Free Republic

As the media-anointed President in waiting, Obama is virtually guaranteed superstar non-stop media coverage as he makes his taxpayer financed 'fact finding' tour this week. Joining him on this excellent adventure are all three of the major network anchors who will cover his every step, endlessly. The world anxiously awaits.

...In fall 2006, political scientists, including us, representing about 30 universities conducted a survey of 16,000 Americans, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The survey asked respondents whether they read blogs and, if so, which ones. We analyzed the answers, and the result is the first detailed portrait of political blog readers. About 34% of the respondents said they read blogs, but only 14% named at least one blog that focuses on politics. Who are these political blog readers? Compared with those who don't read political blogs, they are more likely to have a college degree and, obviously, are more interested...

Daytona Beach is dying a slow death due to widespread corruption and abuses in City Hall. When will this stop? The State Attorney, who shares a lot of the same campaign contributors that have caused many of the abuses, refuses to instigate an investigation in spite of the overwhelming evidence and multiple criminal complaints from citizens. The Daytona Post

Two white people walk into a bar, a badly lit Culver City saloon called the Backstage whose interior design could be summed up as one pool table, a no-frills photo booth and some scattered neon. Blondie and the Rolling Stones belt out of the stereo, $3 Newcastle comes on tap and sticky laminated menus offer up garlic fries, chili cheese fries and buffalo wings. In other words, welcome to No. 148 of 150 things white people like: dive bars. "If you want to say I was planning that far ahead, that's great," said Christian Lander, resident white person behind the...

While all the military services are concerned about operational security and compromising the mission, each branch has its own rules for servicemembers who want to sound off in the blogosphere. Army An April 2007 operational security policy mandated that soldier blogs get "eyes on" by a blogger’s immediate supervisor and OPSEC officer before publication. The policy also covered (but was not limited to) "letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail, Web site postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation." The free-speech firestorm was fast and furious, and the Army...

Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the internet, reports said on Wednesday. MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said. The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by...

Spitzer Call Girl Dupre Speaks Out On Myspace BlogLast Edited: Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008, 4:09 PM CDT Call girl Ashley Dupré is speaking out for the first time since the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, thanking her fans and her critics alike. "Thank you all so much for taking the time to send me a bit of strength and inspiration via e-mail or comment," Dupré, 23, writes on her MySpace blog, in which she calls her mood "Thankful." "Your words have touched me, and I thank you for that ... with all my heart, I love...

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

Jihadism in the 21st century has plans for all types of situations, including Mujahada (Jihadi activity) in a courtroom when needed. This is now what the world will witness during the trials of the al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo, Cuba. Both the inmates on the inside and the Jihadi-mates on the outside were waiting for this moment to strike, politically and psychologically, using the media as their weapon. To the well-trained and -indoctrinated five standing trial, the objective is not to gain as many rights and freedoms as possible under current U.S. and international law; rather it is to resume...

A NASA employee has been suspended for soliciting donations and writing politically partisan blog posts and sending e-mail messages while at work, violations of the Hatch Act. Office of the Special Counsel officials said a Johnson Space Center employee promoted local and state political candidates in 2006 and 2007 through his Internet writings. The officials also found the employee solicited small campaign donations two times in 2006 through blogs. The employee has been suspended for 180 days without pay. The suspension started March 30. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said the suspension is part of an effort to crack down on...

On accepting Scott McClellan's resignation as his press secretary two years ago, President Bush predicted that he and the outgoing aide some day would be "rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days." But maybe their days in the White House together weren't so happy after all. Next week will bring the publication of McClellan's 341-page tome, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." It is described by Politico's Mike Allen as "surprisingly scathing."

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country. And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a...

Liveblogging Wright at the National Press Club: The "black church" is under "attack;" "I am open to being vice president;" defends his AIDS conspiracy-theorizing, "God damns," "Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy;" don't be dissin' my mama or my faith

Good morning, people. I'll be on Fox and Friends at around 8:15am to talk politics. Today's engine-starter is The American Digest's post on Jeremiah Wright's racial brain theories. Do you remember nutball racialist professor Leonard (Blacks are "sun people," whites are "ice people.") Jeffries? Jeremiah Wright is the Leonard Jeffries of 2008. First, watch this:

Another ethnic slur has reared its ugly head from the golf world, and once again, it's from a golf announcer. Bobby Clampett, a former pro and CBS announcer, referred to Chinese golfer Wen-Chong Liang as "the Chinaman," on the air on Friday. Clampett issued an apology, albeit a rather weak one, on the air: "It has been a privilege to be here with you the last two days describing action of the players. In describing the Asian player Wen-Chong Liang if I offended anybody please accept my sincere apolgies." These are sensitive times in the golf world. Golf is trying...

I have a blog, lets call it "myblog," and it's at blogger.com. I'd like to move to my own web site, www.me.com, and have it within a folder, www.me.com/blog. The instructions that blogger.com gives are really unclear. I know I can republish, but I'm unclear of the directory settings. Thanks for any help.

Today I read on Shanghai Daily that the picture that the Dalai Llama has been showing to prove that Chinese soldiers dressed as priest to start the violence in Tibet is not real. According to this report is is an old photo. I am not going to post the two contrasting photos on the site. Please click the Shanghai Daily link to see them. However, I am going to comment on them. In the first photo you see many Chinese soldiers with no hats on but in uniform. Most of them are holding monk style clothes. In the second photo...

Looks like the folks in Minnesota are trying to have a little fun. So many of you responded to our video requesting help to name our blog, we here in Minneapolis-Saint Paul figured we're in March, the local college is trying to get into the post-season basketball tournament, that tournament has a catchy nickname, so why don’t we *ahem* "leverage" that into creating our own contest: Blog Madness?

The New York Times started a community in Russian part of LiveJournal. Some of NYT articles will be translated to Russian and published there, collecting comments from Russian readers. These comments then will be translated into English and published at nytimes.com. Here you can find comments of Russian readers for NYT article "Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates Opponents".

Thanks Doug for the great Image. I asked the Freepers for help and it took about 2 hours to get what I needed. You guys rock or as they say in China "Lock." Please come on over to the site and see the new logo.