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Close friends of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are always saying that she has a great sense of humor — witty, sarcastic, playful — and that skeptical voters would come around if they saw that part of her personality. Well, skeptical voters, take note: Mrs. Clinton has had some pretty amusing moments on the campaign trail this fall, wearing her personality on her sleeve more than she has in the past. This campaign season has been something of a dress rehearsal for Mrs. Clinton, as she considers auditioning for a bigger role in 2008. Her political issues, campaign advertisements and public...

At least they're honest about it. So avid is the New York Times for a Dem House majority that in an editorial of this morning, it's decided to throw Chris Shays [R-CT] to the wolves, under the bus, or wherever it is that liberal Republican congressmen go when the Times won't endorse them anymore.Although they came to bury him, the Times does throw in some praise of Shays [rhymes!]: Referring to him as "a good representative." Noting that it has "admired his independence and respected his leadership."Describing him as "a rare voice for moderation within [the] Republican caucus."Calling him "a...

CHICAGO The New York Times Co. reported Thursday that its third-quarter 2006 profit from continuing operations plunged 39.2% on costs related to its job cuts and a loss on its sale of its 50% stake in the Discovery Times Channel. Meanwhile, Belo, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, said net income for the quarter fell to $19.2 million, or 19 cents per share, compared to $22.1 million, or 20 cents per share, during the same period last year. At the New York Times Co., 3Q operating profit was down 48% from the same period in 2005 to $20.5 million on...

Hillary Clinton is running in a phantom race for the Senate, pitted against an unknown, unqualified opponent. In the unlikely event that New Yorkers ever learn what John Spencer’s views are, most would find them far too conservative. It’s a measure of the haplessness of Mr. Spencer’s campaign that the Republican nominee has been dogged by rumors that his real aim is to prepare the ground for an attempt to regain his old job as mayor of Yonkers.

The New York Times has put an ironic twist on the 8th Commandment: “Thou shalt not steal.” It’s accused churches nationwide of fleecing taxpayers and local governments using the First Amendment. The Times devoted more than 17,000 words and a four-day series indicting religious groups for what it argued was essentially cheating taxpayers across the country. The pro-government, pro-regulation treatise by business reporter Diana B. Henriques was titled "In God's Name." Churches “enjoy an abundance of exemptions from regulations and taxes” and the result is “religious organizations of all faiths stand in a position that American businesses – and the...

When it comes to sexual scandal, American voters tend to be more rational than American politicians. The House Republicans raced to impeach President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky episode. But the people, shocked as they were, showed no desire to punish him by upending the national government. Conservative politicians frequently try to score political points by railing against homosexuality, but voters from very conservative areas often support politicians who are living out their private — and often not particularly secret — lives as gay men and women. Lawmakers from both parties have announced they were gay over the last generation,...

For the Times' editors, sexual perversion in political Washington is always a sideline issue. Nothing has changed at the Times; they will run with a sex scandal only if they can run over a Republican. This morning, they glance over Congressman Foley's alleged behavior, move on to their target, and totally ignore that a watchdog group and members of the media may have let children remain at risk. As well as determining if anyone withheld information to prevent a scandal, we also need to know if someone deliberately delayed this becoming news in order to influence an election. Here is...

by Mark Finkelstein September 29, 2006 - 06:54 Rejection is painful. Spurned suitors often-if-contradictorily condemn the very object of their affection, while reserving a good measure of bile for their successful rivals. Democrats have suffered a lot unrequited political desire in recent years, and the strain is really starting to show. We all know about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Yesterday I described a new strain, Gas Price Derangement Syndrome, and mentioned an even more insidious disease afflicting many on the left - Controlled Demolition Dementia. Today comes more evidence of the left's painful struggle to deal with its diminished standing and...

NYT SPLASH THURSDAY: SENATE IN PLAY; DEM CHANCE FOR CONTROL IMPROVES Wed Sep 27 2006 18:24:35 NEW YORK TIMES editors have set a Page One Splash on Thursday claiming: Democrats suddenly face a map with new and unexpected opportunities to regain control of the Senate! "We are leading the paper with it," a newsroom source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.

A reader has kindly forwarded us the unpublished letter to the editor of the New York Times by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith. The letter addresses the New York Times editorial "A sudden sense of urgency" (behind the TimesSelect wall). The Times editorial was also published in the International Herald Tribune and is accessible ( here). Assistant Secretary Smith responded to the editorial as follows:September 7, 2006 Letter To The New York Times To the Editor: Your September 7, 2006 editorial, "A Sudden Sense of Urgency," asserts that the recent transfer of 14 CIA prisoners means that "President Bush...

You read our headline correctly. Right there on the New York Times' online front page, under TV critic Alessandra Stanley's byline is this headline: Laying Blame and Passing the Buck, Dramatized. Here is the screen shot:Mr. Stanley is not the Times' foreign policy expert. He watches TV for a living. Yet with one click of your mouse (or on Mr. Stanley's remote control), you get his "expert" opinion: All mini-series Photoshop the facts. “The Path to 9/11” is not a documentary, or even a docu-drama; it is a fictionalized account of what took place. It relies on the report of...

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 5 — The Danish security police arrested nine suspects on Tuesday on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack after surveillance showed that several of the men had collected bomb-making material, Justice Minister Lene Espersen said. An antiterror squad carried out a raid in Vollsmose, a poor immigrant district in Odense, at 2 a.m. The suspects appeared at a closed hearing on Tuesday, where two were released and the others were charged with plotting acts of terrorism. No details of a plot were released. Investigators said it was too early to know how far the suspects’ plans had progressed....

NY TIMES NUMBER IN NEW YORK: 212-556-1234 I dialed the above number and went through the menu button pushing to get the international desk. I had a question for the NEW YORK TIMES that I thought was reasonable. LADY AT NEWS DESK: Hello, news desk DFU: Hello, I was inquiring so I could write a piece on FreeRepublic. Are you guys unhappy that you didn't get the information in time to be able to run a story and warn the airplane bomb plot terrorists that they were about to be arrested? LADY AT NEWS DESK: What kind of question is...

The Times report says “Children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools.” The actual study says, “In..both reading and mathematics, students in private schools achieved at higher levels than students in public schools.” The only point at which parity is reached is in comparing poor children in public schools with poor children in private schools. Which is hilarious because thanks to the Times’s hatred of school choice, there are no poor kids in private schools.

On the evening of July 17, The New York Times announced plans to cut the width of its pages by one and a half inches, or 11 percent. On July 18, New York Times stock dropped from 23.18 cents a share to 22.67 cents--a decline of 2.2 percent. In joint memos announcing the page shrinkage, executive editor Bill Keller and Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy both described the smaller format as “reader-friendly.” Mr. Keller also described it as the emerging “industry norm,” which was true: Whatever readers may or may not think of the floppy (or generous) old broadsheet size, the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. plans to make the size of its flagship newspaper narrower and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss of 1,050 jobs, the company said in a story posted on its Web site late on Monday. The changes, set to take place in April 2008, include the closure of a printing plant in Edison, N.J. The company will sub-let the plant and consolidate its regional printing facilities at a plant in Queens, resulting in the loss of 800 jobs, the paper said.

he Right-Wing Assault on the New York Times A major, very serious, and significant right-wing assault has been unleashed against the New York Times, a key pillar of the liberal imperialist establishment, and a frequent critic of Bush Administration policies. This fascistic firestorm was unleashed after the Times published, against the Bush Administration’s wishes, a June 22 story revealing a secret government program, nicknamed Swift, which gave U.S. officials “access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States.” According to the Times, the Bush administration claimed...

There was the expected wailing and gnashing of teeth from the left when New York's state Court of Appeals ruled against installing so-called "gay marriage" by judicial fiat, as they had in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. The New York Times, as expected, was stunned that the judges could find a "rational basis" for traditional marriage, and that judges would defer to elected legislators. This outrage was plastered at the top of the Times with two "news" stories. One was a front-page editorial (they call it a "news analysis") by Patrick Healy, who focused on the "gay-rights advocates" and their...

Some formerly Communist countries that eagerly joined the European Union are balking at the social policies that come with democracy. They are led by the union's largest new member, Poland, which is now run by a right-wing nationalist government that seems intent on violating the rights of minority groups, beginning with an attack on gays. The government is led by the conservative Law and Justice Party, founded by the identical twin brothers who now run Poland: Lech Kaczynski, the country's president, and his brother Jaroslaw, who leads the party. Law and Justice got its parliamentary majority by aligning itself with...