Free Republic

A New York lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban iPhones from being sold in the state, unless Apple provides special "back doors" that would allow law enforcement to spy on users. That's a double dose of the Nanny State: setting rules for what can be bought and sold, while giving the government an easier way to spy on residents' everyday activities. The bill is sponsored by State Assemblyman Matthew Titone, D-Staten Island, and it would mandate that iPhones and other cell phones sold in New York be "capable of being decrypted and unlocked." The bill has support, perhaps...

Fire, brimstone and... tacky high-end luxury properties? The New York Daily News fired a new salvo in its ongoing war of words with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, calling the real estate magnate "ANTI CHRIST" on its front page. An image of Trump was also doctored to surround him with flames and to give him devilishly red and scaly skin.

A Chicago activist turned down an invitation to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday prior to the annual White House Black History Month reception. Aislinn Pulley, who co-founded Black Lives Matter: Chicago, was among about 20 people invited to what the White House billed as an intergenerational meeting of black leaders to discuss criminal justice reform throughout the U.S., according to a White House official. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch also was expected to attend the event Thursday afternoon. Other invitees included the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, University of Missouri student organizer DeShaunya Ware and DeRay...

An esteemed jurist will be laid to rest today.The American (?) President will be elsewhere, leaving a “lighter footprint,” we are told.We’re not sure exactly where he’ll be planting that footprint yet, butt trust it will include either golf or the gym.Or maybe he’ll be deliberating over a potential replacement for Justice Scalia:Al Sharpton, the wise race-baiter?Fareed Zakaria, the wise-Muslim?Chris Rock, the wise-acre?Then he’ll meet with Val Jar to find out who he’s going to appoint.Let the record reflect that Barry and Lady M did pay their respects to Justice Scalia yesterday (in just under 2 minutes flat):“So what do...

De Blasio? Sharpton? Nope. The biggest blowback will be against the “reforming” Kentucky senator, because Republicans back cops, period.After New York City Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were gunned down in a retaliatory ambush on Saturday afternoon, the collateral damage was immediate. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio relationship with the police went from horrible to horrendous. Rev. Al Sharpton’s campaign to cleanse his race-baiting past grew more difficult, and Sen. Rand Paul—who had gone out of his way to break bread with Sharpton and to criticize police militarization—may now be facing an even more difficult task...

"My lips are sealed," Clinton said in an affected accent after an event at the Harlem headquarters of Sharpton's National Action Network. . . "You've got to watch her," Sharpton said, drawing Clinton’s attention to Karni. "She's trying to aks whether I'm endorsing. I told her only you know, and I'm not telling."

Police are investigating a second anti-white bias incident in Brooklyn where the attacker called his victim "cracka," the Daily News has learned. A 51-year-old white man told cops he was on Nostrand Ave. near Glenwood Road in East Flatbush when a black man ran up and knocked him to the ground about 5:40 p.m. Monday. "This is for Malcolm X, cracka," the brute said before storming off

Although the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," constitute "grave depravity," and can never "be approved," the Catholic bishops of New York State "have not taken a position" on past bills and "do not foresee taking a position" on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new order banning private and public health insurers from covering gay conversion therapy for minors. Cuomo, a Catholic who supports homosexual marriage and abortion, made his announcement about prohibiting health care coverage for conversion (or reparative) therapy on Saturday, Feb. 6. In a press release, Cuomo's office said, "Multi-agency regulations announced today ban public and...

Hillary Clinton loves black people. And black people love Hillary—or so it seems. Black politicians have lined up in droves to endorse her, eager to prove their loyalty to the Clintons in the hopes that their faithfulness will be remembered and rewarded. Black pastors are opening their church doors, and the Clintons are making themselves comfortably at home once again, engaging effortlessly in all the usual rituals associated with “courting the black vote,” a pursuit that typically begins and ends with Democratic politicians making black people feel liked and taken seriously. Doing something concrete to improve the conditions under which...

New York is taking steps to stop therapists from trying to change young people's sexual orientation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday, joining a number of states that have acted against what's known as gay conversion therapy. The Democratic governor's move, announced Saturday, comes as gay rights advocates have campaigned state by state with mixed results to try to ban a practice that major mental health organizations have repudiated. Using executive power in a state where legislative bids to ban the therapy have stalled, Cuomo announced planned regulations that would bar insurance coverage for the therapy for minors and prohibit mental...

Leadership: President Obama staged a political show for a Jewish audience Wednesday, loudly warning of the new atmosphere of anti-Semitism in Europe and the U.S. It's a hollow statement, given his weak record on a rapidly metastasizing problem. "Here, tonight, we must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it," the president told his listeners at the Israeli embassy on Wednesday night. Citing the flight of Jews from Western Europe, as well attacks on Jews in India and Kansas, he got his lines right in concluding, "When we see that, we must...

Many images that came out of Ferguson, Mo., last month looked like scenes from Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s: the gun-wielding police officers, the sign-carrying protesters and the chants demanding equal treatment and human dignity. But that’s where the similarities ended. For all the righteous indignation it inspired, the Ferguson turmoil has become the latest in a series of flash-in-the-pan causes that peter out without inspiring lasting movements for racial justice. As an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi during the ’60s, what I learned was the importance of organizing at the grass-roots and how even...

Response to NRO attack on the guy who can win it all

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio loped into a Brooklyn homeless shelter one day late last month, eager to demonstrate his command over a mushrooming homeless crisis that had already forced out two of his top advisers. Folding his 6-foot-5 frame in half, the Democratic mayor crouched down to hand out gifts to children, praised his team for “extraordinary work” and then faced a pack of reporters, one of whom asked why it took “so long” to make homelessness “a top priority.” “It’s been a priority from the beginning,” de Blasio insisted before adding, “No administration has cracked the...

Editor's note: This column is an excerpt from Crystal Wright's new book, "Con Job: How Democrats Gave Us Crime, Sanctuary Cities, Abortion Profiteering, and Racial Division."When was the last time anyone heard the "Reverend" Al Sharpton give a sermon? I mean a real one, not a rant that incites racial unrest. Ever since Sharpton came to the defense of Tawana Brawley in 1987, knowing she HAD lied in accusing white men of raping her, he's been a professional race profiteer. Not only did Tawana lie, she lied big time: spreading dog feces on herself then hiding in a trash can...

A proposed bill in New York seeks to require that all smartphones sold in the state can be decrypted or unlocked and proposes hefty fines for vendors failing to comply.The proposed law marks the latest effort by lawmakers to make it easier for law enforcement to access and read encrypted data stored on smartphones. Should the proposed bill successfully pass through New York's state assembly and senate, Apple and Google could face fines of $2,500 per device sold in the state after January 1, 2016, if a retailer knowingly sold a smartphone that could not be unlocked or decrypted by...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes that pro-life activists, along with anti-gay activists and supporters of the Second Amendment, are not welcome in his state. During a radio interview on Friday, Cuomo pointed out that Republicans were in the midst of a schism, where conservatives worked against moderate Republicans. "Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves," he said. "Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that's who they are and they're the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of...

Dr. Manning explains that the people of Harlem are starting to look at Donald Trump.(7 Jan. 2016)

e Rev. Al Sharpton thinks Donald Trump has run a “great” media campaign in his bid for the White House — and believes the Republican is like a white version of his pal Don King. Sharpton, in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News editorial board Thursday, said he’d probably get in trouble for saying it, but admitted that the similarities between the boxing promoter and the real estate tycoon are striking. "My definition of Donald Trump is that if Don King had been born white, he'd be Donald Trump," Sharpton said.

The city has agreed to more stringent regulations on anti-terror cops in ­order to settle two federal lawsuits that claimed the NYPD violated constitutional rights by spying on Muslims. The city will pay $2,033,416 in legal fees to the plaintiffs, but no monetary damages, and will add another layer of review to a committee that monitors its intelligence gathering. The NYPD will also remove a 92-page report, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” from its Web site.