Free Republic

A Unitarian church in Middlebury Vermont has been attempting to induce people to give their guns to the Government to be destroyed for a price far below market value.  From wcax.com: Minister Barnaby Feder says he recognizes that guns tend to sell for much more than $50 online, but that he hopes this incentive will at least make people aware of the option to dispose of firearms. So far no guns have been brought to the police department for cash. I do not see anyone organizing massive protests over this clear Church/State cooperation.   The money has been turned over...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Councilman Nick Mosby's resolution calling on the city to review doing business with Florida firms due to the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law will be given a committee hearing like its sponsor wanted. The resolution encourages the city to review doing business with firms in that state, not because Mosby wants to see the law abolished, but rather to consider the "the subjective nature in which it's been applied in the state of Florida," Mosby told Patch. The resolution, according to the meeting agenda, calls for: Divestment from the State of Florida FOR the purpose of requesting that...

Jennie Granato, a resident and tax-paying citizen of Montgomery County, Ohio, has found herself without a front yard and very little to show for it. Because the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC), as part of a $5M bike path extension, has begun to seize up private property for their “essential” project, including almost the entirety of Miss Granato’s front lawn.

In 1975 & 76 the United States was experiencing a crisis of confidence. Unemployment was at 8.5%, our allies in South Vietnam, who 58,000 American servicemen gave their lives to defend, had just been overrun and the reverberations of an OPEC embargo were sending oil prices from $15 a barrel to $100. At the same time Paul Ehrlich was warning about overpopulation and starvation, Newsweek was telling of a coming ice age and many thought we were conceding Eastern Europe to the Soviets. It was into this emotional and economic morass stepped Ronald Wilson Reagan with a message of hope....

Navy veteran James Williams, who was in the service for 21 years, traveled to the Capital on Tuesday to present the Dream Defenders with thousands of signed petitions. Williams, who is now retired and lives in Brazil, said that when he heard about injustice in two cases -- Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander -- he had to take action. "It's not right," said Williams, 65, who was a U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class. "If we don't say anything, it will continue." Williams efforts also further demonstrate the impact of social media and reaching a global audience online to tell...

For the Journal of the American Revolution, Todd Andrlik compiled a list of the ages of the key participants in the Revolutionary War as of July 4, 1776. Many of them were surprisingly young: Marquis de Lafayette, 18 James Monroe, 18 Gilbert Stuart, 20 Aaron Burr, 20 Alexander Hamilton, 21 Betsy Ross, 24 James Madison, 25 This is kind of blowing my mind...because of the compression of history, I'd always assumed all these people were around the same age. But in thinking about it, all startups need young people...Hamilton, Lafayette, and Burr were perhaps the Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg of...

By now most have probably heard about the 400 surface-to-air missiles that were stolen in Benghazi. An attorney for the witnesses/whistleblowers came out in an interview with WMAL yesterday to drop this bomb shell. But this is just the tip of the iceberg...

The trend continues towards private capital returning to the mortgage market. Redwood was one of the first securitizing California jumbo loans. Now Two Harbors (Pine River) is entering the market without a government guarantee. Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) by Jody Shenn — Two Harbors Investment Corp., the mortgage real-estate investment trust run by Pine River Capital Management LP, is planning its first issuance of home-loan securities without government backing. Even with investors in AAA slices of such deals demanding even higher yields in comparison to benchmark rates, Two Harbors could earn about 6 percent to 7 percent when retaining the subordinate...

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama is known as an open critic of the comprehensive immigration overhaul being considered by Congress. There has been a surge of asylum requests from Mexican immigrants in recent days, and Sessions is not mincing words about it- saying the House should not move forward on the immigration bill until the asylum issue is resolved. “The House cannot allow such actions to continue,” Sessions told FoxNews.com in a written statement. “They must use every power they have to end this absurdity. No immigration bill should advance until these abuses are ended.” According to a FoxNews...

It seems that yet another aspect of Obamacare is being delayed. The Obama administration has delayed a provision that would cap out-of-pocket health costs. The administration is giving some insurers and employers a grace period of a year before they have to adhere to the legal limit. Obamacare caps individual costs at $6,350 a year but this requirement is being pushed back to 2015. This just continues to show Obama's contempt for the rule of law and his innate desire to rule by imperial edict. As the chief executive officer of the country, Obama is obliged to enforce all the...

A new rush through the U.S. border has been triggered by an outspoken progressive group that is exploiting new asylum regulations to demand American citizenship for 1.7 million illegals previously deported to Mexico, according to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Border officials have told advocates and TV stations that hundreds of people are using the group’s innovative legal tactic to get approval from the border patrol for a temporary legal stay in the country. The National Immigrant Youth Alliance triggered the rush by sending a group of illegals back to Mexico. The illegals then successfully used the asylum claim...

Commercial flight with a pet carrier 99.7% cheaper... Although über-patriot Allen West first made clear to Mark Levin (on his radio show Monday 8/11) that he's loathe to engage in 'small ball' with some of the more petty White House scandals, he nonetheless was asked 'how do you justify' the latest Obama middle-finger-to-America -namely, the shipping of 'Bo' the dog to Martha's Vineyard via two exotic, VERY expensive-to-operate Marine VTOL aircraft... West responded 'You don't' justify it- labeling it 'an outrage'. With Obama -in West's eyes- 'It's not about serving... it's about being served.' He then described today's 'progressive' debt + money-printing-and-spending...

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Northwood University welcomed Supreme Court Justice Brian K. Zahra as the keynote speaker for Friedman Legacy Day, an event celebrating the life and free market ideas of economist Milton Friedman, who would have been 101 years old Wednesday. Justice Zahra was introduced by former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice and current Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Mackinac Center Clifford W. Taylor. Zahra reflected on Chapter 9 of Milton Friedman's 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom. In it, Friedman advocates for the elimination of licensure for those who want to practice medicine....

White Presidents, on the other hand, are free game. A rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask during a show at the Missouri State Fair found himself banned forever. SEDALIA, Mo. (KSDK) - The rodeo clown who donned an Obama mask during a show at the Missouri State Fair over the weekend has been permanently banned from performer there ever again. In a statement released to the media Monday afternoon, the commission apologized again for the rodeo clown's actions and said they were inappropriate and not keeping with the fair's standards. The commission unanimously voted to ratify a decision by...

Anti-Assad rebels from the Jabhat al-Nusra Front are reported to have carried out a raid on the Syrian town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border this past week. Rebel troops are said to have gone door-to-door killing everyone they encountered—including an estimated 450 women, children, and elderly men. The Jabhat al-Nusra Front is one of the groups receiving military assistance from the Obama Administration and was visited earlier this year by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz) for a photo op. McCain hastened to mention that “the reports of the massacre have yet to be confirmed by the Administration. Even if...

According to Kate Berry of American Banker, the cost of doing business with the Federal Housing Administration could skyrocket if the agency adopts a new method for calculating lenders’ liability for poorly underwritten loans that default. The method under consideration would have the FHA examine a random sampling of each lender’s loans, calculate the percentage of loans in the sample with underwriting defects, and then extrapolate that rate to the lender’s FHA portfolio. Lenders would then have to compensate FHA for the “estimated total risk” to the agency’s insurance fund. “If this goes through, it means it will be a...

Global sovereign yields jumped almost 10 basis points (except for Greece). wbm081313 And as of 11am EST, the US Treasury 10 year yield rose almost 9 basis points as retail sales rose in July for a fourth consecutive month. ust10081313 The US Treasury yield curve steepened (of course, it looks like the Treasury 10 year yield increase since the short-end of the curve is low and seemingly constant). 102081313 The Fannie Mae 3.0% agency MBS continues its fall from May 1, 2013. I reach a plateau since mid July but may start falling again. fannie3081313 And the Dow Jones is...

Today's US National Debt Clock status.

"In an interview with the Anatolia News Agency, Saad Al-Shater, the son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, the detained Khairat Al-Shater, said that his father had in his hand evidence that will land the head of United States of America, president Obama, in prison."

The on-line exchange system is the Achilles heel of the Affordable Care Act. If there is not an ObamaCare exchange doing business in a state, no one can enroll for ObamaCare coverage and Mr. Obama’s namesake “healthcare” plan will literally starve to death. But the American people must also do their part to assist in the death of ObamaCare and end the left’s drive to single payer insurance. Just 17 states have agreed to build an ObamaCare exchange. And with October 1st, the grand opening day for ObamaCare enrollment rapidly approaching, not one of these states is ready to complete...

On the first day of its release, Mark Levin's The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic reached the #1 spot in sales on Amazon.com--not just for political books, but all books. Levin appeared on Hannity on the Fox News Channel on Monday evening to discuss the book, and his proposals to restore the Framers' vision for limited government through an Article V convention that would propose eleven new constitutional amendments to restrain the runaway power of the federal government. "I'm simply saying, I think it's time, if Americans want to remain free, to start reacquainting ourselves with the Constitution, and...

A few guns turned in at a Phoenix gun Turn in, May, 2013 Several private buyers competed with the police for a small number of turn ins at the Sumter gun turn in event in South Carolina last Saturday.  The events were held at two locations, which diluted the already meager collection.  A total of 35 items were turned in. Armaborealis from palmettoshootersforum.com gives us this detailed account: DreamerOfDreams and I headed down to the Alice drive location. We showed up around 1030-1100 ish and set up across the street with some folding chairs and signs. We were pretty far...

Republican establishment adviser Ana Navarro has worked for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), No Labels co-chair and failed GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, and is close to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jeb Bush. Like other advisers to these candidates, Navarro is quickly becoming the "Republican" the mainstream media love to use as their preferred attack dog against conservatives. On NBC News' Meet The Press on Sunday, Navarro attacked Rep. Steve King (R-IA), saying to his face that he should "go get himself some therapy for his melon fixation. I think there might be medication for that." "I think he's a...

When I first tuned into this earlier today, I thought ‘ugh…Karl Rove again!’ But it wasn’t just Karl Rove, it was also Mike Lee and they were debating the defunding of Obamacare. And it went for two full segments before they finally hand to end it.

Matt Bevin is running against Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky’s Republican primary. Bevin appeared on the Andrea Tantaros Show today and hammered away at McConnell for being a Senate deal-maker whose deals, says Bevin, tend not to benefit the American people or the Republican Party. Bevin also laid down a marker for how he would behave if he defeats McConnell: “There is no chance that I will become a career politician.” The Tea Party-flavored Bevin told Tantaros that his Senate models are not long-serving politicians of either party, but new senators like fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz...

An elected politician since 1992, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is closer to the ruling elite than the people of South Carolina, his words... by Mark Vogl (conservative) Monday, August 12, 2013 Senator Lindsey Graham has a southern accent, but that's about all there is in common between him and the people of South Carolina! Graham has been an elected politician since November, 1992. He served first in the South Carolina State House, before moving to Congress in 1996, and then on to the United States Senate in 2003. The South Carolina conservative Strom Thurmond held the seat before Graham, demonstrating...

SOUTH CAROLINA – State Senator Lee Bright, who has a perfect conservative voting record and the rare ability to unite all wings of the conservative movement, will officially begin his U.S. Senate run against Lindsey Graham Tuesday morning in a 10 am EDT tele-conference with Republican leaders, including liberty and Tea Party activists from across South Carolina. “I’m eager to get started” said Bright, adding that Tuesday’s announcement is “the first step towards bringing this nation back to its founding principles. Conservative Republican leaders all across South Carolina recognize that, which is why we’re inviting all of them to join...

We are going after Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. The information we’ve gleaned from researching him is incredible. When you look at his LOOOOOONG history in Washington you begin to realize that all the corruption we hate isn’t new, guys like Graham have been doing it for decades. So the question is how do we defeat him and how do we ensure that the candidate we replace him with doesn’t lose to a Democrat in the general election. With that in mind, we are going back to South Carolina and will give you an opportunity to meet the candidates who...

The drug trade is expanding throughout the world as reported by Holly Ellyatt for CNBC: "according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and European crime-fighting agency Europol, the annual global drugs trade is worth around $435 billion a year, with the annual cocaine trade worth $84 billion." The United States has the most junkies per capita but drug consumption in Brazil, Argentina and other emerging markets is approaching America's degenerate levels. Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder and his Justice Department have decided to release more drug dealers from U.S. prisons many of whom no...

Monday, August 12, 2013 Hiroshima's Lessons for the War on Terror Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog In the summer of '45, the United States concluded a war that had come to be seen by some as unwinnable after the carnage at Iwo Jima, with a bang. On August 6th, the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And then on the 9th, it was Nagasaki's turn. Six days later, Japan, which had been preparing to fight to the last man, surrendered. For generations of liberals, those two names would come to represent the horror of America's war machine, when...

In case you missed it, because for some reason the national press has ignored what should be a salacious story, Tennessee Senator Lamar! Alexander’s political campaign coordinated the “timing and even funding for” an exhibit about Lamar! Alexander. Alexander is gearing up for a re-election campaign in 2014 where he expects to get a primary challenge. He used your tax dollars to secure an earmark for a state museum to do an exhibit about himself. Then the museum coordinated with Alexander’s re-election campaign to turn the exhibit into a traveling exhibit over this campaign season. Lamar Alexander is one of...

NEW ORLEANS — The Orleans Parish sheriff will no longer honor many requests from the federal immigration authorities to detain people who are suspected of being here illegally, making New Orleans one of a growing number of jurisdictions to adopt such a policy and the first to do so in the Deep South. The policy, articulated in filings that accompanied a legal settlement in federal court, is similar to others that have been instituted since 2011 by Chicago, New York and Washington, several counties and the State of Connecticut. But in some respects, the policy in New Orleans goes farther...

The former head of the National Security Agency said Sunday that not only does ending the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs seems unlikely, but he images those endeavors could expand in scope during the coming years. Former NSA chief Michael Hayden told television host Bob Schieffer of CBS’ Face the Nation over the weekend that the current program that collects the metadata of millions of American phone customers on a regular basis for the United States government could in the future perhaps be used to soak up even more statistics about US citizens. In early June, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden...

The construction of an advanced early missile warning radar will begin on Tuesday in central Russia to enhance the capabilities of the country's missile defenses, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. The new Voronezh-class radar will be built near the town of Orsk in the Orenburg region as part of the comprehensive missile early warning network to be completed in Russia by 2020, Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin told reporters on Monday. "In addition to the Orenburg radar, the preparations for construction of new-generation radars are underway in the Krasnoyarsk and the Altai regions," Zolotukhin said. The new assembly technology allows the construction...

Neo Con Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are now in Egypt with the approval of the Obama White House. Pretty much the first thing they did after hosting meetings with top officials in Cairo was to personally urge the Egyptian government to release Muslim Brotherhood prisoners. This would be the same Muslim Brotherhood that Representatives Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Trent Franks of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Tom Rooney of Florida and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia have alleged poses a serious security threat to the United States if it is able to infiltrate and influence key leaders and...

A big economic slump has started in China as predicted. The rest of the world has came to know about it through none other than Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang. They disclosed to the world a steep rise in short-term interest rates, falling exports and a slump in the nation’s economic growth — undesirable facts and figures that those in power in Beijing would have concealed in the past. This is because the Xi-Li leadership has realized that the Chinese economy is in such dire straits that any further deterioration would cause a serious global impact....

North Korea has about 200 agents who spend their time posting comments online to undermine South Korean morale, while the whole contingent of 3,000 cyber warfare experts under the Reconnaissance General Bureau wage cyber terrorism against the South, a private South Korean think tank claims. The think tank, which studies strategies against North Korea, made the claim in a seminar at the Seoul Press Center on Monday afternoon. It said the North's cyber warfare troops develop and distribute apps to subvert South Korean efforts to block pro-North Korean websites and conduct guerrilla-style hacking attacks by constantly changing IP addresses and...

This is getting ridiculous. The President of the United States (POTUS) screamed and shouted because he wanted his spy (Edward Snowden) back. Snowden, following Russian laws, was granted temporary asylum. The White House was "disappointed". Then POTUS snubbed the bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow coinciding with the Group of 20 in St Petersburg in early September. The Kremlin was equally "disappointed". Putin sent a telegram to George "Dubya" Bush - wishing him a quick recovery from heart surgery. [1] POTUS went to a US talk show and said Russia tended to "slip back into Cold War...

Under pressure to end the spate of almost-daily killings that have hit the country recently, the Malaysian government is seeking to bring back detention without trial, but with wider oversight. Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in the first such announcement, said the powers of his office to order detention without trial might be transferred to a panel of professionals to check abuses of power. The panel, he told Mingguan Malaysia, the Sunday edition of the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily, would be made up of police officers, judges and public prosecutors. It would not include politicians. "(The authority to detain without...

The 15-strong team working on Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents spent a ten day gap between filming partying on the beach and drinking, as well as relaxing in a five star hotel. They had been filming the BBC3 series, which follows teenagers on their first holiday abroad without their parents, who can secretly watch them. But filming was reportedly scrapped when the three boys they were focusing on realised what was happening. With ten days left before filming for the next documentary started, the crew decided to spend their time partying, spending their time on a yacht and in bars....

MANILA - The Philippines said Monday it would insist on being allowed to use more US military assets to protect its sea territories, when talks on expanding a defense pact start this week. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the longtime allies had already agreed in principle to allow a bigger US military presence in the Philippines. He said the talks would focus on the rules for the greater presence, and the Philippines wanted to ensure the deal helped build its defence capabilities. "We stand ready to tap every resource, to call on every alliance, to do what is necessary,...

(Reuters) - Japan should delay a planned hike in the sales tax in order to ensure that the economy emerges from deflation, said Nobuyuki Nakahara, a former Bank of Japan board member and close confidant of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Nakahara told Reuters the sales tax hike, scheduled in April, should wait until the autumn of next year, when inflation will likely have taken root. "(The scheduled tax hike) would have a serious negative impact similar to the Bank of Japan's 2006 exit from quantitative easing and zero interest rates," he said. He also warned that the pursuit of fiscal...

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A defense attorney got a little over two weeks more today to review the evidence in the case of an undocumented day laborer who police said set an Englewood neighborhood on edge last summer by torching several cars and a house, then two more cars weeks later. Marco Antonio Rene has been held on $2.5 million bail in the Bergen County Jail since his June, 2012 arrest. The INS has placed a retainer on the Guatemalan citizen for deportation purposes once the case has been resolved. Rene has been in the country illegally since 2010,...

President Obama will be taking his economic message to the people in his luxury bus. Better known as “The Magical Misery Tour.” obammabus The President will be trying to pressure Congress to adopt his proposals for boosting middle-class jobs. 1) Reducing the corporate tax rate that businesses pay in exchange for using some government money for infrastructure projects. 2) Pass a bill funding the government for the next fiscal year and a White House request to raise the Federal debt limit. So President Obama is clinging to the Keynesian notion of the government trying to spend the way to propserity...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a federal lawmaker, said he separates illegal aliens from criminals even though “it’s obvious that they broke the laws and did things that were criminal and they shouldn’t.” At an Aug. 2 immigration forum in Ames, Iowa, Harkin explained his reasoning. “I separate out people who came here illegally from people who are criminals," he said. "Now it’s obvious that they broke laws and did things that were criminal and they shouldn’t." “But I’m just saying simply because they came here to work – to provide for their family. They’ve broken no laws other...

Why is the Obama Administration buying Russian 7.62×39 ammo among others not used in US forces weapons? By Fred Brownbill on July 27, 2013 in Constitution Legal Watch Save America Foundation campaign to save the 2nd amendment Writer: Kit Daniels The U.S. Army is now looking to stockpile nearly 3,000,000 live rounds of Soviet-era Russian ammo popular with civilian shooters. A U.S. Army solicitation posted July 18 on the Federal Business Opportunities web site asks for “non-standard” ammunition from vendors which includes: - 2,550,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ball ammo - 575,000 blank rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo and - 425,000 rounds...

In recent years if you were an illegal immigrant in L.A., and there are many of you, you faced losing your car for at least 30 days if you were stopped by the LAPD. Under the urging of then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the department last year changed that policy and said you could pretty much keep your car if you hadn't done anything else wrong. The policy, called Special Order 7, was challenged by the police union and a citizen, and today a local judge ruled against the LAPD: L.A. Superior Court Judge Terry Green said that the LAPD's policy was...

Mitch McConnell believes his primary challenger is an unreliable Republican. The Senate Minority Leader will sharpen this line of attack Monday with a 75-second YouTube video, shared first with POLITICO, built around footage of Matt Bevin telling Democrats during the Fancy Farm picnic the weekend before last, “We’re on the same team here, I’ll tell you that much.” The video has no narrator. The only voice that appears is Bevin’s, telling Democrats on a loop that “we’re on the same team” as a series of lines appear on screen: He will not commit to supporting the GOP Senate nominee. He...

As California Congressman Henry Waxman promised, he has introduced a Bill to ban the sale of “Parts kits” for “Assault Rifles, Assault Shotguns, and Assault Pistols." This also includes a ban on Receiver blanks. The Bill defines an “assault weapons parts kit as: “ any part or combination of parts not designed and intended for repair or replacement but designed and intended to enable a consumer who possesses all such necessary parts to assemble a semiautomatic assault weapon…” Which raised the question of vagueness in the law as to which components of an “Assault Weapons Parts Kits” could be sold...

The US Treasury auction went off better than last week’s 10 and 30 year auctions. ta36mth Particularly with regard to the bid/cover ratios. The 6 month bid/cover remains at 5.01 while the 10 year and 30 year are lower and at their 2nd lowest point since early 2009 when QE1 began. This is indicating that there are fears that The Fed will slow down the taper of $88 billion per month in Agency MBS and Treasury purchases. But at the long- and mid-section of the yield curve, not the short-end. Here is a chart of Expected Future Outcomes and Most...