Free Republic

Republican Texas Sen. and likely 2016 White House competitor Ted Cruz will speak at next February's Conservative Political Action Conference -- but first he'll be honored in Manhattan by the Zionist Organization of America. The ZOA, which calls itself the nation's "oldest pro-Israel organization," will give Cruz the Dr. Bob Shillman Award at its annual Justice Louis D. Brandeis dinner on Nov. 23. The Shillman Award goes to "an outstanding pro-Israel U.S. legislator who has a consistent and extraordinary record supporting Israel and promoting strong U.S.-Israel relations." It will be presented to Cruz at the Grand Hyatt in midtown by...

Still above 8%—and closer to 19% in a truer accounting... Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work. The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep...

Real-estate and newspaper mogul Mortimer Zuckerman voted for Obama but began seeing trouble as soon as the stimulus went into the pockets of municipal unions. 'It's as if he doesn't like people," says real-estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman of the president of the United States. Barack Obama doesn't seem to care for individuals, elaborates Mr. Zuckerman, though the president enjoys addressing millions of them on television. The Boston Properties CEO is trying to understand why Mr. Obama has made little effort to build relationships on Capitol Hill or negotiate a bipartisan economic plan. A longtime...

Real-estate and newspaper mogul Mortimer Zuckerman voted for Obama but began seeing trouble as soon as the stimulus went into the pockets of municipal unions. 'It's as if he doesn't like people," says real-estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman ... The Boston Properties CEO is trying to understand why Mr. Obama has made little effort to build relationships on Capitol Hill or negotiate a bipartisan economic plan. A longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, Mr. Zuckerman wrote in these pages two months ago that the entire business community was "pleading for some kind of adult supervision"...

The emergence of real-estate magnate -- and Daily News Publisher -- Mortimer Zuckerman as a potential candidate for the United States Senate is an event all New Yorkers of good will can welcome. This isn't an endorsement of Zuckerman's candidacy. Indeed, it's not at all clear that he'll even make the run. But here's hoping he does. The Senate seat in question is now held by David Paterson protégé -- and Chuck Schumer hand puppet -- Kirsten Gillibrand. She's an upstate cipher whose sole qualification for the job is that Paterson appointed her to it when Hillary Rodham Clinton gave...

Beer distributor Yusef Jackson has finally added a coveted title: publisher... Son of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leader Rev. Jesse Jackson is attempting to resuscitate Radar, a saucy New York culture magazine that folded last year. He also said he’s hungry for other media properties, including the Chicago Sun-Times, for which he was an unsuccessful suitor in 2004, and possibly properties Tribune Co. sells off as it pares $500 million in assets amid a corporate restructuring. Mr. Jackson declined to say who his co-investors are in Radar. In 2004 he sought to buy the Sun-Times with California billionaire Ron Burkle, but he...

"A danger to democracy is brewing right here in our backyard," writes U.S. News and World Report publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman in his recent column. By "backyard" Zuckerman is referring to Venezuela and its Castroite president, Hugo Chavez. For years conservatives have been worried about the growing menace of Chavez. But Zuckerman, a centrist Democrat, adds weight to their concerns. Zuckerman blames the situation on "an ill-judged intervention by former President Jimmy Carter," which allowed Chavez to narrowly survive a recall election and enabled him to accelerate "his subversion of Venezuela's democracy by a scummy deal with Fidel Castro. ..."...