Free Republic

One for the hypocrisy hall of fame: Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff.Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA’s staff through a Card Check election.A filing with the NLRB does not necessarily mean that the union and management are in direct confrontation. For example, although Volkswagen tacitly backed the United Auto Workers’ recent effort to organize its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, the company still...

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...

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...

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke out against racial profiling Wednesday, arguing the practice undermines the relationship between communities and law enforcement officials. He also reflected on his own experiences with profiling in years past. The attorney general told an audiance at the annual National Action Network convention in New York that his father gave him advice as a boy on how to interact with police if he ever felt he had been stopped unfairly. “I thought of my father’s words years later, when – as a college student – I was pulled over twice on the New Jersey turnpike and...

Carney's points make sense, but don't those exact same arguments apply to the big, bad corporations Democrats are targeting? Of course they do. But that's not the point. As we discussed yesterday, Democrats are hoping to replicate their successful 2012 playbook by shifting voters' focus onto ancillary issues, and away from the political fundamentals. This week they're trotting out equal pay for women in an effort to underscore their "Republican war on women" meme. President Obama is signing two executive orders related to the issue today, while the Senate will debate the Paycheck Fairness Act: Obama's latest foray into the...

Despite advocates’ cheers about paycheck equity, the Obama White House has paid women less than men for years.

A recent visit to a Catholic church in another state brought a reminder that somewhere around 40% of Catholics who regularly attend mass are devoted Democrat voters. The car in the next space had a bumper sticker supporting a self-described Catholic Democrat well known for supporting partial birth abortions. The overt act of placing a sign on one’s car begs a few questions. Is it reasonable that in this era of effective mass communication a potential voter could fail to know what a politician’s positions are? Could a Catholic voter be engaged enough to want to place a sign on...

State senator accused of gun charges SAN FRANCISCO — A California state senator who authored gun control legislation asked for campaign donations in exchange for introducing an undercover FBI agent to an arms trafficker, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI criminal complaint that names 25 other defendants, including Raymond Chow, a onetime gang leader with ties to San Francisco's Chinatown known as "Shrimp Boy," and Keith Jackson, Yee's campaign aide. The affidavit accuses Yee of conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and to illegally import firearms. Yee...

The White House says President Barack Obama will make a statement on Ukraine before he departs Thursday for a day of events in Florida. The statement is scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern time on the South Lawn. The U.S. imposed sanctions earlier this week against several Russian officials for their role in the crisis in Ukraine.

New orders issued by the Obama administration bans engagement and forces agents to run and hide in the face of an attack by illegals crossing the porous southern US border.

Warren Buffett epitomizes everything that is wrong with the global economy, and the U.S. economy specifically. He is the consummate crony capitalist, a brilliant yet conniving oligarch who intentionally plays on the gullibility of the masses to portray himself as one thing, when in reality he is something else entirely.He publicly talks about how rich people need to pay more in taxes, then turns around and pioneers new ways for his company Berkshire Hathaway to avoid hundreds of millions in taxes. He thinks that by going on television stuffing ice cream cones and hamburgers in his mouth and acting all grandfatherly...

The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, met Sunday with U.S. actor Sean Penn, and after taking the almost traditional selfie , asked him to be their spokesman to the U.S. authorities for dialogue and peace . "We spoke of the great interest that we have, I have asked Sean Penn to forward to where it can transmit more interest we have, that I have as president of the new ambassador Maximilien Arvelaiz in Washington move toward relationships first dialogue "Maduro said, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.

Israel is displaying the weapons cache from the Iranian shipment to Gaza on Monday, in a bid to show the international community the 'true face' behind the Islamic Republic. The IDF spokesperson's office announced Sunday that the Klos C ship, which docked in Eilat over the weekend, has been unloaded and all the contents examined. The list includes: 40 M-302 rockets, with a range of 90 to 160 km; 181 mortar shells, 122 mm caliber; about 400,000 bullets, 7.62 caliber - which are usually used in Kalashnikov-type assault rifles.

Remember yesterday at CPAC when Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told that devastating story about a young boy who said he no longer wanted free, government-provided school lunch because that meant he didn’t have “someone who cared for him?” And how that meant Democrats want poor Americans to have “full stomachs and an empty soul?” Well, it turns out none of that was true.... Ryan himself took to Facebook Thursday evening to express his “regret” for “failing to verify the original source of the story.” He then links to a National Review article that quotes the story without indicating it was...

What will the fascist gay lobby say now? Governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, has been told by her gay hairdresser that he will no longer be working on her coif. It seems that her hairdresser, Mr. Antonio Darden, does not appreciate the Governor’s stance on homosexuality and gay marriage. Because of this he will no longer cut her hair.

"Remember when this sort of thing was ipso facto evidence that someone was a lunatic, a conspiracy theorist, a hate-monger, and unfit for public discourse?" The Montana Democratic Party today called on Congressman Steve Daines, who claims in his latest TV ad to be a “fifth-generation Montanan,” to clear up confusion about his roots by releasing his birth certificate.Daines’ latest ad asserts he “grew up in Bozeman, a fifth-generation Montanan,” which directly contradicts earlier versions of his biography when he claimed: “I’m a third-generation Montanan, kind of that classic Montana kid.” "So the dispute is really whether Daines’s great-grandfather and...

A Canada casino says a performance by U.S. comic George Lopez will go on as scheduled Friday after he was arrested for alleged public intoxication....

If there's one constant in life in regards to liberals, it's hypocrisy. The darling elites that love capitalism when it fills their coffers as they live in feudal splendor decry that very system when it comes to the rest of us. The latest bit of Hollywood hypocrisy is that a number of film industry groups have gathered together in a petition asking for tax relief. Yep, the same people who spent years whining that the Bush tax cuts favor the rich and hurt the economy (all lies as the tax cuts helped everybody and tax revenues to the federal government...

Labor Unions look out for the average worker in roughly the same manner Michael Corleone looked out for his “business associates”. Apparently, in the city of Milwaukee, if you are a government contractor who requires your employees to pay Union dues to the Service Employees International Union, you don’t have to worry about complying with the city’s new “living wage” requirements. See, Unions care more about thuggishly extorting money from “the working man” than helping that same man make ends meet. According to the Washington Examiner:Milwaukee County officials approved a living wage requirement for local government contractors to pay at...

I see Pelosi and her lapdog media are going to push for more liberty to be destroyed by demanding a higher minimum wage. Doesn't she own wineries along with her husband?.. How much do they pay their grape pickers? When she took over as the Speaker of the House, I remember seeing a report that she is the RICHEST PERSON TO EVER hold that office. You don't hear much about that, do you?