Free Republic

Attorney General Tom Reilly is seeking a special grand jury to grill more than a dozen key witnesses in the Big Dig manslaughter probe, moving swiftly after documents revealed widespread knowledge of ceiling problems in the tunnel where Milena Del Valle was killed, a law enforcment source said. The grand jury, expected to be convened Oct. 3, will hear evidence for six months as investigators seek criminal indictments against officials involved in construction of the I-90 Seaport Connector Tunnel. Several key officials have already retained lawyers, the source said. “Nothing we have seen to date takes us off the path...

The most visible male homosexual lobbyist in the Massachusetts State House has been arrested for soliciting oral sex from college students at the University of Massachusetts, according to newspaper reports. William Conley works for the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus and has been the point man for coordinating legislative support for funding homosexual programs (including the new "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth") in the public schools, as well as same-sex "marriage", repeal of the sodomy laws, and other homosexual-related legislation.Conley has been a member of the "Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth", and has now become a...

CHICAGO - If you're a cell phone-using, goose liver-eating, cigarette-smoking, fast food-loving person, Chicago might not be your kind of town. In this city that once winked at Prohibition, members of the City Council are trying to crack down on things they deem unhealthy, immoral or just plain annoying. A proposal that would restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery-clogging trans fat oils got a public airing last week, and in the past year alone aldermen have banned smoking in nearly all public places and the use of cell phones while driving. In April, Chicago became the first U.S. city...

by Mark Finkelstein July 11, 2006 - 06:52 Q. When are special interest contributions not special interest contributions? A. When they're made to a Democratic candidate. And the Associated Press is reporting on the matter. No political race in my little upstate New York neck of the woods has attracted national attention in a long time - until this year. The retirement of liberal Republican Sherwood Boehlert meant an open seat in New York's 24th Congressional District. The Republicans have held the seat for many years, and continue to hold a registration edge. But in the current political climate, the...

D.C. Council members have long distributed to family and friends special license plates that have accrued more than $20,000 in city parking fines, which the plate owners likely will not have to pay. Since the early 1970s, council members and the mayor have bestowed the license plates -- which feature low numbers -- as political prizes. The 13 council members have exempted themselves from parking restrictions and fines since 2001. When lawmakers leave office, the plates they have distributed are supposed to be returned to the city to be reassigned to new officials. However, the tickets owed on those plates...

NEW YORK (March 23) - Invoking Biblical themes, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton joined immigration advocates Wednesday to vow and block legislation seeking to criminalize undocumented immigrants

The future of Social Security is indeed going to be a burden on future generations, but what about the national debt? Maybe it's time to start vetoing spending bills full of unnecessary earmarks. See the cartoon: http://cartoons.blog.com

Fate is indeed fickle. Who would have guessed that in this year's Oscar voting, Brokeback Mountain, a fine, risky movie about a gay love affair, would surge ahead of Capote, a movie about a gay journalist, only to be edged out for the Best Picture Oscar by a fine, risky movie about racism? Is this a sign of our times, or what? If conservatives needed any evidence that liberal impulses have taken over the Motion Picture Academy, this is it. Right? But, alas, in some folks' minds, every silver lining has its cloud. Instead of celebrating, many fans of Brokeback...

Let the campaigning begin! No, not the Oscars. That race is almost over. The next big campaign is Election 2006. And who in D.C. is enjoying the entertainment biz's largesse this election year? According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group, it's -- no surprise -- Hillary Clinton, who has taken in $213,645 so far from movie, TV and music industry sources. Second place is closely contested by two Teds: Ted Stevens, Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee ($100,500), and Ted Kennedy, of the Democratic family dynasty ($94,600). Clinton has been a Hollywood favorite almost from...

For several elections, Democrats have been hurt by the widespread perception that the party consists of a confederation of interest groups to which Democratic leadership is slavishly beholden. You know the knock: Democrats are forever meeting with special interests like the Irish-Jewish Home for the Short or Transvestite Taxidermists Against the Metric System and then caving to the groups' non-negotiable demands.

SACRAMENTO - California's capital is packed with more than 1,000 lobbyists, but when people want to make something happen in Sacramento, they often turn instead to Bob White, a genial Republican maestro who helped elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. White has an advantage lobbyists don't. While registered influence peddlers must reveal whom they work for, White calls himself a strategist who doesn't directly push for changes in state policy. That legal distinction allows White to conceal who his corporate clients are, even though he and members of his consulting firm, California Strategies, go to bat for them by exploiting a loophole...

SACRAMENTO — Election-weary California voters have yet to weigh in on November's special election ballot measures. But special interests have already launched dozens of initiative efforts aimed at next year's election. About two dozen ballot measure bids are listed with the secretary of state's office to be circulated for signatures to qualify for the June ballot or are awaiting approval to circulate. Initiative efforts are under way on topics ranging from restricting political contributions by corporations and creating a new state police force to patrol the Mexican border to expanding preschool. And even more initiatives are likely to follow. While...

It's too bad there's now a firewall in place on the computer system used by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff. We'd love to take a peek at the internal memos reacting to Tuesday's Washington Post story headlined "Roberts Unlikely to Face Big Fight; Many Democrats See Battle as Futile." If the staff memos that were leaked on President Bush's appeals-court nominees in 2003 are any guide, Democrats once again are taking dictation from liberal interest groups-- this time on how to oppose Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. We expect Tuesday's e-chatter went along the lines of: "Ralph Neas called..."...

Why is it that Southern California residents continually get ripped off when it comes to the distribution of federal funds, but their congressmen the people charged with distributing those funds continually get re-elected? It's all about money. Southland lawmakers have some of the biggest campaign war chests in the country, thanks to countless special interests all too happy to purchase their favor. Of seven Golden State lawmakers going into the campaign season with more than $1 million as of June 30, six are from Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, has the third-largest congressional...

SAN FRANCISCO, March 6 - Arnold Schwarzenegger scoffs at the suggestion that he could be bought by political donors, like the Wall Street financiers, corporate executives and entertainers who will pay thousands of dollars on Monday to have dinner with him at the "21" Club in Manhattan. "I don't need any money; I have plenty," Mr. Schwarzenegger, the millionaire governor of California, said in a recent interview when asked about his approach to fund-raising. "This is why it is easier for me to take this money. I don't even know who is giving me the money in the first place,...

ACTION ALERT!  With Thanks to the Sacramento County Republican Party Donna Schalansky, Chairman Karen Atteberry, Executive Director  SUPPORT FOR THE GOVERNOR!  The Governor needs our help! Governor Schwarzenegger's opponents around the country are mobilizing against him because foes of pension reform and legislative redistricting know if he prevails in California, other states will follow. The Democratic National Committee and others who oppose his agenda are already gearing up for what Schwarzenegger has called "a great battle." "Given how important California is both economically and politically to both parties and the nation, you can expect we will continue to monitor these developments very...

Stung by several of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget initiatives, an army of advocacy groups and unions have begun to mobilize for what they warn will be an outright assault on his plans. They are some of the very groups that the Republican governor quieted early in budget talks last year through a series of behind-the-scenes deals. But this year, educators and public employee unions are outraged by his proposals that target teachers, the poor and rank-and-file state workers. With memberships reaching into the hundreds of thousands, the unions specialize in organizing, fund raising and marshaling volunteers. They say they will...

In the early 20th Century, corrupt railroad barons controlled the Sacramento statehouse, and even wrote the laws. Voters got so sick of it they ushered in reforms, including the ballot initiative and recall process. Now another bunch is spending huge sums, maneuvering legislators into office, and secretly ghost-writing the laws —just like the railroad barons. And just like the railroad barons, this crowd is out entirely for itself. The taxpayers and California can go blow. If you guessed I'm talking about big labor unions — particularly unions that represent state workers — you must be a serious political junkie. Because...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after campaigning as a reformer who would cast special interests out of the Capitol, smashed every fund-raising record in his first year in office with a $26.6 million haul that doubled the amount raised by former Gov. Gray Davis in his first year. The vast majority of the money came from special interests deeply vested in the outcome of legislative and regulatory decisions in Sacramento, including financial companies, auto dealers and manufacturers and health care concerns. In some cases, the governor, who took office a year ago today, has taken positions that benefited his contributors....

LOS ANGELES - Top aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have skirted state regulations by accepting gifts such as sporting event tickets provided by companies, business groups and other special interests, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. California law allows officials to accept up to $340 in gifts in a year from any one special interest, but state officials have sidestepped the cap in several instances, according to a Times review of lobbying reports published on the newspaper's Web site. Five of Schwarznegger's senior aides and their families each accepted more than $340 in tickets to a Sacramento Kings basketball game...