Free Republic

No Child Left Behind is an example of why the 'one size fits all' mentality is an improper way to govern. Placing standardizations as well as allocating specific resources at the federal level is not working. Our education system is decaying. With increasing costs and decreasing scores it is clear that reform is necessary to ensure that the future of our nation have the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy. Chairman Kline of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee is sponsoring two pieces of legislation to address this issue. The two bills reform federal education...

Georgians would be allowed to carry concealed weapons in bars, public schools, most government buildings, college campuses and other locations under a sweeping gun bill filed in the House. In addition to banishing many current restrictions, House Bill 981 would prevent police or the National Guard from disarming people during states of emergency, and it would allow citizens to sue if that occurred. Rep. Sean Jerguson, R-Woodstock, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said Thursday that it strikes a balance between the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms, and personal property rights. For instance, any church or business,...

CHEYENNE — The Wyoming House of Representatives narrowly voted down legislation Wednesday that would have prevented local government officials in the state from passing any gun control laws, under penalty of heavy fines or even removal from office. House Bill 60, sponsored by state Rep. Kendell Kroeker, R-Evansville, got 38 votes, two short of the two-thirds majority needed for the legislation to be introduced. The bill would have added teeth to a Wyoming law already on the books that gives the state primacy over gun laws and prohibits cities, counties and other local bodies from passing their own laws regulating...

CRANSTON, Rhode Island (Reuters) - A Rhode Island school board voted on Thursday to comply with a federal court order to remove a prayer banner that has been displayed in a public high school for nearly a half century, saying the cash-strapped district cannot face a costly appeal.

GET A LOOK AT THIS ONE................ This is without a doubt the best video that has come out and apparently 6 Million others think so too because there have been 6 million hits in 4 days. Please watch it again and again and send it on to others. I believe the pendulum has started to swing so let's keep it going. This is very well done. The Clip: http://youtube.com/embed/JVAhr4hZDJE

She was dead. The woman lay on her back in the middle of the street. Her eyes were open and staring up at the sky, clouds reflecting on the haze forming over them. Pools of thick, dark syrup formed under her back, her life blood oozing out across the black asphalt around her body. I was there when she died. It's a hell of a thing, death. Anyone who has been around it knows about that moment when someone goes from being a person to a thing. It's a curiosity, almost magical in a way. You can't help but be...

AURORA | No matter the season, the year, or the weather, customer interest in the rack of guns at Pasternack’s Pawn Shop in Aurora rarely changes. Typically, the shop on East Colfax Avenue near Dayton Street sells 25 guns each month, said Scott Pasternack, the owner. And while the last six months have seen a spike, Pasternack said reasons for it are a mystery. “I think it’s just the uncertainty of times we’re in, predictions like the Mayan calendar, world ending, all kinds of different things,” Pasternack said with a laugh. But six miles west at the State Capitol, the...

President Obama's pick for ATF director, anti-gun Andrew Traver, has been transferred from his position as special agent in charge of the ATF Chicago Field Division, to head up the Denver division. According to sources, the move came after Traver felt frustrated his confirmation for ATF director had been stalled in the Senate for nearly a year. The estimated cost to transfer Traver is nearly a million taxpayer dollars, all because his feelings are hurt. Traver chose to specifically to work in Chicago, (where his buddies Obama and Rahm hang out) and instead of forcing taxpayers to foot the bill...

The program that issues mandatory ID cards to gun owners in Illinois would be discontinued under legislation proposed by state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Carlinville. Senate Bill 3340 would repeal the Firearms Owner’s Identification Act. McCann said the act prevents law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment. Residents must pay a $10 processing fee when they submit their FOID card application to the Illinois State Police. A FOID card lasts for 10 years. “It just punishes the law-abiding public,” McCann said, adding that the law doesn’t stop criminals from getting their hands on guns. McCann said his bill...

Last Friday, the White House announced that it would revise the controversial ObamaCare birth-control mandate to address religious-liberty concerns. Its proposed modifications are a farce. The Department of Health and Human Services would still require employers with religious objections to select an insurance company to provide contraceptives and drugs that induce abortions to its employees. The employers would pay for the drugs through higher premiums. For those employers that self-insure, like the Archdiocese of Washington, the farce is even more blatant. The birth-control coverage mandate violates the First Amendment's bar against the "free exercise" of religion. But it also violates...

The firestorm of controversy over the January 20th HHS mandate requiring Catholic and other religious organizations to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs for their employees shows no sign of abating. This is notwithstanding the Obama administration's "accommodation," announced last Friday, that will permit insurance companies to pass the cost of contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs along to Catholic and other religious employers - as long as they do so surreptitiously, of course. Catholics bishops and countless others have characterized this regulation as direct government interference with the free exercise of religion and thus unconstitutional. In this, they are...

El Presidente had issued is edict and it is out of the closet. "Let me be clear, I will do whatever I want, when I want, by passing Congress, the Courts, The Supreme Court, for the good of the American People, whether they want it or not. Sometimes, I must make the tough decisions for you. These decisions may be hard to swallow, like overspending, laying off military personnel, and crony capitalisim. Let me be clear. Parents know better than their children. Therefore I as your President, will do anything to hold onto power till the course I have laid...

Speaking at a campaign event on Monday, February 13 in Mesa, Arizona, Mitt Romney made a bold suggestion about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence: “They're either inspired by God or written by brilliant people or perhaps a combination of both.” Inspired by God? It sounds like just another sop tossed to Tea-Party constitutionalism, but Romney was in fact invoking a longstanding Mormon doctrine which views the U.S. Constitution as not only great, but literally divine.

WASHINGTON – Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed last week by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Monday. The 73-year-old Breyer, wife Joanna and guests were confronted by the robber around 9 p.m. EST Thursday in the home Breyer owns on the Caribbean island of Nevis, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. The intruder took about $1,000 in cash and no one was hurt, Arberg said.

HJR 2005 and HF 2114 were debated in the House Public Safety Committee (PSC) today. Unfortunately for gun owners in Iowa, the true intent of both of these pieces of legislation was evidently lost on the Chairman of the committee. Representative Clel Baudler sided with the Democrat members of the committee, and both bills were watered down to the point of being useless. HJR 2005 was intended to add the right to keep and bear arms to the Iowa Constitution. Taking into account all of the challenges that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has faced over the years,...

There is a political landmine in our Constitution. As with the real thing, which can lie dormant for many decades and eventually kill non-combatants, Article II Section 3 grants a power that could unintentionally injure our liberties 220+ years later. No American President has exercised this power.1 However, for a president hostile to our traditions, who invokes the Constitution when it serves his purpose and ignores it when it does not, this potentially explosive clause could, under certain circumstances provide the legal basis for one man rule. From Article II Section 3: “ . . . and in Case of...

Amidst flowery February orations, in retrospect, the Civil Rights movement’s main beneficiary appears to be Washington. State segregation ceased, which is well, but forced federal integration remains, well, wrong. Washington rightly overturned denials of freedom oppressing southern blacks, but did so by infringing on others’ liberties elsewhere. En route, civil rights became the sine qua non of American statism. Civil rights legislation provided the primary catalyst for government’s escalation since WWII. Sadly, the Civil Rights Act brought neither legal equality as proposed in theory; nor equality of outcomes to which the Left strove in practice. The CRA failed doubly. First,...

On February 13, a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at eminent domain abuse sailed through both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. This legislative action qualifies the amendment for a plebiscite vote in November. The amendment would stipulate that compensation resulting from eminent domain seizures include lost profits and access in addition to the value of the underlying real estate. This change has the support of Virginia property rights advocates including Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If enacted, this constitutional amendment would strike at the heart of the 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London. This ruling allowed government...

It is certainly no surprise for gun owners to see the New York Times run a story belittling the United States Constitution. After all, the Times has worked for decades to devalue our founding document. "[I]ts influence is waning," opines the Times. It is "terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights." The paper faults the Constitution for being difficult to amend and reflective of the times in which it was written. While the Times does not go so far as to claim the U.S. Constitution has been bad for America, it does lament that it is of "little...

A recently issued lexicon from the Department of Homeland Security warns law enforcement personnel to be on the lookout for what it calls “militia extremists.” Militia extremists were described as “persons who exhibit an undue suspicion of government as manifested in statements that evince an inordinate reverence for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, especially provisions protecting the rights to freedom of speech, bearing arms, and bars to so-called unreasonable search.” Law enforcement officers were advised to “keep such persons under close surveillance” and to “not hesitate to act if they perceive a threat. Let’s not forget that the...

<p>U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday touted his approach to interpreting the federal Constitution that focuses on the original intent of the Founding Fathers.</p> <p>Scalia, a former University of Chicago law professor, called the “originalism” method “the lesser evil.”</p>

Upper Marlboro, MD --(Ammoland.com)- The next historical figure that I highlight is no stranger to the subject of Black History. Maybe you’ve seen the movie where Cicely Tyson portrayed Harriet Tubman in “A Woman Called Moses.” Or perhaps you are somewhat familiar with the African American woman known has Harriet Tubman, that risked her life to rescue three hundred people from slavery. If not I want to share with you some things about her and the period in which she accomplished these great feats of daring for America. Harriet was born c.1820 at the Edward Brodas plantation near a place...

Rush Limbaugh has said many times that President Barack Hussein Obama views the US Constitution as an impediment, as an obstacle to be circumvented, to be worked around. Limbaugh said, "...The Constitution is Obama's obstacle." The latest Obama "accommodation" drove home the point that Obama really does see the US Constitution as an obstacle to tyrannical rule that he, and many liberals, want to impose. For some insight into his current thinking, Obama, while in the Illinois senate, in a 2001 interview, said that the Chief Justice Earl Warren court failed to "break free from the essential constraints" in...

Two recent interviews with two prominent liberal figures help cast some revealing light on modern liberalism’s attitude toward the Constitution. Let’s start with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said in an interview earlier this month with Al Hayat television, “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that...

“Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution” is a 10-week online course presented by Hillsdale College. Featuring an expanded format from the “Introduction to the Constitution” lecture series with Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn, Constitution 101 follows closely the one-semester course required of all Hillsdale College undergraduate students. In this course, you can: watch lectures from the same Hillsdale faculty who teach on campus; study the same readings taught in the College course; submit questions for weekly Q&A sessions with the faculty; access a course study guide; test your knowledge through weekly quizzes; and upon completion of...

Americans don't want a king — which was as true in 1776 as it is today.If George Washington had not been sitting in the room, it’s likely many of the delegates to the federal convention of 1787 would have supported a multi-executive model for the new Constitution, rather than a solitary president. After all, just upstairs in the Pennsylvania State House where they met that summer was the chamber where the Pennsylvania executive council met, led by a president who they changed annually. But Washington’s unquestioned integrity, submission to civilian rule over the military, and willingness to lay down his...

Is America sliding toward autocratic rule? This is the essential question of Barack Obama's presidency. Mr. Obama vowed to "fundamentally transform" the United States. Despite his incompetence and economic failure, the president is making good on his central promise: the destruction of our constitutional republic. He is trying - piece by painful piece - to reverse the legacy of the Founding Fathers. Conservatives have underestimated him at their peril. For Mr. Obama is not simply an inept, liberal president in the mold of Jimmy Carter. He is an ideological revolutionary who seeks to sweep away traditional America.

Catalina, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The AzCDL-requested and historic Constitutional Carry legislation that became law in 2010 was not the be-all-end-all of restoring the right to carry in Arizona. It was a major milestone, but there are still a century’s worth of statutes that need to be excised or significantly altered in order to truly restore your right to bear arms in Arizona. Our job is far from over. AzCDL began working with legislators on proposed bills for the 2012 legislative session shortly after the 2011 session ended. As a result, a number of pro-rights bills have been filed. Listed below are...

We are all susceptible to the occasional knee-jerk reaction. We hear something and immediately jump to a position of opposition or support with little or no evidence to support the position. Sometimes such gut responses are correct and are subsequently validated by additional information, but often they are completely off base. As a Second Amendment advocate I run into a lot of jerking knees and gut feelings that can be very difficult to overcome. They usually hit me as questions – like “why should anyone be allowed to have a gun like that,” or “why should anyone be allowed to...

Some people collect stamps. Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), collects checks from governments that try to curtail citizens’ right to bear arms. Last week, he received a check for $399,950 signed by Chicago mayor and former President Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel in payment for the cost of fighting the windy city’s handgun ban in Supreme Court case McDonald v. City of Chicago. But this is just a start. “They’re going to owe us money as well for Ezell v. Chicago (a suit over Chicago’s gun range restrictions) so this isn’t the first...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State Justice Department officials say they’ve caught up with the deluge of concealed carry applications and are meeting turn-around deadlines again. DOJ Division of Law Enforcement Administrator Brian O’Keefe said the agency was so overwhelmed with applications it couldn’t meet its processing deadlines for most of January. But the agency has brought more workers on board to help with processing and the flow of applications has slowed, he said.

DES MOINES — Matt Windschitl turned a half-swivel in his chair and stuck his right hand out, palm up, stopping National Rifle Association lobbyist Chris Rager from walking out the door. Windschitl, 28, a member of the House Republican leadership team from Missouri Valley, had just watched his “stand your ground” bill sail through a legislative committee. “This,” Windschitl said as Rager shook his hand, “is just the start.” The bill would allow Iowans to respond with deadly force if they feel threatened and would protect them from liability in some cases. This session Windschitl also has proposed legislation that...

The president's phony contraception compromise might be enough to convince Catholics their rights aren't being trampled. But what about the rest of us, who face more rights violations in the name of ObamaCare?... Until ObamaCare is pulled out root and branch, however, there will be no end to the rights-wrecking mischief out of Washington.

Manhattan prosecutors have quietly offered a no-jail, misdemeanor deal to the retired young Marine facing a mandatory 3 1/2-year prison sentence after trying to check his Indiana-registered handgun at the Empire State Building, court papers reveal. But former tow gunner Ryan Jerome — who has garnered letter-writing support from hundreds of current and former Marines — is saying no thanks and continues to ask that the case be dropped altogether. The DA’s conciliatory offer, and the fact that it’s been on the table for two months, was revealed in a letter filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow guns onto college campuses. That 5-3 vote came after Sen. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, sided with Democrats in opposition. Yarbrough said he was not convinced that limiting the right to those with a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon provides sufficient safeguards. But the other Republicans on the GOP-dominated panel said all they were doing is affirming the constitutional right of individuals to protect themselves. SB 1474 would still allow colleges and universities to keep buildings as gun-free zones. But that would require that they post signs banning weapons at each door....

Firearms may soon be allowed on Arizona college campuses if Senate Bill 1474 is passed. This past April, Gov. Brewer vetoed the bill, which was then SB 1467. In her veto letter, she said the bill was too ambiguous in stating its key concepts of where weapons can be carried and how K-12 schools will be affected. “Bills impacting our Second Amendment rights have to be crystal clear so that gun owners don’t become lawbreakers by accident,” Brewer said. The bill has been modified to correct the areas in which Brewer said were too vague, in hopes of being passed...

While participating in highway clean ups, the Student for Concealed Carry on Campus chapter seems like the average club doing community service at first glance. These students take safety precautions to a different level though. Along with the reflective vests and garden gloves, these students carry pistols in holsters while serving their community. "We get a pretty good amount of horn beeps and ‘woo-hoos' and stuff while we're out there," Clark Lynn said. Lynn is a senior in psychology and president of the N.C. State chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. A club's mission As part of a...

The 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court upheld District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s overturning of the voter-approved amendment (Proposition 8) banning the state’s recognition of same-sex “marriage.” “Voters have no right to amend their state’s constitution in ways that contradict clearly established federal policies,” the Court wrote in its decision. “To allow such ‘willy-nilly’ revisions on a state-by-state basis would lead to a patchwork of divergent laws across the nation. Things that are permitted in some states might be disallowed in others. Uniformity and equality of rights throughout the 50 states would be sacrificed to a misguided notion of state and...

On November 6, 2012, the United States faces a turning point. Will we restore our constitutional republic or will we continue to slide into European style collectivist statism? Almost three years ago, on February 27, 2009, average American citizens who stand for individual liberty started the Tea Party movement. Our goal has always been to return our country to the three core values of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility. The election battle of 2012 will be fought from precinct to precinct in every corner of the country. The Left will use every financial, media, and paid staff...

There is an old political axiom that is attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and more recently Gerald Ford, that says, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” Those words took on new meaning in January when we found out that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was issuing new regulations with regard to President Obama’s signature health care law. For the first time in history, the federal government would force faith-based institutions to pay for coverage of products and services they find morally objectionable or against...

Few things make this conservative happier than when progressives drop their holier-than-thou facade and reveal their true intentions. A column written by NY Times columnist Adam Liptak entitled “‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World” is a textbook example. Essentially Mr. Liptak, and no doubt many of his progressive soul-mates, are ready to kick the Constitution of the United States to the curb because they consider it an “obsolete” document. Yet in explaining why, Liptak inadvertently reveals something else along the way: progressivism is an utterly bankrupt ideology. Why is the Constitution “obsolete?” “There are lots of...

Yesterday, MSNBC's Today Show started its new feature, the "Rossen Reports," by Jeff Rossen. Rossen's first story: "Anyone can buy guns, no questions asked." The implication, of course, is that for Americans to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right to keep and bear arms--the right, not to put too fine a point on it, that shall not be infringed--we should be subjected to a battery of questions. Rossen breathlessly reports: Hundreds of thousands of guns are for sale, on hundreds of websites. We responded and set up meetings at popular shopping malls. We bought everything from a police-grade pistol...

Republicans may still be incensed about Richard Cordray’s recess appointment to the Consumer Financial Protection Board, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be taking it out on other Obama nominees. On Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Cathy Ann Bencivengo as a U.S. District Court judge, supporting her 90 to 6. It was the first Senate confirmation vote since President Obama appointed Cordray, and it bodes well for other nominees waiting in the wings. The few Republicans who voted against Bencivengo’s nomination made it clear that they wanted to send Obama a message about the Cordray appointment, which they...

The pro-life movement has long argued the inextricable link between the right to life and the other two rights affirmed in our Declaration of Independence.  There is a reason, we have argued, the Founding Fathers intentionally wed “life� to “liberty� and “the pursuit of happiness.�  The “unalienable rights� of the Declaration are derived from our being “created equal� by a “Creator� who “endowed� us with “certain unalienable rights.� Without the first of these rights, there is no basis for the second and third.  Our liberty as Americans is based upon our identity as human persons.  We have been given...

“Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution” is a 10-week online course presented by Hillsdale College. Featuring an expanded format from the “Introduction to the Constitution” lecture series with Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry Arnn, Constitution 101 follows closely the one-semester course required of all Hillsdale College undergraduate students. In this course, you can: • watch lectures from the same Hillsdale faculty who teach on campus; • study the same readings taught in the College course; • submit questions for weekly Q&A sessions with the faculty; • access a course study guide; • test your knowledge through weekly...

Shortly after noon today, President Barack Obama is expected to announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees. His anticipated compromise solution may or may not quell the objections of those who considered the new requirement to be an attack on religious freedom. But regardless of the immediate concerns about this particular provision of the president's health care law, it is indisputable that any concession he might make is the result of a political backlash that threatened his chances at reelection. This begs the question once set free from concerns over his own job...

Are the detainment provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act serious? Yes they are. This is a complicated area, and there has been a lot of word-fudging in spinning this subject. So bear with me as we take things step by step. **snip** When you look at sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act objectively, they become scary in their potential. If the administration does try to use it to lock up American citizens without habeas corpus, the Supreme Court probably will void the incarceration and require a civilian trial. But in the normal course of...

Can someone please help me find an Obama quote that I recently read on FR? Basically, he said that the Constitution made it difficult for him to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish. Any help would be appreciated but especially video. Thanks!

Republican legislators are pressing forward with efforts to bring constitutional amendments to the November ballot. The most recent proposal, filed Wednesday and authored by Rep. Tony Cornish of Lake Crystal, reaffirms the right of individuals to "acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms." The legislation adds that any restriction must be subjected to "strict scrutiny." "It's a more strict interpretation" of the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, said Cornish. Cornish is a veteran in this area, having authored previous gun-rights legislation, including a bill this session that allows county attorneys to carry firearms. He's confident of the...

From a self-described “left-leaning Catholic writer,” the Washington Post’s associate editor political writer Melinda Henneberger, this is what passes for a defense of faith against the HHS mandate. In an MSNBC interview, Ms. Henneberger told Chris Matthews: “Maybe the founders were wrong to guarantee free exercise of religion in the First Amendment, but that is what they did and I don’t think we have to choose here.”*Emphasis Mine*