Free Republic

Where's Sarah Palin when you need her? The fourth-season premiere of NBC's Emmy-winning "30 Rock" was down a steep 27% in the adult demo from last fall, when star Tina Fey was generating national buzz for her "Saturday Night Live" parody of the Republican veep candidate. "30 Rock" returned to 6.3 million viewers and a 3.0 rating among adults 18-49, falling 25% from its "Office" lead-in. Meanwhile, ABC's "FlashForward" (9.1 million, 3.1) stopped its ratings descent, reversing for the first time to climb a tenth of a point. ABC just picked up the drama for a full season, so this...

0 Rock, a three-for-three Emmy winner as TV's finest comedy, finally returns tonight. It's puzzling that I get scores of questions about the most obscure TV series, some canceled years, ago, but I have not received a single inquiry about where 30 Rock has been. Then again, given the mediocre ratings, this probably shouldn't be that great a surprise. A widespread observation is that the stories are too inside TV to strike a chord with the masses. How then do you explain the enduring popularity of the likes of Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood? Tina Fey has ticked off some...

Hi folks, I’m sure some of you can help me out with this problem: My jerk boss has appointed me to help collect donations for the United Way, and there’s really not a way out of it. I was hoping to collect information related to the wonderful things they do, like misuse of charitable funds, black listing the Boy Scouts because they wouldn’t allow homosexual men to take boys on overnight camping trips, etc. Does anyone have more info that might be helpful in me driving my unit’s pledge total to $0 this year?

. . . While waiting I have been reading over the growing list of entertainment industry personalities who have risen to the defense of the director. The list is stomach-turning. Many of the names I know. Some were once personal friends. Some of those ex-friends even have children, who I also knew. [Link to Free Polanski Petition with signatories.]

The stars are not twinkling bright this summer. Hollywood's movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren't winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood's A-list talent.

Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer popped up on Sunday's Reliable Sources and swore that ABC's much-scrutinized health care special with President Obama "won't be an infomercial." She also seriously touted the objectivity of the network, cheering, "I know that our network has worked very, very hard to be completely-completely responsible and fair and serious about big issues."

Obama hits Hollywood on fundraising trip U.S. president to tap movie, music executives at Beverly Hills hotel LOS ANGELES - President Barack Obama looked not for votes in California on Wednesday but for millions of dollars to aid Democratic campaigns, including at a fundraiser hosted by such Hollywood names as Steven Spielberg. Like Bill Clinton and other top Democrats before him, Obama visits the Golden State now and then to tap wealthy, liberal-leaning activists, especially in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Wednesday night's two-tiered event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel offered tickets ranging from $1,000 to $15,200. The lower prices bought...

Republican Party turncoat Arlen Specter is being rewarded by Hollywood. The buzz on the L.A. streets is that the Senate will be filibuster proof when the Democrats add Al Franken and Specter. A recent Tina Daunt article in the Los Angeles Times trumpets the following headline: “Arlen Specter is welcome on the Left Coast.”

... a Miss California joke, on NPR: When Axelrod was asked if he had weighed in on the Obama family’s dog choice, "the Rasputin in this kingdom" (as Sagal jokingly refered to him) sassed back, “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California.”

Director Ron Howard on Tuesday defended his film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown 's "Angels & Demons" from criticism that it smears the Roman Catholic Church, heightening an ongoing battle over fictional depictions of the Vatican. Howard, who also directed the 2006 movie adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," posted a blog at The Huffington Post website saying that neither he nor his new movie "Angels & Demons," which debuts in May and stars Tom Hanks, are anti-Catholic. "And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church...

Planned Parenthood receives Title X funds from the Federal Government. Planned Parenthood also receives money from other Federal/State and Local Governments. It is reported that Obama's Headquarters in South Bend, Indiana was the Planned Parenthood Clinic. According to the report, the clinic boasted Obama signs as well as a PHONE BANK for making calls for Obama. Yet our Department of Justice went after Senator Ted Stevens during the election. Why is this not considered a serious violation of law and why is there no criminal prosecutions? South Bend, Indiana, is also the home to Notre Dame University... Finally, I would...

Non-Profit may describe a newspaper's balance sheet, but it does not describe its tax status, unless of course, if Senator Benjamin Cardin( D-Md.) gets his way. The Senator introduced a bill on the Senate floor today that would allow newspapers to elect to receive tax-exempt status all they have to do is promise not to endorse any political candidates (but they can report on the campaign):

WHEREAS: National television news has failed to tell the truth or perform the function of providing truthful and valid information to the American public; WHEREAS: National television news has failed to inform the American public about vital facts concerning the presidential election and the candidacy of President Barack Hussein Obama; WHEREAS: National television has failed to inform the American public about vital public policy and political questions, specifically, the activities of the Federal Reserve Bank; monetary inflation; national economic policy; and subsidies to corporations and banks; WHEREAS: National television has lied to the American public about the Iraqi War: I...

A host of celebrities joined Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to air their 2009 New Year's resolutions and pledges to the new U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday. Stars like Eva Mendes, Nicole Richie, Ashlee Simpson, Courteney Cox, Eva Longoria Parker all agreed to make pledges on camera for a new MySpace.com campaign backed by Kutcher. Inspired by the new President, in the video Simpson pledged to be "a great mother," Mendes offered to "volunteer more of my time to help children battling serious illnesses," and Longoria Parker promised to "plant 500 trees this year to help our planet." Kutcher,...

Left-of-center nonprofits are getting the bailout they wanted from the U.S. government, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. The news comes a month after Independent Sector president Diana Aviv demanded it. Our lawmakers are intent on pissing away billions of dollars on utterly useless giveaways to their supporters in the liberal nonprofit establishment. The money will have virtually no positive impact on the economy, except perhaps that it might bolster employment at nonprofit groups. One of the more egregious line items is the $1 billion allocation for community development block grants (CDBG). These are slush funds that liberal groups like La...

Abortion opponents are pressing state and local governments to stop sending taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, arguing that the nonprofit group has plenty of cash and shouldn't be granted scarce public funds at a time of economic crisis.

Requests have been pouring in from the mainstream media and liberal politicians for John McCain and Sarah Palin to apologize and distance themselves from so-called divisive and intolerant comments made by rally attendees. Referring to the words as “alarms,” the New York Times via Frank Rich cited the following: “The raucous and insistent cries of ‘Treason!’ and ‘Terrorist!’ and ‘Kill him!’ and ‘Off with his head!’ as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets… .” “Doing nothing is not an option,” Rich wrote.

It may be political poison for U.S. government officials to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the taboo does not extend to NPR. NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed the controversial leader this afternoon in New York and pulled no punches. Ahmadinejad is in the United States to address the United Nation’s General Assembly, which is meeting this week. In an often heated conversation, according to the transcript, Inskeep confronts Ahmadinejad on Israel, “wiping countries off the map and chopping off hands” — and the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Ahmadinejad, for his part, denies that Iran has provoked the United States,...

THE DISGUSTING ['APPEASEMENT'] SONG BY NPRAugust 11, 2008 What is it about the bad guys that provoke "compassion" from NPR type of journalists? Regarding the case against Bin Laden's driver: Salim Hamdan, though only having a short time to serve under the current verdict, he still might be held indefinitely according the Bush's administration as an 'enemy combatant', John Mcchesni of NPR 'lamented' that the jury will be very disappointed if that happens. Juror Questions U.S. Pursuit Of Salim Hamdan : NPR's John McChesney has this exclusive interview ... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93483533 Rhetorical question, Does Mr. Michesni think that these type of...

An internal Justice Department investigation released Monday has concluded that senior officials broke the law by hiring immigration and other officials based on partisan considerations. The report — issued by the inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility — culminates an investigation that lasted more than a year, stemming from the firing of seven U.S. attorneys in one day in 2006. The report focuses on some of the senior officials in the circle of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Specifically, the report names senior counselor and White House liaison Monica Goodling and Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Both...

Thousands of people march to protest the war in Iraq in Hollywood on March 15, 2008. Opponents of the Iraq war plan to hold marches, sit-ins and other protests on Wednesday in cities across the United States to mark the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion. (AFP/File/Valerie Macon)

Ever since this year's Oscar season got under way in January, the Hollywood writers strike has loomed fatefully above it: first threatening to cancel Oscar night entirely, then stoking much expectation that the last-minute settlement would result in an evening either grander or duller than usual.

The home of a primate researcher was firebombed on Tuesday, marking the second attack at the same residence in the past four months, authorities said. An incendiary device charred the front door of the home of Edythe London, who is a professor of psychiatry and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles. No one was at home when the attack occurred, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but animal rights activists are suspected of carrying out previous efforts at the homes of UCLA scientists who use animals in their research....

A packet for educators issued by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in conjunction with the NOVA program "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" encourages teaching practices that are probably unconstitutional, a conservative organization stated on Tuesday. "The NOVA/PBS teaching guide encourages the injection of religion into classroom teaching about evolution in a way that likely would violate current Supreme Court precedents about the First Amendment's Establishment Clause," said John West, vice president for public policy and legal affairs at the Discovery Institute, in a news release. The 22-page document is a companion piece to the two-hour NOVA docudrama, "Judgment Day,"...

I spent a delightful conversation today with a field representitive in Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS. I related some specific evidences that Media Matters has violated it’s status as a 501(c)(3) related to it’s political activities. The representative advised me that a formal complaint should be filed with specific references of political activity as outlined in this guidance document (pdf). I told them that I would be compiling such information for a formal complaint. While not providing specifics I was also told that mine was not the first call of inquiry. Perhaps the ball has begun to roll.

AMY GOODMAN: Jim Gilchrist, who was the speaker at the event, joins us now from Irvine, California. He is the founder of the Minuteman Project and the co-author of "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders". Here in studio in New York, I’m joined by Karina Garcia. She is the political chair of the Chicano Caucus at Columbia University. Her group organized the protest outside the Minuteman event. We asked a representative from Columbia University to join us as well, but they declined our invitation. Let's start with Jim Gilchrist. Can you talk about why you came to Columbia and...

Giving Congress up to September 21 to stop the invasion of Iraq, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus of Washington D.C., and Church of God and Christ minister, plans to lead a press conference in front of the White House to protest the war in Iraq on Thursday (Sept. 21). Yearwood, citing a moral obligation, says that he, along with 270 cities and 350 organizations nationwide, will no longer be passive observers of Bush's War on Terror. "We are in a time of peril in which people of morals have to stand up. We are willing to...

WASHINGTON -- Conservative groups urged Congress on Tuesday to end all federal funds to AARP, saying it was wrong for the seniors group to be receiving tens of millions in taxpayer dollars at the same time it was campaigning against administration policies. "AARP does not have the right to expect taxpayers to foot the bill to help advance its political agenda," said John Carlisle of the National Legal and Policy Center, author of a paper on federal funding to the seniors organization. David Sloane, senior managing director of government relations at AARP, said the paper was a "sour grapes" response...

Procter & Gamble, makers of Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent, and Pampers diapers, has publicly thrown their support and money behind the homosexual political agenda. The company recently wrote to all their Cincinnati employees urging them to support the overturning of a city law which forbids giving special rights to homosexuals. In 1993, the citizens in Cincinnati refused to give special rights to homosexuals by a vote of 62% to 38%. P&G is now working to get that law repealed. The company has given $10,000 to help repeal the law. To our knowledge, Procter & Gamble is the first company to...

Taxpayer-supported Democrat operative Bill Moyers is showing his true colors (all blue) by tainting his exit from PBS with an attack on what he describes as "right-wing media." "I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has [sic] become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," the Associated Press today quoted Moyers as saying. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest...

A list from DU--- Cuts both ways, I'd say

“Never make judgments.” That’s what scientist Alfred Kinsey tells his research assistant very early in the new film about his life. Kinsey, as you know, was all about nonjudgmentalism. Throughout his career researching the sexual habits of Americans, his goal was to free society from the constraints of what the movie calls “morality disguised as fact.” And like its subject, the film attempts to be nonjudgmental—or, at least, that’s the ploy. Three scenes exemplify the supposed nonjudgmentalism. In the first, Kinsey tells his wife, nicknamed “Mac,” that he’s had sex with one of his male researchers. Though she’s devastated, he...

A voice-mail message left last week at the Virginia office of Laptoplobbyist.com, a conservative Internet site, went like this: "Hi, my name is Rachel, and my telephone number is... I wanted to tell you that you're evil, horrible people. You're awful people. You represent horrible ideas. God hates you and he wants to kill your children. You should all burn in hell. Bye." Rachel is Rachel Buchman, 25, a regular reader of Laptoplobbyist's e-mail newsletter - and a reporter with public radio station WHYY-FM (90.9) for about three years. And she left her office number at WHYY in the message...

Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Pull plug on ACLU Posted: November 30, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Joseph Farah © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The American Civil Liberties Union, the misnamed, extremist persecutors of the Boy Scouts of America, claims to be fighting to end taxpayer support of religious groups. That was the excuse the ACLU used when it targeted the Boy Scouts use of military bases in a case in which the Pentagon caved into the neo-Talibanists of secular humanism. But the dirty little secret the ACLU doesn't want you to know is that it, too, received significant funding of its jihad against Judaism, Christianity...

http://www.illinoisleader.com IL MEDIA UNSPUN: Kinsey & Ebert, At the Movies Friday, November 19, 2004 By Arlen Williams, media critic (arlen.williams@unspun.info) Alfred Kinsey's life is featured in a new film, "Kinsey," released this weekend.   The Chicago Sun Times' film critic Roger Ebert is a native of Downstate Urbana. Warning: This column is not suitable for children, nor some adults. OPINION -- A movie is now being shown that promotes one of the most evil and destructive figures in the 20th Century. The setting: not Berlin, nor Moscow, nor Peking . . . but Bloomington, Indiana. People of informed conscience...

The unending 50-year war over Alfred Kinsey and his sex research is about to flare up once again, thanks to the new movie Kinsey. The film manages to be fairly faithful to the biographies of Kinsey while sliding by or simply omitting a lot of negative material that might interfere with a heroic view of the man.

In a bizarre week as polarized as the national elections, Kinsey, a movie about sex, is a masterpiece, while The Polar Express and Finding Neverland, a couple of Christmas trifles for children, are so full of sugar they could rot your teeth. If this is what they mean by "moral values," drop me off in Sodom and Gomorrah. More about Kinsey, the stunning, exhilarating and phenomenal biography of legendary, earth-shattering, scientific sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, down below. First, the G-rated family fluff: With all the talk about the revolutionary cinematic technology with which director Robert Zemeckis "created" The Polar Express,"manufactured"...

The unending 50-year war over Alfred Kinsey and his sex research is about to flare up once again, thanks to the new movie Kinsey. The film manages to be fairly faithful to the biographies of Kinsey while sliding by or simply omitting a lot of negative material that might interfere with a heroic view of the man. Kinsey was a highly intelligent, fearless man and an unusually skilled interviewer whose question-and-answer techniques heavily influenced the way polls and surveys are done today. Conservatives seem quaint when they argue that Kinsey’s two reports, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and...

Alfred Kinsey has been dead for 48 years, and he still makes people mad. "Kinsey," a movie inspired by the life of the sex researcher, hasn't even opened, and here is an AP story about "indignant conservative groups" who think it is propaganda for the sexual revolution. ----------------------------------------------------- BY ROGER EBERT Sun-Times Film Critic / Nov 14, 2004 Alfred Kinsey has been dead for 48 years, and he still makes people mad. "Kinsey," a movie inspired by the life of the sex researcher, hasn't even opened, and here is an AP story about "indignant conservative groups" who think it is...

Fox Searchlight's first-run feature film on the controversial "father of the sexual revolution" opens in select "blue state" theaters today to the protests of traditional-family defenders who regard the late Indiana University professor Alfred Kinsey as a fradulent scientist who, more than anyone else, bears responsibility for bringing acceptance of promiscuity into the mainstream. Liam Neeson in "Kinsey" (Courtesy Fox Searchlight) On the latter point, the star of "Kinsey: Let's Talk about Sex" agrees. "Kinsey did release the genie from the bottle -- and you can't put the genie back in the bottle," Liam Neeson told Variety magazine. The film...

Todays Logo from Google Conspicuously absent from Google is a special logo for Veterans Day. Google has a long history of opposing firearms and supporting left wing causes. Google also cherry picks its side bar advertising with a left wing bias.Do a search on Bush and then Kerry and see for yourself. Shame on Google. Google Special Logos Here Google has managed to craft special logos for Bastille Day (screw France), Earth Day, Canada Day, MLK day, a host of left wing artists and more... Happy Veterans Day: I send my heartfelt thanks to all United States veterans for all...

May one gloat if one was right? Indulge me. Last December, in a review of retiring Georgia Senator Zell Miller's book about the Democratic Party, A National Party No More, I concluded that "the Republicans will not only canter into power in 2004, the Democratic party may find itself on the verge of a total meltdown." I knew Miller got it right when he said it was all about values. The dichotomy between the parties' values is nowhere better illustrated than in their respective assessments of celebrity entertainers. John Kerry over-estimated their influence and embraced them, while George W. Bush...

Cancellation To all those planning to attend the Saturday night Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Streisand, Dixie Chicks, and Dave Matthews Concert hosted by Michael Moore on the White House lawn are hereby notified that it has been cancelled. God Bless America!

By Jim Emerson Editor, RogerEbert.com October 14, 2004Who's the, uh, biggest villain in "Team America"? Kim Jong Il or Hollywood celebrities?"You should learn to keep your opinions OUT of your reviews!" Every critic I know has received at least one letter like that from an indignant reader. Of course, it's an absurd proposition; critics are paid to express their opinions, and the good ones (who exercise what is known across all disciplines as "critical thinking") are also able to cite examples and employ sound reasoning to build an argument, showing you how and why they reached their verdict. Well, since...

NEW YORK - If President Bush (news - web sites) wins re-election on Tuesday, you'll see Patti LaBelle with reddened eyes on Wednesday. The R&B diva, an ardent supporter of Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites), said she "can't even think about it" happening. "I'm going to cry a lot, but I know that's not going to happen, because too many people have come out of the sleep that they've been in," LaBelle told The Associated Press last week. She acknowledges that she was in a sleep herself, as far as voting was concerned, for years. "I've not...

A former professor at Monroe Community College says he was fired because he showed his support for President Bush.  Dr. Michael Filozof says he was fired from his job as a political science professor after he was harassed by a predominantly left wing department.  Monday morning he filed suit against MCC and now he wants a pay back. "It was an American flag.  I didn't think it was too controversial but apparently at MCC it was."  Filozof says his colleagues at MCC attacked his political views.  It came as quite a shock considering many professors decorate their office doors with...

Well, over that last few years, I have pretty much started downloading all of my music off of P2P sites, because so many artist are such left wing whack jobs, that I refuse to support them financially but I still want to listen to their music. The one last and final holdout whom I would always go and buy the CD was Eminem, because, and I believe this 100 percent, there is not another lyricst on the face of God's green Earth who can match his skills on the microphone. Nobody who has ever laid words over a beat can...

Win or lose, Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] has pulled off something people have tried to do for more than a decade: reuniting the surviving members of Nirvana. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who made rock history in Seattle with the late Kurt Cobain, will appear today at a Kerry rally at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. Grohl will perform with his band, Foo Fighters. Novoselic, an activist who authored ``Of Grunge and Government,'' will speak. Also expected are Kerry's daughter, Alexandra, stepson, Chris Heinz, and Tom DeLonge of punk band Blink 182.

I know that this is long, but I have done a bit of the research for you. Front companies and 501c3's, 527's, common membership lists, names, donors, etc. There's more going on than one might at first think. As many of you don't seem to get it, I posted it separately. Pay attention and read it, then send it to someone who will listen. Some few of the links may be outdated. Everything you need to connect Kerry from the DNC to Soros to 527's is here. From ACORN to voter fraud to vandilism and violence to things you never...

Bill Fletcher of Trans Africa just declared (on Pacifica Radio) that any discussion of abstinence when referring to the AIDS crisis denotes support of genocide. Mr. Fletcher also cited the refusal of current nuclear powers to disarm (Israel?) as the reason why other nations will continue in their quest for nuclear weapons. In a speech this past July, Mr. Fletcher compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.