Free Republic

Yesterday, we noted the left’s freak-out over the news that the Justice Department will be investigating race-based discrimination in college and university admissions. The freak-out was on full display on Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show yesterday. You knew the fix was in from Mitchell’s choice as guests of two critics of the initiative: the Washington Post‘s Jonathan Capehart, and Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The most outrageous moments came when Mitchell said: “I don’t know if there are cases, even” of white students being disadvantaged by minority students taking available slots. View the video here.

When did the word “optics” enter the political lexicon? In any case, the Morning Joe crew today ripped the look of the Republican Rose Garden ceremony of yesterday at which President Trump and House members celebrated the passage of their health care bill. Donny Deutsch said they were “a bunch of fat, middle-aged, rich white guys.” When Willie Geist mentioned that Mika had said that the photo looked like a golf course ribbon cutting, Joe Scarborough interjected: “it’s a country club with restrictive membership. Obviously, you have to be white, and a male, to be there.” View the video here.

Three of the nation’s largest media organizations are being sued — two by the same lawyer — for ­racial discrimination. A half-dozen people have filed suits against the New York Times and Fox News, while as many as 175 current and former employees have contacted lawyers about joining a class-action suit against CNN. The Times plaintiffs claim in a suit filed last year by New York lawyer Douglas Wigdor that “the Gray Lady” prefers to hire white employees to help target a white audience. “Unbeknownst to the world at large, not only does the Times have an ideal customer (young,...

A community college in Illinois is trying to defend itself after it decided to offer special classes only available to black people. “College: Changes, Challenges, Choice” is a one-credit introductory course at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, and is intended to help new students “assess your purpose for college, assess your study strategies, set college and career goals, examine your values and decision-making skills, and develop an appreciation for diversity.” But while the class may want students to appreciate diversity, the school doesn’t practice what it preaches. Two sections of the class are specifically set aside exclusively for...

Grassroots Group Warns Hawaii Plan Is Racially Discriminatory, Unconstitutional and Would Set a 'Dangerous Precedent' (Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch today announced its opposition to an effort by the Obama administration to recognize a new race-based "tribe" of Native Hawaiians. The government watchdog details how the Obama Interior Department's proposed regulation would be contrary to laws against racial discrimination and would be an unconstitutional end-run around Congress, which has repeatedly rejected legislation granting tribal status to Native Hawaiians. Last month, Judicial Watch persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an injunction to stop the counting of ballots in a race-based...

Full title: Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court Order Halting Hawaii from Conducting Race-based Election Pending Appeal (Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch today responded to the Supreme Court's issuance of an injunction halting a race-based "Native Hawaiian-only" election in Hawaii. In August, Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the five Hawaiian residents and one Texas resident of Hawaiian descent who oppose the discriminatory election process (Keli'i Akina, et al. v. The State of Hawaii, et al. (No. 1:15-cv-00322)). Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated: "The Supreme Court today issued an injunction that put a hard stop to...

Full title: Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court Order Temporarily Halting Hawaii from Conducting Race-based Election (Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch today responded to a Supreme Court order temporarily preventing the State of Hawaii "from counting the ballots cast in, and certifying the winners of" a race-based election restricted to those with Native Hawaiian blood. The order was issued on Friday, November 27 by Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The election, which is being conducted by mail-in ballots, ends today, and ballots were initially scheduled to be counted and winners certified by tomorrow, December 1, 2015. The election was conducted...

Courtesy Shutterstock The Supreme Court has just issued an order (read it here) blocking the racially discriminatory separatist election in Hawaii. The order enjoins (stops) the counting of ballots and certification of results pending further order of the Supreme Court. I covered the electionhere and here at PJ Media. Only one race is permitted to register to vote with Hawaiian government officials for the separatist election.Hawaii has given a private organization millions of dollars to run the election. They believe these actions are constitutional. Judicial Watch has sued Hawaii, and the Public Interest Legal Foundation has filed an emergency...

Ex-CIA Officer Indicted for Leaking Classified Info to New York Slimes Reporter Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer, was indicted today for leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen. The indictment shows that the federal government had access to their e-mail and phone contacts going back several years. Sterling served on the Iran desk of the CIA in the 1990s, and oversaw a classified program aimed at sabotaging the development of its nuclear programming. He left the CIA in 2000 and sued for racial discrimination (he is African American) in a case that went all the way...

A former CIA officer was arrested on Thursday on charges of illegally disclosing national defense information about Iran to a New York Times reporter who wrote a book. The U.S. Justice Department said Jeffrey Sterling, 43, was charged with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and one count of unlawfully keeping national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstructing justice.

Exaggerations have poisoned discussions about relations between blacks and the police. “Black men between the ages of 15 and 19 are 21 times as likely as whites to be killed by a police officer,” said Chuck Todd on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree echoed Todd. “The data is clear, that black boys are being killed by white police officers around the country.” The claim was repeated frequently on other shows. But those numbers aren’t entirely accurate, and they are far from the whole truth. . . . Todd and Ogletree relied on an analysis of FBI...

It was in a college theater class that I learned about a genre called "Theater of the Absurd." These were plays written mostly by European playwrights between the 1940s and 1960s, as well as a certain style that flowed from their work. What reminded me of this is now "playing" in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was -- select one -- a) innocently walking down the street when a police officer shot him to death without provocation, or, b) walking with a friend in the street and told by a police officer to...

There’s nothing in the United States Constitution stating Americans have the right not to pay their bills. In fact, the Declaration of Independence, which gave birth to our nation, notes the only unalienable rights we have are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet thousands of Detroit residents think they have the right not to pay their water bills and demand their water remain on. About 80,000 residential water accounts are past due to the tune of $43 million. The audacity of freeloaders! Detroit is an $18 billion bankrupt mess, struggling quite literally to keep the lights on and...

Attorney General Eric Holder, in a recent interview, reiterates the theme heard from the very beginning of President Barack Obama's administration: opposition to Obama's agenda equals racism. "There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me (and) directed at the president." What is Holder's proof -- to the extent that any is required? After all, following his election, Obama's favorable ratings reached nearly 80 percent, higher than any president-elect since John F. Kennedy. Obama, in 2008, received a greater percentage of the "white vote" than did John Kerry. Polls, studies and statistics, for Holder, aren't...

Attorney General Eric Holder granted an exclusive interview to ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" from London, where he was portrayed by ABC as deeply concerned about the global terrorist threat. What stands out from this very rare session -- Holder hasn't been on Sunday network television in four years -- is that Holder pulled out the oldest, lamest card in the Obama political deck: President Barack Obama and he are opposed by people who should be suspected of racism. And darned if he didn't get away with it again. Pierre Thomas, ABC's Justice Department correspondent, interviewed Holder and...

The sense's ability to discriminate differences serves us daily; it saves lives. When approaching an intersection, the color of the traffic light lets you know whether to stop or continue. Whether you admit it or not, your ability to discriminate differences between people you encounter can also serve you well. In its extreme, discrimination of difference has also resulted in bigotry and the holocaust that killed millions. That's why Mark Cuban's candid comments on racial discrimination in an Inc magazine interview are both courageous and important in this time of division and rampant political correctness. In measured tones, he observed:...

Imagine if a state didn’t let someone vote in an election because their grandfather wasn’t the correct race. Surely lawyers in Eric Holder’s Justice Department would be typing up a lawsuit as fast as fingers could fly across the keyboard. After all, Obama is the president who boasted he was a champion for voting rights, falsely we’d later learn. Eric Holder compared voter ID to a modern version of Jim Crow. But a recent federal court opinion shows Jim Crow is alive and well, and living in paradise. This week, the United States District Court in the Commonwealth of the...

Donald Sterling, Los Angeles Clippers owner, was recorded by his mistress making some crude racist remarks. Since then, Sterling's racist comments have dominated the news, from talk radio to late-night shows. A few politicians have weighed in, with President Barack Obama congratulating the NBA for its sanctions against Sterling. There's little defense for Sterling, save his constitutional right to make racist remarks. But in a sea of self-righteous indignation, I think we're missing the most valuable lesson that we can learn from this affair -- a lesson that's particularly important for black Americans. Though Sterling might be a racist, there's...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker was internationally renowned within the economics profession, but was not nearly as well known among the general public as he deserved to be. More important, his path-breaking ideas, including his analysis of the economics of racial discrimination, deserved to be much more a part of the many discussions of that subject. More than half a century after Professor Becker's landmark work on the economics of discrimination, most controversies on that subject, both in the media and in politics, go on in utter ignorance of his penetrating insights. So do laws and policies that make discrimination...

Field trips are generally a fun break from the ordinary school routine. But for some British students, not going on a field trip could have put a dark stain on their permanent records. In a letter sent to students at Littleton Green Community School, students and parents were warned that skipping a religious education field trip would result in a "racial discrimination note" on their permanent records.