Free Republic

There are many bad things that you can say about Mitt Romney’s decision to choose Paul Ryan as his running mate – and I’ve written about a few of them here at the Rumble. But perhaps one of most under-appreciated problems with the pick is the extent to which it imperils Romney’s chances of getting to 270 electoral votes and winning the White House. Right now, President Obama has a rather striking advantage in the Electoral College. Based on the most conservative read of the electoral map, Obama is starting with about 243 electoral votes – that’s not including Wisconsin,...

JILL ABRAMSON: ...The idea that women journalists bring a different taste in stories or sensibility isn’t true. I think everybody here recognizes and loves a good story, and the occasions are rare when there is disagreement about that. Will you be a command-and-control type of leader, or one who leads by more subtle means? I definitely don’t see myself as command-and-control. I do see myself as someone who has a lot of story ideas. As managing editor I never approached an editor with “Here’s my story idea and it must be done,” but in a more “What do you think...

RUSH: I want to move on to Sarah Palin now. You know the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour? You know the...? That was actually, ladies and gentlemen, an experimental movie that the Beatles made about a bus tour, and nobody could figure out what the Beatles were up to, either. By the same token nobody knows what Palin's up to. They're all trying to figure it out. The Drive-Bys are trying to figure out what Palin is up to. Now, the interesting thing is that whatever it is she's doing, she is doing it bypassing the media. She's doing an end-around...

Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, the fiery leftist and Republican hater whose offensive comments about Republicans may well have cost him his seat last November, gets a fairly fond send-off in Monday's New York Times. Reporter Michael Barbaro, previously known for his hostile coverage of Wal-Mart, called Grayson the “pugnaciously partisan, verbal-bomb-tossing, liberal folk hero of the 111th Congress,” and the headline and text box are complimentary. “Enter: Swinging. Exit: Much the Same Way.” The text box: “In or out of Congress, Alan Grayson is a man of strong views.” Barbaro only briefly dealt with Grayson’s history of foul...

Rachel Maddow is so Keith Olbermann's protege, she's supposedly trying to get people fired. Just like her mentor! "Maddow tried to replace all the staffers who work on the 9 p.m. time slot, which she takes over on Monday, but management refused," claims the indefatigable Page Six. This would be, of course, Dan Abrams' former team at Verdict. And ya know who Olbermann can't stand? A one Dan Abrams, who for a time played MSNBC general manager, and thus, Olbermann's boss, but the two never clicked, and neither wanted to pay mind to the other. You'd expect, then, that the...

PALM BEACH -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter is nationally notorious for vitriolic broadsides, but she has been unnerved by invective she received at her Palm Beach home. So much so that she got the county property appraiser to remove her name from public records identifying where she lives. In doing so, she won an exemption from public disclosure of her address, allowed by law for victims of stalkers or harassment. Coulter, 45, has called Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a ''faggot'' and said she wished he would be killed by terrorists. She once said President Clinton ''could be a lunatic''...

While this editorial by Scott is long and covers a multitude of sins by Minneapolis Star Tribune; I am focusing on letter written by Lt.Col. Joe Repy and included by Scott as it was sent to 'Star Trib', but not printed. . .and despite the editorial decisions of this newspaper; Scott thought it deserved to be shared and I wanted to share Scotts. . .'sharing'. . .Include some prelim of Scott's editorial as well (editing for brefity for FR in parentheses). . .Scott's the full editorial, available at powerlineblog.com Quiet: MSM at work The Minneapolis Star Tribune has made itself...

The war against stable thought blazes on, the objective being to put the blame on the Bush administration for what happened in New Orleans. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times personalizes even further. The administration has a "tax policy . . . dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist -- who has been quoted as saying: 'I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.’" You would think that Mr. Friedman would leave a little place in life for...

Claimed terror plot 'didn't happen'There's no evidence of Katherine Harris' claims about a bomb scheme, an Indiana official says.By DAVID HACKETTSarasota Herald-Tribune Aug. 5, 2004 VENICE -- The director of the Indiana Counter-Terrorism and Security Council said Wednesday that there is no evidence to back up a claim by U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris that a man of Middle Eastern heritage had plotted to blow up the Midwest power grid in a suburb of Indianapolis. Speaking Monday night at a gathering of 600 supporters at a rally in Venice, Harris characterized the plotter's arrest in Indiana as a striking example of...

Terror-plot statement a surprise in Indiana By DAVID HACKETTSarasota Herald-TribuneAugust 4, 2004 VENICE -- Officials in Indiana and Washington, D.C., said they are dumbfounded by a statement U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris made about a terrorist plot to blow up a power grid in Indiana. In making the statement during a speech to 600 people Monday night in Venice, Harris either shared a closely held secret or passed along second-hand information as fact. A staff member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the nation's intelligence operations, said he had heard of no such plot. And Indiana...

The AP is running a photo, "Iraqis chant anti-U.S slogans outside Abu Ghraib prison today" - URL link http://www.foxnews.com/images/124509/12_2_050504_iraq.jpg This photo is making the wires, newspapers, and new web sites across the USA, etc.. In the photo, we see the angry Iraqis holding "signs", which are computer printed standard flyers on white paper and taped to card board, entitled "Iraqis chant anti-U.S slogans outside Abu Ghraib prison today - AP". The "signs" are in ENGLISH. Look at the picture of the Iraqis holding these "signs". Try to read the "signs". They are in ENGLISH. The Iraqis in the photo, do...

Bush the BelieverRichard CohenTuesday, July 22, 2003; Page A17 Is George Bush the Iraq war's "useful idiot"? The phrase was coined by Vladimir Lenin to refer to gullible communist sympathizers who swallowed whole the party line. They believed what they were told, and what they were told was mostly lies. It could be somewhat the same with Bush. He may well be the last person to believe that the Iraq war was waged virtually in self-defense. He believes that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons. He believes Hussein had other weapons of mass destruction and that...

Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" Examines the Tiny, or Tragic, Terrors Of High Schoolby Peter Brunette IndyWIRE5/21/2003 The first 45 minutes of Gus Van Sant's new film, "Elephant," is self-assured, formally adroit, and profoundly illuminating. Exploring the Littleton, Colo., school massacre of 1999, the film displays such a clear and sympathetic understanding of the banality and tiny terrors of ordinary high school life that the viewer is left wondering not why this tragedy ever happened, but why it hasn't happened more often. Van Sant is perhaps the gutsiest filmmaker working in American independent cinema today and consequently his filmography is jammed...

Bush makes sure gun lobby gets what it wants By TOM TEEPENAtlanta Journal-Constitution 5/20/2003 “Bush and the people around him are National Rifle Association finger puppets. The NRA twitches, they bow.” When President Bush announced a couple of weeks ago that he wouldn't oppose renewal next year of the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, you knew something fishy was up. And sure enough, here it is: Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) says that not only will the House refuse to renew the legislation. The leadership won't even let the matter come up. End of issue. Thus Bush escapes any blame...

The news is startling. At first glance one wonders if William Bennett, bestselling author of books on education and virtue, former Secretary of Education, former anti-drug czar, founder of K12 Inc., a for profit online virtual school and a recent debate opponent of Noam Chomsky on CNN, has unwittingly offended someone in the city of (sarcasm on) light and all things wonderful and good, Las Vegas. (/sarcasm off) Yet something much more insidious than the "dirt" on Bill Bennett is at play here. There's method to the madness of the left. The left are looking for payback and this is...

<p>It was perhaps inevitable that the recent sniper killings in the Washington area suburbs would be seized upon by advocates of gun control. Like so much in the agenda of the political left, gun control arguments would collapse like a house of cards if people just stopped to think through what is being said, instead of being swept along by emotional rhetoric.</p>

Is she still secretary of state?Katherine Harris' back-dated resignation throws election office into uncertaintyBy GARY FINEOUT CAPITAL BUREAUposted 08/02/02 TALLAHASSEE -- Katherine Harris, Florida's chief election official, admitted Thursday that she had failed to follow one of the election laws she is charged with administering in her own bid for Congress and abruptly resigned her office. Harris' admission and her resignation sparked a flurry of questions about just who is Florida's secretary of state and brought promises of a legal challenge of her candidacy from one of her Democratic opponents in the 13th Congressional District race. Harris said she did...