Free Republic

WHEN IT COMES to discussing ethics in journalism, I like to quote Jimmy Breslin. He wrote about the newspaper world as it was in its heyday: "Anybody on the staff who performed an act without malice was regarded as a dreadful amateur. There was great confusion in the office, for sometimes the sins being committed at typewriters were greater than the ones being written about. . . . Yet the working conditions were the best in the history of the business, for nobody died at an early age of that worst of maladies, seriousness." snip.Before I comment on Scott's remarks,...

Kenneth Tomlinson's crusade to purify public broadcasting is Nixon Redux. It's also Reagan Redux and Gingrich Redux. Snip All this reads like chapters from the Nixon attack plan against public TV and radio snip. If it weren't so damaging, the hard right's obsession with public broadcasting would be merely pathetic snip Yet instead of just sucking up their annoyance with something few people see or hear, conservatives pump their pulse rates into triple digits and bleat about being the poor victims of liberal media bias.

OK, wise guys (and Wisegals), Predict the coming Kerry Bimbo Eruption. When will the next revelation hit home, what are the details , etc. etc. etc.

Unless a governor has a harem or is about to be indicted, you can't unseat the state leader of your own party in a primary. It just isn't done - hadn't been done successfully by any party in any state for a decade. It is no way to make friends. It is a good way to commit suicide, although throwing yourself in front of a bus is quicker and cheaper. And Claire McCaskill is nothing if not practical about money. McCaskill is "a great lady," Democratic Committee member Ed Koeller of St. Louis told the Springfield News-Leader last September. "But...

ALBERT WANG PRESENTS proudly offers up the best and worst in Summertime Reality TV! It's like The Appentice. It's like American Idol. It's Like Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire. It's Really, Really Bad. It Is "Who Wants To Be Martha Stewart's Cell Mate?" Martha will start with 15 or 20 likely fellow felons, and each week, through a varity of lame tests, the field is narrowed to 2, then all of America gets to vote on who will share Martha's life for the next 5 months. The contestants who are eliminated each week will be given a shiv, hand...

<p>Now that a trial lawyer has been named to the Democratic ticket, I fear my friends in the Missouri Trial Lawyers Association are feeling good about themselves. This would be a mistake. The future is bleak.</p> <p>In each of the last two years, the Legislature has passed a tort reform bill, and Gov. Bob Holden has vetoed it. Smart money figures Matt Blunt will be the next governor. He will not veto a tort reform bill. In fact, the call for tort reform will be a major part of his campaign. It will be part of his stump speech.</p>

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A transient accused in a shootout with two U.S. Forest Service employees was indicted Thursday on federal charges of attempted murder. James R. Ballesteros, 57, is accused of shooting at the employees March 25 near the border of Trinity and Humboldt counties in northwestern California. Prosecutors said Stephen Frick, a law enforcement officer with the agency, questioned Ballesteros outside a store in Zenia after noticing the van he was driving had expired Washington license tags. Ballesteros allegedly drove off, with Frick and technician Nicholas Roe in pursuit in their Forest Service truck. After the van hit...

My apologies to those who have already seen this. Don't look if you are not in good health, it is so funny that it is dangerous.

Calif. University Sued for $10 Million The parents of a Fresno State University equestrian team member who died after falling from a horse have filed a $10 million negligence claim against the school, saying their daughter was put at risk by the school's lack of coaches or supervision. In addition, the parents say they are "very concerned" about apparent discrepancies in university reports about their daughter's death. Shana Eriksson, 18, spent three days in a coma and then died last September after her horse spooked, whirled around and then fell on her during a trail ride with two teammates. The...

National Wine Club Puts a Cork in Seattle By REBECCA COOK ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE (AP) - The Wine Brats are taking their toys and going home. The quirky wine-appreciation club has 30 successful chapters nationwide, but it's closing its chapter in the nation's second-biggest wine-producing state because of a quarrel with the state Liquor Control Board. Leaders of the nonprofit group apparently failed to follow the steps needed to ship wine in from out of state - but they say they never expected wine-friendly Washington to be such a tough customer. "It just strikes me as a little bit strange...

November 2004 is a few months out. Post your predictions of the outcome of the Presidential Election- the name of the democratic candidate, their running mate, and how many states W carries. Bookmark this thread, the winner gets to brag thru '08.

Joyce Meyer says God has made her rich. Everything she has came from Him: the $10 million corporate jet, her husband's $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children -- all blessings, she says, straight from the hand of God. It's been an amazing run, nothing short of a miracle, says Meyer, a one-time bookkeeper who heads one of the world's largest television ministries. Her Life in the Word organization expects to take in $95 million this year. Just look around, she told reporters last month from behind her desk...

David McCormick takes long, sucking drags on a Marlboro Light cigarette that hollow in his cheeks as he inhales. From lighting up to tossing away the spent filter, it's a 45-second process, tops. "I smoke four packs a day," says the former organizer for Teamsters Local Union 988. "I think better when I smoke." But when he and the rest of the union's chain-smoking staff moved into a new union hall in 2002, they were told by local president Charles Crawley that the building would be smoke free. Crawley, known among the membership as "King Kong Chuck," however, didn't outlaw...

<p>Where you get your information can make a huge difference, especially if it's Fox News.</p> <p>Prissy critics (including me) and competitors choking on the juice of sour grapes have long mocked the audacious sloganeering of Fox News Channel. "Fair and balanced," and "We report, you decide," dupe the public by winking at the channel's gleefully conservative tilt, say the cranks.</p>

CDC: India Close to Eradicating Polio By ANDREW WANG ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India is close to eradicating polio but needs to make a final push, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday as she helped inoculate babies against the disease. "Coming here to this clinic and seeing how organized they are makes me feel very confident that this can be successful," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC director, touring a community health clinic in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the Indian capital. "We have the leadership, the support of...

A couple days ago I was spreading Bondo on my Firebird with the CD player cranked up when I received a devine revelation. Of course, at the time I was listening to the Whackmaster, as Nuggent is the only Music known to man that is suitable to hear whilst spreading Bondo on an '83 'bird, and at the time I was Revolated Uncle Ted was singing Great White Buffalo. This Revelation ran over me like Brad Smith going thru the Nebraska defensive line. It left me disoriented for a few hours, and the experience was akin to what I felt...

A Modest Proposal For Peace In Our Time By Ransom Jack Reynolds Last week, Wild Bill the Farrier came over to help me pull the shoes off my bred mares and trim up their feet. We admired last year's mule foals and speculated on this year's crop. Our conversation eventually turned to the world's current problems. "This whole mess," said Wild Bill, "has nothing to do with these people being Muslims. If there is one thing I've learned in 40 years of working cattle and wrestling horses, it's how to spot a crazy animal. They have a certain look about...