Free Republic

Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, a scourge of New York City power brokers from Rudolph Giuliani to Mike Bloomberg during a decades-long career with the Village Voice and an early and tenacious chronicler of President-elect Donald Trump, died Thursday at age 71. Barrett, who had been battling interstitial lung disease, died at NYU Langone Medical Center, his family told The Associated Press. […] Few reporters knew Trump as well as did Barrett, whose death came less than a day before Trump was to be sworn in as the country’s 45th president. He began covering the budding real-estate developer in the late...

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the names that are being now talked about as a possible Trump Cabinet, (snip) GLENN GREENWALD: Amy, that question was some kind of form of torture that ought to be outlawed. I could barely withstand listening to that. You know, I think, honestly, my brain hasn’t yet processed all of that. I think most people’s brains haven’t. It’s still very—I remember last night, I was on Twitter, and I—someone linked to a tweet from Donald, which I clicked on. And in his biography, it now just says, very simply, "President-elect of the United States,"...

Elizabeth Warren may be surging in the polls, but you wouldn’t know it by the size of the crowd that heard her speak on Friday. The senator from Massachusetts spoke at a sparsely attended environmental forum in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on Friday. The auditorium where the event was held appeared as if it could hold hundreds of spectators, but there were no more than a few dozen who could be seen watching the event. **SNIP** Most of the Democratic candidates in the race skipped the event. When asked if it was wrong for the Democratic Party not to stage an...

Noam Chomsky, the noted progressive scholar, believes Democrats have focused far too much on Russia. And he thinks it might earn them four more years of President Donald Trump. Speaking at a forum in Boston with Amy Goodman, Chomsky stated his view that he always believed there was going to be little to no proof of collusion in the Mueller Report. “[T]he Democrats are helping him,” Chomsky said. “They are. Take the focus on Russia-gate. What’s that all about? I mean, it was pretty obvious at the beginning that you’re not going to find anything very serious about Russian interference...

Ice New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on protesters rallying under the “Abolish ICE” banner to occupy border crossings, airports and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices across the country. Ocasio-Cortez made the comments during an interview on Monday with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, speaking alongside Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau. Asked by Goodman about her decision to leave New York to join protests at the U.S.-Mexico border just days before the primary in which she defeated Democratic Representative Joseph Crowley in a stunning upset, Ocasio-Cortez said, "There is no convenient time" to "stand up against human rights violations."...

The throngs of "anti-war" marchers heading to DC to attend the September 24th rally don't know that they are being used. CodePINK and United For Peace and Justice are both prodigy of Global Exchage, the 501(3)c non-profit formed by Global's Medea Benjamin. It's the "Benjamins For Benjamin Weekend"!. Using the attraction of a Hate America event to lure attendees, Code Pink's Medea Benjamin's cash cow, Global Exchange, has scheduled one of it's "Green Festivals" for the same weekend and is running it in competition with the anti-war events scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. How convenient? How many people will...

...AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about this comment that you made that the Republican Party, you said, is the most dangerous organization in world history. Can you explain? NOAM CHOMSKY: I also said that it’s an extremely outrageous statement. But the question is whether it’s true. I mean, has there ever been an organization in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organized human life on Earth? Not that I’m aware of. Is the Republican organization—I hesitate to call it a party—committed to that? Overwhelmingly. There isn’t even any question about it...

AAAN has long been tied to President Obama. In 2001 and 2002, the Woods Fund of Chicago, with Obama on its board, made grants totaling $75,000 to the AAAN—about a fifth of AAAN’s overall budget. Obama served in that role alongside Bill Ayers and received $6,000 a year from 1999-2002. AAAN’s founder Rashid Khalidi and his wife Mona hosted Obama in their home on at least one occasion. Obama praised Khalidi’s insights, which had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.” Khalidi returned the compliment, telling a mostly Arab audience, that Obama is...

Haditha: Where Are They (the Accusers) Now? Diana West January 18, 2012 Eight charged; seven cleared; one, please, let’s hope, to go.Finally, the last “Haditha” trial is in progress, and, thanks to Nat Helms at Defend Our Marines, everything you need or want to know about the proceedings, the witnesses, the facts about the case of SSGT Frank D. Wuterich, the last of the Marine Mohicans, is here. Tim McGirk, source of the Haditha myth-acre. Of course, I still have a few questions — the exact same questions I had when I first looked at the case back in late...

Guests Nicolai Petro, professor of politics at the University of Rhode Island. He has been in Odessa, Ukraine, since July 2013 as a Fulbright research scholar. Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. His latest article for The New York Review of Books is "Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine." **** Ukraine is in a state of crisis two days after the country’s democratically elected president was ousted following months of street protests that left at least 82 people dead. On Saturday, Ukraine’s Parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych, a move Yanukovych...

In its first report on press freedom in the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists warns Obama has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for both reporters and their government sources. Among the case it details: six government employees - plus two contractors, including Edward Snowden - have faced felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press, compared with three such prosecutions in ALL previous U.S. administrations. ...

"We apologize for the inconvenience. The marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance andf will be back up Monday, 10/7/3013." That's the message New Yorkers received this weekened when they attempted to sign up for health insurance via the new online health exchange or marketplace, a key componenet of ObamaCare. ...

Chris Hayes discusses the United States considering military action in Syria with former Congressman Tom Perriello, Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!" and Eli Lake, senior national security correspondent for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

On April 8, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi headlined a Boston conference on ''media reform.'' She was joined by four other congressmen, a senator, two FCC commissioners, a Nobel laureate and numerous liberal journalists. The 2,500-person event was sponsored by a group called Free Press, one of more than 180 different media-related organizations that receives money from liberal billionaire George Soros. Soros, who first made a name for himself in investing and currency trading, now makes his name in politics and policy. Since the 2004 election, the controversial financier has used his influence and billions to push a laundry list...

Amy Goodman of the Marxist Democracy Now! network reported yesterday on the arrest of a “leading Democratic donor” named Hassan Nemazee. Here is the story, in its entirety: Back in the United States, a leading Democratic donor has been arrested and charged with seeking to defraud the financial giant Citibank. Hassan Nemazee is accused of submitting forged documents to secure a $74 million loan. Nemazee has given at least $150,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee since 2006 and supported several other leading Democratic politicians. Not much to sink your teeth into there. Could it be that Goodman is downplaying...

A recent headline in the British Columbian newspaper The Globe and Mail reads “Amy Goodman’s Border Woes Have Americans in a Tizzy.” Really? Because this is the first I’ve heard of it. Don’t know who Amy Goodman is? You’re not alone. As host of the television/radio program Democracy Now! (undoubtedly the most ironic misnomer in the history of news media), her activist-style “journalism” has kept her operating on the periphery of mainstream media. Fact is, a quick Google news search shows that the only U.S. news outlets to report on her “ordeal” have been, well, Amy Goodman for Democracy Now!...

While the rest of the left wing media has gotten bored with the topic and has long since returned to its favorite subject – namely, the cult-like hero-worship directed toward Barack Obama – Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! still refuses to believe that in a small corner of Central America, an unpopular leader with Marxist tendencies has been soundly rejected and ousted from office. After weeks of airing story after story about Honduras, building up to a symphonic-like crescendo, Goodman treated us last night to an interview with Zelaya himself!

As reported last night by a smirking and evidently pleased Amy Goodman, the far-left host of Democracy Now!, the Senate, in a very close vote, failed Tuesday to pass an amendment designed to allow individuals with concealed carry permits in their home states to travel with those weapons across state lines. By defeating the measure, introduced by Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate has sent a clear message to those law-abiding citizens already vetted in their home states with regard to responsible gun ownership: If you travel or move across state lines, forget about protecting yourselves and...

Been away for awhile, busy at work. I wanted to point out today some observations I made about the republican convention. The news media and Katie "Koran" Couric have presented the Democratic convention in glitz and glamor with touching family scenes with Obama and his little girls and with big talk about the past 8 years being crap. (never mind that the 8 years previous with Clinton, the fact we are at war, and the rat congress are mostly to blame. Especially Clinton and the Dems. Lets not forget the RINOS.) All the Democrats are bringing up how their policies...

BANGOR, Maine — Folk singers Larry and Leslie Latour, along with Judd Esty-Kendall, will open a “Join Hands to End the War. Build the Peace. Rebuild the Economy” rally at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, at Paul Bunyan Park on Main Street. [snip] Among the featured speakers will be Mary Trotochaud who with her husband, Rick McDowell, moved to Baghdad in 2003 to work with emerging Iraqi civil society organizations and coordinate relief and development projects for the American Friends Service Committee. Other speakers include labor activist Katrina Bisheimer; Iranian-American history student Hosain Aghamoosa; social worker Doug Crate; Veterans for...