Free Republic

re hours after Politico reported on Republican Congressman Eric Yoder's admitted skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee in Israel, CBS highlighted the story on its Monday morning newscast. By contrast, the network was slow to report on former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's lewd photo scandal in 2011. On June 1 of that year, ABC and NBC's morning shows reported on the "underwear uproar," while CBS's Early Show punted on the story. The following day, CBS played up conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's early role in spreading word of the New York liberal's indecent Twitter pic: "Supporters of Weiner note that it...

NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- New York City may be one of the more liberal cities in America, but more than 80 percent of voters there believe public officials should neither prevent Chick-fil-A from opening new franchises nor discourage citizens from visiting it, a new poll shows. The Quinnipiac University survey of 1,298 New York City voters showed that by an 82-12 percent margin, the city's voters don't think that the Chick-fil-A president's stance on marriage should "have an impact on their ability to obtain government permits to do business." Similarly, by an 83-11 margin, voters don't believe elected officials...

A new survey by Quinnipiac University found that New York City residents are more likely to vote for a gay, lesbian or Muslim president than a born-again Christian, Mormon, or atheist. 30% of New Yorkers said they would turn an atheist down, 27% said thumbs-down on a born-again Christian, 24% nixed Mormons, but only 19% would vote against a Muslim and 10% against a gay or lesbian.

That stellar symbol of Chicago values, Rahm Emanuel, is working with Louis Farrakhan, purveyor of hatred and bigotry, on the Chicago crime wave. Meanwhile, Farrakhan is being allowed to block a Harlem memorial for murdered police officer, Phillip Cardillo. It was Farrakhan’s own people who killed the officer. …

Full title.......Anthony Weiner and wife Huma move into luxury $3.3M condo owned by top Clinton donor... are they there for free or just getting a sweet deal?Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his faithful wife Huma Abedin have moved into a $3.3million New York City apartment owned by a top donor to Ms Abedin's boss, Hillary Clinton. The well-appointed luxury pad includes four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms in the 12th floor of an exclusive building on Park Avenue. It costs an estimated $14,000 a month. The price begs the question -- is the couple staying there...

The smoking gun is always in the last place you look: I had some serious doubts about Mitt Romney’s ad attacking Obama’s welfare “waivers”–until I read the New York Times editorial denouncing it. Now I know Romney’s ad isn’t as accurate as I’d thought. It’s much more accurate. The Times notes that one of the states proposing waivers from the 1996 welfare reform’s work requirements is Nevada–indeed, Nevada was cited by the Obama Health and Human Services department when it quietly announced its plan to grant waivers on July 12 . ** Here’s how the Times describes what Nevada wants...

They must have rubbed Mayor Bloomberg the wrong way. City officials pulled the plug on a vibrator giveaway by the Trojan condom company yesterday, disappointing potentially thousands of pleasure-seeking women who hoped to get their hands on some no-cost sex toys.

A powerful New York politician claims she was just speaking as a private citizen when she tried to run Chick-fil-A out of town, but she used her official letterhead and even invoked her position as City Council speaker to apply pressure on the embattled chicken chain. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has mayoral aspirations, sent a letter to New York University president John Sexton on Saturday asking the school to immediately end their contract with the fast food restaurant. The Atlanta-based company's sole New York City outlet is in the school's food court. "I write as the...

TRAVELING in the United States, one often encounters food proudly touted as authentically “New York,” including pizza, hot dogs, cheesecake, Manhattan clam chowder, pastrami and loaves of rye. Sadly, such honorifics almost always prompt invidious comparison, resulting in a good laugh if not a few homesick tears. I still recall biting into a bialy about 15 years ago at the Broadway Deli, a favorite in Santa Monica, Calif., that closed in 2010. I was doing research on that scrunchy, savory Jewish-Polish onion roll. Identified as a “New York bialy,” its rubbery, pale appearance was fair warning. It came as no...

NEW YORK (AP) — Medical professionals who favor a proposed ban on large-sized sugary drinks likened soda companies to Big Tobacco at a public hearing Tuesday, saying the plan would protect the public, while opponents accused the city of playing Big Brother and wondered what tasty but unhealthy foods might be targeted next. New York City's health board heard hours of testimony on a proposed rule that would limit soft-drink cup and bottle sizes at food service establishments to no larger than 16 ounces. Medical experts spared no rhetoric in hailing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal as a way to protect...

Is 16.9 oz. the perfect size? Who knows? We willingly submit to the unforgiving judgment of the market.As a fellow entrepreneur with a public-service orientation, I have been a longtime admirer of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to acting on his principles. Having launched Honest Tea 14 years ago with five thermoses and a belief that consumers were thirsty for a lower-calorie natural and organic beverage, I appreciate all he has accomplished. However, I write today as an entrepreneur frustrated by a proposal that arbitrarily complicates the practical realities of commerce. When the mayor announced his proposal to...

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the City University of New York (CUNY) has announced a two-day conference which serves no purpose, except to condemn Israel, reflecting a simple double standard. In Gaza, Kuwait & Lebanon, homosexuality is illegal and the guilty (if lucky) face 3-10 years in jail. In the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, homosexual acts are punishable by death. After Qatar was awarded the 2022 Football World Cup, the President of the sport’s governing body in the country, said that gays should “refrain from sexual activity”. The Arab world, to put...

The elderly woman gunned down in an an execution-style murder in Chinatown last month is trying to help police find her killer from beyond the grave, her daughter said at an emotional funeral Thursday. The daughter of Xiao Ling Li, 70, who police believe was an innocent bystander caught up in a gangland-style killing meant to take down the woman she worked for, said she believes her mother is doing everything possible to get justice. "[I] believe my mother will help from the grave," said Xu Yin, 40, who flew from China to be present at her mother's funeral at...

Two weeks ago, in an unofficial inauguration ceremony at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi took off his mask of moderation. Before a crowd of scores of thousands, Morsi pledge to work for the release from US federal prison of Sheikh Omar al Rahman. According to the New York Times' account of his speech, Morsi said, "I see signs [being held by members of the crowd] for Omar Abdel Rahman and detainees' pictures. It is my duty and I will make all efforts to have them free, including Omar Abdel Rahman." Otherwise known as the...

If there were any doubt that Eliot “Client 9” Spitzer has spiraled down into further delusion and irrelevance, it was erased Friday afternoon in an embarrassing and bizarre shootout between the disgraced former NY Attorney General and CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo. At issue were allegations that a trove of private emails may exist showing the former purchaser of high-priced prostitutes launched a personally motivated prosecution against former AIG chief Hank Greenberg. Of the eight charges Spitzer brought against Greenberg, six have been dropped, with the last two in the process of being dismissed, according to Greenberg’s lawyer. Still, throughout the interview...

Well, now at least the debate is in the open and we can see just how questionable are the talking points of those who claim the United States has nothing to fear from Islamists. The New York Times publishes an article with the promising title of “Fast-Changing Arab World is Upending U.S. Assumptions,” yet sadly, the article shows that certain assumptions are not changing at all. Indeed, are not even discussed. To summarize the article’s thesis: before Obama’s election, the United States thought that pro-American regimes were good and radical Islamists were bad — but now we know better. For...

Bloomberg is currently accepting proposals for the apartments, which will be located on E 27th Street and First Avenue in Kips Bay. The apartments would help young professionals find appropriate housing in the city while they start their careers. The craziest thing about these 300-square-foot apartments (which are about the size of half a subway car) is that they will cost around $2,000 a month to rent. Under current zoning laws, all apartments must be at least 400 square feet, but Bloomberg said he plans to change the zoning laws to make the new micro-units legal.

The city’s first known Trayvon Martin mural is going up on a wall of an East New York laundromat - adding to a brewing campaign to make sure history doesn’t snub the slain teen’s image. Teenage boys will start painting the 100-foot picture July 16 on New Lots Laundromat’s wall underneath the elevated tracks of the IRT No. 3 train. The East New York mural will join a growing list of similar street art popping up in black neighborhoods across the country. “We want him to become a martyr, and it’s sad that we even have to say that,” said...

An MTA cop was clinging to life Wednesday after a violent confrontation with a man outside a Long Island Railroad station in Queens, sources said.

It’s heating up out there. The number of people shot in the city last week jumped nearly 50 percent compared with the same period last year — and a deadly mix of hotter temperatures and fewer stop-and-frisks is to blame, cops said yesterday. Sixty people were shot in the five boroughs last week — a 46 percent increase over last year’s 41 victims, police said. And that could just be the beginning, warned one law-enforcement source.