Free Republic

ALBANY -- A renowned poet who taught the Virginia Tech killer found his presence so intimidating it felt like he was "controlling my classroom," the professor said in an interview. . . . The evening wasn't all solemn, though. Giovanni's often profane jokes about men, Jesus, and especially the Bush administration kept the crowd in stitches, though most of them can't be printed in a family newspaper. And from this article:But it wasn't what the celebrated poet said about the massacre that provoked one of the loudest reactions from her audience of University at Albany students Thursday. What really got...

Robert Novak, nationally syndicated columnist, television news commentator and the self-acknowledged “Prince of Darkness” of the Washington press, spoke at Schwartz Auditorium (Cornell University) last night. In his opening remarks, Novak, who served in the Korean War and worked for 50 years in Washington, D.C., revealed the origin of his sinister moniker. “I believe in limited government, low taxes and individual economic freedom. And in Washington that makes you The Prince of Darkness. It may well make you The Prince of Darkness at Cornell,” said Novak. In his speech, Novak offered an analysis of the 2006 Congressional power shift, a...

I want to hear your comments about the American Idol contestant who sang "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the dixie chicks and was axed.

Rocker David Byrne has accused US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for leading the country the same way the late Saddam Hussein led Iraq. Byrne is stunned at the Iraq war and is vehemently against it, said contactmusic.com. He said: 'It's like we are in shock. At least I am. The majority of Americans don't want to commit more troops, Congress doesn't want to commit more troops, but George and Dick do and by god they are gonna have it. And I thought, 'Can they just do this?' I thought only people like Saddam Hussein could...

(Ignoring the blather on Immigration and Impeachment, I proceeded to the Idiotorial remarks on the CIA leak postscript from the Houston Comical - weegee): -------------------- With the latest developments in the CIA leak case, some Bush apologists insist that it's time for a correction or contrition from those of us who spoke out about the White House's involvement. At least as far as my commentary has gone, I see no required rollback. Bush has not taken the "appropriate action" that he promised in October 2003, as Karl Rove remains on the White House payroll. Disclosure that Richard L. Armitage, when...

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...