Free Republic

Johnny Carson was America’s ultimate late-night host. The comedian’s most beloved gig was hosting “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” for 30 seasons from 1962 until his retirement in 1992. His nephew, Jeff Sotzing, worked alongside his uncle, starting off as a receptionist in 1977, before becoming a producer on the show by ’92. “I think he’d be flattered,” the television producer exclusively told The Post of how the late star would think of the current “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon “It has so many elements that the ‘Tonight Show’ that I worked on did not have because of the...

As a powerful storm takes shape just east of the Rockies by the middle of the week, AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting a vast eruption of severe weather, including the potential for tornadoes, Friday and Saturday in the zone from the Great Plains to the Mississippi Valley. Should the storm develop to its full potential, it could be one of the strongest on record for the region in terms of low pressure. The more intense the storm, the greater the amount of energy will be available for severe weather, rain, snow and winds in general. Even a more moderate, typical storm...

@RandPaul A few people may have noticed that I resisted an enthusiastic endorsement of Donald Trump during the election. But now, I’m amazed by the Trump cabinet (many of whom I would have picked). I love his message to the Ukrainian warmongers, and along with his DOGE initiative shows I was wrong to withhold my endorsement. So today, admittedly a little tardy, I give Donald Trump my enthusiastic endorsement! (Too little too late some will say, but, you know, it is sincere, there is that.) Don’t expect this endorsement to be fawning. I still think tariffs are a terrible idea,...

In case you have not been paying attention – leftist groups around the country have been caught corrupting our elections by dumping tens of thousands of bogus ballot registrations into our voter rolls. This is taking place in state after state. PENNSYLVANIA Lancaster County, Pennsylvania city officials announced eight days ago that they were investigating a massive fraudulent voter registration operation investigation involving thousands of fraudulent voter registrations. At least 2,500 ballot registrations were in question. On Saturday, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania announced that they were also investigating hundreds of fake ballot registrations that were turned in recently by a questionable...

The 5th Circuit’s ruling in a Mississippi case could have implications for other states with similar laws. A federal appeals court Friday ruled invalid a Mississippi law that allows election officials to count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by then. The ruling came less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election and could have implications for other states with similar laws. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit did not rule on how the state should handle ballots for this election, saying that matter should be addressed later...

“I hope to learn what the vice president does with all this downtime,” journalist Mark Halperin said about Vice President Kamala Harris’s “late start” Thursday on the campaign trail. Harris’s light campaign schedule comes after she spent two days away from the campaign trail to prepare for an interview with NBC News and a town hall with CNN. Halperin, who doubles as an analyst and attempts to report data without spin, questioned why Harris would get such a “late start” on Thursday with only 12 days until election day. “Today, the vice president, once again, not doing anything until –...

State Senator Faith Winter arrived late and drunk to a pubic meeting .. She slurred her words and scrolled on her phone at the halfway-house hearing.. ... A Democratic Colorado State Senator announced she is getting substance abuse treatment after she arrived late to a public hearing late, intoxicated, slurred her words and scrolled on her phone while community members talked. Faith Winter, the assistant senate majority leader, was nearly 10 minutes late on Wednesday to a community hearing in Northglenn about a plan to open a halfway house for sex offenders near an elementary school. When she walked in...

OTTAWA - Canada’s decade-long search for a new fighter jet to replace its aging CF-18s came full circle on Monday as the Liberal government announced negotiations with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin to purchase the F-35. Yet even as the end to that circuitous search appeared to finally be in sight, many unanswered questions remained: how much the aircraft will cost? When they will start to arrive in Canada? And were the past 12 years of debate and delays worth it? Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi and Defence Minister Anita Anand confirmed during a news conference that Lockheed Martin’s stealth fighter...

A crowd was told to redo their applause after President Biden showed up late to a Christmas tree lighting. The president and first lady were introduced at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony by LL Cool J, but the crowd waited nearly two minutes for the couple to come out. A video shows the rapper introducing the pair as music plays. As the crowd stands up, however, the president and first lady are nowhere in sight.

The United States is devoting $3.2 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for COVID-19, officials said Thursday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, announced the investment during a White House briefing as part of a new “antiviral program for pandemics” to develop drugs to address symptoms caused by potentially dangerous viruses like the coronavirus. The pills, which would be used to minimize symptoms after infection, are in development and could begin arriving by year’s end, pending the completion of clinical trials.

On September 7, the New York Times ran an obituary for Charlotta Bass, who was the Progressive Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1952, and the first African-American woman to be on the ballot anywhere for vice-president. The New York Times has recently been running belated obituaries for people who did not get a Times obituary when they died, but the newspaper now believes that they should have had such obituaries. Bass died April 12, 1969. Thanks to Irv Sutley for the link.

Here are some of the early details on how indoor dining will look: Restaurants will be able to reopen at 25 percent capacity, which is half of the 50 percent capacity everywhere else in the state except for NYC. Masks must be worn at all times except when sitting at a table. Temperature checks will be required for anyone who enters the restaurant. One member of each dining party will have to leave their information with the restaurant for contact tracers to reach out in the instance that there’s a COVID-19 case. Restaurants will be required to have enhanced filtration...

Ferry commuters were stunned to see a man in a suit paddleboarding across the Hudson River Thursday morning The man, Scott Holt, tells News 4 he was running late for a meeting so he decided to hop on his paddleboard from Jersey City He made it across in 30 minutes, but was met by a confused cop and an angry ferry captain, he says Sure, it's common in New York City to see men in suits commuting on the subway or in taxis -- but on a paddleboard across the Hudson River? That may be a first. Eunice Rivers was...

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-British ambassador who is now a WikiLeaks operative claims Russia did NOT provide Clinton emails - they were handed over to him at a D.C. park by an intermediary for 'disgusted' Democratic insiders Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and associate of Julian Assange, told the Dailymail.com he flew to Washington, D.C. for emails He claims he had a clandestine hand-off in a wooded area near American University with one of the email sources The leakers' motivation was 'disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the 'tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders'...

Members of an audience waiting to hear from Hillary Clinton in Oklahoma Friday audibly groaned when it was revealed the Democratic presidential candidate would be late for the event.Groaner here

G20 leaders in Turkey rose from their seats to honor Paris terror victims on Sunday President Barack Obama arrived at the G20 summit's first working session after the silent observance was already underway He said economic conditions in the Middle East contribute to the global terror crisis Later in the day Obama insisted he wouldn't send troops to the Middle East and called the Paris attacks a 'setback' President Barack Obama arrived late to a 'moment of silence' in Belek, Turkey on Sunday as the rest of the world's most powerful leaders stood for a somber observance to honor Friday's...

This in French with subtitles. A Belgium Jew explains why he must leave.

He’s a little more than six months away from passing the “Tonight Show” baton — again — but Jay Leno is very much still on his game ratings-wise.

Young women and men supporting late-term abortions shouted ‘Hail Satan’ throughout the day as the Texas House and Senate convened a special session to discuss timekeeping measures following Democrat Wendy Davis’ filibuster de-railing the vote to limit abortions to 20 weeks and establishing stricter safety standards for abortion clinics. On one occasion some young women shouted ‘Hail Satan’ as Christians gave personal testimony about  abortion and sang ‘Amazing Grace’.Breibart reports:‘It would be difficult to argue that the pro-abortion crowd wasn’t an “unruly mob” — last week protesters shut down proceedings by screaming from the gallery and used social media to debate...

The key bit comes at 2:00 of the video below. We all knew McCain was taking a lot of heat politically for dumping on Paul after his filibuster but I never would have guessed it was enough to squeeze an apology out of him. Good lord. How many times in his life, do you suppose, has Maverick apologized to a libertarian? Either he’s planning to run again for Senate in 2016 and wants to hedge his bets against a Paulian primary uprising in Arizona or he’s come to his senses and realized that his nastiness is doing the interventionist cause...