Free Republic

Madison - A state Court of Appeals on Friday vacated an order requiring election officials to more aggressively check for duplicate and fictitious signatures to recall Gov. Scott Walker. The Madison-based appeals court took that step because it found the trial court judge had improperly barred Democratic recall committees from intervening in the case brought by the Republican governor. Walker's campaign in December sued the state Government Accountability Board, arguing it did not plan to do enough to find duplicate and fictitious names on the petitions. The recall groups tried to intervene in the case, but Waukesha County Circuit Judge...

UPDATE: An Alabama Court has announced that it will hear arguments as to whether Barack Hussein Obama II is in fact eligible to appear on the State Presidential Primary Ballot. Several Alabama citizens have filed a lawsuit within the Alabama Circuit Court to "prevent certification of President Barack Obama for 2012 Alabama ballot access pending final hearing based on factual evidentiary hearings."

Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse is the second volume in Rawles’ series of novels about the coming collapse of American society — and the global economy. Survivors — like his previous novel, Patriots — is set in the very near future, in a time which Rawles calls “The Crunch.” The Crunch is the time in which the all the “bills” of living in a post-industrial, post-agricultural nation built on fiat money have “come due.” With the vast majority of its citizens addicted to the unsustainable, post-modern “American way of life” — a life defined by an ignorance of...

In “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” the constitutional law professor Adam Winkler tries to find a middle way to sober the debate between gun rights and gun control, with remarkable storytelling. “Gun rights and gun control are not only compatible; they have lived together since the birth of America,” he writes. In an effort to reveal that secret history of America, he tells stories about both pro-gun extremism and gun control advocacy. He writes the right to bear arms is "one of the oldest and most firmly established rights in America" and one that...

White House won't seek to delay High Court healthcare reviewBy Sam Baker - 09/26/11 06:02 PM ET The Obama administration opened the door Monday for the Supreme Court to decide the constitutionally of the healthcare law before the next election. It opted not to seek a delay in the legal process, leaving little doubt that the court will rule on President Obama’s controversial legislation just months before he faces voters. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that the healthcare law’s individual coverage mandate is unconstitutional. The Justice Department declined to ask the full...

.Failed criminal investigations of politicians and judges by America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff were put under a microscope in a disciplinary hearing launched Monday ....

In case you haven't seen this book by John Bascom (published Jan, 2011) I would highly recommend it to all Freepers, but I warn you that it is the most evil book ever written.It is more scary than Stephen King's "IT" which, to this day, still causes goosebumples when I think of the clown-monster.Bascom weaves a nasty tale, written as the autobiography of his central character.The plot is basically that through accidental means a terrible virus is unleashed on mankind. The fall out from that activity caused by Mr. Caine is described in horrid detail with many twists and turns...

So the News Journal got their copy of Troublemaker and true to form they set out on a campaign to not only destroy the book but to destroy the author. I was mad, REALLY mad, but just moments before I started writing this post, I read the following hit piece from Chad Livengood at the News Journal. It should have made me mad. Should have…but it didn’t. As I read through the piece, through the long list of backstabbers and second guessers. Through the list of names of people who campaigned for Mike Castle, who developed the “Kill the girl”...

Right-wing fears come true in Dan Simmons’ ‘Flashback’ By Patrick Anderson Aug 14, 2011 02:27AM Dan Simmons’ Flashback is an abundantly entertaining, often outrageous right-wing fantasy about a weak, broken United States 20-odd years from now. The country is ruled by the Japanese, lives in fear of the Islamic Global Caliphate, and its citizens mostly spend their time stoned on a drug called flashback that lets them escape to a better past. Some of the events that have occurred between now and the early 2030s can be summed up thusly: U.S. Goes Bankrupt Israel Destroyed by Nuclear Attack Mexican Army...

Conservative radio host Savage, the author of Trickle Up Poverty and other nonfiction bestsellers, makes his fiction debut with a thriller sure to score a bull's-eye with its target audience, the followers of his talk program, Savage Nation. Jack Hatfield, a freelance TV producer who lost his top-rated opinion show, Truth Tellers, thanks to a liberal media smear campaign, is filming a piece on the San Francisco PD's bomb squad when a call comes in about a bomb found at the site of an auto accident. The mayor and the FBI play down a possible Arab link, and an unlikely...

OBJECTIVITY:The judge said the blogger should not have criticized the restaurant’s food as ‘too salty’ in general, because she had eaten dried noodles and two side dishesThe Taichung branch of Taiwan High Court on Tuesday sentenced a blogger who wrote that a restaurant’s beef noodles were too salty to 30 days in detention and two years of probation and ordered her to pay NT$200,000 in compensation to the restaurant. The blogger, surnamed Liu (劉), writes about a variety of topics — including food, health, interior design and lifestyle topics — and has received more than 60,000 hits on her Web...

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 Quick Review- 5 stars! Very faithful to Rand's ideas. I didn't feel like they skipped any major items... the back story with Francisco was hinted at and would have been too hard to develop completely. Casting was superb. Hank (Hooray!) and Lillian (Boo!)Rearden and Ellis Wyatt (!!!) were done perfectly as was Wesley Mouch and the other moochers and looters. Dagny was good but it took about ten minutes for me to completely buy her in the role. Pace was perfect... it kept moving at a fast speed, and I didn't want it to end. Cinematography...

Simon & Schuster's Revenge By Douglas Hackleman In 1993, thirty-three-year-old Barack Obama stiffed Poseidon Press, then an imprint of Simon & Schuster -- producing absolutely nothing for the publisher that in November 1990 had given the new graduate of Harvard Law School a $125,000 advance to write a book about race relations in America . Eighteen years later, Simon & Schuster has achieved a modicum of revenge (intended or not) by contracting with literary and intellectual sleuth Jack Cashill to impose on Obama a little of the transparency he so disingenuously promised during the campaign of 2008. Given Obama's approach...

Last night, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear and over one thousand other movie-industry types attended the Hollywood premiere of the “controversial” Kennedy miniseries that will start airing this Sunday on the ReelzChannel. I was also there, though, oddly, Tom and Katie never said hello. “The Kennedys” has been and will be the subject of much debate because it was scheduled to air on the History Channel before the History Channel caved to backchannel political pressure exerted by the Kennedy family (specifically Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver) and claimed that the epic, eight-part miniseries didn’t “fit the History brand.” Keep...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is calling for a comprehensive safety review at the 104 nuclear reactors in the U.S. in the wake of the Japanese disaster. The president is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine nuclear plants to ensure they can withstand earthquakes and other disasters. Obama said lessons can be learned from the unfolding nuclear disaster caused by last week's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In televised remarks Thursday, The president said U.S. officials do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast of the continental U.S., Hawaii or Alaska. He repeated the statement...

Even with work on the Interstate 69 extension proceeding in earnest downstate, environmental and citizens groups are suing to stop construction of the 142-mile link between Evansville and Indianapolis. The complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court by Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads seeks to overturn a permit the Army Corps of Engineers issued for the $3 billion project. The groups say the permit authorized the Indiana Department of Transportation “to destroy valuable natural resources” by rerouting streams and filling wetlands in the path of the new highway in Daviess and Greene counties. They contend...

Medicare officials are debating whether the agency should cover a new prostate-cancer treatment that costs $93,000 per patient, sparking criticism from Dendreon Corp. investors and patient advocacy groups who earlier pushed the Food and Drug Administration to approve the novel therapy. A Medicare advisory panel is set to meet Wednesday to discuss Dendreon's Provenge treatment, following criticism from shareholders and some patient advocacy groups that the government might be trying to ration high-priced care. Medicare usually covers FDA-approved medicines without much debate, but in June the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it would undertake a national review...

Last Monday, cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall told MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan that the revolution is nigh. “A war is coming,” Rall warned. “Are you going to fight back? Will you do whatever it takes, including taking up arms?” Rall was promoting his new book, “The Anti-American Manifesto,” and if you think his questions seem a little over the top, you’re likely one of “them” — a group Rall defines as “reactionary, stupid, overpaid, greedy, shortsighted, explicative, power-mad, abusive politicians and corporate executives.” The “Anti-American Manifesto” is a relentless and unfiltered condemnation of the corrupt capitalist husk currently known as the...

After four years of planning and three years of hype, we've finally driven a production Chevrolet Volt plug-in "hybrid." We expected some character from the most obsessively engineered vehicle in GM's history. We didn't expect so many personalities at once. Full disclosure: General Motors wanted us to drive the Volt so badly they flew me to Detroit, parked me in a surprisingly nice hotel in Rochester and let me drive Volts around for a couple of days. GM even showed off where in the cavernous Detroit-Hamtramck plant it once built the Cadillac Allante. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures...

"Clear Blue Tuesday" virtually demands that viewers admire its chutzpah: an autopsy of post-9/11 grief among a cross-section of singing New Yorkers. Pic might have been alternately titled "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The Musical" -- or, maybe, "How Reach Exceeded Grasp." The clear blue Tuesday in question is Sept. 11, 2001. The various characters, whom we've met only cursorily, are all injured, some physically, some psychically. Caroline (Jan O'Dell) is wearing an eyepatch and limping; Jain (Vedant Gokhale), an Indian, is being abused by co-workers who consider anyone dark-skinned an evil Arab; middle-management lowlife Kyle (Asa Somers), the type who'd survive...

Click here to find out more! Weren't we supposed to enter a new age of tolerance with the election of President Barack Obama? His half-black, half-white ancestry and broad support across racial lines suggested that at last Americans judged each other on the content of our characters -- not the color of our skin or our tribal affiliations. Instead, in just 18 months of the Obama administration, racial discord is growing and relations seem to have been set back a generation. Black voters are galvanizing behind Obama at a time of rapidly falling support. White independents, in contrast, are leaving...

"...All readers will be moved by this honest, riveting, and exceedingly well-written story of frustration and hope, sin and redemption..." --Notre Dame's Father Richard P. McBrien, from the book's jacket cover. "As I was leaving [Pope John Paul II] suddenly asked me out of thin air: ‘How old are you now?’ When I replied ‘Seventy-one,’ he did not look me in the eye but, with bowed head and expressionless face gave a low, indistinct grumble. I interpreted it...as a way of saying, ‘I guess I still have to tolerate you for four more years’ --Archbishop Weakland, after his last...

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Department of Justice will conduct an independent review of the Johannes Mehserle case in order to determine whether or not the shooting merits federal prosecution, according the department. "The Justice Department has been closely monitoring the state's investigation and prosecution," the department said in a statement. "The Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the FBI have an open investigation into the fatal shooting and, at the conclusion of the state's prosecution, will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution."

The U.S. Department of Justice will conduct an independent review of the Johannes Mehserle case in order to determine whether or not the shooting merits federal prosecution, according the department. "The Justice Department has been closely monitoring the state's investigation and prosecution," the department said in a statement. "The Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the FBI have an open investigation into the fatal shooting and, at the conclusion of the state's prosecution, will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution." Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said she has...

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Department of Justice will conduct an independent review of the Johannes Mehserle case in order to determine whether or not the shooting merits federal prosecution, according the department. "The Justice Department has been closely monitoring the state's investigation and prosecution," the department said in a statement. "The Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the FBI have an open investigation into the fatal shooting and, at the conclusion of the state's prosecution, will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution." Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland,...

"Many well-grounded complaints have been made about religious literature on the score that it tends to minimize the importance and dignity of life here and now in favor of life in the next world or miraculous manifestations of grace...The Catholic writer, insofar as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery; that it has, for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for" -- Flannery O'Connor. "My dear Loukas, if what you have written happened as described...it will overturn the world" --Theophilos, from the Michael O'Brien...

WASHINGTON – A federal judge warned jurors in a death penalty trial 41 times not to discuss the case with anyone, not even each other, until they were sent off to deliberate on a verdict. That didn't stop Cynthia Wilson, the jury foreman, from calling five news organizations and placing 71 other telephone calls to two fellow jurors. U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. of South Carolina found Wilson's behavior so outrageous that he held her in contempt of court, ordering her to return $2,500 of her juror's pay and perform 120 hours of community service. Anderson said he...

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The head of the United Nations' climate change panel defended the body Friday before an academic council charged with reviewing its research methods after a string of challenges to its findings. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), admitted an error was made in warning that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035, but said there was nevertheless some value in the finding. "Alright, there was this error, but there is a whole lot of valid information and assessment related to the glaciers which we can only ignore at our own peril and...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the world's science academies to review work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Work will be co-ordinated by the Inter-Academy Council, which brings together bodies such as the UK's Royal Society. The IPCC has been under pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007. Mr Ban said the overall concept of man-made climate change was robust, and action to curb emissions badly needed. The Inter-Academy Council will convene a panel of experts to conduct the review, and will be run independently of UN agencies. "Let me be...

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) – The United Nations said Friday it would conduct an independent review of its Nobel prize-winning climate panel, whose credibility has been hit by errors in a key report on global warming. The UN's plan was announced as environmental experts at an international meeting hailed the opportunity to make progress on climate change after last year's Copenhagen talks ended in chaos and urged India and China to come on board. Demands have mounted for a major overhaul at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose chairman Rajendra Pachauri has also come under fire for his...

“Avatar tells the story of Dances with Wolves in space, in order to advance a director’s already-vast ego, and to advance movie technology further in the wrong direction.” “In the movie, a crippled Marine is patched into the brain of a human-hybrid alien thing from a race called the Na’avi, which is like blue man group meets black people.” “Now if your brain is made of Play-Doh, and you actually have some human emotion left, then Avatar can mold you into like a crying, tree-hugging man-baby.”

Starving the Monkeys: Fight Back Smarter “Starving the Monkeys: Fight Back Smarter” is about the struggle of the creative, productive members of society against the parasitic masses that author Tom Baugh refers to as the monkey collective. Monkeys are the looters and moochers who essentially dine from the plates of the producers through the tax and legal structures they have put in place. Baugh contends that the vast army of collectivist monkeys would literally starve if left to their own devices. “Starving the Monkeys” refers to Baugh’s recommendation that the producers strictly limit the monkey diet, by withholding their...

Yesterday I sat and watched liveblog coverage of the long-awaited announcement from Apple. To no one’s great surprise, they unveiled their newest device, the iPad. While everyone knew this tablet device was coming, everyone had wondered exactly what it would be. Apple has high standards when it comes to devices like this one and I, for one, was prepared to be amazed. Alas, I was disappointed. iDisappointed, even. I’m ready to declare that the iPad is the greatest disappointment in all of human history (at least since The Phantom Menace). Let’s get this out of the way. The thing looks...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2010 – The Army will conduct a review to determine if leaders were negligent in their supervision of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Defense Department officials announced yesterday. Army Secretary John McHugh has directed Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe, “to conduct an accountability review to identify whether any personnel were responsible for failures or deficiencies in applying Army programs, policies, and procedures to the alleged assailant,” according to a Defense Department news release. McHugh also has tasked Ham to provide personal observations he may have developed as a senior...

WASHINGTON – The stunning Republican victory in Tuesday's Massachusetts Senate race will force Democrats to fundamentally rethink the meaning of Barack Obama's election to the presidency, especially the notion that Americans want more government help in matters such as obtaining health insurance. Scott Brown's win in a liberal state will do more than vastly complicate Obama's bid to overhaul the U.S. health care system and pass climate-change legislation. It will prompt politicians of every stripe to redouble their efforts to understand voters' anger and desires ahead of the November elections for Congress, governorships and state legislatures. Many Americans saw the...

And gives us a reminder of how essential a strong President is in time of war or crisis!Our Ron Paul friends are fond of saying "read the constitution" as a reminder that only Congress has the power to declare war. Though sometimes we need to ask them if the copy they have contains Article Two which names the President as Commander in Chief and gives him vast powers to conduct foreign affairs. Ever since the American Revolution there has been a not always gentle tug of war between the Congress and the chief executive. Remember how General Washington had to...

So I recently read Gary Wolf's The Kicker of St. John's Wood, and was very impressed. The story revolves around Jayesh Blackstone, a kicker in the NFL, and his struggle to preserve the last shred of American dignity; all the while being hounded by the UN and the FBI. The liberal ideals of radical feminism, forced diversity, racism, and rampant political correctness, are all enforced under under the guise of equality, which inevitably lead to coercion, thought control, suppression and domination. In this all too real future, those who don't conform are in danger of losing everything. You can read...

Sherlock Holmes hails as the most portrayed movie character of all time with 75 actors providing their unique spin to Doyle’s legendary character in over 200 films. Having grown up reading some of the Holmesian “canon”, I always found Basil Rathbone’s, who always portrayed a great antagonist too, portrayal very “true” to the literary characterization of the great detective – as much as I longed for some sardonic wit. I have a friend across the pond who swears Jeremy Brett’s rendition of this classic figure in the 80s and 90s for British television was the most true- to-form. Yet, due...

The White House is standing by Obama's pick to conduct his watchlist review, White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan, though he served as interim director of one intel agency under review, and more recently, served as president and CEO of a company on contract with the NCTC to do watchlisting, POLITICO's Carol E. Lee and I report in a story today: President Barack Obama promised a “thorough review” of the government’s terrorist watch-list system after a Nigerian man reported to US government officials by his father to have radicalized and gone missing last month was allowed to board a Northwest...

I know Jim DeMint has requested a ruling on the Constitutionality of the HealthCare bill but, doesn't the Supreme Court automatically review legislation? And given that the makeup of the court is still in our favor, for the most part, don't we stand a good chance of having the whole thing ruled as un-Constitutional even if we do lose the final vote? Checks and balances, you know?

Epic sci-fi crap typically ain't my cup of tea. I get a lot of angry e-mails from people whose bottle of Mountain Dew it is. The notes are usually pretty threatening, as though me not liking something these people love is a matter of utmost importance. As though the fact some as***le with a web site doesn't care for what they do threatens the substance of their passion. My nephew Jimmy is one of these people. He is spurred to action only when someone insults the s**t he likes. Then, his first reaction is to insult whomever doesn't share his...

The last year has been a whirlwind. From the economic fall to America's lost position on the world stage to the attacks upon those “un-American, bigoted, religious hate mongers who are attempting to keep America in the shadows of progressive accomplishment”. Time magazine, as every year, has chosen their Person of the Year. Was it someone that has done good for the country, like members of our Armed Forces or Emergency personnel (Firemen, police, EMS, first responders) that place their lives on the line day in and day out? No

“Invictus” means “unconquered.” The poem of that name, by 19th century Scotsman William Ernest Hensley, is said to be Nelson Mandela’s favorite. As the title of Clint Eastwood’s new film, which opened last week in the U.S., the word has a dual significance. Mandela, played to perfection by Morgan Freeman, claims that it helped carry him through his 27 years of incarceration at the hands of the Apartheid. When Mandela writes out the verses and gives them to Springbok team captain Francois Pienaar --- another perfect portrayal, this by Matt Damon--- they become the symbol and inspiration for the South...

Movie events don’t get bigger than this. James Cameron’s long-awaited follow-up to Titanic, the most successful film to date, is immense in every way: from the ambition and scope of its vision, to the ground-breaking technological wizardry, to the staggering size of its budget. ...................................... It’s a world that takes a little getting used to. Cameron’s vision owes something to Hayao Miyazaki’s meticulous fantasies and something to the 1992 Australian animation FernGully: The Last Rainforest. ................................................... Sully finds himself a pawn, caught between two camps: the empathetic scientists led by Sigourney Weaver and the corporate guns for hire who want...

The subtitle "an American Life" describes the book perfectly. As I read the book I kept noticing similarities to people I have known. Sometimes I was reminded of Grandma Smith, from rural Tennessee. Sometimes Sarah sounded like my sister. A couple times I was reminded of Prime Minister Thatcher. I believe most of Sarah's fans see important people in their lives reflected in this wonderful story. Sarah, you magnificent patriot, I read your book! (Apologies to General Patton)

The “Precious Blind Side” By justinwashingtontheblogger Seeing these two movies one day apart was a major juxaposition — a clash of what the world can be in two completely different ways. “Precious” is a deeply dark and depressing world; a huge, young, black, underaged girl who finds herself pregnant for the second time (!) by her own father, living in a two-story, run-down Section 8 (government) housing project with an incredibly abusive “mother” (played beyond belief by actress Mo’nique who had better win an Academy Award for this indelible performance). Precious’ mother is supported by (government) welfare programs; she is...

If the standard, boring, 1001bhp, open-top Veyron Grand Sport is just too commonplace for your exacting standards, how about a one-off Grand Sport Sang Bleu? Bugatti unveiled this special edition convertible Veyron at Pebble Beach over the weekend. As the Sang Noir special edition Veyron featured a black-on-black livery, so the Sang Bleu – yep, it means ‘blue blood’ in French – is decked out in blue carbon fibre and polished aluminium. Mechanically, the Sang Bleu identical to the standard Veyron Grand Sport – though it’s tough to argue with a thousand-bhp 8.0-litre W16 engine and a 0-60mph time...

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the latest George Clooney fiasco, is like getting stung by a wasp on the inside of your eyelid. You are blinded to all reason and the agony lasts for days. Despite Mr. Clooney’s easygoing charm and obvious good looks, his film choices point to an appalling lack of both intelligence and taste. He just doesn’t seem interested in narrative movies that make sense, and even worse, he has an exasperating tendency to turn his projects over to buddies and basketball cronies, whether or not they have any talent. (In George Clooney movies, talent is...

The new Interior Department looks into a move to lock in beneficial royalties and regulations for companies with leases on public lands -- denounced by some as a massive giveaway to the oil industry. Reporting from Washington - The Obama Interior Department is reviewing a decision made by the Bush administration in its final days that attempted to lock in lucrative royalty rates and favorable regulations for oil companies holding leases for oil shale development on public lands.

Team Sarah is a diverse coalition of Americans dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process. The Team is setting up a process whereby people volunteer to review specific pages of health care bills and provide anaylsis of the implication of the language in those pages in real time. The review team and process is being set up so that any bill presented can be analyzed by Team Sarah reviewers in its entirety in a matter of a couple hours! End Stalinism Now! Step up!