Free Republic

This is an interesting side to Keith Olbermann. The former Countdown host admitted that he "screwed up" when it came to his dismissal from Current TV while on The Late Show With David Letterman. "I screwed up really big on this. Let's just start there. I thought we could do this. It's my fault that it didn't succeed in the sense that I didn't think the whole thing through," he said. "I didn't say, 'You know, if you buy a $10 million chandelier, you should have a house to put it in. Just walking around with a $10 million chandelier...

In the initial stages of nearly every recorded tyranny, the saucer eyed dumbstruck masses exhibit astonishing and masterful skill when denying reality. The facts behind their dire circumstances and of their antagonistic government become a source of cynical psychological gameplay rather than a source of legitimate concern. Their desperate need to maintain their normalcy bias creates a memory and observation vacuum in which all that runs counter to their false assumptions and preconceptions disappears forever. It is as if they truly cannot see the color of the sky, or the boot on their face. The concrete world of truth becomes...

A handful of Senate Democrats sought to assure doubtful liberals that the Supreme Court justices aren’t ready to strike down their crowning achievement, standing before cameras and mics Wednesday in front of the court. One warned that doing so would ruin the court’s credibility. “This court would not only have to stretch, it would have to abandon and completely overrule a lot of modern precedent, which would do grave damage to this court, in its credibility and power,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut. “The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends...

As we go about our lives, there is something happening around us that is not deemed “newsworthy” or “important” by many people. It’s toxic, troubling, and traumatic. It’s happening on college campuses. It’s happening next door to you. It’s the white elephant in the room that everybody notices, but does not want to address for countless reasons. It’s what our generation praises and feels empowered by, but refuses to let their parents know about. And shockingly enough, it’s happening at conservative conferences thanks to people who do not practice what they preach. So what is it? It’s the hookup culture....

Campaigning in former President Reagan's hometown before last week's Illinois primary, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum asserted that he was the only candidate "who stands on the pillars of what Ronald Reagan built as the modern Republican Party."Speaking in the shadow of a statue of Reagan, Santorum proclaimed: "Let the voice of Reagan be heard across this land."And it isn't just Santorum: During the GOP presidential debates, Reagan's name was invoked nearly 250 times by the GOP field.But many historians argue that if Reagan had a true heir, he or she might raise taxes, compromise with Democrats and put aside...

I guess I have to take this seriously, because the charges are serious, but I don’t recall Hannah Giles peddling any such accusations. Naffe’s complaint alleges that O’Keefe invited her to his New Jersey home to work on a project, where she was to stay in a finished barn to save money on hotels. They got into an argument, according to [Nadia] Naffe, and O’Keefe abandoned her in the barn, refusing to take her to a train station so she could go home. Naffe also alleges that she began to feel physical disorientation, and was eventually unable to move under...

The storm clouds hovering over New Orleans today have nothing to do with the vestiges of Katrina or another imminent threat, and instead result from the NFL’s Saints’, team-sponsored reward system for purposefully injuring and maiming opponents. The allegations of gross impropriety center around Gregg Williams, a tough-guy-wannabe and former defensive coordinator as well as aloofly defiant head coach Sean Payton. Both men and team management had been warned repeatedly about the illegality of such practice yet they blatantly defied league orders and endorsed the continued practice of financial incentives for inflicting significant harm to opposing players. There is a...

That’s the verdict of British writer James Delingpole, in a blog posted in the Daily Telegraph, about an article by Kevin Myers published in the Irish Independent online version, brought to our attention by a Paul Chesser Facebook post. (Got all that? Ain’t the Internet grand?) Myers’ focus is on the potentially fatal results of European wind energy, should this form of green delusion be carried to its logical extreme, and the pure destruction of wealth its massive misallocation of resources already represents (imagine hundreds of Solyndras). Thanks to members of the Michigan House and Senate, since 2008 the same...

JournalTimes.com No danger to students, authorities say as investigation continues Deputies: Parkside student confesses to creating list CHRISTINE WON and MICHAEL BURKE christine.won@journaltimes.com, mburke@journaltimes.com | Posted: Friday, February 3, 2012 4:16 pm SOMERS — Following days of reported hate crimes and heightened security at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a student has confessed to creating the list threatening black students because she wanted greater attention to the issue, according to authorities Friday night. The suspect, whose identity was being withheld for her protection, reportedly told authorities she created the fliers — which listed 13 black students by name and threatened they...

With members of the mainstream media now hurling charges of using racially coded language against GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, Big Government has uncovered a private memorandum written over three decades ago that offers a unique glimpse into Mr. Gingrich’s longstanding attitudes about race...

I generally make New Year's resolutions in hopes of becoming a better person — more disciplined, healthier, or, at the very least, less pathetic. Some of these resolutions last until nightfall. Some don't. None ever sees February. This year, I'm taking a different approach. I'm going to concentrate on giving up things. Not things like smoking — been there, done that. I mean giving up on ideas I have pursued through the years into one blind alley after another. Ideas like climate change, for example. You and I both know that the earth is heating up, right? Everybody knows that,...

If you want to understand the Islamic forces that are gaining strength in Egypt and scaring people here and abroad, let me tell you about my dinner in the home of Muslim Brotherhood activists. First, meet my hostess: Sondos Asem, a 24-year-old woman who is pretty much the opposite of the stereotypical bearded Brotherhood activist. Sondos is a middle-class graduate of the American University in Cairo, where I studied in the early 1980s (“that’s before I was born,” she said wonderingly, making me feel particularly decrepit). She speaks perfect English, is writing a master’s thesis on social media, and helps...

Dear MoveOn member, Americans are talking about the economy—a lot. They're talking about Occupy Wall Street and the Super Committee, about an economy that only works for the 1% and about unemployment. But thanks to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, lots of talk about the economy means lots of misinformation about the economy. So if you're spending this Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family, and want to be ready with the facts to gently correct any myths you hear (they are family and friends, after all), we put together a short guide with five common myths you might hear and...

Once a self-identified founding member of the American “religious right,” Franky Schaeffer now says that “religion is dumb” and “man made.” Although Schaeffer grew up among some of the most influential evangelicals of the twentieth century, and worked as one of them during much of his adult life, he now believes the Bible is a fraud and that Christianity teaches “misogynistic” practices. Schaeffer, the son of the late evangelical theologian, philosopher, and founder of the L’Abri Fellowship, Francis Schaeffer, discussed his newest book at the Kansas City Public Library on September 27, 2011. His recent book, Sex, Mom, and God:...

Joe McGinniss complained to lefty blog Firedoglake yesterday that almost everyone is canceling interviews in which he was to have discussed his book, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin: Terry Gross [of NPR's Fresh Air] has declined to have me on her show. As have all other NPR shows. My fifteen seconds as part of a report on All Things Considered is all I get from NPR. I’m told they are scared of losing more federal funding if right wing Congresspeople complain that they are “promoting” my book. FYI, both Morning Joe and Keith Olbermann had me booked for...

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the now freed American hikers who were held in an Iranian prison after being convicted for espionage, appeared before cameras and reporters in New York on Sunday and gave prepared statements about their detentions in Iran. Bauer, a freelance journalist, along with Sarah Shourd, a teacher and women’s rights activist, and Fattal, an environmentalist, were arrested July 31, 2009 while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. Shourd was released last year. Bauer's and Fattal's remarks were critical of American foreign policy towards Iran as well as the Iranian government's treatment of it's own people. "The only explanation...

How can the left possibly defeat a movement that they do not understand and, worse, that they purposely misunderstand? Michael Moore lies every times he opens his mouth. For him it is easier to lie than to breathe. But with that said, he is doing America and conservatives in the Tea Party a great service because the only people who listen to his bile are the left, and the more they are deceived, the easier they will be to defeat. Here is what I mean: as a military officer, I study tactics as a part of my professional development, and...

  If you seek proof that liberal-arts scholarship is mostly a stinking heap of rubbish, behold the Journal of Popular Culture. Here are three recent examples of articles that have appeared in its dispensable pages: “Queer Dress and Biased Eyes: The Japanese Doll on the Western Toyshelf,” by Judy Shoaf (February 2010); “SpongeBob SquarePants: Pop Culture Tsunami or More?” by Jonah Lee Rice (December 2009); and “‘There’s Genderqueers on the Starboard Bow’: The Pregnant Male in Star Trek,” by Stephen Kerry (August 2009). Yet the ultimate testimony to the journal’s shining irrelevance appears in its current issue: “Rockin’ the Right-Wing...

Styling herself a Christian Cassandra, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann declared Hurricane Irene as God’s warning to Washington. Now that we know she was only joking, we Christians can perhaps shrug our shoulders and leave the victims of Hurricane Irene to deal with its implications on their own. She was serious. She was joking. Maybe it’s her titanium spine that’s giving her the balance to shift positions. Then again, perhaps the titanium spine is a necessary prosthetic given Bachmann’s lack of Christian backbone. If Michele Bachmann actually were serious, she could certainly have drawn upon ample biblical justification. She could have wielded...

Presidencies can go through various stages in terms of their effect on the opposition – from eliciting respect and some amount of fear, to provoking anger, to becoming the object of ridicule. Barack Obama has reached the third stage.Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has written a column in which he cites passages from Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last night and then chronicles the reaction among congressional Republicans, which included chuckles, guffaws and giggles. Hostility to Obama has given way to indifference to what he says; witness the fact the GOP did not even feel the need...