Free Republic

If you're going to take a huge splurge on the taxpayer's dime, please do it in the U.S. and create the jobs your husband's stimulus failed to create!Here's First Lady Michelle Obama headed for the motorcade while deplaning from Air Force Two after arriving in Spain with her daughter Sasha. The private visit with 40 of her closest friends has required 60 rooms in a five star luxury hotel. U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, right, and her daughter Sasha, left, arrive at Malaga's airport, southern Spain, on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010.The White House says First Lady Michelle Obama is in...

Michelle Obama is a one woman stimulus package.

Michelle Obama: It's a 'sacrifice' to travel to Europe to pitch for the Olympics. For Oprah and the president, too. But we're doing it for the kids. By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent09/30/09 5:12 PM EDT In her speech in Copenhagen today, First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her "dear friend" and "chit-chat buddy" Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow's visit by President Obama, is a "sacrifice" on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States. "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or...

She knew from the beginning. According to a CIA memorandum summarizing briefings to Congress on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorist detainees, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) knew from the very beginning that those techniques -- including waterboarding -- were being used on September 2, 2002. According to the memo the very first briefing listed is 9/4/02 with then Rep. Porter Goss & Pelosi. The summary of the briefing says: “Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed.” This directly contradicts Pelosi’s...

This is my first complete column about John Edwards. I hope it’ll also be the last. The bottom line for us in North Carolina is quite clear. Edwards didn’t run for reelection to the Senate because if he had, he would have lost. That ought to tell folks elsewhere in the nation something useful. Why should anyone take him seriously for President, or even Vice President, when those who know him best – in his own state – don’t take him seriously as a mere Senator? Plus there are more immediate defects in the Edwards campaign this time around. He...

Remember when all then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich wanted was to use the front steps of Air Force One? That didn't work out, thanks to Bill Clinton's aides - but in retrospect it seems that the taxpayers never had it so good. Now the new speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, is demanding her own personal Pentagon-provided jet. Who's to get the tab? That's right: You. The speaker has decided that she needs a personal shuttle between Washington, D.C., and her home out on the Left Coast. Historically, House speakers flew commercial. Then, after 9/11, Speaker Dennis Hastert cited security...

Separating Hyperbole From Horror in Iraq By TOM ZELLER Jr. Published: December 4, 2006 Over the course of last week, an Associated Press article — one subsequently challenged by the military — in which six Sunni worshipers were reportedly doused in kerosene and burned alive by Shiite attackers, became the worst kind of totem. For bloggers who believe that the media has been drawing false pictures of mayhem in Iraq, the insistence of the American military and Iraqi officials that the burning incident appeared to be a mere rumor was proof that their suspicions were correct. “Getting the News From...

£1,000 will buy perfume of a tragic royalA FRAGRANCE worn by Marie-Antoinette, a woman sometimes described as the world’s first fashion victim, has been re-created by a French perfume-maker for an exhibition at the Palace of Versailles. The perfume, Sillage de la Reine (In the Queen’s Wake), is likely to be put on a sale by the palace, which has been inundated with requests from people who want to smell like the Austrian-born Queen beheaded during the French Revolution. A thousand flacons are set to be made available at a price of around €1,500 (£1,050) each, with the profits being...

Article OneMarie-Antoinette Goes to Hollywood             by Jonah GoldbergMarie-Antoinette didn't actually say "Let them eat cake!" In fact, she actually worked pretty hard to feed the poor. The legend comes from Rousseau's Confessions, where he wrote that a "Great princess" had declared "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" while the people were starving. Unfortunately "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" doesn't mean "Let them eat cake!" either. It means, more or less, "Let them eat [expensive] buns." And, it should be pointed out, Confessions was written in 1768, two years before Marie-Antoinette moved to France. Assuming Rousseau...