Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a sideshow to diplomacy, lamented on Saturday her fashion sense, divulged when she fell in love and shared how she dealt with personal struggles. Appearing on a popular Turkish television chat show, Hadi Gel Bizimle (Come and Join Us), Clinton tackled a few diplomatic questions but the main focus was on her personal life, such as when she "last" fell in love. "It was so long ago, with my husband," she told the studio audience, adding that she first met former President Bill Clinton in the spring of 1971 when they were at...

Poll: Obama's rating at all-time high NBC/WSJ poll shows gap between popularity of president and his policies WASHINGTON - After Barack Obama's first six weeks as president, the American public's attitudes about the two political parties couldn't be more different, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. Despite the country's struggling economy and vocal opposition to some of his policies, President Obama's favorability rating is at an all-time high. Two-thirds feel hopeful about his leadership and six in 10 approve of the job he's doing in the White House. "What is amazing here is how much political capital Obama...

"It literally look[s] like Nazi Germany -- it really did. I make -- said that point. It just does not seem -- like not only are we not welcome -- not only are we not welcome, but they don’t even care what we think."

CNN Contributor: 'Listening to Obama Give a Speech is Like Sex' By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-03-01 19:30 Did you think listening to President Obama give his address before Congress on Tuesday evening was "like sex?" Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos did, or at least that's what he admitted to John King on Sunday's "State of the Union" a friend said: I think, as a friend told me once, that -- listening to Barack Obama give a speech is like sex. The worse there ever was, was excellent. Honestly, when GOP strategists in the media begin talking this way,...

People living in neighborhoods where fast food restaurants are plentiful appear to have a higher risk of stroke than those living where such restaurants are scarce, a new study says. Fast food consumption has previously been linked to higher rates of heart disease and organ damage. In this latest study tying fast food restaurants to cardiovascular ills, researchers studying neighborhoods in one Texas county found that people living in regions with 33 fast food restaurants or more had 13 percent greater odds of stroke than those living in neighborhoods with the fewest fast-food joints. The study also showed that each...

The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president’s health or jealous because of the cigarette. The other day a friend of mine confided that in the weeks leading up to the election, the Obamas’ apparent joy as a couple had made her just miserable. Their marriage looked so much happier than hers. Their life...

What better way for members of the MSM to show their allegiance to the new president then to have themselves posterized in the artistic style associated with Barack Obama? And so it was that the two Saturday anchors of the Early Show proudly displayed this morning the poster of themselves that they had produced via the website Obamicon.me with the iconic look that Shepard Fairey inspired. Co-anchor Wragge plugged the site. CHRIS WRAGGE: You might not be Barack Obama, but you can have your very own poster. The website Obamiconme let’s you take that iconic red, white and blue Obama...

If Barack Obama felt nervous about becoming president in a few hours, he didn't show it Monday, as he cracked jokes and breezed through a series of volunteerism events and bipartisan dinners. "I don't sweat," said the 47-year-old man about to inherit responsibility for two wars, an economy in crisis and the helm of the world's lone superpower. "You ever see me sweat?" It was vintage no-drama Obama, who seemed determined to carry his not-too-high, not-too-low demeanor to the Capitol steps for his swearing-in Tuesday. Aides said Obama felt fully prepared. He had practiced and polished his inaugural address, they...

<p>No one exactly likes George W. Bush. No one's begging for a constitutional amendment that would let him serve another term. But isn't it hard to imagine life without him?</p> <p>You know the Americans miss the president who declared: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."</p>

On Tuesday morning's Today show, NBC substitute anchor Lester Holt and correspondent Savannah Guthrie regretted President-elect Barack Obama having to make an "adjustment" -- not being able to "just pick up and go anytime he wants" due to "not just Secret Service, but a traveling corps of journalists now follows his every move, even in Hawaii." Guthrie reported on the "signs Obama is growing a bit frustrated with all the attention." The on-screen graphic accompanying her report inflated this apparent frustration on the part of future chief executive: "Man in a Bubble: Obama Chafes at Constant Scrutiny." Holt introduced Guthrie's...

The Republican Party paid a steep price for race-baiting in the presidential campaign. Remember the ferocious backlash against the California Republican group that produced a racist newsletter depicting Barack Obama on a food stamp, surrounded by images of fried chicken and watermelon? Then there were those two congressmen who were rightly excoriated for condemning Mr. Obama’s candidacy in the language of the Jim Crow South — one describing him as a “boy” and the other as “uppity.” We thought after all that — and, oh yes, losing the election — everyone in the Republican Party leadership would have figured out...

Wolf Blitzer announced we're in a Depression 'greater than the Great Depression' - discussion continues live on CNN.

Working on the day after Thanksgiving, Brian Williams used Friday's NBC Nightly News to promote a new book from FDR's grandson, providing Williams with an opportunity to propose: “In your estimation, could we use a little FDR right about now?” Though Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies failed to end the Depression, Williams hailed him as “the man who led this nation out of financial disaster.” Conceding “we can no longer talk to him,” as if we'd benefit from doing so, Williams trumpeted how “tonight we think we have about the next best thing” in FDR's grandson, Curtis, who “lives in the...

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews may be considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2010, a Pennsylvania Democratic party leader says. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported that Matthews met with state party leaders this past week in Washington to discuss a possible bid to unseat Republican Sen. Arlen Specter.

Enough with the Lincoln analogies; Reagan is the president that Barack Obama is most closely modeling himself after. Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation, a defeat abroad and a nation at its nadir in morale. Through the sheer force of his personality as much as his policies, four years later, it was "Morning in America," the theme of his 1984 re-election campaign when he won 49 states. Obama isn't president yet, but his determined calm and orderly transition pace appear to be soothing the financial markets, producing the first sustained gain in stocks since the mid-September meltdown. On Jan. 20, Obama will...

Gail Collins Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning. Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism. Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick...

After much mocking by Ellen Degeneres about Chris Matthews' dancing abilities on his last appearance on her syndicated show, the "Hardball" host chatted with Degeneres, on Thursday's show, about the election of Barack Obama and actually grabbed a shot glass to toast his win with Ellen (audio excerpt here): ELLEN DEGENERES: Amazing! And you must be thrilled? I mean what, what a moment. CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well I am thrilled! DEGENERES: Yeah. MATTHEWS, picking up shot glass: To Barack Obama! DEGENERES, toasting: Yeah. To Barack Obama! A little later in his interview segment, Matthews also took a different kind of shot,...

VIENNA, Austria -- She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American. It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English. Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop. Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans. For longtime U.S. expatriates like me - someone...

Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world. It was a ton to absorb -- and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America's errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It's amazing one could even pack such a potpourri of issues into sentences and then succeed in...

As far back as the 1700s, the famed explorer Daniel Boone said that "All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife." Not my definition of happiness. In modern day New York City, guns are a part of our life. People shoot and are shot almost every day, and a disproportionate number of those people are people of color. How do you deal with that? I'm scared of guns, never played with guns, and jump whenever a firecracker pops. Gun violence is quick, devastating, and impersonal. Can't we human beings figure out another...

On Monday’s CBS "Early Show," correspondent Jeff Glor did a report on "five things you should know about John McCain" and highlighted details such as: "Number four, a maverick even back in high school, John McCain was nicknamed ‘the punk’...A reputation that followed him to the naval academy." During the segment, USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro added: "John McCain graduated five slots from the bottom of the Annapolis class of 1958." Contrast those bits of information with the hard-hitting facts revealed about Barack Obama during a similar segment on last Wednesday’s show: "Number four -- in addition to enjoying basketball...

It was only a matter of time until the mainstream media began ramping up global warming alarmism by connecting flooding in the Midwest to climate change. ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” took a page out of the alarmists’ playbook – connecting natural disasters to global warming, which according to the broadcast is caused by mankind’s use of fossil fuels. The segment, which led off the network’s June 19 broadcast, cited a government report that stated there’s definitive evidence such a link exists. “[T]oday, the administration report draws a clear link between this destructive and severe weather and the fossil...

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams pleaded with graduates from Ohio State University in Columbus to repair America during a commencement speech Sunday. "I come here today with a request for the Class of '08: We need you to fix the country – and I'm sorry to ask this of you," Williams said, suggesting that the U.S. is broken. "And I'm deadly serious and we really do. I am 49 and on behalf of my generation, I'm so sorry …" The news anchor, who was awarded an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree from the university, said the Internet has distracted...

Chris Matthews took to the air on MSNBC's "Hardball," just moments after former Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko was convicted on fraud and money laundering charges, but Matthews wasn't about to let that bit of breaking news ruin the moment, as he never mentioned the conviction once on the hour long program. However, he did find time, during the 5 PM EDT edition of Hardball, to gush about Obama's "magic moment" with his wife Michelle: CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let's go now to Roger Simon. Again your thoughts on last night's magic moment for a lot of Americans, in fact, me included. I,...

CNN correspondent Carol Costello compared Cindy McCain to a "Stepford Wife" due to her "low key" role in her husband’s campaign so far, in a segment on Wednesday’s "The Situation Room." Costello, detailing Mrs. McCain’s recent photo spread in Vogue magazine, stated the feature "projects an image quite unlike the Cindy McCain we see on the trail," and a talking head described this "Cindy McCain we see" as "low key... taking the traditional role of standing by her husband's side at events." Costello then quipped, "A role critics say makes Mrs. McCain look like -- well, Glenn Close in the...

Near the end of Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell boldly stated that racism has been a "real factor" in the Obama vote on the ground in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Roughly one in every five U.S. troops who have survived the bombs and other dangers of Iraq and Afghanistan now suffers from major depression or post-traumatic stress, an independent study said Thursday. It estimated the toll at 300,000 or more. As many or more report possible brain injuries from explosions or other head wounds, said the study, the first major survey from outside the government. Only about half of those with mental health problems have sought treatment. Even fewer of those with head injuries have seen doctors. Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said the report, from the Rand Corp., was...

On Friday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Harry Smith interviewed the Managing Editor of Time Magazine, Richard Stengel, about the publication’s latest cover story on the presidential campaign entitled "How Much Does Experience Matter?," with a clear picture of Barack Obama’s silhouette surrounded by a holy aura of light (see picture).

Courageous leader: McCain is well equipped to be President.By Senator Tom CoburnThe American people have the opportunity to elect as president John McCain, a man who is uniquely equipped to tackle the two greatest challenges facing our country — radical Islamic extremism and a Congress that refuses to correct our unsustainable fiscal course. I'm confident in McCain's leadership because I know and trust his character. I have served with many professed reformers in Congress. John McCain stands out as one of a handful of true reformers who will stand up and be counted. He has demonstrated time and time again...

<p>Veteran Washington journalist and Slate.com Editor-in-Chief Jacob Weisberg has a theory about the awkward nature some say President George W. Bush exhibits in his public speeches – Bush has a learning disability. Weisberg linked it back to a pattern of dyslexia in the Bush family.</p>

NABLUS, West Bank – It is hard for me to describe Ahmed Sanakreh as a terrorist, although I know it's true. Hard, because I got to know him and his family quite well, and when you understand people, it's hard to hate them: Twenty-year-old Ahmed, baby-faced with black hair sticking up in gelled spikes, and a passion for his Nokia 90 cell phone; and his elder brother, Alaa, the intense, hollow-cheeked leader of the Palestinian al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. They are the hard core of the hard core. Although Alaa was the leader, Ahmed...

I was at the gym and they had on CNN, and this guy on CNN, who looks like a phallic symbol with glass, said to the effect, "It doesn't matter what the text book definition of a recession, it feels like a recession." We are probably going to get around 2 to 2 1/2% growth for the last quarter of 2007. Okay, let me try this. I am married to Monica Bellucci and I have Bill Gates' money. ...... No that didn't work.

It is a title that would be sure to bring either fear or cheer to many Americans, depending on your political leanings: Supreme Court Justice Bill Clinton. If Hillary Clinton becomes president, would she nominate her husband for the high court? That provocative possibility has long been whispered in legal and political circles ever since Sen. Hillary Clinton became a viable candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now a respected conservative law professor has openly predicted a future President Clinton would name her husband to the high court if a vacancy occurred. Pepperdine Law School's Douglas Kmiec wrote recently in...

Karl Rove's grandest aspiration was to create a Republican majority that would dominate American politics for a generation or more. But as the effects of his distinctive brand of fear-mongering fade, it's the Democrats who are poised to become the country's majority party -- and perhaps for a long time to come. Many conservatives have insisted that the Democrats' wins in the 2006 midterm elections, as well as their recent pickups in some 2007 races, were mere blips. They wish. Political, ideological, demographic and economic trends are all leading toward durable Democratic majorities in Congress, control of most statehouses and,...

Torture is not difficult to define, and neither is the extent to which agents of the executive branch can use it. Torture is immoral and un-American and of doubtful utility - but it is also a criminal act. And anyone who commits torture is committing a crime. The CIA's admission that it destroyed at least two tapes of sessions that employed techniques of "enhanced interrogation" is an admission that it destroyed evidence of crimes. It doesn't matter who gave what legal opinion approving the destruction of the tapes, except that it implicates those who did so as co-conspirators. It also...

COLUMBIA, SC -- Oprah Winfrey took the stage at William Bryce Football Stadium to deafening cheers. Over 29,000 people filled the risers, some having driven from as far as Savannah, GA, to see her appear with Barack Obama. At what was the third campaign stop Oprah has made with Obama this weekend, she praised him as an "evolved leader," pinning her desire to support Obama on his ability to inspire people. "For the first time, I'm stepping out of my pew because I've been inspired. I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America. Dr King...

CNN has posted a Political Ticker entry trying to create a "gotcha" on 2nd Amendment supporter, Fred Thompson. CNN's South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby has breathlessly announced that "Thompson does not have hunting license," but the question is... so what? ...I know hundreds of gun enthusiasts in my area of interest and only a small percentage of them are avid hunters..., some being only interested in... collecting... firearms. Yet, here is CNN acting as if Thompson should be looked at askance because he does not currently have a hunting license, quite despite that he has had them in the past...

Republican pols pander to People of the Gun December 3, 2007 LAURA WASHINGTON LauraSWashington@aol.com The gun carnage in America may soon overtake the maelstrom in Iraq. Every day, pop, pop, pop, and another victim is condemned to the nightmarish plague of handguns gone wild: Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, 24, is shot to death in a home invasion. Amadou Cisse, 28, a Senegalese chemistry doctoral student at the University of Chicago, is gunned down near Hyde Park. On the Southwest Side, Howard Long, a 22-year-old security guard at Get M Girlz Apparel, is popped for a change of outfit. The...

In the long, hot autumn of 2000, the world was shocked by the contempt for democracy shown by the Republican Party. They knew their man had lost the popular vote to Al Gore by half a million votes. They knew the majority of voters in Florida itself had pulled a lever for Gore. But they fought -- amid the confetti of hanging chads -- to stop the state's votes being counted, and to ensure that the Supreme Court imposed George W. Bush on the nation. Today, that contempt for democracy is on display again. In California right now, there is...

When The Bee's Bobby Caina Calvan volunteered for a six-week reporting stint in Iraq, he didn't have the faintest notion he would be nominated for an award. Just a few days into his assignment, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin did the honors, nominating Calvan for "Jerk of the Year." That was just the beginning of the accolades. In a matter of days, bloggers and their flock of sheep across the country were calling Calvan an "immature human," "a pompous ass," "disrespectful," an "embarrassment," and an "anti-American military" ideologue. There were more, but you can't print them in the newspaper. What was...

The rapid escalation of the U.S. anti-immigration hysteria -- fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls -- is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Hispanic intifada that may rock this nation in the not-so-distant future.

Right-wing media machine coming off tracks Gene Lyons With the 2008 presidential election a year away, Republicans are running on empty. Polls show President Bush sinking to historic lows. Fewer than one-quarter of Americans (25 percent in a recent survey) approve of his performance. Most wouldn’t mind if Bush would simply go away, provided he’d take that snarling misanthrope Dick Cheney with him.

You have to wonder if the whole conservative movement in the U.S. is living in a weird alternate reality in which the only thing that matters is what you say, and facts, consistency and honor mean nothing. The recent remarks by Rush Limbaugh in which he called military men who opposed the Iraq war "phony soldiers" is another example of the strange world in which he (and a lot of neocons) exist. The reason: Limbaugh could be the poster boy of a group of war cheerleaders (including Dick Cheney, Mike Medved, Sean Hannity, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Mike Savage, et...

Income disparity reaches highest since 1920s, paper reports, with recent Wall Street boom partly to blame. The income gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans grew to its widest level since the 1920s, according to a report published Friday. Citing Internal Revenue Service data, the Wall Street Journal reported that the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans earned 21.2 percent of all the nation's income in 2005, up from the previous high of 20.8 percent in 2000. Conversely, the bottom half of working Americans earned just 12.8 percent of all the nation's income, down from 13.4 percent in 2004 and...

Conservatives claim to be in favor of stable families, small businesses, hard work, private schools, investment and homeownership. So why in the world are so many on the right attacking the family of Graeme Frost? SNIP The kids were treated, thanks to S-CHIP. The Frosts spoke out so the public would know that real people lie behind the acronym. Their reward was to be trashed on right-wing blogs and talk radio as if they were multimillionaires ripping off the system. The assault on the Frosts apparently began on the Free Republic website and quickly spread to National Review Online, Power...

The presidential candidates are offering prescriptions for everything from Iraq to healthcare, but listen closely. Their fixes are situational and incremental. Meanwhile, the underlying structural problems in American politics and government are systemic and prevent us from solving our most intractable challenges. If we really want to make progress and achieve greater fairness as a society, it is time for elemental change. And we should start by looking at the Constitution, with the goal of holding a new Constitutional Convention. Sound radical? If so, then the founders were radicals. They would be amazed and disappointed that after 220 years, the...

A nationally syndicated columnist has recently urged that Americans forget about 9/11, become adults, and "get back our groove." Thomas Friedman is the senior columnist at the New York Times and hence de facto the most important columnist in the United States. That he disapproves of the 9/11 cult makes it official. As America's uber wise man, he has certified that the national obsession with the World Trade Center attack is a sign of weakness and fear. Yet in the marvelous Yiddish phrase, "Already, all right, enough!" The attack was a great evil, a terrible blow to the whole nation,...

The invitation was on creamy stationery with fancy calligraphy: The Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran "requests the pleasure" of my company to dine with H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The dinner is at the Intercontinental Hotel — with names carefully written out at all the place settings around a rectangular table. There are about 50 of us, academics and journalists mostly. There's Brian Williams across the room, and Christiane Amanpour a few seats down. And at a little after 8pm, on a day when he has already addressed the U.N., the evening after his confrontation at Columbia, a...

I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week. But what I’d really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington. Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is. The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a...

vThis morning's column by James Carroll, the Boston Globe's resident gushy liberal, is so predictable you wonder whether it might have been written by a liberal-column generator software program. You know the kind: insert issue, names of political players, a few factoids, and let the program spit out the boilerplate of a standard leftist diatribe. I mean, as soon as you knew that Carroll was writing a column about Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.S., could there be any doubt as to where he'd come down on the controversy surrounding the Iranian president's desire to visit Ground Zero? And Carroll doesn't...