Free Republic

The revelation that the National Security Agency is tracking every phone call each American makes, and broadly mining internet data puts President Obama at the center of yet another controversy. He and supporters in the Republican leadership, not Edward Snowden, are making themselves villains. Two sets of issues are central. Do NSA practices strike a reasonable balance between the threats posed by global terrorism and right to privacy? Are these the least intrusive necessary? Are safeguards against abuse adequate? Will Edward Snowden be thrown in jail for revealing classified information under the Espionage Act or other statutes? The president argues...

REDWOOD CITY -- A Capitola man has been sentenced to six months in jail for making threatening phone calls to two UCSF scientists who use animals for research, prosecutors said today. Justin Bhagat Thind, 33, repeatedly called the researchers at their homes in Belmont and San Mateo over a four-day span in September 2007, phoning as late as 1 a.m., said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County's chief deputy district attorney. Thind made "vile threats," telling the scientists they would die the same way they made the animals suffer, Wagstaffe said. Investigators tracked the calls to Thind's cell phone. He faces...

IS there a company more dangerous to Americas future than General Motors? Surely, the sooner this company gets taken over by Toyota, the better off our country will be. Why? Like a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash, GM announced its fuel price protection program on May 23. If you live in Florida or California and buy certain GM vehicles by July 5, the company will guarantee you gasoline at a cap price of $1.99 a gallon for one year — with no limit on mileage. Guzzle away. As the Associated Press explained the program,...

The former Judicial Watch chairman was sued this week by his former pollster for $60,000 in unpaid bills. The Arlington, Va., polling company of Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, Inc., claimed in a lawsuit filed in Florida Circuit Court that it conducted a poll of 800 GOP primary voters in September and had never been paid. Klayman told the AP that his Senate campaign was overcharged for the poll. "Among other issues Klayman for Senate disputes the amount. This is in part a commercial dispute," Klayman told the wire service, adding it "in no way affects our Senate race." But the...