Free Republic

1. CHEVY CHASE Have you heard the one about the garbage-mouthed left-wing comedian who hosted a fancy mid-December awards ceremony in Washington and managed to gross out even the Hollywood liberal socialites in the audience with a string of hysterical anti-Bush obscenities? The distinguished speaker was Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase, the distinguished venue was the toney Kennedy Center on the banks of the Potomac, and the distinguished audience consisted largely of well-dressed members and supporters of "People for the American Way" -- a grotesquely misnamed leftist advocacy group that had engaged the 61-year-old washed-up comic to host its annual fundraiser...

It's no secret that banks' use of credit default swaps relies on an inefficiency in markets. Indeed, the elucidation of this inefficiency won economist Joseph Stiglitz a 2001 Nobel prize. The inefficiency, which Stiglitz defined as "asymmetric information," arises whenever a buyer or seller has more information about a product or service than his counterpart does — which can provide the better-informed party with considerable economic advantage. And informational asymmetry is often inevitable when one party has conflicting interests in the transaction. Nowhere else in finance are such conflicts as fundamental as when banks buy or sell credit default swaps,...

Even Hollywood liberals were left reeling after Chevy Chase's potty-mouthed Bush-bashing Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, where the actor hosted an awards ceremony staged by People for the American Way. The WASHINGTON POST on Thursday claims Chase unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Dick Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a "dumb (expletive)." He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, "I'm no (expletive) clown either. ... This guy started a jihad." Chase also said: "This...

PHOENIX INT'L RACEWAY SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2004 NBC 3PM ET THREE RACES LEFT Nextel Cup Qualifying Record Rusty Wallace 134.718 2000 Nextel Cup Race Record Tony Stewart 118.132 11|07|99

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAYNBC Sunday October 24, 2004 at 12:30pm ET5 RACES TO GO!! At slightly more than half a mile, Martinsville Speedway is the shortest track on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Circuit, but it's one of the biggest when it comes to action. It has 800-foot straights, turns banked at only 12 degrees and has been called "two drag strips with a turnaround on each end." The demanding layout consistently produces some of the wildest fender scrubbing, push and shove racing on the tour.

Hollywood heavyweights Paul Newman, Steve Bing, Robert De Niro and Matt Damon have boosted Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign as he bids for the White House next month. The Democrat hopeful is currently neck and neck with current US leader George W Bush in the opinion polls in the run-up to polling day on November 2. Over 850 celebrities and businesspeople have contributed to Kerry's campaign fund, of which a recent investigation in New York has revealed Bing, Damon, De Niro and Newman have all given money. Film producer Bing, who famously denied paternity of Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian and...

A John Belushi impersonator was charged with a pair of felonies on Wednesday after a strange incident that included a high-speed chase and a singing Elvis.

Police responding to a report of an Elvis impersonator down with convulsions at a veterans hall soon found themselves in a high-speed chase - of a man dressed as a Blues Brother. ``Man, just when I thought that I had seen everything in this business, you realize you haven't scratched the surface,'' Capt. Dave Oyaas said Tuesday. According to Oyaas: Officers were called about 11 a.m. Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in this Twin Cities suburb, where they found a man dressed as Elvis on the ground outside. He appeared to be in convulsions. When the officers...

Chase By the Numbers - Race #4 Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway might have become the most critical race in the inaugural Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, following the events last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

The last part of the article: It is more than a rumor that Bush will return to the state for the NASCAR race at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon on Sept. 19. He is scheduled to attend the start of the race — with its 100,000 spectators — before going to another event. And we can expect television advertising to intensify. The Kerry campaign just purchased $50 million in national ads, mostly for the 20 battleground states, and new ads begin airing this week. The Bush campaign will also begin a new round soon.

Kerry, Edwards, Hollywood, and the Politics of Hate By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 13, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms John Kerry and John Edwards both looked at the same intelligence presented to President Bush, and they voted for the Iraq war. Then both Kerry and Edwards voted against an $87 billion funding package for our troops in Iraq. How could they be both for and against the war? Kerry, the great flip-flopper, has even gone so far as stating, I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it. Several weeks before Kerry voted against the $87 billion bill,...

BBC manifesto vows to end ratings chase By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 30/06/2004) The BBC set out a nine-point manifesto for its future yesterday, including pledges to cut out "derivative and cynical" programmes, restore "serious" current affairs on television and move almost half its staff out of London. The proposals, which form the core of the corporation's submission in the review of its Royal Charter, also contained sweeping reforms of the corporation's governors to strengthen their independence following criticism in the Hutton report. The 10-year manifesto, "Building Public Value", was outlined by Michael Grade, the BBC chairman. He said...

Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. The former US diplomats complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends". They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. 'Great danger' They were...

Hundreds Storm Office of JP Morgan Chase Lobbyist, Demand Commitment to Communities 3/29/2004 10:49:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Emily Severson, 708-466-4433; http://www.npa-us.org WASHINGTON, March 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Hundreds of grassroots neighborhood leaders from National People's Action (NPA) are paying a visit to the office of the head of Federal Governmental Affairs for JP Morgan Chase, Stephen S. Ruhlen, on Monday, March 29, to demand that JP Morgan sign a written agreement to commit to communities. The leaders plan to arrive at Ruhlen's office, located at 300 Connecticut Ave., NW, around 11 a.m. EST. NPA spearheaded efforts...

A mother's quest to get her son to school on time landed her in jail yesterday after the hurried mom led a California Highway Patrol officer on a brief pursuit to the campus, authorities said. The Poway resident was arrested outside Del Mar Pines School. "I've been in chases of murder suspects, stolen cars or drunk drivers, (but) I've never had a mother lead me on a chase to get her child to school," CHP Officer Sam Shockley said. "It's just bizarre." The 10-minute pursuit ended at 8:35 a.m. outside the elementary school with the arrest of Stacy L. Taylor,...

-Posted on Fri, Oct. 31, 2003 "Goretti girls" get their man.Police: Students chase man who exposed himselfBy Ira PorterInquirer Staff Writer There is nothing sweeter than revenge. And that is what the "Goretti girls" of St. Maria Goretti High School in South Philadelphia got yesterday when they chased down and beat up a man who allegedly had exposed himself to the students for the last month. Police and neighborhood residents said between 20 and 30 girls, all dressed in their uniforms, dropped their book bags and jumped in after the man allegedly began to expose himself again. Onlookers and neighbors...

A 6-foot-tall emu led a half-dozen pest control workers on a 90-minute chase through woods and brush land before the flightless bird was snared and then gang-tackled. Gene Ham has caught raccoons, opossums, coyotes, deer, squirrels, foxes and other critters in his job with Jones/Hill Pest Control, but Tuesday's chase was his first encounter with an emu, an ostrich-like bird native to Australia. "That was by far the toughest thing we've ever caught," Ham said. "It was quick, and it put up a tough fight once we caught it." The emu, wrapped in a blanket and with shredded duct tape...

Australians net poachers after 4,600-mile ocean chase By Kathy Marks in Sydney 28 August 2003 After a three-week chase in the iceberg-studded seas of the Antarctic, the game was up yesterday for a Uruguayan ship suspected of poaching rare Patagonian toothfish in Australian waters. Australian and South African officials boarded the ship and arrested the 40 crew members. The Viarsa prompted the longest maritime pursuit in Australian history when it was spotted apparently poaching the valuable toothfish - known as the "white gold" of the Southern Ocean - in a remote Australian fisheries zone. Australia sent a customs ship in...

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's largest mobile phone operator said Thursday that it will offer cell phone users a new noise service that it says will repel mosquitoes. SK Telecom Co. said subscribers can pay 3,000 won (US$2.50) to download a sound wave that is inaudible to human ears but annoys mosquitoes within a range of three feet. Customers can then play the sound by hitting a few buttons on their mobile phones.