Free Republic

Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday. Online sales jumped 26 percent on Black Friday to $1.04 billion from sales of $816 million on the corresponding day last year, according to comScore data. … E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection. …

Richard A. Jewell, whose transformation from heroic security guard to Olympic bombing suspect and back again came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media, died Wednesday at his home in Woodbury, Ga. He was 44. The heavy-set Mr. Jewell, with a country drawl and a deferential manner, became an instant celebrity after a bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in the early hours of July 27, 1996, Only minutes earlier, Mr. Jewell, who was working a temporary job as a guard, had spotted the abandoned green knapsack that contained the bomb, called it to...

It's open season on Tiger Woods. As the disgraced golfer took to the links Tuesday at the U.S. Open, one of his mistresses claimed she has been caddying around his love child for nine years. And renewed reports emerged about another paramour's claims that she, too, bore a Tiger cub. Adult film actress Devon James, 29, claims Woods is the father of her son, Austin T. James - whose middle initial is a secret tribute to the golfer she loved.

Blagojevich refuses to budge NBC Nightly News VIDEO: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/28200681#28200681&gt1=43001

When the U.S. government said it would spend $700 billion to rescue the American financial industry, it seemed to be an ocean of money. But after one of the biggest lobbying free-for-alls in memory, it suddenly looks like a dwindling pool. Many new supplicants are lining up for an infusion of capital as billions of dollars are channeled to other beneficiaries like the American International Group, and possibly soon American Express. Of the initial $350 billion that Congress freed up, out of the $700 billion in bailout money contained in the law that passed last month, the Treasury Department has...

IN POLITICS, cheap shots and invective are occupational hazards. But when have we seen anything to match the frenzy of rage and contempt set off by the nomination of Sarah Palin? Virtually from the moment John McCain selected her, Palin has been under assault. There has been legitimate criticism, of course. But there has also been a gusher of slander, much of it - like the slur that she isn't the real mother of her infant son, Trig - despicable. For someone who has been in the national spotlight for only three weeks, Palin has been the victim of an...

A veteran Democratic political strategist has some advice for what appears to many to be a Barack Obama campaign rattled by the explosive entrance into the campaign of John McCain's vice presFormer Hillary Clinton presidential campaign strategist Mark Pennident pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Mark Penn, the high-priced strategist who did such a good early job of launching Hillary Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign to doom at the hands of Obama, tells CBS.com he's worried that the Windy City gang will repeat the mistakes of the last two losing Democratic presidential campaigns by returning to the base after their convention instead...

Apparently the media wants to get even for the Swift-Boaters successful torpedoing of John Kerry in 2004 because they are by the dozens every day promulgating lies about the career and life of Governor Sarah Palin. I recently posted a piece on the lies, exaggerations and misbegotten assumptions of a Baltimore Sun columnist and it got me to thinking to try and gather one thread rebutting the media's ever evolving negative memes against this strong woman. From unproven claims of infidelity, to claims she is a book banner and a negligent Mother, the media have been smearing this woman daily...

PALMER, Alaska — The liberal blogosphere was abuzz Friday with news that a friend of Sarah and Todd Palin had tried to seal his divorce records. Surely, the Netroots speculated, that friend must be the unnamed business partner whom this week’s edition of the National Enquirer alleges — without proof so far — was romantically linked to Palin. The McCain campaign's characterization of the story as a "vicious lie" seemed to only fuel more speculation. And then the moment of truth, as the motion to seal was denied. The filings, housed in a district courthouse in this town about eight...

The alleged rape incident that has smeared the Duke lacrosse team is, in no other words, a media lynching of white and privileged young males. To top it off it smacks of hypocrisy of a Durham District Attorney, Mike Nifong, who is pushing forward on a race baiting case that has absolutely zero chance of landing a conviction let alone even going to a jury trial to begin with. Why? Because Durham County has a substantial black vote and he’s up for re-election this year. Now without getting into too much detail the following is known: 1. A black female...

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - When Dave Rupp, chief photographer at WGAL-TV, got to the office of Leola District Justice B. Denise Commins at about 9 a.m. Thursday, he was the only one there. But he knew very well the parking lot behind the office would be filling up as the morning progressed. TV crews from Lancaster, York, Reading and Harrisburg arrived, as did newspaper reporters and photographers. The Associated Press showed up. Todd Connor, a news anchor at Fox News Channel’s New York headquarters, was diverted from another story to report live. A number of Philadelphia news outlets were there...

Katy Garcia of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is the orginal reporter of the Cheney hunting story. You might find this interview with her of some interest. CORPUS CHRISTI CALLER-TIMES WEBSITE THE VIDEO LINK ON THE PAPER'S WEBSITE

Richard Gephardt, the former congressional leader and two-time presidential candidate, recently dropped by California's Capitol to chat with a fellow Democrat, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. The subject was not politics but private toll roads, according to people familiar with the meeting. Gephardt works for Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that is making millions advising Chicago and Indiana on how to sell toll roads to private companies. That idea, largely resisted in California, is now back on center stage here as part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $222-billion proposal to revamp roads, levees and schools across the state. His plan...

Diplomacy: Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has auditioned for years to be included as part of the Axis of Evil. To him, televangelist Pat Robertson, who urged the U.S. to "take him out," must seem a godsend. In recent months, Chavez has insulted President Bush, broadcast sexual and racial innuendo about Condoleezza Rice and denounced the U.S. as "the biggest terrorist." But you probably didn't hear much about that. Instead, you've gotten a full ration of remarks by Christian Broadcasting Network's Pat Robertson, who seemed to urge the U.S. government to assassinate Chavez. Robertson has apologized, but not before Bloomberg did...

Because it is required to repeat the obvious as if it were catechism during feeding-frenzy moments like this, let me say again: The abuse of Iraqi prisoners depicted in those now world-famous photos is an outrageous scandal and the perpetrators must be punished. O.K., now can I say something else? CBS should be ashamed for running those photos. Since the journalistic priesthood insists that context is everything, let's get some context. The investigation into these abuses was long and well-underway before CBS's 60 Minutes II broke the story. In fact, it was the U.S. military that really broke the story...

<p>After being boosted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein's decision to stay out of the recall election, California Gov. Gray Davis' strategy of a united Democratic front was crushed Wednesday night when Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante decided to enter the race.</p> <p>Bustamante will announce his candidacy this morning, said his chief of staff, Lynn Montgomery, who declined to elaborate on the reasons for the lieutenant governor's decision. Bustamante pledged in June that he would not run for governor, saying, ``I will not attempt to advance my career at the expense of the people I was elected to serve.''</p>