Free Republic

These days, being seen as a victim can be useful. You immediately claim the moral high ground. Some people want to help you. Lawyers and politicians brag that they force others to help you. This turns some people into whiners with little sense of responsibility. Joe Biden's niece was arrested recently for throwing a punch at a cop. The New York Post says she's addicted to alcohol and pills, but rather than take responsibility for her actions, she blamed them on the "pressure she faces" because her uncle is vice president. Give me a break. America was founded by people...

Oh those wacky Tweeters are at it again with: #ObamacareTshirtSlogans. Here are some of the offerings this morning... #ObamacareTshirtSlogans I never said you could keep your doctor If You Like My Health Insurance You Can Keep Paying For It For Me Singlepayer Exemptions for the 1% The best reason to buy Identity Fraud Insurance. You didn't infect that. You can keep your Doctor....except he's retired If It's Good Enough For Your Family, It's Good Enough For....nevermind My grandma went up before a death panel and all I got was this stupid t-shirt Until death do you part Good news: Healthcare...

At a tea party rally in Washington Sunday billed as the “Million Vet March,” one idiot decided to bring Confederate flag, which was enough for liberals to paint the entire Republican Party as racist.

Vivian Schiller, NBC News’ SVP and chief digital officer, is being tapped for Twitter’s head of news position, according to sources familiar with the matter. AllThingsD reported last week that she was the leading pick for the high-profile job. The deal is now “all but done,” according to sources, although Schiller will apparently take a significant period of time off between the end of her current position at NBC and the start of the new job at Twitter. -snip- Schiller’s NPR stint ended in controversy; she resigned from NPR in March following some very dicey snafus.

The New York Times today published a story online by Nick Bilton about Twitter’s early days that’ll be in the paper’s Sunday magazine. The piece by Bilton, a Times tech reporter and the author of a book on the founding of Twitter, contains a slew of interesting tidbits, but the things I found most amusing were the tidbits about the people who tried to buy Twitter in its early days. Al Gore pitched Williams and Stone one night over copious amounts of wine and Patron tequila at his St. Regis suite in San Francisco. Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of...

Obamacare’s been stumbling along at quasi-full force for over a week now, and for some Americans, the Affordable Care Act is not all it was cracked up to be: Justin Gaines @justing1284 I checked out an Obamacare exchange and it impressed me.. Until I saw the lowest premium for me was 3x what I am paying now 4:56 PM - 5 Oct 2013 41 Retweets 6 favorites My health insurance will TRIPLE in cost. I can't afford that. http://t.co/rqIY3TLeII — Austin Lee (@austinklee) October 8, 2013 Wesley Chow @WesleyWChow Just notified that I will be paying more for my existing...

EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty slammed NBC News Chief Digital Officer Vivian Schiller, the person who shut down his start-up, by advising Twitter not to hire her for its Head of News opening. The tweet comes shortly after a report by AllThingsD that said Schiller is believed to be the top candidate for the position. Adrian Holovaty @adrianholovaty Attention @twitter management: hiring @VivianSchiller would be a huge mistake. Check your references!

NBC News chief Vivian Schiller is moving closer to the top news job at Twitter. Schiller, 52, is in negotiations with the microblogging service to become its first head of news, The Post has learned. -snip- Schiller, who has held jobs at CNN, NPR and the New York Times, certainly fits the job description.

Well, you knew it was going to happen. Now Trending on Twitter: #ObamacarePhoneNumbers Some of what is getting posted.. #ObamacarePhoneNumbers 1-800-TYR-ANNY 1-800-DOC-GONE 1-800-DOC-LEFT 1-800-ZOM-BIES 1-800-KOO-LAID 1-800-BOW-2-OBAMA (or else) 1-800-WHY-WORK 1-800-CON-JOBS 1-800-try-L8er, if busy, call 1-800-no-dice 1-800-PLZ-HOLD 1-800-LAW-OLAND 1-888-NOW-ORKY 1-800-PEA-SANT 1-800-UP-YOURs 1 800 BEND OVR 1-800-URA-RCST 1-800-SNG-LPYR 1-800-DEM-CRAP 1-800-ASPIRIN 1-800-NOT-FREE 1-877-DTH-PANL 1 800 4 MORGUE 1-800-BIG-LIES 1-900-EAT- ADOG 1-900-EAT-MUTT 1-800-DIE-QUICK 1 900 DIE FAST 1-800-YOU-DEAD 1 800 SUCK EGG 666 1-900-GOLF-NOW 1-800-CUBA-MEDS 1-800-MAO-LOVR 1800-YOU-LOST 1-800-KING-BARRY 1-800 RFD-CHIP 1-877-DRNK-H20 1-800-GUN-GRAB

The Government Shutdown isn’t just hard for ordinary people. It’s also tough for the folks on top. A contingency plan has been developed to allow Obama to go on functioning with only 1/4 of his 1,701 person staff. And the effect is being felt even by Michelle Obama’s Twitter account. Sure Michelle Obama could take time out from her busy schedule to Tweet once every two days (that’s her average) but due to the Government Shutdown somehow impacting some of her 16 assistants, her Twitter account will now be “limited”. Maybe now she’ll only post once every four days. The...

There was a time when even the highest government officials lived simpler lives. President George Washington made do with Tobias Lear, who not only served as his secretary, but also doubled as a diplomat and even measured his body for burial. President Thomas Jefferson made do with Meriwether Lewis as his personal secretary and Lewis also doubled as Jefferson’s explorer in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Washington worked on an expense account instead of a salary. He began his presidency working out of a rented three story house that was later demolished as a slum clearance project to make way...

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/09/30/twitter-not-only-allows-terrorist-accounts-but-suggests-terrorists-to-follow/

Barack Obama has 36.9 million Twitter followers, 19.5 million of whom, it turns out, are fake. This is a very disturbing sign

I'm not terribly well versed in social media in general or in Twitter in particular. I do have a twitter account, though, to keep up with local news events. I just tweeted the following, however to my two democrat senators.@MarkUdall @SenBennetCO You read the bill? You either didn't read it, or you voted for a trainwreck. #RedeemYourVote. Defund Obamacare I hope I did it right, and I hope that others with Senators that voted for obamacare, and that have access to twitter will send the same hashtag (#RedeemYourVote) to your liberal senators.

Nearly 2 million of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Twitter followers are not real. According to the Twitter analytics application Status People, 37 percent of Michelle Obama’s 5,290, 506 Twitter followers — or approximately 1,957,487 followers — are considered fake. Thirty-five percent of her followers are inactive, and 28 percent are considered “good,” or real. Michelle Obama’s account is run by Organizing for Action....

20 Sep Republican Sen's Who Are UNDECIDED On Defunding Obamacare! Let's help them decide! Please RETWEET!! #DefundObamacare pic.twitter.com/xn8nG6Y9v6

There are 31 people confirmed dead in Saturday's attack at a Nairobi shopping mall, the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre tweeted. "Bodies in the lobby area and ground floor to be removed," the organization added. Several hours after the assault began, Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bloodshed. There were also 100 people injured, the official said. As darkness fell in Nairobi, authorities said as many as 36 hostages are still being held by the gunmen in the mall... Americans were also injured in the attack, said Deputy State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf. But...

Kenyan police and soldiers have pinned down the remaining gunmen who opened fire at a shopping centre earlier today, killing 30 and leaving at least 50 others injured. A security source at the scene in the capital Nairobi confirmed moments ago the attackers have been isolated. The source said: 'The attackers have been isolated and are pinned down in an area on one of the floors - the rest of the mall seems to be secure.' No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is looking increasingly likely the Somalia terrorist group al-Shabaab may be responsible. A statement released...

An incredibly high percentage of President Obama’s Twitter followers are fake, while the opposite is true for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.According to the Twitter analytics application, Status People, 55 percent of President Obama’s 36,802,378 Twitter followers — or approximately 20,240,107 followers — are fake.A ‘fake follower,’ according to Status People, is a spam account following the user. During the presidential election season, candidates’ Twitter accounts came under public scrutiny for possibly purchasing followers to try to bolster their social media credibility. Twenty-four percent of Obama’s Twitter followers are inactive, and only 21 percent — or approximately 7,728,499 followers — are real.Obama’s...

A former NFL player’s home was broken into and thoroughly trashed by teenagers in upstate New York over Labor Day weekend. Brian Holloway, a three time all-pro lineman for the New England Patriots, arrived to his second home in Stephentown on Tuesday to find it covered in urine, graffiti and empty cups and booze bottles. While he and his family were in Florida, the area high schoolers broke into the $1.5 million house and then with the help of Twitter quickly attracted hundreds of their peers from miles around. Now Holloway, himself a father of 8, has used the same...

VATICAN CITY — Are you a Vatican junkie? Don’t have enough feeds streaming into your Tweetdeck or on Facebook?Well, today’s your lucky day as we’ve combed through our “little black book� of Vatican VIPs and compiled a few of them for you. Most are in English, some multi-language so follow where your linguistic abilities allow. @Pontifex The official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Francis@TerzaLoggia The official Twitter page of the Secretariat of State.@GregBurkeRome Senior Adviser for Communications, Secretariat of State@news_va_en Vatican media: CTV, Osservatore Romano, Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Radio, Press Office, Vatican website, V.I.S.@newsva_en News.va is...

From columnist Tom Watson: Pope Francis – or @pontifex to his Twitter followers – has quickly become a social media phenomenon, adding five million followers since his installation six months ago. He is gaining more than 4,000 followers a day and knocking at the door of three million followers for his English language feed alone. He’s got more than eight million total on Twitter, tweeting in Latin, German, Polish, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic.Small change, you say, for the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide? Perhaps in those terms – but I’d have to point out that what matters in...

A suburban Los Angeles school district is now looking at the public postings on social media by middle and high school students, searching for possible violence, drug use, bullying, truancy and suicidal threats. The district in Glendale, California, is paying $40,500 to a firm to monitor and report on 14,000 middle and high school students' posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media for one year. Though critics liken the monitoring to government stalking, school officials and their contractor say the purpose is student safety. As classes began this fall, the district awarded the contract after it earlier paid the...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he will not sell any of his shares in microblogging site Twitter Inc when it goes public, and expects the firm's IPO to hit the market later this year or in early 2014. The prince, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, invested $300 million in the social media giant in late 2011. "Clearly the speed they're moving with shows that they would like to IPO sooner than later. I believe it will happen either this year or early next year," Alwaleed...

Breitbart is reporting that James Woods continues to pound President Barack Obama on Twitter regardless what his Hollywood peers might think. This time the veteran actor blasts the president for sharing data on Americans with another country. The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without removing information about Americans, The Guardian reported, citing a top-secret document it said was provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. That fired up Woods, an actor known for his intense work in films like The Onion Field, Casino and Nixon. He sent out the following tweet to alert...

Witness the birth of a hashtag. The suggestion for a topic: FTW RT @dfgalvin: @gabrielmalor that was supposed to be "No blood for O"— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) September 08, 2013 A hashtag is applied: #NoBloodForO RT @gabrielmalor: FTW RT @dfgalvin: @gabrielmalor that was supposed to be "No blood for O"— jon gabriel (@ExJon) September 08, 2013 With that, “no blood for oil” had found its shortened contemporary version: #NoBloodForO. And with that, many tweeters were off and running: #NoBloodForO No soldiers should die just for a president to save face.— Redness (@mchastain81) September 08, 2013 This is NOT why I...

...[W]atching President Barack Obama stumble through his news conference from the G-20 summit last week and trying to talk us into war with Syria, I couldn't help thinking about dogs. It was a stupid thought, yes, but I didn't put it there. One of the president's men put it there. A guy named David Axelrod, who brought it up on Twitter. Axelrod, the Democratic mouthpiece of Chicago mayors, is the guy who aligned himself with an inexperienced Illinois legislative back-bencher and ended up installing him in the White House. And after the president announced he would seek congressional approval for...

Journalists and professional political tacticians in Washington's permanent political class ecosystem apparently do not believe the mainstream media would be better served if they had more reporters who were familiar with conservative politics and voters. After the 2012 presidential election, CNN reporter Peter Hamby interviewed over 70 "journalists and political tacticians" that make up a "who's who" of the Washington permanent political class for ideas on new election beats and how presidential elections may better be covered. He published his findings in a paper for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, titled, "Did Twitter Kill the Boys on the Bus? Searching...

Twitter is buzzing with this rumor, hung himself in cell, I can't find any media reports yet.

The Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center, Shadi Hamid, tweets out about the Egyptian media depicting Obama as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Newspaper also claims that son of Muslim Brotherhood leader threatened Obama with release of “papers” revealing his MB membership.

Black actress Stacey Dash recently tweeted a part of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, in order to celebrate its 50th anniversary. But, since Dash is a conservative, she got blasted by other blacks on Twitter. Here are some of the tweets, via The Blaze. (WARNING: Explicit language)

Ah, the folks on Twitter are at it again. The latest hashtag today: #NameObamasNewWar It would appear that some are a mite suspicious of Obama's reasons for this war. #NameObamasNewWar The Back Nine Operation Wag/Eat the Dog Operation Wagyu Dog World War "Me" What War? Operation What Difference Does It Make What's my red line? Scandals Resort Operation The Red Queen Operation Roosting Chickens Distraction 17 Operation Benghazi-Distraction My Brotherhood's Keeper Operation Joker: Why so Syria's Dude, Where is Syria? Operation: Start a war at Israel's door The Balking Wars Operation Ignore the war powers act. Operation: Bush's Fault Operation...

Ah, you have to love the folks to tweet. The latest hashtag fun is "#NSAPickUpLines " Here are some of what is being posted... #NSAPickUpLines hey, I've never met you, and this is crazy, but I stole your number, so answer baby!” "Baby, I feel like I already know you—oh wait, I do, I've listened in on all you cell phone calls. Let me buy that drink for you. I know your bank account balance is a little low right now. Of course your mother will like me. If she doesn't I'll just have her taxes tagged for audit! "I'm...

One of the Oklahoma teenagers accused of killing 23-year-old Australian baseball player Christopher Lane previously posted images online showing himself posing with guns and wads of cash. And three days before what police call the indiscriminate shooting, the suspect, 15-year-old James Edwards Jr., tweeted, "With my n****s when it's time to start taken life's" -- a line from the Chief Keef rap song, "I Don't Like." Back in April, he tweeted, "90% of white ppl (people) are nasty. #HATE THEM." Police in the town of Duncan have charged Edwards and Chancey Luna, 16, as adults with first degree felony murder,...

Well, there they go again. The popular hashtag on Twitter at the moment: #AlJazeeraAmericaTVShows Some of what is getting posted: #AlJazeeraAmericaTVShows Little House On The Pyramid Hot In Abbottabad My Favorite Mullah Dancing With The Scimitars "Sheik and The City" How I Stoned Your Mother How I Beat Your Mother America's Top Terrorist Candid Camel Family's tied up Once upon a time bomb The Big Bang Promise The Young and the Headless Sharia Law and Order Honey Bomb Bomb Married to Children Pakistan's Funniest Suicide Bombing Videos Different Strikes As The World Burns Last Imam Standing MSNBC News The David...

 

In the closing minute of today's Way Too Early on MSNBC, guest host Thomas Roberts invited viewers to use the hashtag #WayTooRowdy to submit descriptions of the best party they'd ever attended. The show proceeded to display a tweet from viewer N-Boyyy saying that "one time I had been to a party and there was this goat in the living room drinking beer from a bucket." Just one problem: MSNBC also displayed N-Boyyy's Twitter mini-bio, in which he described himself as "Just a kid living life and giving no f----s along the way." The f-bomb was unexpurgated on screen. View...

As Twitchy reported, evidently a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask must now be entered in the Handbook of Racial Code Words. Don an Obama mask to mock him? Not allowed. The always awesome Dana Loesch laid down the smack in epic style. The rodeo clown crisis was then averted when the Mo. State Fair permanently banned the Obama-mask-wearing clown. No, for reals. They did that. Enter #MockObamaDay:

Ah, some gallows humor on a Sunday evening. Currently trending on Twitter is the now popular hashtag: #obamacarehitsongs. Here are some of the offerings... #obamacarehitsongs Highway to Hell Let's Get Retarded ‘Who Let the Docs Out?' And we'll have fun, fun, fun till the doctor takes the oxygen away... (Don't Fear) The Death Panel. Bill me, Maybe Money for Nothin' Back in the U.S.S.R. Livin on a prayer. We Don't Need No Obstetrician How much is that Doctor in the Window Take it to the limit .... Or whatever my co pay is Another one bites the dust. Proud Barry...

The left loves to hate Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but one usually left-leaning TV host announced her gratitude to the country’s toughest sheriff. Sheriff Joe, Nancy Grace says, saved her life.Grace announced on her HLN program that Arpaio likely saved her life and the life of her children after stopping a New York man who had been harassing her with death threats. "I want to personally thank Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona. I was apparently followed for four years by a bad New York man. He then repeatedly threatened my life. He was apprehended en route after quitting...

Richard Dawkins has been forced to defend controversial comments he made online after saying the last time Muslims contributed something worthwhile was during the Middle Ages. Prof Dawkins, the bestselling author of The God Delusion, wrote on Twitter that all the world's Muslims had won fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. He went on to argue that although Muslims were responsible for many achievements during the Dark Ages, including alchemy and algebra, their contribution since then was questionable. His comments sparked outrage from many high-profile writers and journalists including author Caitlin Moran and Channel 4 News Economics Editor Faisal...

Controversial atheist British professor Richard Dawkins has provoked outrage in a tweet he made deriding the lack of academic achievements by Muslims. On Thursday, the best-selling author of "The God Delusion," tweeted that: "All the world’s Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though.” That post provoked a slew of outraged responses, including accusations of "racism," and "Islamophobia." Responding to the fierce criticism, Dawkins retorted in another tweet: "Muslims aren't a race. What they have in common is a religion. Rather than Trinity, would you prefer the comparison with Jews?...

The conference room in the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters of LinkedIn was packed with the stars of Silicon Valley. Top executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter gathered around a table; the billionaire Sean Parker looked on from a back row. The guest of honor: Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark. "He's part of this tide," said Gina Bianchini, an entrepreneur who was at the meeting, in May 2009. "It feels like he's one of us." Mr. Booker personally has obtained money for the start-up, called Waywire, from influential investors, including Eric E. Schmidt, Google's executive chairman. A year after...

But wasn’t George Zimmerman a “white Hispanic?” Author Terry McMillan says white men shoot black boys “to show who has the power.” Via Twitchy: Terry McMillan ✔ @MsTerryMcMillan I think a lot of white men are afraid of and intimidated by black boys and black men. Shooting them is one way to show who has the power. 11:27 PM - 26 Jul 2013 103 Retweets 48 favorites It would be nice if at least one of these race hustlers would have their facts straight. Heather MacDonald reported: If a black parent wants to radically reduce his son’s chance of getting...

A new global communications report calls Pope Francis the most influential world leader on Twitter, who has the second-largest following among world leaders on the fast-paced social media network. “Although Pope Francis does not engage with other Twitter users ... his Spanish tweets are re-tweeted on average more than 11,000 times, making him the most influential world leader on Twitter,” the Switzerland-based public relation and communications firm Burson-Marsteller announced July 24. The firm's “Twiplomacy” report examined the presence and influence of world leaders on Twitter, a social network where users can publish messages of 140 characters or less, called...

For full disclosure, NONE of these are real (I've done too many pieces people thought were real, I have to specify now)

(Newsday) Fox News host Geraldo Rivera tweeted, then deleted, a nearly-naked self photo on Sunday morning in an online faux pas amazingly similar to the scandal that engulfed former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Thankfully, the photo did not feature the 70-year-old anchor’s, erm, parts. “70 is the new 50 (Erica and family are going to be so pissed … but at my age … )” the host of “Geraldo At Large” wrote in his early morning tweet, attaching a shirtless, self-shot photo of him wearing his signature red glasses and a towel that’s a bit too low for comfort. After...

Some things you just can't unsee. Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera took a break from tweeting about the week's biggest news stories early Sunday morning to share a more personal tweet — a nude selfie.

Much as liberals attacked conservative talk radio host Larry Elder for his comments about this issue Wednesday, Twitter exploded with vulgar racial epithets towards Cosby and Barkley Thursday (extreme vulgarity warning):

It’s hard to describe the days following last weekend’s Zimmerman verdict as educational, but we have surely learned some things. Some are uplifting, some downright depressing. But for what they are worth, here are my ten top takeaways from a crazy week: 1. Sometimes, even in these cynical times, a jury gets it right. Here in the era of O.J. and the $3 million hot coffee civil suit, it is easy to grow jaded about the failings of our human jury system. But on rare occasions, under the harsh glare and pressure of public scrutiny, jurors will gather and surround...