Free Republic

I took down the post about Charles Ramsey's past. The extension of the man's fifteen minutes is irritating to me, but I suppose I'm more irritated with the people who have tried to turn him into the next Antoine Dodson. One of the reasons that the Dodson bit and Bed Intruder is funny and entertaining is that nothing all that bad happened. There was a break-in, a failed rape attempt and a clumsy escape which left the Dodsons traumatized for a short time. The interview—which was with the actual victims, not a bystander—was the perfect example of what Nipsey Washington...

[typo is in the original article title, should read "Oakland"] No matter what the outcome, the federal court takeover of the Oakland Police Department is going to cost taxpayers millions — starting with the $270,000-plus-a-year salary for the new compliance director. That’s $13,000 more than what former Police Chief Howard Jordan was making before he jumped — or was pushed — into medical retirement this month. In addition to the $270,000 salary, compliance director Thomas Frazier will receive benefits equal to those paid to the city administrator and the police chief, including any unused vacation, sick or executive leave that...

Throughout this entire proceeding, not once did the plaintiff attorney representing the Federal Credit Union address the most important question: who is the holder of the note? This question is important because under the Truth in Lending Act pursuant to 15 USC §§ 1601-1667j (full disclosure), I have a right to know who the true party of interest in this transaction is. Therefore, it needs to be stipulated whether the plaintiff attorney or Federal Credit Union is the holder in due course for my promissory note. The plaintiff attorney presented as evidence a copy of the loan showing my signature...

https://twitter.com/colifis/status/333733589567037440So much for global warming, eh? Another photo of the ice blob on the south side of Mille Lacs Lake today as ice piled up to 30 feet high in spots. http://t.co/AqsOKUqMY4— Jonathan Yuhas (@JonathanYuhas) May 12, 2013 KSTP TV viewer Garrett Norsten sent this photo of the Mille Lac frozen ice wave smashing thru a garage. http://t.co/3sTPNX2T7D— Jonathan Yuhas (@JonathanYuhas) May 12, 2013 https://twitter.com/13EvanStewart/status/333697845779648512 Wow! RT @WCCO: Lake Mille Lacs ice surges onto shore, threatening resort. | cbsloc.al/10A72cH | http://t.co/TQcFoyw05A— Gregg Litman (@GRLitman) May 11, 2013 Ice anyone. Wind gusts to 45 mph piling Mr Freeze like ice blocks...

Najaf Khan from Brierfield guilty of entering house to commit sex attack on the young female who lived there. Given that Khan illegally entered somebodies home to try and satisfy his twisted and heinous sexual urges he is potentially a very serious danger to all women.Whilst in the cells he apparently exposed himself to the police more than once. He has no fear of being caught or any boundaries coupled with his bizarre perverted behaviour increases the threat he is.Man guilty of Brierfield sexual offencesA MAN has been convicted of a string of sexual offences, as well as trespassing into...

Tuesday, May 07, 2013Bishop Robert McManus arrested Pope John Paul II, in his book Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, emphasizes that, "Just as a father shapes the faith of his children primarily by his example of prayer and religious fervor, so also a bishop inspires his faithful by his behavior. That is why the author of the First Letter of Peter begs that bishops be 'a living example to the flock' (1 Peter 5:3)...A bishop is called to personal holiness in a particular way so that the holiness of the Church community entrusted to his care may increase...

COMMENTARY | Former Texas Rep. and Presidential candidate Ron Paul is getting blasted for criticizing the imposition of martial law for the city of Boston in an attempt to track down the remaining Boston Marathon bomber. But what you may not realize is that Boston is hardly an isolated case. And I'm not just talking about American history, but also recent days. And unless we set some ground rules, someone will, in a town like yours. Of course you heard about Boston and how the city was shut down to flush out the second bomber of the Boston Marathon. You...

Quincy, Illinois, Tea Party activist Chip Gerdes passed away early this morning after suffering a heart attack. He leaves behind a wife and daughter. Tea Partyers across the Twittersphere are mourning his untimely death and paying their respects to their friend and fellow happy warrior:

One of the perennial problems faced by the left is the inclination to either devolve into myopic, sectarian bands, or to remain so diffuse and broad in its appeal that it doesn’t accomplish much of anything. The latter tendency can be seen in the evolution of movements like Occupy Wall Street, which never quite formulated a cogent agenda, despite rendering aid to distressed victims of Hurricane Sandy this past year. Although, even this operation didn’t proceed quite as smoothly or as transparently as one would expect from an organization that ostensibly has no defined hierarchical structure. The message emblazoned upon...

One of the teen hikers who got lost in the wilderness of Orange County, prompting a massive five-day search effort that cost more than $160,000, has been charged with the possession of methamphetamine found during the hike. Authorities found an illegal substance in the car in which Nicolas Cendoya, 19, had traveled to the trailhead in the Trabuco Canyon area of Cleveland National Forest, Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Gail Krause said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Texas House paved the way for the possible introduction of more tolls to state highways. Supermajorities in both chambers passed SB 1730, allowing the Texas Department of Transportation to enter into “a comprehensive development agreement with a private entity to design, develop, finance, construct, maintain, repair, operate, extend, or expand” a number of state highways. These “comprehensive development agreements” (CDAs) are partnerships between the government and private corporations, where the latter agrees to pony up money for road construction and maintenance in return for some sort of return on their investment, ie tolls or cash payments. If...

Grover Norquist is not a conservative. He is pro-gay marriage, he was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and at the 2011 CPAC conference, he told the Soros-funded organization Think Progress that Islam “is completely consistent with the U.S constitution and a free and open society.” And yet, the Will County GOP chooses Mr. Norquist as their speaker for their Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser. Are there no conservatives left in the Will County GOP?

You’re gonna love this. It turns out that two products that most of us use multiple times a day can trigger a false positive result for explosives during a TSA screening. The culprits? Soap and lotion. Don’t believe me? A few days after the Boston bombings, Linda, an Oklahoma native, was flying out of Port Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Ohio when she was randomly chosen for a hand swab at a security checkpoint. The TSA agent swabbed her hand and promptly informed her that she had tested positive for explosives, specifically nitrates. The poor woman was naturally befuddled and...

Need some freeper help and knowledge. My sister is moving to Costa Mesa CA from Cave Creek AZ. She and her family love Arizona but because of a job situation she must move to California. She is uptight about moving and I would like any freepers to let me know good things about the area, or any inside info to help calm her fears and give her something to look forward to. I know the taxes are too high, too many illegal’s, too many liberals so fill me in on good news.

It’s a living history lesson: Hundreds of America’s war heroes – who have served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – will share their service experiences and memories with California high-school students in a celebration of those who fought valiantly for America’s freedoms. More than 300 men and women from all military branches will mentor juniors May 1 at 8 a.m. in the 6th annual Rancho Cucamonga High School Remembers event. The tradition is coordinated by U.S. history teachers Aaron Bishop and Robert Sanchez. “I had six uncles in World War II,” Bishop told WND. “All of...

This info can be accessed by clicking on the Accounts field up top. Find yours and have a thought about supporting the site with a donation. I have found the automatic monthly option the way to go.

When the George Zimmerman case dominates the local and national news, one of the places you'll be able to get in-depth information will be in the palm of your hand! Download the Local 6 News Zimmerman Case app now. This breakthrough app will take you inside the courtroom of one of the most captivating criminal trials in Central Florida -- The People vs. George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. Not only will the app allow you in-depth information on the case, it will also provide unlimited access into the trial. Its features include livestreaming from inside the courtroom...

Folks you might not have heard of these people , yet .......

The prospect of gently dozing off while taunting victims right-to-the-end is hardly an effective deterrent... The death penalty is currently a legal sentence in 33 American states and in the federal civilian and military legal systems. Lethal injection has become the most common method of capital punishment utilized since SCOTUS re-enstated the death penalty in 1976, popularity owed to the theory it's the most 'humane' method available... but humane to whom? Not society, the victims, nor their families, that's for sure... Case-in-point being yesterday's execution of Richard Cobb (29) in Texas: he and his crime partner Beunka Adams (righteously executed April 2012) went on...

TheTownCrier had a disagreement with a radio host yesterday. His guest was a state representative, a republican, who has introduced a bill to give illegal aliens drivers license. Their conversation was polite with no objection to the bill by the host. I commented to the host that the lawmaker should have been given some challenge about this...why doesn't the lawmaker promote existing immigration law, instead of rewarding illegal behavior. The host, usually a fair chap, decided to get ALL righteous and indignant, informing me how stupid I was...that a mere state rep can't do anything about federal law. BALDERDASH! The...

The sheriffs of Clatsop and Pacific counties say they aren’t worried about the surge of guns coming into the two counties as citizens fearful of firearms regulations stock up. “It’s a right, and I support that a thousand percent,” said Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin. “I hope that this government sees through this knee-jerk reaction that’s saying, ‘We’re going to ban assault weapons,’ or ‘Do this or do that.’ Unfortunately, it’s put a big bind on purchasing ammunition for law enforcement or recreational shooting.” Pacific County Sheriff Scott Johnson is also concerned about the rising cost of ammunition for the...

All Phoenix-area locations of the Irvine, Calif.-based restaurant chain will be closed starting tomorrow, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Local 25 was contacted by some concerned citizens of Medford asking for help to keep members of the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting the funeral of Krystle Campbell, scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10 AM in Medford. Local 25 President Sean O’Brien asked all off-duty Teamsters to participate: "Teamsters Local 25 will be out in full force tomorrow morning at St. Joseph’s Church in Medford to form a human shield and block the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting the funeral of Krystle Campbell. The Campbell family and friends have already endured immeasurable amounts of heartache and tragedy this week, and...

My friend Heather and I took a trip down to West, Texas this weekend. No, not the far western section of the state, but the little town just outside of Waco that made national news this past week when a fertilizer plant exploded. We're both from Texas, born and raised, so while we felt helpless after the horrific attack in Boston on Monday, we decided that we could at least make a small difference in West. So we took up donations from those that couldn't go with us, packed it up and set off on the short drive there, not...

In a previous post, I refuted Bishop Robert McManus' argument for rescinding the invitation of Mr. Robert Spencer to speak at this year's Catholic Men's Conference which was held in Worcester. Specifically, Bishop McManus asserted that his decision was based, "..solely on the concern that Mr. Spencer's talk would impact negatively on the Church's increasingly constructive dialogue with Muslims." And now we are suffering the aftermath of a heinous terrorist attack in Boston perpetrated by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was radicalized by militant Islam and who possessed jihadist videos on his YouTube channel, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, who was more...

Federally-mandated theft has been around as long as Canada has been a nation. Various forms of ‘Equalization’ policies have littered our history, with only the details of source, recipient, and excuse changing. Always sold in the wrappings of patriotism of helping those provinces suffering economically (and in our early days, possibly justifiable under the circumstances), the system has now become little more than helping those provinces which refuse to help themselves. Thanks to Pierre Trudeau’s 1982 Canada Act which puts Equalization in our Constitution, it is probably here to stay. So is it working? Let’s choose a random ‘have-not’ beneficiary...

In a wild midnight shootout on the streets of Watertown, Mass, the recently ID'd suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing even tossed numerous bombs grenade-style at the police. Sadly, an MIT campus officer was shot dead there earlier in the evening, starting a hot manhunt that led to the Watertown mini-war... The battle ended with Suspect #1 -the Brown University student who went missing last month, Sunil Tripath- surrendering to police while Suspect #2 Mike Mulugeta took-off and is still on the lam. Of course neither is 'Caucasian' per the prog/MSM narrative, but scumbags like David Sirota were already having a pretty bad...

Denies media credentials to political bloggers, including Legal Insurrection I literally had to walk outside for some fresh air to calm down after I received the email below from David Ferguson, Executive Director of the Maryland GOP.I wrote, expecting an explanation that it all was just a misunderstanding: I have read about the restrictions for credentialing bloggers, http://www.quintonreport.com/2013/04/18/md-gop-cracks-down-on-bloggers/.The operative limitation seems to be this sentence:“MARYLAND REPUBLICAN PARTY will not allow journalists to register as “media” for the purpose of writing a personal online blog, ….�Can you explain what you mean by “personal online blog�? For example, would a blog which covers politics be...

Why Do The Philadelphia Police Have 1,356 Full-Auto M-16s? Posted on April 18, 2013 by Robert Farago “An automatic M-16 rifle is missing from one of the Philadelphia Police Department’s main gun-storage units and Commissioner Charles Ramsey has called in federal authorities to investigate,” philly.com reports. ”Obviously, this is very, very serious,” Ramsey said. “And believe me, we will get to the bottom of it, one way or another, I guarantee that.” Cops lose gun. Cops go crazy trying to find it before it turns into another Fast and Furious Brian Terry deal. Another day, another example of why cops...

First came the fire, then the blast. Assuming the EMS reports are correct, a terror attack on U.S. soil is responsible for only the second-largest mass-casualty event this week. Dwell on that. Unbelievable: West EMS Director Dr. George Smith says as many as 60 or 70 people died and hundreds were injured Wednesday night in a fertilizer plant explosion in West. A rescuer earlier said he knew of five deaths. Meanwhile, emergency crews were pulling back late Wednesday night because of concerns about the possibility of a second explosion… The fire started in an anhydrous ammonia tank and spread to...

"For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by." (Wisdom 5:15). By now you've all seen the horrible images of the terrorist attack upon the Boston Marathon which took place on Patriot's Day. Innocent people were injured and even killed. But while there is universal agreement as to the heinous nature of this terrible crime, few have reflected on...

‘SHE’S NOW OR NEVER’ FOUNDER MENNE TALIVA’A HALL RUNS IN NORTH SHORE MARATHON (Honolulu, HAWAI'I)--She’s running to fight obesity, diabetes and heart disease. She’s running for her family. “I run for change!” exclaims Menne Taliva’a Hall, founder of a health and wellness sisterhood and Blog called ‘She’s Now or Never’ or SNN. "My quest to run marathons is a demonstration to prove that change is possible! I leave footprints in honor of family and friends that have passed on and for those that I love dearly." After shedding 150 pounds and finishing more than 20 half-marathons, Hall – blogger and...

Kermit Gosnell entered a Philadelphia courtroom on Monday where he is on trial for the murder of seven unborn children. He looked at the seating reserved for media and saw something he hadn't last week. Media. The big guns. The Bigs were shamed into appearing at the abortionist's trial after a stunning Twitter campaign that began Thursday night and swept through the weekend. A courtroom photo I snapped last week showing three rows of empty media seating, while grisly trial was in its fourth week, went viral. The new media rattled the old media, and the old responded by...

These photos from yesterday’s marathon were forwarded to me from a trusted source and came from a Japanese Flickr account. This photo here shows the Boston crowd before the bombing… And then after the bombing.

"We are going to find out who did this." Says the President. Are we going to find out like we were assured we would "find out".... in the post Benghazi media aftermath? And many ask...."And then what?" Even when we do find out, nothing seems to happen beyond the discovery. Is finding out the end game in today's world? Or just in the Obama / Holder world? And if the perpetrators are indeed caught, will they get the KSM treatment, or the Nidal Hassan treatment? Likely who ever is brought to justice will not be....brought to justice...in the classic sense.

BOSTON (CBSDC/AP) — The bombs that blew up seconds apart at the finish line of one of the world’s most storied races left the streets spattered with blood and glass, three dead, including an 8-year-old boy, more than 140 wounded and gaping questions of who chose to attack at the Boston Marathon and why. Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings one of the city’s most famous civic holidays, Patriots Day. But the blasts among the throngs of spectators raised fears of a terrorist attack. President Barack Obama was careful not to use the words “terror”...

Explosion on the day of the Boston Marathon, the brief speech President Obama on Monday night, did not give any clues about the progress of the investigation. Who can not hastily conclude: Who are the perpetrators? But it must be found and brought to justice. Counter-terrorism expert, said that the explosion caused three people were killed and over 200 injured, "lone wolf" type of terrorist attack, or a feature of a particular family groups attacked but exclude perpetrators under the "Al Qaeda" or a religious organizations, or by their instigation, is premature. Former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Juan Zarate...

About 100 feet from the end of the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon, explosions shook the street and sent runners frantically racing for cover. The marathon finish line, normally a festive area of celebration and exhaustion, was suddenly like a war zone. “These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now,” said Roupen Bastajian, 35, a Rhode Island state trooper and former Marine. “So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It’s all blood. There’s blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It’s disgusting.” Had Mr. Bastajian run a few strides slower, as he did in 2011, he might...

It pains my soul when Liberals almost always assume, or should I say hope, a tragic event such as today’s Boston Marathon bombings are the handy work of “Right Wing extremists” – it conveniently validates their war against traditional America – while most moderates and conservatives believe it is the calling card of Islamic/foreign born terrorism because history, the era in which we live, speaks for itself. Fully cognizant of the fact countless, plausible explanations can exist as the potential genesis for such a catastrophe, I’m all for waiting, exercising due diligence, to collect the necessary data and making an...

Initial reports from the Boston Police are citing 3 dead and dozens injured by 2 successive explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line. The Boston Marathon is an international spectacle, established in 1897. The world's best marathon runners train for this event and this attack certainly mars this historic event. As the situation is both breaking and dynamic, details about the background of the bombing are slowly emerging. An analysis of open-source intel, currently available, suggests that there is indeed a potential for there to be involvement on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization or even a home grown terrorist...

>Earlier I shared what happened when I asked an AP reporter and a Washington Post reporter about their personal Gosnell blackouts.It was so illuminating that I decided to check out a few other media outlets. I headed over to Politico. Since Washington Post reporter Sarah Kliff tried to justify her lack of coverage of the Gosnell trial by calling it a local crime story, I thought I’d add other local stories into my search. Thanks for the idea! So here’s what I found out. Politico‘s search engine pops out 165 results on Trayvon Martin (local crime story in Florida), 94...

I’ve been writing about media coverage of abortion for many years. And so have many others. If you haven’t read David Shaw’s “Abortion Bias Seeps Into The News,� published in the Los Angeles Times back in 1990, you should. That report also explains why we cover the topic here at GetReligion.But the thing is that I’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding...

Some people wonder if Michael Mann is simply an activist masquerading as a scientist, this lends credence to that idea. I wonder if Dr. Mann has ever visited weather stations in China to understand what is going on there? I have. I had to laugh when I saw this quote from Mann in Seth Borenstein’s most recent AP article: “The study is important because it formalizes what many scientists have been sensing as a gut instinct: that the increase in extreme heat that we’ve witnessed in recent decades, and especially in recent years, really cannot be dismissed as the vagaries...

Every time I say “Just when I thought the TSA couldn’t stoop any lower”, the TSA goes and does something that proves that yes, they absolutely *can* stoop lower. On February 9, Nathan Forck and his wife Annie, along with their three children, were at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on their way to Orlando for a family vacation to Disney World. The Forcks’ three-year old daughter, Lucy, has spinal bifida and is confined to a wheelchair. They got through the TSA security checkpoint quickly and without incident but as they were getting ready to walk to their gate to board...

The GBTP (Greater Boston Tea Party) has been the darling of the Boston media since its inception, constantly getting quoted and favorably interviewed. (This by itself ought to be a bit of a red flag.) As a result they've become more and more concerned with appearing "reasonable" to the media and the political establishment, and not extreme or fringe. In looking for approval by the Left, they've embraced a new definition of "conservative" that avoids certain "divisive" principles and ideas. In their zeal to keep the overall Tea Party "brand" respectable, the GBTP leaders aggressively try to keep the so-called...

We all hear the news reports – laptops, tablets, jewelry, cash, and more… stolen from passengers by sticky-fingered TSA agents. Thefts became such a problem that even the TSA had to step up to the plate and take action.In recent years, the TSA has fired over 400 agents for allegedly stealing from passengers in our nation’s airports.Thanks to ABC News and a Freedom of Information Act request, the TSA is releasing the names of the airports where those employees worked. Predictably, many of our nation’s busiest airports also rank at the top of the list for the number of TSA...

ST. PETERSBURG - A six-week gun bounty program announced in the wake of the Newton school shooting yielded mixed results, police said today. Police recovered 120 firearms and more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, while making 34 arrests and seizing nearly $74,000. But investigators received only one tip through Crime Stoppers that led to an arrest and the seizure of a handgun, St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said. Under the program, announced in January, anyone who provided information leading to the confiscation of an assault rifle and an arrest would get $1,500 through the Crime Stoppers program. Information leading...

For far too long, many priests have been offering not the fine wheat of sound doctrine but the chaff of theological dissent from the teaching of the Church's Magisterium. Hence we have experienced not renewal but a spiritual dry rot. Vatican II, in its' Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis) No. 4, had this to say: "The People of God are joined together primarily by the word of the living God. And rightfully they expect this from their priests. Since no one can be saved who does not first believe, priests, as co-workers with their bishops,...

If news about the TSA agent stealing an iPad from a tourist or the TSA agents forcing an injured Marine to remove his prosthetic legs made you mad, this one will leave you absolutely fuming. On February 2, TSA agent Christopher Wilkie, a nine year employee of the TSA and resident Long Beach, NY was arrested for hitting his 75-year old mother. Wilkie, age 42, was arrested near his mother’s home after a witness saw him strike his mother while they were inside a car. He was charged with third-degree assault on a person over 60, second-degree harassment, second-degree threatening...