Free Republic

Nathan Nascimento is a senior policy advisor at Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. Millions of Americans may be penalized for not purchasing health insurance It’s that wonderful time of year again: tax season. Some 150 million American businesses and individuals are expected to file taxes by this month, covering thousands of arcane provisions that determine how much you and your family will pay Uncle Sam and state governments this year. But this filing season is the second in which Americans may have yet another—and bigger—tax bill to worry about: the one forced on us by the Affordable Care Act. It...

For Immediate Release December 14, 2015 Contact: Les Dorr or Alison Duquette Phone: (202) 267-3883 Registration Begins on December 21, 2015, First 30 Days are Free WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced a streamlined and user-friendly web-based aircraft registration process for owners of small unmanned aircraft (UAS) weighing more than 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and less than 55 pounds (approx. 25 kilograms) including payloads such as on-board cameras. The Registration Task Force delivered recommendations to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on November 21. The rule incorporates many of...

At the Aspen Security Forum two weeks ago, James Comey (and others) explicitly talked about the "going dark" problem, describing the specific scenario they are concerned about. Maybe others have heard the scenario before, but it was a first for me. It centers around ISIL operatives abroad and ISIL-inspired terrorists here in the US. The FBI knows who the Americans are, can get a court order to carry out surveillance on their communications, but cannot eavesdrop on the conversations, because they are encrypted. They can get the metadata, so they know who is talking to who, but they can't find...

Stingray is the code name for an IMSI-catcher, which is basically a fake cell phone tower sold by Harris Corporation to various law enforcement agencies. (It's actually just one of a series of devices with fish names -- Amberjack is another -- but it's the name used in the media.) What is basically does is trick nearby cell phones into connecting to it. Once that happens, the IMSI-catcher can collect identification and location information of the phones and, in some cases, eavesdrop on phone conversations, text messages, and web browsing. (IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, which is the...

It looks like the days of trading half of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for half of your best friend’s ham sandwich may soon be over if the federal government has anything to do with it. A Richmond, Virginia mother received the following note, telling her not to pack a lunch for her pre-school age child. Dear Parents, I have received word from Federal Programs Preschool pertaining to lunches from home. Parents are to be informed that students can only bring lunches from home if there is a medical condition requiring a specific diet, along with a physicians note...

On Friday, the U. S. Department of Education sent a letter to Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, threatening to revoke the state’s waiver from No Child Left Behind – because Indiana exited the Common Core national standards last month. The letter states: “IDOE (Indiana Department of Education) met ED (Department of Education) requirements in its approved ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act/[No Child Left Behind]) flexibility request through the 2013-14 school year by adopting and implementing standards common to a significant number of States. Because the IDOE will no longer implement those standards, IDOE must amend its ESEA flexibility request and...

Representative Jim Moran (D-Va.) said on Monday that the $174,000 salary a member of Congress makes is not sufficient to live in the District of Columbia, even as he introduced legislation last month to raise the pay for federal workers by 3.3%—an increase that would provide a salary 114% less than the average made by lawmakers. “I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid,” Moran told CQ Roll Call. “I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity...

In 2012, grievously oppressed rabid rats convinced the Obama Administration to grant their demands. They may now be assisting Palestinians and Iranians. However, rumors to that effect have not yet been confirmed.An article about the successes of the Nation of Rabid Rats, posted here on September 12, 2012, may have been prescient. It is reprinted below with few modifications. Briefly, the Nation of Rabid Rats had persuaded the Obama Administration that its demands were fair and just. Taking into account geographical and other contextual differences, Palestinian demands resemble those earlier presented by the Nation of Rabid Rats and agreed to by the Obama...

The White House inched forward Friday with two new executive actions aimed at boosting the federal background-check system. The new laws will make it more difficult for “anyone who may pose a danger to themselves or others” to purchase a gun. NewsMax reported: Under the measures announced by the White House, the Justice Department will propose changes to the federal background check system to clarify who under U.S. law is prohibited from possessing a firearm because of mental health problems. The Department of Health and Human Services also will propose a regulation aimed at making it easier for states to...

What Mark Levin says in “The Liberty Amendments” in support of an Article V convention is not true.1 On one side of this controversy are those who want to restore our Constitution by requiring federal and State officials to obey the Constitution we have; or by electing ones who will. We show that the Oath of Office at Art. VI, last clause, requires federal 2 and state officials to support the Constitution. This requires them to refuse to submit to – to nullify – acts of the federal government which violate the Constitution. This is how they “support” the Constitution!...

Organic farmer Don Kretschmann walked around his picturesque but ancient barn and stepped up to a rustic barrel root crop washer. It's a simple machine, he said, consisting of long, wooden planks that form a cylinder, which he uses to clean freshly harvested produce on his Beaver County farm. Soil-covered carrots and potatoes go in one end, the cylinder rotates, water sprays in and clean vegetables emerge. “But who knows if I'll be allowed to keep using it?” said Kretschmann, who has farmed about 15 acres since he and his wife, Becky, bought the land in 1978. “Or this barn,...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Six in 10 Americans (60%) believe the federal government has too much power, one percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. At least half of Americans since 2005 have said the government has too much power. Thirty-two percent now say the government has the right amount of power. Few say it has too little power.

The plates can be changed instantly to display important messages, including Amber Alerts, and will let police and other drivers know if the tag is expired, if the driver is uninsured or if the driver's license has been suspended, according to the report. State Rep. Ralph Norman told WSOCTV.com switching to electronic plates could assist police in getting uninsured drivers off the road.

On February 3rd, 1913, one of the two most historic events in US history took place: the ratification of the 16th amendment, which established Congress' right to impose a Federal income tax on Americans, and overturned Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution which explicitly prohibited a general income tax. The amendment was brief and to the point, and read as follows: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." And with that, the US Federal Income...

In a bizarre attempt to outwit Mother Nature, city officials introduced beady-eyed opossums in Brooklyn years ago to scarf down rats running amok in the borough, according to local officials. Surprise: Operation opossum didn't work. Not only do wily rats continue to thrive, but the opossums have become their own epidemic, with bands of the conniving creatures sauntering through yards, plundering garbage cans and noshing on fruit trees.

Legislatures in Washington State have introduced legislation claiming state sovereignty. This legislation sends a strong message that many believe the 10th Amendment still stands. The legislation was first read a few days ago, on January 30th. It was then referred to the Committee on State Government and Tribal Affairs. While some will claim it has little chance of passing we cannot underplay the importance of the message it sends to the country. Washington State legislators have joined with New Hampshire legislators in putting our original form of a Federalist Republic in the forefront of thought at a critical time in...

ON MONDAY, August 6, South Carolina's John Rutledge submitted to the Philadelphia convention of 1787 the first full draft of a tentative Constitution. His “Committee of Detail” had been hard at work, during a three-day recess, trying to knit together a hundred different provisions for fashioning a new government for the United States of America. History does not record that anyone paid much attention to the Committee’s draft of a preamble. It read: We the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain,...