Free Republic

Frustrated with President Barack Obama’s reaction to Russian action in Ukraine, a group of Republican senators said Wednesday they will introduce legislation outlining a more muscular response. “What we’ve seen from the administration is a lot of rhetoric,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. The White House has been dealing “with the situation after something bad has already occurred,” he said. Earlier this week, violence flared up in another area of Ukraine that hugs the Russian border, as the new government in Kiev criticized local police...

Ted Cruz feels the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) should be reducing claims on public lands. The Republican Texas Senator is among those lawmakers weighing in on the Red River Texas and Oklahoma boundary dispute with the federal agency. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the BLM Red River boundary dispute may cause approximately 90,000 acres of privately held land to fall into the hands of the federal government. Texas rancher Tommy Henderson has become the focal point of the BLM dispute. Supporters from around the country are rallying around Henderson, much in the same manner as protesters did for...

Oklahoma is preparing to use a new lethal injection formula on two death row inmates who are scheduled to die in the state's first double execution since 1937. Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner both are scheduled to be executed Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

This story hasn’t garnered a lot of attention nationally yet, but it definitely will be of interest in terms of questions surrounding activist judges and courts as well as issues of states’ rights. To put the background in thumbnail version, there are two criminals who were convicted of crimes involving children more heinous then I would care to detail on these pages. They were subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. However, in the course of the appeals process, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court granted a stay of execution. This riled not only the Governor, but several members of the House....

A high school curriculum supported by Hobby Lobby chain president Steve Green, billed as a way to teach archaeology, history and the arts through Bible stories, also tells students God is always there in times of trouble and that sinners must “suffer the consequences” of disobeying. The Mustang School Board in suburban Oklahoma City voted this month to place the Museum of the Bible’s curriculum in its schools as an elective for a one-year trial after being assured that the intent is not to proselytize but to use the Bible to explain key principles in the arts and sciences. While...

One of the militia groups who joined the effort to “protect” the Bundy family and their ranch from the armed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rangers admitted they are prepared to use deadly force in self-defense in Nevada or Texas. Several militia groups have joined ranks to provide “protection” to keep the BLM from taking property from the Bundy Ranch, most of which operates on federally owned land. Scott Shaw, co-founder of the Oklahoma Volunteer Militia says he is just an average American who goes to work every day and pays his taxes. He described his militia members as “every-day...

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oklahoma Field Office responded to Breitbart Texas about the so-called Red River “land grab” by emphasizing that parcels in question are already held in the public domain and BLM-managed. The Bureau claims it is not they who are declaring the ownership but that settled case law long declared it to be government land. BLM Public Relations Specialist Paul McGuire agreed to a one-on-one telephone interview with Breitbart Texas after reading the original report published earlier this week. In contrast with the interview with Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, McGuire expressed much...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Attorney General Eric Holder canceled an appearance before the Oklahoma City Police Department’s graduating cadet class Thursday amid angry protests over his scheduled visit. Mr. Holder was expected to deliver remarks at the afternoon graduation ceremony, according to his official itinerary sent out by the Justice Department Thursday morning. A Justice Department spokesman denied that the trip was canceled because of the possibility of a hostile reception. An early meeting at the Justice Department delayed Mr. Holder’s departure from Washington, causing him to miss the graduation ceremony, spokesman Brian Fallon said in an email. “The attorney general had been looking...

Oklahoma plans to hold its first double execution in nearly 80 years, Gov. Mary Fallin said Thursday. The move comes a day after the state Supreme Court removed one of the final obstacles, ruling late Wednesday that Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner are not entitled to know the source of the drugs that will be used to kill them. The inmates had sought that information through a civil lawsuit. "The defendants had their day in court. The court has made a decision," Gov. Mary Fallin said in a statement. "Two men that do not contest their guilt in heinous murders...

'It could have been a PR disaster for the president': Eric Holder cancels police academy graduation speech as lawmaker planned protest demanding impeachment US attorney general was to address police academy graduates in Oklahoma City on Thursday The speech was canceled at the last minute, but the DOJ hasn't said whether planned protests had anything to do with the decision A state legislator there had planned to publicly call for Holder's impeachment at the ceremony A DOJ official says Holder doesn't fear protesters, but is conscious of his image as the nation's top law enforcer during his last months in...

A member of the Oklahoma House is drafting a resolution seeking the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices who granted a delay of execution to two death-row inmates. Republican state Rep. Mike Christian told The Associated Press on Wednesday that five justices engaged in a “willful neglect of duty.” …

Former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon is surging in the Oklahoma Senate Republican primary and now leads the other frontrunner in the race, Rep. James Lankford, in a new survey out from a pro-Shannon group. The survey, conducted by the GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies for Oklahomans for a Conservative Future, gives Shannon 42 percent support among likely Republican primary voters to Lankford’s 32 percent support. That’s a gain of 19 points from another survey in mid-March, when Lankford led Shannon by nine points. The third candidate in the race, former state Sen. Randy Brogdon, takes just seven percent support...

"You've got a bunch of people there trying to take the law into their own hands and they shouldn't be doing that. And the Bureau of Land Management is not government-owned, it's publicly owned. There's a big difference there. I blame both sides." -Jim Inhofe, Republican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma I'm not even sure what Jim Inhofe is talking about. The Bureau of Land Management has a government website (www.BLM.gov) and is part of the Department of Interior. As far as being publicly owned, if he is trying to say that the BLM answers to the public then that is...

The Obama administration on Friday said it was giving eight federal agencies more time to weigh in on the Keystone XL pipeline, a move almost certain to delay a final decision on the controversial project until after the Nov. 4 midterm elections. That timeline spares President Barack Obama from making a politically difficult decision that would either anger environmentalists or jeopardize some Senate Democrats seeking reelection in red states. But Friday’s move alienated stakeholders on all sides of the issue, including oil industry allies who accused the White House of playing politics and environmentalists who want Obama to swiftly reject...

After Breitbart Texas reported on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) intent to seize 90,000 acres belonging to Texas landholders along the Texas/Oklahoma line, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott questioned the BLM’s authority to take such action. “I am about ready,” General Abbott told Breitbart Texas, “to go to go to the Red River and raise a ‘Come and Take It’ flag to tell the feds to stay out of Texas.” Gen. Abbott sent a strongly-worded letter to BLM Director Neil Kornze, asking for answers to a series of questions related to the potential land grab. “I am deeply...

LAWTON, Okla._A twenty-dollar bill dropped into a storm drain leads to a Lawton man being stuck in the city's underground water drainage system for two days. The man told police that he dropped the money into a storm water drain. He said that he had no choice but to go in after the lost money. But once underground, he lost his way, leaving him with little to do but hope someone would hear his calls for help. A group of high school students walking home from school through the intersection heard a strange voice coming from the manhole and quickly...

After the recent Bundy Ranch episode by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Texans are becoming more concerned about the BLM’s focus on 90,000 acres along a 116 mile stretch of the Texas/Oklahoma boundary. The BLM is reviewing the possible federal takeover and ownership of privately-held lands which have been deeded property for generations of Texas landowners. Sid Miller, former Texas State Representative and Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has since made the matter a campaign issue to Breitbart Texas. “In Texas,” Miller says, “the BLM is attempting a repeat of an action taken over 30 years ago...

A disturbing story out of the Sooner State this week, noted by Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway. Under the terms of a recently passed bill, expected to be signed by Governor Mary Fallin, homeowners who install their own private solar or wind turbine energy resources and sell some of the juice back to energy companies will be paying a fee for the privilege.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)OKLAHOMA - A dispute over land in Nevada between rancher Cliven Bundy and the Federal Government began decades ago. Bundy says his family’s cattle have grazed on the land without interference since 1870. The Bureau of Land Management says Bundy hadn’t paid his grazing fees since 1993, owing the government more than 1 million dollars. The B.L.M. says Bundy was allowing his cattle to graze illegally, which triggered a forced round-up of about 400 of Bundy’s cattle just last week. The cows were later released. Organizers with the Oklahoma Militia say they have members in Nevada who say Bundy’s cattle...

MOORE, Oklahoma - A game of truth or dare lead to rape charges against a Moore man, according to court documents. Investigators said 20-year-old Danny Hilton played the game with a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old girl, then one of them told her mom. An arrest affidavit said Hilton encouraged a game of truth or dare with the girls in February in his bedroom. The affidavit said Hilton's dares involved sexual acts. It stated Hilton watched and encouraged the juvenile victims to perform sex acts with him and with each other. Hilton's father told News 9 his son played the game...