Free Republic

The Honorable* (Your Senator) (Address) "I was disappointed to see that 68 Senators did not support the Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster. Now that the Senate has moved to proceed to S. 649, several gun control issues will be coming up - including the universal registry bill, the Feinstein gun ban, and the magazine ban. As for the Toomey-Manchin-Schumer universal registry bill, don't believe the press' efforts to sugar-coat it. If you have ever had an "Internet ... posting" on (or related to) your gun, you can sell it only by going to a dealer and filling out a 4473 and getting the...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I'm left with the idea we live in an imperfect society with some people who are violent and the people who are known to be violent shouldn't get guns. Do you agree with that? LARRY PRATT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA: Yes, and as long as you don't take my guns away from me, I can handle the guy with the gun. MATTHEWS: See, this is pure rhetoric. I’m sticking to one point tonight. PRATT: Oh, I see. My linear logic is pure rhetoric and you're jumping from… MATTHEWS: No, you’re changing the topic. I'm talking about...

When the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a ban on plastic bags and required businesses to charge a nickel for paper bags, city leaders believed it would be better all around. "I think we've gotten to a place where it's really going to work for the environment, businesses and the community in general," Councilman Mike O'Brien said at the time. But the bag ban is contributing to thousands of dollars in losses for at least one Seattle grocery store, and questions have been raised about the risk of food-borne illness from reusable bags that shoppers don't often wash.

"A Tewksbury motel owner who just beat back U.S. Attorney three-year bid to seize his business has become the latest critic to accuse ...of prosecutorial bullying. I don’t think she should have the power she has to pull this stuff on people,” Russ Caswell, owner of the Motel Caswell, .... The feds first tried to grab Caswell’s property in 2009 under drug seizure laws, citing numerous drug busts at the motel. Caswell’s defense team argued that he was not responsible for what guests did. And his lawyers found there was actually more drug activity at nearby businesses, and theorized the...

Former New York City mayoral candidate Mark Green drew a parallel between gun owners and child molesters Thursday evening on MSNBC. Green suggested that residing near gun owners and residing near child molesters may pose comparable risks, and thus there should be a registry for both: MARK GREEN: Well it is a neighbor’s interest, even if a law-abiding person has a person, has a permit, has a gun, Adam Lanza stole a gun from his mother who he of course killed. I’m a lawyer and believe in the right to privacy. This is in the public domain. The information is...

Putnam County clerk refuses to release names of gun owners to the paper who published names of gun owners on a map.

The decision of a newspaper in New York’s Westchester County to publish an interactive map that allowed readers to discover the names and addresses of owners of legal guns is generally being debated as one about whether the Gannett-owned Journal News showed good judgment. It didn’t, but the problem goes a lot deeper than whether or not a newspaper ought to publicize information that is legally available to the public in this manner. The controversy goes to the heart of the entire discussion about guns in this country. No matter what those behind this stunt say

SANFORD, Fla. — The cries for justice in the case of slain teen Trayvon Martin was killed continue on Friday. The NAACP has planned another march for Trayvon through part of Sanford on Saturday, and some downtown business owners said they are furious. They told WFTV the rally could scare shoppers away on their busiest day of the week. The rally will start at a school and will end at police headquarters, which are blocks away from downtown Sanford. Christine Johns was happy to see her first customer of the day, but it was hours after she opened her antique...

NFL owners on Thursday allocated $200 million in funding for the future 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, a crucial and long-awaited piece in paying for the $1 billion project, according to team owner Jed York. NFL owners voted on stadium funding today during a meeting in Indianapolis, which is hosting the Super Bowl. York tweeted the news after the meeting, saying it was "A big step forward today." "With the NFL's muscle now behind the new stadium, we are moving forward," York said. "I expect an official groundbreaking ceremony very soon." ... York is expected to hold a conference call...

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compared NFL owners' treatment of players to "modern-day slavery," according to an online interview published Tuesday by Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo's Doug Farrar, who conducted the interview Friday with Peterson, removed that comment from the story later Tuesday, explaining on Twitter that he wants to give Peterson the chance to provide context. Peterson, who is known to be thoughtful when speaking with the local media in Minnesota, is in Africa with other NFL players on a goodwill trip and unavailable for immediate comment.

Compulsive Sheep Herders Need a 'Job' to Entertain Them; 'That'll Do' BATTLE GROUND, Wash.—Sue Foster knew what she needed to do when her border collie, Taff, was expelled from puppy school for herding the black Labs into a corner. She rented some sheep. Then she bought another border collie and rented some grazing land. Then she bought some sheep of her own. And a third border collie. Now, like the old lady who swallowed the fly, Ms. Foster keeps a llama to chase off the coyotes that threaten the lambs that go to market to finance the sheep that entertain...

Last Tuesday’s elections will send 33 small-business owners and entrepreneurs to Washington, according to The Agenda’s exhaustive (and exhausting) search. All are Republicans.

Tanning salons brace for the hit ObamaCare is about to put on their bottom lines. The thirty million Americans who visit indoor tanning facilities each year are about to get an unwelcome lesson in ObamaCare every time they walk through the front door of the tanning salon. That lesson comes in the form of a president and a Congress with a target on the tanners’ wallets: starting today — July 1 — the ObamaCare tax on “indoor tanning services” takes effect — a 10 percent federal excise tax on the retail price of a tan. The tax is just one...

Nominee has a past that is opposed to individual self-defense President Obama poses a real and present danger to the Second Amendment, and he's working to pack the Supreme Court with justices who will undermine Americans' gun rights. Mr. Obama didn't fess up to this radical agenda when running for the highest office in the land. "I have said consistently that I believe that the Second Amendment is an individual right, and that was the essential decision that the Supreme Court came down on," Mr. Obama told Fox News in June 2008. Despite the campaign rhetoric, Mr. Obama is appointing...

Friday, Walz toured Austin, talking with local business owners about their concerns regarding health care reform, regulatory agencies, availability of credit, pork barrel spending, energy and the cap-and-trade strategy, which allows facilities to buy and sell pollution credits in order to meet a national limit on greenhouse gas emissions. Walz stopped by Jim’s SuperFresh Produce, 2101 Fourth St. NW, Donker’s Appliance, 1107 First Ave. SW and Medicap Pharmacy, 1109 W. Oakland Ave., to talk with business owners before making his way to Main Street’s Town Center for a roundtable discussion Friday morning. Much of discussion was focused Friday on health...

Washington, DC --(AmmoLand.com)- Data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) for the year reported 14,033,824 NICS Checks for the year of 2009, a 10 percent increase in gun purchases from the 12,709,023 reported in 2008. So far that is roughly 14,000,000+ guns bought last year! The total is probably more as many NICS background checks cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time by individuals. To put it in perspective that is more guns than the combined active armies of the top 21 countries in the world.

Subject: A Novel Idea Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere. Maslack recently proposed a bill to register "non-gun-owners" and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun Maslack read the "militia" phrase of...

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No other stimulus provision will be as immediate and as effective,' says small business lobby Posted: December 14, 2008 10:51 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily WASHINGTON – Big business bailouts and "economic stimulus packages" are all the rage in the Capitol these days. Most involve massive transfers of wealth from taxpayers to government-directed projects. But a new and very different bill, proposed by a heretofore little-known congressman from Texas, is gaining traction from Republicans – and even a few Democrats, according to the sponsor. It's called "the tax-holiday plan." And one version of it picked up support from the National...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of New York taxi owners is suing the city over a plan to turn the entire fleet of cabs "green" by 2012, saying the plan compromises safety and is unconstitutional. Under the plan, promoted as an environmental model for other large cities, every new taxi must get at least 30 miles per gallon, a target now met by hybrid and clean diesel cars. The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, an association of taxi owners accounting for about a quarter of the city's 13,000 yellow cabs, filed a complaint in Manhattan federal court late on...