Free Republic

As a general matter, I agree (as did Ronald Reagan) that free trade is good for America; when we open up foreign markets, it helps American farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers. But TPA in this Congress has become enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom deal-making, along with serious concerns that it would open up the potential for sweeping changes in our laws that trade agreements typically do not include. Since the Senate first voted on TPA, there have been two material changes. First, WikiLeaks subsequently revealed new troubling information regarding the Trade in Services Agreement, or TiSA, one of the trade deals...

On March 30, a major Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), expelled a well-respected urologist from its medical staff because he voiced concerns about the unhealthy nature of homosexual behavior and objected to the hospital’s aggressive promotion of “gay pride” activities. Dr. Paul Church has been a urologist on the BIDMC staff in Boston for nearly 30 years. He is a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. He has done research on diagnosing prostate and bladder cancer, and has been a frequent volunteer for medical mission projects in Mexico and Africa. He has also spoken...

Most curators hope to get glowing reviews and popular acclaim when they mount an exhibit. Michael Kamber, on the other hand, is expecting some blowback for his latest show, “Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography,” which opens this weekend at the Bronx Documentary Center. And he’s perfectly O.K. with that. “I think there will be some unhappy people,” said Mr. Kamber, a photojournalist and founder of the center. “That’s good. If people would stop faking photos, then they wouldn’t have to be worried about being called out.” The exhibit, a selection of well-known images that have...

Karen Finley, former CEO of the Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, pleaded guilty today in federal court to an eight-year bribery-and-fraud scheme that helped the company retain photo-enforcement contracts with two Ohio cities. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terence P. Kemp of the Southern District of Ohio to a charge of "conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and honest services wire and mail fraud," the U.S. Department of Justice announced this morning. She resigned from the company in 2013 after the corruption scheme was alleged by a whistle-blower. Top executives in Redflex's Australian-based parent company,...

As we learned from Mad Men, the advertising industry is ever intent on harnessing trends that are bubbling up organically. Countercultural ideals (say, hippie-era peace and love) are wedded to a mainstream product (say, Coke) and blasted to the mainstream before anyone knows what’s hit them. Which is why hip-hop and advertising go together so well. Firmly rooted in youth culture, hip-hop is edgy but accessible, a combination that companies adore. It can be exciting to see your favorite rapper validated in big-name plugs, whether it’s Jay Z for Hewlett Packard or Eminem for Chrysler. But for every carefully considered,...

Paedophiles This one seems like a particularly dark and grisly thriller. At first it was just a few rubbish light entertainers. Then it was a lot more entertainers. Then we had people muttering about the political establishment – and others counter-muttering don’t be ridiculous, that’s a conspiracy theory. But it wasn’t. Now, it’s a slow-motion train crash and an endless series of glacial government inquiries.

A former chief executive officer of the red-light camera company Redflex has pleaded guilty to bribing Columbus elected officials - including Council President Andrew Ginther - through the Ohio Democratic Party to install the cameras and keep them operating in the city. Karen L. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, Ariz., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, according a press release from Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Records from the U.S. District in Columbus show that from 2005 to 2013, Finley made campaign contributions to elected public officials in...

Marijuana use could soon be seen in bars, restaurants, or any public place if a proposed ballot measure makes it on the ballot and is passed by voters. “It says any private business can decide if it wants to permit adults to use marijuana,” said marijuana proponent Mason Tvert. Tvert, well-known as the driving force behind Amendment 64 which legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, is considering a new ballot measure that would vastly expand where people can use pot in Denver. “The community in Denver has been very clear that they don’t think adults should be treated like second-class citizens...

The crazy corrupt corporation known as Newark Watershed Conservation Development Corporation (NWC) picks up about $10 MILLION a year from taxpayers to run a shadow government that allegedly funnels largess into the pockets of pals of US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). But true to form, New England media lefties zip their lips while pulling “SEND” off of their keyboards. And did we expect anything else? Reformers like Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club calls the NWC the “Newark Watershed Development & Corruption Corp.” Supposedly set up to run land holdings around northwest New Jersey reservoirs, Tittel says, “the NWCDC was...

Hillary Clinton scrubbed her Benghazi emails. That is the logical conclusion drawn by investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson who, while at CBS, fought to break stories exposing the Obama administration’s lies on “phony” scandals from Fast and Furious to Benghazi and for her efforts had her computer hacked and monitored, likely by administration operatives concerned by her revelations and curious about her sources. Attkisson said on NewsmaxTV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show” recently that she thought it was a common sense conclusion that Hillary Clinton erased the contents of her personal email server, created and used in violation of the National Records...

Hillary Clinton “re-launched” her floundering campaign Saturday on Roosevelt Island, formerly and fittingly known as Welfare Island. Clinton’s desperate effort to associate herself with “everyday Americans” contrasts starkly with the crooked elites with whom she and Bill normally cavort. In fact, the Clinton Foundation, Bill and Hillary’s elaborate slush fund, includes numerous donors and even one-time board members with dodgy backgrounds, shady dealings, and even criminal convictions that should repel rather than lure a once and perhaps future president of the United States. Peter Schweizer’s meticulously researched new best-seller Clinton Cash (complete with 635 endnotes) delineates this ultimate power couple’s...

Democrats never say they are committed to stopping voter fraud, merely that they're dedicated to "everyone" voting. This smug admission tells you everything you need to know, or in other words, nothing you didn't already suspect. The truth is Voter ID doesn't discriminate against or disenfranchise anyone. How can it when everyone is held to same standard of accountability? If you can't even verify your identity, validate and protect the authenticity of your vote, how are you a victim of anything other than your own ignorance and apathy? People have TWO YEARS in-between elections to get a damn photo ID;...

A draft UN report has revealed that UN peacekeepers routinely flout a ban of the international organization and pay for sex with money, dresses, jewelry, perfume, cell phones and other items in a flagrant exploitation of poverty-stricken populations they are meant to protect. Reuters received a copy of the draft report, which was conducted by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), and detailed how UN forces bought the sexual services of hundreds of women in Haiti and Liberia who said they were forced to sell their bodies due to hunger and poverty. "Evidence from two peacekeeping mission countries...

Pro-life activists are reporting that a medical emergency took place on June 6, 2015, at the Orlando Women’s Center, a high-volume abortion facility owned by the notorious abortionist James Pendergraft. Michele Herzog of the Pro-life Action Ministries Central Florida posted heartbreaking photos on Facebook showing a young, African-American woman as she was wheeled out the back door of the abortion facility and loaded into an awaiting ambulance. She was transported to a Winnie Palmer Hospital. Also responding to the incident were six other police and fire vehicles, including a Fire Department ladder truck, a Fire Department supervisor’s vehicle, and four...

One of children’s favorite Muppets and a feminist icon, Jim Henson’s Miss Piggy character, is now officially on record as being pro-choice, after an MSNBC interviewer asked her point blank for her stance on abortion. This year, Miss Piggy was chosen for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art’s First Award at the Brooklyn Museum, where she publicly proclaimed, “Moi is a feminist!” “Today I have come to you as a tough woman, a proud feminist, an international star, a best-selling author, icon, diva … and now I have a Sackler Center First Award,” Miss Piggy said at the...

In discussing the scandal engulfing former House speaker Dennis Hastert, who is due in court this week, one thing must be made absolutely clear. What he is alleged to have done to young boys has absolutely nothing to do with being gay or gay rights. * Almost immediately after the news broke of Hastert’s indictment, folks looked to Congress for signs of hypocrisy. Former representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, made an assertion during an appearance on Huffington Post Live last Monday that was flat-out inappropriate. “Dennis Hastert twice as speaker tried to get the house to pass a...

A teacher at Encinal High School in Alameda, Calif., allegedly told his tenth-grade students to find their parents’ sex toys and condoms and take selfies with them for extra credit. A local CBS affiliate reports that two of the students’ mothers, Kimberly Cobene and Evangeline Garcia, had heard about the assignment from a counselor at the school. “It was to go into your parents’ private drawers or whatever to seek out sexual toys or condoms, or anything of that nature and to take a selfie with it,” Cobene said. According to CBS, the school administration has tried to play off...

Disney is firing tech employees and replacing them with (legal) foreigners. [A]bout 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost. But the layoffs at Disney and at other companies, including the Southern California Edison power utility, are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the...

Planned Parenthood is now offering “in home sex ed.” Pretty weird? It is called the Responsible Sex Education Institute and the largest chain of abortion clinics says it, “educates and empowers individuals and communities to make responsible choices regarding their sexuality and sexual health by serving as a source for safe, confidential, unbiased, and accurate information about sex and sexuality.” But, just what are they teaching? Apparently, not abstinence…. Rebecca Engle Planned ParenthoodRebecca Engel, Education Program Manager for the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains’ sex-ed program, told Trans* Youth Channel that abstinence education does not work. Planned Parenthood has...

Writing in the Washington Post, Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic Senator from Rhode Island, offered a curious suggestion for dealing with global warming skeptics: (Snip) That's right -- a sitting U.S. Senator is suggesting RICO laws should be applied to global warming skeptics. Courts have been defining RICO down for some time and in ways that aren't particularly helpful. In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled RICO statutes could be applied to pro-life activists on the grounds that interstate commerce can be affected even when the organization being targeted doesn't have economic motives. (Snip) In February, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., attempted a...