Free Republic

NEW YORK At a recent press conference at Camp David, President George Bush insulted BBC political editor Nick Robinson, the Daily Mirror reports. Robinson, who has asked Bush pointed questions in the past such as whetherthe president was “in denial” over the Iraq war, posed a question to Bush about whether he could trust visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to “cut and run” from Iraq. Bush replied with a dismissal: “Are you still hanging around?” Later on, Bush poked fun at the bare-pate of Robinson, joking, “You’d better cover up your bald head, it’s getting hot out.” The...

Democrats stop celebrating, and Republicans, don't despair. I know the Democrats won the recent election on paper, but in the long run the Republicans just might be the big winners of Election 2006. In fact, I think the Republicans set the whole thing up so the Democrats could fail over the next two years, which will bring about a big Republican presidential win in 2008. What other explanation is there? I mean, do you think that Karl Rove and the rest of the Republican brain trust suddenly got stupid? I don't think so. Iraq Iraq looks like a no-win situation....

The year 2006 will long be remembered as the Great Retribution--or perhaps the Deliverance Election. George W. Bush's presidency is toast. [...] [one of the great gains made by the voters] is the collapse of the conservative order--the right-wing economic agenda that has reigned for a generation and produced so many great injuries to society and the general well-being. Republicans will argue among themselves about how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but the "market ideology" cannot be repaired. This year, unlike in previous elections, many Democrats ran on the economic issues vital to ordinary people--trade, declining wages, the...

What threat would be sufficient for the country as a whole to finally come together and present a united front? Will it take another 9/11? We all remember the day the president stood on the pile of rumble once known as the World Trade Center and addressed the nation. We were ready to do whatever it took to punish the attackers and send a signal to the world that we would not sit back and allow anyone or any government to threaten our safety. So much has changed in five years. Of course, those five years have been chock full...

Mr. Bill Keller, Managing Editor The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Dear Mr. Keller: The New York Times' decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their...

Everest Pioneer Climber Blasts Group Who Left Dying ManPioneering Everest Climber Sir Edmund Hillary Blasts Dozens of Climbers Who Left Dying British Man WELLINGTON, New Zealand May 24, 2006 (AP)— Mount Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary said Wednesday he was shocked that dozens of climbers left a British mountaineer to die during their own attempts on the world's tallest peak. David Sharp, 34, died apparently of oxygen deficiency while descending from the summit during a solo climb last week. More than 40 climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, and almost all continued to the...

Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain. Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Few presidents have had the opportunity to shape the Federal Reserve the way President Bush has this year. Once Bush replaces Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson, the only Democrat on the Fed's board who resigned recently, four of the Fed's seven governors will have taken office in 2006, and all seven will be Bush appointees. Ben Bernanke became Fed chairman on Feb. 1, but he still has more seniority than two other Fed governors, with a third appointment due soon. That would make Bush only the third president to place all seven governors on the board, after...

Liberal listeners of KKNS 105.9 FM reacted with outrage this week after Salt Lake City-based Simmons Media Group killed the station's progressive talk format. “I'm bummed. It sounds like censorship to me,” said Stanley North of Hamilton. About six weeks ago, Simmons Media took over the operation of three new Missoula stations previously run by Mount Sentinel Broadcasting, part of a Chicago-based media group known more for wheeling-and-dealing stations than running stations for the long term. The liberal talk featuring local news and Air America Radio made waves in Missoula when Mount Sentinel first began airing the format last summer....

Just last summer, a Missoula radio station launched the town’s first progressive talk radio program, throwing down the gauntlet to the conservative radio hosts already dominating the airwaves. Now operators of KNS, 105.9 on the dial, plan to drop the progressive talk radio format this week, citing weak advertising sales. Update: Air America went off the air Tuesday afternoon. The talk radio station featured local news and commentary, but the heart of the programming was Air America Radio, a national network featuring well known, left-leaning talk show hosts and comedians such as Al Franken, Rachel Maddow, and Janeane Garofalo. Dave...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

As heard on the Hugh Hewitt show, ABC's Terry Moran, upon the conclusion of President Bush's speech at Ft. Bragg, actually made the comment that the crowd was very quiet and only applauded when prompted to do so my the President's advance team. A colonel then called Hugh's show. At a non-partisan event such as this, the soldiers would have certainly been told that proper decorum was not to cheer and interrupt the President. The death spiral of the mainstream media continues. Twenty years from now, your grandchildren will be asking, "Grandpa, what was ABC, CBS, and NBC?"

Robert Stec would like to help clean up the nation's dirty air, but at $1 million a plant to install air-pollution control technology, it would be cheaper for him to move his furniture manufacturing business overseas. "What good is fresh air if you have a lot of unemployed people breathing it?" asks Stec, president and CEO of Lexington Home Brands. The North Carolina furniture maker employs 1,700 workers at three plants, including one that's in a county with air pollution problems. "Domestic manufacturing is at a cost disadvantage anyway, so when you lay on all this extra environmental stuff …...

Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004 Congress makes room for more foreigners for high tech-jobs WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress is letting employers hire another 20,000 foreign high-tech workers under a special visa program after businesses reached the annual ceiling on the first day of the government's fiscal year. Businesses are limited to hiring no more than 65,000 workers annually through the H1-B visa program. They reached that figure in one day, Oct. 1, and immediately began complaining they would lose talented university graduates and potential employees to competitors overseas.In response, as part of the $388 billion spending bill passed...

A strong showing in the three presidential debates has helped John Kerry climb in the polls, but has it given him a bounce on Wall Street too? While Wall Street would likely still prefer a Bush win, Kerry's improved standing has forced investors to contemplate having the Democratic candidate in the Oval Office. "The markets until recently have been oblivious to the possibility of a Kerry win," says Greg Valliere, chief strategist at Schwab Washington Research Group. That's not the case anymore—and the Street has apparently grown a bit more comfortable with Kerry.

For a newspaper that has ignored the Swift Vets, New York Times, they sure put a lot of time and effort into that graphic in the last weeks. How long was it in the making while nary a peep about the Swifties was in the Times?  

America's largest circulation suburban daily newspaper, Newsday, wins the prize for ugliest bit of Reagan-bashing on the day of the great man's funeral, publishing a bile-filled screed by columnist Jimmy Breslin that trashed the American icon as "a callous man" who "hated children." "I don't see how anybody can summon grief [over Reagan's death]," Breslin observed. "His whole weeklong funeral is cheap, utterly distasteful American publicity." The Reagan-bashing writer usually inhabits Newsday's editorial section. But in a remarkably bizarre editorial decision, Newsday decided to move up Breslin's hate-screed to page A8, in the midst of its news section, right behind...

(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) The publisher of a book by disgraced journalist Jayson Blair has sued the New York Daily News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for breaking an embargo on publication of excerpts from Blair's book detailing his rise and fall at The New York Times. The lawsuits filed by New Millenium Entertainment this week alleged multiple violations including copyright infringement, breach of contract and violation of the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The suits also named Daily News reporter Paul Colford and Journal-Constitution book reviewer Teresa Weaver. They claimed that the advance publication of excerpts from "Burning Down My...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly a year after losing his job as executive editor of The New York Times, Howell Raines is defending his efforts to shake up the newspaper's culture and criticizing the paper's review into its own practices, saying it represents "an institution in denial."</p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass, two young journalists notorious for fabricating stories, have something else in common: Both have written highly publicized books that few people are buying.</p> <p>Blair, a former New York Times reporter, received a six-figure advance for "Burning Down My Master's House." Published March 6, the book had an announced first printing of 250,000 and plenty of media coverage, including author interviews with Katie Couric on NBC and Larry King on CNN.</p>