Free Republic

A New York police detective shot and killed an unarmed man, whose hands, a witness said, were on the steering wheel of his Honda, after he had been pulled over early Thursday for cutting off two police trucks on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, the authorities said....The shooting, which occurred at 5:15 a.m., was the latest in a series of episodes in which police officers fatally shot or wounded civilians...A passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, said in a phone interview Thursday night that just before pulling the car over, officers appeared irate that Mr. Polanco had cut...

Actor Alec Baldwin for the second time in as many months went nuts on Twitter. His targets Monday were George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Mark Levin, readers of the website Free Republic, and what he referred to as "right wing trash":

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner blasted top regulators in an expletive-laden tirade amid frustration over President Barack Obama’s faltering plan to overhaul financial regulation, Reuters reported, citing a Monday story in The Wall Street Journal. A person familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Geithner told regulators “enough is enough,” the newspaper said. The meeting took place last Friday with Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairwoman Sheila Bair. The Treasury secretary said regulators had been given a chance to air their concerns, but that it was time...

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) took a swipe Tuesday at GOP senators who have criticized him during the presidential campaign, saying they “are not the most respected members of the United States Senate.” McCain, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination heading into the Super Tuesday primaries, was referring to comments made by five-term Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran and former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.). “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran had told The Boston Globe after his endorsement of McCain’s main rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. “He is erratic. He...

Usually the guy who's ahead finds it within himself to be gracious to his competitors whereas the desperate runner-up goes negative and reaches for any stick. So it was peculiar to watch John McCain sneering and slicing his way through the debate with Mitt Romney at the Reagan Library. When McCain was given up for dead last summer, he was witty and fun on the stump. Now that he is the front-runner, he is snarky and obnoxious. Dr. Freud, call your office. They say that McCain harbors a particular dislike for Romney. And why would that be? Well, Romney is...

SAN FRANCISCO - The man accused of setting the Burning Man on fire four days early has been arrested for allegedly planning to set Grace Cathedral ablaze, San Francisco police said today. Paul David Addis, 35, was arrested on the cathedral steps at 11:40 p.m. Sunday by police who said they had been tipped that someone intended to set fire to the Episcopal church, police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said. Addis was wearing an old ammunition belt that carried small explosives, Mannina said. He was booked on suspicion of attempted arson, possession of an incendiary substance, possession of explosives and...

WASHINGTON -- Sen.-elect Jim Webb contends the Bush administration wants to paint him as a "hothead." The former Navy secretary, whose election in Virginia put Democrats over the top in capturing the U.S. Senate, voiced that view yesterday. A White House spokeswoman flatly denied Webb's charge. "That is not true. At all," said spokeswoman Dana Perino in an e-mail. Webb confirmed published reports of an exchange at a private White House reception when he declined an invitation to be photographed with President Bush, and next declined to answer Bush's question about his son stationed in Iraq. He was told, Webb...

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of people are thronging a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to see a patient holding a piece of his own skull that fell off. Doctors say a large, dead section of 25-year-old electrician Sambhu Roy's skull came away Sunday after severe burns starved it of blood. "When he came to us late last year, his scalp was completely burned and within months it came off exposing the skull," Ratan Lal Bandyopadhyay, the surgeon who treated Roy told Reuters Wednesday. "Later, we noticed that the part of his skull was loosening due to...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Kenny Rogers turned himself in, and then had another run-in with a television cameraman. The Texas Rangers pitcher jawed at a cameraman for Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA as he was booked into the county jail Monday on misdemeanor assault charges stemming from an earlier tirade against two cameramen. Just as with the incident that led to the charges, the exchange was caught on tape. Rogers, a three-time All-Star who is appealing a 20-game suspension and $50,000 fine imposed by baseball commissioner Bud Selig, was released after posting $1,500 bond. In the latest run-in, WFAA reported...

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

WASHINGTON -- After Howard Dean last weekend declared Tom DeLay ought to be in jail, a longtime Democratic operative told me the party's national chairman had momentarily ripped off his muzzle but that it soon would be restored. My source erred, however, in believing that Dean ever had been muzzled. It's just that nobody has paid much attention to his rants. Since his election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee [DNC] on Feb. 12, Dean has studiously avoided most national television exposure. But he has been talking constantly to party gatherings across the country, and his intemperate language at...

<p>Howard Dean went into the Iowa caucuses riding high as the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, with a battle plan designed to take that state and set him on a course for winning those that followed.</p> <p>The plan put in motion a flurry of handwritten letters and a blizzard of door-knocking volunteers to convince Iowa Democratic voters that Dean was the person to take on President George W. Bush this fall.</p>

<p>January 28, 2004 -- More than a third of Democrats voting in New Hampshire yesterday said they don't believe Howard Dean has the temperament to be an effective president, according to exit polls. The figure is the most striking illustration of the heavy price Dean is paying for his red-faced rant after losing in Iowa last week and for controversial statements, such as that he wouldn't prejudge Osama bin Laden's guilt for the Sept. 11 attacks.</p>

MIAMI BEACH, Jan. 25 — Howard Dean was all smiles at a Women for Dean rally on Sunday in Hooksett, N.H., as he stood in front of a crowded room with Judith Steinberg Dean, his politically reluctant spouse who has made few campaign appearances. The couple exchanged loving glances as she read her introduction of him from a laptop computer. But after the event, Dr. Dean's tone changed, as he said discreetly but audibly: "Get her out. Get her out. Get her out." It could be that Dr. Dean was trying to shield his wife from the crush of supporters....

Howard Dean was courting the women's vote at a Women for Dean rally yesterday in Hooksett, N.H., with the help of C-Span cameras carrying the action live. But it turned ugly after the rally when he ordered his aides to remove his politically shy wife, Judith Steinberg Dean. "Get her out," he said. "Get her out. Get her out." The cameras and microphones caught it all. Earlier, Dr. Steinberg had introduced the candidate. They even exchanged loving glances. But, inexplicably, Dr. Dean turned into Mr. Hyde. Dean's campaign has been in freefall since an appearance just before the Iowa caucuses...

That Mean Howard Dean By: Jennifer King Howard Dean is one Angry White Male. When Iowan Dale Ungerer dared to suggest that Dr. Dean should tone down his fiery, anti-Bushism and treat his rival more “like a neighbor”, Dr. Dean immediately shot back, “George Bush is not my neighbor.” Dean went on, pointing his finger accusingly at Mr. Underer. “You sit down! You sit down! You’ve had your say and now I’m going to have mine.” Dean then continued with his riff on Bush, which clearly motivated his appreciative audience. Has there ever been a candidate for President who was...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Howard Dean said he is just another hockey dad. His wife of 23 years, Judith Steinberg Dean, said she cannot remember the last time he lost his temper. She said he's "a good dancer." He said "she's a lot smarter than I am." Nestled on a formal sofa in a quaint Vermont inn, the couple appeared in their first nationally televised interview Thursday in an effort to save Dean's embattled presidential campaign by reassuring the public that his emotional outburst after a disappointing third-place finish in Iowa's caucuses was an anomaly. As Diane Sawyer of ABC News...

The Angry Mr. Dean I heard a friend of Howard Dean’s say that what the press took for anger on Mr. Dean’s part was just passion. If what I’ve seen out of him is passion I’d sure hate to see the Doctor really mad. He chewed a guy out on TV the other night for asking him a question he didn’t like. What if he became president and some reporter asked him a derogatory question about one of his proposals. What would he do, have the Secret Service take the poor guy out back of the White House and shoot...

The "Mean Dean" Action Figure

Dean's meltdown: His temper is now a serious issue HOWARD DEAN’S Monday night meltdown was a moment when millions of Americans looked at their TV screens and thought to themselves, “Who’s that professional wrestler?” It highlighted the value of having our Presidential nominating process begin in small states in which candidates have to meet people face to face instead of relying on large media campaigns to collect votes. Character and personality are better revealed in personal meetings than in scripted television ads. Tens of thousands of Iowans no doubt watched Dean fall apart Monday night and said to their spouses,...