Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - With a newly robust endowment burning holes in its not-for-profit pockets, National Public Radio is in the midst of a major expansion. But NPR's ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation. NPR, a member organization governed in part by local stations, is pumping $15 million into its news division over the next three years, using interest from a recent bequest...

LOS ANGELES (Talon News) -- After being recently named the subject of several complaints of racism and discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Los Angeles-based chapter of the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood now faces another formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Justice Department. The group is being charged with actively campaigning for and supporting Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. Lively & Ackerman law firm filed their complaint with the Department of Justice on August 25, 2004 alleging several electioneering violations by Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles, California. Since the group is a tax-exempt...

George Bush-bashing celebs have joined forces with Moveon.org on a new series of campaign commercials. The celeb-studded spots feature the voices of Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner and Ed Asner and star Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Woody Harrelson, Illeana Douglas and Margaret Cho. Janeane Garafalo hosted Tuesday night's kick-off at Hammerstein Ballroom, billed as "10 Weeks: Don't Get Mad, Get Even!" Howard Dean, Kevin Bacon, Edie Falco, "School of Rock" director Richard Linklater and Al Franken fired up the faithful. Musical guests included The Roots, Natalie Merchant, Moby and Perry Farrell, who joined forces for Jane's Addiction's "Idiots Rule,"...

"Our goal is to change the direction of the government and change the current administration come November." -- Bruce Springsteen, writing a guest editorial in Rolling Stone magazine. Attention, all Bush-loving conservatives! We need to talk about your taste in music. Do you have anything by any of the following artists: Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Usher, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Five for Fighting, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Jurassic 5, Keb' Mo' and/or Death Cab for Cutie. If so, I regret to inform...

The culture war just got a little louder Concert tour aimed at defeating Bush Music stars target swing states with a series of shows featuring more than 20 acts By Cary Darling Star-Telegram Pop Culture Critic The culture war just got a little louder. With Wednesday's announcement that music superstars such as Bruce Springsteen, the Dave Matthews Band, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., John Fogerty and Jurassic 5 are launching a series of October concerts specifically designed to defeat President Bush in November, the entertainment industry is pumping up the volume on an already high-pitched political season. "I feel this is...

WARSAW, Poland - "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened Friday in Poland - a U.S. ally in Iraq - with some critics comparing director Michael Moore's style to totalitarian propaganda. But politicians who opposed Poland's decision to send troops to Iraq urged the public to see the film. Moore's movie portrays President Bush as inept and the war in Iraq as an illegitimate campaign waged to further business interests. A critic for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest daily newspaper, condemned the movie as a "foul pamphlet" too biased to be considered a documentary and said it reminded him of methods used by Nazi propaganda...

Poles Say 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Is Propaganda Fri Jul 23, 3:44 PM ET By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer WARSAW, Poland - "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened Friday in Poland — a U.S. ally in Iraq (news - web sites) — with some critics comparing director Michael Moore's style to totalitarian propaganda. But politicians who opposed Poland's decision to send troops to Iraq urged the public to see the film. Moore's movie portrays President Bush (news - web sites) as inept and the war in Iraq as an illegitimate campaign waged to further business interests. A critic for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest daily...

Fahrenheit 911 was apparently shown last week on Fidel Castro's Cuban state run TV!According to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules, a motion picture feature is disqualified for documentary Oscar if it airs on TV or over the Internet within nine months of its bigscreen run..

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A recent broadcast on Cuban television of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" has raised questions about the Oscar eligibility of one of America's most talked-about and critically acclaimed movies of the year. Under Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) rules, films are disqualified from competing in the Oscar race for best documentary if shown on television or on the Internet within nine months of their theatrical release. However, an unauthorized or pirated display of a film would not render the movie ineligible, academy spokesman John Pavlik said on Tuesday. "If somebody...

Sharon Stone blames US President George W Bush for the absence of a lesbian kissing scene in Catwoman - because of the current conservative climate in America. Basic Instinct star Stone, 46, was keen to enjoy an intimate moment with Oscar-winning co-star Halle Berry, but believes a puritanical streak running through the country put an end to any potential girl-on-girl action. Stone says: "Halle's so beautiful and I wanted to kiss her. I said, 'How can you have us in the movie and not have us kiss? That's such a waste.' "That's what you get for having George Bush...

HOLLYWOOD VS. AMERICA1st Linda Ronstadt, now Don Henley booed'We used to be able to have civil debate in this country. Not anymore' Posted: August 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Don Henley Singer Don Henley was booed at a concert in Orange County, Calif., after mentioning his friendship with Linda Ronstadt, who gained national attention after alienating much of her audience with a song dedication to leftist filmmaker Michael Moore. At the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Thursday Henley made several political comments between songs, according to a report in the Orange County Register. One comment began: "Given what...

DAVID CROSBY AND GRAHAM NASH ANNOUNCE THEIR CANDIDACY FOR JOINT PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE VENERABLE PAIR ARE RUNNING ON THE PARTY PARTY TICKET Shelburne, VT, July 21, 2004: David Crosby and Graham Nash have thrown their respective hats into the ring for the Presidency of the United States, entering an already crowded and diverse field with their bid on the Party Party ticket. What distinguishes the Crosby/Nash candidacy is that theirs is a campaign for a “Joint Presidency,” where the two will share responsibilities on an alternate day basis. When asked who would be named their...

Response to Michael Moore's, "Open Letter to Bill Timmins, President Aladdin Casino and Hotel" As you most likely know, Michael Moore posted the following letter: After the letter, you will find the response... Open Letter to Bill Timmins, President Aladdin Casino and Hotel http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=93 Bill Timmins President Aladdin Casino and Hotel Las Vegas, NV July 20, 2004 Dear Mr. Timmins: I understand from the news reports I've read that, after Linda Ronstadt, one of America's greatest singers, dedicated a song to me from your stage on Saturday night, you instructed your security guards to remove her from the Aladdin, which...

Thanks to negotiations today (July 21) between the Recording Artists Coalition (RAC) and the prospective new owners of Las Vegas's Alladin Theater, expect to see RAC member Linda Ronstadt back at the venue this fall -- with filmmaker Michael Moore on backup vocals. The singer was the recipient of heavy-handed treatment Saturday (July 17) when she dedicated the Eagles' "Desperado" (co-written by RAC co-founder Don Henley) to Moore, the director of the anti-President Bush documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11." News reports said some in the audience booed, stormed out of the theater and tore down posters. Reports also said Ronstadt was escorted...

LAS VEGAS - One of the partners buying the Aladdin hotel-casino said singer Linda Ronstadt (news) would be welcomed back to the property after the performer was kicked out over the weekend by current management for praising filmmaker Michael Moore. Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl of Orlando, Fla., said he'd like to take Moore up on the filmmaker's offer to join Ronstadt on Aladdin's stage and sing "America the Beautiful" when Earl's management team takes control of the bankrupt casino, as early as September. "We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," Earl said in a statement...

The real deal Linda Ronstadt's current tour – 'a history lesson of music' – reflects her dedication to authenticity, and quality By George Varga July 15, 2004 Other singers may have a greater passion for music than Linda Ronstadt. But few have a greater passion for more types of music, or the willingness to perform them, even at the risk of falling on her face. "My career has befuddled other people, and it's befuddled me," admitted Ronstadt, 58, who finds her fans are polarized by her nightly on-stage salute to "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore. "I've been dedicating a song...

Aladdin President Bill Timmins ordered security guards to escort pop diva Linda Ronstadt off the property following a concert Saturday night during which she expressed support for controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Timmins, who was among the almost 5,000 fans in the audience at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, had Ronstadt escorted to her tour bus and her belongings from her hotel room sent to her. Timmins also sent word to Ronstadt that she was no longer welcome at the property for future performances, according Aladdin spokeswoman Tyri Squyres. How much weight that carries is debatable, since the...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., urged the Kerry-Edwards campaign on Sunday to release a controversial videotape of their Thursday night fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall, where foul-mouthed comedienne Whoopi Goldberg compared President Bush to female genitalia. "I want the tape from New York," Graham told ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. "I want to see the standing ovation they got in New York." Stephanopoulos, who hadn't planned to discuss the subject, asked the South Carolina Republican to explain. "There was this hatefest in New York, where people who don't mind being called liberal got up and ran President Bush into...

July 9, 2004 -- Whoopi Goldberg delivered an X-rated rant full of sexual innuendoes against President Bush last night at a Radio City gala that raised $7.5 million for the newly minted Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards. Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia, and boasted that she'd refused to let Team Kerry clear her material. "I Xeroxed my behind and I folded it up in an envelope and I sent it back with a big kiss mark on because we're...

Friends, Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary ever. My head is spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this? Is Bush packing? Each day this week I was given a new piece of information from the press that covers Hollywood, and I barely had time to recover from the last tidbit before the next one smacked me upside the head: ** More people saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" in one weekend than all...

Streisand's Election Version of 'People' Fri Jun 25, 4:02 AM ET By The Associated Press Barbra Streisand sang a special 2004 election version of her hit "People" at a Thursday night fund-raising concert for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites). Here are the lyrics: People I mean G-O-People Who'd believe there's such people in the world Bush sees a Lotta Condoleeza They're dividing the planet's oil According to Richard "Poil" And they're all just trainees Of Cheney's Now Rumsfeld We must get rid of Rumsfeld He's the spookiest person in the world As for Powell He's neither...

Once upon a time, there were people in Hollywood who loved America. And when America came under attack from enemies abroad, these actors, producers, screenwriters and directors put aside their partisan differences and created movies that -- unlike Michael Moore's new schlockumentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- made all moviegoers proud to be Americans. During World War II, Tinseltown roused the country's fighting spirit instead of trying to stifle it. In February 1941, the entertainment industry convened an extraordinary Academy Awards ceremony. The president of the Motion Picture Association, independent movie mogul and World War I pilot and intelligence officer Walter Wanger, went...

Free spirits frolic at Fremont festivities By Diane Brooks Seattle Times staff reporter It was a great day to be naked. But we only can hope those bicyclists mixed some sunscreen with all that psychedelic body paint and glitter that so vividly depicted the flamboyant heart of Fremont. Seattle welcomed summer yesterday with its 16th annual Solstice Parade, a joyous, 75-minute celebration of all things wild and pagan. "I love it, because it's not 64 big sparkly floats with beauty queens on top waving, and people politely applauding when they go by," said volunteer traffic controller Chelsea Teller, who coordinated...

<p>With "Saved!" having gone wide last week, the rest of America now has a chance to see Brian Dannelly's satire of life at an evangelical high school. Or, as the film's producer, Michael Stipe, put it: "Saved!" is "like those monster vampire high school kind of movies, only here the monsters are Jesus-freak teenagers."</p>

(CNSNews.com) - National Public Radio has decided to use a philanthropist's generous donation for a "major expansion" of its news operation. NPR announced on Tuesday that it would spend $15 million over the next three years on additional reporters, editors, producers and managers; as well as new domestic and international bureaus. The 2004-2007 expansion will be funded in part by interest from the $225 million in bequests that NPR received from the late philanthropist Joan Kroc, the widow of the man who founded McDonald's. Joan Kroc died in October 2003. NPR has described her bequest as "the largest monetary gift...

On June 14, 2004, the Kerry campaign held a fundraiser in Washington DC. Bill Clinton was be there as was Star Wars sequel princess, actress Natalie Portman. The required contribution was $50 to get in or $150, to a VIP reception with Ms. Portman. I decided we could not let the attendees to have a one sided view of things, so I went down with my sign to state my point of view. The freep was mostly uneventful except for a few points. More that a few attendees were smiling, waving, and giving me the thumbs up sign. My guess...

IF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF BLACKSMITHS AND BUGGYWHIP MANUFACTURERS had held a convention in 1910, in those last sullen moments before the Horseless Carriage put them all out of business, then this is what it must have felt like--the same forced cheerfulness laid over the same defeated air, the same stiff upper lip at the prospect of the inescapable end. Outside the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, on the Florida coast near Tampa Bay, the beach was streaked with wind and black thunderheads stacked up along the horizon. Inside the hotel, members of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio...

In 1997’s “Batman And Robin,” a maniacal Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) runs around with an ice-emitting blaster gun turning Gotham into the North Pole, while he grunts: “Stop Global Warming! Start Global Freezing!”   There may actually be more science in the last installment of the Caped Crusader saga than in “The Day After Tomorrow,” which premiered on May 28th.   The $200-million Summer blockbuster features super-tornadoes smashing LA, hail stones the size of Toyotas falling in Tokyo, waves that wash an oil tanker up Fifth Avenue in New York, and a blizzard that turns Manhattan into Mt. Everest.  ...

When National Public Radio was launched in 1971, it promised to be an alternative to commercial media that would “promote personal growth rather than corporate gain” and “speak with many voices, many dialects.” In 1993, when FAIR published a study of NPR’s guestlist that challenged the network’s alternative credentials (Extra!, 5/93), incoming NPR president Delano Lewis was still boasting about being a place where the unheard get heard (The Humanist, 9/93): “Our job is to be a public radio station. So therefore the alternative points of view, the various viewpoints, should be aired.” Today, current NPR president Kevin Klose insists...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- With presidential security helicopters circling over the Yale University campus, filmmaker Ken Burns denounced the war in Iraq on Sunday and told graduating seniors to remember history as they work to repair divides in American culture. President Bush came to the campus for a private reception with his daughter, Barbara, who graduates from Yale on Monday. Bush did not hold any public events, and Barbara skipped Sunday's baccalaureate services and the day-before-graduation senior Class Day festivities where Burns spoke. While Bush was not in public view, his presidency was a hot topic of rhetoric at Class...

<p>May 18, 2004 -- CANNES, France - President Bush need not lose any sleep over Michael Moore's much-hyped "Fahrenheit 9/11," which turns out to be a wet firecracker. Moore's virulent feature-length attack on Bush, which premiered yesterday to a 20-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, falls far short of delivering on the filmmaker's extravagant promises of election-swinging revelations.</p>

Moore rant wows Cannes Anti-Bush polemic funny, emotional yet very powerful Confident it will be released before the U.S. election It took five separate screenings to accommodate the press demand to see Michael Moore's heavily anticipated anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, and when it came to turning up the political heat here, neither the movie nor its maker failed to disappoint. The audience at a afternoon gala screening responded with a 20-minute standing ovation. Festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux told the New York Times it was the longest he had ever witnessed in Cannes. A...

A First Look at "Fahrenheit 9/11" Controversy aside, the new Michael Moore film is a fine documentary A few years ago, Michael Moore spoke with then-Governor George W. Bush, who told the muckraker: “Behave yourself, will ya? Go find real work.” Moore has made trouble for so many powerful people he has become a media power of his own. He can even make celebrities of mere movie reviewers: When his latest cinematic incendiary device, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” had its first press screening Monday morning, American critics emerging from the theater were besieged by a convoy of TV and radio crews from...

LETTER TO THE ROLLING STONE (sung to the tune of On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone) Oh, we’ve heard phony rock singers. with an odor that lingers. …Don’t know anyone on the charts. We see through the sham; we know pop music’s a scam. CDs are 20 dollars a throw. We are under assault; hacks insisting it’s Bush’s fault, But the thrill you’ve never known is the thrill that’ll getcha When you cancel your subscription to the work of fiction Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone... Don’t wanna see Al Gore on’a cover. Stone... Don’t care that Madonna’s a mother. Stone......

Conservatives in general, and conservative radio talk show hosts in particular, are responsible for causing death threats against 9-11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick? NPR's Nina Totenberg sure seemed to imply so in a Monday Morning Edition story, which Rush Limbaugh highlighted on his radio show on Tuesday. CUT NPR Legal Affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports." Totenberg began: "Jamie Gorelick served for three years as Deputy Attorney General in the first term of the Clinton administration. In Washington, she has a reputation as a smart administrator with a cool head. But she admits she lost some of that cool last Friday."...

Backpack care tags include French language Presidential insultThe care instructios on the tags contained in Tom Bihn brand backpacks include both English and French language text, which is to be expected on products sold in many countries.What is not expected is the text "NOUS SOMMES DESOLES QUE NOTRE PRESIDENT SOIT UN IDIOT. NOUS N'AVONS PAS VOTE POUR LUI." Or in English, "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him."Tom Bihn, president of the Port Angeles, WA company which bears his name issued a statement."I am terribly sorry that this inside joke has been misconstrued...

CHICAGO -- A hidden message that appears to be slamming President George W. Bush has been discovered in a very strange place. A message inside some bags and backpacks takes a dig at an unidentified president -- but you have to know the secret language to understand it. Those who look closely at washing instructions inside Tom Bihn portable culture bags and backpacks, it reads, "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him." Why hasn't this caused more of an uproar? Because the message is written in French. Company officials claim they had no...

April 7, 2004, 12:08PM Soldier from Houston dies in Iraq two weeks into duty 21-year-old killed while fighting in Fallujah By LUCAS WALL Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A 21-year-old Houston man stationed in Iraq less than two weeks died Friday during fighting with insurgents in Fallujah, his family said Saturday. U.S. Marine Pfc. Leroy Sandoval Jr. died of a gunshot wound while manning a machine gun for his unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He's the 10th soldier from the Houston metropolitan area to die while on duty in Iraq, and the second Texan killed there in as many days....

NEW YORK - National Public Radio has bounced Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition since its inception in 1979, out of his job. The radio network announced Tuesday that Edwards, 56, will become senior correspondent of NPR News at the end of April, with his reports being heard on various broadcasts. Edwards said he was disappointed by the move, particularly that he won't be the host when the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in November. "You have to figure it's going to happen someday and you get out before they do it," he said. "But I failed." Edwards said he...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Monday criticized President Bush's record on homeland security, saying his Republican rival is "big on bluster and short on action" in protecting the nation. Speaking to the International Association of Firefighters, a 263,000-member union that has endorsed his candidacy, the four-term Massachusetts senator argued that Bush talks tough on terrorism but has failed to back it up with the financial resources firefighters and other first responders need. "I do not fault George Bush for doing too much in the war on terror, I believe he's done too little," Kerry said. "I think...

Defund Middle East Studiesby Daniel PipesNew York Sun February 24, 2004 Here's a prime example, one that involves me personally, of how the radical Left and the Islamists, those new best friends, readily deceive.It has to do with a proposed piece of U.S. legislation passed by the House, the "International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003," known familiarly as H.R. 3077, and awaiting action by the Senate. H.R. 3077 calls for the creation of an advisory board to review the way in which roughly US$100 million in taxpayer money is spent annually on area studies, including Middle East studies,...

"For where your treasure (money) is, there will your heart (interests) be also." Luke 12:34 Who funds homosexual & lesbian groups? Corporations and foundations supporting gay/lesbian issues* Last in Oct. 2000. An inside look at the programs & initiatives of homosexual advocacy. (Notice the focus of many programs is on youth, even children -- promoting pro-homosexual curricula and counseling in even elementary schools.) compiled by Diane Dew from public records, annual reports, and publications of The Foundation Center About SIECUS (Sexuality Information & Education Council of the U.S.) GRANTOR CONTACT INFO, MISC. DONOR INFO. GRANT RECIPIENT, AMOUNT & DIRECTIVE ABC,...

<p>At a time when efforts to reform the corporate world are getting all of the attention, there is another group of chief executives who remain insulated from the effects of scandals at Tyco, WorldCom and the like. They are America's not-for-profit profiteers: the executives who cash in at universities, foundations and other tax-exempt organizations.</p>

Leftist Sugar DaddiesBy J. Gordon LambFrontPageMagazine.com | February 24, 2003 Nazi Minister Of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels once remarked, "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." It’s a lesson the Left has learned well and taken to heart. There are certain tenets among the Left that are taken as Gospel among it’s adherents. The “fact” of global warming, that the United States is “racist” nation and, of course, Senator Hillary Clinton’s theory of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."...

Reuters Company NewsSalon seeking financing as cash dwindles-filing LOS ANGELES, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Online media company Salon Media Group Inc. (NasdaqSC:SALNC - News) has enough cash to last through September but is "confident" it can secure additional financing by then, the company said on Friday. In a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Salon said it ended the fiscal first quarter in June with enough cash to last one month. However, the company said it subsequently raised enough money through the issuance of promissory notes and renegotiation of a lease deposit so that, combined with...