Free Republic

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said it is listing the northern long-eared bat as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, securing certain regulatory protections for the mammal and triggering charges of government overreach from some agricultural groups and politicians. ... The bat's range stretches from Maine to North Carolina on the Atlantic Coast, westward to eastern Oklahoma and north through the Dakotas, reaching into eastern Montana and Wyoming. In all, it covers 37 states, the District of Columbia and 13 Canadian provinces. In October 2013, the FWS proposed listing the bat as “endangered,” meaning on the...

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand. The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully...

1. What can a State – or several States – do to resist encroachments & usurpations by the federal government? 2. Federalist No. 46 (7th para) discusses how individual States or several States carry out resistance to the federal government’s unconstitutional encroachments. If a particular State takes an action which the federal government doesn’t like, but which has the support of the People of that State, the federal government can’t do anything about it unless it is willing to use force. So, in para 7, Madison contemplates that not all States will oppose unconstitutional encroachments by the federal government. But...

A retired Army officer wrote to a U.S. senator Saturday about his concern that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to arm itself against the people of the United States. Retired Capt. Terry Michael Hestilow posted his letter to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on his Facebook page, noting that Homeland Security has made a number of large ammunition, weapon and light-armored vehicle purchases recently and has refused to answer questions about them. Hestilow begins by noting the large ammunition, weapon and light armored vehicle purchases recently made by DHS, as well as that agency’s refusal to answer any questions...

The relentless encroachment of socialism upon America’s economic, cultural and governmental landscape is like a bad dream to most red-blooded Americans. When society changes it can seem like the ineluctable drift of evolution or chance. But in the case of America’s ongoing continued expansion of government powers, spiking taxes, and shrinking military, it’s all part of a planned elitist push into socialism. And one need not believe in secret conspiracies when contemplating this shift. In fact, for those paying attention, it was all outlined long ago by the Fabian Socialist society, and other groups such as the Frankfurt School, as...

Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union an agricultural commissar from the Ukraine was summoned to the Agricultural Ministry in Moscow to report on the year's potato crop. "Ah, Comrade Minister," said the commissar, beaming, "If all the potatoes harvested this year were put into a single pile, it would reach to the feet of God." "What!" exclaimed the minister, "you know that in Communism there is no God." "Also," sighed the commissar, "in the Ukraine is no potatoes."