Free Republic

A watchdog group has found that IRS employees who owed back taxes were still paid $1 million in bonuses. Read more about this story below, via FoxNews.com: The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that while for the most part the reward program for IRS workers complied with federal regulations, employees who had themselves failed to pay their federal taxes and had discipline problems were also rewarded.

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. […] MMFA has regularly presented itself as a supporter of organized labor. It has argued that “economists point to declining union participation as one cause of the growing economic rift in America” and claimed it was a fact that “unions increase productivity [and] do...

"If all you have is a hammer," the old saying goes, "everything looks like a nail." Left unsaid is the fact that the real problem isn't the possession of a hammer, but the certitude that all you need is the hammer. In other words, it's a failure of the imagination -- which is a kind of arrogance -- that's really to blame. "I've got my hammer, and that's all I need. Besides, have you ever seen a problem that didn't look like a nail?" This is a version of what academics call "confirmation bias" -- the tendency to accept only...

In a not so surprising mistake, the latest ad from the Senate Majority PAC is missing a few things. The PAC, which is run by former aides to Harry Reid, has put out a new ad in Louisiana in an effort to help Mary Landrieu win the senate seat against the republican challenger, Bill Cassidy. The voiceover in the new ad states, “We’ve been battered by hurricanes, lost everything to floods. And for thousands of Louisianans, flood insurance and hurricane relief are our only protection. But the out-of-state billionaire Koch brothers funded the fight to let flood insurance premiums soar,...

Another Papal Scolding “… they make themselves up like little holy cards, looking up at heaven as they pray, making sure they are seen…" —Pope Francis, condemning Catholics (again) When will the Pope's relentless bashing of his own subjects cease? Apparently not as long as he has breath in him and a microphone to speak into. On April Fool’s day we had another rambling sermon likening Catholics to Pharisees who " go to Mass every Sunday, but better not get mixed up in things – I have faith for my health, I do not feel the need to give it...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid uses his official position to beat up on people. In private he may be a very nice man. In public he’s a thug and a bully who takes advantage of the way the U.S. Constitution immunizes him for any damage he may do to the reputations of others to attack everyone from those he’s called “shadowy billionaires” to ordinary, run-of-the-mill Americans who now find themselves stuck with health insurance plans they don’t like and with out-of-pocket expenses they cannot afford. It may not be fair to hold Reid accountable for what he has been saying...

Bill Donohue comments on his exchange with officials from New York’s Heritage of Pride parade: For the past few days I have been engaged in an e-mail conversation with officials from the Heritage of Pride parade, New York’s annual gay event; the dialogue has been cordial. I asked to join the parade under a banner that would read, “Straight is Great.” The purpose of my request was to see just how far they would go without forcing me to abide by their rules. It didn’t take long before they did.Today, I informed Heritage of Pride officials that I objected to...

Ban Bossy Hypocrites is my new video. The Obamas support banning the word Bossy and I will show you what great examples they are.

The Cummings/Issa feud is the showdown that keeps on giving. Democrats faced off with Republicans on the House floor, protesting GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's diss of Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings last week. Cummings' colleagues stood on the House floor on Thursday, holding up tablets, iPhones and iPads with screen showing images of Issa shutting down Cummings during a committee hearing a week ago. But the show of solidarity was closed down, with the presiding officer, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), deeming the display of electronic devices a violation of house rules.

Seems quiet out there. Russia invades a country one door down from the EU and crickets from the left. No cries of killing Putin and his family, no signs, No human shields....nothing.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church needs to find a way to offer healing, strength and salvation to Catholics whose marriages have failed, who are committed to making a new union work and who long to do so within the church and with the grace of Communion, Cardinal Walter Kasper told the world's cardinals. Jesus' teaching on the indissolubility of sacramental marriage is clear, the retired German cardinal said, and it would harm individuals and the church to pretend otherwise. However, "after the shipwreck of sin, the shipwrecked person should not have a second boat at his or her...

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...

Full Title Governor Cuomo’s Selective Anti-Gun Fervor: And This Is Why So Many Americans Have No Respect for Laws Or Lawmakers New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been the source of some of the most excessive anti-gun rants making up the sorry legacy of the Post Sandy Hook Ethics Train Wreck. It was a year ago that a unveiled a package of strict gun restrictions, saying that with “the senseless massacre in Newtown, Connecticut… New York must say enough is enough to gun violence.” Oh, Gov. Cuomo hates guns, believe you me. So what do you think happened when it...

Actress Maria Conchita Alonso loses acting job for supporting tea party January 19, 2014 by Michael Dorstewitz When a famed Cuban-born singer/songwriter/actress openly supported a California tea party gubernatorial candidate, the San Francisco Latino community responded much as one might expect — with derision instead of acceptance. Maria Conchita Alonso appeared with Assemblyman Tim Donnelly in a campaign ad promoting his bid for the GOP nomination. She added a Spanish translation and a little humor to Donnelly’s spiel, saying: Donnelly’s conservative views include a strong opposition to illegal immigration. He was once associated with the Minuteman Project, a group that...

What do you mean "us," Kemosabe? If Howard Dean wants to push a job-killing agenda of higher taxes and other redistributionist claptrap, that's his business. But could he please spare us the faux populism? In an email Dean sent out earlier today touting the "Inequality For All" house parties his DFA group is organizing [and what sounds like more fun than getting together to gripe about what other people have?], Dean wrote [emphasis added]: "These 'Inequality for All' Watch Parties are just the kind of action we need to start leveling the playing field between the 1% and the rest...

San Francisco can stand a lot, but it cannot abide a Tea Party member. An uproar over Venezuela-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso's support for a Tea Party candidate has led the 56-year-old thespian to depart the San Francisco production of "The Vagina Monologues," according to reports. Alonso was to star in a Spanish-language version of the popular show until it came out that she supports California gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly. Donnelly, a Tea Party sympathizer, also runs a Minuteman militia-like group that patrols the border. Alonso quit the show over threats, according to the San Jose Mercury News -- which...

(CNSNews.com) - "We're still a country very much addicted to tobacco," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a news conference last Friday, as she urged communities, schools and businesses to "help make the next generation a tobacco-free generation." A transcript of that news conference runs around 8,300 words, but there isn't a single word about the adverse health effects of marijuana smoking -- even as more states jump on the pot-legalization bandwagon. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana smoke is an irritant to the lungs, and "frequent marijuana smokers can have many of the same...

Self-righteous Tinseltown windbag Harvey Weinstein (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) is at it with the liberal causes again, but on this issue he lacks credibility like no other: the producer (of some of the most incredibly violent films to ever hit the screen) says he's got an anti-gun film currently in production (starring fellow moonbat Meryl Streep) -and the NRA "wish they weren't alive after I'm done with them"- Mr Weinstein -for whom self-awareness/shame is clearly not a strong suit- went on to say he's "gonna take the issue head-on", and "I don't think we need guns in this country"- with the ultimate aim is...

It's no mystery what the left intends to make its next life-or-death issue: income inequality. Liberals are all popping off about it. It's everywhere, from Obama's speeches to liberal think tanks to liberal reporters. It's almost as if they were conspiring to distract us from Obamacare. Nah! On "Meet the Press," PBS anchorwoman Judy Woodruff sounded the alarm, not as a dispassionate reporter but as a progressive advocate. While acknowledging Obama's problems with Obamacare, she breathlessly insisted, "At the same time, the argument for doing something about the economy, the argument for addressing inequality, is such a compelling argument." Behold...

Just as you were wrapping your mind around the idea that under Obamacare and the accompanying changes in the health-care system, your medical records will be floating around in some online repository, available to far too many people, you’re being told you’ll soon have a National Identity Card and a Western Hemisphere-compliant travel document whether you want it or not, if you plan to drive in the United States. The federal government says it soon will be enforcing its demands that state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards comply with Department of Homeland Security standards. DHS announced just before Christmas a...