Roseanne Barr back on Twitter after 'leaving,' blames 'Ambien tweeting' after ABC cancels hit show

Less than 14 hours after following up a racist tweet by writing, "I apologize. I am now leaving Twitter," Roseanne Barr was back on the social media platform late Tuesday.
In a series of late-night tweets, Barr appeared to blame the prescription sleeping pill Ambien for the racist tweet that led to her show's cancellation Tuesday. She also repeatedly criticized ABC for what she implied is the network's hypocrisy.
"guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me," she wrote in one post Tuesday night. "It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended-it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn't but...don't defend it please. ty."
ABC canceled Barr's widely popular reboot of "Roseanne," her hit 1988-1997 comedy series, shortly after the star posted a racist tweet about former President Barack Obama's aide Valerie Jarrett.
The rebooted show became an instant hit March 27, when the first episode attracted more than 18 million viewers.
Barr doubled down on appearing to blame Ambien two hours later: "I think Joe Rogan is right about ambien. Not giving excuses for what I did(tweeted) but I've done weird stuff while on ambien-cracked eggs on the wall at 2am etc -."
"Don't feel sorry for me, guys!!" Barr also tweeted, before discouraging people from boycotting ABC. "I just want to apologize to the hundreds of people,and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet. I will be on Joe Rogan's podcast friday."
Earlier Tuesday evening, Barr also retweeted several posts from a variety of other Twitter users, including some that contained doctored images and incorrect information.
One of the fake images that Barr recirculated depicted Whoopi Goldberg wearing a violently anti-Trump shirt. Barr quickly deleted that retweet.
ABC CANCELS 'ROSEANNE' AFTER RACIST TWEET
Barr also retweeted a fake image of Jarrett's Stanford yearbook quote, in which she purportedly says she wants to make the U.S. a more Islamic country. Barr later retweeted corrections from people who pointed out the photo was fake.
The comedian also posted several retweets that highlighted perceived hypocrisy by Disney, the parent company of ABC and ESPN.
"Not repugnant according to @WaltDisneyCo," read one post that Barr retweeted, referring to angry anti-Trump comments by Keith Olbermann, who recently returned to ESPN.
Barr also highlighted anti-Christian comments by Joy Behar, a co-host of ABC's "The View."
WATCH: MIKE PENCE ASKS BEHAR TO APOLOGIZE TO ALL CHRISTIANS
"Joy Behar mocked Mike Pence’s faith on The View and said that the way he prayed to Jesus was 'mental illness,'" read another post that Barr retweeted. "She didn’t apologize until a month later. ABC was silent. Roseanne‏"
In other posts, Barr retweeted apparent defenses of her racist comment concerning Jarrett's appearance.
"I look like a monkey. Why?" began one of the posts. "My DNA is 96% similar to a monkey's. It makes scientific sense. But due to emotions, double standards & feelings science is cancelled this year. There are 5,000 genders & if you don't agree with me you're a racist xenophobe."

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Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett will not seek re-election: 'I'm an alcoholic'

Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Garrett reportedly announced he will not seek re-election due to a battle with alcoholism.  (AP)

Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Garrett announced Monday he was not seeking re-election because of his ongoing battle with alcoholism.
The announcement comes just three days after Garrett reassured voters he was not abandoning his run for a second term in Congress despite a week of turmoil, including reports he and his wife turned staffers into his own “personal servants.”
“Any person – Republican, Democrat or independent—who has known me for any period of time and has any integrity knows two things: I am a good man and I’m an alcoholic,” Garrett said in a video recorded at the state Capitol in Richmond. “This is the hardest statement that I have ever publicly made by far. It’s also the truth.”
Garrett's tepid fundraising had worried members of his party, but he said his decision not to seek another term was not motivated by fear of losing his seat. Garrett said "sometimes winning means knowing where your priorities should be."
"This isn't an ending for me, or my values of service to my fellow man, it's just a new beginning," Garrett said.
FOLLOW COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE 2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Republican party of Virginia Chairman John Whitbeck thanked Garrett for his service in a statement released late Monday:
"On behalf of Republicans around Virginia and especially in the Fifth District, we thank Tom Garrett for his service. Substance abuse is a serious issue that reaches even to the halls of Congress. Tom has tremendous courage for bringing his own struggle to light. We wish him and his family all the best.
The Fifth District Committee will begin the process of choosing a replacement nominee immediately. "Congressman Garrett’s decision not to seek re-election makes it even more imperative that we select the right nominee to defeat the anti-Semitic Democrat nominee, Leslie Cockburn."
Garrett, who represents the 5th District of Virginia, now joins the group of nearly 40 other Republicans who are not returning to Congress after the 2018 midterm elections.
Last week, the former Virginia state senator was accused of making Congressional staffers pick up groceries, chauffer his children and clean up after his dog, according to a report in Politico.
A spokesman, Matt Missen, said in a statement to Politico that the allegations were "unfounded".
Garrett was set to face Democratic challenger Leslie Cockburn, who reportedly has raised more money than the Republican incumbent.

8 people killed, 25 wounded in bloody weekend in Chicago

Memorial Day weekend proved even bloodier than last year in Chicago.
At least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded in shootings across the city since midnight Friday, police told WLS. Last year, over the entire weekend of the unofficial start of summer, seven people were killed and 45 others were hurt.
The victims, WLS reported, include China Marie Lyons-Upshaw, who was shot in the chest while playing with a gun; Bobbieana Lyons, 20, a young mother shot and killed on her doorstep while celebrating her 2-year-old’s birthday; and a 31-year-old man shot twice in the chest and once in the head after he got into a fight with another man.
To try and reduce the grim statistics, police had been trying to curb gun violence by employing 1,300 extra officers on patrol with help from state and federal partners.
The crimes come days after President Donald Trump tweeted about how Chicago police are unable to properly do their jobs because of the city’s bureaucracy.
“The killings are at a record pace and tough police work, which Chicago will not allow, would bring things back to order fast ... the killings must stop!” Trump tweeted.
As Fox News previously reported, Trump’s comment came after “Blue Wednesday” in Chicago, during which members of the city’s Fraternal Order of Police showed up at a City Council meeting to address their grievances against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They claim that Emanuel, who is in the middle of an election as he runs for his third term as mayor, has “turned his back” on them.
During the meeting, members accused Emanuel of not taking their interests into consideration because of, in part, a consent decree with the federal government that’s in the works, The Chicago Tribune reported. The decree will give a federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department.
Chicago police have argued that the decree is a shroud for even more anti-police policies.
“You are more concerned with consent decrees, settlements, pandering to police-hating groups than negotiating a contract with us,” said Patrick Murray, union vice president, according to the newspaper report. “Our members are starting to believe you have no intention of negotiating a contract with us until after the next election.”

Harvard gives Hillary Clinton award for 'transforming society' -- even when you lose you get a trophy

Harvard awarded its Radcliffe Medal to Hillary Clinton on Friday for her “transformative impact on society.” That’s not a misprint.
The prestigious Ivy League university is giving the woman who ran for president and lost, twice, an award for transforming society.
Harvard said it picked Clinton because of her advocacy for human rights, her work as a legislator, and her leadership around the world on behalf of America.
If “transformative impact” and Hillary Clinton in the same sentence has you shaking your head, you’re not alone. She not only lost the presidency twice, she has wasted the last year and a half going on tour around the world to blame America for not electing her in 2016.
It’s no wonder President Obama made her Secretary of State when he was elected in 2008 – after beating her in the primary that everyone expected her to walk away with. Clearly he knew the best way to keep her quiet was to keep her close.
Let’s be real, this is Harvard, arguably one of the most liberal universities in the country. Hillary isn’t being rewarded for transforming anything.

It’s not a good look for feminism, and all the more proof that America chose correctly in 2016. Hillary continues to look backward with anger and bitterness.

She’s being rewarded because they agree with her that it was her turn in 2016 and the country got it wrong - Donald Trump should not be president. Even though he’s the one who’s really having the transformative impact on society.
While she may not have transformed society the way Harvard is crediting her with, she has impacted and transformed the post-election cycle by turning it into a serial campaign instead of gracefully fading into the background like most dignified losers. If she were to brand a slogan for the show she’s taken on the road since losing the Oval Office to President Trump a year and a half ago, the side of her bus would read:  “The Blame Game - No Excuse Left Behind.”
Instead of cutting her losses and moving on, she’s traveling the world making sure everyone knows it’s not her fault she lost.  She has an excuse for everything and everything has an excuse.  Blame and belligerence are the name of her game.
Speaking to graduates at Yale this week, Hillary put on a Russian hat to make a joke out of the Russian involvement in the 2016 election. A year and a half after losing the election, Democrats are still trying, without a shred of evidence, to accuse President Trump of colluding with the Russians during the campaign.
Not only is there no sign of collusion with the Trump campaign and the Russians, but many signs point to an evident conspiracy among law enforcement and intelligence communities to ensure Hillary won the White House.  It’s nice that she can laugh and make jokes given that it looks as though unprecedented (and likely illegal) efforts were made by officials in the Obama administration to try to get her elected – and she still lost.
It was also at Yale that she admitted she’s still not over her loss to President Trump.  You don’t say.
In Australia recently to speak with Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister, Hillary once again pulled out the sexism card, one of her favorites, to justify losing the presidency to Donald Trump. Hillary said, “There is still a very large proportion of the population that is uneasy with women in positions of leadership.”
This is an incessantly recurring theme. Earlier this year in India she said that sexism and racism were why she lost the election.
But interestingly, when given the choice between endorsing a man or a woman in the New York gubernatorial race, Hillary, the former Empire State Senator and feminist icon who believes people are uneasy with women in leadership, chose to endorse Governor Andrew Cuomo over Cynthia Nixon this week.
New York has never had a woman governor. Wouldn’t electing Nixon be truly transformative? That’s what women were told in 2016 when it came to voting for president.
And yet, there’s something eerily familiar about Hillary’s nixing of Nixon. Mrs. Clinton has always been the queen of the double standard, why should this instance be any different?
Harvard’s idea of what constitutes a transformative impact is likely very different than what most of the country considers that term to mean. Hillary has certainly impacted society, and the mark she’s made hasn’t reflected well on women.
When she couldn’t break the ultimate glass ceiling, rather than focus on what she could do, she proceeded to have a perpetual meltdown because of what she didn’t get to do. A meltdown that’s still going strong a year and a half later, and there’s no indication of it letting up anytime soon.
So, yes she’s been transformative and impactful. Just not in a way that helps move women forward, but instead sets us back decades.
It’s not a good look for feminism, and all the more proof that America chose correctly in 2016. Hillary continues to look backward with anger and bitterness. Meanwhile our country is moving forward with hope and optimism, thriving under the policies of President Trump.
Lauren DeBellis Appell, a freelance writer in Fairfax, Virginia, was deputy press secretary for then-Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in his successful 2000 re-election campaign, as well as assistant communications director for the Senate Republican Policy Committee (2001-2003).

More than 25 mortar shells fired from Gaza, Israel says

The Israel-Gaza border braces for more protests as Muslims observe the first Friday of Ramadan as Hamas calls on their people to restart demonstrations; David Lee Miller reports from Israel.
More than 25 mortar shells were fired Tuesday from the Gaza Strip in the direction of communities in southern Israel, the Israeli military said.
There were no reports of injuries, but the reported attack would be the largest fired in a single incident since 2014 Israel-Hamas war.
Most mortars were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, the military said. One shell landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened, according to media reports.
The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007.
Israeli fire has killed more than 110 Palestinians, most of them during the Hamas-led protests, which climaxed on May 14. Reuters reported that Israeli tank fire killed a Hamas fighter on Monday at a frontier outpost.
Hamas has vowed to continue the border rallies. Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby. It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.

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