Free Republic

Last Thursday, Texas based email provider Lavabit suddenly shut down their encrypted email service, leaving behind a message for its customers on the company's website. The owner of Lavabit, Ladar Levinson, intimated that the company had received a secret search order from the government and shut his business down to avoid being "complicit in crimes against the American people."

Following in the well-worn footsteps of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Blueprint for Federal Action on Illegal Guns, this week the Council on Foreign Relations released a memo urging the Obama administration to disregard the will of the American people and Congress and unilaterally enact a series of gun controls. Entitled, A Strategy to Reduce Gun Trafficking and Violence in the Americas, and written by CFR Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, Julia F. Sweig, the memo pins the ills of Central and South America on U.S. gun owners and urges the president to curb our rights to...

Senator John McCain says Putin doesn't prioritize US-Russia relationship adding that summit's cancellation merely 'symbolic. President Barack Obama faced calls Sunday to pursue a more hawkish line on Russia, with an influential Republican foreign policy voice suggesting the US leader lacked sufficient insight over Vladimir Putin's intentions. Arizona senator and former White House candidate John McCain suggested that comments made by Obama following the cancellation of a meeting with the Russian president did not go far enough to address a series of grievances Washington has with Moscow, including the handling of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Obama spoke on Friday of...

Coal industry lobbyists and politicians have been urging the Obama administration to ease up on its regulatory agenda and craft carbon dioxide emission rules that would allow the coal industry to survive. All the while, reports indicate that hundreds of coal plants are slated to be shut down in the coming years. The unveiling of President Obama’s plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants earlier this summer stoked the fears of coal supporters who have already been hit hard by stricter environmental regulations. However, the industry is not going down without a fight. Coal lobbyists met with...

Matt Damon, the star of the movie "Elysium" and its director, Neill Blomkamp, have both vociferously denied that their film is political. Well, perhaps they might want to consult with Jodie Foster who also stars in this movie to get their stories in proper alignment because she expressed a very different opinion. First let us read the not very convincing denial by Blomkamp of any political motivation as reported by Fox News: "’Elysium’ doesn’t have a message,” Blomkamp told Wired Magazine, saying he found it unfortunate that critics were drawing parallels between his movie and the Occupy movement, a phenomenon...

Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Dallas-based Lavabit got a surge of new customers: $12,000 worth of paid subscribers, triple his usual monthly sign-up. On Thursday, though, Levison pulled the plug on his company, posting a cryptic message about a government investigation that would force him to “become complicit in crimes against the American people” were he to stay in business. Many people have speculated that the investigation concerned the government trying to get access...

Secretary of State John Kerry has announced the creation of the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, whose mission, he said, is “to engage more closely with faith communities around the world, with the belief that we need to partner with them to solve global challenges.” “There is common ground between the Abrahamic faiths, and, in fact, between the Abrahamic faiths and all religions and philosophies, whether you’re talking about Hindu or Confucianism or any other of the many of the world’s different approaches to our existence here on the planet and to our relationship with a supreme being,” said Kerry....

Billionaire George Soros’ philanthropy is bad news for Israel, according to an in-depth report from the NGO-Monitor watchdog group. The report listed the many causes in Israel, or pertaining to Israel, that are funded by Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Among the top beneficiaries of OSF funding is Human Rights Watch, which has been criticized for targeting for criticism, and falsely libeling, the state of Israel. Another is J Street, which describes itself as “pro-Israel” but has been termed anti-Israel by others for, among other things, welcoming proponents of a boycott on Israel at its national conference and honoring IDF soldiers...

Having observed the Zimmerman fiasco and discussed it with several friends, I have come up with the following observations. Zimmerman was selected for trial in order to lose. Yes, lose. You look at the case and the facts jump out at you that it was an obvious self-defense case and not worth prosecuting, unless you had other motives. The DA had to perjury herself to even get an arrest and issue an indictment. The prosecutors hid evidence and committed felony obstruction at every turn. So why pick this case to go to trial .... to lose. The game plan from...

Michael Savage: Rush Limbaugh is a “water-carrying, fat fraud�??? Savage took a brief respite from discussing deli meats and meatball recipes Wednesday to address the important issues of the day… Democrat bad! Republican good! All Rush Limbaugh does day in and day out. … Water-carriers! Frauds!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO4xNU5LdXo

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) signaled Tuesday that the dramatic boost in border-security in the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill could be one of the provisions that may be changed in a potential House-Senate compromise. During an immigration forum hosted by the AFL-CIO Tuesday, McCain – a key Senate Gang of Eight negotiator – said while a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s undocumented immigrants is a “fundamental element” of the bill, the “rest of it could be adjusted.” He singled out the border security parts as an example. “We don’t need 20,000 additional border patrol agents,” McCain said Tuesday. “But what...

We all know that Barack Obama was a Constitutional Law professor at the University of Chicago. He spent more than a decade lecturing on what is possibly the greatest document ever written by men. Later, when elected to the Senate and then the White House he swore to defend that same Constitution. Despite all of that, one has to wonder, does Barack Obama not actually understand the document he has spent a quarter century studying, teaching and “defending” or is he some kind of self directed progressive Manchurian Candidate? Whichever is the case, one thing is unassailable, Barack Obama is...

Lt. Mike Zullo, lead investigator of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Cold Case Posse with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has revealed new information in his investigation of Obama's birth. He revealed that he has a source 'in a position to know' has confirmed that 'there was no birth' of Barack Obama at Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu, HI on August 4, 1961. That would call into question the comments made by former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle on May 2, 2010. In a nationally syndicated radio broadcast on the Rusty Humphries show, Lingle told the audience: "So I had my health director, who...

WASHINGTON - There was no conciliatory phone call, no heart-to-heart talk to soothe the tensions. No one knows exactly when President Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain went from bitter rivals in the 2008 presidential campaign and foes over health care and national security to bipartisan partners. Yet in recent months, an alignment on high-profile domestic issues - not to mention an eye on their respective legacies - has transformed Obama and McCain into Washington's most unexpected odd couple. The Arizona senator is a regular visitor to the West Wing and in near-daily contact with senior White House officials....

Why won't the media cover Huma Abedin's ties to the global jihad movement? … perpetuating what is, in fact, the great Huma Abedin cover-up [snip] Everyone knows (too much) about the exposure part: Anthony Weiner, candidate for mayor of New York City, turns out to be a recidivist pervert. The fatuous conversation that has followed this "news" has turned on the decision of Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, to step forward to try to salvage her husband's bid for public office. The Wall Street Journal's response to Abedin's decision was typical: "Watching the elegant Huma Abedin stand next to her man...

In the last month, conservatives looking for a possible 2016 presidential candidate with a serious approach to defense and foreign policy were starting to wonder if they would be stuck with outliers rather than frontrunners. The only reason why people like former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and Rep. Peter King—men who are respected voices on these issues but not likely to have a chance at the nomination—were getting even minimal attention for their presidential trial balloons was the fact that all of the likely contenders have been ignoring the question of America’s need to maintain a forward position in...

Yet in recent months, an alignment on high-profile domestic issues — not to mention an eye on their respective legacies — has transformed Obama and McCain into Washington’s most unexpected odd couple. The Arizona senator is a regular visitor to the West Wing and in near-daily contact with senior White House officials. McCain, in an Associated Press interview, said that he and Obama "trust each other." For Obama, the senator has become a rare Republican backer of important elements on the president’s second term agenda, including immigration overhaul, stricter background checks for gun buyers, and perhaps a fall budget deal....

You probably heard about Obama’s recent $10 million vacation to Africa.What you probably didn’t hear about was the fact that President Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were all in Africa… At the same time. Why were they all there? Preston James PhD from Veteran’s Today says our three most recent presidents were all there to meet with their Annunaki Overlord “Marduk” in secret. This story might just be a rumor. Still, it comes from a source that has deep Intel connections and has historically been spot on regarding other incidents. First of all, I myself have very deep...

And they should. CBS reoprts that NSA Director Keith Alexander made an “emergency visit� to Capitol Hill to head off a potentially embarrassing vote to defund his agency’s trawling of phone and Internet records. House Republican leaders allowed a vote on an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash to use the power of the purse to rein in the NSA, and the panic shows that the effort might well succeed in the Senate when the budget comes to the upper chamber: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, White House press secretary Jay...

Due largely to unauthorized leaks, we now know that the National Security Agency has seized from private companies voluminous data on the phone and Internet usage of all U.S. citizens. We've also learned that the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has approved the constitutionality of these seizures in secret proceedings in which only the government appears, and in opinions kept secret even from the private companies from whom the data are seized. If this weren't disturbing enough, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform, is compiling a massive database of citizens' personal information—including monthly...

Public attitudes have shifted against Edward Snowden, with more than half of Americans now supporting criminal charges against the former security contractor who’s disclosed details of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency. And while most doubt that the NSA’s efforts enhance security, most also don’t see them as unjustified intrusions on privacy rights. The public by 57-39 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll also says it’s more important for the government to investigate possible terrorist threats than for it to protect privacy rights – a substantial margin, albeit the narrowest in polls since 2002. A plurality thinks...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said it would be "foolish" to write of Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) presidential chances, despite the hit absorbed by the Florida lawmaker from conservatives upset with his championing of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Rubio and McCain served as two of the primary GOP negotiators in the Senate's "Gang of Eight," which crafted the upper chamber's bipartisan reform bill. “I think it’s just foolish,” McCain told The Arizona Republic in an interview Friday. “I’m not endorsing anyone, but I can tell you Marco Rubio is an articulate spokesperson for what conservatives believe in, in principle. And...

On Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, where he called President Obama’s Friday comments on Trayvon Martin and race “very impressive.” He said, “I think we should continue to make progress,” but added that “we still have a long way to go,” even as he declined to “second guess” the verdict in the George Zimmerman case. McCain stated that “we were probably too optimistic” about race relations in the aftermath of the election of the country’s first black president. “I think old prejudices die hard,” McCain said. ‘We have made significant progress, but I...

Arizona Sen. John McCain says his home state should review its "stand-your-ground" law in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. The Republican senator said he trusted the jury's judgment in the case, but added Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the law "may be something that needs to be reviewed." Does he think that applies to Arizona? "Yes, I do and I’m confident that members of the Arizona legislature will," McCain said. He said he did not share Sen. Ted Cruz's view that President Obama's remarks on "stand-your-ground" laws...

Biotechnology giant Monsanto is scrapping plans to win approval to grow new types of genetically modified crops in the European Union. It says the move is due to the lack of prospects for cultivation in the EU... It comes just days after the EU began talks with the US on a wide-ranging trade deal, with agriculture likely to be one of the toughest issues. The company said it would now concentrate on growing its conventional seeds business in Europe. It will also look to get EU approval to import its genetically modified crop varieties from the US and South America...

Dear fri­ends, thank you for invi­ting me to Los Ange­les. I always like coming to the Uni­ted Sta­tes. There are many things that I admire Ame­ri­cans for. One of them is that they are unas­ha­medly patrio­tic. The Ame­ri­can Free­dom Associa­tion has asked me to speak to you about the future of Europe. Europe is in a ter­rible state. Bit by bit, Euro­pean countries are los­ing their natio­nal sover­eignty. The eco­nomy is in sham­b­les. Isla­mic immi­grants riot and ter­ro­rize the many locals. And when people’s throats are slit in the stre­ets, while the mur­de­rers shout “Allahu Akbar,” the aut­hori­ties appease the...

Later this month, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is slated to visit New York to stump for an immigration bill as part of the bipartisan Becoming America tour. Among Cantor’s stops: Ellis Island, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the African Burial Ground National Monument. Canter, among other Congressmen, is scheduled to speak at a naturalization and dine with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The African Burial Ground National Monument was discovered in 1991 while building a federal office building; as the website describes it, “From about the 1690s until 1794, both free and enslaved Africans were buried...

President Obama's pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is facing under-the-radar opposition that could flare during Wednesday's confirmation hearing. While hawkish senators like Republican John McCain have come out in support of Samantha Power, more than four-dozen former military leaders,national security officials and conservative political groups are now asking senators to reject Power’s nomination. … Power,a former White House adviser and longtime Obama friend, once likened U.S. foreign policies to those of the Nazis. … Retired Lt. Gen. William G. 'Jerry' Boykin,who is behind a movement to block Power's confirmation,agrees. “We should be proud to...

Say No to a U.S.-EU Merger As negotiations continue toward immersing the United States in another sovereignty-compromising trade pact, it's hardly surprising to know that proper warnings were issued about such an agreement in The New American magazine five years ago. TNA's May 12, 2008 feature article entitled “Transatlantic Two-Step” reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso met with President George W. Bush in the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations that would tie our country with the European Union. In his statement at the close of the meeting, Mr. Bush didn’t...

But a court could still hold him accountable for the death. Two options, however, are available: A civil suit, or a civil rights suit. The NAACP is pushing the U.S. Department of Justice to file a civil rights suit. The Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN's "New Day" on Sunday that his Rainbow PUSH Coalition also wants the Justice Department to look into possible civil rights violations in the case.

Moveon.org has started an internet petition to encourage the Department of Just Us to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. The petition comes in the aftermath of his acquittal by a jury of six in Seminole County, FL just last night. In the lead up to the original Florida charges against Zimmerman, over 2 million people signed an internet petition to bring murder charges against him. Mob justice in action, it seems. I have not included the link because when I try to put it in, FR says Moveon.org links are not allowed at FR.

Boehner: 'Vast majority' of House GOP wants to act on immigration; Pelosi points to support from 'Bible folks' After months of being told to hurry up on immigration, it's time to wait. House Republicans said they plan to act, but not in haste, after huddling in a closed-door meeting to discuss how to proceed on an immigration bill. While the chamber intends to proceed on immigration, Speaker John Boehner reiterated on Thursday that the House would not take up the Senate immigration bill that passed last month with bipartisan support. Several House Republicans offered their perspectives on the issue during...

(Vatican Radio) Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has released a statement backing Pope Francis’ call to welcome refugees as our brothers and sisters. Cardinal Maradiaga issued his statement on Monday 8 July, the day in which Pope Francis journeyed to the Island of Lampedusa, the landing point of tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe in hope of a better future. Please find below the full text of the statement issued by Caritas Internationalis: “The Pope’s visit to Lampedusa reminded us of the plight of millions of refugees around the world. Religious leaders and faith based...

DALLAS (AP) — Making a rare return to the political arena, former President George W. Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to reach a "positive resolution" on immigration reform, an issue that eluded him during his presidency and now confronts fellow Republicans in the aftermath of a 2012 election drubbing. In brief remarks at a naturalization ceremony at his presidential library in Dallas, Bush avoided wading into the merits of specific legislation pending in Congress, but said it was important for lawmakers to recognize the benefits of immigration to the nation's future. While he didn't directly endorse a Senate-approved plan his...

Time to flood their switchboards. Don't let the traitors get away with robbing us of our jobs, destroying our economy, giving up our sovereignty. Kill the amnesty bill before it kills us!! We did it before, we can do it again. KILL THE BILL!!

ATWOOD, Mich. (AP) — For northern Michigan fruit grower Pat McGuire, the most potent symbol of the immigration debate isn't grainy television footage showing people slipping furtively across the U.S.-Mexican border. Instead, it's plump red cherries and crisp apples rotting on the ground because there aren't enough workers to pick them — a scenario that could become reality over the next couple of months.Across the state's orchard belt, cherry trees already sag under the weight of bright-red clusters, yet many trailers and wood-frame cottages that should be bustling with migrant families stand empty. McGuire is waiting to hear whether crews...

As an overhaul of immigration laws shifts to the House, a right-leaning group is launching a new television ad campaign Monday that will call on House lawmakers -- and, implicitly, resistant Republicans -- to support the Senate-passed “border surge” as part of “conservative immigration reform." The ad seeks to influence rank-and-file lawmakers as House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) convenes Republicans behind closed doors to assess how the GOP majority will respond to the bipartisan Senate bill.

While the 2016 presidential election is a full three years away many of the high profile Republican contenders are enmeshed in the immigration reform debate, and if Republicans demonstrate strong leadership on passing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship possible candidates such as Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan could get strong support from Latino voters. However if Rubio, Bush or Ryan distance themselves from the immigration bill and House Republicans defeat the measure none of the GOP candidates stands to improve on the historic Romney 2012 defeat among Latinos. [Full poll results here]A new poll...

Former President George W. Bush today cheered on the “progress” in pushing comprehensive immigration reform through Congress. “The legislative process can be ugly,” Bush said with a chuckle in an interview aired today on ABC’s “This Week.” “But it looks like they're making some progress.”

Former President George W. Bush wants Republicans to consider immigration on its own merits, not just as a party saving piece of legislation, he said during an interview on ABC's This Week. "Sometimes, it takes time for some of these complex issues to evolve. And it looks like immigration, you know, has a chance to pass," Bush said.

The U.S. federal budget cuts are an inappropriate measure that will weigh on potential growth, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday, urging Washington to present "credible" fiscal plans. In its annual check of the health of the U.S. economy, the IMF forecast economic growth would be a sluggish 1.9 percent this year. The IMF reckons growth would be as much as 1.75 percentage points higher if not for the rush to cut the government's budget deficit. While the budget cuts that took hold on March 1 do not appear to be hitting government payrolls directly so far, some economists...

-excerpt- There’s no doubt that ElBaradei represents the smallest and least powerful of the main factions supporting big reform in post-Mubarak Egypt — the others being Team Muslim Brotherhood and Team Army. -excerpt- For the Army, ElBaradei is the closest they’ve got to a Terry MacAuliffe — love him or hate him, he keeps those donors writing checks. US dismay over regulations which prohibit foreign aid to coup-stricken countries will surely abate when it’s ElBaradei standing beside President Obama in the Rose Garden.

Leading liberal Egyptian politician Mohamed ElBaradei has been named interim prime minister. He was appointed following crisis talks led by President Adly Mahmud Mansour - three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi amid growing nationwide unrest. The move has in turn triggered mass unrest by supporters of Mr Morsi. Mr ElBaradei - a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog - is expected to be sworn in later on Saturday. He and other party leaders attended a meeting called by Mr Mansour on Saturday. Mr ElBaradei leads an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation...

Leading liberal Egyptian politician Mohamed ElBaradei is to be named prime minister, the BBC understands. Mena state news agency says he is meeting interim President Adly Mahmud Mansour, three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi amid growing nationwide unrest. …

“Kerry would have an easier time convincing Greenpeace to dine on whale steak and spotted owl than in brokering peace between Israel and Palestinians,” Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told TheDC. What’s more, Rubin said, with all the fires flaring around the world, it makes little sense that Kerry would devote so much time to a problem that isn’t currently in a position to be resolved. “Egypt is imploding, and Turkey is going south fast. Antagonism between Europe and America is at an all-time high. China is bullying U.S. allies in southeast Asia. And what is...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a staunch supporter of "comprehensive immigration reform," urged Republicans on Monday to stop being "the obstacle" to immigration reform. Writing in the Wall Street Journal with Clint Bolick, Bush asserted that "immigration reform" was a gateway issue for Hispanic and Asian voters. He said Republicans needed to "cease being the obstacle to immigration reform and instead point the way toward the solution."

President Obama and former President Bush were not the only members of their family that were putting on a joint display of support on Tuesday. First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush have shown their mutual admiration at a panel in Tanzania where they complained about how the White House can feel like a prison. 'There are prison elements to it. But it's a really nice prison,' Mrs Obama said at the Tuesday panel in Tanzania. Her predecessor then added that the chef is an addition unlike other prisons, and Mrs Obama brought it back to the point, saying: 'You...

Sources such as NYT, Wapo, Politico are permitted on FR and those organizations are not exactly unbiased or accurate. Generally speaking, I think Infowars presents a libertarian and constitutionalist perspective and has cleaned up its act over the last couple years.

Former President George W. Bush has weighed in on the Edward Snowden saga, telling CNN the former National Security Agency contractor threatened the security of U.S. citizens by leaking information about the surveillance program his administration created after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. "I know he damaged the country," Bush said in an interview from Zambia, where he and his wife, Laura, are on a humanitarian mission. "The Obama administration will deal with it. I think he damaged the security of the country." Like President Barack Obama, Bush deflected criticism of the spy program. "I put the program in...

The NSA has a “brand new” technology that enables one billion cell phone calls a day to be redirected into its data hoards and stored, according to the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, who said that a new leak of Snowden’s documents was ‘coming soon.’ Calling it part of a “globalized system to destroy all privacy,” and the enduring creation of a climate of fear, Greenwald outlined the capabilities of the NSA to store every single call while having“the capability to listen to them at any time,” while speaking via Skype to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, on Friday. Greenwald was the...