Free Republic

From 1980 to 2007, the number of prisoners held in the United States quadrupled to 2.3 million, with an additional 5 million on probation or parole. What Ayn Rand once called the “freest, noblest country in the history of the world” is now the most incarcerated, and the second-most incarcerated country in history, just barely edged out by Stalin’s Soviet Union. We’re used to hearing about the widening chasm between the haves and have-nots; we’re less accustomed to contemplating a more fundamental gap: the abyss that separates the fortunate majority, who control their own bodies, from the luckless minority, whose...

House Republicans want Justice to intervene in Solyndra fight with ObamaBy Andrew Restuccia - 02/03/12 01:34 PM ET House Republicans on Friday called on the Justice Department to intervene in the ongoing fight over the Obama administration’s $535 million loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra. The GOP lawmakers pressed Attorney General Eric Holder to invalidate a 2011 Energy Department restructuring agreement that ensured private investors who agreed to inject more capitol into Solyndra would be repaid ahead of the taxpayer if the company collapsed. Republicans have blasted the Energy Department for “subordinating” the taxpayers’ interest in the agreement, arguing...

On the eve of U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s appearance before Congress, a senior Justice Department official said the agency cannot meet the deadline Republican lawmakers have set to turn over more documents on the “Fast and Furious” gun operation or be held in contempt of Congress. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole said that the Feb. 9 deadline to submit all documents on the botched gun operation set this week by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was “impossible to meet.”

Mathew Staver, Chairman Liberty Counsel Action Attorney General Eric Holder is facing possible “Contempt of Congress” charges over his failure to disclose information concerning the now infamous Fast and Furious debacle! Tomorrow, Holder will appear before Representative Darrell Issa and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and I am expecting a firestorm of intense questioning. Time is now of the essence! I am calling on my Liberty Counsel Action team to join in our powerful Fax Barrage demanding Eric Holder’s resignation, firing, or impeachment. Please, click here now to schedule your personalized faxes: http://www.lcaction.cc/2659/offer.asp stephen, Eric Holder is about...

The Justice Department is tightening procedures for responding to information requests from Congress in the aftermath of a troubled arms trafficking investigation. In Operation Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed hundreds of weapons to flow across the border into Mexico. The Justice Department told three congressional committees in a letter Friday night that it has improved coordination between agents and their managers in carrying out arms trafficking investigations. Attorney General Eric Holder probably will face questions about the changes when he testifies Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That committee has...

For the first time, the Justice Department has made public a series of sensitive messages that passed to the highest levels of the agency within hours of an ambush that killed a U.S. border patrol agent along the Southwest border in December 2010, igniting a national scandal over a gun trafficking investigation gone wrong. Justice officials sent the documents to Congress late Friday evening, only a few days before Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an...

On August 22, 2008, Army Special Forces soldier Kelly A. Stewart made a huge mistake: he had a one night stand with a woman who was not his wife (who is herself another soldier). It’s a mistake he’s been paying for over the intervening 3+ years, and will be paying into the future. But was the punishment equal to the mistake? That’s the central question posed by “Three Days in August: A U.S. Army Special Forces Soldier's Fight for Military Justice” by Bob McCarty. I actually read this book on my vacation in Cabo all the way back in October,...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, goes on Fox News to discuss next week's hearing on Operation Fast and Furious. Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona, will plead the fifth amendment during next week's committee hearing.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Two depositions of doctors who conducted psychological evaluations on Casey Anthony before her murder trial last summer were unsealed and released by the court Wednesday. Jeffery Danziger deposition - April 7, 2011 Dr. Jeffrey Danziger and Dr. William Weitz both conducted psychological evaluations on Anthony and before her murder trial, both doctors were deposed on what she told them regarding the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008 and alleged sexual abuse by her father. The depositions were done on April 7, 2011 and April 13, 2011 and were ordered sealed by...

Legal proceedings against violent extremists are a crucial defense of our civilization, writes William Shawcross, whose father was a prosecutor at Nuremberg... Expect to hear a lot about Nuremberg in the months ahead. The war-crimes trials of leading Nazis, begun in that German city in 1945, will form an important subtext as we approach the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of 9/11, and his associates. The pretrial proceedings at Guantánamo may start as soon as March. Since 9/11, America's attempt to balance justice and national security has drawn protests both at home and abroad. Some of the...

In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency provided $1 million in grants to 46 different non-profit and tribal organizations to promote what it called “environmental justice.” Since 1994, a little-noticed EPA program has handed out a total of $23 million in such grants to 1,253 organizations, for stated purposes that observers are questioning. President Bill Clinton and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) were responsible for implementing “environmental justice” as part of the EPA’s mission. In early 1990, following a lobbying push by the CBC, the EPA established the Environmental Equity Workgroup. In 1994 it was renamed the Office of Environmental Justice.

  New Year’s Resolutions David C. Stolinsky Jan. 1, 2012 Many people make New Year’s resolutions. Often these include vows to eat less and exercise more. Rather than these healthful but self-centered goals, may I suggest a different set of resolutions: Use compassion for those who deserve it. After we have punished the criminal, expressed compassion for all his victims, and done our best to relieve their suffering, then we can feel compassion for the criminal. But till then, feeling compassion for both criminal and victim leads only to more criminals and more victims – who need more compassion....

In the face of a growing controversy over whether two Supreme Court justices should disqualify themselves from the challenge to the 2010 health care overhaul law, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Saturday defended the court’s ethical standards. The chief justice’s comments came in his annual report on the state of the federal judiciary. In it, he made what amounted to a vigorous defense of Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan, who are facing calls to disqualify themselves from hearing the health care case, which will be argued over three days in late March. He did not, however, mention...

The U.S. Justice Department has blocked South Carolina’s controversial voter ID law, saying it would prevent black people from voting. It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years. The decision means voters will not have to show a Department of Motor Vehicles-issued driver’s license or photo ID card, a U.S. military ID or a U.S. passport. And it means the state, which says it plans to appeal the decision in court, will spend time and taxpayer dollars on the second such lawsuit during Gov. Nikki Haley’s term.

"He kind of begged me to let him go. I said 'You tried to rob my store... you're going to jail' " Here's the stills of Mr Mothershead forcing black-n-blue  'Mostafa Handi' to clean up his mess before the cops get there. Yet how could he complain...  back home  under Sharia they'd have cut his freaking hands off. [YouTube] Video/more at Reaganite Republican ________________________________________________________ Wizbang   HotAir   The Daily Mail (UK)

At Christmas families celebrate a Savior descending to redeem fallen man. Gifts get no bigger, but for holiday fun, let’s right some nagging worldly wrongs. Without claiming to have been good, here’s my Christmas wish list: the world’s first trillionaire. I’d eliminate poverty too, but capitalism in many ways already has. Modern Shepherds and stable boys fare better today materially than anyone except perhaps tax collectors when Christ came. Caesar continues taxing us onerously and decreeing silly burdens, yet despite these barriers to prosperity the luxuries of not long ago continue to become necessities for rich and poor alike. The...

Worst. Administration. Ever. The Justice Department today released a statement insisting Attorney General Eric Holder was not playing the race card when he played the race card in an article published yesterday in The New York Times. Clearly this incompetent Obama official thinks we’re all stupid. Eric Holder needs to go. They won’t own up to their incompetence and think we’re stupid.

One of the most widely photographed acts of President Obama's first year in office was his symbolic pre-dawn salute to the caskets of U.S. soldiers returning to Dover Air Force Base. In the case of a terrorist named Ali Musa Daqduq, who was released yesterday from U.S. custody in Iraq, the President is letting down those fallen soldiers and their families. Daqduq is a Lebanese national and top Hezbollah operative who in January 2007 masterminded the ambush, kidnapping and murder of five American soldiers in the Iraqi city of Karbala. Arrested by U.S. forces in Basra two months later, Daqduq...

NEWS RELEASE Sheriff’s Response to DOJ Letter December 15, 2011 (Maricopa County, AZ) The following statements were made by Sheriff Joe Arpaio during a press conference held on 12/15/11 in response to the 22 page Department of Justice letter received 1 hour prior to DOJ press conference. “Before we get started today, I want to say something to the citizens of Arizona and the rest of the nation. On the surface, it may appear that today’s findings and actions by our federal government are directed towards this Sheriff and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The truth of the matter is...

Phoenix - Sheriff Joe Arpaio said a scathing U.S. Justice Department report about his office's law enforcement tactics against Latinos marks "a sad day for America as a whole." Billed as America's toughest sheriff, Arpaio struck a defiant tone at a Thursday afternoon news conference in response to the report, which he called a politically motivated attack by the Obama administration that will make Arizona unsafe. (Snip) Homeland Security also will restrict the sheriff's office use of the Secure Communities program, which uses fingerprints collected in local jails to identify illegal immigrants.

Many passages in Holy Scriptures implore rulers to treat the poor fairly. It is only a slight exaggeration to suggest God measures nations largely by justice towards "the least of these." Is charity best dispensed publicly through a secular state or privately by churches? Does Washington really not do enough? Let's not confuse justice with grace. Despite the demagoguery trumpeted every election, America's rich pay almost all our taxes while the less fortunate are net recipients of government largesse. Washington's focus has shifted from defense and foreign affairs into social programs advancing egalitarianism. The federal government's primary endeavor reflects paying...

President Obama's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined an "environmental justice strategy" that would review how a variety of DHS activities, from interaction with local governments to granting regulatory permits, affect poor and minority populations. DHS defines environmental justice as "the commitment of the Federal Government . . . to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority populations and low-income populations." Efforts to implement environmental justice will influence "our own operations, financial assistance to state and local governments, and [DHS'] regulatory permitting activities," DHS explained in the draft strategy.

A recently passed Senate Bill—the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)—grants broad new authority to the Department of Defense (DOD) to arrest and detain civilians who are suspected of being enemies of the state. In any area that the DOD declares to be a “zone of conflict” it would be empowered to apprehend and imprison suspected enemies “for the duration of the conflict.” The Bill explicitly repeals the 1878 Posse Comitatus ban on the use of US troops against civilians within the borders of the United States. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called the expanded authority “absolutely necessary tools for defeating those...

Facing Their Last Moments With A Smile: The Chinese Women About To Be Executed For Drug Smuggling By RICK DEWSBURY 4th December 2011 [Pics in URL] A young woman sits cross-legged on the ground laughing playfully as she is fed a lychee. Another plays cards in pair of baggy pink pyjamas. The moving images could show any group of young women as they go about their daily lives in prison. But just hours - and in some cases minutes - after the pictures were taken, each of the four women were led into a concrete yard and executed.

BRIDGEWATER — During 40 years as a veterinarian, Dr. Neal Andelman has removed toys and other items from dogs’ stomachs. But until Thursday, he had never retrieved human body parts, as best the doctor could recall, said Lou Berman, a hospital administrator for the New England Animal Medical Center in West Bridgewater. Thursday afternoon, Andelman operated post mortem on a pit bull that had bitten a Bridgewater woman and swallowed parts of her face. The male pit bull was euthanized and operated upon following a request from the Boston hospital treating the 71-year-old woman, whose face was mauled by the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has provided Congress with 1,364 pages of documents detailing how the department gave inaccurate information to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border. In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser

OK, here are the rules. Some of you have forgotten or never read them in the first place, and some of you need a refresher. So here they are again: Certain Judaeo-Christian concepts and limitations apply.* * (You are not called upon to believe these concepts, only to adhere to them while playing the game. The game does not work without these concepts.) All men have a few inalienable rights. . .

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday pressed Attorney General Eric Holder for more information about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's involvement with the healthcare reform law after new emails emerged showing her rooting for the law when she was solicitor general. (snip) The emails have rekindled calls for Kagan to recuse herself from ruling on the healthcare reform law next year because of a provision of the U.S. code that calls on justices to disqualify themselves when they have "expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy" while in government service.

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation. Sen. Chuck Grassley said that despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far - former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August after taking responsibility for his mistakes during testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee. “The department has refused to schedule interviews...

Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, and he’s likely to face a barrage of tough questions from senators about Operation Fast and Furious. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee’s ranking minority member, is set to lead the charge against Holder, whose prepared testimony The Daily Caller obtained Monday. That prepared statement makes no mention of Holder’s May 3 House Judiciary Committee testimony, when he told Congress under oath that he had only known about Operation Fast and Furious for a few weeks. Many members of Congress believe that May 3 answer...

President Obama's attorney sent a letter to Congressional investigators on Friday, saying the White House would not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents related to its doling out a $535 million loan guarantee to now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.

Peshawar, Peshawar high court has start working in 1923, when Sir Hugh Eraser becomes the First Judicial commissioner in Peshawar High Court. Sir Hugh Eraser worked as Judicial Commissioner till 1933 in Peshawar High Court. First Judicial Commissioner of the Peshawar High Court from London and during his tenure he become was the famous Judicial Commissioner in Peshawar, because of his Judgment. Justice Sir Hugh Eraser was B.A, L.L.B. According to available date of Peshawar High Court Sad Ud Din was the first Muslim Additional Judicial Commissioner in Peshawar high court. He worked with British Judicial Commissioner Sir Hugh Eraser....

The Justice Department says it is dropping a proposed rule that would have allowed officials to deny the existence of certain sensitive information, which critics said amounted to giving the government a license to "lie." The decision comes a week after Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder saying the proposed rule "stands in stark contrast to both the president;s and your prior statements" about transparency and open government. In responding Thursday in a letter, Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich said the Justice Department is seeking to...

There are now 34 members of Congress calling for Attorney General Eric Holder’s immediate resignation, as four more called for Holder to step down on Wednesday. The new members calling for Holder’s resignation are Republican Reps. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, Diane Black of Tennessee, Bob Latta of Ohio and Kenny Marchant of Texas. “I call upon Attorney General Holder to resign his post as our nation’s top law enforcement official,” Marchant said .. “Ever since the first details of Operation Fast and Furious emerged, Attorney General Holder has been less than forthright with Congress as to his knowledge of Fast...

I am deeply upset. Mr. Cain did not hit on me!!

What if the state executes an innocent person? David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew Grossman respond to question regarding their Op-Ed article defending capital punishment.

The Obama administration has boosted its efforts to bar state-level enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws by suing South Carolina over its new immigration reform law. The Monday announcement by the Department of Justice follows the news that the Department of Homeland Security has quietly canceled long-standing checks of transportation hubs for illegal immigrants. Administration officials defended the controversial lawsuit Monday, despite the nation’s unemployment rate of at least 9 percent.

This story causes such a visceral reaction that it is hard to be objective. After 14 years of service as a police officer I have come to a conclusion: Despite hundreds of hours of training, rigorous state and federal certification requirements, exhaustive background investigations, drug tests, polygraphs and psychological evaluations required to be a law enforcement officer, the word of a drug smuggler is still given more credence. The following excerpts are from a story that appeared on the Washington Times website: U.S. border agent jailed for improper arrest of suspected drug smuggler A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been...

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist. The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption. The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and...

Senate fires warning shot at Justice Dept. over 'Fast and Furious'By Josiah Ryan - 10/18/11 05:03 PM ET The Senate Tuesday afternoon unanimously cleared an amendment to prohibit funding for operations similar to the Justice Department's botched gun-tracking program, nicknamed “Operation Fast and Furious.” The amendment is designed to prevent the Justice Department from implementing similar programs in the future, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — the sponsor of the amendment — said prior to the 99-0 vote. “When 2000 firearms go missing and at least one is found at the crime scene of a murdered U.S. Border Patrol agent, we...

The Justice Department is accusing the Republican congressman who is leading an investigation into "Operation Fast and Furious" of "mischaracterizing evidence" and "maligning" federal law enforcement officials by questioning Sunday whether the FBI was trying to cover up the existence of a third gun at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder last year. "The FBI has made clear that reports of a third gun recovered from the perpetrators at the scene of Agent Terry's murder are false," the department said in a statement Monday. This comes one day after Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif,

The Texas attorney general’s office will act as special prosecutor leading the re-investigation and possible prosecution in the 1986 murder of Christine Morton after DNA evidence recently revealed that her husband, Michael Morton, was wrongly convicted of the crime. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said he requested a special prosecutor because the state agency has expertise leading complex cases, particularly cold cases that require considerable investigation, from re-locating witnesses to developing new evidence. “Given the complexities and age of the Morton case, I wanted to make sure that we had an office and a special prosecutor with substantial experience...

All the President's Liars: The New Black Panthers Case Exposed by J. Christian Adams, and the Fast & Furious Scandal BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Random acts of journalism. They are rare. That's why we point them out when they happen. It is very rare indeed in this day and age for a journalist to actually commit journalism. Most of them just do propaganda, stenography, or what have you. Here is John King and a random act of journalism. He was on CNN, and what he did -- we got the sound bites here -- he plays Eric Holder's testimony to Congress...

WICHITA, Kan. -- As the first and only federal prosecutor in Kansas dedicated solely to handling criminal immigration cases, Barry Disney took a pragmatic approach to filing charges in an interior state that has become a mecca for immigrant labor drawn to its massive meatpacking plants and other food processing industries. Limited resources were spent on the worst criminals who had been deported and then come back to the United States. Disney's first trial in federal court dealt with two illegal immigrants found speeding through Kansas with an assault rifle wedged in the back seat of a truck and loaded...

Justice for USS ColeBut why did it take so long? Last Updated: 3:48 AM, September 30, 2011 Before 9/11, there was USS Cole. On Oct. 12, 2000 terrorists loaded a small boat with explosives and set it off next to the US Navy destroyer as it sat peacefully in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 more. The alleged mastermind of the attack, Saudi-born Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, was captured in 2002. Since 2006, he’s been sitting in Gitmo, untried and unpunished. Now, more than a decade after the crime, the families of the Cole...

“Our Christ sacrificed His lifeon the cross for our sins.... Our Christ is alive.” Asia Bibi, a wife and mother, used these words to defend her faith against mocking co-workers who tried to make her convert to Islam. She was later convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death. In Pakistan, more than 150,000 Christians have signed a petition demanding justice for persecution victims, including Asia Bibi. Now you can join with The Voice of the Martyrs and our Pakistani brothers and sisters in a call for mercy. We hope to gather 1 million signatures on behalf of our sister Asia,...

  “You’ll Swing for This!” Thoughts on the Execution of Troy Davis David C. Stolinsky Sept. 26, 2011 On Sept. 21, Georgia executed convicted murderer Troy Davis by lethal injection. Twenty-two years ago, Davis murdered police officer Mark MacPhail. After shooting Officer MacPhail, Davis stood over him and shot him again. Predictably, MacPhail’s name was mentioned much less often than the murderer’s name, and there were demonstrations for the murderer but none for MacPhail. For details read Ann Coulter, who is an attorney and − unlike other commentators − actually reviewed the transcript. If opponents of capital punishment claim...

In a recent blog post for CNN, Middle East expert and evangelical Christian, Carl Medearis, wrote a piece arguing that Jesus would support a Palestinian state. I've met Carl on a couple of occasions. Carl is an amazing storyteller, a nice guy, and he truly loves Muslims. But his theology is utterly abysmal. And, even worse, his pro-Palestine position stands in direct conflict with the principles of justice, truth, love and righteousness. The gist of Carl's argument, and one I suspect is shared by many American evangelicals, is that Christians should discard the Bible, discard their eschatology and support a...

Not one Republican presidential candidate has offered a plan for reforming the Justice Department or preventing future administrations from plowing forward with catastrophes like Operation Fast and Furious, the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case or the politicization of the career hiring in the DOJ’s civil rights division. Operation Fast and Furious hasn’t come up during a debate yet, nor has reform of the Justice Department. Many of the candidates have not even commented on Fast and Furious. After an extensive search, The Daily Caller only found two candidates who have: Congressman Ron Paul and former House Speaker Newt...

'It's Over': After Three Torturous Hours Strapped To The Chair Troy Davis Has Been Executed Davis finally died at 11.08pm All nine Supreme Court justices voted to deny the stay after taking more than four hours to come to their decision Appeal had challenged ballistics linking Davis to the crime, and eyewitness testimony identifying Davis as the killer Davis convicted of killing off duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 Defence lawyers say there is still 'lingering doubt' of Davis' guilt By HANNAH ROBERTS 22nd September 2011 Mental torture: The convicted murderer was sedated and strapped to the chair in...