Free Republic

The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “War on Drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military. The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was...

Symbols are not identical to the things they symbolize. A nationÂ’s flag is not the same thing as the nation itself.A star on the map representing a capital city is not actually the dirt and grass and trees and concrete and lumber and people in that capital.A picture of a gun is not the material weapon . . . and thus wonÂ’t do much at all to stop a criminal. Most people completely understand this simple principle, including those who have not taken an advanced course in semiotics at the Sorbonne. Even young children comprehend the distinction between a sign,...

The Senate will try again to pass recently defeated gun control legislation, and will be aided by increasing activism from previously neutral voters, Sen. Chuck Schumer predicted today at a press conference. “I think we will bring the bill back before the end of the year… lots of Senators who thought it was safe to vote against it [April 17] because of the intensity [of gun-rights supporters] are not so sure any more,” Schumer told

Despite a bipartisan federal law prohibiting financial contracts with the Russian government-owned arms giant Rosoboronexport, the Obama administration announced that it would be purchasing another $680 million worth of military helicopters from the state company for the Afghan regime of Hamid Karzai. The contract comes after the Pentagon already spent $411 million with the supplier since May of 2011, bringing the estimated amount of U.S. taxpayer funds funneled to the state-owned behemoth to about $1 billion in recent years. The latest deal, however, drew furious outrage from across the political spectrum. Critics and lawmakers complained that the controversial scheme would...

Video warns military, too – D.C. lawmakers about to commit 'treason' “This is a message to every member of law enforcement and the military,” a sizzling new YouTube video begins. “You know you have a choice to make.” The video, produced by a man identified on Facebook as Aaron Hawkins, is a challenge to those who enforce America’s laws, warning them the day is coming when gun-control legislation will undermine the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and police forces will be asked to restrict or even confiscate American citizens’ firearms. On that day, the video warns, America’s lawmakers will have committed...

The Arizona House of Representatives will not cooperate with the federal government in denying due process to citizens of the Grand Canyon State. By a vote of 34 to 24, the House passed HB 2573, a bill that would, among other things, prevent state officials from participating in the indefinite detention of Americans by the president as authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA). The measure would amend Title 41 of the Arizona code by adding a section prohibiting state governmental compliance with unconstitutional federal mandates. A majority of Arizona’s state lawmakers recognize that Arizona is, along...

Apparently America has too many jobs so Obama will be spending taxpayer money to support Russia’s defense industry on behalf of Afghanistan. And he’s doing so over the bipartisan objections of Congress from both the right and left and a ban on buying them written into the NDAA. The US Department of Defense said Thursday it plans to sidestep a Congressional ban to purchase 30 helicopters from Russian state-owned defense firm Rosoboronexport, despite objections from US lawmakers who allege that the firm has equipped the Syrian government to commit brutal crimes against civilians.

Snip: It doesn’t stop there. The Democratic Party’s concerted attacks on the Second Amendment are surely disquieting. Moreover, new reports circulating about some of the Obama administration’s latest maneuvers, must, if they are true, be squarely confronted and made sense of. At the same time that ordinary Americans may be deprived of their guns, or forced to scale back on legitimate ownership of certain models and magazine capacities, the Department of Homeland Security has ordered millions of weapons and over a billion rounds of hollow-point bullets (banned internationally), as well as riot gear and other military equipment. The NOAA (National...

March 9, 2013 McCain: Are You a "Wacko Bird" Like Rand Paul, Justin Amash, and Ted Cruz? Nick Gillespie courtesy Benjamin Lee's Twitter Feed"Wacko Birds" is the new "Jerk Store."That is, it's the sort of comedic comeback that reflects far worse - and oh-so-sadly - on its creator than its intended target.During a recent tirade, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) as "wacko birds." Reports the Wash Post: “They were elected, nobody believes that there was a corrupt election, anything else,”McCain said. “But I also think that when,...

The real war against women is the announced plan of the Obama administration, using outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as the fall guy, to assign women for the first time in American history to fight our nation’s enemies in military ground combat. That’s real war, with real guns, real bullets and real deaths. This war doesn’t involve only women who have volunteered to serve in our military. It’s a real war against all 18-year-old American girls, because for the first time in our nation’s history they will be required to sign up for the draft and be ready for...

"Indiana, South Carolina both bucking idea of arresting, holding Americans"WASHINGTON – Bills opposing the controversial National Defense Authorization Act have popped up in both the Indiana and South Carolina state legislatures. The NDAA was harshly criticized by some as unconstitutional due to language in Sections 1021 and 1022 that allows for the indefinite detainment of U.S. citizens without due process. Both bills would nullify the NDAA in its current form by denying law enforcement or any government official the right to carry out any act of detaining a citizen without due process. In Indiana, the bill passed through the Corrections...

It’s no surprise that among the first questions White House Press Secretary Jay Carney received at today’s press briefing was one that concerned a recently-leaked Justice Department memo that offered justification for killing U.S. citizens abroad in predator drone attacks. Carney began by clarifying that the memo in question was an “unclassified document” prepared for members of Congress. “The president takes his responsibilities very seriously,” Carney said. “And first and foremost that’s his responsibility to protect the United States.” He continued by saying that the president is dedicated to

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government has authorized the killing of American citizens as part of its controversial drone campaign against al Qaeda even without intelligence that such Americans are actively plotting to attack a U.S. target, according to a Justice Department memo. The unclassified memo, first obtained by NBC News, argues that drone strikes are justified under American law if a targeted U.S. citizen had "recently" been involved in "activities" posing a possible threat and provided that there is no evidence suggesting the individual "renounced or abandoned" such activities. The document was disclosed as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators...

Here is the Utube link. Listen and comment as the head of the FBI is asked if Bo and the DOJ have the authority to order the killing of our own citizens inside the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG80Wk9HiYs

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced a bill that would allow the President to imprison an unlimited number of American citizens (as well as foreigners) indefinitely without trial. Known as The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010, or S. 3081, the bill authorizes the President to deny a detainee a trial by jury simply by designating that person an “enemy belligerent.” The bill, which has eight cosponsors, explicitly names U.S. citizens as among those who can be detained indefinitely without trial: An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent...

Wyoming state representative Kendell Kroeker, along with reps Hunt and Miller, and Senator Case, have introduced a bill that declares the indefinite detention provisions of the 2012 NDAA to be unconstitutional, prohibiting enforcement of the federal act. On Tuesday, January 29, 2013, HB114 passed out of committee with a 6-3 vote. According to Kroeker, “This bill will preserve our constitutionally protected rights by not allowing the federal government to arrest and detain our citizens without trial or charges being brought against them. The federal government gave themselves this power, which completely shreds the bill of rights, with the passage of...

“This measure has a chilling impact on First Amendment Rights,” states Federal District Judge Katherine Forrest according to a flyer being distributed by the New Citizens’ Initiative to repeal the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA). (1) People Against the NDAA (PandaUNITE.org) is gearing up for a nationwide fight in 2013 to nullify this very controversial act that uses national security as window dressing to take away six freedoms guaranteed to all citizens in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights! PANDA warns that the following six Bill of Rights amendments are...

Ann Barnhardt has engaged in no web or twitter activity for nine days, which is highly unusual. She has challenged both the Muhammadens and the US federal government, and it was just a matter of time before one of those psychotic organizations took her up on it. I believe that something has happened to her. Does anyone have any information to the contrary?

In a slam to human rights in the United States, on Tuesday, Senators unanimously passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2013, including potential dictatorial capacity to deploy the U.S. military on U.S. soil to arrest citizens. One amendment to the 2013 version of the defense spending bill unanimously passed Tuesday by the Senate clarified the right to trial of “citizens and permanent legal residents” detained under the relevant sections of the revamped measure, but according to civil and human rights experts, this amendment created the potential for even more rights violations than NDAA 2012. The amendment, "the Feinstein-Lee Amendment,"...

Just after 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Senate did it again. By a vote of 98-0 (two senators abstained) lawmakers in the upper chamber approved the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Not a single senator objected to the passage once again of a law that purports to permit the president, supported by nothing more substantial than his own belief that the suspect poses a threat to national security, to deploy the U.S. military to arrest an American living in America. As The New American reported, an amendment to the 2013 version of the defense spending bill passed by...

The Texas legislature will soon consider HB 149, the Texas Liberty Preservation Act which would subject anyone in the state attempting to enforce Barack Obama’s infamous National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine. Written by Texas representative Lyle Larson, the Texas Act says that “…Texas shall not provide material support or participate in any way with the implementation of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 within the legal boundaries of the state of Texas.” (1) Incorporated into the NDAA at the demand of Barack Obama,...

Sen. Rand Paul renews fight over indefinite detention of US citizens The Hill Nov. 25, 2012 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is bringing a new — and more aggressive — approach to a longstanding debate over the Defense authorization bill, threatening to filibuster the bill to get a vote on his amendment limiting indefinite detention. Paul’s amendment takes a new tack to curb the military’s ability to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism by affirming they have the right to a speedy trial by jury under the Sixth Amendment. His push to change the indefinite detention laws for U.S. citizens...

<p>Presumably, a proposal being developed in Texas right now won’t be necessary should its petition on the White House website to secede from the union be successful.</p> <p>But if not, the Lone Star state apparently wants to be prepared to challenge whatever it views as a federal encroachment on the rights of the state, or its citizens.</p>

At the close of 2011, Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2012. In it are what some constitutional experts consider to be some of the greatest constitutional violations in American history. At issue are sections 1021 and 1022 which, in essence, create a new power for the federal government to “indefinitely detain” – without due process – any person. Indefinitely. That’s little different than kidnapping.

At the close of 2011, Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2012. In it are what some constitutional experts consider to be some of the greatest constitutional violations in American history. At issue are sections 1021 and 1022 which, in essence, create a new power for the federal government to “indefinitely detain” – without due process – any person. Indefinitely. That’s little different than kidnapping. In response, there’s been a bit of a firestorm from people across the political spectrum. Local communities in Colorado sent out the first warning shots, passing resolutions and ordinances rejecting...

Many have called the 2012 election the most important in their lifetime. But in citing the economy, unemployment, foreign affairs, gas prices, healthcare and the burgeoning corruption of the American judiciary, political pundits may have universally ignored the real threat to the American public and the reason it was imperative to remove the Obama Regime from power. It happened back in March. Republican representative Tom Graves of Georgia asked FBI Director Robert Mueller whether the Administration’s “…policy of extra-judicial killings of American citizens abroad could also apply in the United States.” Incredibly, Mueller responded “I have to go back. Uh,...

Barack Obama's instrusions on the constitutional powers of Congress, his failure to fulfill his own constitutional duties, and his willingness to sign legislation which includes provisions which violate the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution render him unfit to serve as President.

Cornered by reporters with video cameras, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama's reelection campaign, attempted to defend the kill list...The second notable statement concerns the killing of 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki.. ADAMSON: ...It's an American citizen that is being targeted without due process, without trial. And, he's underage. He's a minor. GIBBS: I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children. I don't think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about...

In May, something extremely rare happened: a federal court applied the US constitution to impose some limits on the powers of the president. That happened when federal district court judge Katherine Forrest of the southern district of New York, an Obama appointee, preliminarily barred enforcement of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the statute enacted by Congress in December 2011 with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by President Obama (after he had threatened to veto it). That 2011 law expressly grants the president the power to indefinitely detain in military custody not only accused terrorists, but also their...

A lone appeals judge bowed down to the Obama administration late Monday and reauthorized the White House’s ability to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process. Last week, a federal judge ruled that an temporary injunction on section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 must be made permanent, essentially barring the White House from ever enforcing a clause in the NDAA that can let them put any US citizen behind bars indefinitely over mere allegations of terrorist associations. On Monday, the US Justice Department asked for an emergency stay on that order, and...

Judge Katherine Forrest, a New York federal judge, struck down a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that allows Americans to be indefinitely detained just for being accused of supporting terrorist groups. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by journalists and scholars who were concerned that the NDAA would allow them to be indefinitely detained for speaking their minds. Judge Forrest’s ruling reaffirms a ruling she issued back in May against the indefinite detention provision.The National Defense Authorization Act has been quite controversial because it includes provisions that permit the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens....

“Judge Katherine B. Forrest should go down in history as having pulled this Republic away from the abyss of Hell.” - Naomi Wolf --IMAGE HERE-- On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2011, President Obama signed into law H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA). This innocuous sounding bill, a version of which is passed every year, contained something much different than previous versions. It contained a provision allowing the government to arrest anyone, anywhere, without a warrant, and to detain them indefinitely without trial or hearing. For those who aren’t paying attention or who are...

Re: Section 1021 of the NDAA, The president may authorize (direct) armed force to (collect) & indefinitely detain: Any person who is a part of has directly or substantially supported or.. committed a belligerent act determined to be supportive of.. (designated) enemy forces. May 16 Judge Katherine Forrest of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York indefinite detention authority granted the president by Section 1021 of the NDAA... September 12 a federal district court judge made permanent the earlier order blocking enforcement of provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) purporting to empower the president...

Back in January, Pulitzer winning journalist Chris Hedges sued President Obama and the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act , specifically challenging the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force or, the provision that authorizes military detention for people deemed to have "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces." Hedges called the president's action allowing indefinite detention, which was signed into law with little opposition from either party "unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous." He attacked point blank the civil rights farce that is the neverending "war on terror" conducted by both parties, targetting whom exactly is...

On September 6, 2012, Revolution PAC, which I chair, submitted Freedom-of-Information-Act (FOIA) requests to eight state and local agencies and offices of the Commonwealth of Virginia demanding release of all information and communications relating to the Brandon J. Raub case. Mr. Raub, a former, decorated Marine who served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan, was kidnapped on August 16 by a joint strike force of Virginia and Federal “law-enforcement” agents, after which they tried to “disappear” him into the Virginia psychiatric gulag without charging him with any wrongdoing. What did Raub do to deserve this abuse and torment by the...

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention is raising a number of eyebrows after choosing to proceed with featuring Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday of its convention, though Democrats earlier denied a Catholic cardinal’s request to say a prayer at the same event. Up to 20,000 people are expected to attend the Friday prayers and Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA), said the purpose of the event is to hold political parties accountable for the issues faced by Muslim-Americans. In particular, the event will target the Patriot Act, the...

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - President Obama signed an emergency disaster declaration which will allow Louisiana to use federal aid to help with local response efforts to Tropical Storm Isaac. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says the authorization will coordinate relief efforts and provide federal funds for local emergency and relief efforts. FEMA says the measure authorizes the use of "equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Gerard M. Stolar will be the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal emergency response operations in the affected area. The aid will be available immediately beginning Monday. Following the...

After Special Justice Walter Douglas Stokes sentenced former US Marine Brandon Raub to 30 days detention in the psychiatric ward of the Veterans Hospital, Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett dismissed the case citing that the original petition was “devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” John Whitehead, attorney for the Rutherford Institute and Raub has stated that since the former Marine’s detention case, he has received numerous stated from other veterans who are being discriminated against. The latest trend is to have our former US service men...

A former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings has been freed from the hospital by a Virginia circuit court ruling handed down Thursday. Judge Allan Sharrett dismissed the case against Brandon Raub, 26, who had been detained by government officials in Richmond, Va., and transferred to a VA hospital in Salem, Va. The judge called the petition to continue Raub's forced detention “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” Read more: http://times247.com/articles/32virginia-veteran-raub-freed-from-psychiatric-ward7#ixzz24T8MZTLR

Is Brandon Raub a political prisoner of the Obama Administration? That is the impression you receive if you talk to members of an organization called Special Operations Speaks. In a press release the group states, “Brandon Raub, a 26-year-old former Marine who completed tours of Iraq and Afghanistan and lives in Chesterfield, Va., was recently arrested and forcibly committed to a psychiatric facility for mental evaluation by a court based solely on controversial Facebook postings, which took the form of song lyrics, political messages and virtual card games.”

When the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed by Congress last year, people of all political persuasions were rightly alarmed, because one of its provisions clearly gave the federal government and military the power to indefinitely detain, without charges, any American citizen deemed to be a “terrorist” or someone who pals around with terrorists. This past May, Federal Judge Katherine B. Forrest blocked that provision, as reported on June 7th at RT.com, Last month Judge Forrest ruled in favor of a group of journalists and activists [who] filed a suit challenging the constitutionality of Section 1021 of the NDAA,...

The attorney for the former Marine who was forced into a psychiatric ward for anti-government Facebook postings filed a petition Wednesday claiming law enforcement did not uphold Virginia laws for involuntary detentions. “The law requires that within four hours of detaining someone, you have to have a magistrate write a petition for a temporary restraining order,” said John Whitehead, an attorney with the Rutherford Institute, the Virginia-based civil rights firm that is defending the ex-Marine. “They didn’t do that. That didn’t happen.” Read more: http://times247.com/articles/46raub-attorney-petitions-court-claiming-illegal-detention8#ixzz24JmXZzgv

Obama’s Department of Justice is demanding a federal judge dismiss the injunction with which she sought to uphold the constitutional rights of the American people. On May 16th, federal judge Kathleen Forrest granted a preliminary injunction to plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Barack Obama and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), striking down those sections of the Act which provide the president the power to indefinitely detain American citizens without benefit of their 5th and 6th Amendment rights. Under the terms of the Act, Obama had been given exclusive authority to direct members of the US military...

Time after time, Obama's lawyers defending the NDAA's section 1021 affirm our worst fears about its threat to our liberty (Activist and reporter Tangerine Bolen, a plaintiff in the case against the NDAA, speaking to the media after a New York judge enjoined section 2012 of the law.) I am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the president the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long as he wants, without charge or trial. In a May hearing, Judge Katherine Forrest issued an injunction against it; this...

Despite a mainstream media blackout on the topic, the alternative media is abuzz with this week’s hearing on the constitutionality of the clearly unconstitutional NDAA. In case you don’t remember, section 1021 of the NDAA, which Obama signed into law on December 31 of last year, allows the government to lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely without a trial. At the time of signing, Obama penned a pathetic letter to many of his outraged supporters where he basically said he signed it but he won’t use it. Thanks pal! In any event, the Administration is showing its true colors by appealing...

”This is a battlefield that we must stand upon. And we need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend the Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else! You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the...

Imagine government without responsibility toward its citizens — let me give you a hint, it looks a lot like Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime. America is blessed with a Constitution that protects Americans so they are not afraid that each new leader will turn the country into a fascist nation. No matter how much anyone disagrees with a president's policies, we can take solace in the protections of the Constitution. The Constitution's authority is supreme and every piece of legislation must fit within the Constitution's limits. This is why I, along with many constituents of Michigan's 1st District were so worried...

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA) is making its way through Congress and if it is in any way different from last year’s unconstitutional onslaught against the American public, it is only for the worse. Last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed and Barack Hussein Obama signed into law the most egregious assault on due process rights in the nation’s history. The NDAA of 2012 gave Obama unlimited authority to have members of the U.S. military detain any American citizen he suspected of posing a potential threat to the United States. According to the Act, such citizens face an indefinite...