Free Republic

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Those words, more than any other part of our Nation’s Constitution, have been the most contested. Keeping in mind that this writer is no lawyer, those words really seem simplistic to me. I think they would seem simplistic to Supreme Court Justice Scalia, also. He, of all the members of the Court, seems to have the clearest vision of how to interpret the Constitution…as it was written. Liberals and self-described scholars seem to...

Republicans are 'not giving up' on BenghaziBy Julian Pecquet - 12/15/12 03:24 PM ET Republican lawmakers are vowing to keep pressing the administration on Benghazi despite Susan Rice’s decision to drop her bid to become secretary of State. “We'll continue to seek answers,” a Republican Senate aide told The Hill. “We're not giving up on it.” Rice’s decision to step aside averted a contentious confirmation fight with Republican senators that might have pointed to an end to the political battle over the U.S. consulate attack. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations had become the flash-point for criticism since describing...

If ever there were a moment for President Obama to learn from history, it is now, in the wake of Friday’s shootings at the elementary school at Newtown, Conn. The timely lesson for Obama, drawn from the experience of Lyndon B. Johnson — the last president to aggressively fight for comprehensive gun control — is this: Demand action on comprehensive gun control immediately from this Congress or lose the opportunity during your presidency. In the aftermath of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (just weeks after the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King Jr. and only a few years after...

CREDO, a progressive grassroots group, is organizing a march on the National Rifle Association's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C. Monday. "After the shooter Adam Lanza, no one is more to blame for the massacre of 20 first graders and six women at the Sandy Hook Elementary School than the National Rifle Association," CREDO wrote on the Facebook page where the march is being organized. "To stop the senseless killing we must first stop the NRA."

After threatening that Ankara could set off "World War III" if it allows the U.S. to deploy Patriot missiles on its border with Syria, a report Sunday said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not be visiting Turkey, as had been scheduled. Turkey's Hurriyet daily newspaper said that the cancellation of Ahmadinejad's visit had raised Turkish-Iranian tensions to new heights.

There were so many levels to President Obama's speech: philosophical, sorrowful determined universal, simple, beautiful... People will long remember what Barack Obama said in Newtown...his Gettysburg address...

There's a lot I despise Chairman Obama for. He's a communist. He pushes the homosexual agenda with reckless abandon. He hates Jews. He persecutes Catholics. He's a pathological liar. And oh, yes, before I forget, he's a racist with a burning hatred for whites. In short, he's a bleeding hemorrhoid on the rear end of humanity. The funny thing about all of the above is the fact that they are not his worst qualities. Obama proves on a daily basis that there are sewers that he's not to proud to hunt for food in. And the following proves it. From...

POLITICO: In an interview with Aaron David Miller for his book published by Random House, "The Much Too Promised Land," Sen. Chuck Hagel spoke about Israel

Just cut away from 49ers vs. Patriots...

Barack Obama and his party have been too terrified of angering gun owners to realize they can win without themThereÂ’s no disputing that the Democratic Party has regressed dramatically on the issue of gun violence over the past two decades. When a shooting rampage on the Long Island Railroad killed six people and injured 19 others in December 1993, Bill Clinton responded immediately by calling for specific legislative action to prevent future tragedies. Contrast that with the response of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Friday to a question about whether the carnage in Connecticut might prompt President Obama...

With President Obama poised to decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline -- based on a second, more environmentally-sensitive path -- critics now appear focused on derailing the project over a climate change study. TransCanada Corp. submitted a revised application after the president rejected the first one in January because it took the 1,700-mile-long pipeline across an aquifer in Nebraska. However, environmental groups say producing oil from Alberta tar sands releases more carbon dioxide than conventional drilling, which would increase global warming, and that studies on the first application were inadequate. Jeremy Symons, of the National Wildlife...

Bypassing Congress, the Obama administration has issued a proposed administrative rule, which if adopted, would mandate the installation of "black boxes" in all automobiles and light trucks beginning in 2014. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the regulation on Dec. 7, which it said “would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.” The proposed standard would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs) – so-called “black box devices” -- to collect specific safety related data in all light passenger vehicles beginning Sept. 1, 2014. Transportation Secretary...

China Celebrating 60 years of Communist Rule China’s ascendance in our consciousness has been growing steadily for a generation, and we wonder what more impact it will have than has already been felt by our economy and our society. We cannot accurately predict China’s future or its actions going forward, but as it flexes its newfound powers to reshape global conventions, we should remain vigilant that our own perceptions not be warped by ideologically, or otherwise tainted assertions. Our enthusiastic media collectively extol the moral legitimacy of China’s communist model of political rule which controls 1.3 billion people, and predicts...

President Barack Obama is not ready to accept a new offer from the Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives to raise taxes on top earners in exchange for major cuts in entitlement programs, a source said late on Saturday. The shape and details of Boehner’s offer were uncertain Saturday night, as was the exact reason the president was prepared to reject it. … Tax rates and entitlements are the two most difficult issues in the so-far unproductive negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff” of steep tax hikes and spending cuts set for the new year unless Congress and...

His name's been kicking around for more than a week but the "likely" part is new. BREAKING: Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel likely to be nominated as Secretary of Defense— Bloomberg News (@BloombergNews) December 13, 2012 NBC is hearing the same thing. Team O has been touting him for appointments since before The One was president, when Hagel was briefly rumored to be in the mix for VP. His name popped up again two years later as a potential successor to Dennis Blair as DNI. He's sort of the perfect Obama appointee: He's a centrist Republican, which burnishes O's phony...

Providers of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” equipment and services are eyeing the Chinese market to expand their offerings—and the Obama Administration initially will cough up $378,000 so the industry can travel to China to further examine such potential opportunities. The U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA), an independent White House agency, is providing the grant for what it calls the U.S.-China Shale Gas Training Program, which will “help introduce Chinese energy sector officials and project sponsors to U.S. shale gas best practices, policies and technologies.” USTDA last month had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China’s National Energy Administration (NEA)...

Sen. John Kerry, who sources say has been tapped by President Barack Obama to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, will come to the post with a full plate of foreign policy crises, from the civil war in Syria, to the nuclear antics of North Korea, to a looming showdown with Iran over its nuclear program. Anybody who follows Clinton would have some pretty big shoes to fill. Clinton was not just the most popular member of the president's Cabinet for the past four years, she had celebrity status and respect almost everywhere she went around the world. But...

Seven Secretaries of State have released a statement criticizing First Lady Michelle Obama for her false claim that Republicans engaged in voter suppression in the November election: “Unfortunately the First Lady’s comments continue the baseless attacks that have been made upon those leaders who are simply taking reasonable steps to protect the security and integrity of elections. This past election speaks for itself. In Arizona, a state that has a photo ID requirement, Hispanic voter turnout was the highest in the state’s history. In Georgia, African American turnout has remained high in each election after the state adopted its photo...

“Liberals talk about banning guns as if it’s the same as banning murder and banning evil.” – Ace of Spades “Gun-free zones are premised on a lie: that murderers will follow rules, and that people like my student are a greater danger to those around them than crazed killers. That’s an insult to honest people. Sometimes, it’s a deadly one.” – Professor Glenn Reynolds “Who to blame for mass murder? This may sound weird, but my gut hunch is it’s probably the homicidal psychotic’s fault.” – Robert Stacy McCain When I got up Friday morning, live-blogging a mass murder was...

Late Saturday evening, a source from the White House said the Speaker of the House John Boehner had put tax rate hikes on the table in fiscal cliff negotiations. The White House promptly rejected the offer, since Boehner also wanted entitlement reform as a compromise. But the announcement is likely to exacerbate the war within the Republican Party with regard to tax policy in the run-up to the fiscal cliff. According to a Reuters source, Boehner agreed to a tax rate hike of an unspecified size on high earners – a term the source left undefined. The source said that...

The tax on luxury will become reality for all Russians without exception next year. President Vladimir Putin reminded everyone of that in his annual Address to the Federal Assembly. According to experts, the new tax may send a definite message to wealthy citizens to redistribute their revenues. The head of state said in his speech that the decision on the so-called luxury tax should be made in the first half of 2013. According to the official website of the President of the Russian Federation, one should not give up on the "flat" income tax scale, since the progressive taxation of...

President Barack Obama will travel to Newtown, Conn., on Sunday to meet with families of those killed in the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School and thank emergency workers who responded to the tragedy, the White House said Saturday. "The President will also speak at an interfaith vigil for families of the victims as well as families" at 7 p.m., press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. On Friday, an emotional Obama vowed to "take meaningful action, regardless of the politics," to prevent future tragedies like the shooting massacre, which killed 26 people at the school, 20 of...

Before Connecticut tragedy, administration eliminated emergency preparedness program,let school violence prevention programs lapse UPDATED 23:43 PM EST, December 14, 2012 Why It Matters: Politicians across the country are vowing to do more to prevent school shooting tragedies like the one that unfolded Friday in Newtown, Conn. But over the last few years, the Obama administration and Congress allowed funding for several school safety initiatives to lapse. Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for...

Opposition protests took place in Moscow, but there is more ambivalence to change in Russia's countryside Last December, Moscow's streets were filled with thousands of opposition protesters accusing Vladimir Putin of rigging elections. A year on, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reassesses the public's attitude to Mr Putin, from the capital to the countryside. In a Russian winter, it is almost as if the elements conspire to keep you off the streets. In the centre of Moscow, the cold bites to the bone, the icy pavements are an obstacle course, and the snow is like a giant swaddling blanket that makes...

Since 2007, distressed homeowners have dodged massive bills due to a tax-time saving grace: The debts they were "forgiven" in foreclosures, short sales or principal reductions were also scrubbed from their dues to Uncle Sam. But that tax break is set to expire Dec. 31, and with it more than $1 billion in tax savings to homeowners in trouble. Foreclosed? You'll pay taxes on the money you owed the bank. Close on a "short sale" for less than you owed on your mortgage? You'll still owe part of it to the IRS. Even homeowners whose loan principals are trimmed would...

The White House said President Barack Obama supports reinstatement of a federal ban on assault weapons -- a position he took in the 2008 campaign but failed to press during his first term. "It does remain a commitment of his," presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters as the nation reeled from a mass shooting in Connecticut that mainly killed school children. An emotional Obama did not address that issue directly in a televised statement from the White House on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown that killed 26 people but said something had to be done...

"A veteran Democratic lawmaker believes the nation will go along with stronger gun control laws if President Obama “exploits” the Newtown, Conn., tragedy and nudges Congress to action. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents portions of New York City, said he was encouraged by Mr. Obama’s statement on Friday afternoon that the mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 young children, requires “meaningful action” by Congress, but hopes those words turn into concrete legislation.".............

The Overton Window, by Glenn Beck The Overton window is a political theory that describes as a narrow "window" the range of ideas that the public will find acceptable, and that states that the political viability of an idea is defined primarily by this rather than by politicians' individual preferences.[1] It is named for its originator, Joseph P. Overton,[2] a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.[3] At any given moment, the “window” includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too...

President Barack Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to be the next secretary of state, a source has told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed. His replacement as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Sneed source said.

Paul Krugman could write a whole book explaining why we should follow through with this petition: Our favorite of these petitions this month has to be from Colorado man “John D” who, as we reported last week, wants the government to secure resources and funding to begin the construction of a Death Star by 2016. His rationale for building the mega-weapon from the ‘Star Wars‘ movies is as much public works project than direct threat to the little green men who could be living below Mars’ surface. “By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such...

(snip)Our betters have already rushed to their microphones, soap boxes and pulpits to ask why we don’t have the kind of gun control they have in Norway. (snip)I ask a different question: why are so many obviously insane people allowed to move about so freely in society?Why is it that,although there have always been guns,there haven’t always been the number of mass murders we’re experiencing as of late? (snip)As is often the case with good intentions,t“deinstitutional movement,” initiated in 1964 and fully implemented in the 1970’s,the “solution” did not fix the root problem.There are still  just as many crazy people...

BRUSSELS, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Several Scud missiles fired at rebels by Syria have landed "fairly close" to the Turkish border, NATO's top military commander said on Friday in a blog explaining why Patriot anti-missile batteries are being deployed to Turkey. The comments by U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, were the first to confirm that Scuds have come down near the border of Turkey, a NATO member state. Stavridis also described the situation in Syria as "chaotic and dangerous".

Occupy Supporter Russell Simmons to Throw Ball for Obama, Tickets Start at $500by Breitbart News 13 Dec 2012 **SNIP** The black-tie Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball will take place at the Harman Centeron Jan. 20. The gala, hosted by Russell Simmons’s Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, drew the likes of LL Cool J, T.I. and Nick Cannon in 2009, and just like 2009, VIP tickets will still carry the same eye-popping $2,500 price tag.

A veteran Democratic lawmaker believes the nation will go along with stronger gun control laws if President Obama “exploits” the Newtown, Conn., tragedy and nudges Congress to action. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents portions of New York City, said he was encouraged by Mr. Obama’s statement on Friday afternoon that the mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 young children, requires “meaningful action” by Congress, but hopes those words turn into concrete legislation. “These incidents, these horrible, horrible incidents … are happening more and more frequently. And they will continue to happen more and more frequently until someone with...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn't satisfied with President Obama's promise Friday to take "meaningful action" to prevent future mass shootings. "[T]he country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem – and take immediate executive action,"

<p>State police are responding to a report of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dickinson Drive, school officials said.</p> <p>Police are reporting a number of injured parties. The nature of their injuries is not clear.</p> <p>There are unconfirmed reports of two shooters — one dead, one still at large.</p>

On or about April 2011, only after years into his presidency, and under media and political pressure, Defendant Obama published on the internet an electronic version of a purported birth certificate alleging his birth in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961 to American citizen mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Kenyan British subject father, Barack Obama, Sr. No physical, paper copy of the actual long form birth certificate has been produced in order to definitively establish Defendant Obama's birth within the United States. Instead, there is credible evidence that the "birth certificate" published on the internet was altered or otherwise fraudulent....

And the probe doesn’t involve some bit players in an obscure program, either.  The 1603 Program was one of the centerpieces of Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus, designed to subsidize a transition from hydrocarbon-based energy to renewables in the residential market, and federal government sunk $13 billion into the effort.  Now the Inspector General of Treasury has opened a probe of the three largest providers of solar panel installations, who gained the most from the 1603 Program, and who may have fraudulently calculated their bills in order to claim more taxpayer cash: Three of the country’s most prolific installers of...

Foreign Relations: A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan is chained to a jail bed for months after trying to register a souvenir rifle with Mexican authorities, and the Obama administration does nothing to correct this injustice. Since August, Jon Hammar, a former Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been held in a notorious Mexican prison effectively run by the Zetas drug cartel. His crime: declaring to Mexican authorities that he was transporting an antique shotgun after registering the gun with U.S. Customs agents on his way to a surfing trip with buddies in Costa Rica. We can understand...

Barack Obama wiped away tears at the White House as he expressed grief over the children killed in the Connecticut massacre and promised "meaningful action" to prevent similar shooting rampages in the future. Obama has promised to act on gun control after earlier shooting incidents but subsequently done nothing implement any changes. Over the last four years of his presidency, restrictions on guns – in particular concealed weapons – have become more relaxed and gun sales soared. There have been five major shooting sprees since he has been president, three of them this year. This one is different because the...

US President Barack Obama wept as he addressed the nation in the aftermath of the school shootings in Connecticut. Mr Obama paused repeatedly as he struggled to keep his composure while speaking of the children who had been killed and the milestones in their lives they would never have - birthdays, graduations, weddings. "Our hearts are broken today," he said, at times using a finger to wipe tears at the corners of his eyes. Mr Obama said he had reacted to news of the elementary school shooting first as a parent. He added that he and First Lady Michelle would...

An emotional President Barack Obama led the nation in mourning the victims of an elementary school massacre on Friday, speaking from the White House following the shooting in Newtown, Conn. The president not only pledged to assist investigations into the shooting, but also became openly emotional upon reflecting upon the many school children killed or injured in today's mass shooting. "The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10-years-old," he said, pausing to wipe away a tear. "They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings,...

Troop dismay no longer hiddenQuantico, VA - Until I joined the Fourth Estate, it was my experience that most Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardsmen and Marines usually eschewed contact with members of the media. Regard for the potentates of the press used to be about equal to that of chiggers, ticks, scorpions and fire ants. When I was on active duty, I had an aerosol can of bug spray hand-labeled: “Reporter Repellant.” If a military person had to share space with any of these assorted insects, the last thing anyone wanted to do was to discuss politics. Things have changed. Shortly...

President Barack Obama, in a brief address to the nation, offered his condolences to those who lost loved ones in the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and said it is time to act to prevent similar tragedies. "As a country we have been through this too many times," he said, ticking off recent shootings across the nation. "These neighborhoods are our neghborhoods, and these children are our children, and we're going to have to come together …to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

Time to Bring Back St. Michael’s Prayer by Judy Keane on December 13, 2012 ·   In his 2008 Inaugural Address, President Obama praised the tremendous sacrifices of our Founding Fathers and our hard won freedoms saying, “Our Founding Fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, they drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.”  However, in moving forward aggressively with the HHS Mandate, it has become clear we are witnessing a U.S. President eroding those very freedoms he initially spoke so highly...

The Obama Administration: Year FourPresident Obama's Two Hundred and Third Week in Office12/13/2012Benghazi-GateState Dept: Clinton may not testify on Benghazi next weekSusan Rice drops out of running for secretary of state Rep. Frank Wolf: Tunisia Won't Let FBI Interview Benghazi SuspectObama Ethics, Year 4New Report Suggests National Labor Relations Board Under Obama Straying From Mission to Promote UnionsYour permanent record is now available on demandTSA's Grip on Internal Travel is TighteningChicago Sun Times: Obama swearing-in to be open to media coverage. Should not even have been a question600 Workers To Be Fired As Controversial Activist Judge Sides With Obama-NLRB And SEIU...

No .. I’m not talking about the fiscal cliff, nor am I talking about the almost $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities we face as a nation. Iran and a nuke? Yeah .. that’s serious all right, but I’m told that we are messin’ with Iran right now in ways that you couldn’t even imagine – ways that could derail their nuclear plans for some time to come. Is the real problem our sagging economy? An oncoming second recession? The growth of government dependency? Sure … all of those are problems and all are difficult to deal with … but they...

Bypassing Congress, the Obama administration has issued a proposed administrative rule, which if adopted, would mandate the installation of “black boxes” in all automobiles and light trucks beginning in 2014. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the regulation on Dec. 7, which it said “would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.” The proposed standard would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs)—so-called “black box devices”—to collect specific safety-related data in all light passenger vehicles beginning Sept. 1, 2014. …

Barack Obama keeps claiming that he wants a "balanced" approach to deficit reform, but the editors of the Washington Post have a little difficulty trying to figure out what he means by "balanced" --- since his proposals have had a 4:1 ratio of tax hikes to spending cuts. The Post also notes that Obama has backed away from even the inadequate entitlement reforms he's previously embraced. Why, the Post's editors suggest, Obama may not really be serious about this whole deficit-reform idea.You think? Since the election last month, a few modest proposals have been floated to slow the growth in...