Free Republic

New York Times best-selling author and long-time journalist Ed Klein said that Valerie Jarrett has been engaging in secret meetings with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in recent months, giving rise to speculations that the Massachusetts political newcomer is actually the administration’s choice to head the White House in 2016. “President Obama has authorized Valerie Jarrett, his most important political adviser, to hold secret meetings with Elizabeth Warren to encourage her to challenge Hillary Clinton because the Obamas do not want to see the Clintons succeed them in the White House,” Mr. Klein said during a broadcast interview on “America’s Forum” on...

Gov. Deval Patrick, who welcomed himself into the Corner Office with $12,000 damask drapes, is ushering himself out with a high-tech, luxury makeover — complete with marble countertops, facial recognition security cameras, blast-resistant windows and an emergency bunker with six plasma screen TVs — all for $11.3 million, more than $2 million over budget. “For a governor who isn’t spending a lot of time at the State House, he could definitely get to the (MEMA) bunker in Framingham a lot faster from his mansion in western Massachusetts than to the new one in Boston,” said watchdog Barbara Anderson of Citizens...

A big-hearted Revere firefighter who left his wallet to dry on a firehouse window ledge after battling a blaze said yesterday he pities the career criminal accused of stealing it — but he’s more concerned about the two tykes she had in tow. “I feel sorry for her and for the kids she was with, too,” Jamie Nadworny told the Herald. “I’m glad they have her if she has a rap sheet. Hopefully she’ll get whatever help she needs. And I feel really bad for the kids. I hope they don’t follow in her footsteps.”

In an echo of 2008 — when Ted and Caroline Kennedy backed upstart Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton — members of the Kennedy clan have been quietly wooing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and encouraging her to throw her hat in the ring, sources tell me. The question of whom to back in the 2016 presidential race has split the Kennedys down the middle. Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, and their eldest son, former US Rep. Joe Kennedy II, favor Warren — the darling of the party’s left-wing base who now sits in Ted Kennedy’s old seat — while Bobby Jr....

Complete Headline; Here comes the bride... HOURS late and in a very summery cocktail gown: A beaming Cheryl Hines marries Robert Kennedy Jr in a star-studded ceremony after rain causes chaos at family compound Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tied the knot with actress Cheryl Hines Saturday afternoon in a star-studded, heavily guarded event attended by hundreds of their friends and family. In front of a crowd including matriarch Ethel Kennedy, RFK Jr. and Cheryl said I Do at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts - after massive headaches caused by the horrible weather. [Snip] Ted Kennedy Jr led the...

<p>John Kerry is upset by heavy criticism from Israelis — left, right and center — of his recent ceasefire diplomacy. But that’s only half the story. More significant is the consternation of America’s Arab partners, starting with the president of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas was stunned that Kerry would fly off to Paris to negotiate with Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey in talks that excluded the PA and Egypt.</p>

Former Democratic congressman Barney Frank has some tough words for President Barack Obama about his handling of Obamacare. "The rollout was so bad, and I was appalled -- I don't understand how the president could have sat there and not been checking on that on a weekly basis," Frank tells the Huffington Post in a recent interview. "But frankly, he should never have said as much as he did, that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it. That wasn't true. And you shouldn't lie to people. And they just lied to people."

On July 25 Breitbart News reported that Massachusetts police chiefs wanted "sole discretion" over who can purchase a long gun, be it a rifle or a shotgun. On August 1 state lawmakers passed a bill that gives police chiefs such discretion. According to Reuters, police chiefs already had final say on would-be handgun purchasers, and the new law would extend that by providing them with "the authority to turn down a resident's request to buy a rifle or shotgun." House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D) commented on the law: "We seek not to be the safest state in the nation but...

A teenage girl was raped at the same Keith Urban show where 20 people got so drunk they were hospitalized, police said. The attack happened in front of a large crowd of other concertgoers on the lawn of the Xfinity Center, an outdoor amphitheater in Mansfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday night, a police statement said. The rape ended when a woman in the crowd pushed the alleged attacker off the victim and he fled, police said.

If at first you don't impede, try, try again. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a new law today restricting the free speech rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors. Patrick, a Democrat, said he was “still stunned” by the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in McCullen v. Coakley, striking down the state's previous 35-foot “bubble zone” at today's signing ceremony. The original law, drafted by current Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts President Marty Walz when she was a state legislator, required all “protesters” to stand dozens of feet away from the entrance of any such facilities. The justices did not rule that all such zoning...

Topsfield, Mass. --- (NECN) A motorist traveling on I-95 South in Topsfield, Massachusetts, endured a frightening moment Wednesday morning when an axe struck their vehicle. A landscaper driving a dump truck had failed to properly secure an axe in its rear cargo area. The axe came loose, flew off the truck and became lodged in the windshield of a car traveling behind it, nearly striking a passenger. The female passenger sat terrified in her seat after it all happened, with an axe lodged in the glass just inches from her face. She was covered in glass. "She was very shaken...

On a sweltering Saturday in July, approximately ten thousand protesters gathered on the steps of the Massachusetts state legislature and beyond in order to send a message to Gov. Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama: No more illegal immigrants. “The rally was an obvious sign that even here in ultra-liberal Massachusetts, there is a major political rebellion brewing against the corrupt, arrogant and dangerously disconnected political elites of our country,” said rally organizer Jeff Kuhner in an interview with Worldtribune.com. Mr. Kuhner is the host of WRKO’s morning radio talk show, The Kuhner Report. He is known as “Boston’s Bulldozer”...

Israeli anger at US envoy for his attempt to forge a ceasefire with Hamas sponsors Turkey, Qatar, in Paris talks. An Israeli minister accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of “digging a tunnel under the the Egyptian ceasefire proposal” by accepting Hamas's conditions for a ceasefire in Paris talks Saturday, Channel 2 reported. The minister's identity was not revealed. Kerry and top diplomats from Europe and the Middle East who gathered in Paris Saturday called for an extension to a temporary truce declared Saturday between Israel and Hamas. However, neither Israel, nor Egypt, nor the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud...

An anti-illegal immigration rally on Beacon Hill outside the State House on Saturday, July 26 was teeming with protesters. While Bree Sison of CBS Boston estimated that the gathering drew hundreds of people, Jeff Kuhner, the host of WRKO’s The Kuhner Report, who organized the rally, put the number closer to 10,000 people. People carrying signs that said “Deport illegals,” and “Americans before illegals” stood just outside the State House from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Related Massachusetts GOP Briefed on Immigration Crisis| 57,000 Reasons Immigration Overhaul May Be Stalled for Now| Obama Seeks Governors' Support on Immigrant Kids| Share...

Unguarded Comments Suggest Kerry Frustration At Civilian Toll In Gaza • 'It's a hell of a pinpoint operation' captured on open microphone Dominic Rushe in New York 20 July 2014 The secretary of state, John Kerry, on Sunday appeared to criticise Israel’s claims about the targeted scope of its attacks on Gaza, as a open microphone caught him talking to an aide ahead of a TV interview. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry, who was appearing on Fox News Sunday as part of a tour of all five main US talkshows,...

12-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas went into force on Saturday morning, as top diplomats pressed efforts to secure a longer-term ceasefire. The fragile ceasefire began at 8:00 am (0500 GMT). Hamas said it and other groups in Gaza had reached “national consensus on a humanitarian truce”, and Israel later confirmed it would observe “a humanitarian window in the Gaza Strip”. The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza advised people not to approach bombed-out buildings and militant bases for fear of “explosive objects”. The Israeli military warned Gaza residents who had been told to evacuate their homes not to return...

At least 10,000 Palestinian protesters have rallied and are clashing with Israeli military forces in and around Jerusalem following an attack on a UN school. The main clash site is at Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, though there are now reports of uprisings in the Old City portion of Jerusalem itself. […] Israeli army officials have told AFP news agency that “riot dispersal means” were being used to control the protest. […] Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said several officers were injured by rocks thrown at them in Jerusalem and that about 20 protesters were arrested. …

Israel on Thursday called out a United Nations aid agency for falsely claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces did not permit civilians to evacuate a Gaza school where 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack, reports the Washington Free Beacon. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) laid blame for the civilian deaths on the IDF, claiming it never received approval from the IDF for an evacuation from the facility. UNRWA released a statement claiming, “UNRWA had been attempting to negotiate with the [IDF] a pause in the fighting during which they would guarantee a safe corridor to relocate...

Today at least 15 people were killed and many wounded when Israeli forces shelled a UN-run school in northern Gaza. UN Chief Ban Ki Moon condemned the attack. The IDF said it was looking into the matter. Last night the IDF told the Red Cross to evacuate civilians from the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun. But Hamas refused to let the civilians leave the area.

Vilification of Hamas in Cairo has only increased since Operation Protective Edge erupted. CAIRO (AP) — In the Gaza war now in its third bloody week, Hamas’ battle isn’t only with Israel, even though that’s the country it is firing rockets at. The terrorist group that rules Gaza is demanding Egypt open its border with the tiny, blockaded strip of territory Even as it presents itself as a mediator in the conflict, Egypt is taking a hard line, refusing any opening that would strengthen Hamas, a group it accuses of fueling militancy on its soil. And so far, the Egyptian...