Free Republic

Michael Bloomberg is really working his contacts to win presidential support in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. After naming former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter as his national campaign chairman last week, Bloomberg is angling for a key endorsement from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, The Post has learned. The backing of the top Democrat in the heart of the old coal and steel region of western Pennsylvania would be a coup and potentially hurt former Vice President Joe Biden, a Scranton native and front-runner in national polls.

A radical group linked to rogue billionaire George Soros has been providing scripts containing anti-Trump talking points for constituents to read aloud during congressional town hall meetings. One of the scripts distributed by the Revolutionary Love Project encourages town hall participants meeting with their member of Congress to accuse the Trump administration of – wait for it – “xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia.” Constituents are urged to use those precise words to “forcefully condemn” President Trump’s immigration and border security initiatives, Aaron Klein reports at Breitbart News. Information about the scripts came as leaked audio from anti-Trump activists associated with the...

Unlike the butchery that bookended it, it merited no presidential statements, no saturation television coverage. But what took place at 6101 Prentice Street on Aug. 21 may say more about the nature of gun violence in the United States than any of those far more famous rampages. It is a snapshot of a different sort of mass violence — one that erupts with such anesthetic regularity that it is rendered almost invisible, except to the mostly black victims, survivors and attackers (...) “Clearly, if it’s black-on-black, we don’t get the same attention because most people don’t identify with that. Most...

The School District of Philadelphia’s special registration for immigrant students who speak a language other than English closes on Aug. 28, giving families of such students roughly two weeks to register their child for the upcoming school year. The school year begins Sept. 8 for grades 1 through 12, and on Sept. 12 for kindergarten students; interested families should contact the Multilingual Assessment Center at (215) 400–4240 and selecting option 1. The office is open for registration Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Student registration packets are also available through the district’s website at www.philasd.org/announcements/New-Immigrant-Student-Registration-Packet.pdf. Last year,...

A court ruling striking down a Pennsylvania law that made it easier for gun-rights advocates like the National Rifle Association to challenge local gun ordinances is drawing strong reaction from both sides of the issue. A spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says Thursday’s Commonwealth Court ruling that the law is unconstitutional will allow municipalities to pursue common-sense gun safety requirements. Sen. Daylin Leach is one of five Democrats who joined in the challenge of the law. He says municipalities that repealed their gun ordinances because of the law can now restore them. An attorney for four pro-gun groups dismisses...

President Barack Obama got four mayors to fully endorse his nationwide program to “build welcoming communities” for millions of “new Americans” and roll out the red carpet. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — who recently made headlines for terminating his city’s fire chief over a Christian book that described homosexual behavior as sin — signed on late last month to join three other mayors of major American cities: Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and Nashville’s Karl Dean. Reed’s message to the millions of refugees and immigrants entering the country: Come to Atlanta. “Reed became the nation’s fourth mayor to...

In an April 20 (given the deep connections between the Brotherhood and the Nazi Party, the date may not have been an accident) story in the Jerusalem Post, the question was asked, Will Qatar abandon the Muslim Brotherhood? As they put it, Qatar is the only country who openly supports the Muslim Brotherhood. This followed the pressure exerted on Qatar to do just that from its three Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia even threatened a blockade should Qatar not comply. Clearly the Brotherhood, and their revolutionary aims, had been recognized as a threat...

Rep. Paul Ryan is meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Let's hope they give his ideas a fair hearing. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is scheduled to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday to discuss his plans to address poverty and his March 12 comments in a radio interview about a "tailspin of culture" in our inner cities where "generations of men [are] not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work." Mr. Ryan's statement sparked liberal accusations of racism. Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) called it "a thinly veiled racial attack" that...

Last week, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed legislation making his city the first in the country to offer tax credits to companies that extend the same healthcare benefits to LGBT employees’ domestic partners and their children as they provide to heterosexual spouses and their families. The bill also offers tax credits to businesses that provide transgender-inclusive health benefits, and ensures that transgender people have safe and equal access to bathrooms in all city-owned buildings. After signing the measure, Nutter explained that he hoped Philadelphia would become “the most LGBT-friendly” city in the world. “My goal is for Philadelphia to be...

Several corporate executives have joined forces with prominent local lawmakers, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and George Soros’ National Immigration Forum (NIF) to organize a campaign on Monday to target GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to get them to try to support amnesty. Those executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Boeing CEO and chairman Jim McNerney, Marriott hotels chairman and CEO Bill Marriott, NewsCorp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Disney president and CEO Bob Iger. Ballmer, McNerney, Marriott, Murdoch, and Iger, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro form the...

The hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians who have served time in prison will no longer be referred to as "ex-offenders" in official city language, the mayor's office announced Thursday. Instead, an ordinance will be introduced to call them "returning citizens." In a statement, Mayor Nutter said that the new term emphasizes reintegration, while " 'ex-offender' carries with it a stigma which may increase the challenges these citizens face." While the ordinance, to be introduced by Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., awaits approval, the mayor has already issued an executive order making it city policy to use "returning citizen" on all...

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

Across the nation, demonstrators are rallying against yesterday's Florida verdict acquitting former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. Protests, vigils and rallies began in cities across the country just moments after a jury of six women found Zimmerman not guilty. Here in Philadelphia, those moved by the verdict gathered before midnight last night as part of a 17-hour vigil which began around 11:30 p.m. last night at the Municipal Services Building on Thomas Paine Plaza. Today, Sunday, July 14, at 6:00 p.m., supporters of Occupy Philadelphia have called for a rally at 15th and JFK...

WASHINGTON - Could Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey be a Republican bridge who helps secure a deal on background checks on guns? His office confirmed Friday that Toomey, a strong Second Amendment advocate, was in discussions on pending gun bills that have struggled to gain traction with Republicans and many pro-gun Democrats in the Senate. "Sen. Toomey and his staff are talking to a lot of folks - both in Pennsylvania and in the Capitol - on the issue of guns in the hopes that we get to an approach that works," his spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. There was no...

The Philadelphia Human Relations Commission has launched an investigation at the request of the mayor after a well-known magazine published an essay that explored perspectives of white citizens on the issue of race relations. Mayor Michael Nutter called on the commission to consider rebuking both Philadelphia Magazine and writer Bob Huber noting that “the First Amendment, like other constitutional rights, is not an unfettered right.” Nutter’s fury was directed at a cover story titled, “Being White in Philly.” The story included conversations with mostly anonymous white residents who detailed race relations in the City of Brotherly Love. “In a city...

Someone at long last has had the courage to tell the plain, honest truth about race. After mobs of young blacks rampaged through Philadelphia committing violence -- as similar mobs have rampaged through Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and other places -- Philadelphia's black mayor, Michael A. Nutter, ordered a police crackdown and lashed out at the whole lifestyle of those who did such things. "Pull up your pants and buy a belt 'cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt," he said. "If you walk into somebody's office with your hair uncombed and a pick...

Mayor Nutter's CallIt is a sign of the times that basic decency has grown unusual. Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia was true to his word when he took to the pulpit at Mount Carmel Baptist Church and prefaced his remarks: “I’m going to say some things this morning that I know from time to time many of you think, but may not say. They will not be PC.” He proceeded to unloose a 25-minute speech that must rank among the most brutally forthright calls for personal responsibility and adult authority that an elected official has ever delivered in these United...

Police departments in several cities around the country are investigating what appear to be incidents of "flash mob"-generated violence, in which packs of dozens or even hundreds of youths appear seemingly out of nowhere to commit assaults, robberies and other crimes against innocent bystanders. The motive and circumstances surrounding the attacks that have resulted in numerous arrests around the country are being investigated -- and law enforcement officials in at least one city are looking into a possible racial component to the crimes. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who recently imposed a stricter curfew in response to the city's latest attack,...

Reported in the Examiner, Philadelphia: Firefighter Union to City: Liar, liar, pants on... you get it already.Exactly a week ago, it was written here how a fire in West Philadelphia killed a 12 year old boy. Much blame was put on the fact that Philly's Democrat Mayor Michael Nutter recently made Fire Department cutbacks, or "brownouts" to punish us all for not going along with this stupid soda tax idea. Please bear with me, before I begin this story a little back story is necessary. Apparently Philadelphia is our future and we need to see where the present proposed Marxist...

The tax increases and new fees that Mayor Nutter is considering to close a yawning budget deficit could raise as much as $270 million a year for the city, while costing most homeowners hundreds of dollars annually. It is too soon to say precisely how heavy the new tax and fee burden will be, since the administration has not yet settled on its proposals and City Council has yet to weigh in. But it is clear that if the city raises the property and sales taxes and simultaneously creates a trash fee, the new costs for Philadelphia residents would be...