Free Republic

In a stunning rebuke, the FBI's retired chief of criminal investigations says his old agency has yielded the independence Congress gave it under the law and is now subservient to a group of liberal ideologues inside the Justice Department who have pressured agents to stray into unwarranted domestic spying and censorship. Ex-FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker on Tuesday became the latest law enforcement or political figure to support creating an independent commission modeled after the U.S. Senate's 1970s Church Committee to investigate the FBI's practices and impose reforms on the storied law enforcement agency. He told Just the News that...

I wonder if we will ever be able to truly regain the checks and balances intended by the Founding Fathers Russell Kirk, arguably the best conservative intellect of the 20th century, wrote often about being on guard for ideologues. His admonition was offered because he recognized that far too many people who seek public life do so for power and not service. An ideologue is an individual who conducts political action and activity to gain political power so as to suppress or eliminate those who might hold contrary views. If one thinks about the establishment class of both political parties,...

The United State Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to force a Christian pastor in Virginia to disclose under oath his views on Islam. Pastor Steve Harrelson of the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Boston, Virginia, has been served with a wide-ranging subpoena by lawyers for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. The subpoena demands his presence to testify under oath in response to questions from Justice Department lawyers about his views on Islam as well as several other issues: DOJ Subpoena listing documents targets must provide to the government Harrelson is not a party to any lawsuit or other...

In a free and open market, the likelihood might exist that the threat of competition would encourage the traditional colleges and universities to observe and adopt some of the practices and efficiencies of the market-funded sector so as to hold down or even reduce costs and improve their competitiveness in other areas. Unfortunately, there is not only a social, but also a political quotient in play. With some notable exceptions, the academic community has long been the province of the left and the laboratory of political correctness. Some of the most extreme and notorious so-called "professors," such as Ward Churchill...

There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s "Braveheart" (what terrible timing to fondly recall a Mel Gibson movie) that summarizes the problem with politicians. Hearing of William Wallace’s rebellion in the Scottish Highlands, an inspired Robert the Bruce Jr. comes to tell his leper father (looking very much like Raiders’ owner Al Davis) the news. Thinking strategically, practically, politically, Robert the Bruce Sr. explains to his son: "You admire this man, this William Wallace. Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage, so does a dog. But it is exactly the ability to compromise that makes a man noble!"...

In the coming weeks and months, the best political spectator sport around might not be Democrats versus Republicans or conservatives versus liberals, but Democrats of all stripes turning on one another. Other than demagoguery, what Democrats are most accomplished at is fratricide (think back to the '60s and '70s). In the wake of Scott Brown's hosing of Martha Coakley, the Democrats are about to have a good old-fashioned civil war. Pity for them; bully for America. The Democrats are dividing roughly along these lines: left ideologues against pols, the latter being those congressional Democrats who like their jobs and don't...

At a World Can't Wait rally in Detroit on October 5, Rep. John Conyers made the following remarks: "To our friends all over the United States, that are doing exactly what we're doing here in Detroit, let's give them a big shout out! Detroit joins you in this great outpouring in which we begin the long and hard fought path to end the George Bush regime in the United States of America. John Conyers, Jr. is a Democratic Member of Congress who represents the 14th District of Michigan, which includes roughly half of Detroit, most of Dearborn with America's biggest...

Should a serious research university consider hiring a fascist? This question doesn't have an easy answer. After all, prior to World War II Europe produced several brilliant political theorists and philosophers who could be characterized as fascists, or proto-fascists, including Joseph de Maistre, Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger. Whether, post-Auschwitz, it's possible even in theory to advocate similar views in intellectually plausible ways is an interesting question. It is not, however, a question that has any relevance to the case of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, despite the obvious fascistic streak in Churchill's writings and public performances. As a...

On October 5th, for purposes of a local TV program I host, I'll have the opportunity to conduct a one-hour, one-on-one interview with Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Party presidential candidate, who is said to be polling as much as 3% and who could conceivably impact the race in a number of states. I'd be interested to hear from my fellow FReepers. What do you know about Badnarik? What questions would you want to see asked? Your thoughts?

The entire nation owes radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh a debt of gratitude, Libertarians say, because his ordeal has exposed every drug warrior in America as a rank hypocrite. "One thing we don't hear from American politicians very often is silence," said Joe Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. "By refusing to criticize Rush Limbaugh, every drug warrior has just been exposed as a shameless, despicable hypocrite. "And that's good news, because the next time they do speak up, there'll be no reason for anyone to listen." The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers -- drugs he is accused of...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - The Bush administration's appointment of pro-life physicians to a federal health advisory panel on Christmas Eve prompted an outcry both from the nation's pro-abortion political lobby and from the country's largest owner of for-profit abortion facilities. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Mark McClellan, M.D., praised all of the new appointees to the agency's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs. "Each of these 11 physicians brings strong scientific and medical backgrounds to this important advisory group," said McClellan, the administration official in charge of the appointments. "Under Dr. [Linda] Guidice's stewardship, this panel will provide sound,...