Underneath the talk, Democrat...