Free Republic

This posting is not about Wendy Davis. It is not about her views. This is about a man who has pattern of being disrespectful to women: We are a big nation with different viewpoints. We won’t always agree…but a strong debate is helpful when we disagree. Sometimes if you are smart in your debate, you persuade someone who otherwise had disagreed with you. And then there are the creeps who take cheap shots because they are too ignorant and small to engage in an important discussion. The best they can do is make themselves look really bad. No one should...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) attacked Democrats for their "war on women" argument, saying it was their party who wasn't standing up for women. "It's time Republicans no longer accept listening to the Democrats talk about a 'war on women,' " Huckabee said during a speech at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in Washington. "Republicans don’t have a war on women; they have a war for women, to empower them to be something other than victims of their gender." Huckabee instead said it was Democrats who are insulting women. "If Democrats want to insult the women of America...

In a glowing profile of Texas state senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis that amounted to a campaign commercial on Wednesday’s NBC Today, correspondent Maria Shriver proclaimed: “Wendy Davis became a familiar name last year when she stood in her pink tennis shoes for eleven hours to defeat a Texas abortion bill. Even though the bill eventually passed, Davis became a star. And her story, her personal story, resonated across this country.” [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Following footage of cheering Davis supports, Shriver lobbed this ridiculous softball to the Texas abortion heroine:...

After only one short season, Senator John McCain's daughter Meghan saw the cancellation of her reality show, Raising McCain. However, on the heels of that cancellation, the Pivot Network has now announced that McCain will host a midnight political talk show. McCain's reality show debuted in September but apparently is already done. Despite the personal appeal of its star to liberals, Raising McCain was widely panned by reviewers. In fact, it was mocked outright. The show was said to be plumbing "new depths of irritation" and was a "caricature of youth political engagement." One reviewer even pointedly said that the...

One of the oldest rules in psychology and economics is that if you reward a behavior, you can expect to see it more often. In America, we reward victimhood. That makes us feel good about ourselves and in some cases, it helps improve the lives of the people who've been victimized, but there's a dark side to it as well. It creates perverse incentives for people, it helps legitimize a victimhood mentality, and it also encourages people to fake hate crimes. Under normal circumstances, that would seldom happen. However, in a society where we celebrate victimhood and savagely attack people...

Do you think the Koch brothers and other super-rich conservatives are the ones spending more money than anyone else to influence elections in states across the country? You’re wrong.

Here’s the read among Congressional Dems on this fall’s fiscal fights. At some point, House GOP leaders will have to pass an important bill with a lot of Democratic support — stiff-arming the Tea Party in the process. GOP leaders are trying to defer that moment for as long as possible, but there’s just no clear way around it. Multiple reports this morning tell us House GOP leaders are struggling to round up support among House Republicans for their new strategy for the fall. They are proposing a vote on a measure that would temporarily fund the government at current...

The next time you're wondering if polls are biased, just remember this admission from Public Policy Polling: Reflecting on the Colorado recalls We did a poll last weekend in Colorado Senate District 3 and found that voters intended to recall Angela Giron by a 12 point margin, 54/42. In a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll. It turns out we should have had more faith in our numbers becaue she was indeed recalled by 12 points. What's...

Absolute equality is absolute despotism. This statement is becoming truer every moment in which the Sodomite agenda is incessantly advancing over the moral infrastructures, and they are not doing so without destroying lives. Look at the decree that was just passed in San Antonio, TX, which now prohibits all those in political office from being bias toward homosexuals. Homosexuality is not a right, and sodomite marriage is not even recognized in the state of Texas, yet the reprobates are not stopping in their endeavorment to make everyone accept them. Now let me make one thing clear, this bill is not...

Just because Bob Filner — accused by numerous women of sexual harassment — resigned as mayor of San Diego on Friday doesn’t mean the city doesn’t have another potential sticky wicket on its hands.A California news outlet is reporting that Carl DeMaio, a Republican who once ran against Filner for mayor but is now running for Congress, is now being accused by his former colleagues on the city council of, well, masturbating while on the job.Two Democratic members of the San Diego City Council were quoted on the record at VoiceofOc.org making the allegation that DeMaio often polished his family jewels...

The FBI has been asked to investigate how Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, obtained a recording of political aides meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discussing opposition research on Ashley Judd, a source close the McConnell re-election campaign tells CNN.

The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it will no longer use the term “illegal immigrant.” On NBC’s Tonight Show, host Jay Leno said, “They will now use the phrase ‘undocumented Democrat’” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary)...

In an explosive interview on MSNBC, Chris Matthews has harsh criticism for President Obama and his team of advisers.

Conservatives have long claimed that the media is biased against them and tries hard to shape stories in ways that help Democrats and hurt Republicans. This has sometimes been dismissed as paranoia - as in my former MSNBC co-blogger Eric Alterman's book, "What Liberal Media?" - but it turns out to be truer than they imagined. If this were a Hollywood movie, there would have been clandestine meetings in basements or bars or parking garages. But since it was real life, it was just an e-mail list, called "JournoList," set up by the Washington Post's Ezra Klein. It had over...

There are glimmers of hope for Democrats battling to retain control of Congress in this fall's elections, with the party holding a slender edge in public trust for shepherding the economy and small gains in those saying their finances are healthy, according to a new poll. The reeling economy remains the American public's top concern, according to an Associated Press-GfK Poll conducted earlier this month, making public attitudes about it crucial for both parties' hopes in November. The good news for Democrats: By a slim margin (47% to 42%), people trust them more than Republicans to guide the economy. And...

Let's document here the numerous death threats the Left has made against us and right-wing politicians. A few that come to my mind immediately: The movie "Death of a President" (2006) by British film makers Gabriel Range and Simon Finch Cindy Sheehan's Book: "Peace Mom" in which she fantasizes about going back in time and killing the infant George W. Bush. Alec Baldwin's suggestion on the David Letterman show that Henry Hyde and his family should be dragged into the street and stoned to death. Nicholson Baker's " Checkpoint," a novella conversation between two people about the advisability of assassinating...

The photographer who shot the picture violated his contract by reselling them to Newsweek. That photographer, Brian Adams, could not immediately be reached, and his agent, Kelly Price, declined to comment, saying, "I keep all of my clients' business private." But a spokeswoman for Runner's World confirms that Adams's contract contained a clause stipulating that his photos of Palin would be under embargo for a period of one year following publication -- meaning until August 2010. "Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with its cover image," the spokeswoman said. "It was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's stock agency, without...

Try this on for size: Palinism. What is it? It is an updated version of McCarthyism, which takes its name from the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin liar, demagogue and drunk, and means, according to Wikipedia, "reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries." As far as we know, Sarah Palin is not a drunk. But she certainly shares McCarthy's other attributes -- and this one as well: the ability to drive the debate. In McCarthy's day, it was anti-communism coupled with national security, and it hardly mattered that he frequently...

Bangor, Maine (AP) -- The federal government has ended its prosecution of a former Republican political organizer linked to a plot to jam Democratic phone lines in New Hampshire. The case against James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, came to a quiet conclusion last week with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing an appeal by prosecutors.

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):