Free Republic

Here is the first photo of "Dark Knight" theater shooter James Holmes.

The young man who is in custody after allegedly gunning down 12 people in a mass shooting spree overnight in Aurora, Colorado has been identified as local resident James Holmes, according to federal authorities.

At least 14 people were killed and 50 were wounded when a gunman opened fire during an early Friday morning screening of the new Batman movie at an Aurora, Colorado, theater, Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters. The man suspected of opening fire on the crowded theater was taken into custody, Oates said. The heavily armed suspect, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was apprehended by police in a parking lot at the theater, Frank Fania, a police spokesman told CNN. The identity of the suspect has not immediately been released. "We do no have evidence of a second gunman,"...

20 Hurt in Colo. Shooting at Dark Knight Movie BOMB SQUAD ON THE SCENE IN AURORA By Mary Papenfuss, Newser Staff A least 20 people were injured early this morning in a shooting and a possible explosion at a movie theater in Colorado, NBC is reporting. The violence occurred at a Century 16 theater in an Aurora mall following a midnight showing of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. One suspect is in custody, and a police bomb squad is on the scene. Three local hospitals were alerted to prepare for a "mass casualty" incident involving at least...

Last weekend, Representative Ron Paul’s (R-TX) supporters were disappointed to learn that the stalwart defender of constitutional government likely would not be placed in contention for the Republican Party’s official presidential nomination at national convention. Congressman Paul needed a plurality of the delegates from five states in order to have his name presented as a possible nominee and to ensure a speaking slot, but he came up short on Saturday after failing to win a plurality in Nebraska, leaving him with only four states. Although the possibility that he would somehow still win the nomination was already slim to none,...

So far, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has done a remarkable job of sticking to his message, focusing on economic growth, job creation, and now repealing ObamaCare. President Barack Obama, on the other hand, has largely run a campaign of distractions, using an “issue of the week” approach to attack Romney and to draw media attention away from his controversial record and the ailing economy. However, if you had to pick out a more substantive message for his campaign, it would have to be “fairness.” President Obama has hammered on the point of “fairness” over and over since campaign season...

If the headline on this story was actually true, maybe the "mainstream" media would pay more attention. Chains tested by police and found with DNA connected to a 2004 murder in New York City have zero connection to any Tea Party but instead belong to the Occupy Movement. DNA recovered from a chain at the site of an Occupy Wall Street protest in March has been matched with DNA linked to the unsolved killing of a Juilliard student in 2004, law enforcement officials familiar with the case said on Tuesday. The student, Sarah Fox, 21, disappeared while on a jog...

Very interesting video of former Russian KGB agent, and defector, Yuri Bezmanov explaining how the Communists use division and crisis to bring about "revolution" framed against OWS footage and Obama's speeches.

At the Occupy National Gathering's information desk, where someone might go to ask why a meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. had not yet started at 7, a sign read, "Whenever it starts is the right time." Among the roughly 200 protesters who gathered from Occupy sites nationwide, no one seemed bothered by the delay in the final meeting Wednesday, where they were to hear the completed vision list drafted in small groups that day. The protesters spent most of the holiday in Franklin Square debating items to include on the list, leaving them largely out of the sight of tourists...

Protests in free speech-permissive societies are peculiar creatures. Consider this: Every year, the March for Life draws between a quarter and a half million Americans to Washington D.C. to protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling on abortion. That’s a massive protest, especially for a nation as physically large as the United States, with such a far-flung population. So, how many stories did you see in the news about the giant protest? Dozens? A few? …Even one? Chances are, you probably saw one or two stories about it, maybe a brief mention and a ten second clip of...

Hip-hop artist Brother Ali has never been one to shy away from social justice causes. But his participation in last night's Occupy Homes protest and subsequent arrest are by far his boldest political statements to date. I called up Brother Ali this morning to learn more about where he was coming from last night. As is common practice with Ali, we touched on far more than just what happened over the past 24 hours; the conversation quickly evolved into a deeper meditation on our current cultural climate. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our 30-minute conversation. Local Current: I...

Late in the day for a HAPPY FATHER’S DAY but here it is. And it is a few days late (Army Birthday is Flag Day, June 14) but a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the Army. On Saturday the patriots played a numbers game with the moonbatty occupiers. We eventually had 8 while the maggots had 7. The 8 patriots this week include Veterans Glenn (USMC - Iwo Jima), Halsey (USMC - Korea), Carl (Army- Vietnam), Lurker Jim (Army- Vietnam), and [Mrs] T (Army - early 70s), along with Lurker Bill, Fraxinus and myself. A Big THANK YOU to [Mrs] T for...

After 3 weeks of not showing up, the moonbats have once again miraculously appeared. The following week they morphed right before our eyes into Occupy Olney. WEEK 332, June 02,2012The 8 patriots this week include Veterans Dave (Army- WWII), Glenn (USMC - Iwo Jima), Lurker Jim (Army- Vietnam) and [Mrs] T (Army - early 70s), along with Lurker Bill, Janet, GunsAreOK and myself. A Big THANK YOU to [Mrs] T for her continuous picture taking. MOONBATS : Two BELOW LEFT: Dave and Glenn - both WWII Vets, Navy and Marines. Fitting reunion they have almost every Saturday. BELOW RIGHT: Janet,...

The Occupy Wall Street movement was first proposed by the leftwing Canadian magazine, Adbusters. However, now even they are forced to admit the obvious about the failure of their creation which you can read their sad OWS obituary: Burned out, out of money, out of ideas… seduced by salaries, comfy offices, book deals, old lefty cash and minor celebrity status, some of the most prominent early heroes of our leaderless uprising are losing the edge that catalyzed last year’s one thousand encampments. Bit by bit, Occupy’s first generation is succumbing to an insidious institutionalization and ossification that could be fatal...

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to ban tents from city parks. Some Occupy L.A. activists called it an assault on the Occupy Wall Street movement. They said homeless people are the ones who will be hurt by the ordinance. Occupy protesters took over a park in front of City Hall for about two months before it was dismantled by a police raid last November.

We begin tonight with what has become by any measure a pretty massive protest movement. While it goes by the official name ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ it has spread steadily and far beyond Wall Street, and it could well turn out to be the protest of this current era. ---Brian Williams on Oct. 5, 2011 gushing with extreme hype over OWS. Despite all the friendly hype given to the Occupy Wall Street protests by much of the mainstream media, OWS is now in its death throes according to this Reuters report by Chris Francescani. He also notes that as OWS is...

Remember the Coffee Party or No Labels? You don't? Both those movements quickly disappeared from the scene shortly after being heavily hyped in the mainstream media so you can be forgiven their absence from your memories. And now the latest liberal fad, Occupy Wall Street, seems to be fading fast as well. This is the claim made by liberal Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart in this obituary: The massive protests over the weekend in Chicago during the NATO summit have folks wondering if that marked a resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But I have to tell you, if...

They were hoping for this . . . They ended up with this . . . A guy in a Guy Fawkes mask. And that, for about six weeks last fall. The 1% are trembling in their custom-made gecko-skin boots. This was the time that the Occupy movement was supposed to reenergize itself and sweep across the country in a massive wave of revolutionary fervor. The Prog Spring of 2012. Wha' hoppen? Kinda fell flat, didn't it? Oh sure, you still have Know-it-all Nadin Brzezinski, Girl Reporter, sniffing out stories at her local OWS GA. You still have Trust Fund...

Police cleared out Monday morning the small group of protesters who had set up an urban farming camp in a patch of UC Berkeley agricultural research land in Albany. University police officers in riot helmets gave the protesters 1o minutes to leave the Gill Tract before they marched across the fields near Marin and San Pablo avenues at about 6:15 a.m. The handful of protesters who had not obeyed the police order were sent scurrying off the property and onto San Pablo, which is closed to traffic. Two protesters were arrested for trespassing after they disobeyed police orders to leave...

The irony here, of course, is that the history lesson of democracy gets delivered by a former refugee from the former Soviet Union, but the history lesson doesn’t just end with the USA. One young man tried to pass an “Occupy Wall Street Journal” to two men observing the protests, and ended up gaining an education in history, politics, economics, and statecraft. Give the young Occupier credit, as Joe Schoffstall says — he was at least willing to listen. I’m not sure he was actually convinced, but he at least knew better than to keep arguing: