Free Republic

Former President Bill Clinton returned to his old haunts of northwestern Arkansas on Tuesday and implored college students to support Democrats at risk of losing what's left of the political power they have held since Reconstruction. Next to the building where he once taught law, Clinton challenged students at the University of Arkansas to turn out for an election without a big national race. "The polls that show us in trouble uniformly believe that younger voters who voted for president will not show up in a midterm," Clinton said.

The Justice Department is claiming, in a little-noticed court filing, that a federal agent had the right to impersonate a young woman online by creating a Facebook page in her name without her knowledge. Government lawyers also are defending the agent’s right to scour the woman’s seized cellphone and to post photographs — including racy pictures of her and even one of her young son and niece — to the phony social media account, which the agent was using to communicate with suspected criminals. The woman, Sondra Arquiett, who then went by the name Sondra Prince, first learned her identity...

What America needs now for the remainder of Obama’s term in office is a colorblind Attorney General. In a nation where there is a scarcity of good news, hearing Eric Holder give a farewell speech upon his announcement that he will be leaving as the Attorney General was surely welcome in some circles. I was never a fan of his because he was in my opinion always more of a politician than someone with the responsibility to enforce the laws of the nation. I first took notice of Holder when, in the pre-dawn hours of April 22, 2000, as the...

Two Hamas operatives who set off a cycle of violence three months ago that led to more than 2,000 dead Palestinians and the devastation of much of Gaza were cornered and shot dead early Tuesday by Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron. The pair, Marwan Kawasmeh and Amar Abu-Eisha, had been in hiding since picking up three hitchhiking Israeli yeshiva students last June and shooting them to death in their car. Israeli security forces staged a massive, month-long search at the time for the three—two aged 16 and one 19—before uncovering their bodies. During the course...

Chief Justice Hecht calls on attorneys to volunteer for unaccompanied minors.

The House Select Committee on Benghazi hears testimony from Homeland Security and Secret Service officials on the implementation of the Accountability Board’s recommendations following the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

<p>ANGLETON, Texas (AP) — A jury on Wednesday acquitted a southeast Texas man of murder in the fatal shooting of a drunken driver who had just caused an accident that killed the man's two sons.</p> <p>Prosecutors alleged that Barajas killed 20-year-old Jose Banda in a fit of rage after Banda plowed into Barajas and his sons while they were pushing a truck on a road near their home because it had run out of gas. Twelve-year-old David Jr. and 11-year-old Caleb were killed.</p>

A grand jury has convened to determine what charges, if any, will be brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown earlier this month. Over at The New Republic, Yishai Schwartz argues that a conviction against Wilson is impossible because of Missouri's self defense laws [Snip] If Wilson isn't indicted by the grand jury or is acquitted at trial, the Brown family will most certainly file a wrongful death lawsuit. I also wouldn't be surprised if Eric Holder were to pursue a case against Wilson for federal civil rights violations. But that will...

There’s an aspect of the Ferguson “unrest” that most people don’t get.  From the macro lens of cable news, Internet, and social media, you just can’t understand the stress of the average Ferguson citizen.  A town of under 25,000 people is besieged by protesters, hooligans, criminals, and media.  I wrote this open letter to you, the residents of Ferguson, to let you know that I understand, and to tell you that life will eventually return to normal, albeit a changed “new normal”.  This too shall pass. Dear Ferguson residents,  I sympathize with you.  I know what you’re going through, and...

Closing arguments have ended in the Lakeland man's trial of killing a Lakeland police officer in December 2011, and jurors will begin deliberations shortly. Kyle Williams, 21, is accused in the shooting death of Arnulfo Crispin in a park on Crystal Grove Lane. If convicted of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, he faces the death penalty.

By now, probably everybody in America has heard about what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. A racist white police officer, driven by racial animus, chose a random African-American kid to harass, a confrontation which eventually resulted in the police officer shooting this unarmed kid in the back.

The family of the black teenager shot dead by a policeman in St Louis are haunted by the image of him holding his hands up at the moment he was killed, a family member claimed today. Ty Pruitt said that the mental picture of Michael Brown surrendering was stuck in his relatives’ minds as it showed he was ‘killed like an animal’. Pruitt spoke out at an emotional Sunday church service during which Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden sobbed and wiped the tears away from her eyes with a tissue. His father Michael Brown Sr stood grim faced whilst wearing a...

The fifth night of demonstrations in support of gunned down Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown saw scores of protesters marching through the streets of New York in a vigil that culminated in Times Square Thursday night. Tensions flared as some protestors attempted to shove their way through a police barricade set up in their path toward the beating heart of the city. Police held their own and tempers soon calmed, but as night gripped New York, the already congested Times Square ground to a halt as thousands flowed into the streets to demand an end to police brutality and militarization...

Don't look for justice - we no longer have a 'Justice' Department; the President is always on vacation; and Congress just joined him Time after time our honesty-challenged news—often called mainstream media—highlights one judicial baron who is so in bed with the person for whom he hands down his decree or finding, always favorable to the recipient, that when a truly reputable justice speaks up it is as refreshing as a spring breeze. One such person who is a judicial analyst for a major news network (FOX) Judge Andrew Napolitano, has written an article titled, “Spying, Lying and Torture” about...

It's the highlight of my year: a visit to Governor's School at Hendrix College in Conway, which brings together promising young people from every corner of the state during the summer between their junior and senior years in high school. It's something for an old man to anticipate, then enjoy, and most important of all, learn from. I always leave refreshed, cheered, buoyed. There's hope after all. It is the great indulgence of the old to lecture the young, and it is the great kindness of the young to pretend to listen. It is a curious experience to be...

A Daytona Beach father beat an 18-year-old man unconscious after finding him sexually abusing his 11-year-old son early Friday morning, police said. The father called 911 around 1 a.m. after he walked in on the alleged abuse, police said. When officers arrived, they found Raymond Frolander motionless on the living room floor. He had several knots on his face and was bleeding from the mouth. "He is nice and knocked out on the floor for you," the father told the 911 dispatcher. "I drug him out to the living room."

There are times to feel deep sadness. One quietly breaks down in tears at a funeral. But the murder of the three innocent Israeli teens should not engender sadness as much as it should anger, even quiet controlled rage. And the rage well may be targeted not so much at the Other but at our own, those who should have known better. The Koran compares Jews to monkeys and apes. The Arab population of Gaza, in a free and democratic election certified as fair by Jimmy Carter, selected Hamas to be their representatives and voice. The Arab population of Judea...

Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday he and President Obama have been targets of “a racial animus” by some of the administration’s political opponents. “There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus."

To deny that there are unreasonable people on both sides of the political spectrum would be an out and out lie. Both the right and left have their own collection of zealots, ranging from the self-aggrandized pseudo-intellectual who is absolutely positive that he or she has seen the light and that for the nation to take any other path than the one in his vision would lead to sure disaster, to the downright kook who bristles at the very mention of the other party's name and, depending on their persuasion, believes that an "R" or a "D" stands for evil...

Why the hell is Eric Holder still around? That’s a question many of Barack Obama’s political advisers have asked at various points throughout Holder’s tumultuous five years at the helm of the Justice Department. For most of Obama’s presidency, in fact, if there’s been controversy, Holder was likely to be in the middle of it, from the failed efforts to close Guantánamo Bay and to prosecute alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a Manhattan court to his inability to send Wall Street executives involved in the mortgage meltdown to jail. His detractors in the West Wing of the...