Free Republic

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Highway signs welcome drivers entering North Carolina to “the nation’s most military friendly state,” and veterans here know they’re being courted. But in a state where camouflage-colored appeals have become commonplace, recent efforts by progressive groups to cut into what has long been a reliably red constituency face an election-year test. Tar Heel State veterans interviewed earlier this month, ahead of Super Tuesday primary voting in some of the most active-duty and veteran-populous states, varied in their politics, even if they agreed that their military service had informed their opinions. Ryan Rogers, who fought in Afghanistan...

Former Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly set to announce this week that Tony Blinken, who supported the idea of “Russia collusion,” would be his Secretary of State. Bloomberg News reported Sunday evening: President-elect Joe Biden intends to name his longtime adviser Antony Blinken as secretary of State, according to three people familiar with the matter, setting out to assemble his cabinet even before Donald Trump concedes defeat. In addition, Jake Sullivan, formerly one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, is likely to be named Biden’s national security adviser, according to two people familiar with the matter. An announcement is expected...

Washington Post has promoted Karen Attiah to write a regular column, a year after she stirred controversy by saying white women were 'lucky' that black people are 'just calling them Karens and not calling for revenge'. Attiah, 35, will be writing on 'race, international affairs, culture, and human rights' for the Post's new Voices Across America initiative, the newspaper said in a statement on Thursday. The journalist, who had been the Post’s founding Global Opinions editor, tweeted that the regular columnist job was 'a dream I have had for a long time.'

Dan Rather: "I cannot remember a time when the world saw the United States this unsteady, adrift, corrupt, or incompetent." 9:38 AM - 17 Oct 2019

Washington (AFP) - Media watchdog groups expressed alarm Friday over the seizing of a journalist's records as part of a probe into intelligence leaks resulting in the indictment of a congressional staffer. The Justice Department late Thursday announced the indictment of James Wolfe, 58, on three counts of making false statements about his contacts with three reporters. As part of the probe, the Justice Department seized years of records related to two email accounts and a phone number belonging to New York Times reporter Ali Watkins, the newspaper reported. The seizing of records raises constitutional concerns about press freedom, activists...

Leslie Stahl's interview with President-Elect Trump Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes scored the first post-election interview with the President-Elect, Donald Trump. I tuned in as did millions of other Americans to share Trump’s historical victory. I didn’t know what to expect but started the evening with a sense of excitement to share Trump’s accomplishment. But my enthusiasm was soon dampened. From the opening, Ms. Stahl was cool towards Trump and by the end of the interview she’d progressed to rude, petulant, and disrespectful. Throughout the interview she had an air of superiority, the snobby rich wife enduring a conversation with...

“I told you so!” The temptation to say just that is big after George Zimmerman’s arrest Monday on charges of aggravated assault, including pointing a gun at his girlfriend. This week’s arrest comes on the heels of his former wife calling police to report Zimmerman had threatened her with a gun. Four months ago a jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. There was not enough evidence to show that Zimmerman was not acting in self-defense. But now what we are seeing is a pattern emerging showing Zimmerman as a...

It appears as though the days of civility and integrity in journalism are long gone. On March 1, National Journal’s Ron Fournier, formerly the Washington bureau chief at the Associated Press, took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with government sequestration, suggesting that President Obama: Can handle Bin laden, not Boehner? He may be POTUS, but Obama incapable of “a Jedi mind meld.” Fournier continued his violent rhetoric in a follow-up tweet, suggesting that, “Bin Laden didn’t compromise. Handled him pretty well.”

On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, sanctimonious anchor Brian Williams lamented the fact that "spending on 2012 presidential radio and TV ads has now surpassed the half-billion-dollar mark" and proceeded to list other things the money could buy, such as feeding  "9.2 million malnourished children for 50 days" or "provide clean water for 500 million children for 40 days." While Williams's philanthropic suggestions are certainly worthy causes, he only briefly noted where that money actually went: "By and large this money goes to TV stations and networks." NBC and others could always give away the air time for free. According to...

(BreitbartTV)- On Morning Joe, Norah O’Donnell says that those who oppose the Ground Zero mosque are acting “like the people who attacked America and killed 3,000 people.”

When self-professed "pro-sex Republican" Meghan McCain visited the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally last year, she was with her father on the campaign trail. She's back again this year and this time she's looking for love. In a tweet posted Wednesday afternoon from the South Dakota gathering, McCain expressed her desire to find herself a pierced and tatted motorcycle man: (screw) harvard MBA's, show me your nipple ring, harley and arm sleeves of tattoos and I will run away with you Except she didn't use the word "screw."

First On TVNewser: PBS' Gwen Ifill has broken her ankle after tripping and falling down stairs at her home last night, a NewsHour insider tells TVNewser. We're told Ifill had been walking up a staircase, carrying research related to her moderating duties at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis, when she took a wrong step. We are also told the show will go on: Ifill is planning to travel to Missouri for the big event.

The AP has a hidden nugget at the end of its report on the Gwen Ifill controversy. While some have blamed the McCain campaign for agreeing to Ifill as a moderator for tomorrow night’s VP debate while writing a book about “The Age of Barack Obama”, it turns out that Ifill didn’t bother to inform the Commission or the McCain campaign about the book: The host of PBS’ “Washington Week” and senior correspondent on “The NewsHour” said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated...

In some ways, Barack Obama's speech on race last week was as brilliant as it was nuanced. But for all its rhetorical beauty, it was also an enormous step backward and, in the end, a rather self-serving call for more discussion about racial grievance in a country that has already done way too much talking. Until last week, so much of Obama's appeal lay in the fact that he was not asking us to talk about the racial divide. Instead, he offered himself as a living and breathing symbol of racial reconciliation; his very origins pointed to the goal of...

To believe that this corruption will simply evaporate when the Bush presidency is done is to underestimate the permanent erosion inflicted over the past six years. What was once shocking and unacceptable in America has now been internalized as the new normal. This is most apparent in the Republican presidential race, where most of the candidates seem to be running for dictator and make no apologies for it. They’re falling over each other to expand Gitmo, see who can promise the most torture and abridge the largest number of constitutional rights.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A top aide to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who appealed to kidnappers to free a Western journalist, said Friday they had promised to release him. The pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported Thursday that a militant group calling itself the Martyrs Brigade had abducted New York journalist Micah Garen and threatened to kill him within 48 hours unless U.S. pulled out of the wear-shattered city of Najaf. Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, a top aide to al-Sadr whose rebel Mahdi army has been fighting coalition forces in Najaf for two weeks, said he had spoken Friday to the kidnappers,...

Iraqi militants who kidnapped and threatened to kill an Australian journalist "Googled" his name on the internet to check his work before releasing him unharmed. John Martinkus, a veteran freelancer who has covered conflicts from East Timor to Iraq, was released yesterday, a day after he was taken hostage by four Sunni militants and ex-Iraqi army officers. Mr Martinkus was filming a report for SBS's Dateline program and was preparing to leave Iraq when he was grabbed about 5pm (AEST) on Saturday outside a hotel popular with foreign correspondents. John Martinkus ... kidnappers checked his work on the internet. Photo:...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. war planners underestimated the determination of Iraqi forces and are now re-writing their battle plans as a result, veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett told Iraqi TV in an interview that aired Sunday.</p> <p>"The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan," Arnett said. "Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces."</p>

Americans who value the Constitution should stand with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and oppose George Bush's attempted power grab in conjunction with establishing a Department of Homeland Security. The Bushies are trying to frame the debate as either protecting bureaucracy or providing security for Americans. In fact, the debate is about preventing an authoritarian president from sacrificing the Constitution in the name of providing security. Let me remind you that those who prefer security to freedom will lose both. Bush wants to be able to disregard labor contracts and civil-service rules, as well as move money within the department as...