Free Republic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumHUWY8yes Very interesting video, makes me think this is where Iran is setting up to hit the US from. When we end up in a war with them they'll enter and hit American soil thru Mexico (unless they already have sleeper cells in the US).

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/time-for-a-new-approach-to-alcohol/ "Material from independent.co.uk cannot be posted to FR per publisher’s copyright complaint," but see link. In Firefox you can select url and right click choose "Open in new tab." It is very relevant to the Nat. health care mandate

New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced a new initiative to identify houses that have been investigated for narcotics activity based on citizen tips to Crimestoppers Inc. Officers will place a bright orange sticker on the property.

The media have no bleepin' clue how to cover the death of Whitney Houston. That's because she was slowly dying for years and many in the press simply averted their eyes. It was ultra-disturbing that a beautiful woman blessed with an extraordinary singing voice chose a self-destructive path in full view of the world. I mean, here is a person who signed a $100 million recording contract, actually sold 170 million albums and commanded high six figures to deliver a 90-minute concert. Houston was a genuine international star, and yet she often was seen in public disheveled and confused, her...

A former state trooper who was seeking election to the Precinct 1 constable’s seat was arrested Monday on money laundering charges after law enforcement officers found more than $1 million packed inside suitcases stored in his car’s trunk.

The American bishops have, with alacrity, rejected President Obama's proposed "accommodation" on the contraception mandate in no uncertain terms. Their response came before the sun had set on the very day of his announcement. Noting that the "proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions," the Catholic hierarchy virtually guaranteed more political hemorrhaging for the White House. The bishops indicated that they were not consulted in advance of the President's announcement and had just received information about...

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske called the death of singer Whitney Houston a “teachable moment” in addressing the problem of prescription drug abuse in the United States. “I think it’s what we might call a teachable moment, when someone passes,” Kerlikowske told CBS News in an online video released Monday. “Particularly someone that was as highly thought of and was such an incredible performer as Whitney Houston.” Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Houston’s Feb. 11 passing puts a spotlight on the issue of prescription drug use. The superstar had opened up in...

...For a Canadian mining company, these same hills look like a billion dollars worth of buried silver. In a stark collision of cultures, the famously mystical Huichol are trying to stop a $100 million, 15-year mining project from starting this year. Their struggle comes as indigenous people from Alaska to the Amazon are rallying to protect not just their environment but also their cultures from decay. This raises a tough question: How do you protect a cosmic portal? “For them the whole mountain is a temple, and the gold and silver below the ground are there for a reason —...

Is there something toxic in the hair piece? Singer Tony Bennett isn't just a liberal, he's an embarrassing liberal who says the wrong thing at the wrong time. The Hollywood Reporter passes along that at the pre-Grammy bash of record producer Clive Davis, Bennett took the news of Whitney Houston's untimely death as an occasion for a political statement demanding America legalize drugs like the Netherlands. "First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now, the magnificent Whitney Houston," he began. "I'd like every person in this room to campaign to legalize drugs." But it gets worse. "Let's legalize drugs...

Jonah Goldberg makes the case that Libertarians are a essential to the Republican party and that conservatives and libertarians aren't that different.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican troops have made an historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, the Mexican army said in a statement released late Wednesday. Soldiers discovered the huge cache in the town of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, a suburb of Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara. The statement had no other details but said it would publicly present the seizure on Thursday. Spokesmen answering the phone at the army's base in Guadalajara refused to comment further. No one could say late Wednesday what the largest seizure was previously in Mexico. The United Nations Office...

ARLINGTON -- City Councilman Mel LeBlanc told police last year that he obtained narcotics, including methamphetamines and marijuana, through prostitutes he contacted using online escort services. LeBlanc, who has publicly acknowledged his drug and alcohol addiction, declined to comment Tuesday about details in a recently released Arlington police report that outlines his troubles at home, where he got his drugs and his reported relationship with the owner of Flashdancer Cabaret, a strip club that the city has targeted over the years for narcotics, prostitution and other criminal activity. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/07/3718914/arlington-councilman-got-drugs.html#storylink=cpy

by John HillStand With ArizonaMore than 10,000 people in 24 hours viewed our video "14 Illegals in 24 Seconds", showing illegal aliens - most with large backpacks - easily moving over terrain near Tucson, 30 miles North of the border. Floods of illegals crossing the Arizona desert occur continually, thanks to the failure of the Federal government to provide secure border fencing or adequate border patrol agent numbers. But what of the fencing that does exist in parts of Arizona? How well does that stop those determined to get in? Well this next video should give you a clue, and...

A Long Island pharmacy is taking a high-tech approach in the fight against prescription drug theft. New technology installed there makes robbing a bank seem like an easy task. Authorities hope the beefed-up security catches on at pharmacies across the area, to prevent any more tragedies. You could call it the drug store of the future. "We're carrying the medications that nobody wants to carry," said Marc Wiener, co-owner of Linden Care. But Syosset's Linden Care is more than a fantasyland of computerized pill counting and labeling machines, it's more like a fortress. Co-owners Marc Wiener and Jordan Fogel call...

Thousands of pills, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, are missing from the Broward Office of the Medical Examiner in what the county inspector general described Monday as gross mismanagement.

Diane Sands is used to having her name taken in vain. That's just part of being a liberal from Missoula in the Montana Legislature. But her name surfaced recently in a way that offended and troubled her at a profound level. A possible witness in a federal drug investigation was asked whether Sands might be part of a conspiracy to sell medical marijuana. The questions came from Drug Enforcement Administration agents from Billings who were investigating medical marijuana businesses, and Sands learned about the inquiry from the witness' attorney. "So now, if you're a state legislator who has been working...

In 2011, Gallup reported that 62% of 18-29 year olds and 50% of the general public supports the legalization of marijuana; 69% of liberals and even 34% of conservatives also support such measures. Obviously the pro-pot movement has taken root in the American populace and especially in the minds of Millennials (even managing to infiltrate the minds of the most conservative among us). Myth #1: Legalization Would bring in Enormous Tax Revenues The Heritage Foundation’s Charles Stimson published an extensive legal memorandum urging for the failure of the RCTC Act of 2010, which would have legalized pot in California. This...

Michael A. Braun, the former intelligence chief for the DEA, testified this week at a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "collaboration between Latin American drug cartels and groups such as Iran's Quds Force and the Islamic terror group Hezbollah is growing 'far faster than most policymakers in Washington, D.C., choose to admit'" as reported by Guy Taylor for The Washington Times. Many critics of the U.S. open border policy long have warned that Muslim terror groups may exploit the smuggling routes which have been established by the drug cartels in order to gain entry into the United...

Nearly 60 percent of likely voters favor regulating — and taxing — medical marijuana in California, according to a new poll by Adam D. Probolsky of Probolsky Research LLC. The California Medical Marijuana Regulation Act – which may appear on the November ballot – reads as follows: “Creates a state enforcement division to regulate and control all entities involved in the commercial cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of medical marijuana in California; requires their mandatory registration with the state; and establishes a state excise tax of upon all medical marijuana grown for sale in California.” When asked how they would...

LIBERTY COUNTY, TX (KTRK) -- When military men and women leave home to serve the country, they expect to return to their homes once their tour of duty is over. But a military couple in the Liberty County town of Splendora almost lost their home to squatters who've been arrested for more than just taking over the couple's house. It was an unusual call for the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, but even more disturbing for homeowner Hollie Burbank. "It makes me sick," Burbank said. The home that's been in Burbank's family for three generations had some uninvited guests all while...

MIDDLETOWN – Three Middletown residents have been arrested on felony first-degree possession of marijuana charges after they received a package containing 45 pounds of the drug that was shipped to a Bedford Avenue address in Middletown on Monday. Arrested were Anastacia Woolcock, Levaughn Mitchell, both 24, and Jerome Chambers, 29. The marijuana, packaged for shipping in cardboard, was discovered by US Post Service postal inspectors who contacted the Drug Enforcement Agency and Middletown City Police. Authorities went to the Bedford Avenue residence and found the pot. The suspects were taken into custody and charged.

The first primaries of 2012 are complete, but the fight over the proper role of government continues. The question before GOP primary voters is who best reflects their own answer to that question, and then, who is best suited to make that case to the American people? A clear winner has yet to emerge, but there is little question about who has captured the loyalty of young Republican voters on this issue. Although finishing fourth overall, Ron Paul once again won the youth vote in South Carolina, winning 31% of ages 18-29, compared to Newt Gingrich who won 28%. Paul’s...

Across the country the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been spending millions of ‘Stimulus’ dollars running campaigns and ads attacking tobacco and sugar-sweetened beverages like soda. Health police have also waged overt war on alcoholic beverages. After taxing beverages to no end Big Brother has turned more frequently to regulating away individual choice. Nowhere is the Nanny State more alive and well than in the Big Apple. Under the guise of public health, Mayor Bloomberg is planning a draconian assault on alcoholic beverages, plotting to close a number of drinking establishments and restrict alcohol advertising throughout the city. Initial...

More charges possible in alleged Antigo marijuana ring Antigo - It was a routine tip as far as drug investigations go. Last summer a Milwaukee drug dealer told authorities he had sold marijuana to someone who was reselling it in Langlade County. As sheriff's detectives in this community of 8,000 began to investigate, they were shocked to see where the trail of marijuana led - to teachers and coaches in the Antigo and Merrill school districts. "This was a surprise to everyone, including us, especially with all of the names involved," said Langlade County Sheriff Bill Greening. "A lot of...

UNITED NATIONS (The Blaze/AP) — When mailroom workers at the United Nations decided to search a white bag with a suspicious looking U.N. logo last week, they probably never expected to find 16 kilograms of cocaine (about 35 pounds) hidden in books inside. Paul Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman, said the drug was in a white bag evidently masquerading as a diplomatic pouch that raised suspicions when it was being scanned because it was stamped with what looked like a poorly concocted version of the U.N. logo. Browne said there was no name or address on the...

UNITED NATIONS – A shipment containing 16 kilograms of cocaine was seized last week at the U.N.'s mail intake center, a New York Police Department spokesman said Thursday. Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, said the drug was in a white bag evidently masquerading as a diplomatic pouch that raised suspicions when it was being scanned because it was stamped with what looked like a poorly concocted version of the U.N. logo. Browne said here was no name or address on the shipment sent from Mexico City through Cincinnati. U.N. security officials called the NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed...

(KMOX) – A British drug manufacturer is hoping for a big score from consumers and a green light from the FDA for its medical marijuana mouth spray in 2013. Seven countries including the UK, Spain and Germany have approved Sativex to treat patients with multiple sclerosis. Makers GW Pharmaceuticals hopes the drug will be used as a prescribed replacement to medical marijuana in the United States. Patients take the drug by spraying it into their mouths like a breath spray with a dosage meter. This way, GW Pharmaceuticals says people can derive maximum benefit from the drug without feeling a...

The Federal Criminal Appeals blog reports on a decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding when the government can use drug possession as an excuse to deny weapons-possession rights. In short, it can't just assert that there is a good reason to bar drug users from guns: it has to try to prove it. But the Court also seems to think such proof won't be too hard. Let's take a walk through the decision to see what happened and why the Fourth Circuit decided as it did: Following a police search that uncovered marijuana and firearms in Benjamin...

Wonder how the Mexican drug cartels smuggle $50 billion in product over the United States border each year? Much of it is waved through by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The so-called border security agency is issuing passes to daily commuters from Mexico into the United States which exempts them from vehicle checks at the crossing as reported by Emily Smith for CNN. Although the passes only are issued to those who pass "a rigorous background check" -- for whatever that's worth -- the drug cartels can either scrounge up a clean applicant as a cooperative front or plant...

Just finished this book..it will blow your mind..check the reviews on amazon.....this must be chump change compared to the Chicago way..

‘Crack 4 sale’ sign in Houston — business advertisement or cautionary tale? Signs advertising garage sales and companies claiming “We Buy Ugly Houses” are common sights for drivers heading through the Brooksmith neighborhood on the eastern edge of the Heights. But on Tuesday morning they were treated to a different sort of DIY marketing. Sometime overnight, a hand-painted sign was posted on a telephone pole on W. Cavalcade near I-45 pointing the way to “crack 4 sale” just east of 45. And, according to the sign, this crack is available 24 hours a day without any fear of H.P.D. interference....

CNN’s John King was correct to bring up Newt Gingrich’s divorce and his ex-wife’s comments about “open marriage.” Discussions of the candidates personal life are fair game to allow the public to fully understand the character of those that want to run in this next Presidential election. But Barack Obama’s prior Cocaine use MUST also be viewed as fair game for press inquiries, and the press should begin probing now. The public has not had this character flaw fully vetted due to the “Main Stream Media” fawning over Obama in the last election cycle. It is now time to have...

I believe that states have the constitutional right to legalize drugs. For, the Constitution is silent on the federal government’s ability to regulate or ban substances that adults choose to digest at their own peril—or medical relief. The Constitution is so silent on this matter of individual liberty (choosing to digest or use drugs) that in order to ban the sale of alcohol during the Prohibition era, we passed the 18th Amendment. When we wised up and realized that banning alcohol doesn’t work, we repealed the 18th Amendment via the 21st Amendment. I contend that federal drug laws are unconstitutional...

WESLACO - Three people from Afghanistan are in Border Patrol custody in the Valley. Border Patrol acknowledges they apprehended the three Afghanis in the Valley. They were found in two different groups. One was found south of Mission by the river. The other two were found in a stash house north of Moorefield Road. Samuel Freeman, a political science professor at the University of Texas Pan American and expert on U.S. foreign policy, says it's unusual for Afghanis to show up in the Rio Grande Valley. Freeman says the three could be drug runners. He says there's a huge pipeline...

Vaccine may hold promise for those who want to break their heroin addiction LA JOLLA, CA – Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a highly successful vaccine against a heroin high and have proven its therapeutic potential in animal models. The new study, published recently online ahead of print by the American Chemical Society's Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, demonstrates how a novel vaccine produces antibodies (a kind of immune molecule) that stop not only heroin but also other psychoactive compounds metabolized from heroin from reaching the brain to produce euphoric effects. "In my 25 years of making drug-of-abuse...

Although the Obama Administration cynically insists for political gain that there is no evidence of drug cartel spillover violence from Mexico into the United States a former DEA supervisor begs to differ, and he insists that their most gruesome tactics including beheadings are occurring on American soil. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says three beheadings in the last year -- two in Arizona and one in Oklahoma -- "have cartel written all over them" as reported by KRGV: "'One is too many; two is too many. Three should send an alarm,' says Jordan." In October 2010 the U.S. Department of...

CARSON CITY — Synthetic drugs that mirror cocaine and marijuana are showing up more often in Nevada, and some state legislators are unhappy that the state Pharmacy Board has not taken action to ban them. Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Health Care, said it’s been almost a year since the 2011 Legislature discussed the problem and she is frustrated the Pharmacy Board had not adopted a regulation to prohibit the “synthetic cannabinoids and bath salts.”

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year. A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The man's hands and feet were reportedly missing, too. "It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they...

Agent loses appeal over accidental shooting video Published January 17, 2012 | Associated Press A federal agent who accidentally shot himself while lecturing children on gun safety lost his appeal Tuesday in a lawsuit over release of the video that subjected him to ridicule on the Internet and late-night talk shows. Lee Paige sued his employer, the Drug Enforcement Administration, after video of the 2004 accident in Florida appeared in the news and went viral on the Internet. The video shows Paige shooting himself in the leg just as he displays his firearm and tells a gathering of about 50...

[...] The local police department is stepping up enforcement at the retirement community and is targeting units involved with soliciting drug dealers and prostitutes, said Capitol Heights Police Deputy Chief Anthony Ayers Sr. "We have a few individuals that conducted in the activity themselves that are actually tenants, that are on drugs and allow the prostitutes to come into their rooms," Ayers said. "We tried to let them know that we're watching them to try and get them to slow it down." [...]

Web addicts have brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol, preliminary research suggests. Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up. [...]

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The feds continue to target medical marijuana dispensaries which otherwise are operating in accordance with state law. In Colorado federal prosecutors gave 23 dispensaries which are operating within 1,000 feet of a school 45 days to shut down or face criminal prosecution as reported by John Ingold for The Denver Post. They issued an identical ultimatum to medical marijuana dispensaries in California last October. The threats are not idle. The feds yesterday filed suit "to seize the building of a Sacramento dispensary, charging the marijuana store violated federal laws against drug transactions near schools" as reported by Peter Hecht for...

The question about owning guns while being a medical marijuana patient will not be addressed by the Highest Court in the Land. A gun-rights case that began in a small Oregon town may have finally reached the end of the line. Cynthia Willis, a resident of the tiny town of Gold Hill, Oregon had been a long-time concealed hand-gun permit owner. In the town of about 1200 residents, Willis, a retired school bus driver, was looking to renew her concealed handgun permit when the sheriff in Jackson County that oversees the permitting found out she was also an Oregon Medical...

Six police officers were shot by Matthew David Stewart on January 4, one of them died. Officer Jared Francom was laid to rest today with thousands of mourners in attendance. Police are being pretty button-lipped about some of the basic questions about the case, though there have been strange reports in the last few fays that Stewart had a "possible bomb" in his house. CNN reported: "There was a device that was fashioned in a way that concerned those who found it that there were materials that could have been used as a bomb," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith told...

CHICAGO—Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn't harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does. The results, from one of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users -- those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often might cause a decline in lung function, but there weren't enough heavy users among the 5,000 young adults in the study to draw firm conclusions. Still, the...

Mexico allowed US agents to launder drug money Mexico's government allowed a group of undercover U.S. anti-drug agents and their Colombian informant to launder millions in cash for a powerful Mexican drug trafficker and his Colombian cocaine supplier, according to documents made public Monday. The Mexican magazine Emeequis published portions of documents that describe how Drug Enforcement Administration agents, a Colombian trafficker-turned-informant and Mexican federal police officers in 2007 infiltrated the Beltran Leyva drug cartel and a cell of money launderers for Colombia's Valle del Norte cartel in Mexico. The group of officials conducted at least 15 wire transfers to...

Ron Paul didn’t do as well as the media thought he would in Iowa, but he is moving on toward New Hampshire, where the candidate has what the media call a good “ground game.” But the “Ron Paul Revolution” in New Hampshire looks a lot like what Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn tried to accomplish with the 1960s generation. Disillusioned young people, brainwashed with illegal mind-altering drugs and armed with weapons in the name of “liberty,” are being taught to hate their government and the police. They believe Ron Paul is their savior. Remember that communist terrorist Dohrn had said,...

Ron Paul said the following thing in Saturday’s debate: But, also, I’m the only one up here and the only one in the Democratic Party that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system. And it has to do with enforcing the drug laws. Look at the percentages. The percentage of people who use drugs are about the same with blacks and whites. And yet the blacks are arrested way disproportionately. They’re — they’re prosecuted and imprisoned way disproportionately. They get — they get the death penalty way disproportionately. That’s a pretty serious slander on our criminal-justice...

Praying for their full recovery.