Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday threatened to sue conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for writing in a column that the civil rights leader played a role in two New York race riots. In a column published by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday about his derailed bid to become part-owner of the St. Louis Rams, he accuses Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson of making comments that helped get him booted from a group that was trying to buy the NFL team. Limbaugh derided Sharpton as having played "a leading role in the 1991 Crown...

MSNBC uber-dork Keith Olbermann has done it again. The cable channel's principal pontificator -- in naming syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin "the worst person in the world" on Wednesday night -- blasted her "total mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic hatred, without which Michelle Malkin would just be a mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it." AirAmerica.com blogger Megan Carpentier found Olbermann's remarks more than slightly misogynistic, and said, "By attacking Michelle Malkin's politics with an assault on women of every political persuasion, and then indicating a desire to see her physically harmed, a person might understandably get the idea that...

Quote: President Obama took his chances on a high-profile visit to Copenhagen because the White House was getting a "clear message" that his presence could clinch the Olympics for Chicago, The Chicago Tribune reports. "The intelligence that we had from the U.S. Olympic Committee and Chicago bid team was that it was very close and therefore well worth our efforts," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser. "The message was that...a personal appeal from the president would make a huge difference." President Obama first tried lobbying quietly through phone calls, and had not decided until a few days before...

"No-drama Obama"? The president's flight to Copenhagen ...to make a personal pitch for holding the 2016 Olympics in Chicago was an audacious move -- and a dramatic failure. "Second City Absorbs Its Latest Defeat," read the (rather snotty) headline in the New York Times. But shed no tears for Chicago...With a projected half-billion-dollar deficit next year, the Second City is better off without the Games. We can't say the same for Obama's reputation after his in-person appeal failed to get his adopted hometown past the first round of voting. What new project can the president undertake to save face? How...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans say it's payback time for the recent reprimand of one of their own for heckling President Barack Obama. They want a Democratic lawmaker to apologize or face a reprimand for saying the GOP wants Americans to "die quickly" if they get sick. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. – a first-term congressman known for a provocative style – refused to back down on Wednesday. As Republicans threatened to introduce a resolution disapproving of his remarks, he returned to the House floor and mocked their outrage by citing research showing that nearly 45,000 people die each year for lack...

US national Micky Louis Mayon, one of the FBI's 100 most wanted criminals, was apprehended in an apartment in Tel Aviv's Florentine neighborhood Sunday by a newly-created task force dealing with illegal immigration. Mayon, 33, is wanted in the US for several federal crimes, including membership in the Ku Klux Klan, the burning of vehicles belonging to federal judges and several charges of severe violence. According to intelligence information relayed by Interpol, Mayon has been residing in Israel illegally since entering the country in 2008 and has changed his location every couple of days since his arrival. Mayon was transferred...

The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night. After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House. So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children's swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together. There were no Secret Service agents right behind them - the agents stood off... (read the story for more) As the Obamas walked behind shrubbery...

  The White House just put up a Flickr Stream (291 photos uploaded yesterday, 1 uploaded today) of their comings and goings. These are some pretty good shots.If you can't get enough of your Obamas and Bidens and Emanuels and presidential dogs, look no further. If not, look at little further.  Also, if you've got one of those digital picture frames with Flickr support, you can probably hook up your frame to directly feed photos from the White House stream and pretend you're some kind of secret agent or witch, being able to see their every move. [Flickr] - Gizmodo  

Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Armando Robles a worker at Serious Materials Chicago, Monday, April 27, 2009, in Chicago. The company formally known as Republic Windows and Doors declared bankruptcy in December 2008, leaving over 260 people unemployed. Serious Materials acquired the assets of the factory in February and plans to rehire 250 union employees tied to spending under the Recovery Act Vice President Joe Biden. left, listens as U.S. Sen. Roland Burris introduces U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin while speaking at at Serious Materials Chicago, Monday, April 27, 2009, in Chicago Vice President Joe Biden tours an assembly...

CRESTVIEW -- Around 6 a.m. on April 18, officers were called to investigate a car that had been parked and left running for about an hour at an intersection. When they arrived, they found a man asleep in the driver's seat and a woman sleeping on the back seat, according to the driver's Crestview Police Department arrest report. The officer reached in and turned the vehicle off. He then woke up the driver and asked him why he was sleeping in a car at an intersection. He didn't answer, but later said he was "sleepy." He said that he had...

President Barack Obama points to a familiar face in the crowd as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House after returning to the United States Sunday, April 19, 2009 in Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) talks with Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega (L) as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives for a meeting with Central American leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain April 19, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama arrives at the official dinner of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, April 18, 2009. U.S. President...

[Video, photo, definitions] According to the media we hate, George Bush was a moron for saying, “Nu-cu-lar” (despite the fact that he captained a nu-cu-lar submarine, Jimmy Carter said it the same way). We’re still waiting to hear how stupid Barack Obama is for mispronouncing “defibrillator” on the Tonight Show. Guess the story was simply lost in the flood of mainstream reportage of the President’s “Special Olympics” quip. Oddly enough, ...

Zionism is the problem The Zionist ideal of a Jewish state is keeping Israelis and Palestinians from living in peace. By Ben Ehrenreich It's hard to imagine now, but in 1944, six years after Kristallnacht, Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, felt comfortable equating the Zionist ideal of Jewish statehood with "the concept of a racial state -- the Hitlerian concept." For most of the last century, a principled opposition to Zionism was a mainstream stance within American Judaism. Even after the foundation of Israel, anti-Zionism was not a particularly heretical position. Assimilated Reform Jews like...

The Al Franken campaign is demanding the Minnesota Secretary of State oversee an “immediate and intensive search” for a lost envelope in November’s election. The lost envelope contains 133 ballots from Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1. Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1 covers the Dinkytown neighborhood and includes a large population of students at the University of Minnesota. "These ballots must be found,” Franken attorney Marc Elias said. “The outcome of this election is at stake. But let me be clear: The integrity of this election is also at stake, as is the integrity of Minnesota's electoral process. We won't stand...

Word from Capitol Hill is that, despite his kind words for Hillary Clinton yesterday, Sen. John Kerry is angry and disappointed about not being considered a serious candidate for Barack Obama’s secretary of state. “He’s pretty PO’d,” said Someone Who Knows. “After going from the early front-runner to not even being considered, he’s pretty disappointed.” Kerry yesterday issued a statement congratulating Clinton on her nomination for the globe-trotting gig. “President-Elect Obama has chosen a terrific national security team to protect our security and help restore America’s rightful place in the world,” Kerry’s statement read. “As Secretary of State, my friend...

COLEMAN CAMPAIGN NOT HAPPY WITH FRANKEN'S GAIN IN RAMSEY Mike Roman, Coleman's lead representative in Ramsey County, says he remains unsatisfied with the apparent emergence of 12 new ballots in a St. Paul precinct, but that the campaign's only recourse might be to take the issue to court — a step that would be made by campaign officials superior to him. The issue could be important because, as of Thursday afternoon, Franken had picked up at least 13 more votes than he did Election Day. The concern arose late yesterday when the total number of ballots sorted in Ward 3,...

<p>During the cold war, JFK claimed to have gone to the moon. He got congress to spend billions on his moon landing and pretended america landed there, convincing congress to give him billions, the fakeness of the landing is well documented.</p>

Let's assume the 32 disputed ballots in Minneapolis were legitimate. Let's assume the newly discovered 100 votes in Pine County -- all for Al Franken -- were just overlooked by a sleepy official, and the 100 votes found in Mountain Iron -- again, all for Franken -- were valid. Let's suppose the trickle of votes moving inexorably in Franken's direction is just a function of a normal process, as Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office assures us. One fact remains troubling. The referee in Minnesota's hotly contested Senate race must act in a nonpartisan fashion, yet Ritchie came to office...

Electronic voting machines that a Michigan election official said last week incorrectly tabulated vote counts during pre-election tests in the state were used in Minnesota where the senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is in dispute.

Coleman wins by 1000 votes. Franken refuses to concede -- promises court fight.

I get it -- Al Franken is a serious senatorial candidate despite his penchant for the pornographic. Franken's one-liners about rape and oral sex and his leering fantasies about big-busted women were just for yucks, right? Last June, DFL bigwigs chose to forget about their man's decades-long record of sexual crudity after he hooked the endorsement by putting on a serious face and saying "sorry" at the party's convention. But Franken didn't apologize for another aspect of his trash-talking shtick. He's aimed some of his most offensive material at religious believers, particularly Christians. Why hasn't this been aired in public?...

Barack Obama's selection of U.S. Sen. and former presidential candidate Joe Biden as his running mate is not generating a momentous immediate reaction from the nation's voters. Just 14% of registered voters interviewed in a new USA Today/Gallup poll say Biden makes them more likely to vote for Obama in November and 7% say less likely while 72% say he will not have much effect on their vote. This results in Biden potentially having a net positive impact on voter support for the Democratic ticket of +7 percentage points -- small by comparison with other recent vice presidential selections. A...

In choosing Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, Barack Obama has acknowledged his own shortcomings while recognizing that the election he and his people thought a cakewalk a few months ago is now a battle royale along the lines of the 2000 and 2004 contests. Republicans would do well not to celebrate too much over this choice. On the surface, it may appear to be a mistake - an almost comically bad selection by Obama due to Biden's well known (and well documented) verbal gaffes. And, as Politico points out, this should worry the Obama camp: But...

Manny Ramirez will not be in the starting lineup for this afternoon's series finale in Seattle. Red Sox manager Terry Francona said Ramirez showed up this morning and said his right knee was sore, an overnight development that the manager said caught him by surprise. The trainers had not communicated any issue to Francona after the game. "He showed up this morning, I wasn't ready for that,'' Francona said. "He said his right knee hurts.'' Francona then joked, "The (expletive) jaywalking, if you do it right, you won't hurt your knee.'' Ramirez told reporters his knee has been bothering him...

Obama Makes Stop On Way To Afghanistan In Whirlwind Tour Of Middle East, Europe CHICAGO (CBS) A group soldiers serving overseas, including some from the Chicago area, were overjoyed Saturday when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama visited in Kuwait. As CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports, Obama stopped in at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before making his first trip to Afghanistan. Camp Arifjan is a major gateway for U.S. soldiers moving into and out of Iraq. The soldiers applauded thunderously when Obama arrived; one of them could barely contain herself as she sported a Chi-town sign. When the cheers settled...

In one of Senate candidate Al Franken’s literary efforts titled “Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot,” he reveals his personal feelings about a topic important to many Minnesotans. In Chapter 12 of his book, I learned that candidate Franken is against private ownership of guns due to his belief that firearms in the home are “too dangerous.” I believe these views are more consistent with California or New York, where Mr. Franken still maintains corporate interests. His problem is Minnesota has always been a pro-gun state. Remember, a bipartisan majority passed “conceal and carry.” I called the National Rifle...

Warning: The following contains extreme vulgarity by a candidate for the United States Senate. In the nationally important Senate race in Minnesota, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is presented with a unique political problem. Should he raise in his ads the issue of comedian Al Franken's offensive vulgarity? Or would this risk a backlash against Coleman for coarsening the public conversation? Remember that when Ken Starr detailed Bill Clinton's most repulsive antics -- stained dresses and such -- it was Starr who was accused of sexual obsessiveness. Franken's defenders explain that his edginess is the result of being a "satirist" --...

On an episode of her Mob Logic.TV called "Hybrid Hullabaloo" the lovely Lindsay Campbell (pictured right) had the opportunity to ask an owner of the iconic super-sized Tonka toy something she has been wanting to ask for a long time. While interviewing random people in the parking lot of a "big box" store about hybrids and why they aren't driving them, she spots a man returning to his king-sized ride and runs to confront him. With mic in hand and cameraman in tow she starts, "Tell me seriously, I've always wanted to talk with a Hummer owner and find out...

"DIFFERENT OPINIONS" Jimmy Carter was on the West Bank today. He met with, and reportedly hugged, a senior Hamas official. He placed a wreath on Yasser Arafat's grave. (One of Carter's hosts helpfully explained that "Arafat's resting place was temporary, and the Palestinians hope to move his remains to Jerusalem one day.") The U.S. government has criticized Carter's determination to meet with Hamas, and Israeli officials are more or less shunning the former President. Carter defends his mission to Hamas in these terms: Carter acknowledged Tuesday he was not on an official mission and had "no authority at all." "I'm...

Ray Nagin welcomes "V-Day" Founder, Eve Ensler to cityNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he is "a vagina-friendly Mayor." Nagin made the remark while welcoming the author of the Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the "V-Day" celebration in New Orleans next month. Scheduled to appear during 2 days of educational, cultural and entertainment events at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome, are Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Salma Hayek, Sally Field, Christina Lahti and Faith Hill. Ensler says they will celebrate V-Day's 10 years of ending violence in the world. Mayor Nagin began his...

The Rev. Al Sharpton released a statement Friday chastising one “John Huckabee” for saying South Carolina should be able to decide whether it wants to fly the Confederate flag. Of course he meant Mike Huckabee — the GOP candidate who on the campaign trail Thursday said outsiders should not tell South Carolina what to do when it comes to that flag. Either way, as the controversy of race settles on the Democratic side, Sharpton said Republican Huckabee is now offending the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. “In the midst of a national celebration of the life and teachings of...

LITTLETON, N.H. — The nation needs a president who is more a stranger than an insider when it comes to the capital's way of doing business, Barack Obama said Monday, portraying his relatively modest experience in Washington as an asset. "We don't need somebody who can play the game better," the Illinois senator told about 600 people in a high school gym in this northern New Hampshire town. "We need somebody to put an end to the game plan." Obama seemed to be directing his comments at New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who often suggests that her husband's administration...

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has used $23,000 in campaign funds to pay the top Washington ethics lawyer, Stan Brand, who is fighting his case before the Senate ethics committee, according to Craig’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. No additional legal expenses appear in the report, but they eventually will. Craig, according to his office, has decided to use his campaign committee for attorney fees related to his criminal defense in Minnesota as well. “A better read (of the latest report) is that Stan Brand bills more quickly,” Craig’s spokesman, Dan Whiting, wrote in an email. The report covers...

Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican trying to inject new life into his beleaguered presidential campaign, plans to offer a resolution this week for Congress to apologize for slavery and segregation. Brownback, of Kansas, told The Boston Globe's editorial board yesterday he will join an unnamed Democrat in sponsoring the proposal. He said he expects a tough fight on the resolution, even though it will not include any call for reparations. "They were federal policies," he said. "They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of day acknowledging those, taking ownership...

Apparently this guy took lessons from Larry Craig. Joey Difatta is currently Chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council and a former member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee, until Thursday running for State Senate from District 1. Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation. The report said...

A Minnesota judge denied a motion by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to withdraw the guilty plea he entered in August in connection to an airport bathroom stall sting operation. The order, released Thursday, likely derails Craig's plans to remain in the Senate.

A federal Green party candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway is standing behind a controversial editorial he wrote more than four years ago in which he describes the falling of the World Trade Center twin towers as "beautiful." The editorial, entitled, A Revolting Confession, was first published on Nov. 28, 2002 in an alternative newspaper, The Republic of East Vancouver, which Kevin Potvin founded. "When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, 'Yeah!' When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said,...

Obama: 'Lack of Experience My Greatest Asset,' and Other Whoppers WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just 45 years old and two years into his first term in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama brings to the 2008 Presidential campaign the prospect of a new generation and style of leadership, with less experience in Washington and far fewer ties to the political polarization of the past two decades there. “My lack of experience is my greatest asset,” said Obama. “So is my ability to tell that whopper with a straight face!” Not to be outdone, and already feeling off balance by the freshness of...

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful, is shown on a chair spinning in a circle, saying he was doing something no other candidate can, during a campaign stop, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007, in Keene, N.H. 'Do you know why I can do it,' Kucinich asked. 'No strings. Imagine a president with no strings attached?' (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)

TV Truck Plunges Through Ice Rob Lowry MUSKEGO - Frightening moments for the driver of a local TV station's live truck on Sunday. She unknowingly drove onto a channel leading to Big Muskego Lake. Moments later, the truck plunged through the ice. The driver managed to scramble to safety. However, the truck remains submerged. It happened as a news crew for CBS 58 (WDJT) was working on a story about ice safety. "To my knowledge, she thought this was a road that led out to the lake," said Muskego Fire Chief Carl Wojnowski. "So she was unaware she was on...

BY DAWSON BELL The longtime treasurer of Alcona County, Mich., has been accused in an embezzlement scheme in which he may have served as both perpetrator and victim, sending up to $1.25 million in county funds and his own life savings to con artists after falling for one of the notorious online Nigerian banking frauds. Thomas Katona, 56, of Harrisville, Mich., was charged Wednesday with nine felonies, including embezzlement and fraud, after a monthlong investigation by state authorities of numerous unauthorized wire transfers he allegedly made of county funds to overseas bank accounts. 13 years on the job The accounts...

Should Sen. Barack Obama run for president? It will be a tough call for the senator and for those who admire and respect him personally. If he runs, he has a good chance of winning because he represents what Americans want in their president at this very troubled time in their history, a man of firm principles but not an ideologue, a moderate who can sympathize with his opponent's position, a modest man with self-deprecating wit, a politician who tries to bring people together instead of polarizing them against one another. A candidate who does not swagger or shout and...

Gore calls out Bush on 9/11 Sen. Albert Gore, Jr. as interviewed by Gentleman's Quarterly : GQ: Okay, on to 9-11. What were you really feeling? Was there a part of you that felt a sense of relief that you weren’t in charge that day? You mean a sense of relief that I didn’t have to deal with it? Gore: Oh no. Not at all. Not for one second. Not for one second. Why would I? I mean, well first of all, it just didn’t occur to me to feel anything like that. What did occur to me was to...

THIS TIME, it will be harder for John Kerry to have it two ways. He can't be for and against a presidential campaign. The pressure is on to choose: Will he run for president or Senate in 2008? Kerry can't be a presidential nominee and candidate for US Senate on the November 2008 ballot -- a longshot, but still a technical possibility. The state Legislature and governor could change the law, as Connecticut once did for Senator Joe Lieberman. But that seems unlikely, and Kerry seems disinclined to find out. Kerry adviser Ed Reilly said, "With the end of the...

Wisconsin is squarely in the eye of Obamamania this week with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama crossing the border to campaign for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, attorney general candidate Kathleen Falk and Congresswoman Gwen Moore. Two years ago, when Obama showed up at Milwaukee's Martin Luther King Park to campaign for Moore and Sen. Russ Feingold, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't even bother to run a story the next day. With every magazine and talk show in the nation now promoting the possibility of Obama becoming America's first black president, even the most oblivious local media have taken notice. That's why...

Swift Boater No. 1 November 5, 2006 12:50 am John Kerry's painful self-expiation SEN. JOHN KERRY'S little joke about smarts and soldiering in Iraq turned out to be, pardon the expression, not much of a swiftie. If the Kerry Correlation is true, the senator's performance at a California city college last week qualified him to be dropped off alone in middle of the Sunni Triangle with a rifle, pack, and desert uniform with a stitched-on name patch: Doofus. If that scenario sounds suicidal, Mr. Kerry's remark about the lazy and ill-educated "get[ting] stuck in Iraq"--he claimed later he was talking...

HAROLD FORD, JR.: My friend Lincoln Davis who chairs our campaign says there are, there’s one big difference between us and misfortunate Republicans when it comes to our faith: he said that Republicans fear the Lord; he said Democrats fear AND love the Lord Wow! What a statement! I don't doubt that many Democrats fear And love the lord, but what would make this man come to the conclusion that Republicans only fear the lord? That is what he said. He noted there was a difference between Republican and Democrat faith in God and that the difference was the lack...