Free Republic

Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is a wanted man -- at least according to the liberal activist group that's put a de facto bounty on his head. A network of liberal groups known as Velvet Revolution started an ad campaign offering $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man whose trade organization has become a thorn in the side of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats. The group is not leveling any specific charges of criminal behavior. Rather, it is casting a wide net, fishing for any whistleblowers from Donohue's past who might come forward...

When Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis told the New York Times in a recent interview that gay people don't get to heaven, he broke not one, but two cardinal rules of politics in a single sentence. With a simple phrase, Davis breached the separation between church and state and grabbed the electrified "third-rail" in Bay Area politics with both hands. He told the reporter that gays are "committing sins and those sins will keep them out of heaven." After the Nov. 20 article, the mayor claimed his words were taken out of context. The Times responded by providing an audio link...

Christian Counsellor Who Refused To Offer Sex Advice To Gay Couples Fails In Religious Discrimination Claim Daily Mail Reporter 30th November 2009 Gary McFarlane lost his job when he refused to treat same-sex couples A Christian relationship counsellor who lost his job after refusing to provide sex therapy to gay couples has failed in a further attempt to prove religious discrimination by his former employers. Gary McFarlane, 48, a former elder in a church in Hanham, Bristol, lost his fight at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in London to prove discrimination by the relationship charity Relate. His appeal was launched...

Virginia Muslims are calling on McDonnell (R) to disavow comments made by the Virginia Beach religious broadcaster last week in response to the shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., in which Robertson asserted that Islam is "not a religion" but a "violent political system" and that those who practice it should be treated like members of a communist or fascist party.

The new focus of the investigation is a manipulated suicide for the insurance money.

Some readers have asked if -- with the release of topless photos and now a solo sex tape -- conservatives, or Christians, or conservative Christians, should consider former Miss California Carrie Prejean a role model. The question strikes me as off-base, a hybrid of the cult of hero worship and the 24/7 media's information overload. The underlying issue in the Prejean case is not -- or at least, it has never been for me -- one of the pageant (near-)winner’s character or admirability. It's a simple matter of the Left's aggressive politicization of every aspect of life, including beauty...

Remember how the Democrats reacted when the Bush Administration started replacing U.S. Attorneys? At least they were actually political appointees employed at the will and whim of the President.

It looks like the leftist partisans who violated Joe the Plumber’s privacy, rifled through Linda Tripp’s confidential records, and spent weeks literally navel-gazing at Bristol Palin’s real and imagined pregnancies have hit a new low: leaking an underage pornographic video to smear Carrie Prejean. By now, the media have ensured millions of people who never learned the names of Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett, or Anita Dunn have heard that the former Miss California once made a solo sex tape -- or, as the seasoned gatekeepers of reliable journalism often report it, simply a “sex tape.” Prejean told Sean Hannity...

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization. Kristina Clair, a 34-year old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the...

Carrie Prejean confessed that she has a sex tape, but said she regrets it. The former Miss California, who caused controversy during the Miss USA pageant when she said she didn't support same-sex marriage, appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show Monday night to address the rumor. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," Prejean told Hannity. "I was all by myself. I was sending a boyfriend at the time, who I loved and cared about, a video of me. "I was a teenager at the time," she told Hannity. "Never did I think it would ever come...

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — The organizers of the Miss California USA pageant sued former beauty queen Carrie Prejean Oct. 19 to get back the $5,200 they gave her in January for breast implants. The legal action, a countersuit responding to a suit by Prejean, also seeks proceeds from a book Prejean is writing. Prejean won last year’s Miss California USA pageant, then got breast implants to help her compete in the national pageant in April, where she placed second. There she ignited a controversy when she expressed her opposition to gay marriage in response to a question by a pageant...

(AP / CBS) It's not unusual for employees to be fired for browsing pornographic Web sites at work. But a Pennsylvania gun owner named Tony Jackson may have been the first person ever fired for looking at Web sites featuring gun parts. Jackson worked at a Lotus Notes administrator at Planco, a subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based insurance company The Hartford. He's a firearms instructor and self-described Second Amendment advocate who, while at work in May 2007, visited Web sites including shotgun maker Mossberg and Impact Guns's online store because he and his wife were planning on going skeet shooting and...

Says Abuse of Detainees Helped al Qaeda Recruit Terrorists, But Opposes Investigation into "Enhanced" Interrogations. BY MICHELLE LEVI Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he thinks it is a "serious mistake" for the administration to focus on the past when investigating the interrogation techniques of the CIA under President Bush on "Face the Nation" Sunday. "For us now to go back, I think, would be a serious mistake. "I believe that the president was right when he said we ought to go forward and not back. I worry about the morale and effectiveness of the CIA. I worry about this thing...

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to ask a special prosecutor to investigate for possible criminal prosecution CIA operatives who interrogated terrorists in overseas locations is the latest and most egregious instance of political gamesmanship by Holder, who strode into office promising to remove the taint of politicization from the Justice Department. Holder's announcement brought a storm of criticism from senators, former CIA director Michael Hayden, former vice president Dick Cheney, and veteran Justice Department attorneys. CIA employees, already reeling from congressional attacks, were understandably mystified by Holder's words assuring them of his "respect and gratitude" and puzzled as to how...

The Justice Department prosecutor appointed this week to examine the CIA's interrogation program will revisit long dormant-cases of abuse by the agency's civilian contractors, bringing new attention to a little- known but controversial element of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Civilian contractors used by the CIA at secret overseas facilities were said to be involved in a series of cases of detainee abuses and deaths in the years following the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but only one was ever prosecuted. The contractors also played a key but secret role in the CIA's brutal interrogations of suspected top...

There are three reasons for President Barack Husein Obama’s decision to take a late-summer vacation this week: 1. There’s the damage he did to his popularity by trying – and failing – to convince us that we need ObamaCare (ie, socialized medicine). Obama’s popularity rating has taken a major hit. 2. There’s also the president’s forced revision of the projected 10-year debt America faces as a result of his Porkulus Bill. Obama & Co. tried to convince us our debt would swell no higher than seven trillion dollars, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) knew better and now estimates the...

Last weekend, the New York Times reported that after 9/11, the CIA developed a "secret counterterrorism program" to train hit squads to kill top al-Qaida leaders. It seemed like good news to me. After all, why bankroll an intelligence agency if you can't use it to kill an enemy against whom America has declared war? The news hooks: CIA director Leon Panetta killed the program last month after he told Senate and House Intelligence committees about the program. And: Congress allegedly did not know about the nonoperational operation because, according to unnamed sources, former Veep Dick Cheney told the agency...

Back in Britain after escaping the 'Diana witch hunt', the man who almost married her reveals the REAL reason their affair was doomed RICHARD KAY and GEOFFREY LEVY 18th July 2009 A love lost: Hasnat Khan first met Diana in 1995, when he was a young heart surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital Every day as he climbs into his elderly BMW and makes the 40-minute drive to the hospital where he works as an NHS heart surgeon, Hasnat Khan feels a contentment and professional satisfaction that he knows he came close to losing. Although born and qualified as a...

Latest ethics complaints should be 'a wake-up call,' Palin says Posted: 01:50 PM ET From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart (CNN) – The two new ethics complaints filed against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the past week should be ‘a wake-up call,’ the former Republican vice presidential candidate says. In a statement released late Friday night, Palin’s office announced that two more ethics complaints had been filed against the governor in the week since she made her surprise announcement that she plans to step down later this month -including one complaint filed on Friday. “Although the governor would not have...

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed Tuesday by attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee, according to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the panel’s chairman. Rove’s deposition began at 10 a.m. and ended around 6:30 p.m, with several breaks, Conyers said. Conyers would not comment on what Rove told congressional investigators, what the next step in the long-running Judiciary Committee investigation would be or whether Rove would face additional questioning. “He was deposed today,” Conyers said in an interview. “That’s all I can tell you.” Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to confirm or deny that his client...

History and social analysis of the Duke lacrosse case, retold in part from original documents; compared and contrasted with the social history of the Scottsboro trials.

Here's a thought. Let's look at this question strictly from political calculus. Do you think Republicans would rather that Speaker Pelosi be removed or keep her job, weakened and with little or no credibility left. I personally would pick the latter, at least as far as political advantage goes. That is at the heart of the political civil war going on the Democratic party. About three weeks ago, I wrote about the political civil war going on in both parties. At the heart of the political civil in the Democratic party is the issue of what to do about potential...

Highlights - The site, thedirty.com, now claims they have a sex tape of Carrie Prejean. - However, the site’s owner has a history of making false claims and profiting from the publicity and reaction his allegations generate. - The most popular case was Kobe Bryant and Laker Girl Vanessa Curry. - No photographic evidence of a Bryant and Curry affair emerged; despite weeks of claims he would soon publish pictures. Read full report: http://www.butasforme.com/2009/05/13/fraud-thedirtycom-says-video-of-prejean-coming-but-the-site-has-a-history-of-hyping-slanderous-material-that-never-materialized/

If we have reached a point in the development in our society, where a beauty pageant contestant is disqualified for believing that marriage should be restricted to a union between a man and a woman, then shouldn't the President of the United States get the same treatment? I am just saying fair is fair. And personally, I care much more about Barack Obama's view of same sex marriage than the polite comments of Carrie Prejean. I must ask you liberals, why do you hate Carrie Prejean so much and love Barack Obama, who has done nothing for gay rights, does...

The jihad against Miss California, Carrie Prejean, by the hate-filled-frothing-at-the-mouth al Qaeda types who speak for and represent the entire left is at it again. First they released a semi-nude photo of Ms. Prejean on May 5th. Today they have decided to roll out another. This one's no worse then the first. Exact same pose except she's looking over her left shoulder instead of her right. All this time and effort to humiliate and destroy somebody over their belief in "traditional marriage" between a man and a woman.

So how does a beauty queen turn into the poster child against gay marriage? In the case of Miss California Carrie Prejean, the answer may lie in an ugly divorce that may have cemented her views on gay relationships. Carrie's parents filed for divorce in 1988 and the divorce and custody fights went on for more than a decade -- it was a divorce filled with homosexual allegations hurled by both sides. In one of the docs, Carrie's dad describes a confrontation he had with her mom in 1996, in which he recounts an argument in a restaurant parking lot,...

Watch Video: http://www.butasforme.com/2009/05/08/trump-from-what-im-seeing-the-photos-are-not-extremely-bad/TRUMP ON PREJEAN: "Not Extremely Bad ... Shows Only One Thing... She is Beautiful." PREJAN DEFENDS: Some Photos Photoshopped ... Her Head ... Not Her Body.

Miss California -- Define 'Semi-Nude' So how's this for a new twist? Carrie Prejean believes she did not violate her Miss California contract when she gave pageant officials written assurance she never posed semi-nude. Carrie's rep tells us the photo that's circulating is not a semi-nude pic -- "It's not a semi-nude pose because she's modeling for lingerie." Fun Fact -- even though we haven't published the four semi-nude pics that were sent to us (because Carrie claims she was 17 when they were taken), we can assure you she was not wearing a top and she was flaunting some...

White House says Holder will decide on prosecutions; Obama opposes special commission on Bush-era policies. BY WILL DUNHAM WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Releasing classified memos showing whether harsh Bush-era interrogation methods yielded useful information from terrorism suspects is not necessary, Republican Senator John McCain said on Sunday in a public disagreement with former Vice President Dick Cheney. After President Barack Obama released four memos this month revealing the Bush administration's legal justification for methods such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning -- Cheney called for declassifying any memos showing that these techniques succeeded in producing valuable information....

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading Democratic senator said Sunday independent investigators should determine whether Bush administration officials ought to face charges over the harsh interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists. The White House had hoped to put the matter behind it by letting the attorney general make that call. Other liberal Democratic lawmakers appearing on the Sunday news shows joined Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in pressuring the Obama administration to pursue investigations into the interrogations policies. But they stopped short of demanding charges against the Bush-era lawyers and other officials who devised the policies that critics have denounced as torture....

Prosecuting former Bush administration officials for signing off on harsh interrogation techniques would be a “legal nightmare,” for the nation that could do lasting damage to national security, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News Thursday. Moreover, members of Congress who were kept informed of the techniques at the time they were being used could, in theory, also be subject to prosecution, said Graham, R-S.C., who also is a JAG colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. “Any member of Congress who was read into this program are in the same boat as the (Bush) lawyers,’’ Graham said. “Then you’re...

...The president's on-again, off-again, maybe-he-will and maybe-he-won't decision to punish someone who loosened tongues of Islamist terrorists at Guantanamo suddenly threatens not only the CIA interrogators and Justice Department lawyers, but even members of Congress...We're on unfamiliar ground now. No president before has sought to punish his predecessor for policy decisions, no matter how wrong or wrong-headed. Lyndon B. Johnson's management of the Vietnam War was often ham-handed...But Richard Nixon was never tempted to send LBJ or any of those presidential acolytes to prison..even the rabid Republicans who survived the assassination stopped short of putting Jefferson Davis in the dock...when...

Sen. John McCain warned that a pursuit for charges against Bush administration officials who helped design harsh interrogation tactics used on terrorist suspects would turn into a "witch hunt." Speaking on CBS' The Early Show, the former Vietnam POW and Republican opponent of President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, said there is no evidence that he knows of that shows the officials who approved the tactics weren't giving plausible legal advice. This will have a "chilling effect on legal counsel," McCain said. McCain, who was himself tortured as a U.S. soldier by his North Vietnamese captors, was a vocal...

Before members of Congress rail at the CIA’s coercive interrogation of terrorists, they might want to blame those who authorized the measures in the first place: themselves. Yes, members of Congress approved the interrogation methods many of them now decry as torture. That revelation comes from an article posted Wednesday on WeeklyStandard.com by senior writer Stephen F. Hayes, who reveals that Adm. Dennis Blair, President Obama’s national intelligence director, circulated a letter within the intelligence community last week that could prove embarrassing to both Democrats and the Obama administration. Blair’s letter reportedly states that members of Congress repeatedly signed off...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials.

For the second day in a row, CNBC "Squawk on the Street" co-host Mark Haines took on a Democratic congressman over the issue that American International Group (AIG) paid out too much in bonuses for a company that received federal bailout money. On March 19, Haines took on alleged tax cheat Charles Rangel, questioning whether or not he should be dictating tax policy while the House Ethics Committee investigates him for his tax problems. On CNBC's March 20 "Squawk on the Street," Haines took on Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif. on the issue. Sherman contended the 90-percent tax on bonuses exceeding...

In an attempt to win sanctions against a former top Bush administration official over brutal interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, a lawyers group deployed a strategy Monday that worked against Presidents Nixon and Clinton. Former Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes II is the first of several former policy makers the National Lawyers Guild wants reprimanded, suspended or disbarred for their roles in detainee abuse, said Carlos Villarreal, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area guild chapter that filed a complaint against Haynes with the California Bar Assn. Haynes, now an attorney with Chevron Corp....

Jim Cramer just keeps paying the price for his heresy. Ever since his March 3 remarks calling Obama's policies "greatest wealth destruction I've seen by a president," the CNBC "Mad Money" host has been under attack. First it was the back-and-forth with the White House, then he was skewered by comedian Jon Stewart. Now CNN and a former high-ranking public official have targeted him. Cramer, who is set to appear on Comedy Central's "Daily Show" on March 12, was featured in a segment of that day's CNN "American Morning" reporting on a video he did for TheStreet.com in 2006, in...

Newsweek magazine joins the Obama administration's war on Rush Limbaugh with a cover story authored by conservative lightwieght David Frum.The cover art is an unflattering tight shot of Limbaugh's face featuring a black box over his mouth with the word ENOUGH!The article, which doesn't matter really because it is the excuse to position the anti-Rush agit-prop cover on newstands around the country for a week, can be read here.Newsweek released a press release with an excerpt from Frum's article:"In the days since I stumbled into this controversy, I've received a great deal of e-mail. (Most of it on days...

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was the go-to boogeyman for Democrats eagerly attempting to reclaim the White House after eight years in exile. From the economy to Iraq, Barack Obama campaigned more against the outgoing president than he did his opponent John McCain. But with Mr. Bush enjoying his retirement in Texas and no clear leader emerging in Republican politics, Democrats were at a loss as to who could bear the brunt of their scorn, and provide a necessary distraction. This comes at a time when Mr. Obama’s bipartisan credentials are under fire after his stimulus package...

Five elderly people suspected of practising witchcraft were burnt to death in western Kenya, police have said. "They include four women and a man in their 80's who were accused of having abducted a child," Kisii deputy police Commander Manasseh Musyoka said yesterday. The killings occurred at Bomatara Village in Mosocho Division. A resident who declined to be named said the abducted child was found dumped on the roadside. "He was unconscious and when he regained it, he was able to tell the names of his abductors. That is when a decision was reached in the village to hunt them...

On December 4, 2008, Specialist Brandon Neely approached CSHRA with testimony he wished to contribute to the Guantánamo Testimonials Project. He believed that insufficient attention had been paid to "the hell that went on at Camp X-Ray." He would be in a position to know, as he arrived in Guantánamo while the cages of Camp X-Ray were still being welded, and escorted the second detainee to hit the prison grounds. In this interview, Specialist Neely provides testimony of the arrival of the detainees...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and three fellow Democrats want the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights complaints against controversial sheriff Joe Arpaio. The lawmakers, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sent Friday, are seeking a probe into reports Arpaio has used skin color as a basis to search for illegal immigrants in Arizona. Conyers and Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) want to end a federal agreement that allows the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to enforce immigration laws if the allegations turn...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Authorities in the South Carolina county where Michael Phelps was photographed smoking from a marijuana pipe have been arresting people as they seek to make a case against the superstar swimmer, lawyers for two arrested people said Thursday. Attorneys Joseph McCulloch and Dick Harpootlian told The Associated Press they each represent a client charged with possession of marijuana who were questioned about the party Phelps attended near the University of South Carolina campus in November. The lawyers said the two clients were renters at the house where the party apparently took place. Harpootlian said his client was...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The lawyer for Gov. Sarah Palin's husband fired back at Alaska state senators Saturday, disputing that Todd Palin and others "ignored" subpoenas issued last fall during the Troopergate investigation of the governor. Attorney Thomas V. Van Flein said that immediately after a judge's decision refusing to intervene, all subpoenaed witnesses, including Todd Palin, filed detailed written responses to lawmakers. "These are not the actions of contemptuous witnesses, rather, they reflect a studied and deliberate invocation of law and due process, and in accord with the rule of law, once the court issued its decision, the parties then...

Villagers in Central India beat fifty women with sticks and cut off their hair, accusing them of being "witches", according to Sujit Kumar's news article on Reuters. The villagers had beat the women on the saying of a local spiritual man who said the assault would protect them from evil spirits, in a forest in a poor district of Chhattisgarh state, 400km (250 miles) from the capital Raipur.

"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber." Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama. The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.

Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal Friday, October 24, 2008 8:57 PM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch "State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber." Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama. The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an...

I realize it’s all about winning at this point. But someone has to ask: What has happened to the Democratic Party? It seems like just yesterday that the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy was talking about income equality and civil rights and worker protections and going to bat for the little guy, the blue collar laborer, the everyday Joe the Plumber. Now, the well-to-do elites who run the Democratic Party — and their surrogates — greet these people with brickbats. They insult them, talk down to them, and even try to destroy them. Isn’t that the...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband and seven aides will answer questions from a legislative inquiry into abuse-of-power allegations against the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, state and campaign officials said on Monday. Palin is being investigated for her dismissal in July of the state's public safety commissioner, a move that critics of Palin allege was part of a personal vendetta against a state trooper who is the governor's former brother-in-law. Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said Palin's chief of staff and six other aides will stop fighting subpoenas that were issued last month by the state's...