Free Republic

The claims of a dedicated member of the Occupy Buffalo movement that he saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are not supported by Army records. Christopher M. Simmance has told several media outlets, including The Buffalo News, that he served as many as three tours of duty in those war zones and that he was severely injured in Afghanistan. Service records obtained from the Army, however, show he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., for three years and he left the active-duty Army in January 2001 -- before the 9/11 terror attacks. Simmance insists his Army records are incomplete. He...

The inability of President Obama to run this country has reached new levels of concern, including within the Democratic Party itself. The idea of challenging a sitting president for the presidential nomination is practically unheard of, but then we are not talking about normal times, nor an acceptable performance. (The only incumbent Democratic president to lose a second term was Jimmy Carter, who was unseated by Ronald Reagan.) Obama's lack of effective leadership is no longer a neutral factor; it's a loss. Many believe the country will not recover with him at the helm. A Washington Post poll said only...

Kathleen Courtney Hochul, the Erie County clerk and longtime Democratic figure who defied political experts who had given her little chance of success, ground out a stunning and surprisingly comfortable victory Tuesday in the special election for the House seat in the predominantly Republican 26th Congressional District. Hochul defeated Republican Jane L. Corwin, a Clarence assemblywoman, 47 percent to 43 percent, with 97 percent of election districts reporting, while the Tea Party's Jack Davis mustered only 9 percent in his fourth try for the seat. Ian L. Murphy of the Green Party recorded 1 percent, while overall turnout was about...

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/10/2010) -- CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations]today issued a travel advisory for airline passengers who may be subjected to new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "enhanced pat-downs" that many of those who undergo the procedure describe as invasive and humiliating. The advisory comes after two of the nation's largest pilots' unions urged commercial pilots to avoid both full-body scanners and public pat-downs. Pilots have compared the new pat-downs to "sexual molestation." A union for flight attendants has expressed similar concerns. Travelers are being asked to educate themselves about the new policy and to know their rights if asked to...

If filmmaker Lawrence F. Brose goes to trial and wins an acquittal in his child pornography case, he will accomplish two firsts at Buffalo's federal court. He would be the first person ever arrested in a federal Internet child porn case to go to trial in Buffalo. He also would be the first person to emerge without a felony conviction. Every other person charged with such crimes in the federal courts of Western New York — including at least 189 men since October 2005 — has either been convicted or still has charges pending, according to court records. A few...

PALM BEACH GARDENS — In divorce papers filed Monday, the wife of Congressman Tim Mahoney claims her husband “recently sold jointly owned real property” moved the proceeds to an account in his name and “dissipated funds from said account.” Terry Ellen Mahoney also claims that in the last two years Tim Mahoney “dissipated marital assets” and asks for a full accounting of the transactions so that she can collect her share. Tim Mahoney, who has admitted to “numerous” affairs, said he paid Patricia Allen of Hobe Sound, a former staffer with whom he was romantically linked, $121,000 out of his...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Selling sex isn’t illegal in Sweden, but buying it is — a radical approach to prostitution that faced ridicule when it was introduced nine years ago. Now, while Americans are preoccupied with the downfall of New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer in a prostitution scandal, some countries are considering emulating the Swedish model, which prosecutes the client but views the prostitute as an exploited victim. Officials say the changed approach has reduced the demand for prostitutes and reshaped attitudes toward the sex trade. “We don’t have a problem with prostitutes. We have a problem with men who...

Bill has done little to dispel the impression that he’s itching to make a comeback. When you Google the phrase “unconstitutional third term,” you get references to a rogue’s gallery of strongman leaders — Vladimir Putin, Alberto Fujimori, Olusegun Obasanjo, Islam Karimov, Hugo Chavez — who in recent years at least have flirted with the idea of holding on to power beyond statutory limits. Now the name Bill Clinton pops up, too. It may be unfair to Hillary Clinton, but the prospect of her husband’s return to the White House has inevitably become a campaign issue, and it’s beginning to...

WASHINGTON - Somewhere in America, there are 35,000 people who are looking at the preliminaries to the 2008 presidential race from a different perspective than millions of their fellow citizens. They are the people who have signed up so far to participate in Unity08, the effort to launch a bipartisan third-party campaign with the first Internet nominating convention in history. I wrote about this unusual venture when it was launched last year by Hamilton Jordan and Jerry Rafshoon, both formerly of Jimmy Carter's White House; Angus King, the former independent governor of Maine; and Douglas Bailey, a veteran Republican consultant...

ALBANY (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's unfavorable rating among state voters has climbed by a third since her landslide re-election victory in November, a statewide poll reported Wednesday. While the Democrat's favorable rating among state voters remained at 56 percent in the latest poll from Siena College's Research Institute, her unfavorable rating was at 40 percent, the highest in the last two years of Siena's polling. Immediately after her re-election victory over former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, her unfavorable rating was 29 percent. Siena poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said the rise in Clinton's unfavorable rating likely stemmed from her...

DES MOINES, Iowa - The reintroduction of the most famous woman in the world, which started in cyberspace a week ago, got up close and personal Saturday as a relaxed and smiling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton held a campaign "conversation" with 1,500 Iowans in a high school gymnasium. Beginning a historic run for the nation's highest office which her husband held for eight years Clinton made sure her first big campaign appearance was as warm and fuzzy as her online chats with voters last week. For an hour, she answered questions on health care, education and other issues of interest...

WASHINGTON - Ask Bill Dukas about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he'll give you an earful. She's been "unimpressive" as a senator. She "has a personality that lacks spontaneity." And she "emotes ambition." Dukas, a 63-year-old semiretired construction contractor from Kerhonkson in the Hudson Valley, is not very excited about the moves Clinton made last week toward running for president in 2008. "The odds are zero she'll get a vote here," Dukas said. Unfortunately for Clinton, Dukas' opinions aren't uncommon. Even though she's far ahead of her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, a poll released last week by the...

SYRACUSE - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the postcard-perfect tourist towns of the Finger Lakes last week, winning praise from farmers and even the occasional Republican officeholder - and as usual, dodging the inevitable question about running for president in two years. Polls show that a healthy majority of voters here in semi-conservative upstate New York approve of the Democratic senator's performance, even though nationwide polls show that upwards of 40 percent of voters nationwide just don't like her. And that raises an important question. If she can make it here, can she make it anywhere? Her husband, for one,...

ALBANY - While Republican Gov. George E. Pataki is off on his latest national political foray, a top adviser to a potential White House rival has blasted the New York governor for becoming "a full-time presidential candidate." "He's clearly running for president," Howard Wolfson, a key adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other New York Democrats, told the Associated Press. "You cannot run for president as the failed governor of the state," the Clinton adviser said. "He couldn't get re-elected governor, how can he possibly think he could get elected president? What record is he going to run on?"...

Hillary and Bill Clinton took a break from the South Beach Diet on Wednesday to do lunch Buffalo-style: spaghetti Parmesan and chicken cacciatore at Chef's on Seneca Street. "I figure once a year, it's OK," said former president and quadruple by-pass survivor Bill Clinton, as he chomped down on a cannoli while simultaneously shaking hands with adoring fans. The Clintons were at Chef's with about 40 convention organizers and volunteers to wrap up their appearances in Buffalo for the state Democratic convention. "That was amazing!" gushed hostess Kim Ehnes, 19, of East Aurora, moments after the powerhouse political duo was...

The man who shot William Elliott and Joseph Gray did so without a word, leaving their homes in northern Maine as much a stranger as when he arrived. So far, police have come up with only one connection between the alleged gunman, Stephen A. Marshall, 20, of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia - who committed suicide after the attacks - and the two victims: Both were among 34 former sex offenders that Marshall had looked up using Maine's online sex-offender registry. The killings have alarmed some defense attorneys and advocates for sexual offenders, who say this crime is among the darkest...

As of March 31, Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate re-election committee had 36 people on its payroll and $19.7 million in the bank, although Republicans still haven't decided which of two relatively unknown candidates to run against her. By contrast, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania a top Senate Republican trailing in the polls in his bid for re-election had 23 salaried staffers and a mere $9 million on hand, federal records show. Clinton's re-election efforts are dwarfing her colleagues' campaigns and prompting speculation that she already is gearing up for a presidential bid in 2008. "It's hard to say she's not running...

Questions about Duke's stripper crisis have been instructive in unintended ways, and may have provided the tipping point for re-evaluating laws protecting rape victims. Among the more compelling questions: What was the lacrosse team doing hiring a stripper in the first place? The typical answer goes something like this: "Oh, it's perfectly natural for guys to get together and ogle a half-naked woman. What's a little flesh as long as everybody's happy?" Moreover, stripping has become mainstream, so much so that women have begun taking pole-dancing lessons so they can amuse their husbands and/or significant others. At the same time,...

Pranks, please. I need amusement. I'm trying to do my taxes today.

WASHINGTON - Nearly a year after political opponents of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton set up a campaign committee called "Stop Her Now," they are $9.98 million short of their $10 million fund-raising goal. So now they are saying they will stop her eventually. And the pundits and the polls indicate that might be her opponents' best strategy. Six years after winning a Senate seat in a state where she had never lived, Clinton appears to be coasting to re-election. Polls show that she has grown consistently more popular in her adopted home state, while Republicans struggle to settle on an...