Free Republic

Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that he had the strongest political background of any 2016 presidential candidate.  “I think it’s the best resume and a terrific record,” Kasich told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Kasich has long teased a White House run next year but has not yet publicly declared a bid. “I’m optimistic about where we are,” he said

OAKLAND — What's one more week compared to a 40-year championship drought? What's one more week when it means a shot at the first title in franchise history? The Warriors eliminated the Rockets with a 104–90 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday, advancing to an NBA Finals date with the Cavaliers. This is a matchup worth waiting for, and a little patience will be required. Because both Golden State and Cleveland made quick work of their conference finals foes, the NBA will hit the pause button for a full week before the championship series opens...

It took just a few days after the stunning defeat of Obama's attempt to fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership bill in the Senate at the hands of his own Democratic party, before everything returned back to normal and the TPP fast-track was promptly passed. Why? The simple answer: money. Or rather, even more money. Because while the actual contents of the TPP may be highly confidential, and their public dissemination may lead to prison time for the "perpetrator" of such illegal transparency .... fast-tracking the TPP, meaning its passage through Congress without having its contents available for debate or amendments,...

CLEVELAND — While acknowledging that he cannot appeal an acquittal, an Ohio prosecutor says a judge made serious errors before finding a Cleveland police officer not guilty in the deaths of two unarmed suspects, and he wants an appeals court to order the judge to correct the record. The prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty of Cuyahoga County, said in court documents that were posted Friday on The Plain Dealer website that Judge John O’Donnell’s reasoning in the voluntary-manslaughter trial of Officer Michael Brelo could set a legal precedent that would “endanger the public.” Mr. McGinty said Officer Brelo’s acquittal on May...

Activist calls for widespread reform as community reels from verdict that acquitted Michael Brelo for firing 49 shots at two people in car chase.When Al Sharpton got up to speak at the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland on Friday night, he was given a standing ovation. At what was billed as a “justice and reform revival”, attendees, mostly congregants of the church itself, had been primed by several hymns and scriptural invocations. Their pastor, reverend Jawanza Colvin, introduced the civil rights campaigner as “one of God’s trombones”. Sharpton proceeded to deliver a barn-burning speech that had the assembled on...

Harlan Ellison is still an angry young man, except he'll be 81 on May 27. He has used this anger, fueled by childhood anti-Semitism, throughout his extraordinary career as a writer of speculative fiction. This year saw the publication of his 116th and 117th (so far) books: The Top of the Volcano, a collection of his awardwinning short stories, and a graphic novelization of his original script for "The City on the Edge of Forever," widely considered the best Star Trek episode ever written. Although Ellison's hundreds of published stories contain a wealth of Jewish characters, his most complex creation...

Plan for lethal-virus laboratories leaves Smalltown USA in uproar By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 29 June 2003 A network of high-security laboratories for storing and investigating some of the most lethal viruses known to mankind is being built across the US, leaving communities in uproar. They not only fear the risk of the viruses escaping, but also contend that the programme, part of the $6bn (£3.5bn) Project BioShield, is a stunning case of overkill. For none of the germs to be studied is related to bioweaponry. In the tiny town of Hamilton, Montana, campaigners worry that they will become...

Cleveland's settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on reforming the city's troubled police department calls for civilians to play influential roles in investigating police misconduct and establishing policies and procedures. The 105-page agreement details new rules for how officers employ, report and investigate uses of deadly and nonlethal force, to include prohibitions against shooting at moving vehicles, striking suspects in the head with their firearms and using stun guns to inflict pain, examples of which were cited in the DOJ investigative findings. The agreement also requires Cleveland police to make community policing, which requires officers to work with...

Robert S. Wistrich, who died suddenly last week, was considered the foremost scholar of anti-Semitism, which he called “the longest hatred,” one that appears to be metastasizing in the current era. Writing about Nazi anti-Semitism ruffles no feathers within academia and other elite circles. Mr. Wistrich, however, had been warning that “anti-Semitism has undergone a process of growing ‘Islamicization,’ linked to the terrorist holy war against Jews and other non-Muslims with its truly lethal consequences.” This “new” anti-Semitism,” he added, targetsIsrael, the only state with a Jewish majority: “the collective Jew.” “New” is a relative term: It was 40 years...

Marco Rubio skidded. Jeb Bush slid. Ben Carson zoomed. Mike Huckabee bounced. Scott Walker stayed steady. And that’s how you end up with a five-way tie for first place in the latest Quinnipiac University national poll on the GOP Sixteeners. Put another way: With five candidates evenly dividing half of the vote, there is no first place. While Rubio lost a third of his support and Bush continued to droop, losing three points for the second month in a row, all five can say with confidence that they will meet the polling criterion for the first GOP debate, hosted by...

AP) — Former Rep. Steve LaTourette, gravely ill with pancreatic cancer, has filed a claim against the government over the treatment he received from his Capitol doctors, claiming they failed to pass along critical information about a lesion on the organ and the need for follow-up monitoring. LaTourette, R-Ohio, filed administrative claims against the government earlier this month in anticipation of filing a lawsuit later. But papers filed with a federal court in Washington last week say LaTourette “is likely to succumb to rapid physical and cognitive deterioration” and urge that he be allowed to testify now since he may...

Ohio recently made headlines with reports that half the abortion clinics in that state have closed and several others have curtailed services, reducing abortion numbers to the lowest since 1976. “When abortion clinics close, abortions decline and lives are saved. It’s as simple as that,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and co-author of the book Abortion Free. “We have worked in Ohio on a number of projects in cooperation with local leaders that, in part, contributed to this decline.” While some refuse to acknowledge that abortion clinic closures contribute to lower abortion numbers, Newman explains that the evidence...

Mark Levin addresses the talk about the type of candidate that the United States needs if we are going to have any chance of extricating ourselves from the overwhelming destruction of the Obama regime. He says it doesn’t really matter to him what the current employment of the individual that would assume the office of President of the United States. What matters are that person’s values, their vision and their leadership ability.He sees an agenda to restore the Republic, respect for the American people, stop ruling by the administrative state and regulation and the infamous pen and phone. He notes...

RUSH: A new Gallup poll out. Headline: "Americans Continue to Shift Left on Key Moral Issues." Now, before you go off getting depressed about this, let me tell you what the reason for this is, after we give you the details. "Americans are more likely now than in the early 2000s to find a variety of behaviors morally acceptable, including gay and lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage and sex between an unmarried man and woman. Moral acceptability of many of these issues is now at a record-high level." It's a subtle message to the Republican Party, and...

The Justice Department yesterday announced a simultaneous lawsuit and settlement with the Cleveland police department. The settlement will impose significant federal mandates on the police. This comes after a Cleveland police officer was acquitted of wrongdoing by a court after the officer shot a suspect at the conclusion of a 100 mph car chase. The agreement imposes a ten-member “community police commission” who will watch over the police, only three of whom have any law enforcement perspective. The remaining seven are sure to include individuals either actively involved in the racialist anti-police efforts or one degree of separation from the...

A "bulldog" Ohio lawyer is helping conservative groups influence elections as opaquely as legally possible. WEST CHESTER, Ohio—Just outside Cincinnati, tucked among insurance agencies, hair salons and a yoga studio, is the nexus of one of the nation’s most mysterious networks pouring secret money into elections. “Langdon Law LLC Political, Election Nonprofit and Constitutional Law,” reads its small sign, which faces the building’s parking lot rather than the street. On a Tuesday afternoon last month, that parking lot was empty. No one answered the Langdon Law office door. Phone calls went unreturned. Unlike other heavy-hitting political lawyers, David Langdon doesn’t...

Hillary Clinton is heading to the Sunshine State this week to spend time with one of Florida’s most influential Democratic donors, trial lawyer John Morgan. Morgan is not just praising Clinton’s candidacy, but actively bashing her potential Republican rivals. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Morgan took shots at Wisconsin Governor and prospective 2016 candidate, Scott Walker: “Walker would be the first president with a GED.”The Democratic donor attempted to insult Walker for not obtaining a college degree, which he opted out of in order to get started with his career. Morgan continued, calling Walker cruel names in an...

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell did something absolutely amazing on Saturday, when he chose to acquit white Cleveland cop Michael Brelo of manslaughter in the 2012 killing of two lawbreakers who sent police on a 22-mile car chase. “Brelo’s entire use of deadly force was a constitutionally reasonable response to an objectionably reasonably perceived threat of great bodily harm,” the judge announced. He added, “I will not sacrifice him to the public frustrated by historical mistreatment at the hands of other officers.” What occurred in 2012 was that a couple, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, were driving past...

Cleveland police were taking no chances in the wake of the acquittal of police officer Michael Brelo, going to great lengths to ensure that Saturday afternoon’s peaceful protests didn’t evolve into violent riots like Baltimore and Ferguson have experienced in recent months.In addition to having the National Guard on standby, police followed protesters through the streets and arrested anyone who acted violently or refused to obey police orders to disperse. A total of 71 people were arrested, including one journalist who left his press pass at home.The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported: “We only moved into make arrests when things...

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) speaking before voting on the Democrats' massive government takeover of health care: "... and look at how this bill was written. Can you say it was done openly? With transparency and accountability? Without backroom deals struck behind closed doors hidden from the people? Hell no you can't.