Free Republic

Alert - New Legislation HB 95 Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act -2 Don't be confused by similar legislation, Miller HB 28 just doesn't go far enough. To see a comparison between HB 28 and HB 95 click here you will see Representative Jaggi (pronounced Ya-Gee) has introduced legislation with "real teeth". “As gun guy and someone that believes the federal government is out of control, I wanted to introduce legislation fitting to Wyoming” said Representative Allen Jaggi. HB 95 Wyoming Firearm Freedom Act - 2 click here This legislation is a combination of Alaska and New Hampshire's Firearms Freedom Act containing...

Alaska Firearms Freedom Act Needs Your Support HB 186 is in committee and needs your phone calls and emails. Anchorage Second Amendment Task Force Anchorage Second Amendment Task Force Anchorage, AK --(AmmoLand.com)- HB 186 is a bill pertaining to states rights regarding firearms. Currently there are 33 states that have passed or are considering similar Firearms Freedom Act legislation. The current Status of HB 186 is that it has had one hearing in the senate judiciary committee in which it was “Heard and held” there is going to be another hearing in the judiciary committee date unknown. I talked to...

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the city of King NC has received approximately six inches of snow over the last seven days. Apparently, that snowfall, coupled with limited power outages, was frightening enough that, last Friday February 5th, 2010, King Mayor Jack Warren declared a local state of emergency pursuant to North Carolina General Statute § 14-288.12. Now … the first inclination of a Minnesota resident when hearing of such a response to a snowstorm is to laugh. But this declaration was no laughing matter for the citizens of King. With the stroke of a pen, the...

Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit. F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote "The Road to Serfdom" in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Reader's Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies. Hayek meant that governments can't plan economies without planning people's lives. After all,...

A group of retired U.S. Park Service employees is warning that visitors at national parks will soon be seeing handguns and rifles at the nation’s parks because of a law sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, last year. The law, which goes into effect in less than two weeks, will allow people to carry firearms in parks located in states that permit the carrying of concealed weapons. Coburn’s controversial amendment was included on a bill to put new restrictions on credit card companies. Here’s a quote from Coburn from last May: “It’s not about guns. It’s about states’ rights —...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Phil Harris, the fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were captured on the television show "Deadliest Catch", has died, the Discovery Channel said Tuesday night. He was 53. Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the fishing vessel he captained, Cornelia Marie, was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. The fisherman was flown to Anchorage for surgery. The reality show, which has filmed five seasons, has been one of the Discovery Channel's most popular and depicts the crab fishing industry in the dangerous waters off Alaska....

While many accounts have been written about the extremely 'shady' dealings which Goldman Sachs has/had with AIG – which led directly to AIG's $180 billion bail-out – unless I've missed it, one of the key issues has been soft-pedaled and another has been ignored altogether. These two topics which I intend to discuss are a) that Goldman Sachs used AIG as its financial 'toilet'; and b) that Goldman Sachs had begun openly and deliberately misrepresenting assets/investments to investors starting in 2006 or 2007 – at a time when all the other banker-oligarchs were continuing to assert their “mark to model”...

Good news! Gun owners are welcome at the Casper Starbucks. A Starbucks Representative contacted me and said "there has not been any policy change and Starbucks follows the laws of the state and municipalities they are located in" They also said "this has been a misunderstanding and apologies go out to any customers this may have inconvenienced". It is encouraging that Starbucks has taken this stand in light of the pressures being put on them to do otherwise. Say thanks, by patronizing Starbucks today!

It was only a year ago that liberal elites in Washington were shoveling dirt on conservatism. James Carville was writing boastful books about 40 years of Democrat dominance, boasting in his typical way that he could call "time of death" on the Republican Party. Liberals believed their hype that Barack Obama would be that black FDR they pictured on the cover of Time magazine. Now newspaper headlines read otherwise: "Where did the hope for Obama go?" The hot-air balloon has crashed to Earth, and you can tell conservatism is back with a swagger. You can tell because the media's daily...

Oleg Volk photo (click photo to enlarge) A recent Washington Post article notes a nascent gun rights advocacy movement in India. In the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian gun owners are coming out of the shadows for the first time to mobilize, U.S.-style, against proposed new curbs on bearing arms. Then again, "nascent" is perhaps not an accurate characterization of gun rights advocacy in India. Gandhi himself, after all, famously said that: Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest. Still, though, the...

Senator John McCain has introduced a bill that if passed will drive up the cost of dietary supplements and restrict your access to them. This bill seeks to give the FDA complete and arbitrary control over what supplements you are allowed to have... The bill being spearheaded by Senators John McCain and Byron Dorgan represents the kind of federal regulation that is not only ineffective, but also suffocates innovation in ways that inflict permanent damage to this nation’s economic vitality. The bill supposedly originates from the controversy surrounding the use of steroids by Major League Baseball players. Since some unethical...

An Arizona bill would eliminate the legal requirement to have a permit to carry a concealed handgun. The bill is SB1102, and you can see the marked-up proposed changes to existing law by clicking here. It's current status is here. Civil Liberties Examiner J.D. Tuccille already did such a good job explaining things that much of what I could say would simply be a repeat of what he has already said so well. Click here to read his commentary. Did you? OK, welcome back. Here's what I want to either add or reiterate, particularly in light of the absurd and...

ALBANY — The State Senate on Tuesday expelled a senator convicted of domestic assault, the first time in nearly a century that the Legislature has forced a member from office. The Senate voted 53-to-8 to immediately oust the senator, Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat convicted last fall of a misdemeanor for dragging his companion down the hallway of his apartment building. The expulsion leaves the fragile balance of power in the Senate divided between 31 Democrats and 30 Republicans. Because legislation requires 32 votes to pass, Democrats will be unable to approve bills with just the support of their own...

Immutable law of Beltway political physics: The only real jobs that a government stimulus stimulates are government jobs. A year after President Obama signed his first almost trillion-dollar economic stimulus package into law, the federal workforce is at an all-time high. The nation's unemployment rate has swelled to 9.7 percent, but Washington's economy is thriving. More than 2.1 million government workers will be on the federal payroll by the end of 2010. The lobbying industry is booming. USA Today reports that 14 federal agencies have hired 3,000 workers to oversee stimulus spending and have spent nearly $190 million so far...

Man fatally shot by resident in 600 block of Independence Street Police say a suspected burglar was shot to death around 12am Saturday in the garage of a residence in the 600 block of Independence Street in New Orleans. The shots were fired by a resident of the home. Investigators say a burglar alarm was trigged and the alarm company notified those in the house that a motion sensor indicated activity in the garage located in the rear of the home. One of the residents went to investigate and fired multiple shots after encountering the suspect. No charges have been...

A Modesto, California woman reportedly used her gun to fend off a burglar. Police say the woman walked into her home, and found a burglar. She reportedly feared for her safety, grabbed her gun, and fired a shot at the burglar, causing him to flee. The burglar, who was apparently not hit, fled the scene, leaving the woman unharmed, police say. Those opposed to gun ownership would call this a self defense failure, because the victim didn’t manage to hit the burglar. However, shooting the burglar was not really the goal. Instead, when using a gun for self defense, the...

Annual Report of Pakistani NGO Aurat Foundation Notes 13 Percent Increase in Violence Against Women In a new study on the situation of women in Pakistan, the Aurat Foundation, an Islamabad-based non-governmental organization working for women’s’ welfare, has expressed concern over the growing incidents of violence against Pakistani women. The annual study for the year 2009 was released in Islamabad on February 1, 2010 by Ms. Rabeea Hadi, a representative of the Aurat Foundation. The study, which is based on statistics compiled by the NGO, noted a 13 percent increase in incidents of violence against women in Pakistan in 2009....

Signaling he'd meet critics part way on health care, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he's willing to sign a bill even if it doesn't deliver everything he pursued through a year of grinding effort at risk of going down as a dismal failure. The Democrats' massive health overhaul legislation is stalled in Congress by disagreements within the party and the loss last month of their 60th Senate vote, and with it, control of the agenda. Republicans suspect that Obama's invitation to a televised health care summit Feb. 25 is a thinly disguised political trap. On Tuesday, the president tried to...

As part of his promised new focus on jobs, President Obama yesterday hosted a bipartisan jobs meeting. But he has yet to propose many pro-employment specifics -- and his overall economic plan remains unmistakably anti-job. Other than a few odd ideas like using TARP funds paid by banks to fund more government programs, Obama's main push is for a "jobs" bill like the $150 billion measure the House has already passed, which includes various tax credits and new spending to supposedly create jobs. But the spending there is hopeless -- it's more of the same ideas that failed in last...

The Senate's number two Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said Tuesday, "There's no way it can be acted on this week," referring to a jobs bill Democrats are poised to introduce in the chamber. The Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-NV, repeated Tuesday that he wants to complete action on the bill by week's end, even mentioning possible weekend work, ahead of next week's President's Day recess. When asked why the bill cannot be completed this week, Kyl had a suggestion: "Ask Scott Brown!" Brown is the newest member of the Senate, a Republican who swiped a seat from Democrats in...

The White House's chief spokesman used a press briefing yesterday on world affairs to -- of all things -- mock Sarah Palin. Clearly tickled with himself, Robert Gibbs showed up with a shopping list scrawled across his left hand. Included in the list of supermarket staples, like "eggs" and "milk," were two of President Obama's favorite themes, "hope" and change" -- a clear swipe at Palin, who was caught with crib notes scribbled on her palm at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee. Palin -- who calls Obama the "guy with a TelePrompTer" -- had "energy," "tax cuts" and "lift...

Immutable law of Beltway political physics: The only real jobs that a government stimulus stimulates are government jobs. A year after President Obama signed his first almost trillion-dollar economic-stimulus package into law, the federal workforce is at an all-time high. The nation's unemployment rate has swelled to 9.7 percent, but Washington's economy is thriving. More than 2.1 million government workers will be on the federal payroll by the end of 2010. The lobbying industry is booming. USA Today reports that 14 federal agencies have hired 3,000 workers to oversee stimulus spending and have spent nearly $190 million so far on...

Opposition to President Obama's bid to cancel the Constellation return to the Moon program has started to manifest itself among purveyors of popular culture. It has even inspired its first work of literature.

A brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, questions whether members of the "political branches of the government" can "evade the clear and precise language of a provision of the Constitution through the use of a legislative 'fix.'" The dispute is over former Sen. Hillary Clinton's eligibility to be secretary of state. The U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 6, clause 2, provides: "No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have...

After President Obama left the White House briefing room today, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, held up a surprise of his own, literally: a scribbled list of items on his hand, in an obvious mocking of Sarah Palin’s weekend crib sheet at the Tea Party Convention. Continues...============================================================= Gibbs mimics Andrea Mitchell; Sarahcuda eats their boss's lunch Approximately 3 seconds after Sarah Palin's keynote speech to the Tea Party convention in Nashville (no wait -- less than 2 seconds), Democrat consultant Bob Shrum attacked Palin as a "merchant of hate" for opposing Obama's insane agenda. Luckily for him, Shrum's dispassionate, policy-based...

The mainstream media (MSM) spent the last year treating the Tea Party movement as if it were a cancer on the body politic, not an organic outcry from a citizenry that had enough. That was before the movement helped elect three GOP candidates -- particularly Scott Brown's stunning takeover of the so-called Ted Kennedy seat in Massachusetts.

After President Barack Obama's surprise visit to the White House briefing room Tuesday, press secretary Robert Gibbs took back the mic with a show-stealing joke at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's expense.

President Obama's promise to usher in a "new kind of politics" is nothing new, and it hasn't changed anything inside the Beltway. During his State of the Union address, Mr. Obama said, "We cannot wage a perpetual campaign," and he made the same point when he criticized House Republicans at their Jan. 28 meeting in Baltimore, but that's exactly what his White House team is doing. It's not working.

C. Hayes WGNTV NEWS February 10, 2010 A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit northern Illinois early Wednesday morning. The quake struck at 3:59 a.m. in Sycamore in DeKalb County. The quake could be felt as far away as Chicago... 50 miles from the epicenter. We'll have more information as it becomes available. For the latest information, go to the U.S. Geological Survey website.

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Obama's top counterterrorism aide John Brennan has come out and claimed that Americans who criticize Obama's anti-terror policies serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Writing an opinion piece in USA Today that can only be described as being all at once hyper-defensive, angry and whining, John Brennan clearly wanted to pen a defiant defense of Obama's thus-far inadequate, anti-terror policies. However, what emerged instead was an almost paranoid harangue which not only stretched the bounds of reason, but, more importantly, also called his fellow Americans, essentially, abettors of al-Qaeda's goals of killing Americans and destroying the US homeland. This is the...

Israeli warplanes bombed several sites in southern Gaza overnight in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, the army and Palestinian medics said on Wednesday. No one was wounded or killed in the strikes, which destroyed an abandoned building in Gaza's only airport, according to medics. The airport was shut down and largely destroyed after the outbreak of the 2000 Palestinian uprising, or intifada, and has not been used since. The attacks came in response to rocket fire from the impoverished enclave over the past several days, the army said in a statement. The rocket fire did not cause...

A bill before the Tennessee General Assembly could have a chilling effect on a community’s relationship with local law enforcement, according to several law enforcement officials contacted by The City Paper, among them Metro Chief of Police Ronal Serpas. State Rep. Chad Faulkner, R-Luttrell, who is also a Knox County Deputy Sheriff, has introduced legislation that, if enacted, would require that a copy of any complaint registered against police and other law enforcement officials be shown to the person accused in the complaint prior to any investigation. The complaints would include personal information about those requesting relief. According to Serpas,...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Democratic former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder is urging President Barack Obama to fire Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, another former Virginia governor. Wilder wrote of Kaine, in a column for the Politico news Web site, that "the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee is the wrong job for him." In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilder cited Republican victories in last month's Senate election in Massachusetts and in gubernatorial races last fall in New Jersey and Virginia. "I'm just disappointed in his leadership," Wilder told the AP. "And there are a lot of people...

China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean region appears to have injected new momentum in India’s efforts to fortify its farthest military outpost, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Plans are afoot to upgrade airstrips to support fighter operations, induct 5,000 more troops and deploy additional warships, senior officials said. Myanmar’s Coco Islands, where the Chinese navy has reportedly set up a surveillance post, are barely 40 km from the Andamans’ northernmost tip Landfall. New Delhi may not openly flag concerns about China’s strategic moves to squeeze India with its presence in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but there is a...

Human history has given rise to countless “fateful decisions” where a limited number of people – that is, leaders – changed their fate of nations and along with it the fate of the whole world. Some decisions were taken rashly, out of stupidity or foolish boldness, while other difficult decisions were taken after many sleepless nights, based on concern and sound judgment. One way or another, none of the leaders involved predicted the expected results. The State of Israel has been facing a complex strategic problem for more than a decade now: The Iranian nuclear project. The “decision time” that...

Noting signs that the new strategy in Afghanistan “is beginning to bear fruit,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also said during an interview aired last night that the effort to build up Iraq’s security forces and move forward with the U.S. drawdown plan there remains on track. The secretary noted signs of a possible turnaround in Afghanistan, as expressed last week at the NATO Ministerial in Istanbul by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander on the ground. “He thought the situation was still serious, but no longer deteriorating,” Gates said. “I think we are beginning to...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee's unemployment trust fund could be out of money in just a few months. That is the account the state uses to writes checks to the unemployed. "We're dealing with three times more claims then we have in past years," said Department of Labor and Workforce Development spokesman Jeff Hentfchel. The money for the fund comes from the unemployment insurance the state's businesses pay, but that money is quickly running out. "In a very short time frame we're looking at a negative balance in the unemployment trust fund," said Hentfchel. To make sure there is enough money...

Deliveries of fifth-generation fighters to Russia's Air Force will start in 2015 rather than in 2013 as previously announced, the Air Force chief said on Tuesday, according to RIA Novosti. "In 2013, I hope... the [Sukhoi] PAK FA prototype will be ready and fine-tuned, and we will start deliveries to military units in 2015," said Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin. A prototype of the fighter made its maiden flight in Russia's Far East on January 29. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said after the 47-minute flight that the first batch of fifth-generation fighters would go into service in 2013. Russia has been...

On 29 January 2010, the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy, literally "Future Front line Aircraft System"), which could variously be described as a technology demonstrator, the first prototype of the future T-50 fighter, or an intermediate step between the two, took to the air for the first time from the freezing runway of Dzemgi Air Force Base (shared with the KnAAPO plant) at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East Siberia (see also http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/497/). A fundamental step has at last been accomplished in the development of the long-expected Russian response to the American F-22 RAPTOR air dominance fighter. The...

Introduction In late January 2010, the PAK FA made its maiden flight, ushering in an end to an era of US dominance of stealth, fifth generation fighter aircraft. Military analysts of every shade and nation spent endless times speculating and awaited the first flight with sleepless nights and over bitter arguments about its final configuration, for the PAK FA was kept so secretive that none other than a very choice few knew what it would look like. Combat aircraft are the spear tip of any military power, and play a pivotal role in air warfare. And in today's day and...

He was charming and single, she was bored and stuck in a sterile marriage, and their encounter in the aisles of a local supermarket seemed like a chance for them to change their lives for the better. But the affair ended in betrayal, recrimination and death after a sequence of events as lurid as the plot of a pulp novel. Prosecutors in Tokyo called yesterday for a 17-year sentence for Takashi Kuwabara for murdering his lover, Rie Isohata, last year. But the most extraordinary thing about the case was not the killing — by strangulation, after a bitter argument last...

They are called the PIGS -- Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. What they have in common is that all are facing deficits and debts that could bring on national defaults and break up the European Union. What brought the PIGS to the edge of the abyss? All are neo-socialist states that provide welfare for poor people, generous unemployment, universal health care, early retirement and comfortable pensions. Most consume 40 percent to 50 percent of their gross domestic product annually, a crushing burden on the private sector. Dying populations is a second cause. -------------------------------------------- In Western Europe, the passing of the native-born...

State-linked Dubai entities have started talks to divest Asian assets as the emirate steps up the pace of its overseas asset sales to help ease its debt ­burden. Dubai-based Emaar Properties is talking to potential buyers of its majority stake in Singapore-based distributor and retailer RSH, according to people familiar with the matter. RSH, which works with brands including Zara and Mango, operates across Asia and the Middle East. A unit of Dubai Holding, which is looking to sell its 40 per cent stake in Malaysia’s Bank Islam, has appointed Rothschild to seek potential buyers. Dubai Holding is owned by...

PHOENIX -- The parents of a 14-year-old girl who was victim to shocking abuse have been arrested. A young girl who escaped from her appalling living conditions says her father and stepmother kept her locked in a room with no running water for about two months. It was apparently part of a punishment for stealing food. While she was in "lock-up," the girl says her father gave her a few cans of food, crackers and bread every one or two days -- but it wasn't ever enough to satisfy her hunger.

It’s easy to wonder how world leaders, journalists, religious figures and ordinary citizens looked the other way while six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. And it’s even easier to assume that we’d do better. But so far the brutal war here in eastern Congo has not only lasted longer than the Holocaust but also appears to have claimed more lives. A peer- reviewed study put the Congo war’s death toll at 5.4 million as of April 2007 and rising at 45,000 a month. That would leave the total today, after a dozen years, at 6.9 million.

CBS has an image up, saying the video is coming, soon. Tell me again who the childish ones are, here? About all this administration seems good for right now are the jokes, frankly. Maybe Gibbs should have written, "Get a job!" Gibbs' move was a jab at Sarah Palin, who was shown to have written notes on her hand at a speech at the Tea Party convention Saturday after making an implicit criticism of the president for using a TelePrompTer. Gibbs quipped that he had made the notes in case he and the press corps are snowed in. He said...

Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- largest automaker, will recall 437,763 vehicles globally to repair air bags that can deploy with too much pressure, adding to previous U.S. recalls for the same defect. The expansion covers 378,758 vehicles in the U.S., Honda said in a statement late yesterday. The Tokyo-based carmaker will recall about 4,000 cars and minivans in Japan, it said in a filing to the nation’s Transport Ministry today. The recall expansion heightens safety scrutiny of Japan’s largest automakers. Honda’s biggest competitor, Toyota Motor Corp., is working to reassure customers after recalling more than 8 million vehicles worldwide to...

North Korea's food shortage is expected to further worsen this year, as the communist state's grain output in 2009 is believed to have fallen from the previous year, a government official in Seoul said Wednesday. The North is estimated to have produced 4.1 million tons of grain last year, a drop of about 200,000 tons compared to 2008, the Unification Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The amount falls about 1.3 million tons short of what the impoverished country needs this year to feed its 24 million people, the official said. The North produced 4.3 million tons in 2008....

Obama says US "is developing a significant regime of sanctions."As a defiant Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama said the international community was “moving along fairly quickly” toward imposing new sanctions, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for crippling sanctions “right now.”