Free Republic

Until this morning, the federal government could limit the amount of money you contribute for political speech. Today in McCutcheon vs. FEC, the Supreme Court invalidated overall contribution limits. The federal government limited individual campaign contributions to $48,000 overall and $123,200 to everything (PACs, candidates, national parties) each cycle. The Supreme Court struck down the limits, holding that the government’s justification for limiting free speech rights – to keep money out of politics and the avoid the appearance of impropriety – failed. This decision cuts at the heart of the leftist narrative on free speech attacks. The heart of the...

President Obama has ordered officials to resume paying death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers and was "very disturbed" they had been halted due to the government shutdown, said White House spokesman Jay Carney. Carney said Obama had ordered the Office of Management and Budget to work with White House lawyers to find a way to restart the benefits and expects a fix Wednesday. "He was not pleased to learn of this problem," Carney said, adding it was "unthinkable" that those who had lost family members would go without benefits. The White House said that Congress was warned that...

The highly lethal nerve agent VX -- used in weapons of mass destruction -- appears to have been discovered in a mail facility at JFK Airport where two US customs agents were sickened this morning, a law-enforcement source said. Both victims suffered respiratory distress and were taken for emergency treatment after being overcome while inside the US Postal Service facility on North Boundary Road at 9:40 a.m., the source said. Initial testing after the incident revealed the presence of "chemical-grade weapons and nerve gas," and subsequent testing produced a positive reading for VX, the source said.

As the debate over gun rights heats up on Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition to hear a challenge to a key provision of New York state’s restrictive gun laws. The high court without comment refused to take up a petition challenging a lower court’s upholding New York state’s requirement that citizens prove “proper cause” to carry a weapon for self-defense outside the home. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in November in favor of the state. “Our review of the history and tradition of firearm regulation does not ‘clearly demonstrate’ that...

A Georgia town has passed a law requiring its citizens to own a gun and ammunition — a measure one councilman says is similar to putting a security sign in your front yard to deter criminals. The ordinance in the town of Nelson, population 1,300, contains no penalties, has exemptions for felons and the mentally ill and allows anyone to opt out. Town leaders said they wanted to make a point about gun rights. The law requires the head of every household to own a gun and ammo to “provide for the emergency management of the city” and “provide for...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided that a proposed assault weapons ban won't be part of a gun control bill the Senate plans to debate next month, the sponsor of the ban said Tuesday, a decision that means the ban stands little chance of survival. Instead, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she will be able to offer her ban on the military-style firearms as an amendment. Feinstein is all but certain to need 60 votes from the 100-member Senate to prevail, but she faces solid Republican opposition and likely defections from some moderate Democrats.

A leaked email from an Agriculture Department field officer adds fuel to claims President Obama's political strategy is to make the billions in recent federal budget cuts as painful as possible to win the public opinion battle against Republicans. ...According to the partially redacted email, the response came from the Agriculture Department’s budget office and in part states: “However you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”

<p>Pope Benedict XVI is to resign from the head of the Catholic Church on February 28, the Vatican confirmed in a statement on Monday, after he said he no longer had the strength to fulfill his duties adequately.</p> <p>A Vatican press conference started at 11.40 a.m. London time. A Vatican spokesman said the decision "took us by surprise".</p>

A White Plains, N.Y., home highlighted on the infamous Journal News interactive gun map was burglarized Saturday and their gun safe was damaged in an attempted robbery. The burglars were unable to open the safe. It is not clear if the thieves thought the safe stored other valuables or if they were actually seeking to steal a gun. New York Newsday ran with the story under the headline “Journal News gun permit map used by burglars to target White Plains home?” Below is NYS Sen. Greg Ball’s press release. Even if this story is proven to have nothing to do...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Mitt Romney stumped with Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock on Saturday at a barbecue shack here, seeking to link himself with the popular conservative who unseated a longtime Washington incumbent earlier this year.We gotta get this guy elected to the U.S. Senate,” Romney began his speech at Stepto’s Bar-B-Q Shack, a small restaurant off the main highway in Evansville. As he praised Mourdock, the state treasurer who defeated six-term senator Dick Lugar in the state’s May Republican primary, he seemed to try to affiliate himself with the Tea Party principles Mourdock played up, like a balanced budget....

I am officially endorsing Newt Gingrich for President of the United States!

Republican challenger Ron Johnson receives over 50% support against incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in the fourth consecutive survey of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Johnson, a wealthy plastics manufacturer, picking up 53% of the vote. Feingold, who has represented the state in the Senate since 1993, draws support from 46%. Only one percent (1%) are undecided at this point.

The tally of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time in five weeks as the job market remains sluggish. Initial claims for jobless aid rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 465,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Many economists had expected a flat reading or small drop. The rise suggests that jobs remain scarce and some companies are still cutting workers amid weak economic growth. Initial claims have fallen from a recent spike above a half-million last month. But they have been stuck above 450,000 for most of this year. "What's becoming increasing clear...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 12, 2010CONTACT: Levi Russell at (509) 979-6615 or via email at: Levi@FrontLineStrat.com POLL: Christine O'Donnell Takes Lead Over Mike Castle in Delaware Senate Race(WILMINGTON, DE) - Confirming poll results from a Tea Party Express commissioned poll last week (which showed Mike Castle leading Christine O'Donnell by just a 43%-41% margin), a new poll shows Conservative Republican Christine O'Donnell continuing her surge in the Delaware U.S. Senate race. A new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey released Sunday evening shows O'Donnell has in fact now surged into the lead over liberal Mike Castle. The poll results were as follows: Christine O'Donnell:...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private employers unexpectedly cut jobs in August, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday, delivering another blow to the already faltering economic recovery. A separate report showed the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell to their lowest level in 10 years though, but there is little to suggest companies are on the verge of hiring on a scale that would lower the unemployment rate.

Former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr., 28, center, from New York, speaks about his federal trial with his attorneys, Douglas L. Applegate, left, and Joseph M. Preis in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 16. A civilian jury in Riverside today acquitted a former Marine sergeant in the killing of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners in the battle for Fallouja in 2004. Despite hearing a tape-recorded phone call in which Jose Nazario appeared to admit to ordering the killings, jurors said prosecutors had not made the case against him. They also said they felt it wasn't right for them to judge...

Two McCain offices evacuated after letter threat Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:45pm EDT By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Two offices of John McCain's U.S. presidential campaign, in Colorado and New Hampshire, were evacuated on Thursday, and several staffers were hospitalized, after threatening or suspicious envelopes arrived in the mail, one with an unidentified white powder. The first parcel, described as containing an unspecified threat and a powdery white substance, was opened by a staff member at the campaign's Centennial, Colorado, office, near Denver, at about 3 p.m. local time, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

Bill Crystal just said on Fox that Colin Powell will speak and endorse Obama at Democratic Convention

'Israel stocking-up on supplies needed for such a strike and its aftermath.' Just this mention by Fox News reporter. Nothing else so far.

A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.