Free Republic

Presidential contender Senator Obama moved quickly to reassure his Muslim supporters that the apparent discrimination that occurred at two of his speeches in Michigan “was merely cosmetic and should not be taken as a sign that I do not appreciate the value of their support.” The charges of discrimination were leveled by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) after Obama campaign workers barred two Muslim women from sitting behind the podium because they did not want the women's headscarves to be seen in photographs or on television. The women were reportedly told they couldn’t sit behind the podium unless they removed...

Watching McCain on Bill O'Reilly this evening it looks to me like his hamster jowls have receded. They haven't completely disappeared, but the look substantially less than before. Of course it could be good make-up work or good lighting by Fox, but I wonder if he is going through some "makeovers" to make him look more youthful?

Senator Obama, you stand accused of being an out-of-touch, arugula-eating Ivy League elitist who couldn't convert a one-pin spare if the presidency depended on it. I don't have a dog in this fight (despite what Hillary Clinton supporters sometimes think of me) but here are my suggestions for how to reach, and be seen reaching, the "the real America" as you continue to grind toward the Democratic nomination. Obviously, you've got to talk in more meat-and-potatoes terms about how your economic proposals will help working people. But that's only part of what you need to do: TELL US IN CONCRETE...

An e-mail from a reader said that, while Hillary Clinton tells lies, Barack Obama is himself a lie. That is becoming painfully apparent with each new revelation of how drastically his carefully crafted image this election year contrasts with what he has actually been saying and doing for many years. Sen. Obama's election year image is that of a man who can bring the country together, overcoming differences of party or race, as well as solving our international problems by talking with Iran and other countries with which we are at odds, and performing other miscellaneous miracles as needed. There...

**EXCERPT ** WASHINGTON — The morning after Senator Barack Obama shook the Clinton campaign by winning five states in one weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new campaign manager — Maggie Williams, who had taken over in a shake-up the night before — assembled the curious if demoralized staff. ~snip~ Still, interviews with campaign aides, associates and friends suggest that Mrs. Clinton, at least until February, was a detached manager. Juggling the demands of being a candidate, she paid little attention to detail, delegated decisions large and small and deferred to advisers on critical questions. Mrs. Clinton accepted — or seemed...

Barack Obama 'will repair image of US in UK' By Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester Last Updated: 2:50am GMT 07/03/2008 America needs to work hard to regain the trust of the British public following the Iraq war and the Bush years, a senior adviser to Barack Obama says today. Samantha Power, a former journalist, advises Barack Obama on foreign policy In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Samantha Power, who is a key member of the Presidential hopeful's foreign policy team, says anti-Americanism is now "vehement" in the United Kingdom. "A restoration of trust will have to occur between the...

Does this photograph really prove that we are not alone in the universe? Images beamed back from Mars would suggest so - although to sceptics, it could just be a strange rock formation. Nasa's Mars Explorer Spirit sent back images from the surface of the Red Planet four years ago, and there was initial disappointment among scientists that they lacked any signs of life. The 'alien' appears to be walking downhill But space and science fiction enthusiasts are convinced there is more than meets the eye, and after years of studying the images, have found what appears to be an...

A male American Kestrel, our smallest hawk.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.) The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon. The image taking was performed twice...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States needs to shift from muscle-flexing to alliance-building when it seeks to wield power in the world if it wants to patch up its battered global image, said a report on Tuesday. "America's reputation, standing and influence are at all-time lows, and possibly sinking further," the report by a 20-member think-tank commissioned by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said, citing half a dozen opinion polls from around the world. "The terrorist attacks on 9/11 caused America to become a frightened and angry nation," it said. "We reacted in ways that alarmed people...

October 21, 2007 Ouch! Hillary Clinton's softer image is clawed over dumped cat Sarah Baxter AS THE “first pet” of the Clinton era, Socks, the White House cat, allowed “chilly” Hillary Clinton to show a caring, maternal side as well as bringing joy to her daughter Chelsea. So where is Socks today? Once the presidency was over, there was no room for Socks any more. After years of loyal service at the White House, the black and white cat was dumped on Betty Currie, Bill Clinton’s personal secretary, who also had an embarrassing clean-up role in the saga of his...

WASHINGTON -- Lee Rogers, chairman of the Anderson County Republican Party, was at the beach last week when his cell phone rang. It was an urgent call from one of Rogers' Upstate GOP activists. "He asked me what I was going to do to find somebody to run against Lindsey Graham (next year)," Rogers said. "I explained to the gentleman that's not something I can put together as a single county chairman. That's got to happen with the people." It could be happening. Graham, a Seneca Republican nearing the end of his first Senate term, has taken plenty of heat...

BEDFORD, N.H. - Republican Mitt Romney on Wednesday jabbed at President Bush, saying the image of the United States has suffered globally based on the perception that it invaded Iraq unilaterally. Addressing civic and business leaders, the former Massachusetts governor chided Bush as his fellow Republican traveled overseas for an economic summit and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been critical of U.S. efforts to install a missile defense shield in Europe. "I do think that we have suffered over the past several years for a number of reasons, and I think you probably know what they...

Within Windows Explorer, we have a folder of jpg images. Right now, we have them displayed as thumbnails. However, something funny is happening. File A thumbnail shows (e.g.) a picture of a tree. However, when we double click on it, and bring up Picture/Fax viewer, we see an image of a person. When we drag that file into PowerPoint, we again see the image of a person. File B thumbnail shows (e.g.) a picture of a person. When we double click on it, or drag it into PowerPoint, we see a different image. What's going on? Seems like the thumbnail...

During both radio shows that I was interviewed on yesterday, the hosts wondered why the media are downplaying both the Muslim and the Albanian aspects of the Ft. Dix news. (And especially downplaying the Muslim-Albanian aspect.) The answer is that the Balkans narrative MUST remain what it is: Serbs=bad. Muslims=victim. The pro-Muslim mainstream media aside, even conservatives jumped onto the anti-Serb bandwagon starting in the 90s — because conservatives are often accused of being anti-Muslim. So the one bone they can toss the Muslims is to take the typical bombastic and outraged stance about what was supposedly done to Muslims...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A dazzlingly detailed image released by NASA scientists on Tuesday shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die -- in this case in a huge nebula in another neighborhood of our Milky Way galaxy. The image, made from a series of 48 shots taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in spring and summer of 2005, depicts star birth in a new level of detail. It provides a view spanning a distance of 50 light years across of the Carina Nebula. A nebula is an immense cloud of hot interstellar gas and dust. This...

The Lord appears to people in many ways -- but along a country road in Plain Dealing, La.? An image has appeared in the ground across the road from Ann Stromile's home. To her, it looks like an image of Jesus. "I can just feel him," said the 75-year-old Stromile, who has been staring in awe at the image across the road from her house on Blankenship Road. Her niece noticed it first, just before Easter. "She said, 'I've got something to show you. This face.' And then I just froze," Blankenship said. In the dirt at the foot of...

Science Daily — The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672. This remarkable image provides a high definition view of the galaxy’s large bar, its fields of star-forming clouds and dark bands of interstellar dust.

HOUSTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A metal baking sheet from a Houston elementary school has become an object of veneration for hundreds of Catholics who see an image of the Virgin Mary. The pan bearing what many believe is a miraculous religions image is now on display in the yard of Sylvia Calderon, a member of the PTA at Pugh Elementary School, the Houston Chronicle reported. Calderon gave the baking sheet a home after officials at the school said they could not accommodate the crowds who wanted to see it. Guadalupe Rodriguez, a cafeteria worker at the school, discovered the...

The House on Friday overhauled the board supervising its teenage pages, responding to a scandal that left youngsters vulnerable to a lawmaker's sexual come-ons and helped Democrats win control of Congress. The vote was 416-0 to equalize the political membership of the House Page Board, whose Republican chairman never told two board colleagues that he believed -- for a year -- that Rep. Mark Foley was a "ticking time bomb." The expanded board also will include a former page and the parent of a current or former page, to add new pairs of eyes to spot any future examples of...