Free Republic

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandalby Derrick Roach On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN’s activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist the undercover film makers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice to boot. Although ACORN has denied any wrongdoing, some of the employees involved were terminated, and ACORN has publicly stated that they would fully cooperate with any investigations that followed. Interestingly, the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Lagstein was caught on tape earlier this month...

Jefferson's former constiuents react to his sentencingAssociated Press - November 13, 2009 9:04 PM ET NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana residents had mixed reactions about former Congressman William Jefferson's 13-year sentence handed down Friday in federal court in Virginia. Jefferson was sentenced for taking bribes and given the longest term ever imposed on a congressman for such a crime. Thirty-6-year-old James Womack of Gretna says he was satisfied with the length of the sentence but says a longer term would have set a good example for other politicians who think of doing something wrong while in office. Songy Turner, a...

William Jefferson sentencing of 27-33 years recommendedBy Jonathan Tilove November 06, 2009, 9:04PM Prosecutors on Friday night issued a memorandum recommending that former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson be sentenced to between 27 and 33 years in prison. Jefferson, 62, will be sentenced by federal Judge T.S. Ellis III on Nov. 13. The prosecution's sentencing memorandum suggests that Jefferson, who served 18 years in Congress, may have hidden resources and "poses a significant risk of flight,'' and ought to be immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after sentencing at the Alexandria, Va., courthouse. If Ellis follows the...

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, shaking up the contest for the second day in a row after exiting the race Saturday.

EDITORIAL: Easley Performance Not Very ConvincingUpdated: October 29, 2009 at 18:43 pm Larry Leake, chairman of the State Board of Elections, asked a pretty good question Wednesday. A couple of days earlier, on the first day of this week's explosive hearings on alleged campaign spending abuses, former Easley friend and supporter McQueen Campbell had testified in great and dismaying detail. Among other damning allegations, he said he and Easley were part of a bogus scheme to hide the cost of repairs to Easley's private residence by listing them as being for air travel. When a campaign aide expressed concern that...

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia endorses Steve Shannon for Virginia attorney general. Women are counting on you — don't forget to vote on November 3! Dear xxxx, The stakes are high in this election. As a trusted advocate for tens of thousands of women and young adults who need critical health care and education, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia has a strong interest in electing an attorney general who supports women's health and reproductive rights. This fall, there is only one candidate that fits that description: Steve Shannon. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV) enthusiastically endorses Steve Shannon for the...

Reader Wayne sent us this photograph and explains, "I was walking along and texting. Not really paying that much attention. Then something caught my eye. I thought I was about to step in dog shit, but quickly realized it was a rat stuck in the sidewalk. A big rat. It had tried to squeeze through a crack in the sidewalk and failed." Update: Another reader created the second photograph in the gallery, adding, "hopefully this makes it a little better!" We are still awaiting a reply from Wayne to ask if he tried to help the little guy (or gal)...

Sentencing for ex-Rep. Jefferson delayed 2 weeksUpdated: Oct 19, 2009 6:28 AM EDT ALEXANDRIA, VA (AP) - A judge has postponed for two weeks the scheduled sentencing of a former Louisiana congressman convicted of taking bribes and racketeering. A jury in northern Virginia convicted William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans, on 11 of 16 counts. Prosecutors said he received more than $500,000 in bribes and solicited millions more in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa. The sentencing had been scheduled for Oct. 30. It's now set for Nov. 13 because defense...

Insane killer caught after 3 days on loose in Wash An insane killer who slipped away from the staff of a mental institution on a field trip Thursday to the Spokane County Interstate Fair was recaptured Sunday without injury more than 180 miles away in south-central Washington state. With a helicopter overhead and dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officers swarming around Goldendale, Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, seemed ready to surrender when he walked out to the Goldendale-Bickleton road about 22 miles east of town shortly after 4 p.m., just as search personnel arrived at the scene, Klickitat...

It may look like a ferocious mutant from the city sewer. But this newfound species of giant woolly rat is a docile denizen of the forests of Papua New Guinea. On a chilly night earlier this year, biologists Kristofer Helgen and Muse Opiang were trekking through high-elevation rain forests on the inactive volcano Mount Bosavi when a local tracker pointed out a cat-size rodent walking on the forest floor.

(CNN) — Former Rep. James Traficant had a triumphant homecoming Sunday night, his first public appearance since being released from federal prison, a local paper reports. The Youngstown Vindicator said Monday a supporter-organized welcome home dinner for the former Democratic congressman, which drew the capacity crowd of roughly 1,200 Sunday, included performances by an Elvis impersonator and a polka band, as well as a speech from Traficant himself. The newspaper reported that Traficant was defiant, telling listeners that he'd "been hounded by some government people for a long time" and that the government "had to cheat to convict me."

A new species of giant rat has been discovered deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea. The rat, which has no fear of humans, measures 82cm long, placing it among the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.

Is Barack Obama like the Nazis or Adolf Hitler? Does even asking the question make you a right-wing nut or a partisan hack? Is it distasteful to mention Hitler or the Nazis to make a point? Let's take a sober look at the answers to these questions below: Godwin's Law Adolf Hitler seems to appear frequently in political debates. Reference to Hitler or Nazism is so commonplace that in 1990, U.S. attorney and author Mike Godwin coined an adage that has become well known on Internet discussion forums as Godwin's Law: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of...

Mark D. Obenshain I just received a call from a constituent who called to alert me that one of our United States Senators is having an unannounced "telephone town hall"about Health Care RIGHT NOW. That's right, at 5:30 on Monday night. The link below ...Read More Telephone Town Hall - Events - Mark R. Warner Source: warner.senate.gov As part of his ongoing conversation with Virginians about health care, Senator Warner will host another telephone town hall on Monday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m. More that 60,000 households across the Commonwealth will be invited to join the discussion and ask Senator...

VSHL PAC 6767 Forest Hill Avenue • Suite 270 Richmond, Virginia 23225 804/560-8745 www.vshlpac.org August 20, 2009 Dear friends, VSHLPAC has today launched www.deedsisforabortion.com, a new website dedicated to getting out the truth about just how pro-abortion Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Creigh Deeds actually is. Pro-life Virginians have a clear decision to make in the voting booth this year between Pro-life Bob McDonnell and Pro-abortion Creigh Deeds. Please visit www.deedsisforabortion.com and share with your pro-life family and friends as well! Please check out the new site as well as the main home page of VSHLPAC, www.vshlpac.org for more info and continued...

Explorers have discovered a new species of giant rodent-eating carnivorous plant and have named it after legendary TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough. Nepenthes attenboroughii, a previously unknown variety of pitcher plant discovered on a remote mountain in the Philippines, is so big that small rodents could be trapped inside and slowly dissolved by flesh-eating enzymes. It is thought that only a few hundred of the plants exist, growing only on one mountain on the island of Palawan. The species was discovered by a team of scientists who had heard reports from missionaries who got lost in the dense jungle. Stewart...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been found guilty of 11 of the 16 charges against him in a federal bribery and conspiracy trial. Jefferson was accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa.

William Jefferson trial about to enter final lapby Jonathan Tilove and Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune Friday July 17, 2009, 9:17 PM ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- The end is in sight for the corruption trial of former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson. **SNIP** After polling the jury, Ellis said that if testimony ends Wednesday, they would break until the following Tuesday, July 28. The break would enable the attorneys to prepare and for the court to resolve any remaining legal issues before the case goes to the jury. 'Explicit conflict of interest' Friday's session began with testimony from Thomas Hardy, an official of...

The bronze rat A Tourist walked into a Chinese curio shop in San Francisco. While looking around at the exotic merchandise, he noticed a very lifelike, life-sized, bronze statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but was so incredibly striking the tourist decided he must have it. He took it to the old shop owner and asked, "How much for the bronze rat?" "Ahhh, you have chosen wisely! It is $12 for the rat, $100 for the story," said the wise old Chinaman. The tourist quickly pulled out twelve dollars. "I'll just take the rat, you can keep...

Judge impatient with pace in trial of former Rep. William Jeffersonby Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune Monday June 22, 2009, 12:13 PM ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- The judge expressed some impatience this morning with the pace of the public corruption trial of former Rep. William Jefferson. **SNIP** Trout said the personal service agreement would show why Mody was unhappy with Jackson and Pfeffer, who also has pleaded guilty to paying bribes to Jefferson. He said it was significant that Mody initially made no allegations about Jefferson. Ellis appeared to disagree. "So what?" the judge said after the jury had been dismissed for...

Jurors hear tapes in Jefferson trialBy GERARD SHIELDS Advocate Washington bureau Published: Jun 19, 2009 WASHINGTON – Jurors in the bribery trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson got their first chance Thursday to listen to secretly recorded government tapes that include Jefferson expressing worry about landing in the “pokey.” The 18-year congressman was upset when a Kentucky telecommunications business owner suggested that they get a new investor for a project the two were promoting in Africa. In one obscenity-laced statement, Jefferson was heard to say that the activities in which they were engaged could land them all in the...

<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Kentucky businessman testified Wednesday he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "consulting fees" to the wife of a former Louisiana congressman that were nothing but thinly veiled bribes.</p> <p>Testifying in a green prison jumpsuit, Jackson told jurors that his relationship with Jefferson began legitimately. Jackson felt he needed some public officials on his side as he sought Army contracts for a technology he invented that purported to move data over copper transmission lines at speeds that rival more advanced fiber optic lines.</p>

Note: The following text is a quote: Wife of Gang Leader Pleads Guilty to Narcotics Charges On the day her trial was to begin in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, Texas, Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) member Marie Chavez, aka "Shorty," the wife of an alleged ALKQN leader Jose Nava, aka "Chino," pleaded guilty to a superseding indictment charging her and 16 co-defendants with various offenses related to alleged narcotics and weapons trafficking and violent activities. Specifically, Chavez, 28, of Lubbock, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms...

Alaska's Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.

Team, I heard before that Moran was the weakest but now I am hearing from well-placed sources that we should vote for Terry McAuliffe. Yes, he can raise money BUT he has extremely high negatives and many, many skeletons in the closet. So, please, hold your nose and vote for Terry in the RAT primary.

NEW ORLEANS - A Louisiana woman is suing a Wal-Mart store over what she claims was a much-too-close encounter of the furry kind. Rebecca White says in her lawsuit that employees at a Wal-Mart in Abbeville let a rat-tailed rodent known as a nutria run loose and scare her. She says that not only did employees know it was in their store, but gave it a pet name, Norman, and failed to warn shoppers. White says she was pushing a full shopping cart down an aisle in October when the nutria ran out from behind a rack. She says she...

Now that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has finally decided to come out of the closet and embrace his liberal side, it should come as no surprise that the Democrats are playing up the party switch as a monumental victory for the DNC, while Republican liberals are denouncing the conservatives of the GOP for chasing out “one of our own.” From the perspective of rank-and-file Republicans, however, the Specter defection means far more than simple political maneuvering by two national political parties. To begin with, Mr. Specter’s decision to switch parties has been a long time in coming, and for many...

LOS ANGELES -- The mayor of Los Angeles easily won re-election after a bumpy first term in the nation's second-largest city, fueling speculation that he will be among contenders next year to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Hispanic mayor in more than a century, was rewarded Tuesday with a second, four-year trip to City Hall despite an uneven first term that saw the breakup of his marriage and the defeat of his signature plan to reform city schools.

A fourth-generation Southern Californian, Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The Peoples Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy. How bad did things get between Der Governator and his fellow Republicans? Schwarzeneggers biographer, Joe Mathews, reports that he recently considered dropping out of the party altogether. Its the latest blast in a long-running war....

There is a RAT hiding inside the stimulus bill. Just when you think you could not be any more shocked by the things that got secretly stuck in the stimulus bill, Senator Charles Grassley finds a RAT has been "snuck" into the bill. RAT is an acronym for Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. A provision of the bill creates this board which will have almost total control over Inspector Generals. This board will have the power to force investigations or halt investigations they do not like. The Chairman of the board will be appointed by(drum roll) President Barack Obama. The...

A 2.7kg rat bearing 2.5cm-long teeth has been caught in China.The nightmarish creature, which has a 30cm tail, was trapped last weekend in Fuzhou, a city along China's south coast, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports. The rat catcher, known only as Mr Xian, said he pounced on the creature after spotting a crowd gathering around it. He said he had to muster up the courage before grabbing its tail and picking it up by the neck. Mr Xian said he thought the rat may be a rare species or a valuable specimen. He is believed to still be in possession of...

With the $789 billion economic stimulus package he helped broker set for a vote in the U.S. House and Senate, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., phoned home Thursday to unhappy members of the Pennsylvania State Republican Committee. The conference call was initiated by Specter, his office said. It was a "conversation" to explain his thinking for backing the spending plan that Democrats hope will deliver jobs for the tanking U.S. economy. But a growing chorus of Pennsylvania state Republican officials say their faith in Specter is irretrievably broken. And some are vowing to defeat Specter in the Republican primary in 2010....

Overlooked in coverage of Tim Geithner’s and Tom Daschle’s unpaid taxes is the $70,000 that Minnesota Democratic senatorial candidate Al Franken has admitted to owing in back taxes, interest, and penalties. Last April, the California Tax Franchise Board revealed that Franken owed the state $5,800 in taxes, fines, and penalties because he did not file returns in 2003 through 2007. Franken then admitted that he owed more than $50,000 in back taxes to 17 states.Franken blamed everything on his accountant of 18 years, saying he failed to report the income from the comedian’s celebrity appearances and speeches in those states...

Court: Giant inflatable rat has free speech rightsN.J. court rules in favor of super-sized rat used by unions for protests updated 11:56 a.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 5, 2009 TRENTON, N.J. - Even a 10-foot inflatable rat has free speech rights in New Jersey, the state's Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a case that pitted an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union local against a central Jersey town, the high court ruled unanimously that the rodent is protected speech under the First Amendment. "The township's elimination of an entire medium of expression without a readily available alternative renders the ordinance overbroad,"...

From Mark Warner's office...his new contact for email will be a webform..... My office is currently installing a system that will allow me to respond to your emails in a more direct manner. Starting next week, a contact form will be available on my website, www.warner.senate.gov. Because this email is no longer a working address, please write, fax, or call me until that time at: Senator Mark Warner Senate Dirksen Building SDB40C Washington, DC 20510 or Phone: 202-224-2023 Fax: 202-224-6295.

About a week ago when I was surfing the Net about the upcoming "Big Event" (the Inauguration of the Obama-nation), I stumbled across the news that President-elect Obama, with the help of ex-Secretary of State, fair-weather Republican, and now (another) Barack black friend, Colin Powell, announced Obama's next new thing, a shining nationwide volunteer initiative — eerily called Renew America Together. After my initial shudder from discovering the Obama "team" had chosen (or stolen as the case may be) a name so close to that of our beloved Web site's for a project that in the end remained at cross-purposes...

The contradictions between Ron Dellums' storybook congressional career on Capitol Hill and his rocky performance as a big-city mayor are too stark to ignore. He left Washington after 27 years in office as the liberal lion in the House of Representatives, a staunch opponent of the war, a champion in the fight against AIDS and an architect for social change. But unless he can navigate a steep 180-degree turnaround in his final two years in the Oakland mayor's office, he will end his political career more like the little lamb that lost its way. Some of the findings in a...

Mark Warner now has an email address in the Senate. That email is warner_info@warner.senate.gov We need to write him often...so he remembers the conservative nature of the voters in Virginia. His address in DC and phone info is: B40C DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 DC Phone: 202-224-2023 DC Fax: 202-224-2530 PS Jim Webb has no email but does have a webform for messages: http://webb.senate.gov/contact/

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is lending his stature to an initiative from the incoming administration to connect volunteers with causes that need them. President-elect Barack Obama's "Renew America Together" initiative will officially launch a Web site on Martin Luther King Day, January 19, to help people answer the call. Obama's inauguration is the following day. The Web site, www.USAservice.org, will allow people to offer their time or resources and be contacted by people in the community who need that type of help. Powell said the site will follow the model of craigslist.org, a worldwide virtual bulletin board where...

WASHINGTON (CNN)—Arizona Senator John McCain is adopting a major 2008 campaign slogan for a new political action committee designed to support not only his own planned re-election run in two years, but help him put his stamp on the rebuilding of the Republican Party. The formation of the “Country First” PAC is to be announced Wednesday, two sources familiar with the plans tell CNN. One of the sources called it the “first official step” of the GOP Senator’s re-election campaign. McCain made it clear not long after losing the presidential election that he intended to seek re-election to the Senate...

Chicago (AP) -- U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wants lawmakers to hear what Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY'-uh-vich) says on wiretapped phone calls. . . . Federal prosecutors have asked a judge for permission to disclose a limited number of the intercepted conversations in a redacted form.

Friend -- In the weeks since the election, I've had an opportunity to talk to folks around the state to get a sense of what they would like to see from our leaders in Washington. If this election has proven anything, it's that Virginians and Americans want leaders who focus less on partisan ideology and more on finding solutions that produce results that will get this economy back on the right track. In my conversations across the state, I've heard from community, academic and business leaders who are all focused on the economic downturn and who have all shared new...

Remember the John McCain that many Arizonans grew to like over the years - the one who stuck by his principles but was not politically dogmatic or doctrinaire, and instead tried to represent the interests of people in general? Well, that John McCain seems to be back after a long journey into the dark jungle of presidential politics where he seemed to veer from his familiar middle-of-the-road approach to politics - an approach that a lot of Arizonans prefer, based on their long support for him.

December 17, 2008 Dear xxxxxx, Governor Kaine presented his budget amendments to the joint money committees of the General Assembly this morning. Here is our initial assessment of his actions. More detail will follow. What did the Governor do right? He cut education less than any other area. He looked at both sides of the ledger, and raised the cigarette tax, tweaked the land-preservation tax credit and eliminated the “dealer discount” (paid to merchants for collecting the sales tax) to reduce the harm to essential state programs. We have grave concerns regarding the fact that: He made $400 million of...

Remember the days when Sen. John McCain was the Democratic Party’s best friend? And a BFF, as well, to the Mainstream Media? Well, they’re ba-a-a-ck.

Sign warning of rats in Blagojevich's alley taken down December 13, 2008 BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter City Hall smells a rat behind the Northwest Side home of Gov. Blagojevich -- and it has nothing to do with the corruption charges leveled against the governor. Earlier this week, Chicago Sun-Times photographer John White shot a picture of the governor ducking out of his Ravenswood Manor home to avoid passing through a news media gauntlet. A photo taken Friday (left) shows that a sign warning of the presence of rat poison in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's neighborhood has been taken down....

Contributors to Don Perata's political action committee this year might have thought their money would bankroll the attempted recall of state Sen. Jeff Denham or opposition to a legislative redistricting reform measure. But a day after the Nov. 4 election, and with only a few weeks left as state Senate President Pro Tem, the Oakland Democrat moved $1.5 million from Leadership California into his own legal defense fund, formed to counter a years-long FBI corruption probe. This sum dwarfs the California Democratic Party's $450,000 contribution to Perata's legal fund over the past year, which had caused an outcry from some...

BOSTON, (AP) -- A Massachusetts state senator photographed while allegedly stuffing thousands of dollars in bribe money into her sweater has resigned. Dianne Wilkerson's resignation was announced Wednesday by state Senate President Therese Murray. Wilkerson was indicted a day before on eight counts of attempted extortion.

A U.S. district magistrate judge today pushed back the trial date for a University of Tennessee student accused of accessing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's private e-mail account. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley set a May 19 trial date for David C. Kernell, 20, before U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips. Defense attorney Wade Davies and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle told Shirley a delay was necessary because the case involved computers and almost all the evidence in the case comes from computers, requiring the use of experts skilled in forensic analysis of such equipment. Shirley asked Kernell if he was okay with...

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata hasn't thrown his hat into the ring for the 2010 Oakland mayor's race, but he certainly performed a very nice jig around it in a radio interview this week. In a half-hour segment on KQED-FM's "Forum" show, the lame-duck East Bay senator was asked about his future - and said Oakland's top post had been a goal for much of his political career. "Ironically, the only job I've ever wanted was to be the mayor of Oakland," Perata, 63, who lives in the city, told host Michael Krasny. "And it may be the...