Free Republic

If you were dying to know what Gwen Ifill was thinking when the controversy arose about her so-called Obama book and how that might have effected her ability to moderate the 2008 vice-presidential debate - now's your chance. Ifill, the host of PBS's "Washington Week" appeared at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 24 to promote her new book, "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." The book was a focal point of controversy last fall and questions were raised as to whether Ifill could be an impartial moderator of the vice-presidential debate,...

A thug named Mykul—all 6-foot-5-inches and 250 pounds of him—knocked me, a 5-foot-2, 120-pound “grammy” to three, down to the concrete. I was in front of St. Nick’s Pub, at 10:30 on a Monday night this past May, when he stole my handbag, a beautiful green snakeskin bag and all its contents, including more cash than I’d carried in Harlem—ever. People I knew from the pub stood and watched. Mykul was so sure of his protected status as a thug in the ‘hood that he ambled away cradling my bag in his arm like a football. Amused that he didn’t...

For Christmas, nearly a dozen readers sent me the same gift, an article about goings on in the Southwest: "Illegal immigrants packing up and leaving Arizona." According to the article, illegal immigrants are fleeing the Grand Canyon State because of an "oppressive environment" and the fear that the undocumented won't be able to find work after this week, when a tough employer-sanctions law takes effect. It's a restrictionist dream come true. Many of those who say they've had a bellyful of illegal immigration claim that, if we dried up the jobs, illegal immigrants would simply "self-deport." I've written that this...

The former “Today” show anchor traced her discomfort with the administration’s march to war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. “The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable. And I remember feeling, when I was anchoring the ‘Today’ show, this inevitable march towards war and kind of feeling like, ‘Will anybody put the brakes on this?’ And is this really being properly challenged by the right people?...

The ethnic studies professor filed a complaint in July saying his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired for research misconduct. He is seeking reinstatement. The University of Colorado filed motions Tuesday asking a Denver district judge to dismiss former CU professor Ward Churchill's lawsuit against the school. Churchill, who taught ethnic studies, filed a complaint in July, charging that the regents and the school violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and denied him due process in his termination. School officials responded Tuesday, saying the regents have immunity from a lawsuit over their decision to fire...

Repeal Second Amendment, Analyst Advises By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 12, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - The Second Amendment guarantees the right of an individual to own guns and for that reason should be repealed, according to a legal affairs analyst who opposes gun ownership. "The Second Amendment is one of the clearest statements of right in the Constitution," Benjamin Wittes, a guest scholar at the center-left Brookings Institution, acknowledged in a discussion Monday. "We've had decades of sort of intellectual gymnastics to try to make those words not mean what they say." Wittes, who said he has "no particular...

Contradictory messages about women's fertility are breeding like rabbits this week. In largely-Catholic Brazil, the government is subsidizing birth control pills so poor women can afford the contraceptive, despite a recent visit by Pope Benedict XVI, who mainly used his time to condemn abortion, contraception and sex outside marriage. In China, officials are rounding up rural, pregnant women and conducting forced abortions to enforce the mandatory one child policy. In Canada, on the other hand, I'm the problem. Thirty-something. Childless. And a threat to Canada's future economic well being. The nation's fertility rate has plummeted to 1.53 children per woman,...

POSTED: 10:34 pm PDT May 21, 2007 FAIRFIELD -- What initially appeared to be a minor traffic accident involving California State Senator Carole Migden is now part of a broader investigation by the highway patrol. The KTVU Ten O'Clock News has learned that several motorists phoned the CHP, warning them to stop an erratic and dangerous driver just before Migden crashed her car last Friday. A peninsula man, who asked us not to use his name, is one of half a dozen drivers so worried about a woman driving erratically and recklessly Friday morning on Interstate 80, they called 911....

Lawyer: Suspension recommended for prof. 16 minutes ago A University of Colorado committee has recommended that a controversial professor accused of faulty research be suspended for one year rather than fired, his attorney said. Ward Churchill, a tenured professor of ethnic studies, touched off a national firestorm with an essay that compared some of the 2001 World Trade Center victims to Adolf Eichmann, a key planner of the Holocaust. It was some of his other work, however, that led an interim chancellor of the Boulder campus and an another committee to recommended Churchill be fired. The professor was accused of...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says a fence at the Mexican border authorized by Congress this fall "gets in the way" of U.S.-Mexico relations, and he wants the new Democratic Congress to reverse the legislation. "The fence is very unpopular on the border in Texas and New Mexico, in Chihuahua," Richardson, a Democrat, said after meeting Wednesday with leaders from the Mexican state of Chihuahua. "So one of the most significant and constructive acts the U.S. Congress should take is to get rid of it." Richardson said he will call on Congress not to build the fence during an address...

I did not actually count the number of automatic weapons pointed at me, but there were at least five, and I was certain they were all locked and loaded, or whatever that military phrase is signifying that a gun is ready to blow a hole in somebody. "Step out!" commanded the black-helmeted man in the middle of what appeared to be a tactical formation. He was pointing a laser-like flashlight attached to his machine gun at me. I must have been quite a sight alone out there on the darkened New Orleans street wearing a headlamp and holding a cell...

The senior senator from Louisiana returned to the Capitol on Thursday not just as a lawmaker but also, in her words, as "a daughter of the Crescent City." The senator, Mary L. Landrieu, whose father was a storied mayor of New Orleans, whose brother is Louisiana's lieutenant governor, who walked her children out of her lakeside home expecting, correctly, that she would never see it again, was back in the Senate chamber, full of passion and rage at President Bush and what she called "the staggering incompetence of the national government." Ms. Landrieu, a Democrat who was nearly put out...

Just caught this at the end...Pelosi was being interview live on CNN, and she was spewing about the Bush failures..The CNN anchor was asking a few tough questions, interupting Pelosi, not letting the wild charges be go unchallenged, when Pelois, obviously annoyed, said "Well, why don't you quit your job ( at CNN) and got to work for the Bush White House?"

On CNN just now. New Orleans Mayor Nagin, apparantly stressed out, in interview segment, said he has been yelling at the President and the Governor, and for all he knows, the "CIA could wipe me out". (Paraphrase) Just now. Turning into a strange, macabre show now. Blame continues, spiraling out of control. Sad. It even raised CNN's eyebrows a bit.(5:57 p.m. Eastern/4:57 p.m. Central)

This is not a vanity post, it is the plain truth. As 'flagthefly' I posted a link to a BBC article about an investigation by the most respected medical magazine in the world, which had some unpleasant things to say about the real number of dead in Iraq. My thread got pulled after 2 replies. This has changed my opinion on this site by 180 degrees for now. Why is it not possible to post a link to news about an independent scientific investigation? If this counts as 'freedom', then I'd like to be jailed forever, that would be a...