Free Republic

The Left had a grand old time with President George W. Bush’s mangling of the English language, and let Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann make a slip of the tongue and the mainstream media will turn it into a major news story. Not so with President Obama’s verbal missteps. Here, to bring balance to the ridicule, are the Top 10 Obama Gaffes: 1. How many states? Vice President Dan Quayle was virtually laughed out of Washington for misspelling potato back in 1992, yet Barack Obama made a more elementary flub when, during the 2008 campaign, he said: “I've now been...

A Montana woman faces criminal charges after she used a crowbar to destroy a blasphemous exhibit at a gallery in Colorado. Kathleen Folden was arrested after she smashed an exhibit that depicted Jesus in a lewd act. The exhibit, by artist Enrique Chagoya of Stanford University, had caused outrage among Christians.

PANAMA CITY, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday backed off remarks that appeared to endorse a proposed Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City, saying he only supported the organizers' right to build it. At a White House event on Friday, Obama seemed to offer his support for the construction of Cordoba House near the site known as "Ground Zero" in lower Manhattan. U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers object to the project. The 13-story building will include meeting rooms, a prayer space, an auditorium and a swimming pool....

This week’s First Family’s vacation will cost American taxpayers over $200,000. Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends which has cost U.S. taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds. The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette. The exact cost of the trip is unclear as Mrs Obama, 46, and her friends are footing personal expenses – including accommodation at Marbella’s five-star Hotel Villa Padierna – themselves....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday for being rude to Sen. Mitch McConnell as the Senate's top Republican was winding up a solemn debate on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Franken, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota, was presiding over the Senate as McConnell explained his opposition to President Barack Obama's high-court nominee. A Senate GOP aide said Franken made theatrical gestures and whispered under his breath as the Kentucky senator spoke. It was distracting enough that McConnell went up to the former comedian afterward and said, "This isn't 'Saturday Night Live,' Al."

President Barack Obama called Shirley Sherrod Thursday to offer his apologies and urge her to accept a promotion on Thursday, but the Agriculture Department official, who was forced out on unfounded charges of racism, kept mum on her plans. Obama had tried to call her twice on Wednesday night but couldn’t connect with Sherrod, according to an administration official. West Wing staffers were attempting to call her again when she returned the president’s calls at around 12:35 p.m. The apology came after Sherrod took to the airwaves Wednesday to say she would appreciate a call from the president. The 62-year-old...

The NAACP has passed a resolution that condemns what it feels is rampant racism in the Tea Party movement. Members passed the measure on Tuesday at the organization's 101st annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Tea Party activists have swiftly denounced the action as unfounded and unfair.

BIDEN: "I think Americans will recognize that there aren’t body counts . . .that they got 95,000 people home." Vice President Joe, Joey Buttafuoco, "Bite-me", Biden says there are no body counts from the Iraq war! We all know he's an idiot, but this one perhaps takes the cake. WTH is he talking about? Remember all the Bush Death Counts the left kept when it was Bush's war?... Hey Joey, there are indeed body counts. There are thousands of lives that have been lost, and many more that have been changed forever due to the sacrifices those in our military...

Two Massachusetts doctors, both who teach at Harvard Medical School, were arrested Sunday and charged with facilitating an underage drinking party in which 70 teenagers -- mostly new graduates of St. Paul's School in Concord -- were placed into police custody. Police said J. Wesley Boyd, 46, and Theonia Boyd, 49, were charged with facilitating an underage drinking party. Wesley Boyd said he hosted the graduation party Sunday for his daughter, Ariana, who had graduated from St. Paul's School hours earlier. But the Boyds stressed in two e-mails to guests that drinking and drugs would not be tolerated, he said....

"Lighten up." That's what defenders of National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones are saying. Appearing before the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jones introduced his remarks with the following story: A Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn't have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban ... begins to curse and yell. The Jew, unmoved, offers the rude militant an idea: Beyond the hill, two miles down the...

Police chased reporters away from the White House and closed Lafayette Park today in response to a gay rights protest in which several service members in full uniform handcuffed themselves to the White House gate to protest "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." People who have covered the White House for years tell me that's an extremely unusual thing to do in an area that regularly features protests. A reporter can be seen in the YouTube video above calling the move "outrageous" and "ridiculous." UPDATE: U.S. Park Police spokesman David Schlosser tells POLITICO his service erred in pushing the reporters back, and...

Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson is now trying to claim that he was speaking metaphorically when he said he feared Guam would "tip over and capsize" due to additional troops placed there. Sure you were! It sure did not look or sound like it!

FBI: No Explosives Found on United Jet in Denver Authorities Say Qatari Diplomat Told Air Marshals, 'I'm Lighting My Shoes' FBI agents say no explosives were found in the shoes of a Qatar diplomat who was subdued by federal air marshals on a United flight to Denver Wednesday night after allegedly telling the marshals, "I'm lighting my shoes on fire." Authorities say the diplomat was wrestled to the ground and two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched to accompany the 757 on the final 40 minutes of its flight to Denver. Flight 663 originated from Washington Reagan airport. A US security...

Reid: I'm not going anywhere By: Manu Raju and David Rogers January 10, 2010 04:18 PM EST Senior advisers for Sen. Harry Reid say he won’t resign as majority leader over comments he made about Barack Obama — and that Republican attacks on the Reid will give them the opportunity to solidify Democrat support by arguing that he's the victim of a partisan witchhunt. “The more you have in terms of criticism from Republicans, the more likely it is that it is just a political pile-on,” a senior Reid adviser told POLITICO Sunday. The calculus could always change if more...

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama will take direct responsibility for administration mistakes when he releases a new report on the December 25 terror incident, according to a senior administration official familiar with the president's remarks. But he is not planning to fire anyone for the foul-up, the official said. "He will say, 'Here are the warts; I'm responsible,' " said the senior administration official, who requested anonymity because aides were not authorized to discuss the remarks before they're delivered by the president. The official said the president believes that previous administrations would "play hide the ball" and not come clean...

Dan Calabrese notices a scolding tone coming from the Associated Press in reporting its latest polling. It headlines the report by noting that “a grouchy public [is] sticking with Obama,” having seen a 54% job approval rating in its survey — but some bad numbers on the issues. Does the AP report those falling levels of support as a consequence of Barack Obama doing a poor job? No, as emphases from Dan and myself show: The public grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, including war and the economy, continuing the slippage that has...

Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas - President Obama is slated to speak at a memorial service today at this grieving Army base, where a military psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage. The service, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. local time, will be a traditional military affair, with a sermon, a roll call of the dead and a rifle volley. About 3,000 spectators, as well as the families of the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed, are expected to attend. The tribute comes amid new questions about whether the shooting, in which dozens were also...

Yesterday, 13 of our own troops were killed and 30 others were injured in Fort Hood, Texas at a secure U.S. Army base and the president is nowhere to be seen. This doesn't even surprise us, but for the people who still support Obama, you now further understand why we call you 'idiots.' Signs of Trinity church, Black Liberation Theology, Bill Ayers and Marxist professors? Hmmm.... After all, President Obama seemed to make it to Manhattan last month when Goldman Sachs, his number one Wall Street campaign contributor along with several other shadow banking firms attended an expensive DNC fundraiser...

This morning, Whoopi Goldberg called during the show to clarify a statement she made about the recent controversy surrounding Roman Polanski. Goldberg had said, "It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape." Whoopi wanted to clarify the comment and make it clear that she was talking about the legal charge against Polanski at the time.

A U.S. tourist got more then he bargained for when he was attacked by a crocodile while attempting to answer the call of nature in the Mexican resort of Cancun this week. According to Mexican police 20-year-old Andrew Dales, from Dallas in Texas, confessed that he had been on a mission to relieve himself at the edge of the local Nicupté lagoon , in the popular tourist resort of Cancun, when the crocodile suddenly snapped at him. He suffered ‘multiple bite wounds’ to his leg and neck and was also left with a head injury after the reptile knocked him...

Whoopi Goldberg,who defended child-rapist Roman Polanski on The View,is now featured in an advertisement for one of the biggest children's toy stores in the nation.Toys R Us must be proud.....

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) mocked Republicans Wednesday who demanded he apologize for saying that they want people who get sick to "die quickly." "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," Grayson said on the House floor. The "holocaust," he said, was the 44,789 people who die each year in the United States each year because they don't have health insurance, citing a Harvard study. Republicans said Democratic leaders should force Grayson to apologize. “Alan Grayson not only refuses to apologize, he is doubling down on his despicable remarks...

"Hear our cry, Obama." "Deliver us, Obama." Video at link.

TGL has been following the devolution of political discourse into fear-mongering and apparent race-baiting since Van Jones, the former adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, first got entangled in it. Like many commentators, this blogger has felt that the level of disrespect shown for Obama, and indeed the office of the president, of late was fueled by racism. At least as far as Rush Limbaugh goes, the nagging question has been answered. Limbaugh called for segregation of school buses in response to an incident in which a white boy was beaten up by two black boys. Here's the chain...

Republicans Distance Themselves From Heckler Who Shouted "You Lie!" During Obama's Speech President Obama said he accepts the apology of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who interrupted the president's speech last night to yell, "You lie!" after a line about how health insurance would not be provided to illegal immigrants. Share The president brushes off Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during health care speech. "I'm a big believer that we all make mistakes," the president told reporters today following a meeting with his Cabinet members. "He apologized quickly and without equivocation, and I'm appreciative of that."

More from this radical leftist...

Obama adviser: Republicans are "a**holes" By Tony Romm - 09/02/09 09:59 AM ET A video in which White House green jobs adviser Van Jones calls Congressional Republicans (and himself) "a**holes" is quickly making the rounds on the Internet this morning. Jones made the off-the-cuff remark in February, during his lecture at a Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) event on the green economy. At the time, the Obama administration had not yet tapped Jones to serve as a special adviser on the White House's Council on Environmental Quality. The slip happened in response to a question about the Democratic Party's...

In this video at Representative Jim Moran’s (D-VA) town hall meeting on ObamaCare held at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA, many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity. School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like a protester’s anti-ObamaCare poster which used one of the viral "Joker" graphics. Officer Cheeks told some town hall protesters to put away their signs or he’ll "charge them with trespassing or whatever he wants." Then, when a protester said to Officer Cheeks, "This used to be America!" his response was: “It ain’t no more, OK?” Pro-Obama Cop to...

One of two people suspected of shattering 11 windows Tuesday morning at the state Democratic Party headquarters has an arrest record and a history of helping a Democratic political candidate, public records show. Police said that about 2:20 a.m., 24-year-old Maurice Schwenkler, now in custody, and an at-large accomplice took a hammer to the picture windows displaying posters touting President Barack Obama and his health care reform efforts. Early Tuesday, Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak said the damage to her building in Denver's art district was a consequence of "an effort on the other side to stir up hate." She...

White House Blames E-Mail Controversy on 'Sinister Conspiracy Theories' After confirming to FOX News over the weekend that third-party groups could be responsible for official White House e-mails that have been sent to people who never signed up for them, President Obama's new media director took to the official White House blog to "clear up" the confusion, and pointed the finger at "outside groups of all political stripes." FOXNews.com Tuesday, August 18, 2009 The White House is blaming the controversy over its Web site and mass e-mails on viral rumors, "fear-mongering" and "sinister conspiracy theories" even as it acknowledges problems...

Newly seated Justice Sonia Sotomayor has cast her first recorded vote on the Supreme Court, joining a dissent by three liberal justices to stop a pending execution in Ohio. The full court turned down the last-minute appeal from lawyers for Jason Getsy late Monday evening by a 5-4 vote. Getsy, 33 and a convicted hit man, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 8 a.m. Pacific time today.

Speaking to a town hall of mostly ObamaCare supporters on August 11, 2009, the President compared the money-losing U.S. Post Office as an example of how a government-run program can compete with private enterprise. Oops!