Free Republic

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to assume that their president, hostile to the principles that formed the nation and determined to act with malice toward its inhabitants by suppressing their rights and enabling its enemies to prosper in their attempts to destroy it, must be confronted, a rational response for the nation is to encumber itself no more with such a president and reject his authority and the acolytes who carry out his wishes. [....] The sufferance of these United States impels action to ensure the existence of the nation. The history...

It is a recurring theme among liberal opinion writers when Democratic presidents appear unable to effectively govern: It’s not them, but the unwieldy structure of the American political system which is to blame. With the ceiling caving in on President Barack Obama nearly midway through his second term, this theme has returned with a vengeance. The latest culprit to serve as a source of vexation for the president is, according to former Harvard University President and Obama advisor Larry Summers, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution which limits American presidents to just two terms in office. From Roosevelt to Obama,...

An elderly woman's home was raided by police after she was suspected of making anonymous online threats against the Evansville police department and Chief Billy Bolin. The 68-year-old woman, Louise Milan was in the house with her 18 year old adopted daughter when police shattered a glass door and burst in after throwing flash grenades inside. Police came up empty-handed in the search for evidence about who had made the threatening posts but only after damaging Louise Milan’s house, handcuffing her and her adopted daughter and seizing their computers, according to a lawsuit that has been filed against the city...

With no explanation, Brian Brookman last month lost the bank account for his pawn shop. He had no idea why. Brookman says his store in Grand Haven, Mich., never had been in trouble with federal or state officials. And being in the pawn industry, he was required by law to get a city license every year. “If there was ever a problem, they wouldn’t renew my license,” Brookman, a former police officer and Army veteran, told The Daily Signal. After researching his case on the Internet, Brookman says he concluded that his banker, JP Morgan Chase, closed the account because...

5 Race Riots in Obama's Post-Racial America by Ben Shapiro 11 Aug 2014 Riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer represent just the latest spate of race-based mass violence to break out in President Obama’s post-racial America. When Obama was elected in 2008, many Americans hoped that racial conflict in the country would calm. Instead, precisely the reverse seems to have occurred. Not all riots across the country have been racial in nature, of course. Occupy Wall Street participated in riots repeatedly in 2011, and May Day protesters rioted in...

... a government that has the power to dictate whether or not your kids can sell or eat cupcakes as a result of late local bake sale is a tyranny. It is a government way, way out of power, out of sync. And it's gonna get worse. It's not gonna get better. ... No matter how you slice it, this is tyranny. When I first came to my corner of New Hampshire, one of the small pleasures I took in my new state were the frequent bake sales – the Ladies' Aid, the nursery school, the church rummage sale. Most...

Wednesday, August 6, 2014 Streetlight McCarthy: Concealed Carry Same As Drunken Driving The expert in carrying a firearm while intoxicated speaks: “This is what I said from Day One: More guns is not the solution to gun violence. That’s akin to saying everybody should drive drunk to stop drunken driving. It doesn’t work that way.” So what's giving Chicago Police Supt. McCarthy flashbacks? Something he thinks will be an excuse to restrict Concealed Carry in Illinois. After Wednesday’s meeting at Kennedy-King, McCarthy also disclosed that one of the men shot this week at a North Side nightclub had one of...

Since my Sunday column was a little on the shrill side, accusing President Obama of contemplating domestic policy “caesarism” on immigration policy, I thought I’d do a follow-up addressing the various, “maybe you should calm down” objections. 1) How can you accuse the president of planning a power grab when we don’t even know what he’s planning to do? Well, actually, we do know roughly what he’s considering, because White House sources keep telling the media about it. Read National Journal’s Major Garrett a month ago, or read the Washington Post on Saturday. The message is clear, the details consistent:...

American society is currently in a dysfunctional state, and like all things dysfunctional, it will implode if not addressed very soon. We live in a world that contains a vast amount of knowledge, but little understanding. The United States has not experienced extreme tyranny, but it is headed in that direction. The shift of authority from private sector to public sector has created a serious imbalance. As a country, there is great arrogance. We take for granted that we will always be the land of the free. Like all civilizations prior, we’re moving from liberty to totalitarianism and it’s...

While I was at the recent Napa Institute gathering, I got to know Kristina Arriaga, Executive Director of The Becket Fund, which defends religious freedom. They guided the Hobby Lobby decision to a good conclusion and for that we owe them a lot. I had this note from them today. It included this: [quote] Dear Friends, I grew up in a household where we were expected to pepper all tales with a bit of Cuban exaggeration. This was, after all, essential for good storytelling. So, in a way, I wish I were making this up. Within the IRS, there is,...

President Obama has presided over a massive increase in the size and scope of the country's "no-fly" list, which bars individuals suspected of having terrorist ties from flying on airlines. Forty-seven thousand people were on the no-fly list in 2013, marking an all-time high that dwarfs the amount ever included during George W. Bush's presidency, according to an analysis of newly released classified documents published Tuesday by The Intercept. In addition, a "selectee list" used to pull out travelers for heightened scrutiny at airports and border crossings has grown larger than 16,000 people, including 1,200 Americans. The classified documents also...

... The GOP maintains that Obama has failed to faithfully execute the law, as is his constitutional duty. The Democrats say either "things are not as clear as you think" or "we're not doing anything Bush didn't do." And both sides talk about how many executive orders Obama has or has not issued. But this dispute cannot be resolved by counting the numbers of executive orders. This has been an interesting fight for political specialists to watch. It involves a serious discussion about the appropriate range of executive discretion. This is not a new fight, and the issue ought to...

Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated a ceasefire between Hamas terrorists and Israel last week. Kerry’s ceasefire lasted all of 90 minutes. The Israelis are outraged and more or less have no use for the Obama administration at this point. This is the second summer in a row that President Obama has proved himself and his administration completely inept in the middle east. Last summer he back tracked on a red line in Syria before abandoning the matter altogether. This year, he has no idea what to do with Israel and Hamas, though he likely has a better idea what...

But the sales won't be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars. The restrictions that took effect in July stem from the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move!" campaign. The law overhauled nutrition standards affecting more than 30 million children. The law also required the U.S. Department of...

Over the last month, the Obama political apparatus — a close aide to the president, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the “independent” voices at MSNBC — has been talking nonstop about an alleged Republican plan to impeach the president. But it isn’t happening in a vacuum, because even as his team plays the impeachment card with gusto, the president is contemplating — indeed, all but promising — an extraordinary abuse of office: the granting of temporary legal status, by executive fiat, to up to half the country’s population of illegal immigrants. This is the tone of the media coverage...

Every so often, people who don't really understand the importance of anonymity or how it enables free speech (especially among marginalized people), think they have a brilliant idea: "just end real anonymity online." They don't seem to understand just how shortsighted such an idea is. It's one that stems from the privilege of being in power. And who knows that particular privilege better than members of the House of Lords in the UK -- a group that is more or less defined by excess privilege? The Communications Committee of the House of Lords has now issued a report concerning "social...

When it comes to environmental regulation compliance, the Department of Homeland Security isn’t playing — as evidenced by a recent federal raid of a South Carolinian’s home to confiscate a Land Rover that violated EPA emission rules. Jennifer Brinkley said she saw a line of law enforcement vehicles approaching her home and wondered what was wrong, the local WBTV reported. Homeland Security agents then went to her 1985 Land Rover Defender and lifted the hood. “They popped up the hood and looked at the Vehicle Identification Number and compared it with a piece of paper and then took the car...

First Amendment: Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage. A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit. The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay...

How will future generations look back on our gravest national emergency of all time? And how will they regard what their forebears didn’t do about it? This will include what we didn’t do about border nullification, which collapsed the U.S. as a sovereign nation. What we didn’t do about the alignment of our foreign policy with that of jihad movements, which meant the end of liberty, also life itself, for our best allies. What we didn’t do about the growth of tyranny from corruption and Marxism in this cradle of liberty. Most of our progeny – and certainly those millions...

... “If the question is was there political, ideological bias inside the IRS, it’s hard to argue ‘no’ after you read that,” said Willie Geist. “And malice,” added MSNBC contributor Nicolle Wallace. “She equates Republicans as inferior to terrorists. I think motive is there, I think state of mind is there–again, if this were a legal proceeding, they’ve got their gal.”