Free Republic

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin evidently failed to envisage today’s postmodern left. For the conservative, there exists at least one other certainty, and it is this: The degree to which “progressives” attack you corresponds precisely to the degree with which you challenge any among their assorted, distorted and sordid sacred cows. What would you call a 33-year-old man who both had and axiomatically acted upon a deviant sexual appetite for underage, drug-addicted, runaway boys? (No, not Jerry Sandusky.) What would you call a man of whom,...

Ticket sales for President Obama’s big fundraiser Monday at the SFJazz Center are so sluggish, organizers are cutting the price of some tickets in half. The cheap seats for the Democratic National Committee luncheon — the ones that were going for $1,000 — have been reduced to $500, according to an e-mail to potential donors sent out Monday by Ella Arnold of Buell Private Political Management in San Francisco. Arnold added, “We are thrilled to announce that if you have already purchased a $1,000 ticket … your seat will now be upgraded to VIP, which includes rope line access!” We’re...

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

Five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott recently delighted America when his wish to become Batman was granted by the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Foundation. Social media exploded and the adventures of "#SFBatkid" were followed by millions of people as he saved a damsel in distress and rescued the mascot of the San Francisco Giants. Over 12,000 volunteers helped make Miles' wish come true, and numerous articles were written about how faith in humanity seemed to be restored. San Francisco city supervisor Eric Mar seems to have missed the heartwarming lesson behind the day, and instead decided to politicize the event....

Katherine Ann Power’s story plays out like a Hollywood movie: the radical anti-war college student participated in a Boston bank heist in 1970, intending to help fund a revolution. The heist went horribly wrong; her co-conspirators were arrested, and Power — the getaway driver — hid from the FBI for more than two decades under a different identity, spending some of that time working and raising a family in Lebanon, Corvallis and Albany. The difference, Power said, is that she is not a movie protagonist, and Boston Police Officer Walter Schroeder, who was shot and killed during the heist, was...

San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama’s re-election. Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietitian and diabetes educator. “We’ve both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don’t smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on,” Hammack told me. The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been...

Photo of JoEllen Brothers and Lee Hammack via ProPublica. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Loyal Democrats thought they could simply elect their progressive messiah and social justice would flood the land as sea levels dropped. Everyone knew that the U.S. healthcare system was imperfect, so just let Obama make a few quick changes and, voilà, better care for less money! Sure the guy had never run so much as a county fair’s funnel cake concession, but how tough could healthcare reform be? The president’s most ardent fans are now learning that magical thinking and good intentions don’t amount...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Self described “big proponent� of Obamacare says he is “surprised� that his family’s premium and deductible went up KQED reports:The notice from Kaiser came in the mail about ten days ago.Luke Donavan’s health insurance premiums were going up. A lot.Donavan, 41 of San Francisco, is self-employed and buys his own health insurance. Currently he pays $841 per month for insurance for himself, his wife and three young children. But, Kaiser is canceling that policy and offering him a new one that fully complies with the Affordable Care Act. Effective Jan. 1, his family’s premium is going...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn’t even started her 2016 presidential campaign yet — and she’s already shutting out the press. Clinton’s speech at the Moscone Center on Saturday will be blacked out — closed to the media. So will her big fundraiser Saturday night with Chelsea Clinton, a “Millennial Network” event to benefit the Clinton Foundation. Seriously? In San Francisco? The easiest Democratic audience in the country? This is the progressive bastion where — as one political wag put it – the biggest problem may be how many chairs to remove so Hillary fans can better prostrate themselves...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. Earlier this week, a 38-year-old man dressed as Julius Caesar was arrested after allegedly channeling his inner tyrant and fighting with San Francisco cops in the Richmond District. According to police, the incident happened at about 3:20 a.m. on Sunday when the suspect had hopped a ride with a Lyft driver at 26th Avenue and Geary Boulevard. The Lyft driver called the cops after the fake Julius Caesar allegedly made drunken advances toward him, making things a little uncomfortable in the car. Police arrived at the scene where they found the suspect just...

Just when you thought you've seen everything, along comes what's called a "Healthy Ho's Party."

Car break-ins and thefts happen on a regular basis. But they turn heads when the victim is the police chief of San Francisco. Greg Suhr told residents at a Marina District town hall meeting on Wednesday evening that his car was broken into and his jacket stolen a few weeks ago. He was actually there to discuss a police shooting this month in the neighborhood that injured an armed robbery suspect awaiting trial on charges that he robbed victims who offered cash for iPhones on Craigslist. Eventually, the topic of his own theft came up. “I’m not immune,” Suhr told...

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the state Democratic Party have said as little as possible about Malloy's weekend fundraising trip to California Oct. 18-20, despite demands by the Senate Republican leader for details after a politician's tweet suggested the governor met with a state contractor out there. But Government Watch has pieced together a rough picture of what went on as Malloy panned for California gold for Connecticut Democrats and the Democratic Governors Association – a national group that can make independent campaign expenditures in all states to help Democrats. First of all, it turns out that Malloy did, indeed,...

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — The U.S. Navy had its share of secrets on Treasure Island, but few were better kept than what’s taking place on a mysterious barge just off the island. The barge, with a four-story stack of shipping containers, is out in the open for all to see. But the project’s purpose has been kept under wraps, and virtually no one wants to talk about it for the record, from the harbor office at Clipper Cove to the Treasure Island Development Authority to the U.S. Coast Guard. “I don’t know anything about it, honestly I don’t,” a...

At least one BART union agreed Saturday to put the transit agency's contract proposal to a vote, but commuters looking for a quick end to the 2-day-old strike should hold off on the celebrations. Speaking from the entrance of the shuttered Pittsburg BART Station, Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, said she expects that vote to result in a "resounding no." ... A spokeswoman from Service Employees International Union Local 1021, BART's largest union, declined to say whether that union also would allow a vote on the contract. ... With no negotiations scheduled, both sides said Saturday...

In a Sunday morning report which tries to put the best possible face on a project which appears to be on track to make the $22 billion "Big Dig" in Massachusetts look like a petty cash disbursement, Juliet Williams at the Associated Press claimed that the $68 billion involved thus far "would span the state." No it wouldn't, unless all of the formerly Golden State north of the San Francisco Bay Area — roughly one-fourth of the state's land mass — were to secede. Williams also wrote: "Voters in 2008 approved $10 billion in bonds to start construction on an...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Dozens of protesters surrounded a bus believed to be filled with immigrants slated for deportation at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in San Francisco, a protest organizer said Thursday. The protesters included dozens of undocumented immigrants and immigrants’ rights advocates who rallied for the expansion of a national movement to pressure President Barack Obama to halt immigrant deportations, according to Jon Rodney, a spokesman for the California Immigrant Policy Center. “We are not going to wait for Congress anymore. We are not going to wait for Obama. This is a humanitarian crisis, two...

(Reuters) - Commuter rail workers in the San Francisco Bay Area went on strike on Friday after talks with management over a new contract broke down, throwing the morning commute into chaos in the traffic-clogged region. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management and employee unions have been at loggerheads for months over pay and benefits for more than 2,000 train drivers and other union workers who are demanding large pay raises in part to offset being asked to contribute to their pensions and other benefits. On Thursday, union officials said both sides had finally agreed on pay and benefits,...

A graphic design company out of San Francisco, 99designs, challenged people to come up with a new name and logo for the Washington Redskins. Over 1,887 designs were submitted from 347 designers all over the country on their online contest.

OAKLAND -- Exasperated BART union leaders announced they would shut down trains Friday morning after a breakdown at the bargaining table Thursday, setting the stage for the second Bay Area commute nightmare in three months. A wild round of back-and-forth press conferences at 4 p.m. brought to a live TV audience an outpouring of emotion from sleep-deprived negotiators and the departure of the nation's top mediator. Although union leaders have been threatening strikes for the past week, they sounded much angrier and more direct this time, and talks ended altogether. "Unfortunately, yes -- we are on strike as of midnight,"...

The federal government shutdown claimed another casualty Monday - the annual American Indian ceremony on Alcatraz in protest of Columbus Day. Indian activists and their supporters could not take the morning ferry to Alcatraz, as they've done since the mid-1980s, for prayers, songs, dancing and speeches because the island - part of the National Park Service - is closed. Instead, they gathered at Pier 33, from where they usually depart, and marched to Washington Square Park in North Beach, heart of the city's Italian heritage and Columbus Day festivities, then headed for Coit Tower to protest by the Christopher Columbus...

More than twice a month, on average, those who've lost all hope come to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, climb over the railing and, tragically, plunge 220 feet into the Pacific Ocean to end their pain. That number would be higher, if not for California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Briggs, nicknamed the "Guardian of the Golden Gate." Since 1994, through sheer compassion and expert listening skills, Sgt. Briggs has helped convince more than 200 people on the precipice of death not to take their lives (so far, he's only lost one). "People who come to jump don't necessarily want to...

Only a few months have passed since President Obama last boasted that al Qaeda is on "the path to defeat." The jihadist groups can work independently, but most are reported to coordinate their carnage with Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the al Qaeda leader. And it was he, the United States says, who ordered coordinated attacks on American embassies and consulates in August, a plan that prompted the United States to close more than 20 of them. Where is this leading? The State Department says "current information suggests that al Qaeda, its affiliated organizations and other terrorist groups continue...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A security guard accompanying a KRON4 reporter fired shots at assailants trying to rob them in San Francisco Friday night, police said. The incident happened at about 8 p.m. on the 1500 block of La Salle Avenue in the Bayview. In a story on its website, KRON4 said reporter Jeff Bush and a security guard were accosted by two armed men who demanded Bush's equipment. Bush surrendered the equipment and "took cover" as the security guard opened fire, the station said.

The perfect companion vid to Jay Cost’s analysis this morning of how unusually, relentlessly partisan The One’s rhetoric has been as president, especially in his weekly YouTube messages. Oh, and also to Politico’s round-up of Democrats wondering why someone who’s so often touted as a brilliantly eloquent orator can’t seem to sell the public on anything except his own personal awesomeness. (Headline: “The ‘meh’ of a salesman.”) As usual, Nancy is eye-to-eye with reality. Silver lining: A reporter asking a big-name Democrat why righties dislike Obama is almost always bait to accuse them of racism. She doesn’t take it. Second...

Something doesn't look quite right A Redditor with a good eye caught this still from NBC's Sunday night pregame show Football Night in America, where if you look closely, the Golden Gate Bridge has an extra tower. Also in this redesign of the bridge, the suspension cables just drift into space from the three towers (No need for those! They're just decoration!). We're not sure who is photo shopping like mad over at NBC, but one would hope that the person in charge would know the Golden Gate only has two towers. And if they didn't know, maybe they could...

SACRAMENTO -- A day after furious Coloradans recalled two state senators who voted for new gun laws, California lawmakers pressed ahead with their own agenda Wednesday aimed at giving the Golden State the strictest gun control in the country. Colorado's recall elections and California's rush to pass gun bills in the final week of its legislative session quickly reignited the national debate over balancing public safety with constitutional rights. The Colorado votes sent a Rocky Mountain chill down the spines of lawmakers in other battleground states, but those in bright blue California seemed unfazed. "I don't see anybody switching teams...

California’s minimum wage would rise to $10 an hour within three years under a bill passed Thursday by the state Legislature, making it one of the highest rates in the nation. Washington state currently has the top minimum wage at $9.19 an hour, an amount that is pegged to rise with inflation. Some cities, including San Francisco, have slightly higher minimum wages. The state Senate approved AB10 on a 26-11 vote and the Assembly followed hours later on a 51-25 vote, both largely along party lines. Gov. Jerry Brown indicated earlier this week that he would sign the bill, calling...

San Francisco County is set to become the first in the nation to make it illegal for law enforcement officials to detain illegal immigrants "solely on the basis of immigration status." Supporters of the ordinance, as it is written, reportedly have a "veto-proof majority," even though law enforcement authorities want the ordinance amended "to see convicted violent felons, sex offenders and those with prior weapons possession convictions exempted from the law."

With the east span finally open, planners are already at work on the next mega-Bay Bridge project - a $1 billion-plus makeover of the western span that would include a $500 million hanging bike path. "I'm sure the bike advocates are going to start agitating for that" soon, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger said from the stage at Monday's bridge re-opening ceremony. They already are. --SNIP-- But the biggest challenge of all could be selling toll-paying commuters on the idea. Drivers are already paying up to $6 at peak hours to cross the Bay Bridge. Redoing the western...

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

A raging California wildfire has grown to 200 square miles, threatening the San Francisco power grid, spreading into Yosemite National Park, and prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency. “The wildfires that started in Tuolumne County have caused damage to electrical infrastructure serving the City and County of San Francisco, and now threaten damage to property, equipment, and resources of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department,” Gov. Jerry Brown said in issuing an emergency proclamation for the city on Friday.

A bicyclist who fatally struck a 71-year-old man who was crossing the street in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service. Chris Bucchere, 37, cut a deal with prosecutors last month, pleading guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter and avoiding a jury trial that could have exposed him to prison time if he had been convicted. The charge was the most serious ever brought in the U.S. against a cyclist in a fatal crash with a pedestrian, said District Attorney George Gascón. He said the victim's family did not want...

The San Francisco bicyclist involved in a fatal collision with a San Bruno man could face criminal charges, and his flippant early account of the tragedy may not help his case in a city where bikes, cars and pedestrians must increasingly coexist. Chris Bucchere collided in a Castro crosswalk March 29 with 71-year-old Sutchi Hui, who ultimately died Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital. In an online missive posted just hours after the crash, Bucchere expressed little remorse for his behavior. His irreverent account focused instead on his broken helmet, his own relatively minor injuries and the police seizure of...

It will come as a surprise to most Americans that President Obama wants to change the shape of our homes and neighborhoods. So how does Obama hope to make us live? The short answer is, “like sardines.” At least that what the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation said as it filed a lawsuit last week against the Obama-supported bureaucrats who created “Plan Bay Area,” an ambitious blueprint to block the creation of new suburbs and force the next 30 years of development in the nine-county San Francisco metropolitan region into a few hyper-dense, Manhattan-style enclaves.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up its presence at airports, train stations and other travel hubs in the United States in the wake of global travel warning imposed on all U.S. citizens Local authorities are not going into specifics but the San Francisco Police Department does acknowledge receiving a bulletin by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS. The SFPD says their officers are monitoring various areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. They say they have...

Here are some really good photos of the crashed Boeing 777 known as Asiana Flight 214.These include pics of the interior, exterior, landing gear, engines, and removal and loading process.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal aviation officials have advised all foreign airlines to use a GPS system instead of visual reckoning and cockpit instruments when landing at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.</p>

The Israeli government and private groups are watching closely the activities of an anti-Israel American group that supports the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against Israel. The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a San Francisco-based organization, has been operating since 1996 and has conducted numerous anti-Israel activities, especially on college campuses. JVP claims not to be anti-Israel, but many officials in the Jewish community said that, based on its agenda, there was no way JVP could claim to be pro-Israel, but was actually the opposite. The NGO Monitor group accused JVP of seeking to sow dissent among American Jewish campus...

As part of the traveling Alcatraz exhibit that is now on its premises, “Alcatraz: The Last Day” photo exhibition by Life Magazine photographer Leigh Wiener, the Embarcadero Center Hyatt is doing a a special Alcatraz themed dinner menu from August 8 through September 2. The actual three-course prix fixe menu ($28) includes dishes like clam chowder, meatloaf and “lettuce salad.” Plan accordingly everyone. That promotion is all well and good, but we thought we’d take the opportunity to run a very cool menu from Alcatraz. Pictured below is a copy of the weekly Alcatraz menu from September 2 to September...

<p>A family of four touring San Francisco in a GoCar Monday took a wrong turn and ended up getting stranded halfway across the Bay Bridge, authorities said.</p> <p>The California Highway Patrol responded around 2 p.m. to calls of a caravan of GoCars chugging along slowly in the left lane of the Bay Bridge, heading toward Oakland, said Officer Mike Ferguson.</p>

A San Francisco man was acquitted Thursday of breaking into his ex-fiancée’s house and assaulting her new lover before getting sprayed with bear mace by a shirtless neighbor. The two had met in a hacky-sack circle in early February and announced plans to marry just two weeks later, Streets said. But the relationship quickly turned tumultuous, Streets said, and the pair broke up on March 25. Hall took his few possessions and moved out of his fiancée’s home and into a tree at Mclaren Park. But as Hall climbed the tree and attempted to sleep that first night, he became...

While broken bolts on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge are commanding everyone's attention, Caltrans has another problem on its hands - 96 seismic shock absorbers on the western span, some of which began leaking lubricant just three years after they were installed. The estimated cost of the fix - $13 million. And, like the brittle bolts on the eastern span, there are questions as to whether Caltrans ordered the right shocks - or dampers, as they are known - in the first place. The dampers are located between the bridge towers just below the roadway, and are...

A Chinese student on board Asiana Flight 214 survived the crash-landing only to be killed accidentally on the runway by a fire truck racing to the wrecked plane, a coroner confirmed Friday. San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault disclosed the findings of his autopsy on 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan, a Chinese student. Foucralt said she died of "multiple blunt injuries" consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle. He did not say what that vehicle was. San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said officials believe the girl was struck by a specialized fire vehicle. "It's very difficult and devastating...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 17, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Days after the United States Supreme Court issued two decisions that delivered a significant blow to traditional marriage, a priest at the University of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius Catholic Church took the pulpit where he read a letter in support of same-sex “marriage” during his homily. The letter “Why am I in the parade?” was penned by Jesuit Fr. John Whitney, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Seattle, WA, for his parish’s bulletin. It explains Fr. Whitney’s reasons for participating in the nation’s largest demonstration in support of homosexual activity, the San...

A man suspected of killing two women and critically injuring a man at a jewelry store in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood will be charged with 16 counts including two murder charges, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Hours before his first court appearance, the San Francisco District Attorney’ Office said Barry White Jr., 23, of Antioch, will be charged with two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, six counts of attempted murder (for shooting at police officers), six counts of assault on police officers and one count of possessing an assault rifle.

You’ve probably heard about the airline crash reporting fiasco. Last Friday during a live midday newscast, KTVU TV in San Francisco reported as fact that the names of the pilots on board the Asiana airlines flight that recently crashed in that city were “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow.” Shortly thereafter it was determined that the information, which the television station allegedly acquired from the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”), was not factual, but instead a racially insensitive joke. Within less than thirty-six hours after the incident not only had KTVU’s management apologized...

San Francisco has been trying to clean the stench of urine from its streets, an aroma that in several neighborhoods serves as a daily reminder of the failure of a quality of life law passed more than a decade ago. The Department of Public Works received some 5,600 requests from business and residential property owners in the first half of 2013 to have sidewalks steam cleaned, primarily, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, to deal with human waste, despite countless citations issued by police under a 2002 law banning public urination.

OK … I’ll admit it. I did get a little testy on Twitter (@Talkmaster) Saturday afternoon while watching coverage of the crash landing of that Asiana 777 in San Francisco. There’s an explanation. My first hint at a problem at SFO was a video a follower sent me of the smoke from the burning aircraft. I immediately went to the usual sites on the Internet and TV to see what was going on. Nothing. Nobody had a clue. Twitter beat out the big boys. Eventually, though, the coverage started to break on CNN and Fox News. I chose Fox. This...