Free Republic

Part 305 of 305 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. - Ding dong, the witch-hunter is dead. More than a month after the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday finally signed the bill into law - with a partial veto. The bill's supporters, including conservatives targeted by the GAB and Milwaukee County prosecutors in the unconstitutional and politically driven John Doe probe, rejoiced while the left prophesied biblical-proportion campaign finance and election law disasters. "Reform to this broken agency was long overdue and I'm proud of today's accomplishment,"...

<p>Chicago - Members of the Sikh religion are feeling more uneasy amid simmering anti-Muslim sentiment because many are being mistaken for Muslims.</p> <p>But instead of distancing themselves, Sikhs increasingly are working with Muslims to combat hateful rhetoric and dispel misconceptions about their respective faiths.</p>

Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were battling on the presidential campaign trail just a few months ago, but now, Cruz is asking people to help Walker retire the debt he accumulated during his failed campaign. #CruzCrew - I stand with my friend @ScottWalker & hope you will too! https://t.co/tX7axrEHdR pic.twitter.com/Z2txgGBhFq- Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 14, 2015 Walker's campaign has repeatedly asked for donations in the nearly three months since it ended. Earlier this month, the campaign sent out a fundraising pitch from Keith Gilkes, who managed Walker's 2012 recall victory and directed a super PAC supporting the...

Enough. For too long, politicians have sat back and ignored the reality facing our nation. Gun violence has become a widespread public health crisis. Everyone deserves to feel safe in their communities and it is beyond time we talked about guns in a different way. Unfortunately, this issue has divided our nation to the extent that meaningful discussions of gun control are seemingly impossible. I submit that we must change the culture concerning guns in America. We know that the United States is the only advanced country in the world that sees these mass shootings on a perpetual basis. This...

<p>A man’s comments about Donald Trump have gone viral and spoke before a group in Milwaukee on Saturday, December 12th.</p> <p>Tayyib Rashid is a Muslim who has served three tours of duty as a marine — he lives in Chicago. Rachid called out Trump for his plan to force Muslims to carry a special card. He tweeted he already carries a special badge — showing his Military I.D.</p>

Selecting San Francisco's former police chief to head the U.S. Border Patrol would encourage more illegal border crossings because she has a record of not enforcing federal immigration laws, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., argues. Heather Fong advocated San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy of non-cooperation with federal immigration officials, Johnson said in a letter Monday to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. "The selection of such a candidate would send a strong message-both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.-that enforcing our immigration laws is not a priority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection," Johnson wrote.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had a rare dinner together Friday in the Wisconsin Republican's Capitol office. Sources familiar with the dinner, which lasted more than two hours, said Ryan asked his Democratic counterpart to join him. The meeting comes as both sides are engaged in contentious negotiations over a government funding bill.

The landmark case won by two wounded Milwaukee police officers against Badger Guns has been settled for $1million. The settlement was unexpected and eliminates what was expected to be a yearslong appeal. In a first-of-its-kind verdict that was noted nationwide, a jury in October found that Badger Guns and its owner broke federal laws and negligently sold the gun used to injure the officers to a straw buyer — someone buying a gun for someone who cannot legally purchase one. At the time, jurors awarded Officer Bryan Norberg and former officer Graham Kunisch nearly $6 million in health care costs...

Donald Trump’s recent proposal to ban Muslims from coming to the United States: Wisconsin Congressman Reid Ribble says that was the last straw. “He has denigrated women, he has denigrated Hispanics, now he’s denigrated an entire religion and religious construct,” says Congressman Ribble. We spoke to Ribble about why he came forward as the first Wisconsin congressman to say he will not vote for Trump: “He’s continued to be against the civil discourse that I so deeply believe in that would allow us to have a real live debate on the issues that are important to this country,” says Ribble.

Cruz will be in Trussville on December 20 Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is planning to make more appearances in Alabama. On December 20, Senator Cruz will bring his campaign to the Trussville Civic Center from 2 to 4 p.m. The campaign has also announced a tentative appearance in Mobile for December 19. Alabama recently saw visits from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Dr. Ben Carson, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio Governor John Kasich, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee County community identification card for illegal immigrants, the homeless and others would not include a notice advising the ID is "not for voting," because its supporters don’t want to make "people feel bad." On Wednesday, the Milwaukee County Health and Human Needs Committee unanimously passed a resolution establishing a "Joint Task Force on Community Identification Cards." The proposed task force, to be represented by three appointed members from the county and four from the city, would review and make recommendations related to the creation and issuance of community ID cards, according to the resolution's sponsor, Supervisor...

MADISON, Wis. - Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the Democrat who launched Wisconsin’s politically driven John Doe investigation into conservatives, appears to have broken state campaign finance law, according to state Attorney General Brad Schimel. "...(I)t does appear on its face that two maximum contributions were received (by Chisholm's campaign) from the same individual in the same election cycle," Schimel told Wisconsin Watchdog Thursday. Chisholm did not return a call seeking comment. He has not returned any calls from Watchdog. As Wisconsin Watchdog exclusively reported this week, Chisholm's campaign accepted donations in excess of single-contributor limits during the same...

Imagine my surprise last Wednesday when I found out I was complicit in a mass shooting. Within hours of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik killing 14 people in San Bernardino last week, social media lit up with people blaming insufficient gun control measures for the massacre. Quite often, they were accompanied by a hastily penned platitude about how "we are all responsible" for the California bloodbath. Even as details still unfolded, the New Yorker's Adam Gopnik sprinted to his keyboard to bang out an essay titled "Our Shared Blame for the Shooting in San Bernardino." But I have good news...

Three thousand, four hundred: Americans who died by terrorism since 2001. Three thousand, four hundred: Americans who died by household firearms since five weeks ago. What's wrong with this picture? Could it be the fact that the country seems more intent on demonizing people seeking refuge from violence than it does on admitting that the biggest problem is homegrown? I'm tired and heartbroken. It was a hard week last week. For the first time, death by gun is poised to surpass death by automobile as the leading cause for Americans under 25. By some metrics, the number of mass shootings...

MADISON, Wis. - Calling a politically driven investigation into conservatives a "long, unfortunate chapter in Wisconsin’s history," state Attorney General Brad Schimel on Tuesday released a statement reiterating what the state Supreme Court definitively declared last week: The dark John Doe is dead and buried. "The courts have unequivocally rejected the John Doe investigation, both in the manner in which it was carried out, as well as the legal arguments brought by the prosecutors. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has now ordered that the property seized be returned," Schimel, a Republican, wrote. "For everyone involved, the special prosecutor should end the...

MILWAUKEE. - The Milwaukee Democrat who launched Wisconsin's notorious John Doe investigation into conservatives on allegations of illegal coordination appears to have broken state campaign finance laws. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm accepted donations in excess of single contributor limits, and failed to disclose who provided his campaign with a $38,000 loan, according to an amended petition asking Gov. Scott Walker to remove the district attorney from office. The diverse coalition of Milwaukee county residents seeking Chisholm's ouster also is asking state Attorney General Brad Schimel to file a criminal complaint against the DA. "As not only the top...

Very early reports on social media from Neenah, Wisconsin, warns people of shots fired and a hostage situation. [This post has been updated with more tweets]

Yet again, innocent people lost their lives in a hail of bullets, and yet again, we have many questions and few answers. We don't know how much the horrific act in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday has in common with other acts of gun violence from Colorado Springs to Sandy Hook to Oak Creek. It may have been terrorism this time, and if it was, the response must be different from the response to shootings that are the awful result of a mental illness. But whatever the motives of these particular killers, all of these tragedies raise fundamental questions that...

Grotesque, money-grubbing ghouls. How better could you describe Howard Dean's group, Democracy for America? They can't even wait for the blood to dry before exploiting the slaughter in San Bernadino for dollars. This NewsBuster just received an email from DFA admitting "the tragic situation in San Bernardino is still going on." And yet, because Republicans respect the Second Amendment, DFA accuses "Paul Ryan and the entire Republican party" of "aiding and abetting terrorists," "standing with terrorists," and being people who "enable terrorists." Of course it's all about that button at the bottom of the email: DONATE. Remember "dissent is patriotic"?...

Part 297 of 295 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. - The special prosecutor of the politically driven probe the state Supreme Court has twice declared dead laments the conservatives he intimidated for more than two years are legally tougher than the "violent criminals and terrorists" he investigated as a federal prosecutor. "The miscalculation I made in this investigation was underestimating the power and influence special interest groups have in Wisconsin politics," Francis Schmitz, point man for the unconstitutional "John Doe II" probe said Wednesday in a press release. "My career in the military and as a federal...