Free Republic

A key backer of a political bill that could put Dog the Bounty Hunter and other bail bondsmen out of business is facing a grand jury probe that could put her behind bars for a car crash that killed a pregnant woman. Colorado state Senator Suzanne Williams is a key supporter of a bill that would allow convicted criminals to post their own bail, effectively replacing bounty hunters like Duane Chapman with the government. The problem, say opponents of the bill, is that it would flood society with criminals and no one to chase them down and bring them back...

Meanwhile, Obama says: 'Let them buy smaller cars.' It apparently didn't occur to the president that people for whom it is a hardship to pay a dollar more a gallon for gasoline can't afford to buy a new car. The remark makes Mr. Obama sound clueless, or callous, or both, but most of the journalists who covered his visit to Gamesa Technology Corp. didn't report this exchange... Gas prices have doubled since Barack Obama became president. With wages stagnant, unemployment high and food prices rising at the fastest rate since the 1970s, this imposes real hardship on many Americans. It...

A U.S. President beset by angry mobs screaming “Yankee Imperialist Go Home”, exploding Molotov cocktails, rubber bullets, tear gas, riot police. Hmmm. Could this be why the President “cancelled a public speech he was scheduled to deliver Sunday” in an “historic plaza” in the “heart of Rio de Janeiro?” Well, we may never know from most in the Make-Believe Media. Yahoo News and New York Times are too busy breathlessly praising Obama as the guru of Hoops citing his so-far superb basketball bracket noting that even women’s hoopsters have attracted Obama’s laser-like focus, promoting my new moniker for our Bookie-In-Chief:...

The rarefied world of academics recently confirmed a sneaking suspicion: those “breaking news” banners on CNBC actually hardly ever, well, break news. And the market knows it. A study that culled from almost 7,000 interviews with chief executives on CNBC over nearly a decade found a recurring pattern: the stock surged on the day the company’s head gave an interview to the business news cable television channel, then dropped right back down over the next 10 trading days.

The number of people subscribing to US cable television services has suffered its biggest decline in 30 years as younger, tech-savvy viewers lead an exodus to web-based operations, such as Hulu and Netflix...cable operators were hard hit, with subscriber numbers falling by 741,000 – the largest decline in 30 years. The figures suggest that “cord-cutting” – one of the pay-television industry’s biggest fears – is becoming a reality as viewers drift to web-based platforms.

Every now and again I like to play "name that party." This is the fun parlor game where you read a story about a politician that has either been indicted, arrested, or imprisoned and try to guess by the story from which party he hails. If you read the story and no political party affiliation is mentioned, 99 out of 100 times you can be sure that the troubled pol is a Democrat. However, if it is a Republican that is going to jail or to court his party usually makes the first paragraph if not the headline itself. Well,...

The recent firing of longtime news analyst Juan Williams of National Public Radio was a wake-up call for many Americans to the political correctness and liberal bias at the station. However, it's not so much the bias that offends me, but the fact that my tax dollars are funding it. On its website, National Public Radio describes itself as "an independent, self-supporting media organization ... that receive(s) no direct federal funding for operations." That carefully worded statement is disingenuous and hides the truth about the extent to which taxpayers are supporting the station and its liberal agenda. NPR is a...

Lt. Col. Allen West is one of the most stand up guys you'll ever meet. He first came to the public eye when his interrogation of an Iraqi yielded lifesaving results even as it was a bit unorthodox. His professional handling of that incident put him on a track to run for Florida's 22nd District House seat, a race he won handily despite the left's unhinged attacks upon him. West ran a clean campaign in Florida's 22nd. He avoided over-the-top attacks on his opponent and did not indulge fits of name-calling. This is not to say that he soft-pedaled his...

At one of the last poll watcher training sessions held by the King Street Patriots on November 1, Assistant Harris County Attorney Doug Ray made an admission that contravenes the media meme that charges KSPs poll watchers with harassing voters here in Harris County, Texas. All week the media and Democrats have charged that voters were being harassed by King Street Patriots poll watchers and thus far county officials have not countered the claims being made by KSPs opponents. But this evening the myth has been busted. During an address to those attending a late training session, attorney Ray admitted...

This is really outrageous. William Kelly, who has a program on the weekends on Chicago's WIND radio, went out with the rest of the media shadowing Rahm Emanuel as he walked around meeting and greeting Chicago voters yesterday. The outrageous part was that Kelly, a conservative, was pushed away by one self-professed "real" reporter and threatened with violence from another simply for asking Emanuel if he thought the stimulus was a failure. I am very familiar with William Kelly as I’ve worked with him off and on for the last year since his run for State Comptroller in the primary....

Forbes has published its world's most powerful women list and on that list, in the top slot no less, is Michelle Obama, the wife of the President of the United States of America. Along with Obama a few singers and entertainers made the list. It all goes to prove that apparently no one knows what "powerful" means anymore. On the most powerful list – after Obama at number one -- Lady Gaga comes in at seventh place, in ninth singer Beyonce Knowles appears, and bringing up the rear is entertainer Ellen DeGeneres. Oprah Winfrey makes it in as number three....

A veteran CBS Radio News correspondent was arrested early Saturday on drug charges after police searched his Northwest Washington home, and found marijuana plants growing in his yard, authorities said. Police arrested Howard Arenstein and his wife at their home in the 3500 block of T Street and charged them with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Arenstein is married to Orly Azoulay, Washington correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, the largest and most widely read newspaper in Israel. Police executed a search warrant at the home Saturday after a tip from an area resident, and found 11 fully mature marijuana plants...

The Constitution of the United States of America. Journalist Mary Dejevsky wrote about it, but she sure hasn't the first clue about what it does, what it means, or why American politics seem to have gone awry. She did get some things correct in her article in Britain's Independent newspaper but over all she proved that she neither understands, nor even has a general feel for the greatest governing document ever written by man. Further Mary Dejevsky reveals herself to be a typical left-winger that not only doesn't "get" the USA but actively hates her and wants her destroyed and...

In an otherwise serious poll from Politico and George Washington University, the survey also asks respondents which cable-news network they access most for political news. The results aren’t terribly surprising, as they more or less mirror the ratings, but are still noteworthy for one network’s almost-total marginalization. While Fox News Channel sailed to an impressive 42% and CNN got a substantial if unimpressive 30%, MSNBC got … More people are getting their news about the upcoming election from cable television than any other source, and from Fox News more than any other cable channel, according to a POLITICO/George Washington University...

Was Washington's WJLA TV anchorman Doug McKelway fired because he dared appear too conservative to suit the station's left-wing news director and general manager? It sure is hard to escape that conclusion after reviewing the incident, in any case. McKelway had a run-in with general manager Bill Lord last month that resulted in his being fired for "insubordination." At issue was a July piece on the BP oil spill disaster in which the anchor seemed to go against the station's liberal grain. McKelway was sent for a stand up report near where a small protest against "dirty oil money" was...

WJLA-TV, the local D.C. area affiliate of ABC, has fired longtime anchorman Doug McKelway for "insubordination and misconduct" after (or during?) an April report on left-wing oil spill protesters . In his piece, McKelway said the sparsely attended event attracted protesters "largely representing far-left environmental groups." [He cited Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.] He went on to say the protest "may be a risky strategy because the one man who has more campaign contributions from BP than anybody else in history is now sitting in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama..." McKelway added that the Senate was unlikely to...

It almost sounds like the set up to a "guy walks into a bar" joke -- or maybe a knock-knock joke -- but the Washington Post's Dana Milbank made an assessment of his own political ideology that can't help but draw a laugh. As WaPo columnist Howard Kurtz reports, Milbank is being moved to the Post's editorial pages. But it is what Milbank said of himself that amuses. "Anybody reading my column would make an informed judgment that I'm left-of-center, and I wouldn't quarrel with that," he says. "But strongly ideological people on the left do not recognize me as...

The newest faux outrage comes from the mouth of controversial Jewish Rabbi Ovadia Yousef. In a sermon from Israel, Rabi Yousef as much as called for God to commit genocide against the so-called Palestinians. I say "as much as" because he didn't actually call for genocide, but he came awfully close for comfort. In fact, even as he didn't say it explicitly it’s hard not to see it being implied. "Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," said Rabbi Yosef, head of the Israeli Shas party. "God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil...

Interestingly, Politico is trying to rearrange this election's narrative from the real one of widespread voter dissatisfaction with the Democrat status quo to one of "offbeat GOP candidates" that will "hurt the GOP." Gee, why would that be, eh? As Democrats all across the land are either stepping aside so as not to face difficult reelection campaigns, or losing their incumbent seats to primary challenges, the latest polls show the GOP beating the heck out of Democrats on a generic ballot. Further, Republican voters are energized as never before and 57% of poll respondents even say that the Democrat's agenda...

The Hill conducted its annual survey of how congressmen feel about each other and the answers are instructive. The survey found that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D. Calif.) is the most partisan, unwelcoming, hard to work with politician in all of the House of Representatives. But the list of Republicans that congressional leftists love should serve as the list of those voters should fire in November and after. (And Illinoisan Judy Biggert seems to lead the pack) The Hill, however, did have an interesting point on why the extremist, left-wing, loud, hectoring, shrill Pelosi has been able to...