Free Republic

James Comey has found a safe space at Disney’s ABC News -- Clinton crony Stephanopoulos is expected to use his booking of Comey .. to justify his eight-figure salary... the ABC star already is facing criticism that his background as a liberal political operative would make it hard for him to be objective. The interview will be a tall order for Stephanopoulos, and not just because he’s more than a foot shorter than Comey. The ABC star.. a liberal political operative ... “It'd be laughable to expect a former Clinton administration official to be fair ... The interview will be...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is outlawing the open carry of guns in some state-owned buildings and pushing for tighter gun control measures. McAuliffe signed an executive order Thursday at the Capitol setting up a task force aimed at more robust prosecution of gun crimes. The order also establishes a statewide tip line to report gun crimes, and orders state police to request a trace of every gun involved in a crime in Virginia. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Attorney General Mark Herring joined the governor, along with parents of victims killed in gun-related crimes. That included Andy and Barbara Parker,...

Wow. Today is just one big, bad joke. Al Franken. Roland Burris. Bill Richardson. Now this: Leon Panetta will head Obama’s CIA. Another day, another clueless Clinton crony named to a top job for which he has no experience. The unqualified fish rots from the head down, after all. Via NYT. Damned scary: President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday. Mr. Panetta...

As we wrote yesterday, Obama has apparently picked Eric Holder, one of his veep vetters and a former deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, for attorney general. Holder is black, which would be a first for the Cabinet position, and rocks a mustache, which isn't a historical first, but certainly can't hurt his prospects. But what could harm him are the concerns coming from both the right and the left — most notably, Holder's role in facilitating the infamous Marc Rich pardon. Of course, anyone who's spent more than twenty minutes in the halls of Washington has done something they...

Moments after the guilty verdict handed to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was made public Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on President Bush to promise not to let Libby off the hook with a presidential pardon. "I welcome the jury's verdict. It's about time someone in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics," said Reid in a press statement. "Lewis Libby has been convicted of perjury, but his trial revealed deeper truths about Vice President Cheney’s role in this sordid affair. Now President Bush must pledge not to...

Property owners or tenants who don't remove graffiti within two weeks after receiving notice from the city could be fined up to $500 under a proposal sent to the City Council on Monday. Councilman Adrian Garcia, chairman of the committee, said the change would help city officials enforce rules that require Houstonians to remove graffiti on their property in a timely manner. "People don't want to be at risk of getting a ticket," he said. Existing law requires property owners to abate graffiti within 30 days, or ask the city to do it.

Other agencies also on task force formed to combat spike in homicides FBI agents will work alongside Houston police in the office and on the streets as part of the latest counterattack on the city's ongoing gang violence, Chief Harold Hurtt announced Friday. Flanked by officials from several federal agencies and the Harris County Sheriff's Department, all of whom will join the effort, Hurtt said the new task force would target violent street gangs through shared expertise, intelligence and manpower, with 10 FBI agents in the field. "The goal is to target the most violent gangs in Houston ... and...

White further defines Prop 2 changes He wants to exempt funds for public safety from the revenue cap Mayor Bill White released new details Tuesday about his proposed changes to a 2004 charter provision that capped all city revenue, saying he would amend it to exempt funds for public safety. White has already said he wanted to generally limit the cap, known as Proposition 2, to apply only to revenues collected into the city's general fund. That fund gets most of its money from property and sales taxes, and it supports basic city services like police, firefighting, parks and libraries....

Davis Doesn't Fly 08/08 12:00 PM I'm intrigued by the bizarre attention so many conservative websites and bloggers are paying to Lanny Davis's silly op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. See here. Here's an excerpt from the Davis piece: My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman. This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing—in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph...

AUSTIN - Houston dodged what may be the last legislative attempt to stop its plan to enforce red lights with cameras, as the Senate Friday night defeated an amendment that would have required a public vote on the program. The Senate voted 18-13 against the amendment by Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, after a spirited debate. Houston Democrats Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos and John Whitmire joined with Houston Republicans Kyle Janek and Jon Lindsay in voting against the amendment. Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, supported Jackson's amendment. Whitmire, who spoke at length against the amendment, said he believes efforts to...

WASHINGTON – Franklin Raines, who was forced out as Fannie Mae's chief executive after five years, is due to receive a pension of $1.3 million a year for life, according to an agreement with the mortgage lending giant. In documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie Mae also revealed that Raines has deferred compensation of $8.7 million to be paid out through 2020 and owns more than $5.5 million in the company's stock. But the deal is not done. Federal regulators have asked Fannie Mae to hold off paying any compensation to Raines until they have time...

THE yolk's on Clinton political guru James Carville — who shocked everyone on "Meet the Press" yesterday morning by smashing a raw egg on his head. The point? To dramatize the fact that he had egg on his face after wrongly predicting that Democrat John Kerry was going to win the presidential election.

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from Barbra Streisand’s career will be auctioned off June 5, with proceeds going to charities that the Streisand Foundation supports. ...[snip] The auction, dubbed “Her Name is Barbra,” will feature famous items that trace the career of the singer and actress from the early 1960s to today, ...

There was quite a bit of chatter in the Capitol on Wednesday about some unexpected fireworks flying at a ceremony honoring civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height after comic Bill Cosby snubbed National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Cosby decided to voice his opposition to the Bush administration’s foreign policy by refusing to sit next to Rice, as organizers had planned, at the event in which Height received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush and Hill leaders. “It’s too bad that Mr. Cosby couldn’t cross the partisan divide, especially at an event for a great civil rights leader,” griped one senior...

Barbra Streisand Heads Back to the Big Screen By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She may have given up singing in public, but Barbra Streisand (news) hasn't bowed out of the limelight altogether. The 61-year-old performer is heading back to movie screens for the first time in eight years to play Ben Stiller (news)'s mom in a sequel to the hit comedy "Meet the Parents." A spokesman for Universal Pictures said Friday Streisand is in final negotiations for the role. The sequel, "Meet the Fockers," is set to go into production April 5 with Jay Roach back as director....

<p>WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (search) insisted Wednesday that she was just kidding when she wondered aloud whether the Bush administration is holding Usama bin Laden (search) captive, waiting to break him out at the best political moment.</p> <p>It was a "tongue-in-cheek comment and was not intended in any other way," Albright told Fox News.</p>

DNC chairman’s school visit sparks anger among Portsmouth city officials By PAT McGOWAN Democrat Staff Writer PORTSMOUTH — Several city officials are furious over the Democratic National Committee chairman’s recent visit to Portsmouth High School, who they feel turned a social studies lesson into a one-sided bashing of President Bush. After requesting to visit the school, Terry McAuliffe was allowed by Principal Forrest Ransdell to come to teach what the principal believed to be social studies classes on democracy and the political process. However, several city officials are livid over what they say turned into a biased Democratic view of...

Robert Reich

January 10, 2003Talks Continue with North Koreans By David Miles Journal Capitol Bureau   SANTA FE  —   Gov. Bill Richardson and North Korean diplomats continued talks on Friday, including discussions of North Korea's withdrawal from a global nuclear arms treaty.    Richardson and the diplomats left the Governor's Mansion for a lunch break just before noon, after meeting for nearly four hours. Talks were scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. Friday.     "The talks have been in a very positive atmosphere but very frank," said Billy Sparks, Richardson's spokesman.     Sparks stressed that Richardson is not an official negotiator for the United...

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Richardson Quits Software Firm's Board By Loie Fecteau Journal Politics Writer     Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Richardson resigned last month from the board of directors of a California software company being probed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.     Richardson, a former New Mexico congressman, U.S ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. Energy secretary, quit the board of Peregrine Systems Inc. of San Diego on June 5, a day after the New Mexico primary election.     Richardson also stepped down from the boards of nine other U.S. corporations the same day, said Richardson spokesman...