Free Republic

Obama: “wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran” Obama Administration on Anniversary of Embassy and Hostage Seizure in Iran: We're trying to be Friends! By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.com Will Rogers, the great American comedian of the 1920s and 1930s, famously said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” The problem with the Obama Administration, at least so far, is that it has never met an enemy that it could identify as such.Of course, the story isn’t over yet. Indeed, one does see signs of change. But we are still...

Leaders of Iran's opposition movement are to make an unprecedented apology to the US on the 30th anniversary of the storming of the American embassy in Tehran. In a gesture likely to provoke fury among hardliners in the Tehran regime, they will apologise on Wednesday for the hostage crisis that gripped the world for 444 days and led to a decisive break between Iran and the US, which is now routinely denounced as "the Great Satan". Organisers of the Green Movement, the umbrella group that seeks to overturn the official result of the June presidential election, plan to use the...

Did anyone see this live? HuffPo and Weasel Zippers picked it up but I’m having a hard time believing the video edit didn’t omit some important detail. Is this really how it happened? If so, what exactly is Shep’s problem? Does “fair and balanced” now mean interviewing both candidates at the same time? If Carl Cameron nabs an interview with Harry Reid about the public option, I’m pretty sure he’s not required to go sprinting down the hall to make sure he gets some comment from Mitch McConnell before the bit airs. And given the left’s demagoguery of Fox, how...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson issued a written apology Tuesday evening for a comment for a month-old comment that has stirred controversy on Capitol Hill in recent days. During a September radio interview, Grayson called Linda Robertson, an aide to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who has also worked as a lobbyist, a "K Street whore."In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Grayson said his comment was inappropriate."I offer my sincere apology," Grayson said in the statement, "I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women. "This characterization of...

It's pretty unremarkable to describe the Obama White House's growing enemies list -- the insurance companies, Chamber of Commerce, Fox News -- as "Nixonian." But there's one place where, if you venture such an opinion, you'd better be prepared to apologize -- quickly and profusely. On National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Wednesday, NPR political editor Ken Rudin said the White House campaign against Fox News is a bad idea. "It's not only aggressive, it's almost Nixonesque," Rudin said. "I mean, you think of what Nixon and Agnew did with their enemies list and their attacks on the media;...

New York, NY, October 15, 2009 … A prominent Christian religious leader has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for comparing proposed healthcare reform measures to "what the Nazis did" and for bestowing a Josef Mengele Award on the president's chief healthcare advisor. In a letter to ADL, Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he deeply regretted his remarks. "I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele," he wrote. "I apologize to everyone who found such references hurtful," Dr. Land...

As reported on NewsBusters on Friday morning, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez read his apology on Friday’s Newsroom for running a unconfirmed quote attributed to Rush Limbaugh earlier in the week on October 12 [audio available here]. Sanchez hinted to his error in a promo for the apology 37 minutes into the 3 pm Eastern hour: “Rush Limbaugh gets denied [his NFL bid], but when it comes to one specific point, I will tell you this: he was right and I was wrong. Sometimes you got to say you’re wrong when you’re wrong, right? I'll tell you exactly what I’m talking...

A day lot and millions of dollars short.

First Non-Black Miss Hampton U Says Sorry Apologizes for saying people disapproved her win because of her skin color Oct . 14, 2009 HAMPTON, Va. - The first non-black winner of the annual beauty pageant at historically black Hampton University says she's sorry for writing a letter to President Barack Obamacontending her crowning was not “widely accepted” on campus because she is not black. Nikole Churchill, 22, a senior nursing major from Hawaii who attends the Virginia Beach campus, won the 15th annual Miss Hampton U scholarship pageant on Friday. She beat out nine black students. Two days after her...

Good.

"We want to be fair to Rush" - no, you don't.

Keeping quiet about an apparent extortion attempt against David Letterman and “The Late Show,” CBS worked over the weekend to stamp out unauthorized copies of the late-night host’s televised explanation. The network did not post official copies of the segment on CBS.com or on YouTube, proving that while media companies are now generally eager to distribute their material on the Web, there are still some TV moments they would rather not spread widely. In a remarkable 10-minute segment Thursday night, Mr. Letterman told viewers of a Connecticut man’s suspected $2 million extortion attempt, predicated on evidence of Mr. Letterman’s sexual...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to promote Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Copenhagen October 2, 2009. Chicago is competing with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro to host the Summer Games, and Obama is the first U.S. president to address the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in person to support a city's bid. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES POLITICS SPORT OLYMPICS) Oh wait....you mean he's not apologizing for America's sins? Hope and Change has arrived, finally! (Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net

I just wanted to apologize to all I have hurt on FreeRepublic.com. I am sorry.

The Washington Post today published on page A2 a correction to a September 18 article on James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, the duo behind "The $1,300 Mission to Fell ACORN" (h/t NewsBusters tipster Sean O'Brien): A Sept. 18 Page One article about the community organizing group ACORN incorrectly said that a conservative journalist targeted the organization for hidden-camera videos partly becase its voter-registration drives bring Latinos and African Americans to the polls. Although ACORN registers people mostly from those groups, the maker of the videos, James E. O'Keefe, did not specifically mention them. In other words: sorry we tagged you...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – ABC News has apologized after a high-profile news anchor reported on Twitter that US President Barack Obama called rapper Kanye West a "jackass" in an off-the-record conversation. The exchange, provoked by West's conduct at the MTV Video Music Awards when he interrupted an acceptance speech by teen star Taylor Swift, occurred during a break between a series of interviews by Obama at the White House Monday. The comment, from an off-the-record portion of an interview by US business channel CNBC, was tweeted to one million followers on the micro-blogging site by "Nightline" anchor Terry Moran. The tweet...

CHICAGO, Illinois, September 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A publisher associated with the Archdiocese of Chicago has revoked and apologized for a prayer they distributed that praised the late pro-abortion senator Edward Kennedy as one who promoted "values of peace, justice, equality, and liberty." The prayer has been replaced with another one, urging prayer for the soul of Kennedy, but excising the words of praise. Liturgy Training Publications issued the original prayer as a suggested Prayer for the Faithful for use at Sunday Masses after the prominent Catholic senator's death on August 25. The text of the prayer, available in the...

Discourse: The reaction to the congressman's outburst shows what happens when you judge this president by the content of his character. In a post-racial presidency, charges of racism are the new last refuge of scoundrels.When Joe Wilson, the decorum-challenged South Carolina Republican, reacted to President Obama's assertion that there was nothing in health care legislation giving coverage to illegal aliens by shouting "You lie!" he knew, as his critics ignore, that there was nothing requiring proof of citizenship either. A nonpartisan Congressional Research Service study found that the House health care bill at that moment did not restrict illegal immigrants...

Joe Wilson can apologize if he feels he should, but in my opinion, he should do so only after Rep. John Murtha apologizes to the Marines he accused of killing Marines in cold blood and the attempting to cover up the murders. In the middle of a war, where are Marines are trying to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, John Murtha went on television and was adamant about the guilt of these Marines. More than once he said there was no doubt in his mind. His words were replayed across the Arab world. Since then, all...

The independent filmmaker whose hidden-camera videos prompted the firing of four ACORN workers is demanding an apology from ACORN for calling his work a fabricated "scam" and daring the activist group to take legal action against him. "Bring it on," filmmaker James O'Keefe said Sunday on FOX News. That was after ACORN lashed out at O'Keefe, who with his friend Hannah Giles posed as a pimp and prostitute looking to evade the IRS and apply for an illegal housing loan for a brothel. The sting operation caught four ACORN workers in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., offices appearing to offer...

Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he will not apologize on the House floor for his outburst during President Obama's health care address, even though Democratic leaders have threatened to formally discipline him if he does not. Wilson noted that he already apologized directly to the White House after shouting, "You lie," to the president during his Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress. The outburst triggered a political firestorm, but Wilson told "FOX News Sunday" that Democrats are just "playing politics" by trying to drag out the issue and force another apology. "I've apologized one time. The apology was accepted...

You may need to be a Babylon 5 fan... but then again, maybe not.Maybe Rep. Wilson should "apologize" like Sheridan "apologizes" in the Babylon 5 episode "The Fall of Night" (here, just after 33 minutes). The context is that a hostile race had prepared to fire on Commander Sheridan's space-station, Babylon 5, a sort of intergalactic UN in space. Sheridan had responded with deadly force, and the ship had exploded.After that, an Earth envoy cut from the Neville Chamberlain mold had told Sheridan that he was ordered to make an apology for the incident — to the aliens who had...

By Mike Soraghan - 09/12/09 03:57 PM ET Rep. Joe Wilson's home-state senator says he doesn't expect the South Carolina congressman to apologize on the House floor, as House Democrats are demanding. "I don't think he's going to do any more apologizing," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said in an interview at the Taxpayer March on Washington. "They just don't want to talk about the bill." DeMint said he has talked to Wilson, and he defended the conservative Congressman for shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during his address to a joint session of Congress this week. "I'm glad he apologized...

Parsing Mr. Wilson’s Apology GAIL COLLINS Published: September 11, 2009 Let’s take a moment to rejoice in our country’s infinite capacity to surprise. I’d have been willing to bet that we had a national consensus on the undesirability of a congressman yelling out “You lie!” during an address by the president of the United States. But no. It turns out there are quite a few people who think this is a good idea. Joe Wilson, who will be forever known as the “You lie!” congressman, unless he does something even weirder in the future, has a lot of fans this...

Loyal to Liberty For a moment last night something unprecedented, unheard of, indeed almost unbelievable happened while Barack Obama was giving one of his televised, teleprompter specials: his audience actually heard the truth. Of course they didn't hear it from Obama. "A republican House member shouted, "You lie" during [Alleged] President Obama's health care speech to Congress on Wednesday." As we sadly would expect from the gutless gaggle of eObama lickspittles that dominates Congress at the moment, "members of both parties condemned the heckling." Thanks I'm sure to this pressure "After the speech, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson issued a...

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."

After what he called an "excellent and informative Cabinet meeting," President Obama told reporters that he accepts the apology of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC, who shouted "You lie!" during the president’s address to a joint session of Congress last night. "Yes I do," the president said. "I’m a big believer that we all make mistakes. He apologized quickly and without equivocation. And I’m appreciative of that." Mr. Obama then turned to use Wilson as something of an example – making this a teachable moment, perhaps – saying that "we have to get to the point where we can have a...

The White House has accepted an apology issued by Republican South Carolina representative Joe Wilson after the lawmaker disrupted the Wednesday night speech by President Obama to a Joint Session of Congress.

"Oh, The humanity!" During President Obama's speech last night, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted out "You lie!" when the President asserted that no illegal aliens would be covered by Obama's health care reform proposal. Although Representative Wilson immediately apologized for his outburst...even calling the White House to apologize directly to the President (I mean a genuine apology, not one of those non-apology apologies that Democrats make after they misbehave)...Democrats and liberals have taken great pains to demonstrate the humbrage at such an assault on the decorum of Congress and such a show of disrespect towards the President

~ EXCERPT ~ Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) apologized Wednesday night to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for shouting “You lie!” during President Obama’s healthcare speech before a joint session of Congress. Emanuel accepted Wilson’s apology on behalf of the president, according to a Democratic source familiar with the call. In addition to his phone call to Emanuel, Wilson also issued a statement separately, calling his comments “inappropriate and regrettable.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — CNN's Deirdre Walsh reports that Republican Rep. Joe Wilson called the White House Wednesday night to apologize for his outburst during President Obama's speech, and spoke with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Rep. Joe Wilson called the White House after the speech to apologize to chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel for yelling "You lie!" at President Obama, POLITICO's Jonathan Martin reports. The personal apology comes in tandem with an abject statement that Wilson "let my emotions get the best of me" and that his "comments were inappropriate and regrettable." He said that he continues to believe illegal immigrants will be covered by health care legislation, though a House bill explicitly excludes them. Republicans Lindsey Graham and John McCain, as well as a host of Democrats, sharply criticized Wilson's outburst.

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

[Title was edited to comply with space requirements. Full, accurate title is: "Controversial Obama Administration Official Denies Being Part of 9/11 "Truther" Movement, Apologizes for Past Comments" A top environmental official of the Obama administration issued a statement Thursday apologizing for past incendiary statement and denying that he ever agreed with a 2004 petition on which his name appears, a petition calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into "evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur." Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at...

President Obama’s “green jobs czar” Van Jones is apologizing for the second time in two days, this time for signing a 2004 petition for an organization that seeks to expose the "official lies and cover-up surrounding the events of 9/11." This comes after a video that recently surfaced in which Mr. Jones called Republicans a disparaging name at an energy lecture in Berkeley, California last February. He apologized for doing that on Wednesday.... Mike Berger, a spokesman for 911Truth.org, told the Washington Times over the phone Thursday morning all of the signers had been verified by their group. He said...

This mornng Gateway Pundit Broke the story that self-proclaimed Communist and Obama Green Jobs Czar was a Truther, someone who believes that 9/11 was planned by George Bush so he could go into Iraq. Gatway Found Van Jone's name on a petition from 2004 that was eventually given over to the NY DA along with their 9/11 claims by the group 9/11truth.org Here at #47 on the list is none other than Barack Obama's communist Green Czar Van Jones: The news that Obama's Green Jobs Czar had a weak link to realty spread through the internet all day and eventially...

Naomi Wolf is “simply appalled” at my “misrepresentation” of her disposition toward Muslim veiling on my recent NewsReal blog. She has asked my boss, David Horowitz, to “remove this falsehood from your site and correct the record.” She has also made similar demands of Phyllis Chesler, who has also touched on Wolf’s totalitarian odyssey in a recent Pajamas Media piece. Wolf insists that she does not find the burqa “sexy” and that she does not wish to institutionalize it, even though her recent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, is entitled Behind the Veil Lives a Thriving Muslim Sexuality and...

ASHBURN, Va. -- Washington Redskins fullback Mike Sellers apologized Saturday for throwing the American flag to the ground during lineup introductions before an exhibition game against the New England Patriots. "I meant no disrespect," he said. The Redskins last year began a routine in which the last person introduced before a game runs out of the tunnel hoisting the American flag. Sellers carried the flag to midfield, then flung it down near the 50-yard line before joining his teammates in a midfield huddle. Linebacker Robert Henson removed the flag from the turf.

The chairman of the Colorado Republican Party is calling on his Democratic counterpart to apologize for suggesting that an act of vandalism at Democratic Party headquarters was linked to opposition to President Obama's push for health care reform. State GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams told FOXNews.com he was "stunned" by comments made by Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak following the smashing of 11 windows at the Democratic headquarters early Tuesday morning. Waak told the Associated Press it was "name calling on the other side" against health care reform that led to the "intentional" shattered windows, which will cost roughly $10,000 or...

Here is video of Ted Kennedy's apology speech following the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick after Kennedy drove her off a bridge into water where she drowned on July 19, 1969. Kennedy swam to shore but failed to notify authorities of the accident for hours. He was never charged with a felony, therefore allowing him to remain in the U.S. Senate. He gave this speech as part of his effort to rehabilitate his image with the voters. NOTE: This video was posted by CNN as part of their coverage of Ted Kennedy's Death. . . . . (Watch...

The US army officer convicted for his part in the notorious My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War has offered his first public apology, a US report says. "There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened," Lt William Calley was quoted as saying by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. He was addressing a small group at a community club in Columbus, Georgia. Calley, 66, was convicted on 22 counts of murder for the 1968 massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam

COLUMBUS, Ga. - Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed

For more than two years, House Judiciary Committee Democrats and the New York Times editorial board have argued that I personally arranged for Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to be prosecuted in 2004 for corruption and ordered the removal of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006 for failing to investigate Democrats. The Washington Post editorial board also echoed this last charge. The Times and the Post have published a combined 18 editorials on these issues, which were also catnip to House Judiciary Committee Democrats. Politico's Ryan Grimm reported last year overhearing the Committee's chairman, John Conyers of Michigan, tell two others, "We're...

"Sorry" is heard often when United Church of Canada members meet en masse. Facing an uncertain future, brought about in part by internal divisions and financial constraints, the church is busy with remorse. It topped the agenda at the church's 40th General Council, ending today. Apologies were offered first to ab-originals forced to attend residential schools in Canada; some students experienced violence and abuse at schools administered by the United Church. The church formally apologized in 1998 but the process of recognition and reconciliation will continue, said Rev. James Scott, the church's General Council Officer for Residential Schools. "Reconciling, particularly...

Never underestimate the power of a former president. Expressing "sincere words of apology," Bill Clinton persuaded North Korean President Kim Jong Il to release two American journalists in Pyongyang Tuesday, the North Korea state media reported. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested last March, while reporting for U.S. news outlet Current TV. The two, who inadvertently crossed a stream bordering China into North Korea, were convicted of "hostile acts" and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor. The state news agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced "the measure taken to release the American journalists...

Last month, at a meeting overseas of intelligence service chiefs, one of my counterparts from a major Western ally pulled me aside. Why, he asked, is Washington so consumed with what the CIA did in the past, when the most pressing national security concerns are in the present? It was a very good question. In fact, I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action. In our democracy, effective congressional oversight of intelligence is important, but it depends as much...

A New Brunswick newspaper that ran a front-page apology Tuesday for a story that claimed Prime Minister Stephen Harper had pocketed a communion wafer has also announced that its publisher and editor-in-chief are no longer with the paper. Saint John Telegraph-Journal publisher Jamie Irving and editor Shawna Richer were no longer at their posts, effective immediately, said Annie Smith, a spokeswoman for the New Brunswick News Inc., the company that owns the daily paper. "She is no longer editor, and (he) is no longer the publisher," she said. "I don't have any information other than that." Ms. Smith would not...

HONOLULU -- Hawaii coach Greg McMackin was suspended for 30 days without pay and has volunteered to take an additional 7 percent pay cut from his $1.1 million salary for making a derogatory comment while describing Notre Dame's chant before last year's Hawaii Bowl. In a room full of players, assistant coaches and boosters, a tearful McMackin addressed reporters late Friday after meeting with school officials for several hours. "I just want to say I made a big mistake. I want to apologize to everyone and anyone that I offended with my remarks," he said. "I'm committed to do whatever...

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii coach Greg McMackin apologized Thursday for making a derogatory remark while describing Notre Dame's chant during a dinner banquet leading up to last year's Hawaii Bowl. McMackin used the gay slur during a media briefing at the Western Athletic Conference football preview in Salt Lake City. After the remark, he uttered it two more times while trying to explain himself. After the briefing, McMackin returned to the reporters and apologized for using the "inappropriate" word.

CAMBRIDGE, MA - Sgt. James Crowley, the policeman at the center of Harvard professor Henry Gates' arrest controversy, has issued an official apology nearly two weeks after the incident occurred. In a written statement released through the Cambridge Police Media Office, Crowley admitted the entire controversy could have been avoided if he were not white, and that he should have called for backup from an African-American officer.