Free Republic

AN OPEN LETTER TO REP. RON PAUL Dear Congressman Paul: Your Presidential campaign has drawn the enthusiastic support of an imposing collection of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 “Truthers” and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists. Do you welcome- or repudiate – the support of such factions? More specifically, your columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press –a publication of the nation’s leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the “comforts and amenities” provided for inmates of Auschwitz. Have your...

Strange bedfellows: It turns out that ultra-hot conservative talk show host Michael Savage is backing Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for state attorney general. "What can I say? I think he'd make a great attorney general compared to the other guy. By the way, who is the other guy?'' Savage said, when asked why he chose Democrat Brown over conservative Republican Chuck Poochigian. Savage, whose rants can be heard locally on KNEW-AM, is backing up his hot talk with some hot money as well. Savage Productions, which lists Savage as president and his wife, Janet Weiner, as director, has donated $5,600...

KVI bleeps no-no in Bush talk By David Postman Seattle Times chief political reporter Seattle talk-radio station KVI-AM (570) makes a habit of clearing the air to broadcast President Bush's speeches and press conferences. It's what you do when you are the purveyors of conservative hot talk and see yourself as a bastion against liberal media bias. But a part of Bush's speech yesterday about Iraq was too hot for even KVI. An alert engineer used the station's seven-second delay to mute the offending words. Had Bush gone wobbly on Iraq, or worse, John Kerry? More nice things to say...

<p>The recent battle over the CBS miniseries The Reagans simultaneously demonstrates the American right's new media power and its lingering sense of persecution and impotence. On the one hand, conservatives flexed their muscles with a stunning mobilization of public protest to force the network to cancel plans to broadcast the series in its mid-November "sweeps" period.</p>

'Passion' elicits unfair conflict Tue Jul 22, 6:06 AM ET Add Op/Ed - USA TODAY Michael Medved Any piece of pop culture that touches on serious religious themes inspires its share of controversy, but the noisy assaults on Mel Gibson's unfinished film The Passion, which describes the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ, seem unfair and painfully premature. Indignant denunciations of a movie that its critics haven't even seen, coming nearly a year before that picture's scheduled release, suggest an agenda beyond honest evaluation of the film's aesthetic or theological substance. The explosive charges of anti-Semitism being...

President Bush draws regular criticism for his reliance on his brilliant aides and advisors. But he’s hardly the first chief executive to depend on powerful, largely unseen assistants. In his award-winning book, "The Shadow Presidents," Michael Medved exposed for the first time the secret history of the White House, providing fascinating, often shocking accounts of the little-known individuals who stood behind the Presidents of the United States and helped determine the success or failure of their administrations. Published in 1979 by New York Times Books, universally acclaimed by critics and historians, "The Shadow Presidents" has been out of print for...

Many people are calling the antiwar protesters anti-American. These protesters refute this by claiming that there is nothing more American than using one's right to dissent. Here's a short list to help define Anti-Americanism. You may be Anti-American if: You protest against the war while US soldiers fight in the war. You skip school or work to protest the war while many US soldiers skipped school and work to fight for your freedom to do so. You blame America for all the world's problems and evil dictators. You believe that your own President is more evil than Saddam, bin Laden...

Many people are calling the antiwar protesters anti-American. These protesters refute this by claiming that there is nothing more American than using one's right to dissent. Here's a short list to help define Anti-Americanism. You may be Anti-American if: You protest against the war while US soldiers fight in the war. You skip school or work to protest the war while many US soldiers skipped school and work to fight for your freedom to do so. You blame America for all the world's problems and evil dictators. You believe that your own President is more evil than Saddam, bin Laden...

In addition to all the annoying sound and fury, the Trent Lott affair produced three important but painful political lessons for Republicans who hope for future victories for their party. 1. When it comes to political damage, the cover-up almost always proves more costly than the original crime. This rule applied to the Watergate disaster, the Lewinsky catastrophe, and every other major act of public self-destruction – including the recent immolation of Sen. Lott. If Nixon and Clinton had quickly and completely admitted their wrongdoing, they would have suffered intense but fleeting embarrassment, while avoiding constitutional crises that paralyzed their...

In the midst of this joyous holiday season we will all enjoy a series of family and social gatherings sure to provide festive food, abundant libations and freewheeling political rants. It could be your Uncle Murray or perhaps your sister-in-law Fawn, but this year one or more members of your clan will inevitably offer some indignant objection to the upcoming war against Iraq. Here, as a public service, we present a handy guide to the top-10 arguments against that war, and the most direct and effective ways to counter them. War never solved anything. Not true – war has successfully...

America's Libertarian Party services only one purpose: Distracting and confusing the determined combatants in all our critical national struggles. Consider the preposterous Libertarian role in the just concluded midterm elections. South Dakota represented ground zero in the struggle for control of the Senate, and Republican John Thune and incumbent Democrat Tim Johnson fought to a virtual tie--with only 527 votes (less than 0.2 percent of the vote) dividing them. Meanwhile, 3,071 votes went to Libertarian Kurt Evans, a 32-year-old teacher who listed as one of his prime preparations for the Senate that his father is a known Country & Western...

Many people, inside and especially outside this country, believe that the American president is nuts, and is taking the world on a suicidal path. As a board-certified psychiatrist, I feel it's my duty to share my understanding of his psychopathology. He's a complicated man, under tremendous pressure from both his family/junta, and from the world at large. So the following is offered with humility and questioning, in the form of a differential diagnosis. From the Freudian point of view: Dubya may be acting out a classical Oedipal drama--overcome Daddy to get Mommy. By deposing Saddam, when his father did not,...

<p>For show-business stars, the adoration of the public provides far more than ego boosts; it is the very basis of their success and survival, the ultimate source of privilege and power. Why, then, do so many Hollywood celebrities recklessly place this popularity at risk with edgy, outspoken, confrontational political posturing that's sure to insult some substantial segment of their fans?</p>

"Why don't the Democrats save themselves a lot of trouble and put up one big tombstone over Sen. Wellstone's grave with an inscription – maybe in flashing neon – that says, 'VOTE FOR MONDALE?'" This irreverent suggestion made the rounds on conservative talk radio the day after an unprecedented attempt to turn a solemn, televised memorial service into a partisan pep rally. The event in Minnesota, just four days after Paul Wellstone, his wife, daughter, three young aides and two pilots all died in a terrible plane crash, featured the late senator's son trying to pump up the crowd like...

In the midst of budget shortfalls, soaring deficits, service cuts, park closings, library shutdowns and desperate calls for emergency tax increases, bureaucrats in one of America's most allegedly enlightened cities plan to spend $8.7 million on comfortable new apartments for homeless drunks. In what they acknowledge represents an "unconventional approach" to the problem of inebriated street people, Seattle officials plan to combine federal, state, county and city funds to build 75 units in a trendy neighborhood. The alcoholic tenants will enjoy three months of free residence, and heavily subsidized rent thereafter. They will also receive two free meals a day,...

As a work of cinematic entertainment and political provocation, Michael Moore's widely acclaimed new documentary "Bowling for Columbine" qualifies as a substantial success. Despite its outrageously incoherent, even contradictory, ideological agenda, the movie offers an engaging surface that displays frisky originality, frequent wit, skillful editing, wildly ambitious scope and often impassioned advocacy. Moore goes beyond the role of mischievous, irreverent blue collar fatso that he popularized in his previous films (most notably "Roger & Me") and his short-lived television show ("TVNation"). This time, Moore promises nothing less than a penetrating exploration of "the fearful heart and soul of the United...

You can learn – and teach – crucial life lessons by picking up litter. While television culture fosters a sense of helplessness in the face of the dire threats of a world gone mad, a minor investment of energy in cleaning our own neighborhoods can potently promote personal empowerment. I made this discovery while indulging a daily idiosyncrasy that amazes my neighbors and embarrasses my children: spending a few minutes each afternoon collecting bits of roadside garbage on the streets around my home. We live in a pleasant, pricey Seattle suburb – a self-contained island, in fact – so it...

<p>CHICAGO — Chicago Alderman Dorothy Tillman says America is rich today for one reason -- slavery -- and now corporate America must pay something in return.</p> <p>"It was because of the free labor of blacks. It was because of all of the suffering we took and we did that made America so powerful," Tillman said.</p>