Free Republic

March 28, 2005 Today marks the beginning of a new era. Townhall.com has officially split off from The Heritage Foundation. Townhall.com is going independent, so we are now free to expand our news and opinion resources and to go after the liberals with everything we have. You have been there for us during this incredible journey. We hope you’ll stand with us and support us as we grow into a major force in the political world. This morning, Editor-in-Chief, Jonathan Garthwaite sent this email to our nearly 300,000 email subscribers.

The 2004 presidential election may be in the history books, but the left-wing protests and incendiary rhetoric that targeted President Bush in last year's campaign have not died down. As attacks on the administration's policies continue, so does scrutiny of the finances of such groups, which some say pose significant questions as to whether their activities comply with tax law. Anti-Bush groups like the International Action Center boast of their support for the "courageous Iraqi resistance that has derailed the U.S. Empire." The IAC, which plans an anti-war demonstration in New York City Saturday, has also conducted mock trials and...

Kweisi Mfume recently announced his departure as NAACP President, and not a moment too soon. His tenure has been a disaster for the storied civil rights organization, driving it deeper into liberal irrelevance. But that doesn't mean it still shouldn't be defended against the current IRS probe of its tax-exempt status. Back in October the NAACP was informed that it may have violated a law that prohibits charities, churches and other nonprofits from engaging in partisan activities. Under Mr. Mfume and chairman Julian Bond, the group has accused President Bush of being at war with black America; compared Republicans to...

NOVEMBER 30--A New York woman who briefly worked as a nanny for Don Imus has sued the radio host for wrongful termination, claiming she was canned for bringing a harmless cap gun and pocketknife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to the family's sprawling New Mexico ranch. Nichole Mallette, 24, also claimed in her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below, that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist." In her complaint, filed...

My DUmmie Ant Farm is all astir! A venomous scorpion in the form of Bev Harris of BBV fame is stinging my DUmmie Ants left and right lefter with her lethal stinger. So how did this scorpion entered the hallowed confines of the Dummie Ant Farm? Did she boldly invade? No. She was actually invited in by the DUmmies as a conquering heroine who would lead the DUmmie ants to overturn the election results and establish John Kerry as president in January. Not only did the Dummies hail the Bev Harris scorpion but they also fed her copious quantities of...

MAYBE SOME enterprising soul with an appreciation of irony should post a sign outside the NAACP national headquarters on Mount Hope Drive: "Chickens come home to roost here." And come home to roost they have. Start building the chicken coops. In July, NAACP board Chairman Julian Bond -- whose mouth should have been retired when his old organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, drifted into irrelevance back in the late '60s -- served up one of his patented anti-President Bush, anti-Republican salvos. He reiterated his comparison of Republicans to the Taliban and, for good measure, hinted that Bush really wanted...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - With a newly robust endowment burning holes in its not-for-profit pockets, National Public Radio is in the midst of a major expansion. But NPR's ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation. NPR, a member organization governed in part by local stations, is pumping $15 million into its news division over the next three years, using interest from a recent bequest...

Music is the soundtrack of our lives, so it only stands to reason that songs have become the subtext to our political campaigns. At the FleetCenter they ranged from the obvious --... ...and U2 singer Bono told a group of young City Year volunteers that when he was their age he joined a band because he wanted to do two things: change the world and have fun. "I'm a fan of America, one of those annoying fans that follows the singer into the bathroom and asks what happened on the last album," Bono said to explosive applause, hardly needing to...

<p>OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- A recent Sunday found Tina Kolm changing her morning routine. Instead of attending a Unitarian Universalist service, she was at the Lenexa Christian Center, paying close attention to a conservative minister's sermon about the importance of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex "marriage."</p>

(CNSNews.com) - National Public Radio has decided to use a philanthropist's generous donation for a "major expansion" of its news operation. NPR announced on Tuesday that it would spend $15 million over the next three years on additional reporters, editors, producers and managers; as well as new domestic and international bureaus. The 2004-2007 expansion will be funded in part by interest from the $225 million in bequests that NPR received from the late philanthropist Joan Kroc, the widow of the man who founded McDonald's. Joan Kroc died in October 2003. NPR has described her bequest as "the largest monetary gift...

Documentary film-maker Michael Moore won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Fahrenheit 911, not because the awards jury wanted to endorse his politics, but because it was "the best film at the festival" according to festival jurist Quentin Tarantino. Never mind that Moore immediately said he hoped his film "would affect the outcome of the 2004 election." We are still supposed to believe that the film was judged on its artistic merits, and nothing else. Add this to some other remarkable facts that we are supposed to believe about the "non-partisan" nature of other efforts to enlighten...

SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- Liberal anti-Bush online political activist group MoveOn.org sent a warning message to its members this week regarding the upcoming ruling by the Federal Election Commission about the legality of so-called 527 groups accepting soft campaign contributions to run political ads."The Republican National Committee is pressing the Federal Election Commission to issue new rules that would cripple groups that dare to communicate with the public in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress," MoveOn.org charged in an e-mail to supporters.In the e-mail, MoveOn.org attempts to scare "conservative, progressive, labor, religious, secular, social...

NEW YORK - National Public Radio has bounced Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition since its inception in 1979, out of his job. The radio network announced Tuesday that Edwards, 56, will become senior correspondent of NPR News at the end of April, with his reports being heard on various broadcasts. Edwards said he was disappointed by the move, particularly that he won't be the host when the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in November. "You have to figure it's going to happen someday and you get out before they do it," he said. "But I failed." Edwards said he...

A lot of lefties site this page. Though they say non-partisan, it seems to spend more time attacking Bush. I looked for a search engine for their page to type in "Heinz" to no avail. "The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization, was founded by Charles Lewis following a successful 11-year career in network television news."

<p>At a time when efforts to reform the corporate world are getting all of the attention, there is another group of chief executives who remain insulated from the effects of scandals at Tyco, WorldCom and the like. They are America's not-for-profit profiteers: the executives who cash in at universities, foundations and other tax-exempt organizations.</p>

Former Texas Army National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett on Bush the Chicken hawk In his 20-minute speech yesterday aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, whose planes dropped nearly 1/3 of the bombs that rained down on Iraq, President Bush said the Iraq conflict was merely one small part of a broader fight that he pledged the US would continue to pursue against Al Qaeda and other terrorists around the world. Tape: Bush speaking aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln But despite all the belligerent rhetoric coming from the Commander in Chief, his praise of American servicemen and women and his dramatic...

Now you can follow advocacy group spending in the 2004 elections! An innovative Web-based tool unveiled today by the Center for Responsive Politics allows voters to research advocacy groups spending millions of dollars to influence the 2004 elections and to report the activities of these groups in their communities. With the 2004 presidential and congressional races in full swing, special interest groups across the political spectrum will be airing ads, mailing flyers and operating phone banks designed to support or oppose the election of a candidate. Inconsistent reporting requirements will make identifying and tracking these groups difficult. To assist voters...

Michael Moore has never been afraid to offend. He didn't disappoint Saturday night in an appearance at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, as more than 2,000 people jammed inside to hear him take on President Bush, Rush Limbaugh, war with Iraq -- and just about everything else on the political right. Several hundred more were turned away when the church ran out of space in its sanctuary and overflow rooms. They came to hear the brash, outspoken author and award-winning documentary filmmaker, who is also famous for denouncing Bush in March before a national television audience at the Oscars....

AMY GOODMAN: I guess what surprised so many people when you sent out your letter, and now in your book, on Wesley Clark, I don’t think people were surprised that he ran for president, but that he’s called the anti-war worrier, that this is the man who said the rest of the world has got to get with us, this is the man who presided over the bombing of Yugoslavia. MICHAEL MOORE: Well, yeah, I put it in “Bowling for Columbine,” I’m so upset still about what happened in Kosovo, it’s in my movie. I found a way to work...

&#8216;We're in trouble; and he means public TVMoyers' program an issue with McCain, Hollings warnsOriginally published in Current, Jan. 19, 2004By Karen EverhartSouth Carolina Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings warned pubcasters that the upcoming Senate reauthorization of the Public Broadcasting Act will be a tough fight. "We&#8217;re in trouble," said Hollings, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. During a Jan. 11 [2004] luncheon at the National Educational Telecommunications Association Conference in New Orleans, Hollings suggested that public TV will take hits for the PBS series Now with Bill Moyers. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) views Moyers,...