Free Republic

The House Oversight Committee wants to find out why the Park Service behaved so bizarrely. ... Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a former prosecutor, almost drove National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis into incoherence with his relentless questioning. Gowdy wanted to know why Jarvis had allowed “pot-smoking” Occupy Wall Street protesters to camp overnight illegally in Washington’s McPherson Square park for 100 days, yet put up barricades to keep veterans out of war memorials on the first day of the shutdown. By not issuing a single citation to the Occupy campers, Gowdy argued, the Park Service was treating them...

With tea party Republicans threatening to shut down the government in an effort to roll back President Obama's healthcare law, several progressive groups are teaming up in a new effort to convince skeptical voters of the benefits of the new law. During the August recess, Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care plan to counter efforts by Republicans to disparage the law. The groups will stage protests at GOP events, organize their own town halls to publicize its perks, and provide “air cover” to the law’s defenders. Republicans “have overplayed their hand and that gives us the opportunity to...

If Joe the Plumber were Jawad the Suspected Terrorist, civil-liberties activists would stampede the halls of Congress on his behalf. Liberal columnists would hyperventilate over the outrageous invasions of his privacy by Ohio state and local employees. The ACLU would demand the Big Brother snoopers’ heads. And Democratic leaders would convene immediate hearings and parade him around the Beltway as the new poster boy/victim of unlawful domestic spying. But because peaceful American citizen Joe Wurzelbacher is an outspoken enemy of socialism, rather than an enemy of America, the defenders of privacy have responded to his plight with an impenetrable cone...

With all the fiery rhetoric coming from the Obama campaign about the nastiness of McCain supporters you might imagine that Obama supporters are just the nicest people in the whole wide world. But you would be wrong. As it turns out, the Obama supporters actually have a history of taking violent action and potentially life endangering actions against McCain supporters. I wonder what John Lewis things of that? Pair arrested after large McCain sign torched in Sellwood yard Authorities have arrested two men after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a 4-foot by 8-foot campaign sign for Republican presidential candidate...

A local television station's coverage of a Missouri campaign "truth squad" working on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has touched off a national Internet frenzy. < snip > What has prompted all the furor is that several members of Obama's "truth squad" in Missouri are prosecutors or members of law enforcement. They include St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch. All are Democrats. Joyce and McCulloch are featured in a KMOV report by John Mills, in which both say their aim was to refute any false...

No one involved 'has any intention of prosecuting anybody'Missouri law officials, including public prosecutors, who were reportedly planning to "respond immediately" to any misleading advertisements against Barack Obama if they "might violate Missouri ethics laws," have now backed off the intimidating implications of that report, promising they have no intention of prosecuting anyone. < snip > A spokeswoman for St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce . . . told WND that the televised "Truth Squad" announcement was misunderstood. "The only action they would take would be to provide truthful information to the public so they can make up their...

Last Tuesday without any fanfare, the Barack Obama campaign announced Jennifer Joyce and Bob McCulloch, the top prosecutors in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, were joining something called an Obama truth squad. They plan to respond immediately to any misleading advertisements and statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws. "We want to keep this campaign focused on issues," Joyce told me. "Missourians don't want to be distracted by these divisive character attacks." The truth squad's plan is to indentify false attacks and respond immediately with truthful information, Joyce and McCulloch say. Truthful information like: Obama is a Christian...

The especially odious provision in the Wall Street "rescue" package that would have provided millions of dollars in government money for kooky left-wing activists has been deleted. The Politico reports that the controversial provision in Henry Paulson's Wall Street bailout package that would have funneled mountains of dough to radical left-wing community organizing groups like ACORN has been removed: After several days of rage from conservative activists regarding a provision in the bailout bill that would send some of the profits from the sale of distressed assets the goverment buys into an affordable housing trust fund, congressional negotiators have removed...

Chicago-trained thug Barack Obama has recruited musclemen in Missouri to intimidate critics. It’s just the latest example of his bare-knuckle, speech-chilling bully tactics.

Quote from Gov.Blunt "This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out...

Wondered why there have been so few 527 ads this election cycle? The question has been posed numerous times on all the cable networks. Well, boys ‘n girls, here’s the answer. Not only are we witnessing the best election money can buy or steal, we now have the added stench of intimidation with the sole intent of limiting free speech and open debate. Barack Obama and his group of Chicago thugs have been threatening to use police state tactics in order to silence critics in Missouri. Additionally, his crack team of legal intimidators have sent letters to news agencies in...

St. Louis Circuit Jennifer Joyce has been caught in a dust-up over her presence on a “Truth Squad” for Barack Obama. < snip > Now, here is a statement from Joyce: As a citizen, I believe that elections should be about issues. I also have enormous respect for our First Amendment and freedom of speech. My sole purpose in participating in this initiative is about getting truthful information to the voters. This has never been or never will be about prosecuting people. Clearly there are those who are attempting to twist the purpose of this initiative for their own benefit....

With the Missouri polls showing a dead heat between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, every campaign move is igniting scrutiny. That’s the backdrop over a two-day dust-up that is attracting local TV coverage, and has even ignited a Web fight between the Drudge Report and the Daily Kos. At issue is a new Obama “Truth Squad” formed in the state. < snip > Obama’s Missouri Truth Squad members include St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch, among others. The inclusion of such officials has led to...

The owners of a small South End gallery say they had the best of intentions when they commissioned a famous and often mischievous street artist to install a massive political mural on a construction wall lining one of the artiest strips of the South End. The mural, 13 feet high and nearly a block long, features multiple composite portraits of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, their faces melded together in a rainbow of colors. It is meant, the gallery said, to inspire dialogue. That it did. The morning after artist Ron English and his band of...