Free Republic

Denmark retained the top spot in the rankings as the country perceived as most clean, while North Korea and Somalia were the worst performers, each scoring just eight on the TI scale to 100. The other top spots, from second to ninth, were occupied by Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada. In Transparency International's corruption perceptions index report for 2015, Nigeria ranked very low, at 136 out of 168 countries.

Transparency, liberal media-style: Teen Cruz video goes viral. Terror-coddler Obama video gets deep-sixed...

Many broadcast hours and column inches are sure to be used today and tomorrow regarding the decision by Donald Trump to skip the Fox News debate in Iowa. Predicatively 90% of those reports will most likely circle around a Donald Trump -vs- Megyn Kelly narrative. Obviously that aspect will be the preferred hook used by Fox News to avoid sunlight; it is also profoundly wrong.

The FBI is going straight to the source in its investigation of classified emails that crossed Hillary Clinton's personal server, speaking with the intelligence agencies - and in some cases, the individuals - that generated the information, two intelligence sources familiar with the probe told Fox News. Investigators are meeting with the agencies and individuals to determine the classification level in the emails. The step speaks to the diligence with which the bureau is handling the investigation, despite the former secretary of state's claims that the matter boils down to a mere interagency dispute. "This is not merely a difference...

Locks and bars didn't stop East Chicago Councilman Robert Battle's inauguration. The newly sworn-in Battle can retain his public title and annual salary of $42,356 a year despite being held in Porter County Jail on federal drug and homicide charges.

When a big corporation is charged with antitrust or regulatory violations, and fined billions of dollars, have you ever wondered where that money goes? You might assume that it is deposited in the United States Treasury, for general purposes, or that it goes to victims of the companies’ misconduct. In some cases, you’d be right, but it turns out an awful lot of that money is being funneled straight into progressive non-profits, at the express direction of the Department of Justice. According to an exposé in the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ often mandates as part of settlements that the...

Reporters were routinely prohibited from covering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speeches before some of the nation's most exclusive Wall Street financial investment firms, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation. The list of Wall Street firms that barred reporters from covering her speeches reads like Who’s Who of the country's largest and most prestigious wealth management companies. Those confirmed by TheDCNF to have excluded reporters include: the Goldman Sachs Group, UBS Wealth Management, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Company, the Carlyle Group, Apollo Management Holdings, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley and Golden Tree Asset Management.

From the start, since we first learned about the home-brew email system then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set up for conducting her government business, I've argued that she very likely committed felony violations of federal law. Yet it appears I underestimated the gravity of her misconduct -- ironically, by giving her the benefit of the doubt on a significant aspect of the scheme. When the scandal went public in March 2015, Mrs. Clinton -- already the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee -- held a press conference to explain herself. Among other well-documented whoppers, she maintained that she had never stored classified...

The reporter whose case has forced the release of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails accused the Obama administration Monday of political tampering by asking to delay making the final set of messages public until after the first four states have already voted in the Democratic presidential primary. Another 11 states are slated to vote March 1, just hours after the State Department has said it wants to release the final 4,000 or so emails -- which are likely to include some of the most controversial messages. That means nearly 45 million voters won't have enough time to digest...

Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she gets paid over $200,000 for a speech because of interests in various matters including "a lot of interest in the bin Laden raid." Partial transcript follows:

It almost seems like old news at this point, but the Hillary Clinton email server story arc continues to dump one damaging headline after another on the head of the presumptive Democrat nominee. We saw the recent revelation that some of the material stashed away in that bathroom closet contained data relating to human intelligence at the highest level. We then heard former Attorney General Michael Mukasey say it’s time to charge her with mishandling classified documents. And yet nothing seems to happen beyond scattered rumors from mostly nameless sources saying that the FBI is busily digging away. Why is...

I have been thinking about drugs and all the different angles it effects life in America. So I did some research I want to share, these stats unfortunately only reflect the way things were about 5 plus years ago, there isn't a lot of current data out there. We rarely think about the total cost on the war on drugs, especially in minority neighborhoods. Minorities are more likely to get busted for drugs because they are basically poor. If you have wealth your car, insurance and registration are likely to be good, cop has to let you go. You are...

Saturday, January 23, 2016 IL Auditor General reportedly doled out $213k to Happy's Super Service SPRING VALLEY - Happy's Super Service Station in Spring Valley, Illinois, provided a reported $213,338.31 in gas and vehicle repairs over 10 years to Illinois' new Auditor General Frank Mautino, which has drawn national attention in Forbes.com. The hundreds of thousands of dollars Mautino spent at Happy's since 2005 averaged about $20,000 a year. That's either a whole lot of gas or Mautino's campaign vehicles are lemons - all of them. Mautino was a member of the House Speaker Mike Madigan's Democrat leadership, but now...

The FBI is investigating whether members of Hillary Clinton’s inner circle "cut and pasted" material from the government's classified network so that it could be sent to her private e-mail address, former State Department security officials say. [Snip] "It takes a very conscious effort to move a classified e-mail or cable from the classified systems over to the unsecured open system and then send it to Hillary Clinton's personal e-mail account," said Raymond Fournier, a veteran Diplomatic Security Service special agent. "That's no less than a two-conscious-step process." He says it's clear from some of the classified e-mails made public...

The State Department on Friday sought to delay its final release of emails from Hillary Clinton's personal server, blaming a massive snowstorm hitting Washington as well as an internal "oversight." In a court filing, the department asked a federal court to delay by a month the Jan. 29 deadline for it to release the last batch of roughly 55,000 pages of Clinton's emails believed to be work-related. The emails, thousands of which have been released on a monthly basis since last year, have become a constant headache for Clinton's front-runner Democratic presidential campaign. More than 1,300 of the emails from...

The Clintons and their foundation are just following the business model of many other famous political families like Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos who got rich by taking bribes from every business interest that wanted to do business in the Phillipines, such as GE building a nuclear power plant there. Same with the Shaw of Iran who required anyone who wanted to do business in Iran had to pay 15% to his Pavlavi Foundation. The Clintons are just following the business model used by many famous and corrupt dictators all around the world.

A new federal report reveals that 70% of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities between 2009 and 2014 originated in the United States. In addition, the report shows that the majority of those U.S.-originated guns were bought in California, Arizona, and Texas, southwest states that border Mexico.

I'd like to propose an accountability project. I invite all FReepers to list the names of public officials and others who have never been held to account for crimes, corruption and other misdeeds that are readily verifiable and widely known. My goal is to make sure we have before us a list of accounts that should be settled if and when justice and accountability are restored. I'll start off with a list that comes to mind: 1. Bill Clinton: Selling technology to the ChiComs for campaign cash; failing to catch or kill Bin Laden; multiple acts of abuse of power;...

A nonprofit group founded by ex-New York SEIU boss Dennis Rivera has received big contributions from corporations that do business with the Puerto Rican government, while employing the governor's brother as its only employee. This arrangement was reported today by Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon, based on information provided by NLPC. The charity, now known as "Sociedad Económica De Amigos del Pais," was founded in New York in 1996 by Rivera and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as the Hispanic Education and Legal Fund (HELF). Its name change, relocation to Puerto Rico and change of mission...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks that millionaires and billionaries buy elections. He hammered away during Sunday’s Democratic debate, complaining about people “pouring unbelievable sums of money into the political process.” According to estimates made by the Center for Responsive Politics, $3.77 billion was spent on elections for federal office during the 2014 midterms. Sanders blames this on the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, prohibiting the government from restricting independent political spending by unions, corporations and advocacy groups. But the growth rate in campaign spending long predates that case, and has actually slowed down since that decision....