Free Republic

NEW Jersey's incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine thinks Republican challenger Chris Christie, who's clobbering him in the polls, is hiding something. A press release sent out by Corzine, a former US senator as well as the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, accuses Christie, a major fund-raiser for George W. Bush, of failing to comply with his campaign's efforts to obtain basic information about Christie's stint as the Garden State's US attorney.

Mama Gotti's had it. "Why don't you just kill him now!," the matriarch of the Gotti clan yelled at Judge Kevin Castel at the end of a hearing for her son John A. (Junior) Gotti in Manhattan Federal Court. "They're trying to kill him before trial," she said. "These are the good guys? God help us." Victoria Gotti erupted after Castel shot down Junior's request to have a second lawyer assist in his defense when he goes to trial on conspiracy charges in September. "They fight like little b------, instead of men," Mrs. Gotti said after the hearing. It will...

Volatile Kinks British group mourned the failure to preserve a lost England | Arsenio Orteza CPB/UPPA/Zuma Press/Newscom In the 24 years since Bob Dylan's Biograph kicked off the boxed-set craze, every pop act of any significance has been enshrined in what has become the audio equivalent of the coffee-table book—every act, that is, except the Kinks. Enter Picture Book (Sanctuary), a chronological, six-disc overview of the group's 30-year career, which was released in December, nearly 19 years after the original lineup's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 12 years after the final lineup's breakup. Has it...

This is the same scam that Obama ran with Rezko in Chicago!

Politics: Does being a Democrat justify glee at putting Republican opponents in al-Qaida's cross hairs? Or does it mean a green light to make ethnic slurs? Both occurred last week, minus apologies.If that seems strong, consider how a House subcommittee hauled in David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, for a taste of the third degree on waterboarding. Rep. Bill Delahunt, who isn't even on the subcommittee, took his shot anyway, asking Addington about the interrogation method. Addington balked, explaining that the hearings were being broadcast on C-SPAN and terrorists watching might use the information. "Well, I'm sure...

LODI — The Sopranos may not be sleeping with the fishes after all. The manager of Satin Dolls, known to fans as the infamous Bada Bing, says Tony Soprano and his crew could be smoking cigars at their favorite gentleman’s club once again — to film a Sopranos movie. Nick D’Urso, the manager, said renovations at “The Bing” were put on hold after the club received a phone call about plans for a feature film version of Jersey’s favorite crime family. Unwilling to break his vow of omerta, D’Urso refused to say who contacted him, but he insists the information...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. has convicted "The Sopranos" of spreading what he says are stereotypes about Italian-Americans. During a visit to Rutgers University on Wednesday, Alito complained that the hit HBO television drama not only associated Italian-Americans with the Mafia, but New Jerseyans, as well. "You have a trifecta _ gangsters, Italian-Americans, New Jersey _ wedded in the popular American imagination," Alito said at an event sponsored by the Italian studies program at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey. Alito, himself an Italian-American, lived for nearly two decades in a West Caldwell home...

An empty lot, littered with rocks and roped off by chains, is all that remains of the butcher shop where Tony Soprano once held backroom meetings and sipped espresso at outdoor tables. Satriale's, the Kearny landmark and fictional pork store that became one of the most infamous icons of the New Jersey mob world created by "The Sopranos," was demolished last month to make way for a condo development. Construction of the nine-unit project, dubbed -- what else? -- "The Soprano," is expected to start next year. For years, property owner Manny Costeira leased the empty building to HBO, which...

If the rise of Bernard B. Kerik under the mentorship of Rudolph W. Giuliani was meteoric, the speed of his fall was breathtaking. In December 2004, President Bush nominated Mr. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner, to head the federal Department of Homeland Security. Seven days later, Mr. Kerik withdrew as a nominee. A cascade of questions followed about his judgment as a public official, not least that he had inappropriately lobbied city officials on behalf of Interstate Industrial, a construction firm suspected of links to organized crime. Mr. Giuliani defended Mr. Kerik, a friend and business partner, whom...

Impressed by the Emmy Awards won by the recently cancelled “The Sopranos” TV series, al-Qaeda has announced plans for a pilot it hopes to sell to a major network for the 2008-09 season. Tentatively titled “The Jihadis,” the al-Qaeda produced show will feature “warriors of God taking extreme measures against decadent unbelievers.” Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command touted “The Jihadis” as a “step up from the amoral violence of ‘The Sopranos.’” “The ‘Sopranos’ killed for money,” said Zawahiri. “‘The Jihadis kill for God. They are genuine heroes and martyrs, not anti-heroes like the American gangsters in ‘The Sopranos.’” Zawahiri claimed that...

NEW YORK  -- An early morning pipe-bomb explosion blew out the windows of an unoccupied van parked outside a theater owned by a former star of TV's "The Sopranos,'' police said Tuesday.The New York Police Department said it did not know whether the incident had any connection to the actor, Michael Imperioli, who owns Studio Dante. Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti, Tony Soprano's nephew, on the popular HBO television show.His representative did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday.NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said there had been "no known threats to the location or its owners'' before the 1 a.m. incident....

Satin Dolls, the Lodi go-go bar featured on the “The Sopranos” as the Bada Bing club, is auctioning items on eBay for fans of the popular HBO drama about a suburban New Jersey Mafia family. The sale will make way for the club’s renovation. LODI – Bada Bing, the fictional strip club on the HBO television Mafia drama "The Sopranos" that brought fame to Satin Dolls go-go bar, is approaching its own ending. But unlike the TV show's abrupt blackout finale, which left many television viewers cathartically stifled in June, the Bing is fading away piece by piece, courtesy...

The owner of the building that housed TONY SOPRANO's favourite sandwich store is selling off the facade a brick at a time. Manny Costeira is tearing down the white-brick frontage of the fictional Satriale's Pork Store, and he's selling authenticated bricks, complete with certificates, online at $25 (GBP12.50) each. And Costeira's links to the hit TV drama won't end there - the building that housed Satriale's is to be demolished to make way for a new apartment complex, called The Soprano.

Did Hillary Clinton inadvertently underscore the ambivalence felt by some Americans over her role in her husband's scandals in a humorous campaign ad last week? Margaret Carlson believes that Hillary made a mistake in playing the Carmela role in her Sopranos spoof, and that voters may see her in a similar light to Edie Falco's compromised and enabling wife: The ad touches close to the mother lode of Hillary's vulnerability among some women. When you ask them why they don't like her, they say it's because they don't understand why she makes goo-goo eyes at a guy who broke her...

Trying to boost her presidential campaign, Sen. Hillary Clinton yuks it up with husband Bill in a YouTube spoof of the now-famous final Sopranos episode. But do they really want to be likened to a mob family? Sure, "The Sopranos," the TV show about a dysfunctional New Jersey crime boss' fractious clan, was a big hit. But given the Clintons' somewhat questionable past as perhaps the nation's most investigated political couple, one would think a little sensitivity would be in order. No question, the ad is, in Hollywood parlance, "cute." It takes place in the same Mount Kisco, N.Y., diner...

"This image from video released by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign shows Hillary and Bill Clinton on a Web video that spoofs the final scene of the popular HBO mobster series 'The Sopranos'. The scene: a diner and a jukebox, a nostalgic song, a cut to black. The video and the announcement of Celine Dion's 'You and I' as the official Clinton tune cap a month-long, interactive Internet campaign that drew more than a million viewers to the Clinton campaign Web site and to YouTube, the popular online video display room."

The Long Con The Sopranos creator David Chase turned us all into Tony’s shrink, then duped us into believing he could be saved. It took us eight seasons to figure out we’d been had. David Chase, you sadist. We trusted you, and then you turned on us—and maybe we deserved it. Since The Sopranos’ premiere in 1999, critics have preached that it was like nothing else on television: It was novelistic (Dickensian!), cinematic (Fellini-esque!), iconic (Is there any other show where most viewers still watch the opening credits?), a metaphor for Bush’s America. The implication has always been that at...

"The Sopranos" wasn't only a great show or even a classic. It was a masterpiece, and its end Sunday night is an epochal event. With it goes an era, a time. You know the story, and if you don't, you've absorbed enough along the way as you overheard people chat Monday morning around what we still call the water cooler and mean as the line at Starbucks. A New Jersey mobster with a family, a business and a therapist makes his way through life. It was a family drama that was a mob drama, but in some hard-to-put-your-finger-on way it...

The Soprano-fication of Gaza By Michael Rosen : 15 Jun 2007 As of this writing, Hamas forces have overtaken the majority of the Gaza Strip, including several strongholds once controlled by Fatah, Hamas's bitter rival. Internecine Palestinian fighting has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands of civilians. The government has been dissolved. The UN is considering sending peacekeeping troops to stanch the bloodletting. Some observers have presented the struggle as an ideological war between Hamas's Islamism and Fatah's secular nationalism. But a more appropriate analogy is to the gangland mob drama The Sopranos, which concluded its eight-year run earlier...

I must confess a temptation to complacent laughter at the frustration of all ''The Sopranos'' fans at the conclusion of the series. It was the most important television project ever, comparable to Don Quixote, Shakespeare, maybe even St. John's Gospel. Why did it end not with a bang but a whimper? It was also a powerful critique of corrupt capitalist American culture. Academics and intellectuals -- and pseudo-academics and intellectuals -- had searched the weekly bloodshed and vulgarity for wisdom hidden from the ages. How could the series stop without ending? Ordinary viewers, satisfied with the violent whacking of "Uncle...

TMZ was checking out Chase's Wiki page this morning, and noticed that the first line read, "David Chase ... is a homosexual American television writer."

<p>The genius of David Chase, the originator of The Sopranos, was never more evident than in the last episode of the series. I viewed it with an earnest and cosmopolitan young man and his lady, and we wondered, as we waited for the show to start, what would the final act do to Tony Soprano. Speculation in the press had offered three alternative endings: (1) Tony is killed; (2) Tony survives and kills the leader of the other gang; (3) Tony makes a deal with the FBI. None of these happened. What happened in the final scene was — nothing.</p>

The comments on my first 'Sopranos' finale post are just getting too long to wade through, so let's start a new post. And let's delve more into the scene that everyone's talking about, the final scene at Holsten's, the characters who populated the diner, and the Journey song that ended the show. The Nikki Leotardo question People have been posting all over the Web that the guy in the diner who disappeared into the men's room was credited as Nikki Leotardo, the nephew of Phil, claiming that the same actor has appeared as Nikki before. But is that true? This...

when Tony walked into the restaurant he was wearing a leather jacket and dark colored shirt and he saw himself sitting in the booth wearing different clothes. i think the whole last scene was all in Tony's head. i think that overall he is tired of the life and is fantasizing almost his perfect way to die. AJ seems all better, Carmella is happy....not so sure about Meadow.

This may be just what they have planned.

What the heck?!

There is no body

If you're looking for another way to make tonight's finale of "The Sopranos" even more suspenseful than it probably will be, perhaps putting a little action on it might help. It's what Tony would want you to do. The folks over at graphpaper.com have created a handy "Sopranos" chart to help make your predictions. Think Christopher will appear in a hallucination? Think Paulie Walnuts commits suicide? Well gather up a few friends and put your money where your mouth is. But be sure you pay up if you lose -- you don't want to be swimming with the fishes.

In the beginning, there sat Tony Soprano in Dr. Jennifer Melfi's waiting room, quizzically staring at the sculpture of a nude female. Seconds later, the psychiatrist opened the door to her office, and so began one of the most compelling conversations and resonant series in TV history. In the wake of last week's penultimate episode of The Sopranos, which featured Dr. Melfi angrily ending her doctor-patient relationship with Tony, the symmetry of those two office images eight years apart frames the series. There's Dr. Melfi striking the exact same pose in the doorway to her inner sanctum - inviting him...

Forget for a moment the nagging cultural question of how "The Sopranos" will end, and merely consider that it's ending. That's a lot heavier than whether Tony goes out dead or alive. The significance of "The Sopranos" can't be underestimated. Though many people have never seen even one episode -- a pay cable channel like HBO is often a luxury -- the series has changed the whole of television. First, it made HBO. Secondly, it further legitimized all of cable television as worthy -- and with the introduction of subsequent great dramas on HBO, Showtime, FX, etc., it helped change...

Therapists, we've long known, are among the biggest fans of "The Sopranos." So pleased were they with the credible therapy scenes between Tony Soprano, pop culture's most famous mobster/patient, and the appealing Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, that the American Psychoanalytical Association once gave the show and Bracco an award. But professionally speaking, they could only scratch their heads at the latest developments on HBO's hit drama, which aired its penultimate episode last weekend. Just as Tony Soprano's life seemed to be imploding with dangerous speed - in short, just when he needed some really good therapy -...

NEW YORK, (AP) -- Therapists, we've long known, are among the biggest fans of "The Sopranos." So pleased were they with the credible therapy scenes between Tony Soprano, pop culture's most famous mobster/patient, and the appealing Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, that the American Psychoanalytical Association once gave the show and Bracco an award. But professionally speaking, they could only scratch their heads at the latest developments on HBO's hit drama, which aired its penultimate episode last weekend. Just as Tony Soprano's life seemed to be imploding with dangerous speed — in short, just when he needed some...

Tony Soprano is alone at last. In Sunday night's episode of "The Sopranos," one of Tony's two top aides, Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri, was murdered by the New York mob. Tony's other lieutenant, Silvio Dante, was shot, left for dead and may not regain consciousness. To make matters worse, Tony's therapist of seven years, Dr. Melfi, fired him. And Tony's sister, Janice, asked him for money to continue supporting their uncle, Junior Soprano, in a mental hospital even though he was there for shooting Tony in cold blood. The episode ended with Tony and his remaining crew "going to the mattresses"...

Give Team Soprano two weeks before you make up your mind about the new season. It's not that Sunday night's premiere is bad. If anything, it's a superb refresher of what makes Tony Soprano tick, as well as the deepest look we've ever had at Tony and Janice's childhood and their current relationship. But after spending most of last season fielding complaints about the sluggish pace and focus on minor characters like Eugene Pontecorvo and Artie Bucco, I imagine the premiere -- a leisurely hour set largely at Bobby Bacala's cabin in the Adirondacks and featuring only four significant characters...

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. -- When it comes to filming the final scene of the acclaimed mob drama "The Sopranos,'' this North Jersey town has told HBO to fuhgeddaboudit. The town this week denied the show's producers a permit to shoot here because the mayor and council members say the show depicts Italian-Americans in a poor light. The owners of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor selected for the scene said the personal opinions of Bloomfield Mayor Raymond McCarthy and the council shouldn't stand in the way. "He should do what's good for the town and not let his personal feelings dictate his...

Brad Grey, the chairman and CEO of Paramount and everyone's favorite Soprano producer, has agreed to raise money for ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Grey plans to endorse Giuliani next week, two sources close to the Giuliani campaign confirmed.

With legislative races this year expected to do little to tilt the balance of power in Trenton, the hottest race in New Jersey could very well be the one for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Frank Lautenberg. Although voters will not decide the race until November 2008, Lautenberg is filling his campaign treasury, with three fund-raisers down and others planned for Palm Beach, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Denver, and Los Angeles. Tim Yehl, Lautenberg's chief of staff, expects the race to cost each candidate up to $15 million. That's bad news for Lautenberg, who loves being a senator but...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey has warned squirrel hunters near a toxic waste dump about consuming the critters because they could be contaminated with lead. It is the first time the state has cautioned Ringwood residents - many who are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe who hunt and fish in the area - about their squirrel intake, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services. A lead-contaminated squirrel was found in the area two months ago, prompting the agency, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, to send out letters advising...

This was a press release issued by the individual below but the source paper has copyright issues. So am posting as a vanity: United States Marine Corps Sgt. Craig M. Breiner, 30, of Howell plans to carry the U.S. flag from the Belmar boardwalk to the state capital in Trenton to rally support for American military personnel serving in war zones. "We need to bring the morale of our troops up," said Breiner, a seven-year Marine veteran who spent seven months in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. . . . Breiner's walk will commence Jan. 20, rain or shine, at...

New Jersey's governor signed legislation Thursday giving gay couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage allowed under state law _ but not the title. When the law goes into effect Feb. 19, New Jersey will become the third state offering civil unions to gay couples and the fifth allowing gay couples some version of marriage. Connecticut and Vermont also offer civil unions for gay couples, while Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, and California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights under state law. "We must recognize that many gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey are in...

(CBS) TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey will become the fifth state to grant gay couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage when Gov. Jon S. Corzine signs a civil unions bill on Thursday. New Jersey will join Connecticut and Vermont as states that allow civil unions for gay couples. Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, while California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights. "We join the ranks of the leaders in the nation in reflecting equal rights for everyone," said Corzine, who is scheduled to sign the bill at 11 a.m. The law will take effect Feb....

A 69-year-old woman who was charged with assaulting a police officer has turned around and filed a complaint against him for the incident, which stemmed from a political sign she had put up. The incident started last Wednesday when Marion Munk, a ceramics instructor at a community college, said she noticed a handmade political sign she'd left on a street corner near her house was knocked to the ground. Munk said she stopped at the corner, where Public Service Electric & Gas Co. crews were working, to find out why her sign, which was against incumbent Democrats, was down on...

UNION CITY, N.J.—In his 30-plus years as a player in New Jersey politics, Senator Robert Menendez has cultivated dozens of friends and allies in positions of influence. But recently, on Sept. 5, one of his allies, a New Jersey business owner and a major fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez, showed up in a curious place: in front of a grand jury in Newark, where he was questioned about the financing of terror bombings in Cuba during the 1990’s. Also appearing in front of the grand jury was the former accountant of a deceased ally and donor for the Senator. The fund-raiser,...

Some people get mad at me when I tell them not to vote. But I believe there is a right time to abstain from casting a ballot – particularly if the only choice is a Democrat or Republican who are indistinguishable on the major issues of the day. A good example of a race where a protest vote for a third party candidate or a non-vote would be the right thing to do on Election Day is the New Jersey Senate race between incumbent Robert Menendez, the Democrat, and Republican challenger Thomas Kean Jr. (Column continues below) Pollsters say the...

When it comes to MSM outrage over pro-Republican TV ads, it's hard to top Chris Matthews. He pounded for days on the RNC ad about Harold Ford, Jr., accusing RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman of "cesspool" tactics and claiming the ad played to white fears of "losing white women to black guys."Matthews had a similar over-the-top reaction to an ad [see it here] running in NJ that uses a mobbed-up character to mock ethically-challenged Bob Menendez. Here's how Stephen Spruiell at National Review's Media Blog noted Matthews comments:"Well maybe because I've spent so much of my life in New Jersey... but...

Congressman Bill Pascrell (D) invites you to join him and 37 year Marine Combat Veteran & Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha at Montclair State University, Montclair New Jersey.October 23 starting at 3:00 until 4:30. John Murtha will be discussing his views on National Security and Ending the War in Iraq. contact number for more information 973-523-5152 ( office of B. Pascrell)

At least they're honest about it. So avid is the New York Times for a Dem House majority that in an editorial of this morning, it's decided to throw Chris Shays [R-CT] to the wolves, under the bus, or wherever it is that liberal Republican congressmen go when the Times won't endorse them anymore.Although they came to bury him, the Times does throw in some praise of Shays [rhymes!]: Referring to him as "a good representative." Noting that it has "admired his independence and respected his leadership."Describing him as "a rare voice for moderation within [the] Republican caucus."Calling him "a...

URGENT BULLETIN: The New Jersey Supreme Court will hand down its ruling in the marriage equality case Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 3:00 pm. THIS SUPERCEDES THE COURT'S EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DECISIONS COMING DOWN ON WEDNESDAY. The Court will post the decision at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/index.htm Please attend Garden State Equality's statewide rally for marriage equality Wednesday night at 7:00 pm, Unitarian Church of Montclair, 67 Church Street, downtown Montclair. The rally supercedes any other event we have e-mailed you about. Right now please call as many people as you can, and please forward this e-mail to every...

I received a notice yesterday from the State of New Jersey, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law and Public Law and Safety, Division of Elections The letter said: Dear Voter: A review of the statewiud voter registration system indicates that your date of birth is missing from your registration record. Please be advised that a missing date of birth will not affect your right to vote. However, we need this missing information to assure that your records are correct and properly maintained. Please provide your date of birth on the line below and mail this letter back in...

NEWARK, N.J. -- A New Jersey Muslim group is launching a nationwide effort to record complaints about Muslims being wrongfully detained or questioned at airports to determine where the worst problem areas are. The goal is not to file lawsuits, but to get to the source of problems and correct it, said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer for the American Muslim Union.