Free Republic

The Deflategate report did not reach a concrete conclusion, and investigators say Tom Brady is partially to blame. While Brady agreed to be questioned, he declined to hand over pertinent texts and emails despite the requested communication being “limited to the subject matter of our investigation,” the report said. “Our inability to review contemporaneous communications and other documents in Brady’s possession and control related to the matters under review potentially limited the discovery of relevant evidence and was not helpful to the investigation,” the report continued. Investigators still obtained some text communications between Brady and the equipment managers they say...

As noted here before, Mike Huckabee's special knack for turning political attention into wealth for himself includes shilling for dubious products and selling sponsored ad space to disreputable sorts in emails sent to supporters.  Huckabee was questioned by CNN about the practice of spamming his own supporters in order to grab some extra cash for himself.  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defended renting out his email list to a group selling hidden cures for cancer embedded in Bible verses, saying it was no different than CNN allowing advertisers for catheters or adult diapers to air alongside programming. "My gosh, that's like...

Blogger, author and activist Pamela Geller told Sean Hannity last night that the FBI has not contacted her despite the fact that ISIS called her out by name for execution.On Tuesday ISIS released this threat: The attack by the Islamic State in America is only the beginning of our efforts to establish a wiliyah in the heart of our enemy. Our aim was the khanzeer Pamela Geller and to show her that we donÂ’t care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter. This will heal the hearts...

Industrial wind is a net loser, economically, environmentally, technically and civilly. Let’s examine how. • Economically: New York State has some of the highest electricity rates in the U.S., a whopping 53 percent above the national average, in large part due to throwing hundreds of billions of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars into the wind. High electricity costs drive people and businesses out and ultimately hurt the poor the most. Why destroy entire towns, when just one 450 megawatt gas-fired combined cycle generating unit located at New York City (where the power is needed in New York state) operating at only...

the first unofficial entry comes from Gary Varvel at garyvarvel.com

CHICAGO -- Jon Burge is an old man now, but he was once one of the most feared cops in Chicago, the master of a detective unit that allegedly tortured criminal suspects for decades. Operating out of the notorious Area 2 headquarters, Burge and his men were accused of choking, shocking, burning and beating people -- most of them African-Americans -- until they confessed. Chicago's city council voted Wednesday to pay $5.5 million to victims of police torture that date back from the 1970s into the '90s. The city has already spent more than $100 million after losing some lawsuits...

You won't have to worry about dodgy toolbars, rogue ActiveX controls, or buggy plugins when you use Microsoft Edge (née Project Spartan), Redmond's new web browser for Windows 10. But you can also forget about extending the browser in any way, at least at first. Microsoft gave a sneak peek at its new, HTML/JavaScript-based extensibility engine for Edge at its Build developer conference in San Francisco last week. But on Wednesday we learned that this engine won't be available when the first general-availability build of Edge ships with the Windows 10 launch. "We will enable this new model after our...

With a body of work of 169 compositions, whose genres include symponies, concertos, operas, ballet, chamber music and even a choral setting of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy, Tchaikovsky composed some of the most popular theatrical music within the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer to acquire a solid reputation and career abroad, to the point that he appeared at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York in 1891. Tchaikovsky studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he received a western-oriented teaching that set him apart from the nationalist Russian composers known as “The Five,” with...

According to a report issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the IRS allowed 960 out of 1,580 employees—or 61 percent—who willfully cheated on their taxes to continue working there after the misconduct was discovered. Most employees received less penalties such as counseling, reprimands, or suspensions. […] The report further stated that it could discern no consistent pattern to explain why certain employees had their penalties mitigated, while some were repeat offenders. …

Hey Fox News: Like Muhammad, ISIS Calls Jewess Pamela Geller “Khanzeer” (Pig), and Threatens To “Slaughter Her” “From Muhammad, via the Koran, across space and time, as promulgated today by Sunni Islam’s 1000-year old leading teaching institution, Al-Azhar, and ISIS, alike, Jews as apes/pigs is a “sacralized” theme repeated to incite their slaughter en masse, or as individuals, such as Pamela Geller. Would that Fox News’s morally and factually bereft “pundits” understood this hideous reality.” Yesterday (5/5/15) I blogged about how both CNN and Fox News (excepting Sean Hannity, entirely, and to some extent, Megyn Kelly) have chastised journalist/writer, and...

This Monday, May 11, you are invited to join Senator Ted Cruz in Onawa for a Town Hall meeting and in Sioux City for a House Party benefiting the Woodbury County Republican Party with special guest Congressman Steve King.Onawa Town Hall Meeting with Senator Ted Cruz Monday May 11, 2015 3:15 pm Onawa Library 707 Iowa Ave Onawa, IA 51040There is no cost to attend, please RSVP here.Woodbury County Republican Party House Party with Senator Ted Cruz & Special Guest Congressman Steve King Monday May 11, 2015 6:30 pm Home of Dr. Pat and Teresa Luse 4602 DeRocher Path Sioux...

The mayor of Srebrenica, the site of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, has accused Bosnian Serb authorities of harassing Muslims under the pretext of investigating Islamic extremists. Camil Durakovic, a Bosnian Muslim, said Thursday that Serb police from outside town stormed the homes of Muslims who returned after Bosnia’s 1990s ethnic war, and carried out arrests without explanation. He called it a “form of repression.” “Terrorism is a serious global problem and we must all fight against it, but you cannot use it as an excuse to send masked, armed men to search houses of Bosnian Muslims and...

It almost sounds like Hillary Clinton is a hostage who needs to be rescued according to New Republic writer Rebecca Traister. And who is holding poor Hillary hostage? Why, her own husband, Bill Clinton. According to Traister, Hillary is a poor innocent who has been tainted by the activities of Bill, especially as regards the Clinton Foundation. Traister's solution can be seen in the very title of her article: The Best Thing Hillary Could Do for Her Campaign? Ditch Bill. Traister's attempt to hermetically seal Hillary off from Bill's nefarious activities has resulted in some real howlers as we...

The “U.N. hierarchy” rejected French efforts to hear from the author of U.N. report alleging that French soldiers sexually abused six children in the Central African Republic, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday. The revelation accompanied word that French authorities had opened a formal judicial inquiry into the case that the Paris prosecutors’ office knew about in July, but was made public only last week following a report in a British newspaper, the Guardian. Independent judges will now take over the case from the prosecutor’s office, an acknowledgment of the seriousness and complexity of the accusations that have sparked international...

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 04:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During a private audience on Tuesday, Pope Francis advanced the causes of canonization of 12 potential saints, two of whom were martyred by communist revolutionaries in Laos in 1960. The May 5 audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato also formally approved the canonization of Bl. Junipero Serra – which had already been scheduled for Sept. 23. The two martyrs recognized were the Servants of God Mario Borzaga and Paul Thoj Xyooj, who were killed in hatred of the faith in April 1960. Born in Italy in 1932, Fr. Borzaga joined the...

DEBKAfile reports exclusively from Washington: US President Barack Obama did not wait for Binyamin Netanyahu to finish building his new government coalition by its deadline at midnight Wednesday, May 6, before going into action to pay him back for forming a right-wing cabinet minus any moderate figure for resuming negotiations with the Palestinians. Banking on Netanyahu’s assertion while campaigning for re-election that there would be no Palestinian state during his term in office, Obama is reported exclusively by our sources to have given the hitherto withheld green light to European governments to file a UN Security Council motion proclaiming an...

Statue in a Brittany town square deemed to violate the separation of Church and stateA French court has ordered the removal of a statue of St John Paul II which it said violated the separation of Church and state. Authorities have been given six months to remove a 29ft (8.7m) statue from the town square in Ploërmel, Brittany. The sculpture, by Russo-Georgian Zurab Tsereteli, shows the late pope praying underneath an arch topped by a cross. It was intended as a gesture of friendship from Russia to other countries with a Christian heritage. A court at Rennes said the problem...

Full Headline: Texas gunman's former lawyer: FBI investigation made him 'a better criminal' The former lawyer for Elton Simpson, one of two gunmen who were killed Sunday after opening fire outside a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, says an FBI investigation that led to a 2011 conviction for Simpson probably made him "a better criminal." “He learned that they were following him,” Kristina Sitton, who represented Simpson in the previous case, told the New York Times. “He learned how not to attract suspicion. He learned how to be a better criminal.”

The Secret Service is adding a second layer of steel spikes to the top of the White House fence to keep would-be intruders at bay, according to a proposal submitted to the National Capitol Planning Commission. The ½-inch long steel “pencil point” spikes will be snapped into place at the top of the fence and protrude outward, according to a diagram included in the proposal submitted for the Secret Service by that National Park Service. The spikes will be added to the fence along the north and south sides of the White House grounds. […] The Secret Service has been...

Submitted by Colin Chilcoat via OilPrice.com,Yes, well, sort of – and they have for some time now. It’s relatively old news, but a recent Times report and an upcoming book from the Hoover Institute’s Peter Schweizer have refocused attention on a 2008 blockbuster uranium deal involving Russia, the United States, and Canadian company Uranium One. Pushing connections and presidential candidacies aside – the Clintons’ complicity is still very much speculation at this point – lets return to the deal and take a look at the US nuclear industry and, globally, the rise of Rosatom.The saga begins in 2009 when,...