Free Republic

Ted Nugent apologized. Now it's Spike Lee's turn. Rocker Ted Nugent, a Republican and a fierce defender of the Second Amendment, said this about President Obama: "I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame, enough Americans to be ever-vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America."

There are, however, some chilling suggestions in politics and government today that draw memories of the last days of that failed German republic. Consider two of the most notorious changes in the German nation as it moved from Weimar Germany to Nazi Germany: the destruction of the sovereignty of state governments and the replacement of the national legislature with unchecked executive power.

Mrs. Joe got a call on her cell phone purporting to be from the "American Publisher's Clearing House", informing her she had won $385,000.00 and a new Mercedes. The guy on the other end, who identified himself as "Mike Williams" had a bit of an accent, and having a better ear for such, she handed me the phone after telling the fellow he should talk to her husband. When I answered, he laid out a convoluted plan to retrieve the winnings, complete with a confirmation number and check number, and told me to call their 866 number to punch in...

Three people have been arrested in connection with the robbery of a priceless Stradivarius violin, but the instrument has not been found, police said Wednesday. The three suspects — two men, ages 42 and 36, and a woman, 32 — were arrested Monday morning at their respective Milwaukee residences and remained in police custody Wednesday. One of the suspects has been linked to a prior art theft. The violin, crafted in 1715 and known as the Lipinski Strad after a former owner, was stolen from Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond during an armed robbery Jan. 27. Almond had played...

NORCROSS, Ga. — Norcross police now believe a group of adults and a child seen on surveillance video robbing a jewelry store is actually a family of career criminals. The Legacy Jewels store inside Global Mall on Jimmy Carter Boulevard was robbed Nov. 19. The thieves were so smooth in their heist that store workers didn't even realize $20,000 worth of jewels was missing until they went to close the store hours later. The surveillance video, according to police, shows a man and young boy about 7 or 8 years old walking into the store. The pair talk to a...

The Obama administration has been accused of cronyism after it was revealed the First Lady's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company contracted to build the beleaguered Obamacare enrollment website. Toni Townes-Whitley is senior vice president at CGI Federal, the U.S. arm of a Canadian company, which won the no-bid contract for the problem-plagued website. Townes-Whitley, from the Princeton class of ’85, and Michelle Obama are members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni, according to The Daily Caller.

..... In an apparent bid to lessen the impact of the release on public morale, the vehicles transporting the released terrorists will have blackened windows which they will not be able to open. Additionally, the release itself will take place in the middle of the night, and not in broad daylight. This arrangement will prevent a repeat of the kinds of jubilant scenes usually associated with such releases, as murderers celebrate their crimes and imminent release by cheering, laughing and flashing victory signs. .....

In a new wave of crime that occurs in an instant, thieves are cagily sliding into victim's cars and snatching valuables from open windows, in what police are calling "sliding." From Corbin, Ky., to Tampa, slippery sliders are being caught on camera all across the country. Sometimes the perpetrator is caught red-handed, but most of the time the victim has no idea until it's too late. Often operating at gas stations while customers are casually pumping fuel, thieves lying in wait pounce, snatching purses and other valuables, then running off.

For the past few months, members of Congress and their staffs have been discussing behind closed doors the worrying proposition that they will be forced off their popular health insurance program and onto the federal insurance exchanges set up under Obamacare. Those concerns reached a fevered pitch this week as President Obama, while making a rare visit to Capitol Hill, assured lawmakers that they and their staffs wouldn’t be foisted onto the same health exchange as millions of Americans. Then late last night, news broke that Obama had “solved” the problem, although no details were available. Obama and many in...

The conviction and jailing of Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny has led to widespread criticism. Navalny was imprisoned for five years for embezzlement from a timber firm. He had denied the charges, saying the trial was politically motivated. The EU said the verdict posed "serious questions" about Russian law, while the US said it was "deeply disappointed". Later, police detained dozens of protesters following scuffles in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities. Thousands took to the streets for protests which continued late into the evening. In Kirov, where the trial was held, at least two Navalny supporters were arrested after...

Five D.C. Council members will decide whether Marion Barry should be dealt sanctions in addition to a fine he was issued as punishment for accepting gifts from city contractors. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on Friday appointed an ad hoc committee that will investigate Mr. Barry’s actions. The committee is comprised of council members Yvette M. Alexander, Ward 7 Democrat; Anita Bonds, at-large Democrat; Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat; David Grosso, at-large independent, and its chairman is Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 5 Democrat. The District’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability on Thursday censured Mr. Barry and imposed a $13,600 penalty...

Putting aside Obama’s intention to further reduce our nuclear arsenal as articulated in his June 19 speech in Berlin, he has solidified his position as the World’s Greatest Liar with his statements about climate change, aka global warming, which he called “the global threat of our time.”

Car burglars appear to be using a new high-tech device that allows them to disable alarm systems and quickly enter vehicles. Law enforcement agencies are stumped as to how they can prevent the auto break-ins.

The Obama Administration has a few problems. From Benghazi to the IRS to the phone records of journalists and everyday Americans, it’s not difficult to call up a scandal with investigations pending in Washington. So immigration reform makes for a nice distraction. In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama called immigration reform “an issue that the vast majority of Americans want addressed.” This sounds like wishful thinking on his part, considering that unemployment is stuck at 7.6 percent and Americans consistently say that the economy is their No. 1 concern. But Obama was intent on giving the Gang of...

I just returned from New York, where I attended my 30th Columbia University reunion. I celebrated with my esteemed classmates. Everyone except Barack Obama. As usual- he wasn’t there. Not even a video greeting. Not a personalized letter to his classmates. Nothing. But worse, no one at our 30th reunion ever met him. The President of the United States is the ghost of Columbia University.

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...