Free Republic

"My dad fought a war so this can never happen in America. I will not dishonor my father's memory by giving up what he fought for. No, sir. With all due respect, I will not consent to a search without a proper warrant." James Fallows May 21 2013, 11:34 AM ET Over the weekend I related the story of Gabriel Silverstein, a businessman and pilot who for no apparent reason was subjected to a two-hour detention and invasive search by Homeland Security officials as he traveled across the country in his small plane. The picture above is not from that...

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012. More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency's Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS' regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today **snip** High-ranking career federal civil servants like Ingram are eligible for recognition through citations known as Distinguished and...

Ct Sen Murphy has asked News Corp not to air the NASCAR NRA 500.

Piers Morgan and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s want to be dictators and slave masters. Regulating a person’s diet is the regulation of a person’s life. Here was Morgan’s response to a guest who disagreed with him on sugary drink control:“I think people need [these types of laws] occasionally, particularly on issues like smoking, drinking, guzzling sodas too big for them, you know, eating 16 Big Macs a day, whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that. That’s why so many people are on diets. That’s a form of nanny state.”When governments...

Upgrade on the whole "Suicide by shooting yourself multiple times in the chest and then head"... From another thread brought up as a point that there used to be a lot of suspicious "suicides" like the ones you see in Russia where a journalist hurls them self off the top of their own apartment building when the roof access door was always locked. Or where the person who was a political dissident decided to strangle them self and then saw off their own head after shooting them self in the head multiple times but it is ruled as a "suicide"...

Guns and abortion. One is an enumerated, constitutional right, and the other is not. The Second Amendment guarantees the right of the people of the United States to keep and bear arms. It’s not a government-given right; it’s a natural right—the right to defend yourself, your family, and your freedom. In rare circumstances, abortion might be necessary to preserve the mother’s life. But there is no right to kill unborn babies in the U.S. Constitution. But 40 years ago next week the U.S. Supreme Court contended that abortion is an implied “right of privacy,” one that previously had lain hidden...

YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A deal to give New York one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation is being negotiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, sources said Tuesday, is hoping to announce the plan Wednesday during his State of the State speech in Albany. Cuomo hopes to jump-start the 2013 legislative session with a big deal that could dramatically alter gun control laws across the state.Highly placed sources told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer that Cuomo is negotiating with Assembly and Senate leaders for a package of gun control laws that would be a dramatic response to the...

COMPLETE TITLE: Government Scientist Threatens “Murderous Rampage” After Watchdog.org Exposes Massive Spending at Secret Junk Science Lab ~ ~ ~ ~ Nutty Professor Kerrilee Ann Crosby threatened a “murderous rampage” after a conservative group exposed massive spending at a secret green junk science lab.Watchdog.org reported: A woman angered by a Watchdog investigation into the government lab where she works retaliated by threatening mass murder against this news organization in several Twitter posts. “Have you ever felt like going on a murderous rampage? Start at @WatchdogCO ‘s offices. They perpetuate lies like this,” Kerrilee Ann Crosby tweeted last month while working...

Not since the tear gas and mass arrests of Chicago 1968 have the Democrats put... --snip-- But the pinnacle of the week came in two key moments. The first occurred in an opening DNC video that included the jaw-dropping line "Government is the only thing that we all belong to." Who exactly wrote the script for this video? Chairman Mao? As Mitt Romney appropriately tweeted in response, in America, "[w]e don't belong to the government. Government belongs to us." That Democrats see this foundational reality completely backwards is extraordinarily instructive. Couple that revelation with the Democrats' decision to drop the...

The election of a Sudanese warlord accused of genocide to the United Nations Human Rights Council is now virtually guaranteed, since he has the full backing of the world body's African delegation. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Omar Al-Bashir -- its first ever for a sitting head of state -- for crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in Darfur. Yet, his regime is set to take its place on the panel, in the latest bizarre appointment to make a mockery of the UN's human rights credibility, according to critics. It's like putting “Jack the Ripper in...

1. Put this in your "God is really, really smart. Humans? Not so much." file. Within just the last few years, farmers all over the U.S. have noticed a strange and completely heretofore unseen incidence of SULFUR deficiency in crops. Odd. Why would sulfur deficiency issues suddenly appear where they had never been seen before? It turns out that the sulfur in the diesel burned by the tractors would aerosolize in the exhaust, and then precipitate and FERTILIZE the ground at planting and harvest as the tractor effectively covered the entire field. When the tyrannical government removed pretty much all...

The EU should "do its best to undermine" the "homogeneity" of its member states, the UN's special representative for migration has said. Peter Sutherland told peers the future prosperity of many EU states depended on them becoming multicultural. He also suggested the UK government's immigration policy had no basis in international law. He was being quizzed by the Lords EU home affairs sub-committee which is investigating global migration. Mr Sutherland, who is non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former chairman of oil giant BP, heads the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which brings together representatives of 160...

A New York City barber was accused of violating the city’s discrimination policy because he charged women three dollars more for a hair cut than men. “I’m here for 21 years and I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said Leon Kogut, the owner of Leon’s Fantasy Cut in Brooklyn. “The guy tells me this is discrimination of a woman.” An inspector slapped the barber with three violations totaling $650 in fines. Kogut said the inspector took issue with the fact that he charged $13 for a man’s haircut and $16 for a woman’s. “A woman’s haircut requires a lot...

The global dominant narrative about China is wrong, claims Gordon Chang. Don't expect it to be the 'pocketbook of last resort' that will rescue world markets from their current malaise. And don't expect its remarkable economic growth to continue. In fact, expect a "hard landing" for China - and soon. Forbes.com columnist and international lawyer Gordon Chang has spent much of his time since the early 1980s working and living in China. His primary knowledge of the country and his relationships there give him a superior understanding to how its economy is actually faring than many analysts based in the...

General Eric Holder told Congress just last week that “the U.S. is losing the war on arms trafficking.”

San Ramon Valley Unified School District installs 10k photovoltaic panels at five schoolsIn a move that is proving to be controversial with some, some California school districts are looking to a high-tech way to save money, even if the payback won't be achieved until well over a decade later. CNN is reporting that some California school districts are looking to low-interest federal loans to install solar panels on schools. CNN singled out the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, which has installed roughly 10,000 photovoltaic panels at five of its 35 total schools at a cost of $23 million. Under...

In March, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, sent a “Message to Congress” outlining its desired goals for K-12 public education policy and spending. Higher pay is a general theme, which fits in with the union’s ongoing “Be Proud to Say, I’m Worth Professional Pay” initiative. It quotes a study that praises the success of schools in other nations: “In South Korea, the average teacher earns more than a lawyer or an engineer.” Yet the union’s core agenda protects a system that virtually assures that “professional pay” cannot happen. Engineers, lawyers, doctors, and so forth – even...

A woman fighting a terminal form of bone cancer is trying to raise money to help pay bills with a few weekend garage sales, but the city of Salem says she’s breaking the law and is shutting her down. Jan Cline had no idea, but the city of Salem has a clear law that states a person can only have three yard sales a year. Cline has been selling her stuff in the backyard for a few weekends and said she thought she’d be fine by keeping the sale out of everyone’s way. “It’s a struggle,” Cline says. “It’s a...

Nine Chicago neighborhoods riddled with foreclosures will get a blitzkrieg of cash and attention to turn those properties around, thanks to a $20 million loan pool unveiled Wednesday. With foreclosures rising by 20 percent in 2010, and resources steadily declining, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying a new approach to combat the epidemic that threatens to tear down entire inner-city neighborhoods. Instead of approaching the problem on a house-by-house basis, the mayor is targeting “small sub-sections” of nine neighborhoods hardest-hit by the foreclosure epidemic: Humboldt Park; Chatham; Chicago Lawn; West Woodlawn; Auburn-Gresham; West Pullman; Belmont-Cragin, Englewood and Grand Boulevard. All nine...

On September 24th, people from across America and across the political spectrum will convene at Harvard University to discuss the advisability and feasibility of organizing towards a Constitutional Convention. The conference's lead organizers are both proponents and opponents of an Article V convention and we actively encourage the participation of those who support a convention and those who oppose holding a convention at all.

Rather than a Constitutional Amendment, a Simple 1or 2 page Law could inspire much of our Government's needed change in fiscal outlook. The “Sunset Clause, with TEETH” is what makes it! EXAMPLE: A Bill to link the Pensions of elected Federal Office holders to this Nation's “Debt Ceiling” NO elected Federal Office Holder may draw a pension for that Service UNLESS our Nation's “Debt Limit” and actual “National Debt” went DOWN during that term of Service {was lower at the End of said Service, than on the Day of his/her swearing in.} ANY future Bill, or other attempt,to alter, amend...

A civil-rights group is calling on Boca Raton High School to stop its practice of searching confiscated student cellphones and punishing students who don't provide access to their text messages or other content. The National Youth Rights Association of Washington, D.C., on Monday outlined its concerns in a letter to Boca Raton High Principal Geoff McKee. This complaint, which is the organization's first challenge on this issue, contends the school's practices "infringe upon the fundamental freedoms of its students and run counter to the holdings of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the Florida Legislature." The letter acknowledges the...

This is how the progressives do it. Plant some seeds, then before you know it these kinds of ideas will be all over the media. Time magazine cover features shredded U.S. Constitution, asks if it still matters And This Exists: Iceland Rewrites Their Constitution Using Suggestions Through Twitter This second link has me more troubled than the first. The things that Fareed Zakaria are saying could practically be lifted right out of the pages of The Road to Serfdom. I don't think it's possible to state just how much danger we are in. These progressives are out for blood.

Barack Obama has come under fire for extending a formal invitation to a shamed African dictator who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country. The U.S. President will today have a coveted private meeting with President Ali Bongo of Gabon in the Oval Office despite his appalling track record. Bongo’s family has ruled the impoverished African nation with an iron fist for five decades and have used its oil riches to fund a life of outrageous luxury. Meanwhile one third of people in Gabon live on less than $2 a day and thousands starve to death each...

We have two branches of government—Congress and the courts—expressing grave concerns with our agency becoming increasingly unmoored from our statutory authority. By seeking to regulate the Internet now, we exceed the authority Congress has given us, and justify those concerns. —FCC Commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker[1] Should regulators in Washington, D.C., set the rules for the Internet? Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), thinks so. He has crafted a plan to impose so-called “net neutrality” rules on Internet service providers, setting an FCC vote on the proposal for next Tuesday.[2] Details of the plan are not yet known...

Joel Rosenberg tried to bring a gun into the Minneapolis Police headquarters and the cops wouldn't let him. Now Rosenberg is accusing the cop who took his gun of assault. Earlier this month, Rosenberg, who says he is a science fiction writer and handgun instructor, paid a visit to the MPD chief's office to pick up some documents he'd requested. Sgt. William Palmer, the public information officer, saw that Rosenberg was packing, and asked him to dump the gun. Rosenberg refused. He insisted he had the right to wear his gun. Palmer explained that a court order prevented him from...

I received the most heartfelt letter yesterday in my PM. As it serves to discuss the greater issue I am reprinting it here along with my response. “Dear Coffee Man, I have been following your writings here on Election Ink as well as on the Huffington Post and feel you might be someone who will take the time to help me with a moral question. My eight year old daughter recently came home from school with the most disturbing story. Imagine my surprise when she began telling me after seeing a picture of our president on the kitchen television, about...

I received this from a friend. It will take you a few minutes to read, which I hope you will do, from beginning to end. The sermon was met with resounding applause, most unusual (unheard of in a synagogue). I think that the simple act of applauding must have, at that moment, given the congregants a feeling of exhiliration. The sermon was delivered on Rosh Hashanah 2010 by Rabbi Shlomo Lewis in Atlanta, GA. It is now referred to as the Sermon of the Century. --------------------------------------------------------- I thought long and I thought hard on whether to deliver the sermon I...

By their fruits we shall know them, and so we know them. This is who and what the Democrats are. They are at war with the American people. It was Obama and Hillary, his Secretary of State, who reported the American people to the most egregious abusers of basic human rights, the UN 'Human Rights" Council, which includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Libya, Angola, Mauritania, Qatar, and Malaysia. Child slavery, anyone? This is the first time ever that the US is facing scrutiny from the evil forces of the UN Human Rights Council. Thank you, Obama. More proof that...

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...

Democrats on the Hill have not been successful at passing a climate change bill yet and many believe such legislation will not be possible unless the bill is put forth during a lame duck session following the November mid-term elections. In the meantime, the Environmental Protection Agency's Lisa Jackson appears to be looking for ways to legislate climate change regulations if the Congress cannot deliver a bill. In an interview with NPR's Liane Hansen on Sunday, Ms. Jackson talked about what the EPA plans on doing in the absence of climate change legislation.

A bit tongue-and-cheek and a bit serious at the same time. I had some fun with this one. “Obama thinks he is a great asset. He’s off by two letters”. I stared in amazement as he continued. “There but by the grace of God, goes God, that’s what Obama thinks of himself”. Stunned, I had to sit down, my mind racing trying to make sense of a talking dog. Did I smoke something or drink something I shouldn’t have? I looked on in amazement as he continued. “I’ve had it with Obama’s delusions of adequacy! The man is mercifully free...

Robin fought against an oppressive government that levied crushing taxes. The government was led by King John, a weak man who aspired to be a tyrant, but was not quite up to the job. He had the ruthlessness, but not the strength. He evoked fear and anger, but not loyalty or respect. Is the Times implying that President Obama in any way resembles King John? King John followed King Richard on the throne. Richard had spent much of his reign away at the Crusades, fighting to retake the Holy Land from warlike Muslims who had seized it from its former...

During a discussion on O'Reilly about Bill Clinton's recent attempts to compare the Tea Party movement to the impact of conservative talk radio like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, etc. as having caused Timothy McVay to bomb the Oklahomea Federal building, Dick Morris suggested that Bill should zipper it because Clinton had indicated that this is the first time that he has divulged a comment by Bill that he had to renominate Janet Reno for another term as Attorney General or she would go public about Waco.br>WOW!!!!!

The CEOs of some of the country's biggest companies are being summoned to Washington to defend claims that the health care reform law would cost them millions -- a move Republicans say amounts to intimidation. Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on Friday fired off letters to the heads of Caterpillar, Verizon, AT&T and Deere after they and other firms reported that the health care overhaul would dig deep into their bottom lines. Caterpillar claimed it would raise costs by $100 million in the first year and imperil coverage for its 150,000 employees and...

One of the key undecided members of Congress on health reform, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), remained uncommitted yesterday but said she is "leaning" in favor of the bill after getting some personal attention from President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "I am leaning toward voting for the bill if we can properly deal with the abortion issue and we are fast about that task," Miss Kaptur said. A photograph taken yesterday shows both Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid (D., Nevada) with hands on Miss Kaptur's shoulders while they were all at a signing ceremony at the...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama has no constitutional concerns about signing a bill passed by controversial House rules that are being proposed by Democrats to pass healthcare. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, would sign a bill if it is passed by the controversial "Slaughter Solution," Gibbs said. The proposal would deem the Senate version of the bill passed after House approval without an actual vote in the House. House Republicans have cried foul, and many have questioned whether that process would be constitutional. But Obama has downplayed any controversy surrounding the procedure, telling Fox...

Almost every Synagogue I have ever entered has these Hebrew words somewhere in its sanctuary, Dah Lifnei Mi Atah Ohmed, they are usually on top of the Ark which houses the holy scroll of the Torah. It means "Know Before Whom You Stand." It's a signal to remember that where ever you go, you stand before God. It's also a signal that the Synagogue is a Holy Place and you need to be careful what you do, say and bring into this holy building. Yesterday Rabbi Lustig of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, forgot what that Hebrew phrase meant when he...

Many people have wondered why Barack Obama and his team seem to have a soft spot for tyrants. Was it just the anti-Americanism and radicalism imbibed by Barack Obama from his youth and stoked by the ministrations of his minister, Jeremiah Wright and by his pals and comrades such as Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi? Or was it just the fad found in academia where Barack Obama has spent so many years? But maybe it is something else entirely. Maybe Barack Obama just likes their style - and we know this is a man who appreciates style because he seems...

It has come to this, America. Democrats have decided that if you don't agree with their policies, you are to be fined. And if you don't pay the fine, you are a criminal and will be sentenced to jail. That's right, Democrats are criminalizing dissent. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to leave language in her heatlhcare bill that criminalizes and prescribes jail time for any American that does not want to buy private healthcare insurance. Think of this, America. I am telling you that the U.S. Congress has decided to force you to buy the product of...

In Massachusetts not long ago, I found myself driving behind a car with "Free Tibet," "Save Darfur," and "Obama 08" bumper stickers. I wonder if it will ever dawn on the owner of that car that at least one of those stickers doesn't belong.

I hate to see what is happening in this country. I believe this HERO bill, dedicated to the Minutemen, sums it up. Please print out both sides when you use it, to mail to your RINO or liberal congressperson. Heck mail it to your good conservative republican, he or she will like and agree with the principles on the back. For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

When Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" in 1983, he was articulating in the boldest terms what had always been an American understanding. The Kremlin had long been fomenting communist revolution the world over, and we had long pursued our policy of "containment." Thus did we fight wars in Korea and Vietnam, facilitate coups d'état against people such as Salvador Allende and support anti-communist rebels such as the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Of course, plans didn't always come together. There was the Bay of Pigs debacle, and the covert Iran-Contra operation getting front-page exposure. The "police action" in...

In case you haven't seen a TV in the last month, here is some background. Bertha Lewis is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Organizer of ACORN, the largest community organization in the country. Appointed in May 2008, Ms. Lewis oversees the operations of its 400,000 strong membership, which is active in over 110 cities across the country. During the past few weeks while Lewis has been all over the press defending her organization, she has claimed that her first priority is ACORN's Clients, those poor people needing housing, medical care, etc. If she is so concerned about "the little...

A photo and article summary showing Obama's unmistakable love affair with tyrants.

When we consider Carter’s actions both in and out of office, we wonder how we could have made the mistake of electing him in the first place. We can only hope that the current occupant of the White House will not evoke similar thoughts, although just now, things don’t look promising. Jimmy Carter is a national treasure. His inverted moral compass unfailingly points south. If we wish to find a wise and moral path to follow, we need only observe which direction he is going, then go the opposite way. Now, if only I could find a financial advisor who...

He could have said the election’s irrelevant from our standpoint since we have to play the cards we’re dealt; he could have noted, as Obama’s often done in the past, that true power resides in the supreme leader so it’s only his legitimacy that’s at issue; or he could have told the truth and said that all Iranian elections are shams since true reformers aren’t allowed on the ballot. Instead, so desperate are these tools to get Iran to the bargaining table and show Americans some sort of dividend from Hopenchange diplomacy that Gibbs actually acknowledges Ahmadinejad as the “elected...

If Barack Obama disappoints his supporters, they will have only themselves to blame. In January 2007 Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, said he was running for president to revive “our national soul”. He was not alone in taking an expansive view of presidential responsibilities. With the exception of Ron Paul, all the serious candidates waxed grandiloquent about their aims. John McCain said he modelled himself on Teddy Roosevelt, a man who “nourished the soul of a great nation”. Hillary Clinton lamented that America had no goals, and offered to supply some. And let us not forget the man...

he New York Times may have a reputation as America’s premiere newspaper, but it also has a well-deserved reputation among informed Americans as a flunky for every big-government scheme that ever came down the pike. Moreover, New York Times' reporters on the scene in Russia and Cuba repeatedy put out false stories benefiting Stalin and Castro, two of the most tyrannical dictators of modern times. The New York Times’ affair with false reporting on behalf of totalitarianism is far more serious than than Jayson Blair's plagiarisms and fabrications in various stories in 2002-03, or even last year's admission that the...

Iranians are protesting and I suppose that is something lovers of freedom can take pride in but these protests leave me somewhat baffled. The Iranians are contesting the elections under the Ayatollah controlled regime but they are not contesting the regime itself which begs the question: what policies are Mousavi planning to enact that are so drastically different than Ahmadinejad? The answer is his policies cannot and would not stray too far from what the current President is doing because Mousavi, as the rest of the candidates, were prescreened by the "power that be" in Iran. Are they going to...