Free Republic

A bipartisan pair of Senate leaders have introduced a first-of-its-kind bill aimed at stopping terrorist suspects such as the would-be Times Square bomber from hiding their identities by using prepaid cellphones to plot their attacks. The legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) would require buyers to present identification when purchasing a prepaid cellphone and require phone companies to keep the information on file, as they do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cellphones. The proposal would require the carriers to retain the data for 18 months after the phone's deactivation. "This proposal...

Rosemary Benitez thought it was a joke at first. She was told her store was going to need a food permit in order to stay in business. But Benitez doesn't own a restaurant. She owns the Shades of Love lingerie store on West Bitters road. Shades of Love sells racy lingerie, high heel shoes, adult toys and items meant to enhance a couple's sex life. However, some of those items are edible. That's why the health department ruled the store needed a food permit. The permit costs about $230 a year. It also means the store is subject to regular...

The other day President Golden Calf made a real a-hole statement at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner: “We all know what happens in Arizona when you don’t have ID: ‘Adios, amigos!’”This outrageous disrespectful swipe at the law-abiding Arizona not only makes Obama look even more unpresidential than he already is, but also exposes him as the third member of his administration (after Napolitano and Holder) who has clearly not read the freaking 10-page bill. [UPDATE: Make that fourth] In light of this issue is this latest case of blatant sanctimonious liberal hypocrisy: Before greeting President Hope&Change at their graduation, seniors...

It was a scene Saudi women’s rights activists have dreamt of for years. When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition. But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping. A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a...

This is Thomas Salme, a maintenance engineer who became a Boeing 737 pilot by flying a few nights in a flight simulator and printing a fake airliner pilot license. Amazingly enough, he flew passengers for thirteen years without any incidents. Thirteen years of back and forth from Sweden to everywhere else in Europe. Nobody noticed until a couple of months ago, when Salme was caught by the police as he was getting ready for take off. He was in the cockpit of a Boeing 737, with 101 passengers at Amsterdam's Schipol airport. He admits that it was all a crazy...

Former South Florida standout posed as teen in Texas: policeT, The moves make the man, and in the case of South Florida high school basketball star Guerdwich Montimere, the moves discovered the boy was a man. The 22-year-old former Fort Lauderdale standout player was arrested Tuesday after police said he posed as a 16-year-old boy playing on a Texas high school team. Montimere, a star at Dillard High a few years ago, was discovered by two South Florida coaches playing at Permian High in Odessa, Texas. Posing as sophomore Jerry Joseph, Montimere was confronted by Boyd Anderson Assistant coach Cedric...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has decided to reregulate Internet lines to protect net neutrality, siding with consumer groups and Internet companies worried that Internet providers have too much power. On Wednesday, Mr. Genachowski's staff began briefing the FCC's commissioners on how they will propose to regulate Internet lines under rules that were written for traditional phone networks. Some of those rules won't be applied to Internet networks, FCC officials say, but others will be used to enforce net neutrality, or regulations that require Internet providers to treat traffic equally and not slow or block websites. Phone and cable...

A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigrations laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday. Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.

Here is video from Morning Joe today, where Joe Scarborough actually likened the new Arizona Anti-Illegal Immigration Law to Nazi "Guards" demanding, "show me your papers." Scarborough said that even he - as an anti-amnesty person - "is offended by this," and said it will be a "nightmare for Republicans" in 2012 if they are identified, as Chuck Todd described it as, "the Party of 'Show me your papers.'" This analysis is beyond over the top. The Arizona law is essentially what the Federal Law already is, but it is not being enforced. To equate what Arizona is doing to...

Google and the Google-owned YouTube received more than 10,000 requests for user data from government agencies in the six months ending Dec. 31, 2009, according to newly released data. "Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products," Google says on a new site that sheds more light onto government demands for user information and requests to take offensive material off the Web. The vast majority of requests for private user data "are valid and the information...

South Carolina legislators moved closer to overriding the governor's veto of a bill allowing officers to search people on probation or parole without a warrant. The Senate on Wednesday voted 36-7 to override Gov. Mark Sanford's veto. It now goes to the House. The measure allows officers to bypass going to a judge for a warrant before searching a probationer or parolee on the street. Their vehicles and any possession could also be searched. Inmates would have to sign off on the searches before they're released. If they don't agree, they could stay in prison for their full term. Sanford...

Branford, Conn. (WTNH) - When it comes to fighting crime police will use any tool they can get their hands on. In Branford , they've equipped one of their cars with cameras that act almost like a set of eyes in the back of officer's heads. The electronic eyes are specifically designed to read and remember license plates. They are Branford's newest tools for proactive policing. "Our database is updated every day with the Dept. of Motor Vehicle registration files, so this gives the officer an indication that a vehicle may not be registered properly," Lt. Geoff Morgan, Branford olice,...

When one person really thinks about how many laws does one break everyday just waking up and going to work? How many tax code violations does one break without even knowing it? How many state laws and loacl laws are broken each day without even realizing that you are breaking the law? How many times have you been pulled over for something that was a non-issue but was something classified as a minor offense just so you could be pulled over and examined by law enforcement? If one were to fill a room with pages of laws that affect you,...

A school has provoked uproar after taking children's fingerprints without permission from their parents. Pupils were 'frogmarched' to be fingerprinted so they could use touch screens in the canteen to have money deducted from their account, thereby speeding up lunch queues. Capital City Academy in Brent, north London, was later forced to apologise and wiped all prints it obtained before asking for consent. Fingerprint scanner As many as 3,500 schools are using fingerprint technology in administrative tasks such as pupils' borrowing library books or buying canteen lunches It also introduced an opt-out for parents uncomfortable with the technology, allowing pupils...

(Washington, D.C. 3/23/10) After their victory in health care reform, the administration is now considering the issuance of "Travel Papers" to American citizens in an effort to combat illegal aliens. The source gave these details. "This is an idea whose time has come. Americans would have to have government authorization to travel by air, car or boat. In essence, we'd want to know where they live, how they will travel, who they will see and where they will stay. This government service would only be available to American citizens which would give them the freedom to go where they want."...

I’ve commented repeatedly in the past about how DUI roadblocks (MADD prefers the less oppressive term "sobriety checkpoints") are inefficient at apprehending drunk drivers. See Do DUI Roadblocks Work?, Do DUI Roadblocks Work (Part II), As a means of apprehending drunk drivers, even law enforcement admits they are only effective as a deterrent — i.e., keeping people off the streets. See DUI Logic: Roadblocks Effective – Because They’re Inefective, Purpose of DUI Roadblocks: "Shock and Awe". So why are cops using more and more DUI roadblocks? Simple: They are goldmines. See DUI: Government’s Cash Cow, What if the Cash Cow...

A Montgomery County couple has been arrested on child endangerment charges for failing to register their children with the school district as they were home-schooled, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Monday. Richard Cressy, 47, and Margie Cressy, 41, both of the town of Glen, never registered their four children or their home-schooling curriculum with the local school district, said the Sheriff's Office. The Superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District confirmed the four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14, had not been registered with the school district for the last seven years.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reversed a judge's order that backers of Proposition 8, the state initiative that banned same-sex marriage, give their campaign strategy documents to opponents trying to overturn the measure. In a unanimous ruling today, the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals tossed out the order that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued in October against backers of Prop. 8, which state voters approved in November 2008. Walker had said lawyers for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group were entitled to see internal memos and e-mails between Yes on 8...

Tuning in to President Obama's health care town hall today, you couldn't help but notice how much tamer the line of questioning was compared to what Obama's fellow Democrats have been up against. By and large, instead of the persistent tough queries that greeted the likes of Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), the president fielded much easier questions. The toughest questioner tried to tag him on his earlier comments approving of a government-run "single-payer" system but unfortunately couldn't get the point of distinction between it and the much more amorphous "universal" health care system, thus allowing Obama to...

If you see anybody publicly opposing President Obama’s plan to implement a government-centric overhaul of the health care system, the White House wants you to report that person (or persons) ASAP. From the White House website: There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see...