Free Republic

A protest in front of the White House calling for the firing of Attorney General Eric Holder was shut down before it even began when Secret Service agents spied an unattended bag. But the incident appeared to be yet another one of Washington's false alarms -- and had the anti-Holder protesters wondering why their demonstration was cut short. “It’s definitely one heck of a coincidence. It seemed like an overreaction (by Secret Service agents),” protest organizer and activist Oliver Darcy, of Arlington, Va., told FoxNews.com. A group of about 50 activists had gathered near the North Lawn Monday as part...

One of the most important periods for the Second Amendment in recent history is upon us, as the opening meeting of the UN Arms Trade Treaty conference began this morning in New York. During the 26-day conference, world leaders are convening to finalize the terms of the ATT, which seeks to regulate the international arms trade and seriously threatens Second Amendment freedoms.   In a press kit that was released in June, the UN was obviously cognizant of the backlash surrounding Second Amendment rights, going so far as to include a "Myths & Facts" section, which states:   Also included...

Dan Burton being himself.

Katie Holmes was from the start a case of “Are you kidding me?” — a scam of gargantuan proportions ripped straight from the Kim Kardashian playbook. --------------------------------------------------- Tom’s protestations of masculine adoration were belied by his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, herself a Scientologist, whom he wed in 1987. She later complained that Tom refused to perform his husbandly duties. “He was seriously thinking of becoming a monk,” Rogers told Playboy. “He thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument, but my instrument needed tuning, and we had to split.”

Cher is refusing to back down from a Twitter comment she posted on Friday that is considered a slur against members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The pop singer and passionate Democrat sent out the tweet urging President Barack Obama and his aides to get organized or risk losing November's election to Republican Romney, who is a Mormon. Cher's tweet said: "I Feel if he (Obama) doesn't get all his DUCKS IN A ROW we'll b forced 2 listen 2Uncaring Richy Rich! The whitest man in MAGIC UNDERWEAR in the WH (White House)." Some news agencies...

A South Florida representative to the Democratic National Committee is facing scrutiny after engaging in an anti-Israel meltdown throughout a series of leaked emails reported on by BizPacReview. The official in question is Evelyn Garcia, a Palm Beach County representative to the DNC and ally of its chair, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Garcia additionally serves as a Democratic Executive Committee member and is running to become a member of the Florida State House. Garcia’s anti-Israel tirade was sparked by her allies at Code Pink, a left-wing anti-war group that regularly decries the power of the so-called “pro-Israel lobby,” which...

In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded. Is the US economy stalling? Today’s manufacturing report suggests that our “lift” is indeed reducing. We are below a reading of 50.0 which historically has been bad news. The Federal Reserve faces a dilemma since its ability to increase “lift” in the economy is impaired by 1) declining M1 Money Multiplier Ratio and 2) M2 Money Velocity. The Fed Funds Target is approaching 0% and we...

The Supreme Court justices’ stance on President Obama’s Medicaid expansion provision could be good news for states that want to lower their drinking ages from the federally mandated 21. ... The Supreme Court ruled that threatening to take away a state’s Medicaid funding unless the state does what the federal government wants is “unconstitutionally coercive” and declared it invalid. Because any given part of a Supreme Court decision can set a precedent for future laws and can even invalidate an established law if it is challenged using the Supreme Court’s new argument, the Medicaid decision could affect the National Minimum...

File this one under While You Were Out: the Obama Administration unveiled its new five-year energy plan on Thursday, when the rest of us were conveniently preoccupied with SCOTUS and the Holder contempt vote. Real smooth. Of course, it's pretty clear why they wanted this to fly under the radar: as Hot Air's Erika Johnsen noted on Saturday, the plan is just not good. She points out that it opens up a miniscule percentage of our offshore resources, but not nearly enough to make a dent in our energy use, and what's more, by constraining the number of jobs that...

The U.S. Attorney assigned to investigate recent leaks of classified information from the White House is an Obama donor, campaign finance records show. National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty reports: On June 8, Attorney General Eric Holder assigned the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald C. Machen Jr., and the U.S. Attorney for the District ofMaryland, Rod J. Rosenstein, to lead criminal investigations into recent instances of possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the New York Times.

Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would close the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers heading to countries supporting current economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. ­"There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran," Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi told reporters. "This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union's oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, alongside Catholic Bishop Richard E. Pates of the Diocese of Des Moines, led more than 1,000 people Sunday afternoon from St. Ambrose Cathedral down Locust Street to the east side of the Iowa State Capitol in a celebration of religious freedom. The 1.7 mile march was part of a national Fortnight for Freedom a two-week campaign of prayer vigils and rallies aimed at drawing attention to what Catholic churches and other-faith based organizations consider government attacks on religious freedom. Ann Block, a Catholic who belongs to St. Francis Parish in West Des Moines, said she first...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) said the economy is in a depression, in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.” Video at link.

The Huffington Post created a video mixing scenes of Republican congresswoman Jean Schmidt celebrating initial, inaccurate reports that Supreme Court struck down the individual mandate with the iconic orgasm scene from the movie “When Harry Met Sally.”

One of the nation’s largest unions has teamed with a Democratic super PAC to run $20 million in advertising aimed at keeping House seats out of Republican hands, according to plans announced Monday. The partnership between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the House Majority PAC, which most recently helped Democrats hang on to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords‘ Arizona seat, marks the continuation of efforts to consolidate the work of multiple Democratic groups. In March, the House Majority PAC joined with the Majority PAC, its Senate-focused cousin, and Priorities USA Action, an Obama-blessed super PAC focused on the presidential...

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in a rare public speech, warned that American military and financial weakness is creating a more dangerous and unstable world. Rumsfeld also said the U.S. government, both Congress and the executive branch, is dysfunctional and ill-suited for the information age. He called for creating a blue-ribbon commission to modernize the administrative functions of government agencies and institutions in both branches. The former defense secretary during the George W. Bush administration said he was asked recently what keeps him awake at night. “What I worry about most today is American weakness,” Rumsfeld told a conference...

Morgan Stanley successfully pressured Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service Inc. to give erroneous investment-grade ratings in 2006 to $23 billion worth of notes backed by subprime mortgages, investors claimed in a lawsuit, citing documents unsealed in federal court. ... The unsealing of the internal documents from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s came in one of the largest ratings lawsuits to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis. The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, based in the United Arab Emirates, and Washington’s King County, which includes Seattle. 2007. SIVs issued short-term debt to fund purchases...

Chief Justice John Roberts has handed a remarkable victory to American conservatives by threading the judicial needle with perfect precision. The initial disappointment collectively felt by Americans who had hoped for a Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Obamacare soon will be replaced, upon further reflection, by the excitement that will come with a fuller appreciation of what the Chief Justice has wrought. Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/the_chief_justice_done_good.html#ixzz1zVtA34HQ

Breakthrough opens door to several new technology possibilities By amplifying variations in successive video frames, a team of researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has discovered an amazing new way of making subtle movements captured on video — typically invisible to the human eye — distinctly visible. The group that worked on this project includes graduate student Michael Rubinstein, recent alumni Hao-Yu Wu ‘12, MNG ‘12 and Eugene Shih SM ‘01, PhD ‘10, and professors William Freeman, Fredo Durand and John Guttag. In the video below, they demonstrate how the technology works; specifically, how it is...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A judge has tossed a wrongful death suit filed by a couple who sued the managers of Staples Center over the death of their 34-month-old son, who was fatally injured in a fall from the ledge of a luxury suite. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Susan Bryant-Deason heard arguments Friday on L.A. Arena Co.’s motion for dismissal of the case brought in May 2011 by Garden Grove residents Hoia Mi Nguyen and Henry Tang, parents of Lucas Tang. The judge took the case under submission and later in the day granted the defense’s dismissal motion. “The...