Free Republic

Senator Boxer warned yesterday that if the HHS contraception mandate was repealed it would set a dangerous precedence of religious rights trumping the right to be insured. On MSNBC's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton last night, Boxer affirmed that under the proposed amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt, an employer would not be forced by the government to pay for medical practices against his religion. "I mean, are they serious? Sharpton exclaimed, "How do you make a law where an employer can decide his own religious beliefs violate your right to be insured?" "Oh Absolutely," Boxer said,

President Obama has a slightly different interpretation of Exodus 20:3, first of the Ten Commandments, he has now clarified his policy: When a despot (Obama) declares one “right” (too choose to kill your offspring) to be SUPERIOR to another right (worship and conscience, as per First Amendment)… we soon learn we in reality have NO RIGHTS at all (how can any "right" trump another?)! Obama’s actions are tantamount to “establishing religion” as worship of government above all other is demanded and to be forced through Federal coercion! This is not just unconstitutional, it is ANTI-Constitutional! BIG LIB, media and Obama...

I believe that our right to religious freedom is now being censored. Each day as I write this message, I wonder if it will be my last. For those of you who “pooh pooh” that, and think it is a gross exaggeration, think again.

Etta Pettijohn Sierra County Sheriff Joe Baca has joined a growing number of elected sheriffs from across the West by sending a message to federal officials about undermining state and local rights regarding law enforcement. Baca, a former lieutenant in the New Mexico Army National Guard and an Afghanistan veteran, told Sierra County Commissioners earlier this month his office will not renew an annual $16,000 contract with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The ongoing cooperative agreement between the two agencies to compensate the sheriffÂ’s department for patrolling and enforcing laws in the Gila National Forest was due for renewal this...

Tim Thomas, one of two Americans on the roster, chose not to attend today's ceremony at the White House, according to GM Peter Chiarelli.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Senator Rand Paul was on his way from his home in Bowling Green, Kentucky to Washington, D.C. Monday morning, when he caused some kind of “anomaly” in a body scanner at the airport in Nashville. Agents of the Transportation Security Agency declared that he would have to submit to one of those legendary full-body pat-downs, but before a single rubber glove had snapped into place, Senator Paul refused. He wanted a new scan instead, but the TSA agents really had their hearts set on that pat-down. This ended with Senator Paul parked in a...

You have to love Hamas. They're just so subtle. Hamas has sent some of its goons to attack Mahmoud Abu Rahma after Abu Rahma exposed Hamas' use of Gaza citizens as human shields. The stabbing in Gaza of a Palestinian rights activist after he exposed Hamas' contempt for its own people by using them as human shields, and after he criticized the radical Islamic group for torture, abuse and trampling free speech, should be strongly condemned by the United Nations—both as an attack on the victim’s human rights, and on the idea of freedom of expression. Masked attackers on Friday...

Last Friday, we looked at Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) executive director Josh Horwitz's . . . interesting assertion that since the number of National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks doesn't directly correlate to the number of new gun sales, we can safely assume that the sustained, dramatic increase in NICS traffic doesn't really indicate that Americans are buying guns in record numbers--so there, gun industry. Friday's column looked at a few of the bigger problems with Horwitz's thesis, and also asked why the demand for detailed (and, contrary to CSGV's claims, already publicly available) information from...

Orit Struk, Director of the Yesha Human Rights organization responded to the decision of the High Court to release the five right wing detainees to house arrest. “We call upon the PM and Justice Minister to seriously internalize the criticism of High Court Judge Amit about applying outdated charges against demonstration organizers. Stop the unbridled wild oppression of the right wing detainees at the hands of the State Attorney’s Office, that deals a fatal blow to the principles of democracy and...

January 16, 2012 marks Martin Luther King Day. This relatively recent federal holiday celebrates the achievements of its namesake,Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , as an influential American civil rights leader. And rightly so. Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech given at the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963 is one the top speeches in America's story. And I can still remember, as a young school girl, that terrible day in April of 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated and the nation went into mourning. In the tumultuous 1960s, We Shall Overcome was the anthem of the southern civil rights...

(CNSNews.com) – In 2005, Michael and Chantell Sackett were working toward what many American families work toward, their own home on their own land, until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted their plans by declaring it a “wetland.” On Monday, Jan. 9, the Sacketts and their attorneys will ask the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to not only restore the right to use their own land – but to break the absolute power the EPA has over protected wetlands. The Sacketts, small business owners in Idaho, located a lot in the northern part of the state in a...

Washington, DC – Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not the only one under fire from the Department of Justice for cracking down on illegal immigrants. Yesterday, the DOJ issued another scathing report accusing the East Haven, CT Police Department of discrimination against Latinos for allegedly violating their civil rights. In a 23-page letter detailing the results of a two-year investigation sent to the East Haven mayor, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote, “We find that EHPD engages in discriminatory policing against Latinos, including but not limited to targeting Latinos for discriminatory traffic enforcement, treating Latino drivers more harshly than non-Latino...

08/11/11: They applaud delighted avkapping of hands and feet. The letter is not on the eyelid when the family agreed executions promoted as a right and reasonable "human right in Islam." You may think we are on another continent. Far from it. The scene is where our future hatched: Oslo University College. The hall is packed, and the vast majority of young students are uniformed in Muhammad's spirit. It is impossible for me to give an adequate summary of the debate on "Human Rights in Islam. Just or unjust? "Under the auspices of Islam Net last night. Not only because...

14 Syrians dead on Human Rights DayAFP – 7 hrs ago World powers piled pressure on Syria to let in observers as activists on Saturday reported at least 14 another civilians killed by security forces on the anniversary of International Human Rights Day. "The world celebrates human rights as human rights are being violated in Syria," the opposition Syrian Revolution 2011 said in a message posted on its Facebook page. In Oslo, the Nobel Committee head said at the 2011 Peace Prize awards ceremony that this year's award to Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman served as a warning to dictators in...

A mother who "deliberately and unjustifiably frustrated" a father's attempts to visit his child was appropriately stripped of child support and primary custody, an appellate panel in Albany has held. The Appellate Division, Third Department, unanimously affirmed a Schuyler County Family Court judge in a case where the custodial mother had repeatedly hindered her estranged husband's efforts to establish relations with his daughter, even though the father made no attempt to enforce his visitation rights for six years. Luke v. Luke, 510880, centers on a child born in 2001 to Melvin W. and Heidi L. Luke. The Lukes, who are...

GENEVA — The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world. On Tuesday, she also announced a $3 million program to finance gay-rights organizations to combat discrimination, violence and other abuses.

True or false: Federal law dictates felons lose their right to bear arms. True. True or false: Felons can get those rights back, even those convicted of murder. Also true. In fact, in some states a judge can reinstate those rights without review; in other states, gun rights are automatically restored after felons complete their sentence. In Washington state alone, The New York Times reports that “since 1995, more than 3,300 felons and people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors have regained their gun rights," 13 percent of whom committed new crimes. The breakdown occurs at the intersection of state and...

The 20 most famous vegetarians of all-time will appear on a series of postage stamps — and the folks at PETA are hoping it’s a good way to lick animal abuse. In time for the holiday-card rush, the stamps featuring such meatless celebs as Paul McCartney, Ellen DeGeneres, and Morrissey will be released Tuesday. “These are very influential people, and not everyone knows that these folks are vegetarian,” said Lisa Lange, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The stamps will also feature hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, actors Woody Harrelson and Natalie Portman, and singers Chrissie Hynde,...

OK, here are the rules. Some of you have forgotten or never read them in the first place, and some of you need a refresher. So here they are again: Certain Judaeo-Christian concepts and limitations apply.* * (You are not called upon to believe these concepts, only to adhere to them while playing the game. The game does not work without these concepts.) All men have a few inalienable rights. . .

..... Heath and Deborah Campbell, the New Jersey parents of three children with Nazi-inspired names, lost custody of their fourth child 17 hours after he was born, the Express-Times of Lehigh Valley, Pa., reported. Hons Campbell was taken into custody by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services late Thursday night after the doctor who delivered the baby called the agency, the paper reported. “There’s no legal binding court order. It’s basically a kidnapping, but they use different terms,” Heath Campbell told the Express-Times. The Campbell family stepped into the spotlight in December 2008 when a ShopRite grovery...

The UN plan referenced by Newt Gingrich is a real threat to private property and US sovereignty.“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by every person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of all people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” - Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993). Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stated during a recent campaign event that the United Nations was seeking to create an “extraconstitutional control” over...

The radical agenda being pursued across the United States now in support of unlimited abortion is taking its toll on individual rights – and the newest battleground is a New Jersey hospital that is trying to require nurses to help kill the unborn despite both state and federal prohibitions. That's according to Alan Sears, an executive with the Alliance Defense Fund, which has gone to court to obtain an order halting the hospital's plans for now. "Cases like this are increasingly common in the U.S., as the battle over abortion spurs attacks on rights of individual conscience," he penned in...

President Obama wants to control all the land and all the water in the United States. Legislation that would have deleted the word "navigable" from the federal Clean Water Act and given the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over every drop of moisture in the country crashed and burned last Congress. But Obama's EPA, as usual, won't take no for an answer, and is now attempting to ignore two Supreme Court decisions, commonsense, and the American people and vastly expand federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction via guidance document. AFP activists put more than 21,000 comments into the regulatory...

I continue to be amazed at how many people in this culture, and most especially those on the “right”, seem to have completely and totally psychologically surrendered to the government. These are the phrases I keep hearing: ....[Part 2 follows right below Part 1].

From the Desk of Rand Paul Dear Concerned American, They snickered when I said I came to the U.S. Senate to change Congress. But their laughter stopped when I sponsored the National Right to Work Act to free U.S. workers from forced unionization and break Big Labor's multi-billion dollar political machine forever. President Barack Obama and Big Labor allies in the Senate are now feverishly scheming to bury the National Right to Work Act without a vote. So I have a question for you. Will you be the sledgehammer? Your signature on the petition to your Congressman and Senators is...

Between 1764 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Americans produced a rich series of pamphlets and resolutions listing their grievances against the central government of the British Empire. As I have pointed out before, reading those pamphlets is very helpful in understanding what the Constitution really means. And ignorance of them contributes to common constitutional mistakes. These pamphlets are particularly useful in comprehending the Founders’ version of federalism. This is because the constitutional balance between states and federal government partly reflected what the Founders had wanted the balance to be between colonies and imperial government. One of the most...

Does anybody know of a Second Amendment lawyer who takes cases involved with restoration of gun rights to previously convicted felons?

The morning after this month's relatively quiet (for most of us) Election Day, story after story arrived celebrating a pro-life defeat. "Mississippi Wins for Women!" The Daily Beast exclaimed. "Birth Control Remains Legal: Mississippi Voters Reject Draconian 'Personhood' Initiative," the National Organization for Women declared. "Our victory in Mississippi has already sent a strong message to extremists who will stop at nothing to outlaw abortion," the American Civil Liberties Union explained. Mississippi's personhood amendment, seeking to amend the state constitution's legal definition of a "person" to "include every human being from the moment of fertilization," lost at the ballot box....

On November 9th, 2011 Americans will get an up close and personal demonstration of the new powers the US government has given itself over America’s broadcast services. There will be a complete take over of the nation’s air waves, both television and radio – plus — cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers. The power to do this is now in the hands of the President. Only he has the authority to do this. On November 9th there will be a test of how effectively the system will...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the House Judiciary Committee in written testimony submitted Wednesday that illegal aliens taken into custody by local law enforcement and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be given a phone number to call if they believe their civil rights have been violated. The phone number will be provided on a form that will include directions on how to file a complaint in six different languages. Napolitano told the committee that ICE has “updated its detainer form to clarify the

Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler ruled against families’ right to consume milk from their own cows. The ruling came in a dispute between the state’s Department of Agriculture and the families over how milk is to be produced, distributed and consumed in Wisconsin. Fiedler rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that they had a fundamental and inherent right to consume milk from their own cows. “What foods may be grown or consumed is an issue subject to the discretion of the government,” Fiedler said. “Neither the state nor the federal Constitution grants individuals an explicit right to determine what they shall...

However, the judge would not rule that the plaintiffs have any Constitutional rights to own a dairy cow, consume milk from their own cow, board a cow at the farm of another farmer, or produce and consume the foods of their choice.

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Women are to be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia. K ing Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced the change yesterday and also said women would be allowed to run in elections. However, the new law will not come into force until 2015. In a speech, the king said the move was in accordance with sharia law.

For anyone who's played the game "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral," it might seem obvious that the Marcellus shale isn't alive and doesn't grow -- it's a rock layer in the ground, so it's a mineral. In the Pennsylvania courts, the answer is not so clear. A Susquehanna County Common Pleas court is headed for a hearing to determine whether the gas-rich Marcellus shale is a mineral, and therefore, included in mineral rights. The state Superior Court ruled this month that case law is unclear, leaving big questions over who legitimately controls drilling rights and the valuable natural gas in the mile-deep...

Under the bill’s authority, states are not immune from federal prosecution if they “violate” the act. In the event this bill passes, it will override a state’s sovereign authority as defined and protected under the 11th amendment.... Any state that receives Federal assistance under the direction of bill automatically forfeits its sovereign immunity....

Let us unite our forces and bring the Obama regime in the spotlight for the operation Fast & Furious. Let us do the job the liberal media won't do: inform both politicians and the American public about the disgraceful way in which the Obama DOJ, the ATF and the FBI (all under direct orders form the White House) conspired to arm Mexican drug cartels in order to create murder and mayhem in the border States and thus justify Obama's push for draconian gun laws imposed on American citizens. On September 22, the Republican primary candidates will meet in Orlando, Florida...

Those raw milk proponents advocating "teach, teach, teach" may want to enroll Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler in their first class--in the kindergarten section. In response to a request from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the judge issued a clarification of his decision last week regarding his assessment of the constitutionality of food rights. The judge expanded on his original statement that such constitutional issues are "wholly without merit." He explained that the FTCLDF arguments were "extremely underdeveloped." As an example, he said the plaintiffs' use of the Roe v Wade abortion rights case as a precedent does "not explain...

“I will not allow violence against this house,” stated Dustin Hoffman’s character in the original Straw Dogs (1971), a graphic film that is still worth watching, but only by adults. Most will watch Sam Peckinpah’s psychological thriller with some Western themes only once. For many, some quick editing via the remote will be required. The central point of the movie is still valid. Civilized men once had a universal understanding that a man’s home was his castle. Why? The idea that a man’s, or now in many cases a woman’s, house and property should be within their own control is...

President Obama repeatedly asked members of Congress to pass the American Jobs Act last week. But when no Democrat filed Obama’s bill after he presented it to Congress, a conservative congressman swiped the name for his own legislation.

Florida has decided to finally protect the 2nd Amendment at the state level and eliminate onerous restrictions that many municipalities and communities have enacted against gun rights.

August 13, 2011 A very basic question Jason McNew When do human beings receive the unalienable right to life? The question the pro-abortion crowd will not (or cannot) answer. Here in fly-over country South Central PA, we are fortunate to have an excellent local talk radio station (based out of Harrisburg) which has the largest listenership in the area. One of the popular local talk-bubbas is a criminal defense attorney and an atheist. While a bit cantankerous with callers at times, he is thoughtful, respectful, and a fearsome debater. His show can be heard on Saturdays afternoons. Following the GOP...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Britain told Iran on Thursday it was happy to discuss its handling of street unrest after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused its police of "savage" aggression against demonstrators. Britain helped lead Western condemnation of Iran's crackdown on protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election in June 2009. He was quick on Wednesday to criticise the British police's "crushing attack" on unarmed citizens. In a letter to Iran's Foreign Ministry, Britain's top diplomat in Tehran said she hoped such openness would encourage Tehran to allow a U.N.-appointed investigator looking into alleged human rights violations in Iran to enter the country.

I rarely post an article, even more rare that I post a vanity. I feel that this is a topic that involves everybody, both pro and against. I have a few thoughts of my own, but I would also like to hear from heads and tails. Law enforcement, if they wish, please add your viewpoints; I am certain that you have a unique perspective. I'm hoping that this doesn't turn into a flame war. I will submit from the start that I do not use drugs. So if anybody wants to issue a blanket statement that states 'If you don't...

“The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” Thomas Jefferson Well said, Mr. Jefferson! We do not have to store, fire, own, or even like guns to understand that the Second Amendment’s requirement is a need, no American can do without. If there came a point in time, when our elected officials became so arrogant to cease abiding by the Constitution “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed” is in place so that we can protect ourselves, our country and our families...

If sovereigns start being downgraded from triple-A status, debt is going to get a lot more expensive, and those rollovers — which cost very little in the current interest-rate environment — will really start to bite. And the invidious thing about debt is that it doesn’t go away. Deleveraging is painful, and is often accompanied by inflation or default. And the more debt you have to start with, the more painful deleveraging is going to be. Prepare yourselves.

Fueled by federal grants, high-speed cameras that can automatically read up to 30 license plates a second and check them for violations or law enforcement alerts are scanning more streets and highways across Massachusetts this year. The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security doled out $500,000 in federal highway grants earlier this year to 26 police departments for automatic plate readers, which can be stationary or mounted on a cruiser on patrol. Some MetroWest and Milford-area cities and towns already had the high-tech scanners. Those that won grants are now using plate readers or will be soon Rest at...

This new interview with American author Alice Walker gives a brilliant insight into what motivates trendy pro-Palestinian sentiment in the West today. Notice how effortlessly she flits between talking about Palestinians in Gaza and chickens in factory farms. In one breath she talks about the “cruel and inhuman” treatment meted out to Palestinians, who are “frazzled and suffering everyday”. And in the next she talks about chickens that are “raised under horrible, torturous conditions”, and the fact that people who tuck into chicken dinners don’t realise that they are eating “something precious, beautiful, rare”. Palestinians and chickens – these seem...

The maps released this afternoon show “VRA” or “Voting Rights Act” districts – state House and Senate districts designed to have at least “50% plus one” minority population. VRAs are required by a 1965 federal statute aimed at guaranteeing legislative representation for minorities.

"Al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was arrested last month in the city of al-Khobar... The human-rights organization said al- Sharif was forced to sign a pledge that she wouldn’t drive again and was released 10 days later..." “Since her arrest, several women have reportedly been arrested on various occasions for driving..."