Free Republic

Cleta Mitchell is the prominent Washington attorney whose practice has given her a front row seat on the IRS scandals. On the just completed NR cruise Cleta gave one of the most compelling presentations involving topical matters of current interest. I asked her if she would let me record some of her comments in four short videos. **snip**In the video below Cleta discusses the almost unbelievable case of True the Vote founder and president Catherine Engelbrecht. Jillian Kay Melchior aptly calls it “True Scandal.” Can it happen here? In Obama’s America, it apparently can. Listen up!

New York Dems want to pass a bill that would limit a description of a suspect to identify suspects essentially by the clothes they wear only. Truly mind-numbing stupidity. NYPost reports the following: Cops might as well wear blindfolds if the City Council passes a bill that would let them use little more than the color of a suspect’s clothing in descriptions — or risk being sued for profiling, according to this provocative new ad (pictured) from the NYPD captains union. The ad asks, “How effective is a police officer with a blindfold on?” And the answer is not very,...

This weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down for a series of meetings with China's newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. We know that the two leaders spoke at length about the topic du jour -- cyber-espionage -- a subject that has long frustrated officials in Washington and is now front and center with the revelations of sweeping U.S. data mining. The media has focused at length on China's aggressive attempts to electronically steal U.S. military and commercial secrets, but Xi pushed back at the "shirt-sleeves" summit, noting that China, too, was the recipient of cyber-espionage. But what Obama probably neglected...

There are many idealistic progressives who’ve remained opposed to the National Security Agency’s data mining programs regardless of who is in the White House. (We can’t surrender our freedom for safety, you know!) It’s only a shame that these same people have such little reverence for constitutional liberties in other areas of public life. Really, it’s worse than that. Consider the central case of the left these days: “Unfettered” freedom is a tragedy — decadent, unfair and un-American. So if, as liberals like to argue, it’s a moral imperative for Americans to scale back personal liberty to build a cleaner,...

<p>New Jersey police and Dept. of Children and Families officials raided the home of a firearms instructor and demanded to see his guns after he posted a Facebook photo of his 11-year-old son holding a rifle.</p> <p>“Someone called family services about the photo,” said Evan Nappen, an attorney representing Shawn Moore. “It led to an incredible, heavy-handed raid on his house. They wanted to see his gun safe, his guns and search his house. They even threatened to take his kids.” Moore was not arrested or charged.</p>

Here's the CNN clip: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/02/dnc-chair-tells-cnn-health-care-is-a-penalty/?iref=allsearch From her mouth: "It's not a tax". The Internal Revenue Service would be the “easiest enforcer” of penalties against those who refuse to comply for those who fail to not pay the tax that isn't. “This is a penalty that will be assessed on the tax return if you choose to roll the dice and make us all pay for your being irresponsible and increase all of our health care costs...“We’re not going to tolerate that any more in America. You have to be responsible and you have to pay a penalty if you choose...

Clashes between neo-Nazi demonstrators and far-left counter-protesters overnight in the northern German port city of Hamburg left 38 police officers injured, police said Sunday. Security forces were pelted with rocks, bottles and fireworks and responded by turning water canon and pepper spray on the rioting groups who turned out at a march by the far right. At least two parked cars and a police cruiser were set ablaze. Police, who deployed 4,400 officers to keep the peace between the two sides, took 63 demonstrators into custody and formally arrested another 17. Around 3,500 people, mainly from the hard left, turned...

Friday evening, Madison, Wisconsin blogger Ann Althouse reported receiving (HT Instapundit) an "Incredibly creepy mail today from the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund." She has a put up an image of what she received with names and addresses redacted (except for her name). It's a list which includes Althouse and many of her neighbors indicating who has and hasn't voted in the last two elections. Unsurprisingly the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund is the political fundraising arm of the Greater Wisconsin Committee, both of which lean very left. Both support the effort to recall Badger State Governor Scott Walker. Both appear likely...

I think Barack and Michelle Obama are secret totalitarians -- in spirit, if not yet in fact -- who believe mostly in their own superior intentions. Michelle really does think the country needs an all-powerful Food Mom who will make the kids eat right, so they never get fat. Even though Michelle can't control her own appetite any more than the rest of us can. Human beings love to eat because our ancestors lived in constant fear of famine. Humans got fat when food was plentiful, because the chances were good that a drought or a freeze was coming soon...

Much confusion reigns today because we think in terms of a left-right dichotomy. Communism is on the left we are told to believe and Fascism comes from the right, while people and parties are called either "leftist" or "rightist." Adding to the confusion, Liberals believe absolutely that even though moral absolutes do not exist, evil nevertheless absolutely comes from the Right, for the evil Right is the party of evil white people. Furthermore, Progressive Liberal educrats condition the minds of America's gullible youth with this insanity writes Dennis Prager in his article, "Black Murders Eight Whites; Media Blames Whites," "After...

The depth of depravity into which this administration seeks to drive us is difficult to fathom. Obama and the Democrat party truly are the enemy within...

Chairman Obama: "I think the general broad principle is simply that people who are paying for their health insurance aren't subsidizing folks who simply choose not to until they get sick and then suddenly they expect free health insurance."

Here is video the Obama Administration does not apparently want you to see. It is a devastating critique of Obama's "Cap and Trade" idea, by two lawyers who work for the EPA. They say clearly in the video that the video only contains their views, and in no way represents the views of the EPA or the Obama Administration. The lawyers do seem to buy into the whole "man-made Climate Change" philosophy, which I would not agree with. But that is one reason the video is so devastating to the Cap and Trade policy. They believe in man-made Climate Change...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

I first visited West Berlin in June 1981. I took the closed American military train through the 112-mile-long corridor through hostile communist East Germany that offered access to that city from the free world. I was told not to take photos out the closed and covered windows along the way. Peeking out the window I could see armed communist guards along the route making sure that the prohibition was enforced. West Berlin was an island of freedom in the middle of a communist country, protected by the occupying powers of the United States, Britain, and France. It was a bright...

The House health-care reform bill proposes to decrease hospital visits by establishing a “medical home pilot program” for elderly and disabled Americans. Such a medical home would not require a physician to be on the staff, and therefore could be run solely by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Medical homes also would practice “evidence-based” medicine, which advocates only the use of medical treatments that are supported by effectiveness research. But physicians’ groups say the legislation could lead to restrictions on which treatments may be used for certain conditions, despite the fact that some patients might require a unique or unconventional...

Steele’s used to going off the cuff in his role as telepundit; see, e.g., his RNC acceptance speech for how comfortable he is speaking extemporaneously. Maybe he should prep for these things that way — start with an outline of points and then do it impromptu in a few takes, stitching together the best parts of each. He needs to be on his game, as the media will be itching to compare him unfavorably to The One and these weekend message duels give them a perfect excuse.

Activists Already Planning RNC Disruptions MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Shrouded in black, with a bandanna masking her face, the self-proclaimed anarchist slips into her combat boots and dashes through town, tossing a Molotov cocktail here, launching a bowling ball there. The YouTube video is more parody than threat: The flaming cocktail ignites a charcoal grill, and the bowling ball knocks down pins instead of crashing through a Navy recruiting office window. But as the video fades to black, the message onscreen is clear: "We're getting ready. What are you doing?" With less than 10 months to go before the Republican National...

ATF Commerce in Firearms PDF Report The Gun Control Act of 1968 established the first comprehensive Federal licensing system for importers, manufacturers and dealers in firearms to the retail level. That system requires licensees to maintain detailed records on transactions in firearms, and subjects their business premises to inspection by the ATF. From 1968 to 1993, THE PROCESS TO OBTAIN A FEDERAL FIREARMS LICENSE WAS OVERLY SIMPLE. (emphasis added) The annual fee WAS ONLY $10 for a license that authorized the person to ship, transport and receive firearms in interstate commerce and engage in retail sales. The statue required ATF...

OK, perhaps the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Day of Infamyâ„¢ deserves more than a snarky hit piece on nutty 911 conspiracy theorists. Sixty five years after Pearl Harbor, it feels now like ancient history, despite the fact that we still have troops in Japan and Germany. I wonder how many people understand the implications of this date in history, or are even aware that it is a date in history? Many who have personal recollections of the event (my parents' and grandparents generation) are passing, or passed, from the scene. I was at the Arizona memorial a few weeks ago,...