Free Republic

Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee wasn't officially running to be the next mayor of San Francisco when he spent an eye-popping $1.1 million in one year on his 2010 re-election bid - a race where he faced no primary battle and no serious general election competition. A Chronicle analysis of Yee's financial disclosure forms shows that he paid more than $471,000 in the 2010 election cycle to his San Francisco-based political consultant, Jim Stearns, now his strategist in the mayor's race. .. Yee also paid almost $121,000 to San Francisco pollster Ben Tulchin in 2010. That's nearly as much as...

MADISON, Wis -- The Wisconsin law taking away collective bargaining rights that a court had ordered not to be published by the secretary of state has been published instead by the Legislative Reference Bureau. The action was noted on the Legislature's home page Friday. It's not immediately clear whether the publication has the force of law. But if legally published, the law takes effect Saturday. A judge last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law.

Covering a possible 2012 presidential run by Michele Bachmann, Good Morning America's Juju Chang on Thursday spun the Congresswoman as "one of the most controversial freshmen [sic] members of Congress." Aside from the obvious error, Bachmann has been a representative for four years, GMA never identified hard-left former Congressman Alan Grayson that way. Reporter Jonathan Karl singled out Bachmann as "uncompromising" and "as conservative as they come." This type of labeling isn't uncommon for the journalist. On August 24, 2010, Karl hit Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller as a "hard-line, Tea Party conservative." On September 22, 2010, he deemed Christine...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Gay-Straight Alliance club can meet on Flour Bluff High School’s campus for now, while a committee evaluates how the school treats non-curriculum clubs. The Flour Bluff Independent School District board of trustees voted 4-2, with members Wade Chapman and Steve Ellis opposed, to direct the superintendent to temporarily allow all non-curriculum clubs to meet on campus, including a proposed Gay-Straight Alliance that had been prohibited. “We’re committed to supporting all students in our community and I think this is the right way to do it,” board member Wally Graham said. “This is what we think is...

NEWARK — The choice between a "virtual strip search" and a "grope" was strictly academic Wednesday for most holiday travelers flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport. The majority of Newark’s full-body scanners were idle throughout much of the day, depriving most passengers of the chance to opt out of the controversial screening procedure even if they had wanted to. All in all, Thanksgiving eve was a non-event at Newark Liberty, reflecting the relative calm reported at airports around the country. "Things have gone very, very smoothly,"

On Wednesday, CBS published a doctored picture (dually attributed to itself and the Associated Press) showing Barack Obama as half black and half white, with a line clearly visible down the center of his face. And just in case that wasn’t controversial enough, the photo also pictures Democrats leaning over his “black” side while Republicans look over his “white” side. Via NewsBusters: The picture, naturally, is causing quite the stir. Creative Minority Report asks, “Are they saying that Obama will have to act white with Republicans?” and adds, “The idiocy of this is only heightened by the fact that Obama’s...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York -- a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers. "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on...

No explanation given for the cancellation Controversial televangelist Zakir Naik’s talk at North America’s largest Islamic gathering Saturday night was considered by many to be “the heart of the journey,” but two cancellations later, many are wondering why his voice was stilled. After being banned from Canada for his controversial remarks, Naik was to have given Saturday’s keynote address by live video conferencing at Journey of Faith, the Islamic gathering held on the weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) – The United Nations said Friday it would conduct an independent review of its Nobel prize-winning climate panel, whose credibility has been hit by errors in a key report on global warming. The UN's plan was announced as environmental experts at an international meeting hailed the opportunity to make progress on climate change after last year's Copenhagen talks ended in chaos and urged India and China to come on board. Demands have mounted for a major overhaul at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose chairman Rajendra Pachauri has also come under fire for his...

Danish police say they have shot an al Qaeda-linked man armed with an axe who broke into the home of a controversial cartoonist. Police say the 28-year-old Somali man was trying to kill Kurt Westergaard, who triggered worldwide protests after drawing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed. The intruder was linked to Somali terror organisation al Shabaab and al Qaeda leaders in east Africa, police said. The intruder was shot twice and is being held in custody. Lotte Mejlhede, of TV2, told Sky News Mr Westergaard, 74, fled to a safe room at his Aarhus home after spotting the would-be attacker.

Percy Sutton dies; His Obama revelation omitted from obituaries Legendary lawyer and politician Percy Sutton has died at the age of 89, and the major media are omitting mention of one of his most notable acts. The former Borough President of Manhattan, Sutton had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer (he was Malcolm X's attorney) and media mogul, who purchased radio stations in New York and other cities, making them into high rated black-oriented outlets. He also purchased and renovated (thereby saving from the wrecking ball) New York's legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem. To top it off, Sutton...

A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part...

The World Health Organization estimates that a worldwide production capacity of 3 billion doses of pandemic H1N1 vaccines will be used to prevent the outbreak and spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu, or "swine flu," as it is better known. This ambitious plan for widespread vaccine use, albeit inadequate for a total population of 6.8 billion people, has drawn criticism regarding the vaccine's safety, and the use and potential use of vaccine adjuvants. In the alternative health community, chiropractor Ginger Mills, DC, of Redwood City, is concerned that adjuvants, especially squalene, will be added to vaccines used in the U.S.,...

No presidency is ever without its fair share of criticism, but some presidents seem to stir up more controversy than others. So, who are the 6 most controversial presidents? That is a hard question to answer, and this list is by no means definitive. That brings us to the first President on this list, which may surprise some.

WASHINGTON – National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has asked former CIA Director John Deutch, who was stripped of his security clearance nearly a decade ago for mishandling classified information, to sit on an advisory panel on spy satellites, a lawmaker said Thursday. Deutch, CIA director from May 1995 to December 1996 in the Clinton administration, stored and processed hundreds of files of highly classified material on unprotected home computers that he and family members also used to connect to the Internet, according to an internal CIA investigation. The Defense Department's inspector general found similar conduct during Deutch's prior service at...

MORAGA — The much-anticipated speech Wednesday by militant-turned-college-professor Bill Ayers at Saint Mary's College attracted nearly 600 people, many of them very clearly in diametrically opposite political camps. That figure does not count the roughly 200 people who loudly protested Ayers' appearance outside the packed Soda Center auditorium in an unparalleled level of interest in an academic lecture at this rural, private Catholic college. Inside, Ayers' 90-minute presentation drew jeers, boos and an emotional outburst from a woman who swore at him and left. He also received plenty of laughs and claps and even a few standing ovations from the...

The Fashion Time Magazine has obtained exclusive images of Agent Provocateur’s new Season of the Witch lingerie campaign. AP overwhelms one’s eyes with a smoldering depravity of forbidden fruit in a dark castle, dominant maidens and dusky halls, rich and ornate, strewn with pleasures past and present. Sultry and sensuous, Agent Provocateur’s Season of the Witch campaign cries out with the spell of steamy decadence. Wolf and whip, Sade and nature, merge into sweltering gothic sensibilities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outspoken U.S. conservative columnist Ann Coulter is drawing fire from Republicans and Democrats alike after publicly using a derogatory gay slur in reference to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. "Ann Coulter not only once again went out of her way to use a nasty epithet, she pushed her offensiveness up a notch," Amy Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, said on Sunday. Coulter made the comments on Friday during a speech at the influential American Conservative Union's Political Action Conference, calling Edwards a "faggot." "We conservatives have enough trouble overcoming the false things...

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (aka the official magazine of office receptionists) takes a stab at listing the 25 most controversial movies of all time. "Every now and then, a film comes along that can genuinely get someone's goat without any studio goosing. Films whose incendiary elements can inspire an offended party to pick up a picket, call for a boycott, even pray for divine intervention. These can be important, progressive, taboo-shattering films--or merely films that feature a lot of randy humping. They can also be films that are truly, objectively despicable." I have real problems with EW's list:...