Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A story that sounds like a movie script is slowly grinding its way to trial. All of the 29 defendants in the massive corruption case involving suspended State Senator Leland Yee and reputed gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow appeared in federal court Thursday. With so many defendants, lawyers, and documents, the judge is trying to set up a system to manage what could be an unwieldy trial. What makes it even harder is that not everyone's on the same page. The frustration is beginning to show. There are 29 defendants, even more lawyers, a 137 page...

A Utah businessman is rocking both state and national politics after claiming Utah Attorney General John Swallow helped him broker a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make a federal investigation into his company quietly disappear, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Jeremy Johnson was allegedly told that the price would be $600,000, and claims to have made an initial payment of $250,000 when he was slapped with a federal lawsuit. Now he says he wants his money back. The Salt Lake Tribune points out that Johnson has no way of knowing whether the funds actually made it to...

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI) says her constituents are "frustrated and embarrassed" by Hawaii's failed Obamacare exchange, which cost taxpayers $204 million and signed up only 8,000 people. On Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) announced it will launch an investigation into Hawaii's busted Obamacare program. "This is not a partisan issue, this is an economic issue," said state Sen. Sam Slom. Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie previously predicted "hundreds of thousand of people" would sign up for Obamacare in the President's home state. On Thursday, President Barack Obama tried to rally Democrats to support his unpopular Obamacare program. "I think Democrats...

How much do Americans trust President Obama? Not much, according to a Fox News poll. Sixty-one percent of respondents in the poll released Thursday said Obama lies at least some of the time on important issues. An additional 20 percent said he lies every now and then. Only 15 percent believe the president is completely truthful. Predictably, Republicans were more likely to believe Obama is a liar, with 85 percent saying he lies some or most of the time. Thirty-one percent of Democrats said the president is always truthful. What's interesting is that independents were slightly more likely to believe...

NEW YORK, April 17, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York City councilman has effectively told traditional marriage supporters they are “not welcome” in the Big Apple. In response to Chick-fil-A’s proposed plans to expand their business and set up restaurants in several locations, including New York City, Councilman Daniel Dromm told the Huffington Post that the fast-food chain would not be welcome in the most populous city in the country. Councilman Daniel Dromm “We don’t need bigots coming to New York City,” Dromm told HuffPost. “They are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community,...

Yesterday was a significant day in the IRS abuse scandal. The scandal evolved from being about pesky delays in IRS exemption applications to a government conniving with outside interests to put political opponents in prison. Emails obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act reveal Lois Lerner cooking up plans with Justice Department officials to talk about ways to criminally charge conservative groups that are insufficiently quiet. Larry Noble, a law professor now with the Soros-funded Campaign Legal Center , was cited in the emails as someone agitating to jail conservatives who “falsely” report on IRS forms that...

Key members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressed outrage at revelations made in newly released emails showing ex-IRS official Lois Lerner coordinating with the Department of Justice on prosecuting nonprofit groups. One committee member said the emails prove why the IRS is “scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails.” IRS commissioner John Koskinen was recently threatened with contempt for stonewalling the committee’s investigation. Koskinen claimed in a hearing that it could take years to provide the documents requested by Oversight. “The release of new documents underscores the political nature of IRS Tea Party...

AUSTIN, TX, April 16, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new survey by a liberal polling firm is bad news for Wendy Davis, the Democratic would-be governor of Texas who rose to national prominence after filibustering a bill to restrict abortions in the state. Although Davis promotes herself proudly as a candidate who cares about “women’s issues” – a euphemism for legalized abortion-on-demand, or as the Davis team describes it, “expanding access to women’s health care” – it seems women in Texas aren’t interested in what she’s selling. According to Public Policy Polling, 46 percent of Texas women view Davis “unfavorably,” and...

UPDATE: Late Wednesday, Colorado Democrats abandoned the radical bill after not having enough votes: Colorado Democrats abandoned their own divisive abortion proposal Wednesday, axing the bill after one lawmaker expressed indecision and it became clear they might not have the votes to pass it in a chamber where every vote matters. Democrats used a legislative maneuver to shelve a bill that would have banned any state regulation of reproductive decisions such as abortion and contraception. It had been scheduled for a vote Wednesday evening in the Senate, where the party holds a slim one-seat majority. The move came after Sen....

The outlook for the president’s health care overhaul suddenly appears brighter, and some Democrats are saying it’s time for the party to openly embrace the law that Republicans consider their best campaign weapon. Activists in one Senate race are doing just that. Other Democratic candidates, however, remain wary, unsure that a modest dose of good news will be enough to offset countless TV ads denouncing “Obamacare.” Those worries are well founded, say Republicans who shrug off the developments Democrats tout. […] Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to “repeal and replace” the health care law without having a...

DETROIT (AP) — Pressure was building Wednesday for Michigan lawmakers to commit $350 million to Detroit pensions, a day after the city reached tentative agreements with pension funds and a retiree group to reduce payouts. Retired police officers and firefighters would see smaller cost-of-living payments but no cut in pension benefits. Retirees and city employees who qualify for a pension will get a ballot in a few weeks.

A plan, now stealthily making its way through state legislatures with astonishing speed, would junk the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote. The plan involves an Interstate Compact where states would commit to select electors pledged to vote for the national popular vote winner regardless of how their own state voted. When enough states pass this law -- sufficient to cast the Electoral College's majority 270 votes -- it will take effect. The Electoral College will become a vestigial anachronism. So far, nine states and the District of Columbia -- casting 136 electoral...

Really? With every Republican in the country set to run ObamaCare attack ads this fall, the Democratic Party’s going to double down in a perennially red state on the captain of the Healthcare.gov Titanic?There’s got to be a hidden motive in pushing a story this bananas to the media. But what? In her darkest hour last fall, Kathleen Sebelius suffered one of the deepest cuts from an old family friend who accused her of “gross incompetence” over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and demanded that she resign as secretary of health and human services. Now she is weighing...

Mayor Bill de Blasio is the first New York City mayor to release his tax returns in 12 years, according to the WSJ. de Blasio earned $165,000 as public advocate last year and brought in an additional $52,000 in rent on a second home he owns in Park Slope, according to his 2013 tax returns. Mr. de Blasio’s effective tax rate was 8.3%. As WSJ reports, Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who served as mayor from 2002 through 2013, released highly redacted copies of his return that gave scant information about his net worth. In 2001, during...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donors gave more than $10 million in March to the committee tasked with electing House Democrats and helped it amass a $40 million fund to fight skepticism that Republicans can be ousted from their majority in November. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $10.3 million in March, putting it atop the fundraising contest among party-directed campaign committees. That sum also outpaced most three-month fundraising tallies released thus far from super PACs, which can accept unlimited donations. Donations to House Democrats' campaign committee are capped at $32,400. "The DCCC has sustained a blistering fundraising pace this election cycle...

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson says the White House wanted him to apologize for “offending” President Obama after he famously delivered a conservative message at the National Prayer Breakfast last year. Carson, the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, recalls the events surrounding his 2013 speech in his new book, One Nation: What We Can All Do To Save America’s Future. The Daily Caller obtained an advance copy of the book, which is set for release May 20. “He did not appear to be hostile or angry,” Carson writes of Obama, “but within a matter of minutes after the...

Republicans will nominate someone younger than her, and it won't make a difference to young people.Our old colleague Patrick Caldwell has an interesting article up at Mother Jones about the way the Hillary Clinton campaign—or whatever we can call it at this point, since it isn't actually a campaign but it isn't exactly just a bunch of independent people doing their own thing either—is going after college students. I had forgotten how idiotically hostile the Hillary '08 campaign was toward college students in Iowa, but that's just one of innumerable mistakes that one presumes she'll attempt to correct this time...

Florida Rep. Perry Thurston failed to disclose $11,000 in donations from gambling interests when he blasted Gov. Rick Scott last week on gaming issues. A subsidiary of a Malaysian-based casino company donated the money to a political action committee listing Thurston as its sole “associated legislator.” Thurston, a Democratic candidate for Florida Attorney General, issued a scathing press release Thursday attacking Scott for failing to finalize a new gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Scott and other Republican lawmakers have said a new agreement with the Seminoles must be completed before passing new gambling legislation that might allow...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans increasingly think Democrats have a better plan for healthcare than Republicans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the White House announced that more people than expected had signed up for the "Obamacare" health plan. Nearly one-third of respondents in the online survey released on Tuesday said they prefer Democrats' plan, policy or approach to healthcare, compared to just 18 percent for Republicans. This marks both an uptick in support for Democrats and a slide for Republicans since a similar poll in February. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius stepped down last week after...

The International Renaissance Foundation's mission is to foster an open, participatory, plaurlist society based on democratic values in Ukraine...

Deep-pocketed donors are turning over multimillion-dollar checks to political organizations for November’s elections, and the sums raised by the national parties and their super PAC allies are already approaching the $1 billion mark. […] At the moment, Democrats seem to have a roughly 3-to-1 advantage over Republicans in cash raised and saved through independent groups. That balance of power could quickly change as more reports are filed. …

Harry Reid’s jihad against the Koch Brothers has already yielded a hilarious video compilation (by the Free Beacon) of his 134 mentions of their name. But now with new information, his Koch addiction can become a potent tool in the hands of Republicans. Call it karma, if you like, but the former boxer now leading the Senate majority has left himself wide open.It turns out that Koch Industries employees and PACs have donated to quite a large number of Congressional Democrats. The data was right there on Open Secrets when Jeff Dunetz of Truth Revolt picked it up and posted...

Mallory Factor recently presented parts of his newest book, Big Tent: The Story of the Conservative Revolution – As Told by the Thinkers and Doers Who Made It Happen, to an audience at the Heritage Foundation. Factor is the John C. West Professor of International Politics and American Government at The Citadel, a military academy in South Carolina. He is also a Fox News contributor and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He brought the constitutional challenge, Free Enterprise Fund vs. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on business accounting before the Supreme Court. In...

Tied to an unpopular president and his signature health care law, Democrats in the nation’s largest swing state see medical marijuana as a potential antidote to political malaise in this year’s midterm elections. Party operatives are pushing a constitutional amendment that would make Florida the first state in the South to legalize some pot use. Polls show the measure has widespread public support, and it’s particularly popular among young voters—a critical part of the Democratic coalition with historically weak turnout in non-presidential election years. “I wish that it didn’t take medical marijuana on the ballot to motivate our young voters,”...

Months away from Election Day, the Democrats are already cutting and running away from Obamacare. Clinton is the man to help them embrace it, attack obsessed Republicans—and win.Let Bill do it. With Democrats facing a daunting midterm season, it’s time to bring in the Big Dawg, not just as a campaigner but as a strategic driving force with the resources to deploy and dominate the message wars from coast to coast. Put him in charge of one of the existing super PACs—which would instantly multiply its fundraising—or form a new one that can operate on a genuinely super scale, with...

With pro-abortion Democrats controlling the Colorado state legislature and the governor’s office, abortion activists are pushing what pro-life groups are calling the most radically pro-abortion legislation in the state’s history. Colorado Family Action has alerted its members about SB 175, that it says pro-life advocates need to steadfastly oppose. colopic2“This is a radical bill that would create a “fundamental right” to abortion among other things defined as “reproductive healthcare” in this bill,” the group says. “No Colorado State governmental body at any level would be able to enact a policy that “denies or interferes with an individual’s reproductive health care...

Sadly, it has come down to this. When they assumed power in 2009, Democrats promised that a trillion-dollar stimulus package would invigorate the economy and create millions of jobs. It did not happen—all while trillions of dollars were added to the national debt which will become due when these current lawmakers are safely in retirement. The president of the United States and congressional Democrats promised that if they passed Obamacare, you could keep your doctor and your health plan while your premiums would decrease by an average of $2,500 a year. All of these claims were assessed and identified by...

On June 10, a blistering new book on the Justice Department and the shenanigans inside the DOJ Voting Section is released. "Obama's Enforcer" by John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky will detail abuses of power at Holder's Justice Department. It has disturbing stories from inside the Department about Justice Department staff both giving a pass to criminal election activity as well as naming the names of those inside the Civil Rights Division who engaged in criminal activity. Amazon link here.

In an interesting interview [link at URL] to the New York Review of Books, George Soros shared his ideas on many topics including Europe, Russia and the Ukranian crisis. He also presented his new book [link at URL] The tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival? Whether one agrees or disagrees with Soro's interpretations and arguments, it is hard to deny that the interview is extremely insightful and gives a lot of food for thought. I offer a discussion of the part of the interview devoted to Ukraine. George Soros emphasized the necessity of a large-scale technical and financial...

The top Democrat who is leading the effort to help the party elect more members to Congress said he cares more about amnesty than the midterm elections. Appearing on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley on Sunday, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the midterm elections are taking a backseat to the amnesty legislation Democrats and establishment Republicans desperately want. "We'd rather pass an immigration bill than worry about the election. We have got 190 Democrats ready to vote on a comprehensive immigration bill today," Israel said while also accusing Republicans...

Former Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino (D) — he stepped down a couple of weeks ago — has pleaded guilty today to federal charges of money laundering, according to the McAllen Monitor. Just 17 days after stepping down as sheriff and three days after his former chief of staff entered a related plea, Treviño stood before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez and pleaded guilty for his part in laundering campaign contributions that were tied to a convicted drug trafficker. Testimony in court this morning suggested that the amount of money laundered could be anywhere between $70,000 and $120,000. Treviño was...

On the day before Jews prepared to begin their sacred holiday of Passover, a pair of horrible events cast a pall over the Jewish community. The Kansas Jewish Community Center became a tragic scene when a gunman opened fire. The gunman’s rampage also took him to the nearby retirement community of Village Shalom. The word “shalom” in Hebrew has three meanings. It translates to “hello,” “goodbye,” and “peace.” Now three innocent Americans were forced to say goodbye to the world. For their families, there will be no more peace. Hours before the shooting took place, another hateful individual was engaging...

On April 9th, a large group of Democrat representatives sent a letter asking President Obama to prohibit the importation of "military style, semiautomatic firearms." Led by Reps. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), the letter was signed by "about 80" Democrats. According to The Washington Times, Conyers and Engel are basing their request on the 1968 Gun Control Act, which they claim gives Obama "broad authority to prohibit guns and ammunition from being imported into the country." The exception would be if the products are "generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes." The...

They say Washington, D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people. And the biggest story splashed across the political tabloids is the now very ugly divorce of Tony and Heather Podesta, lobbyists extraordinaire. It’s not ugly in the way we’re used to. This is a decoupling carried out with a conscious air of respect and admiration, tarnished only by the soulless machinations of lawyers that we have come to expect wherever nontrivial sums are involved. No, it’s ugly because of the lifestyle being revealed around these rich and famous power-brokers. And no, it’s not just a matter of the “museum-quality art” they...

Ahead of the April 15 tax deadline, a record-high 60% of Californians say that they pay "much more" or "somewhat more" in taxes than they should, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) (and noted by John Seiler of Calwatchdog.org and Stephen Frank of CApoliticalnews.com). However, as PPIC Mark Baldassare notes at Fox&Hounds, Californians still believe that the answer is to tax wealthy earners or corporations more--not to reform and broaden the current tax system. The PPIC survey, which was conducted in March among 1,702 adults, notes: While about half of Californians view the...

Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow (full name Raymond Chow Kwok Cheung), the reputed San Francisco China Town Racketeer has a much more extensive relationship than some in the mainstream media would like to point out. Chow, who was in connection with a Federal probe which included disgraced California State Senator Leland Yee, has numerous connections to powerful California Democrats, particularly since his early release from a 24 year prison sentence on 2003. Since his release, Chow has been increasingly active in Democrat politics circles, regularly sharing the spotlight with leading Democrats, entertainers, Hollywood executives and socialites as part of the elite...

It’s an article of the faith of the Democrats that voter fraud is nothing to worry about because it never happens. Kim Strach, the North Carolina director of elections, has living proof — and some dead proof — otherwise. She has identified 35,750 persons who voted in North Carolina sharing a name, birth date and Social Security number with someone who voted in another state in 2012. Another 81 North Carolinians voted after they died. Ghosts have no constitutional rights, not yet, but Barack Obama and the Democrats think rigor mortis need not keep voters from practicing good citizenship. President...

Democrat Mike Dickinson recently promised to wage “war” on the NRA, Tea Party and Fox News. On Thursday, he was confronted by Greta Van Susteren in a tense exchange that ended with an embarrassing admission. “Why do you hate me?” Van Susteren asked, immediately getting to business. Dickinson, who apparently is not actually running for Congress, said he has a problem with her network as a whole. “Well, but no, what about me? I’m Fox News, I’m ‘trash,’ apparently, so what’s wrong with me?” the TV host responded. Dickinson conceded that he didn’t have a problem with Van Susteren personally,...

MONTGOMERY, AL, April 10, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – More than 100 people rallied at the Alabama State House in Montgomery yesterday afternoon to disprove a Democrat's controversial remarks that whites do not adopt black children and prefer to see interracial babies aborted. In March, state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said during a debate over a fetal heartbeat bill that “99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion. They ain't gonna let her have the baby.” In the same March...

Score another one for free political speech. On Tuesday, Federal District Judge Rudolph Randa soundly rejected a motion to dismiss a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Wisconsin prosecutors who are investigating the political activities of conservative groups (but not liberals). In a 19-page ruling, Judge Randa wrote that Wisconsin Club for Growth Director Eric O'Keefe's claim that the unlawful investigation violates his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights may proceed. Mr. O'Keefe has standing to bring the lawsuit because "chilled speech is, unquestionably, an injury supporting standing" and that claim doesn't depend on whether he is charged with a crime; "the threat...

Some Illinois lawmakers are calling for a federal constitutional convention to amend the Constitution in order to allow laws that limit the influence of money in politics. “When the Supreme Court of the United States rules that money is a protected speech and that ordinary people cannot pass common-sense laws because they might dilute the influence of the super-rich, it’s time to change the game,” Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Collins of the 16th District says. …

As you look through the long list (and its a very long list indeed) of issues that Democrats inject race and the perception of racism into the argument, the uproar over Voter ID Laws is the most hilarious and telling. One very simple concept, showing one's proof of identity at the polling place, is not only a common sense way to reduce voting fraud, but is a measure roundly supported by voters of all race and ethnicity. But to the progressive-left, this is yet another potential wedge issue to paint the Republican Party, and conservatives in particular, as racists dead...

. Obamacare has won. And that's why Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius can resign. Calls for Sebelius's resignation were almost constant after Obamacare's catastrophic launch. The problem wasn't just that Sebelius had presided over the construction of a fantastically expensive web site that flatly didn't work. It was that she didn't know healthcare.gov was going to instantly, systemically fail. And so the White House didn't know that healthcare.gov was going to instantly, systemically fail. The demands that Sebelius to step down — or be fired — were as deafening inside the building as outside of it. But...

During his speech at the Civil Rights Summit held at the LBJ Presidential Library, former President Bill Clinton sounded a gloomy note about the current state of the economy under President Obama. Clinton, whom Obama frequently described as the “Secretary of Explaining Stuff,” pointed out that the current state of the economy made it more difficult to unite Americans politically. “It is all the more difficult today because of the economic conditions that we find ourselves, where medium family income today after inflation is still lower than it was the day I left office,” he said, adding, “where all over...

Uh oh. Morning Joe often includes some of the best political minds around. AND THEY CAN’T COME UP WITH ANYTHING HILLARY HAS DONE EITHER! Were Mrs. Clinton a Republican, she’d be getting called an empty suit, albeit a well-traveled one. One panelist even suggests that she’ll have to reveal her big achievement in her upcoming book, which is to be published in June. As if her terms as senator and Secretary of State were carried out in secret! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBwUWnWraWU

The winds of political change sent a chill up the backs of national Democrat leaders Tuesday when two long-time Chicago Democrat powerhouses announced their support for Republican businessman Bruce Rauner, in his attempt to unseat incumbent Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. Reverend James T. Meeks of the 15,000 member strong Salem Baptist Church and Manny Sanchez, founder and managing partner of Sanchez Daniels & Hoffman LLP, the second largest minority-owned law firm in the United States, both made their intentions public today in statements and interviews given to Fox News. Both men are respected throughout Chicago, particularly among the black and...

There’s a reason popular culture matters. It’s because it is not what politicians say that changes minds. The opinions of your fellow human beings are formed through their interactions with technology. From the moment you first get your news from Twitter to the hours you while away looking at shared opinions and entertainment on Facebook, from the stories that are carefully selected for your television news to the radio commercials you listen to, from the pop-up “surveys” you see on your monitor to the lyrics in the pop songs you play on Pandora, your default opinions are formed in this...

"Today is a win for transparency in government and the taxpayers of Wisconsin. The Court of Appeals has agreed with the MacIver Institute that Sen. Erpenbach cannot carve out a special exemption to the open records law for whomever he chooses or try to hide public information when he works for Wisconsin taxpayers," Brett Healy, President of the MacIver Institute said. "Government employees and their unions should not be given a cloak of anonymity to hide their attempts to influence the legislative process. Today's decision requires them to play by the same rules as everyone else." The Court of Appeals...

The following document was prepared by members of the Durham, N.C., branch of Workers World Party and updated on April 8, 2014. The goal of this document is to help inform discussion at the March 29th Hard Times Are Fighting Times Conference on Socialism by placing current anti-racist struggles in the U.S. South and the U.S. labor movement in the context of historic national oppression and previous setbacks in the South. The goal is to avoid past mistakes and build greater unity in and between the anti-racist and union movements. To accomplish this we will first lay out some...