Free Republic

haven’t seen anyone ask this yet, so I will: did the Ron Paul Revolution stay home last night? Mitt Romney won 3 million votes less than McCain while Obama lost 10 million votes of his own from 2008. Where did those 3 million McCain voters go? The main part of why I believed Romney would win this time because I knew the 10 million Obama supporters would sit home…but never in my worst nightmares did I imagine McCain voters would sit home. I counted on them to show up and bring friends this time to boot Obama out. The only...

As a former Libertarian presidential contender, the 2008 Libertarian vice presidential nominee, the former chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee, and the man called "Mr. Libertarian" by media across this country, you might be surprised to find I’m supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president. Yes, this Las Vegan has gone “all in” for Mitt. Why? Because Mitt Romney is the only sane choice for Libertarians. It’s simple. Libertarians believe in less government; lower taxes; cutting rules, regulations and mandates to get government out of the way of small business; reining in out-of-control government agencies like the EPA; auditing the...

I have a lot of respect for my Libertarian friends, and they are frequently the first people I’d like to have a discussion with about a new policy or political controversy. I find most of them to be intelligent, thoughtful, well-read people. I also find that in large part Independents (including the Tea Party) often have much in common with the right when it comes to the issues of this particular election–economics and the over-reach of the Federal government. But I do think that to actually vote for a 3rd party candidate in a tight general election (as this one)...

Paul Brown was working on his computer in his north suburban home when police smashed in the front door, pointed guns at and handcuffed him and other family members, and ransacked the house in a search for drugs. The authorities had burst in immediately after a postal worker delivered a package to the home that they said contained marijuana. But a search of the house found no further contraband, and officers left without making an arrest. Brown, outraged, said he was sure the cops had the wrong house. Police maintained they had the right place, but the target of their...

WASHINGTON—A multibillion-dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone's ability to control. What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found. The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department...

Veteran American libertarian author and activist Jerome Tuccille once wrote a book titled It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand. Not true in my case. For me it all began with Walt Whitman, the 19th-century mystic whose mesmerizing American poetry helped turn me into a free market individualist. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself…” But that’s another story. These days, I find what began with Walt Whitman is usually fired up in me now by leftist economists who promote big government, Occupy activists who attack corporate greed and politicians who cravenly exploit class warfare over allegedly expanding inequality. Which is how...

(VIDEO AT LINK) On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Wednesday, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that as far as he was concerned, Mitt Romney was already the victor over incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama. “You know, I think — I’m in the minority here, but I think the election is over,” said Paul, who was on to promote his new book “Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds.”“I think that Romney has already won,” Paul continued. “The people really are tired of the debt. They’re tired of irresponsible leadership. I think they’re...

Obama Administration Expands ATF’s Power to Seize Property As part of a one-year trial run, the Department of Justice has granted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives the power to “to seize and administratively forfeit property allegedly involved in controlled substance offenses,” which is almost tantamount to saying that on the mere suspicion that one is doing something illegal, the ATF can snatch one’s firearms and property. The Washington Times, among other publications, have explained the implications of this new DoJ decree: It’s a dangerous extension of the civil-forfeiture doctrine, a surreal legal fiction in which the seized...

The gun business is booming. The question is, why? Smith & Wesson stock Friday was zooming, thanks to a stellar earnings report. The firearms maker also boosted its outlook for the rest of the year. Because of the strong business, its backlog of orders more than doubled from the same quarter last year, the company is concentrating on boosting production and building inventory. “We are underserving the market at this moment, we all know that, and that's a great opportunity going forward for us,” CEO James Debney said in a conference call with analysts. And another gun maker, Sturm, Ruger...

“Truth is the new hate speech.”—“Creeping Sharia” “We [the people] own this country.”—Clint Eastwood I feel like I ought to start out each of my articles anymore with a disclaimer, or caveat saying something along the lines of “WARNING: The contents of this article are to be considered null and void in the event of a “Reichstag Fire,” false flag event, and/or an invasion by Russian Spetsnaz in collusion with Northcom,“or words to that effect. My intent is not to make light of such concerns, as God knows we have reason enough to be more than a bit edgy these...

TAMPA -- The Paulistas were at the Republican National Convention last week, and they were cranky. They held up cranky signs and wore T-shirts with cranky messages. They scowled. They pouted. They sometimes shouted when others were speaking. They were clearly cheesed off that their man, who won several states during the primaries, did not get to write the platform and otherwise dominate the convention. Oh, wait. Oops. No, Dr. Paul, the gold-medal winner this year in the Olympic Pat Paulsen look-alike competition, didn't win several states. In fact, he did not win a single state. He ran early and...

Dianne Feinstein announced Wednesday that she’s re-entering the battle over gun control during her keynote speech to the California delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Feinstein was president of the San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on what she calls that city’s “day of infamy” in 1978, when a former colleague shot and killed Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Since then, Senator Feinstein has been one of the most vocal proponents of gun control on Capitol Hill. She promised California delegates she’d return to Congress to reintroduce “an updated assault weapons bill.” At the delegates' breakfast, she said that, "Weapons...

Admittedly, I am late to evaluating Clint Eastwood’s RNC performance. However, the fact that the pundit class is still critiquing it days later is one indicator of how shrewd it was as political theater. Accordingly, it is worth noting just how wrong some of the Eastwood analysis has been, even from those defending the speech. The harsh, conventional wisdom about Eastwood’s decidedly unconventional approach to the convention is that it was the ramblings of a senile old man. Even may of Eastwood’s defenders have described it as rambling. This likely makes Eastwood’s day. After all, who is Clint Eastwood? He...

Ted Nugent warns America. Vid at link.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Training at Camp Lejeune Thursday looked and felt real -- and that was the point. Law officers and marines from across the country ended their training with a bang. Thursday was the final day of exercises for law enforcement and marines who have gone through special reaction team training at Camp Lejeune for the past three weeks. In the final exercise, teams were presented with a series of real life scenarios as well as hands on instruction to handle them correctly. Brian Dye, Operations Chief of I&I in Lexington, Kentucky says training civilians as a blended...

Mitt Romney will not be on the ballot in Washington State, if a lawsuit from the Libertarian party succeeds. Citing a legal technicality which disqualifies the republican party from being considered a “major party” due to its failure to get a senate candidate on the ballot in 2010, libertarians appear to have the law on their side which would disqualify the republican party from being able to place its candidate on state ballots in November. That would remove Romney from the ballot, which would still allow his supporters to write in his name but would likely suppress the number of...

When They Come For Your Guns, You Will Turn Them OverAugust 13, 2012 By Jim Karger “When they come for my gun, they will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands,” is a common refrain I often hear from the Neo-Cons when there is a threat, credible or otherwise, that the US government is going to take their firearms. And, when I hear this crazy talk, I agree with them openly. “You are right. They will pry your gun from your cold dead hands,” which I often follow with the question, “And where will that leave you...

"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." -- Barack Obama So far, the message of the Obama campaign essentially seems to be, "I'm unable to effectively govern because Republicans won't do everything I want. Re-elect me so I can deliver more of the same. Oh, also Paul Ryan wants to push old people off a cliff while Mitt Romney will give you cancer." That doesn't tell you much about what Obama would try to do in his second term, but given that he appears to be largely indifferent to the law and the wishes of...

August 12, 2012SCRUBBED : PHOTO OF PRESIDENT OBAMA REMOVED JUST DAYS AFTER BOOK EXPOSES AGENDA TO ELIMINATE SUBURBS by Lee Stranahan A photo of President Obama was suddenly pulled from the website of the group Building One America, whose goals were documented extensively in Stanley Kurtz’s book Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities. The book, which was released ten days ago, reveals what Kurtz refers to as Obama’s plan to undercut the political and economic independence of America's suburbs. Kurtz connects current Obama administration policy with his personal history, and with groups...

Wisconsin -(Ammoland.com)-Wisconsin Carry has learned of some concerning information that we would like to pass along to our membership and right-to-carry interested folks in southeast Wisconsin. In a recently published Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article which you can read here It was reported that the former Badger Guns (now Brew City Shooters Supply) http://www.brewcityshooterssupply.com/ has, since 2009, been reporting the names of every customer that comes in to use their firing range to the West Milwaukee Police Department. In this time over 25,000 customer names were reported to West Milwaukee Police Chief Dennis Nasci who ran a background check on each...