Free Republic

The Bernie Sanders campaign spent a whopping $297,685.50 on private plane travel in just nine days, reports The Washington Free Beacon. This is not the first time the 148-year-old Democrat Socialist has shown an affinity for what is still considered one of the great luxuries for America’s super wealthy. After losing the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, it was reported that Bernie would not support Hillary in the general election unless he received a “plane and staff for a series of fall rallies in battleground states … plane would be paid for by the DNC.”

Famed Democrat strategist Pat Caddell is one of the most unvarnished, independent critics of Washington elites. Living in Charleston, S.C., he commutes to New York for his Fox News show, “Political Insiders,” following successful careers in Washington and Hollywood. This surprising, far-ranging video interview details his personal path defending ordinary citizens, while sounding more pro-American than most in his political party.

Oh the humanity! Good heavens. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has a bad day and suddenly out comes this stream of ill-disguised venom going after the woman. She’s a this and a that and “we told you so.” Yada yada yada.Get the smelling salts! Methinks all this commotion over Sarah Palin is really representative of something else.[SNIP]Historian John C. Miller, writing in his 1943 classic Origins of the American Revolution, describes the relationship between the Brits and the Bostonians this way — in a fashion recalled by the momentary travails of Sarah Palin in Iowa.[SNIP]The mistake being made about Sarah...

... It has been amazing to watch Chow slip to third place. Rob Ford, the great helmsman of punk politics, has now crashed out in front of the woman who (the Toronto Star long assured us) was supposed to waltz away with the race, fresh from her stint as MP in the House of Commons. Ms. Chow has plummeted markedly — from her start at 38% to a despairing 23%.... Does the result flow from Mr. Ford’s largely unacknowledged campaigning genius? Is there another person in Toronto, or all of Canada, who could carry the burdens he does, almost all...

At least two groups of people scheduled to run the New York City Marathon Sunday are organizing protests against the city's decision to allow the marathon to go forward, despite Hurricane Sandy's devastation. Furious over resources going to the marathon instead of to relief efforts, Penny Krakoff, a social worker, plans to take food and supplies to the Staten Island starting line before breaking off to deliver them to Sandy victims. "I cannot start a 26.2 mile run in Staten Island—people are missing, stranded, in need of resources. Brooklyn and Queens have equal devastation," she told Gothamist. "Parts of Manhattan...

As the scent of burning electrical wire and the pulverized dust settled over Manhattan in the wake of the 2001 World Trade Center attack, a certain book disappeared from New York City bookstore shelves. Within a week, that book rocketed from No. 8,000 to No. 125 on Amazon.com rankings. It described the nature of fanatics, offering a powerful window of understanding into the people capable of blowing up those two towers. "The True Believer" was published in 1951. Its author, Eric Hoffer, was a self-educated longshoreman born in New York City to a German cabinetmaker and his wife. His keen...

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Usually I like four-star hotels better than five-star hotels. The four-star hotels tend to be comfortable and attractive places with amenities, but without the pretentiousness and fussiness of five-star hotels. It is amazing how many problems are caused by the simple fact that somebody could not be bothered to listen. Why do we keep pretending that we know how to control child molesters after they are released from prison? How many more children must be killed before we face the plain reality that, if it is dangerous to let child molesters out of prison,...

Composing can be a lonely job. Hour after hour, the composer sits at a piano, trying to bring out the music in his head. But for Aaron Copland, composition was about the people. Working with people, learning from them, befriending them, organizing and mentoring them. His enthusiasm for combining music with humanity assured his place in music history almost as much as his compositions. "As organizer, teacher, propagandist, critic, lecturer and expositor, he has been by far the most voluble, articulate and respected American musician of his time," wrote Harold Schonberg in The New York Times in 1970. His ballets...

Troops leaving for Kuwait got a surprise troop greeting before heading out.

<p>Call it an open-and-shut zipper case.</p> <p>An accountant from Staten Island faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of embezzling $170,000 - money investigators say he spent almost entirely to buy oral sex from a woman he worked with.</p>