Free Republic

(1918 Bolshevik Poster by Alexander Apsit reads "Citizens, hand over your weapons!") Why I gave up my guns • A former firearm enthusiast explains his personal epiphany Late one night in the spring of 2008, I was jolted awake by the sound of yet another a burglar trying to break into my Atlanta home. We’d already had a series of scary close calls, but this time I was ready: I had staged my shotgun and a box of shells in a broom closet right by the back door, next to the umbrellas. While my girlfriend called the police, I...

The United States has far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation in part because there are so many residents who own guns and store them in unlocked places in their homes. The lax gun rules are a major contributor to the low life expectancy rate that Americans have compared to their global counterparts. That claim comes just weeks after the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and as politicians make calls for stricter gun controls. The United States has about six violent deaths per 100,000 residents and none of the 16 other countries included in the review...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California man behind an anti-Muslim film that led to violence in many parts of the Middle East was sentenced Wednesday to a year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter, then issued a provocative statement through his attorney. The sentence was the result of a plea bargain between lawyers for Mark Bassely Youssef and federal prosecutors. Youssef admitted in open court that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case....

Clinton: America Can't Export Jeeps To China NOV 3, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER Earlier today at an Obama rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, former President Bill Clinton said that American can't export Jeeps to China: "They used to produce Jeeps in China and they were about to go broke so they had to quit," Clinton said. "You can’t make a Jeep in America and send it to China – it weighs too much, it costs too much to send over there. All they are going to do is reopen their operations there and try to sell Jeeps there too. We’re...

So far in early voting 110 year old’s have made a pretty good showing for the Democrats; 2214 of them have voted either by mail or at a one-stop site (214 by mail and 2,000 at early voting sites). There are 1,420 Democrats confirmed in this group and 77 Unaffiliated voters and even 717 registered Republicans in this group perhaps voting for Obama too. Nothing against very old voters, but it is funny that these 110 year olds live in only 34 counties and 87% of them live in 4 counties - Guilford has voted 681 of them so far,...

The Clinton’s are clearly on a divergent path than President Obama. Hillary just Judo’d Obama in this informative article posted in the UK Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215431/Death-U-S-ambassador-Chris-Stevens-revealed-AK-47s-grenade-attacks-smoke-filled-safe-room.html?ITO=1490

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released an early look at its annual “benchmark revision” of its payroll data. When the preliminary revisions become final early next year, the official data should show that 386,000 more Americans were working in March than previously believed. The private sector did even better, adding 453,000 jobs versus previous estimates. ... There was one symbolic significance to the revision: If the preliminary figures hold, they would suggest that more Americans are now working than when President Obama took office. That doesn’t mean much for the broader economy — there are still more than...

Via BuzzFeed, five minutes of fun at the start of tonight’s debate. I agree with William Jacobson: In some ways, this is a tough subject for Brown to broach. To make the case effectively he's got to get into details about the debunked genealogy, her dubious explanations for identifying as Native American, and her insistence on doing so professionally at Harvard even though she didn’t meet the professional guidelines for it. That's hard or impossible to do in a 60-second opening statement; as it is, his argument that she's lying amounts to "c'mon, she obviously doesn't look Native American," which...

We might be facing the most embarrassing moment in the history of human civilization. A couple of decades from now, some history book might appear with the following entry: “World War III Sparked by YouTube Video.” It’s a silly pretext that could easily be a story line for a “South Park” episode, but in this case, truth is stranger than fiction. If you buy into the ridiculous media reports, you’re supposed to believe that angry Muslims in Egypt, Libya, and throughout the Middle East exploded into deadly violence on Sept. 11 in reaction to a YouTube video they found insulting....

Republican lawmakers left a closed-door briefing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials on Thursday still unconvinced by the administration's assessment that last week's attack that killed four Americans in Libya wasn't a premeditated act of terrorism. “They're trying to cover their behinds,” Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) told The Hill upon leaving the House briefing with Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Asked if they were successful, he said: “No.” On the Senate side, things were no different according to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) “That is the most useless worthless...

War On Terrorism: Intelligence sources believe the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was tied to al-Qaida and led by a former Gitmo detainee released in 2007 and handed over to Libya. Intelligence sources have told Fox News they are sure the deadly attack was directly tied to al-Qaida and a former Guantanamo detainee — Sufian bin Qumu (full name Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda Bin Qumu). Given the track record of former Gitmo detainees being released, only to return to killing Americans, we are not surprised. On Wednesday's Special Report, Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge reported that...

Illinoispaytoplay.com (IP2P) has learned that Daniel S. Mahru, former business partner of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, made a deal with the Department of Justice (DoJ) for his silence. IP2P is the first to report that on, October 4 2012, Daniel S. Mahru will receive probation at his sentencing hearing. IP2P has also learned that this is being done to insure Mahru will not speak of crimes, of which he has knowledge, that implicate Barack Obama, Valarie Jarrett, Allison Davis, Tony Rezko and others. (Remember Tony recently saying he committed crimes for which Fitzgerald did not charge him.) IP2P is also investigating...

A lawyer who came to prominence for his full-throated defense of a subsequently convicted terrorist was quietly promoted to the No. 3 slot at the Department of Justice last month, a post that puts him in charge of the administration’s policy regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees. The move has raised red flags on Capitol Hill and elsewhere among national security stalwarts who argue that the promotion could imperil the country’s longstanding war on terrorism.

An Israeli source says that the US has warned that an attack on Iran by Israel may put an end to Israel's relations with its neighbors as well as the peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, reported the Hebrew daily Yediot this morning. According to the source, the Americans explained that Egypt and Jordan may break off relations with Israel because the two countries' leaders need the support of the masses. "The leaders do not have control over their people, the street rules over them", said the source, and added that "an Israeli attack would bring the entire Islamic-Arab world...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A Democratic state legislator from east Arkansas, his father and two campaign workers pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit election fraud after federal prosecutors said they bribed absentee voters and destroyed ballots in a special election last year. Prosecutors said Democratic Rep. Hudson Hallum of Marion, Kent Hallum, Phillip Wayne Carter and Sam Malone acknowledged that they participated in a conspiracy to bribe voters to influence absentee votes in the Arkansas District 54 primary, runoff and general elections in 2011. The three were released pending a sentencing hearing. "In a nation in which every...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Dingy Harry continues to smear Mitt Romney. Ann Coulter has a good column today. She points out, if I could summarize real quick, she says the reason that they are making a beeline for Romney's tax records is because he's too straitlaced. He doesn't have a divorce that they can go look at. And she recounts the history of every Obama campaign, every opponent had either divorce or custody records unsealed shortly before the election, which resulted in high embarrassment or even resignation of the opposition candidate. Her point is that Obama has never won an election...

The recent revelation that the head of Media Matters walked the streets of Washington with a Glock-toting bodyguard may make it a little awkward for the group the next time it seeks a donation from a gun control advocacy group. Media Matters reportedly took more than $400,000 from the Joyce Foundation specifically earmarked to promote a $600,000 initiative on "gun and public safety issues." At the same time, Media Matters' gun-guarded boss David Brock reportedly obsessed over his own security. ....Brock reportedly told confidantes that he feared for his safety and needed hired guns to keep him safe.

Dan Gross, the newly hired president of the Brady Campaign, counts the shooting of his brother Matt in 1997 at the Empire State Building as a seminal event in in his life. He may not call it that but he left a high paying partnership at JWT (formerly known as J. Walter Thompson Advertising) to start what eventually became the Center to Prevent Youth Violence. From his bio at the Brady Campaign: Dan founded CPYV after his brother was severely wounded in a shooting at the Empire State Building in February 1997. Prior to co-founding and directing the Center to...

Of particular interest is the “Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982,” the largest of Reagan’s tax increases, and generally considered the largest tax increase — as a percentage of the economy — in modern American history. In fact, between 1982 and 1984, Reagan raised taxes four times, and as Bruce Bartlett has explained more than once, Reagan raised taxes 12 times during his eight years in office.

Two weeks ago, when billionaire Warren Buffett called for higher taxes on rich people like him, the liberal media predictably gushed and fawned. Yet when Americans for Better Government revealed last week that Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway has been in an almost decade-long dispute with the IRS over how much taxes it owes, these same press members couldn't care less: According to Berkshire Hathaway’s own annual report — see Note 15 on pp. 54-56 — the company has been in a years-long dispute over its federal tax bills. According to the report, “We anticipate that we will resolve all adjustments...