Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A conservative think tank became the latest target of outrage resulting from Trayvon Martin's shooting, as a few dozen protesters rallied Thursday outside the headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council to oppose its role in promoting "stand your ground" laws. The rally, a few blocks from the White House, looked to highlight efforts by ALEC to spread the law — which allows armed citizens to shoot when threatened — to statehouses nationwide after the Florida Legislature passed "stand your ground" legislation in 2005. ALEC, a business-funded conservative group that helps develop bills for state lawmakers, adopted the...

Police pulled a man over on Route 29 in Silver Spring last week because of a problem with his plates. This would not ordinarily make international news, but the car was a black Lamborghini, the license plate was the Batman symbol, and the driver was Batman, dressed head-to-toe in full superhero regalia. HOLY MOVING VIOLATION! It didn’t take long before images of the Dark Knight’s encounter with law enforcement began turning up everywhere from the Washington Post to CNN to the London tabloids. Jokers emerged instantaneously too. “Let him do his job,” one commenter urged on the Post Web site....

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Washington, D.C., the "city of Satan" from the Senate floor on Wednesday while describing the effects of the healthcare law currently under review across the street at the Supreme Court. "It's interesting that the very same organizations that all signed up… and were bludgeoned into supporting ObamaCare… are the same organizations that come to our offices and ask for relief from ObamaCare," said McCain. "It's a fascinating commentary on trying to do the Lord's work in the city of Satan," concluded the senior senator....

At a Congressional forum on the Hill yesterday at which killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin’s parents were asked to testify, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) took center stage. She claimed first that Martin had been victimized by racial profiling and a “botched police investigation.” But she went even further: George Zimmerman, the shooter in the case, she said, should be arrested “immediately for his own safety.”

Jon Stewart On Rick Santorum Cursing Out NYT Reporter: 'This Is How He Should Talk From Now On!' (VIDEO) watch...

Hands Off My Healthcare Rally The battle against Obamacare and its obvious disregard of the U.S. Constitution has finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Tea Party Express, along with constitutional conservatives across the nation have opposed this legislation from its inception, and whether it be by judicial rule or congressional repeal, we are determined to fight until it is no more. This is why it is so important for you to join us in support of the Hands Off My Health Care Rally at Upper Senate Park on March 27th at 1:00PM. We are teaming up with Americans...

Does anyone know if the DC Metro system is experiencing a higher-than-normal degree of security? Family members of mine are visiting the Capitol, mostly traveling by Metro, and they've seen a noticeable number of both armed and (what appears to be) plainclothes security. They've mentioned their observations to a couple of locals, both of whom said the number of armed personnel seems unusual. We're not locals, so we don't have any standard to go by - does anyone in the area know if security has been stepped up, and why?

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan introduced a hard-core GOP budget last week. His committee passed the package in a 19-18 vote. Two Republicans voted against it. No Democrats voted for it. Partisanship lives. Last year, a Ryan budget passed the House in a 235-193 vote. No Democrats voted for the GOP plan. Only Republicans voted yes. Four GOP members voted no. Two Republicans and three Democrats didn't vote. When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought the House package to the floor, five Senate Republicans voted no, and the measure failed 57-40. The Ryan budget, however, fared better last year...

Rick Santorum is getting grief — even from some of his supporters — for saying we’d be better off sticking with Barack Obama. The only problem is…he didn’t say that. Here’s what Santorum actually said: “You win by giving people a choice. You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there. If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch...

Virginia middle school teacher is under fire after making his students do "opposition research" on Republican presidential candidates, according to a report. Eighth-graders at Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County were assigned to research the backgrounds and positions of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and find any “weaknesses,” according to The Daily Caller. The students were then required to draft a strategy paper, mapping out how to exploit those weaknesses and then research how to forward it to the Obama campaign.

State workers who are denied unpaid sick leave required by federal law cannot sue the states, the Supreme Court said in a victory for states' rights that some liberal advocates saw as a bad omen for President Obama's healthcare law. The 5-4 decision is a setback for millions of employees of state agencies and state colleges, and it voided in part a provision in the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. Among other things the act said that employees had a right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to recover from an illness or childbirth. The...

Susan Eisenhower tells Congressional hearing that her grandfather wouldn't understand proposed memorial At a Capitol Hill hearing on the proposed Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial on Tuesday, Susan Eisenhower, the 34th president's granddaughter, recommended designers of the space go back to the drawing board. She argued that the current design—which features a depiction of Eisenhower as a boy flanked by stone blocks—has more in common with the socialist realist memorials of the Soviet Union and Moaist China than current U.S. monuments to great American presidents. "A re-design is the only way to make this process acceptable," Susan Eisenhower told lawmakers. "Ike...

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday revealed he was "tucked up in bed" by US President Barack Obama during the pair's recent trip on Air Force One. The two leaders were repeatedly seen back-slapping and sharing jokes during Cameron's recent US visit, but now it appears the friendship was sealed when the president offered Cameron the use of his personal quarters.

To gun-rights supporters, the Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago decisions may have felt like a dream come true — the Court recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms, and applied that right to state and local governments. Going forward, handgun bans are off the table in the U.S. But judging by a conference hosted by the Fordham Urban Law Journal last Friday, the two sides of the gun-control debate have simply regrouped, recalibrated their expectations, and lined up for battle once again. As definitive as Heller and McDonald may seem, they offer...

Friday has passed us by, which means another batch of Solyndra emails were released. Solyndra weekend email dumps have become the Saturday matinée serial cliffhangers of the 21st century, except a lot more expensive — but at least Flash Gordon’s rocket ship is now powered by algae and solar panels. This weekend’s Solyndra dump tells the story of an administration that was considering having Solyndra execs sit in the First Lady’s box for the January 2011 State of the Union address, until a White House staffer saw the writing on the wall:

D.C. officials will do just about anything to keep law-abiding citizens from lawfully possessing a gun in the city. The Washington Times’ Emily Miller has found in the “Emily Gets Her Gun” series that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has been spreading false information about firearms ownership. As a result, residents and nonresidents who have done nothing wrong risk false arrest and gun confiscation. As of Friday, the MPD's Firearms Registration Office had not removed the incorrect information from its website. The registry office supplies a 22-page written guide to prospective gun owners and answers their questions over the phone....

As you can see in the video below, Paul Quander, the District’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice, responded that crime victims should give the criminals what they want. Mr. Portman protested, saying, “But how do you know you’re going live and survive? You’re completely at their mercy.” Mr. Quander thinks victimhood is preferable to self-defense. “The problem is, if you are armed, it escalates the situation,” Mr. Quander told residents. “It is much better, in my opinion, to be scared, to be frightened, and even if you have to be, to be injured, but to walk away and...

You read that right. Courtland Milloy, a Washington Post columnist, is touting the efficacy of allowing concealed carry in the District. This after a man who was walking his dog was attacked and killed by a knife-wielding neighbor. We know that the ‘we’re winning’ articles and posts can get pretty repetitive and tired but you know what? We’re winning . . . Milloy does a nice job of tying in the recent Maryland court ruling, too: Whether or not this story proves to be as insane as it sounds, the incident as reported does provide a textbook case for legalizing...

In Washington, D.C., it is illegal to posses ammunition if you don’t have a gun registered. It is also unlawful to have ammo that is not in the same caliber or gauge as your legal gun. The penalty for holding a round of the wrong caliber is up to a year in jail -- as stiff as the punishment for illegal gun possession. So I was very careful not to buy ammunition before I had my legally registered gun at home. Although I wondered about the purpose of the law. What’s the worst I could do with ammo, but no...

A southern Utah county has taken its fight to manage roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to a federal appeals court, claiming that federal officials improperly closed routes to traffic. Lawyers for Kane County argued Wednesday before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that the county managed the roads for years before the nearly 2-million-acre monument was designated in 1996.