Free Republic

full headline-----Bribery, compromised officials leave indicted financial-crime suspects free from prosecution under Holder’s DOJA U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted. The sitting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held...

On his Monday show, right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh blasted “the mainstream media” for employing stereotypes in reporting sexual harassment accusations allegedly leveled at GOP presidential front-runner Herman Cain, allegations first published by Politico. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, folks,” Limbaugh said. “After all of these years, none of us should be surprised and I still am: Look at how quickly what is known as the ‘mainstream media’ goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.” Limbaugh compared the rapidly expanding Cain saga to the way media outlets covered the alleged indiscretions of former...

Texas House members Paul Workman and Jim Murphy, both Republicans, have submitted HB 2886, to establish “a work program for certain persons not legally authorized to be in the United States…” State Rep. Workman filed the bill on March 10. On page 2 of their draft is this interesting clause: “Sec. 54.003. ELIGIBILITY. (a) A foreign national who is not lawfully present in this state may apply for a Texas resident alien card.” In other words, they want to make it easier for non-residents to come to Texas to fill jobs, when our official unemployment rate stands at 8.2%, and...

(snip) Of his campaign rival, President Obama, McCain revealed that they now have a "common interest" and "common values" that will help them work together. Specifically, McCain believes the two could cooperate on "enhanced rescission" and "once we get the border secure…immigration reform," along with "several other issues."(snip)

Last night, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sat down for a rare, extended interview with Steve Kroft of '60 Minutes.' In what CBS has called Assange's "most extensive television interview to date," the Australian national defended his organization's mission, discussed the roots of his own anti-authoritarian philosophy, and compared WikiLeaks' core principles to "those of the U.S. Revolution."

A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks intends to make the archive public on its Web site...

For decades, American inspectors have monitored Russian nuclear forces, putting into practice President Ronald Reagan's favorite maxim, ``Trust, but verify.'' But since the old START Treaty expired last December, we have relied on trust alone. Until a new treaty comes into force, our inspectors will not have access to Russian missile silos and the world's two largest nuclear arsenals will lack the stability that comes with a rigorous inspection regime. Before this session of Congress ends, we urge senators to approve an arms control treaty that would again allow U.S. inspectors access to Russian strategic sites and reduce the number...

The day before the Delaware U.S. Senate primary, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raised money using the name of the eventual winner, Christine O'Donnell.A search of Google News on Monday using the search term "Christine O'Donnell" returned a paid advertisement by the NRSC at the top of the search field soliciting donations. A click through on the ad's link went to the NRSC's donation page. This indicates that the NRSC purchased "Christine O'Donnell" from Google.I did not make a screen grab as it seemed more a curiousity than anything terribly newsworthy at the time. However, with the NRSC letting...

The Treachery of the Perverse- by billrandles Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.(Proverbs 1:20-23) As the Proverbs tells us ,Wisdom is crying out in the public concourse. However it is only accessible to those who...

President Obama’s statements regarding the proposed Ground Zero mosque are the latest in a series of indicators that we are at a very peculiar pass: We have a president who doesn’t get America. For the first time in history we have a president whose default setting is in opposition to the general sensibilities of the American people. His behavior too frequently suggests that he’s playing a cosmic joke on Americans’ essential decency, considered patriotism, and belief in American exceptionalism. You don’t need to have been a lecturer in constitutional law like Obama to know that the mosque’s backers have a...

The State Dept. will pay for the fund raising tour of the Imam who wants to build the mosque at Ground Zero. He will visit Riyadh, S.A., Quater, and Dubai, among other countries. After several days of phone calls and e-mail inquiries, the State Dept. answered, "we need to get clearance to comment" No denial was forthcoming. The Imam already has a mosque 10 blocks from the sone he wants to build.

State Department officials expressed concern Friday that whistleblower website Wikileaks.org may release classified departmental cables and worry that further leaks could threaten diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley acknowledged in a briefing Friday that several diplomatic cables were part of the most recent Wikileaks file dump. “There were a handful of cables that came out among this tranche, maybe five or six,” Crowley said. Still unknown is precisely what information those cables contain, but Crowley said classified documents likely were released that compromise diplomatic affairs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “We have the same concern on...

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil...

Out on stands, now, here in Japan. Mass circulation. Hope and "CHANGE"."CHANGE" (North Korea and Red China) can believe in. Hmmm mmmm MMMM!

If you want to find out why judges are releasing terrorists, ask McCain and Graham. "If we captured bin Laden tomorrow, would he be entitled to Miranda warnings at the moment of capture?” Sen. Lindsey Graham got a lot of mileage out of that question, which stumped Attorney General Eric Holder during a Senate hearing last November. (snip) Holder’s record of touting civilian judicial processes as the most effective form of counterterrorism strongly suggests that he does, in fact, believe that enemy combatants should be treated like ordinary criminal defendants — and that means Miranda warnings. But he shrinks from...

As the former running mates prepare to campaign together for the first time since 2008, sources familiar with them say they have chatty, personal phone calls and remain friendly even though Palin attacked many of McCain’s loyal staffers. Shushannah Walshe takes us inside their relationship and what it means for McCain’s campaign. This weekend John McCain and Sarah Palin are bringing the band back together and hitting the road in support of the Arizona senator’s reelection battle. On Friday, there will be a rally and picnic in Tucson followed by a private fundraiser. The next day, the former presidential ticket...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed… - From our Declaration of Independence

How utterly extraordinary. Hillary Clinton made a big speech today to the US Jewish lobby group AIPAC – a speech of no small importance given the crisis in relations between the Obama administration and Israel. But in this speech, as Israel Matzav notes, she committed an astounding howler. Referring to the recent Palestinian naming of a square near Ramallah in honour of terrorist Dalal al Mughrabi, she said: When a Hamas-controlled municipality glorifies violence and renames a square after a terrorist who murdered innocent Israelis, it insults the families on both sides who have lost loves ones in this conflict....

Two-hundred-and-thirty-four years ago our forbears rose up and overthrew the existing government in a just and honorable rebellion against a tyranny which forced them to pay taxes to a body in which they had no representation. While they did not like the taxes themselves, it was not the taxes alone against which they revolted, rather it was being taxed by a disconnected government in which they had no voice or representation. America was founded upon the very principle that we would elect “representatives” to go to Washington D.C. to express our will. Ours is a government which only legitimately does...

After Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced Saturday that he had decided to support the amended health bill that allows federal funding of abortion, he set to work defending the decision in terms more familiar on the lips of his liberal colleagues: emphasizing the need for a compromise, and highlighting the greater good of the health of millions of Americans. Yet Nelson left behind a still-reeling pro-life and conservative constituency questioning what could have prompted the sudden change in the senator - who days before seemed so placidly settled in his convictions against the bill, particularly regarding abortion. The tension leading...

Purported non Muslim Barack Hussein Obama made a presidential appointment of Muslim Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Arif Alikhan for a top job at the federal Department of Homeland Security. In his new job, Arif Alikhan will be Assistant Secretary for the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security. Alikhan has been Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles--in charge of public safety for the city. Why Muslim Alikhan at the Department of Homeland Security you might ask? DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Alikhan’s “broad and impressive array of experience in national security, emergency preparedness, and counterterrorism will make him...

Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy. "On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged...

If you are not aware of it yet, ObamaCare as it's being called "Part One" was actually buried in the phony stimulus bill. That massive rape was signed into law by the usurper president in February. As Dr. Dave Janda writes, what is being debated now is Part Two. What, you say? Yes, your member of Congress (and mine) pulled another fast one and deceived all of us. Again. tthe link to the draconian 'American Investment and Recovery Act of 2009 is in the article; the same failure as all the wasteful government programs implemented by FDR that prolonged the...

Stan Goodenough, well known author of the Jerusalem Watchman blog, has seen through Mr. Obama's visit to the Buchenwald murder camp in Germany. He writes the following: "Misusing the memory of the mass murder of Jews to pave the way for the mass murder of more Jews." Blasphemous!-a must read.

Stan Goodenough, author of the Jerusalem Watchman blog, has seen through Mr. Obama's visit to the Buchenwald murder camp in Germany. He writes the following: "Misusing the memory of the mass murder of Jews to pave the way for the mass murder of more Jews." a must read.

February 13, 1999 Ending a tumultuous year of political scandal, the Senate acquitted President Clinton of high crimes and misdemeanors yesterday, after House prosecutors failed to muster even a bare majority of senators in favor of removing the nation's 42nd president from office.snip Five Republicans -- Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins of Maine, John H. Chafee of Rhode Island, James M. Jeffords of Vermont and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- voted to acquit on both articles of impeachment. Appears these traitors have a long history of "crossing the asile" Suggestion, does anyone think that a petition to...

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - It is hard on the psyche to lose a U.S. presidential election. Al Gore, when he lost, fled to Europe and grew a beard. George H.W. Bush received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth and began parachuting out of airplanes. Michael Dukakis became a college professor. Bob Dole made Viagra ads. And John McCain? Well, he returned to his day job, in the 100-member U.S. Senate, and went back to work. More so than many recent presidential candidates who did not make it to the White House, McCain, 72, seems to have had a quick...

Last week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a British resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Resolution 1860 was a slap at Israel's self-defense, but, unusually, the United States abstained on the vote. That's no way to lead. If Washington concluded that a harsh resolution on Gaza was warranted, the proper course was to vote for it. And that is, apparently, what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had hoped to do. Speaking to the Security Council, Ms. Rice endorsed the basic content of the British draft, saying "this resolution is a step toward our goals." She also...

THE time may have come for Joe Lieberman to pay the price. The Connecticut Independent, a one-time Democratic nominee for vice-president, began talks yesterday with Senate leaders about his future role in the Democratic Party after he infuriated colleagues with his vocal advocacy of John McCain's bid for the presidency. In the balance are Senator Lieberman's chairmanship of the powerful Homeland Security Committee and his position as amember of the Democratic caucus. The Connecticut senator has voted with the Democrats ever since running as an independent in 2006. The talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid concluded without resolution. In...

<p>A founding member of the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois met in New York City tonight with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p> <p>Jodie Evans, who co-hosted Obama's first major fundraiser in Hollywood in February 2007 just after Obama announced his candidacy and is a top fundraiser and donor to Obama's campaign, led a delegation of leftist anti-American groups that held a private meeting near the United Nations. The stated purpose of the meeting was to "serve as an opening for diplomatic resolution" to prevent war between Iran and the United States.</p>

It is a steel and concrete corridor that will run right through the Old Pueblo, connecting Mexico City to Edmonton, Alberta. Its purpose is to facilitate trade among the three countries and minimize traffic and congestion for residents. Or is it evidence of a move afoot to intertwine the three North American countries and blur the lines of sovereignty? That's a matter of opinion.

Nothing destroys a man like his betrayal of friends. The mortal wound is self-inflicted and he dies from the inside out, inviting neither compassion nor commiseration, only contempt, disdain and ultimately scorn. This is the hard lesson Scott McClellan is buying with his 30 pieces of silver. George W. Bush, flawed and maker of mistakes, finishes his presidency almost as unpopular as Harry S. Truman finished his, and who knows whether history will revise his presidential reputation.

Nothing is up on the website yet, but I heard this during the morning drive about two hours ago.Quinn and Rose are nationally syndicated on satellite radio, but have local coverage in the Pittsburgh region and other Clear Channel Markets.Quinn has a inside Washington souce who he calls "Son of Deep Throat" who, while unidentified, has seldom if ever been wrong.According to this source, Ed Rollins was heard bragging at a DC gathering that his man Huckabee would definitely be McCain's VP pick because that was the plan from the beginning. Huckabee was to ensure that anyone whom the Rockerfeller...

The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday. Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee. Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network,...

As the President boarded AF1 at Waco today I would assume he and the First Lady spent the weekend in Crawford Texas at their ranch. Today the President departed for Ottawa, Canada, to attend a two-day summit with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details of secret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday. Swiss Senator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails, said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld's methods in hunting down terrorist suspects, and had agreed to talk to him on condition of anonymity."There were huge conflicts between the CIA and Rumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methods at all," Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his work against...

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan, said a rueful John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. George W. Bush knows today whereof his predecessor spoke. For as he prepares to "surge" 20,000 more U.S. troops into a war even he concedes we "are not winning," his erstwhile acolytes have begun to abandon him to salvage their own tattered reputations. Case in point, the neoconservatives. As the Iraq war heads into its fifth year, more than half a dozen have confessed to Vanity Fair's David Rose their abject despair over how the Bushites mismanaged the war...

The former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage says no one would fault Australia if it decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq. But the Federal Government has warned Labor that pulling out would damage the alliance with the US. Protesters greeted several senior US officials at a dinner at Old Parliament House in Canberra last night. Inside, the Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's target was the Labor Party. "Friendships count for something," he said. "Anyone who thinks that prematurely leaving Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom would not do damage to our relationship with those countries is...

Espionage: Beijing stole secrets to every U.S. nuclear warhead while funneling millions to Bill Clinton’s and other Democrats’ campaigns. Now comes news that on Clinton’s watch China recruited CIA officers as spies. Anew book by Washington Times national-security reporter Bill Gertz exposes how Chinese intelligence last decade recruited at least three CIA officers as spies, bribing them with hundreds of thousands of dollars. One CIA officer alone pocketed $600,000 in Chinese cash. Clues about the spies were first discovered in 1999 by counterespionage officials who were able to trace some of the money paid by Beijing, Gertz writes in “Enemies:...

JUST an hour and a half from Washington, across the 4.3-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, or less than 30 minutes in a government-issue Chinook helicopter, is the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the primly groomed waterside village of St. Michaels. St. Michaels has begun to lure V.I.P.'s who, some boosters would have it, could propel it into the gilded realm of the Hamptons and Nantucket. But that will take a while. There's little for the young — just a few bars and no beaches or nightclubs — and these new householders are too circumspect and perhaps too old to be showcasing...

Moods swing, as moods have, since man first lost hope. The elation of completing a bridge over a dangerous river, that is accomplished through a lifetime of study, training and work, stems not from the expection of gain for yourself, but rather from the certainty that life will be easier for those who follow you. It is an intangible that cannot be held up at a campaign rally to crassly bargain for votes. It is the concept of duty... the idea that the way we honor the sacrifices and the work of those who came before us, to make things...

Imminent Ulster car bomb attack foiled by police (Filed: 19/04/2006) Police in Northern Ireland have seized 250lb of home-made explosives, foiling a potentially devastating car bomb attack. Local youths threw petrol bombs at police after the raid A senior policeman said those behind the plot - likely to be dissident republicans - planned to explode the device "as soon as possible". Four men were arrested during the raid on a breaker's yard in Lurgan, Co Armagh. A car was also taken away for forensic examination. Superintendent Alan Todd, Lurgan's police commander, said the police had no knowledge of a specific...

He is not a criminal, says Adams Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams yesterday stood by alleged former IRA chief Thomas "Slab" Murphy. The businessman, whose farm is at the centre of a police probe into a multi-million pound smuggling operation, has been wrongly demonised, he claimed. Mr Adams said: "Tom Murphy is not a criminal. He is a good republican." Murphy's sprawling estate, straddling the Irish border, was among 15 properties searched yesterday during police raids planned in Belfast and Dublin. Around £200,000 in cash, 30,000 cigarettes, 8,000 litres of fuel and weapons were all seized in the offensive against...

Espionage (pron: es-pE-oh-naj) Etymology- from the French [Where else?] espionnage and espion “spy”. The practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities- especially of a foreign government. The crime of spying on the Federal Government and/or transferring State secrets on behalf of a foreign country or power. (The other country need not be an “enemy”, so espionage may not be treason, which involves aiding the “enemy”. Treason (pron: tree-zun) Treason against the United States, in the legal definition, shall consist of: “.. only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies,...

The Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, has said no link has been established between last night's pipe bomb attack and another bomb that exploded near in Coolock two days ago. The Garda Technical Bureau has spent the day examining the scene of last night's explosion in the driveway of a house. The device was placed under a car parked in the driveway of a house on Roseglen Avenue in Kilbarrack exploded. The spare wheel of the Renault Clio bore the brunt of the explosion, which seriously damaged the car and also blew in the front window on the ground floor of...

US PRESIDENT George Bush's special envoy to Ireland is to meet the family of a Dublin man who they say was murdered by republicans. Ambassador Mitchell Reiss said yesterday that there were a number of "serious concerns" about the killing in April last year of Joseph Rafferty and similarities with the death of Robert McCartney who was killed by the IRA. The 29-year-old was murdered after leaving his home near Clonsilla in west Dublin after what that family said was a long running row with republicans. He was shot twice by a gunman disguised as a construction worker as he...

IRA in link to £70m property empire Garda specialist units seize documents in series of raids By Tom Brady 01 February 2006 An IRA link to a massive £70m-plus property empire in the Republic is being investigated by several Garda specialist units. A series of raids on businesses, houses and the offices of professional advisers has been carried out in four counties in the past week. A huge dossier of documentation, seized in the searches which began a week ago and ended yesterday, will now be analysed to establish if any of the businesses were used to launder IRA monies....

The Independent Monitoring Commission is due to hand its latest report on paramilitary activity to the British and Irish Governments later today. Ahead of the public disclosure of the contents of the report on Wednesday, NIO Minister Shaun Woodward said that he had "absolute confidence" in the Commission. However, Sinn Fein Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said that he did not consider the IMC to be an independent body. The report is likely to reflect favourably on the lack of Republican paramilitary activity, but may also reflect the PSNI's expressed view that paramilitaries are involved in organised crime. Set up in...

As conservatives, we owe it to our cause to be honest with ourselves. Several men, on opposite sides of the partisan divide have been impugned with charges ranging from bribery all the way to treachery. The very thought that a man like Tom Delay, a person of obviously credentialled liberal and progressive thought, tuned to the needs of those dependent upon the re-distribution of proceeds- be it proceeds from work, proceeds from healthy habits, proceeds from hard work and preparation to undertake the support and moral guidance of what children they should father, or proceeds from a preparation to fulfill...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jack Murtha, who re-ignited the debate over Iraq with a proposal last month to begin a fast drawdown of troops in Iraq, said Wednesday that President Bush has lost credibility with the public over his Iraq policy. "I'm showing you that I don't see the kind of progress he sees. ... I don't know that you can call him dishonest, but certainly, the public is not buying it," Murtha, D-Pa., said just hours after Bush delivered a speech on economic progress in Iraq. Murtha renewed his call for redeployment of troops, laying out what he said was...