Free Republic

The 21-year-old Hofstra student who was killed during a Long Island home invasion was shot dead by a police officer as the gunman had her in a headlock and was trying to drag her out of the house, officials said Saturday. Nassau County Police said at a news conference Andrea Rebello was killed by police, not by the armed gunman who was trying to rob the off-campus house where she was living with her twin sister, Jessica, and several others. Rebello, a Hofstra junior studying public relations, and suspect Dalton Smith, 30, were both shot and killed as he was...

... "She connects the dots," Crump told the media excitedly. "She completely blows Zimmerman's absurd defense claim out of the water." According to Crump, the heavy-set, twenty-eight year old "loose cannon" had no intention of going back to his truck. He pursued Martin and shot him down. Dee Dee heard it all. The witnesses confirmed her testimony. Cried the outraged Crump at the end of his presentation, "Arrest George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin in cold blood today." Crump got his point across. Gutman headlined his piece on ABC.com, "Trayvon Martin's Last Phone Call Triggers Demand for Arrest...

WASHINGTON – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) made the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s assertion that he’s “not familiar” with Benghazi whistleblowers being blocked from telling their stories: “A lawyer for Benghazi whistleblowers has publicly stated that the State Department is blocking her client’s ability to talk freely with counsel. Over the past two weeks, I have sent four letters requesting that this Administration make information available about how lawyers – who already have security clearances and are representing Benghazi whistleblowers – can be cleared to fully hear their clients’ stories. I...

There is a growing groundswell within American Republican and Tea Party ranks that impeachment proceedings should be initiated against President Obama on a whole list of violations of the Constitution and the War Powers ActCongressmen Allen West of Florida (R-Florida) and Darrell Issa (R- California) have consistently and loudly criticized the president for overstepping the political mark and bypassing Congress’s approval on a whole range of dubious policies and issues:and the recent Obama attack on the Supreme Court of Justice and the Russian ” Open Mic ” gaffe on National Security, leads to one question: Is Barack Obama making his...

A 22-carat dictator: Robert Mugabe has gold coins minted to celebrate his 89th birthday in poverty-stricken Zimbabwe • Four-tier cake made in his honour at Zimbabwe's state house party • Opposition accuses his party supporters of killing 12-year-old boy Zimbabwe is one of the poorest country's on Earth, but clearly despot Robert Mugabe doesn't seem to care on his 89th birthday. The president celebrated it by immortalising himself in freshly minted gold coins and held a lavish party with a giant cake. Guests, including his wife, first lady Grace, tucked into the four-tier treat made in his honour at the...

An Academy Award-winning actor and a famed stand up comedian will attend a weekend event in Miami in remembrance of Trayvon Martin, a law firm representing the slain teen's family has announced. The Tallahassee-based Parks & Crump firm announced that Jamie Foxx and Cedric the Entertainer will attend the "Day of Remembrance Community Peace Walk and Forum," which is being hosted by foundation created by the teen's parents. The event, which starts 10 a.m. Saturday at Ives Estate Park in Miami, will focus on "motivating youth on peaceful conflict resolutions instead of gun violence," the firm said in a statement....

Democrats can't agree on successor to Jesse Jackson Jr.By Rick Pearson Tribune reporter 5:22 p.m. CST, December 15, 2012 Democratic leaders spent four hours Saturday listening to 16 candidates audition for the party's endorsement to replace former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., but were unable to solidify behind one contender. After 90 minutes of deliberations, South Side and south suburban committeemen voted for an “open primary,” after Thornton Township chairman Frank Zuccarelli failed to win a majority of the weighted vote on behalf of veteran state Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago. Trotter spoke the longest and also gained the most...

Shrewsbury resident Carl Lund. Northborough, MA – When Carl Lund saw a table set up on Main Street in Northborough on Friday, Dec. 7, he was “disgusted” he said, to see a poster of President Barack Obama, depicted as Adolf Hitler, prominently displayed. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Lund, a resident of Shrewsbury and a Vietnam veteran, said. Lund then got into a verbal confrontation with the two men manning the table, who Northborough police identified as Ian Brinkley and Jared Caskill. “[Brinkley and Caskill] claimed it was a peaceful, political display with literature,” Lund said. “I...

<p>The union official who sucker punched Steven Crowder today in Michigan has been identified. His name is Tony.</p>

Hector Camacho, a boxer known for his lightning-quick hands and flamboyant personality who emerged from a delinquent childhood in New York’s Spanish Harlem to become a world champion in three weight classes, died on Saturday in San Juan, P.R., after being shot while sitting in a parked car. He was 50.

LAKELAND, Fla. - A bay area electrical lineman who got attacked while helping restore power in the storm-ravaged area of New York will likely need surgery to repair his face. John Applewhite was wrapping up a long day Friday with his 24-member crew from Lakeland Electric, when they pulled into a restaurant for a much needed dinner break. That's when a stranger drove up, yelled something, and took a swing at John.

Critics are harping that Barack Obama is running a campaign that in its coarseness, smallness, and pettiness [i] marks a new low in American politics. Why are they so outraged? He has behaved this way ever since he moved into the Oval Office. Many people have criticized Barack Obama for his failures as president. His economic record is pathetic: trillions of dollars in new debt; anemic growth juiced up only by massive deficit spending, endless printing of money; zero interest rates that have proven so harmful to senior savers; regulations that are smothering businesses; a stimulus bill that reward Democratic...

In the wake of the Daily Caller’s release of President Obama cheering Rev. Wright and invoking the race card in various ways, our friend Morgen Richmond decided the time was right to release some little-known Obama video of his own. He authorized me to release the video here first. The following clips are from 2002. Obama is speaking in a church at a 2002 Martin Luther King Jr. Day memorial service. The full speech is here, and by and large it is a nice speech by a rising politician. Obama speaks about the need for empathy in society, about taking...

Serena Williams does the CRIP walk after winning a Tennis Match.. Sorry but no glory in this action. It demeans her success and promotes the CRIPS who are nothing but murderers, drug dealers, extortionists and pimps. Its beneath her. like takimg a public dump on World Wide TV...... Soo dissapointed in her. See source url for video

Fighting back tears, the parents of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and relatives of Chicago area murder victims on Saturday to stress the need to end “senseless gun violence.” “We are the voice of Trayvon Martin,” Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton said. “He’s not here to speak for himself so we as his parents have decided instead of sitting back and not doing anything, this is what we have decided to do, to help our community and to help other parents.” As she spoke about her son, Fulton also detailed her family’s Justice for...

BIRMINGHAM - AL - Family and friends are in mourning, the funeral service was held at Living Stone Temple church, community members tell me they're not too happy that no arrests have been made. During the service, Walkers family was overcome with emotion during the ceremony and had to step outside. Many mourners wore red, black and white t-shirts with walker's picture saying "In loving memory of Tez". Dr. Al B. Sutton Jr. led a sermon preaching out the book of mark and had a direct message to young adults as well as the parents in the building. "Our son's,...

... In papers filed with the Supreme Court, administration lawyers have warned of “extraordinary disruption’’ if Medicare is forced to unwind countless transactions that are based on payment changes required by more than 20 separate sections of the Affordable Care Act. Opponents say the whole law must go. The administration counters that even if it strikes down the insurance mandate, the court should preserve most of the rest of the legislation. That would leave in place its changes to Medicare as well as a major expansion of Medicaid coverage.

The mother of a 13-year-old boy fatally shot when police say he tried to rob a couple said she is in shock that her son is dead -- and even more so at the circumstances surrounding his death. "I don't want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn't," Latonya Walker, 38, said Tuesday. "This is not him, not who he was. Anybody that knew Ja'Quares knows that." Birmingham police said Ja'Quares Cortez Walker was in a car that pulled into the parking lot of the gated Skyview Condominiums at 407 Skyview...

Metta World Peace was subdued and contrite in the Los Angeles Lakers' locker room, apologizing to Oklahoma City's James Harden for throwing the elbow that sent them both to the locker room in the second quarter. They both missed a beauty of a game that could echo into the postseason for two division leaders.

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - LeMaricus Davidson pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbing a Pizza Hut a day after the Christian-Newsom murders, in which he faces a second trial. Davidson, who had a felony record, could receive eight years for the robbery. He pleaded to charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and possession of gun. He will serve his term concurrent with whatever sentence he's expected to receive for the slayings of Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Chris Newsom.The couple was carjacked on January 7, 2007, taken to Davidson's rental house, tortured and killed, according to investigators. Davidson is again facing the death penalty in the case. He and three defendants were...

<p>As the media coverage of Trayvon Martin's death turns more political, with President Obama calling for national "soul-searching" and Newt Gingrich and others on the right calling his remarks "disgraceful," the politicizers at the Daily Kos are upset their preferred Racist America narrative is being questioned.</p>

The teen was suspended from school three times He was on suspension when he was shot in February, after officials caught him with a 'marijuana pipe' and a baggie with drug residue Trayvon was kicked out of school in October for graffiti after he was allegedly caught with a 'burglary tool' and a bag full of women's jewelry Officials also suspended him once for skipping school and tardiness Tearful parents say their son is now the victim of a smear campaign New poll shows 73 percent of Americans think Zimmerman should be arrested Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was allegedly suspended...

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered, authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel. That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say. Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened, but that night, Feb. 26, and in later meetings he described and re-enacted for police what he says happened. In his version of events, he had...

CARY -- Seated in his wheelchair, Nolan Turner, 12, staked out his neighborhood Thursday evening to sell water bottles and raise money to bring his wheelchair basketball team to his elementary school. “Everybody at school has been asking me what it’s like to (play basketball) in a wheelchair, and I want to show them,” the Briarcliff Elementary fifth-grader said. He had already collected more than $250 – kept in a bucket – of the $1,000 needed to bring the experience of playing wheelchair basketball to his schoolmates. But as he began to work the neighborhood near High Meadow Drive about...

A cousin of Oscar Grant, shot in the back by an Oakland police officer last month, filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday against the City of Oakland. Tony Jones, a 24-year-old Oakland resident, is seeking $10 million in connection with the incident that occurred close to midnight Feb. 19 on the 2000 block of 62nd Avenue. "After reviewing the police report, it is patently obvious that this shooting was unjustified, and that the police department has been working feverishly in an attempt to cover the illegitimacy of the shooting," Jones' attorney, Waukeen McCoy, said in a prepared statement. Police...

A man shot and wounded by Oakland police over the weekend is a relative of Oscar Grant, the BART passenger killed by a police officer in 2009, and was unarmed when he was shot in the back, his attorney said today. Tony Jones, 24, was shot once in the back by an Oakland officer on the 2000 block of 62nd Avenue in East Oakland about 11:45 p.m. Sunday after he ran from a van that police had stopped, according to police and Jones' attorney, Waukeen McCoy. Jones is being treated at Highland Hospital in Oakland. Police have said Jones was...

The Obama administration's new mandate that religious organizations pay for their workers' birth control has become a bludgeon for Republican culture warriors, as social issues have surged to the forefront in the presidential campaign.

I found this on the web, it explains one of the great mysteries!

Barack Obama is taking a bigger risk than he realizes, testing the limits of the American electorate's patience with his insultingly manipulative political strategies. He is playing with fire. The president's campaign strategy is to distract attention from his record of failure by attacking a do-nothing Congress. He has pointed his finger (yet again) at Republicans for putting the interests of the rich one percent over the welfare of the rest. President Obama has used this bogeyman to justify actions that, had a Republican taken them, would be bandied about the media as grounds for impeachment. While these steps may...

Yes, he's historic, alright. • First President to Preside Over a Cut to the Credit Rating of the United States Government • First President to Violate the War Powers Act • First President to Orchestrate the Sale of Murder Weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels • First President to issue an unlawful "recess-appointment" while the U.S. Senate remained in session (against the advice of his own Justice Department). • First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico • First President to Defy a Federal Judge's Court Order to Cease Implementing...

Police have confirmed that there was an initial crash involving the blue SUV (at first believed to be an Escalade but now believed to be a Chevy Tahoe) at North Collins Street and Cantor Drive, just south of the second accident scene. Sgt. Christopher Cook said the blue SUV fled north on Collins after that crash, followed by multiple vehicles whose drivers were trying to get a license plate. The blue SUV, traveling at a high rate of speed, rear-ended a gray Dodge pickup stopped at Brown Boulevard. One person in the pickup was killed, and eight vehicles were eventually...

Attorney General Holder being questioned.

CHICAGO (CBS) — Robbing a man who turned out to be an ultimate fighter proved to be a bad decision for a convicted felon, who is now in bad shape as he is held on bond. Police say around 11:30 p.m. Friday, Anthony Miranda, 24, walked up to a car parked at 55th Street and Kenneth Avenue, just a few blocks from Midway International Airport. Miranda asked the driver for a lighter, and the driver said he didn’t have one. Then Miranda pulled a handgun and demanded that the driver hand over his money, police said.

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union last week officially endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Endorsing a presidential candidate 11 months before the general election may seem a bit premature, but it’s not even the record for the earliest endorsements so far in this cycle. The National Education Association endorsed Obama in July, 14 months before the voting. While these early endorsements highlight the fact that Big Labor’s leaders are cheerleaders (and paymasters) for the Democratic Party, at least voters will have plenty of time between now and next November to weigh all the facts, policy positions...

Spin, baby, spin. Throughout his frenetic jobs tour across the West this week, President Obama tried to seize the narrative. Republicans, he told champagne-sipping, tea party-trashing Hollywood moguls and tech titans, are intolerant bigots, know-nothings and thugs. They've made his hair "grayer" and left him "all dinged up." But who's battering whom? Since Day One, Obama has been the Chicago bully in victim's clothing. The mask is wearing thin. On Tuesday, Detroit News reporter Daniel Howes reported that White House officials leaned on Ford Motor Company to yank a popular TV and Internet ad critical of competitors who took federal...

There is one incontestably great actor on the world stage today, and he has no interest in following our script. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — soon to be Russia’s president again — has proven remarkably effective at playing the weak strategic hand he inherited, chalking up triumph after triumph while confirming himself as the strong leader Russians crave. Not one of his international peers evidences so profound an understanding of his or her people, or possesses Putin’s canny ability to size up counterparts.

One week after suffering a concussion in a rough-and-tumble loss to the Falcons, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick broke his right hand on what he considered a late hit in Philadelphia's 29-16 loss to the rival New York Giants.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's not just millionaires who'd pay more under President Barack Obama's latest plan to combat the deficit. Air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages are among those who would pay more than $130 billion in government revenues raised through new or increased fees. Airline passengers would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip flight and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal workers would face an additional 1.2 percentage point deduction from their paychecks to contribute...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Whether it is Solyndra, Obamacare, or Fast and Furious, President Obama’s push for his “American Jobs Act” has been drowned out this week by the failure of his past policies. Every night it seems there is a new angle on the Energy Department’s failed loan to the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. Not only was there a headline-grabbing hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday (at which Obama officials tried to blame Bush) , but the Treasury Department separately announced that their Inspector General (IG) would join the FBI and Energy Department IG in their...

The angry longshoreman who unleashed a profanity and threat filled tirade on TV crews after last week's union stoppage in SW Washington has been arrested, thanks to his video appearance. Witnesses reportedly identified 45-year-old Ronald Patrick Stavas from the video that's gone viral. The Associated Press reports the Kelso longshoreman is accused of assaulting a guard and breaking into the EGT terminal on Thursday. He was arrested for first-degree burglary and second-degree assault. Bail was set at $50,000.

President Obama’s jobs speech represented the lowest ratings he’s received for any address to a joint session of Congress of his presidency. The speech garnered 31.5 million viewers, according to the website TVbythenumbers, which was slightly lower than his Sept. 2009 health care speech to Congress, which drew 32.1 million viewers and is probably the fairest comparison. But viewed against other addresses to Congress, it looks worse, and is part of a broader downward trend. During his first speech to a joint session of Congress in February 2009, Obama drew 52.4 million viewers. His first official State of the Union...

President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to stop what he calls a "political circus" and immediately pass new jobs legislation to help the economy and restore fairness and security to the nation. In excerpts released by the White House Thursday night ahead of the president's speech to a joint session of Congress, Obama says the country faces a national crisis and a question: whether elected officials will meet their responsibilities the same way regular Americans do. Congressional officials and others outside the White House say the plan costs nearly $450 billion and would increase and extend a payroll tax...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than 500 protesting port workers stormed the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview, Washington, on Thursday and damaged railcars and other property, Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said. The incident came a day after several of Longshoremen were arrested after blocking a train from arriving at the newly constructed facility owned by EGT, LLC, which is a joint venture of Bunge Ltd, ITOCHU International Inc and STX Pan Ocean Inc. Early on Thursday, the protesters stormed the EGT facility, smashed guard shack windows, pushed a security vehicle into a ditch, cut brake lines on...

Ricardo Arias, released for the day from juvenile custody, was supposed to be at a Red Sox game Saturday evening. Instead, prosecutors say that the 17-year-old from Roslindale, who was being held for gun possession, left the game early to stalk the South End. There, he and a friend asked several people whether they lived in Villa Victoria, the low-income housing complex associated with a rival gang.

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa is under fire for his harsh words about the Tea Party. Hoffa told a crowd in Detroit that America faced "a war on workers, you see it everywhere -- it is the Tea Party," and urged the crowd to "take these son-of-a-bitches out." Hoffa made the comments while introducing President Obama. Did Hoffa cross the line with his heated rhetoric? Share your thoughts, answer our question then click "Leave a Comment."

Thug. (TPM) — Teamsters union president James Hoffa would say it all again if he could, he told TPM Monday. Hoffa riled up Fox News and the right wing Monday with a Labor Day speech in Detroit in which he called Republican members of Congress “sons of bitches” and said union workers are ready to “go to war” with the tea party next year and “take out” Republicans at the ballot box. Hoffa said he’d say the exact same words all over again. “I would because I believe it,” he said. “They’ve declared war on us. We didn’t declare war...

A video posted online appears to show a Verizon picketer placing his young daughter in front of an oncoming truck — presumably carrying non-union employees — and then taunting the passengers with profanity-laced statements.

The Obama administration will announce plans Wednesday to seek investors' ideas for turning thousands of foreclosed properties owned by government-backed entities into rental homes, according to administration officials. The move is intended to put a floor under declining home prices by creating a way to deal with hundreds of thousands of potential foreclosures in coming years. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sold a record 100,000 homes during the second quarter. Together with the Federal Housing Administration, the entities owned about 250,000 homes at the end of June, or around half of all unsold, repossessed properties. Another 830,000 homes...

Jacksonville, FL — A Publix employee was attacked after complimenting a man with a Georgia Bulldogs T-shirt. 26-year-old James Wall said, “Hey, I like your shirt,” and that’s all it took for Ryan Keys to beat Wall outside of a Northside Publix. The attack happened Friday at the Publix on Duval Station Road, but the details were not made public until recently. Our news partner Channel 4 says Wall, the mentally disabled man was punched in the face so hard it knocked his two front teeth out; the teeth were found 10-12 feet from where he was laying. Police described...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says the debt ceiling should not "be used as a gun against the heads" of Americans to retain breaks for corporate jet owners or oil and gas companies. Answering questions posed to him on the social Networking site Twitter, the president cast the debate over reducing the deficit in some of the starkest language he has used so far.