Free Republic

Democrats accused of snubbing black woman judge in Supreme Court bid Allen not invited to meeting with senior Democrats, including Rendell Wednesday, February 26, 2003By James O'Toole, Post-Gazette Politics Editor Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Cheryl Allen, a state Supreme Court candidate, is irate that she was not invited to a closed meeting Saturday where senior Democrats, including Gov. Ed Rendell, interviewed candidates for the high court. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Cheryl Allen "I'm very disappointed," Allen said last night. "I don't know why I wasn't invited. ... I would think that a truly Democratic process would demand an...

In a post of mine three weeks ago, I touched upon several avenues by which the smoke of Satan is entering into the Catholic Church. In this post, I'll deal with several of these avenues. First we look at the various partnerships that the Vatican has struck with those opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ (fifth bullet point). Caritas is reputedly the main social organization inside the Vatican. Yet as the Lepanto Institute and other organizations have pointed out, Caritas has been funding and even directing socialist organizations in their promotions of abortion, contraception, marxism etc. Lepanto has discovered...

The winning cartoon from the “Draw Muhammad” event that led to a shooting in Texas earlier this month has been submitted to run as an advertisement on Washington, D.C., public transportation. Pamela Geller, the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) wrote on Breitbart.com that she has submitted the cartoon as an ad to run on Metro buses, as well as at the Foggy Bottom, Capitol South, Bethesda, L’Enfant Plaza and Shady Grove Metro stations. “Drawing Muhammad is not illegal under American law, but only under Islamic law. Violence that arises over the cartoons is solely the responsibility of...

In less than two months, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly might have gone from dunce to genius for signing Tim Tebow. The quarterback nobody wanted the last two years could be the very specialist the Eagles need to beat the NFL’s new extra-point rule. For the grand Kelly scheme to work, though, Tebow would have to be activated on game day not as the third quarterback—who can only be used if one of the first two go down—but as a special teams performer. Given Tebow’s size and reputation as a football player over a quarterback, that seems reasonable enough....

Former White House Chief of Staff and currently mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, whose city is rushing to be the next Detroit after decades of big government excesses, once said that a crisis was a terrible thing to waste since it allows you to get things done you couldn’t get done in a saner atmosphere. The Amtrak derailment outside Philadelphia is the latest case in point. Never mind that the Antrak train that crashed outside Philadelphia, killing seven, was being driven at 106 miles per hour around a curve that was designed for 50 or that the “positive train control”...

On the night before Philly’s primary, four local election officials are accused of casting extra votes in order to balance their numbers. Sandra Lee, 60, Alexia Harding, 22, James Collins, 69, and Gregory Thomas, 60, are all charged with voter fraud. Warrants for their arrests were issued Monday. All four suspects were election officials from Philly’s 18th Ward, 1st Division. Read more: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philadelphia-Election-Officials-Voter-Fraud-Election-Fraud-304185341.html#ixzz3adO34T8g Follow us: @nbcphiladelphia on Twitter | nbcphiladelphia on Facebook

The union for Amtrak’s locomotive engineers on Tuesday urged the railroad to put a second engineer at the controls of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor, where a derailment killed eight people and injured more than 200 others. “The public would never accept an airline operation with a single person in the cockpit,” the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said in a statement. “There is no reason that rail employees and rail passengers’ lives should be viewed any differently.” Brandon Bostian, 32, was alone in the locomotive of Train 188 when it derailed May 12, about 10 minutes after...

On May 18, 1891, a lovely spring day, at 3 o’clock, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arrived in Philadelphia without fanfare. There was to be a concert of his music that evening, the last he would conduct in the United States. The dervish tour had begun on April 26 in New York City, where he had been invited by Walter Damrosch, director of the New York Symphony for the grand opening of what was then called “Music Hall” (later to be formally designated as Carnegie Hall). That invitation was supported by no less a luminary than Andrew Carnegie himself. In New York,...

Washington — An alliance of Asian American groups on Friday filed a federal complaint against HarvardUniversity, saying that school and other Ivy League institutions are using racial quotas to admit students other than high-scoring Asians. More than 60 Chinese, Indian, Korean and Pakistani groups came together for the complaint, which was filed with the civil rights offices at the Justice and Education departments. They are calling for an investigation and say these schools should stop using racial quotas or racial balancing in admission. "We are seeking equal treatment regardless of race," said Chunyan Li, a professor and civil rights activist,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)An Amtrak employee has filed the first lawsuit in connection to Tuesday's deadly train derailment that killed eight people and injured over 200 others in Philadelphia. The Bala Cynwyd law firm Coffey Kaye Myers & Olley, which is representing Amtrak employee Bruce Phillips and his wife Kalita Phillips of Philadelphia, confirmed with NBC10 that their clients are filing a lawsuit against Amtrak. Phillips is still hospitalized at Temple University Hospital. Phillips, an Amtrak employee, was "deadheading" in one of the rear railcars of Amtrak Regional Train 188 Tuesday night when the derailment occurred, according to the lawsuit. Deadheading is a...

PHILADELPHIA — An assistant conductor on the Amtrak train that derailed on Tuesday believes she heard the engineer tell another regional train operator in a radio transmission that the train had been struck by something just before the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. At a news conference on Friday, Robert L. Sumwalt, the safety board official who is leading the investigation, said the F.B.I. had been asked to examine what he described as a fist-size impact area found on the lower left side of the train’s windshield. Officials said that the F.B.I. had been called in because...

The 39-year-old assistant conductor was listening in on Brandon Bostian’s radio conversations with a SEPTA train engineer, who told the Amtrak engineer his train had been hit by a rock or shot at. The SEPTA engineer said he had a broken windshield and made an emergency stop, she said. Bostian also said something about his train being struck by an object, she told National Transportation Safety Board investigators Friday.

Gotnews.com has obtained the disturbing d**k pics of #BrandonBostian, the engineer who killed at least 8 people in a horrific crash earlier this week. Bostian has lawyered up and implausibly claimed that he has no memory of the events leading up to the crash. ....

A computer system that allows speeding trains to be slowed remotely – potentially averting deadly derailments – was installed in the section of track in Philadelphia where Tuesday’s fatal Amtrak crash occurred but had not been turned on, congressional sources tell U.S. News. “The PTC was installed in the section of track where the Philadelphia accident occurred, but for whatever reason had not been turned on, the PTC in that section,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., tells U.S. News, referring to "positive train control." His account was corroborated by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md. “The tracks had PTC, the train had PTC,”...

Singer Cher criticized Republicans on Wednesday for cutting Amtrak’s funding after one of its trains crashed the night before. “Hrs ago, Republicans chose 2 cut Some of The meager Funds, 4 AMTRAK!!” Cher tweeted. “They did this EVEN AFTER the Train Crash & loss of Life, last nite!!” she said. “Majority of GOP congressmen & senators don’t give a flying Fk about the wellbeing of Americans,” Cher said in a separate tweet. “They defund Everything PPL DESPERATELY NEED.” Cher’s remarks followed Northeast Regional Train 188’s derailment in Philadelphia late Tuesday. The House hit Amtrak with reductions Wednesday as part...

BREAKING: GotNews IDs Gay Activist Train Engineer Who Caused Amtrak Crash UPDATED W/ PHOTOS! May 13, 2015 by Charles C. Johnson 184 Comments Gotnews.com has independently identified the engineer at the center of the Amtrak crash that has killed at least seven. Brandon Bostian is the 32-year-old gay man who lawyered up after a deadly derailment in Philadelphia. The train was reportedly going twice the speed limit.

A consequence of America growing more secularist, by which I mean more materialistic, is clear in public reactions by secular sophisticates after the crash of Amtrak 188 in Philadelphia. The dead had yet to be confirmed, the injured were still trapped in smashed train cars, but partisans steering the news narrative griped about “infrastructure” and lectured about “funding.” They blamed Tuesday night's calamity on Republicans, though investigators said speeding into a curve at 106 m.p.h. likely caused the crash. (Maybe the engineer is a Republican.) Two hours after the crash, as aerial shots of the tangled disaster scrolled on social...

Full title: Brandon Bostian, 32 of Queens, is engineer in control of doomed Amtrak train refusing to speak with investigators Brandon Bostian, 32 of Queens, is the engineer who was in the control of the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia. The engineer in control of the speeding Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia is a Queens man who's refusing to talk to investigators about the deadly Tuesday night crash. Investigators said the engineer - who CBS and NBC News identified as Brandon Bostian, 32 - had a lawyer at his side when he met with police on Wednesday, and...

Gotnews.com has independently identified the engineer at the center of the Amtrak crash that has killed at least seven. Brandon Bostian is the 32-year-old gay man who lawyered up after a deadly derailment in Philadelphia. The train was reportedly going twice the speed limit. ABC 6 previously reported that “Brandon Boshan,” not Brandon Bostian, was to blame for the deadly crash. (They have since taken down the link.) Bostian is a gay activist who previously worked at Target as a cashier before joining Amtrak, according to his LinkedIn.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Wells Fargo has confirmed that one of their executives has been confirmed as one of the seven people who died in an Amtrak train derailment on Tuesday night. The VP has been identified as Abid Gilani. "It is with great sadness that Wells Fargo confirms that Abid Gilani, a valued member of our Commercial Real Estate division, has passed away. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by this tragedy." the company said in a statement. A U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and an Associated Press staffer are also among those who are confirmed dead. ABC News...