Free Republic

The clown prince of crime is alive and mentally unwell in Gotham City in Todd Phillips' grippingly atmospheric supervillain origin story, Joker. While a never-better Joaquin Phoenix paints on the famed maniacal smile with his own blood at one memorable climactic moment of messianic rebirth, what's most noteworthy about this gritty entry in the DC canon and the lead actor's sensational performance is the pathos he brings to a pathetically disenfranchised character — just like countless others in a metropolis in which the social chasm separating the haves from the have-nots has become a pit of incendiary rage. The smart...

An apt comparison is actually cinematic classic Citizen Kane, a man whose vast wealth fueled an even bigger ego, an obsessive need for public adoration and, like Trump, a birthright entitlement to high elective office Marc Fisher’s Washington Post comparison of Donald Trump to 1957s A Face in the Crowd fictional movie character Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, an anti-hero played brilliantly by Andy Griffith, is a superficial one at best. University of Pennsylvania Ivy Leaguer, Mr. Trump may be a showman in the vein of P.T. Barnum—a candid, uncensored, larger than life presentation style like Rhodes—but the billionaire is no folksy...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- On the first day of early voting, two new ads were released to abc13. Both of them are available here, but we are told will start airing on broadcast and cable television Tuesday. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick held a news conference Monday to unveil his offering. In the 30-second spot paid for by Patrick's campaign, the Lt. Governor stands against a flag draped background and tells viewers, "City of Houston Prop One is not about equality. That is already the law of the land. It's about allowing men in women's locker rooms and bathrooms."

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) unleashed a furious attack on the Bush administration at a Brown University speech yesterday, upbraiding the president’s response to the hurricane that recently devastated the Gulf Coastand tying it to what he sees as other flaws at the White House. “This is the Katrina administration,” read prepared remarks posted on 2004 Democratic presidential nominee’s website, www.johnkerry.com. “Katrina is a symbol of all this administration does and doesn't do,” read Kerry’s script, portions of which were included in an e-mail to supporters that ended with a fundraising appeal. “Michael Brown [Bush’s former emergency-management director] … is to...

September 19, 2005 Senator John Kerry's Speech at Brown University Remarks As Prepared for Delivery Providence, RI - Thank you for your invitation to be here. It’s rare for me to speak at a university like Brown. Usually I don’t speak at a football factory. I want to personally thank those of you who generously lent your efforts to my campaign last year. No one showed more passion than the thousands of students from across the country who knocked on doors, wore out shoes, endured desert heat and arctic cold and probably damaged their GPA's to get out the vote....

Contact: RNC Press Office 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON –RNC Press Secretary Tracey Schmitt issued the following statement on Senator John Kerry’s remarks at Brown University this afternoon.“John Kerry's attacks on President Bush's efforts to assist the victims and rebuild the Gulf Coast don't come as a surprise - armchair quarterbacking on tough issues has never been a problem for Senator Kerry.  Such tactics haven’t served him well in the past and today is no exception. The American people have pulled together during a difficult time and Democrats’ efforts to politicize this tragedy are unsavory at best.”

COLUMBUS -- As Republican officials stonewall subpoenas and subvert the recount process, Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud fiasco "the biggest deal since Selma" and has called for a national rally at "the scene of the crime" in Columbus January 3. Another major national demonstration will follow in Washington on January 6, as Congress evaluates the Electoral College. Should at least one US Representative and one Senator challenge the electors' votes, a Constitutional crisis could ensue.

WASHINGTON — Is this another John Kerry flip-flop? Less than three weeks after vowing in defeat to sweep aside partisan bickering, Kerry is slamming the White House for "a right-wing assault on values and ideals that we hold most deeply." In a new four-minute Internet ad on his campaign Web site, Kerry paints a doomsday future based on Bush's recent nods to fill vacated Cabinet posts. "The Cabinet is being remade to rubber-stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reform in health care and education, weaken homeland security and walk away from critical allies...

Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun October 13, 2004 An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service. The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in...

Cong for Kerry Nightline interview at VC village where Kerry got his questionable Silver Star. VC display extraordinary memory of a 35 year old event, that mysteroiusly coincides with third version of Kerrys SS citation.

Marlon Brando may have possessed the greatest talent of any American actor of the past 100 years, but for most of his career, he wasted that talent. Charley Malloy: Look, kid, I -- how much you weigh, son? When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful. You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast. Terry Malloy: It wasn't him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night....

The following was sent to a Marine chat net by a retired Marine Master Sergeant who was in S-2, 3rd Bn, 1st Marines, Korea in 1954. It calls into serious question John Kerry's military actions in Vietnam. We present it to give our readers another perspective to the media's one-sided "war hero" adulation, and to open his actions to the light of public discourse. -- The Editors. I was in the Delta shortly after John Kerry left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used, and...

RIDING THE OPEN RANGE - The Western Hero Returns By Don Feder With guns blazing and horses kicking up dust, the Western hero has returned. “Open Range,” recently released on DVD and video, offers the best recent example of the Western hero, a man thought to be obsolete in an age of cynicism and despair – but now riding proudly into the sunrise. The quintessential Western hero is strong, soft-spoken, tough, courageous, honorable and self-effacing. He’s Gary Cooper heading for the showdown in “High Noon,” Gregory Peck telling his fiancé “I’m not responsible for what people think, only for what...