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Raleigh, N.C. — There was a call for change Wednesday evening night at North Carolina State University. Student leaders came together to talk about passing the "Free Expression Tunnel Hate Crime Act" after classmates admitted to painting racist remarks about President-elect Barack Obama on the night of Nov. 4. Two of the messages in N.C. State's "Free Expression Tunnel" said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head" and "Hang Obama by a noose." A bill urges the university to immediately expel those who promote such violent and racist actions on campus and to prosecute the offending students to the fullest...

Here's the issue. For the sake of argument, let's just say Barack Obama was correct in what he was saying. Was there any reason to be yelling at the elderly lady questioning you? Sure, maybe it ruffled his feathers. Sure, her tone was a little confrontational. So what? As President, many many people will be doing exactly that. Every time someone questions Obama or gets a little confrontational with him, is he going to lose his composure and yell at them, too?

A week before the start of the new school year, principal Denise Magee roamed the hallways of Campbell Middle School in Smyrna, Georgia, preparing for battle. The adversary? Preteen and teenage bullies. Toting anti-bullying posters and masking tape, Magee was determined to let students see from Day One that she had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to that kind of harassment. "Middle-school kids are just cruel to each other," Magee said. "They speak their minds, so you see bullying in the form of teasing, taunting, social isolation and name calling." The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated...

An anti-religion Minnesota biology professor expects to receive dozens of consecrated Communion wafers in response to his public solicitation that people send him the hosts in order that he may publicly desecrate them. He also said he wants to point out that "I am under no obligation to revere the sacred objects of the Catholic Church.... I don't have to treat it as a little idol." In an interview Friday, Mr. Myers said he already had received "a double-digit number" of positive responses, from people saying that they would try to get consecrated Catholic hosts for him and that the...

All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling. Moments earlier he left the sanctuary that is his home, passing those framed photographs of himself as a carefree child, back when he was 5. And now he is at the bus stop, wearing a baseball cap, vulnerable at 15. A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy...

In his speech last night following primary losses in the two huge states of Ohio and Texas, Barack Obama gave a speech that repeated most of the rhetoric he has been saying all campaign long. Included in that speech was a moment I have yet to hear anyone else comment on. Obama essentially said that America, under his Presidency, will stop being a "bully." In the video from the speech provided below (move the bar to the 5:45-6:09 section), you will hear Obama say that America needs to stop "substituting bluster and bullying for direct diplomacy. . ." It would...

At lunch recently, a father of four who works in publishing told me he occasionally gives his children "a clip around the ear". The threat of minor violence, he said, was the fastest way to get his brood into the people carrier if they were all to get out of the house on time. It wasn't so much the fact that this otherwise modern thirtysomething father would slap his children that shocked me, but the fact that he spoke about it so openly. A decade ago, he might have been worried that I'd call social services - or at least...

Bill Clinton Unloads on Press By Anne E. Kornblut Former president Bill Clinton lashed out in response to criticism on Wednesday from a prominent Democrat in South Carolina, accusing the Obama campaign of running a political smear campaign against him through the media. "You live for this," Clinton snapped at CNN reporter Jessica Yellin when she asked him to comment on statements by Dick Harpootlian, the former South Carolina Democratic party chairman, who said recent distortions by the Clintons are "reprehensible." Harpootlian, who backed the Clintons in the 1990s and now supports Sen. Barack Obama, had compared Clinton's distortions to...

LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson must face trial on kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges stemming from an alleged sports memorabilia heist, a justice of the peace ruled Wednesday. Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure ruled after a preliminary hearing of the charges and arguments against the case by attorneys for Simpson and co-defendants Clarence "C.J." Stewart and Charles "Charlie" Ehrlich. "This is what we expected," Simpson told The Associated Press before he left the courtroom. "If I have any disappointment it's that I wish a jury was here. As always, I rely on the jury system." No charges...

In the wake of the disgraceful yet defining full-page MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times, the one that denigrated Gen. Petraeus, we stand witness to the benchmark in today’s political tactical maneuvering, the Bully Tactic. Increasingly, political operatives and zealots alike are turning to the coercive tactic of bullying those who aren’t on-board with their candidates or agendas. This benchmark signals some of the darkest days in American politics. Organizations like MoveOn.org have employed the Bully Tactic quite effectively. By utilizing deep-pocketed, agenda-driven benefactors and exploiting small donor advocates to advance their special interest causes, especially through the mainstream...

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is now traveling the state trying to put a scandal behind him... Here's what we know, thanks to some enterprising reporting ...and an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: Two close advisers to the governor apparently used the New York State Police to carry out a political smear campaign against me by creating documents designed to generate negative press reports... And it nearly worked. ...there is only one way forward for Mr. Spitzer. He needs to support a full airing of the truth. That support must include publicly testifying under oath, and making...

It’s been a swift fall from grace for New York’s new governor, Eliot Spitzer, who took office in January with 69 percent of the vote and (many think) visions of a future presidential run. Spitzer vowed, as a candidate, that “on Day One” of his administration, “everything changes.” But little has changed in scandal-rich Albany. Spitzer is now involved in an affaire some are calling Troopergate, and the governor is being compared to Richard Nixon. [Full disclosure: I worked as Policy Director for Tom Suozzi, the Nassau County Executive who ran against Spitzer for the Democratic nomination.] Spitzer stormed into...

Corruption: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the one president ever forced to resign seem to have a lot in common. But at least Nixon waited a little while before using the tools of state against his political enemies. "I believe for the first time in the history of this state," declared New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, that the executive branch "has seen fit to abuse the power of that office to spy and track and attempt to really destroy what apparently the governor's office considers a political rival." After conducting an investigation, Spitzer's fellow Democrat, New...

AG says Spitzer's office leaked info By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's attorney general issued a report Monday recommending disciplinary action be considered against Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office for releasing information about a top legislator's use of state aircraft.

The mean-mouthed, lesbian bully who made the ABC daytime gabfest The View her own talking-points memo is now pressuring CBS Television to give her a shot at hosting a hit game show. According to the Los Angeles Times, the producers of CBS show “The Price is Right” are considering Rosie O’Donnell as a replacement for Bob Barker, who retired after 35 years of hosting the show. This news comes on the heels of Bob Barker’s endorsement of Rosie as a suitable host for the show. This story begs the question: what on earth are Barker and the CBS producers thinking?...

In 1965, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization. He ushered through the Senate the immigration policy of President Lyndon B. Johnson, stating Feb. 10, 1965: "I want to comment on ... what the bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. ..." Kennedy continued: "Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset. ... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [this bill] will not inundate America with immigrants...

He has gone from accused minor criminal to community symbol. Let there be no mistake. As was confirmed after Tuesday’s court hearing, this is not just another harassment case. Charles Schmidl stands as a crusader for a cause. The cause is the right of an adult to defend himself — and his 5-year-old son — against the alleged abuse of an out-ofcontrol 10-year-old. It is a line in the sand against lax parenting and the obnoxious offspring that it produces. It is a voice for the rights of those wronged by every spoiled brat spawned by absent or permissive parents....

(06-01) 17:42 PDT VACAVILLE -- There are thieves and then there are thieves who steal puppies from children. A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a man who shoved a 10-year-old Vacaville boy to the ground, snatched his favorite puppy and jumped into a getaway car as the distraught boy screamed for his pet. "I think it is horrible," said Vacaville police Sgt. Denise Quatman, who on Friday made a plea to the public to help investigators find the pet-napper and return the little dog to its owner. "It's not something...

FReepers are some of the most level headed people I know and I have been up all night fretting about this. Here is the backround. My daughters participate in a Slovak dance class at our church. One assistant is a mother with 5 children including a new baby. Her husband has problems and she is trying to hold it together. She is a wonderfully sweet lady, however.... Her son is violent. Two years ago, he stomped on my daughter's foot with full force. We got an apology. Last year both my daughter and this boy were Shepherds in the Nativity...

Amil Imani fired off in all directions in his article yesterday, in which he included broadsides against Russia, yet he would do well to remember that his extremely vociferous opinion article was printed, freely, in a Russian publication, PRAVDA.Ru. The article printed in yesterday’s PRAVDA.Ru begins by complaining that closer to home, Chavez and Castro call the USA “the Big Bad Bully”. He forgot to mention Morales, Kirchner and practically every other political figure in Latin America, except perhaps the allegedly narco-trafficking regime of Uribe, President of Colombia, the country where journalists are murdered for disagreeing with the Government. Freedom...

A Michigan congressman is defending the U.S. auto industry against calls for increased fuel efficiency by criticizing a famous foe of global warming: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg's re-election campaign placed a billboard along a busy interstate in Detroit that reads, "Arnold to Michigan: Drop Dead!" It shows a grim-looking picture of the actor-turned-politician and draws attention to Knollenberg's Web site. "Michigan and the Big Three are being unfairly bullied by politicians who have no understanding of auto manufacturing," Knollenberg said Thursday in a statement. Knollenberg said he "picked on Schwarzenegger because he's a perfect symbol of...

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes it is his right as a Muslim to be sworn into Congress with the Quran. But apparently, the freshman lawmaker doesn’t believe it’s Rep. Tom Tancredo’s (R-Colo.) right to smoke a cigar in his congressional office. Ellison’s office called the Capitol Hill Police on Tancredo last Wednesday night as Tancredo was in his office smoking a cigar. The lawmakers have neighboring offices on the first floor of the Longworth House Office Building. Tancredo was still stunned a day later. “It’s very bizarre,” said Tancredo, who has never met Ellison. “Seemed to me not a good...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed a $120.6 billion state budget Wednesday that he said will cut spending growth, increase school aid by $1.4 billion and provide $1.5 billion to cut local property taxes. The proposal would increase overall spending, including state and federal funds, by 6.3 percent over the current fiscal plan, projected to total $113.5 billion by the close of the fiscal year. The current budget increased spending by 8.8 percent over 2005-06. “I believe deeply in the proposals that are articulated in this budget, “ Spitzer told lawmakers in their briefing Wednesday, speaking without notes...

The summer I turned 6 years old, some of the neighborhood boys started bullying me. Back then, I owned a pair of cabbage patch kid roller-skates and my favorite activity was skating around the block singing nursery rhymes at the top of my lungs. One day, a few boys in the 8-10 range thought it would be pretty humorous to push me around and watch me flail. I tried to run from them, but I couldn’t skate faster than they could run. They taunted me for a while and then knocked me down. Angry, humiliated, and with two freshly skinned...

A row has broken out between the US and Russia at a security summit in Brussels after Washington accused Moscow of bullying its smaller neighbours. The spat erupted at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Brussels. Senior US state department diplomat Nicholas Burns said "some" countries were imposing "economic and financial pressure" on Georgia and Moldova. Russia retorted, saying the OSCE was exacerbating conflict in the region. Tense relations between Russia and former Soviet republic Georgia erupted earlier this year, and led to Moscow imposing tough sanctions on its smaller neighbour. Moldova has also suffered...

I think this letter, sent me by one Jack Thompson in response to my asking how his case went today, speaks for itself. My personal favorite quote, though the entire rant is simply stupendous, has to be this choice non-sequitor: "The Republicans in the Congress of the United States apparently can't protect pages, and the Miami-Dade judicial system can't even protect children, let alone its own reputation." Hit the jump for the entire thing. Brian Crecente Judge Ronald Friedman Dade County Courthouse 13th Floor 73 West Flagler Street Miami, Florida 33130 Re: Bully Dear Judge Friedman: Now that you have...

President Bill Clinton was overbearing, threatening, and in the face of "FOX News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. The wild eyed, finger wagging Clinton was astonishing to watch and embarrassing. He possibly could have been charged with assault and battery against the Fox host. Chris Wallace, the son of liberal 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, appeared to be overwhelmed by the ire of his guest. Clinton was ready to pounce on anything the mild mannered interviewer asked. In most states, an assault/battery is committed when one person 1) tries to or does physically strike another, or 2) acts in a threatening...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The State Liquor Authority is investigating whether alcohol was served to minors at a barbecue Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor held for supporters at the state fair last week. The agency received complaints that alcohol was served to minors at the Aug. 31 event, said authority spokesman Bill Crowley. The authority was also investigating a potential violation of a law prohibiting unlimited alcohol offerings at public events, he told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship. All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this...

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

The Bully Might Get Punched Back © Rabbi Daniel Lapin Two years have now elapsed since Mel Gibson released his movie “The Passion” and since various Jewish organizations launched their notorious attacks on religious conservatives. Since then, Mel has moved on to film a new movie, also in an unusual and unspoken foreign language. “Apocalypto” follows the adventures of a long-ago Mayan hero. However the same Jewish organizations have not moved on. When their bizarre predictions of pogroms in Pittsburgh and massacres in Mississippi failed to materialize, they just continued with more of the same attacks. These organizations whose purpose...

WASHINGTON -- Tom Cruise says his father was abusive and that school, where he faced other bullies, was difficult, in an upcoming issue of Parade magazine. "He was a bully and a coward," the 43-year-old actor says of his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III. "He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life - how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! "For me, it was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.' There's that anxiety."...

David Knight couldn't look at the salmon entree, the chocolate mousse or the strawberry tarts at the conference luncheon. He had to address a crowd of Montreal educators and he was nervous. Eating would give the former bullying victim-turned activist a bout of stomach cramps - the kind he used to get as a teenager, when he had to return to high school after lunch and face his tormenters. Now 21, Knight is wiry and stands more than six feet tall. He has a steady girlfriend and loves fixing up old cars. He's wearing jeans and a pin from Canada's...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version March 22, 2006, 7:35 a.m. Right on the Couch Are conservatives nuts? Remember the cocky, arrogant kid in nursery school, the one who always thought that he had all the answers and that he could do whatever he wanted, and was always ignoring what the teacher had to say? Chances are this bully grew up to be a conservative. Right now, I have no doubt that some liberal readers are nodding their heads and saying, "Yes! That makes total sense. Conservatives are such bullies!" Well, according to the latest "scientific"...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president lashed out Wednesday at the United States and vowed to resist the pressure of "bully countries" as European nations circulated a draft resolution urging that Tehran be brought before the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear activities. In a speech to thousands of supporters hours after President Bush's State of the Union address, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad derided the United States as a "hollow superpower" that is "tainted with the blood of nations" and said Tehran would continue its nuclear program. "Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realized,"...

My rookie officers were third division, says 'bully' skipper By Stewart Payne (Filed: 17/01/2006) A submarine captain accused of bullying his officers told a court martial yesterday that some were so inexperienced it was like having lower division footballers on a Premiership pitch. Capt Robert Tarrant, 44, who was commander of the nuclear submarine Talent, told a court martial that he expected the very highest standards from his crew. He said he used a leadership style he had learned serving in the Falklands conflict. "I discovered that the margin of error between operational safety and therefore operational success and operational...

Latin America: Odd, that as "popular" as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is said to be, he's so detested by Venezuelans that he can no longer go to baseball games without being booed by the whole stadium.

WINNIPEG - A teacher who punished four accused bullies last winter by making them wear helmets proclaiming "bullies are losers" will not be disciplined, says the Pine Creek School Division. The decision has infuriated the mother of at least one of the boys. Brandy Strong, who said she got a letter from the school division on the matter Thursday, said her 10-year-old son Clay has been prone to outbursts of anger since the hazing at Langruth Elementary School last February. "Nothing ever happened," said Strong. "The teacher, she never got suspended. She didn't even get penalized or written up on...

The case of John Bolton is about politics (unhousebroken conservatives must be stopped), payback (you tick me off, I'll pick you off) and personality. People who have worked with him allege he is heavy-handed, curmudgeonly and not necessarily lovably so. I don't know him, but I suspect there's some truth in it. Do the charges disqualify him to serve as American ambassador to the United Nations? If reports of his behavior are true--he is tough, pushes too hard, sends pressuring e-mails and may or may not have berated a coworker as he threw paper balls at her hotel door--the answer...

BOSTON -- New York Yankees right fielder Gary Sheffield got into a brief scuffle with a fan at Fenway Park during Thursday night's game against the Boston Red Sox. Sheffield was fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple along the right-field fence in the eighth inning when a fan swung a short uppercut in his direction, appearing to graze the side of the slugger's face with his right arm. After Sheffield picked up the ball, he shoved the fan before throwing the ball back into the infield. Then he whirled around with a cocked fist, but restrained himself and began shouting in...

I’m not proud of this, but the parallels to Michael Schiavo are undeniable. When I was eight years old my little sister Joan was barely three. She could talk but no one could understand her. I remember teasing the crap out of her just to see her reaction as she went to dad to tell him how badly I was treating her. His reaction? “What’s the matter, honey? I can’t understand you.” She would then come back to me and complain about my treatment of her. And, what did I do? I teased her some more. It was really funny...

Abercrombie and Fitch Thinks They’re Turning Japanese March 3, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by John Phillips -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clothing manufacturer Abercrombie and Fitch and entertainment giant Warner Brothers Studios have been known to use the same marketing techniques to sell their racy flicks and relaxed yet dressy wool sweaters: scantily clad models, the art of seduction and most recently a desire to “nip the nips.” In regard to the latter, Warner Brothers produced the 1944 cartoon Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips -- A&F allegedly refuses to hire or promote Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities. These charges were cemented in the minds of...

I am here this morning to inform you of the events of last night. A courier service delivered the official written interdict from the Archdiocese of St. Louis and its representative, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. We ask that everyone respect the wishes of the board members and not contact them during this sensitive time. I will first read a statement, that some of you already have received, from the St. Stanislaus Six through their advisor. Afterwards, I will continue with a statement from the parishioners. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has rejected the reasonable and generous offers of St. Stanislaus Kostka...

Carrying over from last year, I predict that Burst.com will beat Microsoft in their current lawsuit. But to avoid having to eat crow again over timing, let me put this in greater context. IF a trial actually takes place, as it is now scheduled to do this summer, Burst will easily win. Microsoft is at a disadvantage already as a bully. Burst will probably get Judge Motz to tell the jury that Microsoft deliberately destroyed evidence, and it doesn't hurt, either, that Burst is just plain right on all counts -- Microsoft DID violate their patents, DID violate Burst's non-disclosure...

Ditto, Tom...Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle says goodbye.     This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

Palm shot the 48-year-old Harper nine times -- pausing to reload -- then calmly waited for the police. Harper had harassed Palm's Spring Valley neighbors by tailgating them, threatening to ram their cars and trying to run them off the road.

Chris Matthews is interviewing Andrea Lafferty from the Traditional Values Coalition and Martin Kaplan from the Annenberg USC school of Communications.

(antiTainment) Fox News has asked a judge to allow them to fire the woman that sued talk show host Bill O'Reilly for sexual harassment and to declare that the firing not be classified as retribution. Andrea Mackris, is an associate producer for "The O'Reilly Factor" on the cable news network. Last Wednesday, the network and O'Reilly sued her and her attorney, Benedict Morelli, claiming that they had tried to extort $60 million in "hush money" from the controversial host in return for her dropping her harassment case. The 33-year-old Mackris filed the sexual harassment suit against O'Reilly the same day....