Free Republic

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Monday the indictment against his former boss Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents is “entirely of his own making” and “not the result of unfair government prosecution.” “For the sake of the country, our party, and a basic respect for the truth, it is time that Republicans come to grips with the hard truths about President Trump’s conduct and its implications,” Barr wrote in an article for The Free Press. “The effort to present Trump as a victim in the Mar-a-Lago document affair is cynical political propaganda.” The former AG went on to...

How many times have we seen it from the liberal media? They detail a large gathering, with the insufferable comment “no masks.” The mask has been the crutch for the panic peddlers, something they think offers a total shield against COVID. Wrong. It doesn’t. I wore a mask and I still contracted the virus last November. Second, the so-called experts led by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his crew have clung to mask-wearing even for those who have been vaccinated which is nothing but theater. If we go down the list, the experts have been wrong on just about everything. Contracting...

As we all know by now, a respirator or mask is most useful for protection when you must be in close quarters with one or more people. That's why they are a must for healthcare workers and it looks like we'll be seeing more mask mandates for the general population. If you have to wear a mask in public, my feeling is it might as well be a good one. At the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, demand for masks worldwide outstripped production capacity and prices jumped to outrageous levels, prompting many of the handier types, like myself, to some...

In its first ruling of 2015, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has held that businesses may not allow individuals to use their equipment to further process incomplete firearm blanks, frames and receivers , attorney Joshua Prince reported Saturday. Such businesses may not assist or provide machinery access to unlicensed individuals without being licensed firearms manufacturers. The ruling, signed by ATF Director B. Todd Jones on Friday, also holds that the businesses must “identify (mark) any such firearm and maintain manufacturing records,” and that Gun Control Act requirements may not be avoided by allowing persons to perform processes...

The making of a Steinway piano is a time-honored process involving the hands of many skilled craftspeople over the course of almost a full year. Steinway & Sons pianos are built in just two factories worldwide - one in Astoria, NY and one in Hamburg, Germany. Both factories have been building pianos for well over a century, and although Steinway has always been at the cutting edge in utilizing and perfecting the latest technology where it could make the piano better, we have found that certain things are simply better when done by skilled craftspeople than by a machine. For...

This mailer arrived in our box for my wife today. My first suspicion was that this mailer was under her ‘familiar’ name, not her ‘legal’ name. Plus, she’s already registered to vote. But there was something fishy about this mailer so I couldn’t help but delve deeper. It appeared to come from the Virginia State Board of Elections, but upon further investigation it actually came from the Voter Participation Center, which is a partner organization with the George Soros funded Center for American Progress and both groups have direct ties to the Obama White House. It started out as part...

As the Administration’s push for alternative fuels grows stronger, Congress is set to consider H.R. 1380, which would create very generous tax credits to manufacturers who retrofit existing work vehicles to run on natural gas rather than on that terrifying global menace known as oil, and very generous subsidies to natural gas vehicle consumers: $7500 per car and a whopping $64,000 for heavy-duty trucks and 18-wheelers. It’s common knowledge in DC that Texas hedge-fund operator and natural gas-magnate T. Boone Pickens is the force behind this bi-partisan, pork-laden legislation, possibly because his natural gas empire would greatly profit from the...

After taking credit for President Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate to quell doubts about his citizenship, real estate developer Donald Trump may have to release his own records to address questions about his past. Donald Trump, who claimed this week that a high draft number kept him from fighting for his country in Vietnam, actually received a series of student deferments while in college and a medical deferment after graduation, according to Selective Service records. The Smoking Gun first reported the revelation after obtaining the paperwork from the National Archives and Records Administration. But it's still not known what...

With unemployment still above 9% nationwide and new up-ticks to over 12% in the nation’s largest state, President Obama spoke out on the need to “turn things around.” “For an economy to grow we need to build and invent stuff,” the president observed. “I’m not quite sure on what it takes to get stuff invented and built, but my Administration has been working hard to try to put together the right mix of bailouts, subsidies, and tax increases to do the trick.” According to the president, “one of the deterrents to inventing stuff is the uncertainty of turning a profit...

Kevin Drum, who I recently learned lives not far from me, has some thoughts on yesterday’s Obamacare decision and the enumerated powers of the Constitution: The state of Massachusetts can basically do anything it wants as long as it’s arguably rational and not specifically prohibited or reserved to the federal government. And this works out fine, which is why it’s so odd to hear opponents of a federal individual mandate chatter so furiously about slippery slopes and tyranny. After all, the argument goes, if the commerce clause of the constitution is interpreted to mean the federal government can force you...

Dinesh D’Souza makes a good point in the video you’re about to watch. Obama never does speak about entrepreneurship and business in a positive light. He’s always demagogues the hell out of free markets, as if all financial successes were the result of “greed” and the “rich” not paying their fair share. (Like government bureaucrats are in any position to judge what a “fair share” of taxable income even is.) Here’s an idea: How about Obama talk about the “greed” of government politicians who have an insatiable appetite for confiscating more and more money that they never earned. But I...

Let me first always remind readers that polls are a snapshot in time. Two years from now, President Obama could be sitting on top of the world politically. But for now, he has lost all but 38 percent approval from the critical "independent" American voters. They're the ones that gave him the presidency. He appears headstrong in his determination to show the nation what a disastrous presidency looks like. Pundits often point to the presidency of Jimmy Carter as the modern example of a failed leader. It is no secret that I have, despite my former years as an active...

THIS WEEK (not 50 or 100 years ago), African Americans from ACORN were willing to enable children to become slaves - SEX SLAVES! Yet Radicals (fueled by media, public education, professional race peddlars as well as clever and corrupt distribution of tax dollars), still use our slave past to abuse America..... Why are we stuck in America's past while up to 60,000 humans a year are sold into slavery worlwide? ************************* Each year about 17,500 individuals are brought into the United States and held against their will as victims of human trafficking.... Some estimate the number is as high as...

Goldman Sachs traders in London and New York made a daily profit of more than $100 million (£58.8 million) on an astonishing 46 days during the past quarter. The record figure revealed by the bank this afternoon meant it broke the $100 million-a-day barrier on three out of every four working days. As market conditions improved during the quarter, it easily beat its 34-day record for making that figure in January, February and March. Goldman lost money on trading activities on only two days in April, May and June, compared with eight days in the preceding three months. Its record profits and...

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2009 – Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team have made a positive impact on security and quality of life in Iraq’s Basra province, their commander said during a briefing from Iraq today. Their impact can be attributed, in part, to successful training programs, Army Col. Butch Kievenaar said. “We started with an assessment of training proficiency for the Iraqi army, police and Department of Border Enforcement,” he said. “[That was] followed by a mutually agreed-upon training plan that focused on building sustainable capability.” Sustainable capability refers to building basic and realistic systems for...

President Obama announced tougher energy efficiency requirements for certain types of fluorescent and incandescent lighting on Monday, the latest step in the administration’s push to cut the country’s energy use. The new rule , scheduled to take effect in 2012, will cut the amount of electricity used by affected lamps by 15 to 25 percent and save $1 billion to $4 billion a year for consumers, the White House said. “Now I know light bulbs may not seem sexy,” Mr. Obama said, “but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is...

A judge in Central California has taken the unusual step of tossing out, in advance, the results of an upcoming school board election after finding that it violated the terms of the California Voting Rights Act.

BASRA, Iraq, Dec. 3, 2007 – Army Maj. Rick Smith’s job includes coordinating and building relationships between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the British army. Army Maj. Rick Smith (left) poses at the Basrah, Iraq, area office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with coworker Tia Chandler and visiting Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Dorko, commander of the Gulf Region Division. Photo by A. Al Bharani  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Relationships are key in my position,” he said. “Each day is always busy." Smith is executive officer and operations officer of the Basra Area Office of...

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is making its way into a giant impact crater to learn more about the Red Planet's geologic past. Engineers sent commands to Opportunity to drive into Victoria Crater and received a confirmation signal from the rover. It will be several hours before NASA knows how well the drive went. Opportunity is expected to drive all six wheels into the crater and back out before making the full plunge several days from now. The drive comes two months after a massive Martian dust bowl kept Opportunity and its twin Spirit hunkered down to conserve energy.

CAMP VICTORY — There is a small group of Australian Defence Force people working in and around Baghdad who are currently making a big difference to the progress of the coalition in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq. They are an unusual group in that they are embedded into elements of the multi national force headquarters run by our major coalition partner, the United States, and work not only with Americans but also people from a number of other nationalities. Based predominantly out of the Camp Victory's Al Faw Palace - with a number within the International Zone in Baghdad...