Free Republic

Dear Commissioner Shulman: We write to inquire if the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") is investigating or intends to investigate whether groups designated as "social welfare" organizations, and thus receiving tax and other advantages under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), 26 U.S.C. 501(c)4), are improperly engaged in a substantial or even a predominant amount of campaign activity.... Signed, Michael F. Bennet, U.S. Senator Al Franken, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. • The uncle of a Democratic Missouri lawmaker has pleaded guilty to voter fraud in an election that his nephew won by a single vote — a circumstance that the lawmaker described Tuesday as "an unfortunate situation."

The division of the Internal Revenue Service that improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative groups sent confidential information on 31 conservative groups to the well-funded liberal nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, according to a revelation made by ProPublica Monday. “The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year,” according to the ProPublica report. “In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications...

A judge warned Peter Robbins that he could be sent to prison for nearly four years if he violates the terms of his probation. He sentenced him to one year in jail, but immeditely suspended it and ordered him to attend a drug treatment programme instead. "Don't be a blockhead," Superior Court Judge Dwayne Moring told Robbins, borrowing a line from Charlie Brown's friend Lucy. Robbins, 56, choked back tears as he told the judge that treatment for alcoholism and addiction to prescription medications would be a first step toward becoming "the fun-loving person" he was. He said he loved...

Rats or Humans? Inside Saddam's Extermination Plant(August 29, 2002)This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/ He was introduced as director of research and development at Falluja, one of the remote factories where the United States claims Saddam Hussein could be making chemical and biological weapons. Asked if he had worked on any of Saddam's chemical weapons programs, Dr Mohammed Frah played a straight bat: "In the early 1980s I worked for five years on the chemical and biological programs at Al-Muthanna." This is the name of a critical centre in Saddam's weapons program - a huge pesticide complex that produced...

One would naturally think it impossible that anyone would hesitate – even for an instant – to honor the woman who tackled communism head on as prime minister of Great Britain. Lady Margaret Thatcher was a principled politician who helped to foster the special relationship between Great Britain and the United States that we all benefit from today. A Senate resolution to honor Lady Thatcher was supposed to pass last night. However, per well placed sources on the Hill, Democrats have a hold on the resolution. To refuse to honor a woman of such great historical and political significance, who...

Chantal Banks says she loves her rats more than she loves people. So when her husband told her he didn't want rats in the house anymore, she moved into a two-bedroom apartment so she could keep her 19 pets. ... "My husband will never have the type of bond that I have with my rats," Banks said. "My rats don’t judge me. They love me for who I am. When I cry, they lick my tears. And when they’re hungry, I feed them."

Cats' Family Tree Rooted In Fertile Crescent, Study ConfirmsCats, with their penchant for hunting mice, rats and other rodents, became useful companions as people domesticated, grew and stored wild grains and grasses. Eventually, cats also became pets but were never fully domesticated. Even today, most domestic cats remain self-sufficient, if necessary, and continue to be efficient hunters, even when provided with food. (Credit: Michele Hogan) ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2008) — The Fertile Crescent of the Middle East has long been identified as a "cradle of civilization" for humans. In a new genetic study, researchers at the University of California, Davis,...

Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats. Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets from the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 district of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said. "They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir. "They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that...

At the height of Superstorm Sandy, city residents watching seawater pour into the subway system couldn’t help but wonder: What will become of all the rats? Four months later, that’s still a mystery. And experts aren’t so sure about stories of hordes of displaced rodents fleeing the flood zone and taking up residence in buildings that were previously rat-free. TV stations and newspapers have been rife with reports about rats infesting parked cars and fleeing the East River waterfront for the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights and exterminators enjoying a boom in business. For some city officials, the last straw came...

PLOVER, Wis., - Authorities in Wisconsin said a woman found to be living with more than 300 rats running loose in her trailer home is being evicted. The Portage County Sheriff's Department said Darlene Flatoff will be evicted from her Birch Tree Estates home in Plover within the next 10 days after health officials discovered the woman has been keeping more than 300 rats loose in her home since March of last year and possibly longer, the Wausau Daily Herald reported Thursday. Officials said the rodents and their droppings are posing a health risk. They said Flatoff bought her first...

**SNIP** What are citizens to do when their government refuses to follow its own laws? The answers to this question throughout history have been hugely unhappy. When individuals in government de-legitimize their own institutions by breaking the rules, rebellion, repression and general lawlessness have often been the result. This is why the rule of law has been so central to happy, healthy and prosperous lives since Cicero was still in swaddling. Americans have done better at this than anyone else, having inherited the love of the law from our British progenitors. The Founding Fathers took it a step further by...

A 2012 performance review of the The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) revealed several disturbing findings by the State Auditor last month, which included a non-existent accounting system for CEO’s 34 programs, a runaway budget, and staff who had no knowledge of program goals or standards. The forty-eight page report was was dated December 18, 2012 and included background information on the CEO, key facts and findings, the State Auditor concerns, and recommendations for the CEO moving forward. The CEO was established via executive order in 1977 as the Office of Energy Conservation. Last year, House Bill 12-1315 changed CEO’s overall...

Obama and his minions seem to think that freedom is a four-letter word. His administration has imposed an array of intrusive, nanny-state, financial, environmental and consumer-product regulations that will cost Americans hundreds of billions of dollars. ... the erosion of transparency in government, wasteful spending, burdensome regulation, and waning trust in the integrity of the public sector. A senior presidential appointee who epitomizes all of those flaws is EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who has a cynical, hyper-regulatory, damn-the-science philosophy ... EPA systematically exaggerates benefits and underestimates costs. EPA is a serial offender when it comes to egregious government waste, fraud,...

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to ban the sale of a dozen rat and mouse poisons sold under the popular D-Con brand ... The company will have at least 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge. If no hearing is requested, the ban will take effect.

Updated: January 15, 2013 2:17AM When President Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term, his hand will rest not only on President Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, but on Dr. Martin Luther King’s, too. As the ceremony falls on the federal holiday celebrating Dr. King’s birth, the civil rights leader would no doubt be proud as an African-American president is sworn in on the steps of a Capitol built by slave labor, about 170 miles from Jamestown where slave ships landed. We have come a long way. But Dr. King would not be satisfied. He marched to his own drummer,...

Ald. Sandi Jackson has resigned from the Chicago City Council. The 7th Ward alderman submitted her resignation letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel today. It is effective Tuesday. "After much consideration and while dealing with very painful family health matters, I have met with my family and determined that the constituents of the 7th Ward, as well as you Mr. Mayor, and my colleagues in the City Council deserve a partner who can commit all of their energies to the business of the people. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I tender my resignation as Alderman of 7th Ward,...

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda operatives slaughtered nearly 3,000 Americans in an operation that marked the second major attack by violent jihadists against the World Trade Center. There wasn’t much mystery about who had carried out these atrocities — unless you were Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Marayati warned Americans not to conclude that the suicide hijacking attacks were the work of Muslim terrorists. “If we are going to look at suspects,” he told a Los Angeles radio station, “we should look at groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I...

McCaskill, Colleagues Call for Action from President ObamaSenator tells President: ‘The clock is ticking’ Posted: Friday, November 30, 2012 12:40 pm WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill and a bipartisan group of her Senate colleagues, including fellow Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, are calling on President Obama to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take action ensuring that commercial navigation of the Mississippi River remains possible. “The President needs to take a look at what’s happening in the Midwest and act,” McCaskill said. “The clock is ticking while jobs and businesses in the region are endangered, and it’s imperative...

Everett Stadig recuperating in the hospital after being shoved and breaking his hip. Photo courtesy of Everett Stadig. Denver, Colo., Nov 21, 2012 / 04:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The arrest of a prominent Denver relator who allegedly assaulted a senior citizen collecting signatures for a pro-life petition has lead to new developments in three unsolved rape cases. “Were it not for Mr. Costello’s arrest at the grocery store in July, there would have been no new leads, and there would have been no charges filed in connection with these three unsolved sexual assaults,� Lynn Kimbrough of the Denver District...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A former Los Angeles mayor leading an effort to change pensions plans for newly-hired public employees says he has evidence that a low-level union member is behind an alleged illegal counter-campaign. KNX 1070′s Bill Polish reports Richard Riordan is hoping to amass enough signatures to put a plan to transition newly-hired city workers away from taxpayer-guaranteed pensions and towards 401(k)-style accounts before voters in May. Download: 2-fraud-bpo-w-rick-riordan-fmr-la-mayor.mp3 According to an email obtained and released by Riordan, an employee with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 sent out an email calling on members to sign...

The House Science Committee is investigating whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson used the secret email alias "Richard Windsor" to hide internal communications from government watchdogs—an action that may violate open-records laws.

Poor management decisions by MF Global's former CEO Jon Corzine triggered the brokerage firm's collapse, while lax protections for customer funds contributed to the loss of an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money, U.S. congressional investigators have determined.

New York Times best-selling author Brad Thor, based in Chicago, tells TheBlaze that the Obama campaign may be planning to preemptively announce victory in the presidential election based on early voting numbers in an attempt to “demoralize Mitt Romney supporters.” Citing a “very solid source” in Chicago, Thor says the Obama campaign is looking to make it appear to voters that they have “this thing sewed up and are less than 24 hours to victory,” according to his source. Meanwhile, team Obama will also urge voters to get out and vote so they can say they were part of the...

<p>U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, was evacuated last week from the Central African nation of Niger, where he was stranded during a coup, by a military contractor the outspoken congressman has railed against in the past.</p> <p>Grayson was on a House Committee on Science and Technology tour last Thursday when a military coup closed the airport in Niger and then took over the government, violently entering buildings close to the U.S. Embassy compound where he was staying.</p>

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says in a new interview that she can’t stand “whining” by women who are unhappy with the work and family choices they’ve made in life and complain that they have no options. Clinton, in the interview with Marie Claire, was discussing Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning at the State Department who left in 2011. This summer, Slaughter wrote a much-discussed cover story in the Atlantic - “Why Women Still Can’t Have It all” - about leaving her job because of the difficulty of balancing her work at State with the needs of...

Vice President Joseph Biden speaks only for himself and President Barack Obama, and neither man was aware that U.S. officials in Libya had asked the State Department for more security before the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a top White House official told The Cable. Biden has come under fire for saying at Thursday night's debate, "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there." The Cable asked Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications Ben Rhodes whether Biden was speaking for the entire Obama administration, including the State Department,...

Video at link...Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Thursday that the “entire reason” the terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans has “become the political topic it is” is because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan talk about the attack. STEPHANIE CUTTER: In terms of the politicization of this — you know, we are here at a debate, and I hope we get to talk about the debate — but the entire reason this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It’s a big part of their...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are among the 15 wealthiest members of Congress, according to a new survey. The annual rankings by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, showed the two San Francisco Democrats have a combined worth of at least $68 million, and potentially much more. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, tops the list with a minimum net worth of $306 million, roughly 4,000 times greater than the average American household. His wife, Linda, is the daughter of Lowry Mays, founder and CEO of Clear Channel Communications. No. 3 on the list, Rep. Darrell Issa,...

With its candidate having been swamped in the debate by an aggressive and articulate Gov. Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign is switching fully into attack mode, moving beyond earlier assaults on Romney’s business record and wealth toward a new drive to destroy his character. Casting completely aside the Obama 2008 brand of a hopeful unifier, Obama’s operatives Thursday dived straight the jugular, working on multiple fronts to brand Romney a liar. The campaign, Obama aides made clear, would henceforth be conducted exclusively Chicago style. In a vicious and personal assault rarely conducted at the highest level of U.S. politics, White...

President Barack Obama’s reelection effort is not blaming the sputtering economic recovery of the past four years on former President George W. Bush, his deputy campaign manager insisted Wednesday. “We’re absolutely not doing that,” Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “In fact, we’re taking credit for the 5.1 million private-sector jobs that have been created over the past four years despite being handed the worst economy since the Great Depression. We’re taking credit for the million jobs that were protected under the president’s efforts to save the auto industry and the increase in manufacturing jobs for the first time...

How do you win an election? It’s so simple. Just keep your opposition from voting. The Democrats have grasped this concept and are now running with it. They will work double time to keep conservatives from the polls on November 6th. With the media as a willing and devoted support team they may just pull it off. If you add to the mix just a little voter fraud it could be a slam-dunk. We can’t let this happen. The next question or challenge for the Democrats is how do they legally keep opponents from the polls? Again, it’s simple. They...

The Healing Power of Touch: Tickling Reduces Stroke-Induced Brain Damage in Rats Tickling a rat's whiskers after it has a stroke prevents brain damage By Mark LescroartJuly 11, 2011Strokes cripple more people in the U.S. than any other disease. Modern drugs can unblock clogged arteries if patients get to care facilities in time. But the longer the trip to the hospital, the more nerve cells die from lack of blood. Better ways to avert brain damage could dramatically improve patients’ quality of life. Recently a team of neuroscientists stumbled on a very low tech way to completely prevent stroke damage...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: CNN is panicking over their own poll. As predicted, the polls are starting to tighten. CNN, at least what they're saying, they're starting to panic. You'll hear the sound bites coming up. Oh, by the way, the Washington Post poll that was so devastating to Romney in the swing states, this goes beyond simple incompetence or media malpractice. This is genuine corruption. We find out, and from the Washington Post's own pollster, that they based last Friday's poll of Romney being up ten, 11, whatever it was in those three swing states, on 160 people with a...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Some shocking news in the Drive-By Media today. The election is over. Mitt Romney has lost. It's all over out there. Actually, that's not the case. The polls today are starting to tighten up exactly as predicted here. Now we're into October. The debate is Wednesday night. Have you noticed what's going on with this? The DNC and Howard Dean and a number of others... Even Obama himself is saying, "Mitt's a much better debater than I am." They're really out there lowering expectations for Obama in the debate on Wednesday night, and he's got a tough...

Madonna offered a profanity-laced endorsement of President Obama at her concert Monday night, which involved the singer stripping down to her underwear to reveal the president's name written on her body. “You all better vote for f---ing Obama okay,” she told the crowd at Washington's Verizon center.

It's official: The Romney campaign possesses a wicked sense of humor and an enviable degree of patience.  After months of caterwauling, breathless innuendo and baseless slander, the Democrats and their media allies are being treated to a Friday feast of piping hot crow.  The Romney campaign has released a detailed report of the the candidate's 2011 tax returns, as well as an extensive summary of the Romneys' taxes over the last two decades, prepared by analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  What do these documents contain?  Brad Malt, the Romney family's trustee, summarizes the 2011 data:   - In 2011, the Romneys paid...

Grievously oppressed rabid rats who had sought our brotherhood and compassion were today forced to resort to a workplace disruption.CHICAGO, Ill. September 12, 2012. NEWS FLASHIn a previously unreported event this morning, hundreds of rabid rats attacked the American Ambassador to the Nation of Rabid Rats and her colleagues. The workplace disruption occurred at a Federal office building located in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Police assistance was limited because most police authorities had been diverted to the Windy City due to reports of marauding groups of Chicago public school youth who were celebrating an unanticipated holiday. Recently appointed Ambassador...

A group of about 25 journalists and friends got together in the National Press Club to celebrate the life and birthday of ground breaking journalist Helen Thomas. We met in the McLendon Room, which was appropriate. When I came into the White House press corps, in l968, Helen and Sarah McClendon were the senior correspondents. Helen's mind and voice are as sharp as ever, but her body is more delicate (that happens to many of us). Our one rule of the get together was -- no politics! We have enough of that the rest of the time. In addition, none...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: My question is, why is Obama still campaigning? Could somebody explain that to me. Everywhere I look, this election's over. Why, Obama has hit 50% approval in the polls now for the first time ever. The bounce out of that disaster of a convention was unprecedented, other than Dukakis who had a 17-point lead after his, and somehow he lost. Brit Hume said today on Fox, "Well, you know, you gotta keep in mind the guy leading in the polls in mid-September rarely loses." Ever heard of Dukakis? Ever heard of Jimmy Carter? And now Public Policy...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Federal agents arrested the mayor of New Jersey's capital city early Monday as part of an ongoing corruption investigation into bribery allegations related to a parking garage project that was concocted as part of an FBI sting operation. Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, his brother, Ralphiel, and convicted sex offender Joseph Giorgianni, a Mack supporter who owns a Trenton sandwich shop, were accused of conspiring to obstruct, delay and affect interstate commerce by extortion under color of official right.

Bloggers are having a little fun with Saturday morning's handshake-and-hearty-hug greeting between former Republican Charlie Crist and President Barack Obama, who kicked off a two-day bus tour in Florida on Saturday. "The Hug 2.0" reads the headline on the Tampa Bay Times website, above a photo of the president locked in a bearhug from the former governor. Mr. Crist, the one-time Senate candidate who blames a well-publicized hug he gave Mr. Obama in 2009 for contributing to the end of his political career as a Republican, had a warm embrace for the president he endorsed with a Thursday night speech...

Hundreds stranded outside Democratic National ConventionPosted by David Siders September 6, 2012 CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Hundreds of ticketholders were stranded outside the Democratic National Convention ahead of President Barack Obama's acceptance speech here tonight, after officials said the arena reached capacity and closed the doors. **SNIP** An official told a crowd outside the arena gate that the local fire marshal apologized and called the situation "embarrassing." The official said the gate would not re-open and that no ticketholders - even delegates and special guests - would be admitted.

Charlotte – We told about the chaos that erupted here Wednesday when the Dems removed the word “God” and a reference about “Jerusalem” from their platform, then awkwardly rammed it back in. Well, at least one person was happy about that: . . .

CHARLOTTE - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) will lacerate Mitt Romney on foreign policy in a major speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention. "In this campaign, we have a fundamental choice," Kerry will say, according to speech excerpts provided to The Cable. "Will we protect our country and our allies, advance our interests and ideals, do battle where we must, and make peace where we can? Or will we entrust our place in the world to someone who just hasn't learned the lessons of the last decade?"

Knesset Speaker Rivlin says Democrats' reinstatement of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in party platform too little too late. The addition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital to the Democratic platform does not make up for the party's original intentions, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said on Thursday "I have no doubt that [US President Barack] Obama put Jerusalem back in his party's platform out of political and electoral considerations and because of the sharp criticism from Israel and the US," Rivlin stated. Related: Democrats amended the party platform Wednesday afternoon to include language supporting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The last-minute...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The welcome packet for California delegates attending this week's Democratic National Convention includes a letter from state party Chairman John Burton calling the four-day political gathering the "kickoff for our final push to victory in November." "When we return to California, we've got a real fight on our hands," the letter reads. Burton wasn't talking about re-electing President Barack Obama. The opponent California Democrats "must defeat," he wrote, is Proposition 32, a November ballot measure that could curb unions' influence by banning the use of payroll-deducted dollars for political spending. With Obama a virtual shoo-in to carry...

Researchers working at MIT have successfully manipulated the content of a rat's dream by replaying an audio cue that was associated with the previous day's events, namely running through a maze (what else). The breakthrough furthers our understanding of how memory gets consolidated during sleep — but it also holds potential for the prospect of "dream engineering." Working at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, neuroscientist Matt Wilson was able to accomplish this feat by exploiting the way the brain's hippocampus encodes self-experienced events into memory. Scientists know that our hippocampus is busy at work replaying a number of...

The balance sheet on Barack Obama stands at zero right now. The country is evenly divided about his performance as president. And he’s tied in the polls with Republican Mitt Romney.“It’s a neck-and-neck race,” said Rick Snyder, Michigan Republican governor, in an opinion widely shared across the political spectrum.Let’s take a look at the Democratic incumbent’s assets as he heads into his party’s national convention in Charlotte this week — and his liabilities.Which way do you think the ledger of public opinion will eventually tip?ASSETS1. Most Americans still like him.Although the president’s personal approval rating has slipped from 79 percent...

Anyone who was paying attention to the California Legislature during the hectic final days of the 2012 session last week could see the political clout of the state's labor unions. Countless union-backed bills whipped through the Capitol and onto Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. Although union lobbyists lost a few battles, they could count many more victories. With the Legislature's Democratic majority utterly beholden to unions for political sustenance and with a governor, Jerry Brown, whose 2010 campaign relied on union financing, unions and their 2.4 million members are at the apogee of political influence. Nevertheless, Labor Day 2012 also finds...