Free Republic

COMMENTARY | Former New York congressman Guy Molinari has a few things to say about former Speaker of the House and current presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich -- none of them nice. He speaks from experience, having worked with the presidential candidate in the 80s, a few years prior to the Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House. And Molinari bluntly states that Gingrich is "evil" and a liar, according to CNN. "Evil is a tough word, but frankly I can't think of a better word that describes what he is all about," said Molinari, who now works as an adviser to...

APPLETON, Wis. - An Appleton native is the creator of the iconic "blue fist" graphic in the shape of Wisconsin used in spring protests at the state Capitol. Graphic artist Carrie Worthen graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She now lives and works in Los Angeles, but she kept in touch with members of the AFL-CIO and, in February, the union asked her to take the germ of the fist idea and make it stand out. "To me it needed to be bold and clear and loud and simple," Worthen told Wisconsin Public Radio.

A Kansas teenager is in trouble after mocking Gov. Sam Brownback during a mock legislative assembly for high school students. Emma Sullivan, a senior at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, was in Topeka on Monday as part of Kansas Youth in Government, a program for students interested in politics and government. During the session, in which Brownback addressed the group, Sullivan posted on her personal Twitter page: “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot” On Tuesday, Sullivan was called to her principal’s office and told that the tweet had...

ROME (AP) — A week into his new job, Premier Mario Monti is running out of time to reassure nervous investors that his government has a strategy to deal with Italy's crippling debts. The nation's borrowing rates skyrocketed Friday after a grim set of bond auctions, with a new auction looming Tuesday. Another borrowing debacle could ratchet up fears that Italy has entered a debt spiral driving it toward bankruptcy and the 17-nation eurozone into its most acute crisis yet.

ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Monti formed a government of bankers, diplomats and business executives Wednesday, saying the absence of politicians in his Cabinet will spare political parties the "embarrassment" of taking the tough decisions needed to steer the country from financial disaster. The 68-year-old former European Union competition commissioner and his Cabinet were sworn in at a solemn ceremony at the presidential palace that formally ended Silvio Berlusconi's 3 1/2-year-old government and the media mogul's 17-year-long political dominance. Monti faces his first major hurdle Thursday when he presents his legislative agenda to parliament and subjects his government to...

Not on even a Sunday is the headline barrage over: MARIO MONTI ASKED TO FORM NEW ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MONTI TO MAKE COMMENTS AFTER ACCEPTING OFFER TO LEAD ITALY MARIO MONTI THANKS NAPOLITANO FOR OFFER TO FORM GOVERNMENT MARIO MONTI SAYS ITALY MUST BE PROTAGONIST IN EUROPE MARIO MONTI SAYS HE'LL ACT TO SAVE ITALY FROM CRISIS And so the international advisor to Goldman Sachs drones on. In the meantime, the €300 billion in BTP sales is set to resume in just over 13 hours. Yet the reason why the EURUSD is less than jubilant on the news is that Silvio...

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss Italy’s current financial crisis. Italy is facing almost inevitable default. It’s too big to rescue. And the implications will be felt right at our kitchen tables. Tune in!

A Kansas judge ordered some of the 107 charges filed against Planned Parenthood for engaging in illegal abortions and covering up those cases thanks to the destruction of records that took place during the Sebelius administration.The case with 107 charges against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri came about when former state attorney general Phill Kline brought the charges after obtaining evidence in patient records showing Planned Parenthood committed illegal late-term abortions and then manufactured documents to cover up their crimes. The charges allege the abortion business potentially engaged in illegal abortions and violated state record-keeping laws. Kline, as the...

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral. "We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain." Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him. Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from...

The SEC alleges that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO called Class V Funding III and exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of the assets included in the CDO portfolio. Citigroup then took a proprietary short position against those mortgage-related assets from which it would profit if the assets declined in value. Citigroup did not disclose to investors its role in the asset selection process or that it took a short position against the assets it helped select. Citigroup has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying a total of $285 million, which will...

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — By all accounts, Mark Lindquist is a hero, an underpaid social worker who nearly gave his life trying to save three developmentally disabled adults from the Joplin tornado. Both houses of the Missouri legislature honored Lindquist, the Senate resolution calling him "a true hero and inspiration to others." But heroism doesn't pay the bills. The tornado's 200 mph winds tossed Lindquist nearly a block, broke every rib, obliterated his shoulder, knocked out most of his teeth and put him in a coma for about two months. Lindquist, 51, ran up medical expenses that exceed $2.5 million,...

“it’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing fine. It’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”

A schoolgirl was brutally gang raped after rigid school rules meant she was kept late and missed her bus home, it has been reported. The 13-year-old's parents are suing Mount Hope Middle School in West Virginia, claiming the horrendous sexual assault would not have happened were it not for the actions of staff at the school. The girl was allegedly set upon by a group of athletes at the school while waiting outside for a ride home. She had missed her bus after being made to collect uniforms for the cheerleading squad by Linda Nevi, the coach. When the girl,...

ATLANTA -- Police in Atlanta are hunting several suspects who posed as FBI agents Saturday to rob and shoot a man, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The unidentified victim was leaving his Atlanta apartment with a woman at around 10:30am local time when he was approached by several men in the building's parking lot, police said.

The Solyndra scandal cost at least a half-billion public dollars. It is plaguing President Barack Obama. And it's being billed as a Washington story. But back in Obama's political hometown, those of us familiar with the Chicago Way can see something else in Solyndra — something that the Washington crowd calls "optics." In fact, it's not just a Washington saga — it has all the elements of a Chicago City Hall story, except with more zeros. So forget optics. What about smell? It smells bad, and it's going to smell worse. Or, did you really believe it when the White...

The FBI on Thursday said it had stopped a training session that called the Prophet Muhammad a “cult leader,” said mainstream Muslims were likely to support violent extremism and described the Islamic principal of charity as a “funding mechanism for combat.” The content of the training session set off a wave of concern among Muslims across the nation who had been trying to help authorities battle homegrown terrorism. An FBI spokesman confirmed on Thursday that the agency did host one training session six months ago that described Muslims as more likely to be violent as they increased in devotion to...

Various Chiefs of Police and other law enforcement representatives have gone on a public tour with the Governor proclaiming how important the “Duty to Retreat” is to New Hampshire’s self defense law as it applies to honest citizens under RSA 627:4. Given that they feel that way, we propose adding it to the self defense requirements for law enforcement found under RSA 627:5. (Note that this applies only to a law enforcement officer's self defense, not to making an arrest.) We have taken the exact language that they support and just modified it to fit law enforcement. Here is how...

Sarah Palin is taking to her Facebook page to slam Jim Hoffa, the Teamsters president, for his call to "take these son-of-a-bitches out" in reference to the Tea Party

Verizon Communications Inc. reported a dozen cases of sabotaged cable lines and warned of delays in repairs and customer service on the second day of a strike involving about 45,000 employees. The telecommunications company said there have been 12 acts of sabotage to telephone lines and to Internet and television services in Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York since the strike began. Fiber-optic lines were intentionally cut in Tewksbury and several other municipalities on the East Coast, the company said.

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year--in case police want to review them in the future--under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today.... A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses, some committee members suggested. By a 7-16 vote, the panel rejected an amendment that would have clarified that only IP addresses must be stored.