Free Republic

Paul Krugman makes for an unparalleled intellectual foil.  If he didn’t exist we’d have to invent him.  Recently he has been vintage Krugman, slinging derp. “Derp” is new slang, or perhaps jargon, with which to ridicule opponents.  It is making its way among the left wing hipsters, blogsters, and twitsters. Krugman has rescued derp from Progressive Blogistan for our general edification.  What is derp, you (you hick!) might ask?  Krugman: “Josh Barro has made a very useful contribution to policy discussion by adapting the term “derp” for a certain kind of all-too-prevalent stance in economic debate, which Noah Smith somewhat euphemistically describes as...

On Wednesday's PoliticsNation show, MSNBC host Al Sharpton charged that Republicans are waging a "full-scale war against the poor" because of GOP efforts to reform the food stamp program, and went on to assert that "This party will stop at nothing to tear down the poor. Just as they have time and time again." With the words "The Hunger Shames" in the background, the MSNBC host began the show: Tonight's lead, the "hunger shames." The GOP has been called scary, narrow-minded, out of touch. And yet again today they lived up to their reputation. Fresh off of voting to roll...

On Monday's PoliticsNation show on MSNBC, host Al Sharpton bristled at former Vice President Cheney recently attacking President Obama's "credibility" as the MSNBC host repeated discredited assertions that Cheney had claimed Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Sharpton and MSNBC contributor Patrick Murphy, formerly a Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania, rehashed liberal charges that the former Vice President lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. After a soundbite of Cheney, Sharpton responded: Really, Dick Cheney. He thinks the President is not credible. Oh, the irony. The same Dick Cheney who told us that Iraq had WMDs, who said...

Reporting the breaking news on Wednesday's NBC Today that President Obama had named U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to be national security advisor, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd portrayed Rice as a victim of Republican attacks: "Rice, who had become a Republican punching bag during the whole Benghazi controversy....this is a bit of a defiant move by the President to his Republican critics." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Later on his 9 a.m. ET MSNBC show, The Daily Rundown, while discussing GOP opposition to Rice's promotion – and her nominated replacement as U.N. ambassador,...

Just when you thought the folks at MSNBC couldn't go any lower in defending the current White House resident, someone there stoops to new depths. On the Martin Bashir show Wednesday, the host actually said that investigating the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service is a racist Republican attack on "the black man in the White House" (video follows with fuller transcribed highlights and commentary):MSNBC's Bashir: Investigating the IRS is a Racist Republican Attack on 'Black Man in White House' After playing a clip of Mitt Romney making a joke about his birth certificate, Bashir said, “That was the moment...

MSNBC continues to disparage the scandals that have plagued the Obama administration the last few weeks. On Sunday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, the host brought on former Democratic staffer Jimmy Williams and former RNC chairman Michael Steele to reluctantly discuss the scandals once again. Of course, rather than focus on the substance of the controversies, Witt fell back on the concern that she and many others in the liberal media have often expressed: “[D]oes this have the potential to derail the president's second-term agenda?” The president’s agenda is always the victim of these scandal investigations in the minds of the...

Though he had no idea what it was, the annual “Bush Center Warrior 100K” mountain bike ride, which took place over the Memorial Day weekend, upset Bill Maher. “I guess they walked or ran or something on their prosthetic limbs,” Maher sneered about George W. Bush’s ride around his Texas ranch with 20 servicemen, “and I found this to be nauseating. I mean, first he sends them off to war to get their limbs blown off and then he has them over for a barbecue.” Maher then equated the former President with Ariel Castro, the kidnaper who held captive multiple...

There are moments in politics when an argument is advanced that is so surpassingly stupid or dishonest that it momentarily freezes your brain. Welcome to former DNC Communications Director Karen Finney's IRS twilight zoneMSNBC Host Finney: "Everybody Knew About This [IRS] Investigation Long Before The Election"According to Finney, the fact that Mitt Romney didn't make a huge deal out of the IRS targeting scandal last year is somehow proof that the whole thing is essentially a non-story and wasn't buried until after the election.  Where to begin?  As a fellow panelist incredulously points out, the revelation of IRS abuse wasn't...

On his Thursday night PBS program, Charlie Rose attempted to fulfill his duties as a liberal media member by defending the State Department’s dishonest talking points following the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi. Rose was grilling Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was involved in the Benghazi hearings, about his views on the matter. When Rose asked Chaffetz if he believed there was a coverup, the congressman was ready. He brought up the fact that for days after the attack, the administration claimed the incident had been sparked by a spontaneous demonstration over an anti-Islam YouTube video. But Chaffetz and...

he latest insensitive and arguably racist public utterance coming from the supposed party of tolerance and compassion comes from a Democrat in South Carolina. But not just any Democrat. This one is Dick Harpootlian, the Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. Harpootlian has a history of making outrageously offensive public remarks about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, yet he remained as party chairman until (according to Politico) his term ended on Saturday. Mediaite, Politico, and almost no one else in the establishment press has reported that Harpootlian, speaking at a Jefferson-Jackson dinner Friday night just before Vice President Joe...

It really is amazing how liberal media members regularly make false statements on national television with total impunity. Consider MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell who twice on HBO's Real Time Friday arrogantly claimed that the Obamas' federal income tax rate was "in the high twenties" (video follows with transcribed lowlights and commentary): Lawrence O’Donnell: Obama’s Tax Rate ‘In the High Twenties’; Nope! Try 18.4% In a discussion about the federal budget, Pete Hegseth, the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, said, “We missed some opportunities by not arguing for the simplification of the codes that Mitt Romney and President Obama and everyone...

Hard-left Daily Beast writer Michael Tomasky has a nasty habit of smearing conservatives every chance he gets, and it seems he has found his newest target, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.).  Writing in a May 1 piece for the online publication Tomasky used the FBI investigation over gifts McDonnell received for his daughter’s wedding to slam the Virginia governor's Christian faith.  Tomasky started off his rant by throwing harsh language at the governor, calling his actions, “sleazy and cowardly.”  At issue is the controversial relationship McDonnell has with businessman Jonnie Williams and whether or not the governor accepted money for political...

On Tuesday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes asserted that, since Republicans have taken control of the North Carolina state government, the state is moving toward becoming an "insane right-wing dystopia," and claimed that the GOP wants to engage in "voter suppression" in the state. Hayes: It's a state that, to everyone's surprise, went blue in 2008 and was narrowly carried by Mitt Romney in 2012, a state viewed by many as an emerging Democratic foothold in the South, as evidenced by the party holding their convention in Charlotte in 2012. But a state that, since the election of...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Arthur in Dallas as we head to the phones. Arthur, great to have you on the program. Hello, sir. CALLER: Hi. Great to be on the show, sir. RUSH: Great to have you here. CALLER: I wanted to call. I've been listening as I drive around today and you had mentioned with RU-486 being legalized, there is no point anymore to, uh, birth control pills has been the systematic thing for the last I don't know how many years, didn't mention a time. Birth control pills do not just greatly decrease the chance of pregnancy, they...

There are times when I’d really like to see a liberal brain next to a conservative brain to see if there really is a physiological difference. Consider Salon’s Joan Walsh who on MSNBC’s The Cycle Wednesday actually said the reason former President George Bush’s poll numbers are up is because President Obama is doing such a good job (video follows with transcript and commentary): Salon’s Joan Walsh: Bush’s Poll Numbers Are Up Because…Obama’s Doing a Good Job? JOAN WALSH: Part of what I think the poll numbers tell us though is that President Obama improved the economy. The stimulus worked....

No evidence Underwear Bomber 'kept singing' after being Mirandized MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Saturday that both the Underwear Bomber or Times Square Bomber “kept singing” after they were read their Miranda rights. MADDOW: It is interesting. You look at the way that civilian terrorism prosecutions have gone down in this country, and you look at the Underwear Bomber, you look at the Times Square bomber, and there may have been controversy over when they were administered their Miranda rights and conservatives not wanting them to have been administered their Miranda rights. But there’s never been any indication whatsoever that...

Just hours after explosions rocked the Boston Marathon on Monday, Chris Matthews speculated, "Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right." He then reconsidered and suggested, "...That’s not a good category, just extremists, let’s call them that." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] During live coverage, the Hardball host highlighted a possible explosion at John F. Kennedy's presidential library and thought this could be a personal attack on the Democratic Party: "...But going after the Kennedy Library, not something at Bunker Hill, not something from the Freedom Trail or anything that kind of historic, but a modern...

Note to Piers Morgan: Journalism isn't rocket science and making a few phone calls can go a long way. Giddy about a Newtown search warrant that showed there was an NRA certificate found in the Lanza household,  Morgan tweeted giddily:  I want to hear Wayne LaPierre explain what checks they made on Adam Lanza before sending him a @nra certificate. #Newtown — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 28, 2013 Yet, this is an abject lie. Emily Miller of the Washington Times noted today in a piece responding to Morgan’s egregious and misleading tweets that: In the search warrants of the Lanza’s...

I always look forward to Mike Papantonio's appearances on radio, since he invariably says something that leaves me shaking my head in bemusement and pity. Papantonio, an attorney and co-host of the "Ring of Fire" radio show, was guest hosting on Ed Schultz's radio program Friday and talking about the legal challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the Supreme Court. (audio clips after page break)Lefty's 100% FALSE 'Fascist Party' Scalia SmearNot surprisingly, Papantonio turned most of his scorn toward remarks by Justice Antonin Scalia that indefinite continuation of the law amounts to "perpetuation of racial entitlement." Papantonio...

That MSNBC host would be the one and only Touré who was responding to a section in Wayne LaPierre’s recent article on The Daily Caller. The NRA chief was discussing the various reasons law-abiding citizens need a firearm, including after a natural disaster.  “After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.” And just like that, Touré’s...