Free Republic

On June 19-21, 2013, there will be dueling Seven50 Summits at the Palm Beach Conference Center, West Palm Beach, Florida. The Seven50 plan is an effort by the Southeast Florida Regional Partnership, funded by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with the mission to “[C]reate and implement the Seven50: SE Florida Prosperity Plan, a blueprint for a vibrant and resilient economy; socially inclusive, sustainable, and affordable communities; and environmental sustainability.” … The City of Vero Beach, FL has pulled out of the plan. Mayor Craig Fletcher attended a briefing given by proponents of Seven50...

Police in Slaton, Texas, took exception when a 32-yeReason 24/7Reasonar-old mom had the nerve to ask to see the arrest warrant for her 11-year-old son. Rather than show it, or leave, they arrested the by-the-book mother and hauled her in to spend the night behind bars. The son who was the supposed focus of their attentions? They left him unmolested. From MyFoxLubbock: Slaton police came to this woman's house, who wishes to remain anonymous, to arrest her son. But by asking one simple question, she found herself behind bars instead. "I told him, 'I will release my son to you...

A Florida school admits that it made several mistakes when it allowed a security company to install iris scanners without telling parents -- and without even having a contract with the company. The eyes have it? Or the eyes were had? (Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) There's a quaint concept that seemingly every technology company dismisses as outdated. It's called opting in. Should you not be familiar with it, it's the notion that you ought to choose before, say, all the people in your address book are contacted by a company they've never heard of. And wouldn't it be lovely...

*VIDEO* Police open fire on a car sitting at crowded DWI checkpointBRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A couple celebrating Father’s Day with their baby found themselves in the middle of a shootout at a DWI checkpoint when officers unloaded on a car sitting in heavy traffic. The couple, Jared and Rose Cleerdin were hoping it wouldn’t be their last Father’s Day together as the officers fired dozens of rounds in the direction of on-coming traffic. Jared Cleerden believes the officers acted way beyond what was necessary for public safety saying, ”Every cop turned around and started unloading like super...

Tens of thousands of acres in Oregon's drought-stricken Klamath Basin will have to go without irrigation water this summer after the Klamath Tribes and the federal government exercised newly confirmed powers that put the tribes in the driver's seat over water use — a move ranchers fear will be economically disastrous. Klamath Tribes Chairman Don Gentry and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor said Monday that they were making what is known as a "call" on their water rights for rivers flowing into Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon.

Is Big Green running things in President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency? Wake up and smell the corruption. A virulent 2009 sue-and-settle lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians v. Jackson (as in Lisa Jackson, former EPA administrator) is an outrageous sweetheart deal rife with collusion and manipulation to create arbitrary regulations, along with the EPA takeover of state regulatory programs and a price tag of more than $2.5 billion -- all aimed against the domestic fossil fuel industry.

With a potentially striking blow to renewable mandate advocates, a recent federal court ruling calls into question the constitutionality of key components of many states’ renewable energy mandates. On Friday, June 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) against the state of Michigan (among other petitioners) in a dispute over FERC’s plan to apportion costs for new power lines to transport millions of megawatts of wind power around the Great Lakes region.

America is truly doomed. At least the idea of America, that experiment in self-government and liberty. I say that not because of the spying revelations, which came hard on the heels of the ongoing Benghazi, IRS and AP/Fox News scandals. That government is spying on the people does not surprise me. I have long maintained — and have been called paranoid for it — that the government is monitoring every phone call and digital communication in this country. That is why I like to use encryption technology when emailing, though very few of my correspondents have the same security sense...

How's this for a weekend conference: Some of the smartest people in the world are gathering in New York to try to figure out how to build lifelike copies of humans ... to be eventually uploaded with the contents of a real human brain. It's the brainchild of a Russian multimillionaire, Dmitry Itskov. ... And he says he's perfectly serious, and that it could be accomplished by 2035. Crazy? The New York Times gave Itskov a front-page profile on its Sunday Business page a week and a half ago. Imagine this ... a digital copy of your brain in a...

As the North American natural gas boom continues, state legislators across the country have targeted hydraulic fracturing for new regulations, proposing a range of 50 bills involving bans, moratoriums and increased disclosure requirements, according to a new Colorado State University study. Much of the new legislation tries to address issues such as water use, air and water quality monitoring and fluids disclosure, as many non-industrial communities grapple with the impacts of hydraulic fracturing and the changes it brings. For example, Illinois passed new rules in May requiring drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use, and on water testing. And...

Honeywell has announced a new Wi-Fi-controlled thermostat that is intended to be distributed by municipalities instead of purchased at retail by consumers in order to better manage energy consumption across a town or city. South Sioux City, Neb., will be the first community to deploy the new thermostat to help its 13,000 residents manage electricity costs, which are said to have risen steadily there in the past three years. In the future, other municipalities will recruit residents to reduce energy consumption when demand spikes, a strategy known as automated demand response, or ADR. As part of this, the residents would...

I somehow managed to completely miss this from a couple of weeks back, but it’s an especially interesting and kind of epic piece of news from a state that’s home to some of the largest, most cultishly do-or-die green interests in the country and a legislature currently dominated by a liberal supermajority. When I first caught wind of the fact that Californians were getting ready to introduce a proposal to ban fracking, I suspected that they would definitely have a fighting chance of getting the thing passed — but it turns out that enough of California’s legislators are at least...

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: I would describe this man as an American hero, as a person willing to risk life, limb and liberty in order to expose to the American people one of the most extraordinary violations of the American principles, value judgments and the Constitution itself in all of our history. A person so familiar with the intelligence community, as you just heard from the excerpts that you just played. He's aware of the personal danger to himself. He knows of the likelihood of prosecution. But he also understands that the government listening to half the country is not what...

... Bill Hemmer asked the judge what he thinks we need to understand about what Snowden is telling us. Judge Napolitano explained that the government has granted itself this sweeping authority without a national debate about how much privacy Americans are willing to sacrifice... He said the government wants Americans to sacrifice liberty in return for the promise of security... ...

Professor Gasman’s "Haeckel’s Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology" provides insights into the coherent fascist intellectual doctrine that, by 1920, was embraced by a wide swath of European academics and artists. Defining features of this cohort were: They referred to themselves as: ecologists, naturalists and socio-biologists. They were pseudo-scientists bent on subverting real science. Their mantras were: natural, holistic, and organic. Their Religion of Nature was basically a revival of Pantheism. They worshipped Earth as a divine living organism. Human achievements were disparaged as scant and fleeting compared to Nature’s glory. They desired scientist-led governance. Scientists probed Nature’s divine...

I’d say it’s official; President Obama’s Watergate has arrived.  And the witty question originally formed for Nixon’s big scandal can now be re-applied to President Plausible Deniability, “What did he not know and when did he not know it?”  While I do think that IRS-Gate spells the end of this President’s ability to effectively advance the liberal agenda, I do not see an impeachment on the horizon; at least not for Barack Obama – but perhaps for the Sixteenth Amendment.The recent parade of citizen witnesses to congressional hearings has laid bare the raw suffering that inevitably comes from tolerating the...

A number of Sheriffs around the country have pledged to abide by the Second Amendment and not enforce laws that they believe violate the Constitution. Sixty-seven sheriffs in Florida signed one of those pledges declaring that they would uphold the Second Amendment and protect people’s’ right to keep and bear arms. One of those signatories, Sheriff Nicholas Finch, was arrested by Governor Rick Scott in Florida for actions he took in a case in early March in which Finch made his stand for the Second Amendment. Carl Causey has been appointed to replace him by Governor Scott until July when...

New Zealand Herald can't be posted to FR, but I think a link might be OK: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10889158

What goes around comes around. What a true statement. In the very early days of the internet and Free Republic there was a lot of articles dealing with Agenda-21 and the super spy agency NSA. We were called all kinds of names but "being right" was none of them. We all were looked upon as kooks and extremist for our beliefs of what would happen when these agencies took full control of our freedoms. Now, look at what we are dealing with in 2013. It has finally come to the point that the full power of both these agencies and...

The National Security Agency's monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches, and the agency also has cataloged credit-card transactions, said people familiar with the agency's activities. The disclosure this week of an order by a secret U.S. court for Verizon Communications Inc.'s phone records set off the latest public discussion of the program. But people familiar with the NSA's operations said the initiative also encompasses phone-call data from AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp., records from Internet-service providers and purchase information from credit-card providers. The agency is using...

Biometric Database tucked inside Gang of Eight immigration bill by Conservative Action Alerts on May 31, 2013 ALERT: The Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration plan will destroy individual privacy via biometric database. American Conservative, Last Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed their markup of the Gang of Eight’s “immigration reform” bill – a version that not only preserves most of the bill’s original problems, but also contains 233 additional pages of rules. Senator Ted Cruz says that the bill only makes our current immigration problems “worse.” Sadly, he holds the minority opinion as he was one of only five Senate...

The WSJ is reporting that in addition to monitoring cell phone records, emails and web activity, the National Security Agency is monitoring credit card transactions. "NSA has established similar relationships with credit-card companies, three former officials said."

Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said. Several of the companies have provided records continuously since 2006, while others have given the agency sporadic access, these officials said. These officials disclosed the number of participating companies in order to provide context for a series of disclosures about the NSA's domestic collection policies. The officials, contacted independently, repeatedly said that "domestic collection" does not mean that the target is based...

On May 30, 2013, a letter was sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nation, signed by the Presidents of Indonesia, Liberia, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. This letter was informing Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General that the task he assigned to a panel of twenty-seven individuals has been completed, and the report published. The distinguished panelists represented Indonesia, Liberia, UK, USA, Cuba, Benin, India, Sweden, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, Yemen, Republic of Korea, Germany, Mozambique, Kenya, Russian Federation, Nigeria, Latvia, Timor, Netherlands, Jordan, France, Brazil, Turkey, and China. Representing the United States was John Podesta, chair...

No such encounters will take place in Watford this week, as the Bilderberg, the annual conference for 140 of the world’s most powerful, meet for four days at The Grove, a £300-a-night golf hotel close to the M25. The entire hotel has been booked out, and a high fence erected around the exclusion zone. Armed checkpoints have been set up on local roads, and locals must show their passports to enter their own driveways. The Home Office may foot the bill. A US news site dedicated to uncovering conspiracies had booked a room for last week but were told by...

A White House official says President Barack Obama will name former aide Samantha Power as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power will replace Susan Rice, who will take over as Obama's national security adviser. The official says Obama will announce both appointments from the White House Wednesday afternoon. Power is a longtime Obama adviser who worked on his 2008 presidential campaign and ran the human rights office in the White House. She left the administration in February but was considered the favorite to replace Rice at the U.N. The official insisted on anonymity in order to confirm the...

On Memorial Day weekend, 2 million people marched in protests against seed giant Monsanto for the purpose of bringing awareness to hazards from genetically modified food, which it and other companies manufacture. Organizer Tami Canal said protests were held in 436 cities in 52 countries. Genetically modified plants are grown from genetically modified, or engineered, seeds, which are created to resist insecticides and herbicides so that crops can be grown to withstand a weed-killing pesticide or integrate a bacterial toxin that can ward off pests. The Chicago Tribune reported that because genetically modified organisms are not listed on food or...

Omaha should cut down on suburban sprawl, restructure incentives for inner-city development and do a better job sharing data between government departments, according to a new report from IBM business consultants. The city was one of 33 communities that received a grant last year for a study. A team of five consultants visited Omaha in October to assess the city's planning and development efforts and offer their recommendations. Monday, the city released the consultants' final report.

The Gang of Eight’s Amnesty Bill (S. 744) is slated for a vote on June 10th. If there was ever a time to call your Senators and anyone of influence you know to oppose this bill, it’s now. In my state of Idaho, Senators Risch and Crapo take note. The voters are watching you and you better vote conservatively – get your collective arses off the fence already. I understand Crapo has stated he must study the bill first which is understandable, but I would like to make a point of order here. Amnesty does not serve any good and...

The Arizona Business & Education Coalition brought together business and education leaders from across the nation for its annual conference today to delve into common core standards. ABEC Executive Director Susan Carlson hosted a private reception for out-of-state business leaders at The Buttes in Tempe last night, where I got a chance to catch up with them to talk about their secrets

- A strain of genetically modified wheat found in the United States fuelled concerns over food supplies across Asia on Thursday, with major importer Japan cancelling a tender offer to buy U.S. grain. Other top Asian wheat importers South Korea, China and the Philippines said they were closely monitoring the situation after the U.S. government found genetically engineered wheat sprouting on a farm in the state of Oregon. The strain was never approved for sale or consumption. Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption. However, most of the...

The next welfare scandal is going to be the huge balances on some of these EBT cards. Wait until the Department of Terrorist Assistance (DTA) finally coughs up how much money is on these cards. And yes, Gov. Deval Patrick, this is another one of those “anecdotes.” Last January a radio listener from Pittsfield sent me a receipt from a local convenience store. Some loafer had run up a tab of $3.28, so he whipped out an EBT card to pay for it. After paying his three bucks, he had $7,066.58 left on the card. I kid you not. Over...

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa referred to state Sen. John Morse as a “criminal” during a fundraiser Tuesday in support of a lawsuit against new gun restrictions. The comment, which drew thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd of about 815, came after Maketa said he and the 54 other sheriffs who filed the lawsuit have been met with “typical rhetoric” despite being open and transparent. “Here’s the most recent one I heard from a senator that comes from this county that I won’t even give him the honor of mentioning his name: ‘There are a very...

The Obama Department of Defense is going to spend nearly $700 million to buy Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan Air Force. That’s right, $700 million of U.S. taxpayer money is going to fund our enemy’s air force. However, not only could this be considered treasonous, but even by the federal government’s 2013 National Defense Authorization Act they are in violation of their own legislation. According to Riz Novosti: WASHINGTON, April 4 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) – The US Department of Defense said Thursday it plans to sidestep a Congressional ban to purchase 30 helicopters from Russian state-owned...

Special thanks to Gun Owners of Arizona, for bringing this to our attention. The Tucson City Council is expected to enact two local firearms ordinances, in violation of State firearms preemption laws, at their meeting on Wednesday, May 29. The first ordinance will create a $100 fine if a person does not report the loss or theft of their firearm within 48 hours from the time it was stolen or the owner “should have known” it was stolen. Why go after the person who stole a firearm when they can punish the owner instead? The second ordinance is an attempt...

–The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced today that test results of plant samples from an Oregon farm indicate the presence of genetically engineered (GE) glyphosate-resistant wheat plants. Further testing by USDA laboratories indicates the presence of the same GE glyphosate-resistant wheat variety that Monsanto was authorized to field test in 16 states from 1998 to 2005. APHIS launched a formal investigation after being notified by an Oregon State University scientist that initial tests of wheat samples from an Oregon farm indicated the possible presence of GE glyphosate-resistant wheat plants. There are no...

One constant we have experienced under the reign of Barack Obama has been government and non-governmental agency (NGO) lies and distortions about the statistical state of our nation. Believing the unemployment numbers, for instance, has become an exercise in suspension of disbelief. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has used a fabricated dysfunctional formula for counting our unemployed neighbors for so long that people have forgotten they are being lied to, if they ever knew the difference. Recently a new insidious lie was quietly slipped into the public area. Under cover of Obama’s multiple scandals the Brookings Institute, a reliably liberal...

Food companies big and small are struggling to replace genetically modified ingredients with conventional ones. Pressure is growing to label products made from genetically modified organisms, or “G.M.O.” In Connecticut, Vermont and Maine, at least one chamber of the state legislature has approved bills that would require the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, and similar legislation is pending in more than two dozen other states. This weekend, rallies were held around the globe against producers of genetically altered ingredients, and consumers are threatening to boycott products that are not labeled. And so, for many businesses, the pressing...

Considering how important and ubiquitous energy is for virtually all of life’s activities, it should come as no surprise that energy policy often dominates the agendas in legislative chambers in each of the fifty states and on Capitol Hill. Historically, most of the energy debate in many of these legislative bodies has centered almost exclusively on ensuring that citizens have ready access to affordable and reliable energy. Unfortunately, over the past several years, the energy debate has shifted. Instead of worrying about the cost and dependability of energy, many legislators are now focusing on ways in which certain politically preferred...

BRADY, Tex. — In October, the City Council of this Central Texas town voted unanimously to purchase advanced electric meters, known as smart meters, for the city-owned electric utility. But some residents resisted, and the smart meter vote played a large role in last weekend’s recall of the city’s mayor and the electoral defeat of two council members. Voters here passed a referendum last weekend to enshrine in the City Charter the right of residents to refuse the installation of smart meters on their property. Sheila Hemphill, an organizer of the effort, called the victory her “San Jacinto.” The reaction...

Agenda 21 is a United Nations resolution and treaty that remains unratified by the United States Senate, and therefore is not a treaty we are required by the law of the land to conform to. The members of the liberal left ideology will claim, if they are familiar with it, that Agenda 21 is a mandate, or should be. The sinister realities of the program has been oozing out, however, so the name is currently being changed to “Future Earth” because the truth getting out has given the term “Agenda 21″ a negative connotation. What it is, according to its...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said. Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."… The U.S. Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.

The Illinois Ag Dept. illegally seized privately owned bees from renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, without providing him with a search warrant and before the court hearing on the matter, reports Prairie Advocate News. Behind the obvious violations of his Constitutional rights is Monsanto. Ingram was researching Roundup’s effects on bees, which he’s raised for 58 years. “They ruined 15 years of my research,” he told Prairie Advocate, by stealing most of hisstock.

Imagine the outcry if the nation woke up this morning to New York Times and Washington Post headlines reporting that in order to settle a lawsuit against Charles and David Koch, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency had met behind closed doors with them to iron out a deal that effectively allowed the brothers to rewrite regulations as they pleased. Imagine, also, that the EPA and the Kochs then got a federal court to issue a decree ratifying the deal and giving it the force of law? The sun would not likely set on a peaceful America until the EPA/Koch...

On Friday, May 17, fifty-four Colorado Sheriffs filed a civil rights lawsuit in Federal District Court in Denver, against two anti-gun bills passed by the Colorado legislature in March. Joining the Sheriffs as Plaintiffs are the Colorado Farm Bureau, disabled persons, Outdoor Buddies (an organization that helps disabled persons participate in outdoor sports), the Colorado Outfitters Association (the trade association for hunting guides), the National Shooting Sports Foundation (the trade association for the firearms industry), magazine manufacturer Magpul, federally-licensed firearms dealers, the state’s largest shooting range, the Colorado State Shooting Association (governing body for the shooting sports in Colorado), and...

A program in Palm Beach County intended to encourage residents to report suspicious behavior is attracting resistance from around the state. Under the proposed "Violence Prevention Program," anyone who sees a potentially dangerous situation — a schizophrenic person with weapons, a war veteran making threats to passersby — could call a 24-hour hotline. Legitimate-sounding calls would trigger a visit by specially trained deputies in plain clothes or by mental health professionals. The Palm Beach County Sheriff says violence prevention unit could thwart would-be killers like the recent mass shooters in Connecticut and Colorado. The program will cost $3.2 million in...

Eau Claire (WQOW) - There's no debating that obesity is a serious problem in this country. What may be open for debate is what the government can do to address it. Eau Claire's Comprehensive Plan has a health chapter. It's a lengthy document designed to encourage healthy living. There are many ways a city could go about doing that. One of several ideas the city is proposing is an "obesity map". City of Eau Claire Associate Planner, Ned Noel, says, "So that the map would describe possible areas that people are more overweight." It's a unique step that's never been...

A new law proposed by the European Commission is being criticized as a massive government overreach that will ultimately damage the farming industry, and lead to the outlaw of certain types of seeds. The European Commission has brought forth a bill to limit what’s planted to a “tested, approved and accepted” list of seeds, The Blaze reported. Concerns are the legislation will lead to less biodiversity — and more prosecution of farmers. The Plant Reproductive Material Law is being billed by the Commission as a means of simplifying existing laws and “guiding the operation of the food chain,” The Blaze...

<p>The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto Monday over an Indiana farmer accused of having pirated the genetically-modified crops developed by the agribusiness giant.</p> <p>The high court was unanimous in its decision, ruling that laws limiting patents do "not permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent holder's permission."</p>

With a veto-proof majority, the Missouri legislature approved a popular bill protecting private property and due process rights by banning a deeply controversial United Nations “sustainability” scheme known as UN Agenda 21. The legislation, SB 265, now heads to Democrat Governor Jay Nixon, who has not yet taken a public position on the issue. ~snip~ The widely criticized UN scheme, adopted by governments and dictatorships worldwide at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro more than two decades ago, has been marketed as a way to make humanity more “sustainable.” According to UN documents, however, Agenda 21 essentially seeks to...