Free Republic

James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, had all the makings of a great president. So why didn’t he become one? Louis Picone, author of The President Is Dead!, answers this tragic question.

“Homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s,” the Coalition for the Homeless reports.After decades of failure, New York City homelessness keeps getting worse. The only people who appear to be benefiting are the ones who make a pretty penny “serving” the homeless. The homeless–an ever expanding group in our major cities–are still sleeping rough and dying of overdoses.New York City’s homeless population has surged in recent years to 80,000 people, according to The Bowery Mission, a 150-year-old agency serving the hungry and homeless, citing federal data.This despite the fact that...

A NEW CIVILIAN CLIMATE CORPS has become a central progressive demand for the Democrats’ budget reconciliation package, and party leaders seem poised to go along. Climate groups and elected officials alike see it as a combination of several top priorities: a tangible response to climate change, a broad-based jobs program aimed especially at young people and people of color, and a test case for Franklin Delano Roosevelt-style populism that President Biden is so eagerly trying to emulate. Like the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, it would employ Americans on climate-focused public-works projects like reforestation. But not all CCCs are created equal....

It was a moment to behold. The reporter was of magnificent stock. Her name is Nancy Cordes and she was ready to face off with Jen Psaki over the practice of throwing around patronage jobs to the kids of Joe Biden’s pals. “Can you describe what safeguards the administration has in place to make sure that the children of top officials don’t get preferential treatment in hiring?” It was perfectly executed and surely Psaki would have to spill the beans and admit defeat. But the red headed daughter of Connecticut is nothing if not audacious and pushed a fleet of...

For decades, Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan dominated the state’s political system, corrupting it to his own ends. What should we make of his ouster? The Chicago machine turned out some of the most notorious names in American public corruption, including Anton Cermak, Richard J. Daley, and Ed Kelly. The machine also turned out Mike Madigan, who ruled over Illinois politics for 50 years, 36 of which he spent calling the shots as House speaker. Most people thought Madigan would only leave office in handcuffs or a casket. Most people were wrong. For the first time since 1970, “the Velvet...

Lawmakers from both parties have called for John Lausch to keep his job President Joe Biden is forcing Chicago's top federal prosecutor to resign amid ongoing criminal probes of powerful Illinois Democrats and their associates. U.S. attorney John Lausch is prosecuting close confidants of Democrat boss Mike Madigan, an ally of former president Barack Obama who resigned from the state legislature Thursday after a decades-long reign in Springfield. Lausch's office will also prosecute Chicago alderman Edward Burke (D.), an influential figure accused of strong-arming businesses into retaining his law firm. Lausch's abrupt removal has drawn bipartisan criticism from Illinois lawmakers...

“Toll free in ’73.” That was the campaign slogan over five decades ago that promised tolls on Illinois interstates would be a temporary revenue sources. Today, the tolls are higher and the tollway authority is more permanent than ever. Lawmakers promised tolls would help fund 186 miles of interstate construction and would be removed when the roads were paid off. After that, highway maintenance would be funded by the gas tax. In 1968, the General Assembly made the Illinois Toll Highway Authority permanent. What started at just 10 cents at the exits and 25 cents at the plazas has grown...

In more ancient simpler times when men were closer to God's creation, great trees were honored in ritual. They gave us strength. They rooted us to the earth. We needed them then and we still do. Truly good things just dont change.

Kamala Harris’ first significant political role was an appointment by her powerful then-boyfriend Willie Brown, three decades her senior, to a California medical board that has been criticized as a landing spot for patronage jobs and kickbacks. Then 30, Harris was dating 60-year-old Willie Brown, at the time the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly, when he placed her on the California Medical Assistance Commission in 1994. The position paid over $70,000 per year, $120,700 in current money, and Harris served on the board until 1998. The medical commission met twice a month, and Harris, a United States senator...

In less than two years, the Illinois tollway has hired six Republican insiders for high-level jobs that collectively pay nearly $916,000 a year, including a former elected official, political operatives and the relative of a state GOP leader. That troubles some government watchdogs who say they are concerned about favoritism in an agency with a history of patronage. Tollway officials said the agency is staffed with qualified professionals. "More and more the Illinois tollway is becoming the 'Who's Who' of Republican political hires," said Illinois Campaign for Political Reform Chairwoman Susan Garrett, a former Democratic state senator. Tollway spokesman Dan...

Shortened title. Full title: Exclusive: Peter Schweizer Reveals Joe Biden’s Son’s Massive Deal with Chinese Company ‘Trying to Steal’ America’s Nuclear Secrets Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and author of the new book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, joined SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight on Monday to detail the involvement of Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s second son, in a China-backed private equity firm’s investment in a Chinese atomic energy company indicted for “nuclear power conspiracy against the United States.”

It’s now public on Monday: Jarrett, who has homes in Washington and Chicago, is working with the Chicago-based Obama Foundation in an advisory capacity. The foundation now has a branch office up and running in Washington — in the same building where former President Barack Obama has his official government post-presidential office. Jarrett, I am told from one of her advisers, “will work with President Obama and the foundation leadership, including Chairman Martin Nesbitt and Chief Executive Officer David Simas, to help support the foundation team’s work as it develops the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on the South...

The Chicago Police Department conducted a series of overnight raids from Thursday into Friday that resulted in 81 arrests, mostly for drug- and weapons-related offenses, Supt. Eddie Johnson said Friday. The raids, focused on the city's South and West Side neighborhoods, were "focused on the underlying source of crime in these areas: the sale of narcotics," Johnson said at a press conference Friday afternoon. Of the 81 people arrested, Johnson said 61 are previously convicted felons, 49 are documented gang members, 19 have previously been arrested on gun charges, 14 are currently on parole, and 65 have been previously identified...

As the state contemplates an income tax hike, Oregon's elites line their pockets with taxpayer money. In 2016, as politicians across America were fleeing voter wrath, Oregon’s governor and attorney general were blazing an unlikely trail – accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from businesses with state contracts. Since 1940, at the federal level, individuals and entities negotiating or working under federal contracts are prohibited from giving political cash to candidates, parties or committees. In Oregon, however, this political patronage is perfectly legal, at least for now. Our analysis at American Transparency (OpenTheBooks.com) found 207 state contractors...

“We are going to have to do something about Chicago. Because what is happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country.” Last month also saw 234 shooting incidents and 299 shooting victims – compared to 242 shooting incidents and 291 victims during the same time period last year. Despite the grim numbers in January, police have said a new plan is helping get guns off the streets. Police recovered more than 600 guns last month, an increase of more than 60 percent over January 2016. Police said gun arrests also were more than double the total from January...

Democratic National Committee documents recently released by WikiLeaks include spreadsheets and emails that appear to show party officials planning which donors and prominent fundraisers to provide with appointments to federal boards and commissions. The documents, which were circulated among top DNC officials in April, could raise legal questions for the party, says Ken Boehm, the chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group. “The disclosed DNC emails sure look like the potential Clinton Administration has intertwined the appointments to federal government boards and commissions with the political and fund raising operations of the Democratic Party,” Boehm...

It has always been taken for granted that presidents appoint wealthy donors to commissions, ambassadorships, and other honors. But we have never before seen evidence of the way the transactions are carried out. However, thanks to Wikileaks, we have an actual spreadsheet listing donors and possible purchases of office being circulated among DNC officials. Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller has the story. The spreadsheet — which was accompanied by emails sent between officials with the DNC’s finance team — contains 23 names of little-known corporate executives and professional fundraisers who have donated to the committee and various Democratic political...

Late at night this month, the pastor’s phone beeped with a text message from an anguished parishioner. Andre Taylor, the church member’s great-nephew, had been shot and killed. “Dre had just turned 16,” the message on the Rev. Ira Acree’s phone read. “I think that it’s time to call for action and solicit help, have the National Guard to take over and patrol the Chicago streets.” Four days earlier, another text had appeared. A different parishioner’s granddaughter, Daysha Wright, a 21-year-old nursing student, had been shot to death in a car, leaving a 2-year-old son. At his desk at Greater...

Amrish Mahajan, former president of failed Mutual Bank of Harvey and a major fundraiser for imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been barred from future participation in the banking industry under a newly released regulatory order. Mr. Mahajan consented, without admitting or denying unsafe or unsound banking practices, to a May 1 order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. prohibiting him from participating “in any manner” in the conduct of the affairs of any federally insured institution. ... Mr. Mahajan was known for his political connections, particularly to Mr. Blagojevich. Mutual Bank briefly entered the realm of national politics after...

Senior Obama administration officials knew about a White House aide's link to the Secret Service prostitution scandal and covered it up, according to a bombshell report that surfaced Wednesday night. Friends of Barack: Jonathan Dach (right) posed with then-Senator Barack Obama during a campaign staff 'family night' event in Springfield, Missouri on November 1, 2008. Also seen are Dach's father Leslie (2nd left), then a Wal-Mart lobbying executive, and his mother Mary Dickie (left) Jonathan Dach, the staffer implicated by the Washington Post, was never disciplined after an investigation found he had a prostitute in his hotel room during a...