Free Republic

<p>We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.</p>

Barbara (L) and Jenna Bush, the daughters of U.S. President George W Bush, walk together from the Darnall Army Community Hospital in Fort Hood, Texas, April 11, 2004 after President Bush (news - web sites) and members of his family visited with soldiers wounded in Iraq (news - web sites). Bush awarded 10 purple hearts to troops recovering in the hospital, after attending an Easter Sunday Church service at a chapel within the army base in central Texas.

A few days ago, the esteeemed host and founder of this foremerly great website invited me to do the following: "654. To: JohnGaltfla (#367) Oh, it's much better to go out in a blaze of glory. Martyrdom, 72 virgins, plaque on the "Great Ones" wall of fame and all that rot. jimrobfr posted on 2004-03-19 03:29:45 ET" Obviously, he was concerned that some of his better non-bot posters had abandoned FR for greener fields where our financial and intellectual contributions would be appreciated. It was amusing to watch former FReepers belittle, banter and blast JimRob in various forms. I was...

Anyone interested in volunteering for the Bush campaign, I am a GOP Team Leader and I'm coordinating an effort. Please FReepmail me or simply reply to this post. I'll email you a sign-up form as soon as I hear from you. Thanks, sdk

Have at it!

Hello everyone. I hope your New Year is going well so far.It has been a while since we had a reminder about what the Smokey Backroom is all about, and we have been getting a sense that some don't really know what it is about.As you all know, we have guidelines against personal attacks and flamewars. We try to keep things within those guidelines, but face it, sometimes discussions get tempers up and things get heated. Sometimes, the cure (pulling comments, suspending, and banning) can be worse than the problem. Sometimes an alternative cure is better-- letting those who are...

A couple of words we see frequently around the Forum are “Bushbot” and “Bushbasher.” I find them to be useless ad hominems that inevitably detract from whatever valid points the poster using them might be trying to make, or, more frequently, detract from said poster’s lack of any substantial points. By my understanding, a genuine “Bushbot” would be someone who would call the sky green if the President said so, and a true “Bushbasher” would call it purple if the President called it blue. While there are doubtless a few of each on FR, the vast, vast majority don’t fall...

I wanted to invite everyone to greet our newest signup, whyareyoudumbandhateful. Do you think his or her first post will be to make a donation on the Freepathon thread?

He says the Bush administration violated his wife's privacy by revealing that she worked for the CIA. But now Spygate accuser Joseph Wilson is sharing with reporters intimate details about his relationship with the allegedly secretive Valerie Plame, offering an account of the couple's "heavy make-out" session just before she told him she worked for the CIA. Wilson, who said recently he would have sacrificed anything to guard his wife's privacy, offers the steamy details in the Jan. 2004 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. The move has even supporters wondering if he's blown his credibility as a White House whistleblower...

THERE WAS A TIME, not long ago, when primetime television was populated by famous people. Someone appearing on TV meant that they'd likely worked their way up through the ranks: doing school plays, regional theater, and embarrassing commercials, until finally, they honed their skills, perfected their craft, and slept with the lecherous casting director who'd cause them to become obscenely wealthy and loved by millions. These days, however, television isn't so much about being famous, as it is about auditioning to become famous. With televised tryouts being the entire point of such shows, aspirants of fame, even in failure, still...

''American Idol'' winner Ruben Studdard filed a lawsuit last week against 205 Flava, makers of the jerseys he made famous during the competition, arguing that the company has profited from his image without compensating him. But the company says it secretly paid Studdard to wear the shirts, emblazoned with the area code of his native Birmingham, in possible violation of his contract with the ''Idol'' producers, which forbade him from seeking outside endorsements. The firm's owners and lawyers held a press conference on Monday, where they displayed several checks made out to the singer's brother, Kevin Studdard, or his manager,...

<p>The prosecutor in the Kobe Bryant rape case says he has slam-dunk evidence to prove the NBA superstar's guilt, it was revealed on the eve of the hoopster's first court appearance today. Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert made that strong claim in court papers arguing against making public the police affidavit written to justify Bryant's arrest early last month.</p>

AUGUST 1--Oversized "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard is suing the Alabama clothing maker who once supplied him with those colorful "205" jerseys--size XXXXXXXXL--he wore on the Fox TV talent show. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court, the corpulent crooner claims that 205 Flava, Inc., the Birmingham couturier, is improperly using images of the swollen singer to move its merch via its web site. The two-ton troubadour is seeking a court injunction against the firm, which the elephantine entertainer estimates to have earned north of $2 million by exploiting his image. The sweaty Studdard, currently headlining the...

<p>On a bustling Saturday afternoon a silent, generational war started at Abercrombie & Fitch, the teen retail clothing store in the San Francisco Shopping Centre, an urban mall at Market and Fifth streets.</p> <p>A girl of maybe 15, wearing braces and hip-hugger jeans, fingered a shrunken, see-through T-shirt that coyly advertised "Hottie Brand Cocoa." Her mother, noting her daughter's interest, eyeballed the stack of shirts and grimaced. She moved purposefully on, but her daughter lingered, hope in her eyes. After a minute, she gave up.</p>

Matt Drudge has revealed some information that hasn't yet been released, on his sydicated radio show. Excerpt: "I've decided to reveal some of the dirty sex details of the case. I have been told it's anal sex. ... My sources have been telling me. "That's why it's going to be controversial when it goes to trial. It's what is causing people a lot of uncomfortable feelings. "Some of the details (of the case) are explosive. Dateline (NBC) had some of this information and decided not to air it. ... This speculation is quite solid from where I sit."

KASSEL - Prosecutors Thursday said they have filed a murder indictment against one of two gay men who met in an Internet chat room, where it allegedly was agreed that one of them would kill and devour the other. And in a stunning new development, prosecutors in Kassel said they are broadening the investigation to include some 430 other persons believed to have been involved in the Internet gay cannibalism chat room that led to the death of a 42-year-old man in March 2001. Prosecutors are convinced that the victim, a computer analyst from Berlin, agreed to be killed and...

MSNBC is running it as breaking news.. Graham said that there is no way that Tom Delay and the House will have impeachment hearings over the supposed intelligence failures (I assume he is talking about VP Cheney) so 'the people' will have to vote the offending partes out in 2004.A desperate act of a Presidential candidacy and a political career expiring

C-SPAN LIVE FEED

It seems like people on this forum have been jumping up and down lately to try to drag down the president: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/945866/posts I just wanted to take a moment and say that I think he is doing a good job. Do I agree with every issue that President Bush has made? Absolutely not. I do not agree with all of the policy that has come out of the White House lately. I guess what makes me different is that I am a grown up, who operates in the real world. I realize that I am not going to agree with...

On the ground floor of the White House is the Map Room, so-called because it was here that Franklin Roosevelt used to get his briefings on the progress of World War II. Over the mantel is the last map FDR saw before his death. It shows American, British, and Soviet troops racing toward Berlin. It also shows a frightening concentration of German forces in the Nazis’ last redoubt, the mountains of Bavaria. We now know of course that this last redoubt did not exist. American intelligence had been deceived. And it’s possible that policymakers also deceived themselves. Roosevelt, for reasons...