Free Republic

A U.S. attorney in Tennessee said that it's possible that some inflammatory criticism of Muslims posted on social networking sites could violate federal civil rights laws. “We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected,” U.S. attorney Bill Killian told the Tullahoma News last week. “This is also to inform the public about what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.” Killian, along with an FBI agent, are expected to attend a meeting Tuesday in Manchester, Tenn. hosted by a local Muslim group to...

Massachusetts Democratic governor doesn't want public records released about (Tamerlan) Tsarnaev's welfare habit...because of a right to privacy?!?Here's a newsflash Governor Patrick:1. if access to public money is suddenly a private matter then we know Tsarnaev was collecting welfare.2. Don't ever play poker.Like the title says, the welfare state liberals have created boils down to three words...

A Republican aide e-mails me: “The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.”

President Obama continues to push the notion that he wants a "balanced approach" to budget cuts, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the only spending cuts he is willing to contemplate are cuts in defense spending. The vast entitlement system that now eats the majority of tax dollars is, by contrast, not only on his list of programs to be sustained, but expanded. Mr. Obama seems determined to protect the welfare state. He lacks the courage and the candor to admit to the unsustainablity of an entitlement system which has pushed the nation to the brink of insolvency as...

Alas, I was (on THIS day, of all days) forced to go out into the world to attend to real life. So I'm playing catch-up here. I didn't hear all of Weiner's confession, but the relevant bits are pretty much inescapable. I'm told that Andrew Breitbart was on the podium speaking at a time when everyone expected to see Weiner. That must have been quite an odd sight! I don't know what Breitbart said, but summary accounts have made it clear that he wanted everyone to know that he was right all along -- even though (as all now admit)...

The furious mom of the Seattle college coed at the center of Weinergate yesterday demanded that the cocky congressman come clean about the lewd photo. "I'm really upset. I feel like he's a person of power and influence, who can make a statement and make all this go away," Carol Mizuguchi said, blasting Rep. Anthony Weiner for his continued snarky sidestepping. "As her mother, I'm really upset," Mizuguchi told The Post. "I'm pissed off at that." Mizuguchi's 21-year-old daughter, Gennette Cordova, got the surprise package -- a close-up of an underwear-clad crotch -- over the weekend in a tweet from...

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: "Have you ever taken a picture like this of yourself?" REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D-NY): "I can tell you this, that there are -- I have photographs. I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me.[...]"

The House overwhelmingly voted down an unconditional increase to the $14.3 trillion debt limit Tuesday, as the Republican majority delivered a symbolic rebuke to President Obama ahead of a meeting at the White House. The vote was 318-97, with 82 Democrats joining every Republican in rejecting legislation that would have authorized $2.4 trillion in additional borrowing by the federal government. Seven Democrats voted present on the legislation. House Republicans scheduled the vote, which occurred after the close of the American markets, to demonstrate to Senate Democrats and the White House that Congress would not increase the debt limit without significant...

George Will has in the past demonstrated intellectual disdain for conservatives that he deems unrefined in advancing conservative principles. His assault on Sarah Palin today is over the top. Does George Will think Sarah Palin is untrustworthy of presiding over our nuclear arsenal? Why would he make this statement if only to imply that Palin is mentally unhinged and therefore unsuited for office? George Will has contributed mightily to the conservative movement in a scholarly role, like a professor to a student. But like most students admire the intellect of the teachers they ultimately shed the presumptions of the ivory...

This morning Republicans are just beginning to assess the damage that former House Speaker and current presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has done to the GOP budget plan currently before Congress. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Gingrich denounced House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's plan to restructure Medicare, saying, "I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate."

After weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero - the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York - it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site. ...

We believe that the United States has a powerful national interest in Afghanistan, in depriving Al Qaeda of a safe haven on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This country would also do enormous damage to its moral and strategic standing if it now simply abandoned the Afghan people to the Taliban’s brutalities. But like many Americans, we are increasingly confused and anxious about the strategy in Afghanistan and wonder whether, at this late date, there is a chance of even minimal success. ... But reports from the ground have been so relentlessly grim — July’s death toll of 66...

Red Eye’s Greg Gutfeld popped up at the very end of Glenn Beck tonight to expound on his plans to open a Muslim Gay bar next door to the proposed Muslim Ground Zero Mosque (which, just for clarity’s sake, is not actually a mosque). I’m not even going to bother explaining the exchange for you because it’s short and more fun for you just to watch. Suffice to say, Beck and Gutfeld go over proposed names (Suspicious Packages merely being the catchiest of the bunch) and talk about how Gutfeld is…trying to open up the dialogue. Watch below.

A week ago, as is well enough known, Omar Thornton shot and killed eight of his coworkers while being escorted out of the building after having been terminated by his employer, a Connecticut beer distributor. As I write this, President Barack Obama has yet to address this subject in any public way. He is not alone in his restraint. The media have soft-pedaled the motive -- the whole shooting, for that matter. Four days after the fact, my wife, who watches CNN and listens to NPR, had not heard about it. Unlike, say, Oklahoma City or even Columbine, the tragedy...

In a bombshell new development in the AL GORE SEX SCANDAL, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that the former vice president has finally been interviewed by police in the Molly Hagerty case. Sources close to the investigation reveal that detectives from the Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau traveled quietly to San Francisco on Thursday for the secret meeting with the 62-year-old Nobel Prize winner. "Al Gore has finally been interviewed face to face by detectives in the Molly Hagerty case," a close source told The ENQUIRER. "Details of what was disclosed in the police interview by Gore --and exactly how long...