Free Republic

Governor Brown: I use to be able to buy things like diapers and pet food online for cheaper than retail. But now that you have forced through an illegal internet tax not passed by the state legislature by 2/3rds as required by the constitution, I am having to pay the same for these things online as retail for the most part. I am middle class and work hard to make ends meet in this ridiculously expensive state to live in. Governor Brown, your tax hike on people like me has made my life more difficult, more expensive and more complicated...

We know America is in big trouble when power corrupted law enforcement and California’s liberal state legislature ban together to createnew laws that regulate, pre-punish, and harass law abiding gun owners. In the name of safety and protection, lawmakers being obsessedwith violating our rights and beating up the Constitution bloody, feed into thebig government ways of today. They fail to realize, however, that the Constitution is meant to protect individual, God-given rights; it does not say big government can violate our rights, and do whatever they want. This all started with a 2011 California law (AB 109) that bans open...

It was learned late Tuesday night that Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has died in a single vehicle rollover accident in Coconino County. Details of what occurred are sketchy as of this hour, but the news was confirmed by Cochise County Supervisor Pat Call at about 11 p.m. Dever was running unopposed in this fall’s election for what would have been his fifth term as sheriff. It is unclear at this time what his sudden passing will mean in the electoral process. The sheriff was more than a local law enforcement official as he took the lead on the national...

Probation department division chief arrested in fraud case Former Assemblyman Carl Edward Washington is accused of filing false identity theft claims, the latest in a series of arrests at the troubled agency. The arrests seem to be piling up at an unusual pace. Two weeks ago, a six-year employee of the Los Angeles County Probation Department was charged with persistently filing false workers' compensation claims. Earlier this month, police arrested a probation officer for allegedly shooting a man in a Covina bar. Those cases came on top of the dozens of drunk driving, drug possession and theft arrests that seemed...

Here’s some good news in an otherwise dispiriting Congressional session. A Republican House member is trying to accumulate support for a bill that would extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act by three years. As I’ve been reporting, a failure to extend this law would mean that all debt forgiveness, in the form of principal reductions or short sales, would be viewed for tax purposes as earned income for the borrower, leading to a giant tax bill on the phantom income. Thus far, the Senate Finance Committee passed a bipartisan tax extenders package that included a one-year extension of cancelled...

RAMONA ---- Authorities are investigating the death of a man who was shot in Ramona on Sunday afternoon, according to the Sheriff's Department. The man, whose name has not been released, went to a home in the 1300 block of Walnut Street about 3 p.m. and got into an argument with the homeowner, said Lt. Glenn Giannantonio. The two men started fighting, and the homeowner's son brought a gun out of the home. The victim, a 34-year-old man who was unknown to the homeowner, was asked to leave at gunpoint, authorities said.

Via College Fix: A renowned University of California-Riverside professor recently advised students to save Mother Earth, eat vegetarian, only have 1.5 kids - two at the most – take up social justice causes, and “lower your standard of living.”Biology Professor Richard Cardullo – recently tapped by several federal agencies to assist with redeveloping how college students across the nation study life science – offered the advice to a room full of middle school students as part of the university’s online science lecture series, recorded on the campus earlier this year. A video of his talk is posted on YouTube.He began...

LOS ANGELES -- A former state assemblyman was arrested Monday on charges he committed bank fraud while working for the Los Angeles County Probation Department, marking the 39th arrest of a department employee in nine months, authorities said.

More than 130 inmates escaped through a tunnel from a Mexican prison on the border with the United States in one of the worst jailbreaks the country's beleaguered penal system has suffered in recent years. Homero Ramos, attorney general of the northern state of Coahuila, said 132 inmates of the prison in the city of Piedras Negras had got out through the tunnel in an old carpentry workshop, then cut the wire surrounding the complex. Corrupt prison officials may have helped the inmates escape ... At the end of 2010, more than 140 inmates escaped a prison in the border...

n a refreshing sea change in tabloid culture, former child star Amanda Bynes has replaced Lindsay Lohan as Hollywood's resident "troubled starlet" following a DUI arrest, the suspension of her license, and a bunch of photos of her hitting a pipe from the driver's seat of her BMW. The similarities between the two stars haven't gone unnoticed by the media, nor by Lohan. One might think Lohan would empathize with Bynes, but instead, she's railing against what she sees as unfair treatment. "Why did I get put in jail and a nickelodeon star has had NO punishment(s) so far?" Lohan...

Rodeo clown was behind racist joke about Michelle Obama It was rodeo clown Mike Hayhurst of Barstow, not announcer Ed Kutz of Arroyo Grande, who made an offensive, racist joke about first lady Michelle Obama over the public-address system of the Creston Classic Rodeo, a rodeo board member confirmed Sunday. Spectators initially believed and reported that Kutz made the comment Saturday. Both he and Hayhurst were on microphones at the same time. Speaking Sunday on behalf of the rodeo’s nine-member board, Mike Barrett said the rodeo is not responsible for the joke and will ask Hayhurst for a letter addressing...

Marine Attack Squadron loses eight Harrier jets in worst U.S. air loss in one day since the Vietnam War On Friday Sept. 14, at around 10.15 p.m. local time, a force of Taliban gunmen attacked Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, the main strategic base in southwestern Afghanistan.About 15 insurgents (19 according to some reports), wearing U.S. Army uniforms, organized into three teams, breached the perimeter fence and launched an assault on the airfield, that includes the U.S. Camp Leatherneck and the UK’s Camp Bastion, where British royal Prince Harry, an AH-64 Apache pilot (initially believed to be the main target...

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times is reporting as the California state government is setting up its ObamaCare exchange, the exchange has hired a PR firm (with federal government money).

This is the case that refuses to die. Forty-two years ago, the wife and daughters of a handsome young Green Beret doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, were stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the family home in military housing at Ft. Bragg, N.C. MacDonald, now 68, is serving three life sentences for the crime, which spawned a bestselling book, "Fatal Vision," a hit TV miniseries and decades of speculation over whether MacDonald is a sadistic killer or a victim of injustice. In federal court Monday in Wilmington, N.C., the case will play out once again with all its lurid details — drug-crazed...

Jerry Brown fancies himself a futurist, exhorting us to act now to ensure a better tomorrow – with a bullet train and a more dependable water system his prime examples. Their merits notwithstanding, making decisions with long-term benefits is precisely what politicians should – but rarely – do. One wonders, however, how Brown squares his self-appointed role as progressive pathfinder with his regressive and potentially disastrous approach to the state's chronic gap between revenue and spending. While making some reductions in spending – although how permanent is questionable – the first two budgets that Brown signed during his second stint...

By the end of this month it's likely to be legal for children in California to have three parents. As of now, the state's current law only allows two parents per child, which is both the historical standard and the common sense one. So why aren't two enough anymore? Same-sex marriage. Children of lesbian couples may have two "mothers," but it's obviously impossible for a child to be conceived without a father. The same is true for homosexual men; every child is born of a mother, even if the male couple deems her simply utilitarian in nature. California state Senator...

Barbara Boxer, a top Jewish U.S. senator and the sponsor of major pro-Israel legislation, blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for lashing out at President Obama on Iran. “I write to you as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress to express my deep disappointment over your remarks that call into question our country’s support for Israel and commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a letter sent Wednesday in a rare instance of a pro-Israel lawmaker making public an unhappiness with an Israeli leader. “Your remarks are utterly contrary to the extraordinary United States-Israel...

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to even entertain the idea of working with Mitt Romney to solve the nation’s problems on Sunday. Why? Because “Mitt Romney’s not going to be President of the United States,” she told CNN’s Candy Crowley, bursting out into laugher. “I think everybody knows that, right?”

The naked guys in the Castro aren't content with just being nude. They have to be obnoxious, too. It wasn't enough that the exhibitionists wanted to stroll past sidewalk cafes in the buff and flaunt their shortcomings in the Castro Plaza. Now Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the area, says there are reports of them engaging in public sex acts and of charging tourists to take a photo of them in the buff. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Castro-naked-guys-have-gone-too-far-3867094.php#ixzz26busHyFG

The Obama White House invited Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi of Egypt to meet this coming week but Obama turned down an invitation to meet with Netanyahu. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lectured Barack Obama in the Oval Office on the dangers facing the Jews back in May 2011. Now this… Far left Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) slammed Jewish leader Benjamin Netanyahu for raising concerns on the Iranian program that threatens Israel’s existence. The antiwar leftist sent Netanyahu an open letter this week asking him to take back his recent arguments on Obama’s dangerous Israeli policy.