Free Republic

Mr. President, please come to Chicago. In Washington on Wednesday, as you rolled out a slate of gun control measures quickly cobbled together in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, you said, "If there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there is even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try." If you believe those words, Mr. President, here is a heartfelt suggestion: Come back to your adopted hometown and personally host a summit that grapples seriously with the causes of — and crafts meaningful solutions to —...

or liberals facts are never really important. “Truth” to liberals like Democrat New York City Congressman Jerrold Nadler is what he “feels” it is. Nadler has said: “Hunters don’t use large ammunition clips, and as far as self- defense, I mean who are you defending yourself against? If you’re defending yourself against a robber… two or three or four shots should be enough—period.” It’s a safe bet Nadler has never faced an assailant fueled by adrenalin drugs and alcohol. That doesn’t matter, of course, since no one will ever challenge Nadler on his supposed knowledge of the danger presented by...

Chicago has moved to the top spot of a list no city wants to be a part of: the most treatments for bed bug infestations. Pest control company Orkin said Tuesday it did more business in Chicago than any other city last year. Chicago had been second on the list in 2011 behind Cincinnati. ... Chicago in 2012 was ranked just ahead of Detroit, Los Angeles and Denver

A tourist from Massachusetts was recovering at a New York City hospital after being brutally beaten by a gang of seven young men armed with a tire iron and a baseball bat, police today revealed. Kevin McCarron, 24, from Andover, was battered and stomped unconscious by the men after an argument in the trendy Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan early Sunday. An onlooker captured horrific cell phone video of the attack, showing several young men kicking the victim on the ground.

Unlike Teddy Roosevelt, the president he quoted at last night’s Queens redistricting hearing, Republican Councilman Dan Halloran spoke loudly and did not carry a big stick. Mr. Halloran’s bruising 2009 City Council race in northeast Queens cast a long shadow over the hearing in Long Island City- the third of its kind in front of a commission tasked with the decennial redrawing of districts to reflect demographic changes in the city- where he and allied civic groups clashed with Asian advocacy organizations about whether a neighborhood, Oakland Gardens, should be incorporated into Mr. Halloran’s 19th District. The heavily Asian neighborhood,...

1918: Amanda Uren - Pulling a section of a submarine through New York City

Aside from regulated hunting exceptions and those individuals who are deemed in danger by the police commissioner, all U.S. civilians should be banned from owning any kind of gun, argued former New York City Mayor Ed Koch in a radio interview today. “I don’t believe that in our society that we should have guns,” said Koch, a Democrat, speaking on New York WABC Radio’s “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Continued Koch: “If I had my way I would pass such a law except to allow hunting and target practice and you lay out safety precautions for that. “And if you need...

New York City Schools Spend $6,900 Per Student - on Bus Transportation! Government schools are an expensive endeavor, especially when union labor and no-bid contracts are involved. The New York City Department of Education has been catching heat from transportation unions lately over a decision to solicit bids for private transportation services in an effort to curtail runaway costs. The district has not sought “significant” bids for student transportation services in 33 years. That means it’s probably been using the same companies for years, without competitive bids to naturally control rising costs. And those costs are increased every year...

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Thursday, former New York City mayoral candidate and author Mark Green advocated for new legislation that would allow people to identify and locate gun owners who lived in their neighborhoods. He compared it to the already existing “Megan’s Law,” which lets citizens know if a convicted sex offender lives near them. Then he flat-out compared sex offenders to gun owners.“If we have a Megan’s Law — because I think almost everyone might agree — that if you’re a convicted child molester, a neighbor might want to know that because they’re in your home, safe, but...

ADOLF HITLER'S PLOT TO BOMB NEW YORK Newly discovered papers reveal the Nazis’ most bizarre plan – sending manned rockets into space to attack America. The head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering banged his fi st on the table in anger. He needed a dynamic new scheme to catch the Fuhrer’s eye. In the warped world of the Third Reich, competition between the German army and the German air force – the Luftwaffe – was fierce. Under Adolf Hitler’s power-crazed dictatorial leadership senior Nazis vied and tussled for infl uence throughout the Second World War. At the end of 1941,...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was crowing. "The number of murders this year will be lower than any time in recorded city history," Bloomberg said Friday in a statement announcing that homicides in the city this year had fallen to 414 — the fewest since it started keeping such statistics in 1963. About the same time Friday, Chicago police were trying to get the message out that their city hadn't actually recorded its 500th homicide this year, as was being reported. A few hours later, they had to backtrack and acknowledge that, yes, in fact, "the city has seen its...

Although many on the left have a vested interest in denying it exists at all costs, the ineluctable truth of the matter is that voter fraud is a widespread phenomenon. Whether it is so rampant that it influences the outcome of major elections, as some maintain, or has unseated incumbent congressmen in past races, is open to debate. However, the recorded episodes of fraudulent voting and the manipulation of the election process, from corrupt Democratic officials in Indiana, to vote harvesters in Texas, to political apparatchiks in Ohio, to the Republican secretary of state of Indiana, demonstrate that the number...

One of the unfortunate developments of 2012 was the continued usurpation of the legislative process by a president intent upon pursuing his personal political objectives, even if doing so meant evading the constitutional separation of powers. In addition to the broad administrative amnesty initiated by ICE in 2011, the last year of the Obama administration saw the implementation of a policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an end-run around Congress’s consistent rejection of the Dream Act that has already afforded hundreds of thousands of potential criminals the opportunity to exploit American taxpayers, i.e. suckers. While the executive branch seeks...

A Brooklyn mom of three was fatally gunned down this morning by a passerby as she stood right behind Brookdale Hospital -- where her 8-year-old daughter was undergoing treatment for an asthma attack. The apparently motiveless killing stunned the family of 32-year-old victim Shalema Gaskin -- and left them demanding answers about why someone targeted her. "This is a hospital!" said Tanya Gaskin, 50, the victim's mom. "We come here for help -- not to have our people killed right outside."

"WE WANT BEER PARADE" It was a sign of the times when the Mayor is the one leading protesters down Fifth Avenue. On May 14, 1932 Jimmy Walker, then the Mayor of New York City, organized a daylong “Beer for Taxation” parade (later known as the “We Want Beer” parade) in objection to the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages.

Mayor Bloomberg made an impromptu visit to the Rockaways this week—although he was predominantly there to discuss Sandy recovery efforts with local paper The Wave (and declare that the age of the wooden boardwalk is so over), Bloomberg also was confronted by some Occupy Sandy members. And for once, he had nothing but praise for them: "Thank you for everything you've done. You guys are great," Bloomberg told them, as you can see in the video below. "We really do appreciate it, all kidding aside. You really are making a difference. Goodbye," he said. (VIDEO AT LINK) Bloomberg probably would...

In 2010, a federal judge in New York City convened a task force of prominent immigration lawyers, academics and advocates to tackle a longstanding problem: the dearth of legal representation for immigrants fighting deportation.Now, after extensive debate and research, this group has developed a plan to create a network of legal service providers to represent all low-income immigrants in the region who have been detained and face deportation. The network would be the first of its kind in the country, say its proponents. “While a number of states have entered the immigration arena in ways generally hostile to immigrants, a...

Some news, apparently, is fit to print, but not too boldly. Take, for example, the demure self-censorship on display Saturday in the New York Times’ eye-opening report, headlined “On Island, Largely Blue, an Exception: Trump Tower,” on the handful of New York City neighborhoods that voted for Mitt Romney over President Obama. Overall, the city voted Obama over Romney 81% to 18%. The headline and the first five paragraphs were about the two isolated election precincts on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Island where Romney won half or more of the vote. It wasn’t until paragraph 7 to find...

A Senate Republican fiscal hawk offered a 74-page menu of Defense Department spending cuts Thursday that could save taxpayers nearly $68 billion over 10 years. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he and his staff had identified several categories of “non-defense spending at the Pentagon,” outlays which he said had “little to do with national security.” At a Capitol Hill press conference, Coburn accused his fellow Senate Republicans of “having a blind eye on spending.” He summed up their approach as “It’s OK to cut spending anywhere except the Defense Department.” But, he said “to be legitimate and have any integrity...

Mayor Bloomberg’s Response to Sandy Leaves Many New Yorkers Out in the Cold The mayor has brilliantly stage-managed his handling of the storm, but outside the city’s affluent precincts numerous angry residents feel abandoned by his administration as days have passed and help has remained distant, writes Harry Siegel. “Are you from OEM? Or FEMA?” “No, we’re from Brooklyn.” That was the exchange when, after nearly six hours, the volunteer group I spent Sunday with finally managed to deliver supplies— flashlights, blankets, winter jackets, baby supplies, and pet food—to Staten Islanders who’d been rocked by Hurricane Sandy. On television, New...