Free Republic

Three months ago, Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that guns illegally supplied to drug cartels in Mexico – as part of the Obama Administration's "Fast and Furious" scandal – would continue to show up at crime scenes "for years to come." Unfortunately, this is the most honest declaration to come out of Holder's Justice Department since this deadly scheme first surfaced. On February 15, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata was ruthlessly gunned down in the line of duty when his vehicle was ambushed by suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel. Documents obtained by...

“This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy.” So spewed the attackers of Melissa Coon’s 13-year-old son, as they doused him with gasoline and set him alight. Police, they say, are “investigating” whether this is a hate crime. Yes, and I’m investigating whether the media is biased and if hate-crime law is applied equally. I’ll get back to you on that — in about two paragraphs. The attack on the boy took place on the east side of Kansas City, Missouri. Fox 4 Kansas City provides some (sanitized) details, writing, “The victim is a student at...

We get on President Obama’s case for neglecting to keep his campaign promises, so it’s only fair to note when he fulfills them. In January 2008, Obama promised to bankrupt coal-fired power plants with his new environmental regulations. Consider this a promise kept: GenOn Energy Inc. plans to close five of its older coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania over the next four years.The company, based in Houston, said Wednesday that tough new environmental rules make it unprofitable to operate the plants, which generate a total of 3,140 megawatts of electricity. The plants are in Portland, Shawville, Titus, New Castle and...

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The solar shakeout continues as Abound Solar, a Colorado startup that aimed to take on industry leader First Solar with a $400 million federal loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories, halts production and lays off 180 workers. In addition to the $400 million loan guarantee, Abound, which was founded in 2007, has raised $260 million in venture funding from investors that include Invus Group, Bohemian Companies, DCM, GLG Partners, Technology Partners, BP Alternative Energy and West Hill Investors. Whether Abound can compete in an increasingly tough solar market remains in question.

Yet another solar company that received loan guarantees from the Department of Energy has dismissed factory workers, lopping off 70 percent of its U.S. employees. Loveland, Colo.-based Abound Solar announced Tuesday it would lay off 280 workers at its production plant near Longmont, leaving 120 still employed. The start-up (2009) company attributed the cutbacks to the need for upgrades at the plant to manufacture more efficient solar panels, with plans to restore production levels and rehire most employees within six to nine months. “Hopefully at the end of that time period we will bring people back,” said Steve Abely,...

"I've got videos. The videos are going to come out."

A visibly frustrated Attorney General Eric Holder slammed the table when responding to a question about Operation Fast and Furious during a Tuesday budget hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies. “That was a fundamentally flawed program, fundamentally flawed,” Holder said of Fast and Furious. “And, I think that I can agree with some of my harshest critics that there are legitimate issues that need to be explored with regard in which the way Fast and Furious was carried out.” “But, I think one thing that also has to be understood is that once...

HOUSTON — In the final hours before the vote at Texas A&M for student body president, Jose Luis Zelaya shook a few more hands, asked for few more votes, and proudly explained to those who inquired why he can be an Aggie and an illegal immigrant. Zelaya, 24, is a graduate education student in College Station. He came to the U.S. from Honduras with his mom when he was 14, graduated from Langham Creek High School in Houston and dreamed of being an Aggie from the first day his mom found an “Aggie Mom” t-shirt when, homeless, she stayed at...

The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born. The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said the article's authors had received death threats since publishing the article. He said those who made abusive and threatening posts about the study were “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society”....

In yet another slight to rule of law, the Obama Administration has asked a federal court to put a press conference pronouncement above official regulation. Last week, the Department of Justice filed a legal response to one of numerous lawsuits currently challenging the constitutionality of the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate. The Administration submitted its response to the legal complaint of Belmont Abbey College, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. In what the Becket Fund is calling a “remarkable” stance, the Obama Administration argues that the court should dismiss Belmont...

Two contract biologists and the former director of forestry for the Yurok tribe are accused of embezzling some $900,000 in money intended for spotted owl research over the past three years. Court documents allege the men conspired to charge the tribe for phony spotted owl surveys on tribal forests, and that the former tribal forestry director improperly used a tribal credit card to buy iPads, car repairs, gasoline, and cleaning supplies.

Normally, progressives will try to hide their claims and goals in dubious sounding fluff code words. "Economic justice" and so forth. But not here. The call has actually been made for a planned economy. I did a little bit of searching, and I think this may be the first sign of it. So if history is our guide, they're going to call more and more for a planned economy in the future. It's what the progressives really want. A Planned Economy for the 1% This thing is loaded with fallacies from front to back. First off, if they're "planning for...

In another gruesome growing trend, Muslim sex trafficking gangs have come to America. We have seen these Muslim sex gangs in the UK. Photo gallery of the defendants here. Dozens of Muslim defendants are on trial in Tennessee for running a prostitution ring, forcing girls as young as 12 years old to unimaginable horror. The judge has granted the defendants’ request to take breaks consistent with Muslim prayer times. Now, that's rich. There has been at least one alleged incident of witness tampering in the case proceeding toward trial in Nashville. Three Twin Cities women — Hawo Osman Ahmed, Ifrah...

Unbelievable. Yes, this happened HERE. People who are concerned about the spread of Muslim sharia law into American jurisprudence used to be dismissed as alarmists. That won’t happen again for a while, thanks to a Pennsylvania judge who just dismissed assault charges against a Muslim who was videotaped attacking a man dressed as “Zombie Muhammad” during a Halloween parade. The judge, who is a Muslim, didn’t even care to see the videotape, because the assault was entirely justified under sharia law, so the First Amendment doesn’t apply. In fact, the beaten Zombie Muhammad should just be thankful he wasn’t killed,...

A man accused of falsely writing in signatures on a petition to recall State Senator Van Wanggaard, including one from a deceased person, is facing nine felony charges. 59-year-old Mark Demet of Racine has been charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s office with two felony counts of election fraud/nomination certification and seven felony counts of misappropriating identifying information for financial gain. If convicted on all charges, Demet faces up to 42 years in prison, and fines up to $90,000. According to the criminal complaint, Demet admitted that he circulated the petition and signed the names of seven people on...

Calling pro-family citizens "rabid," the Maryland Attorney General told a homosexual rally in September that if "the right-wing myopic folks" win a vote to overturn the new "gay marriage" law, then the Governor's newly appointed judges will strike down the current one-man-one-woman marriage law as unconstitutional — "so we will win." That's what Douglas Gansler, Maryland's aggressively pro-homosexual Attorney General, told a rally of homosexual group Equality Maryland back on Sept. 7, 2011. As Gansler has acknowledged, "gay marriage" has been universally rejected across the country, by the will of the people. It's only been instituted by judges or legislatures,...

A man who says he represents the United Muslim Nations International organization has warned WND to “moderate” its reporting on issues involving Islam because of how Muslims may react. The warning came in an email to WND from Faarooq al Mohammedi, who said he was asking on behalf of the Muslim organization that WND “comply as it would be in the companies (sic) best interest as we would not want to take you down the same rout (sic) as we have with other non-complaint media firms.” Ads by Google 1 Trick to Live HappierThis ridiculously easy way to live happier...

The Energy Department isn’t working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe. Instead, DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE’s budget. But Americans need relief now, Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) said — not high gasoline prices that could eventually push them to alternatives. “I can’t look at motivations. I have to look at results. And under this administration the...

Gary Pruitt, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of The McClatchy Company, insists the U.S. newspaper publisher “must maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct.” But how does this comport with being a “partner” of WikiLeaks, the controversial website that has just published stolen emails from the private company known as Stratfor? WikiLeaks has listed McClatchy as one of its “public partners in the investigation” of Stratfor. Another American “partner” is Rolling Stone, the rock & roll magazine. The hacker group Anonymous, which is under FBI investigation, has taken credit for the data theft. WikiLeaks founder Julian...