Free Republic

Today, Robert J. Muise, Co-Founder and Senior Counsel of the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), is presenting oral argument at a hearing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma on behalf of Captain Paul Fields, a Tulsa police officer who was summarily punished for refusing to attend a mandated Islamic proselytizing event held at a local mosque. The hearing will be held before Chief Judge Gregory K. Frizzell at 1:30 p.m. CT in Room 411 at the federal courthouse located at 333 West Fourth Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The media and public are welcome to...

Govt outlines HSBC ties to drug money laundering WASHINGTON (AP) — British bank HSBC violated the Bank Secrecy Act in connection with the laundering of money from narcotics drug traffickers in Mexico and intentionally allowed prohibited transactions with Iran and other nations that have been under sanctions, the Justice Department alleged Tuesday. In court papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the federal government said the case against HSBC is related to the laundering of proceeds from narcotics trafficking via the Black Market Peso Exchange — a method by which money launderers convert cash narcotics dollars into Colombian pesos by...

The "compromise" in the fiscal cliff deal from Democrats is supposed to come in the form of spending cuts. But a new Marist-McClatchy poll shows that voters — including Republicans — oppose any and every specific spending cut proposed to them. It goes hand in hand with the disparity between voters' wish for blanket "spending cuts" and their opposition to any cuts to an entitlement that benefits them. A look at what Republicans oppose: By 47-37, letting the Obama payroll tax cut expire. By 68-26, cutting spending for Medicare. By 61-33, cutting spending for Medicaid. By 66-28, eliminating the tax...

Conservative firebrand Glenn Beck has joined a growing chorus of Republican commentators in defending gay marriage, laying out a strong case for ending government opposition to letting same-sex couples wed. "Let me take the pro-gay marriage people and the religious people — I believe that there is a connecting dot there that nobody is looking at, and that's the Constitution," Beck said during a recent segment of his online talk show. "The question is not whether gay people should be married or not. The question is why is the government involved in our marriage?" While Beck's defense of gay marriage...

The economic policy drift in Washington is antigrowth, but here and there in the states are glimmers of hope and change. The best news of late is in Michigan, which is poised this week to pass a landmark right-to-work law. You can tell this is a big deal based on the fury of Big Labor's reaction. Union activists plan to descend on Lansing Tuesday to protest, including many from out of state. State police will have to be on duty to ensure that legislators can get through what is likely to be a loud and abusive cordon of activists who...

Remember the difference between static and dynamic tax analysis? The former posits that tax changes produces no change in market behavior, so that hiking taxes by 10% gets you 10% more in revenue. The latter assumes that changes in tax codes forces markets to adapt, so that rate hikes risk lowering revenues, and lowering rates in certain ways can produce a better revenue stream, especially over the long run. Republicans favor the latter analytical method, while Democrats insist that tax cuts “cost” revenue opportunities and cause deficits.Which is correct? Well, the Washington Post reports on a lot of dynamic activity...

Google was the third largest source of Obama’s campaign cash. A number of Google executives took jobs within Obama Inc and Google’s PAC has plowed large amounts of money into the Democratic Party. Google’s creepy ex-CEO Eric Schmidt was a major Obama donor and campaign advisor, and was even considered for a Cabinet post. Schmidt was on Obama’s transition board and is a member of his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

UPDATE 12:15 pm EST: The Republican controlled legislature has passed the right-to-work legislation 58-51. Michigan Governor Snyder is expected to sign the bill into law later today. The vote to turn Michigan into a right-to-work state will take place today after days of protests in Lansing about the pro-worker legislation that prevents having to pay dues to a union. Not surprisingly, local police are bracing for possible violence today as more protests are planned. Even with the outcome considered a foregone conclusion, the heated battle over right-to-work legislation in the traditional union bastion of Michigan shows no sign of cooling....

The most sobering finding is that 46% of Turks say they hope that one day Germany will have more Muslims than Christians. Germans are overwhelmingly mistrustful of Islam and Muslim immigration, according to a new research survey, which concludes that the image of Islam in Germany is "devastating." The findings -- which corroborate the conclusions of other recent studies -- show a growing divide between ordinary Germans, who are concerned about the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries, and Germany's political elites, who are determined to build a "multicultural" society at any cost. The 28-page study, "Fear of the...

Featured Term (selected at random):TOWER OF DAVID A symbol of the Blessed Virgin occuring in the Litany of Loreto. Mary's Son recognized as the glory of the line of David, whose star often appears in conjunction with the tower when that symbol is used. Mary, too, is a tower of strength against heresy. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Tyler Durden has this nailed: These three letters - C.A.B. - might just be the Dis-Humor story of the day. NPR reports that more than 200 schools across California are coming to the shocking realization that the upfront cash they needed so badly came at quite a price. These 'Capital Appreciation Bonds' are unlike normal bonds (requiring regular coupon payments and principal repayment); instead they provide the 'lent' money upfront and defer all interest and repayment to some magical faery land time in the future (by which time the interest accrued has grown exponentially as the interest accrues on the...

"That there should be this lingering infestation of really corrupt people who sit trying to dismantle the wishes of the people [Republicans, Conservatives, and The Tea Party], the mandate that has been given to Barack Obama, and I don't know what more they want. The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a 3rd world dictator and just put all these guys in jail." -- Harry Belefonte interviewed by Al Sharpton on MSNBC

Considering the fact that the Egyptian military has just aligned themselves with President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, this is a stupid, stupid, move. Fox News: ******** Instability in Egypt, where a newly-elected Islamic government teeters over an angry population, isn't enough to stop the U.S. from sending more than 20 F-16 fighter jets, as part of a $1 billion foreign aid package. The first four jets are to be delivered to Egypt beginning Jan. 22, a source at the naval air base in Fort Worth, where the planes have been undergoing testing, told FoxNews.com. The North African nation already...

“There will be blood,” State Representative Douglas Geiss threatened from the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives today as the body debated legislation that would make Michigan the nation’s 24th right to work state. “I really wish we had not gone here,” Geiss continued. “It is the leadership in this house that has led us here. The same leadership that tried to throw a bomb right on election day, leading to a member switching parties, and came in at the 11th hour with a gotcha bill. For that, I do not see solace, I do not see peace.”Michigan Gov....

Do not agree to Medicare cuts only. The Dems know that there will only be Obamacare within the next two years. Medicare cuts will evaporate into the wind. There will be no Medicare, no Medicaid, no TriCare, no private health insurance, ONLY OBAMACARE.

What is going to happen to our 401 (k) accounts and IRA’s after January 1? Will the retirement accounts which many Americans have sacrificed so much to accumulate be rolled over into federally issued and guaranteed bonds in order to prop up notoriously under-funded, union pension funds across the country? Getting an answer will prove to be daunting, especially as media attention seems focused on little but the impending “fiscal cliff.” Listening to a poignant, impromptu speech given by Linda from St. Lucie County during the Allen West recount makes clear just how hard she worked to raise three daughters...

Democratic lawmakers have joined with Republicans in raising alarm about a looming ObamaCare-tied tax on medical devices, saying the additional tax is causing "uncertainty and confusion for businesses" and should be delayed. The previously obscure tax has, over the last several months, emerged as one of the most controversial in the health care overhaul and one of the few with bipartisan opposition. Starting Jan. 1, the Affordable Care Act imposes a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices with the goal of raising nearly $30 billion over the next decade. But a group of U.S. senators this week revived concerns that...

In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading. Some public school teachers in the City of Detroit and around the state of Michigan are reportedly taking a vacation or a sick day today to protest right-to-work legislation likely to be approved by the state legislature. Under current law, Michigan public school teachers must pay dues to the teachers’ union. If the right-to-work law is enacted, Michigan public-school teachers will be free to join the union and pay dues to it...

While some saw the clip of the lady implying 'victory for Obama means phones for everyone' as perhaps exaggerated out-of-context right-wing propaganda - as that would be preposterous right? - it appears San Francisco took it a little more serious. As SFGate reports, the California Public Utilities Commission is expected to approve (within a couple of weeks) a plan to offer homeless and other poor people in California 'virtually free cell phones and service'. The plan is funded through the federal LifeLine program and is designed to enable these individuals to 'keep in touch with family, potential employers and others...

Police say three teens charged in the fatal shooting of a western Pennsylvania woman targeted her after she told them to "get a job" when she saw them trying to bum a cigarette off her boyfriend. Beaver Falls police have charged 14-year-olds Todavia Cleckley and Marcus Velasquez and Kyle Goosby Jr., 13, with criminal homicide and other charges in Saturday's shooting of Kayla Peterson, 22. She was shot at about 3:30 p.m. that day and died in a Pittsburgh hospital two hours later. Goosby is in custody and his attorney says he was just "in the wrong place at the...