Free Republic

We all know that every level of government is broke and that in a vicious effort at self-preservation, they will stop at nothing to keep the game going. New York State and New York City have been masters of this game for decades. Visit New York City, and you'll be hit with the full force of the law, regardless how trivial your offense. Yesterday, one of Mayor Michael "Nanny" Bloomberg's boys in blue hit me with a ticket for the egregious offense of holding a cellphone in my hand while driving. When the officer approached the car and asked what...

Although the New York State Senate has passed an amendment that would reverse the New York City Board of Education and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to evict nearly 70 churches from the public school spaces they have been renting, many of them for years, most of these congregations are already packed up and prepared for an exodus as the deadline for departure is this Sunday, Feb. 12. The state Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday 52-7 in favor of Bill A8800A/S.6087A but the NY State Assembly also has to approve its own version of the bill to successfully block the City and...

Should religious institutions be able to rent public property just like any other community group? If you’re New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the answer is a resounding no, a decision that has angered local communities and is poised to kick out dozens churches from meeting in New York City public schools even though other groups, including labor unions, are granted full access. “Houses of worship throughout the city consider this policy to be nothing short of discrimination, and we will make that known,� said Fernando Cabrera, a Democratic city councilman representing the Bronx. “Evicting [churches] hurts people and neighborhoods...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino teamed up for a pro-gun control ad that aired during yesterday’s Super Bowl. At The Daily Beast, liberal UCLA law professor Adam Winkler argues that not only is the ad likely to backfire, it might just hurt President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign as well. He writes: Gun-control proponents can only pray that Obama doesn’t take Menino and Bloomberg’s bait. Making gun control a more important issue in the election would be a terrible mistake for the president—and for the cause of gun control.... For many pro-gun independents, Obama is not...

The Mormon Church owns one of the most active and unregulated gun sale portals on the web, according to a national investigation released by the New York City Mayor's office. The website in question is KSL.com, the online hub for Utah's NBC affiliate and sister radio station, which are both owned and operated by the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church. In addition to local news, KSL.com produces a popular classifieds section that reaches millions of users well beyond Utah.The LDS connection drew little notice when Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading financier of the gun control movement, published the report...

NEW YORK — Among the slick, million-dollar ads for the likes of Pepsi and Honda during the Super Bowl this Sunday, viewers in Washington will see a far more modest spot. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be sitting on a couch touting an issue most politicians avoid like the plague: gun control. The two mayors, whose local teams face off in the big game, are making the pitch for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), the organization they co-founded in 2006.

'Politics have no place in health care," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement Thursday. That pronouncement may strike New Yorkers, who've spent a decade complying with Mr. Bloomberg's nanny-state mandates on smoking and trans-fats, as ironic. Most recently, his administration has come under fire for using fake photos of diabetic amputees in subway ads about the dangers of sweetened beverages. But Mr. Bloomberg was referring to the one area of "health care" that he believes should be left to individual choice: abortion. He announced a personal donation of $250,000 to Planned Parenthood, America's leading abortion provider, in response to...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pledging up to $250,000 to Planned Parenthood to offset funds that were cut by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation. The billionaire mayor has promised to match future donations to Planned Parenthood up to $250,000, mayoral spokeswoman Samantha Levine said Thursday. The health services organization uses the money for breast cancer screenings. Bloomberg, a Democrat turned Republican turned independent, said politics "have no place" in health care. "Breast cancer screening saves lives, and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care," he said in a...

NEW YORK — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is giving up to a quarter-million dollars to Planned Parenthood to offset funds that were cut by the Susan G. Komen (KOH'-men) for the Cure breast cancer foundation. Spokeswoman Samantha Levine said Thursday the mayor has promised to match future donations to Planned Parenthood, up to $250,000.

Shaun Day made the mistake of running a red at 12:30 a.m. in the city that never sleeps. When pulled over by the cops, they found a 9mm and three mags in his truck. Day told the cops he was a Navy SEAL but didn’t have any proof. As a result, he spent a day in Bellevue under psychiatric care. Until, that is, the Navy sent people to confirm he actually is a SEAL and got him the hell out of there. . . According to nypost.com he was rambling incoherently during the traffic stop. Translation: he told the cops...

Some of the country's most prominent gun reformers are urging President Obama to promote stricter firearm rules in tonight's national address. Mayors Against Illegal Guns — a group headed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino – called on Obama this week to use the State of the Union speech to press Congress for tighter background checks on potential weapons buyers. "Last year, 12,000 Americans were murdered with guns," Bloomberg and Menino wrote Monday in a letter to Obama. "But the grim fact that guns are used to murder 34 people a day is barely...

Gun nuts in the Tennessee state legislature have declared civil war on New Yorkers — saying they will retaliate for the prosecution of a woman who was carrying an illegal pistol at the 9/11 Memorial. A resolution winding its way through the Tennessee legislature warns New Yorkers not to drive through their state — because the Highway Patrol is “gunning” for us. A Knoxville-based legislator, who moonlights as a farmer, is so angry over the Tennessee tourist’s gun arrest last month that his resolution condemns it as a “grave miscarriage of justice” — and reminds New Yorkers to “drive carefully”...

The closing days of 2011 brought a rash of collisions between otherwise upstanding citizens and New York City’s infamous gun laws. On December 16 Mark Meckler, a prominent California Tea Party leader, was arrested at LaGuardia Airport as he attempted to check luggage containing his unloaded, cased, handgun in accordance with TSA, FAA, and Delta Airline rules. Then on December 22, fourth-year medical student Meredith Graves was arrested at the 9/11 memorial when she asked a security guard where she could check her pistol in an attempt to comply with a “No Guns” sign. That case echoed a September case...

Now this is a real stickup! The owner of a discount store in Brooklyn says the city is holding him up for $30,000 in fines he can’t afford — all because he stocked six toy sheriff sets that included plastic guns. And now the .44-caliber fines for the orange-tipped, obvious fakes are forcing him to close for good. “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Khaled Mohamed, 23, manager of 99¢ Target in Flatlands, which has been ordered to pay a staggering $5,000 fine for each gun offered for sale — the maximum under the law. The rule is designed to...

While most City legislators have taken aim at protecting the City’s stringent gun laws, two Queens councilmen have put more lax gun laws in their sights. Queens Councilmen Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) and rising GOP star Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) have joined Staten Island Republicans Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo to oppose a Council resolution that voiced its displeasure with a bill approved in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would allow a resident of one state who has a license to carry a concealed handgun to carry that gun in a different state, regardless of individual state law....

Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Sir, I would ask that you would reconsider your decision to evict the houses of worship from public schools in New York City. Do you have any idea of what is going on in your city – let alone the rest of the country? This is not the time to be evicting churches, the lifeline of worship and hope, from the people of your community. Are you deliberately trying to sabotage your own community and increase the crime? Why would you take away something positive, that brings money into your system, when you have nothing to replace...

Do these stomach crusaders, these modern day abolitionists, take no lesson from history? Top down societal engineering does not work. Especially not in this country. We the people won’t sit idly by and be rationed bread and water just because a bunch of rich politicians think we’re too fat and talk funny and believe grits are a real thing. The phrase “cold, dead fingers” comes to mind.

Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- When Meredith Graves of Tennessee traveled to New York for a job interview last month and was ensnared by New York's restrictive gun laws, it wasn't enough that she may face criminal charges for being honest, Mayor Michael Bloomberg had to sully her reputation by alleging she possessed cocaine. The Second Amendment Foundation, upon reviewing a video of the mayor's remarks, called Bloomberg's comment "despicable." "What is the difference between a New York street thug stealing a lady's purse," asked SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, "and Bloomberg, who publicly stole Ms. Graves' reputation?" Licensed...

First, Mayor Bloomberg went after smoking in public places. Then trans-fats, salt and sugary drinks. Now Bloomberg — known for sipping fine wine and downing a cold beer from time to time — wants to crack down on alcohol sales to curb excessive drinking, according to a provocative planning document obtained by The Post. The city Health Department’s far-reaching Partnership for a Healthier New York City initiatives proposes to slash the number of establishments in the city that sell booze. Community “transformation” grants provided under President Obama’s health-care law would help bankroll the effort.

<p>An Ohio man who has a gun permit in his home state is the latest city tourist to be caught in the web of New York’s strict gun laws, The Post has learned.</p> <p>Fred Vankirk, 59, of Columbus, was slapped with handcuffs at about 11 a.m. Saturday after cops found two .357 Magnum pistols and a .45 semiautomatic in his room at the Radisson Hotel on Lexington Avenue near East 48th Street, police sources said.</p>

Growing numbers of New Yorkers seeking food stamps have created an unwelcome spillover effect at some of New York City's job centers: overcrowding that in some cases has grown so severe, benefits were jeopardized. The crush of people grew so large at one Brooklyn center in November that the Fire Department intervened and prevented anyone from entering the building.

Actually, this was the first recent case of an otherwise law-abiding out-of-towner caught carrying a handgun in The Big Apple. Last spring, NYC cops arrested Maryland concealed carry permit holder Stephen Grant when maids found a gatt in his Muse Hotel room. Like three other recently nabbed CCW permit-holding tourists, Grant was looking at a mandatory three-and-a-half year stretch. nypost.com reports that the Manhattan DA’s making this one go away. “Prosecutors did not seek an indictment against him, and allowed him to plead guilty to fourth degree weapons possession, a blanket misdemeanor that covers any gun, knife, brass knuckles or...

On December 22, registered nurse and fourth-year medical student Meredith Graves, from Tennessee, was visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Ms. Graves, rather than abdicating responsibility for her security to others, was carrying a defensive handgun, as she is licensed to do in Tennessee. That, unfortunately, avails her nothing in New York. When she saw the "No Guns" sign before entering, she did her best to comply with the law, asking a security guard where she could check her gun. The guard directed her to a police officer, who promptly arrested her for violation of New York's laws...

A tourist from Tennessee waltzed into one of the most secure sites in the city — and politely asked a cop if she could check her weapon. Instead, she was dragged out in cuffs. Now, Meredith Graves, 39, is facing at least three years in prison for thinking New York’s gun laws are anything like those in the Bible Belt. Graves, a fourth-year medical student, showed up at the memorial on Dec. 22 to pay her respects during a trip north for a job interview. She didn’t realize that the loaded .32-caliber pistol in her purse would be a problem...

<p>I was taking photographs of the police arresting Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at the December 12 Winter Garden flash mob, which had been organized in solidarity with the port shutdowns on the west coast, when I found myself targeted. "That one," I heard a voice say in a brutal "New Yawk" accent, realizing that a senior police official was pointing me out over a row of people, "he goes. He goes."</p>

The name of the report was "Point, Click, Shoot," An Investigation of Illegal Online Gun Sales. This report is misleading and inaccurate for many reasons. It paints with a broad brush that says that the majority of online firearms ads lead to illegal sales. New York City Cops, under the direction of Mayor Bloomberg, have issued a report on Internet gun sales called "Point, Click, Shoot. They claim that 62 percent of internet web site gun ads lead to illegal sales. But, the report is misleading in a number of respects. For example, the photograph on the first page of...

How about enforcing the laws you already have on the books? I know it’s kooky, but it just might be crazy enough to work. Mike Bloomberg, MAIG maestro and perpetual anti-gun rights crusader, made bales of hay from the fatal shooting of NYPD officer Peter Figoski. Not that it takes much for hizzoner to hop up on his well worn screw-the-constitution soapbox. But a dead cop is just the kind of never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste opportunity Mayor Mike just can’t let pass by. It’s positively Pavlovian. Except now that a little time has passed and some of the facts of the case have...

Listings websites "really needs to clean up its act," sez Hizzoner The notorious “gun show loophole” that gives criminals and maniacs easy access to firearms has gone online. Undercover investigators for the city found thousands of guns - including one just like the 9mm Ruger that killed Officer Peter Figoski on Monday - being sold online by private peddlers who don’t have to perform background checks on buyers. Not only did investigators find it a breeze to buy pistols and assault rifles with no questions asked, but 77 of 125 sellers in 14 states agreed to complete the sale even...

A reporter asked him if Washington had made any recent progress in cracking down on illegal gun sales, giving the mayor an opening to talk about one of his marquee issues. "This year, we, a lot of people, helped in keeping Congress from passing this Right to Carry bill, where every state would have to recognize the carry laws in other states," the mayor responded. "And there are some states that have no laws, so it would essentially mean everybody could carry a gun anyplace no matter what state laws were, and Congress did not pass it." "I suppose that’s...

Nearly a decade after Mayor Bloomberg’s school reforms, New York City students show little progress.The only reasonable conclusion to draw from this week’s report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is that reading and math achievement by New York City’s students is dismal and has remained so for almost a decade. Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” the federal test compares progress by fourth- and eighth-graders in 21 large cities. A mere 24 percent of all New York City eighth-graders read at the NAEP proficiency level (and only 12 percent of black and Hispanic students). In eighth-grade math,...

The owner of an eatery in New York City's Lower Manhattan who said he was forced to let go 25 percent of his staff last month due to the Occupy Wall Street protests now says he might have to close his doors for good come next week. Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe, tells FoxNews.com that authorities have not taken down barricades around Zuccotti Park and along Wall Street despite the dwindling number of protesters since they were evicted from their encampment two weeks ago, keeping consumer foot traffic and his profits to a minimum. “It’s like a...

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY (PIX11)— If you need to catch a cab, you may want to try the Upper West Side. Some residents who live next to the Islamic Cultural Center on Riverside Drive say their neighborhood is flooded with parked taxis every week. "They are everywhere, hundreds of them. I joke with my doorman every Friday I can't find a cab," said John Hart, who lives across the street in a high-rise building. "I have to pray," said a cabbie who did not want to give his name," I have no choice but to break the rules." The Imam...

Liberals:New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "All the president has to do - and I'm not trying to hold him more responsible, but he is the chief executive, he was elected to lead this country - all he's got to do is stand up and say, `I will veto any extension of any of the Bush-era tax cuts.'  Everybody. Not just the rich, but everybody." Barack Obama to Reverend Al Sharpton: “Look, there's no doubt that I'm disappointed that not just Congress generally, but the Republicans in particular, are not willing to put serious revenue on the table as part...

The city Department of Health & Mental Hygiene has sunk its claws into another beloved New York institution — The Algonquin hotel’s lobby cat.... .... Prodded by Nanny Bloomberg, the DOH has been socking restaurants with steep fines for minor violations — and slapping dreaded “C” ratings on places where no one was known to get sick.

Gun control advocates were on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon to ask members of Congress to pass legislation that would tighten gun-buying restrictions. It was part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns campaign, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, to make it more difficult for convicted criminals and people found mentally ill from purchasing guns.—Governing.com Founded in 2006 with 15 mayors at its core, including former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has become a powerful voice in the gun prohibition movement, while hardly uttering a squeak about some of its own members...

Ya think? I wonder what gave it away — the tactics of disruption that we’ve come to see with all Big Labor efforts? Let’s not forget that the first “occupation” didn’t take place on Wall Street, or even in New York, but in Madison in February of this year. In fact, Michael Bloomberg is being a little too generous when he attempts to distinguish between the everyday Occupiers and the Day of Action provocateurs on the streets yesterday: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested Friday that unions took over the Occupy Wall Street protest yesterday. “A vast percentage of...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — They were caught in the middle of madness. Some grade school students were forced to walk a gauntlet of screaming “Occupy Wall Street” protesters just to get to school on Thursday. It was a wild day in lower Manhattan for most everyone involved, including elementary school children who had to brave the mayhem just to get to class on the other side of Wall Street. GALLERY: Occupy Wall Street “Day Of Action” In the middle of thousands of protestors yelling and chanting — some kicking and screaming – CBS 2’s Emily Smith found little school kids...

Link only - Occupy Wall Street's Planning A Big Party At Mayor Bloomberg's House On Sunday

While Occupy protesters continue to rant in select cities around the country, I'm wondering who is shadier: corporate Wall Street or corporate media? Of course, there's no surprise or secret in saying that the mainstream media (MSM) are biased. Even when the CBS producer inadvertently sent an anti-Michele Bachmann​ email to one of her own staff members during last Saturday night's GOP debates, her campaign manager confessed it was another evidence of "what every conservative already knows -- the liberal mainstream media elites are manipulating the Republican debates by purposely suppressing our conservative message."

NEW YORK – Watch out New York City. The Occupy anti-capitalist movement is preparing to serve a three-course meal of so-called direct action that apparently includes the blocking of subways and bridges as well as shutting down the stock market. The attempt to cause mass chaos, slated for Thursday, is tied to the Tides Center, the George Soros-financed group that funds far-left causes. Tides grantees have been helping to direct Occupy from the onset of the anti-Wall Street movement. Occupy Wall Street is currently holding "Direct Action Preparation and Training" courses today and tomorrow in downtown Manhattan to gear up...

Protesters in New York faced off with police Tuesday after being kicked out of their tent camp in lower Manhattan in a huge operation that threw the two-month old Occupy Wall Street movement into crisis. All morning, several hundred protesters played cat and mouse with the authorities as they searched for a way to reestablish themselves in the wake of the nighttime raid. About two dozen people were arrested when one group of activists tried to occupy a small park apparently owned by a church. The crowd marched through the Financial District and eventually turned back to Zuccotti Park, their...

Up to 1,000 riot police launched a dramatic raid early this morning on Occupy Wall Street as Mayor Bloomberg finally lost patience with a protest camp that has become a global movement's focal point. More than 200 people were arrested as police stormed the camp at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, New York, in the dead of night - where some protesters have been since it was set up in mid-September. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the park was evacuated overnight to 'reduce the risk of confrontation' - but major clashes were seen and the evicted protesters are now regrouping...

The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court that allows Occupy Wall St. protesters to return with tents to a New York City park. The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city knew about the court order but has not seen it. He says the city plans to go court immediately.

While I can't imagine why, some New York City residents are just sick and tired of the Wall Street Occupiers -- and would prefer they pack up their Zuccotti Park tent city and head on home, wherever home might be. NBC New York reports: Downtown residents and business owners are organizing a protest of the protest after two months of Lower Manhattan being occupied by the Wall Street demonstration.Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message. …Businesses have...

Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control. Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message. "Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced," Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York. Exasperated residents and businesses said they are "pursuing all options," including...

Small business owners and local residents fed up with the “Occupiers” at Zuccotti Park in New York City are planning a counterprotest and news conference of their own Monday, to make clear the crowd has long overstayed its welcome — and that businesses will not survive if the “occupation” continues.

A wild scuffle at Zuccotti Park early Thursday morning ended with an Occupy Wall Street protester under arrest for assault and an FDNY EMT in the hospital. Officers and EMTs were called to the park for a report of a disturbed person. While trying to approach 20-year-old Joshua Ehrenberg, sources tell Fox 5 that other protesters locked their arms and legs to stop Ehrenberg from being loaded into an ambulance. Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/ows-incident-sends-emt-to-hospital-20111110-lgf#ixzz1dKp4xweL

Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned has a post on the late mayor of Freeland Borough, Pennsylvania, Tim Martin, who had been a member of MAIG. Mayor Martin passed away on September 2, 2010 due to cancer. Nonetheless, he has either been listed in advertisements or has signed letters to Congress and the President since that time on behalf of Mayor Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayors. I didn't realize that Bloomberg had such supernatural powers! In fact, not only do they claim him as a member, but the deceased mayor has signed his name to at least two advertisements, three...

Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a gun-control coalition founded by Michael Bloomberg and Thomas Menino, the mayors of New York and Boston, respectively. Bloomberg is an Independent who used to be a Republican, and Menino is a Democrat, but they share similar nanny-state proclivities. For example, back in April, Menino banned soft drinks, sports drinks, and sweetened iced tea from city property, ostensibly to combat rising obesity rates. Mayors Against Illegal Guns spends a lot of its time agitating against concealed-carry laws, which are incompatible with the kind of helpless citizenry Bloomberg and Menino love to see wrapped in swaddling...

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which says its goals include improving the economic lot for 99 percent of Americans, may have some explaining to do to some cafe workers now out of a job. Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall Street, just let 21 employees go. The reason? The barricades police have set up throughout Wall Street as a consequence of the ongoing demonstration. ... “I think this is an issue of both Occupy Wall Street and the city officials. There’s protest and how you react to protest,” Epstein said. “If the barriers do not...