Free Republic

Historian Steven M. Gillon recalls his friendship with John F. Kennedy Jr. on the 20th anniversary of his fatal plane crash. The life of the late magazine publisher is being chronicled in a new A&E documentary titled 'Biography: JFK Jr — The Final Year,' as well as a book by Gillon titled 'America's Reluctant Prince.' Steven M. Gillon can vividly recall when he and his pal John F. Kennedy Jr. were at a bar watching a fight on the big screen and a man pushed him aside and exclaimed “You’re John!” hugging the son of late President John F. Kennedy....

WILKES-BARRE — With the 50th anniversary of her death coming up this week, relatives of Mary Jo Kopechne are making public a letter the Luzerne County native’s parents received from boxer Muhammad Ali shortly after her passing. In it, Ali urges the family to sue Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was driving the car that plunged off a bridge into a pond on the night of July 18, 1969, from which Kennedy escaped and Kopechne’s lifeless body was recovered the next morning. She was 28. The letter has been released to the Times Leader by William Nelson and his mother, Georgetta...

Former Vice President Joe Biden likened the cultural effects of President Trump's election to the assassinations of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in a Saturday interview with Al Sharpton. During a discussion in South Carolina that touched on criminal justice reform, Biden argued that Trump's rise to power had awakened an entire generation to the necessity of getting involved in politics, much like the violent murders of political figures did for baby boomers in the 1960s. "I think what’s happening now is, I think that Donald Trump may have reawakened sensibilities in this country...

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana ripped Democrats over their hesitancy to bring about impeachment proceedings against President Trump, telling them that if they wanted to go forward the should "buy a spine." Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Republican senator said that his Democratic colleagues need to make a definitive decision on the matter, but noted that if they decide to move forward, they will likely regret the “Sisyphean task” of impeaching the president. “It’ll be tough going in the Senate,” Kennedy said. “Impeachment polls right up there with skim milk among the American people, but my advice...

Did anybody see the most recent episode of the ‘documentary’ series 1969, on ABC? I started watching it and this one is labelled ‘The Girl in the Car’.

Bernie Sanders By Peter Buttigieg St. Joseph’s High School South Bend, Indiana In this new century, there are a daunting number of important issues which are to be confronted if we are to progress as a nation. Each must be addressed thoroughly and energetically. But in order to accomplish the collective goals of our society, we must first address how we deal with issues. We must re-examine the psychological and political climate of American politics. As it stands, our future is at risk due to a troubling tendency towards cynicism among voters and elected officials. The successful resolution of every...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Saturday, Sept. 25, 2004 2:07 p.m. EDTKerry Taps Controversial Elian Attorney The Elian Gonzalez controversy was the single most critical factor giving George Bush the presidency in 2000. It may prove to be a critical factor this year as well – thanks to John Kerry who just tapped a key figure in the Elian controversy for his campaign. Kerry must have forgotten that after the Elian brouhaha record numbers of Cuban Americans in Florida voted against Al Gore – ceding the closely contested Florida race – and the presidency to George Bush. The Miami Herald reported Saturday...

Nearly two decades after his tragic death, stars, insiders and colleagues — including Cindy Crawford, Robert De Niro, Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter — recall in an oral history the editor's enthusiasm for bipartisan media and the day it all ended: "He truly believed it would have a positive impact." My first encounter with John: I had handed in a piece for the third issue of the magazine that everyone was talking about while toiling for another in Philadelphia. One day, at my office, a voicemail. "Hi, Lisa? It's John Kennedy. I just read your story and I love it!...

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday that he is running for President, launching a bid in which he intends to make combating climate change the central rationale for his campaign. Inslee announced the bid in a video made public on Friday. He is slated to hold a news conference in Seattle at a solar panel installer to expand upon his presidential announcement. He will be surrounded by friends, family and business owners who the campaign says have benefited from his climate policies in the state. "I'm Jay Inslee and I'm running for president because I am the only candidate...

As much as they hate to admit it now, national Democrats were against illegal immigration before they were for it. All quotes guaranteed verbatim: Barack Obama, 2005: “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undocumented, undetected, unchecked, circumventing the people who are waiting patiently, diligently, lawfully to become immigrants in this country.” Hillary Clinton, 2014: “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in and I do think you have to control your borders.” Sen. Chuck Schumer, 2009: “People who enter...

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will not get involved in the state of Connecticut’s fight to reinstate Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel’s conviction for the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in Greenwich. The Connecticut Supreme Court vacated Skakel’s 2002 conviction and 20-to-life sentence last May and ordered he be entitled to a new trial on charges he beat Moxley to death with a golf club. The court found Skakel was deprived of his right to effective assistance of counsel because his attorneys did not investigate a potential alibi witness who could have helped his defense. Skakel, 58, is...

“The Last Days of JFK Jr.,” a two-hour special promising new details and new interviews under the ABC News banner, aired Thursday night. Not only did the program soft-pedal Kennedy’s complete and utter fault for the crash but it got crucial details wrong — claiming that the FAA said flying conditions that night were “excellent” (according to the National Transportation Safety Board review of the crash, they were extremely poor, and JFK Jr. would have known it), and that his flight instructor was unavailable that night to fly with him. In fact, the NTSB report said one of Kennedy’s instructors...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court announced Monday that it is leaving in place a decision that vacated a murder conviction against Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel. Skakel was convicted in 2002 of the 1975 bludgeoning death of Martha Moxley, a 15-year-old who lived across the street from the Skakel family in Greenwich, Connecticut, and whose body was found in her family’s backyard. Both Skakel and Moxley were 15 at the time of her death. The high court’s refusal to hear the case means that a 2018 decision by Connecticut’s highest court throwing out Skakel’s conviction will stand. Connecticut’s highest court...

Perhaps it is uncharitable of me, but the minute I hear the words "as a former addict myself," I stop listening to the speaker. Yesterday that speaker was Patrick Kennedy of the famed Kennedy clan. Kennedy, who had some problems with drugs back when he was a congressman, was testifying before a joint committee of the Legislature that is looking at legalization bills. He did a lot of fulminating, as Kennedys do, raising his voice and gesturing with his hands as he said things like, "As a father of five, the last thing I want is edibles sold on every...

"There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin!" That was June 1963 in West Berlin where President John F. Kennedy gave one of his most memorable addresses. The speech was a stirring defense of liberty and a pointed critique of communism. Whether you agree with Kennedy broadly or narrowly, I've rediscovered that speech and find it to relate now more than ever to the unfolding drama in the country of my birth, Venezuela. My family and I left Venezuela when I was 10. We had every intention of returning. Then...

If it wasn’t for capitalism, Joe Kennedy, the congressman, might be tending bar at J.J. Foley’s in the South End. Not that there is anything wrong with tending bar at the Boston establishment. It was and is a fine bar, one that I used to regularly frequent when I worked for the Boston Herald, which was then conveniently located around the corner. It was a clean, welllighted place. Former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn of South Boston was a regular, along with fellow politicians, Boston cops, firefighters, working men and, of course, reporters.

This week on The David Rubenstein Show, retired Justice Kennedy finally admitted the real reason behind his Obergefell ruling, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that created a novel definition of marriage to give legal status to same-sex couples. Kennedy said, “It seemed to me just wrong that under the Constitution, over 100,000 adopted children of gay parents could not have their parents married. I just thought this was wrong.” Well, now we know. The justice’s reasoning had nothing to do with Constitutional principles. He had an emotional reaction and in his hubris he imposed his private feelings on the nation....

I just noticed no one has posted on this world changing event 55 years ago today In short. JFK was the last real Democrat who was tolerable He stood up for us versus the commies He cut taxes dramatically Bobby was a crime fighting anti mobster. DA That is the reason they were killed by the power structure We must remember besucase they are open about doing this to our great president Never forget. Nov 22 1963. The day the world stopped

Saturday, in Pittsburgh, a Sabbath celebration at the Tree of Life synagogue became the site of the largest mass murder of Jews in U.S. history. Eleven worshippers were killed by a racist gunman. Friday, we learned the identity of the crazed criminal who mailed pipe bombs to a dozen leaders of the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. From restaurants to Capitol corridors, this campaign season we have seen ugly face-offs between leftist radicals and Republican senators. Are we more divided than we have ever been? Are our politics more poisoned? Are we living in what...

Matt Drudge, founder and editor of the influential right-leaning Drudge Report news website, targeted Fox News on Monday for what he said was an insensitive TV segment in light of the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.