Free Republic

A national scandal hit the news when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal released a 413-page report describing how hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals had been cheating during the past 10 years on standardized tests in order to falsely report that their schools were doing a good job and the kids were improving. A total of 178 teachers and principals (38 were principals), 82 of whom have already confessed, had fraudulently raised test scores so their schools would meet test targets set by the district and thereby qualify for federal funds. The truth came out after a 10-month inquiry...

Head of U.S. Postal Service says delivery could be scaled back to 3 days a week By Maeve Coyle Topics Domestic Issues With Internet usage rising and mail volume steadily falling, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned the U.S. Postal Service is going to have to make significant cutbacks that could mean no more Saturday service and eventually lead to mail delivery just three days a week. The Postal Service's "cashflow crisis is at a critical level," Donahoe told USA Today in an interview published Wednesday. Donahoe said eliminating Saturday mail would save around $3.1 billion a year for the cash-strapped...

Pastor Harris Himes sent me this letter following the shocking verdict in the Gladney beatdown case. Pastor Himes and his wife Sandra witnessed the local SEIU thugs attack Kenneth Gladney outside a Russ Carnahan town hall event in 2009. They were there when the SEIU beat an innocent black man. Harris was obviously upset with the verdict yesterday. After a health care town hall meeting in August 2009 St. Louis native Kenneth Gladney was beaten, kicked and called racist names by Rep. Russ Carnahan’s SEIU supporters. Gladney spent the night in the hospital after the beating. Yesterday the two SEIU...

A public school district in Michigan has used its phone alert system to point voters toward the recall effort against Gov. Rick Snyder. In early June, shortly after the Snyder recall reached the petition-gathering phase, the alert system for Lawrence Public Schools sent out the following robocall to residents of the district: “This is a message from the Lawrence Public Schools (inaudible) alert system. This is an informational item and not directly associated with the school. Concerned parents interested in cuts to education . . . we're here to inform you that there is information about the problem. Also, be...

Kenneth Gladney reaction: “I couldn’t beat them; I didn’t have the resources they had. They had all the money in the world and the backing. I’m just an average man.” Video pending. The Kenneth Gladney beatdown case continued this morning in St. Louis County Court. After a health care town hall meeting in August 2009 St. Louis native Kenneth Gladney was beaten, kicked and called racist names by Rep. Russ Carnahan’s SEIU supporters. Gladney spent the night in the hospital after the beating.

NOT GUILTY- SEIU GOONS CLEARED IN GLADNEY BEATING!

Thousands of union workers descended on East Stroudsburg on Saturday for a rally attended by "Lethal Weapon" actor Danny Glover to support Pocono Medical Center's service workers. Union members from across Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and even as far away as Colorado attended the event organized by Service Employees International Union, organizers said. Danny Glover a no show at PMC protest todayThey estimated more than 4,000 attended the gathering held in front of East Stroudsburg University. Protestors wore purple shirts with the slogan, "Help fight the attack on workers' rights from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania."

Washington (CNSNews.com) – In what the White House calls a push for transparency, a pending executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to disclose political contributions to independent groups, but would not place the same requirement on public employee unions or federal grant recipients that typically donate to Democrats. Entitled the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of the DISCLOSE Act, which failed to get through Congress last year. The legislation sought to restrict campaign speech after the landmark Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling that...

MADISON (WKOW) -- Authorities say 26-year-old Katherine Windels sent disturbing emails to 16 Republican senators, repeatedly threatening to kill them. Windels, of Cross Plains, faces four charges including using a computer to send a threat and creating a bomb scare. Two of the counts are felonies, two are misdemeanors. The criminal complaint says the emails were sent on March 9, the same day senate Republicans passed the revised budget repair bill with no Democrats present. According to the complaint, Windels told the senators "you will be killed and your families [sic] will also be killed due to your actions in...

Prison guards at a Western Maryland correctional facility say a union boss berated and tried to intimidate them after they raised questions at a pre-shift meeting about how their fees are spent and the benefits of belonging to a union. The guards said the March 11 meeting at the Maryland Correctional Training Center started amicably enough when Steve Berger, their American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union representative, tried to rally opposition to proposed changes in the employee retirement plan. The meeting took an unexpected twist, they say, when Mr. Berger opened the floor to questions. When...

Eyewitness account: This video was shot minutes after a union advocate destroyed several petitions at a recall Jim Holperin Rally in Merill, WI. The event was moved to the court house grounds because the private location originally slated to host the event was threatened with arson. It should be noted that police were present when the protestor (sic) destroyed these recall petitions, but stated to us that there was nothing they could do about it. The female protestor (sic), who had a young child with her, approached the recall table pretending to be interested in signing the petition, then proceeded...

The 17-year-old high school senior waded into a sea of communist red to deliver the truth of liberty in the form the US Constitution to the political pagans assembled. In the process, Patrick was verbally assaulted by an old man who graphically described sexual tea-bagging to the high school student. The incident took place during dueling protests in Jefferson City, Missouri, and was caught on two separate video cameras Patrick had grabbed a stack of Pocket Constitutions and Declarations offered for free by the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition The Tea Party held a rally on the south side of...

Today, union thugs descended on the FreedomWorks office. It was the middle of the day, and there was some excitement outside as all the buses pulled up and people started to fill the courtyard. We decided to go out and show our support for freedom. Intern Steve was quickly suited up.....

Why do protests and Democrat celebrations look like mobs of brutes and thugs smashed through an area, carving a path of destruction wherever they went? The above is a picture posted on Ann Althouse’s site, taken by her husband, who witnessed the union thugs’ attack on Madison this afternoon. Below, please find a classic image from the aftermath of Obama’s Inauguration in 2009. Wherever Obama voters go, this same phenomenon keeps happening. Why is that?

Invest 10 minutes in a calm rational Reagan like speech on what the Wisconsin Governor ran on, why he is doing what he is doing, and how 5 million or more Wisconsinites lives are going to be impacted positively by his goal of bringing jobs back to Wisconsin or negatively if the vitiolic crowd wins.

As you'll recall, last May the SEIU seized on a brilliant new tactic for protests. It seems that if you disagree with someone's business decisions its now fair game to show up at the guy's house and scare the wits out of his children. (Or at least that's what happened last May when the SEIU staged a protest at a Bank of America executive's house.) Well, now Wal-Mart has announced they are building stores in metro D.C. Wal-mart is non-union (that's why goods there are so gosh darn affordable), so obviously the local unions are not happy about this development....

The Tuscon massacre ghouls who are now trying to criminalize conservatism have forced our hand. They need to be reminded. You need to be reminded. Confront them. Don’t be cowed into silence. And don’t let the media whitewash the sins of the hypocritical Left in their naked attempt to suppress the law-abiding, constitutionally-protected, peaceful, vigorous political speech of the Right.They want to play tu quo que in the middle of a national tragedy? They asked for it. They got it. ***The progressive climate of hate: A comprehensive illustrated primer in 8 parts:I. PALIN HATEII. BUSH HATEIII. MISC. TEA PARTY/GOP/ANTI-TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE...

FLEMINGTON, N.J. — Ever since Marie Corfield’s confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie this fall over the state’s education cuts became a YouTube classic, she has received a stream of vituperative e-mails and Facebook postings. “People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.” Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that...

2010 might be remembered as the year that the edifice of public sector unions began to crumble. Before the 1960s, government workers were generally not allowed to unionize. After all, they work for a monopoly that has no profit margin and thus no reason to oppose their ever expanding benefits at the People's expense. In fact, as Democrats have found, they are much better off giving these unions everything they want in return for lockstep support for the Democrats in money, volunteers and votes. What changed in 2010? First, it became clear that those states that were pro-public union were...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says lawmakers of both parties need to start working together now that Republicans have reduced the Democrats' dominance in the chamber.Reid said on NBC's "Today" show that he planned to speak Wednesday with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on ways to "build a consensus and move this country along."Senate Democrats lost at least six seats on Election Day, but narrowly held their majority.