Free Republic

CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd criticized President Donald Trump for revealing plans for secret talks with the Taliban, noting it defeats the purpose of sensitive peace talks. “We shouldn’t even be talking about this right now,” Vinograd told CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield Sunday. “In the sense I worked under President [Barack] Obama, I was involved in setting up secret negotiations with the Taliban and other unsavory characters. There’s a reason they’re kept secret. “It’s so this doesn’t play out in the court of public opinion while there’s important details to hammer out, while you give both sides room to...

Fox channels have mentioned the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for 42 consecutive days, a study has found. The 29-year-old liberal star received at least 3,181 mentions in six weeks from Fox News or its sister Fox Business, according to research by Media Matters for America, a not-for-profit media watchdog. The finding will reinforce perceptions that Fox, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is obsessed by Ocasio-Cortez, portraying her as a radical socialist who threatens the American way of life.

The runner-up, Jim Thompson, the owner of the right wing website Free Republic, which has moderated comments, meaning a grown up is supposed to read them and delete the crazier ones. But Thompson‘s folks waited as long as three days removing a comment thread devoted to the racist rage of a disturbing large number of his posters, possibly some of the same people who had previously conducted polls on the site on how best to topple the freely elected government of the United States. After President Obama‘s daughter appeared in a t-shirt with a peace sign on it at the...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, returning from the southern city of Basra, claimed Tuesday that a week-old operation against Shiite militias has been a "success" despite a cease-fire that did not disarm the gunmen and left him politically battered. The Shiite leader stopped short of declaring an end to the offensive that began a week ago Tuesday in Basra, sparking retaliatory clashes in Baghdad and other southern cities, and criticism that his government was unprepared for the fierce backlash. Militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, meanwhile, thanked his fighters for "defending your people, your land and your honor." Sporadic fighting...

When The Bee's Bobby Caina Calvan volunteered for a six-week reporting stint in Iraq, he didn't have the faintest notion he would be nominated for an award. Just a few days into his assignment, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin did the honors, nominating Calvan for "Jerk of the Year." That was just the beginning of the accolades. In a matter of days, bloggers and their flock of sheep across the country were calling Calvan an "immature human," "a pompous ass," "disrespectful," an "embarrassment," and an "anti-American military" ideologue. There were more, but you can't print them in the newspaper. What was...

Four years after President Bush launched the U.S. attack on Iraq, the fighting continues with no end in sight. Would you support a presidential candidate who backs continued U.S. military involvement?

I just read an article from MSNBC that has a new poll out from newsweek stating that the GOP is in meltdown. My confusion is the poll claimed most americans now trusted the democrats on the war on terror and with moral values because of the Foley mess. Is this believable? I fail to see what the war on terror has to do with Foley. I am not sure of the sampling. Does anybody have any info on the polls at this time in 2002? I remember the GOP not polling well in 2004 but not in 2002.

After winning the primary with not quite 50 percent of the vote, U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris is shoring up her Republican base as she faces a tough incumbent who is far less polarizing and has far more campaign cash. But beyond red-meat Republicans, the Longboat Key congresswoman is not getting much more in the way of votes, according to a Zogby International poll conducted for The Miami Herald that shows she trails U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by 27 percentage points.

Across the country, the income gap between blacks and whites remains wide, and nowhere more so than in Manhattan. But just a river away, a very different story is unfolding. In Queens, the median income among black households, nearing $52,000 a year, has surpassed that of whites in 2005, an analysis of new census data shows. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim. The gains among blacks in Queens, the city’s quintessential middle-class borough, were driven largely by the growth of two-parent families and the successes of immigrants from the West Indies....

NYT SPLASH THURSDAY: SENATE IN PLAY; DEM CHANCE FOR CONTROL IMPROVES Wed Sep 27 2006 18:24:35 NEW YORK TIMES editors have set a Page One Splash on Thursday claiming: Democrats suddenly face a map with new and unexpected opportunities to regain control of the Senate! "We are leading the paper with it," a newsroom source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has spoken up in support of her husband Bill’s defense of his anti-terror efforts, saying she’s tired of Democrats being pushed around on national security issues. "I just think that my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take this,” she said on Monday in remarks reported by Newsday. In a heated discussion with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday,” Bill Clinton said that as president, he did more than many of his conservative critics to pursue al-Qaida, and alleged that President Bush didn’t try to stop terrorism in the eight...

PARIS (AP) - The head of terrorist network al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has died, according to information from the Saudi police, transmitted by the Directorate-General of External Services (DGSE), and reported on the Lorraine daily newspaper L'Est republicain in its Saturday edition. "According to a commonly reliable source, the Saudi police believes that Osama Bin Laden has died," said a September 21st confidential note from the DGSE classified as "defense." L'Est republicain will publish it in its Saturday edition. The note, specified the daily newspaper, would be re-printed "un-edited." According to the note to be published by the L'Est...

ORLANDO, Fla. - President Bush came to Florida on Thursday and publicly complimented Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) for the first time since she won the GOP Senate nomination over the opposition of her own party. "I'm proud to be here with Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who is running for Senate," Bush told a crowd of about 400 people at a fundraising event in Tampa. The brief acknowledgment came after months of unsuccessful efforts by Republican leaders to push Harris out of the race in hopes of finding a candidate they felt had a better chance of winning against...

NEW YORK - Editing changes made by ABC to the first part of its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" were cosmetic and didn't change the meaning of scenes that had angered several former Clinton administration officials, a spokesman for the former president said Monday. As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him. "He made the choice that most Americans made," said Jay Carson, Clinton Foundation spokesman. "Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 or the Manning brothers playing football against one another, he chose the latter." The movie...

BILL CLINTON responded furiously yesterday to an American television mini-series about the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which portrays him as so distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that he failed to focus on the emerging threat of Osama bin Laden. Senior Clinton Administration officials, including Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State, and Sandy Berger, the former National Security Adviser, also demanded yesterday that ABC either substantially edit or cancel its two-part The Path to 9/11, claiming that the drama was defamatory. The programme is also being shown by the BBC. The five-hour drama, which will be shown...

by Mark Finkelstein September 9, 2006 - 09:07 America, you ignorant Islamophobes! Alright, maybe it's not all your fault. Your anti-Muslim attitudes have been "stoked" by "inflammatory rhetoric" from . . . President Bush. That was the basic message of a segment narrated by Ron Claiborne this morning entitled "9/11 Remembered: Islamophobia" on ABC's Good Morning America. ABC made a weak case for the existence of widespread 'Islamophobia' in America. Let's imagine, for example, that 19 Jews had flown planes into iconic buildings in, say, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan - or France, for that matter. What do you think would befall...

The author of The Path to 9/11 is going to be LIVE, in-studio on The John Ziegler Show at 8pm Pacific. You can listen live ONLINE or if you're in Southern CA, tune in to KFI at 640AM. From John Ziegler.Com: If you want to tell ABC to not cave to Clinton's demands in the editing of "The Path to 9/11," call 818-460-7477. If you want to complain about the movies lessons plans being dropped by "Scholastic," go to this link for contact information. http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/offices/index.htm

ABC toned down a scene that involved Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, declining to give the order to kill bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who declined to be identified. "That sequence has been the focus of attention," the source said. The network also decided that the credits would say the film is based "in part" on the 9/11 panel report, rather than "based on" the report, as the producers originally intended.