Free Republic

What an amazing coincidence. Three out of four of the heads that rolled at CBS this week were women. What makes this so amazing is that none of the heads of the network news divisions are women, none of the current evening news anchors are women, none of their likely replacements are women, none of the people making those decisions are women - as a matter of fact, none of the people making the decisions about who makes those decisions are women. None of the investigators were women, either. In fact, in all of the stories about network news lately...

OK, Democrats, time to get off the floor. There but for 60,000 or so Ohioans, and all the people who are today's geniuses would be fools, and vice versa. The morals agenda would be the middle-class agenda - we'd be looking at government from the middle and moderation in all things, and as for values, neither left nor right could claim victory. If John Kerry had been from any other state, he probably would've won. Such is the curse of the Dukakis. In four years, a Democrat who does nothing different could well win. John Edwards is a much stronger...

Don't blame John Kerry. He was the best candidate the Democrats had. He won three debates, got back up every time people counted him out, hit hard, and closed with discipline, determination and strength. He almost won. And don't believe half of the instant rebukes. Remember, the hero is always the one who leaked the most, usually at the candidate's expense. How well you come off generally relates directly to how soon you become the new best friend of the reporter confidentially embedded to cover the campaign. Loyalty is absolutely punished. Of course mistakes were made. But most of the...

President Bush has won a decidedly larger victory than anyone - me included - predicted. The popular vote difference is a testament to the pro-Bush passion of Republicans, conservatives, evangelicals and others worried over terrorism, liberalism and permissiveness. My vaunted theory of the Passion Differential did not happen. Instead, the pro-Bush passion outvoted the anti-Bush passion. The anti-left, anti-Massachusetts liberalism passion came out in a huge outpouring of votes for GW Bush - and against John Kerry. And at the same time, the GOP picked up four crucial Senate seats and even increased their ruling majority in the U.S. House...

A post-debate conversation with Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman revealed a determined and confident Republican team heading into the final weeks of the race. Mehlman shared his thoughts on the shape of the race and then gave updates on how he thinks the President is faring in a few key states. What was the effect of the Arizona debate? There was an immediate angry reaction to John Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney. "Americans saw a big clash of visions and a big clash in two kinds of people — one who's decent, the other one who's not. It says a...

Anger has been the chief characteristic of the Democrats all year long. But now another emotion is seeming to come into play — they're happy. Why? Because they think they're going to win and this convention is going to help them do it. Why? Well, to find out I talked to a smart Democrat or two. What follows is the analysis I heard from them. First of all, Kerry is obviously very sensitive to the liberal charge and you're not ever going to hear him refer to himself as one. This means he is determined to avoid the Dukakis trap,...

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Joe Gibbs Racing released Michael McSwain from his duties as crew chief of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nextel Series. McSwain joined Joe Gibbs Racing in December 2002 and served as Bobby Labonte's crew chief for the 2003 season and the first 18 races of the 2004 season. "Over the past two years, Michael McSwain has worked extremely hard for Joe Gibbs Racing," J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR, said. "This was a difficult decision, but it was time to go in a different direction. We appreciate all that he has done for the...

It is becoming crystal clear that George W. Bush and John Kerry are virtually guaranteed a down-to-the-wire battle for the White House. What should be troubling to both candidates is that they are trending slightly downward in their overall support. The latest InsiderAdvantage survey, conducted with our research partners The Marketing Workshop, asked the following: If the presidential election were held today, for whom would you vote? George W. Bush....42 percent John Kerry............40 percent Ralph Nader...........4 percent Someone else.........4 percent Undecided...........10 percent The poll was conducted June 25-26 among 500 voters nationwide and has a margin of error of plus...

If you think there is a limit to how much childishness there is among Californians, you may want to reconsider -- especially for Californians in academic communities. Recently a mountain lion was discovered up in a tree in Palo Alto, a residential community adjacent to Stanford University. This was at about the time of day when a nearby school was getting ready to let out. There had already been an incident of a horse being found mauled by some animal on Stanford land, and some thought it might have been a mountain lion that did it. Fearing that the mountain...

Certainly there are those within Islam who do not subscribe to the atrocities I am about to discuss, but their peaceful practice of Islam doesn't make it a peaceful religion. A peaceful religion is similar to that of Richard Gere and his Buddhist brethren. Professor Moshe Sharon of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem writes: Islam was born with the idea that it should rule the world ... Judaism speaks about national salvation – namely that at the end of the story, when the world becomes a better place, Israel will be in its own land, ruled by its own king...

James Carville's Democracy Corps publishes its survey research on a regular basis and offers Democrats their take on the political environment and how they can best compete. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a firm with a solid reputation, conducts the surveys for Democracy Corps. Whatever one may think of the Democracy Corps' liberal viewpoint, James Carville, and Democrat polling firms generally, these surveys are very useful to Republicans and conservatives for one simple reason — they advocate Democrat strategy and messaging and reflect the political thinking of smart Democrats. In other words, reading these surveys can give us a sense of...

During the Vietnam War: -The anti-war crowd portrayed the administration as evil and un-caring. -John Kerry used the anti-war movement for his personal, political aspirations. -Ignorant comparisons were made between the President and Hitler. -No thought was given to the consequences the South Vietnamese people would suffer if we immediately pulled out our troops. -The morale of our troops overseas suffered because of the anti-war movement's actions at home while the enemy's resolve was bolstered. -The left proclaimed that the South Vietnamese people would be better off under the North's rule instead of being subjected to U.S. intervention. -All enemies...

Football great Paul Hornung said in a radio interview that his alma mater, Notre Dame, needs to lower its academic standards to ''get the black athlete.'' ''As far as Notre Dame is concerned, we're going to have to ease it up a little bit,'' Hornung told Detroit's WXYT-AM in an interview before the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame banquet Tuesday. WXYT's sister station, WWJ-AM in Detroit, played a portion of the interview for The Associated Press on Wednesday. Hornung, who is white, won the 1956 Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame. He went on to star for the NFL's Green Bay...

This is it. Bush can't survive it. Clarke's telling the truth. For God's sake, he's a Republican I'll be sad to see him go. These are the conversations I can't escape. I talk politics for a living. I don't look to do it in my free time, or in the line at the market, or while the surgeon is checking me out, or at the bookstore, or the schoolyard. Most of the time, people respect that. But not when something extraordinary is happening. This week, something is. And it's still building. I can't believe Condi Rice has time for Sean...

An NRO Primary Document EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the text of a White House release issued right before the 60 Minutes interview with former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke aired on Sunday, March 21. Myth: The President didn't treat al-Qa'ida as a serious threat before September 11. The Facts: The President recognized the threat posed by al-Qa'ida, and immediately after taking office the White House began work on a comprehensive new strategy to eliminate al-Qa'ida. The President specifically told Dr. Rice that he was "tired of swatting flies" and wanted to go on the offense against al-Qa'ida, rather than...

As the presidential race unfolds it may become more and more difficult to distinguish between truth and fiction - and between the ‘real' men running for office and the caricatures their opponents want us to believe. But let me pain a picture of John Kerry - the man - not John Kerry as he wants you to see him: John Kerry is the consummate phony, pseudo-intellectual leftist who has scrambled all his career to hide his real liberalism as the country has moved steadily toward the right. Kerry is a total hypocrite. His ‘we leave no one behind' credo in...

A driver in the southern French city of Montpellier who tried to run down a pedestrian he believed was Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Tuesday was given a three-month suspended sentence. On Monday, the driver, a 35-year-old craftsman, chased the would-be bin Laden through the streets of Montpellier, running a red light and driving through a pedestrian zone. He only failed to hit the pedestrian when his car ran into a staircase. The driver, who was not identified, said he had experienced a delirious episode, attributing his folly to current fears over the global terrorist threat. The court in...

True Doctor Stories >A man comes into the ER and yells, > >"My wife's going to have her baby in the cab!" I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, lifted the lady's --Dress, and began to take off her underwear. Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs, and I was in the wrong one. > >--Dr. Mark MacDonald, San Antonio, TX > >At the beginning of my shift I placed a stethoscope on an elderly and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall. Big breaths," I instructed. Yes, they used to be," remorsefully replied the patient. >...

Over the past several years I have been led to regard Al-Qaeda as a group with a long range vision for the future of the world. I am now not sure that they really have an actual plan. Many have claimed that AQ would love nothing more than a Kerry presidency. If this is indeed the case then why are they doing everything possible to ensure the opposite. Yesterday's attack in Spain thrust terrorism to the forefront once again. This does nothing but play directly into Bush's hand. The last thing I want to do is give advice to AQ....

The Democratic party has followed its head rather than its heart in selecting its 2004 presidential nominee. While Howard Dean gave full voice to antiwar sentiment and Bush hatred, polls say John Kerry won the prize by being the most electable. Headlines and current polling seem to be backing up the wisdom of the Democratic primary voter. Kerry is leading Bush in several national polls, and observers like Charlie Cook are quickly fashioning the new conventional wisdom that weak job growth will throw Bush's reelection into doubt. Are we fated to having a new JFK in the White House in...