Free Republic

A bill promising the most significant expansion of national gun rights since the current gun control regime began with the Handgun Control Act of 1968, passed the House 272 to 154 November 16 at 5:50 p.m. after two days of debate. “The right to defend yourself and your loved ones from criminals is fundamental, and it should not be extinguished when you cross a state border,” said Rep. Clifford B. Stearns (R.-FL), who lead the fight with his co-sponsor Rep. J. Heath Shuler (D.-N.C.), a leader of the caucus of moderate Democrats known as the Blue Dogs. “H.R. 822, the...

"...Obama is "very romantic." "He remembers dates, birthdays," Mrs. Obama said last week on "Live! With Regis and Kelly." "He doesn't forget a thing, even when I think he is. I'll have a little attitude. I give him a little attitude, but he always comes through." "Got to keep the romance alive, even in the White House," she said. As for Valentine's Day on Monday, the first lady said her husband would do right by giving her jewelry.

President George W. Bush allegedly snubbed “No Strings Attached” actor Ashton Kutcher at last week’s Super Bowl, reports BBC. Kutcher sat directly behind Bush in a luxury suite at last Sunday’s Super Bowl, but two had minimal interaction with each other. “I don’t think he’s very happy with me,” Kutcher said of Bush. “He just was not very nice to me. He just kind of snubbed me a little bit … [He was] kind of more than [ just ignoring me] … [He was], well, just curt. He just said, ‘eh’ … almost like a burp.” Kutcher said Bush turned...

Whoops! Us Weekly ran a story quoting Sarah Palin demanding that Christina Aguilera be “deported” over her botched performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV. The only problem: It never happened. The item “quoted” Palin trashing Aguilera as “a demanding beauty queen who’s clearly in over her head” and adding for good measure, “If I were president, I’d deport Ms. Augilera back to wherever it is she’s from and give Amy Smart a call.” The fake quotes originated from an Onion-like satirical web site, relaying a fictional radio interview between the former Governor of Alaska and Fox News...

We have to stop excusing these kind of “misstatements” and then maybe we should consider using the term “The Chicago Way” and changing it to “The Connecticut Way”. Progress. The bigger story here is the threat. After all it comes just one day after staff members from Connecticut’s new Democrat Governor admitted to making public, private license plate information on outgoing Republican Governor Jodi Rell. But I digress. Senator “I served in Vietnam” Blumenthal holds his first press conference as a Senator (that didn’t take long) to vow he would fight against HR 3, which would prohibit federal funding of...

Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th centuries was so vast that it may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com. Unlike modern day climate change, however, the Mongol invasion cooled the planet, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So how did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan...

PHILADELPHIA — A doctor whose abortion clinic was described as a filthy, foul-smelling “house of horrors” that was overlooked by regulators for years was charged Wednesday with murder, accused of delivering seven babies alive and then using scissors to kill them. Dr. Kermit Gosnell was also charged with murder in the death of a woman who suffered an overdose of painkillers while awaiting an abortion. In a nearly 300-page grand jury report filled with ghastly, stomach-turning detail, prosecutors said Pennsylvania regulators ignored complaints of barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s clinic, which catered to poor, immigrant and minority women in the city’s...

Pressure was mounting on Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie today amid increasing confusion over whether President Obama was born there. Abercrombie said on Tuesday that an investigation had unearthed papers proving Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. He told Honolulu's Star-Advertiser: 'It actually exists in the archives, written down,' he said. But it became apparent that what had been discovered was an unspecified listing or notation of Obama's birth that someone had made in the state archives and not a birth certificate. And in the same interview Abercrombie suggested that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not...

They don’t like the truth, so they summarily dismiss it,” he says. “They say it’s a government takeover of health care — a big lie. Just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it. Like ‘blood libel,’’’ he said, pounding his fist on the dais. “That’s the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it and you had the Holocaust. You tell a lie over and over again. And we’ve heard it on this floor — ‘government...

Lebanon's government collapsed Wednesday after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the Cabinet in a dispute with Western-backed factions over upcoming indictments in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others is widely expected to name members of the Shiite militant group, which many fear could re-ignite sectarian violence that has erupted repeatedly in the tiny nation...The U.S. classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.A White House statement said Obama commended Hariri for his "steadfast leadership and efforts to reach peace, stability and consensus in Lebanon under...

Sarah Palin's short response concerning the shooting in Tuzcon Arizona, where she told the left they were committing blood libel

OCALA — A 29-year-old Citra woman was arrested Saturday after she allegedly doused her boyfriend's genital area with gasoline and set him on fire. Victoria Eltonya Bynes, of 17355 NE 16th Terrace in Citra, was charged with aggravated battery and was taken to the Marion County Jail, where she was released on $10,000 bond early Sunday morning. Her boyfriend, Andrew Williams, 42, of 17360 NE 18th Ave. in Citra, was transported to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville with serious injuries. His condition Sunday was unknown.

Kathy Griffin announced her New Year’s resolution to continue a verbal assault on the Palin family. Only in 2011, the comedian said she intends to target Sarah Palin’s 16-year-old daughter, Willow. "I've already gone for Sarah, Todd and Bristol obviously," Griffin told The Hollywood Reporter. "But I think it's Willow's year to go down. In 2011, I want to offend a new Palin.” Could Griffin be switching to a younger, easier Palin target following her Bristol backfire in December?

The son of the deposed Shah of Iran and an heir to the ancient throne of Persia committed suicide early yesterday in his South End brownstone — despondent over the misfortunes his country and his family have suffered, a statement from his family said. A gracious and unassuming man, Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi, 44, lived on West Newton Street for at least four years, where neighbors whispered about his royal lineage and expensive cars and clothes. Pahlavi’s family released a statement mourning his death and calling it a suicide. The district attorney’s office said Pahlavi died of a self-inflicted gunshot...

Local police are now revealing that the trail to this $8.1 million pot bust began some 1,500 miles away, in Dartmouth. The captain of the vessel and the target of a federal probe is 58-year-old James Ormonde Staveley-O’Carroll, a shipbuilder and self-described firebrand liberal, whose daughter, Sarah, is married to Michael K. Matthews, the son of MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews

President Obama is the country’s most admired man, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state, is the most respected woman, according to a survey by USA Today and Gallup. Mr. Obama was the choice of 22 percent of those surveyed, followed by former President George W. Bush at 5 percent and former President Bill Clinton at 4 percent. Among women, Mrs. Clinton was named by 17 percent, followed by 12 percent who picked Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, and Oprah Winfrey at 11 percent. The annual effort to determine who the American public admires most is...

A Clayton County mother of six said the family dog did what he always did when he saw someone. He barked. But when "Boomer" started barking and running toward a police officer Saturday morning, the officer shot the dog and killed it, Lawrene King told the AJC Sunday night. “He’s a golden retriever," King said. "He barks, but he’s never bitten anyone.” A Clayton County police officer was on foot patrol on North Shore Drive when the dog jumped off a porch and started barking and running toward the officer, Capt. Tina Daniel said. The officer ordered the dog to...

WASHINGTON – The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion. In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably...

Eric Holder sues school for Muslim who was refused Muslim pilgrimage leave. Attorney General Eric Holder, who refused to prosecute Black Panthers for voter intimidation and was actually connected to a company that was tied to a terrorist group, is using the might of the federal government to sue the Berkeley school district in the state of Illinois. The Chicago-area school district is a party in a lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court just this past Monday, and it’s all on behalf of a Muslim woman by the name of Safoorah Khan. It seems that Khan thought that McArthur Middle...

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell told the Senate body that all 42 Senate Republicans have signed a pledge to block all legislation until the tax cuts are extended. That letter was delivered to Harry Reid who has been more concerned about passing the food safety bill (likely to fail in the House due to a constitutional error), the DREAM Act, and football. VideoAlthough the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, even if they all vote in favor of Reid’s agenda they still will need at least two Republican votes for passage. We will see who blinks first, but this is...

<p>Howard Dean begins by saying how important the First Amendment is and saying that it has served America well all of these years. And then, he completely negates that statement by saying, “But I would bring back the Fairness Doctrine so you couldn’t have a spectacle of a Fox flooze which makes stuff up and is a propaganda outlet, you would actually have to have some sanctioned human beings talk to the other side. And MSNBC would have to do the same- they would have to have conservatives on there too…”</p>

Stop the presses! Barack Obama just announced a freeze on federal civilian salaries. From the Washington Post: "The freeze applies to all Executive Branch workers -- including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal court judges and workers. 'Getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifices and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government,' Obama said in a speech Monday afternoon explaining the decision. He added, 'I did not reach this decision easily, this...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A Minneapolis couple is preparing for the arrival of their first child. That is, unless internet voters decide they should have an abortion instead. Pete and Alisha Arnold have created a website called Birthornot.com, where they’ve been posting updates on Alisha’s pregnancy since September. But this site is unlike any other expectant parent’s blog: this site has a poll that asks viewers, “Should we give birth or have an abortion?”

The US would be spending a whopping $200 million (Rs 900 crore approx) per day on President Barack Obama's visit to Mumbai."The huge amount of around $ 200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said. About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments....

A new species of snub-nosed monkey has been discovered living in the forests of northern Burma. Scientists working for Cambridge-based Fauna and Flora International made the discovery as part of the Myanmar Primate Conservation Program. The monkeys' characteristics differ from other known snub-nosed species. They have black fur, prominent lips and wide upturned nostrils which fill with water when it rains, causing the monkeys to sneeze. Fauna and Flora International estimates that there are fewer than 300 of these monkeys in the wild. As such, they are globally classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature...

Justice Elena Kagan cast her first recorded vote on the Supreme Court late Tuesday, joining the liberals in dissent when the high court cleared the way for the execution of an Arizona murderer. The 5-4 ruling overturned orders by a federal judge in Phoenix and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that had stopped the execution by lethal injection of Jeffrey Landrigan. A judge had put the execution on hold because she said she was "left to speculate" whether this drug was safe for its intended use. "There is no evidence in the record to suggest...

Clark County is where three quarters of Nevada's residents and live and where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son Rory is a county commissioner. Rory is also a Democratic candidate for governor. Since early voting started, there have been credible reports that voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are automatically checking Harry Reid's name on the ballot: Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked. Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same...

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama (R) and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sit together at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) fundraiser in San Francisco, California, October 25, 2010.

Ohhhhh, I’m pretty sure the Whitman campaign is giddy right now with the words of Jerry Brown coming back to haunt him in this timely manner. The Moderator, “You said you don’t have to lie anymore now that you are not a politician. What did you lie about when you were Governor?” Jerry Brown: “It’s all a lie! You run for office and the assumption is-Oh, I know what to do. You don’t! I didn’t have a plan for California, Clinton doesn’t have a plan, Bush doesn’t have a plan…. You say you are going to lower taxes, you are...

During an interview on the program “CNN Late Edition” in 1992 Jerry Brown (D-CA) admitted that nearly everything he said in his first campaign for governor of California was a lie. Here are Brown’s rather candid remarks:

On October 15, the Whodunnit/Psychic series "Medium," which is set in Phoenix, Arizona, featured a character obviously based on tough-on-crime, real-life Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But instead of presenting him as a tough, but serious lawman, this TV show depicted its Arpaio-like character as a rapist of teen girls as well as a murderer. I guess CBS couldn't possibly present its Sheriff Arpaio-styled character as a good man. Their Arpaio-like character had to be seen as a sicko, rapist, and murderer. It is just another example of how Hollywood and the TV industry can't stand it that there are real men...

Western intelligence agencies have uncovered an Al-Qaeda plot to launch attacks in Britain, France and Germany by extremists based in Pakistan, security sources and media reports said Wednesday. "The threat is very real," a European-based security official told AFP, after British and US media reported that militants were planning simultaneous strikes in London and major cities in France and Germany. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that France and Britain had been targeted in the threat, which first came to light last month. Orders have been given at the highest level of Al-Qaeda to punish Europe, and France...

In a political season when many voters have shown contempt for incumbent leaders in Washington who they view as out of touch, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is launching a new television ad that portrays her opponent as an arrogant politician caught up in the trappings of power. A week after her rival, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, aired spots attacking her tenure as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina’s first general election ad uses campaign footage from a well-known exchange between Boxer and Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh at a hearing more than a year ago of the...

In an honor that could be misinterpreted as a slap in the face, a Los Angeles school district has named a new academy after Al Gore -- the only problem is the school was built on toxic soil. The Los Angeles Times reports that crews worked up to the Labor Day weekend to try to clean up the Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences in the run-up to its Sept. 13 opening. The $75.5 million facility was named after Gore, who has made bringing awareness to climate change a personal cause since leaving office, and environmental author Rachel Carson. The former...

Today, Obama steered slightly away from his teleprompter. An occassion rare enough to warrant a breaking news moment. However, he used the moment to lament his feelings saying, regarding the GOP: “I wanted to be stronger than it was before. And over the past two years, that’s meant taking on some powerful interests. Some powerful interests that have been setting the agenda in Washington for a long time, and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.” Please…I wouldn’t say something so insulting to my dog....

James Lee, was killed by police discovery channel hostage

DOVER, N.H. — A New Hampshire high school student shocked so severely in shop class that his heart stopped beating is suing his teacher, the school district and the city of Dover. Kyle Dubois and his parents claim teacher Thomas Kelley did not warn Dubois and other students of the dangers of the electrical demonstration cords in their electrical trades class. On March 11, Dubois attached an electrical clamp to one nipple while another student attached another clamp to the other. A third student plugged in the cord. Dubois was critically injured. The New Hampshire Union Leader says Dubois' suit...

Visalia, Calif. • A Mormon church official was shot dead between services on Sunday, and less than an hour later, the man suspected of the crime also died after a shootout with police. Clay Sannar, 42, a lay bishop with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Visalia, southeast of Fresno, died after being shot in his office, said Visalia police chief Colleen Mestas. Soon after the first shooting, a caller identified himself to police as the shooter. Police responded, and there was a confrontation with several shots exchanged, said Mestas. The suspect was hit multiple times. He...

Big Rapids, Mich. (AP) - A woman identified as an anti-war protester hit U.S. Sen. Carl Levin in the face with an apple pie during the Armed Services Committee chairman's meeting with constituents in northern Michigan, authorities said Monday. The senator took a question near the end of the Monday morning meeting in Big Rapids from a man who said he was a student, Levin's office said in a news release. The man read a long statement, then a woman came up and hit Levin with a pie. Big Rapids police arrested Ahlam M. Mohsen, 22, of Coldwater on a...

If this wasn’t so serious, it would almost be funny. Illinois Congresswoman, Melissa Bean, hosted a public townhall meeting and brought her own thugs to act as the “Question Police.” Each time someone persistently asked a question, a large bald man would make his way across the room and stand threateningly over the person asking the question. Repeatedly the Congresswoman and her thugs insisted the cameras be turned off in the room- I’m sure to prevent exactly this reaction from the public. I’m so thrilled that her constituents in the audience refused to back down but I’d like to know...

A frustrated JetBlue flight attendant allegedly fled his plane via emergency chute -- beer in hand -- after getting into a fight with a passenger and then cursing out the entire cabin over a loudspeaker. The JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after noon. As the plane was taxiing to the gate, one of the passengers apparently got out of his seat to grab a bag from an overhead compartment. The flight attendant walked over to tell him he had to sit down. The two reportedly got into an argument and somehow...

Many Republicans are still searching for that ideal 2012 presidential candidate – someone who can fire up both the fiscal and social conservative wings of the GOP while luring swing voters. And, in recent months, the chatter has often turned to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush apparently sought to quiet the murmurs today, telling a Kentucky TV reporter that he isn’t running. Bush has said that since leaving office in January 2007 that he would focus on making money and advocating for education reforms, which were a centerpiece of his tenure as governor. Even as polls show that he...

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank caused a scene when he demanded a $1 senior discount on his ferry fare to Fire Island's popular gay haunt, The Pines, last Friday. Frank was turned down by ticket clerks at the dock in Sayville because he didn't have the required Suffolk County Senior Citizens ID.

VP Biden brushed aside suggestions that Dems will suffer big midterm losses, vowing that the party will "shock the heck out of everybody." On ABC News' "This Week," Biden dismissed prevailing wisdom that Democrats, 17 months into Obama's transformative presidency, would suffer at the hands of salivating Republicans. Biden said he was "confident when people look at what has happened since we've taken office we're going to be in great shape." Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- A be-on-the-lookout alert issued last month for 17 Afghan military men who walked away from an Air Force base in Texas has turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. No fewer than 46 members of the Afghan military have gone absent without leave from the Defense Language Institute’s English Language Center at Lackland Air Force Base in recent years, FoxNews.com has learned. From a series of interviews with civilians and military personnel conducted over the course of a week, and according to documents obtained from a variety of sources, FoxNews.com has...

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel. "When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help...

WASHINGTON - President Obama may get liberal Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court, but conservative swing-voter Anthony Kennedy says he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Justice Kennedy, who turns 74 this month, has told relatives and friends he plans to stay on the high court for at least three more years - through the end of Obama's first term, sources said.

MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski admitted on air this morning that she was repeating White House talking points she had been advised to include in the channel's news programming regarding the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Morning Joe co-host was repeatedly seen looking down and carefully studying written notes as she engaged in a debate with former GE CEO Jack Welch, an outspoken critic of the government's reaction to the disaster. In response to each portion of Welch's analysis, Brzezinski poured over the notes and read allowed from the script in front of her, defending the...

This is the moment a white American police officer punches a teenage black girl in the face after a dispute about how she and her friend crossed the road. Video footage of Officer Ian Walsh lashing out at the 17-year-old in Seattle has shocked the U.S. The teenager reels backwards in shock from the blow before clutching her face while a bystander can be heard asking: ‘Are you serious?’ Police arrested the girl, Angel Rosenthal, and her friend, 19-year-old Marilyn Ellen Levias, both of whom have criminal records. Seattle Police chiefs have launched an investigation into the alleged assault after...

Prince Charles yesterday urged the world to follow Islamic 'spiritual principles' in order to protect the environment. In an hour-long speech, the heir to the throne argued that man's destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions - but particularly those of Islam. He said the current 'division' between man and nature had been caused not just by industrialisation, but also by our attitude to the environment - which goes against the grain of 'sacred traditions'.