Free Republic

October 09, 2004, 9:51 a.m. Fair and Balanced! Why can’t all debates have such good questions? By Tim Graham What does a critic of liberal media bias do when liberal media bias pretty much fails to occur? Cheer, or say, "Man, now I don't have anything to write about?" On Friday morning, ABC's Charles Gibson explained that he would have the power to select which "uncommitted" voters collected by Gallup would ask questions of Bush and Kerry. "We will eliminate some that seem, you know, superfluous or seem redundant, or whatever. And then I simply pick some at random, trying...

Andrea Mitchell on Imus just now. Imus this morning is stumbling through the Sandy Berger story to the extent he does not know why the documents were stolen by Berger. Of course, it is confusing to many --mainly because the press wont report it right. Imus asked her the crucial question: why would he steal these things if the original were still there? Mitchell gave no answer only repeating that Berger claims he did not put documents in his pants and socks. Of course, the story is that Berger took several versions of the Clinton White House after action report...

When dumb is deadly Kathleen Parker (back to web version) | Send May 8, 2004 When President Bush told the world that abuses at Abu Ghraib prison do not reflect American values, he was right. The best American values, in spirit if not always in practice, respect human life, dignity and the rule of law. But some of what happened at Abu Ghraib, specifically the sexualized humiliations, may reflect American culture, especially in the instance of the naked human pyramid, which is nearly iconographic within the adolescent zeitgeist that spawned our current generation of soldiers. The images from Abu Ghraib,...

<p>This war is also about sex Charles Krauthammer (archive) May 7, 2004 | Print | Send WASHINGTON -- On Sept. 11, America awoke to the great jihad, wondering: What is this about? We have come to agree on the obvious answers: religion, ideology, political power and territory. But there is one fundamental issue at stake that dares not speak its name. This war is also about -- deeply about -- sex.</p>

BUSH'S MBA: A fellow student and subsequent professor analyzes George W. Bush from the Harvard Business School perspective. It's interesting reading. Money quote: By reputation, the President was a very avid and skillful poker player when he was an MBA student. One of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W. Bush’s political career. He is not one to loudly proclaim his strengths at the beginning of a campaign. Instead, he bides his time,...

On ABC's This Week with George Stephonopoulous, the top US Bishop, Gregory Wilton, was totally unwilling to condemn homosexual priests. George S. gave him multiple opportunities to say what is obvious: that Church laxity as to homosexual priests and seminaries and priest-cliques of gay priests and bishops, have all conspired to result in [A] the child abuse and teenaged boy sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the past 30-35 years; and [B] the Church hierarchy's impotent response to the surfacing of this abuse--namely shuffling priests from place to place where they retain the Church's bona fides in order to pounce...

Kerry is on Fox News Sunday now showing what a complete idiot he is. This appearance will destroy him. He is showing that he is tone deaf to the capture of the butcher of Baghdad and ... anyhting else. I feel Wallace eviscerated him by simply asking trenchant questions and letting the buffon pompously insist that at this moment of triumph, bush should sieze the opportunity to adopt Kerry's entire --internationalize with our "traditional" allies. He says the news is "terrific" but he shows thaqt he hates it. Kerry denies the facts. Wallace pointed out a speech last week where...

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michael/kelly112900.asp

<p>Terrorists' Friends Must Pay a Price The advice President Clinton should have followed.</p> <p>Events of the past two months have made clear that we must take significant new steps to fight terrorism. It is my responsibility to the American people to show them that their government will not tolerate attacks on her citizens here or abroad. For too long the terrorists have had the initiative. Now we must act decisively to change the dynamic by returning to the basic principles of our counterterrorism policy.</p>

<p>A young news reporter is sacked after editors discover he's been writing fake stories. The embarrassed publication details the deception and issues an earnest apology to readers. Then the chattering classes descend for a news cycle of navel gazing.</p> <p>If the perpetrator is Stephen Glass, the white fabulist fired five years ago from the New Republic magazine, he is just another ethically challenged youngster who made some very bad decisions in life. But if the perpetrator is Jayson Blair, the black fabulist who resigned two weeks ago from the New York Times, he is an example of affirmative action run amok.</p>

O'Reiley is saying that Florida Legislature will act to certify Bush is US Supreme Court does not act to reverse Florida Supreme Court. However, some say Bush is already certified by Katherine Harris and FL Legislature does not need to act. But let's say Gore wins his election contest. How does that get certified? And if there is a way for the original certification to get "corrected" [and presumably this mechanism must exist OW there would be no sense to a contest] then Bush would get screwed. This was the scenario that I [& presumably O'Reiley] thought the Legislature acting ...

On Tony Snow's panel discussion on FNN just now, the point was made that one Florida Supreme Court justice asked the Broward County lawyer about the county having changed their standards for manual recounting in the middle of the game once they had started their manual recounting. Then, the lawyer was asked what standard did Broward County use in the past. THIS WAS A GREAT QUESTION and I remember thinking that at the time. IF THEY HAD A NO DIMPLE OR ONLY TWO CORNER STANDARD BEFORE, THERE WOULD BE A LOT HARDER BASIS FOR CHANGING THE STANDARD NOW. The lawyer ...