Free Republic

The raids constituted a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of the lowest moments for liberty since King George III quartered troops in private homes. Friday, January 3, 2020 Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Lawrence W. Reed Lawrence W. Reed Politics History Woodrow Wilson First Amendment Communism World War I Police State Exactly a hundred years ago this morning—on January 3, 1920—Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in...

Kristen Martin recalls her time as an intern for Bernie Sanders, in a contribution to the left's discussion of Sanders' campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.TO THOSE who have spent any significant amount of time in Vermont, it is clear that Bernie Sanders is widely beloved by his constituents. The support for "Bernie," as his supporters fondly call him, was clear on May 26 as thousands flocked to Sanders' presidential campaign kickoff rally on the edge of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. The "People's Assembly," organized by a group including former Occupy Wall Street activists and environmentalists, spoke to a...

Walt & Lillian Disney with Richard Nixon and his family at Disneyland, 1959 We tend to think of Hollywood as a bastion of leftism, and rightly so. Books like Ron Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood demonstrate the deep-seated left-wing dominance of the entertainment industry. Even with the leftism prevalent in Hollywood’s Golden Age, many unabashed conservatives found success without compromising their principles, including one of the most creative minds in the business — Walt Disney.Several biographers and writers that I’ve read have tried to declare that Walt Disney was apolitical, but I find this conclusion not to be true....

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News's James Rosen. The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law. The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime....

As we run up to the final debate- this one on foreign policy- the establishment media hopes that it will be a defining moment in the Obama presidency. But we already know that Obama’s speech- disguised as a debate- will contain nothing new. His foreign policy will be based on a simple premise:“If the rich were taxed at the same rates they were half a century ago,” said Obama senior advisor David Plouffe last year, “they’d be paying in over $350 billion more this year alone, which translates into trillions over the next decade. That’s enough to accomplish everything the nation...

Recently Bill Maher remarked during his HBO show that the military recruits the dregs of society. This infuriated Congressman Spencer Bauchus of Alabama who said Maher's comment borders on treason. This is not the first time Maher has cast aspersions on the military. Nor is he alone in his opinion of military personnel as America's societal residue. Two years ago fellow liberal New York Times reporter Chris Hedges remarked during a commencement speech he made that the military consisted of, "boys from places such as Mississippi and Arkansas who joined the military because there were no job opportunities." About a...

SPACE PRIVATIZATION: ROAD TO CONFLICT? June 21, 2003 By Bruce Gagnon The news brings us the story of "space pioneers" launching privately funded craft into the heavens. A special prize is offered to the first private aerospace corporation who can successfully take a pilot and a "space tourist" into orbit. Is this "privatization" of space a good thing? Is there any reason to be concerned about the trend? Are there any serious questions that should be raised at this historic moment? Three major issues come immediately to mind concerning space privatization. Space as an environment, space law, and profit in...

Having failed to convince the American people that the Iraq war is a result of: An neocon conspiracy A capitalist conspiracy A Jewish conspiracy An oil company conspiracy Having failed to discredit the president by claiming that: President Bush knew about 9-11 in advance and wanted it to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq The president plans to establish a theocracy The president lied about WMD’s and manipulated the intelligence Having failed to convince the majority of the American people that: There is absolutely no evidence of a link between Al-Qaeda and Iraq There is absolutely no evidence that Hussein ever...

This is a large read (a whole web site) but I am going to paste some of it below the editorial note EDITORIAL NOTE From May 2, 1936, to October 10, 1939, I was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, operating under my own name, Kenneth Goff, and also the alias John Keats. In 1939, I voluntarily appeared before the Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., which was chairmanned at that time by Martin Dies, and my testimony can be found in Volume 9 of that year's Congressional Report. During the period that I was a member of the...