Free Republic

A Streamwood police officer accused of beating a motorist with his baton is being held on $50,000 bail. Video from Officer James Mandarino’s dashboard camera appears to show him abusing the motorist despite the fact the motorist appears to be complying with the officer, prosecutors say. "At no time during the time period when the defendant is beating the victim with his baton does the video reflect that the victim had anything in his hands, nor does the video reflect the victim making any threatening motions toward the defendant,'' Assistant Cook County State's Atty. Alexander Vroustouris said in court Thursday....

You know you are near the target when the flak gets heavy. Moreover, you also know you are at the target when the flak stops so that the enemy fighters can attack you.—Western Rifle Shooters Association A "threat to rule of law" has been exposed! By "extremists." By...uh...me. Boogedy-boogedy! Desperately seeking relevance in this latest battle of the War on Guns, Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (renamed from the National Coalition to Ban Handguns to mask its intent, although that goal remains) waves his arms, screams "Me too!" and doesn't miss a talking point, from conflating...

Ten years ago I asked the following question in a column titled "It's Time To Part Company": "If one group of people prefers government control and management of people's lives and another prefers liberty and a desire to be left alone, should they be required to fight, antagonize one another, risk bloodshed and loss of life in order to impose their preferences or should they be able to peaceably part company and go their separate ways?" The problem that our nation faces is very much like a marriage where one partner has broken, and has no intention of keeping, the...

17 News discovered a youtube video of Kern County Sheriff's Deputies and a bail bonds enforcement officer entering a local woman's home after she told them they couldn't come in without a warrant and her consent. With the evidence she caught on tape, the law seems to be on her side. "I don't need a warrant," the bondsman said as he appeared to enter on his own into the home from a back door on the youtube video. There were also sheriff's deputies at the front door. Deputies and bail bond enforcement officials have different laws but a local bail...

The F.B.I.’s raids against members of a Michigan-based Christian militia over the weekend added to concerns about rising far-right activity across the country. Nine members of the group, called the Hutaree, face sedition and weapons charges in a scheme to kill law enforcement officers to incite an antigovernment revolt. As the government deals with the re-emerging militia movement, what did it learn from the experiences of the 1990s, from the disastrous sieges in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993 to its handling of Oklahoma City bombing case? Jess Walter, author,...

(GunReports.com)--A report from a national coalition of mayors urges President Obama to adopt dozens of gun registration and confiscation measures, including the creation of a federal interstate firearms trafficking unit. After months of waiting in vain for gun control supporters in Congress to take aggressive action against semi-automatic firearms, gun shows and NRA-supported restrictions on the abuse of instant background check records and firearm trace information, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging President Obama to make 40 changes to federal gun law interpretation and enforcement on his own-without congressional approval. Bloomberg conveyed his recommendations to the president through...

Washington is out of control. It does as it likes, without restraint. It spends American money and American lives to fight remote wars for which it cannot provide a plausible reason. It determines what our children will be taught, who we can hire and fire, to whom we can sell our houses, whether we can defend ourselves, even what names we can call each other. The feds read our email and track the web sites we visit, make us hop around barefoot in airports at the command of surly unaccountable rentacops. They search us at random in train stations without...

The Democratic Left is fond of invoking history and thus heralds its new "comprehensive national healthcare reform" bill as "historic. That it is. But the historical comparison that may be most apt isn't Social Security or Medicare, both of which were enacted into law with bipartisan majorities. This latest "reform" initiative, by contrast, hasn't gotten a single Republican vote. No, the more apt historical analogy may be the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which, by allowing for the expansion of slavery into new federal territories, led to the Civil War. Of course, there is no likelihood that the United States will...

Union of American Socialist Republics - Day 1 The resistance begins. I have taken the following pledge. I ask you to join me. I pledge that I will no longer act as if I lived in a country of laws. The law is now whatever those in power decide it is. I will work to gain power by whatever means necessary. I will no longer pretend that my representatives represent me. They represent themselves first. If the looters wish to take my money to give to others, let them come take it. I will no longer act as if they...

Well, they finally did it. Despite more than a year of steadily rising public opposition, manifested in opinion polls and in protest rallies across the country, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally rammed through Obamacare late yesterday when House Democrats gave the bill their imprimatur. The House vote isn't the end of the national debate on this issue, however, as the Senate still must accept the House changes in the Senate Obamacare bill. Senate Republicans argue that the House reconciliation bill that makes significant changes in the Senate bill violates the Congressional Budget...

Enough is enough! If these CRAZIES in the majority can DEEM a BILL passed, we should just DEEM our taxes paid.

A short video by Bob Basso as Paine. The article is simply about America and what looks like the last days of the Republic as is. I am optimistic though since we are all rising up now and educating our brothers and sisters. From the Tea Party Movement to the 9-12ers, the left is on the run. No matter how many bills they try to force on us.

Winter is slowly melting away here in the U.S., and Spring will soon be upon us. Wall Street is currently flush with delight at the year long run of the stock market (driven by fiat bailouts), which at first glance appears to be doing quite well, though international incidences such as those in Dubai and Greece have revealed how shaky the market actually is in the face of any unhealthy news. In the meantime, the dollar, recently on the edge of detrimental value loss, has made a semi-miraculous recovery in the span of a few months, especially as the Euro...

When In The Course Of Human Events That this inexperienced travesty of a chief executive, Obama, more a byproduct of timing and media collaboration, than his own worth, or accomplishment, is personally advocating for the so-called nuclear option is the final straw. It’s official. After months of threatening to push the button on the so-called nuclear option, reconciliation — the parliamentary maneuver that Harry Reid said “nobody” is talking about and that President Obama said Americans didn’t care about last week — is a go. Reconcile this, you distasteful, malevolent little quisling punk - a timely reminder of some words...

This may come as a surprise to some people, but the U.S. Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court. The original Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number of justices at six. It shrank to five in 1801. It expanded to seven in 1807. It grew to nine in 1837 and 10 in 1863. It fell back to seven in 1866. It returned to nine in 1869 and has remained at that number since. Political issues accounted for the changes. The Federalists reduced the number to five, hoping to deprive Thomas Jefferson of an appointment. The incoming...

Are we on the verge of a second Civil War? I doubt it, but some curious things are starting to happen. Tensions between Liberals and Conservatives has always been present, but since the 2008 presidential election, this deep-seeded tension seem to have been intensifying. Several months ago, social media helped me reconnect with my childhood friend. We had been out of contact for about 15 years. Prior to this reconnection, I really didn't have any knowledge about the Tea Party Movement (TPM or "Teabaggers" as the Left have dubbed them). I had started using Twitter shortly before all of this,...

The welfare state and your life savings are two cars heading down a one-lane road in opposite directions. One must yield, or there will be a crash. For Americans who believe in the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self reliance and respect for private property, the solution is obvious. The welfare state must yield. For politicians who believe in the welfare state and redistributing wealth, the solution is equally obvious. Your savings must yield. Barack Obama is of the latter group. In the new health care proposal he outlined this week, he suggested a series of unprecedented tax increases that...

Online Revolt called '2011 Obama's Coup Fails' envisioned as a game taking place in reality after the November 2010 Elections. The Tea Party Social Movement mounts a grassroots opposition to Obama and the Democrats with education and entertainment combined. 2011 Obama's Coup Fails is the fusion of the Tea Party Revolt against President Obama, Pelosi and Reid with online political strategy gaming. The American Tea Party Alliance envisions dire consequences after a massive Republican win in November leading to an attempted coup. According to Mr. Lodee "The Online game educates members on the facts of the health care debate, the...

A few weeks ago, I linked to a picture of civil rights activist John Salter being attacked by a mob during a lunch counter sit-in during the 1960s. I also linked to a newspaper op-ed in which Salter explained how he and other civil rights workers used firearms for protection from Klansmen and other terrorists—when Klansmen knew that a homicide would not be witnessed by the news media. Since that blog post drew great interest from the readers, I thought that some persons might be interested in the longer version of Salter’s history of the role of armed self-defense in...

There has been quite a bit of talk lately about a growing political movement by newly-minted Constitutionalists called the “Tea Party movement”. It has been touted as a “grass roots rebellion” all over the conservative airwaves and news media, despite the huge names endorsing the ideas. In an article by David Barstow, he describes the movement as being a separate mechanism away from the Republicans, and that it has a more “traditionally conservative” background. “[A] significant undercurrent within the Tea Party movement that has less in common with the Republican Party than with the Patriot movement, a brand of politics...