Free Republic

President Obama is in a New York State of Mind. Next Tuesday, Obama will make his fourth trip to the state in five weeks, the White House said Friday. In his latest visit, the President will headline the 15th annual Democratic National Committee LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Leadership Council’s gala fundraiser in Manhattan. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/obama-new-york-tuesday-blog-entry-1.1829309#ixzz34oACaBBl

President Barack Obama will sign an order banning federal government contractors from discriminating against gay and transgender workers, officials have said. The executive order follows years of pressure from gay rights groups. Mr Obama cannot extend the protection to all American workers, however. The order comes after far broader anti-discrimination legislation stalled in the Republican-led House of Representatives. The executive order will apply only to federal contractors, which employ nearly one-quarter of the US workforce.

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a law on Monday allowing for the limited use of a special strain of marijuana to treat epileptic seizures and other diseases. State lawmakers passed the measure this spring with bipartisan support after impassioned appeals from parents seeking access to the form of marijuana known as "Charlotte's Web," named for a Colorado girl whose epileptic seizures have shown some response to the drug. “As a father and grandfather, you never want to see kids suffer," Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. "I am proud to stand today with families who deserve the...

A state law criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct is unconstitutional, an Alabama appeals court has ruled. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals declared the so-called sexual-misconduct law unconstitutional based on a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned a similar Texas law on due-process grounds. The prosecutor, Michael Jackson of Selma, said Monday that he understood why the appeals court ruled the way it did, and said the decision would likely be upheld if appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. But he said the victim is not getting a fair result because the sex in the case he was prosecuting wasn't...

Gillian Robespierre, the feminist director of the abortion comedy Obvious Child, is not a fan of Fox News, as she revealed in an interview with Matt Juul Wednesday in the Boston Globe. Asked about sexism and feminist hashtags on Twitter, she said "like, I’m watching a lot of CNBC and Fox News in these [expletive] hotel rooms and it’s just making my head spin. It just makes me really sad. It doesn’t feel like we’ve come too far, but then it feels like we have come far because we’re talking about it right now." It makes her have violent thoughts...

In the four months to date for 2014, warships from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Task Force 150 (CTF 150) have seized in excess of 2,000 kg of heroin being trafficked in dhows via the Indian Ocean. The most recent seizure was of 1,032 kg by an Australian warship on 26 April - African’s highest drug seizure ever – and 130kg by a Canadian warship on 7 April. In 2013, warships operating with CTF 150 seized more than 2,000 kg of heroin being shipped via the Indian Ocean. The heroin appears to be of Afghan origin, and is generally of...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — In methamphetamine's seedy underworld, traffickers are disguising the drug as a liquid to smuggle it into the United States from Mexico.

Video in post of actual attack (mildly graphic). Posted by http://religiopoliticaltalk.com/

Madison — Felon and former state Sen. Gary George will be able to mount his long-shot primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore after all. The state elections board voted unanimously to reject a challenge to George's nomination signatures and allow him on the ballot to challenge fellow Democrat Moore for Congress. The Government Accountability Board met at the Capitol on Tuesday to certify candidates for the Aug. 12 ballot. Milwaukee union official Sheila Cochran had challenged hundreds of the signatures George submitted on his nomination papers, saying they were collected by convicted felons, among other problems. Board staff said,...

Colorado has a new cash crop. New figures show that the state has been raking in profits since January, when it became the first in the nation to legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use. Add in sales taxes from lower taxed medical marijuana and so far this year the state has banked nearly $18 million. Along with the big bucks have come some big problems. Like 10 toddlers so far this year overdosing on edible marijuana products. And from January through May, the Colorado State Patrol handed out 289 tickets to people driving under the influence of marijuana....

A chilling message from the cartels: Billboards with hanging mannequins warning cops to choose 'silver over lead' appear in Texas Two billboards along highways in El Paso, Texas were vandalized and had mannequins hanging off of themOne reads 'silver or lead' in Spanish which is taken to mean that police and business owners can either take drug cartels' bribes or dieWorries spreading that cartels that have ruled Mexican border towns with violence may be headed north Two frightening incidents of vandalism in El Paso near the Mexican border in Texas have been interpreted as warnings from drug cartels. In both...

In today’s rapidly disintegrating, “do-your-own-thing” culture, our pundits, professors, and judges are in desperate need of some powerful doses of rationality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the conflict over the institution of marriage and what its definition is to be. What follows are several insights that hopefully will clear up some egregiously warped notions being bandied about by America’s “intelligentsia.” In a free and ordered society (which is what those of us on the political right maintain as the ideal) the defining of marriage cannot be left up to individual whim. It must be defined by the predominant...

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has found himself under attack from some within his own party. On Monday the Charleston County Republican Committee passed a resolution, by a close vote of 39-32, to censure Graham. There was immediate reaction: The vote was immediately criticized by Republican National Committeewoman Cindy Costa as “foolish” on the eve of an election.

A belated response to the uproar after Rand Paul told an NYT reporter that the GOP’s voter-ID push was “offending people.” After reading this, I think the Guardian has his position right: “Rand Paul believes in voter ID laws. He just doesn’t think Republicans should talk about them so much.”Good enough? [T]his statement comes from Paul’s former chief of staff and current PAC director.“Senator Paul was having a larger discussion about criminal justice reform and restoration of voting rights, two issues he has been speaking about around the country and pushing for in state and federal legislation. “In the...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The green-cross storefronts of medical marijuana dispensaries are common in much of Washington, and the state is plowing ahead with licensing people to grow and sell recreational pot to adults. But a federal trial scheduled to begin in the coming weeks for five people in Spokane suggests not all is OK with weed in the state. Larry Harvey, a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient with no criminal history, three of his relatives and a family friend each face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison after they were caught growing about 70 pot plants...

Reboot in San Francisco this summer with young Republicans.Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson, 29, are looking to do what Democrats have done for almost a decade: connect conservative and libertarian "technologists" with old-school political campaigns with like minds. There just isn't enough opportunity in Silicon Valley. For a dyed-in-the-wool, true-red conservative. So, a pair of Silicon Valley denizens with right-wing politics are planning their answer to Netroots Nation, according to the Huffington Post. Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson,...

KEENE, N.H. — In most places, the parking enforcement officer reflects the municipal compact. Armed only with a gadget that can spit out a ticket at the forgotten drop of a dime, the officer quietly serves civic and commercial life by ensuring that meters are fed. In most places, yes. But not here in charming Keene, where parking officers figure in a philosophical tug of war between a small band of activists who live by the motto “Free Keene,” and the great majority of residents who were unaware that their city was in bondage. Keene’s two parking officers, both women,...

Actor and comedian Cheech Marin says he and longtime comedy partner Tommy Chong may soon reunite on film. […] The 67-year-old, known as one half of “Cheech & Chong,” says there have been discussions about starting a project within the next year. Meanwhile, the two have been touring together. …

NEW MEXICO — A federal appeals court has ruled that driving with one’s hands at the “ten-and-two position” is reason enough to pull someone over for further investigation. No traffic laws have to actually be broken. Additionally, the court ruled that facial acne is reason enough to suspect a driver is a drug smuggler. The ruling stems from an incident that took place on April 18, 2012, at roughly 7:45 p.m. A border patrol agent driving down Highway 80 saw a white Ford F-150 heading the opposite direction. This took place roughly 40 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border —...

The views in the video aren’t surprising. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO They’re the views of Ron and Rand Paul and their intellectual milieu which believes that most wars are set up by banks. According to them, the US need not have gotten involved in WW2. “There are times when sanctions have made it worse. I mean, there are times .. leading up to World War II we cut off trade with Japan. That probably caused Japan to react angrily. We also had a blockade on Germany after World War I, which may have encouraged them … some...