Free Republic

Thwarted in his bid for the vice presidency in 2000 and thwarted again in his campaign for the presidency in 2004, Sen. Joe Lieberman (?-Conn.) nevertheless retains one awesome power: the capacity to make some liberals lose their minds. How else to explain the outrageous smear of Lieberman, posted earlier today by youthful policy wonk Ezra Klein on The Post's Web site? Apropos of Lieberman's opposition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's proposed Medicare buy-in for uninsured people between the ages of 55 and 64, Klein had this to say: "At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals....

Linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky criticizes right-wing media outlets, which he describes as delivering a message of paranoia and economic populism comparable to Nazis during the Weimar Republic. "There were people with real grievances," says Chomsky. "The Nazis gave them an answer."

Can't post libelous item itself, but here's the link to same. The left's shrill, hysterical panic, re: Sarah, continues.

Three leading scientists who on Tuesday released a report documenting the accelerating pace of climate change said the scandal that erupted last week over hacked emails from climate scientists is nothing more than a "smear campaign" aimed at sabotaging December climate talks in Copenhagen. "We're facing an effort by special interests who are trying to confuse the public," said Richard Somerville, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a lead author of the UN IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. Dissenters see action to slow global warming as "a threat," he said. The comments were made in a conference call...

"But as I realized back in my Wasilla mayor days, life is too short to hold a grudge." By the time the reader reaches that pronouncement on page 321 of "Going Rogue," Sarah Palin has nursed enough grudges to last a lifetime. She describes the McCain campaign's chief strategist Steve Schmidt's "rotund physique" and his penchant for smoking to "keep his cognitive connections humming along." She claims that her Troopergate nemesis Hollis French earned the nickname "Gunny" after he listed himself as a Marine Corps private when he "merely attended a weeks-long military course during college." Media strategist Nicolle Wallace...

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...

During his appearance at the Senate Democrats' weekly lunch Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton told members of his party not to back down when they're winning the health care debate. A source close to Clinton said the former president had a simple message for Democrats: Make sure to pass something. "The point I want to make is, just pass the bill, even if it's not exactly what you want," Clinton said, according to the source. "When you try and fail, the other guys write history." Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Clinton described the ongoing tea party protests against the Democratic...

Keith Olbermann scares easily . . The Countdown host says he found folks peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the government for redress of grievances "terrifying." For good measure, he slurred the people protesting ObamaCare at the Capitol today as looking like "a pro-apartheid rally in South Africa." The timorous Olbermann confessed his fright to WaPo columnist Gene Robinson. Click to view video.

WASHINGTON -- Bob McDonnell's decisive victory is even more impressive if one stops to acknowledge that it came in the face of incredibly daunting opposition, misleading and low-brow campaign commercials, and a "news" organization which often advocates for left-of-center candidates and causes. To win the election, McDonnell had to defeat not only the Deeds campaign, but the DNC, the White House, and The Washington Post. Lest we forget, this is not the first time this "take no prisoners" strategy was employed by the Democrats and The Washington Post against a Virginia Republican. In fact, three years ago, not only was...

Be prepared to see more of Levi Johnston than you ever wanted to see. The 19-year-old who fathered a baby born out of wedlock to Sarah Palin's teenage daughter Bristol is about to pose nude for Playgirl magazine. Also, with Palin's book "Going Rogue" set for release this month, some publications may follow Vanity Fair's example in October by granting the high school dropout a byline. In that piece, Johnston claimed that Palin did not nurture her children - or cook or clean - while husband Todd tinkered in the garage or slept on a black recliner in the living...

Pathetic. The DNC is urging supporters to attack private citizen Sarah Palin on Facebook. From the DNC website: If Sarah Palin wants to spread lies on Facebook, we’ll call her out in the very same place. Click the share button below to share our note — and make it clear that people who lie about reform will be held accountable, no matter where they spread their misinformation. The DNC is furious at Sarah Palin for suggesting that their nationalized health care plan would increase costs, drive up the deficit, squeeze out private insurers, and ration care.

An intern for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was ejected Wednesday from a conference held at the US Capitol Visitors Center Congressional Auditorium after behaving in a threatening manner and repeatedly violating conference rules by attempting to record conference speakers who have been the subject of death threats by Muslims. The CAIR official, Iyad Awadallah of Boca Raton, Florida, was ejected from the conference and escorted from the premises by Capitol Hill police. Awadallah showed up at the International Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion sponsored by the International Free Press Society and the Liberty Legal Project...

The headline of today's CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll will undoubtedly give the deeply tiresome Allapundit the excuse he's looking for to launch into another one of his "moderate" anti-Palin tirades (I know, it hasn't been published yet, but I'm pretty confident he's typing one out as we speak). As part of our 'Get your retaliation in first' service, here are some facts AP is unlikely to mention: •The poll actually shows Palin regaining her footing. Her approval rating is now 42 percent, up 3 percent compared to the previous poll. Unfortunately, since 'Palin's approval rating rebounds' doesn't make for the...

And still no apology. Even when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh runs with a fabricated story, he doesn't apologize for the error. Limbaugh, who seizes on every opportunity to blast Obama, ended up with egg on his face when he read an Internet satire piece that claimed President Obama dissed the Constitution in his college thesis at Columbia University. A transcript of his Friday broadcast remains Sunday at the top of Limbaugh's web page under the headline, "Obama's Disdain for Constitution: We Know He Thinks It, Don't We? When we discover a hoax, we correct it immediately." But apologize? You...

by Capitol Confidential Some items need little comment. The email below, from a reporter of the Key News in Florida, speaks volumes about the mainstream media’s outlook on the political issues of the day. It is hard to know where to begin in dissecting this e-mail. Our personal favorite is the sense that, because Obama’s policies are so “needed” by the country, we can’t possibly brook any dissent. Journalists have been laid-off across the country, because of the media’s broken business model. Surely, the Key News can recruit a less-biased reporter. We have reached out to Mr. Guerra for his...

First, phony documents were intended to sink President Bush's 2004 reelection. Then, phony quotations prevented Rush Limbaugh from purchasing an NFL team. Now, the Left seems to be preparing its next tall-tale transcript to smear conservative foreign policy expert Frank Gaffney. Today's Wonkette recounts last night's skirmish between Gaffney and Ron Reagan Jr. on MSNBC's Hardball, which I reported earlier today. The blog claims: Gaffney screams at Reagan, who’s like, “…” Then Reagan essentially tells Frank Gaffney that he and all his stupid arguments are red herrings, like red herrings in a barrel that you shoot easily. And then,...

Two months ago, the blog Jumping in Pools, which has been banned from FR for its chain-yanking postings of bogus news stories, posted a bogus story about Time magazine writer Joe Klein supposedly reporting on Barack Obama's writings at Columbia University about the Constitution.Apparently without doing any research to see if Klein had actually written such an article, respected sites including American Thinker and Pajamas Media got all excited about the story and reported it today as if it were true.They apparently hadn't noticed there was no source link at Jumping in Pools back to the supposed Joe Klein article....

Listening to the contemporary American left’s views of the rest of us is increasingly like listening to a paranoid schizophrenic slip farther into delusions that they are surrounded by malevolent people. Just as we have to worry that the schizophrenic might act on their delusional beliefs and strike out violently against the evils they imagine, we have to be increasingly worried that leftists will strike out against the rest of us based on their delusional fantasies about what we non-leftists believe. And make no mistake about it, leftists do harbor dark delusions about non-leftists. The fact that so many leftists...

Whether Rush Limbaugh was set up in his failed attempt to become an NFL team owner, there is no doubt that he is the target of a new Politics of Hate, perfected and implemented by Barack Obama and his handlers. Obama's oratory of Hope and Change has proved to be nothing more than camouflage for a realpolitik of Fear and Loathing, his broad smile at the teleprompter just a distraction while Obama's heavies deliver a kidney punch to perceived enemies. Welcome to politics -- the Chicago way. Obama's attack on Limbaugh was conceived last spring. Politico reported then that a...

Here is video of liberal Juan Williams sitting in for Bill O'Reilly last night, where he reacted to being told to "go back to the porch" the night before by leftist talk radio host Warren Ballentine. The comment was intended as a slur on Williams, to call him an "Uncle Tom," or a "House Negro" just because he defended Rush Limbaugh against the despicable attacks against him this past week. Williams talked to Limbaugh personal friend, Rev. Ken Hutcherson - also an African-American. Hutcherson told Williams that Ballentine was calling him a "House Negro," and that most white Americans don't...

Once again, the nightly train wreck known as CNN Headline News "The Joy Behar Show" took another jab at conservatism, particularly Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Only this time, Behar threw in a couple of old standbys for whom lefties are fixated upon assaulting - former President George W. Bush and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Behar, on her Oct. 17 CNN HLN program, suggested to radio show talk host and former child-star actor Danny Bonaduce there was a trend - that people who have had struggles with chemical addictions are now outspoken, particularly those on the right that Behar...

Now that they played their part in smearing Rush Limbaugh and creating a firestorm that resulted in Limbaugh being criticized by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and eventually being dropped from the group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, some in the media are admitting they used alleged "quotes" that they cannot confirm. First, here is Rick Sanchez at CNN apologizing for using quotes against Limbaugh that he now admits he cannot independently confirm . . . MSNBC's David Shuster admitted on air today that they cannot verify the quotes they used either, be he did not apologize . ....

Media Bias: Not long after pro football welcomed a convicted felon back on the playing field, Rush Limbaugh is dropped for his opinions from a group seeking to buy an NFL franchise. Won't someone throw a flag? When even Keith Olbermann says back off, you know the politically correct critics of the conservative icon and megaradio talk host's proposed part ownership of the St. Louis Rams are guilty of piling on. The prospect of the leading conservative voice in America participating in the purchase of a football team sent the liberal elites into cardiac arrest and into a frenzied campaign...

David Checketts, an investor and owner of sports teams, approached me in late May about investing in the St. Louis Rams football franchise. As a football fan, I was intrigued. I invited him to my home where we discussed it further. Even after informing him that some people might try to make an issue of my participation, Mr. Checketts said he didn't much care. I accepted his offer.

As reported on NewsBusters on Friday morning, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez read his apology on Friday’s Newsroom for running a unconfirmed quote attributed to Rush Limbaugh earlier in the week on October 12 [audio available here]. Sanchez hinted to his error in a promo for the apology 37 minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour: “Rush Limbaugh gets denied [his NFL bid], but when it comes to one specific point, I will tell you this: he was right and I was wrong. Sometimes you got to say you’re wrong when you’re wrong, right? I'll tell you exactly what I’m talking...

It looks like CNN has been so busy the past 24 hours running news stories on its website and on air about Meghan McCain's existential Twitter crisis, that Rick Sanchez's own Twitter page was only place where he could find the space to issue a mealy-mouthed apology for falsely attributing a racist quote to Rush Limbaugh. Sanchez Tweets this evening: i've know rush. in person,i like him. his rhetoric,however is inexcusably divisive. he's right tho. we didn't confirm quote. our bad. What courage. It only took three days following his initial report and the Huffington Post to retract the quote...

Radio host Rush Limbaugh is interviewed on the sidelines before the start of the NFL AFC championship football game in Pittsburgh. Rush Limbaugh, who saw his bid to co-own a National Football League team sacked partly because of quotes he purportedly made regarding slavery, could have grounds for a libel suit, legal experts told Foxnews.com. The conservative radio host was dropped on Wednesday from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Dave Checketts, chairman of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, who is leading the effort to buy the NFL team, said Limbaugh was dropped from the group...

During the 3:00PM ET hour of live coverage on MSNBC Friday, co-host David Shuster admitted that racially charged quotes he and other hosts attributed to Rush Limbaugh had not been verified: “MSNBC attributed that quote to a football player who was opposed to Limbaugh’s NFL bid. However, we have been unable to verify that quote independently. So, just to clarify.” Shuster did not formally retract the quote or apologize.

The establishment media in the United States fears Rush Limbaugh more than any other media figure. Liberals who actually start to listen to his show frequently discover that his insights are rewarding, his humor is entertaining, and his combination of common sense and sophisticated analysis is compelling. Ever since his national show began, those who depend on establishment media for their information have been fed the line that he is hateful, racist, crude, and above all, not to be listened to. The ability to persuade those who pay little attention to politics that Limbaugh is anathema to all that is...

On Today's Show... October 14, 2009   The Bloods and Crips Quote Explained: It Was All About Love of the Game Rush restates his respect for the game and its players. (Rush 24/7 Members:  Listen) » January 19, 2007 Rush Limbaugh Show: Original Transcript   Transcript: Smear Campaign Against Rush is an Attempt to Discredit Conservatism It's not about Rush or the Rams. It's an assault on American values. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen)   » Sam Mellinger in the Kansas City Star: Limbaugh Blitzed in Bid for Rams   The Truth About Jackson, Sharpton, and CNN's Rick "DUI" Sanchez (With Sources) » NY...

The "race card" game is still alive and active, with the recent treatment of Rush has proven. It really is outrageous. Right from the first charge we posted Monday. The formula is familiar … spread lies … here … and here … and my favorite, here. Then put pressure on the NFL management to act, responsibly, or face the same fate ….. raaaaaaaacist. The end result … Rush is being forced out. Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources. Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL’s...

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell today demanded that CNN and MSNBC prove that radio talk show king Rush Limbaugh uttered a racist quote they have attributed to him as fact after Limbaugh publicly denied having ever said, “Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back. I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark” on his nationally syndicated airwaves. "CNN and MSNBC must immediately and publicly source when Limbaugh uttered this phrase. He has unequivocally denied it. Now it is up to the same news media that reported...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. When political times get tough for liberal Democrats in Washington, conservative conspiracies are the bogeymen of choice. Back in 1998 when things got tough for Bill Clinton, Hillary declared that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy” looking to bring her husband down. Other Democrats where quick to pick up the mantra and do anything they could to discredit those who criticized Clinton. Now here we are eleven years later and, (although there are no chubby interns involved), we have another liberal President facing hard times. So out pop the conspiracy...

A Gloucester attorney is going up against FOX’s Glenn Beck and is defending the creator of a controversial Web site the right-wing yakker is trying to shut down. The site, didglennbeckrapeandmurderayounggirlin1990.com, is based on a joke originally aimed at comedian Bob Saget. During a TV roast of the former “Full House” star, funnyman Gilbert Gottfried tried to squash rumors that “Bob Saget raped and killed a girl in 1990.” The Web site was created last month by a Florida man, Isaac Eiland-Hall, after an online post - “Why haven’t we had an official response to the rumor that Glenn Beck...

SPLC alarm: 'Militiamen, white supremacists, anti-Semites, nativists, tax protesters coalescing' A private activist organization apparently is picking up where the federal government left off when the Department of Homeland Security issued its "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" warning that returning veterans and people in a long list of other categories were potential terrorists. Only the new warning, delivered recently to police officers, sheriffs and other law enforcement personnel across the country, is lumping those dedicated to the constitutional principles on which the nation was founded together with crazed killers. The fall 2009...

A new generation of conservative activists has come forth, and many of the newcomers have never experienced the kind of nastiness to which liberals are inclined, falsely labeling them as racists, even Nazis. Many of the new activists worry that liberals' smears will be effective. But the old-timers among conservative activists have a message for the newcomers: Don't worry. We've heard these smears throughout our political lives. Even in the old days, the smears rarely worked. It is, to paraphrase Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls," the oldest established permanent floating crap game in American politics.

The current debate over whether Barack Obama’s opponents are motivated by his policy or his race dominated the Sunday news shows, with a general consensus emerging that policy was the main factor. It was nonetheless conceded that racism was a disturbing presence in many of the protest events. Sadly, no Republican spokesperson on the shows said anything to condemn the organizers that allowed and may have encouraged the ugly manifestations of racism. Many of the recent protests reminded me of rallies last fall at which Sarah Palin would talk about “taking back our America” and accuse Obama of “palling around...

TGL has been following the devolution of political discourse into fear-mongering and apparent race-baiting since Van Jones, the former adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, first got entangled in it. Like many commentators, this blogger has felt that the level of disrespect shown for Obama, and indeed the office of the president, of late was fueled by racism. At least as far as Rush Limbaugh goes, the nagging question has been answered. Limbaugh called for segregation of school buses in response to an incident in which a white boy was beaten up by two black boys. Here's the chain...

In a rare display of public emotion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) choked up Thursday morning recalling the anti-gay rhetoric in the late 1970s in San Francisco, which culminated in the assassinations of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay S.F. Board of Supervisors member, and Mayor George Moscone. Pelosi, responding to a question about whether anti-government rhetoric posed a threat of domestic violence, said that protesters on all sides had the right to voice their opposition to legislative proposals in a heated fashion. But then Pelosi -- whose weekly press conferences are legendary for their highly scripted nature and her...

Howdy, fellow freepers! I've looked at the HTML code at that horrible "smear Glenn Beck" web site and found something interesting. It appears that this is not a bunch of jovial Internet pranksters suddenly becoming socialists and deciding to do a character assassination of Glenn Beck. This is what got my attention: From the "Glenn Beck slander web site" <!--meta name="keywords" content="social justice organization,low income family,anti-war,paid sick days, predatory lending,katrina relief,osi-new york,minimum wage,afl-cio,living wage,new orleans, urban education,urban schools, heath care,political,civic engagement,hurricane katrina, political prisoners, gulf coast,rebuilding,rebuild america" /-->Now compare this with acorn.org's meta-tags: <meta name="keywords" content="acorn,social justice organization,acrn,acorns,acron,low income family,moderate...

ACORN is the latest victim of Fox news personality Glenn Beck's racist smear campaigns. Beck aired a staged video on his program entrapping a couple of low level members of ACORN. ACORN is a non-profit organisation that works to serve low income and working Americans. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. These are good Americans working for the benefit of those less fortunate. ACORN has over 400,000 members and more than 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100...

"Glenn Beck 1990" is an exercise in the politics of retribution - a spoof of Glenn Beck's outrageous assertions and obfuscations - an Internet meme engineered by those seeking justice - a theater of the absurd. "Glenn Beck 1990" is short for "Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990", a web site dedicated to tracking the meme questioning Glenn Beck's guilt in 1990. Glenn Beck is not pleased, and is taking legal action against the website tracking the meme. tech dirt reports: It turns out that Glenn Beck isn't happy about this either. He's filed a domain name...

This is what happened when a Raritan, New Jersey woman programmed Glenn Beck's 5:oop.m. show on her Cable DVR Program,...she documents the results with a handheld camera...

Arianna Huffington thinks Van Jones was forced to resign because of a smear campaign. It's unfortunate that Ms. Huffington missed this one. She's an intelligent woman who has run for president and is also a successful and capable businesswoman. But, repeating Van Jones' own words for all the world to hear is different than repeating others' negative words and rumors about someone. That's the difference between reporting the truth and engaging in a smear campaign. A smear campaign, Ms. Huffington, is when you employ bloggers to distort the words and record of someone. Let's see if any famous smear campaigns...

Arianna Huffington, a long-time friend and one-time employer of Van Jones, thanked Fox's Glenn Beck on Monday evening for leading the charge that resulted in the environmental adviser's resignation. Confused? Well, Huffington does describe Beck's calling attention to Van Jones' past radical statements -- on televion and radio -- as a "vile and vicious smear campaign." But in the end, she claims that Jones will be more effective working outside of government. I remember going to the White House this spring for a briefing of journalists by David Axelrod. Before the meeting, Van and I met for a quick coffee...

In my previous blogposts on the Washington Post news pages’ campaign to “Macaca” Virginia Republican governor nominee Bob McDonnell by running story after story on McDonnell’s 1989 Regent University thesis—Republican Governors Association operative Nick Ayers has noted 34 such pieces, including articles, blogposts, cartoons, editorials and on-line chats—I have purposely refrained from citing opinion articles, since after all opinion writers can legitimately try to influence readers and readers are on notice that this is so. But I’ll make an exception here for Metro columnist Robert McCartney’s Sunday analysis in which he argues, persuasively, that the McDonnell thesis isn’t likely to...

With Glenn Beck getting credit for Van Jones resigning, Keith Olbermann is now asking Daily Kos readers to find out anything they can about the Fox host and others associated with him. Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer [Stu] Burguiere, and the chief of his tv enablers, [Roger] Ailes (even though Ailes' power was desperately undercut when he failed to pull off his phony "truce" push). Olbermann said this action will help "save this nation from the Oligarhy of The Stupid."...

An American newspaper has revealed a new scandal committed by Blackwater (actually it was Armor Group - foreign 3rd world personnel) security guards protecting the American Embassy in the Afghan capital city of Kabul. The newspaper published a report titled ‘This is what our children are doing abroad’. The report said, “They are drinking vodka and peeing on themselves like animals. They intentionally run outside naked and then pour vodka over each other’s asses.” The newspaper wondered, “What makes the Pentagon deal with these ‘special companies’ that cause harm and kill in a criminal way?” The newspaper noted, “Their ‘gay...

Politicos, pundits and armchair campaign managers around the country are keeping a close eye on this year’s gubernatorial contest in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The stakes couldn’t be higher. In fact, many analysts believe this race (among others) may forecast things to come in the 2010 and 2012 elections ± up to and including the battle for the White House. That’s why it’s of little surprise that a branch of the Democratic Party’s media propaganda machine — the unabashedly liberal Washington Post – would, per usual, abandon any semblance of journalistic integrity and rush to the aid of State Senator...

Southern Poverty Law Center smears Steve Levy, promotes lawlessness Posted by Billy Kess on Saturday, September 05, 2009 9:24:47 PM The Southern Poverty Law Center has recently put out a so-called study concluding that Long Island's Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is somehow indirectly responsible for the rash of anti-Hispanic biased crimes on Long Island. Of course, this is just  another pathetic attempt to silence the politicians who want to do something about these illegal aliens who are destroying our communities. They figure as long as they put the pressure on, not only will it get Levy to stop standing...