Free Republic

Columbus -- The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday slapped former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann with a six-month law license suspension for his 2010 criminal conviction for mishandling campaign financial matters. Dann, a Democrat who resigned as attorney general in 2008 after just 17 scandal-ridden months in office, has since worked as a private practice attorney in Cleveland. He had pleaded with the high court for leniency. He was found guilty of soliciting improper compensation and for filing false financial disclosures, misdemeanors that occurred while he was attorney general, according to court records. Dann has since paid a $1,000 fine...

On Twitter yesterday, some of my conservative friends beat me up for writing about Marco Rubio’s comments to GQ about the Earth’s age. Their point was that it was a silly question (it was.) And that it was feeding a liberal meme (it is.) But the notion that this means we should ignore it is also silly. In the heat of a campaign, it might be wise to parry such questions – and pivot to talking about your strengths. This is called staying on message. But I’m not on a campaign. And the election is over. If there were ever...

Pune; Mumbai - Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was executed and buried in Pune’s Yerawada Central Prison on Wednesday, five days before the fourth anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in which 165 people were killed. The Pakistani terrorist, the lone surviving 26/11 gunman, was hanged to death at 7.30 am, soon after The Indian Express reported in its print and online editions that President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected his mercy petition. Kasab was moved to Yerawada prison from Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail on Monday night as part of a top secret manouvre codenamed Operation X. “The transfer was done with...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that will go into effect Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time. “This is a critical moment for the region,” Clinton said during a news conference with Egypt’s foreign minister in Cairo. “The people of this region deserve the chance to live free from fear and violence.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the cease-fire deal and said in a statement Israel would “give a chance” to the Egyptian-brokered deal.

More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation. The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee. Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since...

I have a great idea whom Barack Obama should nominate as his next CIA director: Gen. David Petraeus. With that simple announcement, Obama could strike a blow for civil liberties and against the silly and destructive sexual Puritanism that has taken down so many public figures. Since Petraeus’ departure both Democrats and Republicans have been mourning the loss of a public servant of extraordinary ability. So let’s mourn no more. The president can say that when news of Petraeus’ affair first broke he reluctantly accepted the general’s resignation. But as it has become clear that the events were wholly of...

"Catholicism teaches that it is a sin to use, provide, or otherwise support contraception." These words are not from the Catholic Catechism or a sermon by a Catholic bishop. They are excerpted from the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland issued last month temporarily stopping the Obama administration from forcing a family-owned outdoor-power-equipment company to comply with an Obamacare regulation that requires virtually all health care plans to provide women (but not men) with co-pay-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. The judge stated the Catholic teaching on contraception as an undisputed fact of the case. He...

Can I call ‘em or what? On Monday, I wrote regarding the question posed to Marco Rubio about when the Earth was created, The “crazy-ing” of Marco Rubio begins: Marco Rubio is on the short list of Republican presidential contenders for 2016. Of course, that’s a long way away, so who knows if he remains on the short list. So Rubio’s a target even more so than in the past couple of years. Every question in every interview is a potential land mine. There can be no off-the-cuff remarks. The motus operandi will be to “crazy” him, the long-standing tactic...

chicagotribune.com Proposed 'mega-dairy' may close before opening Four-year legal fight nears end with California businessman dropping plans for site near Galena By Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune reporter 11:15 PM CST, November 20, 2012 A controversial plan to build the largest dairy in Illinois has been put out to pasture, state officials announced Tuesday. The Illinois attorney general's office announced a proposed settlement in which the owners of the 5,500-head dairy planned near Galena will clean up and leave, to the joy of local opponents. "We've agreed they would not seek permitting to allow the dairy, and they've decided to dismantle...

AS the holiday season approaches, the major airlines are signaling to some passengers to take a hike. At least that’s what travelers might infer from the smaller number of flights being scheduled at many of the nation’s airports. Between 2007 and 2012, airlines cut the number of domestic passenger flights by 14 percent, ... The reason is simple: airlines have decided that the best way to earn a healthy return on their investment is to maintain tight discipline on capacity. That’s a fancy way of saying they want their planes to fly as full as sardine cans. ... But this,...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) – When you make a return this holiday season you may have to hand over more than just your receipt, as retailers try to prevent repeated returns. “I was required to provide them a copy of my driver’s license, where they actually took the information and scanned it into their database,” said a shopper who asked to be identified only as Leslie. Leslie told the sales associate at The Children’s Place that she was uncomfortable handing over her ID just to make an exchange, but she was told that the requirement is corporate policy. In fact,...

They Are Going To Make It Nearly Impossible To Pass On A Farm Or A Business To Your Children By Michael Snyder on November 20th, 2012 If you have a farm or a small business, would you like to pass it on to your children when you die? Well, unless Congress does something, it is going to become much, much harder to do that starting next year. Right now, there is a 5 million dollar estate tax exemption and anything above that is taxed at 35 percent. But on January 1st, the exemption will go down to 1 million dollars...

A corporate bankruptcy is a paper death. The underlying assets live on. Killers of paper structures, in this light, are devalued villains, but a cry has gone up to identify the villain behind the pending liquidation of Hostess Brands, maker of Twinkies, Devil Dogs, Wonder Bread and other déclassé delights. Everyone knows the answer: It was the bakers—i.e., the branch of the AFL-CIO formally known as the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. The bakers are guilty of a perfectly justifiable attempted homicide. Don't believe any guff about how chubby Americans are gnawing on carrot sticks. Forget...

On Sunday, Eustace and dozens of fellow firefighter volunteers served 800 free hot meals from a steamy Army tent in this hemorrhaging beach community, where there are no longer stores or restaurants, where most people have no gas to cook with, no heat or hot water and no hot food. That afternoon, a freon-blooded inspector from the city’s Department of Health issued Eustace a notice of violation for not meeting the same food-handling standards as, say, the Four Seasons. This is beyond outrageous. This is Emperor Bloomberg’s bureaucracy gone completely mad in a time of death and destruction in the...

I keep thinking, "Christie can't possibly come back from this." And then I think, "Wait, did we actually just nominate John McCain and the guy responsible for RomneyCare?"Never underestimate the Republican capacity to forgive, my friends. But behind the scenes, the intensity of the reaction from those in Mr. ChristieÂ’s party caught him by surprise, interviews show, requiring a rising Republican star to try to contain a tempest that left him feeling deeply misunderstood and wounded... The tensions followed Mr. Christie to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Las Vegas last week. At a gathering where he...

Now that the election is over, nine Republican and nine Democrats have asked the president to stop making excuses and build a job-creating pipeline that will close the revenue gap through economic growth. The truly bipartisan group of senators, led by Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and powerful chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, wrote President Obama on Friday urging him to quickly issue a permit for the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring over 830,000 barrels of crude from Canada's oil sands to American refineries every day. "Setting...

The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is demanding an immediate explanation from the nation’s top intelligence official, James Clapper, for what the chairman says were inconsistent statements to Congress and to the public on who was behind changes to the CIA talking points on the Libya consulate attack in September. Critics say the Obama administration initially minimized the role of terrorism despite evidence of a coordinated attack on the consulate in Benghazi. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the assault. Testimony last week on Capitol Hill raised additional questions about the administration's changing story...

Jeff Kuhner Podcast: An immature girl takes a crude photo at the Arlington National Cemetry, and now people are calling for her to be fired from her job.

The European Parliament has voted to separate regulation on motorized and non-motorized bicycles, a move two-wheeler associations say will safeguard investment in cycling. In the plenary session, European lawmakers decided on Tuesday (20 November) that any electronically power assisted cycle (EPAC) under 250 watts (0.335 hp) and a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour (15.5 mph) would remain a bicycle. Anything more powerful is considered a motorbike, in line with the European Commission’s original proposal. …

TAMPA — Soon after she was appointed honorary consul to South Korea, Jill Kelley of Tampa went to work trying to establish a relationship between that country and the University of South Florida's medical school. "I was nominated for this diplomatic appointment, for the purpose to facilitate new agreements in the USA with my contacts," Kelley wrote in a Sept. 7 email to USF medical school dean Stephen Klasko. "I have a unique opportunity to propose bids because of my relationship with the top executive branch of Korea, and in addition, the President of the Free Trade Act is my...