Free Republic

Former KSFO conservative talk radio co-host, provacateur and activist Melanie Morgan resigned from her nationally-syndicated radio show Monday for health reasons. We connected with Morgan Monday. She says "I'm fine," but wanted to return to the Bay Area from Washington, D.C. to be near family and friends as she continues to explore what she calls her "health challenge." In a note to listeners Monday, Morgan said, "Yes, it's true. I am leaving the radio. For a while." "I have resigned from America's Morning News with a tremendous amount of sadness," Morgan writes. "I have some health issues that I need...

I am just a couple of days away from launching a brand spankin' new syndicated radio show for the Washington Times called "America's Morning News" hosted by myself and the award-winning journalist and WashTimes "Inside the Beltway" columnist John McCaslin.

Even Joe the Plumber is writing McCain off. Say it ain't so, Joe. Joe the Plumber conceded Monday night that Republican John McCain has a slim chance of defeating Democrat Barack Obama in the race for the White House. Joe Wurzelbacher, the unemployed Ohio plumber who was thrust into the national spotlight in late September after quizzing Mr. Obama about his tax policy, made his prediction on the upcoming presidential election while be interviewed on Inside the Beltway Radio.

Are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Elton John breaking U.S. laws by allowing the British pop singer, a foreign national, to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign by performing a concert on her behalf? That's the question Inside the Beltway put to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday, which does not rule out the possibility. First, some background supplied by the FEC: The goal of the 1966 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was to "minimize foreign intervention" in U.S. elections by establishing a series of limitations on foreign nationals. In 1974, the prohibition was incorporated...

Are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Elton John breaking U.S. laws by allowing the British pop singer, a foreign national, to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign by performing a concert on her behalf? That's the question Inside the Beltway put to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) yesterday, which does not rule out the possibility. First, some background supplied by the FEC: The goal of the 1966 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was to "minimize foreign intervention" in U.S. elections by establishing a series of limitations on foreign nationals. In 1974, the prohibition was incorporated...

Fasting eternal The late terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi is doing more than pushing up daisies. He's fasting, too. Yes, that's Zarqawi -- or at least his ancestral tribal name -- along with his hometown of Zarqa, Jordan, listed on Code Pink's roll of protesters who are "fasting" in hopes that U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. And how did the once-notorious terrorist's name wind up on the peace and social justice group's list, among celebrity fasters like the ice-cream-licking Cindy Sheehan? It was submitted by a merry prankster from the D.C. chapter of FreeRepublic.com, we've learned, a conservative...

The Washington Times Inside the Beltway By John McCaslin Published June 28, 2006          Murtha missionaries     Just in time for the 2006 midterm elections, we learn that supporters of the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Sen. John Kerry are starting "Murtha Lied" -- with a Web site "and all the accouterments of a hotshot political campaign," says the guiding force, retired Navy SEAL Capt. Larry W. Bailey of North Carolina.     Capt. Bailey informs fellow veterans in a memo we obtained that he's just opened a bank account in the name of "Vets for Truth," as "we're going...

    Right restored     The National Rifle Association this week delivered once again on its role of upholding the Second Amendment, as Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco signed into law the NRA-backed Emergency Powers Protection Act.     The law prevents governments in her state from confiscating firearms during a state of emergency, as took place in New Orleans last year.     "The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became the proving ground for what American gun owners have always feared: the day that government bureaucrats throw the Bill of Rights in the trash and declare freedom to be whatever they say it is," says NRA chief...

Did you shoot your Thanksgiving turkey this year? Word is more wild turkeys are to be had in North America - and more Americans are hunting them. The National Wild Turkey Federation says with Thanksgiving upon us, there's no better time to celebrate the comeback of the wild turkey. As recently as the early 1900s, it says, turkeys like certain other wildlife "teetered on the brink of extinction." In those years, the wild turkey population in North America hovered around 30,000. But now, thanks to federal and state conservation measures, wild turkeys have steadily increased in number and expanded their...

A new low Americans are obviously split when it comes to rating the on-the-job performance of George W. Bush. The president, himself, acknowledges as much. But if there ever came a time when one stooped too low, it is now. "Demgurl" is the online pseudonym of a popular veteran contributor to the partisan Web site DemocraticUnderground.com. Last week, the Democrat disclosed that she was on her way home and encountered a minivan beside a freeway offramp. "There was a lady standing next to the van, and in her arms she held her child. I can only assume her minivan had...

Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, says "the destruction of the black family" today can be traced to a single man from England who purposely paid a visit to Virginia during the early 18th century. "In 1712, British slave owner Willie Lynch was invited to the colony of Virginia to teach his methods of keeping slaves under control to American slave owners," Rangel says. "Almost 300 years later, the techniques that he prescribed seem to have not only been successful in controlling slaves, but lasting as a means of weakening and destroying the black family." Rangel explains that in...

Inside the Beltway By John McCaslin August 17, 2005 B-grade Gipper We're here to report a rather bizarre, if not disturbing incident combining Hollywood and Washington, specifically this month's special film-industry screening of "The Killers," a 1964 movie starring Ronald Reagan in his final big-screen role. On hand in Hollywood for the Aug. 4 event was a prestigious crowd of actors, actresses, writers, reviewers, scholars, researchers and film preservationists -- including "L.A. Confidential" director Curtis Hanson -- that actually erupted in cheers when Mr. Reagan "the actor" was shot and killed. Absent the applause, it was already an eerie scene...

It's the hope of those who knew and worked alongside Rick Rescorla that the former security chief of Morgan Stanley be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Tomorrow evening, at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, top officials of Morgan Stanley will join Mr. Rescorla's widow, Susan, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James B. Stewart -- who recounts Mr. Rescorla's heroism from the Vietnam War to September 11 in the book "Heart of a Soldier" -- in recognizing the Rick Rescorla Foundation, which promotes everything from patriotism to a scholarship fund for children of fallen members of the armed forces....

Let's hear it for empires - or so we will hear at an intriguing book forum Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, as economist Deepak Lal has written "In Praise of Empires: Globalization and Order." Lal argues that empires have played a decisive role throughout history in providing the political stability essential to economic and social progress. "If the U.S. public does not recognize the imperial burden that history has thrust upon it, or is unwilling to bear it, the world will continue to muddle along as it has for the past century - with hesitant advances, punctuated by various...

CNN has another new network president, its fifth in four years. Jonathan Klein's mission: take back the million-plus viewers CNN has lost to Fox News Channel in fewer than four years. Take ever-important prime-time numbers (7 to 11 p.m.), as examined by Nielsen Media Research -- CNN: 775,000 viewers (Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Paula Zahn, Aaron Brown); Fox: 2 million viewers (Shephard Smith, Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes, Bill O'Reilly). Mr. Klein's assessment of his competition? "They've tapped into an outrage that's lurking among a certain small segment of the population, mostly angry white men, and those men tend to...

Andrew Breitbart – long the number two man at the Drudge Report – is rumored to be working behind the scenes with Arianna Huffington's new Webzine, the Huffington Report, according to Washington Times "Inside the Beltway" columnist John McCaslin. The Huffington Report is scheduled to launch sometime this month, and will cater to the radically chic. Its liveliest feature promises to be a group blog where movie stars, New York media mavens, Hollywood film moguls and other wealthy proponents of class struggle and proletarian solidarity can sound off on politics (see "Arianna Huffington Launches Group Blog for Celebrity Leftists"). In...

"Patriots up in arms...Chaired by former Rep. Bob Barr, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, a national network of organizations from across the political spectrum, will begin its educational efforts today in Washington...The group plans to teach Americans about provisions of the Patriot Act that are supposedly out of line with the Constitution and violate Fourth Amendment freedoms, including the right to privacy...Other "patriots" besides the Georgia Republican include Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; Laura Murphy, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union; Paul...

Atlanta-based author, pundit and media consultant Phil Kent, former president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, tells this column that he's hosting a party on the evening of March 9 in the Buckhead section of the city to honor popular Internet blogger "Buckhead" - otherwise known as prominent Atlanta lawyer Harry MacDougald. "Harry is the bathrobe-clad guy - literally - who 'outed' Dan Rather and CBS less than four hours after they broke the phony Bush National Guard papers" story, Kent says. Rather, who will relinquish his anchor chair after 24 years next week, is accused by conservative critics of being...

Rather party Atlanta-based author, pundit and media consultant Phil Kent, former president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, tells this column that he's hosting a party on the evening of March 9 in the Buckhead section of the city to honor popular Internet blogger "Buckhead" — otherwise known as prominent Atlanta lawyer Harry MacDougald. "Harry is the bathrobe-clad guy — literally — who 'outed' Dan Rather and CBS less than four hours after they broke the phony Bush National Guard papers" story, Mr. Kent says. Mr. Rather, who will relinquish his anchor chair after 24 years next week, is accused by...

This Valentine's Day, Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, encouraged the romantic sweethearts in his party not to buy chocolates from three of the nation's biggest chocolate producers: Hershey, Nestle and Mars. After all, he warned, all three are "red" companies — purportedly supporters of President Bush and his policies. It's not just Hershey's Kisses that Democrats were asked to give up. Outback Steakhouse is similarly a target of the left, as are hundreds of Wal-Mart stores that are "not so blue." And Democrats are pumping Hess "blue gasoline" these partisan days. "You may have voted blue, but every day you...