Free Republic

When white liberals are against options that help poor minorities (charter schools and vouchers)...it makes me wonder.

More on County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi & SonBloggers use son to attack judge in union bargaining case By Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel March 21, 2011 11:31 a.m. Madison -- In a sign of how contentious the struggle over Gov. Scott Walker’s union bargaining law remains, conservative bloggers are using a Dane County judge’s son to criticize her ruling against the measure. **SNIP** But conservative blogs have been noting that Sumi’s son, Jacob Sinderbrand, worked in the past for labor unions and questioning whether that could in some way influence Sumi’s judgment. In a brief statement, Sumi dismissed...

The climate change fanatic has plenty of outside income. Did he obtain the proper waivers from NASA as he must according to the law? In this “Sunshine Week” — amid revelations that the vow of transparency was not, as George Stephanopoulos famously said about Bill Clinton’s truthiness, one of the campaign promises Barack Obama intended to keep — I have just filed an administrative appeal with NASA challenging its thoroughly puzzling refusal to release ethics-related records for its high-profile global warming activist/advocate, the astronomer Dr. James Hansen. This request and appeal are on behalf of the American Tradition Institute’s Environmental...

Hopefully, Big Government readers can help us identify these Democrat senators from Wisconsin. In the video, they claim they are heading back to the state to fulfill their constitutional obligation. They’re Democrats though, so we’re skeptical they worry about things like that. We’ll see.

In loving memory of Anthony Eugene "Budge" Rahe, Jr. December 3, 1934 - February 1, 2011 Anthony "Budge" Rahe, Jr., 76, of Pine Bluff, died Monday, February 1, 2011. He was born December 3, 1934 in Houston, Texas, son of the late Anthony Rahe, Sr. and Margaret Insirillo Rahe. Mr. Rahe was reared and received his early education in Houston, graduating from Beaumont High School. After moving to Pine Bluff, Budge worked as a radio disk jockey for KOTN for many years and recently as a Wal-Mart greeter. Survivors include two nephews, Kyle Ponder and Brad Ponder. Memorial services will...

Gay activists gathering in Minneapolis for a national convention will be seeing a new focus on faith issues.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has set herself apart from colleagues with her fervent statements protesting the majority's refusal to take some appeals, particularly involving prisoners. Each month, the justices spurn hundreds of petitions from people who have lost in lower courts, and rarely does an individual justice go public with concern about the denial. In the seven times it has happened since the annual term opened in October, Justice Sotomayor has signed four of the opinions, more than any other justice. She was the lead author on three, again more than any other justice. She forcefully dissented when the...

Proving once again that Hollywood always gravitates to the wrong causes, Tim Cavanaugh of Reason.com reported on Dec. 14 that the California town made famous by Erin Brockovich — an activism that Hollywood embraced with a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts — has proven not to have lived up to all the anti-corporate fearmongering that brought the town to the country’s attention. For those of you that are hazy on the story, local activist Erin Brockovich successfully took Pacific Gas and Electric to court forcing it to pay a record $33 million class-action settlement

Good Morning America's Claire Shipman on Thursday tried to disguise a Democratic activist as just a jobless American who would be hurt by Republican failure to extend unemployment benefits. Shipman sympathetically recounted that Edrie Irvine, who she didn't explain spoke at a Nancy Pelosi press conference on Wednesday, "never thought her very livelihood would depend on a political debate in Congress." A graphic reading "unemployed" appeared onscreen as Irvine complained, "They are talking about tax cuts for the rich and are holding people like me hostage." Who is Ms. Irvine? According to her bio on the leftist Democracy For America...

Vegan activist Walter Edmund Bond, of Utah, today pleaded guilty to felony counts related to an April fire that burned down the Sheepskin Factory in Glendale. Bond, 34, was arrested on July 22, accused of using fire or explosives to damage property involved in interstate commerce and of using force, violence or threats involving animal enterprises. The blaze caused more than $500,000 in damage to the Sheepskin Factory in the early hours of April 30. On July 28, Bond pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. By changing his plea today, he may be eligible for a shorter prison sentence....

(Reuters) - A self-described animal-rights activist known on the Internet as "Lone Wolf" pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to arson in a fire that destroyed a local sheepskin business.

With Congress on recess until after the November elections, much of news in the political world has focused on campaigning, margin of error polling, controversial stump statements, off-the-record / now on-the-record statements, and run-of-the-mill election run-up commentary.  Noticeably absent from the chatter of election season with Congress on adjournment is talk of "recess appointments" - those made when the Senate is adjourned for more than three days - that usually rule the news-day during times such as these. In a last-minute deal brokered by Senate Leaders before adjournment, Majority Leader Reid agreed to convene the Senate in pro forma session Tuesdays and Fridays...

Are the three news networks actively working to defeat the Republican candidate for Governor in Wisconsin? According to the far-left Service Employees International Union, yes, they most certainly are. SEIU spokesman John-david Morgan - also, incidentally, a former journalist - told a staffer (audio embedded below the fold) for GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker that local media affiliates for all three major networks were "willing partners" in the union's efforts to defeat Walker. The staffer gave a fake name and recorded the conversation without Morgan's knowledge."They've really been willing partners in it,"

If you’d like to know what hours of fingernail scraping on a chalkboard feels like, simple give the recent California marriage decision a close read. It’s so blatantly biased as to border on comical. And because it is so over-the-top, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will find it hard to uphold it without employing some creative legal gymnastics to minimize the damage created. The man responsible for the opinion is United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, whose conduct at trial and tone in the opinion resembles Perez Hilton at the Miss America pageant. Who can forget Hilton...

Teenage U.S. environmentalist to visit N. Korea on bold peace mission By Lee Haye-ah SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- A teenage American boy says he is traveling to North Korea this week with a letter urging leader Kim Jong-il to allow the creation of a peace forest that would grow over the heavily armed border between the Koreas. "You may be wondering why a 13-year-old boy wants to go into North Korea, especially right now when there are a lot of problems," Jonathan Lee, a Korean-American from Mississippi, wrote in his letter. "Well, I've been talking about planting chestnut trees...

Has anyone ever heard of Tomas de Torquemada, the fanatical leader of the Spanish Inquisition ? Well...he is back. He has been re-incarnated as Thomas Perez, the head of the Civil Rights Division in the Obama-Holder Department of Justice. Not surprisingly, he is a zealot who is stretching the responsibilities of the office to the breaking point. Byron York reports over at the Washington Examiner: Of all the transformations that have taken place in the Obama administration, perhaps none is so radical as that within the Civil Rights Division. Under Perez, it is bigger, richer and more aggressive than ever,...

Did Judge Make Right Call In Gay Marriage Case? A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Prop. 8, California's gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. Do you agree with the judge's decision? Share your thoughts. First answer our question below. Then click "Leave a Comment." Did Judge Make Right Call In Gay Marriage Case? Yes -- Prop. 8 violates the Constitution. No -- Marriage is an institution between a man and a woman. I don't care what the judge thinks about the Constitution. I'm not sure but shouldn't the voters views count for something? Other (leave a comment).

One talent Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan displayed in her career climb could create unique ethics questions for her as a justice: the ability to persuade Harvard Law School alumni and other wealthy donors to give hundreds of millions of dollars, more than meeting a daunting fundraising goal that came with her job as dean. The $476 million total Kagan reached for the "Setting the Standard" campaign was a record not just for her university but for all law schools....Kagan's prolific fundraising sets her apart from the current Supreme Court justices. ... If Kagan is confirmed to the court as...

Immigrant-rights activist and former Santa Ana schools trustee Nativo Lopez was jailed in Los Angeles Thursday after being indicted by the grand jury there for eight felony counts alleging voter fraud. Los Angeles arrest records show that he was booked into the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and is being held in lieu of $55,000 bail. Los Angeles District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said he faces a mental competency hearing on Aug. 6. The Mexican American Political Association, of which he is president, responded with a press release today. “Let it be known that he will be fasting in stance with...

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl was only half right in an observation he offered during opening statements in the confirmation hearing of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Said Kohl: “We have less evidence about what sort of judge you will be than on any nominee in recent memory. Your judicial philosophy is almost invisible to us.” There is indeed less concrete evidence on the document side of the ledger, for the simple reason she’s never been a judge and has little experience as a practicing attorney. But contrary to the Wisconsin senator’s...