Free Republic

That Al Gore's 2000 presidential candidacy was treated unconscionably by most members of the mainstream media is not really arguable by sentient beings. The very idea that a candidate like George W. Bush — extremist, incompetent, unprepared for office, addicted to cronyism and incapable of admitting even the simplest human error — could have been held by so many reporters to be a better choice for President than the two-time Vice President, Senator, Representative and environment and nuclear weapons expert, to say nothing of his central role in the Clinton Administration's successful two-term presidency, would be laughable were its consequences...

WRITING IN The Examiner last month, the ranking Republican on the House Immigration Subcommittee offered an endearing analogy to explain his opposition to the Senate's proposed immigration overhaul. Kindergarten students, wrote Iowa Representative Steve King, are taught to line up at snack time and patiently wait their turn... (snip) Illegal immigrants don't steal across the Mexican border because they lack the patience to wait their turn in line. They do it because there is no line for them to wait in. The great majority of immigrants who enter the United States lawfully qualify for visas because of family ties: They...

The brief taped appearance of the President and First Lady on Tuesday's American Idol, to thank the viewers who contributed $70 million the week before to the show's "Idol Gives Back" fundraising effort on behalf of children's health charities, enraged the ladies Wednesday on the ABC daytime show The View and led them into some unusually bizarre -- even for them -- claims. Rosie O'Donnell ridiculed Bush's charity endeavor by comparing it with money spent on Iraq ("$500 billion in Iraq, but he wants to thank America for the $70 billion," really million) and linked the appearance to how "all...

LONDON (AP) - More than two-thirds of the world's large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday. In all, 634 million people live in the threatened coastal areas worldwide?defined as those lying at less than 33 feet above sea level?and the number is growing, said the study published in the journal Environment and Urbanization. More than 180 countries have populations in low-elevation coastal zones, and about 70 percent of those have urban areas...

How many of you just saw Shep Smith (the man who touts himself as un opinionated) with this eco whacko pushing a "carbon neutral" lifestyle? Guy was saying 99% of scientists say humans are responsible for Global Warming. The guy said the tide has turned and even the skeptics are coming around to believe this. Shep replies "I hope so." Just one of those Shep Smith moments that make me crazy. I'd love to see his email.

Anyone who has watched Diane Sawyer's extended interview of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the last few days knows that the Iranian leader is a sensitive soul. Not only is he in search of new ways to love people, but just today we discovered that he is frequently given to tears. It goes without saying that we wouldn't want to provoke such a person -- it could harm his self-esteem. Unfortunately, President Bush doesn't seem to have gotten the message. But thank goodness for David Gregory. As luck would have it he turned up at today's White House press conference to...

Let me guess: before making up your mind about Barbara Boxer's recent controversial remark to Condi Rice, you wanted to have the benefit of Joy Behar's expert analysis. Good news! As of just a few minutes ago, Joy's considered opinion is now available to an impatient public. Rosie O'Donnell kicked off a segment of this morning's View by playing the video clip of Boxer's remark on Iraq, in which the senator from CA told the Secretary of State: "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family." On the one hand, Behar acknowledged...

Learn about Kwanzaa, it's worth celebrating By Akilah Monifa COMMENTARY I CELEBRATE Kwanzaa, a holiday that honors family, community and culture. My family and I have done so for years. But five years after Sept. 11, in this climate of religious and cultural intolerance in America, I can sympathize with Muslims here who feel like outsiders. Many white Americans are suspicious and fearful of Kwanzaa. Like other holidays that are celebrated predominantly by people of color -- such as Ramadan, Juneteenth, Holi, Hispanic Heritage Month -- Kwanzaa ought to be an opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with it to...

Dec. 21, 2006 - Not so very many years ago, Baghdad thrived with intellectuals and artists, a few of whom survived even during the decades of Saddam Hussein’s single-minded tyranny. The poets considered T.S. Eliot something of a god, and his iconic work, “The Waste Land,” a kind of scripture. They found hope in the notion that love and sacrifice might triumph over the despair and sterile devastation of their own “cracked earth.” Today, those I knew in Baghdad who remembered Eliot and wrote about him have died or, long since, abandoned a city that has become the epicenter of...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Disturbing statistics on the number of Hispanics who daily go hungry in America was released at a press conference on Wednesday by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). The national Hispanic civil rights group found that nearly one in five people lack nutritious food. NCLR officials said in a press release that increasing federal nutrition assistance programs would help decrease the growing "food insecurity" faced by 19.6 percent of Latinos in America. "Lack of access to resources is forcing far too many Latino families into choices no one should have to make, such as between...

During a presidential news conference on Wednesday, members of the media made it very clear to President Bush that they do not support increasing troop levels in Iraq. Although no such plan has been officially announced, several print and television reporters appeared to be launching a preemptive strike against the idea and in support of a quick withdrawal. During the hour long question and answer session, a "New York Times" reporter made comparisons to Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod asked how much longer the President will continue to defy the polls, and NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell tried to...

"Did Someone Do This to Him?"

MYTH: Joe Lieberman's victory proves the netroots don't matter. REALITY: The netroots had some key victories. Liberal bloggers and their readers helped to swing the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont, raising expectations that the midterms would turn this new generation of online activists into kingmakers. Yet in the midst of a Democratic wave, the netroots candidates failed to sweep, causing some pundits to claim that the netroots' influence continues to be overstated: "The Netroots Election? Not So Fast," editorialized The Nation. When Rick Perlstein tried, in The New Republic, to claim the election as a netroots...

U.S. prisons should make condoms available to inmates and test for HIV as part of a broader effort to curb the spread of AIDS among blacks, hit disproportionately hard by the incurable disease, experts urged Thursday. The National Minority AIDS Council advocacy group, backed by U.S. black lawmakers and medical leaders, issued a series of recommendations aimed at U.S. policymakers to slow the epidemic among blacks, 10 times more likely than whites to have AIDS.

Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do. I'm not talking about the policies of the Contract for America crowd, but the character. I'm confident that 99 percent of the population — if they could see these politicians up close, if they watched their speeches and looked...

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....

On shows aired Friday and Saturday, the journalists and political pundits on the McLaughlin Group, FNC's Beltway Boys and Inside Washington, a local Washington, DC program, made predictions for what will occur in Tuesday's elections. All presumed that Democrats will win enough seats to takeover the House and most forecast that Democrats will win a majority of the most-contested Senate seats. Below is a rundown of the specific predictions issued by columnist Pat Buchanan, Newsweek writer Eleanor Clift, Washington Times editorial page Editor Tony Blankley, Democratic political veteran and television producer Lawrence O'Donnell, John McLaughlin, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred...

Chrissy had a crappy grin on his face this morning. He stated that the democrats were going to win big. BTW, this is the same Chris Matthews who predicted that Karl Rove would be frog marched over Valerie Plame. Real good track record there won't you say.

What a glorious couple of centuries it has been, all held together by this great string of luck. "The Lord looks after drunks, children and the U.S.A." went the old saying, and it seemed true. But the thing about luck is that, eventually, you run out of it. Everybody craps out in the end. And that is what has happened to us. As Americans go to the polls Tuesday we must confront the fact that we have become a luckless people, all across the political spectrum. Was there any more mind-boggling bit of historic bad luck than what happened after...

US President George W. Bush is more of a threat to world peace than the leaders of North Korea and Iran, and only Osama bin Laden is more feared, a poll of British voters has found. A majority of voters in Britain, Canada and Mexico, all key American allies, also thought US foreign policy had made the world less safe since 2001, the survey published in The Guardian today showed. Three-quarters of Britons said Mr Bush presented a great or moderate threat to peace in the world, bested only by the al-Qaeda leader at 87 per cent. By contrast, North...