Free Republic

Mayor Ed KochÂ’s practical progressivism saved GothamÂ’s finances and restored its spirit.This past summer, Edward I. Koch, a Democrat, made headlines by noisily endorsing Republican Bob Turner in a special election to fill the congressional seat of disgraced Tweeter Anthony Weiner. The former mayor explained that heÂ’d decided to rally Jewish voters in Brooklyn and Queens to chastise President Obama for his Israel policy. KochÂ’s outsize role in TurnerÂ’s surprise victory made for big political news and led to speculation that Obama could be facing trouble in his reelection bid. The episode was unusual, but unusual has always been de...

Did the New York Times learn nothing about rushing to judgement and presumption of innocence from its Duke lacrosse “rape” hoax debacle? More than any other media outlet, in 2006 the Times trumpeted black stripper's Crystal Mangum's rape accusations against three white Duke lacrosse players, accusations that quickly fell apart in a mass of contradictions and shifting stories. Yet even as the case fell apart and other liberal media outlets backed away, the Times issued a now-notorious, error-riddled 5,000-word lead story by Duff Wilson, concluding that there was enough evidence against the players for Michael Nifong, the soon-to-be-disgraced-and-jailed local prosecutor,...

BROOKLYN— A revised New York State Senate map released yesterday would, if approved, put the Orthodox and Chassidic neighborhoods of Boro Park and Flatbush into a single exclusive district, guaranteeing to shake up the political landscape. (Snip) The proposed district is the second most conservative in the state. During the 2008 presidential campaign, for example, Republican John McCain won 60 percent of its vote.

A down-on-his-luck soap-opera actor took his own life this week after he was forced to put his beloved dog to sleep under pressure from his New York City condo, friends said. Nick Santino euthanized his dog, Rocco, on Tuesday, on Santino's 47th birthday. That night, his guilt over the gut-wrenching decision became too much to bear. "Today [Tuesday], I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend," he wrote in a suicide note, according to close friend Stuart Sarnoff. "Rocco trusted me, and I failed him. He didn't deserve this." Santino -- a struggling actor whose TV credits...

Shaun Day made the mistake of running a red at 12:30 a.m. in the city that never sleeps. When pulled over by the cops, they found a 9mm and three mags in his truck. Day told the cops he was a Navy SEAL but didn’t have any proof. As a result, he spent a day in Bellevue under psychiatric care. Until, that is, the Navy sent people to confirm he actually is a SEAL and got him the hell out of there. . . According to nypost.com he was rambling incoherently during the traffic stop. Translation: he told the cops...

Three employees of a New York City Marriott hotel have filed multiple complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against their employer and organizers of New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council Local 6 Union. They are alleging that the organizers verbally abused Marriott workers and ...

Tough New York gun law stirs debate Ryan Jerome was arrested when he tried to security-check his pistol The former Marine has a permit for the gun in his home state, but he was visiting New York The state requires that gun-toting visitors have a New York-issued permit People carrying guns are arrested even though they have permits from their home states NEW YORK (CNN) -- An online campaign in support of a former U.S. Marine -- arrested for attempting to security-check his pistol while visiting the Empire State Building -- is bringing new attention and a fair amount of...

At West Park, Rev. Brashear walked into the church for a morning service to find the 18-inch-diameter bronze basin and lid missing from the baptismal font’s 800-pound base. Holy water — straight from the River Jordan — had been poured from the missing basin insert into the base’s bowl. About 60 occupiers had rolled out their sleeping bags between the pews the night before as part of their evening ritual, Rev. Brashear recalled. When they returned to the church later, following the pastor’s discovery, he issued a stern warning: “You have 24 hours to find it and to come up...

Searching the Internet to further expose the internal threat of Islam, I found another Islamic school which is not happy with Muslims living in the “un-Islamic environment” of America. Other Mosques/schools that have echoed that call are in Philadelphia, and Houston. Ones in Buffalo and NJ have stated they have created their own Islamic environments. Like I have said, Muslims are not in non-Islamic countries to assimilate, they are in them to dominate. Tonight we take a look at Al-Ihsan Academy, which is located at 130-08 Rockaway Blvd South Ozone Park NY. History Founded in 1989 by immigrant Muslims who...

They’re occupying his home. Occupy Wall Street protesters announced with great fanfare last month that they moved a homeless family into a “foreclosed” Brooklyn, N.Y., home — even though they knew the house belonged to a struggling single father desperately trying to renegotiate his mortgage, The Post has learned. “They’re trying to take a house and say the bank is robbing the people because the mortgage is too high — so contact the owner!” fumed Wise Ahadzi, 28, who owns the home at 702 Vermont St. in East New York. Occupiers “reclaimed” the row house on Dec. 6 and ceremoniously...

The inimitable, quintessentially monikered CHARLES M. BLOW That didn't take long. As we’ve gotten around to casting votes to select a Republican presidential nominee, the antiblack rhetoric has taken center stage. You just have to love (and despise) this kind of predictability. On Sunday, Rick “The Rooster” Santorum, campaigning in Iowa, said what sounded like “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” At first, he offered a nondenial that suggested that the comment might have been out...

So, Jennifer Epstein wites a breathless puff piece about a breathless puff piece written by Jodi Kanter about the magnificent Michelle and the God like Obamas. New York Times "reporter" gets 7 figure advance to write this drivel, after one interview with the Obamas, to come out just in time for the election season.

*snip* “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides. Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them. Mr. Emanuel, in a brief interview, denied that he had grown frustrated with Mrs. Obama, but other advisers described a grim situation: a president whose agenda had hit the rocks, a first lady who disapproved of the turn the White House had taken, and a chief of staff who chafed against her influence.

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband. In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

The Crazy Department-Wide Emails That Everyone at NYU Is Talking About At around 3:17 on Wednesday morning, every student in NYU's Department of Social and Cultural Analysis received a bizarre "open letter" to NYU President John Sexton, from a student who claimed she'd been "forced" to do an ethnographic assignment on Occupy Wall Street. It was 2,800 words long, oddly typeset, and quickly followed up by another five equally eccentric emails. Someone sent us the full set of emails, which everyone at NYU—and elsewhere—was talking about. Want to read them?

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama...

NEW YORK, New York, January 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the highest abortion rate in the nation, nearly double the 23% national average, New York continues to be a place that babies in the womb cannot love. New York City Department of Health released data that shows that 83,750 abortions were performed in New York City in 2010, which translated to 40% of all pregnancies, down from 41% in 2009. The Bronx saw a staggering 48% of pregnancies end in abortion. The city lost 38,574 African-Americans babies to abortion, a dumbfounding 60% of the city’s African-American pregnancies. New York has...

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources. NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources...

In this Pop Culture update we've got two Presidents partying. An actual video of Dubya, drunk and the Bill Clinton bday party which never ends. Naomi Campbell in trouble again, Madonna adopts a child, Ellen Barken cries a river, and McCartney's divorce papers. You will never believe this guy's resume. How Canada Dry got its name, blind items and media nuggets.

What happens when mogul and a movie star get married? Contracts get signed, and the drama begins . . Ronald Perelman was born on New Year’s Day, 1943, and celebrates the occasion in extreme style. His annual New Year’s Eve–birthday party in St. Barts is one of the world’s most exclusive social events. The billionaire takeover artist hosts the gathering on Ultima III, his multi-million-dollar, 188-foot yacht, which he keeps docked in Gustavia harbor. In past years, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Jerry Bruckheimer have attended the event, and for Perelman’s 60th, Barry Manilow sang “Happy Birthday.” This year,...