Free Republic

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim immigrants were seen as a potential threat in the United States. They have since become model citizens -- and now they want a greater say in politics. Why shouldn't we wear head scarves? It is almost 1 p.m., time for noon prayers, and Abdul Malik Mujahid, 55, is in his office on the second floor of Chicago's Downtown Islamic Center, preparing for his sermon. On his desk are a Koran, a pad of paper and a Blackberry. A telephone rings in the next room as people hurry through the corridors. Soon Mujahid...

The Senate’s phone system crashed last month during immigration reform debates, when thousands of people and anti-immigrant activists called their senators to protest the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants. The massive, unprecedented telephone campaign was sparked by a range of complex motives based on social and economic issues. Among them was a theme that promises to reappear if the issue is revisited: the perception that Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants. “It is one of the ideas that...

Michelle Obama has a few gripes about her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and she's not shy about sharing them with thousands of people she doesn't know. He doesn't put his worn socks in with the dirty clothes. He's worse than a 5-year-old at making the bed. And after he eats, he doesn't put away the butter. "Today, he still didn't put the butter up after he made his breakfast. I was like, 'You're just asking for it, you know I'm giving a speech. Why don't you just put the butter up?'" she told a roaring crowd at a...

Like him or not, Ronald ("Tear Down This Wall") Reagan spoke in a clean, clear prose that almost always left listeners with a sense that he stood for something. It may thus be no accident that Jim Webb, Virginia's new Democratic senator, was once a Reaganite. In his reply to President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Webb defined the two central moral issues that animate most of the Democratic Party's rank and file: the mess in Iraq and the fact that the fruits of a growing economy are not being shared by all Americans. Then Webb...

About a year ago, before he was running for the Senate, James Webb took a colleague to the mountains of southwest Virginia to do some research for a movie they were working on. Rob Reiner , meet my cousin Jewel and her husband, Buck. Jewel made a home-cooked meal for Webb and his producer-director friend. She pointed across the way to a nearby hollow and said: "Ah wuz bawn rat ovah theyah." That's Reiner on the phone from Los Angeles, doing a mountain accent.

Subtitle: Andre Pitts Finds Success With An Iranian Basketball Team TEHRAN, (CBS) Sitting on a black leather sofa in his sparsely furnished North Tehran apartment, Andre Pitts speaks with a yearning for home. "I'm from America and I love my country." he says. "I miss my friends." Most of all, Pitts misses his wife and young daughter. "I'm scared of one thing: That I go home and she doesn’t recognize me," he says. "That would kill me. I am doing all this basically for her — to help better her life." Pitts is the American star of a champion Iranian...

Peace mom slips from public stage: Cindy Sheehan plans to return to presidents ranch for Thanksgiving SAN FRANCISCO — Peace mom Cindy Sheehan peered out a window 14 floors above the Civic Center on Friday and asked, Want to see my new car? She pointed to a sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible parked near City Hall. She explained she hasnt treated herself to much since her son, Casey, died in Iraq in April 2004, but shed always wanted such a car and recently decided it was time for a change. Sheehans life has changed profoundly since Caseys death — richer in...

FOR countless Democrats around America, the announcement last week of a new initiative linking Senator Hillary Clinton to one of her party’s most appealing new stars amounted to a match made in political heaven. Not since President George W Bush crushed the Democratic party’s hopes in last November’s election have two senators with perhaps the strongest chances of beating Republican rivals to the White House formed such an intriguing alliance. Clinton has been linked with Senator Barack Obama, the charismatic black Democrat from Illinois, in a healthcare initiative that unites two formidable and ambitious politicians who have their eyes on...

PENN YAN, NY--An 8-year-old Penn Yan girl handed Hillary Rodham Clinton a T-shirt yesterday and asked the senator to sign it. The girl had pinned a Hillary Clinton button on it, right next to the words “Someday, a woman will be president.” As clear an indication as that was of the child’s support, one woman in the crowd was even less subtle. “She’s going to be a great president,” the woman called out to a friend. Even though her supporters sometimes talked as if the former first lady’s next stop was the White House, her sights are set on being...

Voinovich sticks to his conscience -- White House shouldn't have been surprised at opposition By GEORGE E. CONDON Jr., Copley Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON – Sen. George Voinovich’s decision to oppose John Bolton came as a great shock to the White House. But it could not have surprised anyone who has watched the Republican senator’s long career in public office in Ohio. As a county auditor and commissioner, Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and now as senator, Voinovich has always insisted on civility and decent treatment of public employees, a trait he found woefully lacking in President Bush’s nominee to be...

With the holiday season upon us, American women will be shopping for extra groceries and the special outfits required for endless get-togethers -- not to mention gifts needed for under the tree. Women looking for good deals and savings should recognize that it isn't just coupons and holiday sales that are creating bargains -- free trade is helping to fulfill all of these needs. In fact, if you've gone shopping lately, you've gone global. American stores are teeming with imported products ranging from Australian lamb and Belgian chocolate to flowers from South America. Even without the holiday rush, free trade...

With his grades and high school activities, Pablo is an ideal candidate for college, except for one hitch: He's illegal. Four high school students in military uniforms were horsing around in a cinderblock corridor deep inside Coors Field. It was fifteen minutes before the Rockies would take on the Phillies, and two decades into the latest surge of immigration into the United States. One of the students was named Pablo. He had pale skin, short dark-brown hair, ears that stuck out a little, and a long face. A ribbon pinned to his green uniform indicated that he was an expert...

Heads up! (Or down as the case may be.) NBC's Dateline will be showing part one of a two part broadcast of an interview conducted by Today Show hostess Katie Couric at 7 p.m. EDT.Part two will be shown on Monday's Today Show.

Teresa: Abortion ends a life Teresa Heinz Kerry WASHINGTON - Teresa Heinz Kerry says she's pro-choice but believes abortion is "stopping the process of life," it was reported yesterday. "I don't view abortion as just a nothing," said Heinz Kerry in an interview with Newsweek, in which she took a side in the long-festering debate over when life begins. The comments on abortion by the wife of presumed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry came during a weekend where an estimated half-million people marched in Washington to support women's reproductive rights. "My belief - and I maybe am very wrong...

Governor Arnie gets rave reviews Californians lap up the glitz as their larger-than-life leader throws himself 100 per cent into his new role By Roger Mitton IN WASHINGTONAND DERWIN PEREIRA IN DOHA (QATAR) WASHINGTON - Californians love a celebrity showman and their new governor, the big brash Arnold Schwarzenegger, has not disappointed them. During his first 100 days in office, he has starred in a television commercial extolling the state, driven around on his big Harley-Davidson motorbike, had his name embossed in gold over his office, and made plans for a new governor's mansion. In another glitzy gesture, he has...

<p>Vietnam has become an unexpected battleground in the race for the presidency, but the war records of the likely opponents have been dealt with quite differently.</p> <p>Members of the Fourth Estate scrutinized, speculated about and misreported the service record of President Bush after Democratic operatives accused him of being "AWOL." However, the radical activism of Sen. John Kerry after he returned home has received far less attention than it deserves.</p>

There are some who think the expression "male beauty" oxymoronic, even perverse. Students of English as a foreign language are taught that it is incorrect in English to use the word "beautiful" for a male. Good-looking males should be described as "handsome". Handsomeness is not an aesthetic quality so much as a moral quality; handsome is as handsome does. The substitution of the word "handsome" for "beautiful" when referring to a male is the linguistic sign of an implicit understanding that it is wrong, demeaning even, to appreciate men for their looks. The feminist campaign against the failure of the...

<p>On the Road With Hillary is a picaresque tale by Patrick Halley, an unabashed political hack who worked as a Clinton advance man from 1992, when she was campaigning for her husband, until 2000, when she was campaigning for herself.</p>