Free Republic

“46 Prince George's County officers suspended or on administrative duty,” The Washington Post headline informs us. The three Prince George's County police officers arrested as part of the sweeping federal investigation into corruption in the county represent only a fraction of those accused of wrongdoing, according to police officials and internal department records. Bear in mind: [T]hree of these cases are known to have a direct relationship to the federal probe that led to the arrest this month of County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D). Charges against “at least 10 of the suspended officers… include driving while intoxicated, assault and...

“Profiteers of Hate,” the cover of the Spring 2010 issue of The Social Contract accuses. “The smear-mongering agenda of the Southern Poverty Law Center…” In this special issue The Social Contract presents an unsparing indictment, and a timely debunking, of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Acclaimed expert on America’s political fringes Laird Wilcox skewers the bogus scholarship and smear tactics by which SPLC has successfully sold itself to government and media as an impartial arbiter of “hate,” in an exclusive, keynote interview with Peter Gemma. TSC’s team of accomplished contributors from the left, right, and center exposes SPLC’s unsavory...

“Ex-Con: Where Do I Fit In Anti-Gun Campaign?” the New Haven Independent headline reads. The “ex-con” is James Hanton, “released from jail this spring, [who] complained that he can’t vote to retain or replace elected officials who have a direct impact on how thoroughly or not gun violence is going to be rooted out of his community.” “A lot of us coming out of prison want to go in a different direction,” Hanton said, “but because we have these roadblocks in the way ... You’re saying in order to make these changes we need to vote, or we need to...

The battle for the last statewide office is over in California, as San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris declared victory in the race for California Attorney General. GOP candidate and Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley threw in the towel for the race last Wednesday, but Harris waited until today’s deadline for state’s counties to certify their results. The attorney general spot, currently held by newly elected Governor Jerry Brown, was the GOP’s last hope of taking one of nine statewide offices

An armed coffee shop employee reportedly shot a robber in self defense. Police say that at about 9:00pm, a pair of men entered a coffee shop on the 2100 block of Franklin Blvd in Eugene, OR, as part of a robbery plot. During the robbery, an employee of the coffee shop is said to have shot one of the robbers in self defense, causing the other robber to flee. A deceased suspect, whose name has not been released, was found at the scene, and police are reportedly seeking a second suspect. When law abiding citizens are armed, and therefore able...

“Recently, the NFATCA took the lead on an issue that could have far-reaching consequences in the NFA and Sporting communities,” the National Firearms Act Trade & Collectors Association reports. What issue? It was learned that ATF was seeking to create a definition of small arms ammunition under the aegis of the Safe Explosives Act. The definition was being created as an opinion letter and had no input from the firearms community. Why is a revised definition needed? What is the impetus behind this effort to increase the Bureau’s regulatory control reach? And why exclude the people who it would compel...

“Now you’re either going to conceal it, or I’m going to take you off here or I’m going to lock you up. I’m not going to play games.” The threatening speaker is a Philadelphia police lieutenant, coercing activist Mark Roote, who attended a weekend “End the Fed” rally open carrying—as is his right and in accordance with Pennsylvania law. Indeed, in the accompanying video (see sidebar), we see the initial “officer” who approached Roote actually REFUSES TO IDENTIFY HIMSELF upon a legitimate citizen request that he do so. Apparently, in the city of Independence Hall, secret police wearing full length...

-----cut-------------- As always occurs when the possibility of an expansion of legal recognition of the right to armed self-defense is discussed, the "Personal Protection on Campus Act" is drawing harsh criticism. As is often also the case, the criticism is coming from people who are either clueless, or utterly without integrity (although I suppose we should not rule out the possibility of them being both). Meet Kilgore College President Bill Holda, quoted by KLTV 7 News: "I think it's a bad idea," said Bill Holda, president of Kilgore College. The campus is just one of the institutions in within district...

The key to safer streets is self-rule. Safer streets are a culminating, final evidence that self-rule is at work, and this will not happen as long as officials feel free to supervise us when it is we who must be supervising them. It is a duty of ours to supervise our servants, a duty which as been obfuscated, discouraged, even punished by servants. Will 2011 be any different? On Election Day, 2010, you might say we caught a lucky break, or did we once again awaken and come to realize that freedom takes work? Yes, freedom is not free, it...

In September, Velma Hart told President Obama she was exhausted from defending his policies. At a town hall, she said, "I'm one of your middle class Americans. And quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for," a woman told the President, as he smiled and appeared to giggle. "My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives, but, quite frankly, it's starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might...

In an explosive new special report on the continuing saga of Barack Obama's fall from the top of the political heap, beltway insider and journalist Wayne Madsen asserts that the top brass in the Democratic Party have engaged in a systematic effort to marginalize the President following their November 2 historic losses. Madsen, who also reports for Opinion Maker, says that Obama's long overseas trip to Asia following the midterm elections was by design, not by Obama but by the Democratic Party brass who believed that in order to minimize the damage the President is doing to the nation--and to...

At a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, TSA chief John Pistole defended the airport screening procedures and said they were necessary in, "the face of a persistent and evolving terrorist threat," according to a report by Joshua Norman of CBS News, but acknowledged the pat-downs were invasive. After submitting to a pat-down himself, he said they were, "more invasive than what I was used to." In an article at the Boston Herald, Michael Graham decribes the ordeal experienced by a mother travelling from Dayton, Ohio to Texas: “The TSA agent felt along my waistline, moved behind me, then proceeded to...

Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death...

“This target shoots back,” the click-through ad at the top of the MyFoxMaine.com news page tells us, inviting viewers to watch the season premiere of “Human Target” with its action hero protagonist, guns in each hand blazing. How exciting! And the “Top News Story,” directly under the banner? Virginia Tech Shooting Survivor Speaks in Portland It’s Colin Goddard, on his mission to spread the gospel of citizen disarmament (see sidebar video). Except that’s not what he calls it: "If you say the word gun control, it's the big horrible word," Goddard said. "But if you break it down to the...

Breaking News: Between the time I began composing today’s Gun Rights Examiner column and finishing it, Mike Vanderboegh reported ATF has rescinded their ruling declaring selected Airsoft-type guns as firearms. What in the world is going on, and how is the bureau so out of control they can issue top level directives under the signature of their acting head guy, and then pull it back with no detailed explanation? Per Vanderboegh: The ATF Pressroom admitted to me by phone this morning that ATF Ruling 2010-4…has been rescinded! I’ve decided to go ahead and present what I wrote before this news...

Does Sarah Palin have a George Soros mole in her inner circle? The answer may very well be "yes" according to federal disclosure forms unearthed just a short time ago. A Republican lobbyist by the name of Randy Scheunemann operates a consulting firm in the Washington, D.C., area called Orion Strategies. Scheunemann has been with Palin ever since she was picked by John McCain to be his running mate for the 2008 presidential election campaign. Currently, Scheunemann is Palin’s foreign policy advisor and one of her top aides. Since 2008, Scheunemann’s influence in the Palin camp has only grown larger;...

A report posted today at a CNN website claims the "mystery missile launch" on Monday was actually a Chinese missile test. According to the report: China flexed its military muscle Monday evening in the skies west of Los Angeles when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast. WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia, including Japan, say the belief by the military commands in Asia and the intelligence services is that the Chinese...

Perhaps this will set the stage for Congress to preempt the District of Columbia on gun control and restore gun carry rights in our Nation’s Capital. After all the DC City Council seems ill disposed to restore the civil right to arms in the District. For example, today on WTOP.com talk radio, former District Mayor and Ward 8's Council Member said nothing about restoring the right to arms in the District, but did take the time to give WTOP's Mark Plotkin a Realpolitik lecture about how things should be in the District, explaining that that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty lost...

Last week, this column featured a three part series critiquing "Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea," a book co-authored by Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (formerly the National Coalition to Ban Handguns). In putting that series together, I came across C-Span's footage of a 90 minute debate between Horwitz, on one side, and Professor Robert H. Churchill, author of the superb "To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrant's Face," on the other. The debate took place in June of last year, and watching it in its entirety would be a well-spent hour and a...

...That's the dictionary definition, but who are the veterans? He’s your neighbor, who spent four years hoisting ordinance for Air Force planes in Okinawa. He’s the guy who sold you your car, a Marine fresh out of high school who wound up on a hill in Viet Nam, digging ditches and praying. ...