Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] “If I Were the Bishop”The following op-ed, by guest writer Mark Rose, is in the style of Paul Harvey’s “If I were the Devil.”If I were the Bishop—if I were the successor to the Apostles, charged with the care of souls in the United States—I’d want to make the Church irrelevant. I wouldn’t do it with persecution; that only makes the faithful stronger. I’d do it with “modernization.”I’d begin by whispering that the old ways are dead. I’d convince you that we need to “update” the Church, not to convert the world, but to be liked by it....

California will lose millions of dollars in federal matching funds for the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, after Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration failed to fill out the necessary paperwork by a March 31 deadline. CalMatters.org reported: California voters told lawmakers last fall that they wanted doctors to get paid more to see low-income patients. But officials for the Newsom administration blew past a federal deadline to make that happen through Medi-Cal Monday, effectively leaving millions of dollars unclaimed. The unclaimed money is tied to Proposition 35, a ballot measure passed by 68% of voters in November. The measure committed money from...

Stormy Daniels on Tuesday took the stand in Alvin Bragg’s lawfare ‘hush money’ trial against President Trump. “Judge Merchan agrees with Bragg and Biden’s attorneys saying that Stormy Daniels has “credibility” to testify about an alleged affair, even though she’s repeatedly denied any such affair over the years and even went on record by issuing an official statement denying such an affair.” TGP contributor Paul Ingrassia reported on Tuesday. Trump was accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels, AKA, Stephanie Clifford, ‘hush payments’ through his then-attorney Michael Cohen in a scheme to silence her and stop the story about their...

Gross domestic product (GDP) levels came in hot in the second quarter, growing at a 2.4 percent rate that marked the fourth straight quarter of positive growth and underlined the resilience of the U.S. economy. Economists polled by Bloomberg had been expecting GDP growth of around 1.8 percent, meaning the 2.4 percent growth was a pleasant surprise — especially with other recent data indicating slowing inflation. The numbers from the Commerce Department are the latest sign of strength in the U.S. economy, and they come a day after the Federal Reserve reversed its March prediction of a “mild recession” to...

MSNBC wasn’t the only network to interrupt the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr. ABC News decided to cut in to offer close to a half hour of Barr bashing because…they wanted to get in the allegation that he lied. This is the latest Democratic attack line, which was also manufactured without evidence. Barr being viewed, as a Trump agent was an inevitable consequence of his confirmation to the top DOJ post, despite being supremely qualified for the job. And it was on full display today. The Democrat-media complex is hard at work trying to destroy Barr,...

**SNIP** Remember: The law passed in March 2010. It was to go into full effect on Jan. 1, 2014. That means the administration had almost four years to get its ducks into a row. Four years. That was more time than it took us to win World War II, which we fought across three continents, a bunch of islands and two oceans. And yet here we are, four years later, and the administration has spent the past six months effectively rewriting the law for both political and practical reasons. It shouldn’t be able to do this, because it is, you...

As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.

“There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. ... Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs ... There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well.” This 100-year-old, cobbled-together quote from the “the Great Accommodator” Booker T. Washington has gotten quite a bit of circulation in the right-wing blogosphere since the Tea Party came under attack over racial issues....

Proposing a budget that would eliminate the state's welfare-to-work program and most child care for the poor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday outlined a stark vision of a California that would sharply limit aid to some of its poorest and neediest citizens. His $83.4-billion plan would also freeze funding for local schools, further cut state workers' pay and take away 60% of state money for local mental health programs. State parks and higher education are among the few areas the governor's proposal would spare. The proposal, which would not raise taxes, also relies on $3.4 billion in help from Washington...