Free Republic

A Missouri judge ruled on Wednesday that Mark McCloskey — the St. Louis lawyer who pointed a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters marching near his front lawn in 2020 — will not get his guns or his money back despite receiving a pardon last year. McCloskey and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, pleaded guilty in July 2021 to misdemeanor charges for assault and harassment over the incident. The couple surrendered a Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber pistol as part of the plea agreement, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. However, after Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) pardoned the...

"Missouri Republicans, upset over charges of racism against Sen. John D. Ashcroft (R-Mo.), are circulating a 1960 photograph of Gov. Mel Carnahan (D) in blackface makeup performing a Kiwanis minstrel show." "Arvarh Strickland, the University of Missouri's first black professor, said Carnahan should be judged on his public service. 'It's not what he was doing or saying in 1960, but his record as governor of Missouri. . . . When you look at his record, you certainly would not expect to see Gov. Carnahan in blackface.'"

The 17th Amendment is stupid: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years…. But let me start at the beginning.  Article I § 3 cl. 1 of the Constitution originally established the election of Senators through the state legislatures.  The Federalist #62 laid out numerous arguments for the Constitutional framework of the Senate and its method of selection. The senatorial trust, which, requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of...

Sandy Who? Two weeks ago, Republicans were filled with glee, as Democrats fell all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, Samuel Berger, better known as Sandy, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught, and had “accidentally” destroyed the most important ones.) Note that Berger reportedly burgled the Archives on as many...

Republicans are filled with glee, as Democrats fall all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught, but had "accidentally" destroyed the most important ones.) Note that Berger reportedly burgled the Archives on five separate occasions. Watergate, meet BVDgate. For the past thirty years,...

Republicans are filled with glee, as Democrats fall all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught.) Watergate, meet BVDgate. For the past thirty years, many observers have thought it the height of paranoia for Pres. Richard Nixon's men to burglarize the offices of...

A terrorist attack on presidential candidates could throw the US into unprecedented political turmoil. So why do so few people want to talk about it? WORST-CASE SCENARIO number one: It's the night before Election Day. Across America, voters turn on their televisions hoping to catch the final hours of the presidential campaign and instead hear the awful news. In coordinated attacks, terrorists have killed their favored candidates for both president and vice president. Now what?The answer in both cases -- and several equally unpleasant variants: Nobody knows.

Plane parts maker ruled negligent in crash that killed Missouri governor, his son and an aide in 2000 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A jury found an airplane parts manufacturer negligent in the 2000 plane crash that killed Gov. Mel Carnahan and his son, and awarded their family $4 million. The Carnahan family’s attorney argued that a pair of vacuum pumps made by Parker Hannifin Corp. failed, causing the plane to crash. Killed were pilot Randy Carnahan, his father and Chris Sifford, a longtime aide to the governor. The jury awarded compensatory damages of $3 million for Mel Carnahan and $1...

HARRISON, Ark. (AP) - A lawyer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge filed by Whitewater prosecutors died Thursday when the small plane he was piloting crashed while trying to land at an airport, officials said. John Haley, 72, who was once the personal lawyer of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, had recently joined a new law firm. A partner, Peter B. Heister, confirmed Haley's death. One passenger, Farish Kincaid, 70, also was killed in the crash. Authorities said the men, both from the Little Rock area, apparently were due at a business meeting in Harrison. Haley and Tucker...