Free Republic

Is Donald Trump about to get Paul-verized? A month after the curiously coiffed mogul told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington that Texas congressman Ron Paul has "zero chance" of being elected President, an avid Paul supporter is looking for payback. Pro-Paul Shawn Thompson is in the process of filing a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission that claims Trump and two supporters have violated federal campaign laws. The Tampa-based Thompson was a local coordinator for Paul's 2008 presidential campaign and, we hear, was at the CPAC conference when Trump attacked Paul to a chorus of boos. (He did...

Anderson Cooper of CNN has clearly been one of the most active journalists in Egypt over the course of the past weeks, having done his best to report on the streets and also in the midst of near-constant violence. He has been punched on many accusations, had a car he was in destroyed, and at one point he was even trapped inside of an undisclosed building in order to keep both and his crew safe. So with all of this in mind, Cooper's announcement Sunday should not come as too great of a surprise. Here is what Anderson had to...

On one of the most shameful days in the modern history of the Senate, the Republican minority on Thursday prevented a vote to allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly in the military of the United States. They chose to filibuster a vital defense bill because it also banned discrimination in the military ranks. ...The senators who stood in the way of these measures must answer to the thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers who must live a lie in order to serve, or drop out.... The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said that he would allow another vote...

CHICAGO – Kate Coatar is seriously considering voting for Green Party candidates instead of Democrats, whom she normally supports. James Wyatt won't cast a ballot at all because he no longer trusts anyone to fight for causes important to him. If Democratic candidates are counting on long-standing support from gay voters to help stave off big losses on Nov. 2, they could be in for a surprise. Across the country, activists say gay voters are angry — at the lack of progress on issues from eliminating employment discrimination to uncertainty over serving in the military to the economy — and...

“I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,” quipped Obama, who took a deep breath to gather his thoughts when asked if the poll reflected his inability to communicate with voters. “The facts are the facts. We went through some of this during the campaign — there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly,” said a visibly annoyed Obama, referring to “birthers,” who have waged a guerrilla campaign questioning either the existence or the validity of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

An internal memo from JetBlue’s chief operating officer to the airline’s staff and board of directors explicitly rebukes the actions taken by flight attendant Steven Slater as “unacceptable.” The document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, offers the first timeline of events following Monday’s now-famous airplane exit by Slater, in which the apparently enraged flight attendant uttered expletives over the public address system, deployed the emergency chute and slid down to the tarmac with two beers in hand. But the memo also reveals that even at the highest levels of JetBlue, officials are still trying to determine what...

A New York City judge has granted bail for a flight attendant accused of cursing out a passenger on an airplane public-address system, grabbing some beer from the galley and exiting on an emergency slide. Steven Slater is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. Defense attorney Howard Turman asked a judge in Queens Tuesday to release him without bail. The judge instead set bail at $2,500. Slater smiled slightly as he was escorted into the courtroom.

...Port Authority police said it took jetBlue 25 minutes to report the incident, allowing Slater time to leave the scene. Cops found him in bed with his boyfriend when they arrived to arrest him at a beachfront home in the Rockaways with a porch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, sources said.

More details are emerging today of the in-flight row that led to air steward Steven Slater exiting the plane via the emergency escape slide. And police have revealed details of the 39-year-old's arrest, when officers interrupted him at his home in bed with his boyfriend. Slater's lawyer, Howard Turman, revealed that Slater and an as-yet unnamed female passenger were on a collision course from the moment they set eyes on each other. Mr Turman said today that his client had been antagonised by the female passenger from the outset of the flight. It all began before JetBlue Flight 1052 even...

A frustrated JetBlue flight attendant allegedly fled his plane via emergency chute -- beer in hand -- after getting into a fight with a passenger and then cursing out the entire cabin over a loudspeaker. The JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after noon. As the plane was taxiing to the gate, one of the passengers apparently got out of his seat to grab a bag from an overhead compartment. The flight attendant walked over to tell him he had to sit down. The two reportedly got into an argument and somehow...

NEW YORK (CBS 2) — A JetBlue flight attendant was arrested Monday following a bizarre incident onboard a flight incoming to John F. Kennedy Airport in which he allegedly inflated the emergency exit slide and rode it down to the tarmac after cursing out passengers over the plane’s intercom. CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez got a look at the inflatable emergency slide on Monday afternoon. It was to be towed away after aviation sources said JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater deployed it in a fit of rage just after the plane landed around noon. JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater JetBlue flight...

Disappointment as US high school students snub 'lesbian-friendly prom' Senior prom fell far short of the rite of passage Constance McMillen was hoping for when she began a legal battle to challenge a ban on same-sex dates. Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Apr 2010 Constance McMillen Photo: AP The 18-year-old lesbian student said that she was one of only seven students to show up at a private party chaperoned by school officials. She said the rest of her peers went to another private event where she wasn't invited. "It was not the prom I imagined," she said. "It really hurts my...

The Note: Little Hurts -- Obama Guards Against Angst on LeftBy RICK KLEIN June 29, 2009 8:04 AM **SNIP** “The conflicting signals from the White House about its commitment to gay issues reflect a broader paradox: even as cultural acceptance of homosexuality increases across the country, the politics of gay rights remains full of crosscurrents,” Adam Nagourney writes in the Sunday New York Times. “The Obama White House in particular is reluctant to embrace gay rights issues now, officials there say, because they do not want to provide social conservatives a rallying cry while the president is trying to assemble...

Mario Lavandeira, the mean-spirited impresario behind...PerezHilton.com, ...is now universally scorned and widely considered the villain of an incident that left him appropriately "black eyed." [snip] ...political correctness is like roshambo, the "rock-paper-scissors" game.... Black beats white. Gay beats white. Black beats gay...[snip] Mr. Lavandeira has used his sexual orientation as a shield to deflect criticism. But in the process he has hurt the cause of gay rights. That is why the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation took the Black Eyed Peas' side. When GLAAD is at the forefront of a movement that actively scorns "hate" - or, as the...

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has asked Perez Hilton to apologize for slurs he hurled at Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. GLAAD was responding to a video posted by the celebrity blogger, whose legal name is Mario Lavandeira, in which Hilton gave his version of events after Will.i.am posted a video describing their recent confrontations at and after the MuchMusic Video Awards. Said Hilton in his video: "I made the split-second decision -- that I was gonna say what I thought was the worst possible thing that thug [Will.i.am] would ever want to hear" -- which was...

TMZ has just obtained video footage of the heated confrontation between Perez Hilton and Will.I.Am -- in which Perez can clearly be heard calling the Black Eyed Pea a "f**king f*ggot." The footage begins in the middle of the verbal altercation outside an after-party for a music award show in Toronto -- moments after Hilton claims Will went after him like a "heat-seeking missile" and unleashed a verbal tirade at him. With a crowd surrounding Perez, Will and Will's manager, Polo -- the guys argue back and forth for about a minute, until Perez tells Will, "you're not a f**king...

TORONTO (AP) - Police have charged the tour manager of the Black Eyed Peas with assault after he allegedly gave celebrity blogger Perez Hilton a black eye outside a Toronto nightclub. Hilton said he got into an argument with band members Fergie and will.i.am at the Cobra nightclub early Monday morning and was punched outside by Polo Molina, the band's tour manager. They were at the club following a Sunday night video awards show. Molina turned himself in and has been charged with assaulting Hilton, Toronto Police Constable Tony Vella said. Molina is due in court Aug. 5. Hilton, whose...

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, one of the nation’s leading gay rights champions, blasted President Obama yesterday over a controversial anti-gay marriage court filing and is calling on the commander in chief to explain himself.

In a video post dated June 2, 2009, Breitbart TV reporter Scott Baker reveals that – shocker – Whoopi Goldberg was lying about Glenn Beck’s lying. What’s more, Barbara Walters didn’t check her facts before the Baxter-esque duo ambushed Beck on his May 20 appearance on ABC’s “The View.” The video – embedded at right – is quite long, but I’ve broken down below the information offered in it. First up in Baker’s video is a recap of what was known before his investigation. Beck rode the Amtrak Acela from Connecticut to Washington D.C., and along the way, encountered Walters...

The time for universal health insurance coverage has come. Everybody seems to know that -- except for the Republicans, all too many of whom cling to traditional denunciations of universal coverage as socialism... The Republicans could instead offer a consumer-controlled universal coverage system, like that in Switzerland, in which the people, not the government, control how much they spend on health. There are no government health insurance programs. Instead, the Swiss choose from about 85 private heath insurers... This consumer-driven, universal coverage system provides excellent health care for the sick, tops the world in consumer satisfaction, and costs 40 percent...