Free Republic

In 1775, New Hampshire was the first colony to declare its independence from oppressive laws and taxes levied by the British crown. Now it may become the first state to declare its independence from an oppressive digital ID law concocted in Washington, D.C. New Hampshire's House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a remarkable bill, HB 1582, that would prohibit the state from participating in the national ID card system that will be created in 2008. A state Senate vote is expected as early as next week. The federal law in question is the Real ID Act (here's our FAQ on...

The explosive idea of forcing Internet providers to record their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in state capitols and in Washington, D.C.... Mandatory data retention requirements worry privacy advocates because they permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity that normally would have been discarded after a few months. And some proposals would require providers to retain data that ordinarily never would have been kept at all.... Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute, was the member of the Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity...

A Boulder woman was out of jail Thursday, after being locked up over the weekend for installing a new garage door. The Boulder Daily Camera reported in its Thursday editions that Megan Forbes was arrested and taken to jail on Sunday for failing to show up on a court summons she received for replacing her original garage door with a new one. The problem, the newspaper reported, was that Forbes' home is in the history Mapleton Hill area and replacing the original garage door on her 106-year-old home required a Landmark Alteration Certificate from the city -- something she didn't...

ATF agents discover guns not preferred weapons for ninja Ninja vs. Pirate day started as an innocent way to meet people and invite them to the Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist group on campus. Ninjas were supposed to say, “Hi-ya doing?” while pirates would introduce themselves to students with a “How arrrr you doing?” Unfortunately for Jeremiah Ransom, the sophomore detained by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents Tuesday, he was introduced to an agent’s knee. “I have a good bruise on my back where he had his knee on me,” Ransom said. Camera phone photos submitted to The Red &...

ATF agents are always on alert for anything suspicious — including ninjas. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, on campus Tuesday for Project Safe Neighborhoods training, detained a “suspicious individual” near the Georgia Center, University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said. Jeremiah Ransom, a sophomore from Macon, was leaving a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was detained. After being held in investigative detention, he was found to have violated no criminal laws and was not arrested. “It was surreal,” Ransom said. “I was jogging from Wesley to Snelling when I heard someone yell ‘freeze.’” Ransom said he thought a...

When does customization of a firearm become manufacturing? That seemingly simple question is occupying the near undivided attention of the firearms industry. Observers say it is a question with the potential to become a firestorm that could put custom gunsmiths out of business; if not behind bars. The controversy began with a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms inspection of Competitive Edge Gunworks in Bogard, Missouri. BATF and tax agents appeared and began examining the company's records. When they finished, owner Larry Crow was told he potentially faced felony charges for manufacturing firearms without a license. Crow says he was...

In the course of researching paramilitary drug raids, I’ve found some pretty disturbing stuff. There was a case where a SWAT officer stepped on a baby’s head while looking for drugs in a drop ceiling. There was one where an 11-year-old boy was shot at point-blank range. Police have broken down doors, screamed obscenities, and held innocent people at gunpoint only to discover that what they thought were marijuana plants were really sunflowers, hibiscus, ragweed, tomatoes, or elderberry bushes. (It’s happened with all five.) Yet among hundreds of botched raids, the ones that get me most worked up are the...

Thursday, March 30, 2006 Michael Bane BATF Jihad Against Custom Gunsmths!?!?! I didn't post yesterday tryng to make heads or tails of this, but quite frankly, I can't...and the information needs to get out! It appears that apparently to thumb their noses at the current Congressional inquiry into BATF abuses, BATF have launched and initiative aimed custom gunsmithing in America. The weapon they're using is a really fine point...what is the definition of "manufacturing a firearm"? That phrase is NOT defined in any legislation and, since it's not a legally defined term, it's open to interpretation. Since the late 1990s,...

From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state's southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of walrus intestine. This is the Alaskan bush at its most remote. Here, tundra meets sea, and sea turns to ice for half the year. Scattered, almost hidden, in the terrain are some of the most isolated communities on American soil. People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400) for that reason: to be left alone. So eyebrows were raised in January when the first surveillance cameras went up...

Senior Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) - An Arizona police supervisor Tuesday said the federal agency charged with regulating the nation's firearms industry "absolutely devastated" his career and his personal life, all because he gave a gun to a friend as a gift. Tucson Police Lt. Michael Lara was among a panel of witnesses who told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is in need of serious reform. Lara purchased a handgun from a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL) in 2003, planning to give it to a friend...

60 agents hired; MADD lends hand The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is saturating bars in the Abilene and San Angelo areas to arrest people for public intoxication, and bar or nightclub employees who sell alcohol to drunken customers. The TABC campaign will continue through September 2006, said Lt. Randy Motz said. ''We are meeting with retailers. We are not playing sneak attacks,'' Motz said. ''If we don't arrest a bunch of people, then that's fine. But we will do what we can to get them before they get in their car intoxicated.'' Heather Hodges, an Abilene-based MADD victims advocate, said...

FORT WORTH — A Fort Worth police officer has been fired after he was unknowingly captured on his patrol car’s video and audio recorder using obscene language and racial slurs, racing another officer and neglecting his duties to tend to personal business, according to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram on Friday. Officer Trini Feggett, who was with the department two years, was indefinitely suspended effective March 10, according to a letter filed with the Civil Service Commission last week by Police Chief Ralph Mendoza. Feggett has appealed. His attorney, Richard Carter, of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, said...

The FEC has published the final rules and explanation and justification for internet communications in pdf format. This is a 96 page document that needs to be read.

No Charges in Shooting of Unarmed Man Mother of Optometrist Killed by Police Calls Prosecutor's Decision 'Pathetic' By Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 24, 2006; Page B05 The Fairfax County police officer who shot an unarmed man to death in January will not be charged with a crime, the county's chief prosecutor announced yesterday, and the man's family angrily responded by claiming that a civilian in the same situation would have been arrested. From the start, Fairfax police declared that the killing of Salvatore J. Culosi, 37, was an accident and that the SWAT officer who fired...

<p>Thanks to John McCain, Free Republic will shut down tomorrow at high noon for 30 days. No non government approved electioneering messages may be transmitted over the internet for the 30 days immediately preceding a primary election.</p> <p>That is all.</p>

HORN LAKE, Miss. — An unidentified elderly Horn Lake couple were hospitalized Thursday after police burst into their home thinking it housed a methamphetamine laboratory. The incident occurred Wednesday about 4 a.m., said police Capt. Shannon Beshears. Beshears said it was the right address but the wrong house. Beshears said a heavily armed Tactical Apprehension Containment Team stormed the house. "We had good information from a reliable source that had been backed up by a purchase of narcotics linked to the address. However, when we arrived at the designated address, there were two houses on the lot. We hit the...

<p>John McCain, you treasonous bastard, I challenge you or any of your traitorous cohorts to find even one thread, one post, one paragraph, one sentence or even one lousy word posted to this web site that is not fully protected by the First Amendment!</p>

    Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday said Atlanta would become the 23rd U.S. city assigned a federal Violent Crime Impact Team in an aggressive effort to make that city safer.     "The citizens of the city of Atlanta deserve to live free from violent crime," Mr. Gonzales said in announcing the law-enforcement initiative during a press conference at the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta. "VCIT will help make Atlanta safer through a coordinated campaign to investigate and prosecute those individuals who threaten our communities with guns and violence."     Washington, Baltimore and Richmond are among the other cities participating in the VCIT...

IRVING, Texas -- The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has taken its fight against drunken driving to a new level. TABC agents, along with Irving police, targeted 36 bars and clubs Friday, arresting some allegedly intoxicated patrons before they departed the businesses. The officers and agents also kept watch on bartenders who might have over-served patrons. Agents arrested 30 people Friday night. Most of the suspects now face charges of public intoxication. The agents and Irving police officers traveled from bar to bar and worked undercover, according to an NBC 5 report. The report also said that some agents shared tables...

GOVERNMENT lawyers have told police chiefs preparing to “shoot to kill” suspected suicide bombers that they are likely to escape criminal charges even if they kill an unarmed or innocent person. The legal advice is contained in confidential legal papers prepared for the Metropolitan police Special Branch and chief constables. More than 150 pages of documents, seen by The Sunday Times, detail Operation Kratos People and Operation Clydesdale, the secret guidelines on dealing with suicide bombers. They provided the justification for the operation that led to the accidental shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian, at Stockwell Tube...