Free Republic

The National Rifle Association, whose policy is to back pro-gun incumbents, cites the Kagan confirmation: Her evasive testimony exacerbated grave concerns we had about her long-standing hostility towards the Second Amendment. As a result, the NRA strongly opposed her confirmation and made it clear at the time that we would be scoring this important vote. The vote on Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year's confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry...

If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority. Everything from the microscopic – the New Black Panther party – to the massive –- think bailouts – is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO. Republican staffers say there won’t be any self-destructive witch hunts – but they are clearly relishing the prospect of extracting information from an administration that touts transparency....

Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University, has studied political activism for decades. But two years ago, he thought he was participating in a unique political movement, one not organized against an idea or a war - like most he has seen or been involved with - but in support of a specific candidate: Barack Obama. Kazin volunteered for the Obama campaign during the primaries, canvassing voters in Indiana. In an essay soon after the election, in the liberal-leaning Dissent magazine, which he edits, Kazin wrote enthusiastically of a new political force he felt would endure after the election....

ARTESIA, N.M. – Rep. Harry Teague made an expensive decision last June when he supported Democratic leaders on climate change. The former oil man bucked his energy-producing home district to support Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cap-and-trade legislation — a yes vote that cost him millions of dollars in lost business at his family’s company, which services the local oil and gas industry. And it’s a vote that ultimately could end up costing the House freshman his job. Teague stands out more than most Democrats when it comes to the climate change debate. Thanks to his conservative-minded and energy industry-driven constituency, he...

A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero. "It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground," said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site. "I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11," Kaiser said. The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to...

Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook. "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal. In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites. The 55-year-old also predicted that in...

The AMC Empire 25 movie theater complex in the Times Square area shut its doors Tuesday night to deal with a bed bug problem. AMC said it has been testing and treating its theaters after getting complaints from some patrons about bed beg bites.The company said it inspected the Empire 25 Tuesday and found bed bugs in an auditorium that had previously tested negative.AMC shut down the complex, located on West 42nd Street, and began treatment, said Justin Scott, a spokesman for AMC."At AMC Theatres, the health and safety of our guests and associates is of the utmost importance and...

PHOENIX -- In the red rock and sand of the Arizona desert, just past the retirement villages and golf greens that have made this sun-worshipping city famous, sits the biggest public shooting range in the United States. Not far away are the Wal-Marts where Arizonans pay Sun City retirees to wait in line when a new ammo shipment arrives, lest the supply run out. Residents have the right to carry handguns openly, and starting last month residents who have no criminal records and are at least 21 also are able to carry concealed weapons just about anywhere, without the bother...

Maybe, for Barack Obama, it depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is. When the president skittered back from his grandiose declaration at an iftar celebration at the White House Friday that Muslims enjoy freedom of religion in America and have the right to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan, he offered a Clintonesque parsing. “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” he said the morning after he commented on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there....

As schools handed out pink slips to teachers this spring, states made a beeline to Washington to plead for money for their ravaged education budgets. But now that the federal government has come through with $10 billion, some of the nation’s biggest school districts are balking at using their share of the money to hire teachers right away. With the economic outlook weakening, they argue that big deficits are looming for the next academic year and that they need to preserve the funds to prevent future layoffs. Los Angeles, for example, is projecting a $280 million budget shortfall next year...

I just talked to Tyler Collins, who politely declined to comment as he adjusts to life as the subject of a multi-tier campaign of citizen journalism investigating his life as a Democratic activist. You know Collins. He was the guy who dressed up as a slack-jawed "Rand Paul fan," wearing a tinfoil hat and holding a sign that echoed/parodied conservative fears about illegal immigration.Why is Collins lying low? Because he has a long picture and paper trail as a Democratic activist.

Nationally, Democrats say they intend to campaign against the tea party movement. But locally, Democratic officials and activists in at least four states now stand accused of collaborating with tea party candidates in an attempt to sabotage Republican challengers in some of the closest House races in the nation. The charges of dirty tricks are being leveled in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida--and they involve more than a half-dozen contests that could tip the balance of power in the House. The accusations range from helping tea party activists circulate candidate petition sheets to underwriting the creation of official Tea...

For generations of pre-med students, three things have been as certain as death and taxes: organic chemistry, physics and the Medical College Admission Test, known by its dread-inducing acronym, the MCAT. So it came as a total shock to Elizabeth Adler when she discovered, through a singer in her favorite a cappella group at Brown University, that one of the nation’s top medical schools admits a small number of students every year who have skipped all three requirements. * They forgo organic chemistry, physics and calculus — though they get abbreviated organic chemistry and physics courses during a summer boot...

About 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, UC Davis veterinarians were delivering the cow to the fairgrounds, where she was expected to give birth to her calf before wide-eyed fairgoers as part of the long-standing Livestock Nursery program. But the cow became agitated and fled, running about 500 yards toward a tunnel connecting to the midway, said Brian May, deputy general manager of the fair. * Lafayette resident Jennifer Nelson and her children were inside Cal Expo to promote water conservation when a security guard alerted them about the loose cow. From a distance, they could see the cow penned in by vehicles....

The curse of Ways and Means Committee chairmen hangs over the House this week. As with Charles Rangel, the careers of his longtime Democratic predecessors ended with sad and ignominious ousters that weakened the once-powerful committee and ultimately the Democratic majority. The sins of Dan Rostenkowski and Wilbur Mills, as well as those of Rangel, had little to do with the work of the tax-writing panel, as Ways and Means defenders point out. But in each case, Democratic barons were taken down by sins of venality and the perception of personal entitlement. Given the potential for gross corruption by chairmen...

A law enforcement source confirms to KATU News that Portland detectives interviewed former U.S. Vice President Al Gore this past week in San Francisco. Portland police detectives interviewed the VP on Thursday, questioning him further about allegations that he sexually abused a licensed Portland massage therapist. Portland police had filed a "special report" in January 2007, recording the massage therapist's claims that Gore grabbed and groped her when she gave him a massage at a Portland hotel in October 2006. The woman went public in a June 23 National Enquirer story and held up "soiled" pants for a June 30...

The goal of the $24.75 million pilot project, backed with nearly $20 million in federal funding, is to prevent cars from circling the block looking for parking and to reduce congestion and air pollution. Initially, drivers only will notice new parking meters, which officials hope will be more convenient because they will accept coins, debit cards, credit cards and eventually the city's prepaid parking cards. When fully implemented, the trial will encompass 5,100 parking spaces in eight neighborhoods, or about 20 percent of the curbside spots with meters. Starting early next year, parking officials will start adjusting the meter rates...

Facing an ethics trial that may end his 40-year congressional career, Rep. Charles Rangel grew emotional Monday, saying the investigation has “been a very traumatic experience for me and for my family and my constituents.” But it may only get worse for Rangel in the coming days. The House ethics committee will release the detailed results of its Rangel probe Thursday, and a special investigative subcommittee has already concluded there is “substantial reason to believe” that he broke House ethics rules. Release of the report will coincide with the beginning of a “trial” of Rangel by a special eight-member committee,...

For all the talk of a splintered GOP base, with "tea party" conservatives squaring off against establishment Republicans, the Democrats have serious divisions of their own. Democratic officials were hoping that after 18 months of deep frustration by many in the party's liberal base over what they believe is President Obama's watered-down agenda, the prospect of losing ground in the November midterm elections would be enough to heal wounds. But as Netroots Nation, a conference of 2,100 liberal activists, opened here Thursday, it was clear that anger among some prominent progressives is still raw -- and it could imperil some...

Thursday’s unexpected announcement that the House ethics committee would begin a trial on ethics charges leveled against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) came after a secret, months-long effort to settle the case fell apart, according to several sources close to the situation. The negotiations were designed to avoid the extraordinary spectacle of a trial by his peers for Rangel, but they broke down when the parties in the discussions – Republicans and Democrats on the ethics committee, and Rangel himself – couldn’t reach an agreement. Due the sensitive nature of the discussions, no one involved in the talks wanted to openly...