Free Republic

It is difficult to screw up an appearance at Ground Zero on September 11th. You have to be either completely oblivious or completely indifferent. It is a signal feat of idiocy. And yet Barack Obama accomplished it. John McCain and Obama visited Ground Zero together. Obama and McCain entered the site. But while McCain took the time to shake hands with uniformed firefighters and a construction worker with an American flag helmet, Obama ignored them and stood around. But he wasn’t done yet. Both McCain and Obama brought roses to place on the makeshift 9/11 memorial. Obama casually tossed his...

Boys to men: Why guys aren’t growing upCareer aimlessness and beer and porn culture define ‘Guyland’ updated 10:41 a.m. ET, Wed., Aug. 27, 2008 After interviewing hundreds of 16- to 26-year-olds across the U.S., sociologist and gender studies expert Michael Kimmel found a trend of “guy” culture that is marked by the inability to have healthy relationships with women, murky career goals, and the desire not to grow up. In his new book “Guyland,” Kimmel writes about why many young men are trapped between adolescence and adulthood. An excerpt. **SNIP** Today, many of these young men, poised between adolescence and...

I made the mistake of watching the whole of Joe Biden's keynote DNC speech at the gym tonight. How underwhelming! Forgiving the inadvertent (and repeated) stumbling and bumbling, the substance of the speech itself was just painfully awkward. Here's my attempt at cataloging the awkward gaffes.

Joe Biden's long history of strident arrogance is coming back to haunt him. The elitist campaign that lamented the "bitter" citizens who "cling" to weapons and religion just brought on another pol cast from the same mold. Click link to view the videos and get the message out.

EMPORIA, Va: Barack Obama says he's decided on a running mate, but he won't say who. "I've made the selection, that's all you're gonna get," Obama said told reporters while campaigning in Virginia Thursday. Asked by an Associated Press reporter when the text would be sent, Obama just grinned and said, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

AP story, headline only

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in an interview published on Saturday the size of a residual U.S. force left in Iraq after the withdrawal of combat troops would be "entirely conditions-based."

The Democratic candidate is putting together a team to prepare him for taking office in January should he win the Nov 4 election. It is headed by John Podesta, Bill Clinton's chief-of-staff when he was in the White House. A senior adviser travelling with Mr Obama on his global tour told Atlantic.com: "Barack is well aware of the complexity and the organisational challenge involved in the transition process and he has tasked a small group to begin thinking through the process. "Barack has made his expectations clear about what he wants from such a process, and the establishment and execution...

Barack Obama is on his way to Europe, where an adoring public awaits. But I wonder if the reception would be quite so enthusiastic if Obama's fans across the Atlantic knew a dirty little secret of his remarkable presidential campaign: Although Obama portrays himself as the best candidate to engage the rest of the world and restore America's image abroad, and many Americans support him for that reason, so far he has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. ~snip~ Perhaps Obama considers members of the foreign media a risk rather than an opportunity. His campaign learned the...

Ryan Lizza writes a New Yorker article entitled "Making it: How Chicago shaped Obama." If you ask me, Barack Obama does not come off well here. Calculating politicians, ready to find scapegoats and godfather to pull levers for him and shower money unto him. But more importantly, 15 pages later, I find no evidence that Obama accomplished anything other than helping out on Project Vote. My guess is that he allied himself with ACORN on that one, but we don't see any information on that. Lizza ignores his work on what he calls the two "liberal foundations" -- which is...

Obama embarrassed of America, Laughs at our society, criticizes religious, gun toting , steel working Americans. Obama lectures us and tells Americans what to drive, how much to eat and how to live

I have watched with intense interest over the last several years the direction that America is headed. The title of this article is called, The Arrogant Liberal. But the fact is, the subject matter not only applies to those on the left who have decided to spit in Gods face, but to those on the right who have joined them in their move to push America into a politically correct society. Let me say this before I go on. There as been an attempt by those on the left to pass hate crime legislation that is completely aimed at Christians...

You can almost hear the violins playing while reading U.K. Guardian writer Zachary Roth  bemoan the "swiftboat" labeling of Barack Obama by those wascally Republicans: Over the last few months, Barack Obama has been variously labelled an "elitist", a naïve softie and simply "out of the mainstream" in his lifestyle and associates. And lately, in what appears to be the centrepiece of the GOP's attacks, Republicans have focused on portraying Obama as arrogant and self-interested....The "arrogant" label could well damage Obama. That's partly because, as with Kerry's rep for flip-flopping, it might contain a kernel of truth. At the very least,...

The Republican party's attempts to portray Obama as arrogant could hurt him in the election. Presidential races generally hinge on character issues - as Republicans understand. That's why, the last two times out, the GOP has won the White House by hammering into voters' minds the idea that the Democratic candidate embodies a particular negative quality. In 2000, Al Gore was depicted (with the help of a lazy and compliant press corps) as a serial exaggerator. Four years later, John Kerry was portrayed as a weak-willed flip-flopper. Ultimately, it was these personal caricatures, far more than any specific policy prescriptions,...

ABC News' Christianne Klein reports that at a breakfast with Republican insiders at the Capitol Hill Club this morning, former White House senior aide Karl Rove referred to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, as "coolly arrogant." "Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said, per Christianne Klein. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

CINCINNATI -- As the architect of Ohio's ballot measure against gay marriage, Phil Burress helped draw thousands of conservative voters to the polls in 2004, most of whom also cast ballots to reelect President Bush. So Burress was not surprised when two high-level staffers from John McCain's campaign dropped by his office, asking for his help this fall. What surprised Burress was how badly the meeting went. He says he tried but failed to make the McCain team understand how much work remained to overcome the skepticism of social conservatives. Burress ended up cutting off the campaign officials as they...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hinted at the possibility of a democratic "dream ticket" with Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking on the Early Show on CBS, Clinton said "that may be where this is headed, but we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket." Clinton said the race between her and Obama remains "incredibly close," with just "smidgens of difference" between them. Clinton's remarks after her campaign won two big states yesterday: Ohio and Texas. She also won Rhode Island. The wins enabled her campaign to break Obama's 12-state winning streak and pick up...

Denver police have arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with at least two fires involving Hummer sport utility vehicles in recent days. An officer arrested Grant Barnes during a routine traffic stop about 11:30 p.m., after finding suspicious materials in his vehicle. He was in the same neighborhood, police said. A couple in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood said their Hummer was engulfed in flames earlier this week, and the flames spread to another car parked nearby. It's similar to an incident last Saturday when neighbors said they awoke to find Hummer in flames. According to police, the man is being...

It is well known that Washington state and Oregon are “blue”, politically speaking. It’s also quite evident that people in these two states love their dogs. These two fact are not mutually exclusive and in fact are related. It’s hard to go anywhere around here and not notice a preponderance of dogs. For the most part, they’re well-behaved, happy and fully engaged with their owners and with each other. On the other hand, the few cats that inhabit this area are either indoors, hiding from all of the dogs, or slithering around outdoors, answering their instincts as feral varmints. When...

CNN) -- The Grammy Awards were nice to the Dixie Chicks, who won song of the year, a songwriter's award, for "Not Ready to Make Nice." The Chicks -- Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison -- shared the award with Dan Wilson, formerly of Semisonic and Trip Shakespeare. "I, for the first time in my life, am speechless," said Maines, who became a controversial figure in 2003 after making critical comments about President Bush. "Not Ready to Make Nice" was a response to the controversy; after Maines' comments, the Chicks' songs were pulled from a number of country music...

AXcess News) Washington - Standing before voters on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln served for eight years before becoming President of the United States, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he saw the nation needing an inspirational leader who could save the union - stating that he was that man - during his official launch of his Democratic presidential campaign. Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, said just as Lincoln saved the union, fighting a bloody civil war, so America would need an inspirational leader after...

It ain’t easy being Hillary. As far as the general public is concerned, she’s the single most divisive major political figure in the Democrat party; while the various liberal constituencies that constitute the Democrat’s party base worry that she’s not liberal enough. Some who consider her too far to the right on the war issue even took to heckling her at a recent speech to the Democrat National Committee. Poor Hillary. It’s not as though she’s brought any of these problems on herself. First, there was her clumsy entrance onto the national political stage in 1992 with that famous reference...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2006 — Karl Rove, President Bush's top advisor, talked to ABC News' Ann Compton about the remarks Sen. John Kerry says were a botched joke about the president, and about Bush's future. Here is a transcript of the conversation: COMPTON: Senator John Kerry has made a statement about Iraq. Do you take him at his word that he was talking about the president and not the troops? ROVE: I take him at his word when he insulted America's fighting forces. This is a habit that he's had over the years. He did it when he came back...

A Statement from John Kerry As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop. I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended. It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion...

According to NY Daily News and ESPN.

Developing...

For an event that would turn a page in American history, former president Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami for talks during his visit to the United States starting this week. Carter's term as president was dominated by the rupture in relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days until the day he left office. Iranians made the overture for the meeting, and the Carter Center in Atlanta is working on the possible timing, said Phil Wise,...

Hatin’ on Hillary: N.H. Dems lambaste Clinton By Brett Arends Boston Herald Business Columnist Monday, August 7, 2006 - Updated: 02:56 AM EST MANCHESTER, N.H. - Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he’s never seen anything like it. “Lying b**** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician.” No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups. But these weren’t Republicans talking about Hillary Clinton. They weren’t even independents. These were ordinary, grass-roots Democrats. People who identified...

But we Americans seem to have short memories. What else could explain the fact that we, generally speaking, so-often lambaste the French, calling them “cowards” for not allying themselves fully with us in every instance? We constantly throw in their faces the fact that we came to their rescue in World Wars I and II. And we’ve all heard the jokes: “Surplus French military rifles for sale. Never fired. Dropped once.”

In this war freedom should come first not after! In New Hampshire the Motto is Live free or Die! I don't need Bush spying on law abiding americans and taking our freedoms. Anyone who surrenders a square inch of freedom to the government in the name of saftey is a traitor and should be treated like one! Let the Bush Fashists all drop dead! Filthy Commys! LET FREEDOM RING!

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

The following predictions for the coming year are based upon a combination of what I hear out of Washington, a small bit of common sense, combined with a few surprises that I expect to come forth in the New Year. For these predictions, I will follow them with a 1-to-10 confidence of becoming reality based upon the facts at hand right now. The odds may go up or down as the year progresses, but for now these are the best predictions that I can make. 1. A coalition of combined NATO member forces will destroy Iran’s nuclear capability against the...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Dear Editor: It looks like the misdirected meatheads facing Mecca who believe Mohammed flew into heaven on a winged horse and the holy rolling wingnuts of the west that believe Jesus rose from the dead are going to continue to fight each other to the death (again), except for maybe when they take time out to fight the Jews to the death (again), who by the way don’t believe Jesus rose up from anywhere or that suicide bombers end up in paradise with 72 virgins. Though I have been told by some of my Jewish friends that they wouldn’t mind...

A FRENCH magazine has said it had carried out experiments that proved the Shroud of Turin, believed by some Christians to be their religion's holiest relic, was a fraud. "A mediaeval technique helped us to make a Shroud," Science & Vie (Science and Life) said in its July issue. The Shroud is claimed by its defenders to be the cloth in which the body of Jesus Christ was wrapped after his crucifixion. It bears the faint image of a blood-covered man with holes in his hand and wounds in his body and head, the apparent result of being crucified, stabbed...

Back during the Presidential Election, Kerry enthusiasts were constantly gushing over the perceived intelligence of John Kerry. If it was not praises toward his “nuanced” approaches of how to creatively surrender to the United Nations and international terrorists then it was how all of his aides had to run around carrying dictionaries just so they could understand his “big words.” Well, the truth is out. Eight months after everyone quit caring about John Kerry’s records, he has finally released them to “The Boston Globe.” Chance of chances, these records show that Senator Kerry was a “C” student with a virtually...

The spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is warning the U.S. to stay out of his country's business – and, in particular, its nuclear program, which is set to resume this week. Speaking on a tour of southeast Iran, Khamenei called the U.S. "arrogant," "rude" and said the country "deserved a punch in the mouth." He also said Iran's presidential elections in June would not make any difference to its nuclear policy. Khamenei said it was not up to the U.S. to decide which countries needed nuclear technology. Iran announced yesterday it is likely to resume uranium enrichment-related activities...

...Venezuelans would prefer at this time if the Carter Center stayed away from our country. The role the Center played in the recall referendum, before and after it, left a very bitter taste in all of those like me, who are certain that the outcome was fraudulent. ... Carter ... did not demand that the CNE do the “hot audits” on August 16th. ... There are lies in the reports from the Carter Center, such as that the boxes containing the ballots never left their sight. Thus, Venezuelans in the opposition think the Carter Center failed them completely by being...

Bwahahahah!!! Gasp! Bwahahahahahahah! (tears of laughter, blogger convulsing on the floor subject to one of the biggest laugh attacks recorded in blogdom). (Breathe, breathe deeply, garner composure, start writing again) Today we learn that Jennifer Mc Coy of the Carter Center will brave Venezuela to offer help in consolidating peace and democracy! The nerve! What is in store for us? Are they going to approve the new judicial system whose near uniform composition will ensure "peace" through a "uniform justice" (pun intended)? Will they offer to monitor the 2006 elections to validate yet another "fair" Chavez victory? ... I have...

Economics: Europe has been the source of many of America's most beloved fairy tales. Not all are of ancient origin. Take the European Union's insistence five years ago that its economy would leapfrog ours by 2010. The so-called Lisbon Strategy was unveiled with much fanfare. Struck in the Portuguese capital, the deal essentially predicted the EU economy would pass up America's and leave it in the dust. At the time, it sounded reasonable. The EU was adding new members, and the common wisdom was that the U.S., though a big military power, was suffering from what geostrategists like to call...

Television personality Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," says Christians and others who are religious suffer from a neurological disorder that "stops people from thinking." "We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine...

You and your fascist co-horts will all be sorry when the Bush* administration is charged with stealing this election. His administration and this website is nothing more then propaganda for a fascist regime. We are watching you, and we will be there when you slip up and your face down on the ground because you slipped on your own Nazi style propaganda. John Kerry won this election and you know it! Everyone knows it!

Stone Blames ‘Unsophisticated’ American Audience, Flees to Franceby William R Alford - Jan. 16, 2005 Apparently the ill-advised heat is coming to Oliver Stone from all sides in the United States, so he is abandoning us to our galling ignorance. Quoting the clearly exasperated director from a recent New York Post article: “The gays lambasted me for not making Alexander openly homosexual and in the Bible Belt, pastors were up in the pulpit saying that to watch this film was to be tempted by Satan.” It doesn't matter so much that Stone affixes a few arguably plausible character traits...

The United States was deemed "stingy" in its immediate promise of $15 million in aid to the post-tsunami relief effort in Southeast Asia by the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Jan Egeland.

The Guardian, a London-based newspaper, ended a letter-writing campaign aimed at defeating U.S. President George W. Bush after a Web site hosting the promotion was attacked by hackers.

I have to admit that Teresa and her consort John are the ideal couple...because they are both whores at heart. The will do or say anything for money and power.

It was John Kerry's ``Do-you-know-who-I-am?'' debate. On at least four occasions in St. Louis Friday night, the squire of Naushon Island made it clear that you should vote for him . . . because he's better than you are. Twice, he told female opponents of abortion he ``respected'' their views. Respect indeed. His wife has another way of putting it. She says, ``Shove it!'' John Kerry [related, bio], as someone pointed out, is a person who just can't help treating people like help. Remember the moment when he talked about his plans for tax increases on people making over $200,000...

Kerry: "...And looking around here, at this group here, I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected: the president, me, and, Charlie, I'm sorry, you too." Kerry speaking in last evening's debate about his plan to raise taxes on people making 200k+ annually. So now John Kerry is prejudging people by just looking at them to determine their income?!? He decided that the only people in the room that qualified as his new tax-hike victims were himself, Bush and Charlie Gibson! Wow, a big criticism many liberals have of Bush is his supposed "arrogance",...

He's going to reply to Bush's UN speech!