Free Republic

Jane Lynch, whose "Glee" character, Sue Sylvester, thrives on offending, said a polarizing figure like Ann Coulter would never be invited on the show.

WABC/Channel 7 weather babe Heidi Jones was arrested for perpetrating the ultimate snow job -- falsely claiming to cops that a man had tried to rape her while she was jogging in Central Park, sources said yesterday.

After tonight's final dances, Dancing With the Stars may need to consider a name change. That's because the winner might well be someone who's not much of a dancer and isn't really a star.Seven weeks out of nine, Bristol Palin – 20-year-old "teen activist" and daughter of Sarah – finished in last place with the judges but was saved by viewers' votes, eliminating a string of better dancers and bigger celebrities along the way.

"NBC: Keith Olbermann has been dropped from the 'Football Night in America' ...

Keith "Uberdork" Olbermann was showing off a new brunette girlfriend at Monday night's Yankees game.

We asked in May: "Which producer for a dorky cable anchor has been complaining to colleagues that she's tired of his notoriously nasty behavior?"

Politicos are snickering at the plight of Sen. Charles Schumer, who holds more press conferences than any other lawmaker but can't seem to connect with the public. His book, "Positively American," released in 2007, sold 9,000 copies in hardcover and fewer than 1,000 in paperback, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 75 percent of the nation's book sales. By comparison, Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" sold 1 million copies in two weeks. Quipped one political insider, "His book sales seem to mirror the pathetic poll numbers of his hand-puppet Senator Kirsten Gillibrand."

"Since the last election, I no longer have to pretend to be Captain Canada when I travel abroad."

Barack Obama's victory could turn Gus Van Sant into a boring filmmaker. The "Milk" director tells The Times of London that a Democratic administration has traditionally coincided with a less adventurous artistic tenor. "Art tends to get quite good when the regime is oppressive. The films I've made under friendlier leaders, like Clinton, have become less challenging...."

Keith Olbermann is again being an embarrassment to MSNBC. The cable channel and MySpace have teamed up to choose two "citizen journalist" correspondents to cover the upcoming national political conventions. The "journalists" will be featured both on MySpace and MSNBC's campaign coverage. A spy said, "Every anchor is onboard and willing to play along, except Keith. He refuses to participate because MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp." - which also owns Fox News and The Post. A rep for Olbermann said, "There are no plans for the contest winners to be on any programs other than 'Morning Joe.'...

Want a yard sign expressing your support for Barack Obama or John McCain? Be prepared to pay for it. Campaign yard signs have traditionally been free, but when Lake Highlands resident Mike Norris contacted the local Obama headquarters about picking one up, they told him to bring cash.

The Dallas Housing Authority begins accepting online applications today for court-ordered rental assistance available to black residents who want to live in predominantly white neighborhoods.The DHA is required to offer the vouchers only to blacks as part of a court settlement to address past discrimination....

If only John McCain could use surrogates instead of having to debate Barack Obama in person. The other day in Toronto, McCain's team, his foreign-policy adviser Niall Ferguson and conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, crushed the Obama squad - Samantha Power, who had to step down from his campaign after calling Hillary Clinton "a monster," and Richard Holbrooke, who was Bill Clinton's UN ambassador. Before the debate, only 21 percent of the audience agreed with the motion that "the world is a safer place with a Republican in the White House." Two hours later, the mostly liberal, anti-George Bush crowd had...

Nearly 60 House Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to examine whether top Bush administration officials may have committed crimes in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. In a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said is "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas. An independent investigation is needed to determine whether such actions violated U.S or international law, the letter stated.

Protesters against the Texas-Mexico border fence will launch a nine-day march at the Rio Grande today, starting at Roma, Texas, and ending in Brownsville. The 115-mile march is organized in part by schoolteachers at U.S. border schools who say they don't want to see a fence cleave through entwined communities.

All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors." The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too. The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show. At The Rock, a...

The New York Times is always for higher taxes. But publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. doesn't relish paying Uncle Sam any more than he has to. The Post's Braden Keil reports "Pinch" just sold his duplex Central Park-fronting apartment at 1 W. 64th St. to his wife, Gail Gregg, for the relatively low price of $3.25 million, according to city transfers. When quizzed about the odd transaction, a Times spokeswoman said: "The sale was done for estate-planning purposes." Neighbors in the building include Madonna, who briefly put her like-sized duplex on the market for $6.75 million in 1997.

Tammy Lynn Michaels ought to wash her mouth out with soap. The lesbian "wife" of rocker Melissa Etheridge calls President Bush "an idiotic, parasitical, country-raping piece of [bleep]" on her blog, HollywoodFarm Girl. "How does Laura [Bush] lay her head down at night?" Michaels' constructive and civil rant goes on to call Karl Rove a "sweaty little piggish Oompa-Loompa Elmer Fudd ass." And if the ad ministration doesn't like her hate-filled profanity, she taunts, "Come arrest me, you [bleep]ers."

JOHN McCain's wife, Cindy, blames the GOP for her presidential-hopeful hubby's war-chest woes. "Listen, all Republicans are doing badly with fund-raising," she tells the September issue of More. "The reason we are is because of the state of our party. To blame it on one particular candidate is simply not fair." She also says she's doesn't think about what it would it be like living in the White House as first lady - "You know, I've never gotten close to that question, because I don't want to jinx it."

HOUSTON – A 15-year-old boy who slammed a stolen car into a freight train parked at a railroad crossing has been charged with murder in the deaths of four passengers. Bobby Davis of Baytown was booked into a juvenile detention center Thursday and is scheduled for a Friday detention hearing. His family's attorney, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, but previously pointed to the train as the problem.