Free Republic

A woman who blogs in her spare time has Child Protective Services arrive at her house to interview her: You can read the whole scary story here. Sounds to me like CPS got a “tip” from a real lunatic. I guess they have to pursue everything, but it shouldn’t have been so difficult to see what was going on in this case. In a just world, the person who made this accusation would be prosecuted for malicious damage to this family.

(Reuters) - An Egyptian blogger, released after four years in prison for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak, said on Wednesday he had no regrets, and that his jail time would not deter him from activism in the future. "If I went back in time, I would not change a thing," Abdel Kareem Nabil, 26, known as Kareem Amer, told a news conference. Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to have been jailed for opinions expressed online, was arrested in 2006. He was also expelled from the state-run religious al-Azhar University. The activist said he had been freed on November 5...

The following e-mail arrived in my mailbox this morning from taxpayer-supported PBS — home of Obama sycophant and drool bucket-carrier David Brooks and Palin-basher/Obama cheerleader Gwen Ifill. Yep, the government media that has spent the last two years promoting the progressive agenda and sought a $550 million taxpayer bailout to push social justice activism now wants conservative bloggers to help publicize their election night coverage. Michelle, I wanted to send out a note to invite you to participate – even embed – the PBS NewsHour’s online-only live show tomorrow night (starting at 10 p.m. EST). It’s the first time we...

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it's not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn't Catholic enough. Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church...

PHOTO CAPTION: "Yasir Afifi said the FBI planted a GPS device on his car and later confiscated it when a friend posted this photo online. (Credit: khaledthegypsy/REDDIT)" SNIPPET: "Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old student and U.S.-born citizen found a GPS tracking device on his car. A friend posted pictures of the device, which resulted in the FBI coming by Afifi's Santa Clara, Calif., apartment to retrieve the surveillance equipment. It seems the FBI was tracking Afifi's movements..."

On a scale of forgetting your pencil at home to forgetting your 50th wedding anniversary, this ranks somewhere around forgetting your lunchbox. But it’s still funny. Last week, a Washington Post columnist started a Twitter hoax. This week, a Washington Post columnist fell for one. Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer and columnist, took "@RepJackKimble (R-Calif.)" to task Monday for tweeting that "Bush fought 2 wars without costing taxpayers a dime." Capehart responded in a blog post that President Bush advocated for "two giant tax cuts that weren't paid for and two big wars that were largely kept off the main...

NEW YORK — A New Jersey blogger being tried for a third time has been convicted of making threats against federal appeals court judges in Illinois. A New York City jury deliberated less than two hours Friday before finding Hal Turner guilty of making death threats. The three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals testified during the trial in Brooklyn that they were alerted by their staffs in 2009 to postings by Turner protesting their ruling supporting gun control. Turner wrote, "These judges must die." He also posted their photos and work addresses.

It might be a good idea for Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele to start screening his calls. Last week, the embattled GOP chairman took a call at his home from someone he thought was a prospective GOP donor and, during the conversation, dismissed the idea that former Sen. Norm Coleman might be after his job. "Norm is an old friend. Norm is not going to challenge me for RNC chairman," Steele said. "If he does, I'll put my record up against anyone who comes after me."

The Ungodly Make Three Exchanges…pt 1 Posted on July 21, 2010 by billrandles And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things… Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen… For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned...

NEW ORLEANS, LA –– New blogger Stuart H. Smith, a New Orleans-based attorney representing Gulf Coast fishermen, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and an array of major commercial interests, announced the launch of his backroom, no-punches-pulled blog focused exclusively on the spill (www.oilspillaction.com). Smith, a much-loathed legal heavy-weight in the world of Big Oil, is well known for his role as lead counsel in an oilfield radiation case that delivered a verdict of more than $1 billion against ExxonMobil....

Team Weigel rejoice – it didn’t take Dave Weigel very long to land on his feet after he resigned last week from The Washington Post. Tonight at the end of Countdown, Keith Olbermann introduced new “MSNBC contributor” Dave Weigel. Olbermann teased an announcement regarding Weigel throughout the program, and when he finally introduced his guest around 8:55pmET, he said, “We are very proud to announce is, as of like, I don’t know, 20 minutes ago, an MSNBC contributor. Welcome Dave…and you thought last week was fun, wait until you see what this week holds for you.”

Newsweek blogger Ben Adler thinks the national media are giving the Tea Parties gentle treatment. "Unfortunately," Adler wrote in a June 21 post, "what appear to be false notions of objectivity - or perhaps a lack of interest in policy - is preventing that coverage from illuminating what the movement actually represents and what it would do if empowered." Adler complained that a recent Associated Press article, "Enraged to Engaged: Tea partiers explain why," failed to examine the ideology of the demonstrators in the grassroots conservative movement. "The piece examines how and why a variety of individuals became involved in...

After profiling the different types of blog commenters recently, I had some requests for advice on how to be the good kinds of commenters, rather than the bad.  Here are some dos and don’ts that might help: 1) Be charitable. If you are not making a comment out of love, you have no reason to make it. 2) Do not comment when you’re angry. You’ll probably regret it and won’t be able to undo it.  Anything good to say will still be good in a few hours when the anger has worn off a bit. 3) If you quote part...

Note: The following text is a quote: Former FBI Contract Linguist Sentenced for Leaking Classified Information to Blogger WASHINGTON—U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams sentenced former FBI contract linguist, Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, aka Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, age 40, of Silver Spring, Md., today to 20 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for unlawfully providing classified documents to the host of an Internet blog who then published information from those documents on the blog. The sentence was announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; and...

The same sloppy legislative writing that created so many unintended consequences in ObamaCare also plagues the DISCLOSE Act, the effort in Congress to tighten spending rules in the wake of the Citizens United decision — and that’s the generous take on the situation. Reason’s Bradley Smith and Jeff Patch warn that the perhaps-unintended consequences of legislative language will allow the FEC to regulate political speech online. The fact that media entities like the New York Times have specific exemptions built into the bill makes the intent, or lack thereof, rather murky: Last week, a congressional hearing exposed an effort to...

The idea of a government "Department of Information" is not new. After all, the Nazis had one. So did the Soviets. All good little dictatorships need one in order to get the "facts" out to the people. HuffPo blogger - brain dead psychologist Jim Taylor - originally came up with the idea as a serious measure to get the "facts" out to the people. And like any enthusiastic authoritarian, he wants the government to determine what the "facts" are: Here is my proposal to return fact-based reality to our national dialogue (note: please don't miss my ironic tone):The federal government...

Abu Talhah al-Amrikee, avowed South Park critic, American hardline jihadi-Salafi, who admins The Mujahid Blog, contributes to RevolutionMuslim.com and a reader/interlocutor of this blog recently published a piece to his website entitled, “Fomenting Disunity in the Counterterrorism Movement.” I can appreciate the overall thrust of Abu Talhah’s approach (seeking to divide and conquer) as it’s one that I’ve embraced in my own writings and thinking about how degrade al-Qaida movements. The approach was actually the conceptual backbone of the “Stealing AQ’s Playbook,” article that I co-authored in 2006, which has been cited now several times by Ayman al-Zawahiri specifically because...

SNIPPET: "He now likes to be called Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, and his primary interest in this world appears to be Islamic radicalism. Last week, Chesser, 20, posted a warning on the website RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit." SNIPPET: "In a separate post on RevolutionMuslim.blogspot.com, which now serves as the group's main website since RevolutionMuslim.com has been shuttered, Chesser quoted Usama bin Laden when referencing why reactions are required when anyone insults or belittles the Prophet Muhammad. "As Usama bin Laden said with regard to...

Two Azerbaijani bloggers, jailed after posting a satirical anti-Government video on YouTube, have failed in their latest bid for freedom. Adnan Hajizade, 26, and Emin Milli, 30, last year were found guilty of 'hooliganism' and jailed for two and two-and-a-half years, respectively. Authorities say the charges have nothing to do with the video, in which a man dressed in a donkey costume, representing the government, holds a press conference with an adoring press.

LITTLE Tea Party Groups have a BIG need for a web presence for thier local members. We bloggers put up a post or two a day and think nothing of the technology. If you web template allows it, a simple "post" can be a web page for these folks and really give them a boost. And if you don't have a Tea Party group in your back yard, since we have no space/time continuum problems with the Internet, you could be in Iceland and help a "local" group in Spokane. It takes very little time for folks like us .....