Free Republic

Just days after appearing on the National Geographic TV Show Doomsday Prepper, a prepper from Tennessee has been declared Mentally Defective and his guns have been seized by the government. The Prepper, David Sarti is a character to say the least, but his story is somewhat disturbing and should be a wake up call for everyone. Personally I think these shows are designed to make these people look crazy. Whether his appearance on the show played into Mr. Sarti’s diagnosis isn’t yet clear, but apparently the State believed he was a danger to himself after a local doctor insisted that...

A top representative of the U.S. State Department was in Tennessee this week to discuss a law dealing with the state's refugee resettlement program. The Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act, which originated from the desk of State Sen. Jim Tracy, became law last July. It's the first bill of its kind. It requires the state's refugee program agency, Catholic Charities, to meet four times a year with local governments to plan and coordinate "the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees' arrival ..." The law also allows local communities to apply for a "moratorium" on refugee resettlement if those...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A store owner who says he was just protecting his north Houston business shot and killed a suspected thief overnight. That owner claims he had no other option but to use deadly force. Tamika Hall came back to the New Land convenience store on West Little York near Andy Street, where her brother, the accused robber, was shot and killed. Hall says she needed answers. "He didn't have to shoot him like that when he was behind the glass," she said. But according to police, Hall's brother, 33-year-old Terrance Hall, showed up at the convenience store last...

A state-subsidized investment program yielded huge returns for three out-of-state financial firms and their partners while netting just 202 new jobs for Wisconsin, at a cost of more than $247,000 per job, a Journal Sentinel analysis has found.

The Obama campaign is today beginning a new effort to enlist and educate at least 2 million supporters for a "grassroots communications team" they're calling the Truth Team. "The goal is to ensure that when Republicans attack President Obama's record, grassroots supporters can take ownership of the campaign and share the facts with the undecided voters in their lives," the campaign said in a statement. The teams will be first launched in 13 "swing states," including Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.

HUFFMAN, Texas – People who live in a Huffman neighborhood weren’t surprised when Bradley and Dennis Turner made headlines this week. They say their Lake Houston-area neighborhood was peaceful until four years ago when the Turner family moved in. Deputies say it was the Turner brothers who broke into a woman’s home in the Commons subdivision earlier this week. She hid her 10-year-old son in a closet, grabbed a gun and fired at the suspects. "I was scared and trembling," said her son, who heard the shot. She missed and the robbers fled, but they left fingerprints behind, according to...

Qatar, the most fraudulent "moderate," is "sparing no effort" to spread Wahhabi Islam across "the whole world," discouraging integration, encouraging jihad. The Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar says it plans to invest €50 million ($65 million) in French suburbs that are home to hundreds of thousands of disgruntled Muslim immigrants. Qatar says its investment is intended to support small businesses in disadvantaged Muslim neighborhoods. But Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, subscribes to the ultra-conservative Wahhabi sect of Islam, and critics say the emirate's real objective is to peddle its religious ideology among Muslims in France and other parts of Europe. Qatari...

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...

One of the important early contributions of James Madison to American life was his impact on the framing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1776. One section stated that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience." Another declared that "any citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right." The Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution went even further with the provision that Congress should make no law "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion or...

Yesterday, the newest White House chief of staff, Jack Lew, took to the Sunday talk shows to get a head start on promoting President Barack Obama’s FY2013 budget, which is set to be released today. But just as he was getting warmed up, Lew ran smack into a brick wall when he was forced to defend the Democrat-controlled Senate’s failure to pass a budget in the last 1,019 days. “You can’t pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes, and you can’t get 60 votes without bipartisan support,” Lew said on CNN’s State of the...

Hazem Saleh Abu Ismail, Egypt's presidential candidate and a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, has said that there is no room for personal freedom in Islam. In a recent television interview translated and reported by Jihad Watch, Ismail said that being a Muslim is like being a member of the military, where one has to go by a dictatorial code of conduct. "If you claim that Allah considers it your personal freedom, show me your reference? Nobody has ever said that - except for people have no understanding of Sharia," Ismail said. "If you join (military), then you are...

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew appeared on all five Sunday talk shows yesterday to defend the budget President Obama will release today. On two of those shows, CNN’s State of the Union and NBC’s Meet the Press, Lew flat out lied about the Democrats’ failure to pass a budget since Obamacare became law. First on Meet the Press, David Gregory asked: “Here’s a stat that a lot of people may not know, but it’s pretty striking. The number of days since Senate Democrats passed a budget is 1,019. Can you just explain as a former budget director, how...

THE Granville Police in St James seized a firearm along with one round of ammunition yesterday morning. Reports from the Granville Police are that about 7:30 am, a team of police was on patrol along Tucker Main Road, when they searched a man and a homemade handgun and one 9 mm round was found on his person. The man was arrested and charged. Meanwhile, quick and coordinated efforts on the part of police personnel from the Flying Squad, the Motorised Patrol Division, the Denham Town Police and the Newport West Police led to the recovery of a motor vehicle within...

(Barbados Nation) More arrests are on the cards following an intense police audit of shooting clubs and firearm dealers this past week. The ongoing investigation has also resulted in the transferral of two police officers and the temporary closure of the firearms section of the Royal Barbados Police Force. The SUNDAY SUN has further been reliably informed that an undisclosed number of unregistered firearms and quantity of ammunition were uncovered during the probe, which has revealed some other stunning irregularities. Yesterday, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin said he preferred not to make any comment at this stage.

Mexico City - An angry mob of villagers in central Mexico attacked and killed three men they accused of trying to kidnap two local residents. So far, 23 people have been arrested for the mob attack, prosecutors said. A spokesperson for the Mexico State Security Secretariat said the mob numbered "more than 500 people". An initial investigation showed "a group of six women incited local residents to attack three men, who they set on fire", said a statement from the Mexico state attorney general's office. Police tried to rescue the three men but succeeded in pulling only one of them...

A Fairfield man was shot in the leg during an apparent robbery attempt in south Santa Rosa late Friday night, police said. The shooting victim, Denzel Demetre Simmons, 20, said he was smoking outside a relative’s house on Bellevue Avenue near Santa Rosa Avenue when someone shot him around 11:35 p.m., police said. But 15 minutes later, two other men said they’d been involved in a shooting after one of them had a gun put in his face. Savon Othello Cleveland, 21, and Frank David Kobrin, 22, said the shooter accosted them after they’d pulled over to the side of...

In his New York Times bestselling book, Throw Them All Out, Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer revealed how members of Congress enrich themselves and their relatives using earmarks and insider information. Now, the Washington Post, following in Schweizer’s footsteps, has conducted a study that found 16 members of Congress have used their power of the purse to benefit companies, colleges, and community groups tied to their relatives...

This article appeared in Washington Times on February 9, 2012. Every so often, a local news story about a victim of crime goes national. Most recently, it was Sarah McKinley, 18, home alone with her 3-month-old son, a few days after Sarah’s husband had died of lung cancer. Two men apparently looking to steal pain medicine prescribed for the husband broke in. Sarah grabbed a shotgun and a pistol and killed Justin Martin as he forced entry into her home. How often do such incidents happen? While the results from studies vary, the numbers are large. The National Crime Victimization...

A Laurel County woman took matters into her own hands when she fought against an attempted robber who had a gun. "I went and before I got to the door the door opened and this guy come in with a mask on," says Brenda, the homeowner. Brenda says she acted instinctively. "I grabbed him at the top of the mask trying to pull that off. I was grabbing him and kicking him at the same time," remembers Brenda. What she didn't realize was that man had a gun. "I didn't even know that was a gun that he had I...

HOUSTON - A northwest Houston food store owner shot and killed a man he said was trying to rob him, but police did not find a gun on the man, investigators said Friday. Houston police said the 49-year-old owner of the New Land Food Store, 822 West Little York, called 911 at 9:30 p.m. Thursday and said a man was trespassing. Investigators said Terrance Hall, 33, was agitated when he entered the store and tried to get into a back room. When he couldn't, he climbed onto an ATM machine, over plexiglass and fell behind the counter, police said. During...

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Investigators have made an arrest in a home invasion near Lake Houston, thanks in part to fingerprints left at the crime scene. The home invasion happened Wednesday, on Yonder Way in the Commons subdivision. According to Harris County deputy constables, a mother and her 10-year-old son were home by themselves when two robbers broke in. The woman put her son in a closet and grabbed her gun, shooting at – but missing – one of the suspects. On Thursday, deputies said they caught one of those suspects, Bradley Wayne Turner. They believe the other suspect is...

For most of his 26 years in the military, Maj. Jeff Hackett was a standout Marine. Two tours in Iraq destroyed him. Home from combat, he drank too much, suffered public breakdowns and was hospitalized for panic attacks. In June 2010, he killed himself. Hackett’s suicide deeply troubled Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps. Hackett had been plucked from the enlisted ranks to lead Marines as an officer. He left behind a widow, four sons and more than $460,000 in debts. To Amos, Hackett was a casualty of war — surely the family deserved some compensation from...

Travel Warning U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major...

Examiner.com article character limits preclude adding more updates to the initial and subsequently-posted Journalist's Guides to Project Gunwalker. This is a continuation of updates from this column and Sipsey Street Irregulars beginning January 27, 2012. It also includes contributions from regional Gun Rights Examiners. Click here for the Part One chronology from Dec. 28, 2010 through March 8, 2011. Click here for Part Two, beginning on March 9, 2011 and ending on April 15, 2011. Click here for Part Three, beginning on April 17, 2011 and ending on June 19, 2011. Click here for Part Four, beginning on June 20,...

We don’t have all the specifics. But it is pretty apparent that Obama’s “deal” on contraceptives is a trick. As to Catholic institutions, Catholic hospitals and universities would pay insurance companies premiums, which would pay for contraceptives and abortifacients. Evil doesn’t become good because it’s laundered through a third party. But, says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, premiums would go down because, inter alia, you would not have to provide health services to those pesky babies who would have been born, had you not aborted them. But if this was a theological defense, it would have applied, whether or not contraceptives...

Premier Lucas Papademos must now secure the signed commitment of party leaders regarding the implementation of the programme, ahead of a Eurogroup meeting scheduled for February 16. He must also finalise 325m euros in fresh budget cuts by then. Rocked by internal dissent and labouring under crushing international pressure, Greece’s two biggest parties approved a 130bn euro bailout package that will enforce the harshest austerity since the Second World War. Despite dozens of defections from the two biggest parties, the bailout packaged passed with a two-thirds majority (199 yeas in the 300-seat parliament). The vote ripped apart the ruling coalition,...

Local law enforcement agents arrested a suspect early Friday morning at an Odessa hotel, several hours after a Midland bank was robbed. Mark David Willmann, 42,was charged with bank robbery, a federal offense. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Counts granted a temporary motion by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold Willmann without the possibility of bond. -snip- Law enforcement agencies received tips identifying Willmann from a photo of the bank surveillance video released to local media outlets shortly after the robbery .... Two people positively identified Willmann about an hour after the photo and story were posted on the Reporter-Telegram’s social...

by John Hill Stand With Arizona Kris Kobach, architect of Arizona's landmark S.B. 1070 and Kansas Secretary of State, brought needed common sense to the CPAC Conference discussion on immigration. Following remarks by Alex Nowrasteh, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in which he denounced E-Verify and claimed - to boos from the audience - that "free market conservatives" should allow employers to hire illegal aliens (see synopsis here), it was Kobach's turn to restore sanity. First Mr. Kobach laid out the concept of "attrition through enforcement" with a simple analogy. He then laid out how Arizona and...

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew on Sunday defended President Barack Obama’s decision to relax a requirement that religious employers cover contraception in health plans, saying the president struck an appropriate balance and wasn’t open to further compromise. “I have to say that the solution that we came up with puts no religious institution in a position where it either has to pay for or facilitate the provision of benefits they find objectionable,” Mr. Lew said on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley. Mr. Lew said the president put out a solid plan, and when asked whether...

As we approach the third anniversary of the stock market bottom in early March 2009, it is reasonable to reflect and ask the following question. Who exactly has been buying the stocks that have been driving the market up over the last three years? The answer? It certainly is not the average investor. ... from March 2009 through January 2012, domestic equity mutual funds experienced monthly net cash outflows totaling $259 billion. This is a massive DECREASE in cash flows out of domestic equity funds during a time when the stock market itself DOUBLED in value. Now call me crazy,...

The last time Germany needed a bail-out from world creditors, it secured better terms than shattered Greece last week. The austerity policy being forced on Greece by Germany and the eurozone cannot command democratic consent over time The US, Canada, Britain, France, Greece, and other signatories at the London Debt Agreement of 1953 granted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer a 50pc haircut on all German debt, worth 70pc in relief with stretched maturities. There was a five-year moratorium on interest payments. The express purpose was to give Germany enough oxygen to rebuild its economy, and to help hold the line against Soviet...

Arab nations on Sunday night called for a joint United Nations peacekeeping force to be sent to the country. Syrians carrying the revolutionary flag and some of them weapons as they take part in a protest at Clock Square in Idlib, Syria. At a crisis meeting in Cairo, the Arab League agreed to take exceptional measures to halt President Bashar al-Assad's violent repression of civilian protesters. It voted to scrap its much criticised observer mission to Syria, severed all diplomatic relations with the Assad regime and reinforced economic sanctions. The League called for the opening of "communication channels with the...

Looking ahead to DNC: The pitfalls of protest preparationby BRUCE HENDERSON / Charlotte Observer WCNC.com Posted on February 12, 2012 at 11:42 AM **SNIP** Among recent conventions, St. Paul saw the most discord in the streets. Anarchists flung sand bags and traffic signs from an overpass onto the roof of a delegate bus and smashed the windshield of another, a city commission reported. Downtown building windows were broken, police car tires slashed, and feces and urine hurled at officers. Police responded appropriately, the report concluded. But numerous residents, it added, complained of the appearance of a police state. "The difference,...

Ricky Haggood firebombed Richard and Deborah Dozier's house on Carmel Street in New Haven in 1990, while the couple was upstairs in their bedroom, sleeping. They managed to race out the back. Haggood thought the Doziers, who were active in the local block watch, had tipped police off to drug dealing on the street. Haggood received a 20-year sentence in 1991 for arson. But by 2003, several years short of his maximum release date, Haggood was on the lam. He didn't go over the wall — they almost never do. He was released, by the state parole board, to parole...

Principal encouraged cheating, staffers sayBy Kristen A. Graham and Dylan Purcell Inquirer Staff Writers Posted: Sun, Feb. 12, 2012, 6:35 AM Teachers got the message in meetings and during visits to their classrooms in the days before they were scheduled to administer state exams. Multiple staffers at Cayuga Elementary said they were instructed by principal Evelyn Cortez to do what they had to do in their rooms to get good scores. Cortez, reached Friday night, was emphatic: "I disagree with these allegations." The school, in a tough Hunting Park neighborhood, produced strong test results for several years running, and Philadelphia...

Lew: Obama's latest stance on birth-control mandate final, puts issue to restBy Mike Lillis - 02/12/12 10:38 AM ET President Obama's new birth-control stance should put to rest the controversy over employer-sponsored contraception coverage, a top administration official said Sunday. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said Obama's new plan, unveiled Friday, effectively addresses "the core issue" of simultaneously ensuring religious freedom and women's access to healthcare. "It does not force an institution that has religious principle to offer or pay for benefits that they find objectionable, but it guarantees a women's right to access. We think that's the...

Rep. Ron Paul not conceding Maine voteBy Josh Lederman - 02/12/12 12:46 PM ET Rep. Ron Paul is not conceding the GOP’s Maine caucuses, which state party officials and major networks called Saturday for rival Mitt Romney. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Romney has 39 percent to Paul's 36 percent, and Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster declared Romney the winner Saturday night, following a week-long series of caucuses. But in Washington County, where Paul had expected to perform well, the caucus was postponed until Feb. 18 due to an expected snowstorm. Washington County Republican Chairman Chris Gardner told the...

Court of secrecy: How Richard Baumgartner, a drug-addicted judge, stayed on the bench despite warningsIt was a Thursday night in January 2010 when the phone rang at the Andersonville home of then-Knox County Sheriff's Office courtroom security officer Meredith Driskell. "He said, 'I'm coming to get those pills.' He told me to put them in a brown paper bag. I told him no ... but he told me I was going to," she recalled when contacted by the News Sentinel. "So, I put them in a brown paper bag and handed it to him, my husband, who hadn't been in...

As hard as it may be to believe, CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday actually tried to raise money for the reelection of the current White House resident. Speaking with billionaire George Soros on the program bearing his name, Zakaria asked, "Will you create a Super PAC to help President Obama?" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Gannett Newspaper - Link Only: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120212/NEWS01/302120070/Occupy-Nashville-protesters-may-pack-up?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

The domestic-violence case against San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi did not start with a call from wife Eliana Lopez, or neighbors who heard a fight getting out of control at the family's home on New Year's Eve day. It started with a Jan. 4 phone call to police from a friend and neighbor, Ivory Madison, whom Lopez had visited on New Year's Day. According to a police affidavit, Madison videotaped Lopez crying and showing a bruise on her upper right arm, caused, Lopez said, by her husband grabbing her. Last month, District Attorney George Gascón filed misdemeanor charges against Mirkarimi...

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, was "violently assaulted" by an ex-boyfriend she met up with at a Newark motel after the Lockyers fought, her husband says. Newark police confirmed to us that they investigated a "politically sensitive" incident Feb. 3 after receiving a late-night 911 call from the motel on Newark Boulevard. When police arrived, they found a woman who was "despondent," a police spokesman said Friday. Police would not identify the woman, but Bill Lockyer confirmed that it was his wife. He said he and Nadia Lockyer had recently been separated but had...

What do you have to do to get the FBI to open a file on you?Patt Morrison February 10, 2012 **SNIP** Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI has been compiling information on people deemed to be worthy of watching. But what do you have to do to attract their attention? Would buying a copy of "The Anarchist Cookbook," checking out a Noam Chomsky book at your local library, or attending an Occupy protest be enough to get your own FBI file? How do you find out whether or not you’ve got a file with the FBI, and...

USA --(Ammoland.com)- “Mom Runs Burglars Off with Gun,” Damali Keith of MyFoxHouston reports. “A couple of burglars chose the wrong woman to pick on,” she writes. “They came sneaking into her house, and she sent them running out. Perhaps they didn’t count on the woman fighting back, but that’s just what she did.” “Conventional wisdom” says kids and guns don’t mix. The gun she used to repel the home invader was a .22 rifle that belonged to her son. “Conventional wisdom” says get a dog for home defense. She had two, including a 200-pound English Mastiff, that the intruders were...

“The gunwalking story has never been mentioned on either NBC Nightly News or the Today show,” Geoffrey Dickens reports in a Feb. 8 Media Research Center “Reality Check” piece. Perhaps that’s not quite fair. After all, MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” with Al Sharpton gave Rep. Elijah Cummings unchallenged time to make his case that the congressional Fast and Furious investigation is an “election-year witch hunt” against Eric Holder by Republicans, gunwalking was George Bush’s fault, and the real problem is we need more gun control. So leave it to “Today” to send “national investigative correspondent” Jeff Rossen to Phoenix of all...

A new study finds more Americans than ever before are dependent on the federal government for financial assistance. The Heritage Foundation's "Index of Dependence on Government" also finds that the average American relying on federal government assistance receives $300 more in benefits ($32,748) annually than the average American's disposable personal income ($32,446). William Beach of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis puts that in context. "... We now have [about] 67 million Americans who are getting significant aid from the government for their housing or their food or their income support or their healthcare or their education -- or...

The hits keep on coming for the #Occupy criminal movement. The Obama-endorsed radicals have put together quite a record of accomplishment: â– 9 deaths, 5 found dead in tents, One found dead after 2 days â– 2 murders â– Tens of millions of dollars in damages, layoffs, vandalism, law breaking â– Multiple Rapes â– Thousands of arrests â– Public masturbation â– Feces â– Child molestation and baby abuse Now thisÂ… An #occupy radical strangled his parents and stuffed them in the back of the familyÂ’s PT Crusier. SFGate reported, via FOX Nation: Friends and relatives said Susan Poff and Robert Kamin of Oakland were the perfect pair to...

Since I now have a “right” to free contraceptives, where can I go to get my free guns since I have a “right” to bear arms? (Washington Times) A top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to “destroy” gun rights and “erase” the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November. While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president’s low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was “a “conspiracy to ensure re-election by...

United Nations boss Ban Ki-moon and his top deputies gathered in secret last year to chart the future course of humanity through “sustainable development,” a controversial concept the UN equates with “saving the planet” in what would ultimately entail a radical and complete transformation of human civilization. But even though the erection of a global so-called “green-economy” regime is a top UN priority, leaked minutes of the meeting revealed that the term itself remains undefined. The closed-door session, held last October in Long Island, focused mainly on using the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UN CSD) in Rio de...

MALAYSIA has deported a young Saudi journalist wanted in his home country over a Twitter post about the Prophet Mohammed, defying pleas from human rights group who said he faced execution. Hamza Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia after fleeing Saudi Arabia, has now left the country, national police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf said. "He was deported to Saudi Arabia," Ramli told AFP. A government offical said Kashgari was escorted back to his home country by Saudi officials. "He has been deported. He was picked up by Saudi officials at the airport," said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.