Free Republic

John Cook — The White House released its annual salary report last week, and as usual, it's nice to work for Barack Obama: Most staffers who were there for more than a year got a salary bump. A bigger one than you did. The last time we checked in on White House salaries, we found that an astonishing 75% of continuing staffers got raises from 2009 to 2010—a huge number given the fact that, according to compensation experts, most companies had skipped routine raises that year in reaction to the economic crisis that the White House was busy failing to...

<p>DETROIT (AP) - A federal appeals court has struck down Michigan's ban on the consideration of race and gender when enrolling students at public colleges and universities.</p> <p>In a 2-1 decision Friday, the court said Michigan's Proposal 2 is unconstitutional because it burdens minorities. It was approved by voters in 2006.</p>

In his best-laid plans, Richard King was set to leave West Point next year as both a starting cornerback on the Cadet football team and a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Instead, in a span of a little less than three months, he's been inflicted with likely career-ending injuries, busted to private and thrust into the queue for active duty — all, according to a lawsuit filed this week, the consequences of an unexpected encounter with R&B diva Patti LaBelle after King landed in his native Houston for spring break on March 11: (link to surveillance video at link...

Never come between the "Godmother of Soul" and her luggage. That's the lesson a West Point cadet says he learned at Houston airport when he charges Patti LaBelle's security guards roughed him up. Richard King, 23, is suing LaBelle over the incident, captured on surveillance video last March 11 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. King, a Houston resident who is a senior at the military academy, had come home for spring break when he wandered close to LaBelle's limousine. He was talking to his brother on his cellphone when her bodyguards "sprang into action," according to the civil suit he filed...

Attorney General Eric Holder came to Minneapolis on Friday to speak at a meeting of city leaders about how to decrease youth violence. But Holder's efforts to talk about youth violence prevention kept being interrupted by several anti-war protesters sitting in the crowd. They were among those whose homes and offices had been raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010 in a case involving, "providing material support to terrorism," according to the search warrants. Again and again protesters stood to question Holder about why they are being investigated. Holder told the first protester to stand, Tracy Molm, that he...

Augsburg College is host to two civic events this week that are open to the public as well as to students, faculty, and staff interested in attending. On Tuesday, May 24, we will host a U.S. Naturalization Ceremony which will confer U.S. citizenship to new citizens from more than 50 countries. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in Hoversten Chapel, and will welcome these candidates for citizenship as well as their family members and friends. The Augsburg community is welcome to attend as space allows. On Friday, May 27, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with members of...

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee, was able to question Attorney General Eric Holder for the first time over the Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious scandal during a Tuesday morning hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. (snip) “We’re not looking at straw buyers, Mr. Attorney General, we’re looking at you,” Issa said. “We’re looking at you, we’re looking at your key people who knew or should’ve known about this.”

'Where are the black people?' the outspoken actress, 44, asked as the panellists as they critiqued Prince William and Kate Middleton's ceremony. [snip] 'It was like where's Waldo, where are the black people?' she added. 'We found one little black child in the choir but where's the black people at this wedding?' she continued. 'They are segregated but they are at the front so we have our Rosa Parks moment,' she added referring to the African-American civil rights activist Rosa Parks who refused to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat for a white passenger on December...

Black Panthers and other "activists" are planning upcoming action. April 23rd. http://www.dayofactionmovement.org/ Is saying boycott "non-black" businesses racist? Imagine a group encouraging whites to do that. It'd be headline news.

ELYRIA, Ohio, March 29 (UPI) -- Two Ohio women were arrested after allegedly choking a Walmart greeter and making bomb threats against the store, police said. Ashley Jackson, 21, and Toni Duncan, 49, both of Elyria, allegedly assaulted the 71-year-old greeter after he asked to see their receipt, which they did not have, police said.

Public safety is non-negotiable. That’s the message signaled Tuesday by lawyers defending the Big Apple's fire department from race-based bullying by the U.S. Justice Department. Justice is trying to make the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) hire more minorities even though FDNY has taken extraordinary steps to recruit in black and Hispanic communities. The Obama administration, still unsatisfied, ramped up the pressure by demanding admissions quotas for interim hires and extremely low standards on fire-academy entrance exams. Bowing to Obama wishes, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis created a complicated, multistep process to ram through more minority admissions, effectively...

LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. (WSVN) -- Officials have released surveillance video of a woman who attacked an employee at a fast food restaurant because of her order.

Earlier this AM CNN aired an exchange between a reporter stateside on the CNN set and a reporter in Japan. The reporter in Japan was commenting on how calm and orderly everyone was while waiting in line at stores for water, food and gas. He said that they had several full gas cans on their truck to get them where they were going and they felt comfortable leaving their vehicle unattended while going inside stores to buy food or to interview people. He then compared it to his experiences during Katrina when their vehicle was completely looted of gas, food,...

DAYTON -- The Dayton Police Department is lowering its testing standards for recruits. It's a move required by the U.S. Department of Justice after it says not enough African-Americans passed the exam. Dayton is in desperate need of officers to replace dozens of retirees. The hiring process was postponed for months because the D.O.J. rejected the original scores provided by the Dayton Civil Service Board, which administers the test. Under the previous requirements, candidates had to get a 66% on part one of the exam and a 72% on part two. The D.O.J. approved new scoring policy only requires potential...

DAYTON — The city’s Civil Service Board and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed on a lower passing score for the police recruit exam after it was rejected because not enough blacks passed the exam. The city lowered both written exams a combined 15 points that resulted in 258 more people passing the exam, according to a statement released Thursday by Civil Service officials. The agreement allows the city to immediately resume its plans to hire police and firefighters. The original passing scores determined by Civil Service required candidates to answer 57 of 86 (66 percent) questions correctly on...

Jesse Jackson sends a warning message during an appearance on FOX News: "So they're going to escalate the protests -- you will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you're going to have it through the streets. People here will fight back because they think their cause is moral and they have nowhere else to go."

My fellow Americans, who are "your people"? I ask because U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is black, used the phrase "my people" in congressional testimony this week. It was an unmistakably color-coded and exclusionary reference intended to deflect criticism of the Obama Justice Department's selective enforcement policies. It backfired. . . . Herman Cain is my people. . . . Val Prieto is my people. . . . Katrina Pierson is my people. . . . Allen West . . . is my people.

My fellow Americans, who are “your people”? I ask because U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is black, used the phrase “my people” in congressional testimony this week. It was an unmistakably color-coded and exclusionary reference intended to deflect criticism of the Obama Justice Department’s selective enforcement policies. It backfired. In pandering to skin-deep identity politics and exacerbating race-consciousness, Holder has given the rest of us a golden opportunity to stand up, identify “our people” and show the liberal poseurs what post-racialism really looks like. Herman Cain is my people. He’s my brother-in-arms. I’ve never met him. But we are...

More on the unfortunate "my people" blunder by Attorney General Holder. Washington Post: "That, in the trade, is called an admission against interest." National Review: A witness "will often make revealing admissions if he becomes flustered or angry. " American Thinker: "That brought out the worst in Holder who then made Culberson's case for him." The Blaze (with link to video and also Limbaugh comments) The peculiar thing about the mistake is that some outlets actually viewed the comments as a good thing, as a sassy retort, oblivious the the damage such exclusionary attitudes would cause with a large segment...

Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the Black Panther Party because they are African American. Holder's frustration became evident during a House Appropriations hearing when Rep. John Culbertson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding clubs stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia. Holder seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culbertson read in which a Democratic...