Free Republic

New York has joined the campaign to effectively end the Electoral College’s role in determining winners of presidential elections. Under the National Popular Vote Compact, which Gov. Cuomo signed off on Tuesday, the state has agreed to award its electoral college votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote. Currently New York’s electoral colleges votes go to the winner of the state’s popular vote. …

Hillary Clinton bundler pleads guilty to illegal contributions By JOSH GERSTEIN | 4/17/14 5:03 PM EDT A prominent New York hotel magnate who was a top bundler for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign pled guilty in federal court Thursday to making more than $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions and to witness tampering. Sant Chatwal, 70, admitted using employees and vendors for his hotels as straw donors to avoid limits dictated by campaign finance law. Investigators also recorded Chatwal telling an associate not to admit that donations were reimbursed, court papers say. "Without [donations] nobody will even talk to you,"...

NEW YORK, April 17, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York City councilman has effectively told traditional marriage supporters they are “not welcome” in the Big Apple. In response to Chick-fil-A’s proposed plans to expand their business and set up restaurants in several locations, including New York City, Councilman Daniel Dromm told the Huffington Post that the fast-food chain would not be welcome in the most populous city in the country. Councilman Daniel Dromm “We don’t need bigots coming to New York City,” Dromm told HuffPost. “They are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community,...

Let’s do a thought experiment. If Charles or David Koch got invited onto NBC’s Today show to talk about their efforts to advance their political agenda, would either or both get partnered with Savannah Guthrie for a softball interview? Would their interview include suggestions that one of them should run for President? Kyle Drennen at Newsbusters notes that two weeks prior to Michael Bloomberg’s appearance on Today, the network took a much different approach to money in politics: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The clip just provides the highlights. Newsbusters has the whole transcript up, but let me just note the tough questions asked by...

A hotel executive and Democratic fundraiser has pleaded guilty in New York to witness tampering and conspiracy to evade campaign finance laws. Sant Singh Chatwal appeared Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn. The candidates were not identified. Chatwal had raised at least $100,000 for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign against Barack Obama

Veterans Blast NY Times Op-Ed That Stereotypes Them as Potential Domestic Terrorists By Matthew Balan Created 04/16/2014 - 5:41pm An unsigned Wednesday article in the Military Times spotlighted how veteran groups have rebuked the New York Times for an opinion piece that played up the recent shootings at two Jewish community centers as apparent proof that white veterans are susceptible to joining hate groups. Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America hammered the liberal newspaper for its "sensational, slanderous and incredibly offensive" attack on his peers. In the Wednesday op-ed, author Kathleen Belew cited a controversial 2009 Department...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - NY Times Columnist: Republicans Right on Liberal Inner City FailuresPosted By Daniel Greenfield On April 15, 2014 @ 1:29 pm In The Point | No Comments Nicholas Kristof’s article is really a bait and switch, admitting that Republicans were right about three major liberal social policy failures in the inner city… but offering only more of the same liberal social policies. “Conservatives have been proved right about three big ideas of social policy. Liberals may grimace, but hear me out on these points,” he writes.“STRONG FAMILIES Conservatives highlight the primacy of family and argue...

http://longisland.news12.com/ News 12 Long Island has a poll on "assault weapon" registration in NYS. Today is the deadline to register in NYS. The good folks at LongIslandFirearms.com have already moved it from 70/30 Yes, to 77/23 No! The poll is in the lower right hand corner of the page. Help make it a blow out! FUAC!

This year April 15 is more than the tax deadline for an estimated one million New York State residents. It’s also the deadline to register “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines. If they don’t, they’ll begin living outside the law. A lot of them have decided to do just that. They’ve decided to practice civil disobedience even though failure to register an “assault weapon” by the deadline is punishable as a “class A misdemeanor,” which means a maximum sentence of one year in prison. I put “assault weapon” and “high-capacity” in quotes because their definitions vary by state—they’re political terms. In...

New York Officials Argue for Flexibility with Gun Law Violators… As Long as They're on the City's PayrollSome of New York's most strident gun control advocates have rushed to the defense of an unwitting traveler who was arrested at an airport for a technical violation of a draconian gun law. Has a new era of sanity arrived in the Big Apple? Not really. This defendant happens to be an NYPD officer who is alleged to have violated India's strict firearm regulations. On March 10th, NYPD Officer Manny Encarnacion was arrested when officials at the airport in New Delhi discovered three...

It is the most important question being asked of dozens of New Yorkers lined up as potential jurors for the trial of Cecily McMillan, an Occupy Wall Street activist accused of assaulting a police officer: what do you think of her protest movement? Unfortunately for those keen on the swift procession of justice, a series of Manhattan residents who presented themselves at the criminal courthouse this week declared that they strongly disagreed with it – and could not promise to be impartial about one of its members. “I’m involved in Wall Street things. I’m on the Wall Street side, not...

The other great liberal political success story has been the rise of public-sector unions, which fueled both Obama’s reelection and Bill de Blasio’s victory in New York City’s mayoral race. They are now a key component of the liberal coalition. The upshot of Obama’s policies is that he has, Chicago-style, fed the top-bottom alliance of crony capitalists and the social-service state—the government-worker providers and the recipients of aid. This has left the private-sector middle class out in the cold. Chait’s rhetorical nuance leaves no room for anger at a president whose supervision of Obamacare combines the administrative failings of George...

The registry process of New York’s SAFE Act allows for warrantless police searches into gun owners’ homes, a violation of the Fourth Amendment, according to plaintiffs of a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Eastern District.The law firm representing plaintiff Gabriel Razzano argues the registry process is “essentially secret and results in a mandatory, warrantless Penal Law 400 gun removal visit from police.”“The entire purpose of the registry is a sham to permit intrusions into a person’s home on consent without a warrant for a ‘gun removal,’” La Reddola, Lester and Associates said in a release. “The entire registry and...

<p>US Attorney Preet Bharara of the southern district Thursday did not rule out investigating whether Gov. Cuomo and his aides improperly intervened with the investigations undertaken by the governor's anti-corruption commission.</p> <p>"We're going to look at the documents, we're going to see what the facts are, and if there are questions that are appropriate to ask, as I think the public knows by now, there are strong-willed and aggressive--but fair--people in my office who will ask those questions," Bharara said during an appearance Thursday morning on WNYC public radio's "The Brian Lehrer Show."</p>

I, Ronn Torossian, am a born & bred New Yorker, who raises a family here, owns a business – and loves all this city has to offer. Yet, I would be among the first to advise people not to live or move to New York if they don’t have to. If they have ambition or drive, New York isn’t the place to be. From the non-stop energy to the culture, indeed, this city deserves its title as capital of the world. Yet, from a business perspective, there are so many obstacles for living – and dying – in New York...

If you're a New York multimillionaire, you now have another incentive to stay alive. A change this month in New York's estate tax, which was billed as tax relief for the wealthy, contains a hidden wrinkle that could leave some multimillionaires with a much bigger surprise tax upon their death. Certain estates could even wind up with a tax rate of 164 percent on portions of their estates, according to one tax expert. The changes were intended to ease the tax bill for wealthy New Yorkers and prevent them from fleeing to lower-tax states. A report from the Tax Foundation...

The state Health Department is failing to inspect many of New York’s abortion clinics — with some facilities escaping scrutiny for more than a decade, bombshell documents obtained by The Post reveal. Health inspectors regulate 25 diagnostic and treatment clinics and surgery centers that provide abortion services — though pro-choice advocates say there are 225 abortion service providers in New York state. Eight of the 25 clinics were never inspected over the 2000-12 span, five were inspected just once, and eight were inspected only twice or three times — meaning once every four or six years. A total of just...

The tables have turned. Police are investigating the vandalism of the inflammatory sign at ATLAH World Missionary Church in Harlem over the weekend as a hate crime. The unlikely situation stands to paint the church’s controversial pastor, James David Manning, who frequently adorned his marquee with blatantly vicious messages, in a sympathetic light. …

Former congressman and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner — who has been looking for a new gig ever since he twice torpedoed his political career by sexting random women on the internet — has finally found a job. Beginning this week, Weiner will write a monthly political column (creatively titled, "Weiner!") for Business Insider.

<p>Consider what passes for a scandal in New York City these days: The rich, conservative Koch family funding a wing of a city hospital. Wall Street types financing charter schools for poor kids in the South Bronx and Harlem. Non-union Walmart trying to open a store in a low-income neighborhood, which would deliver both cheaper goods and jobs to the locals.</p>