Free Republic

Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member You can't make up stuff better than this! Isn't politics grand? Jesse Jackson's Newest Staff Member is Mel Reynolds Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat Congressman Mel to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll. Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election commission. He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer. This is a first in American politics: An ex-congressman...

Tacked to my wall is a lithograph of the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. For many years, it graced my mother's one-room schoolhouse in Lime Rock, N.Y. Antiquarian relic or enduringly relevant image? The same question may be asked of the "little red schoolhouse" itself, whose reality and legend are the subject of "Small Wonder." Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at New York University, sets out to tell "how -- and why -- the little red schoolhouse became an American icon." Mr. Zimmerman proves a thoughtful and entertaining teacher. First, the chromatic debunking: One-room schools were often white and...

Republican Gov. John Hoeven, who has avoided questions about whether he will challenge Democrat Byron Dorgan for his U.S. Senate seat, says he is likely to decide by early September whether he will make the race. North Dakota's Republican state chairman, Gary Emineth, said he hoped to recruit Republicans to challenge Dorgan and North Dakota's Democratic congressman, Earl Pomeroy, by Labor Day, Sept. 7. Candidates against both men will need a long head start on campaigning and fundraising to improve their chances of winning, Emineth said. Hoeven, in an interview, said Emineth's goal is reasonable and said his own decision...

War porn. Six minutes of blowing up things and killing people to the sounds of the Rolling Stones.

It's confirmed that CA GOP Chairman Ron Nehring will receive a list of questions from me and provide answers I can publish on FreeRepublic. I've asked that he also come online and answer follow-up questions but that has not been confirmed. I plan to group the questions as much as possible by the classic three components of Conservatism. Based on some crucial questions raised, I plan three additional question categories for a total of six, not listed here in any priority: 1. Social/Moral Conservatism 2. Fiscal Conservatism 3. Sovereignty/Nationalism 4. Candidates, Primary & General Elections & Party Leadership 5. Constitutional...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ordered new hearings in a case challenging McCain-Feingold, the law that aims to restrict political spending at election time, signaling the possibility it is considering a more sweeping approach to the question. The court had been expected to rule Monday on a narrow question on whether McCain-Feingold applied to electioneering materials delivered through video-on-demand services. The case before the court involves a critical documentary about Hillary Clinton released during the presidential primary. The question before the court was whether it should be considered a campaign ad and regulated as such. Instead, the court asked the...

Last 20 minutes the bid jumped from $25,000 to $78,000. Looks like one of the bidders is a big time car collector.

Smokey Robinson?

Duke University Official Caught in Alleged Child Sex String. College kids go through hell on rape charge. Pedophile gets a free ride from the new media. Well not tonight on the Bobby D Show. Tune in 10pm EST - 12 m

Duke University Official Caught in Alleged Child Sex String. College kids go through hell on rape charge. Pedophile gets a free ride from the new media. Well not tonight on the Bobby D Show. Tune in 10pm EST - 12 m

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities announced their resignations. They were protesting the effort by Massachusetts bishops to prohibit gays from adopting children from their Catholic social service agencies. The seven who quit said prohibition ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission." Church doctrine states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children...gravely immoral." If you agree with those principles, according to the Vatican, a Catholic in good standing. If you don't, you're not. Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be...

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities announced their resignations. They were protesting the effort by Massachusetts bishops to prohibit gays from adopting children from their Catholic social service agencies. The seven who quit said prohibition ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission." Church doctrine states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children...gravely immoral." If you agree with those principles, according to the Vatican, a Catholic in good standing. If you don't, you're not. Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be...

U.S. airlines, already trying to sell extra legroom and faster lines, are finding another innovation hard to push: second seats for overweight passengers. It's a very hard sell: On airlines such as Southwest and United, people who can't fit into 17-inch economy seats with the armrests down and their seat belts fastened must buy a second seat or they don't fly. US Airways and American Airlines are likely to offer free second seats, but on a full flight they make extra-large passengers pay for them. Fliers who have been compressed by their neighbors love the idea. "They should be required...

Four times an eBay auction page listing an allegedly genuine copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate – from Mombasa, Kenya – was scrubbed from the popular Internet site, presumably for violating eBay's policy prohibiting the sale of government documents. But now a fifth posting promising "the truth" about Obama's birth, this time in the form of a written dissertation – sidestepping the restriction against auctioning government documents – has remained on the site for hours; and the top bid has skyrocketed past $15,000.

PMA Client Sues Because it Didn’t Get Earmark; More Evidence of Pay-to-Play? By John Carlisle Created 06/29/2009 - 17:09 Alexander Comisar reported [1] in Roll Call on June 23: The PMA Group, the lobbying titan that closed its doors in March after an FBI raid, has filed more than a dozen lawsuits against former clients for failure to pay outstanding debts. Now, one company has responded with a $3 million countersuit that alleges PMA cheated it out of an earmark it was expecting to receive. PMA’s lawyer called the complaint absurd and said the firm has filed a formal response...

HERE'S French First Lady Carla Bruni in lacy lingerie - before she became the Next big thing in modelling. The sexy snaps - including one of her in a floral bodice - were taken in 1989 for clothes giant Next's mail order catalogue. Corr-la ... sexy Carla Bruni lounging on bed in bodice And they show why Carla - now the 41-year-old wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, below - went on to be one of the Nineties' top models, reportedly earning £7.5million a year. Discovery The shots have been unearthed from the High Street chain's archives as Next celebrates its...

The president called the coup "illegal" and said the U.S. continues to recognize deposed President Manuel Zelaya the leader of Honduras. Now, if we are to follow this to its logical conclusion, then this means that we won't recognize the new government. That means we would have to remove our ambassador from the nation. We'd cut off aid and all diplomatic ties. As such, we would wind up with more diplomatic ties with Venezuela than with Honduras.

Dear Friends, I write to apologize and ask for your forgiveness. Well beyond the personal consequences within my own family, I know that at so many different levels my actions have upset, offended and disappointed friends and supporters and for this I am most sorry. As I mentioned in last week's press conference, I've always believed God's laws were there to protect us from ourselves, and what has transpired over this last week vividly illustrates the damage that comes personally, and to those you love and respect, in doing otherwise. So in the aftermath of this failure I want to...

The real strength of American popular culture, in fact, is its democratic impulse -- a willingness to take into account the reality that, for most people, entertainment is an end in itself. American entertainment bows to what economists call "consumer sovereignty," and (Michael) Jackson's popularity, with its demonstrable impact on music, dance and fashion, was a clear example of that. That accounts for the fervor that has the performer's fans organizing candlelight vigils around his star on Hollywood Boulevard and mass "moonwalks" in London. But what explains the saturation media coverage of Jackson's death -- coverage that crowded out virtually...

Some states faced with sinking tax collections and rising debt are going after unused gift cards that bolster their revenue. South Carolina is considering legislation that would give the state the right to collect unclaimed gift-card credit. A similar measure in Texas to allow the collection of unused credit even from cards that have no expiration date passed that state's House this spring and stalled in the Senate. Texas already collects unused gift cards with expiration dates. Since the recession began, states have been aggressively tapping so-called abandoned property -- anything from gift cards to dormant bank accounts and safety-deposit...