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Beyoncé fans are pissed at John Schneider The actor known for his role in the 1979 TV show “Dukes of Hazzard” is being labeled a racist after comparing Beyoncé to a dog marking its territory when she put out two country-themed tracks this month. “They’ve got to make their mark, just like a dog in a dog walk park. You know, every dog has to mark every tree, right? So that’s what’s going on here,” Schneider, 63, said while appearing on conservative media outlet One American News. The comment came after the anchor asked Schneider his thoughts on fans pressuring...

Observations of the oblong interstellar traveler Oumuamua have revealed an unidentified organic coating on it, igniting scientific and public curiosity alike. After “Oumuamua” was initially spotted by a telescope in Hawaii by the Pan-STARRS project on October 19, experts raced to gather all possible information on it before it passed beyond humanity’s collective reach. But, while they expected to find a comet-like chunk of ice passing by our sun, the object mysteriously failed to leave behind a vapor trail as it grazed our home star. Instead, the still-unidentified chunk of ancient space debris hurtling at 60,000 MPH through our solar...

Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal apologized Thursday for forwarding an email poking fun at first lady Michelle Obama and referring to her as “Mrs. YoMama.” The Lawrence Journal-World reported Thursday that O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, sent the email from his personal account. The email also had a photo comparing Mrs. Obama to the Grinch and the subject line, “Twins separated at birth?” The photo has been circulating on the Internet and shows Mrs. Obama’s hair being swept by the wind, recalling a drawing of the fictional Dr. Seuss character from the classic Christmas cartoon. In forwarding the email, O’Neal joked...

COSTELLO: So in the next debate, you're going on the attack? CAIN: I'm going on the attack. COSTELLO: You're ready to do that. CAIN: Yes, I am. COSTELLO: Really, you've been the nice guy through all this. CAIN: Yes. COSTELLO: The likable guy. CAIN: I've been trying. But they're getting on my last nerve.

Gov. Christie said last week that he had mulled defying a possible order from New Jersey's Supreme Court to restore funding to schools. ... If Christie ignores the ruling, scholars said, he could be ruled in contempt of court and personally fined, he could be impeached for violating his oath of office, or he could trigger a constitutional crisis and the statewide closing of schools. ... The current case had its origins nearly 40 years ago. The nonprofit Education Law Center sued the state for more money for poor schools, saying equitable funding was a right under the state constitution...

CHILMARK, Mass. -- Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Sunday joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House. In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run "profoundly deep" in the United States. "They have not been resolved at all," he said, speaking to a crowd of more than...

I have a wee tiny suggestion for Free Republic. Is it at all possible to have a ZOT category, just as for General chat, or smokey back room? It would be genuinely nice to have a place where the shame of so many trolls could be put on public display! Thanks Mods!

JULY 23--Here are the police reports detailing the confrontation last week between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge cops, who were condemned last night by President Barack Obama for acting "stupidly" in arresting the African-American scholar. Cops responded to Gates's house after neighbor Lucia Whalen reported spotting "two black males with backpacks" trying to gain entry to the home (Gates, returning home from a trip overseas, and his driver were contending with a stuck front door). The Cambridge Police Department reports, authored by Sergeant James Crowley and Officer James Figueroa, quote an incensed Gates yelling, "This is what...

It seems somewhat unfathomable given the circumstances surrounding Obama’s own parentage and birth (his own autobiography described the circumstances surrounding his parents’ marital relationship as “murky”) that Obama is such an ardent supporter of unrestricted abortion upon demand. Given the fact that his parents were a white woman in her late teens, not yet an adult by the standards of the era, and a black foreign exchange student with a personal history of alcoholism and bigamy, had abortion been legal in 1961, it seems likely that Stanley Ann Dunham would have counseled by some people to terminate her pregnancy. According...

A cache of private letters attained by The Sunday Times reveals the influences that helped shape the young Obama Ann Dunham's time in Indonesia was spent as a programme officer for women's work In his autobiographical memoir, Barack Obama’s mother is almost as distant a figure as his absent Kenyan father: America’s president-elect was largely brought up by his grandparents in Hawaii. But a trove of private letters obtained by The Sunday Times highlights her devotion to her son and her struggle to make ends meet as an anthropologist in Indonesia. It was as a free-spirited student in Hawaii that...

Maureen Dowd is worried that the Republican smear machine is at it again, attacking Barack Obama by using…his middle name. It seems Ed Rogers referred to Obama by his full name on "Hardball" a while back, setting off indignation among some on the left. I don't know why it came to Rogers' mind, but it is true I included Obama's middle name in an NR story (not available on the web) in early November: "Obama has joked that he worried his political career was over after 9/11 because his name sounded too much like Osama. In fact, it's better than...

In a world where leading Western experts have consigned Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to near-irrelevant status, the gangly Saudi is on the verge of seeing the forces he leads and inspires knock off their third infidel government. Not bad for a guy running from rock to rock and cave to cave.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Radio station suspends pro-English ad The Associated Press 6/1/2004, 7:35 p.m. ET WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A radio station temporarily suspended broadcasts of a commercial for a Republican congressional candidate who rails against illegal immigration but then signs off in Spanish, including the salutation "Yo, Gringo!" WSJS-AM said it made the decision over the holiday weekend because it was unclear if the sponsor was clearly identified in the otherwise-English ad for candidate Vernon Robinson. The ad contends the prevalence of Spanish spoken in the United States can make English-speaking Americans feel like they're in "The Twilight Zone." Only the final...

New clue to Bin Laden hideout From correspondents in Islamabad March 07, 2003 PAKISTANI and US agents have stepped up the hunt for al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the south-west Pakistani province of Baluchistan and the country's far north, a senior security official has revealed. "There is a possibility that bin Laden could be hiding in Baluchistan close to the Afghan border or in Chitral," the official said. "These areas are being searched." Chitral lies in rugged mountains hugging the Afghan border about 300km north-west of Islamabad in North West Frontier Province. Investigators narrowed bin Laden's possible whereabouts to...

President Bush and First Lady Laura are with their children and relatives at Camp David to celebrate Christmas. Today, Bush called nine American service men and women to thank them for their service to our country. In the spirit of Christmas, this thread is devoted to Christmas wishes for the President and each other, as we celebrate the birthday of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Got this in the mail just today. I sent him a CEDAW email quite some time ago. My name has been changed to protect my gun collection. Dear Mr. Silverback, Thank you for contacting me regarding the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). I appreciate hearing from you. I strongly support U.S. ratification of CEDAW. This treaty requires participating nations to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in political and public life, law, education, employment, health care, commercial transactions, and domestic relations. While CEDAW has been ratified by more than...