Free Republic

Chuck Schumer is set to get a big promotion -- and that's welcome news to Wall Street. The veteran Democratic senator from New York is widely expected to take Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's job when he retires at the end of 2016. Reid, who announced he would not be running for reelection Friday morning, quickly endorsed his New York colleague for the role. Schumer's ascension to the top Democratic position in the Senate -- and even possibly to Senate majority leader if his party regains control of the chamber -- is a boon for the finance and business communities,...

PM Netanyahu at Cabinet: I just met US Senate Republican leader McConnell. Over the weekend I spoke with US Senate Democratic leader Reid. » I heard from both of them about strong and continuing bipartisan support for Israel and of course this is very important. » I expressed our concern over the agreement formulated with Iran in the nuclear talks, which appears to confirm all of our concerns and more» Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran's proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country, » and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb...

Imagine there's no IRS. It isn't hard to do. No Obamacare to pay for. And no budget deficits too. Imagine all the people, living with a flat tax. You may say Ted Cruz is a dreamer, but he's not the only one. He hopes some day—especially if you live in Iowa—you'll join him, and, well, he'll be president. That, at least, was the message during his announcement, oddly redolent of John Lennon, that he's officially seeking the highest office in the land. It was a conservative wish list to not only repeal the 21st century, but the 20th, too. About...

Trenton, N.J., Mar 26, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A New Jersey law crafted to ban the Archdiocese of Newark from selling cemetery headstones might not pass muster under judicial review, according to a constitutional law expert. Matthew Franck said the law “may well be violating the freedom of religion” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because it “singles out religious organizations for disfavored treatment.” Franck directs the Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Princeton, N.J.-based Witherspoon Institute. He characterized the law as “a direct assault on the freedom of churches to offer services to the bereaved...

Ted Cruz was not the first person to officially declare his presidential candidacy when he announced on Monday. Scores of people are running just as officially as the junior senator from Texas, as measured by their having filled out the proper form with the Federal Election Commission. So why do we consider Cruz a "real" candidate and those other 200-odd candidates not worth mentioning? Is it viability? Few people think Cruz has much of a shot at the Republican nomination. The Upshot's Nate Cohn makes the case against his doing so pretty concretely. We looked at the strength of his...

Feds reportedly plan to charge US senator with corruption THIS WEEK as grand jury reaches decision on government favors going to top Democratic donor**SNIP** On a new website called ByeBob.com, the group claims he 'unethically, and likely criminally, compromised his ability to represent the people of New Jersey.' CNN reported that the investigation into Menendez is reaching a crescendo, with prosecutors under pressure to complete their work before the statute of limitations runs out on some charges. Attorney General Eric Holder, according to the network, has already given his approval. But he insisted 'I can't comment on that' when a...

Ted Cruz is set to announce is candidacy for President of the United States. Rand Paul is apparently going to announce early next month before going on a campaign tour. Until today technically the only candidate was Jeb Bush, who announced late last year his intentions. At the time everyone thought that Bush was going to force everyone else to declare their candidacy early. It doesn’t appear that has happened, Cruz and Paul have appeared in no rush to make a formal announcement. Scott Walker, perhaps the front runner in the race, still hasn’t formally announced his candidacy and there’s...

Now that it’s been confirmed that Ted Cruz is running for president, it’s time for everyone to weigh in, and Scott Walker was one of the first to be asked about the announcement on Fox News. Walker was very gracious to Ted Cruz, while jabbing at Jeb Bush yet again by saying we need a fresh face to combat Hillary’s haggard decrepit visage. Watch.. [comments start at 6 minute mark] [full interview with Fox runs around 8:00] While Cruz will almost certainly get a bump for being the first candidate to declare his campaign, Walker is still ahead in the...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/22/cruz-is-in-whats-chris-christie-waiting-for/25206955/

A body found in a New Jersey river is that of missing Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird, who disappeared more than a year ago, authorities announced Thursday. Bird's remains were pulled from the Passaic River by dive teams Wednesday about a mile from where he vanished -- on the border of Morris and Somerset counties. Bird, an avid hiker and father of two, was last seen by his family on Jan. 11, 2014, as he was leaving his Long Hill Township, N.J., home to go on a walk.

<p>Three off-duty New Jersey cops and a pal heading home from a Staten Island strip club got into a wrong-way, head-on crash with a tractor-trailer early Friday — killing one of the officers and the civilian friend, authorities and sources said.</p>

Video at link. A black student organization at the University of California at Berkeley is demanding the university rename a building on campus after Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther, convicted cop killer and the first woman named to the FBI's Most-Wanted Terrorist List. A jury convicted Shakur of killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1979. She escaped prison and fled to Cuba. The FBI calls her a domestic terrorist. In 2013, the agency added her to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List, alongside several members of Al Qaeda, airline hijackers and bombers. But to the Black Student Union...

Senator Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) bucked the Obama administration and expressed doubt about administration concessions to the Iranians. Other Democrats could join him But almost immediately after weighing in on Iran, Menendez found himself the target of a federal investigation into purported corruption Meanwhile, the aforementioned Hillary Clinton is bogged down in another trademark Clinton scandal. Clinton never used a standard government e-mail account while secretary. And rather than submitting her actual e-mails to the State Department back in December, Clinton submitted 55,000 printed pages of e-mails — making it much harder for those e-mails to be searched. Obama’s own...

Last year, New Jersey’s state legislature told Tesla its selling style wasn’t welcome. But now, Elon Musk’s electric car company is back in the Garden State’s good graces. On Wednesday, Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill that allows Tesla to sell cars directly to consumers, Bloomberg reported. The move is part of a bill that overhauls the state’s automobile franchise laws. Under the new law, Tesla has to meet some criteria, such as maintaining a service center in New Jersey where the electric vehicles can be fixed. ... But Texas lawmakers have refused to let the company sell directly to...

Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to make the 1.8-million-member, 10,000-congregation denomination the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage allow same-sex weddings. The Presbytery of the Palisades in New Jersey cast the necessary 86th vote Tuesday night to establish that a majority of the church’s 171 regional presbyteries now support an amendment to the church constitution that redefines marriage, the Associated Press reported. “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives,” the church’s Book of Order will read,...

African American students at UC Berkeley are demanding that their college name one of its buildings after one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. In 2013, Assata Shakur was named as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists. In 1977, Shakur murdered a New Jersey police officer and was convicted; she escaped from prison in 1979 and has been on the run ever since. Currently, she is staying in Cuba and New Jersey is offering a $2,000,000 award for her capture. The Black Student Union at Berkeley, however, does not see Shakur as a felon, but as a hero. So...

James Carville said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would be a waste of time for any Democrat to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016. “I’ve had maybe three people come up to me and say, ‘Well, I’m for somebody else other than Hillary,’ “ the Democratic strategist told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York. “And I know I run into more Democrats in more places than maybe anybody else in the United States,” he added. “Of course, Senator [Jim] Webb and Governor [Martin] O’Malley can say anything they want. But, in terms...

The next 22 months until President Barack Obama leaves office promise to be the most challenging period in the history of US-Israel relations. Now unfettered by electoral concerns, over the past week Obama exposed his ill-intentions toward Israel in two different ways. First, the Justice Department leaked its intention to indict Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez on corruption charges. Menendez is the ranking Democratic member, and the former chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the most outspoken Democratic critic of Obama’s policy of appeasing the Iranian regime. As former US federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote this week...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued for criminal justice reform at a historically black college in Maryland on Friday, in what has become a staple of his message to young voters and minorities ahead of a potential presidential run in 2016. Paul, who has frequently nodded to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s idea that there are “two Americas,” said in his speech at Bowie State University there’s one America where citizens are free to pursue their lives freely, and one where the federal government piles on with unnecessary laws, burdensome fines and regulations, and overly strict sentencing guidelines that contribute to keeping...

JERSEY CITY -- City Councilwoman-at-large Joyce Watterman was caught this week using her City Hall office and taxpayer-funded aide to solicit donations to her political committee. Watterman, a Democrat who was first elected to the council in 2013, sent out invitations to a $100-a-head "birthday fundraiser" scheduled for tonight at Liberty House and included the phone number to her City Hall office on the invite.