Free Republic

ROSENDALE, NY—Controversial upstate New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey has been ordered to town court to answer a charge that he struck a constituent during a July event. Democrat Hinchey, who represents Ithaca and much of the state’s Southern Tier, has been directed to appear in Rosendale Town Court on September 9 to answer a charge of Harassment Second Degree. According to the Kingston Daily Freeman the charge stems from an altercation between Hinchey and a local member of the National Rifle Association: Paul Lendvay, 46, of Rosendale, the chairman of the Catskill Regional Friends of the National Rifle Association, had...

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) may have one of the best-known faces in the world, but that doesn’t mean he is recognized everywhere, even in Washington. Washington Sports Club employee Takehia Wheeler was manning the front desk to scan members’ identification cards Friday morning when the presidential candidate walked in with his entourage. The gym opened a month ago in the Columbia Heights district. “He came in and walked past me,” Wheeler told In The Know. “I was like, ‘Sir, you need to come back.’ ” Wheeler said Obama looked familiar, but she didn’t recognize him. So she asked for his...

Keith Olbermann had a temper tantrum at a memorial reception for the late Tim Russert.

An HIV-positive man with a history of spitting at police officers and biting fellow jail inmates was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday. Willie Campbell's sentence came one day after the same Dallas County jury convicted the 42-year-old of harassment of a public servant for spitting into the eye and open mouth of Dallas Officer Dan Waller in May 2006. As Mr. Campbell was being arrested for public intoxication, he began to resist and kicked at the computer screen in the police vehicle, Officer Waller testified during the two-day trial. "He turns and spits," Officer Waller said. "He hits...

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald's drive-thru, because police say she wouldn't pull her car forward. Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer's orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window. Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food. Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail . Merola said she was searched,...

Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), center, talks with Fox News Channel television talk show host Bill O'Reilly, left, after O'Reilly shoved Obama's National Trip Director Marvin Nicholson while trying to get to the Senator at the end of a campaign rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, January 5, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES

Pro-life activists are calling for an investigation into – and possibly prosecution of – police officers who responded to a severely injured abortion clinic sidewalk counselor, but then allowed his suspected attacker to leave the scene. "It is unbelievable that an officer would allow an attacker to go free after inflicting life-threatening injuries on an elderly gentleman, then threaten to arrest the witness to the crime," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. "That was not only unprofessional conduct, but it showed a fundamental lack of respect for Mr. Snell's life and beliefs. She should face serious discipline."

W.Va. Woman Accused of Wiping Her Nose on Cop's Shirt Charged With BatteryThursday, December 27, 2007 DUNBAR, W.Va. — Sometimes you need a police officer; sometimes you need a tissue. Confuse the two, and it could cost you. A woman in this Charleston suburb was charged with battery on a police officer after the officer said she wiped her nose on the back of his shirt.

With the New England Patriots now one win away from finishing the regular season undefeated, Sen. John Kerry is stepping up his campaign to get the final game broadcast on national television. The contest Saturday with the New York Giants is to air locally in Boston and New York. But outside those markets it is scheduled to appear only on the NFL Network, a cable channel that reaches just 35 million households nationwide while the league and cable operators dicker over pricing and distribution. Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened...

Cop indicted in road-rage incident during which other driver shot him in leg After being indicted Thursday for allegedly making terroristic threats during a road-rage incident last summer in Coon Rapids, a Robbinsdale police officer gave his side of what happened in the confrontation that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg. [...] A 19-year-old Anoka woman said she saw the man later identified as Beard driving next to another vehicle and leaning out his window as he repeatedly swore and threatened to kill the other driver, adding, "I don't care about jail." Several witnesses said they saw...

SAN DIEGO, (AP) -- The House Ethics Committee said Wednesday that it dropped its investigation of U.S. Rep. Bob Filner for his altercation with a baggage employee at Dulles International Airport. Members of its investigative subcommittee unanimously agreed Filner's behavior demonstrated "poor judgment" that reflected badly on the House of Representatives, but they also felt the case was adequately handled in court, according to a committee statement. The California Democrat entered a no-contest plea Nov. 26 in Loudoun County, Va., General District Court to misdemeanor trespassing charges after prosecutors dropped assault and battery counts. He was fined $100 and ordered...

Television talk-show host Montel Williams threatened to find and "blow up" the homes of three Savannah Morning News reporters Friday while he was in town promoting free prescriptions for poor people. ...snip... "As we were preparing to film, Montel walked up with his bodyguard and got in Courtney Scott's face pointing his finger telling her, 'Don't look at me like that. Do you know who I am? I'm a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up,' " Cosey said. "At this time he was pointing randomly at all of us." "He...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., entered a plea days before he was set for trial on assault and battery charges over allegations he pushed a United Airlines baggage employee at Dulles International Airport. At a hearing in Loudoun County's General District Court on Monday, Filner entered a so-called Alford plea to trespassing, according to a statement issued through his attorney. That means he did not admit guilt, but acknowledged sufficient evidence exists for a conviction. He was fined $100, according to the court clerk. Filner was accused in the Aug. 19 incident of trying to barge past a...

MORRISVILLE - When Morrisville police officer Chris Gill handed him a ticket, Kent Kauffman coughed. Next thing Kauffman knew, Gill was charging him with assault on a government official. Gill contends Kauffman intentionally coughed on him three times. According to Gill's report, Kauffman looked into the officer's eyes before "hacking" in his face, Morrisville spokeswoman Stacie Galloway said Wednesday. Kauffman acknowledges that he coughed two or three times from the window of his Dodge minivan Tuesday but said it was toward Gill's waist. "He says I coughed in his face," Kauffman said. "But that would only work if he had...

I've been sitting on some facts for a few days at the request of Ryan Horsley. BATFU had threatened him that he needed to cease all blogging and keep their agents and inspectors free from being photographed or observed, or they would go to the judge and file a complaint of harassment. Ryan was in a dilemma--he has been single-handedly bearing the burden of his defense against a fe(de)ral government with practically unlimited resources--yet if he continued to allow his persecutors to operate in the dark, that is where they would kill Red's. The new complaint is calculated to be...

A blog written by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and posted on MichaelMoore.com criticizes Charlotte police for allowing counter-protesters to "try to intimidate us" during Sheehan's antiwar rally Tuesday in Bryant Park. But in a memo to top police administrators, one captain said officers had no issues during the two-hour event and expressed surprise at the complaints. "At the School of the Assassins in Columbus, GA, and in Charlotte, NC, we ran into similar problems: police presence that seemed to be there to foster violence. At both places the neo-Nazi, pro-war fascist group "Gathering of Eagles" came out to mostly try...

AUSTIN — A former bartender at a Texas Capitol-area bar has sued her old employer, claiming she was fired because she refused to serve state Sen. John Whitmire when he was drunk. A top aide to Whitmire, D-Houston, said she was present that night at the Cloak Room and called the bartender's allegations about the senator a "complete fabrication." In her lawsuit, Rebekah L. Lear said she lost her job at the bar because she refused to serve Whitmire a second scotch on the night of March 8. Lear also alleges that Whitmire threatened to have her fired. Lear claims...

Gore's soon-to-be 'green' home By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 48 minutes ago Al Gore, the environmental activist stung by criticism over his house's energy efficiency, said Friday that renovations are nearly complete to make it a model "green" home. "This plan has been in the works for a long time," the former vice president said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The only thing that has changed is that we're more public about it because of the misleading attack by a global-warming denier group." Earlier this year, a conservative group criticized Gore, citing electric bills that were...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN ) – Columnist and author Eric Alterman was arrested Sunday night inside the debate spin room and charged with criminal trespass after police say he refused repeated orders to leave.

NASHVILLE -- A Nashville taxicab driver told police that an "intoxicated" state Sen. Ophelia Ford pulled his shirt collar while he was driving her and another woman to Ford's hotel Tuesday night from a downtown bar and restaurant. According to a Metropolitan Police incident report obtained today, driver Habib Abdi Hashi told police here that he had transported Ford about 4 p.m. Tuesday and got a call to pick up her party at the Wildhorse Saloon about 9:13 p.m. Hashi told officers that the "suspect was intoxicated and was brought out to the cab under a blanket to keep the...

State Sen. Carole Migden bounced her state-issued SUV off the concrete median on Interstate 80 and nearly ran other motorists off the freeway before slamming into the back of another vehicle last week, the California Highway Patrol and witnesses said Tuesday. More than half a dozen motorists made emergency calls about Migden's erratic driving before the Friday accident, the CHP said. The rear-end collision in Fairfield, midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, injured a woman and her 3-year-old daughter, who were sent to the emergency room. In a statement released by her office last week, the San Francisco Democrat said...

Are Democrats Above the Law? Yesterday, the AP reported that all charges had been dropped against Phillip Thompson, an aide to Senator Jim Webb who was arrested on March 26, 2007 after Capitol Police spotted a loaded pistol and two loaded magazines during a routine X-Ray scan of Senator Webb’s briefcase at the entrance to the Russell Senate office building. District of Columbia law prohibits carrying a handgun or concealed weapon without a license. U. S. Attorney Jeff Taylor announced that “…we do not believe that the essential elements of the crime of carrying a pistol without a license can...

(Exposing and Compating Liberal Media Bias) On the April 25 edition of "The View," the same day Rosie O’Donnell announced she is leaving in June, Barbara Walters proclaimed she is "not crazy" about President Bush. Why? His motorcade temporarily disrupted her walk home. Walters is apparently so lost in the celebrity world, that the slightest inconvenience sets her off. A shocked Rose O’Donnell inquired "did they recognize you?" as if Barbara is more important than the others waiting for the motorcade to pass. Walters than exclaimed "[Bush] is the president, he is not a king." And Barbara Walters is a...

The following release was posted Tuesday night to the web log of Senator James Inhofe: From behind the scenes on Capitol Hill: Former Vice President Al Gore, despite being given major preferential treatment, has violated the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee?s (EPW) hearing rules. Gore first demanded to be granted an unprecedented 30 minute opening statement to the Senate EPW Committee for Wednesday?s (March 21) global warming hearing scheduled for 2:30 pm ET. The GOP minority on the EPW committee agreed to the 30 minute opening statement. But then Gore demanded a waiver of the EPW committee?s 48 hour...

WFOR-CBS4 investigative reporter Mike Kirsch was arrested this morning after police say he assaulted an officer during a traffic stop. While taking his daughter to school in Doral, Kirsch made an illegal U-turn and was pulled over by a Miami-Dade officer, police said. He threatened the officer and charged her, police said.

Critics charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is abusing the perks of power by asking for a jumbo military jet with sleeping accommodations for her flights across the country. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, flew in a small commuter-sized Air Force jet. Pelosi wants a larger aircraft that can fly to her San Francisco district without stopping to refuel. Some sources are claiming that Pelosi...

I thought this woman was supposed to be a shrewd political operative. Sure isn't looking that way lately. How could a super-political like Nancy Pelosi let this kafuffle over how she gets back and forth to her home district get so out of control? The story is really a bit pathetic, and it just won't go away! Nancy Pelosi wants the Pentagon to fly her back and forth between Washington and San Francisco. Fine, that' s fair. Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert had access to a Pentagon Gulfstream III to fly him back and forth to Illinois. Good enough for him,...

Maybe it's something about the high mountain air of Switzerland that gets into John Kerry's brain and scrambles his common sense. Or maybe we're just seeing again how completely unsuited for public office the senator from Massachusetts is. Last January, Kerry called in from Davos, Switzerland, to threaten a filibuster of the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Kerry said at the time he could not abide seeing the "swing vote" of Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court go to a "right-wing ideologue" like Alito. The idea went nowhere and Alito was confirmed. This January, Kerry was...

My face time with John Kerry has been brief but choice. In 2003, I was at a campaign event in New Hampshire chatting with two old coots in plaid. The senator approached and stopped in front of us. The etiquette in primary season is that the candidate defers to the cranky Granite Stater's churlish indifference to status and initiates the conversation: "Hi, I'm John Kerry. Good to see ya. Cold enough for ya? How 'bout them Sox?" Etc. Instead, Kerry just stood there nose to nose, staring at us with an inscrutable semi-glare on his face. After an eternity, an...

A West Point Cadet sends this along with the photo below: I'm a cadet at West Point, and tonight at our game against the Air Force Academy, a big sign emerged, and it was shown to the Corps of Cadets, who cheered wildly, and then shown to the Air Force cadets, who also cheered.

Now Kerry claims he forgot to add the punchline, "Just ask President Bush." I can imagine Kerry on the campaign trail, speaking to a group of musicians: "By the way, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Musicians...look puzzled. Some try to give directions. They don't know what he means. Next day: "Oh, I'm sorry if I botched the joke. I forgot the punch line. 'Practice, man...Practice' See?"

didn't it in person in front of a camera..

A Statement from John Kerry As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop. I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended. It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion...

Just announced on the FNC.

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has threatened to sue a fan who's been spearheading an Oprah for president drive. The cease-and-desist letter from Oprah's lawyer tells the fan to stop using her name and image on his Oprah for president Web site, The Smoking Gun reports. Smoking Gun posted a copy of the letter on its Web site. In addition to the Oprah Web site, Patrick Crowe, 69, has also written a self-published book boosting an Oprah White House bid and maintains a toll-free Oprah hotline number. "Ms. Winfrey has not granted you the right to use her name for...

Moments before Sen. John Kerry shows up to campaign for a local politician at a backyard rally here, voter Sue Borden wrinkles her nose at the mention of the man who lost to President Bush. “You get one chance,” the Democrat tells a reporter. “If you can’t win, then it’s time to let someone else try.” But less than an hour later, after she meets Kerry and listens to him deliver an impassioned speech from a wooden deck, Borden softens and says she would consider voting again for the Massachusetts Democrat. “I always liked what he stood for but felt...

Kerry Still Thinks He'll Get Nod in '08 If at first you don't succeed... A former top campaign fundraiser to Sen. John Kerry insists that when the smoke clears in the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, Kerry will once again be the party's nominee. Here's the scenario the aide outlined for NewsMax: Hillary Clinton is the front-runner and she has the money and the organization to capture the nomination. Other potential candidates, including Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Mark Warner, don't have the money and will run out of cash before the race is over. Not John...

A federal judge dismissed a filmmaker's defamation lawsuit against Sen. John Kerry, saying remarks linked to Kerry's campaign during the heat of the 2004 presidential race amount to political opinions. Filmmaker Carlton Sherwood sued Kerry and John Podesta, an aide who ran the Massachusetts Democrat's campaign in Pennsylvania. Sherwood accused them of blocking the release of his documentary about Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities by labeling Sherwood a "disgraced journalist" and a "Bush hack." The Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. canceled plans to air the documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" on its stations before the November 2004 election. U.S. District...

Even his former running mate John Edwards pulls more of a crowd than this. And none of them appear to be under 80 years old. Poor John F'in Kerry. Guess he's not destined to be the next JFK afterall. Don't people realize he served in Vietnam???!!

(Vernon-AP, Aug. 1, 2006 3:20 PM) _ An assistant coach for the UConn men's basketball team is in trouble today with police. Andre LaFleur, who's been an assistant to Coach Jim Calhoun for two years, was arrested this morning in Vernon and charged with breach of peace. Police say LaFleur yelled at a Vernon recreation department worker who wouldn't let LaFleur enroll his child in a town program that had already been filled. Police say another worker called officers when she became frightened by the profanity-laden tirade. They also say LaFleur cited his connection to UConn's basketball team in an...

July 29, 2006 -- KATIE Couric had fellow passengers aboard a New York-bound jet on the warpath this week when, as their plane was about to taxi to the runway, she got out of her seat and begged the pilot to allow one of her late-arriving producers to board. ........ The witness told Page Six that attendants on Wednesday's 6:30 p.m. Delta Shuttle flight out of Washington, D.C., had already closed the door and passengers were buckled in, when the soon-to-be CBS News anchor raced up the aisle with a cellphone to her ear and told an attendant she had...

KATIE Couric had fellow passengers aboard a New York-bound jet on the warpath this week when, as their plane was about to taxi to the runway, she got out of her seat and begged the pilot to allow one of her late-arriving producers to board. "It was like, 'Who the hell does she think she is?' " fumed one passenger who observed Couric's diva-like antics. "If you or I attempted something like this, we'd be cooling our heels at Guantanamo." The witness told Page Six that attendants on Wednesday's 6:30 p.m. Delta Shuttle flight out of Washington, D.C., had already...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte urging him to reconstitute immediately a Central Intelligence Agency unit responsible for hunting down Osama bin Laden. Kerry, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential hopeful, was reacting to a story published by The New York Times on Tuesday that reported that the CIA unit known as Alec Station was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the CIA Counterterrorist Center. "This unit should be reconstituted immediately and given all resources necessary to finish the job of...

JOHN Kerry has joined John Murtha and other Democrats in saying he erred in voting for the liberation of Iraq. "It is essential to acknowledge that the war itself was a mistake. . . . It was wrong, and I was wrong to vote for that Iraqi war resolution," Kerry told a Democratic Party gathering in Washington this week. If the junior senator from Massachusetts truly believes that his judgment was so clouded that he sent thousands of American men and women to their deaths needlessly, then he should do the honorable thing and resign from Congress. Senators and congressmen...

Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) - U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts on Tuesday told an audience at the liberal Take Back America conference that he was sorry for voting to authorize the war in Iraq, calling the entire mission "a mistake." "We were misled, we were given evidence that was not true," Kerry said. "It was wrong, and I was wrong to vote [for it]." Kerry, who led an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2004, said it was necessary to admit mistakes because "you cannot change the future if you''re not honest about the past." He criticized supporters of the...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., center, speaks to Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., left, during the House Appropriations Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 6, 2006, in Washington. Kennedy, the Rhode Island Democrat can expect the scrutiny to hit new levels as he seeks to put his personal life and political career back on track after crashing his car and spending nearly a month in drug treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Seated at the back is Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Here is how we could convince our various Senators and Reps that they they are absolutely isolated from the majority of American peoples' experiences and opinions, especially regarding illegal aliens... Remember that old movie, "The Super", with Joe Pesci,... "The judge sentenced slumlord Louie Kritski to six months in his own building. He would have been better off in jail"..."Louie is a New York slum landlord who is given 120 days to repair one of his apartment blocks. The problem for Louie is that he must live in the rundown block until the repairs are complete." We could challenge our...

By Howie Carr Boston Herald Columnist John F. Kerry - how can we miss him when he won’t go away? A lot of people in both parties are hoping that America’s Gigolo will run for president again in 2008 rather than seek re-election to the Senate. Kerry would inevitably lose and be forced to retire to private life, after which Mama T would soon boot him out of all six of her first husband’s trust fund’s mansions. The next time we would see Kerry he’d be back to sleeping in his old Bob Brest Buick. That would be a happy...

MIAMI -- A city commissioner struck two officers as he was being escorted out of an airport concourse after being disruptive while waiting for his delayed flight, police said. Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton also slipped and fell during the altercation with police about 7 p.m. Monday, sending him to a hospital's jail ward with an injured head, police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella said. Winton had been waiting for his flight at a bar near a security checkpoint at Miami International Airport when he became irate and disruptive to the point that police were called, Fonticiella said. As officers were escorting Winton,...