Free Republic

To deny that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the political spectrum would be an out and out lie. Both the right and left have their own collection of zealots, ranging from the self-aggrandized pseudo-intellectual who is absolutely positive that he or she has seen the light and that for the nation to take any other path than the one in his vision would lead to sure disaster, to the downright kook who bristles at the very mention of the other party's name and, depending on their persuasion, believes that an "R" or a "D" stands for evil...

Why the hell is Eric Holder still around? That’s a question many of Barack Obama’s political advisers have asked at various points throughout Holder’s tumultuous five years at the helm of the Justice Department. For most of Obama’s presidency, in fact, if there’s been controversy, Holder was likely to be in the middle of it, from the failed efforts to close Guantánamo Bay and to prosecute alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a Manhattan court to his inability to send Wall Street executives involved in the mortgage meltdown to jail. His detractors in the West Wing of the...

Adventures with Inspector Lestrade:: By: Larry Walker II ::US officials announced Tuesday that a joint Special Forces and FBI operation successfully nabbed Libyan national Ahmed Abu Khattala, the man suspected as the ringleader for the 2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.” The piece I read was titled, “9/11 Benghazi Attack 'Mastermind' Who Hid in Plain Sight for Years Captured By US Forces.” That's all well and good, however, I believe a conviction in this case is about as likely as one against John McFarlane in the case of the Norwood Builder.Back on October 18, 2012, a month...

Child rapists deserve due process. Conservatives governors, not so much. Two unfolding stories offer us a revealing glimpse into the extraordinarily malleable morality of the left. There is the case of Hillary Clinton’s 1975 defense of a child rapist in Arkansas. As you know, defending your client to the best of your ability is what the law demands. And the law is the law. Then there is the case of governor Wisconsin Scott Walker, someone who, though he has never been close to being found guilty (or even formally charged) of any crime, is guilty of wrongdoing by the mere...

The incredible tale of a father who arranged a kidnapping in order to bring his daughter's killer to justice in France avoided prison time on Tuesday for the abduction. The father took matters into his own hands after Germany refused to extradite the suspect. A 76-year-old Frenchman was convicted Wednesday of having kidnapped a German ex-doctor who had killed his daughter, but he avoided jail time as the court handed down a suspended sentence. The court in the eastern French border town of Mulhouse gave Andre Bamberski a suspended one-year sentence for having abducted Dieter Krombach in Germany and brought...

<p>All the states planning executions — Florida, Georgia and Missouri — refuse to say where they get their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for two of the condemned inmates have challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.</p>

In a proposal that could have a far-reaching impact on the Black community, Attorney General Eric Holder is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to cut the sentences of as many as 20,000 federal prisoners serving time for nonviolent drug offenses. It is Holder’s latest move to reform the sentencing guidelines that he has said disproportionately affect African-American males. The Justice Department appealed Tuesday to the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make some prisoners retroactively eligible for reduced sentences. The commission has already approved a measure to reduce drug sentences for future nonviolent offenders. This would apply to offenders already in federal...

Video Shows Conn. Teen Begging Mass. Judge To Let Her Go Home BOSTON (CBS) – The family of a Connecticut teenager at the center of a custody dispute with the state of Massachusetts has posted a video showing the teen pleading for the judge to let her go home. The video shows Justina Pelletier asking Governor Patrick and Judge Joseph Johnston to let her move back with her family. “All I really want to be with is my family and my friends and that’s all I want is to be with my family and friends back home,” she says. “You...

EXCERPT: Investigators say Lee got into an argument with the victim over excessive loud noise outside of Lee's apartment. A witness told police Lee punched the victim, knocking him to the ground, and then shot him when he stood up. RIGHT BELOW this, I will post the companion story from the family of the victim in the Atlanta area. You will draw some obvious conclusions.

<p>Democrats in recent weeks weighed whether to abstain from involvement in House Republicans' new Benghazi investigative committee, labeling it an unnecessary probe into questions that have already been answered.</p> <p>The American people disagree.</p> <p>A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a majority of Americans -- 51 percent -- approve of the new panel, while 42 percent disapprove.</p>

Few U.S. institutions resemble today's prison system. Most Americans have little-to-no exposure to this quiet behemoth which has quadrupled its population since the 1980's, but for those who are exposed, the effects are dramatic. The system is wrecking families, hurting individuals, and costing our nation billions of dollars. We've seen some promising developments in the last year, but more Americans need to open our eyes to the dangerous path we've been headed down and push for continued reforms. I've lived several years of my life in a small Midwest farming town that owes much of its continued existence to our...

The mainstream media is playing up the “tragedy” of Clayton Lockett’s “botched” execution.... This is Stephanie Neiman. Clayton Lockett murdered her over her truck. He laughed as he killed her.

A 30-year-old mother is lucky today after the quick-thinking of a stranger helped save her from a mugging. The mother of two who was dragged across a Texas shopping center parking lot this week, clinging to her purse while two suspects in a sedan tried to snatch it. That’s when the stranger, who was armed, stopped the would-be thieves and forced them to lie on the ground while they waited for the police to arrive. ( The stranger who helped the woman retrieve her purse, pointed a gun at the suspects while he made them lie on the ground, waiting...

Thanking you in advance for reading and helping our soldiers! Below is a beautiful email sent by Michael Behenna. He is finally home and thank you to all who helped him through calls you made and letters you wrote on his behalf. Michael is right, the fight is not over. We still have Sons locked up in Leavenworth who need our help. I had the good fortune to visit with Sgt Derrick Miller at Leavenworth this past weekend. I am astounded, after meeting this truly good man, that anyone in their right mind can justify keeping him locked away. I...

When Alice went through the looking glass, she found a world where things were completely the reverse of what they are in the real world. Of course, Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece was intended as a parody of the mendacious politicians of the day. Today we have something beyond parody, and that is the U.N. climate bureaucracy and its acolytes. Because the U.N. agencies are bureaucracies, it is perhaps understandable that they should seek at all times to increase their own power and control over the world’s people. But what is not understandable is when that quest turns into a campaign to...

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.

Texas executed by lethal injection on Wednesday a Mexican citizen who was convicted of bludgeoning a man to death and repeatedly raping the man's wife. Ramiro Hernandez, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m. CDT at the Texas state death chamber in Huntsville after receiving a dose of lethal drugs, the Texas Department o Texas executes Mexican national for murder and rapef Criminal Justice said. Hernandez was the sixth convict executed in Texas this year and the 16th in the United States.

If Betsey McCaughey is correct (and I bet she is, because she has not only read the entire ObamaCare bill, she has written a book about it), Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan publicly humiliated herself during the oral arguments on the Hobby Lobby case, revealing that she either did not read the law, or failed to comprehend it if she did so. Writing in the New York Sun, McCaughey lays out what is wrong with the Justice’s declaration about Obamacare: she asserted that the statute itself mandates provision of birth control. Not one word in the Affordable Care Act guarantees...

A man accused of causing a crash that killed a 22-year-old Miami Heat dancer in 2010 has been found guilty, but the verdict is being withheld while the court investigates allegations of juror misconduct.... At issue is whether the jury of six men made remarks about Careaga's gay lifestyle that could have influenced their decision...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni will meet on Tuesday with representatives of the Almagor terror victims’ organization. The meeting comes ahead of the next scheduled release of terrorists as a “gesture” the Palestinian Authority (PA). Lt. Col. (ret.) Oren Tamam, brother of Moshe Tamam who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists, said on Monday that the meeting was finally scheduled after months of repeated requests. “We're going with a broken heart and hopefully she will listen to us willingly,” said Tamam, adding, "The past few months have created among us a distrust in the justice system for which she is responsible,...