Free Republic

The 8th Virginia Class nuclear attack submarine is getting commissioned today.

snip~RAYMORE, MO - Weapons are not allowed in Raymore's city hall, but if a city council member has his way anybody who walks through the front doors could be packing heat.snip~ snip~Raymore City Council member Jeff Cox is sponsoring an ordinance that would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring their weapons inside city owned and operated buildings.snip~

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at College of the Ozarks Tuesday night. In her 50-minute speech before a crowd of several thousand people at the Point Lookout, Mo., campus, Palin stressed the importance of people speaking out, even if it's not popular. Quoting former Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, Palin said standing up for "what's right when it's unpopular is a true moral test." She said the United States is in a "crisis of confidence" and spoke of "economic, military and values-oriented battles" ahead. Palin was at College of the Ozarks to speak on patriotism, citizenship and civic engagement. Earlier...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Dec. 2, 2009) — Dirk Gress spent hours in line to get his copy of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s new book signed by her today in a Springfield appearance at Borders Books and Music, but it wasn’t his only purchase on Wednesday morning. Gress also purchased a copy of “Great Joy” by Kate DiCamillo at Borders alongside his copy of Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue.” The first book would join the boxes of others collected at Borders for the children of soldiers stationed at Fort Leonard Wood who are deployed overseas. Palin’s book was to be signed. When...

SPRINGFIELD -- Sarah Palin brings her nationwide book tour to the Ozarks on Wednesday, with a two-hour signing at Borders bookstore in Springfield, followed by a speech at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout. Eager fans began lining up to see Palin at Borders around 2 p.m. Tuesday. The first few in line weren't even locals. Bob Runtz came from Huntsville, Ark. "I thought I'd be number 200," said Runtz, who was first. Nicole Coulter drove in from Wichita, Kan. "I liked her before it was cool to like her," Coulter said.

Union Violence: An African-American is beaten up at a political rally by thugs shouting racial epithets, and after three months his assailants are charged with the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Why wasn't it a hate crime? The beating of Kenneth Gladney by people wearing the purple shirts of the Service Employees International Union outside a Missouri health care town hall meeting three months ago met all the classic definitions of a hate crime. Time was, the beating of a black man outside a protest rally, and the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, would be headline news. Gladney was working...

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson St. Louis, Mo., Nov 30, 2009 / 06:17 pm (CNA).- In a statement Monday, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis responded to a demonstration held outside the city's cathedral by a gay rights group protesting the use of archdiocesan funds to defend traditional marriage in Maine. Catholics have an obligation to “carry out Christ's teachings, whether in the privacy of our own home or in the public square,” stated the prelate on the Archdiocese of St. Louis website.On Sunday, gay rights organization Show Me No Hate protested the donation of $10,000 that the Archdiocese...

Half of the media outlets covering the tea party in downtown St. Louis Saturday afternoon seemed to want to minimize the event by citing a small turnout figure.

While covering the St. Louis Tea Party at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis Saturday afternoon, I ran into a fellow blogger. Not your ordinary blogger, this guy is 12 years old and, perhaps, the youngest conservative blogger in Missouri. His name: David Bader.

Dear Pro-life Friend: The next week will be a grueling and, we pray, critical effort in this life and death struggle. It is late Saturday night; I am here in Southwest Nebraska. I spoke for a few moments at a vigil Mass here, begging people to contact their Senators. I speak 3 times in the morning. Then, we leave late Sunday for an eight-city, fourteen-event effort to mobilize people against this damnable "health care" legislation. I beg you for your prayers with all my heart. If you are ANYWHERE NEAR where we will be, please join us! (To read the...

Among those rallying against government-run health care, high taxes and rampant socialism Saturday afternoon in St. Louis was local bakery owner Dave McArthur.

An estimated 2,500 patriots protested against government-run health care and rampant socialism during a rally this afternoon at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis.

Submitted by .Sean on November 19, 2009 - 4:24pm The Lafayette County Republican Central Committee is proudly celebrating a new crazy billboard on I-70 near Grain Valley. It calls for citizens to "starve the beast" and "vote out incumbents" -- and if that doesn't work, "PREPARE FOR WAR."

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 15, 2009) — The Patriot Act passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was intended to enable law enforcement officials to track down and punish those responsible for the terrorist attacks and to protect against any similar strikes against our nation. In the years following 9/11, the Patriot Act has proven to be an important law enforcement tool and has enhanced our national security. Currently, Congress is reviewing legislation to amend and extend the Patriot Act. Provisions within the Act are set to expire on Dec. 31 of this year. As is...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 5, 2009) — Today, Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) announced that Congress has approved H.R. 3548, the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act. The bipartisan legislation would extend unemployment benefits for 14 weeks and for six weeks in states with unemployment rates above 8.5 percent. Missouri’s unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in September 2009. It would also allow military personnel to fully participate in the first-time homebuyer tax credit program and will make payments tax-exempt under the Military Homeowner Assistance Program, which helps military families recoup costs associated with selling a home that has declined in value and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 22, 2009) — In a letter to the President, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) expressed support for the Afghanistan counter-insurgency strategy endorsed by President Obama last March. Skelton urged the President to give this strategy, and Commanding General Stanley McChrystal’s counter-insurgency campaign plan, the resources and time required to show success in Afghanistan. Some of Skelton’s points include: • “I am convinced that there is no strategy short of a properly-resourced counter-insurgency campaign that is likely to provide lasting security. But, time is not on our side. Coming from Harry Truman country, I ask...

Pro-life forces are preparing for a court battle to decide whether voters can decide on a Personhood amendment in Missouri. The measure would declare that a human is a person at the biological beginning of life. Personhood Missouri went through all the obstacles in order to launch a petition drive and get a slot on a future election ballot. Personhood Missouri spokesman Dr. Gregory Thompson tells OneNewsNow that a lawsuit has brought the effort to a halt. "Planned Parenthood is the number-one murderer of babies in our country and is being represented by the ACLU, which takes on every perversion that's against...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 17, 2009) — Today, Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) joined Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-N.C.), and 26 other members of the House of Representatives in introducing H.R. 3590, the “Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009.” This deficit-neutral legislation would amend the federal tax code to ensure military personnel can take full advantage of the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Current law requires first-time homebuyers who utilize the $8,000 tax credit created by the Recovery Act to repay the credit if they move from...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 10, 2009) — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing serious concerns regarding the consideration of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as a potential site for detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Skelton, a long-time advocate for Professional Military Education, raised concerns that a number of Muslim countries would stop sending students to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth if Guantanamo detainees were transferred there. Skelton also noted that the United States Code precludes the proximate detention of American and foreign individuals, so any plan to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 9, 2009) — In October 2007, the Missouri National Guard personnel, with agricultural and business development expertise, as well as other essential skills, formed the Afghanistan Agribusiness Development Team to develop agribusiness in Afghanistan. Agriculture accounts for 45 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product and employs over 70 percent of the Afghan population. However, decades of war and neglect have devastated the country’s agricultural sector. As a result, one of the great needs in the country is to develop its agriculture potential, and I am so proud of the efforts of the Missouri National Guard, who assumed...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 2, 2009) — I consider myself blessed to serve as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, which from my perspective is the best committee in Congress. The committee’s 62 members come from every corner of the country and reflect diverse political philosophies, but together we find common purpose in our efforts to do our very best to provide the necessary resources to keep Americans safe and protect U.S. national security interests. Each year, the House Armed Services Committee plays its constitutional role by preparing a defense authorization bill. While many people may immediately think of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 24, 2009) — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) sent a letter to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to request information on the National Guard’s current state of readiness to respond to natural disasters in the United States. Skelton also strongly urged the Department of Defense to consider U.S. domestic needs when planning for the redeployment of U.S. forces and equipment from Iraq. “When floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes strike, Americans depend on their neighbors in the National Guard to keep them safe and help with disaster response. In virtually any type of national...

For Americans, the flag is one of the most sacred symbols of our government, representing freedom, democracy, and all of the things that we hold most dear about our country. Over the years, however, various laws designed to protect the U.S. flag have been invalidated by the courts. In a 1989 Supreme Court decision, Texas v. Johnson, the court struck down the 1968 federal Flag Protection Act, citing concerns about free speech. Congress quickly passed a new Flag Protection Act, but it too was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 1990 Supreme Court decision, U.S. v. Eichman. I...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 17, 2009) — In 1940, as World War II tightened its grip in Europe, Congress prepared for eventual U.S. involvement by issuing billions of dollars in defense contracts. However, in early 1941, then-Sen. Harry S. Truman began hearing reports of widespread contract mismanagement and wasteful military spending. Convinced that this corruption would strangle the nation’s efforts to mobilize itself if left unchecked, Truman proposed a new committee, the Senate Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. The Committee, which came to be known as the Truman Committee, saved our country millions of dollars by subjecting defense contracts...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 3, 2009) — I am proud to report that as of May 1, veterans may begin applying for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. During the 110th Congress, the Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Post-9/11 GI Bill, a legislative package that includes a landmark expansion of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, most commonly referred to as the “GI Bill.” This act provides for the single largest investment in college financial aid since the GI Bill of 1944 by fully restoring four-year college scholarships for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Men and women in uniform who...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 29, 2009) — As I have examined the economic crisis and the legislative solutions to it, I have paid particular attention to its effect on U.S. national security. According to recent Congressional testimony delivered by the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, the global economic crisis and the political and social instability associated with it have become the greatest threat to American security. As the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, this concerns me a great deal. Throughout history, we have witnessed how economic crises can have consequences on national security. Hyper-inflation in Germany was...

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Six people arrested in August outside a raucous town hall meeting in south St. Louis County have been charged with misdemeanor ordinance violations. The six, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, had attended a demonstration outside an Aug. 6 forum called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, at Bernard Middle School in Mehlville to discuss health care reform. The charges were filed Tuesday by the St. Louis County counselor’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanor ordinance violations in unincorporated areas. All are to appear in court Jan. 21. The maximum penalty upon conviction would be one year in jail...

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Six people arrested in August outside a raucous town hall meeting in south St. Louis County have been charged with misdemeanor ordinance violations. The six, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, had attended a demonstration outside an Aug. 6 forum called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, at Bernard Middle School in Mehlville to discuss health care reform. The charges were filed Tuesday by the St. Louis County counselor’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanor ordinance violations in unincorporated areas. All are to appear in court Jan. 21. The maximum penalty upon conviction would be one year in jail...

CHARGES WERE FILED TODAY IN THE KENNETH GLADNEY CASE!! Details coming. A confidential source just told me the news. Kenneth Gladney was beaten and stomped on by SEIU thugs outside the Russ Carnahan town hall meeting in August.

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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2009) — The 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team completed two days of internal training that focused on mission essential tasks this week at Fort Leonard Wood. The Missouri National Guard team responded to an “incident” at Abrams Theater and another at the training tunnels at the 1st Lt. Joseph Terry Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Responder Training Facility. The first exercise was coordinated by 1st Lt. Richard Sambolin, the unit’s reconnaissance section officer in charge. In this scenario, the theater was set in Anywhere, USA. A chief of a fire department requested...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2009) — Michelle Hartmann, of Jefferson City, has been named the Missouri National Guard's first-ever director of psychological health. Hartmann oversees the Missouri Guard's psychological health program. The program, which is funded through the National Guard Bureau, is designed to promote readiness through psychological fitness. Hartmann said the program's guidelines are intentionally vague, which allows each state's director to tailor it to the specific needs of each state. Hartmann said one of her goals is to make mental health a more normal part of conversation. To some extent, Hartmann said, the stigma associated with psychological...

Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) drew much applause Saturday afternoon when she informed the crowd at the Million Med March about the Health Care Freedom Act she is going to introduce soon in the Missouri Senate.

A crowd of more than 300 gathered at Memorial Plaza outside the St. Louis County (Mo.) Government Building in Clayton Saturday afternoon as part of the Million Med March protest against health care reform measures now under consideration in the nation’s capitol.

McCaskill still working toward goal of reading the healthcare bill By Jordan Fabian - 11/21/09 06:28 PM ET Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is still reading the 2,074-page Senate healthcare bill. McCaskill has promised to read the bill in its entirety before it comes up for the amendment and final voting process, which is expected to occur after Thanksgiving.The freshman sentor also read Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill in preparation for August's town hall. "The goal is to read the bill over the next few days and to be ready to do it after Thanksgiving," said McCaskill spokesperson...

A new billboard off of Interstate 70 in Missouri provides a short “citizens guide to REVOLUTION of a corrupt government” and issues a call to “PREPARE FOR WAR.” It reads: 1. Starve the Beast. Keep your money. 2. Vote out incumbents. 3. If steps 1 & 2 fail.... You can guess the rest. This billboard replaces one that warned that the socialist “Obama-Nation” is “coming for you.” It’s unclear who the owner of the billboard is, but the first one was the work of a “Missouri businessman.” While it’s unclear who owns it, the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee seems...

The chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Representative Ike Skelton, cast doubt on Friday about the Obama administration's decision to try the September 11, 2001, conspirators in a U.S. criminal court. Skelton, a fellow Democrat of President Barack Obama, asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to brief the committee about the decision to use the criminal courts instead of the revamped military commissions. "As a former prosecutor, I am not yet convinced that the right decision was made in these cases, nor that the presumption in favor of federal criminal trials over military...

It has always amazed me how unconcerned evolutionists seem to be about entropy and the problems it poses both for a natural origin of life and for macroevolution. The argument from entropy is one of the most powerful arguments against the spontaneous formation of life from a random association of non-living chemicals...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2009) — A Missouri National Guardsman in training to become a military truck driver faces charges of making a terrorist threat in a school near Whiteman Air Force Base. According to court records, the trainee, Pfc. Michael John Frederick, 19, went into a Sedalia high school during a Saturday evening event and told the superintendent that the Army had told him to warn area schools that escaped prisoners might be trying to kidnap students. Frederick was wearing his military uniform when he made his warning about escaped inmates. However, there were no escaped inmates...

Sure, the economy sucks. Unemployment is at least 10.2% and, yes, if you include part-time workers who would rather have full-time jobs it may be over 17%. The government is showering our cash on Wall Street and burning through piles of our children and grandchildren’s money “saving” phantom jobs in Congressional Districts that don’t exist. Oh yeah, and Congress is planning for a government take-over of our health care system, legislating higher energy prices and raising taxes. Sheesh, no wonder we’re feeling blue. Well, not to worry, three-term Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) has found a solution: Stop Complaining So Much....

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 12, 2009) — Tammy Duckworth is now a major in the Army National Guard, a former Democratic Party congressional candidate, and an assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs. But on Nov. 12, 2004, Duckworth’s life was likely saved by the quick action of other National Guardsmen when she was piloting a helicopter that insurgents shot down in Iraq. Those Missouri National Guardsmen assigned to helicopter duty at Fort Leonard Wood attended Duckworth’s fifth “Alive Day” Thursday in Washington, D.C. Staff Sgt. Christopher Fierce, a Dixon resident who was also wounded that day, has...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 9, 2009) — Even for a combat medic like Spc. Erin Raymond, knowing how to clear a room is a fundamental soldier task. “I have to be a soldier before I’m a medic,” said Raymond, who lives in Saint Robert. “It’s important because, even though I am a medic, if I’m put in a situation where one of our members is wounded and I have to help clear a building, I need to know my basic soldiering skills before being a medic. Also, if by chance I ever need to go into a building to...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

At issue: a young black woman named Heather Ellis cut in line at Wal-Mart three years ago and refused to leave eventually fighting with and assaulting the local police. She turned down a plea bargain because she would not be allowed to sue the city. Now she is facing a "maximum" of 15 years for 2 felony counts of assaulting police officers and resisting arrest. CNN and the Race Baiting Industry have descended on this small town calling it a "town known for it's racism" in their coverage and alleging that the local prosecutor has ties with the Klan. I...

ST. MARTINS, Mo. — Authorities said Saturday that a 15-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder for the death of a 9-year-old central Missouri girl found in the woods two days after she went missing. Police did not release the teen's gender or name and provided few other details about the person suspected of killing Elizabeth Olten. Cole County Sheriff Greg White has said the teenage suspect is not related to Elizabeth but was acquainted with her and is from the same area just west of Jefferson City. Several hundred people braved soaking rain and cold weather to search a...

Police in Hazelwood are told they'll have to get a subpoena to obtain surveillance video of a school bus beating that occurred Friday afternoon. The bus was taking students home from Hazelwood West High School when a 14 year old boy allegedly punched a 15 year old girl in the head, repeatedly. The girl's mother tells me that the bus driver stopped the bus and told the boy to get off. A friend called the girl's mother and told her what was happening. Mom met the bus at a stop near her home, then called police. The girl was swollen...

The media will be barred from covering a speech by Sarah Palin at a Missouri university next month. The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and ex-governor of Alaska demanded the ban as part of her contract with the College of the Ozarks....

More than 100 radical leftists from across the nation, including top leaders of the feminist, socialist, labor, and victimhood movements, descended upon St. Louis on Saturday for the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference.

AUXVASSE - Bernie Breer, 67, died when his friend accidentally shot him after deer hunting off Route B in Callaway County. Breer was one of three hunters accidentally shot during the opening weekend of dear season. Breer's friend accidentally shot him while taking his gun off his shoulder. "The firearm discharged and hit the victim in the stomach area," Missouri Department of Conservation officer Tom Stother said. Officials reported hunters in Adair and Macon Counties were accidentally shot while deer hunting during the weekend. Last year, a total of five people were accidentally shot during all of deer season. None...

ST. LOUIS (Nov. 16) -- Nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15 years. Witnesses have told authorities that Ellis cut in front of waiting customers at the Walmart in Kennett on Jan. 6, 2007, shoved merchandise already placed on a conveyor belt out of the way and became belligerent when confronted, according to court filings. Ellis maintains she was merely joining her cousin,...