Free Republic

Democrats were able to take their share of the news cycle not merely by nominating scandal-plagued Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., to run for reelection, but by picking perhaps the absolute most appropriate image they could in this political climate: a target. Have a look.

The Middlesex County Democratic Organization has fired a paid canvasser who falsely claimed to be the assistant deputy director of Governor Corzine’s re-election campaign when arrested by East Rutherford police Friday night. < snip > Silverstein also confirmed that the vehicle that Shih was driving when he was pulled over Friday night in East Rutherford was rented by the organization. He said he did not know whether Shih was in Bergen County on official MCDO business or on a personal errand.

< snip > After Headley’s arrest, dozens of FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 18 raided a Grundy County meat-processing plant owned by Rana that specializes in Islamic foods. Rana was arrested at his North Side home the same day as the raid on his First World Management Services plant in Kinsman, a farming town northwest of Dwight. Agents seized records from the plant, as well as a related North Side business also raided that day, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation. Rana is accused...

During her historic run for the presidency in 2008, former New York Senator and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton gushed over admitted swindler Norman Hsu's support of her presidential campaign and predicted she would win the race because he would "single-handedly...make that happen," according to an audio tape played in court Tuesday.

With the braying of 328 yahoos — members of the House of Representatives who voted for retroactive and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate legal earnings of a small unpopular group — still reverberating, the Obama administration Monday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government.

Senators negotiating a final compromise economic stimulus package said the House of Representatives and Senate agreed Wednesday on a $789.5 billion package that scales back tax breaks for new car and home buyers while restoring some cuts in state education aid and health care. But after the announcement, a joint conference committee meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. was postponed after House Democrats did not show up.

It finally hit me tonight that this fiasco of having the perps investigate the crime was really giving me a sense of Deja Vu .............and then it came to me. I HAVE felt this seething anger and impotence before.............when Jamie "The Wall" Gorelick sat on the 911 Commmission.

"The Obama Campaign Has Solicited Franklin Raines, Who "Stepped Down As Fannie Mae's Chief Executive Under The Shadow Of A $6.3 Billion Accounting Scandal," For "Advice On Mortgage And Housing Policy." "In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae's chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case's D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking...

Mon Jan 14 2007 14:24:11 ET WASHINGTON, DC - The Washington Times today announced the appointment of John F. Solomon as executive editor to succeed Wesley Pruden, who is retiring after 25 years in The Washington Times newsroom. Solomon brings to the newsroom's leadership over two decades of journalism experience, with a strong background in investigative reporting and managing interactive digital content. "John Solomon's appointment is a great step forward for The Washington Times, and is good news for our readers, staff and advertisers," said Thomas P. McDevitt, president of The Washington Times. "He is a working journalist, innovative manager,...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for violating election laws.

Have you ever considered the peculiar yet convenient amnesia that regularly strikes members of the drive-by media when it fits their political agenda? Given the development of the Internet, the accuracy and ease of search engines, and the ready access of more detailed media devices such as LexisNexis available for truly inquiring minds, the contagion no longer threatens the general public. But the as yet un-named malady (Rodham’s Syndrome, perhaps?) still remains virulent among those whose at-risk behavior persists. Heedless of the investigative tools presently at the disposal of all interested in the grand search for information, the at-risk population...

Former CENTCOM commander General Anthony Zinni recently added his two cents worth to retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton’s call for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, over his alleged incompetent leadership in conducting the Iraq War. Zinni resurrected the old complaints that there was a lack of “credible planning” for Iraq and that the US had acted unilaterally by “not adhering to the advice that was being given to us by others.” These criticisms are nothing new. Zinni long ago joined the ranks of retired flag officers who voiced opposition to a war that they felt was based...

NEW YORK — How widespread is the corruption at the United Nations? The multibillion-dollar Iraq Oil-for-Food (search) scandal was just the beginning. Now the issue is becoming the scale of corruption in the U.N.'s normal operations — and which individuals and corporations are reaping the benefits of a network of bribery and conspiracy that investigators have just begun to uncover. So far, those identities are still a mystery — but perhaps not for much longer.

< snip > What if someone in the CIA was leaking classified information to influence the 2004 election? Uncovering a crime like that would be worthy of Inspector Javert's doggedness. I suspect the biggest shoe in this case has yet to drop, and liberal journalists won't be happy when it does. < snip >

BY JAMES TARANTO Tuesday, July 12, 2005 3:14 p.m. EDT < snip > Yesterday's White House press briefing featured a similarly hilarious question from ABC News's Terry Moran to press secretary Scott McClellan: Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation? The information that Rove has been "caught red-handed peddling" is that Wilson's wife, Plame, engineered his trip to Niger. Wilson denied this when it became public two years ago this week, but it turned out that Rove was telling the truth and...

< snip >Despite the potential problems with anonymous sources, news organizations aren't likely to stop using them anytime soon. There are too many people with essential information who are afraid to go public, sometimes out of fear of losing their jobs. (At present, TIME is defending in the courts the refusal of its correspondent Matthew Cooper to disclose one of his sources to a federal grand jury.) But many in the media, amid periodic waves of criticism, are re-examining how often to use unnamed sources.

Arthur Finkelstein, prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the U.S. and Israel over the past 30 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in civil ceremony at home in Mass... MORE... Finkelstein said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure couple had same benefits available to married heterosexual couples... Developing, NYT, say newsroom sources,,,

GAME: North Carolina (32-4) vs. Illinois (37-1). ROUND: National championship. TIME: Monday, 9:21 p.m. EST. SITE: Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis.

IN THE EPIC UNITED NATIONS Oil-for-Food scandal, we now have a moment of high farce, with what will surely be remembered as Kofi Annan's "Hell, no" press conference--named for the secretary general's belligerent answer on March 29 to a reporter who, quite appropriately, wondered if Annan shouldn't think about resigning sometime soon. The U.N.-authorized inquiry into Oil-for-Food wrongdoing, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, clocked in last Tuesday with its second interim report on a program now infamous as the biggest fraud in the history of humanitarian aid. That same afternoon, Annan summoned the media to the blue-curtained...

The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq wouldn't be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.