Free Republic

President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday night that Democrats would make gains in next year’s midterm elections, a result that would defy the political odds as the White House grapples with a series of crises. “We have to keep making the case,” Biden said at a holiday party attended by 400 Democratic National Committee officials and donors in Washington. “And if we do, I believe we’re going to win. “Let me say this again for the press: We’re going to win in 2022.” Moments earlier, the president had told Republicans eyeing a return to the majority in the House and Senate...

Esther Duflo is one of those people who are taken seriously by the sort of people who eat up TED talks with a silver spoon. Her big number is how to help people in the Third World up from poverty, which is a surprisingly profitable branch of economics when you consider the sheer number of NGOs and billionaires interested in getting into the aid business. But there’s one particular billionaire at Duflo’s back. Abdul Latif Jameel. Esther Duflo is one of the co-founders of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, more commonly known as J-PAL for the father of Abdul...

The Obama administration is under pressure to help calm the growing violence in Israel which has some warning of a third intifada, as Israel's military steps up its response to deadly Palestinia attacks by deploying hundreds of troops. Amid the unrest, Secretary of State John Kerry just announced plans to visit the region, and has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We're working on trying to calm things down," he said Tuesday during an event at Harvard University. "And I will go there soon at some point appropriately and try to work to re-engage...

**SNIP** Neighbors at the low-rise apartment complex where she lives in tony Mamaroneck, Westchester County, said the glamorous mom moved in a couple of months ago with a teenage daughter. “She’s a nice person. I usually see her in the morning with her teenage daughter,” one neighbor said. At night, she’s often spotted with Sharpton at the Grand Havana Room on Fifth Ave., an uber-exclusive, member’s only cigar bar whose regulars include Alec Baldwin, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump’s kids — Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. McShaw “always eats” at the bar, a source said, but Sharpton —...

A TAXI driver who raped his female passenger last weekend should have been banned from driving cabs five months ago, but was allowed to keep driving. The Sunday Times can reveal a 34-year-old woman was subjected to the horrific sex attack following a breakdown in communications between WA Police and the Department of Transport. The department admitted it would have immediately suspended the taxi licence of Sumudu Rangana Bamunu Arachchige, 28, in February when he was charged with stabbing a man twice with a kitchen knife, but claims police did not notify them of that until Monday. ... The bungle...

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has indirectly re-entered the picture at the Blagojevich corruption trial. Government witness John Harris, Blagojevich’s onetime chief of staff, said he received a call from an intermediary for Emanuel on Nov. 10, 2008, six days after the presidential election. The intermediary was John Wyma, a lobbyist pal of Blagojevich and Emanuel. And the message Harris said Wyma was asked to deliver was that President-elect Barack Obama “would be thankful and appreciative” if Blagojevich would appoint Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett as Illinois’ new U.S. Senator.

Emboldened by President Barack Obama's announcement he will close the Guantanamo facility housing suspected terrorists, one of the most notorious leftist terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s has written the president, asking him for help in finding a "former comrade-in-arms" missing for 14 years, and closing his letter with "Allahu akbar! ... yours in revolution." "Mister President, Your decision to close secret CIA jails, honors you," Carlos began... Carlos' 2003 book, "Revolutionary Islam" called on "all revolutionaries, including those of the left, even atheists," to accept the leadership of Islamists such as Osama bin Laden in order to turn Iraq...

Riling Muslim leaders, one of John McCain's fellow Vietnam POWs defended the Iraq War Friday by saying, ``The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us.'' ''I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel. And John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel,'' Col. Bud Day added in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Republican Party of Florida on behalf on McCain. Muslims and Arab-American groups quickly denounced what they described as the ''bigoted'' comments from Day, a Pensacola resident, Medal of Honor recipient and member of the...

Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani has met with Palestinian terrorist groups to voice the Islamic republic's "decisive support" for their battle against Israel, state media said Thursday. A report by the official news agency IRNA said Larijani, during a flying visit to close ally Syria on Wednesday, declared "the Islamic republic's decisive support for the Palestinian and the Lebanese resistance against Israel." The report said Larijani had met with "Palestinian movement leaders who are against the peace process", including arab-muslim terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC). The...

My question - if the Beast kisses both *Billy Jeff and Ellen, doesn't that make her just another carrier? (I sure hope she's kept her shot record current...) Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (R) is seen with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on the Staten Island Ferry touring the New York waterways, in this undated handout photograph released by Warner Bros. on November 19, 2005. This segment airs on Monday, November 21st as part of Ellen's New York Five Borough Show. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Albert Ferreira/Warner Bros./Handout

HILL PAL IS CASH COWED By NICOLE CAMPBELL May 21, 2005 -- LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in the trial of Hillary Rodham Clinton's former top fund-raiser David Rosen closed their case yesterday by driving home the point that an extravagant Hollywood gala cost three times as much as was reported to the Federal Election Commission. **SNIP** After the prosecution rested, Rosen's attorney, Paul Sandler, quickly filed a motion to dismiss each of the counts in the case. Judge A. Harold Matz said he would rule on the motion when the case resumes on Tuesday. Matz said he expected the jury...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush spent Friday evening at the home of Clay Johnson, a college friend and administration official who also has a hand in shaping Bush's second-term Cabinet. The president spent about two hours at Johnson's house in a Washington suburb. Johnson, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and White House chief of staff Andy Card are among those who are intimately involved in discussions on second-term personnel. Bush's longtime friend also worked with him while he was Texas governor and later served as head of the Bush-Cheney transition team into the Oval Office in...

Children thrive with a pet pal in the family By Celia Hall, Medical Editor(Filed: 14/10/2003) The spirits of Tom Kitten, Mrs Tiggywinkle and Jemima Puddleduck live on. New research has found that one child in five plays dressing up with the family pet while one in 10, especially young girls, push their pets around in prams. The survey also found that contemporary culture had an impact on children's activities with their pets. More than half, 53 per cent, watched television or videos with their favourite animal. A total of 176 pet-owning families took part in the survey. They had between...

NOW ON THE NEWSSTAND (AS OF TOMORROW)CHANDRA MURDER BREAKTHROUGH!-Best Pal Rats Out Condit****CHELSEA'S PREGNANCY SECRET****-Stunning News for Bill and Hillary 6 TOP BASEBALL STARTS ARE GAYSupermodel Claudia Schiffers Wacky Wedding