Free Republic

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) seems to have it out for our military. The department is using the city’s pointless firearm registration mandate to harass, arrest and jail servicemen. Army 1st Sergeant Matt Corrigan was woken in the middle of the night, forced out of his home, arrested, had his home ransacked, had his guns seized and was thrown in jail -- where he was lost in the prison system for two weeks -- all because the District refuses to recognize the meaning of the Second Amendment. This week, the city dropped all charges against Sgt. Corrigan, but the damage...

For most of the past decade, North Las Vegas was one of the fastest-growing cities in America. Construction crews couldn’t build houses quickly enough. New schools, parks and neighborhoods popped up seemingly overnight. Restaurants and shopping plazas overtook desert stretches, and plans were drawn for “casino alley,” a mini-Strip of gaming resorts. Most residents welcomed the growth. A 2009 survey found that half the population rated the quality of life in North Las Vegas as excellent or good. Three-quarters of residents said they’d recommend living in the city.

Pressure is mounting to normalize the use of drones in the United States. "Don't drone, me, bro!"—that's one way to sum up Charles Krauthammer's heated reaction to last week's news that the Federal Aviation Administration had loosened restrictions on local police departments' use of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. "Stop it here, stop it now," Krauthammer exclaimed on Fox News's "Special Report" Monday, "I don't want to see it hovering over anybody's home. ... I'm not encouraging, but I am predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his...

The Environmental Protection Agency held 12 hours of stacked hearings in Washington, D.C. and Chicago on Thursday in favor of a regulation that analysts have concluded would kill the building of new conventional coal plants in the U.S. Among the participants scheduled to testify in consecutive five minute blocks throughout the day were multiple representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and environmental activists from the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. The proposed rule, reported by The Washington Post in March, limits the amount of greenhouse gases emitted...

What's green and blue and grabby all over? President Obama's new pressure campaign for Congress to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). The fight over LOST goes back three decades, when it was first rejected by President Ronald Reagan. He warned that "no national interest of the United States could justify handing sovereign control of two-thirds of the Earth's surface over to the Third World." According to top Reagan officials William Clark and Ed Meese, their boss believed the "central, and abiding, defect" was "its effort to promote global government at the expense of sovereign nation states --...

A bill that would close an IRS tax credit loophole that allows the IRS to funnel over $4 billion to illegal immigrants is being held up by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, has been vocal in his disdain for the blatant misuse of taxpayer monies: I’m disappointed that the Majority Leader objected to our effort today to prevent billions in tax credits from being wrongly sent to illegal immigrants claiming they have dependents, many of whom do not live in...

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- The Illinois State Police are pushing legislation that could have a severe, negative impact on gun rights in Illinois. Senate Bill 1034, which was introduced as an anti-drug bill, was recently amended by the state House of Representatives to cover Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cards. This issue surfaced due to the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ), which has allegedly threatened to shut down Illinois State Police access to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS if numerous changes to Illinois law are not implemented. The ISP are the point of contact for NICS checks, so...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft. Drones have been used overseas to target and kill high-level terror leaders and are also being used along the U.S.-Mexico border in the battle against illegal immigration. But now, these drones are starting to be used domestically at an increasing rate. The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed several police departments to use drones across the U.S. They are controlled from a remote location and use infrared sensors and...

The news is that the Click it or Ticket stepped up enforcement is started on Monday. Even if you are wearing your seatbelt, that isn't any protection against a ticket. Police can now stop you for no other reason than they say you weren't wearing it. This is the ultimate revenue generator. On Twitter, the propaganda is in full swing @NHTSAgov #ClickItorTicket

Lapdog AP reporter Jordy Yager writes: Rep. Issa might not have the votes to push forward Holder contempt charge> Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might not have the votes in his own committee to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. A number of Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are wary of moving forward with Issa’s proposed measure, putting the powerful chairman in an awkward position as he attempts to build support for the move. . . Two of the committee’s 23 Republicans have declined to support the measure at this point, while five other...

Ever since the Democrats passed ObamaCare "so we could find out what's in it," Americans have overwhelmingly said they didn't like the new law.  Now, the Obama Administration is spending $20 million of taxpayer money on a new public relations campaign to try to sell us, yet again, on this unprecedented intrusion into our lives by legislation that 72% of Americans believe violates the Constitution.The new public relations campaign "will inform the American people about the many preventative benefits" of ObamaCare according to the White House spin machine.   Porter-Novelli, one of the planet's glitziest consumer marketing firms, has been awarded the...

Illinois gun owners now face a brand new attack on their Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms. With gun rights advocates in Illinois having started in the last few years to find their voices and realize their power, the legislature's forcible citizen disarmament advocates are resorting to furtiveness in their efforts to impose new infringements on that which shall not be infringed. From an Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) alert: BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Illinois State Police are teaming up to pass legislation to destroy your...

The founder of the Organic Pastures business in California is reporting that government health officials have begun tracking down the names and addresses of natural-foods customers and showing up at their homes, demanding to confiscate any raw milk they might have. The dispute over raw milk has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with a judge ruling that owners of cows have no right to the milk their herds produce, and protests being staged by mad moms whose access to such foods is being threatened. The latest report is at NaturalNews.com, which interviewed McAfee. The report said Los Angeles...

Russ Caswell, 68, is bewildered: “What country are we in?” He and his wife, Pat, are ensnared in a Kafkaesque nightmare unfolding in Orwellian language. This town’s police department is conniving with the federal government to circumvent Massachusetts law — which is less permissive than federal law — to seize his livelihood and retirement asset. In the lawsuit titled United States of America v. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, the government is suing an inanimate object, the motel Caswell’s father built in 1955. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to seize it, sell it for perhaps $1.5 million and give...

“I just don’t want to see something this significant – whatever the pros and cons – go through without anyone noticing,” “ says one source on the Hill, who is disturbed by the law. According to this source, the law would allow "U.S. propaganda intended to influence foreign audiences to be used on the domestic population." The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight...

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- The battle for your Second Amendment rights continues to rage in Sacramento. On Monday, May 14, the California Senate passed two bills that are detrimental to California gun owners. Senate Bill 1315 passed in the state Senate by a vote of 21 to 14 and Senate Bill 1366 passed by a vote of 23 to 14. Senate Bill 1315, introduced by anti-gun extremist state Senator Kevin de León (D-22), is just a stepping stone to completely destroying California’s firearm preemption law. Firearm preemption laws are in place to standardize firearm laws across the state. This critical law...

President Obama’s reelection campaign launched a national drive Friday to counter new restrictive voter-access laws, which advisers said threaten his electoral chances in November. Organizers will fan out in key swing states this weekend to teach volunteers and voters how to navigate a series of laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing stricter identification requirements, limiting early voting and making it harder to organize voter-registration drives. It is the beginning of a months-long effort, campaign officials said, to combat what they described as a Republican effort to stifle voting among young people and minorities, two groups that traditionally tend to...

If you’re the owner of an ice cream stand in Massachusetts and you make building improvements without asking the state for permission, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a prohibition-style shutdown. An ice cream stand in Great Brook Farm State Park, MA (of course), was shut down by state officials this weekend after it was discovered that the owner had made building improvements without the appropriate permits, lowellsun.com reports. “Mark Duffy, who has operated the dairy farm at the state-owned park for 26 years and has a lease with the state to run the stand, said armed...

The Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced it will drop health insurance coverage for students because the cost of the plan is expected to double under Obamacare. [...]The plan currently costs approximately $600 per year. However, Hernon said their health care provider informed them that under Obamacare, the policy would double in price to $1,200 and the following year it would triple. “We couldn’t believe the price (increase),” he told Fox News. “We had them go back and reconfirm it. They said it was dictated by coverage limits that were released by the Obama administration.” “At the end of the...

A Detroit groundskeeper, who turned in a loaded handgun he found hidden in weeds while working, was fired by the Wayne County Department of Public Services, MyFoxDetroit.com reports. John Chevilott, who is just two years shy of retirement, found the loaded snub-nosed revolver on May 3 when he and his crew were mowing a lawn in Wayne County. Chevilott secured the gun, waiting for police to drive by so he could hand it over to them.

Despite being prohibited by no less than the United States Constitution, cruel and unusual punishment is apparently in vogue at the EPA. Obviously former EPA administrator Al Almendariz meant figurative crucifixion, but his negative attitude betrays an alarming view towards oil and natural gas companies that provide over 90 percent of primary residential energy consumption. Thankfully Al Almendariz resigned when his comments recently came to light nearly two years after he made them. That’s two years of crucifying oil and natural gas companies while Obama wastes money Solyndra and other on failed green collar projects. Green energy provides less than...

The District grabbed the guns belonging to 1st Lt. Augustine Kim and won’t give them back. Two years ago, the South Carolina Army national guardsman had been injured on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Now he’s fighting to restore his constitutional rights. Before deploying overseas, the soldier drove his collection - which included an AR-15, a Beretta 9mm and several .45 caliber pistols - to his parents’ house in New Jersey for safe storage. Upon his return to the states and recovery, Lt. Kim wanted to bring his weapons back to his home in Charleston. On the way,...

While liberal journalists continue to claim that Agenda 21 is just a “conspiracy theory” being advanced by right-wing crackpots, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Council for Environmental Law (ICEL) have released their fourth Draft of the International Covenant on Environment and Development. This document was designed from the beginning to convert the “soft-law” non-binding Agenda 21 into firmly binding global law — enforceable through the International Criminal Court and/or the dispute resolution features of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Two excellent analyses of this document are available here and here....

Last December, a 12-year-old boy was baptized in a Karns Baptist church. Four months later, his mother went to jail as a result. "I was in complete shock," Stephanie "Stacy" Miller recalled of the day in April when Knox County Fourth Circuit Court Judge Bill Swann ordered her jailed. "The guy had to drag me down the hallway. I was like, 'I just had my son baptized.' I laid my head (on the arresting deputy's) shoulder and just cried, 'Please, help me.'" Swann's controversial decision is raising questions about the use of the state's criminal contempt law to punish parents...

Health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate this summer that the check is the result of the Obama administration's health-care law, according to federal guidelines released Friday.

It has become clear for some time that there is no limit to which a leftist will go in there attempt to control mankind from the cradle to the grave. Even the fear of voter backlash in an election year does not seem to slow them down any longer. Why else would Obama come out of the closet in full support of same sex marriage, at the same time that California Democrats are attempting to criminalize a parent's influence upon their child's sexual orientation. Passing through the California Senate Judiciary committee by a vote of 3-1, SB 1172 is...

A budget is not just a plan to spend money. It’s a statement of priorities — a paper-and-ink manifesto of what an elected official or board believes is important. In an ideal world, the budget matches a politician’s campaign promises. And if it doesn’t, the public can decide whether to vote the person out. But what happens when a major portion of a public budget is put in the hands of someone who isn’t elected and isn’t subject to the decisions of an elected board? Such is the case when a labor dispute heads to arbitration. And in the aftermath...

<p>This case is a frightening example of what can happen when a photographer encounters ignorant bullies with badges. According to the complaint filed in Federal Court, Nancy Genovese, a mother of three, was driving home on County Road 31 past Gabreski Airport in Suffolk County. Gabreski Airport displays a decorative helicopter shell by the roadway to the public, which is visible to all who pass by.</p>

A blind firearms enthusiast can have his gun collection back, a New Jersey judge ruled Friday, in the latest development of what has become an ongoing Second Amendment rights saga. A prosecutor's office had asked a judge to revoke Steve Hopler's gun permit and seize all guns in his possession arguing that Hopler abused alcohol and posed a danger to others, NJ.com reports. But the troubles allegedly first started back in 1994 when police revoked his permit after learning he was blind. Hope, now 49, won an appeal to get the permit back with a stipulation; Hope can only fire...

guess Alex Jones is still crazy?? He has been talking about this for months. Bend over and take it America. Don't be upset, this is all done in love and it is all for freedom! Everyone lets sing the Sean Hannity song together...let freedom ring, let the white dove sing...." I love freedom!

CHICAGO (CBS) — Some commuters will have to make alternate plans during the NATO Summit, as Metra today said it will close several stations on the Electric Line. All Metra passengers–not just those on the Electric Line–will also face carry-on restrictions and security screenings from May 19-21. Riders will be allowed one briefcase-sized bag up to 15 by 15 inches and four inches deep. Riders will not be allowed to carry boxes, luggage, backpacks, pocket knives, bikes, food or liquid. This includes all beverages, such as coffee and soda.

They are from the federal government and here to help. Or so goes the classic line by the last decent president. Federal transportation Sec. Ray LaHood has “warned” California lawmakers not to wait until the fall to vote on the Moonbeam Express high-speed rail boondoggle. “We need to make sure that the commitment is there to obligate the money,” LaHood lectured. In short, the feds are threatening,...

...New York Nanny Staters Attack a Loophole: Following the Nanny in chief’s cigarette tax hike, there’s more cigarette tax madness, from New York no less. Despite his abysmal record as Mayor Nanny, this isn’t a Michael Bloomberg driven tobacco tax. Nanny State lawmakers and advocates in Syracuse are pushing New York state to increase taxes on loose tobacco—the kind you use to roll your own cigarettes. Facing Obama and New York State’s high cigarette taxes, people are switching to self-rolled cigarettes and pipe tobacco. This loophole is primed for Nanny State closure because it takes away potential tax revenue from...

While the White House and its media water-carriers try to distract the American public with gay-marriage talk and half-century-old tales of Mitt Romney’s prep-school pranks, the inconvenient truth remains: President Obama is responsible for perpetrating jaw-dropping, job-killing scientific fraud. And his minions are still trying to cover it up. New internal e-mails disclosed by the House Natural Resources Committee this week show that a supposedly exculpatory report on the administration’s doctored drilling moratorium analysis — issued by the Department of Interior’s inspector general’s office — was itself incomplete, misleading, and unsubstantiated. Even more damning, the documents reveal that the White...

In obscure, blue-collar towns across Appalachia -- places that most Americans have never seen -- generations of coal miners have toiled away at back-breaking labor to power American homes and industry. Now, as many as 200,000 of them who dig, process, transport and burn America's most abundant fuel are threatened by EPA's latest coal rule. It imposes a standard for emissions that is all but impossible for many plants to meet. It requires coal-fired plants to release no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour. The only means for many older plants to attain that standard is...

This week, the House will vote to slash Agriculture spending by $33.7 billion. This presents a huge opportunity to reform agriculture in a free-market direction, yet it’s an opportunity being squandered by Congress. For one thing, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, is pushing a Farm Bill that reportedly contains only $24.7 billion in spending cuts. Yet not all farm programs are treated equal and some don’t even rely on direct payments to farmers at all. The most market distorting programs rely on a convoluted system of supply management and price control programs, where government buys...

Congress: The TSA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars from the oversight-indeed dept The House Oversight Committee has come out with a report slamming the TSA for tremendous amounts of waste, specifically in the "deployment and storage" of its scanning equipment. Basically, it sounds like the TSA likes to go on giant spending sprees, buying up security equipment and then never, ever using it. A few data points As of February 15, 2012, the total value of TSA’s equipment in storage was, according to TSA officials, estimated at $184 million. However, when questioned by Committee staff, TSA’s warehouse...

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Eighteen-month-old Riyanna has been called a lot of things: cute, adorable and now ... a suspected terrorist. Related She was called that on Tuesday night at the Ft Lauderdale Airport. She and her parents had just boarded a JetBlue flight when an airline employee approached them and asked them to get off the plane, saying representatives from the Transportation Security Agency wanted to speak to them. ..more at link

The Obama administration is threatening to veto the House Appropriations bill, HR 5326 by Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) because, among other things, it would roadblock a multiple long gun sales reporting requirement in four southwest states for the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This new angle should get the attention of Northwest gun owners who faithfully follow the Fast and Furious scandal at WaGuns, Seattle Guns, Northwest Firearms, Shooters Northwest and GunRights Media forums. A message from the Obama administration on the proposed legislation says this:

Federal authorities say they intend to file a lawsuit against Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department over allegations of civil rights violations.

With French voters electing a Socialist presidential candidate who campaigned on an anti-austerity platform, the size of government has truly evolved into a global, and not just American, vote-moving issue. However, we should call “austerity” policies by their true name—fiscal responsibility. Many economists agree that when a country’s debt reaches 90 percent of GDP, serious economic contraction occurs that can persist for decades. This 90 percent is often called the danger zone. Greece, the paradigm for fiscal conservatives around the world, had debt to GDP ratio of 165.4 percent in 2011. The word austerity conjures up images of Ebenezer Scrooge,...

House Democrats said Tuesday they will offer an amendment to push to overturn stand-your-ground self-defense laws in states like Florida. The amendment, which would withhold some grants from states that have such laws, will come as part of the House's debate on the Commerce Department spending bill. Emphasis added

The nearly $500,000 county commissioners say they are likely to approve as settlement in a wrongful termination lawsuit will dredge up more than scarce taxpayer dollars. It will serve as a reminder of the Byzantine, sometimes Machiavellian, way of county politics. The lawsuit stems from the firing of Terry Lamuraglia in 2008 as assistant director of Clark County’s Parks & Recreation Department. He claimed his boss, then-director Leonard Cash, didn’t like the fact that Lamuraglia refused to discriminate against a gay manager in the department. Cash said Lamuraglia was fired because of his plan to leave some 90 parks unguarded...

(CNN) -- A graphic video played at a hearing Monday to determine whether two California police officers should stand trial in the beating death of a homeless man showed them kicking and punching the mentally ill man as he lay on the ground -- screaming in pain and begging for help. The victim, Kelly Thomas, died five days after the beating on July 5. Manuel Ramos, a 10-year veteran of the Fullerton, California, police department, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, while Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force in...

(Loophole.)(4 Billion a year)(video)(Illegal Aliens Getting Bigger Tax Refund Checks?)

The Obama administration warned the Supreme Court this week via papers filed with the Court that if Obamacare is struck down, there will be an “extraordinary disruption” in Medicare. Medicare was not discussed during the Supreme Court arguments, since it was not a Constitutional issue. This is a practical argument, not a legal one; it’s the Obama administration applying pressure to the Supremes. But that’s what the Obama administration does – they focus on the politics of the situation rather than on the legalities. If they can’t win on the law, they figure, they’ll push the Court to act via...

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Ethics Center (FEC), a watchdog organization protecting the rights of United States citizens, urges Congress to promptly hold hearings regarding troubling events occurring in the United States 5th Circuit.   FEC's letter to members of Congress outlined several examples of recent erratic 5th Circuit initiatives as follows: 5th Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, in disregard of the law, recently demanded that Attorney General, Eric Holder Jr. confirm that the rule of Marbury v. Madison applies to the President of the United States. 5th Circuit District Judge, W. Royal Furgeson, Jr., in coordination with 5th Circuit...

After using an Obamacare slush fund to pay for the student lending bill last week, House Republicans have sparked a firestorm of public speculation on what the $15 billion pot of taxpayer money has actually been used for. Reports now reveal hundreds of millions are being spent from Obamacare’s Public Health and Prevention Fund on a variety of government-run programs under the guise of public health. Among the more ridiculous examples of government waste, slush fund grants from the fund distributed through the CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work program went to $7.5 million on pet spaying in Nashville because...

Millions of illegal immigrants are getting a bigger tax refund than you. Eyewitness News shows a massive tax loophole that provides billions of dollars in tax credits to undocumented workers and, in many cases, people who have never stepped foot in the United States. And you are paying for it! Note: This is part one in a two-part series. Read part two here. INDIANAPOLIS - Inside his central Indiana office, a longtime tax consultant sits at his desk, shaking his head in disbelief. "There is not a doubt in my mind there's huge fraud taking place here," he said, slowly...