Free Republic

Anyone watch CNN Late Edition today (September 14, 2008) - the Democratic governor on the panel equated Palins comments that that if a NATO member was attacked the US would fulfill their responsibilities to defend was condemned as advocating a military attack on Russia!!! Is Obama advocating that the US no longer be in the business of defending freedom and democracy anymore?? Is NATO truely just a piece of paper to them to discard? So much for the free world standing together after 50 years of the NATO treaty. I hope McCain attacks this sentiment big time; how can any...

"Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' " —New York Times, Sept. 12Informed her? Rubbish. The Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong. There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration — and the one Charlie...

The Bush Doctrine is a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of United States president George W. Bush, created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. 1) The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to treat countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups as terrorists themselves, which was used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan. 2) Later it came to include additional elements, including the controversial policy of preventive war, which held that the United States should depose foreign regimes that represented a threat to the security...

At a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner three weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, comedian Gilbert Gottfried not only pushed the envelope, he set it on fire. He was at the podium, about to launch into the abundantly filthy “Aristocrats” joke that inspired an entire documentary film, when he mentioned that he had tried to get a direct flight “but they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first.”

CNN got duped! The supposed photo of Sarah Palin in an American flag bikini holding a rifle is a proven photoshop.

It appears that we have positive identification of the rifle used in the Omaha Mall shooting. The pictures from Fox 42: Omaha show an ordinary SKS rifle with a fixed 10 round magazine. The same rifle that millions of people in the United States own for hunting and plinking. It is an acceptable deer rifle for most of the country. There have been many reports of "assault rifle" used in the MSM, and reports of 30 round magazines. It appears that all of these reports are false, probably intended to stir up anti-gun sentiment before the election.

Vieira to Karzai: "A lot of Americans, here, are confused by this, what's going on Afghanistan. They say, 'Wait a minute, I thought we won that war, already and now the Taliban is back? What went wrong?' So I'm asking you sir-" Karzai: "We won." Vieira: "-what's gone wrong? You've won?" Karzai: "Yes, of course we won." Vieira: "What have you won?" Karzai: "The war against terrorism. The liberation of Afghanistan. These guys, the al Qaeda, Osama and their associates were running Afghanistan. Today you're talking to President Karzai, elected by the Afghan people." Vieira: "There's also killings everyday. So...

'Stunned' superintendent reacts to national TV segment saying Decatur 'has bad schools' By Bayne Hughes hughes@decaturdaily.com · 340-2432 Superintendent Sam Houston issued a "y'all come" invitation to the New York studios of the "Today Show" after a segment Thursday morning claimed that Decatur "has bad schools." Houston sent a letter to "Today Show" officials inviting them to see Decatur's education status. The letter is in response to a statement correspondent Barbara Corcoran made. In a comparison of $500,000 real estate, she said a buyer could buy a two-bedroom townhouse in a gated community in Tucson, Ariz., or a four-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot...

Apparently, Fred Thompson had lapses of judgment during his trip to Iowa last week. No, he didn’t suggest he would bomb Pakistan. He didn’t state that he was going to “take” anybody’s earned profits, nor did he make any similar political faux-pas. That was someone else. He did, however, wear Gucci loafers and ride around in a golf cart. That’s right. According to Fox News, Thompson’s Iowa travels involved mistakes such as “wearing Gucci loafers at a country fair.” Really? That’s the mistake? Before we even get to the merits of wearing Gucci loafers (which in the video look a...

A media analyst fears an upcoming CNN special will attempt to create a moral equivalency between all religions. Bob Knight says it appears the network is trying to equate Muslim homicide bombers with evangelical Christians. Starting August 21, CNN plans to air a three-night, six-hour documentary in prime time called God's Warriors. The special, hosted by chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, will purportedly discuss "the impact of religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force around the world." CNN says the documentary will feature what it calls "patriot pastors who seek to change American culture through the ballot box," "parents who...

"This is really an organization that's evolving. On the one hand, they're a political organization, they want to stay in political power, and of course on the other hand they're a military organization who are fighting for independence against Israel."

It seems that the Lebanese army is starting to inspect and neutralize all of the unexploded artillery and other ordinance that Shamnesty is so worried about. This photograph is rather odd, though. It's extremely grainy, due to high levels of jpeg compression, but it purports to be two members of the Lebanese Army inspecting an unexploded missile. What's odd is that the object they're studying doesn't readily appear to be a missile to me—Could it be an external fuel tank? Some other piece of artillery? Humpback whale? Beats me. As usual, if you have exceptional eyesight and vast stores of...

Eddie Johnson is still getting over what he calls the worst day of his life. He scratched his way out of the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago, fashioned a long, successful NBA career, turned that into an opportunity on TV and built a reputation as an all-around good guy who loves to work with kids. His worst scrape with the law involved a couple of traffic tickets. Now he's dealing with a case of mistaken identity that shocked him and his friends and may have permanently sullied his reputation. Eddie Johnson was mistaken in some media reports for another Eddie...

 A recent article by Pulitzer-winning AP writer Charles Hanley entitled “Half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD” builds a not so subtle argument: those who believe Saddam Hussein still had WMD need to get fitted for tin foil hats. He begins the piece with a reasonable question “Do you believe Saddam Hussein had WMD in 2003?” What follows is an examination of possible reasons why fifty percent of American’s said yes: experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a...

Athletically speaking, Gay Games VII was a joke. Everybody knows true competition shouldn't include hefty figure skaters, any kind of line dancing or games best played with a beer in your hand. More than winning medals and breaking records, Gay Games participants talked of the importance of participating, having fun, being "out and proud," making strides toward a more accepting America and all that jazz. All around Chicagoland, guys kissed guys in the on-deck circle. Girls kissed girls between billiard matches. They didn't feel afraid or scared or judged. And in those eight days of reprieve -- something special happened...

July 24: As Israeli assaults continue, the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon worsens. NBC's Richard Engel reports from Beirut. Nightly News with Brian Williams Read the broadcast's blog, The Daily Nightly Latest news from MSNBC.com

BILL KELLER ISN'T VERY BRIGHT, or else he thinks you aren't. How else to explain this passage in his apologia for the Times' publication of classified information about the terrorist financial surveillance program: "Some of the incoming mail quotes the angry words of conservative bloggers and TV or radio pundits who say that drawing attention to the government's anti-terror measures is unpatriotic and dangerous. (I could ask, if that's the case, why they are drawing so much attention to the story themselves by yelling about it on the airwaves and the Internet.)" I realize that the Times' circulation is falling...

An article and a picture caption yesterday about the funeral of Sgt. Jose Gomez of Queens, who was killed on April 20 in Iraq, referred incorrectly to the Army representative who comforted his mother. She was a sergeant first class — an enlisted woman, not an officer. The article also misstated the name of a service medal that a general presented to Sergeant Gomez's mother. It is a Purple Heart, not a Purple Star. In some copies, a picture of the coffin being carried out of a funeral home carried an erroneous credit. The photographer was Ozier Muhammad of The...

by Mark Finkelstein May 3, 2006 Matt Lauer conducted a wide-ranging interview this morning with Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon/Mobil. Lauer's tone was unantagonistic, and for that matter he was clearly grateful to Tillerson, the lone CEO among the Big Oil companies to accept Today's invitation. Still, there was some bad economics on display, along with a notable attempt by Matt Lauer to make the GOP look like ingrates to an industry with which they've been cozy. Tillerson put in a solid, undefensive performance. Here are highlights: Lauer: "Critics say the big oil companies crushed the competition and...

The National Geographic Society released the manuscript of what is called "The Gospel of Judas" yesterday. By National Geographic's own account, a team first assembled by the Maecenas Foundation has been working on the text since 2001. As a result of press releases tied to publication of the text, widespread coverage has repeated the claim that this is an authentic and unique representation of the historical relationship between Jesus and Judas, and that Jesus encouraged Judas to betray him. Despite the careful work by scholars that has gone into a document of obvious interest, I have to express disappointment when...

A Seaside man narrowly escaped with his life after being pistol-whipped in a gang-related dispute Friday morning, according to the Seaside Police Department. Police went to the 1300 block of Noche Buena Street around 11:15 a.m. A 19-year-old man told police that Hector Ramos, also 19, whom the victim was vaguely acquainted with, had struck him across the face with a pistol. Police said the victim suffered a broken nose. The man said that after Ramos pistol-whipped him, he loaded a chamber of the pistol, and then pointed the firearm at him. But when Ramos pulled the trigger, according to...

There was an astonishing amount of ignorance and incompetence on display in the Dick Cheney hunting accident. No, I'm not referring to the vice president's actions. Instead, I'm talking about the ignorance of so much of the news media on the subject of firearms. [...]

Correction: In the original version of this report, NEWSWEEK misquoted Falwell as referring to "assault ministry." In fact, Falwell was referring to "a salt ministry"—a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says "Ye are the salt of the earth." We regret the error.

by Mark Finkelstein January 30, 2006 - 08:29 With all the speculation about Katie Couric moving to the CBS Evening News anchor desk, a guy like me whose shtick is to cover her antics at the Today show could be concerned about his blogging future. Not to worry. Flipping over to Good Morning America today reassured me: there is an apparently inexhaustible supply of liberal media bias and the talking heads to spout it. The topic was President Bush's impending State of the Union Address. In assembling its panel, GMA resorted to an old MSM trick - coupling a fire-breathing...

The Federalist Society has sent a letter to ABC Nightline where they demand that ABC News investigate the producer, reporter, and anchor in their report on Jan 23rd, 2006 where they accuse Supreme Court Justice Antione Scalia of violating judicial ethics laws in attending a Federalist Society CLE Course instead of watching Chief Justice Robert's swearing in ceremony. Here is the Letter from The Federalist Society: Mr. David Westin President ABC News 7 West 66th Street New York, NY 10023 Dear Mr. Westin: I write to express my deep disappointment and concern about a January 23rd report aired on ABC's...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has long cultivated the image of a macho rancher, frequently donning his boots and Wrangler jeans to clear brush on his sprawling Texas property. But he was decidedly noncommittal today — and even a bit nonplused — when asked for his reaction to the most talked-about ranching film in years: "Brokeback Mountain." "I hadn't seen it," Bush told thousands of students and professors at Kansas State University, responding to a query from an audience member. "I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie." The movie, featuring the love story of two...

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 19, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See has not launched a campaign to rehabilitate Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, says a Vatican representative to whom the media have attributed words he never said. The question arose after the news that the Swiss-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art and U.S.-based National Geographic magazine intended to publish at Easter the content of a first-century manuscript, with the apocryphal gospel of Judas. Until now, knowledge of this writing came only from the second-century bishop, St. Irenaeus. The announced publication sparked a debate in Italy over the figure of Judas Iscariot....

As one of the hundreds of thousands who has proudly worked for the National Security Agency either directly or as a subcontractor, I believe the New York Times missed the real story under its Dec. 16 headline "Bush lets U.S. spy on callers without courts." Here is why. The New York Times concedes the story starts with the CIA capture of top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in March 2002. With Zubaydah's capture came a treasure trove of eavesdropping intelligence sources -- e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, and personal phone directories. These are prime intelligence sources that may...

Merry Christmas MSM! As our calendar year draws to a close, we have many MSM blunders to laugh about. Most have been "purged from the corporate archives" except those who helped expose the original blunder (FR included). This MSM Blunder of the Year Candidate hit in early February 2005.May we never forget John Adam and the MSM who so eagerly brought him before us.

Today's Chicago Tribune carried a New York Times News Service article on the passing of Eugene J. McCarthy. The story notes: "As a senator, Mr. McCarthy was an unabashed liberal unafraid to take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) and his alarmist warnings about the communist menace." No doubt Senator Eugene McCarthy was an unabashed liberal on many issues. And it's very likely that he, at a minimum, questioned Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade. But, as a senator, he most certainly didn't "take on Sen. Joseph McCarthy." According to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Eugene McCarthy was elected...

In his Monday chat with Charlie Rose on PBS, Ted Koppel played armchair general or armchair Secretary of State and explained why he would not have gone to war with Iraq, didn't see the urgent need to remove Saddam, saw no connection with terrorism, and worst of all, smeared Ronald Reagan as not caring about the gassing of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. This is, as a matter of historical record, untrue. Reagan went and denounced the gassing from the podium of the United Nations. Secretary of State George Shultz also denounced it in no uncertain terms. The ironic...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, says that before airing an hour-long special, titled "The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming," the FOX News Channel informed its viewers they were about to be misinformed on the science of global warming, and then proceeded to do just that. Said Robert Ferguson, Executive Director for CSPP, "Presenter Rick Folbaum and a cast of mostly non-scientists, celebrities and lawyers employed a transparent form of deception: telling only one side of a story or situation with intent to mislead. Worse,...

CNN's Carol Lin and the French "African-Americans" The Paris riots have highlighted more than any other issue in recent years not only the bias, but the ignorance of the "old media." Internet readers have studied the situation in Europe for years. Numerous writers, from Mark Steyn to Ba'at Yeor to Debbie Schlussel, have long predicted the decline of Europe and the jihad that we have seen over the past few weeks. But the "old media" personalities still have no clue as to what is going on. And their reporting and commentary has taken on an almost comical quality as a...

A while ago, Freeper tgsltakoma pinged me to a bit of stupidity on the Time magazine website where they displayed this photo. (direct link here: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050425/gallery/8.html) She and I laughed about how clueless they were when they captioned the photo as anti Coulter protesters when they are really anti Kerry protesters. (Notice the "Communists for Kerry" part of the sign.) They have since wised up and put on their website the following: "Pro-G.O.P protesters at the Republican Convention in New York City last year Correction: The original caption incorrectly stated that these protesters were blasting Coulter" In the April 25,...

In reporting on a Chinese company marketing condoms under the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky, USA Today notes that Clinton "was accused of having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern." Accused? Clinton himself ultimately admitted he "did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong." Moreover, a Federal judge fined Clinton more than $90,000 for providing ""false, misleading and evasive answers" about his relationship with Lewinsky. No, Clinton was not just "accused" of intimacy with a White House intern. Simple justice requires an accurate account of what he...

Former presidents, Bush and Clinton gave a news conference today. Towards the end, as Bush and Clinton were walking off the stage, at about 10:20 am EST, I heard a female reporter shout a last question that went "how do you respond to rumors that the levees were intentionally opened ?"

As I sit watching DHS Secretary Chertoff hold a press conference, something has clarified itself that has been teasing the back of my mind for days now: The problem with the press corps, national and international, cub reporter to senior editor, is that the vast majority of them have never been responsible for something truly worthwhile in their lives. As a result, damn few of them can fathom the least complexity involved in the least element of this massive disaster relief effort that is going on, let alone fathom the vast complexity of the combined elements themselves. This is classic...

Here is the lede paragraph from a Washington Post Editorial today (3 September), entitled “Left Behind”: “THE LACK OF National Guard troops because of the war in Iraq; the Bush administration's failure to protect coastal wetlands; the reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: All have been blamed, somewhat arbitrarily, for the stunning scenes of chaos at the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, for the unprecedented floodwaters in the city, and for the huge numbers of people without food or water. But if blame is to be laid and lessons are to be drawn, one point stands out as...

Newspaper Apologizes to Bo Jackson for Reporting He Took Steroids The Associated Press Apr 10, 2005 ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) - A newspaper being sued by former pro football and baseball star Bo Jackson apologized to him Sunday and retracted part of a story saying he used steroids. "Jackson has stated publicly he has never used steroids," the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin said on its Web site. "We retract the quote and the further statement that the speaker personally witnessed this damage to his life. We apologize to Mr. Jackson, without reservation." In a story published March 24 under sports editor...

Covering a big story, live, is hard, and journalists will make mistakes. When Christiane Amanpour of CNN described John Paul II in the hours after his death as "the first non-Catholic to be elected pope in more than 455 years," she provided some much-needed levity to the day. Nobody will hold it against her. What is more problematic is the media's unconscious tendentiousness in describing the teachings of this pope and his Church. The Pope, nearly everyone said, was a complex man: He was progressive on economics, war, and the death penalty, yet took doctrinaire and divisive positions on moral...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what appeared to be an American soldier in desert fatigues seated with his hands tied behind his back. A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and he is seated in front of a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is...

DUBAI (Reuters) - A little-known Iraqi insurgent group said on Tuesday it was holding a U.S. soldier and threatened to kill him within 72 hours if Iraqi prisoners were not released, according to an Internet statement. "Our mujahideen ... have managed to capture the American soldier John Adam after killing a number of his colleagues," said the Mujahideen Squadrons in the undated statement. It carried a picture appearing to show a U.S. soldier sitting in front of a black banner with a rifle pointed at his head. The authenticity of the claim, which did not say where the man was...

Betsy Newmark wrote us to point out that her daughter's blog had reported on an error committed on Friday by the Washington Post: an error that resulted in this anti-administration headline: "Change Means Fewer Students Will Be Eligible For Pell Grants". The article claimed that 80,000 to 90,000 low-income students would be knocked out of the Pell program on account of new regulations issued by the Department of Education. Yesterday, the Post issued a correction. Actually, the new regulations, which are based on updated government data, will expand the number eligible for grants, even though some will become ineligible at...

MOSUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday took a delighted dig at the media after troops he was visiting in Iraq complained their good works were ignored by the press while disasters grabbed the headlines. A soldier at his first stop in Mosul asked Rumsfeld how the "propaganda" worked? Rumsfeld, under attack since he appeared to brush aside a question about poor equipment from a U.S. soldier in Kuwait that later turned out to have been composed with help from a reporter, jumped at the opportunity to turn the tables. "That doesn't sound like a question placed...

An unfortunate byproduct of George W. Bush's political strategy is that his success has depended on moving the base of the Republican Party down into a demographic that should by all rights be Democratic. That's right, I'm talking about the moron vote. This was best illustrated by that recent incident in Fallujah in which a cameraman caught on tape the shooting of an Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine. The Marine apparently presumed the Iraqi was pretending to be dead for the purpose of preparing a later ambush. Now the Marine has been removed from duty and may be court-martialed....

"America is a strange country. All of its best generals are journalists," quipped Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith in the middle of an interview Thursday. Touché, as fencers say. I never served in the military, haven't been to Iraq and don't know if the criticism that the Bush administration has not put enough troops in Iraq is accurate or not -- although I pay attention when veterans who return from Iraq say as much. So I'll pass on what Feith said to me and you can decide. Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times Thursday that more troops...

I was just watching Wolf Blitzed on CNN yakking away about CNN's wondrous, marvelous, stupendous, scintillating, extraordinary wall-to-wall election night coverage. They even have a screen for each state! Goody! Now if they only knew what they were talking about. Wolf pointed to the Florida screen and talked about polls closing there at 8 PM Eastern time. This is the BIG mistake they made in 2000 that cost Bush who knows how many votes in the western most part of the state. In the Florida panhandle, conservative GOP country, polls are open an hour later due to time zone difference....

Let's imagine it's August 2001. And let's pretend that the Clinton Justice Department never erected the procedural war that, to borrow the words Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick wrote in 1995, went "beyond what is legally required" in obstructing communications between the FBI's intelligence division and its criminal investigators. As a result, let's say the FBI connects its dots. When an intelligence agent realizes terrorists Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi (two of the eventual 9/11 hijackers) are in the country and asks the Bureau's criminal division for help in locating them, headquarters encourages a cooperative effort instead of turning him...