Free Republic

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...

[Caption:] U.S. Senator John McCain, center, speaks as Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut, Chris Murphy, second left, and Opposition leader Oleh Tyahnybok [All Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" leader], stand around him during a Pro-European Union rally in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Sen. John McCain (R. Ariz.) advocated for sending arms to Ukraine Tuesday [link at URL] on Fox News. McCain acknowledged the arms would not likely enable Ukraine to defeat the Russians in open war, but emphasized it could improve the Ukrainian military's morale and ensure that the Russians would have "a real fight...

The Russian government today claimed there are more than 100 American 'mercenaries' from a defense contracting company disguised as Ukrainian troops in the embattled former Soviet nation, a claim the American firm and top U.S. officials deny. ... The latest news relesae from Greystone, as posted on a company blog, is from September 2012, titled "New business in Russia" and simply says the company "provided executive protection services in Russia." In April 2012, the company announced it had been awarded a similar contract in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. ...

MOORHEAD, Minn. -- The minimum-wage boost that Minnesota legislators are expected to pass this week has restaurant and bar owners here wondering how the bill would affect their bottom lines in a border city already faced with tough competition from business-friendly North Dakota. At J.C. Chumley's in Moorhead, co-owner Josh Henstorf worries he would have to reduce employees' hours and raise prices, which may send customers to Fargo in search of a cheaper alternative. "I think it's going to do a lot more harm than good to the business, to the employees, to the end-users," Henstorf said of the wage...

Politics: This fall, Democrats will no doubt resurrect the "war on women" theme to try to hold the Senate. But they don't really care about all women, just the unmarried ones. The IBD/TIPP poll shows why. According to the Washington Post, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is building a huge computer database that will let it predict women's marital status. That way they can "pinpoint unmarried women as the target of specific, poll-test messages," according to one source quoted in the story. Despite all the talk among Democrats and the media about the "gender gap" that has supposedly resulted from...

DFLers, who generally frown on grandeur as part of their ideology, are going to build themselves a marvelous new office building. They have been deaf to the idea that it is wasteful and that there are countless ways to accommodate the few of them who are going to be displaced by renovation work on the Capitol. To save a few bucks -- cutting it from $94 million to $77 million -- they claim they are going to eliminate an adjoining parking ramp. But that was to have been principally for the public anyway, and the public has been ignored in...

The poll was conducted between March 19 and 23, a week before the White House declared “mission accomplished” on ObamaCare, so maybe it’s simply missing a recent surge in enthusiasm among lefties. The first rule of ACA polling, though, is that the numbers rarely move much no matter what’s going on with the law. They dipped after the Healthcare.gov Chernobyl in October, they bounced back a bit as sign-ups improved, but overall they’ve been steady at around -10 or -12 for years now. Hard to believe that an enrollment milestone will shift that trend markedly and durably, especially with premiums...