Free Republic

The leftist media’s attempts to portray themselves as credible journalists in pursuit of the truth are laughably transparent. But the presence of Al Sharpton on the national news scene represents demonstrable proof not just of the unseriousness of the mainstream media, but of their vile race-baiting for ratings. So why are major advertisers like Ritz Crackers helping pay Sharpton's salary? In any rational world, Sharpton would certainly not have a primetime slot on MSNBC. From his Tawana Brawley hoax to his defense of Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum, from his fanning of racial flames during the Trayvon Martin incident to...

No one is quite sure yet what happened last night at the Jacksonville airport last night, but two arrests have been made, and at least one “destructive device” has been found. Security shut down the airport for several hours and evacuated it while dealing with two suspicious packages, one of which may have been the real thing:

The vote was 13-5 for a compromise defining a "covered journalist" as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years. It would apply to student journalists or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last five years. A federal judge also would have the discretion to declare an individual a "covered journalist," who would be granted the privileges of the law.

Earlier today, I wrote a review of President Obama’s speech, which was hardly complimentary. Other reviews make it look positively warm in comparison. Take for instance this long and pointed criticism from John Harris at Politico, which frames the speech as coming from two different Obamas and then concludes with by calling the entire effort “disingenuous”:

The same idiot politicians who thought creating “Gun Free Zones” would make our schools safe assumed they could stop a few million patriotic bikers from driving non-stop through Washington, D.C. by denying them a permit. As usual, the idea BACKFIRED. The bikers, from some far-away states are already on the road and they all still intend to be there but now, obeying every law, every stop light, every pedestrian, their two hour ride will last all day long. The real patriots in America are the one’s willing to put down their personal business to join in a mutual effort to...

Radical group Femen is mainly known for staging topless media stunts to protest oppression. And while they’ve been presented as a feminist female empowerment group, a new documentary revealed that the group is actually run by a man who happens to love hot topless women.Victor Svyatski is listed as a consultant for the group, however filmmaker Kitty Green — who just completed the documentary “Ukraine is Not a Brothel” about the group — says that Svyatski is more of the mastermind behind the stunts.Green told The Independent, “It’s his movement and he hand-picked the girls. He hand-picked the prettiest girls because...

Excerpted from Mediaite: Today’s the day. Al Jazeera America launched in approximately 40 million households at 3pm Eastern with an hour-long promo of sorts telling people what the expect from the network. Within the first five minutes of air time, Al Jazeera America played very brief clips of Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Al Sharpton engaged in some of their most contentious onscreen moments followed by a voice saying, “news audiences know what is missing and they know what they want.” Also visible on screen are clips of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, along with Piers Morgan’s epically explosive segment...

 

"In a thinly veiled threat, Saad Al-Shater said a U.S. delegation was sent to Cairo by Obama to press for the release of the imprisoned Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including his father to prevent the release of explosive information."

Legislators are still trying to put together a national "shield" law for journalists (this is the third such effort at a national level) and, as usual, are bogged down in a semantic debate about who should qualify for these protections. Despite "freedom of the press" being hardwired into the system and the fact that a government effort to protect journalists from its own actions (seeking to identify whistleblowers and sources in order to punish them or shut them up) lies somewhere between "ironic" and "disingenuous," the pursuit of a credible "shield" law continues. The bill's definition of "journalist" seems straightforward...

Joe Scarborough has yet again scaled his soap box to mock those of us in the conservative blogosphere. He described us today as a bunch of "very stupid people" living in their mama's basement who write "really stupid things" about him. The thin-skinned Scarborough has often derided his blogging critics as Cheetos-chewing cellar-dwellers. He was at it again this morning, depicting them as people who if not in mama's basement would otherwise be wandering the streets in their pajamas. View the video here.

Last week, Don West, defense attorney in the George Zimmerman murder trial, asked friend of Trayvon Martin and case witness Rachel Jeantel a strange question. “Are you claiming in any way that you don’t understand English?” he inquired, though she had been answering his questions in fluent English throughout much of the previous day. Jeantel, who was born and raised in Miami, insisted that she did, but West wasn’t convinced. He asked her once more whether perhaps, because her first language was Creole (transmitted to her by her Haitian mother), she had any trouble understanding English. West was not...

The way this feud is progressing, I half-expect Christie to reply, “And you’re the queen.”Ostensibly Paul means “bacon” in terms of “pork,” i.e. wasteful federal spending. Which I guess means he’ll be referring to Christie as “Porky” before the week’s out. “This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,” Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination…“What does he want to do, shut down military bases in Kentucky?” he said.Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, both Army bases, are located in Kentucky. New Jersey itself is home to a large joint military base...

Famous black liberals continued their attacks on CNN's Don Lemon Tuesday. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons weighed in on Twitter a few hours ago calling Lemon a "slave," "dangerous talking head," and a "disservice to the black community": The nucleus of almost all revolution lies in youth culture. If I was young my pants would be saggin.. #donsalemon.. — Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) July 30, 2013 Don Lemon conservatives love when we blame ourselves for the condition of the community. You do disservice to black community — Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) July 30, 2013 Hip hop language and clothes are expressions of frustration...

We live in an apartheid state, where the institutional Left controls the government of our country…despite Leftists themselves being a small minority (around 22% or so) of the population. People who consider themselves “conservative” account for almost 70% of the population, regardless of what party they affiliate with. But, the Left wins the Culture Wars because Leftists are disciplined, committed to victory, and count on conservatives doing incredibly stupid things every day that Democrats just LOVE. Here are ten things you need to permanently stop doing — starting today — because each of these simple things is just like mailing...

This year's bad news for MSNBC has only gotten worse. The "Lean Forward" network has struggled in the ratings since the Boston Marathon bombings exposed the network's glaring weakness when it comes to news gathering. MSNBC had hoped to turn that around by going all-in on with the Zimmerman, but it didn't. Compared to last year in July, MSNBC was down -12% in total viewers and -4% in the 25-54 demo. "Morning Joe" lost -4% of its viewers, -8% in the 25 to 54 demo. Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O'Donnell all took huge hits over last year. Hayes...

The good news for Contra Costa County in California was that they were getting a brand spanking new call center, which would provide more than 200 good paying jobs. It was part of the support network for Obamacare… a place where people could call at any time with questions. The call center in Concord is gearing up for full operation in October, but recent revelations in the news have put a fly in the ointment. Now, with two months to go before the Concord operation opens to serve the public, information has surfaced that about half the jobs are part-time,...

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is sounding more and more like President Barack Obama, the Big Government Democrat he palled around with shortly after last year’s Hurricane looking for federal aid. Today Christie outright slammed pro-liberty legislators, calling them “dangerous.” Speaking with the Washington Post, Christie warned against what he calls a “strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines.” When asked by The Post if Senator Rand Paul is one of the “dangerous” libertarians, Governor Christie said, “You can name any one of them that’s engaged in this.” With Christie’s answer in the...

ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall. Republicans have tried this maneuver in Obama’s first term, only to back off later to the chagrin of Tea Party leaders. This time, GOP lawmakers are emboldened by problems plaguing the administration’s ObamaCare implementation.

State officials can access IRS computer systems through a “back door” intended to allow for better communication in investigations, but with so little accountability that the process can easily be abused for political purposes. That appears to have happened already — and the target was a Tea Party candidate for Senate. According to the Washington Times, an official in state government illegally accessed Christine O’Donnell’s tax records on the day she announced her candidacy — and the same day the IRS slapped an erroneous tax lien on a property O’Donnell no longer owned: On March 9, 2010, the day she...