Free Republic

Kathy Hochul accepted thousands of dollars in cash towards her campaign from law firms and or lawyers concurrent with those same firms presenting cases on behalf of the four leaders from a Western New York region violent drug ring with cases before Mr. Hochul’s US Attorney office. The violent drug ring involved was described by the FBI as being extremely violent and presenting a clear and present danger to the public and Buffalo-Niagara community. Mrs. Hochul’s husband’s office, in close proximity to these contributions, acted very favorably to the law firms and their associated defendants on several of these observed...

Kathy Hochul accepted thousands of dollars in cash towards her campaign from law firms and or lawyers concurrent with those same firms presenting cases on behalf of the four leaders from a Western New York region violent drug ring with cases before Mr. Hochul’s US Attorney office. The violent drug ring involved was described by the FBI as being extremely violent and presenting a clear and present danger to the public and Buffalo-Niagara community. Mrs. Hochul’s husband’s office, in close proximity to these contributions, acted very favorably to the law firms and their associated defendants on several of these observed...

In his combination of unctuousness, mendacity, mock-reasonableness, petulance, bullying, hypocrisy, overweening arrogance, brazen aggression, self-pity, victimhood, and bogus moral preening, it’s hard to beat Congressman Anthony Weiner. He’s the perfect face of the modern American Left in all its glorious pathology; why anyone takes these people seriously is utterly beyond me, so transparent are they. And yet for some, their sweet nothings continue to resonate. Here he is with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, doing what lefties do best: lie, equivocate, lecture, browbeat, and implicitly threaten, even when they’re caught red-handed: [video] I mean, how hard was it to see through Tony...

Heralded last year as epitomizing a new form of “activist” journalism, James O’Keefe now finds himself abandoned by some of the powerful conservatives who championed him. And a multi-million dollar effort designed to offset what many conservatives regard as the leftward tilt of the mainstream media has been undermined by a series of increasingly bizarre incidents.... O’Keefe, 26, became a superstar on the right last year when he and an associate named Hannah Giles released secretly recorded videos on Breitbart’s website showing employees of the liberal community organizing group ACORN supposedly offering advice on setting up an underage brothel. The...

Let's be grateful that Barack Obama's contempt for poli tics as usual is a matter of public record. Otherwise, we might be saddled with a White House that offers federal jobs to potential candidates it wants to keep out of Democratic primaries, and does it in such a crude fashion that it skirts the law. We might witness the release of pertinent news about one of the cases on the Friday before a three-day weekend in one of the oldest, most predictable PR tricks in the book. We might have to rely on a sketchy document purporting to outline the...

At the urging of the Obama White House, former President Bill Clinton asked Rep. Joe Sestak whether he would abandon his plans to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in a Pennsylvania Democratic primary if given an unpaid, advisory position, according to a White House counsel report issued Friday morning. Clinton made the inquiries on behalf of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel last summer, as Sestak began his challenge of Specter, a former Republican who had switched parties, White House Counsel Bob Bauer wrote. Obama publicly backed Specter's reelection bid over Sestak, who remained in the primary and defeated the veteran senator...

President Obama plans to meet with union leaders Monday to discuss their opposition to a proposed tax on high-cost insurance plans, a tax that would pay for his health care overhaul plan, sources told Fox News. The meeting is expected to include leaders from the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union and other labor organizations. Union officials told The Associated Press that they view the meeting Monday as a chance to forcefully make their case that the tax is bad policy and bad politics. Unions contend that the tax would be passed along to workers.

Behar: "Let me say this about Tiger on his behalf. He has never held himself up as one of these pro-marriage, right-wing kind of guys who is anti-gay."

A Los Angeles press conference with Tiger Woods’ alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel has been called off. Uchitel, 34, was scheduled to appear with her attorney, Gloria Allred, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The cancellation comes as TMZ.com is reporting Uchitel was lying when she said she did not have an affair with Tiger Woods. Citing unnamed sources the celebrity news site writes that text messages between Woods and Uchitel sparked the fight at the billionaire golfer’s home before his bizarre early-morning car crash. Uchitel, a New York City nightclub hostess, has publicly denied an affair with Woods. However, TMZ.com...

"I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves." Tiger Woods, allegedly caught cheating on his wife, just posted an apology on his Web site. Bonus: See who forced Tiger Woods to confess. We think it's good enough to keep him in Nikes for years: I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal...

Tiger Woods was braced for new trouble tonight amid reports that at least two women are set to go public with claims that they had affairs with the world’s highest-earning sportsman. RadarOnline.com a celebrity news website, reported that several women had come forward claiming to have had sex with the billion-dollar golfer, including one who purports to have “explosive” answerphone recordings. Jaimee Grubbs, 24, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, tells this week’s edition of Us Weekly magazine that she had a 31-month affair with Woods, starting in April 2007, and that she has more than 300 text messages — some...

They're coming out of the Woodswork! At least two more buxom beauties claim to have had torrid affairs with embattled superstar golfer Tiger Woods -- including one whom he bombarded with more than 300 text messages and warned last week that his wife was getting suspicious, according to Post sources and two bombshell reports. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/waitress_tells_of_golfer_sex_drive_nCfMAsVkmMZ8XylL1TEWfP#ixzz0YX5cSlPX

Several other women are coming forward claiming they had affairs with Tiger Woods, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively. What’s more, one of these women claims to have proof in the form of voice mails from the golfing great. The voice mails are said to be explosive.

Ayn Rand has drifted in and out of favor, but she may be more relevant today than ever before.In my experience, people who've read Ayn Rand's books either love them or hate them. I'm one of the few who fall somewhere in between. When I first read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in the 1980s, I was blown away. Those books portray the power of the free individual in ways I had never thought about before. Since then, I've grown more critical of Rand's outlook because it doesn't include the human needs we have for grace, love, faith, or any...

The GOP resolution yesterday seeking to suspend Rep. Charlie Rangel's role as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee achieved its goal: not his suspension, but a public display of the Democrats' tolerance for sleaze. With Dems in charge -- and unwilling to acknowledge Rangel's repeated lapses over the years -- no one really expected the measure to pass. So it was no surprise that members voted 246-153, mostly along party lines, to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee -- a move meant to bury the issue further. Again, the GOP bill was more about Democrats than Rangel....

A federal grand jury is reportedly winding down its investigation into whether former senator John Edwards broke any laws when his political committees made payments to his former mistress, Rielle Hunter. But here’s a random question: why is Edwards, who quit the 2008 Democratic primary almost two years ago, still spending money from his presidential fund-raising accounts? Since January, the John Edwards for President committee along with a separate account, Edwards for President, have spent more than $625,000, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. That’s not much compared to compared to usual Washington standards (A House race,...

The House of Representatives voted today, 345-75, to cut off all funding to ACORN. All Republicans voted for the measure. That doesn't mean it will happen, of course; the measure, which is attached to a student aid bill, goes beyond the scope of the Senate's action earlier this week. Don't assume that ACORN can't ride out the storm and have its funding quietly restored by the Democrats, now that those in swing districts have had an opportunity to tell their constituents they voted to stop funding the voter fraud/tax fraud/prostitution organization. For now, at least, supporting ACORN is hard to...

<p>Rep. Charlie Rangel's multimillion-dol lar "oops" this month raises plenty of good questions, but this may be the best: How can Democrats continue to close their eyes to such sleaze?</p> <p>And, more to the point, this: Will prose cutors follow up on any of it?</p>

Gordon Brown is today engulfed in crisis after a key aide resigned and the Tories threatened legal action over explosive leaked emails discussing how to smear senior Conservatives, including David Cameron's wife, Samantha, with rumours about their private lives. Damian McBride, one of the prime minister's closest advisers, quit over his exchange with the Labour blogger Derek Draper, in which the two discussed setting up a website to air scurrilous allegations about opponents, including unfounded allegations about affairs between leading opposition MPs. The idea was still being actively discussed until a fortnight ago, the Observer has learned. ..... Among the...