Free Republic

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee finally received yesterday what they had demanded for months — and it may have turned into an anti-climax. The White House allowed access to internal e-mails of the Obama administration regarding the preparation of talking points for Susan Rice after the attack on our Benghazi consulate, which some suspected would show that the Obama administration had changed the information to downplay terrorism as the basis of the attack. According to Chad Pergram at Fox, though, the e-mails don’t show anything like that (via Kevin Glass): Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today received a...

A Texas high school student has filed a federal lawsuit against her school and her teachers after she was punished for refusing to salute and recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance. The Thomas More Law Center filed the suit on behalf of Brenda Brinsdon alleging the McAllen Independent School District violated the 15-year-old girl’s constitutional rights when she was forced to recite the Mexican pledge and sing the Mexican national anthem. Brinsdon, who is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and an American father, refused. She believed it was un-American to pledge a loyalty oath to another country. Ironically, the...

Folk heroes to some, villains to others, the owners of the Route 66 Malt Shop in Albuquerque have refused to abide by the city’s recently adopted minimum wage ordinance. The increase, they say, would bury their 18-year-old small business. “We had the choice to close the business and destroy 18 years of blood, sweat and tears and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years … and fire 12 people or disobey the law,” Eric Szeman told New Mexico Watchdog after a busy lunch-time rush. “The law’s the law,” said Pat Davis, executive director of the liberal activist group Progress...

No charges are expected to be filed against a man who fatally shot an intruder trying to force his way into his residence late Saturday, Baton Rouge police said Tuesday. The resident, Kurt Anderson, exchanged gunfire with Anthony Taylor, a 20-year-old man who tried to break into the home at 3875 Topeka St., police said. Police Lt. Don Kelly said Anderson had not been expecting anyone late Saturday night and armed himself with a handgun before opening the door for Taylor. Taylor, the only person struck in the exchange of gunfire, ran and collapsed a short distance away, Kelly said....

The Senate majority leader said, “It's significant that 150 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we are still considering in film, in photo, in art, and activism how to eradicate slavery's unsavory successors.” Reid was speaking at a ceremony unveiling Rosa Parks' statue in the Capitol...

<p>The White House repeatedly asked Ben Carson for his speech before the rising Republican star criticized President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month.</p> <p>Carson, a prominent neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, declined to do so, noting that he doesn’t put his speeches down on paper beforehand.</p>

A liberal group is again challenging U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s position on gun control in a commercial that began running Monday in Kentucky and Washington in advance of the Senate’s next hearing on guns. The group Progressive Change Campaign Committee is spending $100,000 to run the ad for at least a week. It began airing Monday in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Paducah markets plus Washington, D.C., as the Senate’s Judiciary Committee prepares for a hearing Wednesday on the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013.” It features Edmonson County resident Gary Nutt telling viewers that, as a hunter, he doesn’t see...

America must not "dictate" to world, new defense chief says 2:01pm EST By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Wednesday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to "dictate" to the world. Addressing Pentagon employees shortly after a small, closed-door swearing-in ceremony, Hagel spoke optimistically, if vaguely, about global challenges ahead and the importance of American leadership abroad. "We can't dictate to the world. But we must engage the world. We must lead with our allies,"...

WASHINGTON — With the clock ticking on the sequester, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has crafted an alternative plan that would give President Barack Obama discretion over where to cut $85 billion in annual federal spending. As of now, the across-the-board cuts set to take effect Friday would slice many domestic and defense programs indiscriminately. Toomey, a Republican, contends that the spending cuts should go forward, but there should be some license over where the cuts are made. For Democrats, the plan is a non-starter. And some Senate Republicans are reportedly pushing back against Toomey's proposal as well, uncomfortable with...

Now that they're facing Washington's first serious push for new gun violence prevention laws since the Columbine massacre, gun lobbyists are grasping at straws — as in "straw" purchases. That's the slang for someone who legally buys a firearm from a licensed gun dealer, then sells it to someone whose criminal or mental health record prohibits them from making a legal purchase. The National Rifle Association's official position favors prosecuting straw purchasers, but defends allowing sales at gun shows without background checks from private dealers. In the 1990s, you may recall, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, supported universal...

Workers who blow the whistle on violations of the healthcare law will be protected from retaliation by the federal government, according to new rules issued on Wednesday. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is encouraging people to turn in employers who fail to abide by the rules set in the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, the rules would shield whistleblowers who report employers who are blocking access to healthcare tax credits or denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. In the 58-page interim rule, OSHA notes that the healthcare law could “create an incentive for an employer to retaliate against...

Those of you outside the medical services industry have probably never heard the phrases “DME” (Durable Medical Equipment) or the more formal DMEPOS (Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies). You’ve also probably never heard of Medicare’s DMEPOS Competitive Bidding program, and now that I’ve said it, your first thought is probably, “Hey, bringing competition to the medical marketplace! That sounds like a great idea! After all, competition brings down prices while improving service, right? So who could be opposed to that?” Well, a lot of us, actually. Not because we’re evil monopolists bent on holding onto our little fiefdoms...

The popular New Jersey governor angers conservatives — again — by announcing he'll go along with ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, still in the GOP dog house for saying nice things about President Obama's handling of Superstorm Sandy mere days before the November election, angered conservative critics once again this week by announcing that he would expand Medicaid under ObamaCare. The news came as the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual enclave of the nation's conservatives, said they didn't invite Christie to this year's gathering because he has a "limited future" in the...

RUSH: Donna Brazile tweeted that her insurance premium went up and she doesn't know why, and I am not kidding. I literally am not kidding. Donna Brazile, a tweet, "What's on your menu? I just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up. No good answer." Now, for those of you who do not know who Donna Brazile is (and there may well indeed be many of you who don't), Donna Brazile is a Democrat campaign specialist. She is one of the ranking unelected Democrats in the country. She ran...

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they respond to being challenged. Those with courage of conviction and the confidence that comes with real intellect will back their positions and rise to the occasion. Those whose sense of ego is mightier than their strength of character will retreat, resort to insults or not respond altogether. So when David Suzuki – environmental guru, would-be benevolent dictator and all-around perfect human – arrived in Ottawa Tuesday evening to tell a church filled with a paying audience what a sustainable future looks like, he shocked his own loyal supporters...

"You Can Check-Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Leave." So says the Eagles' song Hotel California . Ironically, this memorable phrase in that 1976 classic hit has lasting implications for all those wishing to leave the gay life. I am careful to say "life" and not "lifestyle" so not to offend any gay and lesbian reading this who may be quick to cast me as a homophobe or hate-monger. The truth is no one simply chooses to have same-sex attractions (SSA). These feelings are the result of many factors, mostly environmental and familial, mixed-in with one genetic factor,...

Video and slideshow at link. A federal appeals court panel has branded a Northwest anti-whaling group "pirates," ordering a halt to attacks on Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters. The outspoken opinion, which reads at times more like "Moby Dick" than a court decision, hands a victory to Miller Nash, a Portland law firm that took the controversial step of representing Japan's whale hunters . The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion issued late Monday is also unusual for ordering the transfer of a lower-court judge from the case, finding that U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones made "numerous, serious...

At 10:00 AM Eastern Time today, Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) S. 150, to ban so-called "assault weapons," and "to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited," will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee. S. 150 has perhaps an even chance of being passed in committee, and proceeding to the Senate floor. Once there, as St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner has noted before, further progress looks exceedingly unlikely, with the caveat that a Beslan-scale massacre committed with such firearms could energize the gun ban fanatics (and intimidate our congressional "allies") beyond anything we have ever...

After traveling for more than two weeks and 5200 miles to gripe about the sequester and the supposedly "massive" cuts they impose on federal discretionary spending, Barack Obama will finally talk with people who can do something about it. Apparently, though, the cuts may not be all that bad after all, since Obama won't bother to meet with Congressional leaders about the sequester until after it hits, as ABC's Jonathan Karl reports (via the Daily Caller): They are finally going to have a meeting.A congressional source with direct knowledge of the plans tells me the top four congressional leaders –...