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If Americans had any doubt how the liberal elite (Democrats in Congress, the press, the entertainment industry) felt about them before this month’s congressional recess, surely they must understand it now. Hard-working taxpaying Americans have been relatively complacent until recently, understandably occupied by their jobs, their finances, their families, and their personal responsibilities. Americans have had a largely unspoken but abiding faith in the enduring principles of American government, the fidelity of their elected representatives to those principles, and the vigilance of the press in defending both.Oops. The past few months have been eye-openers, haven’t they?As awareness of Obama’s true...

Robin Katz is a "sexy 25-year-old financial planner working at Chase's Midtown headquarters," according to the New York Post, who allegedly ripped off a client to the tune of $110,000 so she could spend it "shopping" and "going out." Katz is a graduate of Smith College, and to judge by her Facebook friends—who hail from Yale, Harvard, Wellesley, Princeton, the Phillips Exeter Academy, etc.—she is pretty firmly ensconced in the ranks of America's elite youth. She certainly seemed pedigreed and trustworthy enough for her clients to entrust her with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mistake! Because she is also a...

...On Wednesday, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin implied that the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision to uphold the Second Amendment was revolutionary: “When I was in law school...the idea that you had a Second Amendment right to a gun was considered preposterous....But the Supreme Court [in Heller]...said that...individuals have a personal right to bear arms.”...Anchor Wolf Blitzer raised the Second Amendment issue with Toobin, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and the others on their panel analyzing the hearings.... [and] asked...what were the nominee’s “positions, specifically on the federal obligation to support the Second Amendment, as opposed to local communities..?” The CNN...analyst...

Elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it's not provided by insurance. Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn't seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he's proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get. The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if "it's my...

One of the things liberals love to do when making shrills against conservatives is to claim that they are backed by big business corporate capitalist elitists. Conservatives they say are interested in advancing the agenda of the rich against the poor. Conservatives are champions of the rich while they crap all over the poor. They only want to protect the privileged and elite. They give tax cuts to the super rich by cutting programs and putting our nation in debt. Also according to liberals, by electing Barack Obama, we would undo this and require that the rich pay their share....

Alleging misconduct, Artorius Castus and a number of private entities have filed papers with the SEC pushing for an investigation into the burgeoning IndyMac scandal. Next week, one these entities will be filing papers and producing evidence to the Department of Justice requesting an ivestigation into Schumer's leaked memo.

There’s something about General Petraeus that brings out the most quotable in liberals. Most recently it was LA Times wine critic Matthew DeBord who must have been auditioning for a fashion column as he critiqued Petraeus’s uniform and, especially, his many tacky, tacky medals awarded for service to his country. Righteous indignation about that from Uncle Jimbo, hilarious sarcasm at Iowahawk. Take your pick. That was yesterday. Today it’s talk show host Dick Cavett, who I’m glad to learn is still alive, getting all hot and bothered about General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker in the New York Times. Petraeus commits...

For the demographic reality is that, in America, the Democratic party is the new “party of the rich”. More and more Democrats represent areas with a high concentration of wealthy households. ... Democrats now control the majority of the nation’s wealthiest congressional jurisdictions. More than half of the wealthiest households are concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats control both Senate seats. I have speculated before that this seemingly counter-intuitive reality may reflect the hyper-wealth of modern America - these voters may be so rich they simply aren’t sensitive to tax increases anymore. Whatever the reason is, ideologically they are...

Finally, after nearly a year we get to the bottom of the story. Last spring, you were held up as a parody of environmental correctness when you proposed restricting the use of toilet paper to one square per bathroom visit. What was that about? I think it’s a fantastic and eye-opening example of how the media is operated by political figures, of how Karl Rove was humiliated in the media and how, within 24 hours, he was able to humiliate me and take any sort of credibility away from me. What are you saying? You think Karl Rove leaked the...

William Consuegra was recently selected to National Association of Industrial and Office Properties NAIOP Leadership Discovery Program, one of 20 young professionals from around the country chosen to this program. He was also recently nominated by Governor Bill Richardson to the New Mexico Commission on Public Broadcasting. He is currently a third year law student at the University of New Mexico School of Law and an intern with the Land Development Office at Forest City Mesa del Sol. He is also a nominee for the Term Member Program with the Council on Foreign Relations (nominated by Governor Bill Richardson and...

This evening, in honor of the publication of My Grandfather's Son, the Heritage Foundation hosted a dinner for Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia, along with a group of conservative journalists and "new media" types. I have been at social gatherings where Justice Thomas was present but had never actually met him before. Those who know him have told me how warm and gracious he is, and these qualities certainly were evident tonight. Justice Thomas began his after-dinner remarks by saying he wishes the new media had been around at the time of his confirmation hearings because it "gets beyond...

Giuliani: Gun control helped lower crime 5 minutes ago Rudy Giuliani addressed a potentially troublesome issue with conservative voters, saying his policies as mayor to get handguns off the street helped reduce crime in New York. "I used gun control as mayor," he said at a news conference Saturday during a swing through California. But "I understand the Second Amendment. I understand the right to bear arms." He said what he did as mayor would have no effect on hunting. Addressing another potential trouble spot with conservatives, Giuliani spoke in favor of a border fence, saying, "You have to have...

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP ADDRESS TO THE QUADRANT MAGAZINE 50TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER, FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, SYDNEY Thank you very much Paddy McGuinness, Chief Justice, Justices, Your Eminence, Your Grace, my Parliamentary colleagues and ladies and gentlemen. I’m finally succumbing to Peter Garrett’s advice and its great to embrace an evening of culture and poetry and all of that after overdosing on my Philistine sporting pursuits over the weekend in almost the four corners of the Earth, from one side of the country to the other. But it really is an enormous pleasure for Janette...

...Winfrey, 52, who is reportedly worth more than $1 billion, said she doesn't feel guilty about her wealth. "I was coming back from Africa on one of my trips," she said. "I had taken one of my wealthy friends with me. She said, 'Don't you just feel guilty? Don't you just feel terrible?' I said, 'No, I don't. I do not know how me being destitute is going to help them.' Then I said when we got home, 'I'm going home to sleep on my Pratesi sheets right now and I'll feel good about it.' "

Movie-maker OLIVER STONE has blasted media groups who "slander" celebrities for their political comments - because intelligent stars have every right to question their leaders. The Vietnam veteran, who is a fierce opponent of the US leadership, is appalled every time a celebrity is rudely mocked for making his or her thoughts about PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH and the war in Iraq public, and he urges journalists to be more supportive. The NATURAL BORN KILLERS director says, "We're Hollywood wackos and all that stuff, left-wing... (It's) an easy and facile dismissal. "I'm still a citizen, I've served my country as...

Billionaires are going ballistic. Ronald Lauder has joined trigger-happy tycoons Donald Trump and Seagrams scion Edgar Bronfman Sr. as the richest men in the city packing heat, according to the NYPD's gun-permit list. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and multimillionaire Marvel Comics CEO Isaac Perlmutter are the newest gun-club members licensed to carry a weapon - topping a list that already included "Mean Streets" actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, "Scarface" producer Martin Bregman and shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern. Other gun-toting notables - who have a license to carry as opposed to a permit to keep their...

LIMA, Peru - Carlos Santana quoted his old friend Jimi Hendrix in an anti-war message here Monday and said his philosophy is the antithesis of President George W. Bush's. "I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing," the 58-year-old rock icon said. "My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush." Santana, speaking to Peruvian journalists ahead of a Tuesday concert, said young people's opposition to the war in Iraq is reaching the dimensions of the anti-Vietnam war sentiment in the 1970s. "There is more...

Way back when I was a cub reporter, I got hold of a book about the "art" of interviewing. It was a thin book — no use spending thousands of words to tell a reporter, cub or old Grizzly, to bone up on a subject and let natural curiosity take its course. That thin book came to mind on reading a three-part series in The New York Times about an imam named Reda Shata, who presides over the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, N.Y. As far as the art of interviewing goes, the reporter got it exactly backward:...

The Oscars may be over, but parents still need to teach their kids to laugh at Tinseltown's left-wing celebrities, says best-selling children's author Katharine DeBrecht. Her highly anticipated new book lampoons stars Streisand, Madonna, and Cruise, and was given out in Oscar gift bags. It is available in stores today.LOS ANGELES, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- With Academy Awards being handed out to movies about racist cops, gay cowboys, and communist sympathizers, Hollywood has declared an outright war on traditional values. But instead of getting angry at the movie business, parents should teach their kids to laugh at it, this according...

Another state you should never visit passes an appalling abortion ban, because they hate youAttention all funky sexy single intelligent women of South Dakota (assuming there are any left): It is time. Pack it up. Strip the bed, box up the cat, load the U-Haul, call your hip friends over in Minneapolis, move out West, or East, or anywhere with a mind-set not stuck like a bloody nail in the moral coffin of 1845. Let this be your clarion call. Get the hell out, right now. Here is why: You state hates you. Your state, apparently run be pallid sexless...

Ted Koppel kicked off his neo-pundit career by delivering a stern global warming speech in New York while outside a merciless snowstorm bore down on the Eastern Seaboard in a brutal blast of freezing -- Oh, wait -- that was Al Gore, wasn’t it? I tend to get all these neo-pundits mixed up. Mr. Koppel’s post-Nightline era more correctly began with a January 29 Op-Ed in the New York Times which is actually quite similar to Mr. Gore’s address both in fervent presentation and excruciatingly bad timing. Which may explain my confusion. Ted, likely grateful to now be immersed in...

This from the WCCC web site on Adj. Professor J. Daley For immediate release: November 22, 2005 Statement from Dr. William Austin President Warren County Community College I firmly believe that the most precious freedom all Americans share is the First Amendment right of freedom of speech. I am committed to working unceasingly to see that it is preserved for all WCCC students, faculty and staff. At the same time, there are existing state laws — as well as College policies and procedures — that must be followed to ensure that all members of our College are free and encouraged...

Neil Armstrong has proven to be an enigmatic hero. He is certainly one of the most famous astronauts, having achieved one of the great firsts in spaceflight. He reached that pinnacle through hard work, dedication, focus, endurance, a little luck, and no small amount of sheer talent. But he never really wanted the limelight, and he never really embraced The Cause. The Cause, of course, is space exploration, and it is no secret that most ardent supporters of space exploration, particularly human exploration, share many traits with religion. Their beliefs are based far more on faith than they are on...

Tonight on NBCs evening news, after the gleeful reporting of the 2,000th combat death in Iraq, giving only passing mention to the fact that 79% of the voters in Iraq approved of the Iraqi Constitution and Bill of Rights, describing later that the people are still "divided", NBC went on to their continuing biased coverage of Plame-gate, There was either a deliberate lie, or a blatant example of lazy ineptness on behalf of the script David Gregory was reading. The comment was to the effect of "…regarding the phone conversations of Karl Rove, and whether or not he "outed" Valerie...

Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, in an appearance Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live," said Americans are too dumb to vote for the right candidates. "We're an ignorant nation right now," Mr. Cronkite said. "We're not really capable, I do not think the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time ....in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency, of course." ...... "I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger."

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists still wants Diana Griego Erwin as a speaker next month, despite her Wednesday resignation from The Sacramento Bee over allegations that the paper could not verify the existence of some people mentioned in her columns. Erwin, who has denied fabricating sources, told the NSNC today that she's still coming to its June 23-26 conference in Grapevine, Texas. She is scheduled to speak the morning of June 24. "She's one of the best columnists in America -- and she has a real story to tell now," said Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist/conference host Dave Lieber, who...

ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - Bill Moyers denounced on Sunday the right wing and top officials at the White House, saying they are trying to silence their critics by controlling the news media. He also took aim at reporters who become little more than willing government "stenographers." And he said the public increasingly is content with just enough news to confirm its own biases. Moyers spoke in St. Louis at a conference on media reform. His reports have appeared on the Public Broadcasting System since the 1970s. He was an aide to President Lyndon Johnson and is a former newspaper...

Rick Rodriguez: Griego Erwin resigns amid internal inquiry into her columns By Rick Rodriguez -- Bee Executive Editor Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 12, 2005 Diana Griego Erwin, whose column has appeared in this space three days a week, resigned Wednesday amid an internal inquiry into whether some people mentioned in several recent columns actually existed. During our inquiry we found we could not authenticate the existence of several people even though they were identified by name, age and sometimes by the neighborhoods in which they were reported to have lived. We used extensive online database searches as well...

STORIES ABOUT spat-upon Vietnam veterans are like mercury: Smash one and six more appear. It's hard to say where they come from. For a book I wrote in 1998 I looked back to the time when the spit was supposedly flying, the late 1960s and early 1970s. I found nothing. No news reports or even claims that someone was being spat on. What I did find is that around 1980, scores of Vietnam-generation men were saying they were greeted by spitters when they came home from Vietnam. There is an element of urban legend in the stories in that their...

It is a long time since Horsefeathers turned to The New Yorker for high quality comic writing. Truth be told, we rarely read it any more. The weekly anti-Bush rants of Jimmy Carter's speech writer, Hendrik Hertzberg, finally caused our eyes to glaze over once too often. However, in the wake of the Presidential election, the New Yorker's strenuous efforts to raise the spirits of their liberal elite readership is producing some hilarious comic writing. The New Yorker shares the view that the Democrats lost because they didn't seem tough enough. So the task is to make them look (rather...

“Registration and User Agreement Purpose: The Free Republic forum is intended for Conservative users who wish to have a serious discussion about political events, conservative principles and the elimination of government corruption and abuse. This is a news and information site not a chat room. Please stay on topic. Free Republic is a supporter of free speech on the Internet but we believe that along with the privilege of free speech comes the responsibility to respect the rights of others.” I post the paragraph above from the Free Republics Registration and User Agreement because it was what inspired me to...

In 1994, when the Gingrich revolution swept Republicans into power, ending 40 years of Democratic hegemony in the House, the mainstream press needed to account for this inversion of the Perfect Order of Things. A myth was born. Explained the USA Today headline: "ANGRY WHITE MEN: Their votes turn the tide for GOP." Overnight, the revolution of the Angry White Male became conventional wisdom. In the 10 years before the 1994 election there were 56 mentions of angry white men in the media, according to LexisNexis. In the next seven months there were more than 1,400. At the time, I...

Fingers are pointing, recriminations flying, and intellectual elitism is in full flood within their party and among their yapping media lapdogs, as Democrats try to determine what went wrong. Listening to and reading the liberal pundits quickly reveals that most of them still don’t get it. The condescension and contempt with which they view the majority of the electorate is on open display now that they need not hide their elitism until the next election cycle begins. For example, we Bush voters are all just a bunch of, “self-righteous, gun-totin’, military-lovin’, abortion-hatin’, gay-loathin’, foreigner-despisin’, non-passport-ownin’ rednecks,” in the words of...

Campaigns Rally Against Wrong T-Shirts Wearing Opponent's Gear Can Mean Arrests, Ejections Nov. 1, 2004 - Behind the scenes of one of the most contentious presidential races in recent memory, both Democrats and Republicans have organized what can only be called the T-shirt defense squads. It is an all-out effort to spot T-shirts supporting the other candidate and block them from view, or in some cases to actually have the T-shirt-wearing offenders ejected or arrested. ABC News conducted a bipartisan experiment in which producers and volunteers went to rallies for each candidate wearing the other party's T-shirt, and found that...

While tuning the radio dial, I noticed the voice of Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Fox cartoon "Family Guy". He was being interviewed over on Air Frankenfraud. "Family Guy" is a very funny show which is coming back to Fox after re-runs on other channels and huge sales of two DVD box sets. That being said, it's no surprise that Peter Griffin's stupidity must stem from the mind of his very liberal creator (Hollywood liberalism ping). Holy crap, is he a lefty. The same old "Bush scares me", "Bush lies", "Bush is dumb", etc. He said he thinks we can't...

The prosperity of rumor is the bedrock of modern television. No facts need take the place of a good yarn. Indeed, if what passes for television journalism were subject to the same standards as the manufacturing of the Yo-Yo, journalism would become a pitiful pile.

Hosts of ABC's "The View" Gang Up on Giuliani for Backing Bush Joy Behar ridiculed Giuliani for claiming that the first thing he said after the 9/11 attacks was "thank God" George W. Bush "was our President" and she insisted that "of course" Al Gore would have been just as "tough" on terrorism. Former CBS News correspondent Meredith Vieira, who participated Sunday in an anti-Bush march, seemed similarly ignorant, scolding Giuliani: "The implication is that if you disagree, I think, with the administration that somehow you are on the side of the terrorists. " Giuliani shot back: "That isn't who...

The heated argument consumed nearly eight minutes, so space permits only some limited excerpts as provided by the MRC's Jessica Anderson who caught the August 31 exchange: Joy Behar: "Did you really say that, 'Thank God he was our President'? That's the first thing you said? You didn't say 'Oh, expletive,' or something?" Rudy Giuliani: "No, no, that wasn't the first thing I said. That's one of the things that I said on September 11th to my police commissioner. It really came out because that was just a few months after that disputed election, and so I had called the...

The Hamptons may be Democrat country but John Kerry didn't make himself popular with all the locals this weekend. Well-to-do residents out for early morning bike rides and walks on Lily Pond Lane yesterday were incensed by the heavy-handed appearance of Secret Service, State Police, Suffolk Country police and East Hampton Village police, who all descended on the quiet street to clear the way for Kerry, who was heading for breakfast with Steven Spielberg on Georgica Pond. While cops closed off intersections, others on motorbikes blasted their horns at Sunday cyclists, joggers, senior citizens and mothers pushing baby strollers to...

Performers are "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics" as a response to their anti-Bush rants according to Elton John. Apparently George W. Bush is President of both the United States and Weight Watchers. Move over Dixie Chicks and Whoopi, Elton has jumped on the whining celebrity bandwagon for unfair "censorship." When in doubt, scream "McCarthyism." "There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly,” added Elton. Yes, nothing says deadly like a) people not buying Dixie Chicks albums, b) Weight Watchers not wanting to be associated with raunchy comedians, and c) Madonna not releasing an anti-war...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version July 09, 2004, 2:05 p.m. Purge!The CPODIs are angry. By Peter Wood The liberal elite are tried of being called the liberal elite. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of more than a dozen liberal books, including Nickled and Dimed, and frequent contributor to such Left-ward magazines as Ms., The Nation, and The Progressive, declared last week in the New York Times that it is time to retire the phrase "liberal elite." The term, in her view, is a canard invented by conservatives to suggest that Lefties are out-of-touch with...

ou can call Michael Moore all kinds of things — loudmouthed, obnoxious and self-promoting, for example. The anorexic Ralph Nader, in what must be an all-time low for left-wing invective, has even called him fat. The one thing you cannot call him, though, is a member of the "liberal elite." Sure, he's made a ton of money from his best sellers and award-winning documentaries. But no one can miss the fact that he's a genuine son of the U.S. working class — of a Flint autoworker, in fact — because it's built right into his "branding," along with flannel shirts...

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of pieces of memorabilia from Barbra Streisand’s career will be auctioned off June 5, with proceeds going to charities that the Streisand Foundation supports. ...[snip] The auction, dubbed “Her Name is Barbra,” will feature famous items that trace the career of the singer and actress from the early 1960s to today, ...

The country may be going broke, but in just nine months President Bush has amassed more than $175 million to spend on his re-election, the most any candidate has collected in a presidential election. The reason Bush has been so successful is that he has a good gimmick. He has assembled 151 individuals he calls "Rangers," who have raised more than $200,000 each, and 241 he calls "Pioneers," who have raised at least $100,000 each. Now, he's added a third group of fund-raisers -- individuals under 40 who have raised at least $50,000. There are 52 people in that category,...

EDITORIAL: Too stupid to teach? UNLV professor says Republican Party now a haven of slope-browed troglodytes Back in 2002, a survey by the American Enterprise Institute found America's colleges and universities to be a virtually monochrome refuge of the political left. More than 80 percent of most schools' employees were found to be registered Democrats, despite the almost even split between registered Republicans and Democrats among the public at large. The AEI report found one consequence of this lack of diversity was that conservative thinkers tend to be isolated and intimidated on American campuses, with the predictable result that they...

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. -- The creator of the controversial “Jesus Dress-Up” refrigerator magnets being sold at Philadelphia-area stores spoke exclusively to NBC 10 on Tuesday night. The man, who goes by the name, “Normal” Bob Smith, says he is doing nothing wrong. “Jesus Dress-Up” is a magnetic crucifix with a variety of clothes and accessories. Many people are outraged by the product, but Smith says he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. “I don't think there's anything wrong with religious satire,” said Smith. “People have got to learn to laugh at themselves, it's part of human nature.” Smith, who...

Barbra Streisand Heads Back to the Big Screen By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She may have given up singing in public, but Barbra Streisand (news) hasn't bowed out of the limelight altogether. The 61-year-old performer is heading back to movie screens for the first time in eight years to play Ben Stiller (news)'s mom in a sequel to the hit comedy "Meet the Parents." A spokesman for Universal Pictures said Friday Streisand is in final negotiations for the role. The sequel, "Meet the Fockers," is set to go into production April 5 with Jay Roach back as director....

<p>WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A member of the board of the National Press Foundation has resigned her position because of plans to present Fox News' Brit Hume with an award.</p> <p>Hume, the managing editor of Fox News and its chief Washington correspondent, was selected to receive the NPF's Taishoff Award as Broadcaster of the Year during a Feb. 19 awards dinner.</p>

Talk radio: It's time for more than right-wing hot air Why should we settle for just RIGHT-WING HOT AIR? 02/01/04GARRETT EPPS I t was a match worthy of World Wrestling Entertainment. In this corner, one mild-mannered, wordy academic; in the other, Kevin Mannix's minister of information, the pistol-packing Godzilla of Portland talk radio, Lars Larson. It was the fall of 2001. I was a visiting professor at Duke University. A Portland radio show wanted someone to explain the new policy of trying foreign terrorists in front of military commissions. I boned up on the topic and called in at the...

Below is a 10-question quiz given to my high school sophomore son. The quality of the choices, and the total misunderstanding of what true conservatism stands for made me livid. Anyway, there are too many examples for me to point out, but I thought everyone might want to make their own comments. I intend to visit the teacher that used this piece of propaganda. It would be helpful to have additional insight, so have at it fellow freepers. Keep in mind, the students were led to believe that the conservative beliefs were outlined in choice #1, moderate beliefs in choice...