Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS – Less than two years after it was bought by a private equity group, the Star Tribune has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. "We determined that the filing was necessary to reduce our operating costs, restructure our debt and create a financially viable business for the future," Publisher and Chairman Chris Harte said in a note to readers posted on the newspaper's Web site late Thursday.

George Allen, the not-so-bright, tobacco-dipping, football-quoting Senator from Virginia, is quickly emerging as the right wing's potential answer to John McCain come 2008. Allen solidified his standing as an inside the Beltway rising star by winning the Conservative Political Action Conference's '08 straw poll on Saturday, besting McCain 22 to 20 percent. He also won the title of "America's Best Senator" from Muslims for Bush. Since we're likely to be hearing Allen's name more and more in the coming months, let's take a look back at what he thinks of the pressing issues of the day, starting with the selection...

[...] The right-wing echo chamber Free Republic, where private citizens spit pseudonymous venom, is also a rich treasure trove of nastiness. In late 2003 when the Massachusetts Supreme Court voted to allow marriage rights for same-sex couples, the Freepers went off: "This is great that Massachusett's gay judges did this. Let all the fudgepackers move there and be clients of the Dickem and Dunkem (Ted Kennedy) law firm," wrote a poster named "Therapist." "Can I marry my mule?" asked another. Another responded: "Sorry. Next step is to give them your boys. They want the age of consent lowered to around...

Most Americans long ago stopped believing that George W. Bush is what he claimed to be during the 2000 presidential campaign: a compassionate conservative. But is George W. Bush a conservative at all? The answer might seem self-evident to progressives who have spent the past four years recoiling at the reactionary agenda the Bush Administration has advanced on everything from the environment to the courts, global warming to gay marriage. But while few people would confuse George W. Bush for a liberal, whether the policies he's championed qualify as traditionally conservative is by no means clear. "Historically, conservatism in the...