Free Republic

A Chicago-area teen looking to get lucky hired a hooker while his parents were out, but ended up getting his piggy bank and iPad stolen. Dareka Brooks, 22, pepper sprayed the pantsless 14-year-old as he sat on his bed in his Prospect Heights home on Wednesday, cops told The Chicago Tribune.

LAS VEGAS—Former Nevada Assemblyman Steven Brooks has been arrested in California on charges including resisting arrest and throwing objects, just hours after he became the first lawmaker ever expelled from the Nevada Legislature. Jail records show Barstow police arrested Brooks, 41, at about 7 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 15 at Stoddard Wells. "We had started to discuss possible next steps," Mitchell Posin, Brooks' attorney, told The Associated Press Friday. "Next thing I know, I heard about this." Posin said he had no details about the arrest, or about why Brooks was on the interstate in Barstow. Records show the North...

A bipartisan committee of lawmakers voted Tuesday to recommend troubled Assemblyman Steven Brooks, D-North Las Vegas, be expelled from the Legislature. After meeting for nearly three hours behind closed doors, the somber committee members voted 6-to-1 to recommend expulsion. Assemblywoman Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, voted against the expulsion recommendation, saying she believes Brooks should be suspended, rather than expelled. The committee’s recommendation will go to the full Assembly for a vote as early as Wednesday. A two-thirds majority is needed to expel a member.

A lawmaker who has been arrested twice in two months, hospitalized for a mental evaluation and accused of threatening to harm a Democratic Party leader could this week become the first person in Nevada history to be kicked out of the Legislature. A select committee plans to convene Tuesday evening to recommend whether Assemblyman Steven Brooks, D-Las Vegas, should be allowed to return to his seat in the Legislature, be expelled, censured or otherwise reprimanded.

FORTWALTON BEACH-- A barge with a crane on it crashed into the west side of the Brooks Bridge Thursday afternoon. The impact took down several feet of concrete guard rail and cracked pipes that run under the bridge. The crash occurred about 3:15 p.m. Concrete and water immediately started pouring down into the Santa Rosa Sound. No injuries were reported. The bridge is closed to all traffic until Department of Transportation engineers can assess any structural damage. Two tugboats were on either side of the barge to push it under the bridge. It is unknown if there were any injuries....

The purpose of the Republican convention is to introduce America to the real Mitt Romney. Fortunately, I have spent hours researching this subject. I can provide you with the definitive biography and a unique look into the Byronic soul of the Republican nominee: Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become...

A woman charged with DUI after her car slammed through a Connecticut liquor store is blaming it all on Nyquil and Armor All.

"FBI Seizes Computers of Portland Blogger For Allegedly Posting Sheriff Death Threat" SNIPPET: "If you're going to target the police, guess what happens next."

The United States is a country that has received many blessings, and once upon a time you could assume that Americans would come together to take advantage of them. But you can no... --snip-- The shale gas revolution challenges the coal industry, renders new nuclear plants uneconomic and changes the economics for the renewable energy companies, which are now much further from viability... --snip-- These problems are real, but not insurmountable. An exhaustive study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded, “With 20,000 shale wells drilled in the last 10 years, the environmental record of shale-gas development is for the...

Over the past several months, Mitt Romney has been an excellent presidential candidate. He has performed superbly in debates. He has outorganized his rivals. He has relentlessly stayed on his core theme of putting Americans back to work. He has taken Rick Perry apart with a cold ruthlessness that is a wonder to behold. And throughout this period of excellence, he has done almost nothing to endear himself to Republican activists. They have spent this season of excellence searching for anyone else: Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain and now Christie. On Nov. 4, 2010, Romney earned the support of 23...

Gail Collins: David, are you reconciled to the fact that Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican presidential nominee? David Brooks: Oh, I went through that phase a few weeks ago after the debate at the Reagan library. That’s the night I noticed Romney was the best candidate in the field. Since then I’ve noticed that he has given three debate performances that are better than any Barack Obama has given in his life. (Obama’s a better speechmaker, but Romney’s a better debater.) So now I’m settling into the idea that Romney might well be president. This will be...

I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap. When the president said the unemployed couldn’t wait 14 more months for help and we had to do something right away, I believed him. When administration officials called around saying that the possibility of a double-dip recession was horrifyingly real and that it would be irresponsible not to come up with a package that could pass right away, I believed them. I liked Obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged Republicans to play along. But of course I’m a sap. When the president unveiled the second half of...

by John HillStand With Arizona"Stimulus". "Deficits". "Taxes". "Green jobs". "Infrustructure". "Revenues". Bah!As Washington twists itself into a pretzel with convoluted plots and plans to "create jobs", as usual they miss the forest for the trees. As we have always pointed out, the most obvious solution to many of our financial woes is a simple one: deal with illegal immigration. And with jobs it is no exception. For every illegal with a job there is an American without one. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) gets it. He has a "surefire" plan to create jobs in America. And unlike Obama, he doesn't...

Rosa Brooks serves as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy. In May 2010 she also became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and then Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy. She is running a new Pentagon office dedicated to those issues. She is on leave from her job as a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Brooks is known as a columnist (most recently with the LA Times) and at the Pentagon her portfolio has included both human rights issues and global engagement and strategic communication. Her mother, Barbara Ehrenreich, is...

Breaking news - headline only so far

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested in connection with an investigation into phone hacking and bribery. The 43-year-old was arrested by appointment by Operation Weeting police at a London police station. Met Police said she is currently still in custody. This is the 10th arrest made by police investigating hacking allegations by the News of the World newspaper. She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations. The Operation Weeting team is conducting the current investigation into phone hacking.

By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like "fanatics," writes David Brooks of The New York Times. Anti-tax Republicans "have no sense of moral decency," he adds. They are "willing to stain their nation's honor" to "worship their idol." If this "deal of the century" goes down, as he calls the Barack Obama offer, "Republican fanaticism" will be the cause. "The GOP has become a cult" that has replaced reason with "feverish" and "cockamamie beliefs," writes Richard Cohen of The Washington Post. The Republican "presidential field (is) a virtual political...

SNIPPET: "KEY PENINSULA, Wash. -- A man who was fatally shot by Tacoma police during a traffic stop early Wednesday morning pointed a gun loaded with armor-piercing bullets at the officer who stopped him and was carrying a large amount of ammunition in his truck, the Tacoma Police Department said. Wednesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as Brooks Papineau of Gig Harbor." SNIPPET: "When police searched Papineau's truck, they found a large amount of ammunition and additional ammunition magazines.They also said they found a Koran and several books on converting to Islam. Police said Papineau went home...

Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois September 15, 1858 MR. DOUGLAS' SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him the leading political topics that now agitate the country. Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as Whig and Democratic. These parties differed from each other on certain questions which were then deemed to be important to the best interests of the Republic. Whig and Democrats differed about a bank, the...

Broadway Flop IN MY LIFE's Oscar-winning Composer Brooks Commits Suicide Sunday, May 22, 2011; Posted: 02:05 PM - by BWW News Desk Oscar-winning songwriter Joseph Brooks, famous for writing "You Light Up My Life," who has been awaiting trial on sex assault charges for two rapes, a sodomy case and two sexual assaults has committed suicide, reports the Associated Press. The wire service reports that he was found in his Manhattan apartment and that "Police say Brooks was found Sunday with a plastic dry-cleaning bag around his head and a towel wrapped around his neck. There also was a helium...

What happens when you get a few “intellectuals” together? You get a few critical shots at things with mass appeal.Over the last two weeks, Bloomberg Television has been airing the “Intelligence Squared” debate held in New York City earlier this month with thought leaders like Arianna Huffington, Zev Chafets, P.J. O’Rourke and New York Times columnist David Brooks.During this debate, at issue was whether the “conflict” in political discourse was creating highly polarized political parties. Brooks linked this “conflict” to Fox News and host Glenn Beck.“I believe in conflict, I’m a columnist, conflict is fine with me,” Brooks said. “And...

If only this were a coalition of the left and the right working out differences. But alas, it’s just a coalition of mostly liberal politicians who used to label themselves by a political party and now would rather fly stealth. Sigh. If you are not familiar with “No Lables”, no worries, it’s brand new and they certainly deserve a Hat Tip for brevity. Here’s their declaration: We are not labels – we are people. We care deeply about our country. We are frustrated and concerned about the tone of politics. We are passionate about addressing America’s challenges. We are Democrats,...

Paul Ryan vs. David Brooks. Brooks is best known for his admiration for the crease in Obama's trousers. He is also a New York Times columnist.

Three Major Endorsements of Health CourtsNew York Times Columnist David Brooks, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and Esquire Magazine Endorse Special Courts NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Three major endorsements of health courts (also called medical courts) have recently emerged, as the nation grapples with ever-rising health care costs and the reality that better care at a lower cost is needed. In his October 28th column in The New York Times, David Brooks endorsed medical courts, writing: "Companies like Ford cut wasteful spending while doubling down on productive investment. That's exactly what the nation has to...

David Brooks writes a good article here, with some biting commentary, but it's hard to take the guy seriously. When the Obama lovefest was going full tilt he fell for it hook, line and sinker humping the guys leg. But now that the winds have shifted he wants to be in the good graces of those right of center types. Not gonna happen. Given all that, it's worth a read: Lesson one. Think happy thoughts. Never allow yourself to dwell on downer, depressing ones. Over the past year, many Democrats have resolutely paid attention to those things that make...

And of course, this wouldn’t have been news all the time while Barack Obama kept claiming that these “shovel ready jobs” had prosperity just around the corner, right? Brooks says that the admission came in an off-the-record session with the President, which kept him from reporting it. I wonder if Brooks or anyone else would have been that particular had George Bush admitted “off the record” that he knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in 2003 or 2004, while continuing to make the argument that the war was necessary because of them. What happened to sourcing as “a...

Paul Ryan has responded to a David Brooks column that had in turn took issue with an op-ed co-written by Ryan and AEI president Arthur Brooks on the decision facing America “between an opportunity society, where the government promotes a vibrant free enterprise system and sturdy safety net v. an expanding social welfare state – one where the government assumes greater control of more sectors of the economy and more aspects of our lives.” -snip- Ryan’s response — a concise defense of his Roadmap for America’s Future — is excellent, as you’d expect. Here’s a taste: The challenge goes beyond...

Columnist David Brooks has a reputation for being every liberal's favorite conservative. It's a debatable moniker, but it does seem to fit so far as the White House is concerned. The Obama administration has courted centrist to left-leaning pundits since coming to Washington. White House officials regularly make advisers and experts available to liberal columnists on deadline. They've also held several off-the-record lunches with the president during major policy rollouts. Brooks is one conservative among the White House favorites. (SNIP!) Brooks' favorite soundtrack these days also seems entirely apt for the even-tempered columnist: "Sense and Sensibility."

The New York Times token resident conservative, occupying the Larry Craig distinguished columnist chair, recently wrote a fascinating article (Two Theories of Change) on the differences between the French Revolution and the American revolution, based upon the differences between their respective philosophical bases. As usual, it is concise, contains a wealth of material, and draws from a wide variety of sources. Also, as usual, it is completely wrong: this piece virtually cries out for a Fisking. Let's start with the first two paragraphs, to get off on the wrong foot(*)."When I was in college I took a course in the...

We went to the Brooks and Dunn concert last night....what an experience..

Most of this opinion article from David Brooks is the usual "Obama is so great, so wonderful, so thoughtful" baloney but then you get to the bolded paragraph below and you will have to re-read it a few times just to make sure you reading it right. Yes, he is calling out the left if they fail to learn from Massachusetts: The country is now split on Obama, because he is temperate, thoughtful and pragmatic, but his policies are almost all unpopular. If you aggregate the last seven polls on health care reform, 41 percent support it and 51 percent...

How many times have I as a libertarian-minded advocate for individual liberty and free markets been in an argument with liberals, progressives, statists, whatever you choose to name them, and heard that my ideology is too simplistic, too impractical, etc.? Of course, these are the nice versions of what usually comes out of their collective mouths: idiot, fascist, racist, hick, redneck, and the glorious list of intellectual vocabulary marches on and on into pure brilliance. Oftentimes the liberal progressive breaks out into über-intellectual speak as illustrated in the following clip:

New York Times's columnist David Brooks -- never a huge fan of Sarah Palin -- laced into the former vice presidential candidate on Sunday, calling her a "joke" and a "potential talk show host." Below Link Takes you to video

McCain standard bearer and “conservative” columnist David Brooks launched his own salvo at actual conservative Sarah Palin on ABC’s This Week, joining other bitter RINOs who have attacked the former Alaska governor in recent days. If I may channel Chandler Bing for a moment: “Can he be any more elitist?” Perhaps Brooks hasn’t seen the Amazon sales lists, the thousands attending her book signings, or, for that matter, the book sales list published by his own worthless rag. Remember, folks, this is the same guy who talked about how great John McCain was as a candidate and the very same...

[Excerpt discussing the media's initial reaction to Ft. Hood] A shroud of political correctness settled over the conversation. Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness. There was a national rush to therapy. Hasan was a loner who had trouble finding a wife and socializing with his neighbors. This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and...

Liberals and conservatives each have their own intellectual food chains. They have their own think tanks to provide arguments, politicians and pundits to amplify them, and news media outlets to deliver streams of prejudice-affirming stories. David Brooks Go to Columnist Page » The Conversation David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns. All Conversations » Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (316) » Independents, who are the largest group in the electorate, don’t have any of this. They don’t have institutional affiliations. They don’t look to certain activist lobbies for guidance. There aren’t many...

David Brooks, the NY Times’ left of center conservative (what?), tells Jim Lehrer (to Jim’s apparent dismay) that Obama’s Nobel is a joke and he should have declined the award. Wow! Even the left is coming clean on this bizarre event. Video Link

On CNBC's "Squawk Box," yesterday, Joe Kernen questioned New York Times' "token conservative," David Brooks true conservatism, and took aim at the liberal mainstream media's diminishment of the tea party movement, Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh.

Jim Sacco estimates that his son Josh has watched "Miracle," the film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team's legendary upset of Russia, nearly 150 times. Apparently, the movie has made quite an impression... Nicknamed "Rizzo" after the gold medal-winning team's captain Mike Eruzione, Josh sparked an Internet sensation this week when his hilarious, inspirational and eerily impeccable interpretation of actor Kurt Russell's locker room speech as Coach Herb Brooks went viral -- spreading everywhere from blogs to USA Today to the "Ellen" show. No professional coaching. No fancy editing. No script, because Rizzo hasn't learned to read yet...

From Mel Brooks' movie "History of the World, Part 1": The People are Revolting.

In today's "That's WAY Too Much Information" segment, New York Times columnist David Brooks claims that while he was dining with a Republican senator, the guy had his hand on Brooks's inner thigh the whole time.

... Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion deficit and has quickly pushed it up to $1.8 trillion, a whopping 13 percent of G.D.P. The new debt will continue to mount after the economy recovers. The national debt will nearly double over the next decade. Annual deficits will still hover around 5 percent or 6 percent of G.D.P. in 2019. By that year, interest payments alone on the debt are projected to be $806 billion annually, according to the Congressional Budget Office. ... Unlike just about every other Democrat on the planet, he emphasizes cost control as much as expanding health coverage....

The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. You go visit an inner-city school, job-training program or community youth center and you meet incredible people doing wonderful things. Then you look at the results from the serious evaluations and you find that these inspiring places are only producing incremental gains. That’s why I was startled when I received an e-mail message from Roland Fryer, a meticulous Harvard economist. It included this sentence: “The attached study has changed my life as a scientist.” Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools...

In an op-ed yesterday, David Brooks — The New York Times’ alleged conservative columnist — claims Republicans’ downward trajectory is due to their devotion to rugged individualism and their neglect of community. ... It seems The New York Times’ conservative lapdog has found his ideal Republican — Barack Hussein Obama.

Every once in a while something happens so shocking, so inconceivable, that it threatens to remove the last bastions of confidence I have in the federal government. The appointment of Rosa Brooks, the radical left-wing Los Angeles Times columnist, as an advisor to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Fluornoy is one of those moments. And by advisor, I don’t mean someone who talks on an informal basis — I mean a full-time advisor so committed to helping formulate policy that she had to leave her position as a fire-breathing partisan columnist. It’s frighteningly unclear what caused Brooks to receive...

Putting her in the policy shop is like Lyndon Johnson making Jane Fonda a senior adviser on Vietnam.

Soros told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes that he developed his character as Nazi collaborator in Hungry. He took that learning and became convicted Insider trader, a guy who made 10 billion dollar off the British people through currency speculation, terrorist supporter and Israel hater. After the last election George Soros, met with a group of Mega-rich liberals to ensure that they get to control the country after the 2008 Elections. What they ended up doing is giving $100 Million dollars to key liberal organizations in major battle ground states(see Obama's Liberal Shock Troops ). Here's the scary part--it worked....

She believes al-Qaida was an "obscure group" turned into a massive threat due to U.S. policies. She's referred to former President Bush as "our torturer in chief" and a "psychotic who need(s) treatment" while comparing Bush's arguments for waging a war on terrorism to Adolf Hitler's use of political propaganda. She's worked on behalf of George Soros' philanthropic foundation. Meet Rosa Brooks, the Obama administration's new adviser to Michelle Fluornoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy, a position described as one of the most influential in the Pentagon. "I prefer to think of (my new position) as my personal government...

"David Brooks's Op-Ed column in The New York Times started in September 2003. He has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and he is currently a commentator on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer." Source David Brooks, a self-described "moderate conservative," illustrates the intellectual schizophrenia that conflicts that breed of thinkers. Six months ago, on September 30, 2008, in a New York Times op-ed piece entitled "Revolt of the Nihilists," Mr. Brooks, mad at the 228 House members who voted down the first version of the bailout bill, wrote: "And...

With the rise to enduring power of president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933, a new type of Republican emerged in reaction to FDR's attractive and overawing power - the-me-too Republican. Until the election of president Reagan five decades later, these me-too Republicans supported, rather than opposed, Democratic Party policies, but claimed they would administer them better. Of course this led to a half-century of Democratic dominance of American government and politics.