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AP: Palin is a Racist By Warner Todd Huston Created 2008-10-05 12:22 Talk about an idiotic assertion, but the Associated Press just claimed that Governor Sarah Palin is a racist for saying that Obama used to "pal around with terrorists." According to the AP's Douglass K. Daniel, Palin is a racist [1] because the word "terrorist" is construed now-a-days to mean a "dark-skinned radical Muslim" so that makes her a "racist" in his blinkered view. See, it isn't overt, according to Daniel, but there is a "subtext," don't you know? And, yes, he's serious with this absurd claim, sadly. This...

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign. And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret. First, Palin's attack shows that her energetic debate with rival Joe Biden may be just the beginning, not the end, of a sharpened role in the battle to win the presidency. .... more at link

Washington (ANI): American filmmaker Oliver Stone thinks that President George W. Bush behaves like a 'bully' during press conferences. The director, whose biopic of the American leader 'W' is scheduled for release in November, says that the president's behaviour during question-answer sessions with reports seems to show that he is quite 'impatient'. He also says that the leader reveals his intimidating nature by giving certain journalists nicknames. "Ever notice how impatient Bush is at press conferences with questions, like, "What right do you have to ask me a question?". I would say he's a bully. It's classic bully syndrome. The...

According to CNN’s Jack Cafferty, the explanation for the close poll numbers between Senators McCain and Obama - the only reason – is race. It has to be, according to him. What else makes sense? Read the story here. The same way Democrats can never simply disagree with a Republican without labeling him or her as bad, or underhanded, or corrupt, or acting with an ulterior motive, so goes their interpretation of the poll numbers. Racism, for example, must be the reason the polls are as tight as they are. Add to that the fact that Republicans are masters in...

To show the empty "logic" that Jack Cafferty of CNN employs in his political commentary all one need do is check out his September 16 Political Ticker blog post on why the race for the White House is so tight in the polls. Reason: the country is filled with racists.

Watch comedian and political commentator Bill Maher as he discusses the presidential race with The Situation Room's Wolf Blitzer. Maher is the host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." CNN and HBO are both part of the Time Warner family of companies.

From: info@barackobama.com(Barack Obama) Date: Thu, Sep 4, 2008, 8:36pm (PDT+3) To: DELETED BY ME Subject: The attacks King Vanity Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people? With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing. Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities. You may have missed it, but we also showed the country a...

Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November. Thirty-nine percent (39%) also believe the GOP vice presidential nominee has better experience to be president of the United States than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. But 49% give Obama the edge on experience, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken before Palin's historic speech Wednesday night to the Republican National Convention. While Republicans and Democrats predictably favor their party's...

In June, Governor Brad Henry vetoed the “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act,” a piece of legislature authored by Sen. James Williamson and infamous fundamentalist Rep. Sally Kern. If passed, this bill would have, among other things, guaranteed that “students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions.” You read that correctly. Answer on a test that the universe began 6,000 years ago with a few words from the mouth of an invisible, magical entity rather than 13.73 billion years ago with the expansion...

The article is not up (yet) on the Gallup website, but the graph clearly shows McCain up 46-44!!

One day after reports that a new book slamming presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama would debut in the top spot on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, his campaign called the author “a discredited, fringe bigot” and sent reporters a 41-page memo laying out alleged inaccuracies in his latest release, “Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.” "Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage in order to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. "His is one of what will likely be many...

By viewing evolution as the motion of energy flows toward a stationary state (entropy), evolution can be explained by the second law of thermodynamics, a law which conventionally describes physical systems. In this view, a cheetah serves as an energy transfer mechanism, and beneficial mutations allow the animal to transfer more energy within its environment, helping even out the energy.

The Associated Press announced Thursday that it would be expanding its entertainment coverage with a multi-million dollar investment in a celebrity news service. The new service, called "Celebrity Extra," will focus on A-list celebrities. A video version of the service launched Wednesday for global broadcast and video markets. A photo version will launch next month. "Entertainment is a significant growth area -– particularly for visual images of the top stars," said AP Directior of Entertainment Dan Becker in a statement. "We bring a unique combination of video, photos and text to the market, providing coverage with a global reach." AP...

Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky, by A.M. Kinney Associates. At a time when museums are accused of turning themselves into theme parks, along comes a bizarre new institution that makes Walt Disney World seem like the Albertina. This is not surprising, since the displays of cartoonish dinosaurs and humanoids at the Creation Museum—devised to supplant Darwin’s theory of evolution with a Bible-based fantasia of the world’s origins—were dreamed up by a former Universal Studios designer, Patrick Marsh. I use the term “institution” in both the museological and the psychiatric sense, because this only-in-America loony bin is no more a museum than...

H.L. Mencken said during the Scopes Trial in 1925 that "those religious groups leading the war against the teaching of evolution are conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters." The proponents of teaching the God-creation theology in public schools have not given up despite the U.S. Supreme Court rulings like the 1987 case where Louisiana tried to use code words for teaching creationism, calling it the Balanced Treatment Act. Other code words for sneaking God into science class are "intelligent design" and "academic freedom." And these anti-evolutionists lobby state legislatures and put political pressure on school boards to subvert...

ABC NEWS' NATALIE GEWARGIS REPORTS: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can’t seem to make any stops along his whirlwind tour without a press parade following him. But if you’ve only read Iraq's papers Tuesday morning, you wouldn’t even know the presumptive nominee was there. With the exception of one paper, Asharq Al-Awsat, a widely read Saudi publication, most local and regional papers seemed decidedly under-whelmed by the candidate’s visit. Local issues dominated the headlines, including news of increasing typhoid outbreaks, a full Iraqi cabinet meeting (for the first time in about a year), and a story about the frequency of Iraqi...

I'm a lifelong Republican - a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I served on Bob Dole's presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp's Empower America. This November, I'm voting for Barack Obama. When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost everything I believe in? The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional...

He was a fighter pilot in World War II, bombing targets in Europe to stop Hitler. But former Senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern says that didn't qualify him to run the country--and the same goes for GOP presumptive nominee John McCain. ``I don't have any regrets about that,'' the antiwar Democratic stalwart said in a brief interview yesterday on Capitol Hill. ``While bombing is a terrible thing, we smashed Hitler's oil refineries all over Europe.'' ``But I don't recall ever saying that experience as a bomber pilot equipped me to be very strong on how to run...

24 June 2008 Zagreb _ A former US ambassador to Croatia has accused Zagreb of plotting and sanctioning the exodus of Serbs in 1995 to create an "ethnically clean" country. Peter Galbraith told The Hague war crimes trial of three Croatian generals, that the leadership headed by late President Franjo Tudjman used ‘Operation Storm’ to ‘cleanse’ Croatia of Serbs. “Croatian authorities either ordered or allowed a mass destruction of the Serb property in former (Serb-held region of) Krajina to prevent the return of the population. I consider that to have been a thought through policy,” he said, testifying at the...

Yes, that's right boys and girls. The report that many politco-geeks have been waiting YEARS to read, has finally been released; the Senate Intelligence Committee's Investigative Report on Pre-War Intelligence About Saddam's Iraq. We've waited FIVE YEARS for clear evidence that Bush lied, and what do we get....(insert Price Is Right style drum roll here): A report that is purely political and partisanand a report that has nothing to do with Iraq, but looks at Bush Administration officials who had "talks" w Iran before the war, but failed to go through CIA and State Dept channels. Several things strike me...

The Bush administration is crazy for mounting so vigorous a defense to the McClellan book, talking about what an ungrateful sleaze he is. All this publicity is just helping book sales and leaving the average person with the impression that a top Bush official wrote a tell-all book saying that Bush was a phony on the war in Iraq. But the fact is that McClellan's book doesn't have anything in it. It makes NO important new revelations. It says Bush was negligent on Katrina. So the news? Then he used "propaganda" to convince us to invade Iraq - well, what...

WASHINGTON - John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, becoming the latest adviser to leave the Republican's presidential campaign because of ties to lobbyists. Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, one of McCain's key fundraisers, resigned after the campaign last week instructed staff to disclose all lobbying ties and to make certain they are no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents. McCain's campaign on Sunday confirmed Loeffler's resignation. Loeffler lobbies for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which with Northrop Grumman Corp. won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped...

BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive. What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,”...

President Bush will never live down “Mission Accomplished” — and should not. When the White House’s spinners spun that claim five years ago (remember the aircraft carrier?), it seemed cocky and premature. As Mr. Bush continues his $526 billion war-without-end in Iraq, it seems stunningly deceitful. The only mission that needs to be accomplished is an orderly exit from Iraq, and Mr. Bush is no closer to acknowledging that reality. Neither is Senator John McCain. All Congress seems capable of is hand-wringing. So it is up to Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to revive the national debate on...

John Cusack is outraged over the Iraq war, so the U.S. actor channeled his anger into a low-budget political satire -- complete with a chorus line of scantily clad female amputees -- that he hopes will offend. Inspired by anger about the war and questions about the political power held by global corporations, "War, Inc" is set in Turaqistan, a fictional nation occupied by a private U.S. company called Tamerlane and run by a former American vice president. Cusack helped write the screenplay and also stars with Sir Ben Kingsley, Marisa Tomei and Hilary Duff in the film, which premiered...

Well well well. For perhaps the first time in history, the mainstream media have deemed the dismemberment of Serbs newsworthy. More accurately, they have deemed newsworthy the dismemberment of the Serb and non-Serb victims of our friends, and almost all living Albanians’ great heroes, the KLA. (Recall the crowds cheering “KLA! KLA! KLA!” last month from Tirana to Pristina to Times Square. Below is just a taste of one of the many KLA activities they were cheering.) The new information is revealed in the forthcoming book The Hunt by Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor for the Hague Tribunal. A...

Is your name on the list? This just in: If you're an obscenely wealthy drug-dealing pedophile stem-cell researcher who drives a Hummer and doesn't recycle, you are totally going to hell. Oh please, like you didn't already know. Hey, the Catholic Church wouldn't lie, mister. The Big Book o' Deadly Sins apparently has a whole new addendum and it looks like it ain't just gluttony and lust and murder and hot porn and witchcraft and coveting thy neighbor's way cool Flickr photo stream anymore. That stuff is for wimps. Serfs. Lutherans. The Vatican is trying to get serious. Modern. Hip,...

Bush administration is 8 years of failure Friday, March 14, 2008 11:41 AM EDT As the Bush presidency winds down we can reflect on what never should have been, like the Iraq war and the attack upon civil rights. But equally important is to consider what might have been, had this president met the needs of the nation.

Iran's bad behavior blamed on Bush March 15, 2008 By Rowan Scarborough - Sen. Barack Obama's most senior military adviser says President Bush is to blame for Iran's bad behavior. The assessment from an interview with retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak provides a glimpse into how an Obama administration would deal with Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called repeatedly for the destruction of Israel, is pursuing nuclear weapons in the opinion of some national security experts, and his Revolutionary Guard is training Iraqis to kill American military personnel in Iraq. Earlier this month, Mr. Ahmadinejad said of Israel,...

This season continues to be no country for network award shows. Following the lowest-rated Emmys since 1990, the strike-hindered ratings performance of a severely truncated version of the Golden Globes and a nonstruck airing of the Grammys that nonetheless disappointed, Sunday night's presentation of the 80th Annual Academy Awards on ABC hit an all-time ratings low. According to overnight fast national ratings, the awards averaged a 10.7 rating among adults 18 to 49 and was seen by 32 million viewers. In the demo, that's down a sharp 24% from last year and the lowest on record. Among viewers, that's a...

Oscar Ceremony Not So Golden With Ratings Posted By:Julia Boorstin Topics:Advertising | Movies & Film Studios | Television | Media Sectors:Media Companies:Walt Disney CoThe preliminary ratings numbers are out and Nielsen Media Research is saying that ratings for the Academy Awards telecast last night were some 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever, which was 2003, when 33 million people watched. And these preliminary ratings are also 21 percent lower than last year. Advertisers look to the Oscars, nicknamed "the Super Bowl for women" to reach a mass audience of more affluent women. Last year 40 million people watched...

LOS ANGELES — The Oscars were a ratings dud. More so than usual, even. Preliminary ratings for the 80th annual Academy Awards telecast were 14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever, according to Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen said Monday that overnight ratings were also 21 percent lower than last year, when "The Departed" was named best picture. The least-watched Oscars ceremony ever was in 2003, when there were 33 million viewers. [Snip] Nielsen has no estimate yet on how many people watched Sunday night, but based on ratings from the nation's biggest markets, the Oscars will be hard-pressed to...

VATICAN CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Serbia took its campaign against Kosovo's independence to the Vatican on Thursday when its ambassador told Pope Benedict that "moral principles" alone showed it was an injustice. But the Pontiff, receiving Serbia's ambassador to the Holy See, steered clear of the dispute and renewed his call for all sides to show restraint. "With regard to the current crisis in Kosovo, I call upon all interested parties to act with prudence and moderation, and to seek solutions that favour mutual respect and reconciliation," the Pontiff said. Sunday's declaration of independence by Kosovo, which has a...

In a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a conservative “declaration of independence” from the Republican Party. He also warned that Republicans face a “catastrophic” election this year unless the GOP changes course. Gingrich pointed out that on Super Tuesday, 14.6 million voters took part in the Democratic races, compared to 8.3 million Republicans. “There were 14.6 million Democrats who thought the presidential nomination was worth voting for, and there were 8.3 million Republicans on Super Tuesday,” Gingrich said. “That is a warning of a catastrophic election. I was...

A coronation is fine within a political party but not a battle between two of them. Americans deserve a meaningful choice. Most of this presidential election year will overlap with the Chinese Year of the Rat, which starts two days after 'Super Duper Tuesday' on February 5. As far as the Republican nomination is concerned, many commentators have implied, this is wholly appropriate. For who but a rodent would want to stand between the first female or first black President and the Oval Office? Besides which, the opposing field consists of a cast who can be and have been dismissed...

12/28/2007 Senator Kerry: Veto of Defense Authorization Bill a "Disgrace" Boston, MA – Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today regarding President Bush's expected veto of H.R. 1585, the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. "Only George Bush could be for supporting the troops before he was against it,” said Kerry. “We fought against this White House to provide our men and women in uniform a decent pay raise and now three days after Christmas George Bush says he'll veto it. What a disgrace. This fight has just begun and it won't end until we do right by...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 12/28/07 - Lahore, Rawalpindi, Kabul, Kandahar, Musa Qala, Helmand, Haditha, Ruwaydah, Iraq BREAKING: Kabul- Buzkashi game; European Union and UN thrown out BREAKING: Musa Qala - Taliban terrorists in the southern Helmand routed BREAKING: Rawalpindi, Pakistan, former premier Benazir Bhutto murdered. BREAKING: Rawalpindi, Lahore, burnt vehicles to protest the murder Haditha, Iraq - Heroes on patrol in the waterways of the Haditha Dam Forward Operating Base Ruwaydah, Iraq - USAF Heroes identify ordnance found QFN ==== YE OLDE QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU WILL NOT SEE IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA...

Tony Romo Didn't Impress New Flame Jessica Simpson NEW YORK (CBS) ― You could say that Jessica Simpson wasn't a good luck charm for Dallas Cowboy star Tony Romo. Simpson, Romo's new girlfriend, was sitting in a luxury box with Romo's parents rooting for her man while wearing a pink Dallas Cowboy's jersey with his number (#9) on it. Romo, whose ex- girlfriend is Carrie Underwood, played terribly in their final home game before the playoffs, a 10-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Romo was 13-of-36, for 214 yards, with a career-low passer rating of 22.2. Ironically, Romo's worst rating...

Barbara Walters likes to receive Christmas greetings from high-profile celebrities and leaders, but apparently not if they refer to the Bible. On Thursday’s episode of ABC’s The View, Walters expressed dismay that President and Mrs. Bush would send out greetings containing Scripture. During the segment, Walters showed the other gals some of the “highfalutin Christmas cards,” and explained the White House card: “First of all, let me show you the cover of the White House, which is nice and bland…So that’s pleasant enough. This is what interested me, that it is a religious Christmas card. Usually in the past when...

Newt Gingrich is campaigning in Iowa this week — not for president, he says, but for his Platform for America. The timing of his appearances a month before the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses is leading political observers to suspect he's angling to be on the short list of running-mates for former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee or whoever is the Republican nominee. "This is not about being a candidate," Mr. Gingrich insisted in an e-mail exchange yesterday with The Washington Times. "It's about the issues in the...

There have been so many debates and interviews and columns and profiles and polls, it’s hard to believe the election for president is still about 11 months away. Recently, celebrity endorsements have been making news, with Oprah Winfrey saying she would campaign for Barack Obama and Barbra Streisand making the not-so-stunning announcement that she was supporting Hillary Clinton... ...the question remains: do these endorsements really translate into votes?...

MIDI - ALWAYS A WOMAN Riding on his coattails...that is her claim to fame For her qualifications, that really is lame What has she really done...there is nothing to see She says she's the woman so women must vote Hillary She was given the chance but her healthcare exploded She held meetings in secret, the judge duly noted What has she really done...there is nothing to see She says she is the woman so women must vote Hillary When we learned of the assaults that her husband had done What did Hillary do? She sent out her secret police...to...

Cartoon upsets Muslims Anton Ferreira Zapiro’s dig at a Sunday newspaper’s zero tolerance for Satanism upsets some readers. Cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro — better known as Zapiro — has riled Muslims with a cartoon that portrays Allah, but he is unrepentant. “I do these things because I believe in freedom of expression,” Shapiro said, acknowledging that his cartoon in the Cape Times yesterday had landed him in hot water. He said he understood the cartoon had provoked a flood of angry SMS messages from the Muslim community. It was drawn in support of columnist Deon Maas, who was fired by Rapport...

No matter how mean I am to her, she keeps trying to win me over. Maybe I should reconsider. Maybe she isn't really Satan's daughter and a threat to this republic second only to the Islamofascists. Have I misjudged this neo-Stalinist, unindicted, criminal mastermind? "...I'm so thankful to have you with me working for change." How sweet is that? She is reaching out to me. I guess I'll have to be nice to her for one day. Hillary, I hope you don't choke on a turkey bone. Really.

HORSHAM, England, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A British man was rushed to the hospital after his monster yawn locked his jaw, blocking his ability to breathe or swallow. Ben Shire, 34, was making a cup of tea to keep awake when he yawned, dislocating his jaw. He fell to the floor, unable to breathe or swallow, the Daily Telegraph reported. As he was choking on his own spit, Shire's wife called emergency services, which was able to resuscitate him by suctioning. "We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny at the time," Shire, from Horsham, said. "I couldn't...

In its final and most powerful report, a United Nations panel of scientists meeting here describes the mounting risks of climate change in language that is both more specific and forceful than its previous assessments, according to scientists here. Synthesizing reams of data from its three previous reports, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time specifically points out important risks if governments fail to respond: melting ice sheets that could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels and the extinction of large numbers of species brought about by even moderate amounts of warming, on...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Under pressure in a caustic campaign debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday night the American people "know where I stand" and accused her rivals of distorting her record and slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook.""There's nothing personal about this," countered former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who joined Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in bluntly accusing Clinton of forever switching positions on Social Security, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants and other issues."What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we have...

HOUMA - State Rep. Carla Dartez, D-Morgan City, said she is mulling withdrawl from the Nov. 17 runoff race after NAACP president Jerome Boykin says she referred to his mother as "Buckwheat."

<p>Civil rights leaders called Tuesday for a march on the Justice Department and an economic boycott next month because they believe the federal government has been sluggish in dealing with hate crimes.</p>

At a presidential campaign appearance last Sunday in California, Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he's considering introducing a new impeachment resolution against President Bush in light of statements the president has made that Kucinich interprets as a prelude to war with Iran. "This is not a funny thing I am about to say, and I want you to just be with me on it," Kucinich told an audience in Sierra Madre. "It's not funny at all. There's questions about his stability. Because, if he begins to talk openly about World War Three, I don't think anyone in their right...