Free Republic

Woman on diverted flight 'barely lucid' By MELISSA TRUJILLO, Associated Press Writer 50 minutes ago A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday. Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., Wednesday. She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt,...

Haggard and Going Strong An outlaw country pioneer takes a break from touring and recording to discuss his political incorrectness, the Dixie Chicks and a Merle Haggard miniseries.

Comedienne Sandra Bernhard appeared on the show and, amidst a discussion about Laura Bush, characterized the First Lady, with her typical acidity as "heavily medicated." Co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck, a vocally ardent Republican, took acute exception and tried to defend Mrs. Bush's work on childhood education, whereupon Bernhard called Hasselbeck "honey" – and then the sparks really flew. It was all a bit too much for Joy Behar to bear, apparently.

Bush, bird flu, iPod mania, Stephen Colbert, big hairy dogs and the best CD of the year - Balm for your tormented soul. Reasons not to off yourself with a handful of whippets and a bottle of Maker's Mark while reciting Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" just yet. Feel free to add you own: 1) Bush at 31 percent and falling fast The apocalypse is yawning and going back to bed. The man can do no right. Dubya's inept policies and slew of appalling deceits are coming back to bite him faster than perhaps any president in history. Oh sure, he's...

In the months leading up to the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein did try to cooperate with United Nations inspectors, a decision that, paradoxically, helped convince the West that he was hiding weapons of mass destruction. By late 2002, Saddam finally tilted toward trying to persuade the international community that Iraq was cooperating with the inspectors of Unscom (the United Nations Special Commission) and that it no longer had W.M.D. programs. Saddam was insistent that Iraq would give full access to United Nations inspectors "in order not to give President Bush any excuses to start a war." Ironically, it now appears...

It is not too soon for "United 93," because it is not a film that knows any time has passed since 9/11. The entire story, every detail, is told in the present tense. We know what they know when they know it, and nothing else. Nothing about Al Qaeda, nothing about Osama bin Laden, nothing about Afghanistan or Iraq, only events as they unfold. This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims. The director, Paul Greengrass, makes a deliberate effort to stay away from recognizable actors, and there is no attempt...

"Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently. Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free." "There are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year, "who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care ... for all people." Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions. When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as...

Morrissey was questioned by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against Bush and Blair, the singer has revealed. Mozza, a famous critic of the war in Iraq, has previously branded the US President a “terrorist”. He said: “The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I’ve been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn’t take them very long to realise that I’m not. “I don’t belong to any political groups,” he continued, “I don’t really say anything...

Poor Fidel. It's not easy being a dictator these days, not when your sworn enemy has stolen your playbook and recast it as democracy. How sad it must be to come up with all these creative governing principles -- listening in on private phone calls, reading personal mail, secretly video-taping protestors -- only to live long enough to see a third-rate intelligence like George W. Bush adopt them all as his own. It's enough to drive anyone nuts. In a few days, Fidel will celebrate an important personal anniversary, and the whole world will look on in awe. Whatever your...

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY By Jonathan Alter Newsweek Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005 Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham...

It must be said that subsequent events have not made life easy for those of us who were so optimistic as to support the war in Iraq. There were those who believed the Government's rubbish about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the WMD made their historic no-show.Some of us were so innocent as to suppose that the Pentagon had a well-thought-out plan for the removal of the dictator and the introduction of peace. Then we had the insurgency, in which tens of thousands have died.Some of us thought it was about ensuring that chemical weapons could never again be...

After the love (for Bill) is gone THE WAY WE WERE Writer recalls the betrayal that ended their political affair I BROKE up with Bill a long time ago. It's always hard to remember love — years pass and you say to yourself, was I really in love or was I just kidding myself? Was I really in love or was I just pretending he was the man of my dreams? Was I really in love or was I just desperate? But when it came to Bill, I'm pretty sure it was the real deal. I loved the guy. As...

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore is planning to make a hard-hitting documentary based on US President George W. Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation. Moore grabbed international acclaim with his scathing 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which studied Bush's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Oscar winner is now "seriously considering" documenting the catastrophe in America's Gulf Coast region. He tells the New York Daily News, "There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused not by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in...

The quagmire in Iraq and the precariousness of conditions in Afghanistan provide wars enough for discussion, should anyone want a serious one. Nonetheless, the ghost of Vietnam rises again in an odd footnote to the 2004 presidential campaign. This is the belated decision by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to release his complete military record to media organizations. If you count yourself among those who have no interest in how the college grades of former Yale men Kerry and George W. Bush compare - they both turn out to be poor - perhaps you missed the point.

Interesting irony on Larry King last night. First King interviewed Woodward & Bernstein, the two men responsible for breaking one of the biggest stories of the century with the help of an anonymous source we now know was the number two man at the FBI. In the next hour King interviewed Dan Rather, the man responsible (at least in part) for one of the bigger journalistic bungles in the modern era, rushing to air a story based on forged documents from very dubious sources to try and influence the outcome of a presidential election. It's clear that Rather is still...

Between his return Friday from Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome and his meeting Monday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, President George W. Bush spent an hour and a half Saturday riding a mountain bike at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute. Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the First iPod? In an era of celebrity playlists - the New...

Heads roll at CBS over Bush report Network's probe blames staffers' 'myopic zeal' ANTONIA ZERBISIAS Four big heads — but not the fat talking one called Dan Rather — are rolling at CBS. The axings come after an independent study found "myopic zeal" was behind last September's questionable 60 Minutes Wednesday report on gaps in President George W. Bush's National Guard service records. Yesterday, CBS announced that Mary Mapes, who produced the story about Bush getting "special treatment," was fired. Senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy, executive producer Josh Howard and Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs, have all...

NEXT YEAR, 1.3 million college students will receive reduced Pell grants for college aid. Another 89,000 currently eligible students will get no aid at all. These cuts will save the Bush administration about $300 million, a small part of what it needs to pay for its tax cuts and military forays.

Arab astrologer predicts Bush assassination Oracle famed for prophesying deaths of Diana, Yassin, Arafat © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A Tunisian astrologer who reportedly predicted the deaths of Princess Diana, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Yasser Arafat says President Bush will be killed by an assassin's bullet in 2005. So seriously are Hassan al-Sharibi's predictions taken in the Arab world that a similar prophecy about Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Mahmoud Abbas has resulted in increased security around the candidate to replace Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas' aides put a "great deal of credence" in the prediction, according to...

HOLLYWOOD has-been Chevy Chase lashed out at President Bush at a liberal love-in Tuesday night, calling the commander-in-chief a "dumb f - - k." Chase was master of ceremonies at People for the American Way's Defender of Democracy awards gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. But the organization got more than it bargained for when Chase went off the rails in a potty-mouthed rant, the Washington Post reports. "This guy in office is an uneducated, real schmuck," Chase fumed, "and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like [John] Kerry." He then joked about Cabinet changes,...