Free Republic

The unprecedented pre-order sales of Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue, have prompted numerous attempts to either explain, or dismiss, her popularity. Steve Schmidt, the chief strategist for the McCain campaign, pins his hopes for the future on Mrs. Palin… squarely between her shoulder blades, with a knife. Says Schmidt: I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican candidate in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result. In the year since the election has ended, she has...

Former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni said the Obama administration was dangerously close to “dithering” on Gen. McChrystal’s troop request ,saying “We’ve had a strategy since March… I don’t understand why we’re questioning his judgment at this point, and I just hope this doesn’t go on for much longer.”

The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut.

That woman just brought me to tears, and that's not easy.

Every FReeper needs to listen to this. A mom. Passionate. One of the best callers to Rush. Maybe ever.

Officer had shot man who was combative KINGSVILLE — A Kleberg County grand jury cleared a border patrol agent on Thursday in the July shooting of a suspected undocumented immigrant. Authorities have said border patrol agent Rafael Cortez shot a 34-year-old man on July 1 after he tried to grab Cortez’s baton during a struggle inside a convenience store. Cortez had followed the man into the Kingsville store after several suspected undocumented immigrants fled from a vehicle. Cortez tried to apprehend the man who became combative and grabbed Cortez’s baton. That’s when authorities say Cortez drew his gun and fired,...

Happy BirthdayFree Republic(13) Thank you JimRob (or is it that Thompson fella?)for the memories, frustrations with friends & foe, love, and friendships forged over the years.

A West Jordan (Utah) man -- who says a teen walked into his yard, attacked his daughter's yellow Labrador using a baseball bat and pushed his granddaughter to the ground -- was ordered Tuesday to pay a $200 fine. Meanwhile, Dale Sweat's daughter -- who owns Nikki, the dog -- was ordered to pay $37.50 for letting her dog's license expire. West Jordan Justice Court Judge Ronald Kunz suspended half the licensing fine because Carrie Sweat licensed Nikki shortly after the June incident.

The Justice Department's inspector general has agreed to investigate whether ACORN has applied for or received any DOJ grant money, in the wake of bipartisan criticism of the community activist group's operation. And seven other inspectors general are being asked by two congressional members to take a look at their funding mechanisms.

3 Provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire at the end of the year. NYTimes: WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to consider extending crucial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups and some Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to press for sweeping changes to surveillance laws. Both the House and the Senate are set to hold their first committee hearings this week on whether to reauthorize three sections of the Patriot Act that expire at the end of this year. The provisions expanded the power of the F.B.I. to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone...

Court sets execution date for Washington, DC sniper mastermind A Virginia judge has ruled that the mastermind behind the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington, DC that left 10 people dead will be executed on November 10. John Allen Muhammad is expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and ask Governor Timothy M. Kaine for clemency. Muhammad was sentenced to death for the slaying of Dean Meyers, one of 10 people shot to death during a 2002 rampage that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. uhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo killed six people in Alabama and Louisiana before moving...

An Iraqi man who witnesses said shouted abuse before throwing a shoe at a US army vehicle was shot dead on Wednesday in what the American military said was a suspected grenade attack. Residents told an AFP reporter in Fallujah that Ahmed Latif, 32, whom they said was mentally disturbed, insulted the soldiers as they patrolled in the centre of the city, and then hurled a shoe at them. The US military told AFP that a convoy in Fallujah had been attacked with a suspected grenade. "Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding...

A mob foiled a carjacking attempt of three criminals after beating a carjacker to death and injuring another critically in the capital's Pallabi on Monday night. The deceased was identified as Abdul Halim, 25, while the injured Muktar Hossain, 23, was undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). Pallabi police said a gang of three criminals intercepted a private car and tried to push its driver out of the vehicle at gunpoint in Pallabi residential area at about 9:00pm. The criminals also shot the car driver when he tried to resist them from snatching the car. Hearing the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of a father and two sons who were slain in San Francisco last year can go to state court with a claim that the city is to blame for failing to turn their alleged killer over to immigration authorities when he was arrested earlier as a juvenile, a federal judge has ruled. City Attorney Dennis Herrera had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to rule on the claim herself after dismissing the rest of the suit last month by Tony Bologna's widow and daughter. But Illston said Friday that the remainder of the family's case...

The Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain after a secret deal approved by Jack Straw. The Foreign Office bowed to Libyan pressure and agreed that Britain would abandon any attempt to try the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago. Anthony Layden, Britain’s former ambassador to Libya, said this weekend he had signed the agreement with the Libyan government three years ago, when Straw was foreign secretary. At the time Britain was negotiating trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with Libya. The...

On Thursday, two ACORN officials in Baltimore were fired for offering to help a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute to engage in child prostitution and a series of tax crimes. On Friday, after another secretly shot videotape surfaced showing the same couple getting similar advice from ACORN officers in Washington, the officers were also fired. In light of these developments do you feel the Justice Department should launch a full investigation into the group's dealings and leadership?

What can you say on a day like today except: to hell with Islam! It's truly something to be hated. It needs to be destroyed. This rancid, wretched, repellent, reptilian religion should be rudely crudely slam-dunked into the dustbin of history. Today is a day of remembrance. It ought to be a Day of Rage. Today we all quietly reflect. But we ought to loudly retaliate. For the sake of "remembrance," why not knock off a few hundred religious and political leaders in Saudi Arabia and Iran? Then we could quietly reflectively glory in it. The ambitious and loathsome philosophy...

DOJ to Hire 50 More Lawyers, Gear Up for Civil Rights Enforcement Drive Posted 3 hours, 13 minutes ago By Martha Neil The U.S. Department of Justice is gearing up for a renewed emphasis on traditional civil rights enforcement after a shift in focus during the administration of former President George W. Bush to a greater emphasis on religious rights, human trafficking and individual cases in which there was evidence of intentional discrimination. Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the DOJ is planning to bring more disparate-impact cases based on statistical evidence that minorities are treated less favorably in arenas ranging...

"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. ... Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics." --John Adams Teddy Kennedy Have you ever attended a funeral service out of respect for a friend or colleague, and left perplexed as to whom the eulogy was referring? Just once, I would like to go to a service for some disreputable rogue and have a clergyman deliver a eulogy that was faithful to the facts rather than full of fiction. (Hopefully, that won't be my own!) I am certainly...

For obvious reasons, it's unlikely this story will get much media attention. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

Barack the Black Hitler (How Obama’s stated goals may lead to the deaths of roughly six million people and the striking similarities between Obama’s personality and methods for acquiring power and Hitler’s.) For most people, Hitler embodies pure evil. Because of this, his name is often invoked in debates over character. These sorts of comparisons are almost always unwarranted and wildly exaggerated. But now America has a new star politician, Obama, and the parallels between he and the most loathed man in history are very real. In this article, we will examine the methods of assuming power employed by both...

Minutes after he learned a jury had sentenced him to death, killer James Broadnax laughed at the mother of one of his murder victims as she told him how he had devastated her life................ Patterson said television interviews Broadnax gave after the crime, in which he boasted about killing the two men and expressed no remorse or sympathy for their families, influenced jurors more than the defendant’s impassive demeanor in the courtroom.

There was a story on television news showing a guy in a stolen pickup running a light and being hit in the left front by an on-coming van that was turning in his direction. The impact knocked the pickup off course and it hit a light pole and burst into flames, killing the crook. Then, there was the 18 year-old punk that entered a bar with a gun with robbery on his mind. Turned out, it's a favorite place for that city's finest to gather when off duty, and they took him down before he could take a breath. Now,...

GULFPORT — A man accused of being a sexual predator, who was released from a hospital Tuesday, had been beaten in the head with his own rifle by a male victim who fought back, authorities said. The unnamed victim, who was kidnapped last week with a female acquaintance, took the rifle away from Vincent Goff and used it to hit Goff repeatedly on the head, said Sheriff’s Maj. Ron Pullen. Once the stock broke off the rifle, the victim kept hitting Goff until Goff managed to escape and drive off, Pullen said. “I don’t know if he’s lucky, but...

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

A former State Department employee has become the fifth person charged witih illegally accessing the confidential passport information of elected officials and celebrities. Karal Busch has been charged with the unauthorized access of passport files related to "various celebrities and their families, actors, professional athletes, musicians, models and other individuals identified in the press," court documents filed in the District's federal court said. No attorney information for Busch was listed in court records.

(Text is from snail mail "The Legal Alert" publication, a monthly publication of CLA) Please pray for Justice Sonya Sotomayor as she begins her service on the United States Supreme Court. Although Pres. Obama appointed her because she would be "empathetic", i.e., would rule based on her feelings rather than following the law, during her confirmation hearings, Justice Sotomayor repudiated the President's view of the law and said she did not believe that judges should make law from teh bench or issue rulings based on feelings of empathy.In fact, as she was questioned by members of the Senate Judiciary commttee,...

A terrorism-financing case against a Yemeni cleric, which the U.S. government once claimed as a major victory against al-Qaeda, came to a murky end Friday as a federal judge ordered him to be released and deported, despite his 2005 sentence to 75 years in a maximum-security U.S. prison. Sheik Mohammed al-Moayad, 60, a high-ranking political leader in Yemen, had been convicted after a five-week federal trial in New York City of conspiracy, providing material support to Hamas and attempting to support al-Qaeda.... In October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturned the convictions, saying U.S. District Judge...

Justice Dept. pressed to explain Panthers dropped chargesBy Jerry Seper Friday, August 7, 2009 The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is expected to approve Friday the sending of a second letter to the Justice Department, asking it to justify its decision in May to drop charges against members of the New Black Panther Party accused of intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place in the November election. Martin Dannenfelser, staff director, said a majority of the commissioners were not satisfied with a response by the department to a June 16 letter, in which the commission said the decision to drop...

How sick and sad that Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed today by the US Senate for a seat on the US Supreme Court! Anyone who cares about individual rights and true justice has to be in despair. Sotomayor is a racist, sexist, bigot, and lowlife. Her "identity politics" philosophy, and "wise Latina" persona, violate the Greek ideal of "impartiality before the law," and the American ideal of "e pluribus unum." She's a drop-dead enemy of civil rights and neutral, impartial justice -- the only justice that even exists. Sotomayor reduces America to the level of savage, tribalist Afghanistan wherein the great...

Richard Reid, the man who tried to blow up American Airlines flight 93 is housed in the Supermax prison in Colorado. Until this month, he had been subject to security restrictions which prevented his communication with other Al Qaeda members, where ever they are. Not anymore. The Holder Justice Department has decided to relax these security measures against an unrepentant terrorist... (Read the rest at muffledoar.blogspot.com)

In a past national election, a uniformed hate group stood outside a polling place with a two-foot-long police nightstick in hand, screaming racial epithets and threats in a successful effort to prevent citizens from voting and poll watchers from doing their jobs. The Department of Justice investigated, the career counsel approved the institution of a civil complaint, and one was brought.

Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, the No. 3 official in the Obama Justice Department, was consulted and ultimately approved a decision in May to reverse course and drop a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party of intimidating voters in Philadelphia during November's election, according to interviews.

Rep. John Conyers can't see why lawmakers should read the laws they make. What's the point? They wouldn't understand 'em anyway: “I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers. “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” As Betsy Newmark comments: At least some representative's aides somewhere have read some part of the bill so that should be enough, right? Who says that when you're rejiggering over one-sixth of the US...

Can you guess which person said the following quote this week? "If they're afraid to go to church, that's good." If you guessed "Osama Bin Laden," you'd be wrong. But your answer would be understandable, as they certainly sound like the words of a terrorist. No, the man who said this is actually somewhat of a hero on the right. Conservatives fancy him as a sort of cowboy sheriff, fearlessly rounding up lawbreakers and treating them as prisoners should be treated: no cable, pink underwear, and oh yeah...the chance that they'll die needlessly from lack of the appropriate health care...

Dearest, Beloved, and Everlasting God; It the past, it has been wonderfully nice to talk to you on my knees in prayer and it has always been a divine blessing to talk to you about the values of life and the fullness of family; my Beloved God Almighty, it has always seemed like you have had such great wisdom and optimism to give throughout the very fibre of my being! I know that it has been years since I actually set down and wrote you a letter through prayer from the heart; yet, I have at times been afraid to...

Shakespeare's Richard III says that, since he cannot play the lover, he'll play the villain. It's a choice few of us would admit to ourselves: we don't want to think of ourselves as villains, and we're not comfortable if we don't feel like we're essentially good people. We want to believe that, at a minimum, we're just slightly better than the average Joe. The trouble is that being a truly good person is hard. It's hard to control your temper. It's hard to fight against the temptations to lust, to greed, to laziness, to envy and to gluttony. And so...

AND JUSTICE FOR ALLAG MAKES EQUAL RIGHTS PRIORITY By AUSTIN FENNER and LEONARD GREENE Last updated: 10:08 am July 14, 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday assured the NAACP that the Justice Department was back in business, but said the law can't go as far as personal responsibility. In a speech before the nation's oldest and largest civil-rights group, Holder said the federal government would pick up a mantle he claimed was largely ignored during the Bush years. "I can proudly report the civil-rights division is back and it's open for business," Holder said at the New York Hilton, to...

When Ramona Stafford's husband was murdered in Winston-Salem in 1993, she didn't care about the killer's race. She just wanted him punished to the fullest extent of the law. "This fellow was black. But our family just wanted the person that did this. We just wanted justice and punishment," Stafford said. "Race, nationality, whatever, doesn't come into play." Her husband's murderer, a defiant 21-year-old named Robbie Lyons who admitted the crime but never expressed remorse, was convicted and given the death penalty. Nearly 10 years later, with Stafford looking on, he was strapped to a gurney, wheeled into the state's...

VANCOUVER, Wash. (July 12) - Former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children say it never happened.

Iraqi Kurds take a stand against Arab hegemony Commentary by Gerald A. Honigman thelastcrusade.org Finally, at long last, another native people, besides Arabs, is staking its claims to a slice of the justice pie in the Middle East--a region proclaimed by Arabs to be solely their own, despite the presence of scores of millions of native, non-Arab peoples in those lands. A story by Sam Dagher in the July 10th New York Times reported that Kurds were going ahead staking claims to the huge fossil fuel deposits sitting under land in northern Iraq on which they have lived for thousands...

The Bush White House so strictly controlled access to its warrantless eavesdropping program that only three Justice Department lawyers were aware of the plan, which nearly ignited mass resignations and a constitutional crisis when a wider circle of administration officials began to question its legality, according to a watchdog report released today.

The man who took five lives in six days in a small Cherokee County town should have been in jail, according to South Carolina officials who have examined his criminal record. Patrick Tracy Burris, who allegedly murdered five Gaffney residents ranging in age from 15 to 83, was a habitual felon with a 25-page rap sheet that included an eight year stint in North Carolina prison. Police say Burris should have never been released from prison, and now they are demanding answers. “When you have that many crimes you shouldn’t get parole,” said South Carolina Law Enforcement Chief Reggie Lloyd...

Just days before he is to meet with Pope Benedict XVI on his first trip to Italy, President Obama told FOX News that the Catholic Church's long tradition of social justice has had a "profound influence" on him. President Obama said the Catholic Church's long tradition of social justice has had a "profound influence" on him -- just days before he is to meet with Pope Benedict XVI on his first trip to Italy.

The Pope has called for reform of the United Nations and financial bodies, giving them the "real teeth" needed to tackle economic and social injustice. Benedict XVI said the blind pursuit of profit and economic mismanagement had "wreaked havoc" on the global economy. The market, said the Pope, must not become the place where the strong prevail over the weak.

***CALL TO ACTION*** LET'S GET ENGAGED AMERICA!!!! FAX, E-MAIL, CALL, WRITE LETTERS TO ALL OF THESE BUT MAKE CHIEF MAGISTRATE JUDGE OF THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, ROYCE LAMBERTH YOUR FIRST CONTACT. SOME NEED TO SEND A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST TO THESE PEOPLE AS THAT WILL FORCE CONFIRMATION OF RECEIPT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT.R Presentments filed in D.C.!!!July 2nd We may have missed a few but we'll work with this for now. American Grand Jury Spokespeople: Mack Ellis Dr. Penny Kelso Carl Swensson and Chalice Jackson, Citizen Journalist from http://www.patriotsheartnetwork.com/ On Monday, June 29, 2009, the team met...

In an effort to understand a Marxist bent on an end run at ‘global social justice’ we might define the words “freedom” and “justice”, relative to the following postulates: 1.) Marxism and Freedom are mutually exclusive -a given. 2.) “If you have socialism, you only require justice”. (A Presumed Tenant) On to the definitions…. Freedom is: Pretty simple. Everything (including opportunity) that is not restricted by law/code/agreement and that doesn’t infringe upon, nor unduly burden, others. * Note here that attacks on the word have been rather fruitless; hence the Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives have stopped using the word in...

A knife-wielding burglar got a shock when he attacked a pensioner in his home - a couple of right hooks to the face. Gregory McCalium had not realised that 72-year-old victim Frank Corti was a retired boxer. This police mugshot of 23-year-old McCalium, taken soon after he was arrested at Mr Corti's home, shows the facial injuries the OAP inflicted as he made a citizen's arrest. Today, McCalium is beginning a four-and-a-half year prison sentence after a judge told him he 'got what he deserved.' A court heard how Mr Corti - who served with the Royal Engineers in North...

Allah in Agony byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org Dr. Paul Williams with Joe Kaufman: "One of the heroes in the fight against radical Islam" There is great elation deep in the bowels of the Last Crusade bunker this afternoon. Corks are popping in celebration of Joe Kaufman's victory over the forces of Islamic hatred and intolerance. The lawsuit that was initiated against him by seven Muslim groups, including the Muslim American Society (MAS), was kicked out of court by the Texas Court of Appeals. Mr. Kaufman is one of the heroes in the fight against radical Islam and the proliferation of...

Family members of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks say they have been blindsided by the Obama administration's opposition to their lawsuit seeking damages from top members of the Saudi Arabian government over suspected financial links to the 9/11 attackers.,P. A series of closed-door meetings between the relatives' groups and Justice Department officials, arranged as an update on Mr. Obama's plan to close the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turned instead into a sharp clash over the Saudi legal action... "Physically, President Obama has done what previous presidents have done for a long time,...