Free Republic

Dear Congressman ________, The proposed cuts in national defense will injure the security of the United States of America. 1. The most common enemy the USA is now fighting consists of insurgents. The only remedy for insurgency that has worked is General Petraeus' surge strategy of ground troops. It worked in Iraq and Afghanistan when consistently applied, and it's the only thing that has worked. The only way to "air power" insurgents is to bomb villages, and that will never happen. That leaves ground troops being the only answer. Cutting the Army at this time is completely irrational. 2. The...

When you're part of the Obama Administration, fresh from publishing the Virginian Pilot, and being used to telling people what to do, a little thing like the law doesn't stop you. An internal federal probe has concluded that Maurice Jones, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s new commerce secretary, improperly lobbied Congress while he was in the Obama administration last year. Mr. Jones, who was a deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sent an email to more than 1,000 recipients — including 46 people at HUD — asking them to contact senators to “defend against efforts by...

Full title - "Only Fox Cares: 'Hannity' Guest Confronts Lawmaker Who Called Clarence Thomas a ‘Very Prolific Uncle Tom’" The plight of black conservatives took center stage during Monday's edition of Hannity, a weeknight program on the Fox News Channel. The segment featured footage of African-American radio host David Webb interviewing Alvin Holmes, a Democratic state representative in Alabama who had used the racial slur “Uncle Tom” to describe Clarence Thomas, the black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Only the Fox News Channel has reported this story on TV. Holmes said he stands behind his previous statement because Thomas...

RUSH: I guess the top story in the soap story line of the hour and around the world is whether the Drive-By Media and the rest of the political and cultural establishment will be able to bully the Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, into vetoing the Arizona legislature's bill which would allow businesses to refuse service to homosexuals based on the business owner's religious beliefs. Like if a gay couple walk into a bake shop and say, "We want you to bake our wedding cake," and the shop owners, "Well, you're homosexual. I'm not going to do it." They want to...

Frank G. Bowne is a hunter by profession. Bowne is a K9 handler and SWAT operator with the Post Falls, Idaho Police Department. He and his canine companion, a German Shepherd named Koda, occasionally pursue criminal suspects. More frequently they can be found in pursuit of cash and other property that can be seized through “asset forfeiture” as part of the demented exercise called the War on Drugs. Law enforcement agencies have found this practice to be very lucrative in sparsely populated northern Idaho. Since the agencies conducting those seizures don’t have to prove that the property owner committed a...

Clark County, Washington, is strongly considering joining the group of local governments that have reformed their work rules to allow employees to exercise their second amendment rights.  Many states do not restrict citizens from exercising their rights to bear arms in public buildings, so it makes little sense to restrict employees from being able to carry as well.  From the Columbian: Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore on Wednesday requested that Chris Horne, the county's chief civil deputy prosecutor, investigate what revisions could be made to the county's workplace violence policy to allow employees to carry concealed firearms. Commissioner...

Entrance to Frank's Gun Shop by Ashley Hardway In this highly unusual case, the action was all caught on video.  The gun shop owner, Frank Petro, knew the former officer, Jack O. Edmundson.  Family members said that Edmundson had been extorting Petro by impersonating a state lottery officer.  The scam was that Edmundson claimed that Petro's winnings were fraudulent, and that he would jail Petro unless Petro paid him the winnings.   Petro, as a highly regulated gun shop owner was particularly vulnerable.  Even an accusation might have resulted in the BATFE pulling his license and livelihood.   When Petro's...

"Take down the sign or go to jail. We do not approve of guns...or you." This is the unmistakable messages sent by progressives when they take over a city and freedom pays the price. Ares Armor is a small tactical store operating one of their stores in National City, CA, a suburb of San Diego. Nevermind that CEO Dimitri and his staff at Ares Armor are in complete compliance with all laws and ordinances. That does not matter. That's because guns are at the heart of this debate. The City Council has taken offense to their presence there and is...

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Immigration protesters marched through downtown Phoenix as part of the United We Dream campaign. An estimated 300 activists marched down Central Avenue to the Immigration & Customs Enforcement building where they held a rally. Marchers chanted slogans like "stop the deportations now" and "I'm undocumented and un-afraid". Dozens of Phoenix Police Officers blocked traffic for the protesters, ensured marchers stayed on the sidewalk, and ensured everyone was safe. Some marchers had family members locked up in immigration detention centers. They demanded that the President not deport those family members and tear apart families. Young marchers called on...

A 35-year old Murfreesboro man has been charged with Aggravated Child Abuse. The case started from a call to the Department of Children Services advising that Antonio Moreno-Martinez had abused a small child that he was with after becoming angry. While we cannot release details of who that child was, we can say he is not related to the child. In the report that WGNS obtained, it states that the 35-year old was mad at the child because the child was not counting numbers correctly. The child had multiple bruises on his back, buttocks, face and neck when police got...

Americans wondering if assaults, breaking and entering and robberies are happening in their neighborhood do not have to wait for the local news sources to keep them up to date. Real time information is available at no cost to them with a map showing exact locations of where and what crimes have taken place.

Los Angeles, Calif., Feb 21, 2014 / 12:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- L.A. Archbishop José H. Gomez has called for “interim measures” such as a moratorium on immigration raids and help for undocumented minors in order to bypass immigration reform’s apparent “political dead end.” “These two proposals are no substitute for true immigration reform — but they would make a big difference in the lives of millions of our neighbors,” Archbishop Gomez said in his Nov. 21 column for the Los Angeles archdiocese’s newspaper The Tidings. He voiced disappointment in the House of Representatives’ recent decision not to move forward with...

[Video] Soldier’s Target Practice With Air Rifle at His Home Results in School Lockdowns, Arrest at Gunpoint February 21 2014 by Dan Cannon Share This Post A current active duty soldier and Iraq War veteran’s target practice with an air rifle landed him in hot water this week. The soldier was shooting at a target he setup on the side of his home with an air rifle. One of the projectiles (likely a BB or pellet) struck the glass at an under construction home nearby. It’s unclear if a ricochet was to blame or if it was a bad miss....

A 41-year-old Florida man, who arrived in the country illegally in 1998, says he will ride a bike to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about immigration reform. Francisco Diaz, an out-of-work carpenter who lives in Homestead, says he wants to give a pen to President Obama to sign an executive order stopping deportations, and then urge Congress to pass legislation. "Despite being married to a US Citizen for 12 years, he has not been able to adjust his status," according to a release from Florida Immigrant Coalition. "Francisco's family was directly affected by the deportation of his brother-in-law. When he...

New Mexico's 2014 state legislative session ended yesterday and all "gun control" measures introduced during session died thanks to grassroots opposition. HB 44 - FIREARM TRANSFER ACT, HR 3 - PROHIBIT FIREARMS IN HOUSE, and SR 1 - PROHIBIT FIREARMS IN SENATE all were stopped cold during this session. Thanks to all the good people who voiced their opposition to these measures by visiting their representatives, emailing them (26,913 emails sent just using our page), faxing them, calling them... They lobbied the governor's office intensively. There's so many people to thank, like the New Mexico Gun Owners Association (NMGOA) and...

his is the type of story that gets you nodding your head and saying, “This proves the point.” A federal grand jury has just indicted ten Philadelphia area iron workers and their union for burning down a Quaker church in 2012 because the church was using non-union labor. All of the ten are members of Ironworkers Local 401. They were charged with the arson after an investigation pointed to their guilt. They are so shameless they called themselves THUGS, Those Helpful Union Guys and thought that was funny. Now the joke is on them. In its press release regarding the...

Illinois Democrats have proposed a penny-per-ounce “sodapop tax” – a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. Now, when you propose a number like “a penny,” it sounds small, and many people tend to dismiss it as inconsequential. But let's do the math. A 20 oz bottle of cola, lemon-lime, or root beer, sold alone at a gas station, might be $1.69 or so. Another twenty cents added on to that might seem unimportant, on its own, though it’s a brand new 12% tax on the purchase (and remember, there are still other taxes, like the state and local sales tax, in addition)....

At least one law enforcement agency in California is changing the way it grants concealed carry permits as a direct result of Peruta v. San Diego. The Orange County Sheriff’s department is dropped the “good cause” requirement yesterday, and is adopting a policy that sounds a lot more like a voluntary “shall issue” process (my bold below): The Orange County sheriff loosened requirements Wednesday for obtaining a concealed-weapons permit in light of a recent federal appellate court decision that deemed many urban counties in California to be overly restrictive in saying who can and can’t carry a concealed weapon.

Note that there are 3 charts listing totals for 1st day [February 18, 2014] early voting in Harris County Texas for the March 4, 2014 Texas primary. The 1st chart combines Republican party and Democratic party numbers for the day. The 2nd chart is the Democratic party totals. The 3rd chart is the Republican party totals. Each chart lists totals for individual voting locations. Totals for early voters (person) and early voters (mail-ins) are tallied. Potential number of mail-ins (from total ballots requested and mailed to voters) is also shown. Harris County Texas [a large swath of the Houston metro...

If you've been behind on this one, basically the country was about to enter a free-trade agreement with the EU, but Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's last-minute visit to the Kremlin in December altered his thinking dramatically on the very eve of the EU signing -reportedly through some combination of trade incentives and threats- and he made a prompt u-turn towards Putin's CIS instead. This didn't go over well at all with the populace -in particular the country's western-looking youth- and it has slowly built towards the low-boil street war we see today. And now it's getting worse in a hurry....