Free Republic

In the campaign against Glenn Beck, one of the angles pursued in ad hominem smears against the popular Fox News host has been to play up his promotion of the work of conservative author W. Cleon Skousen. I initially blogged about leftist internet magazine Salon’s Skousen hit piece here. At the time I had not read The 5000 Year Leap, the principle Skousen text which Beck had promoted. My post mainly focused on the ad hominem nature of the attack. Now, having read Leap something even more troubling emerges: the book is fairly reasonable and in trying to label it...

I spotted this unfortunate headline on Salon.com and thought it was funny so I grabbed a screenshot.

A really satisfying, engaging intellectual discussion is like a symphony. Each participant in a debate brings a different sound to an important project. One person puts forth an elegant flute rift, then another chimes in with some deeper notes on the tuba, then a third contributes on the clarinet. Each instrument is akin to a different ideological approach, life experience, or a new set of key facts. These different sounds all contribute to something far greater than the sum of their parts. All except for one: the screeching, electric guitar feedback of those who blast ad hominem assaults into intellectual...

Sept. 18, 2009 | For many years the combined forces of the far right and the Republican Party have sought to ruin ACORN, the largest organization of poor and working families in America. Owing to the idiocy of a few ACORN employees, notoriously caught in a videotape "sting" sponsored by a conservative Web site and publicized by Fox News, that campaign has scored significant victories on Capitol Hill and in the media. Both the Senate and the House have voted over the past few days to curtail any federal funding of ACORN's activities. While that congressional action probably won't destroy...

Salon has laid off eight six editorial staffers—or 20% of its editorial staff—so that, in the words of CEO Richard Gingras, it can become "more of a true Web publication." Welcome to the internet, Salon! In a statement to Gawker, Gingras confirmed that three editors, one writer, one photo editor, and one producer were laid off last week. The only name we've heard thus far is culture editor Joy Press; let us know if you have any other intelligence. UPDATE: Here's the complete list: Jeanne Carstensen, managing editor Kevin Berger, features editor Katharine Mieszkowski, senior writer Joy Press, culture editor...

"There are, sadly, a lot of Birthers out there. A recent poll showed that 11% of Americans -- including 28% of Republicans -- don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S. Another 12% aren't sure."So, at some point, you're likely to find out that a friend or relative is a Birther. Your Uncle Floyd will forward you a chain e-mail that says Obama was actually born in Kenya and there's a Kenyan birth certificate that proves it and hundreds of government officials and reporters are in on a conspiracy to hide the truth of his ineligibility for the presidency...

There are, sadly, a lot of Birthers out there. A recent poll showed that 11 percent of Americans -- including 28 percent of Republicans -- don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S. Another 12 percent aren't sure. So, at some point, you're likely to find out that a friend or relative is a Birther. Your Uncle Floyd will forward you a chain e-mail that says Obama was actually born in Kenya and there's a Kenyan birth certificate that proves it and hundreds of government officials and reporters are in on a conspiracy to hide the truth of his...

What has the world come to when Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly represent the rational side of the Republican Party?

First, credit where it's due: A few lonely Republican leaders are belatedly trying to clean up the party's mess of crazy, from the racially tinged character attacks on Sonia Sotomayor to the unhinged rhetoric of the Birthers to the overall vicious and fact-free spew of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. It's not working yet -- Beck's claiming Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" on Tuesday might be a new low -- but at least someone's trying. Sen. Lindsey Graham tried to kick off a new GOP flirtation with decency when he announced his vote to confirm Sotomayor last...

WaPo cancels lobbyist eventBy: Mike Allen and Michael Calderone July 2, 2009 08:04 AM EST Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for...

President Obama was more than halfway through his speech at Cairo University Thursday morning when, suddenly, he was interrupted by a shout from the audience. Security in the Egyptian capital was tight, and security around the hall where he spoke was even tighter, but it seemed -- for a moment -- like somehow something had gone wrong. Until, that is, Obama acknowledged the interruption with a smile and a "thank you." What the person in the audience had yelled, it turned out, was a hearty, "Barack Obama, we love you!" -- in English. The adoration, the campus setting: it was...

Lets get a few things clear right away. First, Scott Roeder, the guy who killed Doctor George Tiller is a murderer, in fact, I agree with Ed Morrissey who said in Hot Air: Regardless of how one feels about George Tiller’s profession, his murderer is nothing more than a domestic terrorist — someone attempting to impose by force a policy that one cannot get in place through democratic means. Tiller’s killer is no better than William Ayers, Kathleen Soliah, and Eric Rudolph, people who attempted to use violence for their extremist ends. Those who value life know that murder is...

The Fox News star had compared Tiller to a Nazi, called him a "baby killer," and warned of "Judgment Day" | When his show airs tomorrow, Bill O'Reilly will most certainly decry the death of Kansas doctor George Tiller, who was killed Sunday while attending church services with his wife. Tiller, O'Reilly will say, was a man who was guilty of barbaric acts, but a civilized society does not resort to lawless murder, even against its worst members. And O'Reilly, we can assume, will genuinely mean this. But there's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization...

There is a major push underway -- engineered by Obama's Treasury officials, enabled by a mindless media, and amplified by the right-wing press -- to blame Chris Dodd for the AIG bonus payments.  That would be perfectly fine if it were true.  But it's completely false, and the scheme to heap the blame on him for the AIG bonus payments is based on demonstrable falsehoods.Jane Hamsher has written the definitive post narrating and indisputably documenting what actually took place.   The attempt to blame Dodd is based on a patently false claim that was first fed to The New York Times on...

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com seems to think that Bill Clinton's nonexistent boogie men, "the militias," are back. Why are they back? Because all white people are angry, racists that are mad that Obama got elected, of course. What else could have dredged up this fantasy from the depths of the liberal's worst nightmares of the 1990s? Somehow, though, it's a bit hard to imagine Greenwald's main premise considering the fact that millions of those same white Americans Greenwald so fears actually voted for Obama. But, in an effort to scold Fox News for airing Glenn Beck's recent "War Room" segments,...

Only weeks ago, the political world was buzzing about a "team of rivals." America was told that finally, after years of yes men running the government, we were getting a president who would follow Abraham Lincoln’s lead, fill his administration with varying viewpoints, and glean empirically sound policy from the clash of ideas. Little did we know that "team of rivals" was what George Orwell calls "newspeak": an empty slogan "claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts." Obama's national security team, for instance, includes not a single Iraq war opponent. The president has not only retained...

Update on Monday, December 29 PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) -Police continue to investigate leads in the death of a Portsmouth store owner. Fred Rowles body was found in the floor of his office at the Lookin Good Tanning and Hair Salon Sunday morning. No one has been arrested, and police have still not released a cause of death. We're told investigators are at Rowles autopsy in Franklin County, Ohio this morning. Original Story, Sunday, December 28 SCIOTO COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Police made an unusual discovery Sunday morning. They were responding to an alarm when they found the body of the...

Dec. 9, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- At first it was a relief to see that the conspiracy theorists who believe Barack Obama isn't eligible to be president didn't shoot any pumpkins at their press conference Monday afternoon. After all, the proponents of this latest theory seem to be heading for levels of mania that even Dan Burton never dreamed up as he investigated outlandish claims about Bill Clinton. (If you need to brush up on your conspiracies, Burton resorted to blowing away squashes in his backyard to show how Clinton had a hand in the murder of White House counsel...

So, I spent the day playing with the DUmmies over at Salon. Seriously, I think only one rational person showed up all day. There was some conspiracy nut type from the right, supposedly, and a whole lot of very angry, vile, nasty, and incomprehensibly dumb rhetoric from the left. I gained a new disrespect for Salon readers, and a new insight into the immense lack of thought that pervades the ranks.

Conservatives put on a spectacular display of scientific ignorance this month in the U.S. Senate. During the debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would regulate carbon dioxide by setting a cap on emissions and allowing emitters to trade carbon allowances, most Republican senators questioned the reality of human-caused climate change or ignored the climate threat entirely and repeated the talking point that the bill would raise gasoline and electricity prices. It was as if they had been locked in an isolation booth for the past decade. Let's go to the highlights. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.: "The vast majority...

President Bush could pardon officials involved in brutal interrogations -- but he may also face a sweeping investigation under the new president. WASHINGTON -- With growing talk in Washington that President Bush may be considering an unprecedented "blanket pardon" for people involved in his administration's brutal interrogation policies, advisors to Barack Obama are pressing ahead with plans for a nonpartisan commission to investigate alleged abuses under Bush. The Obama plan, first revealed by Salon in August, would emphasize fact-finding investigation over prosecution. It is gaining currency in Washington as Obama advisors begin to coordinate with Democrats in Congress on the...

The most potent ingredient making Tuesday's election bittersweet is the apparent passage of Proposition 8 in California. It's one thing for a state to decide in advance not to allow same-sex marriages. It's another thing entirely to watch a state strip a targeted group of citizens of the already vested right to marry. Gay marriage is still a big leap for the country -- even as recently as 10 years ago, it's something that was barely discussed, and the idea even engendered vehement debates among gay people (Andrew Sullivan's advocacy of gay marriage in his 1996 book, Virtually Normal, sparked...

"And then came Sarah. My reaction to her, and the way the Republican Party threw her in our faces, and the pandering and hypocrisy that was behind their decision to do so, was immediate, visceral, and indeed, vicious. I have crossed every line I believed should never be crossed in public discourse -- I have criticized not only her policies and her record, but her hair, her personal style, her accent, her abilities as a mother, etc. I've also begun to suffer personally and professionally. I bore my friends with my constant tirades against her, and am constantly distracted from...

Observing the Sarah Palin phenomenon, does anyone feel like they're trapped in a singularly creepy remake of "Night of the Living Dead"? George W. Bush has been a political corpse for years. But Palin resembles a female version of Bush, brought back from the grave to win the election. You wouldn't think that the Republicans would want to exhume Bush. After all, his presidency has been a historic disaster, and the American people know it. But Bush was successful at one thing: winning elections. With its policies and ideology in ruins, Bush's political game plan is all that the GOP...

Whether or not Sarah Palin helps John McCain win the election, her greatest work may already be behind her. She’s exposed the feminist con job. Don’t take my word for it. Feminists have been screaming like stuck pigs 24/7 since Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate. (Are pig metaphors completely verboten now?) Feminist author Cintra Wilson writes in Salon (a house organ of the Angry Left) that the notion of Palin as vice president is “akin to ideological brain rape.” Presumably just before the nurse upped the dosage on her medication, Wilson continued, “Sarah Palin and her virtual burqa...

John McCain announced that he was running for president to confront the "transcendent challenge" of the 21st century, "radical Islamic extremism," contrasting it with "stability, tolerance and democracy." But the values of his handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick. [READ MORE BELOW]

One of the most striking aspects of our political discourse, particularly during election time, is how efficiently certain views that deviate from the elite consensus are banished from sight -- simply prohibited -- even when those views are held by the vast majority of citizens. The University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes -- the premiere organization for surveying international public opinion -- released a new survey a couple of weeks ago regarding public opinion on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including opinion among American citizens, and this is what it found: A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 18 countries finds that...

Doubts about Barack Obama's presidential credentials have crystallized during the past two weeks over his stewardship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has convened no policy hearings since he took over as its chairman last January. That startling fact, first uncovered by Steve Clemons, who blogs on the Washington Note, prompted acid comment in Europe about the Illinois senator's failure to visit the continent since assuming the committee post, and even speculation that he had never traveled there except for a short stopover in London. But why should those questions matter to Americans who consider...

The most interesting part of the controversy over Obama advisor Samantha Power's referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster" -- one might say the only interesting part -- is that immediately after Power said it, she tried to proclaim that it was "off the record." Here was Power's exact quote: She is a monster, too –- that is off the record –- she is stooping to anything. But the reporter who was interviewing her, Britain's Gerri Peev of The Scotsman, printed the comment anyway -- as she should have, because Peev had never agreed that any parts of the interview...

We're proud to host Berkeley Breathed's "Opus" every week, but especially this week and next: At least 25 of the newspapers that normally print the comic strip, and probably more, have declined these two, at least partly out of fear that Lola Granola's latest spiritual journey -- dabbling in Islam and adopting its conservative dress code for women -- could be offensive to Muslims. Sadly, one of the papers that isn't printing the strip is the Washington Post, though the Post's syndication service, Washington Post Writers Group, distributes Opus. (The Washington Post actually ran the strip online, though it was...

Giuliani said he spent as much time at ground zero as many rescue workers. Where was he really? Much of the time, at baseball games. By Alex Koppelman Aug. 18, 2007 | On Friday, a New York Times story examined Rudy Giuliani's schedule in the months after 9/11 to verify his controversial claim that, like rescue workers, he'd spent long hours at ground zero, and so was "in that sense ... one of them." In fact, the Times found, he only spent 29 hours at the terror site between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. What was he doing instead? Giuliani's...

A Republican victory in 2008 could sink America's reputation in the world even lower. Even if George W. Bush is the most awful American president in modern times, as many historians believe, and even though he has brought the United States into unprecedented disrepute around the world, as opinion polls indicate, the bombastic tone of the candidates seeking to succeed him from his own party raises a disturbing possibility. If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse. Concerning the Iraq war, of course, there is no discernible difference between the current president and...

Afghanistan -- Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar.

The president won't fire Alberto Gonzales. He needs him to protect White House secrets, including the scheming roles of Cheney and Rove.

The CNN/Youtube Democratic debate was horrible because a) almost all the videos submitted were incredibly weak, and b) CNN chose the weakest of the bunch. Rather than forcing those who want to be president of the U.S. to defend their policies, the candidates got off easy and were for the most part simply able to launch into their stump speeches. This problem will continue in one form or another as long as CNN or another biased group is the gatekeeper. The better way to choose the videos is to ask known quantities (such as bloggers and pundits who have reputations...

As Rudy Giuliani mulls participating in YouTube's presidential debate, video voters are uploading tough questions about his business dealings, his rocky personal life, abortion, gun control.......More than 150 Americans have created video clips......... Giuliani has rejected participating in the Sept 17 debate....co-sponsor CNN is trying to arrange another date for the event.

Every four years, journalists present themselves as objective questioners in presidential debates only to be roundly, and correctly, denounced by conservatives for being anything but. When, oh when, we ask, will America be able to enjoy a candidate forum free from liberal reporters inserting their slanted worldviews into the discussion? When, oh when, we ask ourselves, will they get out of the way? It looks like we should be very careful what we ask for. On Tuesday night, CNN did this -- or at least said it was doing this. The network teamed up with the video site YouTube to...

CNN hosted a YouTube debate last night where "ordinary people" could ask questions of the Democrat candidates via YouTube. Much has been made of this one with the "hillbillies" talking about Al Gore. One problem. These guys do sketch comedy and are affiliated with the liberal Salon.com. They are not "ordinary" voters. Heck, they don't even live in Tennessee anymore, but are based in L.A.CNN, you've been had.

Porn reduces the mind and flattens the soul. I don't like it. That's not hypocrisy talking; that's just experience. I sometimes think of myself, ironically, as a progressive: I started off as a liberal but I progressed to conservatism. Part of that transformation is due to my time in the industry. How does a conservative trace his roots to such distasteful beginnings? I didn't like porn's liberalism. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is magnified. Being in the adult entertainment industry was sort of like being in a cult, and like all followers of a cult, I...

From: Joe Conason [mailto:joe@joeconason.com] Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 12:18 PM To: Andy Huddleston Subject: Re: Ms. Coulter On 6/19/06 11:53 AM, "Andy Huddleston" wrote: Joe—the widows endorsed Kerry and entered the political arena. That means the great unwashed outside of New York or Washington wants to know how they profit and why they would support a socialist regime. Until the last few decades our news and information was undoubtedly filtered by the likes of, I wonder; I know: *you* What a pathetic excuse for a vicious personal attack on these patriotic women and their families. The great unwashed everywhere...

...If only someone with Kennedy's stature would outline this need. If only. Whatever his aim, RFK Jr. does not appear intent on fixing the problem. He's more content to take us through a hit parade of the most popular, and the most dismissible, theories purporting to show that John Kerry won Ohio, theories that have been swirling about the blogosphere ever since the race was called. I scoured his Rolling Stone article for some novel story or statistic or theory that would prove, finally, that George W. Bush was not the true victor. But nothing here is new. If you've...

Background at Previous FR Post:Running Scared in Ohio (RINO DeWine Rips Rumsfeld) DeWine’s Attack of Rumsfeld was Wrong! Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) was wrong to lash out at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over his management of the War on Terrorism in a Washington interview earlier this week. We must learn from the past and that includes learning from our past mistakes, but obviously Senator DeWine missed those history lessons from Vietnam. In his interview with Salon\'s Walter Shapiro, DeWine stated that “Rumsfeld has made some very serious mistakes….Very serious mistakes. I think history will judge him very harshly.” He...

My fellow Freepers: I need your help! As many of you already know, I ran for Congress in New York’s 12th CD in 2004. As part of the experience, I became one of the principal subjects of a documentary being filmed on the Republican National Convention being held in the city that year. As a result, I had a camera follow me around during my campaigning in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to the convention at Madison Square Garden, to various meetings and events of our NY Young Republican Club, to my uncle’s house in Staten Island, and even to my...

Of all the dot-coms that saw their obituary written when the bubble burst, perhaps none had so many, written so gleefully, as Salon. "It felt like it was a gleeful death watch," said David Talbot, Salon's founder and chairman. "I understand why the media did that story. It was schadenfreude." And, he now concedes, it was true: Salon was at death's door, on many occasions. But with loyal backers, particularly banker Bill Hambrecht and Adobe founder John Warnock, Salon survived to mark an impressive milestone this week: Its 10th anniversary. That's not to say the company is a roaring success....

After Michelle Malkin's scoop on Al Franken's violent promotional video was picked up by a number of major websites, public focus turned to the latter's state of mind. Between the bizarre clip and jokes about executing Bush, Rove and Cheney, has Franken gone completely nuts? Or is it some kind of bizarre book selling strategy? In emails to the Radio Equalizer, readers thought that while it might help his Amazon sales ranking, these antics could hurt a potential 2008 Minnesota US Senate run. In the process of moving back to his home state, Franken has long been mentioned as a...

NBC's Brian Williams says the lasting legacy of Hurricane Katrina for journalists may be the end of an unusual four-year period of deference to people in power. There were so many angry, even incredulous, questions put to Bush administration officials about the response to Katrina that the Salon Web site compiled a "Reporters Gone Wild" video clip. Tim Russert, Anderson Cooper, Ted Koppel and Shepard Smith were among the stars. The mute button seemingly in place since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been turned off. "By dint of the fact that our country was hit we've offered a preponderance...

This time U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo got it right. Meet with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations? Not on your life, replied truculent Tom. They're compromised, he maintained. Oh, how they're compromised. Advertisement To begin with, several officials or former officials of CAIR have faced criminal charges associating them with terrorism, and a founding board member of the Texas chapter was convicted on such charges just this year. Moreover, as Salon.com's Jake Tapper reminded Americans in an article shortly after 9/11, CAIR once deplored the prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman for his role in the 1993 bombing of the...

The Founder of Salon Is Passing the Mouse By DAVID CARR avid Talbot, a pioneer of online journalism who founded Salon magazine in 1995, will announce today that he is stepping down as the magazine's editor in chief, chief executive and relentless cheerleader. He will be replaced as editor, he said, by Joan Walsh, his longtime deputy. Salon will also announce its first profitable quarter in its history, Mr. Talbot added, a profit of $400,000 on revenues of $2.2 million. The company also said that Elizabeth Hambrecht, Salon's president, would become its chief executive. Salon has its headquarters in San...

Longtime Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal has left his post as Washington bureau chief for the online magazine Salon, a month after he suggested in print that President Bush wouldn't mind if Little Rock, Arkansas was vaporized in a nuclear attack. In a Wednesday interview with the New York Daily News, Salon.com honcho David Talbot declined to be specific about the reason for Blumenthal's departure. "We're still very fond of Sidney and very appreciative of his talents and deeply want him to continue to have a relationship with Salon," Talbot said. But he did note that "people at Salon" initiated the...

Before attending a rally to hear Vice-President Dick Cheney, citizens in New Mexico were required to sign a political loyalty oath endorsing the re-election of George W. Bush. Around the country, Bush is campaigning at events billed as "Ask President Bush." Only supporters are allowed entrance and talking points are distributed to questioners. In Traverse City, Mich., a 55-year-old social studies teacher who wore a small Kerry sticker on her blouse had her ticket torn up at the door. "How can anyone in the United States deny someone entry?" she asked. "Isn't this a democracy?" At every rally, Bush...