Free Republic

Watching a story of a mobster from NY who became one of the first informants. Story turned somewhat when this informant kidnapped a person with knowledge of the three deaths in Mississippi. The show had the mobster torturing the man with knowledge of the three murders to get info as to where the bodies were located, Is this common knowledge? Can info from torture be used in court? Bobby Kennedy involved, Bio.com, Season 4, episode 31 For over thirty years, Gregory Scarpa lived a charmed triple life: mafia hit man, loving father and husband, and secret FBI informant--until a fatal...

Washington (CNN) -- Justice Anthony Kennedy was among the first of his colleagues to arrive Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court. His chambers lit up several hours before the last-day release of monumental rulings on same-sex marriage.

<p>Under the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages even in states that have legalized it. This week, the Supreme Court ruled DOMA unconstitutional.</p> <p>There are two possible grounds, distinct and in some ways contradictory, for doing so. The curious thing about the Court’s DOMA decision is that it contains both rationales.</p>

These decisions, handed down by the Court today, affect to be limited in their reach, but they are even worse than they appear, and they cannot be cabined. They lay down the predicates for litigation that will clearly unfold now, and with short steps sure to come, virtually all of the barriers to same-sex marriage in this country can be swept away. Even constitutional amendments, passed by so many of the states, can be overridden now. The engine put in place to power this drive is supplied by Justice Kennedy’s “hate speech,” offering itself as the opinion of the Court...

Dissenting from this morning's opinion on the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Antonin Scalia – as expected – holds nothing back. In a ripping dissent, Scalia says that Justice Anthony Kennedy and his colleagues in the majority have resorted to calling opponents of gay marriage "enemies of the human race."

Strange enough to see a photograph of a Kennedy firing a rifle, one with a telescopic sight no less, as the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination approaches. Stranger still to learn that the Kennedy firing the rifle, a 14-year-old granddaughter of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is killing seal pups in Canada, according a caption for the photo written by her father. The photo was posted this morning on the Facebook page of Maxwell Kennedy, 48, son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. Here's what Max Kennedy wrote in the caption for the photo -- "Noah and me working with Canadian...

<p>ARNSTABLE — A new Kennedy-themed Cape Cod restaurant has revamped its cocktail menu after some drinks drew criticism for having what the majority owner called "macabre" names.</p> <p>David Keville of the Compound Bar and Grille, which opened last month about four miles from the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, says he changed the names of several cocktails, including one called Dealey Plaza.</p>

Among the highlights: TAPING MARILYN MONROE "Marilyn wanted a mini-phone listening device," Otash says in his unpublished Marilyn, the Kennedys, and Me, noting he spied on her even while she was paying him to install recording equipment so that she could tape her own phone calls. "You could hide it in your bra. The microphone was a wristwatch. You could also put a suction cup on the phone. Later on, she wanted a sophisticated system put in her house. We wired up her phone because it started looking stupid with a suction cup." Otash listened in on Marilyn having sex...

President Obama, speaking earlier today at conference on mental health at the White House: "There are other people who are leading by example. My great friend, Patrick Kennedy, when he was running for reelection back in 2006, he could have avoided talking about his struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction. Let’s face it, he’s a Kennedy," said Obama. After the audience stopped laughing, Obama continued, "He was -- his seat was pretty safe. Everybody loved him. And yet, Patrick used his experience as a way to connect and to lift up these issues, not hide from them." And one day,...

It is that time of year where the SCOTUS makes its decisions for the term. Who knows what decisions will be handed down this week. I do not expect any gay marriage decisions until the final days of the term.

Here's a story you probably haven't heard, unless you read Drudge or Breitbart. The Independent in the U.K. has published a story (from which I pull freely), as have a couple of Jewish outlets. That's all I can find. You tell me if it qualifies as "news" that the "news " media should be covering. It involves a young man who would someday become one of the best-known and most powerful men in the world. A new book is out. It explores recently uncovered diaries kept by this young man. The journal entries document his fascination with Adolf Hitler and...

As the investigation into the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi intensifies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are seeking to conduct transcribed interviews with thirteen top State Department officials in the coming weeks in order to learn more. Those named in the letter include a wide range of current and former State Department personnel, from senior advisers to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to mid-level career officials with responsibility for diplomatic security. Among those officials: Jacob Sullivan, then deputy chief of staff and director of policy planning (and currently national security adviser to Vice President Joe...

Kerry Kennedy must stand trial for drugged driving, a Westchester judge said yesterday in rejecting a bid by the former wife of Gov. Cuomo to dismiss the misdemeanor charge. North Castle Town Court Judge Elyse Lazansky set Oct. 8 for the next court date in the case of Kennedy, 53, who was allegedly under the influence of a sleeping pill when she swerved her Lexus into a tractor-trailer on I-684 near her home last July 13. The judge conceded that Kennedy, a human-rights activist who is the 10th of 11 children of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, “is...

This is a very interesting article by Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News. It’s very long and covers different topics surrounding Benghazi, from the decision not to deploy FEST to how the talking points came about. The quote below talks about how certain anonymous White House officials say that the missteps in Benghazi was less about malice and more about incompetence. For instance, they claim that the reasoning behind not deploying the counterterrorism unit known as FEST stemmed from a misunderstanding of FEST’s role and ability. One official does pin the decision not to send in FEST on Under Secretary Patrick...

There's "no question" someone from Hillary Clinton's circle - if not the former secretary of state herself - was involved in the "cover-up" of any missteps by the administration following an attack on a U.S. consulate last Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told CBS News on Monday. "If Hillary Clinton is not responsible for the before, during and after mistakes... it's somebody close," Issa told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes on Monday. "There certainly are plenty of people close to the former secretary who knew, and apparently were part of...

On the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department's own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making, according to a "whistle-blower" witness from that bureau who will soon testify to the charge before Congress, Fox News has learned. That witness is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. Sources tell Fox News Thompson will level the allegation against Clinton during testimony on...

In 1962, at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, a man “peeled off his clothing and began prancing around his hotel suite.” His bodyguards were cautiously amused, until the man “left the suite and began roaming through the corridor of the Carlyle.” The man in question was delusional, paranoid and suffering a “psychotic break” from the effects of an overdose of methamphetamine. He was also the president of the United States. The reason for John F. Kennedy’s bizarre behavior was that, according to an explosive new book, the president was — unbeknownst to him, at first — a meth addict....

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, is close to being announced as the next United States ambassador to Japan, according to people familiar with the appointment process. The vetting of Ms. Kennedy by the White House is almost complete, and an appointment could be announced in the coming weeks, along with the names of several other choices for high-profile diplomatic posts. Bloomberg News and The Washington Post first reported that Ms. Kennedy was under consideration. Ms. Kennedy was an early supporter of President Obama, offering forceful backing as he battled Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic...

Few things were certain after the Supreme Court's first foray into the issue of gay marriage earlier this week—except that conservative-leaning swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy will control the outcome. The four liberal and the four conservative justices appeared to split right down the middle on how (and whether) to decide the constitutionality of both Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Kennedy—who in the past authored the court's two most important opinions affirming gay rights—seemed to be on the fence in both cases.

BOSTON (AP) -- Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II is mourning the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying he cared deeply about the poor. Kennedy, who heads Citizens Energy, said Chavez and the people of Venezuela donated about 200 million gallons of heating oil to Citizens Energy, which distributes oil to lower income families in 25 states and Washington D.C.