Free Republic

REV. JESSE JACKSON APOLOGIZES TO SEN. BARACK OBAMA FOR 'CRUDE AND HURTFUL COMMENTS' CAUGHT BY OPEN MIC... DEVELOPING...

There are several kinds of Washington memoirs: “I Reveal the Honest Truth,” a kiss-up-and-tell designed to settle scores (nod to honesty optional). “I Was There at the Start,” designed to make the author appear to be the linchpin of history. And, most tedious: “I Knew It Was a Terrible Mistake, but I Didn’t Mention It Until I Got a Book Contract.” Scott McClellan’s memoir is the latest entry in the latter genre. Among his far-too-late admissions, President Bush’s former spokesman reveals that he knew the war in Iraq was “a serious strategic blunder,” but the White House decided the best...

A synonym of schadenfreude is the rare English word epicaricacy

Kent and Mysti Cope met and fell in love working for one of the nation's top subprime lenders. Now, their life has been turned upside down after the sudden implosion of the subprime mortgage industry. Mysti was one of the last people out the door at New Century Financial Kent worked for several of the firms that helped give birth to the industry, which specializes in making loans to people with less-than-perfect credit Today, they're trying to get by on his unemployment benefits of about $450 a week, which covers only about an eighth of the basic payments they owe...

There are intriguing reports in New York that the man who was once dubbed Eliot Ness – after the “untouchable” FBI crime-buster – may have owed his fall at least in part to the bankers he once pursued with ruthless moral zeal. Was the governor a victim of Wall Street’s revenge? “Only one thing is certain – it’s an Eliot mess,” declared one former prosecutor.

Problem involves nonpartisan crossovers for president Fearing a "Florida in Los Angeles County" fiasco over the confusing "double bubble" voter ballot, officials said Tuesday they are concerned a ballot design flaw could prevent hundreds of thousands of nonpartisan votes for president from counting. Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo called on Secretary of State Debra Bowen and acting Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan to review the county's unique and potentially confusing ballot. "It would be unfortunate if nonpartisan voters, confused by the county's unique `double bubble' ballot design, did not have their vote counted," Delgadillo said. Secretary of State's Office spokeswoman Nicole...

John McCain’s strong showing in the February 5 primaries wasn’t enough to close the deal. He could have done it by winning enough delegates to be the prohibitive favorite or -- conversely -- by Mitt Romney making so poor a showing that he would be unwilling to fight on. Before sunrise Wednesday, this is how it lined up: McCain won ten of the twenty-one Republican primaries and caucuses, including five winner-take-all contests, resulting in a total (according to the Associated Press count) of 610 delegates of the 1191 needed to clinch the Republican nomination. The strong showing in WTA states...

Presidential candidate John McCain's sweeping victories on Super Tuesday revealed what could be a post-partisanship era in politics. Republican voters across the country turned away from the party's more conservative candidates and selected the Arizona senator again and again in primary contests from New York to California. The ultraconservative radio talk show hosts, bloggers and newspaper columnists simply didn't resonate with the party's majority members - the soccer moms and NASCAR dads who never attend precinct meetings, but showed up on election day. Whether those high-profile opinion givers like it or not, McCain is their man. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.,...

Today, many in the Republican party and the conservative movement are saying some strange things about the prospect of our very likely nominee, Senator John McCain, and his ascent to the GOP nomination. Many think he will destroy the conservative movement if not the Republican party, and many have even said they simply will not vote for him in a general election if he heads the GOP ticket. Moreover, others have even said they would consider voting for Senator Hillary Clinton or that there is simply no difference between Senators Clinton and Barack Obama on the one hand, and Senator...

LOS ANGELES -- Forewarned, Democrats now are forearmed -- not that they will necessarily make sensible use of the gift. Tuesday's voting armed Democratic voters with the name of the candidate that their nominee will face in the fall. Will their purblind party now nominate the most polarizing person in contemporary politics, knowing that Republicans will nominate the person who tries to compensate for his weakness among conservatives with his strength among independent voters who are crucial to winning the White House? Perhaps. The Republican Party's not-so-secret weapon always is the Democratic Party, with its entertaining thirst for living dangerously....

LOS ANGELES — Tough. That’s the word of the hour. Hillary Clinton wants everyone to know that she won’t be swift-boated by anyone. She may or may not win the Democratic nomination, but it won’t be for want of toughness. And toughness is what it will take to beat John McCain in November. How do you win in a system in which, unlike the Republican contests, the loser takes almost as many delegates as the winner, and reaching the magic majority requires the sort of statistical run that neither Clinton nor Barack Obama has managed to pull off consistently? The...

If Limbaugh, Dobson and the rest are not going to vote Republican because they might not like Republican nominee does this mean they are going to move out of the country if and when Hillary/Obama are elected - like Alec Baldwin promised to do when Bush was elected? http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19268477&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=638428&rfi=6

Obviously, the Republican Party’s primaries are being flooded by people who are either A) not usual primary voters and/or B) are actually not even registered Republicans. Tuesday’s GOP primaries said it again, just 75% were Republicans. I voted Romney, Christie Whitman wing … poised to get their man the nomination. We can withdraw and let the worst happen, or we can vote [to protect] our nation [from] even more harm. In 1992 some … stayed home voted Perot.[thinking] .. four years of Clinton America .. crawling back to conservatism… very wrong. .. eight years Clinton and a military almost powerless...

SCO has filed its 10K Annual Report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2007. What a year it has been. They are down to 115 employees as of that date. Probably less now. They "anticipate a reduction in force as a result of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in order to return to profitability". Uh huh. Product revenue is down 27%. They expect that to continue. They can't guarantee they'll make it out of Chapter 11. Those they owe money to could be left with nothing or almost nothing. Common shareholders are in the same boat, even if they do...

"Dr. Juan Hernandez who has been named the national director of Hispanic outreach for the McCain 2008 campaign...." Read Beck & Michelle Malkin on Juan Hernandez & McCain!! http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/5261/

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also known as "McCain-Feingold," after its sponsors, is the most recent major federal law on campaign finance, which revised some of the legal limits of expenditure set in 1974, and prohibited unregulated contributions (called "soft money") to national political parties. ‘Soft money’ also refers to funds spent by independent organizations that do not specifically advocate the election or defeat of candidates, and are not contributed directly to candidate campaigns. So, McCain get's this passed, then his buddies in the Media get him elected in turn. After all, the MSM doesn't have to...

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the number three Democrat in the House of Representatives, thanked CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer for 'accommodating' the party on questions asked of their presidential candidates at last week's debate in Myrtle Beach.Blitzer did not dispute Clyburn's statement of collusion between CNN and the Democrats.From the CNN transcript:BLITZER: We spoke the last time just before the Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You urged the candidates, in your word, to chill, especially the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. You got a lot of mileage out of that. But they came out...

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Wednesday he has no intention of following Rudy Giuliani's planned exit from the GOP race and he dismissed suggestions that his candidacy could split the conservative vote and help rival Sen. John McCain. With a narrowing Republican field, Huckabee could draw votes from Mitt Romney because of his strong support among the religious right - a possible boost for McCain. "If the true conservatives are looking for a true conservative, they'll pick me. Romney's record is not a conservative record, his rhetoric is not conservative, even with what he's said and done," Huckabee said....

Now that the Sunshine has set, two old friends come to an understanding. McCain topper Rick Davis quietly negotiated the agreement. HALPERIN’S TAKE: 10 things Giuliani could have done differently. Giuliani, in Florida concession speech, talked about his effort in the past tense, but said nothing explicit about dropping out — or The Deal.

The National Organization for Women’s New York chapter issued a scathing reaction to Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. Actually, the word “scathing” feels inadequate here. Read for yourself: “Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that...

Sidney Blumenthal, an unpaid senior adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, was arrested the day before the New Hampshire primary in Nashua, N.H., on a charge of drunken driving, according to the police. ...Blumenthal was a top aide to Bill Clinton during his presidency, advising him on relations with the news media and policy matters. The police in Nashua said he was arrested early the morning of Jan. 7. “Mr. Blumenthal’s vehicle was seen traveling at a high rate of speed through our city streets,” said Sgt. Dennis Linehan of the Nashua police. After failing sobriety tests, the...

<p>BALTIMORE (AP) — A grieving father won a $2.9 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.</p> <p>Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members staged a demonstration at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.</p>

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Morgan Stanley Sells Entire New York Times Stake Link only due to copyright restriction.

On Yom Kippur, which ended just last evening, Jews quite literally beat their breasts while asking forgiveness for all the sins committed during the previous year. The confessional prayer enumerates literally dozens of different transgressions. But while the syllabus of sin is seemingly comprehensive, there would appear to be one lacuna. Nowhere in the menu of misdeeds does "schadenfreude" appear. We might just have to petition to have it added in time for next year. Because Jonah Goldberg's I’m Rather Grateful is such a delightful dose of schadenfreude-on-steroids as to be as irresistible. Go ahead, read it and enjoy. There'll...

Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals -- approximately 200 people -- entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting out hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come. "I don't believe that Windsor's residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy," Francis told The Star. He was referring to the suspected source of the problem -- a...

Just ran across this interesting video on Breibart Breaking news videos.

The ex-newspaper editor took great delight in making fun of President Bush for falling off a Segway - the two-wheeled, motorised, gyroscopically balanced scooter that, its makers promise, will never fall over. However, he was bitten by karma and suffered the same fate as Bush.

Arnold's Health Flop After Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his universal health-care plan for California in January, almost everyone was laying down palms in Sacramento. Here was a Republican Governor putting aside political squabbling and "doing big things that Washington has failed to do," as Time magazine put it. What a change seven months later, with the plan on the cusp of collapse. There's a lesson here about health-care "bipartisanship" when it's merely a cover for bad policy. The California legislature is now in the second month of the fiscal year without a budget. Deadlocks are routine because the state requires a...

Many on the left regard Rupert Murdoch, architect of the rise of Fox News Channel, as the anti-Christ. More accurately, Murdoch deserves the title of the anti-Pinch. Murdoch's successful bid to take over Dow Jones & Company, publisher of Wall Street Journal, is a nightmare-come-true for Pinch Sulzberger, the hereditary occupant of the chairman of the board's and publisher's office at the New York Times. Poor Pinch. Murdoch is everything that he is not. Conservative, smart, and wildly successful in the media business. As a result, Pinch faces serious challenges as a family member, business leader and corporate strategist....

Senior managers, targeted for dismissal at The Denver Post under a budget-cutting plan trimming 37 full-time positions from the newspaper's editorial ranks, started receiving their walking papers early Monday. The notices to management personnel, who aren't protected under a Denver Newspaper Guild contract, came after a June 8 deadline for employees eligible for a voluntary buyout to make their intentions known. Sixteen current Post editorial staffers indicated acceptance of the newspaper's voluntary buyout offer. They have until Thursday to rescind their decision. Among those notified that their last day would be Friday are Perspective Editor Todd Engdahl and columnist Jim...

It’s been a brutal day at the San Francisco Chronicle, as managers walked from desk to desk, handpicking reporters and photographers to be laid off. “The white envelopes are going out,” said one insider. “It’s definitely a bloodbath,” added another. The Chron plans to lay off up to sixty union-represented newsroom employees in the next week. For the past week, the paper offered buyouts in an effort to cut eighty jobs, but only about twenty employees took the offer, one insider said. See the buyout offer after the jump. Among the list of managers who were canned was the Chron’s...

Weeping Paris dragged back to court in handcuffs Last updated at 19:46pm on 8th June 2007 A sobbing Paris Hilton was forced back into court in handcuffs today after the judge who originally jailed her decided to get tough on the celebrity heiress. A Los Angeles County Sheriff's vehicle arrived at her Hollywood home to collect her on the orders of Judge Michael Sauer and she has now arrived at the courthouse. The Sheriff used a private entrance to escort her into the courtroom. Shamed Paris was originally due to make an impassioned telephone plea to a court in an...

SHARON -- For more than four decades, Ron Czik has proudly worn the label of Yankees fan. Czik, 47, is not about to turn his back on his beloved team now, even as the once-mighty pinstripers stumble into Boston tonight more than 13 games behind the Red Sox. But ask him his reaction to the transformation of the Bronx Bombers into the hapless pushovers of the American League, and Czik's feelings pour out as if drawn from the five stages of grief. Denial: "Statistically, there's nothing on paper that would explain why they're doing this badly." Anger: "Right now, all...

May 10, 2007 -- The son of a New York Times newsman was arrested on the Upper East Side yesterday when he pulled over a retired detective and flashed a fake badge, a source said. William Roberts, 19, was driving down Second Avenue at 62d Street when a car cut him off. He turned on lights and sirens he'd installed, pulled alongside the driver and told him to stop, the source said, adding that Roberts carried ID saying he works for the Brooklyn DA.

Over the last couple of weeks I have seen an odd change on my trips to work in the morning. While many papers give discounts on their evening edition, and many new start up businesses offer free items to lure in consumers, one would not expect such an act from a business around for 150 plus years. A person echoing "FREE NEW YORK TIMES" on my train platform. They were handing out a free copy of the New York Times. The piles of papers remained high as this man continued to echo the phrase "FREE NEW YORK TIMES". As my...

See for example this thread first. There's buyouts at the Denver Post (to hear them, it's almost a boast!) As a FReeper I laugh while they reduce their staff The Dinosaur Media's *TOAST*!

At first, it was just a trickle. Indian call center workers become serial job hoppers, boosting their salaries 20% with every new position. Factory workers in Vietnam leave for the holidays and don't return. Computer programmers in Bulgaria don't bother to answer the want ads of a Los Angeles movie studio. But today, anecdotes of a global labor crunch have turned into a flood. Last week, staffing agency Manpower Inc. released the results of a survey of nearly 37,000 employers in 27 countries. It turns out that more than four out of 10 employers around the world are having trouble...

WTWK, formerly Air America for the Champlain Valley, is stunting this weekend. The new format is to be unveiled on Monday. Could oldies via satellite be making a return to the airwaves ever since Kool went classic hits?

KQDS/Duluth drops liberal talk Listeners in the Twin Ports got a rude awakening this morning when they turned on the radio expecting to hear Sam Seder, but instead heard golden oldies. In a surprise move, KQDS in Duluth-Superior, which had been airing Ed Schultz and programs from Air America Radio for the past year and a half, has dropped liberal talk for oldies music...There was one rumor claiming that oldies was only temporary, and that a FOX 'News'-style conservative talk format would be the permanent format, but nothing else out there would give credibility to this rumor... As for the...

<p>Air America Radio, a liberal talk radio network, said Monday that it had reached a tentative agreement to be sold to the founder of a New York area real estate company.</p>

A CIA panel has told former officer Valerie Plame she can't write about her undercover work for the agency, a position that may threaten a lucrative book project with her publisher. Plame's outing as a CIA officer in July 2003 triggered a criminal probe that culminates next week when Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby goes on trial for perjury and obstruction. But in what could be a precursor to a separate legal battle, Plame recently hired a lawyer to challenge the CIA Publications Review Board, which must clear writings by former employees. The...

WASHINGTON - Former Democratic Party boss and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe is lambasting John Kerry’s unsuccessful presidential campaign, calling his effort to unseat President Bush "one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics." In his scrappy memoir, McAuliffe criticizes the 2004 campaign that he was responsible for defending but ultimately lost to what he describes as a more organized Republican machine. McAuliffe calls the Kerry campaign gun-shy, distracted and incompetent. McAuliffe is close to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton and will support her presidential bid if the New York senator runs in 2008. McAuliffe’s...

Wall Street has a soft spot for the "soft landing" thesis, but to me it's crystal clear that a serious economic slowdown is under way. What has been surprising: not that the economy is weakening but that so many people seem to expect a soft landing, and therefore remain in denial about the seriousness of the slowdown. I guess the predilection toward a soft landing is a function of the following: So many folks in the investment business -- and in the country at large-- haven't experienced a consumer-led recession in so long that they think this outcome is just...

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 Falling prices trap new homebuyers Neighbors in a new Garden Grove tract say a developer's plan to slash prices by about $140,000 has left them owing more for their homes than they're now worth. By JEFF COLLINS The Orange County Register

After a rash of fawning, poor-widdle-victims media blitzing, and eight weeks in theaters, the Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Sing, has finally passed the $1 million mark in box office receipts. Woo. Hoo.

Mr. Franken, who is on a U.S.O. tour of Iraq and Afghanistan and says he is owed $360,750 by the network, declined requests for comment. Through Air America’s spokeswoman, he said, that “although I do not know the specific details about A.A.R.’s progress through the Chapter 11 restructuring process, I was pleased to hear that they had received a letter of intent from a prospective buyer.” He added his hope “that the network’s ownership situation and financing difficulties will be resolved while I am away.” When he returns, he faces competition from an unexpected source: Product First’s Ed Schultz, who...

Dixie Chicks to Split Up After Grammy's? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jim Roberts Dec 13, 2006 The Dixie Chicks just scored the big trifecta with Grammy nominations. The one-time country band that turned their collective backs on the music genre, its stars and its fans cleaned up with the three majors, Best Album, Song and Record for “Taking the Long Way” and the single, “Not Ready to Make Nice.” The Chicks were one of eight acts with five nominations each, as it appears that the Grammy's are desperately trying to give the gals some love for their America bashing ways. Now a...

FLORENCE, Colorado (AP) -- Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane. "It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis," he wrote in one letter to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

EVERY day, Will Hertzberg owns a little less of his three-bedroom house in Corona. Like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners around the state, Hertzberg has a mortgage that lets him choose how much he pays each month. Like many of them, he always chooses to pay as little as possible.....But his debt is swelling, and his mortgage company controls his fate. "I am rather screwed," he said. ....Hertzberg bought his house 11 years ago for $129,995..... Comparable homes in his neighborhood fetch more than $400,000...... Over the years he has taken out $190,000 in cash through refinancings......Hertzberg's home equity...