Free Republic

Elon Musk is embarrassing himself on the global stage again by proudly bruiting a grade-school level of familiarity with the immensely complex concepts of free speech, censorship, rights and privileges of individuals and government authorities. The fact that this aggressively ignorant person is likely to take over one of the largest communication platforms on Earth should scare the shit out of you.Here is what the richest man in the world said earlier today, on the platform he intends to acquire:By ‘free speech,’ I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law....

Buying Used Voting Machines on eBay This is not surprising: This year, I bought two more machines to see if security had improved. To my dismay, I discovered that the newer model machines -- those that were used in the 2016 election -- are running Windows CE and have USB ports, along with other components, that make them even easier to exploit than the older ones. Our voting machines, billed as "next generation," and still in use today, are worse than they were before­ -- dispersed, disorganized, and susceptible to manipulation. Cory Doctorow's comment is correct:

A report issued by the 9/11 Review Commission in May 2015 concluded that the FBI, as a law enforcement and intelligence agency, is not “an appropriate vehicle” for producing preventative programs for the US government’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program. However, Laurie Goodstein writing for the New York Times recently reported about an interactive, video-styled program the FBI is set to introduce. The program—developed for teachers and students—aims to train them to prevent young people from being drawn into violent extremism. ... Although the website was scheduled to go live on November 2, 2015, it has since been put on...

The U.S. military has become expert at controlling urban populations in Iraq – but why is the Department of Homeland Security building similar capabilities here?Unfortunately, the federal government’s war on freedom is a subject still dominated mostly by conspiracy theorists, end-of-the-worlders, and yes, crackpots who hold highly marginal and dismissible views. Fortunately, some of that is changing with the rise of “smart preppers.” I think most people concerned about liberty would appreciate an honest, probative look at actual plans and initiatives that federal authorities are now developing in earnest. Not wild conclusions based on dark conspiracy theories that make most...

A 3.5 earthquake just hit western Washington at 7:51 am According to UW seismometers, it was over a minute in length. Nothing further, breaking

Tacoma city manager take raise to $235,000 After forgoing a raise last year because of the recession, Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson this week cashed in on a big pay hike due to him – almost $35,000 per year. After forgoing a raise last year because of the recession, Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson this week cashed in on a big pay hike due to him – almost $35,000 per year. The 17.4 percent raise in annual pay – triggered by a national economic study showing the economy is improving – bumps Anderson’s base salary from $200,450 to $235,373. The...

The international carbon market has been hit by a phishing attack which saw an estimated 250,000 permits worth over 3 million euros stolen this week. The scam involves six German companies and meant emissions trading registries in a number of EU countries shut down temporarily on 2 February. In the global carbon market, companies can buy permits from other firms, allowing them to emit greenhouse gases. The criminals are believed to have created fake emissions registries. They then sent e-mails to thousands of firms around the globe, including New Zealand, Norway and Australia. "It was a world-wide action," Hans-Juergen Nantke,...

Do you know why the FDA is in charge of keeping America's food supply safe?Because no other nation would have them.That's the thought I'm left with after learning… and this was no big surprise… that the FDA played a larger role than we thought in allowing a salmonella outbreak to sweep through the nation, sickening hundreds and possibly killing 8 people.I told you a couple weeks ago there would be more to this story.By now you know that the salmonella outbreak has been tied to Peanut Corp.'s peanut processing facility in Georgia. I was surprised that our normally-bungling FDA was...

Ohio is an election battleground state with perennial problems at the polls. So what have election officials in some precincts of the state been doing to keep their voting machines safe from tampering?Taking the machines home with them and stashing them in their garages in the days before a big election.If it sounds like something pulled straight out of an episode of Saturday Night Live, or Borat for that matter, it’s not. The practice has become so widespread that it even has a nickname, “sleepovers.”Ohio, you may remember, has plenty of reason to be particularly vigilant about the security of...

One Trick Pony Watching the stultifying circus of the political arena lately, it has only been reinforced in my mind that politicians are probably the most useless class of people extant. Paraphrasing Groucho Marx, who said he wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have him as a member, I've long held that I wouldn't vote for anyone who wanted the elected position for which they are running. I have been proved, time and again, to be perfectly correct in this observation. I'm sure Groucho would agree. How many times have we heard someone say that...

Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The child, who later died in hospital, was in one of four homes allegedly destroyed by U.S. missiles. More than two dozen people were killed when Shiite militants ambushed a U.S. patrol in Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district, bringing the death toll in area on Tuesday to more than 30, a U.S. military spokesman and Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

The Fear Factory The FBI now has more than 100 task forces devoted exclusively to fighting terrorism. But is the government manufacturing ghosts?It was late November 2006, and twenty-two-year-old Derrick Shareef and his friend Jameel were hanging out in Rockford, Illinois, dreaming about staging a terrorist attack on America. The two men weren't sure what kind of assault they could pull off. All Shareef knew was that he wanted to cause major damage, to wreak vengeance on the country he held responsible for oppressing Muslims worldwide. "Smoke a judge," Shareef said. Maybe firebomb a government building....For all his bluster, Shareef...

Third Parties Controlling Information Wine Therapy is a web bulletin board for serious wine geeks. It's been active since 2000, and its database of back posts and comments is a wealth of information: tasting notes, restaurant recommendations, stories and so on. Late last year, someone hacked the board software, got administrative privileges and deleted the database. There was no backup. Of course the board's owner should have been making backups all along, but he has been very sick for the past year and wasn't able to. And the Internet Archive has been only somewhat helpful. More and more, information we...

The War on the Unexpected We've opened up a new front on the war on terror. It's an attack on the unique, the unorthodox, the unexpected; it's a war on different. If you act different, you might find yourself investigated, questioned, and even arrested -- even if you did nothing wrong, and had no intention of doing anything wrong. The problem is a combination of citizen informants and a CYA attitude among police that results in a knee-jerk escalation of reported threats. This isn't the way counterterrorism is supposed to work, but it's happening everywhere. It's a result of our...

The story as posted by NY1.com, datelined August 10th, is:Assault Charges Against State Senator Are Downgraded Criminal charges against a state senator accused of assaulting a staffer in her Albany office have now been downgraded. Ada Smith is accused of throwing hot coffee in her employee's face after she made a comment about the senator's weight loss. In April, Smith, from Queens, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges, but on Friday Smith's lawyer said charges were reduced to harassment. Smith pleaded not guilty to that charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail. Chuck Shepherd had...

Logan Darrow Clements here, reporting from an undisclosed location on the East Coast: The adrenaline is still pumping through my veins. Today, my camera crew and I attended a street fair in Piscataway, New Jersey. Our purpose was to ask Mayor Brian C. Wahler why he is using eminent domain to take away a family farm from its rightful owners—the Halpers. We found Mayor Wahler and started questioning him. He walked away. We followed him and kept questioning him. Within a few moments police officers confronted us. The mayor kept walking away and I kept asking him questions. He stopped...

Washington, DC - The holidays are a time for families to share and celebrate together, regardless of the miles that may separate them. This also is the time of year when families send money back home to countries outside the United States. The U.S. Postal Service offers Dinero Seguro (Sure Money), providing customers with an affordable, convenient and safe method of transferring money internationally. Customers can send up to $2,000 per transaction per day, available in 2,800 participating Post Offices across the country. Identification is required for transfers exceeding $1,000. The system uses secure, electronic wire transfers between the Postal...

From the leftist Tacoma newsrag, a surprising positive mention of assistance by a National Guardsman during the Mall shooting Sunday: Frank Stiles, a 68-year-old retired air traffic controller, was strolling through the Tacoma Mall on Sunday, minding his own business. He heard a familiar sound, but one he never expected to hear near a Sam Goody store: gunfire. "Once the shooting started, I recognized it for what it was," said Stiles, a former hunter and one-time military man. "I started for the deck, and I was hit in the upper arm as I went down. I was angry."Stiles was one...

Two wounded in attempted holdup at Tacoma auto parts store THE NEWS TRIBUNE Published: September 29th, 2005 11:10 AM DEAN J. KOEPFLER/The News Tribune Tacoma police officers and investigators comb through evidence in front of the Schuck's Auto Supply store at 72nd and Portland Ave. in Tacoma Thursday morning at the scene of a double shooting. Two people were wounded Thursday morning in an attempted robbery at an auto parts store at 72nd and Portland Avenue in Tacoma. Police gave this account:A man with a gas can came into the Schucks Auto Supply store and began to fuel a motorcycle...

From: "John Kerry" < info@johnkerry.com > To: xxxxxxxx@xxx.net Subject: Tax cuts for the wealthy? Don't you dare! Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 16:09:55 -0500 Reply-To: < jk4p-002Wp0njry@mailer.johnkerry.com > JohnKerry.com Dear Xxxx, "More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are off the table." Those are the words that America is waiting to hear from President Bush. At a time of crisis and enormous need, it should be an easy decision for him to make. He could make the announcement tomorrow. There is hurt and suffering all around us. Estimates are that it will cost as much as $150 billion to...