Free Republic

Conservative bloggers say they are being terrorized by a potentially deadly prank in which phony 911 calls bring armed cops to their doors in search of criminals, all in retaliation for their blog posts. At least two conservative Internet pundits have reported being victims of "SWAT-ing." In at least one incident, the caller claimed to be the resident of the home and confessed to shooting his wife, according to a recording of the call posted online. "It's a phone call that could have gotten me killed," Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, wrote...

Yesterday on Laura IngrahamÂ’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience. That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate the cookie, replying that he had not and besides it did not taste good. If heÂ’d never heard of me, how can he comment on my audience? If he states plainly I have no audience,...

Much hay is being made of Rick Santorum saying he’d prefer Obama to Romney. Except that is not what he said or what he meant. Certainly he could have had a clarifying clause in his statement, but given the context, I think he was saying no more and no less than what I have been saying. I’m on record thinking it is over and Romney is the nominee, but the hand-wringing over Santorum is juvenile and reminds me again why I so dislike Team Romney. We’re going to have put up with months of Team Romney whining about things if...

Following much thoughtful consternation, I have decided to pull my support and endorsement of Texas Governor Rick Perry for the GOP presidential nomination.  I realize the redstate diary commenters, won’t be kind but this needs to be said.  This decision wasn’t easy but a serious evaluation of the field should inform us that Rick Perry has no realistic path to victory in South Carolina, Florida and beyond. I realize that redstate.com’s Erick Erickson continues to stick by him, that South Carolina is Perry’s state and that he has re-tooled his staff.  But it is too little too late and at...

I guess that makes me a Scientologist, because I’ve posted repeatedly that Palin holds a special position because there is no one — not even George W. Bush — who has been the subject of the Democratic, mainstream media and left-blogosphere smear machine to the extent Palin has. So yes, I do take it personally when conservatives lash out at Palin not because of her policy positions or what she’s done or not done in her career, but with personal invective. It’s not religion, its a cold hard understanding of what is to come, and how those who call Palin...

Radtke: Red State’s Erick Erickson Must ‘Set the Record Straight’ After Making ‘Reprehensible’ Accusations Against Her Conservative blogger Erick Erickson has “propagated a lie” against Virginia Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, she said, insisting that the Red State managing editor must make a “full retraction” and “set the record straight.” “Erick Erickson has created this situation, where he’s called me a drunk and a liar,” Radtke told me in an exclusive interview, “and he has not done a retraction – a prominent, full retraction, admitting what he’s done and setting the record straight in an honorable way.” Radtke’s attorney has threatened...

A nightstick the size of a telephone poll and the muscle to wield it effortlessly! WATCH HER FIGHT LIKE A GIRL! "Mr. _resident, GAME ON!" APRIL 16, 2011 Amid much speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin will choose to run in the 2012 presidential election, the former Alaskan Governor has announced she will participate in a nationally televised Tea Party Republican Debate. Although Palin will take part in the debate in the Sept. 12 debate in Tampa, Fla., she still has yet to confirm that she is looking to become a presidential hopeful. However, the 2008 vice presidential...

John King CNN interview: 5:19 minute video: Could Rick Perry shake up GOP W.H. race?GUESTS: Erick Erickson [Red State] and Mimi Swartz [Texas Monthly] discuss the potential presidential candidacy of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.Swartz: “Formidable campaigner. People on the East Coast underestimate him at their peril. He’s relentless. Perry will fight to the death if he wants this.” King: If he gets in, who gets hurt? Erickson: Pawleny has most to lose. Bachman loses. Hurts Romney -- explains in detail. Palin and Giuliani won’t get in if Perry gets in. Swartz: quoting another pundit re: Bush/Perry -- Bush aristocratic –...

Unfortunately, Redstate editor Erick Erickson made a woefully misguided post in defense of John Ziegler after Ziegler posted yet another one of his manifestos, this one aimed at the Palins and published by the Daily Caller. I'm assuming the Stalker Weekly rejected it first and DC picked it up. They're always trolling for a negative Palin story to drum up traffic. From Ziegler's pre-criticism rebuttal, I suspect we learn his true motivations. There's a documented history of his turning on people while claiming he isn't whenever he has been met with rejection.

I have, for me, shown an amazing amount of restraint in keeping my mouth shut on an issue about which I can stay silent no longer — GOProud and CPAC. RedState’s parent company, Eagle Publishing, Inc., is a long time sponsor of CPAC. RedState itself is helping FreedomWorks sponsor Bloggers Row. We were the sole sponsor of Bloggers Row last year. I will be speaking at CPAC at the Young America’s Foundation luncheon named in honor of Tom Phillips, my friend and also the big boss at Eagle Publishing, Inc. I have done my best to stay out of this...

I have, for me, shown an amazing amount of restraint in keeping my mouth shut on an issue about which I can stay silent no longer — GOProud and CPAC. RedState’s parent company, Eagle Publishing, Inc., is a long time sponsor of CPAC. RedState itself is helping FreedomWorks sponsor Bloggers Row. We were the sole sponsor of Bloggers Row last year. I will be speaking at CPAC at the Young America’s Foundation luncheon named in honor of Tom Phillips, my friend and also the big boss at Eagle Publishing, Inc.I have done my best to stay out of this business,...

*snip* Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down. The NRSC’s argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters. One final thought —...

I have told you this before and I will tell you this again. Unless you elect Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Ken Buck, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Sharron Angle, and Joe Miller, we will never see Obamacare repealed. Senator Judd Gregg is up today saying that repeal is not recommended. Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said that repealing the new healthcare reform law — or looking to defund it — were not good options. “I don’t think starving or repealing is probably the best approach here,” Gregg said on the Fox Business...

It is dreck. The pledge begins by lamenting “an arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites” issuing “mandates”, then proceeds to demand health care mandates on insurance companies that will drive up the costs of health care for ordinary Americans. The plan wants to put “government on the path to a balanced budget” without doing anything substantive. There is a promise to “immediately reduce spending” by cutting off stimulus funds. Wow. Exciting. There is a plan to cut Congress’s budget, which is pretty much what was promised in 1994. Seriously? In 4 years did the Democrats really blow up the...

$150,000 MoneyBomb For Joe Miller - U.S. Senate   Part of an email from Tea Party Express, OurCountryPAC: We are trying to do a MoneyBomb to raise $150,000 - $250,000 by Monday evening so we can keep buying more TV, more cable, more radio and last minute newspaper and Internet ads.

I’ve written about this before. Let me pretty much repeat myself because it is vitally relevant here. I cannot tell you the number of reporters at major networks and newspapers who will, in private moments, admit there is a real bias in the media. That bias largely comes up from the elite power brokers, trend setters, news reporters, and politicos who live in the New York to Washington corridor. In most cases it is not an intentional bias. It is a product of being highly educated, liberally inclined (”centrist” if you ask them, which is typically code for standing for...

Well, it is official. Eric Cantor and John Boehner — particularly Eric Cantor — have decided they don’t need or want conservatives and, more troubling, do not have any intention of trying to win at the polls by forcing Democrat hands on Obamacare. Our leadership is behaving badly. Last week and on Monday I mentioned Rep. Steve King’s effort to repeal Obamacare and start over. He’s filed a discharge petition. If he gets 218 signatures, Nancy Pelosi must hold a vote. At the time, I was hearing that Eric Cantor was desperate to undermine Steve King’s efforts and, sure enough,...

Here is video of Redstate's Editor-in-Chief, Erick Erickson, talking to CNN's John King about the 2012 GOP Nomination battle. Erickson - who is now also a CNN regular commentator - was asked who the frontrunner is for the 2012 GOP Nomination. Erickson said "none of the above," although he likes Sarah Palin and some favor Mitt Romney. But Erickson said he really does not believe anyone is really the frontrunner right now, and that voters are looking for someone else. At the beginning of the video, Erickson was also asked about potential Supreme Court nominees to replace retiring Justice John...

It's an archaic way of thinking - unless it's imposed upon conservatives, then it's OK. It's this notion that commentators that are right-of-center should know their place - that place being only in the realms of talk radio or on the Fox News Channel. Otherwise, it is unacceptable. Now Politico has joined the fray and is taking news tips from left-wing storefronts that have staked out RedState.com founder Erick Erickson's Macon, Ga. radio show on Newstalk 940 WMAC, to capture any sort of gotcha moment to embarrass Erickson. And all of this seems to have been spurred on by CNN's...

The liberal media watchdog group Media Matters is fuming over CNN’s hiring of conservative RedState blogger Erick Erickson. In a document provided POLITICO that Media Matters plans to post on its blog Tuesday, the group accuses Erickson of having a “long history of incendiary, sexist and racially charged statements.� “If you need any further proof that the liberal media bias is a myth, CNN just hired someone who called David Souter a goat——ing child molester,� Media Matters Vice President of Research and Communication Ari Rabin-Havt told POLITICO. The document includes many other profane Erickson statements, including the vulgar phrase highlighted...

This morning RedState.com editor Erick Erickson announced that he is joining CNN as a political contributor.

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, appearing primarily on CNN's new show John King, USA¸ the network announced Tuesday. Erickson, a self described "obsessive news junkie" who grew up in Dubai and rural Louisiana, will also provide perspective and commentary on other programs across the network . . .

Erick Urickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, knew he had arrived in politics two years ago when Tony Snow, the then White House press secretary, invited him to visit. Not wanting to presume, Erickson showed up at the Old Executive Office Building, where most staffers work. But when he arrived, the 33-year-old native Louisianan recalls, "they said, 'No, your appointment's at the West Wing.' At that point I knew Red State was kind of unique." [snip] That community network is where Red State's real power lies, and its organizational clout is why Erickson's latest—and most controversial—gambit has...