Free Republic

When it comes to environmental regulation compliance, the Department of Homeland Security isn’t playing — as evidenced by a recent federal raid of a South Carolinian’s home to confiscate a Land Rover that violated EPA emission rules. Jennifer Brinkley said she saw a line of law enforcement vehicles approaching her home and wondered what was wrong, the local WBTV reported. Homeland Security agents then went to her 1985 Land Rover Defender and lifted the hood. “They popped up the hood and looked at the Vehicle Identification Number and compared it with a piece of paper and then took the car...

First Amendment: Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage. A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit. The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay...

How will future generations look back on our gravest national emergency of all time? And how will they regard what their forebears didn’t do about it? This will include what we didn’t do about border nullification, which collapsed the U.S. as a sovereign nation. What we didn’t do about the alignment of our foreign policy with that of jihad movements, which meant the end of liberty, also life itself, for our best allies. What we didn’t do about the growth of tyranny from corruption and Marxism in this cradle of liberty. Most of our progeny – and certainly those millions...

... “If the question is was there political, ideological bias inside the IRS, it’s hard to argue ‘no’ after you read that,” said Willie Geist. “And malice,” added MSNBC contributor Nicolle Wallace. “She equates Republicans as inferior to terrorists. I think motive is there, I think state of mind is there–again, if this were a legal proceeding, they’ve got their gal.”

Why are tens of thousands of unaccompanied children traveling thousands of miles to the U.S.? Is it to avoid violence? Or is it for a chance to live in a much wealthier country? The answer will likely determine whether they can stay. ADVERTISEMENT Last week, Fox News’ Catherine Herridge cited a government report showing that 219 of 230 illegal immigrants who were interviewed said they came to the U.S. because they thought they could get a free pass to American citizenship. Another study, by the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged that many “are probably seeking economic opportunities in...

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Imagine being ordered to go against your religious beliefs, and if you refuse, you could be arrested, fined, or sued. That happened to the Christian owner of a Colorado bakery who now must make wedding cakes for gay couples. However, the owner is standing his ground and his action is inspiring people around the world. Discriminating Accusation The sign on the door reads "Celebrating 20 Years of Great Cakes!" For two decades, Masterpiece Cakeshop has created art in the form of baked goods that keeps customers coming back. From cookies and cupcakes to signature cakes, Jack Phillips...

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the non-voting congressional delegate for the District of Columbia, angrily sputtered during a congressional hearing Friday that the White House should not be held up to scrutiny, saying that there was no right to know what it was doing behind closed doors. "You don't have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government," Norton said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. It was, to put mildly, a significant departure from the more traditional liberal stance that openness and transparency...

You can’t get more serious about protecting the people from their government than the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, specifically in its most critical clause: “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” In 2011, the White House ordered the drone-killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without trial. It claimed this was a legal act it is prepared to repeat as necessary. Given the Fifth Amendment, how exactly was this justified? Thanks to a much contested, recently released but significantly redacted—about one-third of the text is missing—Justice Department white paper providing the basis for...

Another Brochure, this time detailing the wonders of the new caste system that is being implemented and published by the Office of Population Affairs. [Link]

"Oversight Dems to America: “You Don’t Have the Right to Know” about White House Spending Taxpayer Dollars on Political Activity" Committee votes to reject White House claim that head of political office has absolute immunity from Congress Today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a resolution to reject White House assertions of “absolute immunity” for political affairs office head, David Simas, who has failed to appear before the Committee twice. This morning, the White House declined Chairman’s further accommodation to allow Mr. Simas to comply with his obligations under the subpoena. Yesterday, Chairman Issa offered White House Counsel Neil...

Hardly a surprise: During a recent meeting with the nation’s governors, President Obama made clear his top priority, which is to make sure that the governors don’t go talking out of turn or criticizing his policies in any way. Texas Gov. Rick Perry saw no reason to keep this a secret, and as you can see here, he didn’t:

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has offered to house an additional 5,000 undocumented children coming across the border into the U.S. and to extend the leases of three bases while the federal government seeks to determine their status.

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept. The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals...

Despite audio evidence of prohibited political activity by Obama Administration officials, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston rejected House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requests for testimony from David Simas, director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach. “Mr Simas and, in fact, everyone working for the President is absolutely immune from any demands Congress or the Judicial branch might seek to impose,” Eggleston contended. “To hold otherwise would undermine the President’s authority to rule this country.” “It would also be unfair to those attempting to carry out the President’s wishes if they were to be held answerable...

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo) is sponsoring H.R. 4986, the End Operation Choke Point Act of 2014. The bill aims to stem Department of Justice abuse of legitimate businesses. Under Operation Choke Point the DOJ working in concert with the FTC, FDIC, OCC, CFPB, and FBI has been intimidating banks in order to deny these financial resources to targeted commercial operations. While DOJ claims it is merely combating criminal activity, legal, but pariah businesses like firearms vending, marijuana dispensaries and check cashing firms have frequently been shut off from the banking system. The Administration opposes the bill. “Even though some businesses...

President Barack Obama will sign an executive order on Monday barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, senior administration officials said. The order will allow some exemptions for religious groups that are federal contractors but not as much flexibility as the groups had wanted. A religious organization would be barred from making hiring decisions based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Exceptions would be allowed for ministers, and groups would be allowed to favor individuals of a particular religion when hiring. The White House believes the order will help improve productivity by reducing...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – First, Michelle Obama seized control of your child’s school lunch and made it “healthy.” Now, the First Lady wants to change the way you buy groceries. michelle obama shopping 337 x 244A new 80-page report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture explains that federal bureaucrats hope to use a variety of tools to modify the way Americans select food items at the supermarket. The stated goal is steer consumers toward fruits and vegetables – and away from sugar- and fat-laden items. The plan is in line with “Michelle Obama’s stated second term agenda to ‘impact the nature...

"Chilling" is the word lawyers use to describe governmental behavior that does not directly interfere with constitutionally protected freedoms, but rather tends to deter folks from exercising them. Classic examples of "chilling" occurred in the 1970s, when FBI agents and U.S. Army soldiers, in business suits with badges displayed or in full uniform, showed up at anti-war rallies and proceeded to photograph and tape record protesters. When an umbrella group of protesters sued the government, the Supreme Court dismissed the case, ruling that the protesters lacked standing -- meaning, because they could not show that they were actually harmed, they...

MISSOULA, Mont. — President Obama will announce a series of climate change initiatives on Wednesday. The actions, involving a variety of federal agencies, were among the recommendations of the president’s State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness, a group of 26 officials who have worked since November to develop the proposals. One of the projects involves shoring up the power supply during climate catastrophes, and the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday will award $236.3 million. The United States Geological Survey and other federal agencies will spend $13.1 million to develop advanced three-dimensional mapping data. The new initiatives...

If the Southern Poverty Law Center got one thing right in the report it released last week about the standoff involving ranting racist rancher Cliven Bundy, it’s this: Those who broke the law need to be held to account

With just weeks remaining before federal funding for road and bridge repair dries up, President Obama will take new executive actions this week to spur infrastructure investment from the private sector, the White House announced Monday. The president will make the announcement — the details of which are not yet clear — during a speech Thursday in Delaware. “This is a key part of the president’s year of action,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.

During an Independence Day parade in Nebraska there was a parade float with a caricature of Barack Obama standing in front of an out-house. The out-house was labeled as Barack Obama’s presidential library... ...Eric Holder...has announced he will be sending a team to Nebraska to investigate the parade float.

This is the second in a two-piece article on impeachment of Barack Obama. America is navigating extraordinary travails attempting to adapt to Barack’s increasingly erratic and arbitrary decision-making. This is apparently motivated by his own misbegotten notion he’s a secular prophet who must force America to adapt into his socialistic fantasies. His trashing of the Constitution, ignoring Congress and claiming amnesia on the separation of powers has created a crisis which few on either side seem ready to address.

Outraged by what they characterized as the Supreme Court’s improper application of the Constitution’s freedom of religion clause in the Hobby Lobby case, Senate Democrats are drafting a bill to overturn the Court’s ruling. Sponsor of the bill, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) declared that “a boss’s role in health care is confined to paying for it. He has no business deciding that he won’t pay for certain medical therapies because they offend his sense of morality. My bill restores the full authority over which medical treatments will or won’t be covered to the government where it belongs.” Senator Charles Schumer...

Black American from Gang-Besieged Baltimore: 'Where Can I Get Asylum?' by Tony Lee 11 Jul 2014 1612 post a comment As the White House plans to spend billions of taxpayer funds to take care of illegal immigrant children who are unlawfully entering the country, some black Americans who live in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods are wondering where they and their children can get refugee status and aid. On Friday's Laura Ingraham Show, Elaine, a black woman from Baltimore, expressed her outrage that President Barack Obama is putting the interests of illegal immigrant children above those of American citizens....

Big Government: The EPA is now claiming the authority to bypass courts and, on its own, garnish the paychecks and attach the assets of those it accuses of violating its rules. And, as with the IRS, its hard drives also crash. The Environmental Protection Agency's insatiable lust for power has now gone beyond being the pen and the phone for President Obama's climate change, bypassing both the Constitution and the Congress in enacting rules and regulations that the American people and their representatives did not enact or even support. Through an announcement in the Federal Register, the agency is claiming...

The standoff between rancher Cliven Bundy and federal agents, which escalated into a national news story earlier this year as armed supporters of Bundy gathered at his Nevada ranch, “invigorated an extremist movement” in the country, according to a report issued Thursday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

By using summer vacation empty Public School classrooms as holding pens for the Illegal Hispanic Children Invaders, Obama has insured that these classrooms will not be de-loused and fumigated in time for Public School to start by Labor Day, 2014. This planned disruption of the normal Public School year was timed to disrupt the Fall Election Campaign, on a number of different topics, not the least of which is to provide a major distraction to numerous Obama scandals, mismanagement, and the total six year failure of the Democrat Party's Obama as a leader, both Foreign and Domestic. Did Obama time...

Over three dozen journalist organizations including the Radio Television Digital News Association, National Press Foundation, and the Society of Professional Journalists, have asked the President to drop the "excessive controls" on public information by federal agencies, branding it "politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies." There has been an ongoing tension between broadcast, print and online journalists and the Obama administration, with complaints that the Administration has limited access to events, while providing its own "coverage" through official channels. n a letter to President Obama, the groups complained about policies that require journalists to go through public...

On the radio now

Now that Republicans have made it clear that they will not participate on any level in basic problem solving when it comes to our immigration crisis, it is now on Obama to determine just how far he can go unilaterally, particularly when it comes to easing the pace of deportations. This is going to be one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency in substantive, moral, and legal terms, and politically, it could set off a bomb this fall, in the middle of the midterm elections.

First Costco removed Dinesh D’Souza’s book “America” from all of their stores, and now Google is piling on. Liberal hacks are doing whatever they can to make sure people don’t see this movie and hear it’s message. Liberals are all about trying to squash free speech. Makes me sick. From the Hollywood Reporter: Lawyers representing Dinesh D’Souza’s newest film, America, have fired off a letter to Google demanding that the search engine correct problems that they say are hampering the ability of consumers to figure out where the movie is playing. The letter claims that Google has been confusing America...

President Obama will highlight executive actions his administration has taken on a range of economic issues during a swing through Colorado and Texas this week, senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in a blog post Tuesday.  Obama will dine with a woman named Alex who received a raise after her employer was inspired by the president's State of the Union call for a higher hourly wage for workers, the White House said. And the president will tout the executive actions he has taken this year doing an economic speech Thursday in Austin, Pfeiffer said.   The events are also designed...

As Americans scrambled ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend on Thursday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services released 1,296 pages of new regulations dealing with payment rates to doctors and hospitals. The timing of the news release is part of a long pattern for President Obama's administration, which has often used holidays as an opportunity to dump dense regulatory changes when most reporters and Americans are focused on their holiday plans. The release came at 4:15 p.m. Last year, the Obama administration used the days surrounding the July 4th holiday as an opening to announce a delay...

OK. Sit down. I have a diagnosis for you. This reality is going to be hard to accept. You may have first heard this diagnosis a few years ago, and totally rejected it. Diagnosis: America is currently being ruled by a man who came to this country in 1979 determined to destroy America as we know it, and who is well on his way to realizing that goal.CLOWARD-PIVEN Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. Names you should know. Here – in their words – was the plan:“The ultimate objective of this strategy—to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual...

July 05--Anyone who wants a job next year at Anne Arundel Medical Center -- whether as a surgeon or security guard -- will have to prove they don't smoke or use tobacco. The Annapolis hospital's new hiring policy might be controversial, but it is legal in Maryland and more than half of the United States. And it's a type of job screening that is gaining favor with employers -- from hospitals to companies such as Alaska Airlines -- trying to control rising health costs and cultivate a healthier, more productive workforce. Anne Arundel Medical Center, like a growing number of...

Centuries ago, just after America won its War of Independence versus King George III, two Europeans giants again battled over liberty versus tyranny. This struggle between Britain and France certainly involved military control of the Continent. But it was also a fight which would determine the nature of global commerce and religion.

My fellow Americans, we are all bit players in the making of a metaphoric slasher movie: Obama Unchained, starring Barack Hussein Obama. Here is a summary of the movie. It is a heartwarming tale about how the mainstream media and Democratic Party suckered America into electing their extreme far-left dream president – a Trojan Horse in the form of a black man. Once in the Oval Office, Obama began incrementally implementing his socialist/progressive agenda and iron-fist pressure on Americans to conform. Everyone, including a 175-year-old order of elderly Catholic nuns, was forced to comply with Obama's decreed anti-biblical new moral...

A few days ago, we asked a simple rhetorical question: "Are you targeted by the NSA?" The answer, sadly for those reading this, is very likely yes, as it was revealed that as part of the NSA's XKeyscore program "a computer network exploitation system, as described in an NSA presentation, devoted to gathering nearly everything a user does on the internet" all it takes for a user to be flagged by America's superspooks is to go to a website the NSA finds less than "patriotic" and that user becomes a fixture for the NSA's tracking algos. So assuming one is...

Ok, this is just the germination of the plan. We have independent units from the Bolinas Border Patrol and the Central Valley Citizens militia joining forces with independent citizens militia units of Texas to defend our southern border in Texas, to protest Obama's lawless open borders policies and to rally support for Governor Perry to officially call out Guard units and Texas militia units at his disposal to defend the border!! Lawsuits will not cut it. The invasion is happening now. Action must be taken NOW!! FReepers, Patriots, Militia members: Prepare to answer the call!!

President Barack Obama has aggressively touted his use of executive authority over the last several months as he aims to cement his legacy and push his policies now and even beyond his presidency. The president's in-your-face attitude was punctuated Wednesday by his sarcastic challenge to Republicans: "So sue me." The emphasis on executive actions is a shift for Obama. In 2010, after Republicans won control of Congress, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington wrote a detailed memo urging Obama to use executive orders on a wide range of issues. But late last year, Obama hired...

VIDEO: WESLACO - The spread of scabies, chicken pox and other diseases within Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol facilities may be getting out of control, a leader with the agents' union said. National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 Vice President Christopher Cabrera said the federal government is not serious about solving the problem. Cabrera said agents have to deal with health issues affecting the immigrants. He said agents are encountering many sick immigrants, including women and children. Cabrera said the agents are beginning to contract some of those diseases. "I see it as a big mess. Unless we get serious...

By Michael Snyder July 2nd, 2014 July 4th, the United States will celebrate Independence Day once again. But who in the world are we trying to kid? Our founders intended to create a society where freedom and liberty would be maximized, but that is not what America looks like today. Instead, we live in a country that literally has millions of laws, rules and regulations. We have a government that is obsessed with spying on the entire planet and that tries to watch, monitor, track and record as much information about all of us as it possibly can. A “Big...

Sparked by fears that “many dedicated incumbents could be run out of office by well-financed campaigns by dangerously anti-government factions,” Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and 42 Democratic co-sponsors have drafted a Constitutional Amendment that aims to curb free speech. “Right now as long as a person has enough money to afford it he can take out an ad, publish a broadside, or fund a TV spot against a sitting member of the Government,” Udall pointed out. “The men and women who have devoted their lives to serving the citizens of this great republic don’t deserve this kind of treatment.” Under...

Florida sheriff defends acquisition of surplus MRAP Published June 30, 2014 Associated Press DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. – A decision by one Panhandle sheriff's office to purchase a military surplus MRAP is being criticized by some residents. The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the Walton County Sheriff's office bought the mine-resistant and ambush-resistant MRAP for just the $2,500 cost of delivery. Sheriff Mike Adkinson says the heavy-duty vehicle will protect his officers in dangerous situations. But some residents told the newspaper that the military vehicle is an unnecessary show of force in their largely rural county.

The other shoe just dropped when it comes to how the federal government illegally spies on Americans. Last summer, the details of the NSA's "backdoor searches" were revealed. This involved big collections of content and metadata (so, no, not "just metadata" as meaningless as that phrase is) that were collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). This is part of the program that the infamous PRISM effort operates under, and which allows the NSA to collect all sorts of content, including communications to, from or about a "target" -- where a "target" can be incredibly loosely defined...

Todd Starnes By Todd Starnes Published July 01, 2014 FoxNews.com A government-contracted security force threatened to arrest doctors and nurses if they divulged any information about the contagion threat at a refugee camp housing illegal alien children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sources say. In spite of the threat, several former camp workers broke their confidentiality agreements and shared exclusive details with me about the dangerous conditions at the camp. They said taxpayers deserve to know about the contagious diseases and the risks the children pose to Americans. I have agreed to not to disclose their...

Less than three weeks after the publicity surrounding Payhembury School in Devon, where the school staff have been pressured into bussing their pupils into a highly multiracial part of London on ‘exchange’ trips designed to promote multiculturalism and multiracialism, another school has been singled out for attack by Ofsted inspectors because of alleged ‘racist’ bullying, even though the pupils are all White. Payhembury School in Devon was criticised in its 2010 Ofsted report because all of the pupils attending the school are White and because the school is situated in an all White area. Payhembury School was graded merely, ‘good’,...

President Barack Obama said on Monday he would take executive action to revamp the U.S. immigration system and move additional resources to protect the border after hopes of passing broad reform legislation in Congress officially died. Republican John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, told Obama last week that his chamber would not vote on immigration reform this year, killing chances that a wide-ranging bill passed by the Senate would become law. The collapse of the legislative process delivers another in a series of blows to Obama's domestic policy agenda and comes as he struggles to deal with a...

LYNNWOOD, Wash. – Michelle Obama’s national school lunch overhaul is getting a little ridiculous. The First Lady worked with federal bureaucrats to strictly limit what types of foods can be served in school cafeterias across the country in an effort to fight childhood obesity. The federal regulations on meat, vegetables, salt, and other aspects of the school lunch has been met with staunch indignation from students who have either trashed their mandatory fruit and vegetables or opted not to eat lunch at all. Now, the Edmonds School District in Washington state and others are cracking down on birthday cupcakes and...