Free Republic

It’s an interesting dynamic. And apparently it goes both ways. It’s not news that black politicians, particularly of the older sort, hate Obama. The Congressional Black Caucus nearly went all in for Hillary. Jesse Jackson talked about cutting off Obama’s nuts. No doubt much worse was said in private. Some of this may be a personality clash between the old corrupt generation of black pols, the Charlie Rangel era, and the younger savvier Cory Bookers, like the one that played out in Newark. The Charlie Rangels think the Obamas and Bookers are too slick and too phony, that they don’t...

Earlier this week, ABC and Fusion published the results of a poll commissioned to dig a little more deeply into the "almost unfathomable gap" that divides public attitudes on "gender, race, religion and politics in America." The results were predictable to anyone who has bothered to switch back and forth between MSNBC and Fox News—Republicans think religion should play a role in government, liberals think racism is real—but the findings on women in leadership were actually a bit surprising. Forty-three percent of Americans say it would be a good thing if more women were elected to Congress—but the range here...

Polls indicate that the public is so disgusted with Washington politicians of both parties that a surprisingly large proportion of the people would like to get rid of the whole lot of them. It is certainly understandable that the voters would like to "throw the rascals out." But there is no point in throwing the rascals out, if we are just going to get a new set of rascals to replace them. In other words, we need to think about what there is about current political practices that repeatedly bring to power such a counterproductive set of people. Those we...

The public's opinion of politicians of both parties seems to have reached a new low. But no matter how much the voters detest Congress — or how justifiably — that does not mean that there will be radical changes at the next election. For one thing, "Congress" is not on the ballot. Only individual members of Congress are. Most voters like their own Senator or Representative, often because of special favors that these incumbents have done for their own constituency — at the taxpayers' expense. Add to this the so-called "campaign reform" laws that restrict the raising of money that...

In Alaska we had a group of politicos who chuckled as they dubbed themselves the “CBC,” which stands for “Corrupt Bastards Club.” But it was no laughing matter. I, and many others, took them on. We won. When I served as chairman of our state’s Oil and Gas Commission, I reported on the cronyism of the chair of my own Party, who had been appointed by our governor to that same energy regulating commission. (Click here to see a reporter’s reaction to a short Newt Gingrich interview on the matter.) The whistle blowing resulted in him receiving the largest ethics...

Cool tool comparing voting records.

If you want to become part of the new nobility that is emerging in the American population, the good news is that it is possible.  The bad news is that it is not without cost in time, energy, money and effort. Here are ways to become a member in the new nobility: 1.  Become a police officer.   A street level police officer is at the low end of the noble class spectrum.    The lower end of a noble class always have greater numbers than the highest ends.   Police are treated with deference and have special privileges and immunities that the...

How fitting that Senator Ted Cruz’s 21-hour anti-Obamacare speech on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C., happened to coincide with the opening of the U.N. General Assembly and the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Rarely is the distance separating the caste that rules our world from its few, heavily despised critics so literal.

What’s Nancy Pelosi doing right? While the other top congressional leaders are fading, the House minority leader and former speaker is on the rise, according to the latest Quinnipiac University Thermometer poll, which shows the California Democrat is gaining popularity as one of the nation’s top political figures. **SNIP** While Democrats give her a 64.2 percent warmth rating, the best among the four leaders, self-identified Republicans score her at 19.8, the lowest of the group.

Capture No Joke: Proposal to Open Museum of Political Corruption in New York August 1, 2013 // By: Rusty Weiss // Corruption, Crime, Culture, New York, Scandal // 1 comment 2 inShare Share via email inShare Submit to reddit Whether it’s bilking taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, funneling money into non-profits so that pet poodles can get spa treatments, trying to rig the New York City mayor’s race, serially harassing women and then covering it up, perpetually sexting one’s junk, or committing extensive and persistent voter fraud, the Empire State has certainly had more than its fair...

There's a new face of chutzpah to join that of the former Bell city manager: Bruce Malkenhorst. Malkenhorst is a former city manager of Vernon who was paid an obscene salary of more than $900,000 a year. He is now suing that city because he doesn't think his CalPERS pension is generous enough. His pension is $115,000, but he's not satisfied with that -- though the median household income for the Los Angeles County city of Vernon is $38,625, according to the 2010 Census. That's because the California Public Employees Retirement System originally granted Malkenhorst a pension of $545,000 a...

So the Twitter pervert Anthony Weiner has been caught with his internet pants round his ankles yet again. There he was, ahead amongst Democrats vying to become New York Mayor, and with the worst timing possible, a young woman reveals that Mr Weiner – or Carlos Danger as he prefers – was sending her dirty pictures and dirty messages less than a year after he resigned from Congress for sending dirty pictures and dirty messages. Oh and for serially lying about it as well. In an attempt to rescue his political ambitions yet again, his long-suffering wife stood by him...

As defenses go to the charge of having lied to the people of New York about illegal activities, Eliot Spitzer's might not have been the best. Hey, politicans lie all the time about all sorts of stuff, was the essence of Client #9-turned-Comptroller-candidate's response. Spitzer's lame defense [he literally said: "I think we all know that politicians dissemble all the time about negotiations, on substantive issues and probably on personal issues as well"] came in response to some serious grilling by Mark Halperin on today's Morning Joe. The Spitzer segment was set up to feature Mika Brzezinski as chief inquisitor,...

Laurel given to writer for measuring Supreme Court July 4, 2013 Lewistown Sentinel To the editor: I want to compliment Mr. Clyde Bailey for his well presented letter, "Supreme Court seems to disregard Constitution" of July 2. The Supreme Court has definitely turned political and is a far cry from what the founding fathers had in mind. The bad thing about the Supreme Court's decisions is that they are deciding on moral issues, issues that should be debated and voted on by the citizenry. An example of the moral issues decision was the Supreme Court abortion vote which was presented...

The Fourth of July is always an occasion to think about what the United States of America has been, is and will be. A good way to reflect on that is to pick up a copy of "America 3.0" by James Bennett and Michael Lotus and ponder its lessons. As the title suggests, Bennett and Lotus see the nation as having evolved from an agricultural America 1.0 to an industrial America 2.0 and struggling now to evolve again into an information age America 3.0. That's a familiar framework. Where they differ from other analyses is that they see the roots...

The annual ritual known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee came and went last week with kids spelling words that, I suspect, many with graduate degrees couldn't spell. The winner was Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bayside Hills, N.Y. Mahankali is the first boy to win the title since 2008. There is a lesson to be learned from the success of these young people, including the ones who came close to winning but didn't. It is the value of persistence. Mahankali won this year by spelling the German word "knaidel." He lost the bee three times before and was...

It’s raining snakes in Washington, DC Police reports in the Adams Morgan area of our nation’s capital detail recent occurrences of snakes falling out of trees and onto children. Police believe the intimidating inhabitants of Walter Pierce park to be black rat snakes, WTOP reports. The snakes fell out of trees in a playground near the National Zoo, which caused panic among the children. Black rat snakes are not poisonous, but they do constrict their small prey to kill it. The responding officer was able to capture a small one in a water bottle. Officials at the zoo said there...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 Put Not Your Trust in Politicians Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog 4 Comments The most obvious lessons of the defeat of gun control and the push for illegal alien amnesty is that politicians don't matter. People do. The Tea Party invested its energy into electing the right people, but as Rick Scott and Marco Rubio showed us, there may be no such thing as the right people. Politicians are in the business of selling out. The difference between Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist was that Rubio hadn't really been tested. But that...

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves. He also said he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion. The pontiff was asked about the topics in reference to a threat from the Catholic bishops in Mexico to excommunicate members of the Mexico City legislative assembly who recently voted to legalize abortion in the nation’s capital. “Yes, this...

LAWBREAKERS, LAWMAKERS: In some parts of Chicago, violent street gangs and pols quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The thugs flourish, the elected officials thrive—and you lose. ... both law enforcement and gang sources say, is that some politicians ignore the gangs’ criminal activities. Some go so far as to protect gangs from the police, tipping them off to impending raids or to surveillance activities—in effect, creating safe havens in their political districts. And often they chafe at backing tough measures to stem gang activities, advocating instead for superficial solutions that may garner good press but have little...