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President Biden on Thursday took the opportunity to acknowledge his age — which comes up often as one of his weaknesses in office and on the campaign trail — when addressing the Irish parliament. Biden expressed hope to Irish lawmakers about the future, while lauding the historic partnership between the two countries. He also invoked his late son Beau, who he said should have been standing in his place. “I’ve never been more optimistic about the future than I am today, and I’m at the end of my career, not the beginning,” Biden said as questions surrounding the timing of...

(CNN)The "angry black woman" label that Michelle Obama has been tagged with by some is a caricature rooted in other people's fears, the first lady said in an interview airing Monday. Speaking with Oprah Winfrey, Obama said she was taken aback when the insulting description of her first took hold while her husband was running for president eight years ago. "That was one of those things that you just sort of think, dang, you don't even know me, you know?" she told Winfrey. "You just sort of feel like, Wow, where did that come from?"

Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager vilified in nearly every corner of America for buying a pharmaceutical company and jacking up the price of a life-saving drug more than fiftyfold, was arrested Thursday on securities fraud charges unrelated to the furor. The boyish-looking 32-year-old entrepreneur -- a relentlessly self-promoting figure who has called himself "the world's most eligible bachelor" on Twitter and recently plunged into the hip-hop world by buying an unreleased album by the group Wu-Tang Clan -- was in custody awaiting an appearance in federal court in Brooklyn. He was charged in a seven-count indictment unconnected to...

ormer Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) offered a stunningly candid rebuke to Newt Gingrich on Tuesday, calling him a "bad person" and accusing him of demonizing his political opponents. "When he puts on his political helmet, he is a terrible person," Scarborough said on his "Morning Joe" show on MSNBC. "He may be a nice person at home, [but] people that don't know Newt at home need to know this." Scarborough ticked off a list of comments Gingrich has made about his opponents before singling out Gingrich's comparison of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (D) to Joseph Stalin. "I...

An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border last night. Dr. William Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a leader in educational reform, was scheduled to speak at the Centre for Urban Schooling at University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But that appearance has now been temporarily cancelled. "I don't know why I was turned back," Ayers said in...

Congressman Frank Doesn't Want Kerry's Senate SeatFrank Says He Has Much To Do In House Karen Anderson Nov 6, 2008 9:32 pm US/Eastern BOSTON (WBZ); Congressman Barney Frank says he would not want Sen. John Kerry's seat if Kerry is to move onto the Obama administration. He says he has tremendous opportunities now in the House. And he says he doesn't think that the current state law should change which gives voters the opportunity to choose the next Senator. He says he thinks very highly of Obama's next Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. Congressman Frank says the House will vote...

Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate Democratic leader, says the time has come for a pivotal and partisan brawl -- even though he isn't sure it can be won.  Reid says, he's ready to bring the Senate to a virtual standstill.  He has privately told individual Republicans he doesn’t intend to block votes on any U.S. Supreme Court nominees except in extreme cases.  Well, they're all extreme to the Democrats, so that's no assurance at all. Minority Leader Reid showed his willingness to work with the Republican majority when his first move as top Democrat in the Senate was to...