Free Republic

Currently under federal law and lots of states laws a misdemeanor 4 degree assault-domestic violence bars you from life from legally possessing a fire arm. my main question: This one size fits all approach takes away a god given right and a right protected under our Constitution from countless people who have made one simple mistake.is this right or wrong...shouldn't the law be more flexible...read on....

“Why aren’t priests in this country doing more to help Arab Christian Palestinians?” As we sat down for dinner at the 2009 awards banquet sponsored by the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, the question caught me by surprise. I had been invited by chance, but in all honesty I knew very little about the organization. Thanks to that question, however, I now know much more about why all Christians should be deeply concerned about today’s Christian Palestinians. There should always be a solidarity among Christians, regardless of where we live. As such, when one of us suffers, we all suffer....

Just like in Columbus, Rochester NY fans waiting all night for Sarah Palin found out there were only 500 wristbands avaiable, instead of the 1000 promised.

It's time for Republicans to put the ghosts of communism behind us and confront the challenges we face today.

I am a Republican. There can be no other political home for me. But these are not happy times on the right side of the aisle.

Those of you. You know who you are. I don't care who you are or what your reasoning is. Your siding with the maistream media against Palin is doing nothing to help Republicans or Conservatism in general. You are hurting your own cause. Unless you are a DU troll. Or a liberal Republican who has no idea what the heck you are even talking about. Ani Palin comments (such as "shes not fit to be President") should be seen as trolling and should not be tolerated on Free Republic, any conservative web site or any conservative setting. While I am...

Is Islam worthy of First Amendment protection? I think it might be time for a Constitutional amendment. Such an amendment would not necessarily have to ban the practice of Islam in the U.S. But certainly, it seems to be time to carve out an exception to the First Amendment so that Islam can be restricted. What better place to get the ball rolling than right here on Free Republic? Am I off base here? Thoughts?

Why does President Barack Obama’s White House continue to be mired in distraction? Since the president took office there has been Gates Gate; the international snub in Copenhagen, Denmark, after the president flew there overnight to make a bid for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics; the call for New York Gov. David Patterson not to seek election to a full term; and now the puerile decision to attack Fox News.

Fellow conservitives hope and change is here now is our time now is our place change is coming. We need change and hope, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Its now time to rally the base the real conservitives. Lets let go of the independents and the so called undeceided voters after all they are fence sitters and the liberals will take them . We shuold however leave them as we need not have a wavering unsure base to build upon so let them go they only help dems. As for us lets start a new change...

When I found out about the selective service registration I was devastated. I am 32 yrs. old, have a wife and three children and am struggling to make dinner much less a future. I was recently layed off for the second time in 1 yr. Going back to the unemployment office was something I dreaded. I heard that President Obama made it possible to recieve unemployment benefits while attending school to change your career!! Fantastic, I thought. After alot of thought and planning my wife and I decided this was best for our family. I went to my local college,...

In a not-entirely-surprising move, Apple today announced the renaming of its key products, formerly the iMac computer, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPod portable music player, will henceforth be called the "OMac" the "OPhone" and the "OPod". Apple Board of Director Albert Gore, Jr., released a statement on recycled post-consumer paper, using organic soy ink, pointing out that a the name "GorePod" tested much better with key demographic groups than "OPod", and that he is worried about the amount of paper and electricity that will be consumed in rebranding these already successful products. When Apple pointed out the amount of...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s forthcoming autobiography has been at the top of the Amazon book charts for weeks, and it hasn’t even been released yet. At least in the eyes of the political Left, she is now perhaps America’s most visible national Republican. But new Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveying finds Palin losing handily in face-to-face march-ups with her two likeliest challengers for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Among likely Republican primary voters, Palin now trails former Arkansas governor-turned-Fox-TV-host Mike Huckabee by 20 points – 55% to 35%. When her opponent is ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Palin loses by...

Anyone reading Sigmund Freud's original works might well be seduced by the beauty of his prose, the elegance of his arguments and the acuity of his intuition. But those with a grounding in science will also be shocked by the abandon with which he elaborated his theories on the basis of essentially no empirical evidence. This is one of the main reasons why Freudian-style psychoanalysis has long since fallen out of fashion: its huge expense — treatment can stretch over years — is not balanced by evidence of efficacy. Clinical psychology at least has its roots in experimentation, but it...

Turkey’s decision to indefinitely postpone a military exercise apparently due to Israel’s planned involvement is raising concerns that Turkish-Israeli ties have not recovered from the Gaza war last January. The exercise—an air force program known as Anatolian Eagle—had been scheduled for this week and was supposed to include Israel along with the United States, Italy and other NATO countries. The other participating countries reportedly pulled out of the exercise after learning of Israel’s exclusion. Turkey has tried to downplay the episode. “It is not right to extract a political meaning and to make political conclusions out of the postponement of...

IF you ever questioned whether Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was bad for the US and for Israel too, you ought to ponder Turkey's decision to suspend a multinational air force exercise last weekend. Why? Because it's a prime example of how pursuing the goal of "greater Israel" - which means retaining control of the West Bank and Gaza and preventing a true two-state solution - is undermining US and Israeli interests. Here's the background. For the past decade or more, Turkey has been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world. It has bought a lot of...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

<p>Meghan McCain, a Daily Beast columnist and daughter of Sen. John McCain, apologized late Wednesday after posting a photo of herself on Twitter that stirred up some criticism and plenty of retweets.</p> <p>The photo shows Ms. McCain in a tanktop, holding a copy of Andy Warhol’s biography, and her accompanying tweet referred to her “’spontaneous’ night in.”</p>

Almost everyone in a dispute hopes to find an honest broker to mediate their differences. The controversy over the Goldstone Report on Gaza and the active role of Turkey’s prime minister therein has raised a collateral issue, which is the US role as a go-between or broker in the Middle East. So let’s look at the prospect that the US can be such a broker, either alone or in tandem with Turkey, which has been actively involved in the area. No one can be a broker when beholden utterly to one side, and while US President Barack Obama sounds much...

Although Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) vowed this week to introduce comprehensive immigration reform next month, his Senate counterparts expected to take the lead on the issue aren’t heeding a similar timeline. “That’s new to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Gutierrez’s announcement, made Tuesday at an immigration rally on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been talking to Sen. Schumer, and we hope to get something done that’s comprehensive,” Graham added. “We just don’t know when yet.”Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, has been meeting periodically with Graham to discuss ideas on immigration,...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

(snip) Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," the Arizona Republican said: "When we selected, or asked, Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party. And I have great affection for her. Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time." (snip)

It appears our party has not learned its lesson. First Chris Christie rejected Palin's help. and now it appears Bob McDonnell is doing the same thing. There are some very powerfull people in the GOP who are trying to pull things over on us. Sure, they may say all the right things. But open your eyes and pay close attention to what is happening. I am calling on all Freepers in Virginia to vote against Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell. this is our party. we have to send a strong message and hit the liberal GOP leadership right between the...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) reached across the aisle to praise President Obama on education reform this morning. President Obama has angered teachers' unions by supporting merit pay, a policy that would pay teachers based on their students' test scores. Obama has also called for a longer school year, while teachers' unions have proposed shorter school weeks to prevent layoffs. "I am very, very encouraged, and excited that the president has taken on a core constituency of his party, which is the teachers union," Bush said on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

I remember, not long after the 9/11 attacks, when there was a general and fairly open distrust of middle -easterners, especially middle eastern males between the ages of 18 and 45. "He's probably a terrorist!" many of us said to ourselves or quietly whispered to a friend while waiting in line at the airport. We can only imagine what was going through the heads of those who fit the racial profile of a "terrorist" as they faced heavy suspicion no matter how innocent they really were. I have been in several "heated" debates with friends and family on this topic,...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The interim Honduran government on Monday revoked an emergency decree that prohibited large street protests and limited other civil liberties following the return of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The decree, which resulted in dozens of arrests and the closing of two pro-Zelaya media outlets, "has been completely revoked," Interim President Roberto Micheletti said at a news conference with U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. Micheletti did not say whether the lifting of the decree would take effect immediately. He had said in a morning television interview it would be formally repealed Tuesday when the new...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The coup-installed president of Honduras backed down Monday from an escalating standoff with protesters and suggested he would restore civil liberties and reopen dissident television and radio stations by the end of the week. Riot police ringed supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who gathered for a large-scale protest march, setting off a daylong standoff. The government of interim President Roberto Micheletti declared the march illegal, sent soldiers to silence dissident broadcasters, and suspended civil liberties for 45 days. But in a sudden reversal, Micheletti said Monday afternoon that he wanted to "ask the Honduran people for...

We've received many requests from freepers requesting that other freepers not post to them. There are several problems with this. 1. It's impossible for us to enforce.2. We don't have the time to enforce these requests.3. We don't have the software to keep track of these requests.4. Thick skin helps.5. Ignore the poster, if you don't reply, they won't reply. Free Republic does not need a bozo filter, bozo filters are for wimps. Final note: Trolls, troublemakers, disruptors, forum pests, malcontents, RINOs, liberals, stalkers, et al, would continue posting to (harassing) someone after being asked to stop. Conservative FReepers would...

This year's Day of the Soldier celebrations in Honduras got a mixed response. The military is now seen as tarnished by its role in the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. Tegucigalpa, Honduras - With rifle shots into the air and the national anthem sung by soldiers in salute, Saturday's Day of the Soldier in Honduras seemed no different than any other year's commemorations for the armed forces. But this Oct. 3, after the June ouster of President Manuel Zelaya catapulted the Honduran military into the middle of a political saga, the customary congratulations from Honduran citizens are more muted.

So Glenn Beck on Fox News recently (September 29, 2009) showed a graphic murder. This is the sort of thing that would get a video pulled from youtube almost immediately, but for some reason Fox deemed it important enough to put on the Glenn Beck show. Now I've seen the ugly side of mankind. But to be honest this is something that one has to mentally prepare for. It should not be the sort of thing that should get pushed in your face. I mean the only warning Beck gives is to tell 'children to leave the room' before showing...

This video is for the Noobs and Noob observers

President Bush favored cap and trade, one of this former speechwriters claims in a new book. In fact, Matt Latimer writes in "Speechless," the President actually ENDORSED the policy in a speech, but no one in the press could figure out what he meant. Cap-and-trade, which would put a limit on businesses' carbon emissions, barely passed the House this year but has yet to make headway in the Senate. Most Republicans are vocally opposed to it.

The only way to enforce quarantines is through martial law. How convenient-- the only way to "protect" us is through something they want anyway-- a martial law police state agenda.

Generals implore the "president" for more troops. High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country. Obama: No plans for additional troop increase in Afghanistan: TRY OBAMA FOR HIGH TREASON.

A Swedish tabloid newspaper has been cleared of racism charges by the country's senior legal official over a story alleging that Israeli soldiers stole and sold body parts of dead Palestinians. The Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, was asked to probe whether the report in the Aftonbladet tabloid last month amounted to inciting racial hatred and violated freedom of expression laws. The TT news agency said the Chancellor of Justice had decided not to open a preliminary investigation into the case. The Chancellor of Justice, who was unavailable for comment on Saturday, is a government-appointed official who acts as...

The Federal Reserve is among the most misunderstood organizations in our societies. For instance, most don't even know that it's privately owned. The folks that own the Fed are bankers themselves. In fact, it's the main names in the banking and financial services system: Goldman Sachs, Chasen, Wells Fargo, etc. The share of the Fed that each bank has is determined by the individual size of the bank. In other words, the larger the bank, the larger its share in ownership in the Fed. Then, each year each bank gets a dividend paid out from the Fed based on its...

Free Republic used to be the most up to date web site where you could go for the latest news. Now it's been overrun with so many personal blogs and opinions that it's a chore to wade through all the personal stuff to find the real headline news. Even religous post like the daily rants of Joel Osteen, (whom I detest because he's a fake getting rich off gullible Americans)is allowed to be posted on a regular basis but you're not allowed to refute anything he says. Why is he not being put in religion where he belongs? The categories...

This idea of freedom of speech is going to far with this Tea Party Express. White people in RV driving from city to city disrupting the townhouse meetings. Everyone wants and needs healthcare but the wealthy wants tax cuts, they can pay for healthcare for themselves and others. It won't stiphened their income. I think President Obama's Healthcare reform is great it allows people who can't afford healthcare to have it. That what the Hatians do. It's not socialism it's called taking care of your country so we can stand strong against the enemy. This capital government is a mess,...

South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson seems to have set a precedent Wednesday night when he called the president a liar during a joint session of Congress. That's the official word from House Deputy Historian Fred Beuttler, who says that though cheering and jeering between parties are commonplace, a single individual seldom steals the floor. Yet, there was Wilson, red-faced and alone, jabbing the air with his index finger and shouting to Barack Obama, "You lie!" As we say down South, "What in tarnation?"... This is not to excuse Wilson's behavior, which caused him to become an overnight Twitter sensation. His...

You fly into a rage over Obama giving a speech to children when every single president has done exactly the same thing, and all his speech amounted to was a harmless, generic "stay in school." What exactly about this was "socialism?" There isn't anything any one of you should have found distressing in one word of the speech, but I'm sure you didn't bother to listen to it because you just KNEW that dirty minority had only lies and evil to say, right? You panic that any Health Care reform is going to turn us into a communist hellhole when...

Here are a few talking points for dems to use with Republicans: I have fully read the Health Care Bill section concerning the Death Panels, and it is nothing like what Sarah Palin wants people to believe. In fact, it is very compassionate. These Death Panels will not effect the average healthy American. Only people suffering from medical or mental issues will be subject to a Death Panel review. There is nothing wrong with "putting to sleep" a person that is in a wheelchair, suffers from cerebral Palsy, Autism, or, for lack of a better term is retarded.

http://ag.ca.gov/initiatives/activeindex.php?active=A 09-0026 Submitted for Title and Summary on September 01, 2009. "2010 California Marriage Protection Act." PDF link here: http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i823_initiative_09-0026.pdf SECTION 1. Title. This act shall be known as the "2010 California Marriage Protection Act." SECTION 2. Section 7.6 is added to Article I of the California Constitution to read: "No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family Code. Relevant section of the Family Code: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/getcode.html?file=./fam/02001-03000/2210-2212 Website:...

<p>I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.</p> <p>I made a first post in the general section yesterday and would like to see what sort of opinions I can find here amongst those who perhaps have a more relogiously attuned perspective.</p>

Why are forum replies reviewed and posting delayed? Makes it kinda tough to carry on a conversation when it takes hours to communicate.

Here are the postings made by someone here who signed up in July: Eleven more companies ditch Glenn Beck. Zogby: GOP Faces Extinction Risk Video: Ed Schultz challenges “coward” Rush Limbaugh to debate I'm not sure if I should say his name, but he sure seems like a troll to me. Can the tribe ever vote someone off of here?

For too long conservatives (those who respect religion, patriotism, and freedom) have had to satisfy themselves with meager success. Conservatives may win an election or pass a bill, but we are starving for real victory. To win real victory we must colonize the left. We must create a conservative socialist party. The only selling point for the left is socialism, so we must detach socialism from the main body of leftist dogma. When a conservative right battles a conservative left we can achieve real, lasting victory. Both sides would espouse our core principles. I support a conservative socialist or populist...

Here is disturbing cell phone video just released last week of what is reportedly an autistic child in Pittsburgh being slapped by a teacher back in 2008. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the parents of the child are suing but had not seen the video until it was posted on YouTube just recently. The teacher was removed from the classroom last year. On the video, you clearly see the child being slapped in the face and being screamed at. . . . (Video)

Last fall I took my daughter to school one morning to find one of her 1st grade classmates wearing an Obama hat. For some reason I felt angry and annoyed that a parent sent his child to school advertising for a political candidate. What’s the big deal you ask? It took me a while to figure out why I responded to this child’s hat in this way.

Apparently there have been some 'Snake-Oil' salespersons selling Jesus as a cure-all. For instance I am acquainted with two individuals who profess to be Christians. One is a confessed thief and the other a habitual liar (people pleaser). These two expect God to 'fix' them. So if God chose to take on that responsibility then the next morning the thief wakes and reaches up to scratch his nose only to discover his hands are missing and the liar is unable to speak as his tongue is missing. I don't know anything but I'm pretty sure we're still responsible for our...

The Obama White House is abuzz with talk of witchcraft by first grandmother, 72-year-old Marian Robinson, who lives in the White House residence. A close friend of Michelle Obama says the president is furious at his mother-in-law after learning that she was practicing Santeria, an African spirit cult, in the White House. "The president is quite upset about this on two different levels. First, he is a committed Christian, no matter what his critics say about Reverend Wright. He is adamant that Sasha and Malia be raised with Christian influences. He does not want them to be involved with African...

We must never again allow our leaders to have unaccountable trust! EVER! People are corruptible! We must always question and watch very closely everything they do! Our Freedom, Our beloved Constitution, Our National Sovereignty, “We the People” and the fact that we are a Constitutional Republic is why the United States of America is the Greatest Nation in the World! Any bad truths about our Country are the slow results of the corruptible human nature of a few individuals! Power and wealth can corrupt a person if not kept in check! After we fix our current problems, and we will,...