Free Republic

This is how ugly things have gotten between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- Clinton supporters are staging what they call a "strike" at the influential liberal website DailyKos. It's not really a "strike" -- blogging for these diarists is not a job, and stopping their blogging won't cause them financial hardship. But, that said, these diarists' boycott of DailyKos is indicative of the turmoil in which the Democratic party finds itself. Read more on their "strike" HERE.

New York (AP) _ A teen who used vulgar slang in an Internet blog to complain about school administrators shouldn't have been punished by the school, her lawyer told a federal appeals court. But a lawyer for the Burlington school told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that administrators should be allowed to act if such comments are made on the Web. Avery Doninger, 17, claims officials at Lewis S. Mills High School violated her free speech rights when they barred her from serving on the student council because of what she wrote from her home computer....

CNN has fired producer Chez Pazienza after the network brass realized he had been blogging at his own left-wing site and several others over a period of years: In a phone interview this morning, Mr. Pazienza, 38, said he joined CNN as a senior producer in January 2004 and has consistently received positive performance evaluations of his work. He spent his first year at CNN at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta, then moved to New York to work on “CNN Daybreak,” which has since been canceled, then “American Morning,” which is shown Monday through Friday, from 6 to 9 a.m....

In many ways, South Carolina has the future of the Republican Party in its’ hands. Up until now, the Republican primaries have only flirted with defining what the Republican Party wants. Independents in New Hampshire helped push McCain to victory in a small state with little Republican presence. Michigan rescued Romney and was the most populace stage for a Republican primary yet. However, even that win comes with an asterisk in a largely Democrat state with a fair share of activists who were urged to muddle with the Republican primary by fringe left leaders. But his margin of victory should...

Right Wing News has done another Rightosphere temperature check on the Republican race for the Presidential nomination. Over half preferred Thompson as the Republican candidate — these folks must have been very happy with last nights debate, where Thompson finally woke up and realized politics ain’t bean bag and you can’t win if you don’t play. RWN’s does some helpful breakouts on relative preferences among the candidates, so do check out the temp check. The two candidates the bloggers don’t like are McCain and Huckabee. I’d pick it strongly the other way, but bloggers actually prefer McCain over Huckabee. My...

This afternoon, along with what sounded like 5 gazillion other bloggers, I was on a teleconference with Fred Thompson. It was a bit shorter than I would have liked and I didn't get a chance to ask a question, but here's a round-up (Everything that follows is from my notes, not actual quotes). Before Fred came on We can't tell you who it is yet, but Fred has a huge endorsement coming up tomorrow. Fred's opening statement We've been all over the ground in South Carolina. The money is coming in quickly, I feel good, they know me here, and...

Marc Ambinder declares Fred the winner: On points, Fred Thompson won the debate. Every answer was thoughtful and well-crafted; his tone matched the tone of the question; he wisely refrained from interjecting in the back and forth squabbling. He very deftly reminded viewers that he served on key Senate national security panels and is bringing his experience to bear. Even his insults were subtly and gently constructed In some ways, Thompson did McCain’s bidding. You skeptical readers can tell me that if Thompson had finished a solid fourth in Iowa, I might not be writing about Thompson at all, that...

While Fred Thompson is not leading the polls, Thompson does have a msjority of endorsements from prominent conservative bloggers.

In blogger poll, after blogger poll it has been Fred Thompson hands down, despite the efforts of Ron Paul bots. Most conservative bloggers I know have either came out and endorsed him, or are rooting for him. Below are just a handful. John Hawkins of Rightwing News, Erick Erickson of RedState.Com, Pejman of RedState, Eugene Volokh of Volokh's Conspiracy, Polipundit of Polipundit, Ala from Blonde Sagacity, Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Kender at Kender's Musings, Gribbit at Gribbit's Word, Bill Quick of Daily Pundit, Misha of Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller, Bob Krumm, Brandon at Conservative Superiority, Curt at Flopping Aces,...

Mike Huckabee campaigns as religious Baptist. Yet how religious is Huck? Robert Novak, in the Washington Post, questions the depth of Huckabee’s Baptist support: More than personality explains why not all his Baptist brethren have signed on the dotted line for Huckabee. He did not join the “conservative resurgence” that successfully rebelled against liberals in the Southern Baptist Convention a generation ago. Ann Coulter goes farther, and questions both Huckabee’s intelligence and sincerity of his supposed religous convictions. Hat Tip: Allah Pundit: Hot Air, Huckabee is a liberal Arkansas politician, who would be a democrat, if the party was not...

In my last post, I said there were a couple things in Thompson’s interview with the news staff of the Waverly (Iowa) Democrat newspaper worth more thought. Here’s one of them. KD: Tell me, why do you want to be president of the most beautiful, most powerful, most unique country in the world? FT: To keep it that way. That’s every generation’s obligation, to keep it that way. And I think we’re at a crossroads right now. I think we have got to come to terms with our position in the world, for the 21st century. We know what our...

SoCalPundit.com endorsed Fred Thompson for the Republican nomination not because he was the candidate raising the most money or the candidate with the most name recognition (though in a national election I think he would) but because he is the true conservative candidate in the GOP field. All due respect to Alan Keyes of course. After a shaky start to a late campaign, it looked like Fred was dead in the water. But a Google search for the candidate today reveals some indication that Fred is catching up in Iowa and other early primary states where Fred must make a...

In another arrogant piece from a "professional" journalist claiming that Internet journalism is "dangerous," one where the writer imagines that he is somehow the personification of truth in "reporting," we get yet another screed on the theme that they are the only ones that should be allowed to be called "journalists." And this one is a hoot, too. In an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former journo and current professor David Hazinski seems to imagine that it's the job of the "news industry" to "monitor and regulate" the content of blogs and Internet journalism. No, I'm serious, he really said...

Spokeswoman Confirms Tip Called In, Investigation Begun. A member of an online support group that Matthew Murray reportedly participated in alerted federal authorities to ominous anti-Christian postings before Murray went on a shooting rampage at a Colorado church. Joe Istre, president of the Association of Former Pentecostals, which operates the online site, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he and other forum participants had grown familiar with the frequent and disturbingly dark poetry and obsessions of one participant, whose nickname was nghtmrchld26. But when that same author -- believed to be Murray -- posted Sunday that he wanted to...

Like noxious bugs swarming over a crumbling tenement, followers of Ron Paul have invaded the blogosphere. Their target is anyone who dares to criticize their hero. Bloggers have dealt with them in various ways. Some have tried banning them outright. Others allow readers to engage them in back-and-forth debates that can easily take a thread to several hundred responses. I used to find the Paulites annoying, but recently I had a revelation: Far from being scorned, Paul’s rabid fans should be welcomed and encouraged. We should do everything we can to make certain they keep pushing their man, sending him...

Check the link and go to the official blog of the Hitler of the Middle East... Go before he and his country get bombed by the brave US forces...

When Philip Smith took to his blog to describe his (negative) experience of working with an eBay listing company, he did not expect that he would end up representing himself in a federal defamation and trademark dilution lawsuit or that he would have difficulty selling his condo after a lawyer for the plaintiffs clouded his title to the property. Now, after winning the case in spectacular fashion, Smith has emerged as an unlikely hero for bloggers everywhere who hope to be regarded as journalists. No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count...

It was the Republican presidential candidates' turn to take questions from the great unwashed, and they didn't seem to have as much fun as the Democrats did. And it's not just because there was no talking snowman or Jackie Broyles and Dunlap. --snip-- Marc Ambinder (3) graded the candidates, and he proved to be pretty generous. "McCain's mix of resigned sighs, sober mien and sense of humor went over well with a crowd that seemed predisposed to be wary of him. ... Giuliani had a an 'eh' to 'poor' night. He seemed deflated. A little defensive. ... Thompson: He gets...

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the interview. I linked to this yesterday in my Republican race Q&A, but the interview itself merits a little post of its own. In no particular order, a few observations: 1) The long form interview allowed Fred to express his knowledge and thoughts on the war on terror. He was impressive. Believe...

"She has one of the most interesting, vibrant social networks of anyone," says Peretti. "At a kind of fundamental level, she's hyper-webby." Or as she puts it, "The Huffington Post is like life itself. Everything can be included." Among news websites, the influence of the HuffPo -- as it is increasingly called -- exceeds its fast-growing but relatively small audience, because of the people it is written by and for. Given the fickleness of the web, it's certainly too soon to say whether it will succeed in its ambition to be the news organization of the future. But it's no...