Free Republic

e day after a Democrat Illinois lawmaker cruised to victory in his party’s primary Tuesday, he gave up his seat in the wake of a child pornography raid. State Rep. Keith Farnham stepped down from representing Elgin, a city about 35 miles northwest of Chicago, days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided his home and his state office in Springfield. Items that were seized included the laptop computer Farnham used on the House floor, The Associated Press reported. The search warrant sought material that “in any format and medium concerning minors visually depicted while engaged in sexually explicit conduct,”...

Democrats have given up arguing that Wendy Davis is being honest about her history and are now simply demanding we all accept her narrative and her lies simultaneously. In a column suggesting Davis is being "swift-boated" for fabricating parts of her biography, Margaret Carlson in the Chicago Tribune implores readers to be generous with Davis's biography.

It's not easy to enforce discipline on successful, wealthy, and famous people used to having their own way. But the White House apparently did not want to see photos of the first lady's glittery gala circulating around the Internet. So it imposed a strict rule: No cellphones. "Guests were told not to bring cellphones with them, and there was a cellphone check-in area for those who did," reported the Chicago Tribune

If they can make Velveeta disappear - why can they not make pithy columnists and imperial presidents disappear? Hmmmmmm???? You'll forgive me if I just take a break from the ordinary format of buttressing my perspectives with documentation, quotes and data points and just vent. Perhaps I should do so more often and likely I will, because progressives don't know what to do with the truth when they see it and you rely on your native common sense to sort things out anyway.A buddy of mine who is part of my email band of gypsies, sent me a thing...

If you've tried to sign up online for health coverage under the problem-plagued Obamacare exchange, our sympathies. Many people have tried to create accounts and shop for insurance under the new law. Few have succeeded. Those that have enrolled have found that the system is prone to mistakes. Some applications have been sent to the wrong insurance company. Wait. It gets worse. Those who have managed to browse the marketplace have often been hit by sticker shock. Take Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner and single father from Carpentersville. He sought the same level of coverage on the exchange as he...

The ax is about to drop at newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, according to a report by the firm’s own Los Angeles Times. The Times says the company, which also owns The Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, and South Florida Sun Sentinel, “is reviewing operations in an effort that will likely result in staff reductions.” …

...[W]atching President Barack Obama stumble through his news conference from the G-20 summit last week and trying to talk us into war with Syria, I couldn't help thinking about dogs. It was a stupid thought, yes, but I didn't put it there. One of the president's men put it there. A guy named David Axelrod, who brought it up on Twitter. Axelrod, the Democratic mouthpiece of Chicago mayors, is the guy who aligned himself with an inexperienced Illinois legislative back-bencher and ended up installing him in the White House. And after the president announced he would seek congressional approval for...

The Chicago Tribune has finally reverted away from home-town boosterism of the President and is now telling him to, essentially, admit that his signature ‘achievement’ is toast: "[President Barack Obama] crusaded for [obamacare] and has embraced its nickname. But he did not write the law. Congress did. Major changes are necessary — he has stipulated by his actions that this law as constituted cannot work — and Congress should legislate them for his review." "Bottom line: Let’s delay and rewrite this ill-conceived law. Congress need not start from scratch. Lawmakers can build on what all of us have learned from...

It wouldn’t be summer really if America didn’t get to witness another lavish Martha’s Vineyard vacation by Barack Obama and his posse. Maybe we should just be thankful that he didn’t first ruin American credit like he did in 2011 before departing for the island off of the Massachusetts’ Horn of Plenty. Hotel rates in the summertime on the island range from $250 to $2100 per night. That’s more even than good seats at an NFL football game cost. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against a president going on vacation. But when Americans face one of the worst job...

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News's James Rosen. The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law. The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime....

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Jeremiah Wright’s daughter has allegedly been a naughty little money launderer, and if true, it would appear as though her chickens are coming home to roost. Jeri Wright, 47, faces two counts of money laundering, two counts of making false statements to officers and seven counts of giving false grand jury testimony. She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Los Angeles Times is up for sale, and there are super-wealthy conservative bidders. Get the popcorn out and watch the liberals squeal. The hilarious kickoff came when two leftist collectives -- the Daily Kos website and the California-based Courage Campaign Institute -- set out to buy an ad in the LA Times to protest the Koch brothers pondering a bid. I kid you not, the ad began: "WE NEED NEWS, NOT MORE SPIN." This would assume that today's Los Angeles Times -- which just endorsed Obama's re-election -- is an oasis of objectivity in a desert of media bias....

The Chicago Tribune and six other newspapers owned by Tribune Co. are dropping the Associated Press starting early next month. Besides the Tribune, the other newspapers include the Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., and the Daily Press in Newport News, Va. The Los Angeles Times is expected to retain its AP membership under a separate agreement, Time Out Chicago reports. [Snip] The move, though historic for Tribune, was not unexpected. As early as 2008, not long after Sam Zell became CEO, Tribune Co. signaled intentions to end its ties with AP....

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is resigning from Congress, his brother Jonathan Jackson tells the Chicago Tribune. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner confirmed Wednesday that his office has received a letter of resignation from Jackson but did not comment further, according to the Associated Press. The congressman could not be reached. Jackson, 47, a South Side Democrat, has been treated for bipolar depression and has been on a medical leave from Congress since June. He has been under investigation by federal authorities for alleged misuse of campaign dollars and also has faced a congressional ethics probe. Although he did...

American politicians are always on the lookout for "new sources of revenue," which sounds a lot nicer than "sinking their fangs into our necks." But however you describe it, they just can't stop sucking our blood with their unending tax increases on the national, state and local levels. They tax our gas, our houses, our sodas. They tax our smokes, they tax our roads, they tax our health care and our paychecks, and after we've paid, they even tax our deaths. Cutting government is painful for them. Their mantra? "Government can't afford a tax cut." So they tax us instead,...

It would be so nice to have the LA Times and the Chicago Trib back as conservative mainstays again like they were in the 60s!!! ------------ With Tribune Co. expected to emerge from bankruptcy soon, News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is looking to acquire two of its trophy properties — the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Tribune Co.'s debt holders — two investment firms and a bank — will become majority owners of the company after it exits bankruptcy, which could happen by year's end. News Corp. executives have had preliminary talks with these debt...

U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh asserted this week that a "politically correct" U.S. government was so fearful of offending Islam that it failed to prevent the Fort Hood massacre. Walsh, a first-term Republican congressman with tea party support, told an audience Wednesday in Elk Grove Village: "Your government was so afraid of doing its job, so afraid of offending Islam that right in front of our noses, we saw what was happening at Fort Hood, and because your government was politically correct, Americans died." A U.S.-born Muslim who was an Army psychiatrist is awaiting trial in the November 2009 shootings at...

Pelosi endorses Rep. Jackson for reelectionBy Jordy Yager - 02/18/12 12:24 PM ET Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has endorsed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), whose reelection bid has been plagued by an ethics investigation. Pelosi joins President Obama and several other top Democrats in their endorsement of the Chicago lawmaker as he goes up against former Democratic Rep. Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) in a fierce primary battle next month. Though Halvorson has raised only one-fifth the amount of money that Jackson has, she has waged a relentless campaign against the incumbent lawmaker, frequently pointing to the House Ethics Committee’s ongoing...

Looking to reduce costs as it continues to grapple with a changing media landscape and challenging economy, the Chicago Tribune told employees Monday it will offer an undisclosed number of voluntary buyouts in the newsroom. Gerry Kern, senior vice president and editor of the Tribune, issued a memo outlining the voluntary separation program, which will be open to all editorial staff except top departmental management. "We begin the year with a need to reduce costs as we face the continued financial pressures from a weak economy and structural changes in our industry," Kern said. "We are committed to taking action...

With the Iowa caucuses just days away, the Republican crack-up threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP's eclipse in 1932. That's bad for America. The crack-up isn't just Romney-the-smooth versus Gingrich-the-bomb-thrower. Not just House Speaker John Boehner, who keeps making agreements he can't keep, versus House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who keeps making trouble he can't control. And not just the GOP establishment versus the Tea Partiers.The underlying conflict lies deep in the nature and structure of the Republican Party. And its roots are very old. As political analyst Michael...