Free Republic

Mike Vanderboegh is drinking Diet Mountain Dew in the cafeteria of the Rayburn building on Capitol Hill, and he is pissed. Not because his flight from Alabama was almost “as bumpy as [his] first marriage,” nor because he almost got into a physical altercation with an “idiot street urban adventurer” outside the National Archives who said Vanderboegh looked like Newt Gingrich. The former militia man turned gun rights blogger is angry because he thinks the Republican “sons-a-bitches” on the House Oversight Committee put on the “ultimate display of public limp dickery” during a Thursday hearing in which Attorney General Eric...

It seems that the world governments are escalating cliamtegate to the next level. Tallbloke a fellow recipient blog of the climategate emails, and linked on the right, was raided today in what seems to be a coordinated effort by Metropolitan Police, the Norfolk Constabulary and the Computer Crime division and the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division. His home was raided and computers were taken for ‘examination’. Updates are coming shortly which will explain further. The same is coming to a blogger near you. Perhaps this post should be titled - “The Empire Strikes Back”

A federal judge in Oregon has ruled that a Montana woman sued for defamation was not a journalist when she posted online that an Oregon lawyer acted criminally during a bankruptcy case, a decision with implications for bloggers around the country. Crystal L. Cox, a blogger from Eureka, Mont., was sued for defamation by attorney Kevin Padrick when she posted online that he was a thug and a thief during the handling of bankruptcy proceedings by him and Obsidian Finance Group LLC. U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez found last week that as a blogger, Cox was not a journalist and...

A statement issued by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression said Razan Ghazzawi was arrested by police and immigration officials at the border. She was on her way to Amman to attend the conference as a representative of the center.

The Daily News is covering the prohibition of our pro-Israel ads with their usual anti-Islam submission to the sharia. There is a vote on the story here. Go. Vote. 85% agree with my message, do you? Blogger Pamela Geller vows to sue MTA if subway ad calling Israel's enemies 'savages' isn't approved New York Daily News An anti-Islam activist is threatening to sue the MTA if it doesn't approve her bus and subway advertisement calling Israel's enemies savages. Pamela Geller submitted the proposed ad to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's media management company more than a week ago but still hasn't...

Ryan Bomberger Joins LifeNews.com as Pro-Life Guest Blogger Washington, DC -- Abortion has devastated the black community in America -- as African-American women, both nationally and in places like Texas, Georgia and New York City, have higher abortion rates than women of other racial backgrounds. Ryan Bomberger, as a black pro-life advocate, an adoptee and an adoptive parent, understands this problem and he has worked overtime to do something about it. The billboard, multimedia and other campaigns he has undertaken to draw attention to the plight of black women and unborn children has helped focus a national spotlight on how...

OBJECTIVITY:The judge said the blogger should not have criticized the restaurant’s food as ‘too salty’ in general, because she had eaten dried noodles and two side dishesThe Taichung branch of Taiwan High Court on Tuesday sentenced a blogger who wrote that a restaurant’s beef noodles were too salty to 30 days in detention and two years of probation and ordered her to pay NT$200,000 in compensation to the restaurant. The blogger, surnamed Liu (劉), writes about a variety of topics — including food, health, interior design and lifestyle topics — and has received more than 60,000 hits on her Web...

Abby Johnson Joins LifeNews.com as Guest Pro-Life Blogger Washington, DC -- Abby is donning a new hat -- as a contributing guest blogger with LifeNews.com, the international pro-life news service whose news and opinion is read each and every week by more than 500,000 people across the globe. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/20/abby-johnson-joins-lifenews-com-as-guest-pro-life-blogger/

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak two months ago. The blogger, Maikel Nabil, 26, had assailed the Egyptian armed forces for what he called its continuation of the corruption and anti-democratic practices of Mr. Mubarak. Mr. Nabil often quoted from reports by established human rights groups. “Maikel is the first prisoner of conscience in Egypt after the revolution,” Adel Ramadan, one of his...

I had the chance to sit in tonight on a blogger conference call with potential 2012 Presidential candidate Herman Cain. It shouldn’t surprise any long-time readers of The Shack when I say I’m a fan of Cain’s as a candidate and as a person. Though he has yet to announce his candidacy, he has formed an exploratory committee and has visited several of the early primary and caucus states to gauge interest in a run and to lay some groundwork if he decides to do so. I had hoped to connect to the call with Skype and record it, so...

Amigos, I don’t know what else to say other than a hearty “gracias” to all of you who’ve supported the Shark Tank and think the blog has made a difference in both Florida and national politics. I am honored beyond words to have been nominated, let alone selected, as the 2011 CPAC Blogger of the Year. The Shark Tank has done its best to report on local politics throughout the State of Florida (and elsewhere!) and we’ve promoted solid conservative candidates who we thought would best represent the Republican Party of Florida. We are proud to have influenced elections throughout...

Just because the site was founded by an alleged plagiarist doesn't mean it's totally devoid of ethical clout. Though you do have to wonder: from where does the Huffington Post recruit its bloggers? The site reportedly informed one of its unpaid contributors last week that he was being let go. The offense: he had used his press credentials as a HuffPo blogger to get labor union demonstrators access to a Mortgage Bankers Association event, where they staged a rowdy protest. Yahoo News reporter Joe Pompeo wrote of the event on Monday: The commotion attracted a fair amount of media attention...

The Council on American Islamic Relations is once again using the American legal system to go after one of its critics. The Muslim advocacy group is suing conservative blogger and outspoken CAIR opponent Debbie Schlussel in federal court, alleging trademark infringement for incorporating groups with similar names. U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn will hear arguments in Detroit, Michigan Monday to determine whether CAIR will be granted a temporary restraining order against Schlussel that will prevent her from using the names she incorporated.

A right-wing New Jersey blogger has been sentenced to 33 months for making death threats against three federal judges in Illinois. Hal Turner was sentenced today in Brooklyn federal court. The case stemmed from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2009 by three judges that upheld a district court decision dismissing lawsuits that challenged handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park. Turner protested the decision with inflammatory remarks posted on the Internet. Prosecutors said he crossed the line by declaring, "These judges must die."

A woman who blogs in her spare time has Child Protective Services arrive at her house to interview her: You can read the whole scary story here. Sounds to me like CPS got a “tip” from a real lunatic. I guess they have to pursue everything, but it shouldn’t have been so difficult to see what was going on in this case. In a just world, the person who made this accusation would be prosecuted for malicious damage to this family.

(Reuters) - An Egyptian blogger, released after four years in prison for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak, said on Wednesday he had no regrets, and that his jail time would not deter him from activism in the future. "If I went back in time, I would not change a thing," Abdel Kareem Nabil, 26, known as Kareem Amer, told a news conference. Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to have been jailed for opinions expressed online, was arrested in 2006. He was also expelled from the state-run religious al-Azhar University. The activist said he had been freed on November 5...

The following e-mail arrived in my mailbox this morning from taxpayer-supported PBS — home of Obama sycophant and drool bucket-carrier David Brooks and Palin-basher/Obama cheerleader Gwen Ifill. Yep, the government media that has spent the last two years promoting the progressive agenda and sought a $550 million taxpayer bailout to push social justice activism now wants conservative bloggers to help publicize their election night coverage. Michelle, I wanted to send out a note to invite you to participate – even embed – the PBS NewsHour’s online-only live show tomorrow night (starting at 10 p.m. EST). It’s the first time we...

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it's not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn't Catholic enough. Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church...

PHOTO CAPTION: "Yasir Afifi said the FBI planted a GPS device on his car and later confiscated it when a friend posted this photo online. (Credit: khaledthegypsy/REDDIT)" SNIPPET: "Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old student and U.S.-born citizen found a GPS tracking device on his car. A friend posted pictures of the device, which resulted in the FBI coming by Afifi's Santa Clara, Calif., apartment to retrieve the surveillance equipment. It seems the FBI was tracking Afifi's movements..."

On a scale of forgetting your pencil at home to forgetting your 50th wedding anniversary, this ranks somewhere around forgetting your lunchbox. But it’s still funny. Last week, a Washington Post columnist started a Twitter hoax. This week, a Washington Post columnist fell for one. Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer and columnist, took "@RepJackKimble (R-Calif.)" to task Monday for tweeting that "Bush fought 2 wars without costing taxpayers a dime." Capehart responded in a blog post that President Bush advocated for "two giant tax cuts that weren't paid for and two big wars that were largely kept off the main...

NEW YORK — A New Jersey blogger being tried for a third time has been convicted of making threats against federal appeals court judges in Illinois. A New York City jury deliberated less than two hours Friday before finding Hal Turner guilty of making death threats. The three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals testified during the trial in Brooklyn that they were alerted by their staffs in 2009 to postings by Turner protesting their ruling supporting gun control. Turner wrote, "These judges must die." He also posted their photos and work addresses.

It might be a good idea for Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele to start screening his calls. Last week, the embattled GOP chairman took a call at his home from someone he thought was a prospective GOP donor and, during the conversation, dismissed the idea that former Sen. Norm Coleman might be after his job. "Norm is an old friend. Norm is not going to challenge me for RNC chairman," Steele said. "If he does, I'll put my record up against anyone who comes after me."

The Ungodly Make Three Exchanges…pt 1 Posted on July 21, 2010 by billrandles And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things… Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen… For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned...

NEW ORLEANS, LA –– New blogger Stuart H. Smith, a New Orleans-based attorney representing Gulf Coast fishermen, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and an array of major commercial interests, announced the launch of his backroom, no-punches-pulled blog focused exclusively on the spill (www.oilspillaction.com). Smith, a much-loathed legal heavy-weight in the world of Big Oil, is well known for his role as lead counsel in an oilfield radiation case that delivered a verdict of more than $1 billion against ExxonMobil....

Team Weigel rejoice – it didn’t take Dave Weigel very long to land on his feet after he resigned last week from The Washington Post. Tonight at the end of Countdown, Keith Olbermann introduced new “MSNBC contributor” Dave Weigel. Olbermann teased an announcement regarding Weigel throughout the program, and when he finally introduced his guest around 8:55pmET, he said, “We are very proud to announce is, as of like, I don’t know, 20 minutes ago, an MSNBC contributor. Welcome Dave…and you thought last week was fun, wait until you see what this week holds for you.”

Newsweek blogger Ben Adler thinks the national media are giving the Tea Parties gentle treatment. "Unfortunately," Adler wrote in a June 21 post, "what appear to be false notions of objectivity - or perhaps a lack of interest in policy - is preventing that coverage from illuminating what the movement actually represents and what it would do if empowered." Adler complained that a recent Associated Press article, "Enraged to Engaged: Tea partiers explain why," failed to examine the ideology of the demonstrators in the grassroots conservative movement. "The piece examines how and why a variety of individuals became involved in...

After profiling the different types of blog commenters recently, I had some requests for advice on how to be the good kinds of commenters, rather than the bad.  Here are some dos and don’ts that might help: 1) Be charitable. If you are not making a comment out of love, you have no reason to make it. 2) Do not comment when you’re angry. You’ll probably regret it and won’t be able to undo it.  Anything good to say will still be good in a few hours when the anger has worn off a bit. 3) If you quote part...

Note: The following text is a quote: Former FBI Contract Linguist Sentenced for Leaking Classified Information to Blogger WASHINGTON—U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams sentenced former FBI contract linguist, Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, aka Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, age 40, of Silver Spring, Md., today to 20 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for unlawfully providing classified documents to the host of an Internet blog who then published information from those documents on the blog. The sentence was announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland; and...

The same sloppy legislative writing that created so many unintended consequences in ObamaCare also plagues the DISCLOSE Act, the effort in Congress to tighten spending rules in the wake of the Citizens United decision — and that’s the generous take on the situation. Reason’s Bradley Smith and Jeff Patch warn that the perhaps-unintended consequences of legislative language will allow the FEC to regulate political speech online. The fact that media entities like the New York Times have specific exemptions built into the bill makes the intent, or lack thereof, rather murky: Last week, a congressional hearing exposed an effort to...

The idea of a government "Department of Information" is not new. After all, the Nazis had one. So did the Soviets. All good little dictatorships need one in order to get the "facts" out to the people. HuffPo blogger - brain dead psychologist Jim Taylor - originally came up with the idea as a serious measure to get the "facts" out to the people. And like any enthusiastic authoritarian, he wants the government to determine what the "facts" are: Here is my proposal to return fact-based reality to our national dialogue (note: please don't miss my ironic tone):The federal government...

Abu Talhah al-Amrikee, avowed South Park critic, American hardline jihadi-Salafi, who admins The Mujahid Blog, contributes to RevolutionMuslim.com and a reader/interlocutor of this blog recently published a piece to his website entitled, “Fomenting Disunity in the Counterterrorism Movement.” I can appreciate the overall thrust of Abu Talhah’s approach (seeking to divide and conquer) as it’s one that I’ve embraced in my own writings and thinking about how degrade al-Qaida movements. The approach was actually the conceptual backbone of the “Stealing AQ’s Playbook,” article that I co-authored in 2006, which has been cited now several times by Ayman al-Zawahiri specifically because...

SNIPPET: "He now likes to be called Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, and his primary interest in this world appears to be Islamic radicalism. Last week, Chesser, 20, posted a warning on the website RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit." SNIPPET: "In a separate post on RevolutionMuslim.blogspot.com, which now serves as the group's main website since RevolutionMuslim.com has been shuttered, Chesser quoted Usama bin Laden when referencing why reactions are required when anyone insults or belittles the Prophet Muhammad. "As Usama bin Laden said with regard to...

Two Azerbaijani bloggers, jailed after posting a satirical anti-Government video on YouTube, have failed in their latest bid for freedom. Adnan Hajizade, 26, and Emin Milli, 30, last year were found guilty of 'hooliganism' and jailed for two and two-and-a-half years, respectively. Authorities say the charges have nothing to do with the video, in which a man dressed in a donkey costume, representing the government, holds a press conference with an adoring press.

LITTLE Tea Party Groups have a BIG need for a web presence for thier local members. We bloggers put up a post or two a day and think nothing of the technology. If you web template allows it, a simple "post" can be a web page for these folks and really give them a boost. And if you don't have a Tea Party group in your back yard, since we have no space/time continuum problems with the Internet, you could be in Iceland and help a "local" group in Spokane. It takes very little time for folks like us .....

Introducing the Obama Care Card. Brought to you by the same people that brought you ponzi schemes such as: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Cash for Clunkers, and the Recovery Act. This card gives you the right to other peoples’ time and money. The new federal government health insurance program will create choice and competition for all Americans. By that we mean that all Americans will only have one choice of health insurance providers, and all Americans will be in competition with each other to see a doctor! You get all this at the low low cost of only $2 trillion...

Update: Hempton's blog is now back. Original post: On January 2nd, financial blogger extaordinaire John Hempton published a long post with the inflammatory title: "A dark privatised social security story: Astarra, the missing money and how examining a fund manager owned by Joe Biden’s family led to substantial regulatory action in Australia." I can read it right now in my Google reader, but if you want check it out, you're out of luck. Suddenly Hempton's blog -- which uses Google's blog platform Blogger -- is labeled as spam and unavailable. The discovery was made by Felix Salmon, who suspects that...

Which is why the self justifying manifesto of the Rochester egg man who went to a Borders Palin book signing event hoping to throw an egg at Sarah Palin is a document of considerable significance because, as we push beyond the usual adolescent pseudo-revolutionary posturing we can observe an uglier truth about the mindset of this weird gremlin, who Lenin would have filed as a “useful idiot”, and his more sinister dancing masters, the Chris Matthews, Geoffrey Dunns and Andrew Sullivans whose steady drumbeat of lies and crude, misogynistic vitriol has the sole purpose of dehumanizing Sarah Palin and, by...

There’s an irony surrounding the academic discipline of anthropology, at least in its contemporary form: it’s a subject devoted to the study of man, yet it is profoundly misanthropic. In recent years, anthropologists (and sociologists) have learned to caricature every human impulse (even – or rather, especially – the benevolent and charitable) as imperialist, paternalist, or worse. Efforts to curtail female genital mutilation, for example, are cast as colonialist, as is Doctors Without Borders, an organization that has done much to improve the lives of the downtrodden. It has been instructive, therefore, to observe the Academic Left’s response to President...

While covering the St. Louis Tea Party at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis Saturday afternoon, I ran into a fellow blogger. Not your ordinary blogger, this guy is 12 years old and, perhaps, the youngest conservative blogger in Missouri. His name: David Bader.

For the last 25 years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has aided in the search for missing children. In conjunction with all levels of law enforcement, children's organizations and John Walsh's America's Most Wanted, 492 (at last report) children have been recovered. Through the daunting tasks involved in these cases, searchers, law enforcement, and the observant citizens, work tirelessly to either bring home the missing, or provide closure.

The case of Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter vs. Mortgage Specialists Inc (MSI) has reached the New Hampshire Supreme Court. MSI has demanded Implode-O-Meter reveal the identity of one of its sources in a defamation case and Implode-O-Meter refuses. Please consider New Hampshire Suit Challenges Mortgage Blogger's Use of Anonymous Sources The New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that calls into question the legal protections available to independent Web sites that cover news. The case involves mortgage lender Implode-Explode, a Las Vegas-based site launched in 2007 that publishes stories about the meltdown of the mortgage industry. The...

The total cost of state regulations on businesses is $493 billion and 3.8 million jobs according to the first-of-its kind study.business-regulation-3 That’s an average of $134,122 per California business, $13,801 per household and $4,685 per resident each year. The California report is significant, according to the Governor’s Office of Small Business Advocate, because small businesses are 98% of the state’s enterprises and provide 52% of the jobs.

Your going to see things move very quickly now for I AM aT the fronT of this battle against darkness and the taking back of my land . Be prepared to war against the enemy as never before and remember the armor of Jericho for the walls of the enemies encampments Shall go down in great tumult amidst your war cries and the blast of the trumpet for you are my shofars of delight . Now do my bidding and assault the fortresses of kerioth and lance all her rulers that " Lie " within her by the filling of...

PITTSBURGH — Call this city blogger central. Two grassroots groups — one left leaning, the other right leaning — are holding their annual conferences here and teaching members how to wield clout online.

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysian riot police fired tear gas and water cannons in clashes with several thousand antigovernment demonstrators who gathered in Kuala Lumpur Saturday to protest a long-standing law allowing detention without trial, raising the stakes in a long-running struggle for political power in the resource-rich but divided country. The law, known as the Internal Security Act, enables Malaysian authorities to detain indefinitely persons they consider to be security risks. In the past, al Qaeda-linked terrorists have been held under the provision. But opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and human rights activists say the law is also being used to...

With all the angst over here on the right about Obama the Terrible crushing our jewel of a health care system under his jackboot, it is worth bearing in mind that the moonbats, who control the White House and Congress for the first time in a long time (actually since 1993, shortly after which Bill Clinton promptly pissed away his Congressional majority with the HillaryCare trainwreck), really thought they had this in the bag. Now we have guys like Matt Taibbi crying in his cornflakes about how the Dems have screwed the pooch.

ran Human Rights, July 13: According to the state run Iranian news agency Fars, 14 people are scheduled to be hanged in public in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan tomorrow July 14. According to the report all the 14 people are connected to "Jondollah", a militant Baluchi group belonging to Abdolmalek Rigi, and are convicted of "moharebe" (fighting against God; a term used for people fighting against the Iranian authorities). Abdolhamid Rigi, brother of Abdolmalek Rigi leader of the group, is among the 14 said the report. None of the other 13 have been identified by name in the...

Like a lot of 17-year -olds, Zac Sunderland can get a bit tongue-tied at times. Only for Sunderland, it's not on account of hormones or nerves. "I've been out at sea for a long time," says Sunderland, who has nearly reached his goal of becoming the youngest sailor to single-handedly circumnavigate the earth in a sailboat. "You kinda forget how to talk. Sometimes I'll get into a port and it'll take a week before the words I'm wanting to say can come out of my mouth the right way. It's annoying." Sunderland, who has yet to get his driver's license,...

There have been a number of seminal queries which our elders used to define game-changing moments in America’s cultural evolution. Where were you when JFK was shot? Where were you when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon? For me, although it will likely wind up as a Trivial Pursuit bonus round question, one of the treasured turning points may well be: Where were you when Sarah Palin decided to commit political suicide? The odd thing is that I was up in the mountains, forcing myself into a period of decompression from the political theater. I likely wouldn’t have even...

An Internet radio host and blogger charged earlier this month with encouraging people to "take up arms" against three public officials in Connecticut was arrested again Wednesday on charges that he threatened to assault and murder three federal judges in retaliation for a ruling upholding handgun bans in the Chicago area. FBI agents charged Hal Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., at his home on charges related to the appeals court judges. The federal charges in Chicago arise from Internet postings on June 2 and 3 in which Turner allegedly proclaimed his "outrage" over a June 2 decision by Chief...