Free Republic

The Oklahoma congressional delegation wants U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to explain why the Justice Department got involved in a debate by the Oklahoma Legislature this year over making English the state’s official language. The delegation sent a letter to Holder on Tuesday questioning why his Civil Rights division sent a letter to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson in the midst of the English-only debate reminding him that state entities receiving federal funds have to observe certain laws regarding people with limited proficiency in English. The letter, sent by all seven members of the delegation, asks Holder to explain his...

Section 1. Extension of Identified Benefits. The Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall, in consultation with the Department of Justice, extend the benefits they have respectively identified to qualified same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees where doing so can be achieved and is consistent with Federal law.

CNSNews.com) – Both the House and Senate versions of President Obama’s health care reform plans contain passages explicitly excluding illegal immigrants from receiving federal money to purchase health insurance from either a private or government-run health plan. Coming on the eve of a White House summit on immigration, the provisions would mean that some of the 46 million uninsured people living in the U.S. would be legally barred from benefiting from Obama’s government-led restructuring of the American healthcare system. Obama, who pledged on Friday to tackle immigration reform, will host senators and congressmen at the White House Thursday to discuss...

The state of Montana has drawn a line in the sand by passing a new gun law that virtually thumbs its nose at the federal government's encroachment on state and individual rights. If the tea parties were the first shot across the bow of liberal fascism, this is surely the second - and it's being done with heavy artillery. Montana Governor Brian D. Schweitzer, for what it's worth, is a Democrat. Montana fires a warning shot over states’ rights State is trying to trigger a battle over gun control — and make a pointupdated 4:54 p.m. ET April 29, 2009...

May 6, 2009 Sheriff Richard Mack states this in his video and here is an exerpt followed by his video presentation: (more on his website) "My name is Richard Mack....the founding fathers established a system that would keep the federal government impotent. This is the time to reenact that. The 10th Amendment basically tells the federal government if you ever go outside Article I, Section 8 where the Constitution delineates and details what they can and cannot do, if they want to get creative, or if they want to expand the federal bureaucracy, or if they want to expand the...

EVANSVILLE -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is taking President Barack Obama to task for his support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, criticized Obama's positions during a speech at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life's annual dinner Thursday night in Evansville.

Obama's administration is on look-out for "right-wing extremists"...and it putting out the word to law enforcement agencies all across America to be on the alert.Yes, really.The Department of Homeland Security has just put out a groundbreaking report identifying these "extremists", which pretty much look like any conservative who happens to have a beef with Obama and/or big government/liberal policies.This is one of those things that you really are torn about.  As in, you get really angry at how your government and then just reach the point of frustration that you have to laugh.The guy has only been in office for...

AROUND America, taxpayers have had enough. Fed up with excessive spending, planned tax increases and a federal government that first caused the financial bubble through misregulation, and then grabbed power in order to "fix" it, they're hitting the streets to protest. The first march came in Seattle, where a couple of mom-bloggers organized a rally on Feb. 16. Rallies followed in Denver and Mesa, Ariz., on the 17th. Then CNBC talker Rick Santelli delivered his "rant heard 'round the world," calling for a "tea party" protest in Chicago on July 4. The name stuck, and further Tea Parties began popping...

As unemployment rises, Uncle Sam has jobs By Deb Riechmann Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The economic downturn has forced private industry and state and local government to shed jobs, but one major employer in the country is hiring: The federal government. While the nation's 11 million unemployed and the millions more who fear losing their jobs may feel Washington should streamline too, economists say a strong federal work force is key to economic recovery. Were President Barack Obama to put any of the nearly 2 million federal civil servants out in the street in the middle of the worst...

Newly released data show that federal employee wages and benefits continue a rapid ascent above and beyond private sector pay levels. The data was released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (See tables 6.2, 6.3, 6.5, and 6.6).The new data show that the 1.8 million federal civilian workers earned an average wage of $77,143 in 2007, which is 61 percent higher than the $48,035 average in the U.S. private sector. That 61 percent pay advantage has increased from a 34 percent advantage in 2000.Looking at total compensation (wages plus benefits), federal workers earned an average $116,450 in 2007, which is more than...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) should cut off outreach efforts with organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist extremist groups, a report from a ranking Senate subcommittee member recommends. "Justice Denied: Waste & Mismanagement at the Department of Justice," is an 86-page report issued in October by the office of U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and

NEW YORK/DETROIT, Oct 27 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for around $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday. The government funding would include roughly $3 billion in exchange for preferred stock in a merged automaker, according to one of the sources, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a request for direct aid to facilitate the merger...

In the wake of three murders and the recent attack on a federal prosecutor in a New York courtroom, a group representing the nation's federal prosecutors is calling for stepped-up security, including home alarms, self-defense training and the right to carry firearms. Additionally, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, which represents the country's 5,400 federal prosecutors, wants secure parking for prosecutors, particularly those who handle dangerous criminal cases. "Statistically, we are threatened more than judges," said Steve Cook, chairman of the NAAUSA security committee and a Tennessee federal prosecutor. "Security is a very important issue for us." In a...

The Federal Aviation Administration. The Social Security Administration. The National Science Foundation. The Treasury Department. All could lose as much as a quarter of their employees by 2012, mostly because of retirements. They are not alone. Across the government, about a third of full-time employees will retire in the next five years, according to estimates prepared by the Office of Personnel Management. The turnover could be even higher in the ranks of federal executives and supervisors. From the start of the Bush administration, agencies have been preparing for the churning that will be caused by the baby boom retirement wave....

"Underlying CBO's baseline projections is a forecast that U.S. economic growth will slow in calendar year 2007 but pick up in 2008. Specifically, CBO anticipates that GDP will grow by 2.3 percent in real terms in 2007, a full percentage point less than the growth recorded last year. For 2008, CBO forecasts that GDP growth will rebound to 3.0 percent. Under the assumptions of the baseline, real GDP growth would continue at a similar rate in 2009 and 2010 and then slow to 2.7 percent in 2011 and 2012. For the rest of the projection period, average growth of real...

With respect to states' rights, it should be readily apparent to all that state governments cannot exert any meaningful influence or control over the federal government, judiciary, or any other federal institution. Let us state the problem precisely. At the present time, there are no checks and balances available to the states over federal power or over Congress itself in any area. However, in the history of our country, it was not always this way. In the original design by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, there was an effective check on Congress through the state legislatures' power to appoint...

This weblog calls for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and addresses the abusive hegemony committed by the U. S. Senate. If Americans want to remove some corruption from government, the first significant step is to repeal the 17th Amendment. Americans should fear the steady growth by the oligarchy in the Senate. We should fear the oligarchs more because our Constitution cannot be spoiled by bombs, the courts, or the President; only through legislation.

The man who shot and killed a Phoenix police officer before he himself later was fatally shot by authorities was an illegal entrant, a federal official said Wednesday. Erik Jovani Martinez, 22, was in the country illegally last year when he was arrested and convicted on theft charges, said Vinnie Picard, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said Martinez was deported on March 3 last year, and at some point re-entered the country illegally. Mayor Phil Gordon called Martinez a "poster child" for failed federal efforts to tighten border security. "I have a message for the federal government....

This week, FBI and IRS agents searched the home of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, 83. Stevens is under suspicion for his connection to Bill Allen, an oil state-services contractor convicted of bribing Alaska state lawmakers. Stevens has served in the Senate for almost three decades. The Stevens investigation comes hot on the heels of the Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., scandal, in which Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking bribes from defense contractors; the Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., scandal, in which federal agents found $90,000 in cash stuffed in Jefferson's freezer; and the Jack Abramoff scandal, in which Abramoff was connected with...