Free Republic

On 19 May, 2016, a member of the ATF, or at least someone driving one of their vehicles at a time that it was supposed to be in service, may have engaged in abusive behavior on the Glenn Highway in Alaska.  From ktuu.com: Police say that at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a driver on the Glenn Highway said he pulled over for an unmarked white Ford SUV. The SUV flashed red and blue interior dash lights. When the motorist stopped, police wrote that the driver, “sped past him, laughed, and flipped him the middle finger.” The man called 911, and...

Executive SummaryWe live digital lives—from the videos shared on social networks, to location-aware apps on mobile phones, to log-in data for connecting to our email, to our stored documents, to our search history. The personal, the profound, and even the absurd are all transcribed into data packets, whizzing through the fiber-optic arteries of the network. While our daily lives have upgraded to the 21st century, the law hasn’t kept pace. To date, the U.S. Congress hasn’t managed to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to acknowledge that email stored more than 6 months deserves identical protections to email stored...

An epidemic of federal employees watching pornography on government computers during work hours has gotten so out of control that legislation has been introduced in Congress to contain the embarrassing crisis. Porn has for years been part of the job at some government agencies and in fact a number of federal audits have long documented the enraging details of how our tax dollars are being wasted. Judicial Watch has also reported on this for years, especially the porn crisis at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency charged with policing the nation’s financial industry. While the economy crumbled, the...

Just in time for the Fourth of July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has added a new regulatory weapon to its arsenal. In a Federal Register notice on July 2 titled “Administrative Wage Garnishment,” the EPA stated that by the authority of the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA ) of 1996 it issued a proposed rule that “will allow the EPA to garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order.” According to the Treasury Department, under DCIA, such debts include “unpaid loans, overpayments or duplicate payments made...

In civil forfeiture, authorities don’t have to prove guilt, file charges or obtain a conviction before seizing private property. Critics say it is a process ripe for abuse, and one which leaves citizens little means of fighting back. They said they wanted his Tewksbury, Mass., business – and the land it was on – because they suspected it was a hotbed for drug-dealing and prostitution. After a four-day trial, on Jan. 24, 2013, a federal judge in Boston dismissed the forfeiture action against the motel, ruling that the government engaged in “gross exaggeration” of the evidence and did not have...

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Government Power is an Economic Inequality Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog The liberal defenders of government power attack concentrations of wealth, but in the true concentration of wealth is not found in the hands of a few billionaires, but in the hands of the government. The editorialists talk about income inequality and the 1 percent, but they focus on individuals rather than institutions,  and it is the concentration of wealth and power in institutions that threaten civil liberties. The top 10 wealthiest men and women in America barely have 250 billion dollars...

Many times we have focused on liberal hypocrites or establishment politicians as our Jerk of the Week recipients. However, there is one category of scum that truly deserves our scorn and disgust. I'm speaking of those who use the power of government to harass their political foes and attempt to stifle their God-given rights as enumerated in our Constitution. That's why our Jerk of the Week is John Chisholm, the Milwaukee County District Attorney. A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed early this week against the special prosecutor, the presiding judge, and top prosecutors in the Milwaukee County District Attorney's...

One big question raised by IRS political targeting is whether Obama officials or their bureaucratic allies unleashed the power of the administrative state for partisan ends. Now evidence is emerging that officials at another agency, the Federal Election Commission, used their enforcement power as an anti-conservative sword. The House Ways and Means Committee this week released emails showing that, in 2008 and 2009, the FEC's general counsel staff sought tax information about conservative political groups from Lois Lerner of the IRS. Ms. Lerner is the IRS official who took the Fifth before Congress rather than tell her side of the...

The U.S. military blew through $34 million on a hulking headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces, in an example of government waste that has military commanders fuming. John F. Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, exposed the problems in a letter this week to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other military leaders. The Washington Post first reported on the controversy, writing that the construction of the building continued for years despite warnings from the Marine commander in Helmand that it was not needed. The military is now investigating what went wrong, and...

Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control officials said the current review of a University of Virginia student's arrest after agents mistook a crate of LaCroix sparkling water for beer is the second look agency supervisors have taken at the case. ABC earlier this year found no wrongdoing in the agents' encounter with three sorority women who panicked at the sight of a half-dozen undercover officers in plainclothes. One of the agents unholstered his weapon during the April 11 incident and held it at the "ready" position, but did not point it at anyone, according to ABC. "Because of the public outcry, they're...

Those who once defended the Patriot Act are shocked that it has been abused by Obama; they should’ve realized the act itself is a standing abuse. The Path That the Patriot Act Paved The New American 11 June 2013 Regardless of how it is constituted, whether it is "democratic" or otherwise, no government poses a larger threat to liberty than a government that is at war. War is the mother of all crises and, as Rahm Emmanuel memorably -- and rightly -- said, crises are pregnant with opportunities for politicians and activists that they otherwise wouldn't have. It is in...

In his 1980s comedy routine, Yakov Smirnoff celebrated America’s free society and equality before the law, joking, “In America, you can always find a party. In Russia, party always finds you! In America, you break law. In Soviet Russia, law breaks you!” In the wake of scandals involving the abuse of governmental power, Americans must Think Again about Smirnoff’s ironic wordplays. As we’re learning, the ruling party can find and break you — despite constitutional protections. Today, our federal government is the nation’s largest spender, debtor, lender, employer, contractor, property owner, insurer, health care provider and pension guarantor. What it...

So how do you feel about turning over access to sensitive healthcare information to the Internal Revenue Service? In the wake of running disclosures of the agency’s nefarious snooping and political targeting, its new role as chief health insurance enforcer should give us heartburn. Under Obamacare, responsibility for verifying eligibility for the healthcare program, and monitoring whether you carry “qualifying” health coverage (and are exempt from the law’s penalties) falls principally to the IRS. The IRS was given expansive, new powers to execute these goals. That includes more authority to share your personal information — not only about your income,...

Give me a break! Repeal this criminal monstrosity! NOW!! Obviously, the government is waaaay too big to control. Cut it back. Drastically (per the U.S, Constitution)!!

The Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names—as the agency admitted Friday—to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to "make America a better place to live," according to new details of a government probe. The investigation also revealed that a high-ranking IRS official knew as early as mid-2011 that conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted—nearly a year before then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a congressional committee the agency wasn't targeting conservative groups.

Michael D'Orazi, a former union president and department leader who was a top candidate for the chief's seat a decade ago, took the reins on Monday, the start of an anticipated six-month stint. ... The six months D'Orazi has been hired to stay in the chief's chair would bring half of an annual salary pegged at $161,018, and Goldman stressed his hiring won't increase his department pension.

Gary Heffernan has been a tuckpointer for 35 years. For the last 20, he has been in business for himself. He operates Heff's Tuckpointing out of his home in south St. Louis. Heff's is a small company with two employees - Heffernan and his nephew. Still, it's a successful operation. "We stay busy. We have about all the work we can handle, and it's all referrals," Heffernan told me. It's almost all residential work. The occasional commercial job is usually a small, storefront business. In April, Heffernan and his nephew were working on a house in the 6400 block of...

(NaturalNews) Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I'm about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else. As bizarre as it sounds, laws restricting property owners from "diverting" water that falls...

Some of you may recall my response to the Census Bureau selecting ordering me to participate in the American Community Survey and the 2010 Census (so that, IMAO, pResident Zero can find out just how many of us teabaggers out here he really has to conquer and divide). Funny thing is, Census workers haven't come around to find out what I really have to say. But they sure don't have a problem with badgering large homeschool families who've already filled out the Census, making them answer the questions all over again. Here's an email conversation Mrs. Snarky Basterd came by...

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