Free Republic

... while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a...

Israeli media reports that Hamas took over the first floor of the building that the BBC offices in Gaza last night and fired rockets from there, trapping the journalists above. Despite the fact that their reporters have now escaped the building, the BBC has so far not said anything about this. When I was interviewed on the BBC last week, I commented on the pervasive intimidation of the MSM in Gaza, which is one of the reasons that there were none there when the hostilities broke out. I pointed out that the last journalist resident in Gaza, Alan Johnston, now...

Are John McCain’s supporters trying to drive conservatives away from their candidate? Senator McCain is the inevitable Republican presidential nominee. He is headed, though, for a defeat of McGovernite dimensions if he can’t sway conservatives to get behind his candidacy. For their part, conservatives don’t want McCain, but even less do they want to spend the next four-to-eight years saying “President Obama,” let alone reliving history with another President Clinton. In short, there are the makings here for a modus vivendi, however grudging. Yet, McCain’s admirers appear to think belittling the senator’s good-faith opponents is the way to go. Theirs...

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...

A couple of yahoos interrupted Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight in Salem by waving big signs and chanting “Iron my shirts!” Clinton asked that the lights be turned on, apparently to see them better and declared. “Oh the remnants of sexism, alive and well tonight,” to applause. She then talked about breaking glass ceilings, before joking as the pair were hustled out: “If there’s anybody in the audience who wants to learn to iron his own shirt, we can talk about that.” We followed.to ask what the heck they were thinking. Nick Gemelli, who is 21, and born at least a...

The Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) today applauded efforts by federal law enforcement authorities that apparently thwarted a planned attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey. In a statement, the Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said: "Based on the information gathered in this case, it seems clear that a potentially deadly attack has been averted. We applaud the FBI for its efforts and repeat the American Muslim community's condemnation and repudiation of all those who would plan or carry out acts of terror while falsely claiming their actions have religious justification. "We continue to urge American Muslims...

NEW YORK, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Tough-guy actor Robert De Niro is telephoning New Yorkers to remind them to re-elect Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton next week. The New York Daily News reported Thursday that not only is DeNiro, star of gangster classic "Goodfellas," getting out the vote for Clinton via a recording, but velvet-voiced crooner Tony Bennett also is landing on answering machines in the run-up to the midterm elections. Soon, Paul Newman, also will be heard on the telephone messages supporting the New York Democrat. Termed "robo-calls," a prerecorded message from a well-known person is aimed at inspiring...

NYT SETS PHOTO ESSAY FOR PAGE ONE MONDAY: Burials of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery nearly every day over the last week... Developing...

The Narnia thread was great yesterday, so I thought I try getting another going. As follows are my awards for 2005. I’ve seen a moderate amount of movies. I, and am sure others, are going to rent/see more this time of year so I would like recommendations, and most of all, warnings. ________________________________________________ Best Film: King Kong. Full Hollywood experience. Worst film: Stealth. How to pick among the wealth of bad films of 2005? Stealth stands above them all by reason even the film’s title is a false advertisement. There was no stealth technology. I wish there were, the whole...

MIDI - Suspicion - written to the one in the middle Newsweek told a story that really has the fires burning Those who hold their stock are now worried that they're facing doom There was no Koran that our soldiers flushed right down the crapper Newsweek and the truth are so seldom seen in the same room Sedition...that's what it is Sedition...in the news biz Sedition...their reign is through In Afghanistan there are people who've been killed in riots Yes, the pen's been shown to be mightier than is the sword Mainstream media was deciding all the news you're...

Last week, three US Senators, Florida's Bill Nelson, Connecticut's Thomas Dodd, and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee visited with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in Caracas, to try to assess the deteriorating state of US-Venezuelan relations. The three Senators left their meeting, reciting the need for improved relations, and describing how central was Venezuela's role in supplying oil to America. The identical statements could have been uttered had the three Senators visited the sheikhs and princes in Saudi Arabia, of course. However, other than the many paid shills for Saudi Arabia in the think tanks and Middle East studies institutes in this...

By Scott | Burtonterrace.blogspot.com 07.01.05 | Venezuelan opposition bloggers, independently financed and edited, are coming under attack in the Venezuelan government run media. Specifically targeted are "Aleksander Boyd in London, Gustavo Coronel in Washington D.C., Daniel Duquenal in Yaracuy, Miguel Octavio in Caracas and A. M. Mora y Leon in the United States of America." The author of a recent article in the government run media service threatens to report these bloggers in what I can only describe as a threat to use the goverment's new suppresive media law to intimidate and stifle legitimate opposition dialogue. This is an opportune...

London 04.01.05 | My astonishment with respect to the arrest of FARC leader Ricardo Granda in Caracas continues to grow, not because Granda was in Caracas as a guest of honour of Hugo Chavez but rather due to the outlandish nerve of the FARC in condemning Chavez via public communiqués. Mind you what sort of moral stance a bunch of assassins have to be claiming anything to anyone? Their rights to claim were forfeited the moment they decided to start killing innocent peasants to achieve whatever goal they set out to reach. What's more, according to UN reports 1 million...

ABC News President David Westin warned against the proliferation of opinion commentary in the news media at the Institute of Politics’ John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum yesterday night. “The more time we express our opinions, the less time we have to talk about the facts,” Westin said. “Unfortunately, opinion is driving out facts too often in most of what we see on television today.” In a speech entitled “Is Network News Obsolete?” Westin argued that network news is far from dead but that the networks must adapt to changes in media. Westin pointed to the rise of alternative news sources,...

During the final summation in last night's vice-presidential debate, John Edwards focused on the new Kerry campaign theme: that a vote for George Bush and Dick Cheney would mean "four more years of the same." And Mr. Cheney, when his turn came, said it was important to re-elect the president so he could keep doing what he has been doing. It was a rare moment of agreement. Like the presidential foreign policy debate that preceded it, the clash of the vice-presidential candidates was 90 minutes of serious talk about the issues. It was also very hard-fought - the contenders managed...

If you did not recognize this woman, you would not a alone. She is Howard Dean's wife Judy, and she is "coming out" into the primary season, accompanied by puff-pieces like the one below from AP: Judy Dean, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, sits in her medical office in Shelburne, Vt., Feb. 6, 2003, where she is an internist in private practice. If her husband wins the presidency, America's next first lady could be a doctor tending to her patients while her husband tends the country. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, file) Howard Dean's wife is...

Excert due to copyright restraints. SCO: to pay or not to pay SCO has started invoicing Linux users that it claims are illegally using copied Unix code. August 26, 2003 11:58 AM GMT (Datamonitor) - SCO [SCOX] is beginning to invoice Linux users for their use of Unix code that it says has been illegally copied into the open source operating system. This leaves IT shops around the world with a deceptively simple decision: pay the fine, or take a chance. MORE at: SCO: to pay or not to pay SCO has started invoicing Linux users that it claims are...

Considering the expense to the American taxpayer and use of American men and women as 'extras' for this media stunt, President George W. Bush should pledge that his USS Lincoln landing not appear in any 2004 Presidential Campaign Commercials and Videos.Press release recieved at the National Journal May 9

Jackie Calmes of the Wall Street Journal weaves this seamlessly into her 'Washington Wire.''Top Gun' backfires but on Whom?Democrats demand probes follwing reports that President Georeg W. Bush didn't have to fly a jet aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as the White House said, but was near enough to a helicopter, and that the troops could have come home a day earlier.'If that had been Bill Clinton,' says former [Presidential] spokesman Joe Lockhardt, the subpoeanas would have been flying, and there would be blood on the floor from Republicans fighting over who gets to investigate.'President Bush and his aides dismissed...

  I am tired of apologist, excuse makers, agency shills and all around bungling idiots on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the endless line of like minded witnesses appearing before the U.S. public. The cover-up and orchestrated general soft glove hearings are a scam at best. They have degraded to less than the Warren Commission. Accountability and a "NO EXCUSE SIR" revelation will never be seen. Ineptitude permeates from the top to the bottom. The Senate Intelligence Committee has no intelligence and is a joke.. Bob Graham, chairman, has no intelligence. NONE ! He cannot put together one coherent sentence...