Free Republic

Our friend Ann Barnhardt has sent up a flare this week, declaring, like Italian journalist Antonio Socci, her belief that Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not Pope Francis, that his election was invalid and he is an antipope, mainly because Pope Benedict XVI is still lawfully the pope. She has presented as her evidence Bergoglio’s “heresies, blasphemies and antichristological actions,” as well as a canonical detail that, she correctly points out, no one is yet talking about. She has asked for responses. Now, no one will accuse me of being a Francis apologist, but I cannot really completely agree with Ann’s...

The theme music from Harrison Ford's movie 'Air Force One' blared over loudspeakers in a rural Tennessee airport hangar, and minutes later a less presidential noise wafted over a hot mic. 'Get in the plane and go home. It's over there. Go home.' That was Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, telling his newest endorser Chris Christie in front of 12,000 people exactly where to go and how to get there. Christie had just sung The Donald's praises following the dramatic entrance of his plane in a stunt the campaign invented a month ago in Dubuque, Iowa. And more importantly,...

Jackass. (The Hill) —  President Obama started off his three-day bus tour kicking Senate Republicans for blocking his jobs bill, saying he is breaking up his plan because “maybe they just couldn’t understand the whole thing at once.” Speaking in Asheville, N.C., a favorite locale of Obama’s, the president began his tour by criticizing Senate Republicans for blocking his $447 billion bill last week, and challenging Congress to pass the bill in “bite-sized pieces.” The president said that in blocking his bill, Senate Republicans — he did not mention the two Democratic ‘no’ votes — “said ‘no’ to you.” “Sixty-three...

Nancy Pelosi doesn't have much longer as Speaker of the House. But if there's one constant in our ever-changing world, it's that Pelosi will remain unconscionable until the gavel is wrested from her hand. During a recent speech on the House floor, she expressed opinions about unemployment insurance and tax policy that seem irrational even for her. Pelosi supports extending unemployment insurance beyond the current 99-week limit. To substantiate her position, she touted unemployment benefits as a burgeoning economic catalyst. All we need do is and tap into their power. Pelosi informed Congress that "[u]nemployment insurance ... returns two dollars...

Obama clearly has a new watch and is fascinated with it, Gordon Brown revealed last night. Following his first meeting with the new president Mr Brown said Britain and the United States must work together to create a new age of global stability where everyone can have a watch as nice as that. The prime minister added: "I was making some very insightful points about Fred Goodwin's pension, but he just kept looking at that watch and I'm thinking, 'gosh, it must be a really good one'.

Temper, temper. Republican John McCain is known for his. He's been dubbed "Senator Hothead" by more than one publication, but he's also had some success extracting his hatchet from several foreheads. Even his Republican Senate colleagues are not spared his sharp tongue. "F--- you," he shouted at Texas Sen. John Cornyn last year. "Only an a------ would put together a budget like this," he told the former Budget Committee chairman, Sen. Pete Domenici, in 1999. "I'm calling you a f------ jerk!" he once retorted to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. With Cornyn, he smoothed things over quickly. The two argued during...

What's in a name? For Chris Matthews, a lot. Discussing foreign policy on this afternoon's "Hardball," host Matthews advanced this astonishing theory. HARDBALL HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: Do you have a sense, though, well certainly I have it, that just by his name, Barack, ah, Barack Hussein Obama, by his background, having grown up in Indonesia which is a largely Muslim country, that he would have a feel perhaps other presidential candidates don't have of how to connect with that part of the world, the billion people, that we seem to have such a problem connecting with and avoiding war with....

While meeting last month with a group of area peace activists, then Congressman-elect Steve Kagen told a story of his first visit to the White House that shows a feisty and humorous side to our new man in Congress. He told the group one of the first lessons he learned in Washington is to never pass up a rest room because you don’t know when you’ll see one again. He’d already had a long day of freshman orientation when he and his wife, Gail, were expected at the White House. Upon arrival, he asks a Marine where he can find...

WASHINGTON -- Sen.-elect Jim Webb contends the Bush administration wants to paint him as a "hothead." The former Navy secretary, whose election in Virginia put Democrats over the top in capturing the U.S. Senate, voiced that view yesterday. A White House spokeswoman flatly denied Webb's charge. "That is not true. At all," said spokeswoman Dana Perino in an e-mail. Webb confirmed published reports of an exchange at a private White House reception when he declined an invitation to be photographed with President Bush, and next declined to answer Bush's question about his son stationed in Iraq. He was told, Webb...

'WOMEN ARE equals now. They can fend for themselves. To offer a perfectly healthy woman a seat simply because she is a woman, however well-intentioned, is creepy. At best, she'll think you're from another country; at worst she'll feel old, or overweight enough to be perceived as pregnant." And that is a lesson in modern manners, according to the new issue of GQ (with Clive Owen on the cover). Glenn O'Brien and other GQ scribes weigh in on e-mails, cellphones, gym etiquette, dressing for travel, how to handle chatty seatmates, sleeping with your friend's ex, online dating, wedding gifts and...

Lt. gov. crashed Marine's funeral, kin say Saturday, July 23, 2005 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war. Rhonda Goodrich of Indiana, Pa., said yesterday that a funeral was held Tuesday at a church in Carnegie for her brother-in-law, Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32. ... Then, suddenly, "one uninvited guest made an appearance, Catherine Baker Knoll." She sat down next...

In the annals of feckless non-apology apologies, the one just served up by PA Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll scrapes the bottom of the barrel. Check out the article below, and note this turn of phrase: "If my regard for his family's grief was seen another way, it is thoroughly regrettable." In other words, what is regrettable is not her awful behavior, but the way the Marine's family saw it. Sickening. -------------------------- Slain Marine's Family Gets Apology For Funeral Comments POSTED: 11:44 am EDT July 25, 2005 PITTSBURGH -- After being criticized for attending a Marine's funeral, Lt. Gov. Catherine...

Written apologies will be sent to a fallen Marine's relatives angered by Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's uninvited appearance at the soldier's funeral and her criticism of the war in Iraq, Gov. Ed Rendell said Sunday. Rendell said he will send a personal letter to the family of the late Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, of Westwood, and will ask Knoll to do the same. Goodrich, 32, a police officer and infantry unit leader, died July 10 in a mortar attack in Hit, Iraq. Rendell said he hadn't spoken with Knoll about the incident, but was disturbed by the family's...

Note: where you see "a_ _ _ _ _ _", choose a 7-letter word beginning with "a" that you feel is appropriate for Pennsylvania Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll (hmmmm....what word?...amateur?...artiste?...athlete?...hmmmm) MIDI - PROUD MARY They said goodbye to a hero Sgt. Goodrich served his nation selflessly Catherine Baker Knoll had not been invited Quite a spectacle they soon would see Anti-war stuff she's saying While mourners had been praying Knoll is...Knoll is...Knoll is such an a_ _ _ _ _ _ Knoll is such an a_ _ _ _ _ _ Why was this woman so heartless It was...

Hands out business card, tells family 'our government is against this war' When the family of Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich gathered in Pittsburgh for the fallen Marine's funeral, they expected a large crowd – after all, they've lived in the area for generations and Joseph had been a police officer before becoming a leatherneck – but they didn't expect to see Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor show up, hand out her business card and tell them "our government" opposes the war. Goodrich, 32, and fellow western Pennsylvanian, Lance Cpl. Ryan J. Kovacicek, 22 – both second-generation Marines – were killed in Iraq...

Saturday, July 23, 2005 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau The family of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is furious with Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll for showing up uninvited at his funeral this week, handing out her business card and then saying "our government" is against the war.

MOORE: 'I DON'T LIKE THIS FILM BEING REDUCED TO BUSH VS. KERRY' Sun Jul 04 2004 08:59:00 ET New York – “I don’t like this film being reduced to Bush vs. Kerry,” Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore tells TIME’s Richard Corliss in this week’s cover story. Moore tells TIME, “When Clinton was president I went after him. And if Kerry’s president, on Day Two I’ll be on him.” This election year, with stakes and tempers high, a potent non-fiction genre is emerging: the agit-doc, dealing with high-octane political issues, often in a confrontational tone, Corliss writes. Trailing on Moore’s box...

ENNIS, Ireland - The US administration confirmed it had axed an interview that US First Lady Laura Bush had been due to grant to Irish public television RTE, only two days after the broadcaster's exclusive interview with the US president himself. No explanation was given for the schedule change, but journalists travelling with the Bush entourage in Europe noted that the cancellation had come a day after George W. Bush's less-than-sunny showing in his RTE exclusive. During that interview, given on Thursday in Washington, Bush displayed annoyance and at one point lost his temper when he was contradicted by Irish...

If you're planning a dinner party, take this bit of sage advice: Don't invite Bill Clinton. Big Bill is so desperate for attention these days that he might actually show up, and then you'd have a hard time getting rid of him as he jabbered on into the wee hours while your other guests stifle yawns and sneak peeks at their watches. "Those who socialize with Clinton say there's no off switch even when he's relaxed," Robert Sam Anson writes in an amazing article on Clinton's post-presidential years in the June issue of Vanity Fair. Anson backs up that point...