Free Republic

Sept. 11 widower James Smith knows something about New York values. Smith's wife, Moira, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She was the only female law enforcement official killed that day. When Smith, a retired NYPD officer himself, heard about Ted Cruz's "New York values" remark earlier this week, he took to Facebook to invite the Republican candidate to the Big Apple. "I was disappointed by your disparaging remarks about New York values somehow being different from Iowa and New Hampshire values," Smith wrote. "I invite you to come to the National 9-11 Memorial and Museum and see for...

One of our ABC7 Chicago colleagues was found murdered Friday while traveling in Belize, according to police in the Central American nation and the U.S. State Department. Anne Swaney was executive producer of online operations at abc7chicago.com. She was 39.

People are entitled to their own opinions about what the definition ought to be. But the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the Supreme Court is an "originalist," one who claims to be bound by the narrowly historical meaning of the Constitution's terms at the time of their adoption. To his kind of judge, Cruz ironically wouldn't be eligible, because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and '90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a "natural born" citizen. Even having two US parents wouldn't suffice. And having just...

You know Joe Scarborough, who was a member of the House Republican freshman class in 1994, and now he hosts the Morning Joe show on MSNBC from 6 to 9 every morning. And he's from Pensacola. The Trump rally is on Wednesday night. Thursday morning on MSNBC Scarborough says that it was unprecedented, that he has never, ever, seen anything like that in Pensacola. He said it was unprecedented for Pensacola to draw such attention for a presidential event. He said, "I was at George W. Bush's campaign rally in 2004, the final stages of that presidential race, early November....

Ariens Manufacturing changed its prayer-on-the-job policy Thursday, drawing pushback from dozens of Muslim employees who say they're now out of a job. Before this week, Somali Muslims employed by Ariens were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray two of the five prayers their faith requires of them daily. They prayed five minutes at a time, designating their specific duties to colleagues. A spokesperson for the Brillion-based equipment manufacturer said in a statement, in part: We are asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms. Our manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled...

<p>So Mark Levin, as predicted, went Beck on us imho (Glen Beck).</p> <p>As fully expected, since he was already building up to it the day before, he is egging on this line of attack on Trump as reflecting "New York Values" - Cruz was told not to go there prior to the debate, but foolishly he went there, and there couldn't have been a more moronic move and insulting to all the 911 first responders, New York's finest, the NYC consruction workers, et all, and ... all just to try and take out Trump?</p>

Donald Trump's ability to draw a crowd has flabbergasted even one of left-leaning MSNBC's talk-show hosts, Joe Scarborough, who took to national airwaves to say the billionaire is beating all records - that his ability to pack a room with eager listeners exceeds anything even much-loved Ronald Reagan could do. "I was at George W. Bush's campaign rally in 2004 at the final stages of that unbelievable race in early November," the "Morning Joe" host said, Breitbart reported. "I saw Reagan come to Pensacola twice in 1980. I saw the crowds. I never saw anything like that in my hometown...

he jury in the trial of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter was one vote from acquitting him of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Freddie Gray, the most serious charge he faced, according to sources familiar with the deliberations. Judge Barry G. Williams declared a mistrial because the jury deadlocked on all four charges last month. Jurors were two votes from convicting Porter of misconduct in office, and more divided on charges of assault and reckless endangerment, sources said. How the jury voted was not publicly revealed, and the judge ruled that jurors' names should not be revealed.

    ***** Tunes For Our Troops ***** **Blackstar**Bowies final CD release 2 days before his passing Lazarus video Official Website ~ Support The Artists ~   Support the artists you hear throughout the Canteen! Click on the links below! Keep the music going! ArtistDirect l  Internet Radio l  AOL Music l  Sonique (Lycos) l  Real Radio Live365 l  971TheRiver  l  GotRadio  l  Wherehouse  l  Target  l Shoutcast AFRTS l  VH1 l XM Radio l  BET l  audiophile l  Virgin Radio l  Soma (Alternative) Acaza l AudioRealm l VH1 l  Yahoo! Launch Music l  Radio Disney l  Live-Radio Net...

The super PAC Right to Rise has already raised more than $100 million to support former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential campaign. Now, however, the group is turning to crowd-funding to generate some more cash and more buzz ahead of the February 7 New Hampshire primary. Specifically, Right to Rise is trying to raise $300,000 from small donors to air an ad in New Hampshire during the Super Bowl. -snip- The MVP donors are promised an invitation to an "exclusive" Super Bowl watch party in New Hampshire and VIP-level attendance at a strategy briefing with Right to Rise CEO Mike...

A morsel from the spin room after last night's debate. Trump is making a prudential argument, I take it, not a legal one since there's zippo in the Constitution barring senators from holding dual citizenship, which Cruz did until 2014. In fact, Article I explicitly permits someone to become a senator even if they haven't been an American citizen since birth: "No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state...

During Vatican II, Father Yves Congar (above), acting as official Vatican envoy, met with Jews in France to ask them what they wanted. The Jews answered they wanted to be considered as "brothers, partners equal in dignity". Lazare Landau writes, "the Council granted our wishes". Since then, two new concepts have emerged in the Church's relations with Jews; the notion of "praying to the same Lord", and that of a "common mission" to bring God to the world (that requires no need for Jews to convert to Christ's Church for salvation), which are the principles the post Conciliar Popes, including...

The Catholic and Lutheran Churches have issued a joint prayer thanking God for the "insights" received through the Reformation. The service has been devised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation in advance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation next year. The first jointly developed liturgical order is based on the report "From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017". The Common Prayer, which can be adapted to suit local customs and preferences, is led by two presiders, one Catholic and one Lutheran, with two readers, again one Catholic...

The next time Cruz shows up here he should tear himself away from his friends at Goldman Sachs and make a side trip to the Bronx and explain himself there on New York values; or to the Lower East Side, or Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or Jamaica, Queens, or 125th St. in Harlem. He should go talk to people in the Rockaways or Staten Island, the hardened survivors who bound together after Hurricane Sandy, about New York values. Or finally he should go all the way downtown, and back to September 2001. Here is what New York values are: New York values...

Liberals and the mainstream media are foaming at the mouth over the comment Senator Ted Cruz made Thursday night about “New York values.” Now, all of us folks who are not New York City liberals know exactly what Senator Cruz was talking about -- and it had nothing to do with the aftermath of 9/11. Senator Cruz was talking about cultural and political values. “Duck Dynasty” values versus Big Apple values. As an expatriate Southerner who resides among the indigenous liberal population of Brooklyn, I know of what the senator speaks. And to suggest that the senator was referring to...

Earlier this evening, we noted that the western German town of Bornheim has banned adult male asylum seekers from its indoor public pool after some German women complained of harassment. "There have been complaints of sexual harassment and chatting-up going on in this swimming pool ... by groups of young men, and this has prompted some women to leave (the premises)," the town’s deputy mayor said. Bornheim, as it turns out, is just a stone’s throw away from Cologne where a wave of sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by men of “Arab origin” at a New Year’s Eve festival has mushroomed...

Below is the interview of Donald Trump with Tim Russert that Ted Cruz referenced in the Thursday night debate. In it, Donald Trump says he is very pro-choice and supports even partial birth abortions because he is from New York and has New York values.Donald Trump: "I'm Very Pro Choice," Partial Birth Abortion is OK (Video)To deflect Cruz’s point last night, Donald Trump had to resort to political correctness. He had to insist that the American values on display on 9/11 were somehow uniquely New York values. Second, he had to make the case that those New Yorkers were victims...

Andrew Cuomo has some nerve.The New York governor, who two years ago intoned that New Yorkers with pro-life and conservative values weren't "welcome" in the state, is suddenly acting as if he's their most ardent advocate.  At Thursday night's Fox Business debate, GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX) defined New York values as "socially liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage,  and focus around money and the media." Cuomo insisted Cruz should "apologize" for his comments. "I'm always open to give him an education on what New York values are all about," Cuomo said on NY1. "And if he had any class, he would apologize to the people of New...

The exchange between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on “NY values” was one of the highlights of last night’s debate. While Cruz clearly was referring to liberalism, he used a phrase that left him open to Trump’s counterattack invoking 9/11: he media is thrilled with Trump’s response. Of course, much of that media is in or from NY City. I expressed last night that I wasn’t sure that the issue would play in Trump’s favor outside NY. I was born in NYC, spent my early childhood there, grew up in and returned to the NYC suburbs after law school until...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took no immediate action on whether it will hear President Barack Obama's bid to revive his plan to shield more than 4 million immigrants from deportation, a move that bypassed the Republican-led Congress. The case was not on the list of new cases the court agreed on Friday to take up. The court could make an announcement next week on whether it will hear the immigration dispute. If the justices hear the case it would become one of the centerpiece cases of its current term, which runs until June.