Free Republic

It was the Republican presidential candidates' turn to take questions from the great unwashed, and they didn't seem to have as much fun as the Democrats did. And it's not just because there was no talking snowman or Jackie Broyles and Dunlap. --snip-- Marc Ambinder (3) graded the candidates, and he proved to be pretty generous. "McCain's mix of resigned sighs, sober mien and sense of humor went over well with a crowd that seemed predisposed to be wary of him. ... Giuliani had a an 'eh' to 'poor' night. He seemed deflated. A little defensive. ... Thompson: He gets...

Right Wing News emailed more than 240 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to answer 8 questions about the 2008 candidates. The following 61 blogs responded: The Absurd Report, David All Group, AtlanticBlog, The American Princess, Betsy's Page, Bit's Blog, BizzyBlog, Blogs of War, Blonde Sagacity, Bluey Blog, Boi From Troy, Bookworm Room, Keith Burgess-Jackson, Cassy Fiano, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Cold Fury, Conservative Grapevine, Damian Penny, Dispatches from Blogblivion, Argghhhh!, Ed Driscoll, Eckernet, Musings, Fraters Libertas, Ian Schwartz, Jeff Gannon - A Voice of the New Media, Ghost of a Flea, (Michael) GOPUSA Northeast, (Hank) GOPUSA Northeast, GraniteGrok, Gocinatlanta, Guardian Watchblog,...

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the interview. I linked to this yesterday in my Republican race Q&A, but the interview itself merits a little post of its own. In no particular order, a few observations: 1) The long form interview allowed Fred to express his knowledge and thoughts on the war on terror. He was impressive. Believe...

I believe I represent the average Republican voter, or at least a significant slice of the R base. My positions - in no particular order - are as follows: Immigration - Amnesty is a deal breaker. If they are here illegally and we come into contact with them, send them home. Iraq - We were winning, we are winning, and we will win. The various pitfalls and difficulties that we have had do not equal defeat. We need a President to stand firm, and to fire all the traitors(I am not using this word lightly) in the State Department and...

You could have seen this coming... The Washington Times reported on Karl Rove's speech yesterday on the political discourse on the Left: Karl Rove teed off this afternoon on the liberal netroots, the coalition of far-left blogs and advocacy groups who are a new power bloc in the Democratic party. "The Web has given angry and vitriolic people more of a voice in public discourse," said Mr. Rove, who served as one of President Bush's top strategists until he resigned this past summer, and is a noted technology nut. "People in the past who have been on the nutty fringe...

Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources" [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/reliable.sources/] Nov. 04 07 9:20 AM: I saw some posting on your 'Going off the bus' blog, it tries very hard to refute the claim that Obama is not experienced [as Hillary is], so, Is it not a [very] liberal blog? Jay Rosen, 'I am sorry, I couldn't understand your question"... It's also a "schtick"-trick in order to buy some time before answering an off guard question.

A blogger writes to me as follows: PALLYWOOD Blogger, the Arab Muslim ‘Palestinian’ that comments on blogs posting as a “jew” If you thought that ‘Pallywood’ [The infamous Palestinian industry of lying “stories” and faking images] is limited to Gaza and Ramallah, think again. Among their devious propagandists, there’s one articular Arab that goes from one blog to another trying to make Zionists look bad, interesting enough you have a few chit-chats with him you expose him, he immediately bugs off with his tale between his legs. He likes to stress the phrase: “we Jews”, or/and “I am a Jew”....

I often peruse the articles on Townhall.com as part of my daily dose of political commentary. Over the last few months I've noticed more and more left-wing kooks (trolls?) that have made prolonged appearences there. Did MoveOn.org recently assign a directorate to infiltrate and disrupt popular, center-right websites like Townhall?

Pelosi: Radio attacks on boy unfair By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 53 minutes ago Seeking support for a vetoed children's health insurance bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged Tuesday that "hate radio has made a vicious attack" on a 12-year-old Baltimore boy who receives coverage through the program. Pelosi said the allegations were "beneath the dignity of the debate" that surrounds the legislation. Democrats hope to enact the measure over Bush's opposition, and a House vote scheduled for Thursday. A two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress is required to override a veto, and supporters of the measure appear...

Not being in the middle of it all gives me a rather unique advantage. That means I have no one to answer to for my views. I just watch things, and then I talk about them. In other words, this means I don’t have to lie about my biases in order to keep some false sense of objectivity alive for the gullible. In other words, I’m no Chris Matthews. Let me start then with the current batch of presidential hopefuls: Folks - meaning the current Republican candidates - you really need to watch out for Fred Thompson. None of you...

Article at link...

Remember the good old days of the 2004 election season, when the Bush campaign would hold “public” events that were stocked with rabid Bush supporters, and anyone who didn’t unflinchingly back the president was escorted out of the event, or denied entry? Well, something akin to those good old days went down last week when the White House extended its first ever invitation to a group of bloggers to sit down with the president for a little Q&A. Like those old campaign events, or like other similar sit-downs the president has had with conservative reporters, the reason for the meeting...

Applies Media Exemption to Political Blogs WASHINGTON – The Federal Election Commission announced today that it has unanimously resolved two complaints alleging that Internet blog activity is subject to Commission regulation, finding that the activity is exempt from regulation under the media or volunteer exemption. In Matter Under Review (MUR) 5928, the Commission determined that Kos Media, L.L.C., which operates the website DailyKos, did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The Commission rejected allegations that the site should be regulated as a political committee because it charges a fee to place advertising on its website and it provides “a...

I was willing to entertain the thought of you as a refreshing, charming, surprising second-tier candidate whose eloquence and wit would serve the party well (although trashing the Club for Growth was really pushing it). But a national smoking ban? You're not running a health spa; it's a country, and you will never win friends in North Carolina talking like that. These big-time pound-shedders cum health nuts. You applaud them as they get healthy, but be careful putting them in power-- they'll take your food and other vices away from you quick as look at you. Because they know what's...

Former "blogging pedophile" Jack McClellan has been released from jail, following his arrest last week for violating a restraining order in California. His release follows the prediction of observers in law enforcement, child advocacy, and the judicial system who think it will be difficult to take effective or even constitutional steps against McClellan to protect children. The 45-year-old self-professed pedophile was arrested August 13 for violating a three-year restraining order that required him to stay 30 feet away from all children. He was being held in jail with a $150,000 bail bond. But according to Associated Press, he was released...

"Michael Vick is innocent (like OJ)" MSNBC's Alex Johnson (with the assistance of two NBC/MSNBC reporters) recently posted a story addressing whether the prosecution of Michael Vick was racist. Roughly a fourth of the MSNBC story was based on a quote from Al Sharpton's Blog. Or as Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell explains: '...The quote was actually from our Newsgroper site's fake Al Sharpton Blog. They thought Al really said this: "If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each...

A critic of Sen. Hillary Clinton's proposals for expanded health care guarantees took advantage of a blog function on Clinton's campaign website to express her objections, only to have the comments deleted – twice. The second time the website operators apparently deleted the entire blog page. So Hood looked up the U.S. Constitution's provisions regarding the responsibilities of Congress, and posted excerpts on her newly created blog on Clinton's website. It lasted only hours before being deleted. A second posting lasted about the same length of time, only long enough to attract one comment: "WHY DON'T YOU GO TO YOUR...

What are the various blogs saying about the next Gathering of Eagles? Quite a bit, on both sides of the aisle. Here's what I found: First up, from Maverick News Network, comes this great lead-in about the Eagles: Just when the anti-American, pro-terrorist communists and anarchists at ANSWER thought it was safe to crawl out from under the sewer sludge they call home, and again attempt to intimidate our government into giving up the fight against terrorism, the Gathering of Eagles is primed to again offer a counter point of view in Washington, DC, in September. Next up is a...

There's plenty of hand wringing in the press about why the state still doesn't have a budget six weeks into the fiscal year. But one member of the media is delighting in the standoff and playing an oversized role in keeping it going: a 39-year-old conservative blogger who spends hours of his workday in bed typing away on an aging Dell laptop, hundreds of miles from the Capitol. Jon Fleischman has never aspired to be a reporter. "Fair and balanced" is decidedly not his thing. "I don't pretend to be objective," the longtime GOP activist said last week in his...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) announced the launch of his revamped website and started sending out promised weekly updates to online supporters Tuesday. Thompson’s first update to supporters borrows a page from former Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) playbook, using football references to make everyone feel like they’re part of the team. “Team Thompson needs your support as the 12th man ... and as the 12 millionth man,” Thompson’s e-mail reads. “Thank you so much for everything you are doing.” The new website contains some components from the first one, includes a biography page and numerous ways to contribute money, but...