Free Republic

Washington, DC --(AmmoLand.com)- Data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reported 1,074,757 checks in August 2009, a 12.3 percent increase from the 956,872 reported in August 2008. So far that is roughly 9,076,205 gun bought this year! The total is probably more as NICS background checks may cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time.

SACRAMENTO — For the third time in as many weeks Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is slashing state programs by billions of dollars to wipe out a deficit that seems to be growing by the day. The cuts would eliminate in-home nursing for all but the neediest patients, such as those who can't breathe or walk on their own. The proposal would grab $550 million from counties that's currently used to provide social services for the poor. And it would cut funding for schools and community colleges by an additional $680 million, bringing the total education cuts Schwarzenegger has suggested to...

The U.S. and Europe were widely expected to clash at the G-20 summit in London last month over how to address the global financial crisis. Voila, in just two days the problem was solved with a joint promise to increase International Monetary Fund resources by $750 billion to a total of $1 trillion. The U.S. portion of this new commitment is more than $140 billion. Yet Congress has debated neither the amount nor the proposed use of the funds. Instead, President Obama and his fellow leaders simply waved their hands, like a Star Trek captain, and said make it so

President Bush on Wednesday retracted one of the 19 presidential pardons he granted just before the Christmas holiday. The White House announced that Isaac Toussie, a Brooklyn developer convicted of fraud and making false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, should not be granted clemency. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the new decision was "based on information that has subsequently come to light," including on the extent and nature of Toussie's prior criminal offenses. She also said that neither the White House counsel's office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution...

I have been a lurker here for a while now. You may see me as a newbie to FR but I am no newcomer to conservativism. I am quiet in nature and will not post often. But, If I have something to contribute I may speak out. I am honored to be a part of this establishment. Thank you.

Revival of the 10th Amendment should be the centerpiece of a new Republican Contract with America.What should the other parts be?Perhaps, realing the 16th Amendment and starting the Fair Tax?

How long? Will the media hang with the one? My bet is 4 months, of course I thought Mc/Palin would win so what do I know.

1. On September 12, 2001 and in the days that followed, how long did you imagine it would be before America experienced another terrorist attack on its soil? 2. Have you heard of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He conceived and planned the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden is a figurehead. Khalid was captured by Pakistani security forces in Rawalpindi in 2003. The year before, the Pakis captured Ramzi Binalshibh, who was the middle-man between Kahlid and the hijackers. Have you heard of him? By 2004, two-thirds of Al-Qaeda’s leadership was in jail or dead. This raises two additional questions: 3. Why do...

DAVENPORT, Iowa - To hear Mitt Romney tell it, Republican Mike Huckabee shares more with Democrat Bill Clinton than a hometown in Hope, Ark., and a stint as Arkansas governor. Both men, Romney suggests, have left-leaning governing philosophies, particularly on taxes and spending. "Governor Huckabee's record is more liberal than our nation needs right now," the former Massachusetts governor said in Iowa last week, seeking to link his GOP presidential rival to the former Democratic president who is loathed by many Republican loyalists. Retorted Huckabee: "This nonsense about being a liberal is pure nonsense." Romney started giving Huckabee that brand...

MIAMI - A Cuban father allowed his young daughter to emigrate legally to the United States with her mother to find a better life. But months later, the mother has become incapable of caring for the girl and the father wants to take the child home. It would seem a simple case, especially since the mother agrees her daughter should return to Cuba. Yet on the eve of the trial, a judge has warned that it could "inflame the community," where the battle over Elian Gonzalez nearly eight years ago divided the city and became an international incident. Testimony is...

Below are all the biblical references to Mary, the mother of Jesus that I could locate. Anything beyond Scriptural references is conjecture, the philosophies of men and not God. Would anyone care to construct a Scripturally accurate portrait of Mary, leaving behind extra-biblical sources? Please include your Scriptural references in support of your description. Isaiah 7:13-14 Matthew 1:13-25; 2:11, 14, 20-21; 12: 46-50; 13:54-56 Mark 3:31-35; 6:3 Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-7, 16-19, 27, 33-35, 39, 41-51; 8:19-21 John 2:1-12; 6:41-42; 19:25-26 Acts 1:14

Americans see no easy exit from Iraq: Just 9 percent expect the war to end in clear-cut victory, compared with 87 percent who expect some sort of compromise settlement, according to the latest AP-Ipsos poll. The numbers evoke parallels to public opinion about the war in Vietnam four decades ago. In December 1965, when the American side of the war still had eight years to run, a Gallup survey found just 7 percent believed it would end in victory. Dissatisfaction with President Bush's handling of Iraq has climbed to an all-time high of 71 percent, according to the AP-Ipsos survey,...

Is Ahmadinejad Another Hitler? "Ahmadinejad--I call him Ahmad-in-a-head--I think he's a Hitler type of person," Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "He has made it clear that he wants to destroy Israel. He has made it clear he doesn't believe in the Holocaust. He's a, he's a--we all know what he is," the senator added.

Chávez rolls into Damascus to charm another US foe Albert Aji in Damascus Thursday August 31, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, said yesterday he and Syria would "build a new world" free from US domination. "We have decided to be free. We want to cooperate to build a new world where states' and people's self-determination are respected," Mr Chávez said after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, at his presidential palace in Damascus. "Imperialism's concern is to control the world, but we will not let them despite the pressure and aggression," the...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2006 – Iraqi forces captured an insurgent cell leader in Baghdad July 13 and killed another insurgent leader in northern Iraq July 14, military officials reported. The Iraqi forces captured an insurgent cell leader, planner and organizer in a southern Baghdad mosque compound during a security operation July 13. The Iraqi forces received small-arms fire almost immediately upon arrival at the mosque compound in the Al Rasheed district of Baghdad. Soon after arriving, they captured the insurgent leader, who is known for purchasing weapons and coordinating attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, officials said. A coalition force...

U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Rick Posselt Lieutenant Risks Life to Save Another in Iraq By Sgt. Roe F. SeigleRegimental Combat Team 7 HADITHA, Iraq, June 27, 2006 — Marines here say a lieutenant who was leading Marines and Iraqi soldiers through the volatile streets of Haditha, Iraq, June 14, showed uncommon valor when he ran into a barrage of enemy gunfire to pull a wounded Marine to safety. 1st Lt. Rick Posselt, a 25-year-old from Crystal River, Fla., said he is not the Marine who deserves the recognition. Cpl. Michael Estrella, who was killed by sniper fire during...

Toxic Tides: Another reason to worry about hurricanes Sid Perkins When Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck Florida in the summer of 2004, they killed 116 people, left thousands homeless, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Now, scientists suggest that the storms may also have triggered an intense, widespread Gulf of Mexico algae bloom that afflicted the state's western coast throughout 2005. DANGER ZONE. The red-and-yellow patch of Gulf of Mexico water off Tampa Bay shows the origin of last year's huge red tide, which may have been fueled by nutrient-rich groundwater discharges boosted by 2004 hurricanes. Hu,...

SAN FRANCISCO - University of California President Robert Dynes gets to keep his job, butthe Board of Regents pledged Thursday to watch him more closely after outrage about millions of dollars in overpayments to top administrators that prompted calls for his resignation. The regents met in closed session for much of Thursday morning, discussing the situation with Dynes, before announcing their decision to allow him to stay. They pledged to increase their oversight of UC pay practices and policies. Dynes has been under fire since last fall, when reports emerged saying that UC administrators withheld information from regents and the...

How bout this? Money makes the world go around so... 1. Pay a bounty to professional bounty hunters for capturing illegals and delivering them to law enforcement. 2. Pay a reward to private citizens for information that leads to the capture and deportation of illegal immigrants. 3. Pay a reward to private citizens for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone employing, aiding or abetting illegal immigrants. 3. Create a system of fines charged to private individuals and businesses that employ, aid and abet illegal immigrants to offset the paying of the above said bounties and rewards....

RAMADI, Iraq, March 25, 2006 – One newly graduated 196-member Iraqi police unit returned here for duty yesterday, while another group -- about 220 Iraqi police recruits -- left here and arrived safely at the Baghdad Iraqi Police Basic Training Academy yesterday. The Iraqi police unit, made up of 196 Iraqis known as the Sons of al Anbar, successfully graduated from the Baghdad Police Academy on March 23. This Iraqi police class left Ramadi for the Baghdad Police Academy on Jan. 13, and they represent the first trained group of Iraqi police officers to graduate and secure the neighborhoods of...

Wings could be a passing phase for the giant prickly stick insect The big wing switchThe lowly stick insect has forced a rethink of one of the key rules of evolution - that complex anatomical features do not disappear and reappear over the course of time. Researchers have discovered that on a number of occasions in the past 300 million years, stick insects have lost their wings, then re-evolved them. Entomologists have described the revelation as "revolutionary". Michael Whiting, an evolutionary biologist from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his team stumbled upon the finding while examining the DNA...

Normally new rivers, seas and mountains are born in slow motion. The Afar Triangle near the Horn of Africa is another story. A new ocean is forming there with staggering speed -- at least by geological standards. Africa will eventually lose its horn. Geologist Dereje Ayalew and his colleagues from Addis Ababa University were amazed -- and frightened. They had only just stepped out of their helicopter onto the desert plains of central Ethiopia when the ground began to shake under their feet. The pilot shouted for the scientists to get back to the helicopter. And then it happened: the...

A recently discovered fossil of Laonastes matched the "living" specimen in skull shape and overall size. The only difference is that the "living" specimen's teeth are slightly more pointed. "It looks like possibly one of the things that's been changing in family is improved cutting of vegetation," Dawson told LiveScience. "But over 11 million years you'd expect some differences in the structures."

Peru's dynasty-in-waiting prepares to deliver another anti-US president By Jeremy McDermott in Lima (Filed: 09/03/2006) One of Latin America's most extraordinary political families is poised to produce another of the continent's Left-wing authoritarian leaders with no love for Washington. Ollanta Humala is one of two favourites to become Peru's next president, a role for which, to believe his mother, he has been groomed from birth. Ollanta Humala: ‘I am a nationalist and anti-imperialist’ "We have been preparing our children to take power since they were born," Elena Tasso has said of her eight progeny. "If the boys are not successful...

Do you remember Chuck Quackenbush? He was the insurance commissioner who lost his job because he used fines that he collected from insurance companies to buy television commercials to promote his political career. It was a huge scandal at the time, and Quackenbush, who was a colleague of mine in the Assembly, left his job in disgrace, having been run out of office by Legislative Democrats for abusing state money. Another boondoggle is brewing, only this time Legislative Democrats are strangely silent. A few years ago, Rob Reiner (“Meathead” from the old television series, “All in the Family”) sponsored an...

Headsup to Newsbusters for this CBS Slants Bush Poll in Favor of Democrats In its classic "fair and balanced" tradition, CBS slanted in favor of Democrats its poll that found Bush has a 34 percent approval rating and a 59 percent disapproval rating, an all-time high for a CBS poll. On the bottom of the PDF version of the poll (page 18) it says how many Democrats versus Republicans were contacted. "Total Republicans" contacted: 272 unweighted and 289 weighted. "Total Democrats" contacted: 409 unweighted and 381 weighted. "Total Independents" contacted: 337 unweighted and 348 weighted.

Feb. 23, 2006 - Four months ago, Bode Miller sat across from me in the bar of a New York City hotel and shared his idea of what a perfect two weeks in Torino would look like. “For me,” he said, “the ideal Olympics would be to go in with all that pressure, all that attention and have performances that are literally tear-jerking, that make people put their heads down because they’re embarrassed at how emotional they’re getting, that make people want to try sports, talk to their kids, call their f---ing ex-wives—and come away with no medals. I think...

Ballance to hold another fundraiser before prison term starts Dec 26, 2005 : 3:37 pm ET RALEIGH, N.C. -- Former Rep. Frank Ballance is holding one last fundraiser before he begins serving a four-year prison term at the end of this week. Ballance, a Democrat from Warrenton who represented the First District of North Carolina, resigned in June 2004 for health reasons before completing his first term. He was sentenced to prison in October after pleading guilty to funneling tax dollars into his foundation and using $100,000 for himself and his family. He will be honored Wednesday at the Roanoke...

In the wake of the voters’ stinging repudiation of all four ballot measures he backed in the costly and contentious Nov. 8 special election, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is working feverishly to regain his political footing. In a recent staff shake-up, the Governor’s chief of staff, Republican Pat Clarey, announced her resignation. But in choosing her successor, Governor Schwarzenegger has made one of the biggest mistakes of his political career. He has selected Susan Kennedy, a former top aide to recalled Governor Gray Davis and former executive director of the California Democratic Party and of the California Abortion Rights Action...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2005 – Operation Shank wrapped up today, officials in Iraq announced. The operation, conducted in central and southern Ramadi, was the fifth in a series by the Iraqi army and coalition forces engaged in combined clearing operations to disrupt terrorism and set conditions for a successful Dec. 15 election in the provincial capital of Anbar. Shank primarily involved targeted raids conducted by Iraqi soldiers and U.S. forces against terrorist safe houses in the area. The raids resulted in the detention of four suspected members of al Qaeda in Iraq, who were held for questioning. About 200 Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2005 – Years from now, the Iraqi people may look on Oct. 15, 2005, as the beginning of their new lives under freedom. Iraqi voters go to the polls to decide on their new constitution - the first constitution in the country's history that is the product of a freely elected assembly. The referendum continues the process of establishing a democratic government in Iraq. U.S. officials say that a democracy in the heart of the Middle East will be an example to the rest of the region. Coalition officials want an Iraq that respects the rights of...

Just before departing New York Sunday night, PM Sharon allegedly managed to violate campaign funding laws by taking part in a dinner at which participants donated well over the permitted amount. A report by Israel's Channel Ten television reporter Raviv Drucker last night provided a detailed report on the Sunday night affair. He related how the organizer and hostess - NIna Rosenwald - sent letters to selected invitees asking for $10,000 per person or couple, and how the 5th Avenue location was closed off for over an hour for what the police described as a "top secret" reason. Only the...

SACRAMENTO – Four years after electricity prices soared and blackouts rolled across California, the state is in danger of another energy crisis – this one involving gasoline and natural gas as well, said a draft report Friday. The state is a captive of its own geographic and regulatory isolation, separated by miles and mountains from many refineries and fossil fuel sources. Moreover, the state sets stricter fuel standards to trim air pollution, driving up prices and limiting availability as is evident in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, said the California Energy Commission. "California's way of life is threatened by its...

Democrats split over position on Iraq war Leaders want to stay the course, voters call for exit strategy By Peter Baker and Shailagh Murray Updated: 10:48 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2005 WASHINGTON - Democrats say a long-standing rift in the party over the Iraq war has grown increasingly raw in recent days, as stay-the-course elected leaders who voted for the war three years ago confront rising impatience from activists and strategists who want to challenge President Bush aggressively to withdraw troops. Amid rising casualties and falling public support for the war, Democrats of all stripes have grown more vocal this...

War prisoner believes atomic bomb saved his life By DAVID LEVINSKY Burlington County Times Thomas Calderone believes the atomic bomb saved his life. Sixty years ago today, the Pemberton Township man was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp wondering how he would survive a fourth year of daily work and few rations when word was received that Japanese forces had surrendered. Calderone's lasting memory of the day - dubbed V-J Day for "victory over Japan" - was simply the Japanese guards telling the prisoners, "no more work." "We didn't understand why," Calderone said last week. "We didn't understand a...

Kerry cautious on probing `Downing Street Memo' By Noelle Straub Monday, June 20, 2005 - Updated: 10:36 AM EST WASHINGTON - Walking a tightrope on a politically charged issue, Sen. John F. Kerry vowed weeks ago to raise the controversial ``Downing Street Memo'' as an issue in Washington, but has since publicly held his tongue on the matter. Instead, Kerry has been enlisting other senators to sign onto a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee seeking answers about the memo, aides said. The memo contained minutes of a 2002 meeting in which British officials told Prime Minister Tony Blair they...

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 - Page updated at 01:17 p.m Kate Riley / Times staff columnist Another bone of contention over Kennewick Man Kennewick Man is poised to tell his secrets. Almost nine years after the 9,300-year-old remains were found on the banks of the Columbia River and a fierce legal battle, federal courts agreed unequivocally scientists should be able to study Kennewick Man. However, U.S. Sen. John McCain has colluded with those who want to stifle the stories of similar old bones and the light they can shed on the earliest Americans and where they came from. The Arizona...

Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Boston) will file a bill banning the sale of two types of guns in Massachusetts: a "cop killer" handgun and a rifle capable of disabling aircrafts. Barrios, who chairs the Joint Committee on Public Safety, said the .50 caliber rifle - a weapon capable of firing a five and a half inch round into a target outside the George Sherman Union from Danielsen Hall - opens the door to potential terrorist attacks on "easy targets" around Massachusetts, such as Logan International Airport and the Liquid Natural Gas Tankers in the Mystic River. Barrios and others said the...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government said on Friday it had captured a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who is al Qaeda's leader in Iraq and has been behind some of the country's worst attacks. It said Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured on Feb. 20 in Anah, a town northwest of Baghdad, about 35 miles from the Syrian border. "Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Zarqawi," the government said in a statement."Abu Qutaybah filled the role of key lieutenant for...

'Chaos in Iraq could produce another Hitler' By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 14/12/2004) The chronic instability and widespread feeling of humiliation in Iraq could give birth to an "Iraqi Hitler", the country's president, Ghazi al-Yawar, said yesterday as a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in Baghdad. The explosion at the entrance of the "Green Zone", the capital's fortified government and diplomatic compound, left 19 people wounded. All the victims were reported to be Iraqis. An US soldier surveys the blast zone in Baghdad The blast came on the anniversary of the capture of Saddam Hussein....

SACRAMENTO – The solar panels gleam like black fish scales on the roof of Mark Louvier's Santa Ana factory. They save him $2,500 a month as they pour electricity into the machines below that grind out doors and fixtures for tract homes. They also cost $1.2 million to install, way beyond Louvier's budget without the government subsidies and tax breaks he got that brought the bill down to less than $600,000. "Without the credits, I wouldn't have anything to do with it," said Louvier, president of Trimco Finish. It's businessmen like Louvier and homeowners throughout California that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...

Former US president Bill Clinton wins another Grammy nod 2 hours, 9 minutes ago LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton, movie star Steve Martin, actor John Lithgow and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres won places alongside the world's top musicians as Grammy Award nominees. An unlikely nominee, Clinton won his second consecutive nod for music's top awards in the best spoken word album category for the recording of his best-selling autobiography "My Life." Earlier this year, the former leader of the free world won a golden gramophone statuette for lending his voice to the spoken word recording of Russian...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

MONTREAL -- Montreal's exclusive Lower Canada College is again in an embarrassing spot after two graduating students placed coded messages calling for death to all Jews in the school's yearbook as a joke. The statements, in a jumble of acronym-like e-mail shorthand, were spotted hours before the 2003-2004 yearbook was to be widely distributed this month. All 1,000 copies were destroyed. "It was a hidden message that was intended to be a secret between two students," headmaster Paul Bennett said in an interview yesterday. "These students don't represent anyone but themselves but they've caused a tremendous amount of harm and...

Iraqi rebels slip away to fight another day By Aqeel Hussein in al-Nouaimia and Toby Harnden in Fallujah (Filed: 14/11/2004) Families fleeing the besieged city of Fallujah say that rebel fighters have slipped through the American and Iraqi military cordon and have been driven away in Mercedes cars to rejoin the battle elsewhere in Iraq. The fighters, said to include foreign militants using satellite telephones, are believed to be heading for Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, to open a new front. Abu Haider, 47, a mechanic who escaped with his family on Friday, said: "I saw many fighters...

NEW ORLEANS - Days after Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) and former President Clinton (news - web sites) had a lengthy, late-night telephone chat to discuss campaign strategy, the two were at it again on Thursday. Only this time, politics weren't involved, says a Kerry aide. Kerry just wanted to check in and see how Clinton was doing as he recuperates in a New York City hospital after heart bypass surgery earlier this week, said Kerry spokesman David Wade. Before giving a speech Thursday to the National Baptist Convention, Kerry said he had spoken to Clinton and that...

BOSTON -- OK, here's my brilliant Insider Insight du jour: The D's aren't going to get much of a bounce out of this convention because this race is already so tight there just ain't enough swing votes to bounce anywhere.

He's still from Jersey, but Gov. Piscopo? New York, NY, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Former "Saturday Night Live" regular Joe Piscopo is mulling a run for governor of New Jersey, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. Piscopo may be best known for his SNL character, Paulie the chemical plant worker, who asked everyone in sight, "I'm from Jersey... Are you from Jersey?" But for governor? The comic confirmed to the News "some prominent business guys" are trying to persuade him to run for governor. Piscopo would not identify them but said, "They've suggested I run as an independent. They...

Kerry’s vet photo fraud, II The Kerry campaign ran a much-hyped “Band of Brothers” photo of Kerry with 19 other fellow Vietnam Swift Boat commanders, which implied all 19 support Kerry’s bid for the presidency. All 19 did not support Kerry – only two did. Today, Iowa Presidential Watch has received information from Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth (www.swiftvets.com) that states: “We have new information that Ralph Dobson in fact considers Kerry unfit.”So, now Kerry is down to just one of the 19 Swift Boat commanders supporting him.We have updated the photo-graphic to show the truth about Kerry’s...

A Chronology of Casimir Pulaski's Life 1745-1779 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1745 6 March Kazimierz is born in Warsaw at the Pulaski residence on the corner of Nowy Swiat and Warecka Streets. He is the second son (of three) born to the starosta of Warka, Józef Pulaski and Marianna Zielinska his wife . A priest, Father Krzysztof Faltz was called to the house to administer baptism because of the child's debility. 14 March a grand completion of the baptismal ceremonies at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw 1762 leaves the Theatine School in Warsaw which he had attended (most likely after getting an...