Free Republic

INDIAN LAKE, NY — Don’t worry, New Yorkers. We’re in charge — really! Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo channeled their inner mountain men — and showed off their office tans — during a white-water rafting race in the Adirondacks yesterday to promote upstate tourism. The pair, joined by crews of assorted relatives and staffers, engaged in a three-mile contest on the Indian River, about 310 miles north of Manhattan. (...) “He called me up and I said, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ And he said, ‘You will come,’ ” Bloomberg said. The two-day event cost taxpayers about $175,000. But Cuomo...

(...) As WCBS 880′s Peter Haskell and CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported, the former governor’s return to the campaign trail was not without hecklers, shouting things such as the following: “Spitzer, you cheated on your wife!” “You betrayed your constituents. You abandoned your wife. You betrayed everybody!” “This is about power. You just want power, man. If you want public service go volunteer somewhere!” “Did you leave your black socks on?” Spitzer appeared to take it in stride, as if he expected it. “This is what I look forward to — dealing with the public,” said Spitzer. “This is New...

As the leaders of western nations remain mired in a toxic tank of groupthink that says Syria’s Bashar al-Assad must go and that if you disagree, you’re a heartless and ridiculous twit who doesn’t know anything, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that it’s the rebels who are making Assad’s supporters heartless – by eating them in front of video cameras. What do these geniuses of elitist western thought come back with? Well, nothing, really. The seven words underlined below represent a “Bingo” moment for Putin. (...)

The rumble in Round Lake is over. As its first order of business, a newly appointed seven-member Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting Wednesday night and unanimously voted to reinstate longtime librarian Theresa Marchione to her job with back pay. "Come on back, Theresa," said Bill Ryan as sustained applause from the audience filled Village Hall. Marchione, a familiar face at the Wesley Avenue facility for decades, had been terminated for shutting down the library 40 minutes early on May 29 because of a tornado warning. A powerful twister touched down later in nearby Vischer Ferry. Since Marchione's dismissal,...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Wednesday, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years. The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities. The protests have shaped up as the biggest test yet in the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government. Police and protesters mostly retrenched Wednesday after fierce overnight clashes in Istanbul's Taksim Square...

(CNN) - It's a congested, sprawling transport hub surrounded by 1950s architecture and predominantly used by commuters or tourists to cross the city of Istanbul. But proposed changes to Taksim Square have seen it become the flashpoint for protests that have swept through Turkey in the past week, leaving thousands injured and focusing the world's attention on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Taksim has been no stranger to violence. In 1977, at least 34 protesters died during May Day clashes with police. May 1 rallies in the square were banned in 1980 and were only allowed to...

America in the Midst of a Coup d'Etat June 07, 2013 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Late yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the library at home, and I was just swamped. It seemed like every 90 seconds somebody needed something, or somebody had a question or somebody had a comment, requiring my response. It was during the period of time that I generally devote to reading my tech blogs, you know, where I abandon all of this and get away from it and start spending time on, quote, unquote, my hobby. But it was one of those days. I'm sure you...

Something shocking happened on Saturday night during the uprisings against Erdogan’s AKP rule in Turkey. CNN’s local news provider, called CNN-Turk, aired a documentary on penguins during the climax of the protests. Turkish people have been suffering a lack of press freedom for a while; however, this has reached to a ridiculous point in the last few days. There is a phenomenal difference between how CNN international and CNN-Turk cover the protests and the Turkish people are furious, feel mocked and betrayed, and they rightfully demand CNN international to take action. On Saturday night, people who turned on their televisions...

Iran last year boosted its support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades, the Obama administration said Thursday as it released its annual report on international trends in extremist violence. The report said the core elements of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan are headed for defeat but stressed that the network's various affiliates remain severe threats to the U.S. (...)

Col. Allen West on the Melody Burns Show at 4:05 pm Eastern.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo — calling job creation the state's "number-one mission" — on Wednesday unveiled a plan for dozens of tax-free zones on public college campuses across the state. The zones would be available to new businesses as well as to businesses that relocate from outside the state, and to those that create net new jobs. In the zones, they would face no business or corporate tax, no sales tax, no property tax, no franchise fee and no state income tax for the owner of the company or its employees. The breaks would last for 10 years. (...) One of...

The sheriffs thought they were being summoned to the Capitol to discuss ideas for changes to New York's gun control law, the SAFE Act. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told them to keep quiet. (...) Cuomo invited its leaders to the Capitol last month, people briefed on the meeting said. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss. "We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never...

BALLSTON SPA — A Ballston Lake man who thought he could time travel while driving drunk and on LSD won’t travel any further than state prison for up to three years after being convicted of vehicular assault. According to Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III, Terrence J. Rudes, 21, of Windy Hill Road in Ballston Lake was driving on Church Avenue in Ballston Spa Sept. 17 when he crossed a double yellow line and hit another vehicle head-on. The driver of that car suffered serious injuries as a result of the crash. Ballston Spa police, who responded to...

Victoria Toensing, attorney for Gregory Hicks will be on at 5:30 pm eastern on "Talk 1300 Albany". Listen live at the link: http://www.talk1300.com/

The seal has been lifted on the sentencing memo for ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley, who wore a wire for the FBI for several months last year. The memo says: Mrs. Huntley met with attorneys for the government and FBI agents regularly over a six-month period. (...) Ms. Huntley upon the prompting of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI recorded and photographed the following individuals on multiple occasions: State Senator John Sampson Melvin Lowe, (former political consultant and associate of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman) State Senator Eric Adams State Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson State Senator Jose Peralta State Senator...

<p>A well-known female liberal blogger and radio host at the University of Wyoming (UW) is being accused by police of fabricating a rape threat against herself to appear as if it came from a conservative.</p> <p>The obscene message directed at activist Meg Lanker-Simons was posted on a college “crush” Facebook page earlier this week and immediately ignited outrage from the college community.</p>

Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston bomb suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was 'an all-American girl who was brainwashed' by her extremist husband according to one schoolfriend. Today MailOnline has gained the first glimpse and pictures of the early life of the woman who, according to those who knew her best, was 'totally transformed' by Tsarnaev. At high school her personal motto was 'Do something about it or stop complaining'. She dreamed of going to college and joining the Peace Corps. She urged her friends to 'lighten up and enjoy the small things,' in life.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing New York State Police say they believe the state's stricter gun laws could put law enforcement officers at risk. In an email release on Monday, the New York State Troopers PBA said its 6,000-member group "holds widely shared concerns" about the NY Safe Act. Nonetheless, the union takes exception to some state lawmakers accusing the troopers of failing to enforce the law. "The individual members of this union did not write the terms of the bill nor vote on its passage," the release said. "We urge the citizens of New York state to remember...

One of the most popular and respected members of the Obama administration, Clinton faces the possibility that her legacy will be marred by the attacks in Benghazi and questions about diplomatic security. She has taken full responsibility for any security lapses and defended the administration’s sometimes confusing accounts of what happened, saying, “Everyone who spoke tried to give the information they had.”

“The white man was a good shot and the bullet from his Winchester passed through the body of Yaholar.” This simple sentence, describing Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s great-grandfather, John Crawford, may finally put a bullet not simply in the long dead corpse of Native American Louis Yaholar, but also of Warren’s supposed family mythology. It comes from a turn-of-the-20th-century news story uncovered by William Jacobi at Legal Insurrection, who explains the genealogical connection between this random incident of White-on-Native-American violence and Warren’s campaign: // But, while Warren thinks she has found a safe place in her family lore,...