Free Republic

One of the Tea Party's top stars in Congress has penned an Obamacare op-ed co-bylined by Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sasse argue that Obamacare's failures offer an opportunity for conservatives to be a movement that represents solutions and stands on the side of working-class Americans. "Republicans cannot win the healthcare debate until we effectively communicate our solutions to the problems that plague working families," they write in Thursday op-ed in the Washington Examiner. The article comes two days after Obama took what was considered a "victory lap" to tout the 7.1 million Americans who...

<p>The FBI has swooped into an elderly man’s Indiana home and seized thousands of artifacts he collected — he says legally — during his decades of travel to hundreds of destinations, including Haiti, Australia, New Guinea and Peru.</p> <p>Donald Miller, 91, accumulated the artifacts over the past 80 years, said FBI Special Agent Robert Jones, during a news conference.</p>

Totalitarian nations, dictatorships, and police states don’t happen overnight. They start out as supposedly good ideas with considerable support from the citizenry. In fact, history shows that in the beginning, despots and tyrants are often viewed as heroic protectors, benevolent rulers, welcomed with fanfare and open arms—champions of the people. But eventually, average citizens wake up one day amidst chaos and decay, look around, and ask in bewilderment, “Wha hoppin?” Of course by that time, it’s usually too late to do anything about it. In a similar way, our government has begun to resemble something akin to a foreign occupation....

Kass exclusive: Suburban officer charged in 95-year-old's death Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass discusses charges filed in the death of 95-year-old John Wrana. John Kass April 2, 2014 An officer was charged this morning in the police killing of 95-year-old John Wrana, the World War II veteran who was fatally shot with beanbag rounds in his apartment at a south suburban senior facility last year. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office said patrolman Craig Taylor, 43, was charged with one count of reckless conduct, a Class 4 felony. Taylor has been with the Park Forest Police Department since January,...

US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has used a "back door" in surveillance law to perform warrantless searches on Americans’ communications. The NSA's collection programs are ostensibly targeted at foreigners, but in August the Guardian revealed a secret rule change allowing NSA analysts to search for Americans' details within the databases. Now, in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has confirmed for the first time the use of this legal authority to search for data related to “US persons”.

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MILLER: Witaschek surrenders to D.C. police ‘Gun Offenders Registry’ Businessman convicted of having unregistered muzzleloader bullets By Emily Miller The Washington Times Friday, March 28, 2014 Mark Witaschek never had a firearm in the District of Columbia, but he is now on the city’s Gun Offenders Registry. This bizarre case has drawn national attention because an upstanding citizen was tried and convicted of possessing unregistered ammunition for muzzleloader bullets, which are simply pieces of lead and copper. On Friday afternoon, I accompanied Mr. Witaschek and his wife, Bonnie, to Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to abide by the terms of his...

<p>The Daily Caller: A reporter has been detained by Capitol Hill police for trying to ask a question of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy.</p> <p>Bloomberg BNA energy reporter Ari Natter tweeted about being detained.</p> <p>Natter was detained while covering the American Council On Renewable Energy conference, where McCarthy spoke. Also speaking at the conference was Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a staunch supporter of green energy who regularly takes the Senate floor to sound the alarm on global warming.</p>

Thousands of Bay Area workers will become eligible by Sept. 30 for a new commuter benefit that could save them hundreds of dollars a year if they take public transit or van pools to work. Employers of 50 of more full-time workers within the nine Bay Area counties must start offering employees at least one of four kinds of assistance for commute alternatives to driving alone. Companies that already offer a commuter benefit will not be required to expand their program, but they will have to file an annual report.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco opened on Wednesday an effort to force House Republicans to bring an immigration overhaul to a vote. Most observers think the effort is doomed. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, spoke passionately on the floor about a potentially “truly historic” day, but so far it remains just that. President Obama likewise issued a statement encouraging the effort.

With less than a week left for customers to apply for insurance through the health care marketplaces, a poll released Wednesday finds that half of the people still without health coverage intend to remain uninsured. Five million people have signed up for insurance since the marketplaces created by the federal health law opened in October. The official deadline to sign up without facing a financial penalty is March 31, although federal officials told news organizations Tuesday that consumers who begin the process before then and have had trouble with the technology will an extension of several weeks to finish the...

In an argument that touched on medical science and moral philosophy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether corporations may refuse to provide insurance coverage for contraception to their workers based on the religious beliefs of the corporations’ owners. --snip-- Hobby Lobby told the justices that it had no problem offering coverage for many forms of contraception, including condoms, diaphragms, sponges, several kinds of birth control pills and sterilization surgery. But drugs and devices that may prevent embryos from implanting in the womb are another matter, the company said; its owners believe those would make the company complicit in...

IRVING, TEXAS--Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were in Dallas on Monday for the inaugural Globalization of Higher Education Conference. Bush and Clinton spoke separately at the private event co-organized by Bush. According to the Associated Press (AP), the event offered a bipartisan twist for the nation's two dominant political families. Both spoke on education policy and the need to make higher education affordable and accessible across the globe. Both also were reported as chatting briefly off stage. According to AP, Bush said in his speech, "Higher education in America has a growing...

The assertion by many Connecticut gun owners that they will not comply with the State’s new requirement to register their weapons did not sit well with Governor Dannel Malloy (D). “What these people need to realize is that I’m serious,” Malloy declared. “They may chatter about the 4th Amendment all they want, but if they fail to comply I promise to use the full power of the State to enforce the law. They had the opportunity to make their case before we passed the registration requirement. They lost. We won.” “Possession of an unregistered firearm is now a felony in...

Grant Middle School workbook’s gun-rights description has some up in arms A workbook used by Grant Middle School that has generated controversy among gun-rights supporters won't be removed from the classroom. Jason Nevel Updated Mar 24, 2014 at 10:23 PM A workbook used by students at Grant Middle School that has generated controversy among gun-rights supporters has no political agenda and won't be removed from the classroom, Springfield interim Superintendent Bob Hill said Monday. Since the controversy surfaced online last week, Hill said, he's received a handful of calls and more than a dozen emails. Gun-rights supporters claim students at...

GENEVA (Reuters) - There has been no reverse in the trend of global warming and there is still consistent evidence for man-made climate change, the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Monday. A slow-down in the average pace of warming at the planet's surface this century has been cited by "climate skeptics" as evidence that climate change is not happening at the potentially catastrophic rate predicted by a U.N. panel of scientists. But U.N. weather agency chief Michel Jarraud said ocean temperatures, in particular, were rising fast, and extreme weather events, forecast by climate scientists, showed...

Stanford Report, March 22, 2014 Michelle Obama underscores the importance of global education and beams into Stanford from Beijing Speaking at the Stanford Center at Peking University in Beijing on Saturday, Michelle Obama said study abroad allows students to realize that countries all have a stake in each other's success. Following her remarks, she held a conversation with students on the Stanford campus via a high-tech videoconference. Michelle Obama promoted study abroad programs during a speech at the Stanford Center at Peking University in Beijing on Saturday, then encouraged Stanford and local high school students sitting in Palo Alto to...

To date, a reported 50,016 people have guaranteed the eventual confiscation of their firearms by obeying the “Assault Weapons” registration requirements of Connecticut’s new gun law. But according to a 2011 study commissioned by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research it is estimated that more than 300,000 additional weapons have NOT been registered, their owners refusing to relinquish either their semi-auto rifles OR their liberty to Connecticut lawgivers. (Given recent record sales years that 300,000 could today be 400,000 or more.) So in spite of the threats of Connecticut’s left-wing politicos to imprison those with the courage to defy unconstitutional...

Today marks four years since President Obama consummated America’s decades-long dalliance with health care reform. The White House’s East Room was the venue for the ceremony that day, during which the president, a metallic blue tie around his neck and a light dusting of gray in his hair, applied his powerful signature in 22 clipped dashes — two pens per letter, one for each of his honored guests — to the Affordable Care Act, which we know as Obamacare, the law Republicans say, on this anniversary, will fuel another midterm election sweep. The legislation itself is massive, ground-breaking, and meaningful...

“No one has suffered more than the President over this thing,” said Vice-President Joe Biden commenting on the disastrous Affordable Care Act. “I know it will be hard for those who've lost coverage or seen their premiums skyrocket to grasp this. But these people have minor individual problems. The President has to face a rising tide of criticism and blame. He's not used to that. If anyone qualifies for sainthood it's him.” Talk show host Ellen Degeneres largely concurred in Biden's assessment arguing that “while there may be a few malcontents, I think the vast majority of Americans are truly...