Free Republic

I hired a lady to clean my house in Florida a couple of weeks ago and noticed her car had a "Buck Fush" bumper sticker. I shrugged it off and didn't say anything. So she shows up today to clean and she's got a new sticker on the back window. "Hillary 08". Well this was too much so I said to her, "How's it gonna look for a card carrying Republican like myself, to have a car parked in the yard with a Hillary sticker on it." She says, "You mean that you're not sick of Bush?" I said, "No....

Jane Fonda now says she was bulimic for the past 35 years

KAPOLEI, Hawaii (Feb. 9, 2005) -- Donovan McNabb has no apologies for his Super Bowl performance. He won't allow his teammates to make excuses, either. . . . The Eagles' offensive struggles were caused only by the Patriots and the tension of a Super Bowl, not a phantom sickness.

From Scarborough Country to the Spin Zone, the attacks on Professor Ward Churchill are coming across the airwaves. Near Hamilton College in Clinton, New York the hills are alive with the sound of fascism. In a statement released on January 31, 2005, Churchill says, ”...The bottom line of my argument is that the best and perhaps only way to prevent 9-1-1-style attacks on the U.S. is for American citizens to compel their government to comply with the rule of law. The lesson of Nuremberg is that this is not only our right, but our obligation. To the extent we shirk...

Jan. 31 issue - Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the rest of the world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe. Chinese students erected a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square. You had only to listen to George W. Bush's Inaugural Address last week (invoking "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times) to appreciate just how deeply Americans still believe in this founding myth. For many in the world, the president's rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America...

WASHINGTON — A new old face popped up in the Capitol last week, just in time for President Bush's second inauguration. John Kerry was back. He had a prominent seat - front but not quite center - at Thursday's inaugural ceremony, where he gamely smiled when the Republican crowd on the National Mall booed his image on the giant television screen. Earlier in the week, he made headlines with his aggressive questioning of Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's nominee for secretary of state, and his announcement that he would vote against her. Like an actress arriving fashionably late for the Academy...

Feds threatened suit over military ballotsBy David Postman and Ralph ThomasSeattle Times staff reporters   OLYMPIA — Less than a month before the November election, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to sue Washington state because it was moving too slowly in mailing military ballots overseas. At that point Washington was the only state that hadn't mailed its overseas ballots. Questions about military ballots have come up frequently since the Nov. 2 election ended with a deadlocked governor's race. Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified governor-elect Dec. 30 and is to be sworn in Wednesday. But Republican Dino Rossi has...

Give me a break — or a big glass of vodka. We've gone from shock and awe to shuck and jive, and Captain Quagmire ran the table anyway. Now he's got the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the military and a chip on his shoulder he's calling a mandate. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a Republican haircut just to blend in. For four years it's been one big all-you-can-eat buffet for the corporations, and now they're coming back for more. Go ahead, you marvelous bastards! Rip out all the trees, pave the beaches, build 12-lane...

THE RIGHT'S COMIC HEROES: ...I'm seeing the "Incredibles" this weekend. I don't think I can stomach "The Polar Express." Christmas itself makes me want to puke. Christmas propaganda, created by that pillar of sanctimony, Tom Hanks, is a highly elevated form of torture.

President Bush famously botched the truism, but the way it goes is not complicated: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." The first time, it could be argued that the American people were fooled. They didn't give Bush a plurality, but enough felt the country could afford a "compassionate conservative" in the White House. Little did they know what was in store. They condoned the invasion of Iraq because they were lied to about weapons of mass destruction. They were led to believe the war on terror justified assaults on civil liberties. They didn't object...

THEY say that in life you get what you deserve. Well, today America has deservedly got a lawless cowboy to lead them further into carnage and isolation and the unreserved contempt of most of the rest of the world. This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and stuck a finger up to the billions of us forced to share the same air. And in doing so, it has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small nation. This should have been the day when Americans finally answered their critics by raising their eyes...

Evolving Nature of Al Qaeda Is Misunderstood, Critic Says By JAMES RISEN Published: November 8, 2004 WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - The Bush administration has failed to recognize that Al Qaeda is now a global Islamic insurgency, rather than a traditional terrorist organization, and so poses a much different threat than previously believed, says a senior counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency.

I have friends who refused to watch, listen to or even read Bush's speech to the RNC last week -but I just had to see it. I was working that night, so I set my VCR and came home to the tape at around 1 a.m. It's hard to describe the mixture of nausea and fear that gripped me as I watched this speech. I was offended at the use of the tragedy of 9/11 as political leverage - but, in a strange way, it was almost a relief. The Republicans have finally fully embraced the position they've been hinting...

DNC CONVENTION DIRECTOR DON MISCHER AIRED ON CNN AS KERRY ENDS SPEECH, HEARD WORLDWIDE... AUDIO [MP3 FILE]...

Kennedy offers blessing to KerryHoward Dean tells delegates never to be ashamed of party By William L. Watts & Corbett B. Daly Last Update: 10:45 PM ET July 27, 2004 BOSTON (CBS.MW) -- Ted Kennedy, whose brother John F. Kennedy captivated the nation more than four decades ago, offered his blessing Tuesday night to another JFK from Massachusetts who hopes to get to the White House. John Kerry "is a war hero who understands that America's strength comes from many sources -- especially the power of our ideas. He knows that a true leader inspires hope and vanquishes fear," Kennedy...

Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential hopeful, spent yesterday's break from campaigning strolling through a Lewis and Clark exhibit, then speeding his Serotta bicycle 10 miles. Then Heinz Kerry went to her Fox Chapel home to prepare dinner while the senator, an avid rider, made his first ever loops on the bicycle path in North Park. In professional gear, from bike-clip shoes to handle bar gloves, the senator and two secret service agents went two laps on the five-mile course. Not winded at all, Kerry then loaded his orange and yellow, 10-speed bike, which he often takes along on...

<p>When I think of Ronald Reagan, I think of Nelson Mandela.</p> <p>One is without question one of the great men of modern times. The other, well, was a bad actor.</p> <p>Now that Reagan is buried, there's no better time to unearth the truth of his distorted legacy. His civil and human rights record was so deplorable it anchors him among the lower rung of modern presidents. His indifference to South Africa's apartheid government needlessly added to Mandela's 27-year prison term.</p>

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Muslims in Europe are confronted with particular European attitudes that hinder their integration into society, according to a top political scientist. At a discussion organised by the European Policy Centre in Brussels on Wednesday (9 June), Dr Jocelyne Cesari, a senior research fellow at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in Paris and at Harvard in the US, confronted Europeans with their historically formed concepts and stereotypes. "Europe is the only part of the world which has a general hostility towards religion", said Dr Cesari, referring to the World Values Survey on religion conducted last...

Many Still Troubled by Reagan's Legacy By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer As one of the first physicians to confront AIDS when it began its rampage through the gay community, Dr. Marcus Conant lobbied the Reagan administration in 1982 to launch an emergency campaign to educate Americans about the disease. It took the president five more years to publicly mention the crisis. By then, almost 21,000 Americans had died and thousands more had been diagnosed. Conant, who lost scores of friends and patients to the disease, is still deeply angry — one of many Americans who view Reagan's legacy in...

Dear Editor, the Tribune: As the abuse of our Iraqi detainees becomes clearer and the heinousness of the acts is made plainer, one can only weep for the soul of our country. Not only have we lost the moral high ground, but we have also lost whatever respect America held in the eyes of the world and God. If our investigation of the abuse turns out to be whitewash, we will have sunk to a moral nadir from which we might never rise again. Let’s be clear: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the others started a war they wanted...