Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10) of Newark left the Congressional session this morning to fly home via medical transport to New Jersey. Sources close to the congressman say he is gravely ill. Members of Congress were urged to go to George Washington University Hospital to pay their respects to the veteran Payne. Earlier this month Congressman Payne told the media he is suffering from colon cancer.

  Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), issued a statement yesterday in response to the controversy swirling around the awarding of 23 scholarships by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) to relatives and associates. The statement read, in part: Neither the Foundation nor the CBC will allow unethical behavior in the awarding of scholarships or any programs that are designed to benefit the community. Also: I will not allow the absence of integrity to invade the Foundation nor the scholarship program… Payne had nothing to say about his participation in a 2008 Caribbean junket that...

SNIP To that end, the Agenda Project, a new, progressive group with roots in New York's fundraising scene and a goal of strengthening the progressive movement, has launched the "(sexual profanity deleted) Tea project," which is aimed, the group's founder Erica Payne wrote in an e-mail this morning, "to dismiss the Tea Party and promote the progressive cause." ""We will be launching new products in the next several months to help people all over the country (sexual profanity deleted) Tea," Payne told POLITICO. "Products like a Glenn Beck Bowl Buddy (Beck B Scrubbin) and others are perfect holiday gifts or...

Keith Ellison, widely hailed as America's first Muslim congressman, could more accurately be described as CAIR and Hamas' man in Congress. Congressman Ellison has been a regular presence at CAIR fundraisers and at pro-Hamas rallies in the United States. As a former member of Farrakhan's Nation of Islam , Ellison has enough anti-semitic and Islamist credentials to satisfy anyone, and had expressed openly anti-semitic beliefs in the past. Since Ellison got his start with CAIR , his attempt to provide support for Hamas is completely unsurprising. Both Hamas and CAIR are projects of the Muslim Brotherhood, which also helped...

Six Democratic members of Congress enjoyed a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for a formal review of the Citigroup’s sponsorship of the trip by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and five others. The NLPC says the trip violated House rules. The purported purpose of the Nov. 6-9 junket was to attend the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference on the island of...

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations. The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial. *snip* He mentioned in...

The New Culture of CorruptionDemocrats step up their corruption game By ROBERT A. GEORGE Updated 7:45 PM EDT, Fri, Jun 26, 2009 New joke going around Washington: "Republicans hike the Appalachian Trail; Democrats hike your taxes. Either way, someone's getting screwed." As, the old saying goes -- some of the truest things are said in jest. Washington Republicans -- more in the minority than they have been in decades -- are somewhat haplessly hoping that the Democrats mess up their own policies, rather than figure out how to stop them themselves. So, in the meantime, they keep themselves busy by...

During the campaign, Obama told a story about his "uncle," Charles Payne's, WW II experiences to burnish his all-American upbringing.  But Obama made a gaffe when he said his great uncle liberated Auschwitz.  Well, Russian troops liberated Auschwitz, so the story changed that Payne was part of the force that liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, in April 1945. Well, this story wasn't a gaffe.  It was a lie, on top of a lie, on top of a lie. Records show that a Payne, C. T. served as a private with Company K, 355th Infantry Regiment, 89th...

Barack Obama's great uncle criticises him over Buchenwald visit The first time they discussed his participation in the war was when Mr Obama wrongly said during the campaign that Mr Payne had "liberated" Auschwitz. Opponents swiftly pointed out that had been done by the Red Army.

Donald Payne, from New Jersey and a member of the foreign affairs committee, arrived in Mogadishu for talks with President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and his prime minister on rampant piracy off the country's coast. He escaped unharmed and there were no injuries. His visit came the day after US forces shot dead three of four Somali pirates who had been holding an American captain hostage for five days in the Indian Ocean. A Somali pirate chief had earlier threatened to target Americans in revenge for the rescue of a US captain in a dramatic operation that saw naval snipers kill...

A plane carrying U.S. Rep. Donald Payne was fired on as it left the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, but it departed safely and landed without incident in Nairobi, Kenya, his office said, citing U.S. State Department officials. We understand that his plane was fired on ... as he left ... but that they have left safely and that no one was hurt," said Kerry McKenney, the spokeswoman in his Washington office. Police officers at the airport told Payne's staffers in Washington that the plane carrying Payne was damaged in the attack, she said, but the severity of that damage was...

Some US Congressman went to Somalia to try and "talk" to the pirates! They talked alright.. as he skidaddled out of town... being fired on by mortars I don't think the Somalians wanted to talk...

A US congressman has had a narrow escape on a visit to Mogadishu after Somali insurgents fired mortars towards his plane as it was about to take off. Airport officials told the BBC one mortar had landed near the airport as Donald Payne's plane was due to fly and five others after his plane departed. Mr Payne had just met leaders of Somalia's government in the capital. He had discussed ways that the international community might be able to help war-torn Somalia. The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says Mr Payne had just left a half-hour news conference at...

Somali insurgents fire mortars toward U.S. Congressman Donald Payne during a visit to the Somali capital, Reuters reported. "One mortar landed at the airport when Payne's plane was due to fly and five others after he left and no one was hurt," Abukar Hassan, a police officer at Mogadishu airport, told Reuters.

Jeremiah Wright, the firebrand pastor and former intimate of Barack Obama - the pair fell out when footage of Wright emerged damning America - is in the news again. On the front page of today's New York Post, he is accused of having an affair with one Elizabeth Payne, (pictured), a 37-year-old church worker, who has told this was the reason for the eventual breakdown of her marriage. Payne claims she and Wright, who christened Obama's children and presided over his marriage to Michelle, began their relationship while he was an executive assistant at a Dallas church headed by one...

A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency. Stephen Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president’s Republican party in recent years, said he would arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in return for a payment of $250,000 (£126,000) towards the library in Texas. Payne, who has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, also said...

TULSA — U.S. District Judge James Payne, in a very strongly worded opinion, dismissed a lawsuit against Oklahoma's controversial immigration bill, House Bill 1804, Wednesday evening (Dec 12th). Payne found that half the complainants lacked standing and said those with standing — a handful of "illegal alien complainants” — were attempting to use the court to openly violate federal law. Payne questioned the validity of plaintiffs identified anonymously as John and Jane Doe. He wrote that “these plaintiffs admit their violation of federal law and then ask this court to allow them to file suit anonymously, so as to avoid...

NY Newsday Columnist Les Payne Uses Phony Bush QuotesAccording to Les Payne, liberal columnist of the New York newspaper, Newsday ("While Bush rests, bin Laden plots", July 15, 2007): "It has been 2,130 days, however, since the president declared on Sept. 13, 2001, that "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him." And then Les goes on to say: "Someone, the record will show, painted the face of Saddam Hussein on Bush's wanted poster and threw the marshal off the trail....

The echo from the shots which rang out some twenty-six years ago near the intersection of Locust Street and 12th Street in Philadelphia can still be heard today. In fact, on Sunday, March 18th they will be especially loud. Exactly 85.9 miles from the spot where Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner fell, masses will be gathering and preparing to march in the Newark St. Patrick's Day Parade. However, for the first time in many years a deeply entrenched tradition will be broken: there will be no police officers among the participants. To serve as this year's parade honoree, organizers chose...

Rambus (RMBS:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) won a major court victory Monday when a jury found that South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor infringed on the company's patents. A federal court jury in San Jose, Calif., found that Hynix, the world's No. 2 computer memory maker, infringed on all 10 patents at issue, and awarded Rambus $307 million, according to Pacific American Securities analyst Michael Cohen, who has been attending the trial for the past month.