Free Republic

The Oath Keepers’ motto is “Not on our watch!” Last March Stewart Rhodes realized it’s up to every American to step up and shout “No” to Barack Obama’s plans to socialize and destroy our nation. As a lawyer and Army paratrooper who has taken oaths to “defend and support” our Constitution Rhodes knew what he had to do. He founded Oath Keepers and asked other men and women who have taken an oath to support and defend our Constitution to step forward with him. Oath Keepers has grown to an organization of thousands of American patriots who are pledged to...

Advocates of imposing "network neutrality" say it's necessary to ensure a "free" and "open" Internet and rescue the public from nefarious corporations that "control" technology. Few proposals in Washington have been sold employing such deceptive language -- and that's saying something. But few public policy ideas can boast the unashamedly socialist pedigree of net neutrality. The modern Internet is a creation of the free market, which has brought about a revolution in communication, free speech, education, and commerce. New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski apparently doesn't like that. He stated last month the way Internet service providers manage their...

If a government-run health insurance plan winds up in the trash bin when all the debate in Congress is over, it won't be due to any lack of effort on Nancy Pelosi's part.The House Speaker is standing her ground on demands for a government-run plan, even as President Obama's advisers signaled over the weekend that the "public option" is just that -- desirable, but not mandatory in the massive health care overhaul being debated in Congress.The inclusion or disappearance of a government plan to compete with private insurers will leave one of the Democratic power-brokers basking in the credit --...

Click the link above, also, Glenn Beck has been talking alot about this on his show. The internet is about to be taken over by the FCC, freedom of speech will now be ensured by the Government (right, uhuh ...)

Not later than February 1, 2014, the Comptroller General shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report on . . . (ii) the availability of affordable health benefits plans, and (iii) the ability of individuals to maintain essential health benefits coverage . . . Not later than April 1, 2014, the appropriate committees of Congress shall report legislation implementing the recommendations contained in the report . . . [or] any member of the House of Representatives or the Senate, respectively, may introduce legislation implementing the recommendations contained in the proposal and such legislation shall be placed on the...

I am "discussing" politics with a gent from the UK on Facebook. He is advocating a "benevolent dictatorship" My question are, can there be such a thing, is a "benevolent dictatorship" a good idea.

From Section 6002 on page 1435: INCLUSION OF COST OF EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH COVERAGE ON W–2The definition of taxable income is revised to include "the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage". . . "The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009."

Without any idea what it is doing, Congress is about to pulverize the American medical system, put the health insurance companies out of business, and set the federal budget on a runaway course that may end up wrecking the entire economy. So if you'd like to know why all this is happening, here's a brief review: The "crisis" in health insurance exists because the government is already mismanaging the system. The problem began in 1945 when Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Even though insurance had long been sold across state lines, the states were allowed to regulate, with the benign...

History Unfolding I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels,...

Get in shape or pay a price. That's a message more Americans could hear if the health care reform bills passed by the Senate Finance and Health committees become law. By more than doubling the maximum rewards and penalties that companies can apply to employees who flunk medical evaluations, the bills could put workers under intense financial pressure to lose weight, stop smoking or even lower their cholesterol.

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Most Popular Stories READY TO REVOLT: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States U.S. SENATE SEAT: Two could beat Reid, poll finds NORM: Garth Brooks, Wynn to team up NORM: Yearwood exacts her recompense Woman struck, killed by car while crossing street Friends, co-workers honor fallen police officer Friends, co-workers honor fallen police officer NORM: Rumor about ring wrong, Fator says...

Introduction In this essay I will attempt to show that the powers granted to the Federal Judiciary were excessive, that the creation of an all-powerful, unaccountable Supreme Court was a grave error that made the expansion of Federal power inevitable, and virtually limitless. I will then provide a brief investigation into the original meaning of the Commerce Clause. Last, I will argue that the harm created through Commerce Clause jurisprudence appears irreversible, having been upheld and applied by Justice Scalia and the liberal wing of the Court as recently as 2005. If Justice Scalia not only unwilling to overturn past...

Aided and abetted by imposters posing as authentic American citizens the United States of America has been taken over by an authentic dictator. How could so many millions of U. S. citizens just gently cede their heritage and birthright so easily; without more than a whimper? Assisted by genuine anti-American leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, actually elected by unknowing and uninformed lemmings, Barack Hussein Obama has surely seized the ultimate power of dictatorship and is making decisions not within the established authority of the office of President, which are opposed only by vocal chants from a gaggle of conservatives...

There used to be a time in this country, not that long ago, when, despite our religious, cultural and societal differences, there were at least a few basic tenets upon which we, as Americans, could all agree. We could locate our borders, we spoke a common language and shared a common understanding of our Founders and constitutionalism. There was no confusion over what constituted acts of heroism and patriotism. Conversely, we also understood and clearly recognized, evil, greed, treason and hypocrisy. But, alas, the beloved country that was so united in my youth has become a cesspool of unabated and...

As noted in “British gun control: Coming soon to a country near you? ” seven countries, led by the United Kingdom, are attempting to revive U.N. efforts to restrict imports and exports of small arms. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the United States would reverse Bush administration opposition to international small arms control, potentially paving the way for the British-led effort, which calls for a vote by the U.N. General Assembly by year’s end. The U.S. would support the “Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty” as long as it was conducted under rules of “consensus decision-making,” interpreted...

[Part 1 of this series.][The frustration of most Americans with the systematic destruction of their country, its society, and its economy, by a handful of corrupt politicians grows daily. It is not that they are not willing to do anything about it, but the fact they do not seem to know what to do. The growth of the tea-party movement and the huge march on Washington are evidence of their eagerness to do "something," but it is equally obvious that demonstrations and a millions articles have done nothing at all, and the leftist "Destroy America" railroad roars on without even...

Ready to Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically,...

The White House escalated its offensive against Fox News on Sunday by urging other news organizations to stop "following Fox" and instead join the administration's attempt to marginalize the channel. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox." Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization." "Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's...

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis. Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat. While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, "in 30 years on Capitol Hill,...

Maybe I have missed it, but how will the Feds know who has insurance and who does not? The only definitive way to know who has complied with ObamaCare is to have a national ID card. Have I missed something, or can someone tell me how the Feds will know?

Americans are at a crossroads. One path, the roughest road to travel, the one paved with personal responsibility, leads to liberty. The other path, the one Dear Leader wants you to walk, the one paved with empty promises, is the road to tyranny. America seems to be equally divided between those who would take the path of least resistance, those that are willing to take the rough road and those that do not realize that there is any fork in the road. Sadly, a large segment of America is choosing to ignore reality.

The reform fervor gripping Washington is worrying many states, with U.S. governors on Wednesday speaking up about a bill that Congress is drafting to create consumer protection regulations in the financial services sector. Democratic Representative Melissa Bean may block a provision in the bill that would give states rights to protect consumers from risky financial products, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The headline in Investor’s Business Daily, Sept. 16, 2009: “45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul.” The headline in the Boston Globe, Sept. 28, 2009: “States risk it, raise tax on rich.” The problem with four of nine U.S. doctors saying they “would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” is that “the number of doctors is already lagging population growth,” reports IBD. Add millions of new patients to a shrinking supply of doctors and the obvious result is an English-style queue, longer waits in pain, and a centrally directed rationing of service....

Sacramento, CA – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that will help law enforcement officials track down and apprehend armed criminals and other prohibited persons. AB 962 by Assembly Member Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) had the support of law enforcement officials from across the state and was modeled after successful city ordinances, including the cities of Sacramento and Los Angeles. AB 962 was the Brady Campaign´s top priority bill in this year´s legislature. The law requires maintenance of purchaser records by handgun ammunition vendors. Local law enforcement can use these records to find illegal guns. "The purchase records will...

RUSH: Okay. New Zealand is looking better and better and better.

At a conference for environmental journalists in Wisconsin, Al Gore dodged questions on the many identified errors in his global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. "We're very close to that political tipping point," Gore said. "Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to make such difficult and consequential decisions." While the audience of environmental journalists were largely in agreement with Mr. Gore's presentation and his positions, one Irish journalist and filmmaker asked Gore about the many scientific errors that were found in Gore's global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth. "A judge in the British High Court,...

Welcome to the new Justice.gov. If you’re a regular visitor to our site, you’ll notice some changes today. If you are joining us for the first time, welcome. The Department of Justice launches Justice.gov today in an effort to increase openness and transparency in government. Utilizing a variety of online tools, we will be able to share news and information, not just on our own web site, but through popular social networks Twitter, YouTube and MySpace and Facebook. The Justice presence on these social networks will allow Americans to interact with the Department in entirely new ways. The new Justice.gov...

Various conservative blogs are talking about the existence of a "blog squad" at the U.S. Justice Department. The website, the Muffled Oar writes that a blogging unit formed within the Department of Justice to counter websites with posts, articles, and user comments critical of the Obama administration. Matthew Miller Director of Public Affair at the Justice Department told the Washington Times,: "There is no 'blog squad'. There is Tracy [Russo] who handles online media. It’s the policy of the office of public affairs to not post anonymous comments. We have not seen any evidence that anyone does post comments, and...

'Hate' Crimes: The House has voted to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation. Aside from violating the Constitution's equal-protection clause, just what does this have to do with national defense? The House voted 281 to 146 Thursday to make it a crime to attack homosexuals and others. The measure was attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense bill. We think the amendment itself is a crime against common sense and the law. Saying "it's a very exciting day for us here in the Capitol," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the passage of the...

Klingenschmitt said, "Please call 202-456-1111 today, and tell White House comment line operators: 'Mr. President, please keep your promise and veto the F-35 second engine in the Pentagon Budget, 2010 Defense Authorization Act.'" "Several months ago, President Obama promised to veto the Pentagon budget if it contained funding for the F-22 or a second engine for the F-35. The Senate killed the F-22, but after receiving nearly 22,000 faxes from us in the last 48 hours, the House ignored Obama's veto threat and voted Thursday to fully fund a second engine for F-35s. The House also sadly attached the pro-homosexual...

Candor about taxes is rare in Washington, so when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admits that Democrats may have to impose a huge new tax on the middle class to fund their spending ambitions, believe her. Speaking with PBS's Charlie Rose on Monday, Mrs. Pelosi mused publicly about the rising possibility of enacting a value-added tax, or VAT, as part of broader tax reform. "Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this," she said. "Of course, we want to take down the health-care cost, that's one part of it. But in the scheme of things, I think it's fair...

Harry Reid is going to use a legislative trick to push through the public option without allowing any amendments and skipping a House/Senate conference committee. Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting. Under the procedure, the substance of House Resolution 1586 would be removed and replaced with the entire Senate health care package. The maneuver would initially require the support of...

As the “public option” sinks slowly beneath the waves of public opposition, the “individual mandate” — a federal requirement that every American adult purchase health insurance, or pay a heavy “excise tax” (in the language of the Senate Finance Committee bill) for failing to do so — has become the linchpin of President Obama’s latest health care “plan.” Although this mandate has been heavily criticized on economic, political, and even moral grounds (in 1994 the Congressional Budget Office found it “an unprecedented form of federal action,” comparable only to the military draft, when proposed as a part of HillaryCare), the...

Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, has apparently hired a cadre of left-wing, Democrat campaign bloggers to troll through the Internet looking for news stories and blog posts that denigrate the Obama agenda. After such websites are found it is the job of these secret lefty bloggers to leave comments that come to the support of Obamaism in the comments sections. It seems that Eric Holder has created his own little propaganda unit in a valiant effort to become the Bloggi Riefenstahl of the Obama era. As reported at The Muffled Oar, a blog that first broke the story of Holder's...

Reid ‘Likely’ to Make Entire Health Bill an Amendment to Unrelated Tax Bill That House Passed in March(CNSNews.com) -- A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CNSNews.com that it is “likely” that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting. Under the procedure, the substance of House Resolution 1586 would be removed and replaced with the entire Senate...

Pelosi says new tax is 'on the table' By Michael O'Brien - 10/06/09 10:59 AM ET A new value added tax (VAT) is "on the table" to help the U.S. address is fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night. Pelosi, appearing on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" asserted that "it's fair to look at" the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation's tax code. "I would say put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves," Pelosi told Rose when asked if the value-added tax has any appeal to her....

Ok, so like most on this thread I have called and written my senators, Congressmen and Governor. Out of the 12-15 correspondences I have not one single reply. I have gone to the TEA parties, 9/12 in DC and a Town Hall. I have written in our local paper, continue to send and forward emails and PRAY EVERY SINGLE DAY! However, last night I had a very disturbing dream which delved deep into my psyche... Honestly, I am concerned. More than I wanted to admit and more than I ever thought. I am concerned for my children, for my job,...

At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. Eye on the UN For Immediate Release: October 5, 2009 Contact: Anne Bayefsky info@EYEontheUN.org You Can't Say That: At the UN, the Obama administration backs limits on free speech. This article, by Anne Bayefsky, originally appeared in The Weekly Standard. The Obama administration has marked its first foray into the UN human rights establishment by backing calls for limits on freedom of expression. The newly-minted American policy was rolled out at the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended in Geneva on Friday. American diplomats were...

A loaded question looms over Senate health care negotiations as they enter the crucial phase between now and mid-October: What if Democrats don't win the 60 votes they need to break a GOP filibuster? The obvious answer is that they'd resort to the obscure procedural tool known as reconciliation, which would require only a 51-vote majority. For months, Democrats have talked about using reconciliation, a process designed to facilitate fast-track approval of budget bills, if they can't reach the magical number 60. But as Democrats' informal mid-October deadline for action draws near, the complexities of reconciliation are looking increasingly nasty....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Friday wrapped up debate on a massive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system and prepared to vote on the legislation next week. "We can be proud of what we've done here," Committee Chairman Max Baucus said as the panel completed the amendment process and set a vote for next week. The panel is awaiting an official cost estimate on the roughly $900 billion measure before advancing the measure to the full Senate.The bill calls for sweeping insurance market reforms and seeks to rein in soaring medical costs and expand coverage to...

Finance Committee Democrat Won’t Read Text of Health Bill, Says Anyone Who Claims They’ll Understand It ‘Is Trying to Pull the Wool Over Our Eyes’ (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Thomas Carper (D.-Del.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, told CNSNews.com that he does not “expect” to read the actual legislative language of the committee’s health care bill because it is “confusing” and that anyone who claims they are going to read it and understand it is fooling people. “I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever...

Despite the American people’s overwhelming rejection of the notion of government-run health care, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on passage of their amended “conceptual draft� of a health care bill this week.  The committee is awaiting a “score� from the CBO before the vote -- a score forced by Democrats on a so-called “bill� that contains only “conceptual legislative language.� (The CBO score is to tally how much money the bill will cost taxpayers.) What a mess. The House is still sitting on their three bills that have been passed out of the related committees of jurisdiction...

As demonstrations have evolved with the help of text messages and online social networks, so too has the response of law enforcement. On Thursday, F.B.I. agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh. The man, Elliot Madison, 41, a social worker who has described himself as an anarchist, had been arrested in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a...

There's more than one way to get cap-and-trade, President Obama's energy czar said today. Carol Browner, the former Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) administrator who now serves in the Obama administration's newly created role of energy czar, floated the possibility today of the EPA implementing cap-and-trade energy policies, during an interview at The Atlantic's First Draft of History symposium in Washington, DC. "We also have the reality of EPA, under current law, moving forward...to start the traditional regulatory clock," Browner said when asked, during an interview with Atlantic Media Political Director Ronald Brownstein, about the difficulties of passing the stalled energy/climate...

The Diversity Czar of the Federal Communications Commission, Mark Lloyd, believes in racial exceptionalism. It is not enough to provide equal opportunity and a level playing field, Mr. Lloyd desires minority supremacy and the control of the media by “social justice” elites. Like the former White House green jobs Czar Van Jones, whose radical statements made him a shoo-in and a shoo- out for the new administration, Lloyd was picked because he lives in the echo chamber of radical leftist academia and adheres to beliefs that are so far out of the mainstream and so divorced from reality that most...

IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school. Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers. "I was freaked out. I was...

Associated Press press story, please go to link.

President Obama has begun speaking in a foreign tongue. At least some of the claims he made last Sunday during his unprecedented five-show media blitz certainly seemed foreign. There is a translation of Mr. Obama's Univision appearance on its website, but what about the rest of us? Where do we go to get a translation of "Barry Babble" into plain English? For instance, during his appearance on NBC's show Meet the Press, Mr. Obama said he wants to make sure that "...you can still get health insurance even if you've got a preexisting condition..." That statement makes no sense to...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama administration has aroused a fierce First Amendment controversy after threatening companies selling private Medicare coverage not to tell their customers that current health care legislation would result in benefit cuts - or else face a lawsuit. The administration and Senate Democrats justify the move by saying the claim, spread by at least one such company, is patently false. Yet some say the administration is the one twisting the facts to help the unpopular legislation: critics note that even the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agrees that the legislation would...

Ensign receives handwritten confirmation This doesn't happen often enough. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staft Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold." The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.