Free Republic

We’ve written extensively of late regarding the widening divide between fiscally conservative Republicans and the “neoconservative” fiscally liberal wing of the party – led by U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn. In fact according to the website Mississippi PEP, they’ve censured him. For those of you unfamiliar with this aging RINO, Cochran is one of several Southern “Republicans” who habitually caves to U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats (along with Graham, North Carolina’s Richard Burr, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander and Georgia’s Johnny Isakson). “When any official continues to engage repeatedly in a course of conduct that violates...

Walt & Lillian Disney with Richard Nixon and his family at Disneyland, 1959 We tend to think of Hollywood as a bastion of leftism, and rightly so. Books like Ron Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood demonstrate the deep-seated left-wing dominance of the entertainment industry. Even with the leftism prevalent in Hollywood’s Golden Age, many unabashed conservatives found success without compromising their principles, including one of the most creative minds in the business — Walt Disney.Several biographers and writers that I’ve read have tried to declare that Walt Disney was apolitical, but I find this conclusion not to be true....

President Obama signed the START nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia this morning. Despite the great attention the president has devoted to this treaty -- and the vast coverage of the treaty negotiations by the media -- the White House refused to allow reporters or TV cameras in the room. Still photographers were the only representatives of the free press permitted to record the historic moment. Those cameras captured President Obama signing the documents, seated at the Resolute Desk. Behind him stood Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,...

I awoke this morning with an ear worm, for no discernible reason. So I am going to share it with you all. Eddie Cochran, 1958, Summertime Blues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeWC59FJqGc&feature=related

Should the federal government tempt people to cease volunteering at churches and instead be paid to “volunteer” at government-subsidized projects? That’s the essence of the “Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act” which President Obama signed into law on April 21. Sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), the bill passed the House by a vote of 275 to 149. The multi-billion-dollar spending bill triples the size of federal paid “volunteer” programs including AmeriCorps while killing funds for the faith-friendly Points of Light Institute. The ayes list had 26 Republicans, including Mark Souder (Ind.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and Vern Buchanan (Fla.). The...

Asked about Thad Cochran's claim, McCain said at a press conference today in Colombia that it's "simply not true." "I had many, many meetings with the Sandinistas," McCain said. "I must say, I did not admire the Sandinistas much. But there was never anything of that nature. It just didn't happen." A former foreign policy adviser to McCain who was on the 1987 trip corroborates to the AP his former boss's recounting.

GULFPORT -- Notably mild-mannered Republican Sen. Thad Cochran shocked many earlier this year with comments about John McCain's volatile temper. He has since mended fences with the GOP presidential nominee. But as first reported at sunherald.com, Cochran told the Sun Herald he witnessed a confrontation between McCain and a Sandinista rebel decades ago in which McCain "got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him." --------------------------------------- "McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerilla group here at this end of the table and I...

Sen. Thad Cochran has shifted his support to Sen. John McCain for president. Cochran made the announcement in a statement Thursday after his first choice, former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, dropped out of the Republican race. Mississippi's other senator, Roger Wicker, a Republican, had endorsed former Tennessee senator, Fred Thompson, who has also withdrawn from the race. Wicker has not announced his support for another candidate. GOP Cong. Chip Pickering endorsed McCain last year. Cong. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, has endorsed fellow Democrat, Barack Obama for president.

WASHINGTON -- After Congress recessed for Thanksgiving with urgent unfinished business that included facilitating income tax refunds and providing veterans benefits, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid left on an eight-day government-financed trip through Latin America. Reid was scheduled to leave the Sunday after Thanksgiving and return the following Sunday. His itinerary included Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and Paraguay. His staff told this column Reid made the trip because of "stagnant" U.S. policy in Latin America under the Bush administration. Although congressional recesses supposedly are "home work periods" enabling lawmakers to deal with constituents, many travel abroad on "codels" (congressional delegations)....

U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said Thursday he has not decided if he will run for a sixth term in 2008 but will make an announcement in "a few weeks." Cochran, in a telephone interview with the Daily Journal, said he had delayed an announcement because he wanted to avoid any conflict with this year's state elections. Qualifying deadline for next year's Senate race is Jan. 11, with party primaries in March. In a Nov. 1, 2006, interview with the Daily Journal's editorial board, Cochran said he would decide in late 2007 about running again. He said then that which...

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is planning to endorse former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) when Thompson announces his entry into the presidential race Thursday. A spokesman for Cochran said the senator will support Thompson, but won’t release a statement expressing his support until after Thompson announces his bid. Thompson is expected to make his announcement in a 15-minute video on his website, and then head out on a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. Including Cochran’s, Thompson has 20 endorsements from Capitol Hill lawmakers. A constantly updated list of congressional endorsements for the White House...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version April 26, 2006, 11:22 a.m. Bridge to November The inability of a handful of House Republicans to stomach a long-overdue belt-tightening reform is threatening to prevent the House from passing a budget resolution for the first time since 1974. Fortunately for fiscal conservatives, a pork-laden spending bill has come along just in time to remind the public why this particular reform is so desperately needed. On Tuesday, President Bush threatened to veto an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Katrina if it exceeds $92.2 billion. Bush, who has yet to...

LOS ANGELES (NNPA) - A change has come over Johnnie Cochran's law firm, which Los Angeles' Black community has loved for lo, these 43 years - and not necessarily a change for the better. Longtime attorneys and staffers who help build the Cochran legacy are gone and have not been replaced, and White people are occupying leadership positions in his law firm that did not exist before he died March 30, 2005. What is going on in Cochran's Wilshire Boulevard 10th floor suite, and why it's going on is a tale of two versions: The spin from the two African-American...

Saw this Frontline special on PBS just now... at times I wanted to scream at the TV. Other times, I wanted to cry because I had no voice to scream. I had to sit and watch the racism card played again. "In the end, perhaps the best for reconciling opinion on both sides is the view expressed by USC professor Todd Boyd, which emphasizes class over race: "Do I think that O.J. murdered those two people? Yes. Do I think he got off for it? Yes. Do I think he's the first person to get away with murder in America?...

Who is Air America? Vanity A summary of some of the key persons involved in the Air-A scandals, and their friends, August 19, 2005 Some of you out there probably have located most of this information before. The following is based on a series of emails I sent to Michelle Malkin and Radio Equalizer over the last few days. I am sure others have sent them similar items, as well as posting them at FR. [My comments are in brackets; some key names, dates, places, organizations and links are highlighted in bold letters] [Michelle Malkin and Radio Equalizer (Brian Maloney)...

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 1st Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate Vote Summary Question: On the Amendment (Ensign Amdt. No. 1219 ) Vote Number: 179 Vote Date: July 14, 2005, 10:04 AM Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Rejected Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 1219 to S.Amdt. 1124 to H.R. 2360 (Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act ) Statement of Purpose: Of a perfecting nature. Vote Counts: YEAs 38 NAYs 60 Not Voting 2 Vote Summary By Senator Name By Vote Position By...

(AgapePress) - This year's Senate apology casts a vote of regret for Senate inaction on lynchings. All in favor, say "Aye!" And for those who didn't sign up as co-sponsors (only 15 of 100 senators didn't), get ready for reporters' phone calls. Apparently, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran -- not a co-sponsor -- actually answered one of those calls. "I don't feel that I should apologize for the passage or the failure to pass any legislation by the U.S. Senate." He declined, he said, because he felt he could not say sorry for "something I did not do." Cochran's words were...

Streep, Rather Lead Somber Poetry Reading NEW YORK (AP) - The crocuses are blooming and the celebrity readers intoning. Yes, it's that time of year again, the third annual Poetry & the Creative Mind all-star benefit. Actors Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Sam Waterston were among the luminaries at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall Tuesday evening, as the Academy of American Poets celebrated the 10th National Poetry Month. Even the Empire State Building got in on the act, according to the academy's executive director, Tree Swenson. The top of its spire was illuminated with blue and white lights in honor...

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the masterful attorney who gained prominence as an early advocate for victims of police abuse then achieved worldwide fame for successfully defending football star O.J. Simpson on murder charges, died Tuesday. He was 67. Cochran died of an inoperable brain tumor at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, according to his brother-in-law Bill Baker. He had been diagnosed with the brain tumor in December 2003, Baker said. Initially, Cochran, his family and colleagues were secretive about his illness to protect the attorney's privacy as well as the network of Cochran law offices...

THIS IS NOT the column I was supposed to write. My newspaper was expecting something about the Chase for the Nextel Cup, a few hundred words about how eight guys are separated by 50 points as they claw for three spots in the group that in two weeks will start a 10-race playoff for this year's title. I spent part of Friday trying to put a column like that together, asking the four Dodge drivers among those eight if the chance their manufacturer could be shut out of the title chase put added pressure on them in Sunday's Pop Secret...

Cochran still flying Confederate flag COCHRAN - A middle Georgia city plans to keep the Confederate flag flying at the municipal building -- at least for now.Cochran Mayor Charles Killebrew cast the deciding vote Thursday in a dispute about flying the flag on city-owned property.The City Council in Cochran -- which has 4,500 residents -- called the meeting after residents objected to the flag.Council members were split three-to-three on the issue of whether to take down the flag -- now padlocked in a spot near a Confederate memorial.The flag was erected last year next to a 1910 monument to Confederate...

Upshaw calls diversity resolution 'ridiculous' By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com NEW YORK -- Emerging from a meeting where he had shared with NFL owners his view on the issue of hiring practices, NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw on Wednesday termed "ridiculous" a plan submitted by civil rights activists that would reward or penalize franchises via draft picks for considering minority candidates. "I think if you have a mandated, diverse list of candidates, all you invite are sham interviews and sham hiring lists," said Upshaw. "We really don't need Johnnie Cochran to remind us (of the paucity of black head...

Calls Johnnie Cochran’s recent statements ‘thought provoking’ Days after former O. J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran said on MSNBC that he is “about 90 percent” certain that his client was innocent, Mr. Simpson today said that his attorney had planted “fresh seeds of doubt” in his own mind. “FOR YEARS, I’VE BEEN pretty sure that I did not murder my wife,” Simpson said today at a golf course in Boca Raton, Fla., where he was taking a rare break from searching for the real killers of his wife. “But if Johnnie’s not 100 percent sure, I’m like, hey, maybe...

Rev. Al, Cochran Duet To Help Artists Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran are coming to the defense of a new oppressed minority — multimillionaire recording artists. Starting with Michael Jackson. The Rev and O.J.'s Dream Team attorney are due to hold a press conference this morning at the W Court Hotel, where they'll announce an initiative to protect the rights of singers, rappers and musicians. The duo say they want to help set up a "free agency market," like the one that exists in professional sports, for new and established artists. But some industry observers suspect a hidden agenda —...

In an interview with Bill O'Reilly, the author of "Shakedown" said that Johnny Cochran is planning to shakedown Microsoft for $1B. He claims to have heard Cochran say words to that effect at a public speech last year. Cochran has brought together four people who claim to have been discriminated against and is attempting to ratchet this up to a class action suit. The author speculated that Gates is now courting Jackson in hopes that he can reach some kind of out of court settlement with the pair. Also, videotape was shown of Bill Gates and Jesse Jackson. According to...