Free Republic

Who will be the next justice to retire, and who will be nominated to replace that person? SCOTUSblog does some prognosticating and says California Attorney General Kamala Harris could be the next nominee tapped for the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There's one big problem, though: Harris may not want the job. “In the lists of names, only one truly stands out as checking every box: Kamala Harris,” Goldstein writes. Like the president, she is biracial, and she will be 50 years old in 2015. She is liberal, but she has a law enforcement background. The only...

California's death penalty has been in limbo since 2006, when a federal judge stayed the execution of Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for the brutal 1981 murder and rape of 17-year-old Terri Winchell. The judge was fearful lest the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol would cause Morales undue pain. Since then, a number of states have switched to a one-drug protocol. Why hasn't California? The answer could be that Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris don't want the death penalty to work. Brown and Harris are personally opposed to the death penalty, but when they campaigned...

President Obama, speaking at his last California fundraiser Thursday, apparently couldn't help but gush about California Attorney General Kamala Harris. And it wasn't all about her legal chops. No, he also praised her looks. “She is brilliant and she is dedicated, and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake," Obama said. "She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country... It’s true! C’mon.”

President Obama felt the heat Thursday after calling a powerful female official smoking hot. And as luck would have it, he made the unfortunate comment on the same day his wife — remember her, tall lady with the midlife bangs? — mistakenly referred to herself as a single mother. But back to the Prez and his very male salivary glands: “She also happens to be by far the best looking attorney general in the country,” Obama said of California’s Kamala Harris during a fund-raiser. The unexpected comment ruffled the feathers of some observers and caused a commotion on social media...

What an interesting day in political foot in mouth from the White house. FLOUTS gave an interview to a CBS affiliate WCAX and said she was a, "Single Mother". President Obama flirtatiously called the California Attorney General the best looking in America. California Attorney General Kamala Harris did meet Obama at the Airport and it appears they were happy to see each other. We will be listening for a domestic at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Obama apology: US media react to Kamala Harris 'sexism' row US President Barack Obama has issued an apology after he was widely criticised for referring to the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris, as "the best-looking attorney general in the country". The White House said he had apologised to Ms Harris, a long-time friend, for the "distraction" created by his comments and that he fully recognised that women should not be judged on appearance. Commentators in the US have been giving their reaction to the apology, and whether Mr Obama was right to say sorry. Eric Golub writes in the...

President Barack Obama called California Attorney General Kamala Harris from Air Force One Thursday to apologize for calling her the "best-looking attorney general in the country." The remarks, made during a fundraiser in California yesterday, sparked a swift backlash among political commentators. New York magazine's Jonathan Chait called the remark "disgraceful," and Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian characterized it as "more wolfish than sexist." Clearly, Obama's handlers recognized they had a problem on their hands, and Obama called Harris a few hours later to apologize, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. “You know, they are old friends...

If you aren’t familiar with the name Kamala Harris, you should be. The LA Times describes the California Attorney General thusly: “Aty. Gen. Kamala Harris is a veteran prosecutor, a skilled political leader and a promising politician who is sure to figure in California’s future.” She’s been called a “female Barack Obama” and she’s just as far-left as you might imagine.

The Supreme Court is allowing California to continue enforcing a law that bans the sale of foie gras. The justices on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the law from producers of the delicacy in New York and Canada. …

The governor of California has signed a bill into law that redefines marriage and replaces the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ with the generic term ‘spouse.’Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 1306 on Monday, which will take effect on January 1, 2015.“Under existing law, a reference to ‘husband’ and ‘wife,’ ‘spouses,’ or ‘married persons,’ or a comparable term, includes persons who are lawfully married to each other and persons who were previously lawfully married to each other, as is appropriate under the circumstances of the particular case,” it reads. “The bill would delete references to ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ in the Family Code...

Reboot in San Francisco this summer with young Republicans.Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson, 29, are looking to do what Democrats have done for almost a decade: connect conservative and libertarian "technologists" with old-school political campaigns with like minds. There just isn't enough opportunity in Silicon Valley. For a dyed-in-the-wool, true-red conservative. So, a pair of Silicon Valley denizens with right-wing politics are planning their answer to Netroots Nation, according to the Huffington Post. Startup employees Aaron Ginn, 26 -- a former Mitt Romney campaign worker -- and Garrett Johnson,...

When it comes to inclusion and equal treatment of LBGT employees, Toyota is at the top of the list. And it helps that the majority of Toyota employees live in a tolerant state like California. But could that change when the company's U.S. headquarters move to Texas in a few years? Toyota is moving 5,300 employees from California (and some in New York and Kentucky) to Plano, Texas, a move Texas welcomed with open arms and an open pocketbook. It'll serve as a devastating blow to Torrance, Calif., who was apparently blindsided by the news. By all accounts, Plano seems...

Just because California Democrats hold every statewide office and a supermajority in the Legislature doesn't mean they're not worried about 2014. Some Democratic insiders fret that, essentially, life may be too good for the party right now. Their lurking fear: Without a high-profile presidential election or a big-name Republican challenger lined up yet against Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic voters won't be interested enough to cast ballots in November. If that happens, the GOP could pick off a few seats in the Legislature, wrecking the Democrats' two-thirds majority and damaging Brown's ability to move his agenda. Adding to Democratic insiders' anxiety...

The conservative lawyer who defended California’s ban on gay marriage at the Supreme Court is at work on another project: planning his daughter’s upcoming same-sex wedding ceremony. Charles J. Cooper, a former top official in the Reagan Justice Department and onetime “Republican lawyer of the year,” learned of his daughter’s sexual orientation during the legal battle over California’s Proposition 8, according to journalist Jo Becker’s soon-to-be-released book chronicling the movement to legalize same-sex marriage. Ashley Lininger became engaged to a woman identified in the book only as Casey just after the Supreme Court accepted the Proposition 8 case in December...

GOP strategist Karl Rove says he can imagine a Republican candidate in the next presidential campaign supporting gay marriage. The statement from the former adviser to President George W. Bush appears to acknowledge that opposition to gay marriage has waned in some conservative circles. …

While the horror show involving Brendan Eich, Proposition 8, and Mozilla was reaching its ignominious crescendo, I was in Milan, Italy, speaking before an energized crowd of activists in the Lombardy region’s county hall. Unaware of the witch hunt carried out by McCarthy’s rainbow-brandishing gay great-grandsons in Silicon Valley, a middle-aged man came forward and cried out in Italian, “Is it just me, or is the gay lobby imposing a dictatorship on us with their so-called scientific experts?” The science to which he referred wasn’t JavaScript, but rather psychology and pediatrics.  He was referring to homosexual activists’ constant invocation of...

ABC News Vice President Jeffrey Schneider has apologized for a story on his network that connected a CEO who supports traditional marriage to the Westboro Baptist Church and their offensive "God hates fags" signs. Mr. Schneider contacted the Media Research Center on Thursday after our social media department requested members call and complain about the comparison.

PASADENA >> Plans to build a Chick-fil-A restaurant across from Pasadena City College were put on hold this week after a divided council approved a request by Councilman Terry Tornek to revisit the restaurant chain’s request for building permits. The project, which calls for an expansion of the existing drive-thru as well as removal of two protected trees, among other changes at the former Burger King site, was approved by a hearing officer in December and granted a conditional use permit by the Board of Zoning Appeals by a 3-2 vote in March. However, Tornek requested the project be revisited...

I just dumped Firefox. I didn't like what the did to their CEO, forcing him out. Dennis Praeger is encouraging everyone to uninstall Firefox, so I did. I then went to their feedback site and told them why. I was gracious, some of the comments were not.

Faith Driven Consumer launched an #OpenZilla campaign in response to the recent resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich whose support for California's Proposition 8 in 2008 caused uproar. The #OpenZilla campaign seeks to ensure the software company expresses inclusiveness and respect toward its religious employees who may oppose same-sex marriage. Faith Driven Consumer, a group that seeks to connect Christian consumers with faith-compatible companies, has requested the Silicon Valley-based software company provide clarification on its diversity policy to ensure employees will not be discriminated against for their religious beliefs. Recently, Eich resigned from his newly-appointed post as CEO of Mozilla,...