Free Republic

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is defending his decision to endorse a liberal Republican candidate in the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District even though she is a Margaret Sanger Award winner and supporter of same-sex "marriage." New York Republican congressional candidate DeDe Scozzafava not only has the backing of Planned Parenthood and The Daily Kos, but her campaign has also received financial endorsements from the Republican National Committee and Republican leaders such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich recently said Scozzafava's election could be the...

TV host David Letterman has been criticised for making "sexually perverted" comments and "rape jokes" about Sarah Palin's teenage daughter. The former vice presidential candidate hit back after he called her "slutty" and appeared to suggest her 14-year-old child slept with a baseball star. Letterman, the host of The Late Show on CBS, told his audience Mrs Palin looked like a "slutty flight attendant" on a trip to New York. The Alaskan governor was there for a baseball game and to be honoured by a special needs group, accompanied by Willow, 14.

MADONNA is set to commit to Jesus Luz, a 22-year-old model, in a Kabbalah wedding ceremony this weekend. Mr Luz's father told Brazil's Quem magazine the commitment ceremony would take place in New York. "He is already living with her," Luiz Heitor Pinto da Luz said of his son's union with the 50-year-old pop star. "I don't know if there will be an actual wedding. From what I have read, there could be a sort of ritual, but I don't know Kabbalah ... to know if it's valid and legal.' The couple met in Rio de Janeiro in December during...

"Let's play grown-up." When I was a child, that's what we said when we ran out of things to do like playing potsie or throwing rocks in the vacant lot. You'd go in and take your father's hat and your mother's purse and walk around saying, "Would you like tea?" In retrospect we weren't imitating our parents but parents on TV, who wore pearls and suits. But the point is we amused ourselves trying to be little adults. And that's what the GOP should do right now: play grown-up. The Democrats in the White House have been doing it since...

All of April and the start of May 2009 find us still being bombarded by the media hyping up the first 100 days of President Obama with no sign of it dying down. Following the introduction to the monthly thread I will post some photos to remind us of the first few days of the first May of the George W Bush Presidency - those were the days. The quote I have chosen for this month are remarks made during Commander-In-Chief Trophy Event at the South Portico on May 4, 2001. Tomorrow I will post some more photos from May...

Famed Mercury astronaut John Glenn has an open seat at his lunch table, provided you're willing to foot the bill. Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, is offering an afternoon lunch as part of a charity auction for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which is raising college scholarship funds for aspiring engineers and scientists. It was 50 years ago today that NASA unveiled Glenn and the six other Mercury astronauts - the country's first spaceflyers - to the world in a frenzied press conference that made the seven men instant national heroes. On that April 9 in 1959, Glenn...

Newt Gingrich Eyes 2012 Run Susan Davis reports on politics. Newt Gingrich is keeping an eye towards 2012, the former speaker of the House told reporters Thursday evening before a speaking engagement at Randolph Macon College. Gingrich said he and his wife, Callista, “will look seriously and we’ll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January 2011, and we’ll look seriously at whether or not we think it’s necessary to do it,” he said, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch. “And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it. And if it isn’t necessary...

Tennis great Jimmy Connors was arrested outside the campus arena where UC Santa Barbara and top-ranked North Carolina were playing a basketball game. The eight-time Grand Slam champion was taken into custody Friday night after refusing to comply with an order to leave an area near the entrance of the Thunderdome following a confrontation, police Sgt. Dan Massey said in a statement.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said the Wall Street bailout plan pushed by President Bush signaled the “final collapse” of the current administration. “The Bush administration has now provided three case studies in arrogance, isolation and destructiveness: Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina, Ambassador Jerry Bremer in Baghdad and Secretary [Henry] Paulson at Treasury,” Gingrich said. “It is a tragic and very expensive legacy. No conservative and no Republican should doubt how much it has hurt our cause and our party.” The former Speaker reiterated his call for the resignation of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “As long as Secretary Paulson...

The Weekly Standard Fred Thompson in 2012? Laying the groundwork for another presidential run. by Stephen F. Hayes 08/29/2008 3:00:00 AM IF FRED THOMPSON was the latest entrant in the 2008 Republican primary process, he may well be the earliest in 2012. Not that he will admit it. Over the course of the past two years, there has been much talk that the Republican party lacks a strong conservative leader. In May 2007, Thompson offered himself up and, on the issues, made a plausible case that he could be the guy. But his late entry to the presidential race, together...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – George McGovern, the Democratic Party's 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. And in an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is "far stronger" than the case made against former President Richard Nixon — the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up."Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses," McGovern writes. "They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after...

In their push this week to try to override President Bush's veto of an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), congressional Democrats called on singer/songwriter Paul Simon to press their case and to press Republicans to join in the attempted override. "The president's veto of the reauthorization of SCHIP appears to be a heartless act," said Simon at a press conference Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders. Paul Simon is the co-founder of Children's Health Fund (CHF), a group that provides mobile health care to poor children in urban and rural areas....

Check it out here, at The New York Times' Contributions to Presidential Campaigns page. 3 Manilow, Barry Woodland Hills CA 91367 Self employed $2,300 Hillary Clinton 4 Manilow, Barry Woodland Hills CA 91367 Self employed $2,300 John Edwards 5 Manilow, Barry Woodland Hills CA 91367 Self employed $2,300 Barack Obama 6 Manilow, Barry Woodland Hills CA 91367 Self $2,300 Ron Paul 7 Manilow, Barry Woodland Hills CA 91367 Self $2,300 Joe Biden

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - Former major league All-Star Jose Offerman was charged with two counts of second-degree assault after hitting an opposing team's pitcher and catcher with his bat during an independent minor league game. Offerman posted $10,000 bond and was due in Bridgeport Superior Court on Aug. 23, court officials said Wednesday.

Karl Rove to Resign At the End of August By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter August 13, 2007 4:00 a.m. Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, he said in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. (See related editorial1.) [nowide] 'THE MARK OF ROVE' Read the editorial2 by The Wall Street Journal's editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, on his interview with Karl Rove. Mr. Rove, who has held a senior post in the White House since...

...Day's story is a revealing way for McCain to open his book, for the success of the decision is far from obvious. In the very long run, it proved right—Day lived through the war, was an inspiring figure for McCain and others in captivity and ultimately came home to his family—but it was a very long run indeed. The lesson McCain takes from Day's experience is that you make the best call you can given the facts of the moment, and then you take your chances, come what may. Sometimes things work out sooner, sometimes later, sometimes never—and in the...

This vacuum in Paris plays straight into le Pen's hands Next week's presidential elections will confirm what many Europeans fear, that France is moving inexorably to the right Will Hutton Sunday April 15, 2007 The Observer (UK) Nicolas Sarkozy, the front runner for the French presidency, has suggested that paedophilia is an incurable genetic disposition, that rioting Arab youths are scum and that an Orwellian sounding ministry for immigration and national identity is a good idea. Segolene Royal, his socialist challenger, wants the French to celebrate family, work and the flag. And on Friday, a suppressed official poll suggested that...

Broncos sign Bly to five-year, $33M contract By Michael Smith ESPN.com The Denver Broncos signed cornerback Dre' Bly to a five-year, $33 million contract, ESPN.com's Michael Smith reported Wednesday. The deal includes $18 million in bonus money, $16 million guaranteed. The signing should end any speculation Bly wouldn't report to the Broncos. Neither Bly nor his agent, Kennard McGuire was available for comment. Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan told the Denver Post that Bly initially wasn't happy when traded to Denver from the Detroit Lions, but he believes Bly will be happy with the Broncos. Michael Smith is a senior...

NEW YORK - In the sensitive post-wardrobe malfunction world, some are questioning whether a guitar was just a guitar during Prince's Super Bowl halftime show. Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the "Purple Rain" segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some. A number of bloggers have decried "Malfunction!" — including Sam Anderson at New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David...

If we all go out and vote for peace candidates and get our friends to vote, and if our votes are really counted, it's no contest. There'll be a change in the Congress, and then we'll just have to keep building so we can get a president who won't send our soldiers to fight a war based on lies. We should have thrown the bastards out years ago. Let's do it now! Give Peace A VOTE!

<p>Liberal diva Barbra Streisand gave fans an earful of Bush-bashing last night at Madison Square Garden - then told a man in the audience to "shut the f- - - up" after he heckled her for poking fun at the president.</p>

Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett tussled with police during a traffic stop early Wednesday before officers discovered four loaded guns in his sport utility vehicle, a police spokesman said. Officers used Mace to subdue Clarett after a stun gun was ineffective because the suspect was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, Sgt. Michael Woods said.

the Israel-Lebanon conflict never would've happened. Check out this article: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060723/UPDATE/607230360

It's wonderful that Ralph Klein and Stephen Harper are working to raise our profile in Washington, but for every silver lining there is a cloud -- and in this case it's a glowering thunderhead named Al Gore. Last week, Ralph was in the U.S. capital promoting Alberta, and specifically the oil-sands as a reliable source of energy. This week it was the PM's turn, with a meeting Thursday with birthday boy George Bush, and earlier a working dinner with heavy hitters from the president's cabinet. It's still news to most Canadians that our country is America's No. 1 source of...

Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, who inspired the rock band's iconic album "The Wall," scrawled "tear down the wall" on the concrete panels of Israel's West Bank barrier on Wednesday. The barrier was the first stop on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories for Waters, who had been criticized by some fans for planning to play a concert in Israel. "It's a horrific edifice, this thing," Waters told reporters as he stood beside a section of the barrier in Bethlehem. "I've seen pictures of it, I've heard a lot about it but without being here you can't imagine...

While Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha has ascended to the national stage as one of the most vocal critics of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, he has also long downplayed the controversy and bitterness surrounding the two Purple Hearts he was awarded for military service in Vietnam. Murtha is a retired marine and was the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress. Since 1967, there have been at least three different accounts of the injuries that purportedly earned Murtha his Purple Hearts. Those accounts also appear to conflict with the limited military records that are available, and...

Washington diary: Too close to Bill? By Matt Frei BBC News, Washington Pity those living in the shadow of Bill Clinton! It has taken one former partner six years to find a natural voice and excavate a sense of humour lurking under layers of insecurity starched with campaign caution. Today the body language looks less robotic and the passionate kisses less stagey. The comparisons with Bill are no longer immediate and damning. I am talking about Al Gore, of course. Remember him? Al Gore, the former vice president, who now describes himself with a chuckle as "the man who used...

MADONNA’S world tour began in typically provocative fashion when the pop singer hung from a cross, shouted an obscenity at an image of President Bush, showed video footage that seemed to compare Tony Blair to Adolf Hitler, and writhed around on a device that combined a horse’s saddle with a stripper’s pole.As if that were not enough, the singer also wore a crown of thorns, dressed up as various male icons — James Brown and John Travolta included — and even briefly played the electric guitar. Early reviews of the event on Sunday night were positive, but the show failed...

MAILBU, Calif. — A year after Robert Blake was acquitted in criminal court of killing his wife, the former tough guy actor spends his days exercising horses at a friend's ranch and planning a comeback.

MEXICO CITY - Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra will play for Mexico at the World Baseball Classic in March. Garciaparra, a native of Whittier, California, qualifies because of his Mexican parents, Mexican baseball league president Alejandro Hute said in a newspaper interview Saturday. Garciaparra, 32, played for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs before signing with Los Angeles.

In this week’s edition of the New York Observer (hat tip to the Huffington Post), famed actor, writer, and movie director, Woody Allen, cast aspersions on President Bush, while gushing over former President Clinton. At the end of a piece by Suzy Hansen covering a range of topics from his past movies, his current one, and his life at the age of 70, the article concluded with Hansen asking Allen’s opinion of a number of people. When asked about George W. Bush, Allen responded: “Arguably the worst administration in the history of the United States...

Did any of you just see the love fest between Joe Scarborough and Barbara Boxer? Doing the beat up on Administration and its oil company connection routine. That's not even RINO stuff. That's Leftist tripe. These two look like the real item. Disgusting. MSNBC has no Conservative voices. Period.

King of Pop Michael Jackson is reportedly planning to record songs with his three children, eight-year-old son Prince Michael, seven-year-old daughter Paris and three-year-old Prince Michael II, who is affectionately known as Blanket. According to the New York Post, the family has been laying down tracks in a London recording studio - although Prince Michael II is not yet old enough to sing. Earlier this month, it was claimed Jackson has allegedly forbidden his ex-wife Debbie Rowe from telling their two children she is their mum. . Rowe who divorced Jackson in 1999 is allowed to visit Prince Michael and...

SAN DIEGO -- Warren Beatty and his wife Annette Bening on Saturday attempted to crash a campaign appearance by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who sought to drum up last-minute support for a group of statewide ballot measures. The Hollywood couple were stopped by one of Schwarzenegger's campaign officials at the entrance of an airport hangar where several hundred of the governor's supporters had gathered. Beatty was told by Schwarzenegger aide, Darrel Ng, that the "Bulworth" star was not on the guest list and didn't have the appropriate wristband to get inside. "You have to have a wristband to listen the governor?"...

Spike Lee is to produce and direct a documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for HBO, Variety reports. Provisionally entitled When the Levee Broke, early indications suggest it will continue Lee's tradition of polemical films addressing the US's fraught race relations. Lee has never been one to shy away from controversy, with films such as Do The Right Thing, about a race riot in Brooklyn; Jungle Fever, taking a contentious look at mixed-race love affairs, and his eponymous Malcolm X biopic. When the Levee Broke is currently waiting to go into production while Lee completes work on thriller The...

Martha Stewart, who says she's given up fur, has made a video for PETA.

Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 7:39 p.m. EDT Bill Maher: Laura Bush Like 'Hitler's Dog' HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher compared First Lady Laura Bush to "Hitler's dog" during his Friday night cablecast, after flashing a parody photo of Mrs. Bush with a black eye, as if she'd been a victim of domestic abuse. After the photo display, Maher was challenged by guest panelist Christopher Hitchens, who told him: "It must be to [George Bush's] credit he got Laura Bush to marry him. She's an absolutely extraordinary woman." To that, Maher replied: "Oh, come on. That's like Hitler's dog loved...

Bette Midler struck one of the few sour notes at last night's Madison Square Garden benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims when she made a joke about President Bush. "I know George Bush. . . . I met him in the 1970s through his coke dealer," she said. The crowd booed the not-so-divine Ms. M for the quip.

sean penn carries in New orleans

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Sept. 9) - Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco, but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew on Sept. 3 and 4. However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he...

CRAWFORD — Shortly after Joan Baez arrived Sunday afternoon at Camp Casey II, she gave a press conference with the Gold Star Families, all of whom have lost loved ones in the war. She talked with them, and she cried with them. Ms. Baez returned to the trailer to prepare for her performance, speaking only in whispers when it was necessary to speak at all, saving her voice. She gave a moving performance, peppered with energy, emotion, humor, and humanity. She even showed compassion for President Bush, although she disagrees with him. She said she doesn’t make Bush jokes any...

Hollywood favorite Julia Roberts will retire from acting following her performance next year on Broadway. The star of 'Pretty Woman' reportedly wants to spend all of her time with baby twins Phinneus and Hazel as they grow up.'Juila is done with Hollywood and starring in a Broadway play is the perfect chance to make a graceful exit,' a close friend was quoted as saying.' 'She's been talking about leaving Los Angeles and stopping the movie roles ever since the twins were born last November.''She wants a change of scenery, a change of pace and a new challenge.'

August 6, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima. The Atomic Bomb, which decimated the Japanese city and its people, was never used in combat again. This day is also the anniversary of another “bomb” that was dropped 4 years ago, this time into the lap of President Bush in the form of a memo titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US.” While on yet another extended vacation at his Crawford ranch, the President chose to neglect his duties as Commander in Chief by refusing to act decisively and immediately on this impending threat,...

MANCHESTER (NH) – John Edwards had the state’s largest city all to himself last night after U.S. Senate business kept John Kerry on Capitol Hill. Throughout the 2004 presidential race, Democratic running mates Kerry and Edwards never campaigned together in New Hampshire. When Kerry recently confirmed he would be huddling with early 2004 supporters the same night as the start of a three-day trip for Edwards, party activists got an unusually early dose of excitement. Edwards arrived 50 minutes late for an annual fundraiser for Manchester Democrat Sen. Lou D’Allesandro and continued to insist that it’s much too early to...

In Washington, old politicians don't even fade away. Even professional pundits can sometimes be wrong in predicting the future. For example, I thought that when he slunk out of Congress in 1998, we had heard the last of Newt Gingrich. And he did lie low for a while. But now he's back, big-time. Just Google him up. He's the man to go to for a quote about anything relating to the Republican Party or the universe generally. He is hitting the talk shows a lot and graduating from the role of guest interviewee to that of a full-fledged know-it-all sitting...

I WROTE a column on Oct. 10, 2003, about the strange case of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame. -- ...I offered my speculation of what an administration official might have said to a journalist to explain just how Wilson — a Clinton administration official — got the assignment in the first place: "Administration official: 'We didn't send him there. Cheney's office asked CIA to get more information. CIA picked Wilson . . . Look, I hear his wife's in the CIA. He's got nothing to do. She wanted to throw him a bone.' " Hate to say I told you...

At the G8 Summit, Chirac will again beat a dead horse. When French voters rejected the draft European Union constitution drawn up by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, his successor Jacques Chirac reverted to the cornerstone of French policy for the past 400 years: Blame it on "les Anglo-Saxons." His people had rejected the constitution not because of its limits on French sovereignty, he decided, but because the constitution was too liberal, imposing free markets and other elements of the dreaded Anglo-American economic system on an unwilling French public. Ignoring that his country had just plunged the EU into...

I guess Kerry really is as dumb as his mediocre college grades suggest. Check out his latest email to supporters, below. Here's a guy who lost in 2004 due to being rightfully painted as a flip-flopper. So of what does he accuse W? Of being resolute! Throw us in that briar patch, Mr. Teresa, please! Also, note his disingenuous claim that "I've never met an American who doesn't want to see America succeed in Iraq." Does Kerry expect us to believe that he hasn't met Michael Moore, an honored guest at Kerry's convention? ------------------------------------ Dear , Last night the President...

Best selling author Erica Jong was booed and told to 'Shut Up!' and 'Go Home!" during her 40 minute commencement address at the College of Staten Island.A little less than halfway through her graduation speech, some graduated began tossing around an inflatable beach volleyball. Some even got up from their chairs, just yards from the podium, to go chat with friends and family who were seated behind them.Ms. Jong, best known for her 1973 novel 'Fear of Flying' continued unfazed. She continued to speak as if everyone was listening attentively. 'Politicans speak the opposite of what they mean. They say...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is using a database of contact information for about 3 million voters that he compiled during his presidential campaign to position himself for another White House run in 2008. Democratic insiders say that Kerry’s unprecedented direct access to so many current and onetime supporters is a huge advantage heading into the next Democratic presidential primary. But his greatest strength, the experience of winning his party’s nomination last year, is also his greatest weakness, as many former supporters became disillusioned by his loss to President Bush and now blame him for losing a race they believe should...