Free Republic

Vice President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, May 28, 2012. (CNSNews.com) - Speaking in Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, where he signed a trade agreement with a group of Caribbean nations, Vice President Joe Biden said that 11 million illegal aliens who have chosen to live in the United States "are required to constantly live in fear." "Do we respect one another? And do we show respect?" said Biden. The vice president then suggested the United States could show respect to the nations in the Caribbean and, presumably, to...

Over the past week, details have emerged on how the Internal Revenue Service subjected certain groups to undue scrutiny in a systematic manner over an extended period of time. It is deeply concerning that the same IRS that just admitted to the political profiling of Americans who oppose a big-government agenda is also tasked with enforcing the myriad mandates, taxes and regulations in Obamacare. Americans have entrusted the IRS with a tremendous amount of power, and that power has been systematically abused over the course of months and years. While this fact is chilling enough for many of us,...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits including unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing vouchers, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said in a news release. Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges of lying about being unemployed while applying for or recertifying their government benefits. They each face up to five years in prison if convicted of making false statements to receive...

Justice Department officials released the indictment of 13 current and former IRS employees charged with “stealing from American taxpayers” by falsely claiming to be unemployed in order to receive food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, and housing insurance. “According to the allegations in the indictments, while these IRS employees were supposed to be serving the public, they were instead brazenly stealing from law-abiding American taxpayers,” U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III said in a statement Wednesday. “These charges demonstrate our unwavering resolve to work with our law enforcement partners and hold accountable anyone who fraudulently obtains government benefits and violates the...

(CNSNews.com) - As part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Collins Inc. of Clinton, Iowa has agreed to a “re-lamping” of its facility with low-mercury fixtures at a projected cost of $76,952. The re-lamping will be a greater expense than the civil penalty to be paid. “A re-lamping project involving the replacement of high-mercury fluorescent fixtures and bulbs with low-mercury fluorescent fixtures and bulbs at its facility with a projected eligible cost of $76,952.00,” The EPA settlement says. The “re-lamping” will cost more than the $31,379 administrative civil penalty paid by Collins Inc., a manufacturer of metal...

Thieves plunder crashed SUV of tires, wheels and battery - while its dying driver lay trapped underneath A man who was crushed to death by his SUV after a fatal accident suffered the final indignity of being robbed as he lay trapped under the vehicle. Police in New Mexico say 26-year-old Steven Roy Reese of Carlsbad was killed either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning when he apparently lost control of his 1996 Ford Explorer on a little-used dirt road. However, when they got to the vehicle they discovered that somebody had stolen wheels, tires and the battery from the wrecked...

SAN ANTONIO -- A man is dead and another is recovering in the hospital after police say they were shot while trying to steal an SUV from outside a home in an affluent neighborhood. San Antonio police said the shooter, who was visiting family at a home in the 600 block of Lightstone Drive in Stone Oak, heard the men breaking into his Toyota 4Runner around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The 25-year-old man stepped outside with a gun, confronted the men who were rifling through his vehicle and opened fire, according to a police report. He later told police that he...

After watching the viral video of the Obamaphone lady in October, I thought to myself — we are in a lot of trouble. It forced me to consider just how literate are the voters and people of the US. It’s very hard to tell given so few studies nail it down to specifics. For some reason the federal government does not want to get an exact account of how many illegal immigrants we have or how much illiteracy there is in the US. The census bureau delves into high school graduation levels, but not literacy rates. Perhaps because literacy and...

During 2012, virtually every aspect of American life was subjected to government meddling, ranging from how many calories you consume to how efficient your dishwasher is. These rules affect us in a variety of ways. Most increase the cost of living, others hinder job creation, and many erode our freedom. Not all regulations are unwarranted, of course. But increasingly, the rules imposed upon us by the government have less to do with health and safety and more to do with lifestyle -- substituting the judgment of bureaucrats for our own. Which are the worst? There is no objective standard to...

Authorities tied the teenage cousins killed by a homeowner after they broke into his Little Falls, Minn., house Thanksgiving Day to a similar break-in the night before. Prescription drugs from the earlier burglary were found in the red Mitsubishi Eclipse that Nicholas Brady, 17, and Haile Kifer, 18, drove when they broke into Byron David Smith's home north of Little Falls, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said Wednesday, Nov. 28. Deputies are now reviewing police reports to see if other burglaries are connected to the teens.

<p>Hurricane Sandy brought out the worst yesterday in some sleazy New Yorkers, who looted stores and homes across the city.</p> <p>Some posed as Con Ed workers to dupe their victims.</p> <p>Police arrested more than a dozen looters in the Rockaways and Coney Island, which had been evacuated, and stood guard outside ravaged stores at the South Street Seaport. “This morning when they told us the water receded, I walked back to the house to feed [my pets],” said Eric Martine, 33, a cabby who lives in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach. “Guys were looting, pretending they were Con Ed and holding people up. It was sick.” Residents said police warned them to beware of crooks pretending to be utility workers...</p>

(CNSNews.com) – Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday the first presidential debate will “be the biggest tap dance since Fred Astaire,” and that neither political party in Washington is willing to tackle the country’s fiscal problems. "You better get yourself a cave in the Adirondacks," he mirthfully said when asked what would happen if politicians did not deal with the debt. Simpson, who along with Erksine Bowles co-chaired the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, appeared at George Washington University for an event on the upcoming election and the approaching fiscal cliff. After the event CNSNews.com asked Simpson...

(CNN) – A new survey indicates President Barack Obama moved up four points following the Democratic National Convention last week, and now has a six point advantage over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The media keeps showing its rear end. Let me just make that clear. If you are a competent reporter, I’m not sure how you cannot be embarrassed by the majority of those in your profession right now covering politics. From Mark Halperin, to Jake Tapper, to Chuck Todd, more journalists are actually now admitting just how pliable the media is when it comes to Barack Obama’s spin. All week long, as the economy deteriorates, most every anchor at most every news outlet, most every editorialist in most every paper, and most every “centrist” and liberal pundit has been pointing out...

China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable last week: The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America. His comments are...

~snip~ Since May, several dozen catalytic converters have been stolen from vehicles in the Milwaukee area by thieves who have targeted the equipment for its scrap metal value. Converters contain platinum, or palladium, and rhodium. There's only a fraction of an ounce of platinum in them, but once processed, the metal is worth about $1,450 an ounce. Thieves get from $50 to $200 for a converter when they sell it to a metal recycler. Some of the thefts have occurred in the daytime, while vehicles were parked at restaurants and hotels. Other thefts have occurred at night - sometimes on...

Alec Baldwin, Stanley Tucci and a bunch of lobbyists are crawling all over Capitol Hill attempting to steal more money out of our pockets to fund "artists" who don't have the talent to survive on private donations and earnings. What a racket: Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the premiere lobbying org for arts groups, said that while "some of the rhetoric is negative," the records of Santorum and Romney both reflect some support for arts funding. He's encouraged by President Obama's request to increase funding for the NEA to $155 million, restoring it to the...

When two alleged teenage thieves tried to flee a Best Buy, their escape attempts - dodging cars and wielding a small samurai sword - played out like something from the game systems they were trying to steal. Doug Kennedy and his son were heading toward the store on Independence Boulevard on Wednesday night when he saw two or three youths getting away with merchandise. A store employee was screaming after them. "I just thought, no, you can't do this," Kennedy said Thursday. The Virginia Beach resident tackled one. As he tried to pin him down, one of the teen's hands...

LIBERTY COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- When military men and women leave home to serve the country, they expect to return to their homes once their tour of duty is over. But a military couple in the Liberty County town of Splendora almost lost their home to squatters who've been arrested for more than just taking over the couple's house. It was an unusual call for the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, but even more disturbing for homeowner Hollie Burbank. "It makes me sick," Burbank said. The home that's been in Burbank's family for three generations had some uninvited guests all while...

SNIP Mitt Romney was NOT primarily a venture capitalist. A venture capitalist invests in early-stage businesses with the hope that they grow and prosper. These early-stage businesses are often risky investments. Though most ultimately fail, some succeed spectacularly making the risks worthwhile. Apple Computer and Google are two such examples. This is what Mitt Romney means when he says some investments succeed and some fail. By contrast, Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its...