Free Republic

Gun control has largely been a top down effort. Michael Bloomberg’s latest announcement that he will spend another $50 million to push gun control – 2.5 times the amount spent by the NRA annually on political activities – is all too typical. Last year, gun control groups, largely due to Bloomberg’s money, outspent gun rights groups by about 7.4 to 1 on TV advertising. With a net worth of $31.2 billion, Bloomberg can afford round-the-clock armed bodyguards, but he doesn’t recognize the need for others to have armed protection. Despite his money, mayors belonging to Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns...

Alaska Dispatch Publishing LLC, the parent company of the online newspaper the Alaska Dispatch, will purchase the Anchorage Daily News from The McClatchy Co. for $34 million. The sale is expected to close in May. ... Billionaire Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 31 small- and medium-sized daily newspapers. It has bought most of those newspapers since 2011 at bargain prices. Including weekly papers and other publications, Berkshire owns 70 newspapers.

For a moment, imagine yourself back in 2006, at the height of liberal aggression about the "imperial hubris" of George W. Bush in the war on terror. The left's contempt for this man was rampant. Liberals savaged him for turning the world against this country. Keith Olbermann announced "the beginning of the end of America." Now imagine, in that milieu, if during the Bush administration, we'd witnessed a mass shooting by an Islamist at Fort Hood. Or a terrorist bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Or a deadly terrorist attack on a consulate in Libya. Would liberals...

The lack of focus on the IRS “phony scandal” shouldn’t be surprising anymore, and yet, it never ceases to amaze: Over the last seven days, three major revelations have emerged surrounding the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups. Despite the new stories, on Sunday April 13, three of the four Sunday interview shows on the broadcast networks — NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation and ABC’s This Week — all ignored them, whereas Fox News Sunday was the only broadcast network program to mention the IRS at all. Proof-positive of Fox News’ anti-liberal bias!Apparently ABC, NBC and CBS...

The Obama White House, for all its talk about openness and transparency, is hardly in the business of promoting openness and transparency in government — and is way worse when it comes to clamping down on the media than previous administrations, Sharyl Attkisson said.

Local radio is reporting that there has been a shooting at the Overland Park, Kansas Jewish Community Center around 1:00 p.m. Central time. Man walking up to people asking if they are Jewish and boom. News conference at 5:00. Evidently CNN is reporting.

The president nominated Sylvia Burwell, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, to succeed Sebelius. Burwell has long career in government, but she’s actually much more interesting than your typical bureaucrat. Here’s nine things you might not know about the woman who is likely to be the next HHS Secretary: She’s really smart. Obama is not the first president she’s worked for. She accidentally ran a half marathon. She was forced to get involved in last year’s government shutdown. She knows how to handle money — and crises. Her fifth date was a bit unusual. She engages...

Appearing on Thursday´s O´Reilly Factor, former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson claimed that CBS "had barely begun to scratch the surface" of the "Fast and Furious" scandal before the network moved on from the story. She noted that the network showed similar reluctance for its coverage of Benghazi and the ObamaCare rollout. Before her resignation last month, Attkisson covered Obama administration controversies like "Fast and Furious" and Benghazi and her reporting helped the CBS Evening News win the Edward R. Murrow award in 2012. Yet she told O´Reilly that higher-ups at the network moved on from the

In debates on gun control, gun opponents usually speculate about what might go wrong. Unfortunately, the current debate over arming soldiers on military bases is no different. Except for the military police, soldiers on military bases are banned from carrying guns. But that hasn’t always been the case. The ban itself hasn’t been around that long. It was proposed during the George H.W. Bush administration in 1992 as an effort to make the military a more "professional business-like environment." President Clinton rewrote and implemented the ban in 1993. After the attack at Fort Hood this past week, many soldiers no...

[Caption:] U.S. Senator John McCain, center, speaks as Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut, Chris Murphy, second left, and Opposition leader Oleh Tyahnybok [All Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" leader], stand around him during a Pro-European Union rally in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Sen. John McCain (R. Ariz.) advocated for sending arms to Ukraine Tuesday [link at URL] on Fox News. McCain acknowledged the arms would not likely enable Ukraine to defeat the Russians in open war, but emphasized it could improve the Ukrainian military's morale and ensure that the Russians would have "a real fight...

A New Democratic Poll Is Warning Of Midterm Disaster For Democrats

<p>Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday that gun tracking bracelets are something the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to "explore" as part of its gun control efforts.</p> <p>When discussing gun violence prevention programs within the DOJ, Holder told a House appropriations subcommittee that his agency is looking into technological innovations.</p>

Not that I have been watching all morning, and not that I would expect any different coverage....but it certainly is funny that the Miami Florida "news" organizations that are soooo reliable as amplifiers and followers of the charlatan Sharpton's propaganda are SUDDENLY UNWILLING TO REPORT HIS TIES TO THE MOB AND HIS WORK FOR "THE MAN"....THE F.B.I.

The GOP's relentless opposition has been puzzling.

It is quite flattering that Media Matters and TPM spent so much real estate going after me. Media Matters’ post was at the top of their front page from late morning on Friday until at least midnight (my last check). [UPDATE: As of 2:15 PM on Saturday, their article has been at the very top of their front page for over an entire day.] John Lott’s debate on MSNBC is available here (April 4, 2014 from 10:05 to 10:14 AM (this version has almost the entire exchange, though it doesn’t include Chris Jansing’s introduction and first question)). Unfortunately, Media Matters,...

Fort Hood shooter was taking "prescription drugs for depression and anxiety". SSRIs? "Lopez was undergoing a variety of treatments for conditions including depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances, McHugh said. He was prescribed drugs that included Ambien, a sleep aid. Lopez was fully examined last month by a psychiatrist. There was no record of any sign he was likely to commit violence against himself or others, according to McHugh. "So the plan (going) forward was just to continue to monitor and treat him as deemed appropriate," he said." They say that he was "prescribed drugs" but only named one, Ambien, which...

America’s fall from greatness parallels with near pinpoint precision the body politic’s choices at the ballot boxes of morally challenged candidates. In heavily copyright-protected revelations this week, (and rightly so) the two “supermarket” tabloid news outlets are replete with stories of knock down, drag out battles Barack and Michelle are having on a regular basis along with a stellar reason Hillary is not eligible. But both of these story lines are being suppressed by a media shilling for their choices by the typical method of lying by omission. “This was a blowout of epic proportions,” says about all I can...

So far, I have heard nothing in response to my email to Washington Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson about their possible coordination with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman Henry Waxman or other Democrats in writing the article about the Keystone pipeline that I critiqued here> and here. I will follow up with them in due course. In the meantime, I have written the following letter to Whitehouse and Waxman: Dear Senator Whitehouse and Congressman Waxman: On March 26, you wrote a letter to David Robertson, President of Koch Industries, about Koch’s ostensible relationship to the Keystone Pipeline. I found

The Los Angeles Times greeted the Obamacare enrollment data on Monday with a striking headline, claiming that "at least 9.5 million previously uninsured people have gained coverage," which is 3 million people more than the Obama administration itself claimed last week (a number that was itself highly questionable, since it did not exclude those who had not paid for their new insurance). The Times' analysis, however, is laughable. The data reported by Noam. N. Levey are not actual counts of enrollees, but a hodgepodge of "state and federal enrollment reports, surveys and interviews with insurance executives and government officials nationwide."...

CNN dismissed complaints that the network was not covering last week's shocking arrest of Democrat Leland Yee, the California state senator who was arrested for alleged arms trafficking and bribery, and falsely asserted that it does not give attention to state senators. That standard did not apply to Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, whom CNN covered relentlessly. This was long before she even considered a gubernatorial run after filibustering a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and make those conducted before then safer. Viewers and readers on Friday complained that the network, just like Politico, was not reporting or...

MILLER: Witaschek surrenders to D.C. police ‘Gun Offenders Registry’ Businessman convicted of having unregistered muzzleloader bullets By Emily Miller The Washington Times Friday, March 28, 2014 Mark Witaschek never had a firearm in the District of Columbia, but he is now on the city’s Gun Offenders Registry. This bizarre case has drawn national attention because an upstanding citizen was tried and convicted of possessing unregistered ammunition for muzzleloader bullets, which are simply pieces of lead and copper. On Friday afternoon, I accompanied Mr. Witaschek and his wife, Bonnie, to Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to abide by the terms of his...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: After the president met with Pope Francis, Il Papa, he then went over to the Villa Madama, the headquarters of the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. They had a joint press conference that was interrupted. The cable nets actually cut away from this for news about Governor Christie. I kid you not. Here is what we got of Obama's joint presser (not all of it, but some of it) with the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. OBAMA: My day started with the great honor of meeting His Holiness, Pope Francis. I've been incredibly moved by his compassion,...

At a time when terrorism committed in the name of Islam is rampant, we are continuously being assured—especially by three major institutions that play a dominant role in forming the Western mindset, namely, mainstream media, academia, and government—that the sort of Islam embraced by "radicals," "jihadis," and so forth, has nothing to do with "real" Islam. "True" Islam, so the narrative goes, is intrinsically free of anything "bad." It's the nut-jobs who hijack it for their own agenda that are to blame. More specifically, we are told that there exists a "moderate" Islam and an "extremist" Islam—the former good and...

While returning to a dorm room last month, a black student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan was greeted by racist graffiti on a dry erase board on the door complete with a hanged stick figure labeled “black.” But on Friday, the Grand Valley Police Department reported that the owner of the board was the very person responsible for the racist remarks. This incident at Grand Valley State is just the latest of many instances over the past few years in which people claim to be the victims of hate crimes they inflicted on themselves or completely fabricated. Perhaps...

Full title: Unrepentant Pro-Life Sign-Destroying UC-Santa Barbara Prof Formally Indicted; Press Attention Is Minimal In another development most of the establishment press, with the usual exception of Fox News and the unusual exception of Reuters, has thus far predictably ignored, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced on Friday the indictment of University of California-Santa Barbara Associated Professor Mireille Miller-Young on charges of "theft from a person, battery, and vandalism." The case's first hearing is scheduled for April 4. To bring those who didn't see your truly's Monday post up to speed: "As seen in a video at the...

The Left’s obsession with the Koch Brothers is so out of control that the Washington Post, once a respected newspaper, now nothing but a shill for left wing causes, has made itself a laughing stock with its latest article entitled, “The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers.” [snip] The main point of the Post story, which relied uncritically on a two-page report by the far-left International Forum on Globalization (“IFG”), is dead wrong. The Post story itself acknowledges that the tar sands encompass 35 million acres, so Koch’s 1.1 million...

What happened to the watchdog media? Sadly, in this day of Obama, they have turned into the lapdog media. Everyone knows that most members of the mainstream news media are card carrying liberals; however, even staunch left wingers should have enough integrity to fulfill their responsibilities to the public. Our country has benefited from a vigorous “fourth estate,” but that crucial oversight is sorely lacking today. Of course when Republicans are in office, liberal journalists become quite aggressive and love to launch investigations. When Democrats are in office, these same journalists help the politicians cover up their misdeeds. The identical...

Bias: How much abuse will the mainstream media take before they stand up for themselves? When the abuse comes from the Obama administration, their tolerance appears to be unlimited. This week, for example, two things happened that should have sent reporters into a frenzy of outrage.

In his speech last January at the Conservative Forum in Silicon Valley, Evan Sayet addressed the question of “Why the Mainstream Media gets Every Major Story Not Just Wrong But as Wrong as Wrong Can Be.” The short answer to the question about the media’s utter, complete and total failure, Sayet claims, is that to today’s “journalists,” “It’s an act of bigotry, to be an objective reporter.” This is the line that Rush Limbaugh, in his hour-long rhapsodizing on the speech, called “brilliant,” saying “I wish I’d thought of it myself.” Rush’s plaudits aside (indeed, he has cited Sayet’s speech...

Democrats hate the Koch Brothers. They believe the Koch Brothers are the root of all evil because they donate to Republicans and conservative causes. This week Senate Democrats once again asked the IRS to crack down on conservative groups including Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. Democrats want to silence the opposition. So how big of a threat are the Koch Brothers? Over the past twenty five years, from 1989 to 2014, Koch Industries has donated $18,083,948 in political contributions to Republicans. While that seems like a large sum, it only ranks them as...

As the U.S. Senate took up a bill to provide financial aid to Ukraine, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rose to object to an IMF bailout Majority Leader Harry Reid attached to the legislation. In the process he blasted Reid for repeatedly demonizing the billionaire Koch brothers - Reid tried to blame the Koch brothers for halting progress on the Ukraine bill. "I'm beginning to think [the Koch brothers] are a character almost out of Dr. Seuss in the majority leader's mind, they are the grinch who stole Christmas in his telling," Cruz said. Cruz accused Reid of "using his...

When professors attempt to show that they are up on current events, they might prove just the opposite. “Some of the data gathering assignment will be impossible to complete until the Republican/TEA Party controlled House of Representatives agrees to fund the government,” assistant geography professor Rachel Slocum wrote in an e-mail to her students last October. “The Census website, for example, is closed.” It should have occurred to her that a website can remain open even if the office it is attached to closes: Ours is open even when we are not, for example. Slocum teaches at the University of...

If a recent column about Hillary Clinton is any indication of how far the media will go in its blind worship of her, this year should be entertaining. Wringing his hands that, “I expect better from Hillary Clinton” Sun Sentinel op-ed writer Gary Stein lamented that his hero actually made a statement comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolph Hitler. Stein is unabashed in his love for Hillary; and although he is a “non-partisan” member of the media, since Hillary IS a Democrat he loves her regardless of what she does. So how did Hillary upset Stein? “She used the Hitler comparison,”...

After months of pressing the CBS News brass to get out of her contract, reporter Sharyl Attkisson was finally granted her request. While that is good for her, it ought to underline how CBS has abandoned hard-hitting reporting in the Obama era. Politico’s Attkisson headline was “The right loses its hero at CBS,” and liberal blogs tried to guess how long it would take for her to sign up with Fox News Channel. That might happen. Roger Ailes loves scooping up talent from other networks. That’s meant as an insult, of course. Only those dreadful right-wing propagandists challenge Team Obama....

After months of pressing the CBS News brass to get out of her contract, reporter Sharyl Attkisson was finally granted her request. While that is good for her, it ought to underline how CBS has abandoned hard-hitting reporting in the Obama era. Politico's Attkisson headline was "The right loses its hero at CBS," and liberal blogs tried to guess how long it would take for her to sign up with Fox News Channel. That might happen. Roger Ailes loves scooping up talent from other networks. That's meant as an insult, of course. Only those dreadful right-wing propagandists challenge Team...

The partial government shutdown in October was largely to blame for a 3% drop in visitors to America's national parks in 2013, according to a report released Monday by the National Park Service. The country's 401 parks, historic sites and recreation areas drew 273.6 million visitors in 2013, about 9 million fewer than the previous year, according to the report. The 16-day government shutdown, sparked by a budget dispute in Washington, was responsible for reducing the visitation numbers by about 7.9 million, the report said. The communities near the parks lost about $414 million in spending by visitors because of...

Via her verified Twitter account, CBS investigative news reporter Sharyl Attkisson announced Monday that she has resigned from CBS. -- I have resigned from CBS. — Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) March 10, 2014 -- Although Politico received no comment from Attkisson other than the split was amicable, the left-wing outlet is reporting that Attkisson left due to the network's "liberal bias." This split is ahead of her contract. "She increasingly felt like her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her packages on television."

Sun News TV Channel (Canada) dissects what the Obama administration has done to damage the US economy. An explanation is provided about how Obama's "stimulus" program increased unemployment. Video is available here: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/putting-america-back-to-work/3309688467001

Russian forces tighten grip on Crimea despite U.S. warning By Alissa de Carbonnel SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine Sun Mar 9, 2014 9:25am EDT (Reuters) - Russian forces tightened their grip on Crimea on Sunday despite a U.S. warning to Moscow that annexing the southern Ukrainian region would close the door to diplomacy in a tense East-West standoff. Russian forces' seizure of the Black Sea peninsula has been bloodless but tensions are mounting following the decision by pro-Russian groups that have taken over the regional parliament to make Crimea part of Russia. The operation to seize Crimea began within days of Ukraine's pro-Russian...

In the same week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted a Gaza-bound shipment of Syrian missiles from Iran, President Barack Obama is asking Congress to reduce U.S. funding for Israel's missile defense programs by $200 million, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

COLUMBUS, Ohio • A central Ohio principal says she suspended a 10-year-old boy from school for three days for pretending his finger was a gun and pointing it at another student's head. The boy's father says he thinks it's the adults who are acting childish after the boy was suspended from Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in Columbus last week.

Like certain other TV networks, CNN likes gun control supporters. For more than a year, it allowed Piers Morgan to relentlessly and viciously attack the Second Amendment and anyone who supports it, until Morgan’s perennially low-rated show had cost the network so much in lost advertising revenue that keeping him on the air was no longer financially sustainable.As noted in the previous Alert story, CNN recently made the decision to cut “Piers Morgan Live” from its lineup. However, from the network’s perspective, the problem was the messenger, not the message.So, this week, with Morgan on the way out, CNN teamed with another anti-gun messenger—Sarah Brady, chairwoman...

**SPOILER ALERT** Most of the suspense and therefore enjoyment of Liam Neeson's new action thriller "Non Stop" comes from trying to figure out who the villain is and why this person is doing what he or she is doing. If you read the rest of this article, it will spoil the entire movie for you. Period. You have been warned. There is no question that "Non-Stop" is a well-made, involving, not-terribly-dumb action-thriller that delivers plenty of suspense and endears Liam Neeson further into the heart of those of us who love well-made, involving, not-terribly-dumb action-thrillers. "Non-Stop" is a good movie....

CNN reporter Don Lemon had some shockingly revealing things to say when asked about the criticism the President has received. He shared with his audience that journalists actually take into account his race before criticizing his policies.

Check out our farewell message to Piers Morgan! So long, Piers Morgan, and thanks for all the smugIf one has the right to life, one has the right to survive—to continue that life. If one has the right to survive, one has the right to do the things necessary to survive: to acquire food, shelter, tools, property. To labor to better one's condition. To protect oneself from harm. If one has the right to self-protection, one has the right to the means of self-protection. Can anyone see any logical reason to limit those means? Now . . . If a...

Arizona governor's veto aimed at own party's right Feb 27, 2014 By BOB CHRISTIE PHOENIX (AP) - Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer slapped down the right wing of her own party, vetoing a bill pushed by social conservatives that would have allowed people with sincerely held religious beliefs to refuse to serve gays.

In 2006, 57 percent of Virginia’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Last week, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled the amendment unconstitutional. In 2004, 76 percent of Oklahoma’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. On January 14, 2014, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled the amendment unconstitutional. In 2004, 66 percent of Utah’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman....

With headlines claiming “Study Shows Gun Control Works,” media outlets such as CBS, MSNBC, PBS, Washington Post, and BBC were breathless over a soon-to-be-released study by Daniel Webster in the Journal of Urban Health. The claim is that when Missouri in 2007 made it easier to buy handguns, the murder rate went up relative to the U.S. murder rate. Prior to August 2007, Missouri law had established what is known as a universal background check, closing down the so-called gun show loophole. While it is true that the murder rate in Missouri rose 17 percent relative to the rest of...

Free Speech » Matthew Clark » Docket Blog Why is the Obama Administration Putting Government Monitors in Newsrooms? The Obama Administration’s Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is poised to place government monitors in newsrooms across the country in an absurdly draconian attempt to intimidate and control the media. Before you dismiss this assertion as utterly preposterous (we all know how that turned out when the Tea Party complained that it was being targeted by the IRS), this bombshell of an accusation comes from an actual FCC Commissioner. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai reveals a brand new Obama Administration program that he fears...

Are schools and colleges dangerous places, with lots of gun violence? Some groups paint a picture of these places being particularly unsafe. Supposedly both murders and firearm suicides are very common at educational institutions. Last Wednesday, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s two groups, Moms Demand Gun Sense in America and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, jointly released a report that received massive uncritical news coverage. They claimed that 44 shootings occurred in schools and colleges nationwide since the Newtown, Conn. massacre on Dec. 14, 2012 and Feb. 10 of this year. Out of the 44 shootings, a total of 28...