Free Republic

As the lone Democrat seeking to challenge Elizabeth Warren in the Senate primary in Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco has been ridiculed, admonished and, worst of all, ignored. But for the moment, Ms. DeFranco, an immigration lawyer with high energy and a scrappy band of volunteers, is enjoying a burst of momentum. She surprised party insiders by collecting enough valid signatures by the May 1 deadline — more than 10,000, gathered everywhere from town meetings to town dumps — to qualify for the Democratic primary on Sept. 6. If Ms. DeFranco clears one more hurdle — winning 15 percent of the delegate...

NEWTON, Mass. (WHDH) -- Democratic Representative Barney Frank raised eyebrows during his commencement speech at UMass Dartmouth when he referenced the Trayvon Martin case. Barney Frank, never at a loss for words, drew gasps from the commencement crowd at UMass Dartmouth where his good friend Hubie Jones was awarded an honorary doctorate -- complete with a degree and hood. "When they give you an honorary doctorate they give you one of these and Hubie, I think you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you," Frank said during his speech. The crowd was stunned...

Barney Frank Makes Awkward Trayvon Martin ‘Hoodie’ Joke During Commmencement Barney Frank, the retiring Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, never known to speak anything but his mind, used his address to graduating seniors at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Sunday to make a cringe-inducing joke about hoodies. “I do want to acknowledge a man who has played a major role in diminishing inequality in Massachusetts,” said Frank, referring to the activist Hubie Jones. “He’s a great man and I’ve worked with Hubie for many years. You know he got an honorary degree today. You know when you get an honorary...

UP FOR GRABS (85): Colorado (9) — Long a reliable GOP state, but Colorado's conservative profile is changing. Young professionals and Hispanic voters were central to Obama's victory in 2008, but the sluggish economy has hurt his standing. Female voters in Denver's suburbs could play a big role. Florida (29) — Florida is the prime target for both campaigns. Obama won in 2008, but the housing crisis, high unemployment and gas prices are dogging him. Romney won the primary in January and has picked up the endorsement of GOP Sen. Marco Rubio. Obama's organization has a large advantage. Iowa (6)...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was one of several speakers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth undergraduate commencement that took place this Sunday. Frank was also one of two people that received the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Medal at the event. However, Congressman Frank made a controversial comment about Hubie Jones, a black recipient of an honorary doctorate, that elicited an audible gasp from the audience. In reference to the Trayvon Martin case, Frank said "you now got a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you." After the audience reacted, Frank said, "I think you'll feel, I hope,...

I just finished reading Brian Sullivan’s Reform battles rollback as Romney pledges to repeal Obama's financial regulations regarding the differences between Romney and Obama on the financial services regulations known as Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley. Sullivan’s piece is mostly what you would expect from a mainstream media outlet. It’s a topical check list of “On the one hand Romney wants, on the other hand Obama says…” that is just a series of campaign infomercials disguised as balanced analysis. (Please see my personal plea at the end of this article for USA Cares this Memorial Day- and please... give generously)     And it illustrates what’s really...

The new round of national and state surveys this week generally showing President Obama clinging to a tenuous advantage over Republican Mitt Romney reinforce the conclusion that socially liberal, upscale white women may stand as the president's indispensable line of defense in his struggle for reelection. Both the national ABC/Washington Post survey released earlier this week, and the NBC/Marist Polls released Thursday in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Florida show Obama retaining preponderant support among minority voters who were critical to his 2008 victory. Conversely, in almost all of the surveys, Obama faces a consistent pattern of erosion...

Elizabeth Warren can no longer count the Harvard University administrator who listed her as "Native American" among her advocates in the unfolding scandal of her professed minority heritage. In the reaction to the Boston Globe's controversial article on Harvard's EEOC reports which listed Elizabeth Warren as a Native American, one particular revelation has gone largely unnoticed. Alan Ray, the former administrator who filed diversity reports during Warren's tenure, distances the university from any responsibility for erroneously listing her as a Native American.

MIDDLETON, Mass. — As the lone Democrat seeking to challenge Elizabeth Warren in the Senate primary in Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco has been ridiculed, admonished and, worst of all, ignored. But for the moment, Ms. DeFranco, an immigration lawyer with high energy and a scrappy band of volunteers, is enjoying a burst of momentum. She surprised party insiders by collecting enough valid signatures by the May 1 deadline — more than 10,000, gathered everywhere from town meetings to town dumps — to qualify for the Democratic primary on Sept. 6. If Ms. DeFranco clears one more hurdle — winning 15 percent...

The ragged-looking grass growing up around the veterans’ monument in the center of Avalon Park was getting on Ron Davis’ nerves. That’s why on Friday Davis, who lives across from the park on Revere Street with his wife Barbara, paid a contractor $175 from his own pocket to cut the grass in time for Memorial Day. “I’m not angry at the city,” Davis said. “I just got sick of looking at it.” Patrick J. Sullivan, director of Springfield parks, buildings and recreation management, said he’s also sick of looking at unkempt parks. But budget constraints have forced him to prioritize....

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has voted to renew the license of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth for another 20 years. The agency announced Friday that it has authorized staff to renew the license before it expires on June 8. The NRC voted 3-1 for relicensing, with outgoing chairman Gregory Jaczko the only no vote. Gov. Deval Patrick called the NRC’s decision "extremely troubling." He and other officials sought to delay relicensing until pending safety and environmental concerns were resolved. The NRC says the plant is safe, and the 6 ½ year review of Pilgrim’s application was the lengthiest...

But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves. ... The administrator responsible for Harvard Law School’s faculty diversity statistics from 1996 to 2004, the period in question, was Alan Ray, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who, like Warren, has fair skin, blue eyes, and Oklahoma roots. But Ray, now president of Elmhurst College in...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women... uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they failed...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women . . . uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they...

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago. But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves. In addition, both Harvard’s guidelines and federal regulations for the statistics lay out a...

An exasperated Elizabeth Warren told reporters Thursday that she’s certain about her Native American roots “because my mother told me so.” Surrounded by a group of reporters, the Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate was repeatedly questioned about why she hasn’t produced documentation to prove that she is part Native American. After several minutes of grilling, Warren said, “I am proud of my family and I am proud of my heritage.” “And does it include Indian background?” one reporter asked, according to the first report by masslive.com that was aired on several local Boston TV stations

On Thursday, Milford police arrested Tigoberto Orellano-Alonso, 25, after he was witnessed driving erratically on South Bow Street. The Mexican national was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol as well as driving without a license. . . According to a police report, Orellano-Alonso led the arresting officer on a short chase and failed to fully cooperate when stopped. An open container of alcohol was also observed inside the vehicle. . . In light of several recent incidents, it would seem that Massachusetts’ roads have become very dangerous . . Denice was hit and dragged close to a...

If there’s any politician that infuriates me more than a carpetbaggin’, recipe-stealing fake Indian, it’s one that unloads her imported BMW 528i just before announcing her candidacy, and then doesn’t even bother to pay the automobile excise tax on her campaign’s new Ford Escape. Yes, Comrade Warren, I’m talking about you. A BMW — how tenured Harvard Law is it? She’d owned it since early 2000, but it had to go. After all, she’s a “fight-ah,” as her new TV ad says. So adios BMW and hello used 2008 Ford — hybrid, of course — which is registered to her...

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that she knows she has Native American ancestry because her mother told her so. Warren’s comments came after nearly four minutes of tense back and forth between Warren and Fox 25 reporter Sharman Sacchetti and 7News reporter Andy Hiller. As both reporters questioned Warren about why she listed herself as a minority in law directories, Warren refused to answer, saying she had already answered questions about her background. Finally, Warren said, “I am proud of my family and I am proud of my heritage.” Hiller followed up: “Does it include an Indian background?”...

South Shore coffee chain Marylou’s is singing the blues over a federal employment-discrimination investigation, crying foul that the feds are going after its long-standing practice of hiring bubbly young bombshells to peddle the shop’s trademark joe. Company vice president Ronnie Sandry told the Herald that Marylou’s hiring is limited by its pool of applicants, who tend to be young women from the heavily white South Shore. ‘When you’re hiring a police officer, certain people show up,” Sandry said. “When you’re hiring a Patriots cheerleader, certain people show up. When we’re hiring, certain people apply, and we have no control over...

The mother of a Cambridge man fatally shot inside a Harvard University residence hall in 2009 is suing the school and its officials, alleging that Harvard negligently allowed the mastermind of the killing to operate a “criminal enterprise’’ in the dormitory that resulted in the killing. Denise Cosby filed the wrongful death suit in Middlesex Superior Court last week, saying that the university and its officials failed to protect her son, ­Justin Cosby, 21. He was shot inside Kirkland Hall May 18, 2009, when a drug rip-0ff turned violent. In a joint phone interview Wednesday, Denise Cosby’s attorneys, Issac H....

My Native-American name, from now on, is "Molests Your Poodle." You see, I have recently discovered that I am American Indian -- Cherokee, to be precise. How did I come to know that I had this wonderful new heritage? Simple: I read Ben Quigly's article about Elizabeth Warren (who is running for the Senate in Massachusetts), in which he defends her claim to be of Cherokee heritage. Ben produces no evidence that Ms. Warren actually does have Cherokee blood in her veins. In fact, he seems to concede she has none. However, he states that in some metaphysical way, that...

Elizabeth Warren, emerging from what many consider the roughest patch yet in her Senate campaign, has pulled into a virtual tie with US Senator Scott Brown, according to a new Suffolk University/7News poll. Warren, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has the support of 47 percent of likely voters in Massachusetts, compared to 48 percent for Brown, a dead heat in a poll with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

BOSTON—A Chinese national in Massachusetts on business was arrested for illegally supplying U.S. origin parts to end-users in China in violation of U.S. export laws. Qiang Hu, a/k/a Johnson Hu, 47, was charged in a complaint with conspiracy to violate the Export Administration Regulations and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The complaint, originally filed on May 18, was unsealed after Hu’s arrest at his hotel in North Andover yesterday. The complaint alleges that Hu has been the sales manager at MKS Instruments Shanghai Ltd. (MKS-Shanghai) since 2008. MKS-Shanghai is the Shanghai sales office of MKS Instruments Inc. (MKS), which...

A 29-year veteran transit cop is facing disciplinary action for dozing on the job while posted at a substation serving the Mattapan high speed line and Blue Hill Avenue buses, according to MBTA police. Transit Police staff discovered a picture of the sleeping officer posted on Twitter last night around 9:40 p.m. and immediately dispatched a supervisor to the station located on River Street in Mattapan, said Deputy Transit Police Chief Joseph O’Connor. “When the supervisor got there minutes later he found the officer alert and attending to his duties,” O’Connor said. “The officer, who regularly staffed the front desk...

This column originally appeared in THE DAILY BEAST. In looking ahead toward the November election, Republican strategists should take proactive steps to avoid a damaging, dangerous conclusion to the presidential race and to prevent the very real chance that Mitt Romney will win the Electoral College even while losing the popular vote badly to Barack Obama. The problem stems from the lopsided margins President Obama will surely pile up in a few uncontested states with big populations, including California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, will prevail by comparable margins in only relatively small states: Utah, Idaho, the...

The problem isn’t with private equity or, er, “raping” companies, he says, it’s simply a matter of challenging Romney’s claim of being a job creator. Which, of course, is a lie: Go back and watch Obama’s brutal ad about GST Steel, replete with a worker comparing Romney and Bain to a “vampire.” It’s an attack on Romney’s character, not his job-creating prowess, which is in keeping with the whole tenor of the battle over Bain. Ostensibly it’s an argument over employment numbers but in reality each side wants something deeper out of it. Romney wants voters to come away thinking...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) defended Bain in an interview with CNN Tuesday, saying, “I respect what Bain does and its role in the free market system.” KING: [Clyburn] said Bain Capital rapes companies. He says he can’t support companies that go around “raping companies.” PATRICK: Look, the question is whether Mitt Romney has what it takes—the preparation and the experience and the empathy—to serve as president of the United States. It’s not about whether Bain is good or bad. I have friends at Bain; I have friends who supported the other candidate in my own campaigns. I respect what...

C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. has agreed to pay a $126,700 penalty for claims it violated the federal Clean Air Act when a gas leak sickened workers at its North Hatfield Road warehouse, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reports. "We appreciate the opportunity to finalize this agreement and close the door on this event that occurred five years ago," Bryan T. Granger, a vice president in C&S's legal department, said, referring to the May 2007 incident. C&S is a major supplier to supermarket chains in the northeast. The Keene, N.H.-based company did not admit to any liability, but did agree to audit...

Bernie Quigley of The Hill has written himself into the laughstock status by his incredibly laughable excuse for Elizabeth Warren's false claim to be part Indian. According to Quigley, paleface Warren really wasn't lying about her ancestry. Why? I have placed Quigley's bizarre rationale below the fold so you have a chance to put down your drinks to prevent the drenching of your monitors when you read it: ...Warren's claim to be "part Indian" is correct in mythical terms. "...In the heartland it is almost universal for those who have been there for a few generations to claim Indian blood;...

Right Wing Nut set-up down drink and click-em Pic-of-Squaw for heap big Haw Haw.

Russ Caswell, 68, is bewildered: “What country are we in?” He and his wife, Pat, are ensnared in a Kafkaesque nightmare unfolding in Orwellian language. This town’s police department is conniving with the federal government to circumvent Massachusetts law — which is less permissive than federal law — to seize his livelihood and retirement asset. In the lawsuit titled United States of America v. 434 Main Street, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, the government is suing an inanimate object, the motel Caswell’s father built in 1955. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to seize it, sell it for perhaps $1.5 million and give...

Elizabeth Warren may be providing an embarrassing sideshow to the national Democratic effort, but in Massachusetts, she's the main event. Warren's use of unsubstantiated claims to slight Cherokee heritage during her career damaged her credibility, but accusations of plagiarism may end up derailing Warren's career. Is it too late for Democrats in Massachusetts to find a new candidate? The Boston Herald asked the question, and the answer is --- unlikely, although not entirely impossible: “The Democratic Party is really stuck,” countered University of New Hampshire political science professor Andrew Smith. “They essentially cleared the path for her as a candidate,...

... So Warren's claim to be "part Indian" is correct in mythical terms. Every old-school white Oklahoman is in this regard even if this in nominally not true. But it is not a lie to want to be Indian and to imagine your ancestors were. It is to be free of Europeanism."

They ought to change the name of the next edition of “Pow Wow Chow” to Pow Wow Ciao, and Granny Warren can write a farewell address to any moonbats left who believe anything she says. We now have found lifted Recipe No. 3 — “Herbed Tomatoes” originally appeared in the September 1959 edition of Better Homes and Gardens. OK, this is not quite as delicious (in more ways than one) as cold crab omelet. Granny did make a few changes. Lieawatha’s “Herbed Tomatoes” was originally “Hot Herbed Tomatoes.” And she cut one of the 10 ingredients — one-half teaspoon monosodium...

Bay State Democrats are standing by their woman, saying they’re confident in embattled Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren — now three weeks into a persistent scandal over her claims of Native American heritage — though critics say she’ll arrive at her party’s state convention next month battered by it. “This is a race that is a dead heat,” said state Democratic Party chairman John Walsh, citing a recent poll and insisting the flap has had no effect on Warren’s standing as the party’s front-runner. He said no one is talking about replacing her. “It’s not a sentiment that is out there...

It used to be a lot simpler. As E.C. Bentley, British journalist and man of letters, deftly summarized it in 1905: "Geography is about maps. But biography is about chaps." But that was then, and now biography is also about maps. For example, have you ever thought it would be way cooler to have been born in colonial Kenya? Whoa, that sounds like crazy Birther talk; don't go there! But Breitbart News did, and it turns out that the earliest recorded example of Birtherism is from the president's own literary agent, way back in 1991, in the official bio of...

A U.S. District Court in Florida convicted a former Florida postal worker of health care fraud after she was caught participating in more than 80 long-distance races, including the Boston Marathon, all while taking workers' compensation for a back injury. ... However, photos and videos emerged showing Myers participating in the races, including a triathlon. And in what would ordinarily be considered good news, her race times actually improved after she made her initial injury claim. Last October, a marathon "winner" in London was disqualified after it was revealed he had cheated by taking a public bus for a significant...

The credibility of Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren took another hit today as Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr released evidence that appears to confirm Ms. Warren may have plagiarized at least three of the five recipes she submitted to the 1984 Pow Wow Chow cookbook edited by her cousin Candy Rowsey. Two of the possibly plagiarized recipes, said in the Pow Wow Chow cookbook to have been passed down through generations of Oklahoma Native American members of the Cherokee tribe, are described in a New York Times News Service story as originating at Le Pavilion, a fabulously...

If I might make one suggestion before the updated version of the “Pow Wow Chow” cookbook is released: Next time, Liz, hold the mayo. Even if you were 1/1000th Native American — which you’re not — and even if Cherokees did hold pow wows — which Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes told the Herald yesterday they don’t — even then, your contribution to authentic teepee cuisine is “Crab With Tomato Mayonnaise Dressing?” Why didn’t you throw in Tuna Casserole and Some Twinkies while you’re at it? Like her recipe (“serve salad with remaining mayo on the side”), everything about Liz Warren...

The race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts has taken a turn toward the absurd. The contest pits two highly qualified candidates — Scott Brown, the incumbent, who made history by snatching Ted Kennedy’s seat away from the Democrats, and challenger Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law professor and whiz-kid of the Obama administration who created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If any election could be counted on to maintain a high-minded tone and stick to important issues, it’s this one. Instead, Topic A is Warren’s facial features. From a campaign standpoint, Warren hasn’t done much to end this silly brouhaha. She...

You can’t make this stuff up. On May 1, according to a Boston Herald article, the Warren Campaign offered two pieces of evidence they said supported Ms. Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry. The first, a statement by genealogist Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society has now been thoroughly debunked in an article that ran Friday here at Breitbart, and another article that same day at Legal Insurrection. The second piece of evidence was equally suspect. The Warren Campaign offered reporters an undated article from the Muskogee Phoenix about the contributions of Elizabeth Warren’s first cousin, Mrs....

NEW YORK — Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was found dead on the family’s property north of New York City on Wednesday, two years after her husband filed for divorce and following a history of drug and alcohol problems. Kerry A. Lawrence, a lawyer who had represented Mary Kennedy in a 2010 drunk driving case, confirmed the death, but neither he nor police in the town of Bedford in Westchester County, N.Y., released a cause of death. An autopsy was scheduled Thursday, the Associated Press reported. According to a brief statement from Bedford police,...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s estranged wife has died. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, 52-year-old Mary Kennedy was found dead in her Mount Kisco, New York home this afternoon. The Bedford Police Department responded to the scene at approximately 1:36pm to investigate a possible "unattended death," meaning the death was not witnessed by anyone. Mary and RFK Jr. were married in 1994. Robert filed for divorce in May 2010. Mary was Robert's second wife. The couple has four children together. There are reports Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently dating actress Cheryl Hines.

Police are currently at the home of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in New York, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively. One source tells Radar that his wife, Mary Kennedy was found dead.

There has been a lot in the news about Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who is running for US Senate. It seems she may have wrongly claimed to be Native American to help further her career. Of course, she claims she "checked the box" to get involved in social activities with "people who are like" she is. I would like to know what she meant by the statement "people who are like I am." If she means people like Ward Churchill, I guess I get it, but if she means people like me and other REAL Indians, I...

You see, Ms. Warren, some of us have independently done our own research and we know you have no documentation supporting your claim of Cherokee ancestry.* We wonder why you believe you have the right to claim Cherokee ancestry and to call yourself a Native American when you have no evidence to support your claim. While you cling to a family story and the inaccurate report that ONE document was found that supports your claim, we real Cherokees understand that those things mean nothing. You see, we Cherokees have lots and lots and lots of documentation supporting our claims of...

Don't bet on Mitt Romney winning his home state of Massachusetts. Or even trying. Romney was never a hero in the liberal bastion, and aides say there are other ways he can win the White House without the 11 electoral votes the state offers.

ACUSHNET (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A Catholic church in Acushnet is stirring up controversy because of what's on a sign out front. A sign outside of the Saint Francis Xavier Church Tuesday now reads "TWO MEN ARE FRIENDS NOT SPOUSES." Someone who didn't agree left a rainbow colored balloon and a note that read "you may not be welcome in the church, but all people are welcome in this community! Spread LOVE not hate!" The church sits directly across from the town hall and serves the Fall River Diocese. Angry parishioners and residents took to the church's Facebook page...

The controversy over Elizabeth Warren's claim to Native American ancestry shows no signs of dying down, and is now threatening to derail her campaign for Republican Scott Brown's Massachusetts Senate seat. Politico reporter Maggie Haberman has now uncovered Pa 1997 piece from the Fordham Law Review that refers to Warren as "the first woman of color" hired by Harvard Law School. The piece cites as its source Harvard Law spokesman Michael Chmura, the same spokesman who bragged about Warren's Native American heritage to the Harvard Crimson in 1996. Warren has so far dismissed the story, which first surfaced when the...