Free Republic

Did you know that deep down inside (when he’s not silencing his opposition, supporting the FARC, sponsoring drug trafficking, and courting Hezbollah and almost every other enemy of the West) Hugo Chavez is a good, admirable man? Yup, he is—according to Leftist filmmaker Oliver Stone. The filmmaker, along with the upcoming release of his “Wall Street” sequel, has a new documentary called “South of the Border” that praises Chavez, Castro, their allies, and highlights other South American leaders. But, apparently the Venezuelan people aren’t as hot on the near-dictator as Stone is: The documentary is bombing in the country. Personally,...

A May Day march without Che Guevara posters and Mexican flags is like a fish with a bicycle. We observed the bemusing spectacle two weeks ago. Now it’s time to reflect. Some marchers , apparently wracked with guilt between the primacy of the two symbols , devised a handy modus vivendi for their tortured consciences’. It seemed that few groups of Mexican demonstrators forget to glorify the man on record (June, 1956) as dismissing Mexicans en masse as, “a rabble of illiterate Indians.” In 1956, while residing in Mexico and training with the Castro brothers for their "invasion" of Cuba,...

I learned long ago that shopping with teenagers requires me to patronize places I would otherwise avoid. The combination of loud, thumpy music, unreasonably priced clothing with manufactured holes in the knees and overly perky salespeople reminds me it is good to be a grown-up. Recently, however, owing to his incessant habit of rapid growth, my 15-year-old son needed new shoes. Thus, I found myself in the chain store Journeys, where one finds all manner of casual footwear, including styles even a mother can approve. The Journeys store at my mall is well-managed and well-staffed. The salespeople are truly some...

Longtime readers will remember that in 2006 and 2007, I provided extensive coverage of the open-borders radicals who didn’t just push for amnesty, but revealed their anti-American, anti-sovereignty, anti-police, pro-Che colors in all their fury. Some of those posts went viral and this one of the American flag desecration at Montebello High School still shows up in my e-mail box. Over the weekend, the open-borders extremists returned to the streets. But you won’t see CNN and MSNBC hunting them down Susan Roesgen-style and decrying these fringe wackos. Since they are back, I am back — doing the job the amnesty-sympathizers...

Ignorant No Child Left Behind beneficiaries can now have their beloved Che Guevara on their iPhones to compliment their Che tee shirts and footie pj’s. Humberto Fontova at American Thinker shares some evocative Che quotes that may not appear on junior’s iPhone: “’My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood…Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any surrendered enemy that falls in my hands! With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!’ (From Che’s own diaries, later...

On the eve of the French Revolution, the aristocrats inhabiting the palace of Versailles enjoyed, “as an ironic lark, sporting the clothing of the working classes,” according to writer Charles Stenson. These pampered elites were undisturbed by the fact that their peasant getups mocked the real peasants, many of whom were dying as a result of the elites’ self-serving policies. These clueless aristocrats have descendents in spoiled college kids who think it’s trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che’s face is emblazoned on T-shirts, he was glamorized by the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and Time magazine described him...

On the eve of the French Revolution, the aristocrats inhabiting the palace of Versailles enjoyed, “as an ironic lark, sporting the clothing of the working classes,” according to writer Charles Stenson. These pampered elites were undisturbed by the fact that their peasant getups mocked the real peasants, many of whom were dying as a result of the elites’ self-serving policies. These clueless aristocrats have descendents in spoiled college kids who think it’s trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che’s face is emblazoned on T-shirts, he was glamorized by the movie “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and Time magazine described him...

I was reading the Chron’s piece about Sheila Jackson Lee’s town hall, when something caught my eye: One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee’s district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system. “I don’t know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said. In this video, Mayer claims to be a general practitioner, eliciting applause and even a hug from Queen Sheila: I’m not sure why, but something didn’t smell right. So my colleagues and I did a little digging, and wouldn’t you know it? Roxana Mayer...

Plant at now infamous town hall where Sheila Jackson Lee answered her phone claimed to be a doctor... but she lied... she isn't Houston Chronicle DID zero homework. Also, falsely representing yourself as a physician may be illegal under TX law (still developing). more at link

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said today she does not know the woman who falsely claimed to be a physician when she made a statement supporting the White House's health care overhaul at the congresswoman's town hall meeting Tuesday. The woman, a University of Houston student named Roxana Mayer, is not a licensed physician, although she called herself one at the meeting and was incorrectly identified as such in Wednesday's editions of the Chronicle. In an e-mail to the Chronicle today, Mayer said she'd been advised not to talk further about the matter, but did not say who counseled her....

Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya protest outside the site of talks to resolve the leadership crisis in Honduras in San Jose, Saturday, July 18, 2009. Zelaya, who was forced into exile in a June 28 military coup, gave negotiators meeting in Costa Rica until midnight to restore him to office, threatening to return to Honduras in secret and attempt to retake power on his own if no agreement is reached. He indicated he would reject any power-sharing agreement, a proposal to be discussed at the talks.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Thousands of people swarmed Tegucigalpa's airport Sunday in a raucous and sometimes violent cry to demand the return of toppled President Manuel Zelaya, whose homecoming was postponed when authorities here refused to let his plane land. Zelaya was spirited out of his country a week ago, when soldiers executing a court order for his arrest hustled him onto a plane to Costa Rica. Zelaya, accompanied Sunday by....

The iconic image of Che Guevara found adorning students' walls and t-shirts across the world could be banned in Poland under a government proposal to outlaw materials that incite "fascism and totalitarian systems". Poland's equality minister, Elzbieta Radziszewska, wants to expand a Polish law prohibiting the production of fascist and totalitarian propaganda so that it includes clothing and anything else that could carry an image related to an authoritarian system. Anybody found guilty could face a two-year prison sentence. Radziszewska said that the proposed amendment to current legislation "would help organisations fighting racism". The proposal, which could see the faces...

What do you do if you're a street artist turned marketing phenom who uses other people's images when someone uses one of your designs? If you're Shepard Fairey, apparently, you call your lawyers. Fairey, of Obama HOPE poster fame, is defending himself against charges he infringed on an Associated Press copyrighted photo in making the poster. He's also been criticized by artists for using others' work without attribution. His lawyers claim in the AP case that he is protected by fair use provisions of the copyright law. It turns out, however, that the activist art appropriator is a wee bit...

The G20 is an evolving beast of inactivity. It is supposed to be a collection of Finance Ministers and heads of central banks of the 19 largest economies plus a representative of the European Union that meet on an annual basis to discuss the global economy. It has evolved into a meeting of heads of state that seeks to solve the world's problems. Stated differently, since the establishment of the G20 in 1999, it has evolved into a miniature version of the United Nations, without the smaller countries, the central organization, or the global mandate to, you know, actually do...

What's the one thing Las Vegas needs more of? Light, according to Carlos Santana, who figures he's just the guy to bring it during a Sin City residency he'll begin May 27 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Santana, the man and the band, will play about three shows a week through 2010 at the Hard Rock's expanded and refurbished concert theater, the Joint, which another classic rocker, Paul McCartney, will inaugurate April 19. "Santana is going to bring a lot of joy, light, peace and happiness into a place that is basically based on illusion," the multiple Grammy-winning...

Sean Penn, and Jim Carry as Larry and Curly? Say it isn’t so. I might be able to take Benicio Del Toro as Moe, but the Farrelly Bros. are sticking it to Three Stooges fans. Here is some advise Farrellys…stick to toilet humor and leave comic icons and Americana alone.

Sean Penn is going slapstick. MGM says the double Oscar winner has signed on to play Larry in the Farrelly brothers' big-screen update of The Three Stooges. Jim Carrey was in negotiations for the role of Curly, said MGM spokesman Grey Munford. The studio first featured the Stooges in a series of shorts and features beginning in 1933. Munford would not confirm reports that Benicio Del Toro will play Moe. He said filming begins this fall on the comedy, which is expected to be released in 2010.

Thank goodness for the wonder of DVR technology. I was able to see both of these last night. Did any of you manage to see these both? We all know "24" and its edge-of-your-seat national security threats, but I was caught a bit off guard by "Heroes" and this latest episode. Swoosie Kurtz was eating at a diner, and she was reading a book, "RONALD REAGAN - An American life". As the episode progressed, it seemed clear to me that the producers were equating the oppression we conservatives are feeling right now to the witch hunt the "Heroes" in the...

The gentleman second from the right in the picture below, Gerry Pasciucco, heads the AIG Financial Products unit. "We learned over the weekend,Che fan" reads a letter dated March 17 from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to Rep. Barney Frank, that AIG had, last Friday, distributed more than $160 million in retention payments (bonuses) to members of its Financial Products Subsidiary, the unit of AIG that was principally responsible for the firm's meltdown." This picture will surprise only those who take their Che Guevara cues from the MSM and Hollywood. On the other hand this comes from P. 24...

Here we see the current head of AIG Financial Products and former vice chairman of Morgan Stanley, Gerry Pasciucco, at an event called “Fiesta Cuba,” wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. [PHOTO AT LINK] The photo comes from this page at Fairfield County Look, where we learn more about the fun-filled evening: "Family Centers took a trip back in time where the sound of salsa music filled the air, La Tropicana was the place to be and relaxation was a way of life.The sights, sounds and tastes of 1940s-era Havana filled the air on the evening of Friday, June 6 for...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Socialist President Hugo Chavez met with a 21st-century incarnation of one of the world's biggest revolutionary icons Wednesday: actor Benicio del Toro, who stars in the new film chronicling the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara... "He's nice," the actor told journalists following the encounter at the presidential palace...

[video. You have to see the video to hear all her comments. She thinks Penn is an imbecile and a commie]Don’t invite Sean Penn and actress Maria Conchita Alonso to the same party. Especially if it’s the Community Party. The actress rolled her eyes and groaned when she was asked about her former co-star. Then she really unloaded. “It’s just that he has no clue at all what’s going on in Venezuela, praising Hugo Chavez who’s a dictator and a killer…” said Alonso, who was born in Cuba and raised in Venezuela. “I tried to put aside his being an...

Visit the Museo de la Revolución in central Havana, and two things about the museum’s photo displays will immediately capture your attention. First, it’s clear that the battle to control Cuba in the late 1950s was ultimately won by the cool guys. Young, bearded and ruggedly handsome, the rebel warriors of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement look like Beat hipsters and rock stars—Fidel tall and imposing in his fatigues; Camillo Cienfuegos grinning under his broad-brimmed cowboy hat; Ernesto “Che” Guevara looking smolderingly photogenic in his black beret. By contrast, the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and his cronies look...

Greg Gutfeld on the communist and the actor who plays him.

In a way, it’s harder to choose the worst films of a year rather than the best. There are so many! How many times did we walk out of a theater this year muttering, “That’s the worst thing I ever saw”? About as many times as last year. So here they are, for better or worse.Tom Cruise and wife Katie Holmes starred in two of 2008's biggest clunkers. 1. SEVEN POUNDS [Only the list is presented in this excerpt. You can read a mini-review of each film in the article.] 2. CLOVERFIELD 3. QUANTUM OF SOLACE 4. SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK...

We protested CHE in 2004. It's time to do it again. I still have my signs from 2004. We need YOU. http://www.freestarmedia.com/burlingtonchefactory.html This week, Benicio Del Toro was in Havana celebrating the opening of "Che," a film that glorifies the Butcher of La Cabaña. We must not remain silent. Just as there is no film glorifying Hitler or Stalin, this film is an abomination that should not have been made. In the name of the victims, please join us in publicly denouncing "Che." Where: The Landmark Theatre, 10850 West Pico Blvd , Los Angeles , CA 90064 When: Friday, December...

IF there was any question as to whether Steven Soderbergh's "Che" portrays the Marxist revolutionary as a hero, the four-hour movie will be shown next month in Cuba at Havana's New Latin American Film Festival. Event president Alfredo Guevara said in July that "Che" would not be shown if it included any "attacks" on Fidel Castro, who was Che's comrade in arms. But the film, starring Benicio Del Toro as the T-shirt icon, evidently passed muster with the dictator's regime. The stars and filmmakers will have to get US permission to attend the screenings, unless they sneak in like most...

I think Obama met his match. The guy who did the artwork for his campaign poster, L.A. street artist Shephard Fairey shares many of Obama's values and traits. Fairey is a pretentious, arrogant, pompous, self-indulgently and sickeningly hip Socialist as the video demonstrates. I came across this video of him at his show in D.C. in Oct. The name of his show: "Regime Change Starts at Home". It's really not that long, 5 min. or so. I know it's hard to watch these blow-hard arty-types go on about their "important work", but stick with it, you will see some unbelievable...

The clueless aristocrats have descendents in spoiled college kids who think it’s trendy to idolize Communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che’s face is emblazoned on T-shirts; he was glamorized by the movie The Motorcycle Diaries; and Time magazine described him as “a potent symbol of rebellion.” But few of the college hipsters who admire Che know what he actually stood for.

(Notice that the one on the left was wearing a red kaffiyeh around his neck.)

Shouldn’t the shirts have tipped them off? Nothing says “decadent western capitalist stooge” quite like Che gear. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told reporters earlier in the day that the rescue mission had been made possible by “a special intelligence” operation that had penetrated the highest reaches of the FARC, including the group’s seven-man directorate and one of the rings of specialized rebel units entrusted with guarding hostages. Santos said that ring, commanded by a rebel known by the alias Cesar, was tricked into believing that the FARC’s leader had called for the hostages to be brought to him. Yesterday,...

You will REALLY enjoy this 2-minute clip. Great little short mini-documentary showing the release yesterday of the Colombian and American hostages who had been kidnapped years ago by pro-Communist, pro-Che Guevara FARC guerillas.The former Presidential Candidate, (female), lead hostage and one of the main speakers on the airport tarmac, profusely thanks the pro-US President Uribe, and then, rolling her eyes still in disbelief, says she was "amazed by the BRILLIANCE of the Army of Colombia" in their plan to seize the hostages, faking as if they were leftists rebels themselves.Another of the liberated, a man, shouts, LONG LIVE LIBERTY! and...

ELYRIA -- Framed posters of Barack Obama, Che Guevara and Henry David Thoreau hang in the office of Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge. The judge, who is conducting hearings on the constitutionality of Ohio's method for putting prisoners to death, said he respects those who back up words with action and that Thoreau, the 19th-century philosopher, was his first role model. ''I tend to admire people who in my opinion go beyond their speech -- they actually do what they say,'' Burge said. For Burge, that will mean putting aside personal opinions on the death penalty -- he...

The Obama campaign might want to add another "smear" to their web page: the idea that some Obama backers, at least, have an odd affinity for murderous Communists. It started in Houston, and apparently has spread to Ohio. This photo of an Ohio judge (!) appeared in USA Today this morning:

Two of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's children said Thursday they were tired of seeing their father's image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand "embarrassing." Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida March, said the commercialization of her father's image contributed to tension between rich and poor in some countries. "Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing," she wrote during an Internet forum sponsored...

A hip rock band that features the Soviet national anthem and communist-inspired lyrics was on stage to open for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his record-breaking Portland, Ore., rally that attracted 75,000. The Decemberists, a Portland-based group with a large local following, also closed the May 18 event. The Decemberists typically begin their concerts with a Russian-language recording of the USSR's national anthem. A YouTube video shows the Decemberists beginning an April 31, 2007, concert at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., with the anthem.

When some organizers for the Primary Campaign of Barak Obama in Oregon dropped several rented Porta-Potties in the middle of a memorial for fallen police officers, they made a statement. They deny this to the hilt, but I am convinced just as vehemently that these Porta-Potties didn’t get put where they were put as a result of unfortunate random number generation. Barak Obama’s political movement discourages the deep and profound disrespect for decency, patriotism and all accepted social norms. If this Porta-Potty incident were to have happened to Democratic Congressman Skelton of Missouri, who has been on the House Armed...

Steven Soderbergh's four-and-a-half-hour film Che had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday night. The film, which stars Benicio Del Toro in the title role of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, received mixed reviews, with Peter Howell of the Toronto Star calling it "elephantine" and predicting that if it is released as-is, "it will do nada at the box office and end up as el stiffo grande." On the other hand, Farah Nayeri of Bloomberg News said that Soderbergh "delivers enough moments of great cinema -- especially the majestic end -- to redeem himself in the viewer's bleary eyes."...

Andy Garcia is urging fashion-conscious rebels to stop wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the image of Latino revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara because they remind Cubans of terrible times. The actor accepts that Guevara stands for rebellion and is seen as a hero to many, but he sees the revolutionary as a butcher who killed millions of his countrymen. Argentine-born Guevara helped current Cuban leader Fidel Castro overthrow General Fulgencio Batista's government in a guerrilla revolution in the late 1950s. Garcia, who left Cuba when he was five, says, "I'd be curious to go around and ask them how much they really...

McCain hopes Castro to "meet Marx soon" Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:18am EST By Jason Szep INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner John McCain suggested on Friday that he hoped retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro would die soon and said Castro's brother will be a worse leader. "I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon," McCain told a town-hall style meeting of about 150 people, referring to communist theoretician Marx who died on March 14, 1883. Castro, 81, announced on Tuesday he was stepping down as president and commander-in-chief of Cuba's armed forces after 49 years...

Here's an interview with Maria Isabel who is a ... (more) Added: February 12, 2008 Here's an interview with Maria Isabel who is a precinct captain for Barack Obama in Houston Texas. She was previously recently featured in a piece by the same TV station in which she was shown opening a new volunteer office for the Obama campaign. In the office, next to a small poster for Barack Obama, she had hung a HUGE Cuban flag emblazoned with the image of Che Guevara. Guevara was the Argentine murderer that helped establish the Castro dictatorship in Cuba before he was...

Barack Obama won’t wear an American flag on his lapel, but on the wall of his Houston campaign office: a Cuban flag with a picture of Communist mass murderer Che Guevara. Video link: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5700252&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1 ....And that flag is no fluke. Here’s another one. (Video, as again the Houston news anchors don’t even notice the big image of Che Guevara staring them in the face.) Link: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/News/Politics/Detail?contentId=5668120&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.14.1

One of Barak Hussein Obama's new offices in Texas is proudly flying a Cuban flag emblazoned with a picture of Che Guevara. I doubt if we'll see even a single news story about this. The amazing thing isn't merely that someone put it up - but that no one else there seemed to even notice. And people wonder why I describe the Democrat Party as the "party of treason." Imagine the uproar (the very correct uproar, I need not add) if a Republican office was displaying a Nazi flag with a picture of Adolf Hitler on it. Though, of...

Che Guevara, who did so much (or was it so little?) to destroy capitalism, is now a quintessential capitalist brand. His likeness adorns mugs, hoodies, lighters, key chains, wallets, baseball caps, toques, bandannas, tank tops, club shirts, couture bags, denim jeans, herbal tea, and of course those omnipresent T-shirts with the photograph, taken by Alberto Korda, of the socialist heartthrob in his beret during the early years of the revolution, as Che happened to walk into the photographer’s viewfinder—and into the image that, thirty-eight years after his death, is still the logo of revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic. Sean...

The Einstein proudly wearing the sticker above doesn't realize that he's 4 years too late with it - Bush isn't running for re-election and he's out of the WH no matter what in 2009. But hey, liberals aren't about thinking, they're about feeeeeeling.(edited by me)

(the button reads: War isn't working")

(shirt says, "I'm with stupid." "I'm with Satan") (note the banner for Ron Paul in the background)

A hair lock snipped from Ernesto "Che" Guevara before his burial in 1967 sold for $100,000 (£70,000) at auction to today a bookstore owner from Houston. Bill Butler, 61, won the 3-inch (8cm) tress clipped from Guevara's mane after placing the only bid, which matched the reserve price. Mr Butler, who bid over the phone yesterday, described the Marxist "one of the greatest revolutionaries of the 20th century." He said he was a collector of 1960s items and that the £70,000 hair lock would fit in well. Hairy: Communist hero Che Guevara might have turned in his grave at the...