Free Republic

Restoring justice When Sen. Sessions takes the reins, justice can return to the Justice Department By Robert Knight - - Sunday, January 15, 2017 ANALYSIS/OPINION: Eric Holder and Loretta E. Lynch have been perhaps the most flagrant partisans ever to hold the office of attorney general. Year after year, they rubber stamped whatever the Obama administration wanted to do, legally or otherwise. So it was an eye-roller when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat, announced Thursday why he was going to vote against fellow Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination for U.S. attorney general: “I am not confident in Sen....

With the repeal of Obamacare gathering a considerable amount of corporate media attention, it is important to remember the UniParty, Democrats and Republicans, have been paid by the U.S. CoC to retain it at all costs. ♦ The U.S. Chamber of Commerce constructed a short list of Wall Street-centric legislative priorities back in 2014 for legislative years ’15 and ’16. Among those priorities was: Retention of Obamacare Implementation of Common Core federal education standards. Passage of the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal (TPP) Comprehensive immigration reform to include amnesty. the-big-club-2 U.S. CoC President Tom Donohue has spent hundreds of millions via K-Street...

No One Cared About Hacking until We found Out How Corrupt Liberals Are By S. Noble - January 6, 2017 US major government and military organizations are hacked all the time by endless numbers of foreign and domestic actors. Nothing was done to fix our cybersecurity. But let a privates organization like the DNC get hacked or careless John Podesta’s emails get hacked and all hell breaks loose. John Podesta left his smart phone in a cab, he fell for a phishing incident and his password was ‘passwØrd”. Hillary put our state secrets on a personal server she kept in...

The following list is my take on 2016's 10 Most Important Events/happenings. Please add your own list, top 10, top 3, etc. Comments are always helpful. 1. Donald Trump elected president 2. Hillary Clinton disempowered 3. Republicans retain Supreme Court 4. Republicans achieve approx 60% of the nation's higher elected seats nationally 5. Russia & allies defeat US and allies in the ISIS/Syria wars 6. China builds military island in the South China Sea 7. Federal Reserve attempts to lay groundwork for recession by announcing 3 rate hikes for 2017 ahead of time. 8. Traditional media matched by alternative media...

LONDON (AP) -- Europe's leaders are not expecting a smooth ride in 2017 following a year marked by political upheaval, extremist attacks, unchecked immigration, and a rising military threat from Russia. Britain is suing for divorce, the far-right is on the march, some former Soviet satellites seem disillusioned with the West even as Russia seeks to regain its influence, and America will soon inaugurate an untested, seemingly Russia-friendly president who has voiced doubts about the usefulness of the NATO alliance. The uncertainty is thick enough to breathe. It all looks so different from the triumphant panorama presented more than two...

Who would have thought that Bowe Bergdahl would score a presidential pardon before Hillary Clinton? Not that President Barack Obama has pardoned either one -- at least not yet. But Christmas is coming. So don't be surprised if Obama lets Sgt. Bergdahl walk instead of having him stand trial, as scheduled, for desertion and misbehavior in the face of the enemy. U.S. Army Sgt. Bergdahl endangered his fellow soldiers when he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009, leaving his weapon and body armor behind, and walked into the arms of the Taliban.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A military judge weighing evidence of injuries to service members who searched for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said Friday that the soldier bears some responsibility for risky search missions triggered by him walking off his post in Afghanistan. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, said at a pretrial hearing that he still hasn't decided how far he'll let prosecutors go, if at all, in using evidence of the serious wounds. One soldier was shot in the head and suffered a traumatic brain injury; the other required hand surgery. "Sgt. Bergdahl is not responsible for a...

Automatic voter registration bill dies in Illinois House after veto, but similar legislation could follow SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill that would automatically register voters across Illinois has held up in the General Assembly, leaving unclear whether such a bill can secure enough votes to become law amid the current political environment. The Illinois State Senate easily topped the total needed to override the veto with a 38-18 vote in favor. The parties, however, were more divided in the Illinois House of Representatives. The bill received 67 yes votes. However, 71 votes were required to override...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The state of Georgia is asking President-elect Donald Trump to investigate what it described as "failed cyberattacks" on its secretary of state's network that it traced to the U.S. Homeland Security Department.

(Salt Lake Tribune) – The $2 million cashier’s check was drawn at a St. George bank Nov. 5, 2010. From there, it was sent by FedEx to a Los Angeles attorney who represented Ireland-based Full Tilt Poker. Made out to “Mail Media LTD” — a Full Tilt-owned entity used to launder online-gambling funds — the millions then were deposited at Basler Kantonalbank in Switzerland, where Mail Media had an account. And from there, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings is investigating whether it went into a Marshall Islands account in the name of Searchlight Holding Inc. to benefit, or even bribe,...

Atheist activist, Green candidate Rob Sherman dies in plane crash Rob Sherman, who died over the weekend in a crash of his small plane in Marengo, operated a business helping people build aircraft from kits. But the 63-year-old was better known as a colorful political activist and Green Party candidate — some might say gadfly — who called journalists and introduced himself as “Rob Sherman, your favorite atheist.” At one time, he had license plates that spelled out ATHEIST. Though he came in for derision as a self-promoter, he challenged the use of government-sponsored Christmas creches and displays and anything...

County officials in western Colorado have regularly lambasted Planning 2.0 and this week, Garfield County joined in with five other counties in the western United States considering suing to halt the rule, which they have criticized as a central-planning measure. The BLM this month announced that the rule was final and on Monday, Garfield County agreed to spend as much as $40,000 with the Texas-based property-rights organization, the American Stewards of Liberty, to halt it. While Garfield County is taking an active role, Mesa County officials are looking to Congress and a Republican administration under President-elect Donald Trump to deal...

In just two months' time, the world will bid farewell to President Obama. In his final overseas trip before exiting the White House next January, Mr. Obama stood alongside his German counterpart Angela Merkel at a press conference in Berlin, warning against a "meaner, harsher, more troubled world." In the wake of last week's stunning electoral victory by Donald Trump and the Republican Party, he seemed a diminished figure, as did Mrs. Merkel, the guardian of a liberal ancien regime that is beginning to crumble on both sides of the Atlantic. The winds of change are sweeping through the West,...

Thousands of sensitive assets belonging to U.S. Secret Service agents, including firearms, computer laptops, work badges, telephones and even motor vehicles, have been lost during the past 15 years, according to documents obtained by nonprofit government watchdog Judicial Watch. “This is supposedly an elite law enforcement agency — how did all this equipment get stolen?” or lost. “This is alarming. Every American should be alarmed about this,” Judicial Watch’s Irene Garcia told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Secret Service agents reported 11,780 lost or stolen assets between fiscal years 2001 and 2016, according to the data Judicial Watch received, although...

Politics Oregon Bully Who Took Down Christian Bakery Tossed Out in Election In 2013, Oregon Democrat Brad Avakian, as commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, put a Christian bakery out of business because its owners stood up for their religious convictions. Fast forward to 2016 and Avakian, not unlike many of his fellow Democrats, got served a big slice of sweet justice. Sweetcakes by Melissa, owned by Melissa and Aaron Klein, was forced out of business by Avakian and the BOLI in 2013. Klein told Independent Journal Review that they were fined $135,000 and the state garnished...

Think the government has your back? Nah. But they sure do have Hillary’s. You know how the DOJ was involved in a “nonpartisan” investigation of Hillary’s emails? Well it turns out that 97% of the donations from DOJ employees went to…guess who? Hillary Clinton. From The Hill: Federal government employees are opening their wallets to help Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump on Nov. 8. Of the roughly $2 million that federal workers from 14 agencies spent on presidential politics by the end of September, about $1.9 million, or 95 percent, went to the Democratic nominee’s campaign, according to an analysis...

Former Prosecutor: The Clintons Are So Corrupt, Everything ‘They Touch Turns To Molten Lead’ [VIDEO] Ginni Thomas Pithy former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova believes the recent Project Veritas video by James O’Keefe featuring DNC contractors explaining their dirty practices to foment violence at Trump events, is a prima facie case of federal and state criminal activity. DiGenova says prosecutors should investigate everyone in the video, including Illinois Democrat Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s husband, Bob Creamer, who suddenly retired last week. In this exclusive 26-minute video interview for The Daily Caller News Foundation, diGenova explains why many former and current FBI officials...

POLITICS Clinton Ally Aided Campaign of FBI Official’s Wife Group linked to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe donated nearly half a million dollars to 2015 state Senate candidate Campaign finance records show Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI. ENLARGE Campaign finance records show Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI. PHOTO: PAUL...

Emails recovered from Hillary Clinton's server by the FBI and made public Wednesday cast doubt on the former secretary of state's own testimony about her email use. Responding to a set of questions under oath last week, Clinton said through her lawyer that she did not recall discussing her server with Bryan Pagliano, the IT aide whose immunity deal was the first to emerge publicly from the year-long FBI probe. "Secretary Clinton states that she does not recall having communications with Bryan Pagliano concerning or relating to the management, preservation, deletion, or destruction of any emails in her clintonemail.com email...

Negotiators from more than 170 countries on Saturday reached a legally binding accord to counter climate change by cutting the worldwide use of a powerful planet-warming chemical used in air-conditioners and refrigerators. -snip-While the Paris agreement included pledges by nearly every country to cut emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels that power vehicles, electric plants and factories, the new Kigali deal has a single target: chemical coolants called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, used in air-conditioners and refrigerators.-snip-And while the Paris pledges are broad, they are also voluntary, often vague and dependent on the political will of future world...