Free Republic

--SNIP-- COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter are helping rational people realize LeBron, Alyssa Milano, Lena Dunham, Steve Kerr, Amy Schumer, Colin Kaepernick, Aaron Paul, CardiB, Meek Mill and Jimmy Kimmel all need to shut up and entertain. They’re not thought leaders. They’re court jesters pretending to be world leaders. Let’s defund them. Seriously. I don’t want to eliminate them. I like to be entertained. I just think it’s a huge mistake to pretend CardiB is important. She’s a stripper-turned-rap music-pornographer. She’s Hugh Hefner, not Michelle Obama with a boobjob. Let’s give entertainers a special designation in our tax codes. Tax...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Environmental groups and energy companies both claimed victory after Gov. David Paterson ordered a seven-month moratorium on some natural gas drilling in the state, although environmentalists would have preferred the broader ban that the Legislature had approved. The outgoing Democratic governor vetoed a bill on Saturday that would have suspended all new natural-gas drilling permits until May 15. Instead, he issued an executive order prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled wells, such as those in the Marcellus Shale region of southern New York. The order stands until July 1...

ALBANY, N.Y. (Associated Press) -- An unfolding scandal threatening Gov. David Paterson and his administration claimed its second public safety official Tuesday when the head of the New York State Police casually told a television reporter that he was retiring, partly because of intense media scrutiny. Superintendent Harry Corbitt had acknowledged in February that a State Police official had contact with a woman who had accused a top Paterson aide of assaulting her on Halloween in New York City's Bronx borough. Soon after, the woman dropped the domestic violence complaint against the aide, David Johnson.

Of all the names floated around out there, Suozzi is the least radically left. Of course, I'd like Paterson to pick someone like John Faso, but I know that's not going to happen. When Tom Suozzi ran against Eliott Spitzer in the gubernatorial primaries, cutting property taxes was high on his list, Suozzzi opposed gay marriage, and backed a ban on late-term abortion.

Elitism: Is Democratic New York Gov. David Paterson his own man? If he is, he'll appoint an accomplished leader as senator. If he isn't, he'll kowtow to the party bosses and pick . . . a Kennedy.When the Empire State's legally-blind governor made a huge stink this week about an NBC "Saturday Night Live" skit that lampooned him, was he just conniving to convince New Yorkers how independent and determined he is — prior to caving in on Caroline Kennedy? In the days since Gov. Paterson was depicted by comic Fred Armisen as confused and disoriented, holding charts upside down...

Lorne Michaels Defends Casting Of Non-Black Man in Sketch By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 29, 2008; Page C01 When Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president last year, some observers questioned whether the senator from Illinois was "black enough" to embody the hopes and aspirations of African Americans. Now a variation on that theme has emerged: Is Fred Armisen, who is not African American, "black enough" to embody Obama on "Saturday Night Live"? Debate over that question has been pinging around the Internet since Armisen, a veteran cast member, donned darker makeup to portray the Democratic...