Free Republic

With polls showing a surge by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in early-voting states, billionaire Michael Bloomberg is weighing a presidential bid as an independent, third-party candidate, the New York Times reported Saturday. Bloomberg, the popular former mayor of New York City, has sent up trial balloons before. But this time he seems concerned enough about the rise of candidates on the fringes of both parties - and Hillary Clinton's weakness in Iowa and New Hampshire - to assemble advisers and set down plans. In fact, Bloomberg is reportedly even studying up on past third-party runs by H. Ross Perot...

In Tuesday’s elections, voters rejected recreational marijuana, transgender rights, and illegal-immigrant sanctuaries; they reacted equivocally to gun-control arguments; and they handed a surprise victory to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who emphasized his opposition to gay marriage. Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support and even seeking to turn abortion and gay rights into electoral wedges against Republicans. But Tuesday’s results—and the broader trend of recent elections that have been generally disastrous for Democrats not named Barack Obama—call that view into question. Indeed, they suggest that the left has...

Gay activists fume over de Blasio’s role in rentboy.com raidGay activists are furious over the rentboy.com raid and arrests for prostitution — and they are wondering why Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton worked with the federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. Both the mayor and Bratton march in the very same gay pride parade in which rentboy.com has a float. “Koch, Giuliani and Bloomberg didn’t go after rentboy.com. Why is de Blasio?” wondered one gay man who has used the service.

The rumblings are beginning. Just as the Democratic party considers drafting a 2016 challenger into take on a floundering Hillary Clinton, GOP voices are speaking up about shaking up their primary race as well. Conservative stalwarts Bill Kristol is leaving the door open for an “October surprise,” even suggesting the possibility that a business person, such as a “saner and sounder” version of Donald Trump, could emerge. Now enter a man who knows a thing or two of drumming up attention (and selling papers) - Rupert Murdoch. Just as massive stock drop has many investors eyeing the financial headlines, the...

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the funding arm of the political network backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, wants a lot more hard information from the crowded field of presidential contenders before deciding what to do with its considerable resources. The group is pressing every 2016 candidate to detail on the record their plans for economic growth, deficit reduction, entitlement reform, criminal justice and even foreign policy. The tax-exempt entity, a key node in a constellation of conservative entities that aims to spend $889 million before the next White House election, distributed a detailed survey Thursday to...

<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama's healthcare law by the end of the month.</p>

The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article —...

Nine graffiti artists who spray painted creations across the world-renowned 5Pointz building filed a lawsuit Friday in Brooklyn federal court, seeking unspecified damages from the owner who whitewashed away their artwork. [Snip] The aerosol artists say they are owed substantial cash damages because Wolkoff painted over their al fresco works. [Snip] The iconic buildings had more than 350 works of visual art on the walls — inside and out — when Wolkoff destroyed them, the lawsuit said. The colorful, eye-catching creations were torn down for good last summer.

Millionaire Hillary rally on New York City island as she promises to look out for ordinary Americans' pocketbooks – but the 'overflow' crowd zone is left EMPTY New York City rally brings people from several states to watch Clinton reboot her campaign after two months in low gear Speech emphasizes economic issues and puts Hillary on the hot seat as she suffers wealthy, elitist image Clinton is setting herself up as Obama's heir apparent 'She's earned it,' one attendee said Saturday; 'All those campaigns, all that travel at the State Department. All that putting up with Bill' Smaller than expected...

Hillary Clinton's Saturday campaign reboot isn't just her first public rally. Coming a day after President Obama suffered an embarrassing legislative defeat, it is a changing of the guard for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: while House Republicans also voted overwhelmingly against the president on a key trade bill Friday, it was his fellow Democrats who handed him the most stinging rebuke. Just 40 Democrats out of 188 voted with Obama. Nearly 80 percent of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, went against him. A mere two of the 10 Democrats representing Obama's home state of Illinois in...

So who’s waiting in the wings with a humongous bankroll and a proven history of enforcing the type of big-government policies the Democrat faithful love? Click to the next page to find out. …when that time finally comes, and the inevitable euthanasia of Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions finally materializes, it won’t be Sanders who benefits. Nor will the other Lilliputian Democrat hopefuls, like Jim Webb, Lincoln Chaffee or Martin O’Malley. It’s going to be Mike Bloomberg.

I’m a Democrat and I am very concerned about the upcoming presidential election. Our country’s ability to tackle all kinds of inequality—racial, gender, economic and the list goes on—largely hinges on the outcome of the 2016 election, and on whether or not Democrats prevail. I want to make clear that I don’t think all Republicans are completely misguided, just many of them, such as union-bashing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and polarizing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and thuggish New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Moderates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio—although too far to the right on many issues for me—at...

New York Times Co. shares leaped 10.7 percent in after-hours trading after Fox Business Network reported billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg had expressed renewed interest in buying the paper. The former New York City mayor was prepared to pay up to $5 billion to acquire the Gray Lady — more than double the $2.3 billion market cap of the company. Bloomberg LP completely dismissed the FBN report as untrue. “There is no truth to this rumor,” Ty Trippet, a spokesman for the data and business news service, said in an e-mail. Mike Bloomberg has in the past expressed interest in buying...

New York Mayor de Blasio’s actions speak louder than words when it comes to respecting the NYPD, and he used the last day of 2014 to emphasize how little he values the lives of the officers that serve the city. The New York Post reports:  Mayor de Blasio delivered another blow to New York’s Finest on Wednesday when he reappointed a Brooklyn judge who freed without bail two men who threatened cops just days after the Bed-Stuy double police assassination. The stunning decision came even as one of the suspects — a gang member charged with posting police death threats...

Jonathan Gruber seems to be giving the propagandists of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia a run for their money. In addition to bragging about hoodwinking the American public into believing that healthcare reform was actually about reforming healthcare, he has also called abortion a “social good” because it kills “marginal children” in poor communities. This gem of a human being, unsurprisingly, was also a vocal advocate for former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s cigarette tax… Ya know, the $5.85 tax on each pack of smokes (which inevitably drives tobacco sales to the criminal, tax-evading, entrepreneurs like Eric Garner)? According to Breitbart.com:Michael Bloomberg, who is...

RUSH: George Bush yesterday, the 9/11 memorials. You know, a friend of mine observed this. What did Obama do? Obama went to a soup kitchen, 9/11, a day of service, as though we've got something to apologize for, for what happened on 9/11. A friend of mine observes Obama and Bloomberg both acted like it was a natural disaster. Bush, George W. Bush, who, by the way, stands tall in retrospect. Ten years, not one attack. Great statesmanship. If somebody told me today they wanted to put Bush's face on Mount Rushmore, I'd be in there supporting it. I saw...

In what appears to be an act of leftist self-defense, an unbylined story at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, describes certain Colorado Democratic politicians' crticisms of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over recent "off-base remarks about two of its cities," but noted no reactions from Republicans — who are genuinely outraged, as opposed to arguably trying to cover their political tracks. ... Bloomberg told Simon Vozick-Levinson that in recent recall elections in the Centennial State, "The NRA went after two or three state Senators in a part of Colorado where I don't think there's roads. It's...

Well… I’m starting to run out of places to shop. Target Corporation (TGT) made the announcement on Wednesday that they have acquiesced to the Bloomberg fanatics who believe no-one should be armed while shopping. The company (politely) asked customers to keep their guns at home the next time they wander in for a DVD or Cuisinart. Of course, it’s not all bad news. After all, a Target store in San Antonio recently booted anti-gun activists from its store. The Bloomberg inspired group, Moms Demand Action (moms I know carry .380 automatics), was asked to leave the premises as they petitioned...

As recently as 1998, New York State’s Republican party controlled the governorship, a United States Senate seat, and the mayor’s office in Manhattan. Today, it is greatly diminished, with its sole beachhead of influence in the state senate, where it shares a majority with four independent Democrats. In contrast, the Working Families party (WFP), a 15-year-old left-wing, union-fueled group with just 20,000 members, now holds the whip hand over much of the dominant Democratic party in New York — and is already spreading its wings to other states. The WFP not only was a major force behind Bill de Blasio’s...

New York City Major Michael Bloomberg is claiming one more casualty before he officially ends his reign as overreaching “Nanny,” with the City Council debating a ban on plastic-foam takeout containers. The City Council’s sanitation committee is gearing up for a hearing on the future of the takeout containers set to take place Monday, The Associated Press reported. Members of the board are contemplating proposals to either ban the containers outright or explore options to recycle them.