Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO — Mikal Watts didn’t have a fighting chance — politics were in his life from the start. As a toddler, he rode in a stroller as his mother marched in a farm workers’ rights march in Austin. Politics made for dinner table conversation and filled the pages of books in the family library. He attended fundraising barbecues with his parents. Before the age of 18, he knocked on doors registering people to vote. In the years since, Watts has risen from law-school whiz kid (he received a degree at 21) to nationally known product liability lawyer and political...

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them. Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his...

NEW LABOUR DONATIONS ALLEGATIONSLabour is facing fresh pressure over disguised donations after it was reported party officials had helped draw up legal agreements underpinning the practice in 2003. The Guardian newspaper said "middle-ranking officials" sought approval from lawyers and senior colleagues for covenants used by David Abrahams to conceal his identity. Scotland Yard is investigating how the property developer was able to channel hundreds of thousands of pounds through third parties to keep his name from regulators. Mr Abrahams suggested at the weekend that about 10 party figures were aware of the practice - renewing speculation about who knew within...

Don't quit, Brown begs Scottish Labour leader as she faces criminal investigation into sleaze rowGordon Brown has begged one of his key allies not to quit as she faces a criminal investigation into an illegal donation from a millionaire tax exile. Two police forces and the Electoral Commission have launched official inquiries after Wendy Alexander, Labour's leader in Scotland, admitted breaking the law by accepting the money for her leadership campaign. The Prime Minister is said to fear that if she resigns it will spark a "domino effect" - forcing Labour ministers to stand down over the secret donations scandal...

According to The Politico, New York Post columnist and FOX News contributor Dick Morris has been secretly advising former client Mike Huckabee on his Presidential campaign. Morris claims he is acting in an entirely voluntary capacity by simply offering free advice. Keep in mind that nationally syndicated columnist George Will was pilloried by the media when it became public that he had secretly and voluntarily helped Ronald Reagan prepare for his Presidential debates in 1980. A prominent national GOP insider tells Politics1 that he believes Morris -- despite his claims to the contrary -- is paid for his services through...

Among the top tier Republican candidates, Rush says that only Fred has been a consistent conservative. You have been given your marching orders. Now you know who to vote for. RUSH: …the genuine moderate as opposed to conservative aspects of three of the top-tier, four of the top-tier candidates were on full-fledged display last night. There was one candidate who did not display any moderateness or liberalism or have any of his past forays into those areas displayed, and that candidate was Fred Thompson. … …we have a campaign now where most of the candidates are not genuine conservatives. They...

Chicago (AP) -- The son of an Illinois congressman is accused of having sexual contact with two female inmates and inappropriate contact with a third while working for the state Department of Corrections, officials announced Friday. Jeffrey M. Rush, 41, the son of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, was a supervisor of security at the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora, a facility which houses female offenders. Between February and June, Rush met two inmates for sexual contact on numerous occasions and offered a third inmate a ride, according to the Kane County state's attorney's office. Rush drove a state-issued...

House Republican leaders have publicly called on Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) to apologize for his comments today regarding American troops in Iraq or resign from his position. Stark said the following today on the floor of the House (which can be viewed on video here): “I yield myself two minutes. Madam speaker, I, first of all, I’m just amazed that they can't figure out -- the Republicans are worried that they can't pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to...

CASSELBERRY - In January, 1-year-old Joey Cosmillo wandered into the backyard and fell into the family pool. When his mother hauled him out, he wasn't breathing. Rescuers were able to bring him back to life, but he suffered severe brain damage and cannot walk, talk or even swallow. Now, his family faces another burden: One of the rescuers, Casselberry police Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn, is suing, alleging the family left a puddle of water on the floor that afternoon, causing her to slip and fall. The boy's grandparents, named in the suit, are mystified and angry. "The loss we've suffered, and...

Excerpt - Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., expressed concern about older Americans being "scammed" in a Des Moines, Iowa, speech Wednesday morning, even though her campaign has benefited from the largesse of a Democratic donor whose company is being investigated by the Iowa attorney general for its role in the very same issue -- defrauding seniors. "Fraudsters prey on seniors," Clinton told more than 300 Iowans at Waukee High School. "They offer prizes and sweepstakes and lotteries that lure people into a web of deception." Clinton warned the crowd, "We've got to send out the alarm: seniors should be extremely careful...

Larry Flynt’s last effort to buy dirt on Washington politicians was what you might call a bust. But the Hustler publisher launched a new effort Sunday, offering $1 million for provable Potomac sleaze. Readers of the print edition of Sunday’s Washington Post, will have seen the all-type, full-page ad as they turned from “Russia’s Champion of Hopeless Causes Is Targeted for Disbarment” to “U.S. Warship Fires Missiles at Fighters in Somalia.” “Larry Flynt and Hustler Magazine announce a cash offer up to $1 Million,” the headline on page A17 says. The ad explains: “Have you had a sexual encounter with...

NRI entrepreneur flays NYT over 'smear campaign Vinod 'Vin' Gupta, 60, the multi-millionaire chairman and CEO of infoUSA and focus of a major article in the New York Times in the Washington Post on May 26 regarding a lawsuit that brands his using the company's private jet to fly former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on personal, business and campaign trips as a 'waste of corporate assets,' has said it's all an effort to embarrass Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. infoUSA is one of America's leading marketing information companies that provide electronic, print...

Excerpt - For the past four years, the Clintons have jetted around on Vinod Gupta's corporate plane, to Switzerland, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico -- $900,000 worth of travel. The former president secured a $3.3 million consulting deal with Gupta's technology firm. His presidential library got a six-figure gift, too. Gupta, whose big donations to the Democratic Party earned him a Lincoln Bedroom overnight when Bill Clinton was president, has emerged as a key benefactor of Clinton's post-presidency -- and Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential candidacy. Gupta's generosity toward the Clintons has proved so controversial within his firm -- a major provider of...

Raising G-Rated Kids In A X-Rated World http://www.cbn.com/family/parenting/Burns_G-RatedKids.aspx By Jim Burns HomeWord Fri, Apr 13, 2007 CBN.com – Raising kids in today’s culture is not easy. There’s no question that the way we parent is influenced by the world we live in. And what a world it is! We need to help our children deal with drugs, sexuality, movies, television, video games, the Internet, terrorism, and war. It’s our goal as parents to raise our kids in this X-rated culture to become G-rated people. It can feel overwhelming trying to give our teenagers the tools they need to make godly...

UNION, N.J. -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey is teaching ethics, law and leadership at Kean University. The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the nation's first openly gay governor earns $17,500 and has been an executive in residence since Nov. 1. When he was in office, McGreevey was often criticized for the appearance of ethical lapses. "It seems to me, Jim McGreevey teaching law and ethics is a little bit like Doctor Kevorkian teaching health maintenance," state Republican chairman Tom Wilson told the newspaper. The job requires McGreevey to work up to 15 hours a week and helps the 49-year-old accrue...

<p>He wanted to be considered because he wanted his name out there," a senior Democrat close to the vice presidential process said of Richardson. "And once his name was out there, he withdrew. So there was never a full vetting."</p>

“It Happens. So it’s Part of What We Are.” Said Robinson Devor on behalf of his new film about bestiality inflicted by men upon horses. Now, I’ve heard every miserable and pathetic excuse in the book. We have successfully defined deviancy down to the bedrock and don’t have a sharp enough drill bit to sink it any lower. Daniel Patrick Moynihan would turn over in his grave, but not if Robinson Devor, the director of the movie “Zoo,” were anywhere near his final resting place. Devor’s decent into the depths of human depravity was unveiled at this year’s Sundance Film...

Liberals just can’t stand Senator McCarthy. They hate how he blacklisted all those people and tried to wreck their lives and careers. We know that good and noble liberals would ever engage in that sort of conduct themselves. Or do we? According to David Corn, there’s a list going around. It is a list containing the names of homosexual aides to GOP congressional staffs; a list that 99.999999% of humanity was totally unaware of, and that had no meaning in their daily lives. But it was a list that David Corn just had to make public on his blog. He...

So what do you do if you're an old and washed-up, or not-so-old, but increasingly forgotten actor anxious to regain the spotlight of celebrity? As a rule, you look to associate yourself with a project that might jump-start your career. It is nice to be asked to participate in a project popular with the public. You jump at the chance for a supporting role in a Steven Spielberg movie. It's even better when the show is the rage of Hollywood itself and generating the all-important "buzz" among Tinseltown's sycophantic critics. If you're desperate enough, you'll latch on to this project,...

Responding to what Democrats and a political expert alike are calling a smear campaign, the state Republican Party is verbally disavowing an e-mail sent by one of its staffers that makes personal allegations against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and his wife. But Republican party officials did not distribute a follow-up e-mail or take any other action to repudiate the e-mail, which suggests that the Stricklands are gay. "Every time we think we’ve reached the sewer, there’s a lower level of sewer," said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who has written...