Free Republic

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that special counsel Jack Smith had “almost a slam dunk” case against former President Donald Trump with the classified documents charges. Anchor Kasie Hunt said, “So, let’s talk now about the presidential race. We are 72 hours from the first Republican presidential debate. It’s going to be missing the front-runner, Donald Trump, the former president. He is facing federal charges over his efforts to overturn the election. And you did vote to convict him in his impeachment trial after January 6, you said, quote, because he is guilty....

Falsifying business records “with intent to defraud,” by itself, is a mere misdemeanor under New York law. It is only elevated to a Class E felony, punishable by 1–5 years in prison, when committed with “intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.” So Bragg’s challenge is to prove not only that Trump illegally concealed his hush money payments, but also that he did so in furtherance of another crime. That crime, Bragg’s announcement of the indictment confirms, is a violation of election law: Bragg argues that Trump devised this scheme with the intent to influence...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday endorsed former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez in his bid for Maryland governor, calling him the candidate with “the best opportunity to flip the state” blue in 2022. “Maryland has an opportunity to flip from red to blue and the most qualified person to do just that is my friend Tom Perez,” Pelosi said in a video announcing the endorsement. “Please join me in supporting him as our next governor of Maryland.” In the video, Pelosi touted Perez’s work on voting and civil rights issues during his time leading the Justice...

Senate Republicans deployed the “nuclear option” on Wednesday to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to confirm hundreds of President Trump’s nominees. Senators voted 51-48 to change the rules for the amount of time it takes to confirm most executive nominations with only a simple majority of the chamber. GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine) joined with Democrats in opposing the rules change. Republicans are expected to trigger the “nuclear option” for a second time later Wednesday to force through the same change for district court nominations. The combined actions will result in most nominations...

Billionaire plutocrat and GOP mega-donor Charles Koch says President Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminum, steel, and thousands of Chinese-made imports are “ridiculous” and “unfair” to foreigners. Koch, who funds a network of organizations with his brother, David Koch, told the media during a conference with donors over the weekend that Trump’s ten percent tariff on imported aluminum and 25 percent tariff on imported steel was not fair to foreign countries and foreign workers. The Trump administration has said the tariffs on imported goods are necessary to protect American jobs and industries from foreign competition where foreign-made products are sold much...

"Since we’re being candid, allow me to say how much I dislike your post. Everything about it annoys me – your smug and snarky tone, your appalling grammar, your complete lack of evidence to support your claims, and of course, the overarching logical fallacy that informs your entire position."

The new US intelligence assessment which stated that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago was based mainly on notes acquired last summer from discussions between Iranian military officials, senior intelligence and government officials told The New York Times on Thursday.

According to exclusive information obtained by Pajamas Media’s Washington editor Richard Miniter, the movement of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad has been all but shut down. Are we witnessing Iran’s counter-strike to the surge? Movements of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad—along with most State department diplomats and teams building police stations and schools—have been frozen for the second day in a row, according to a State department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Essentially, the CIA, State department and government contractors are stuck inside the International Zone, also known as “the Green Zone,” in Central Baghdad....

April 28, 2007, 1:21 a.m. “...Find Caches of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Absolutely.”Tenet on Zarqawi. By Victor Davis Hanson Like most Americans, I am confused about the recent public announcements of George Tenet — not the usual Beltway “he said/she said” sort of accusations and meae culpae that we are accustomed from former officials plugging “inside story” memoirs, but how exactly we are now to digest past statements in light of present behavior. Surely Tenet had some free will, and when he testified under oath to congressional committees in February 2003 are we now to think such statements were...

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2007 – Sew Much Comfort’s adaptive clothing has always helped injured servicemembers, but now, with the help of the NBA, the troops can proudly display support for their favorite National Basketball Asociation teams. Sew Much Comfort is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program, which connects citizens and corporations with members of the military and their families at home and abroad. “Through (a) working relationship with America Supports You, we were made aware of the terrific things that Sew Much Comfort was doing for our troops as well as the needs they have,”...

Al Qaeda is in the United States, former CIA Director George Tenet says, and he’s surprised there have not been more attacks on American soil. “I do know one thing in my gut,” Tenet writes in his upcoming book. “Al Qaeda is here and waiting.” Tenet, who served as CIA chief from 1997 to 2004, questioned how Al Qaeda hasn’t sent “suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half-dozen American shopping malls on any given day.” Tenet's 549-page book, "At the Center of the Storm," published by HarperCollins, is set to hit the bookstores on Monday. ...more

After people attacked the Bush Administration for invading Iraq, because of a lack of WMDs, saying "Bush lied," it was pointed out that his position on WMDs was the same as that of the CIA and most other intelligence agencies, and that CIA head George Tenet had called it a "slam dunk" case. Now Tenet admits he said that, but he is also claiming that people put the whole onus of the war on his shoulders, despite the fact that there were 23 casus belli. Contrary to Tenet, no one in the Bush camp has claimed or implied that Tenet...

Tucker just read a news flash, announcing that they will no longer simulcast Imus at all, anymore.

THE killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday was enormously important, and not only because al Qaeda lost its longtime leader in Iraq and the insurgency lost its chief strategist. This action, taken in the midst of this highly unusual war, was the equivalent of a victory in a major battle in a more conventional conflict. A country can win battles and lose wars, as the voices of gloom were already reminding us only minutes after the announcement of Zarqawi's demise. But wars can't be won unless battles are won. American forces have won battles during the Iraq war - to...

Thank heaven for the massive marches across the country by those favoring illegal immigrants. These marches revealed the ugly truth behind the fog of pious words and clever political spin from the media and from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. "Guest workers"? Did any of the strident speakers, with their in-your-face bombast in Spanish, sound like guests? Did they sound like people who wanted to become Americans? Were they even asking for amnesty? They didn't sound like they were asking for anything. They sounded like they were telling. Demanding. Threatening. Somebody must have told them that their Mexican flags...

NORFOLK, Va. -- Tennessee's Candace Parker became the fourth woman to dunk in a college game -- and the first do it twice -- when the Lady Vols played Army in the first round of the NCAA tournament Sunday. The first came when the 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman took an outlet pass from Sidney Spencer and jammed one-handed on a breakaway 6:12 into the game. With the large contingent of Tennessee fans roaring even before the attempt, Parker threw it down as Army's Margaree King looked on helplessly. Later, with 14:18 to go in the second half, she was in the...

THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night. Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us." "What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of...

IN ANNOUNCING his opposition yesterday to the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be chief justice of the United States, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) made a remarkable statement: "The president is not entitled to very much deference in staffing the third branch of government, the judiciary." Leave aside the merits of the Roberts nomination, which we support; if Mr. Reid regards Judge Roberts as unworthy, he is duty-bound to vote against him. But these are dangerous words that Democrats will come to regret. This country has only one president at a time. That president, right...

Big time fist throwing. Fans, players and more. Any thoughts ?

The Lieberman-Cheney Vice Presidential Debate MODERATOR: From Centre College in historic Danville, Kentucky, good evening, and welcome to this year's only vice presidential debate sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. I'm Bernard Shaw, moderator. Tonight we come to you from the hall in the Northern Center for the Arts on the campus of Centre College. Thank you to President John Rausch, the faculty, students and community leaders state-wide, we thank you for hosting this debate. The candidates are the Republican nominee, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney of Wyoming, and the Democratic nominee, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. The Commission,...