Free Republic

They Are That Evil We have plenty of treason. It isn’t hidden. It isn’t even debated. The fact of it is recognized, but what is lacking is a will to engage that treason with consequences. Who would do it? The average person on the street sees it, recognizes it as such, but they are and have been indoctrinated in the rule of law, so they expect that out of the hundreds of thousands employed in law enforcement that the law would be enforced. Why does that seem so irrational? No one with a brain and the ability to do math...

BRUSSELS - Germany has indicated it will not take part in any military strike on Syria, as France and the UK signal readiness to join a US-led intervention. Philipp Missfelder, the foreign affairs spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, said in the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily on Tuesday (27 August) that: "The [German] army has, through its current international operations, already reached the breaking point." He added that a Western strike could create a "spiral of escalating violence" by drawing Iran and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, deeper into the conflict. He also said military action without a UN...

The vast majority of the annual shooting homicides are committed by inner-city and minority youths below the age of 30. Handguns are involved in 80% of all murders. Rifles and shotguns account for less than 10% of homicides. No matter; the National Rifle Association is now blamed for generic gun violence, especially the mass shootings at schools, even though usually no one knows of any proposed gun law — barring outright confiscation of previously purchased firearms, bullets, and clips — that would have prevented the shooters at Sandy Hook and Columbine. Gun merchants are blamed by the president while in...

Did you get here Googling "exotic wood raids?" Is this not what you expected? I'm sorry. Settle in for some hot public policy.Last we checked in with Gibson, the famed Tennessee guitar maker had been raided twice by armed federal agents, who seized almost $500,000 in exotic wood imported from India and Madagascar and shut down production. The ebony and rosewood in question have been used for decades to make the instrument's fingerboards and are integral to their style and sound, the company said. (Great video background from Reason, here.)This week, Gibson settled with the government in a "criminal enforcement...

Privacy: News the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers goes against our grain. Freedom means freedom of movement and the presumption of innocence. How can we have it if every move is monitored by government? Nebraska's congressional delegation sent a justifiably angry letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson last week complaining that her Environmental Protection Agency had exceeded its legislative and constitutional authority by conducting drone surveillance flights over Nebraska and Iowa farms looking for violations of the Clean Water Act. "They are just way on the outer limits of any authority they've been granted," said Nebraska GOP Sen. Mike Johanns,...

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist. In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required...

MINISTERIAL DECLARATION Building on the spirit of cooperation, collaboration and accomplishment that has characterized the relationship among Canada, Mexico and the United States and which is embodied in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), we the Ministers responsible for Transportation in North America, have met this day in Tucson, Arizona in order to confirm and advance our commitment to developing coordinated, compatible and interconnected national transportation systems. We affirm that such systems will support our shared vision for increased economic and social development, trade, tourism, cooperation and a healthy environment among our countries in the 21st century. We have...

Draw your own conclusions from the fact that Armitage’s best friend Colin Powell called Dick Cheney’s supporters (including Scooter Libby, Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz) the “Gestapo Office” (quite insulting considering that there is a history of relatives lost in the Holocaust among them). Factor in that Powell called Doug Feith “a card-carrying member of the Likud Party” and referred to the Likudnicks in the White House controlling policy during his “exit interview with Bush” (see Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq) – thereby showing his support for anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

THE US is investigating whether Israel violated US rules in its use of US-made rockets armed with cluster bombs in Lebanon, the State Department said today. "We have heard the allegations they were used and we are taking a look at that," said State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. He was responding to questions about an article in Friday's New York Times which said the State Department's Office of Defence Trade Controls opened the probe this week after reports that three types of American cluster bombs were discovered in southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian deaths. "Once we have determined...