Free Republic

Welcome to Obamaland was published in January 2009, just as the new president was taking office. It predicted that Obama would turn the American eagle into a sick turkey.

Tony Blair could be crowned first President of Europe at a special summit of EU leaders next month. Diplomatic sources say French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to install the former prime minister in the new £275,000-a-year post...

Sept. 22: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair The reluctant vote in favor of further European integration by the Irish this weekend may usher Tony Blair into a new role as titular head of the European Union — despite most of Europe being reluctant to have him. The former prime minister is the leading candidate to become the European Union president for a want of alternatives rather than any enthusiasm. With the Irish having finally ratified the Lisbon treaty, all that remains is for the Czech and Polish presidents to sign it and authorize the creation of two new...

TWELVE_years ago, Britain was crying out for change from a divided, exhausted Government. Today we are there again. In 1997, "New" Labour, shorn of its destructive hard-Left doctrines and with an energetic and charismatic leader, seemed the answer. Tony Blair said things could only get better, and few doubted him. But did they get better? Well, you could point to investment in schools and shorter hospital waiting lists and say yes, some things did - a little. But the real story of the Labour years is one of under-achievement, rank failure and a vast expansion of wasteful government interference in...

Tony Blair has revealed that after ignoring a stern warning from his great-grandmother about marrying a Catholic, he now finds his new-found faith has become the driving force in his life as he seeks to clear up the world's religious conflicts. Speaking to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, Blair said today he considers Pope Benedict's belief that God is central to politics, society, economics and culture "brilliant". Weeks after a packed Catholic conference in Italy gave Blair an ovation for his words about the universality of Catholicism, the pope's newspaper was equally effusive, calling the convert "a gentleman, educated,...

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday no deals were ever made with Libya while he was in power to arrange the Lockerbie bomber's release, a move that has caused outrage in the United States. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Blair denied claims -- made Friday by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi -- that he raised the case of Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi every time he visited Libya as prime minister. "Let me make one thing absolutely clear," Blair, who stepped down as PM in 2007, told CNN's John Vause on Saturday in Guiyang, China....

Lord Mandelson has dismissed claims that the release of Lockerbie bomber is linked to a trade deal - as the head of the FBI slams the Scottish government. The claim was made by Seif al Islam, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, in a television interview filmed as Abdelbaset al Megrahi was flown home. "In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table," he said. "All British interests were linked to the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi." He said he had met Colonel Gaddafi twice in the past year, and on...

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has raised many expectations all over the world. In the United States, the voters chose a young, mixed race, brilliant president. He is expected to keep his promise of correcting the errors of the president who preceded him. Some excessive terms have even been used, for example the assertion that the time has come to "rebuild" the United States, or to reorganize the international order. This shows the influence of Saul D. Alinsky (1909-1972), one of the intellectual guides of the new president and Hillary Clinton. There has...

Former premier Tony Blair said the Catholic Church needed to rethink its attitude towards homosexuality, as it is out of step with ordinary church-goers', in an interview published Wednesday. Blair, who converted to Catholicism after leaving office in June 2007, cited a "huge generational difference" as the key to Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to homosexuality. A poll of the congregation at a Catholic Church on a Sunday would reveal how liberal those in attendance were, he claimed. "We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you...

I really wanted to go through Holy Week without doing any fisking or public pulling of air or wild rolling of the eyes, but I had the misfortune of reading this piece, just posted by BBC News: "Blair questions Papal gay policy." It reports on a recent interview given by Tony Blair to Attitude, a popular British "gay" magazine (a PDF of the interview, sans advertising, can be accesssed here), which opens by stating Blair "is probably the most prominent pro-gay religious figure in the world." All of those who criticized or expressed serious doubts about the former Prime Minister's...

Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals

From The Times April 8, 2009 Tony Blair tells the Pope: you're wrong on homosexuality Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. Asked about the Pope’s stance,...

Per article linked on this site - Gordon Brown and others are supporting Tont Blair to become the first "EU President" (new role under EU unification)

Tony Blair, Architect of Britain's Anti-Christian Culture, Complains Christians Are Being Marginalized LONDON, March 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Britain and leader of the ruling Labour Party for ten years, has decried in an interview the "ludicrous" recent decisions by which the religious expression of Christians is being suppressed in Britain. "I hope and believe that stories of people not being allowed to express their Christianity are exceptional or the result of individual ludicrous decisions. My view is that people should be proud of their Christianity and able to express it as they wish,"...

March 3rd event will bring leading experts from U.S. and abroad to Capitol Hill.Embargoed: February 18, 2009, 6:00 a.m. EST Contact: Ben Edwards Email:Bedwards@cgdev.org, Tel: +1 202 416 0740 Further information available at www.usclimatesymposium.comWASHINGTON, February 17, 2009 - U.S. legislators and business leaders will meet with experts on climate change economics and policy at the Capitol building in March to discuss the challenges and opportunities for U.S. leadership on climate change, it was announced today. U.S. and international policymakers will join climate experts for the one day bipartisan and bicameral event. The cosponsoring Senators to date are Senators Bingaman (D-NM),...

Tony Blair has once again outflanked his old friend Gordon Brown by becoming the first world statesman to shake hands with President Barack Obama. Even though he has been out of office for 18 months it was Mr Blair, to the intense irritation of 10 Downing Street, who was endorsed by the new American president as "my very good friend". Mr Brown had assumed he was locked in a race to beat Germany's Angela Merkel or France's President Sarkozy for the first gilded photo-opportunity with the American president. Only to discover that it was Mr Blair, who beat him to...

We are in the middle of very strange times, and here is some proof---I agree with Hamas! Tomorrow the Times of London is publishing and Interview with the former British PM who is now the Mid East Envoy For the EU. As envoy, Blair has been pushing the same nonsense that hasn't worked for forty years: "Land for Peace, Israel is the bad occupier, the terrorists really do want to reform, It's All Israel's fault" and one of his favorites, "Abbas/Arafat has nothing to do with the military wing of Fatah". The Envoy stayed on script for his interview. He...

TUESDAY may be regarded by future historians as the beginning of the end for the United States of America. It is the first credible date that may become iconic as the moment when the federation that came into existence in 1776 and rose to global hegemony in the 20th century joined Macedonia, Rome and Britain in the catacombs of fallen empires. Barack Obama is America's nemesis. This presidency has the very real potential to impoverish America on a scale that could demote it irreversibly from its economic superpower status. When a politician masquerades as a messiah, be very afraid. This...

Here is video of an interview former British Prime Minister Tony Blair did with Andrea Mitchell today, in which he discusses the state of conditions in the Middle East, and he offers advice to President-elect Barack Obama. . . . . . (watch video)

President Bush tonight awarded America’s highest civilian honour to Tony Blair in a ceremony at the White House. The outgoing President said Mr Blair was “a true friend of the United States” before hanging the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck. The former Prime Minister stood in front of the President as the medal was bestowed upon him. “He will stand tall in history,” President Bush said.

Tony Blair recently proclaimed, "I regularly read the Koran, practically every day." He further opined that the Islamic prophet Mohammed had been "an enormously civilizing force." What to make of this? Getting beyond the knee-jerk revulsion to such comments, it may on balance be a good thing that Blair is apparently studying up on Islam. After all, many of our current problems can be traced to a failure of Western policy makers to grasp the basic tenets of Islam. For example, in explaining US support for jihadis in Afghanistan against the Soviets, Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter's National Security Advisor), poo-pooed any...

Antidisestablishmentarianism is on the march. Which is odd, considering there is only the faintest whiff of disestablishmentarianism to fight. The Archbishop of Canterbury set this hare running with his usual confused mumbling into his beard. To disestablish the church would be "by no means the end of the world", he said bravely. He hastened to add that he did not want the church sundered from the state right now. And he would oppose "secularists [boo, hiss] trying to push religion into the private sphere". This sent the Telegraph and Mail into a spin, claiming a devilish distestablishment plot on the...

U.S. intelligence officials kept a file on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's "private life", a former U.S. Navy communications operator said yesterday. David Murfee Faulk, who worked at a listening post in Fort Gordon, Georgia, told ABCNews.com he saw the file on Blair in 2006. But he refused to provide details of the contents of the file, held in an intelligence database called Anchory, other than to say it was a file on his "private life" and included information of a personal nature. Whistleblower Faulk said he heard "pillow talk" phone calls of Iraq's first inter impresident, Ghazi al-Yawer, a...

The US government eavesdropped on Tony Blair while he was British prime minister, according to claims made by a former employee of the National Security Agency. ABC News on Monday reported that the NSA had eavesdropped on Mr Blair and Ghazi al-Yawer, the first Iraqi president following the 2003 invasion. The White House did not respond to inquiries. Making the allegations to ABC, David Faulk, a former NSA Arabic linguist who worked for the spy agency at Fort Gordon, Georgia, claimed to have had access to a top secret database called “Anchory” in 2006 that included personal details about Mr...

I may be a little worried but I do wish Barack Obama well. He cuts a personable and an attractive figure as a political leader -- provisionally at least -- and these things are important. The soaring rhetoric is in itself also appealing in a political leader especially when viewed from the land of dull-as-ditchwater Gordon Brown. On the negative side, it has to be said, is the vacuous but relentless Change mantra. He always leaves you panting on the edge of your seat waiting for the next sentence; change What? How? Why? that never comes. But you see, we...

-snip- McCain made his first million the old-fashioned way: he married the daughter of a wealthy businessman. But Barack Obama, the son of an absent African father and a mother who relied on government-issued food stamps to feed her children, became a millionaire in a more modern manner – on the back of a book deal. It happened circuitously. In 1990, Obama was already enough of a celebrity – the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review – for the New York publishers Simon & Schuster to offer a “six-figure contract” for a proposed autobiography. The only problem...

Apparently, there was a scramble among BritainÂ’s top political leaders to be seen and photographed with Barack Obama, the U.S. Democratic presidential nominee, when he spent a few hours in London last weekend at the end of his week-long overseas trip. Downing Street was reportedly upset when it emerged that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had been upstaged by his old rival Tony Blair in the battle for the top slot in Mr. ObamaÂ’s diary: Mr. Obama had decided to have breakfast with Mr. Blair first before meeting the Prime Minister. The logic of the Obama team in giving priority to...

Tony Blair has been forced to abandon a visit to Gaza today because of specific threats to his life. The tour, which was cancelled after a warning by the Israeli government, dashed the hopes of Gaza's Hamas governors of scoring a propaganda coup as Mr Blair was due to be the first senior Western politician to visit the isolated strip since the Islamist group took control. Mr Blair's convoy first delayed a planned 9am arrival, then, as it approached Israel's Erez crossing into the often-turbulent strip, turned back to Jerusalem after being told of the threat. "We received a specific...

Almost two thirds of people now think Gordon Brown is a "liability," compared to only one in four people a year ago when he took over as Prime Minister. A year ago Mr Brown took over from Tony Blair but there has since been an almost total reversal in the fortunes of Labour and the Conservatives. A year ago when people were asked "who do you think will win the next election," 62 per cent said Labour and only 18 per cent said the Tories. But when asked the question now, today's poll reveals only 16 per cent think Labour...

British Invasion Graduation by: Deborah Lambert, June 26, 2008 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will start teaching at Yale this fall, addressed the school’s 2008 graduating class on May 25th, all of which apparently horrified his former Oxford tutor, who, according to Blair, said: “I only hope for their sake you are going there to learn rather than teach.” Blair discussed the Middle East, climate change and the global economy, urging grads to become involved in causes greater than themselves. He also said that while the grads benefited from superior intellect and luck, it was very important to...

President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting. In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism. The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.� Noting that Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office as Britain’s prime minister last year, the paper also stated that “if anything happens,...

JERUSALEM, May 23 (UPI) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had a close call Thursday when two Israeli jets threatened to shoot down his plane, officials said. Blair, now a special Middle East envoy, was en route to Bethlehem from Egypt when his private jet was spotted entering Israeli airspace. When controllers could get no response from the pilot and fearing a terrorist attack, they scrambled fighter jets to intercept the aircraft, the Times of London reported Friday. The pilot identified himself after the fighter jets got in position to fire and the interceptors peeled off and returned to...

The fact that you already have several holes in your head doesn't mean you want another one. Imagine being Gordon Brown this weekend. You are still reeling from disastrous local election results and the loss of London to Boris Johnson. You trail a record 26 points behind David Cameron in the polls. Rebellion surges through your party's ranks: in Westminster, over the abolition of the 10p tax rate; in Scotland, over the proposed referendum on independence. Senior Labour figures say that there will be trouble - meaning a leadership challenge - if the party does not make serious progress by...

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and tween idol Miley Cyrus have joined Time magazine's "100 most influential people" list alongside other world leaders, celebrities and sports stars. U.S. television talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey again featured on the fifth annual list that was published online on Thursday and hits newsstands on Friday -- the only person listed every year the list has been published. All three U.S. presidential candidates -- Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- were included in the 2008 list alongside Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Chinese President Hu Jintao,...

London - You might want to take that vacation in England just as soon as you can – before its 1,000-year run as a sovereign nation comes to an end. This winter, 27 nations of the European Union (EU) signed the Treaty of Lisbon. You may think, "Innocuous enough," as Portuguese-inspired visions of the Tagus River and chicken piri-piri swirl before your eyes. But for England (Britain, actually) the Treaty of Lisbon isn't that appetizing. That's because, if ratified, it will become the decisive act in this creation of a federal European superstate with its capital in Brussels. Britain would...

Tony Blair added to his burgeoning list of international roles last night by announcing that he will join a group of experts on climate change in an attempt to reduce global carbon emissions. Tony Blair has taken on a number of roles since leaving No 10, including the position of envoy for the Middle East Quartet The former prime minister said he had the support, crucially, of China and the US in drawing up an action plan to cut emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. "This is extremely urgent," he told The Guardian. "A 50 per cent cut by...

A novelist's revenge on Tony Blair In 'The Ghost,' a (familiar) recently retired British PM is rumoured to be a CIA agent MARK STEYN | March 6, 2008 | If ever there was a solid Tony Blair voting bloc it was surely the massed ranks of British novelists. They loathed Thatcher ("Mrs. Torture," as the pre-fatwa Salman Rushdie used to call her), yet "old Labour," with its knuckle-dragging union bosses and old-school class warfare, wasn't entirely their bag, either. Solution: Tony Blair's Third Way. He was "New Labour," just like Bill Clinton was New Democrat. It was all the rage...

Blair to teach 'faith and globalisation' at Yale University JAMES TAPSFIELD TONY Blair is to further his interest in religion by teaching classes on "faith and globalisation" at the prestigious Yale University in an initiative linked to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, due to be launched later this year. Academics at Yale School of Management and Divinity are working with Mr Blair to finalise details of the course. A source close to the former prime minister said he was "delighted" to be taking on the new challenge. The Connecticut university's president, Richard Levin, said staff were "honoured" Mr Blair would...

Tony Blair has found himself another new role as a teacher of faith classes at the prestigious US university Yale. Former PM to become a teacher The former Prime Minister, who converted to Roman Catholicism in December, will pass on his wisdom about "faith and globalisation".A statement from the university said: "Yale University is pleased to announce the appointment of Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Howland Distinguished Fellow for the next academic year."Mr Blair will lead a seminar at Yale and participate in a number of events around the campus."Academics at Yale School of Management and Divinity are working with...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will teach at Yale University in the next academic year starting in September, leading a course on "faith and globalization," the Ivy League school said on Friday. Yale, the alma mater of U.S. President George W. Bush, said Blair had been appointed Howland Distinguished Fellow, a post that dates to 1915 and which has been occupied by such notable individuals as former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and journalist Sir Alistair Cooke. Blair, a part-time international envoy for Palestinian economic development since he stepped down last year, will also participate in...

<p>1. Russians Suspected in Shooting of Kremlin Critic Near D.C.</p> <p>One year ago, Kremlin critic Paul Joyal was gunned down in the driveway of his suburban Maryland home. The case remains unsolved — but some see the hand of Russia in the shooting.</p>

CNN has fired producer Chez Pazienza after the network brass realized he had been blogging at his own left-wing site and several others over a period of years: In a phone interview this morning, Mr. Pazienza, 38, said he joined CNN as a senior producer in January 2004 and has consistently received positive performance evaluations of his work. He spent his first year at CNN at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta, then moved to New York to work on “CNN Daybreak,” which has since been canceled, then “American Morning,” which is shown Monday through Friday, from 6 to 9 a.m....

Blair accused of 'stabbing Hillary Clinton in the back' after supporting RepublicansLast updated at 00:56am on 20th January 2008  Former allies: Bill Clinton and Tony Blair   Tony Blair was accused of betrayal last night as he waded into the American Presidential campaign to support George Bush's Republican world view. As the former PM recommended Mr Bush's policies to 400 millionaire bankers in Las Vegas, former ally Bill Clinton was campaigning in Nevada for his wife Hillary, who hopes to be the Democratic candidate for the White House and is an arch Bush critic. In a move liable to...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair is expected on Thursday to join U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co Inc as a senior adviser, according to a person familiar with the situation. JPMorgan declined to comment. The Financial Times in London first reported the move on its Web site, saying it would be the first of a series positions Blair expects to take in the private sector. Blair, a key ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, was replaced last year by Gordon Brown as prime minister amid growing discontent over Great Britain's policy in Iraq. Details...

The decision by Tony Blair to convert to Catholicism has sparked a row over his government's policies during his term in office as prime minister of the UK. Mr Blair was welcomed into the Roman Catholic church on Friday night by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor -- leader of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales. But his conversion was criticised by commentators who said some of his views while in office were at odds with church teachings. And yesterday, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) reacted with surprise to the news of Mr Blair's...

Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism does not come as a surprise to anyone but I would have liked him to turn to Islam instead. Blair has claimed on many occasions that he has read the Quran and has said he found its teachings "progressive". He is right that the Quran is progressive and as a revealed book of God, it is the latest testament. Why would Blair turn to the older versions of God's testament when there is the Quran? His conversion sounds rather regressive to me. Different denominational churches within Christianity are part of the same house. If the...

LONDON -- Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Catholicism, a long-rumored move, British media reported Saturday. Blair converted during a Mass held on Friday night at a chapel in London, Sky News, the British Broadcasting Corp. and the British news agency Press Association reported, quoting an unidentified spokesman. There had long been rumors that Blair, a member of the Church of England who stepped down as prime minister earlier this year, planned to convert. Blair's wife, Cherie, is Roman Catholic, the couple's children have attended Catholic schools and Blair had habitually attended Catholic rather than Anglican services.

Tony Blair joins Catholic faith Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to the Catholic faith. His wife Cherie is a Catholic and there had been speculation that he would convert to Catholicism from his Anglican faith after leaving office. Mr Blair's official spokesman confirmed he had converted on Friday night and said it was a private matter. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said he was "very glad" to welcome Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, into the Catholic Church. 'Nutter' fear One of Mr Blair's final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican...

"TONY BLAIR has admitted that his Christianity played a “hugely important” role during his premiership but he was forced to play down his religious conviction for fear of being seen by the public as “a nutter”. In his most frank television interview about his religious beliefs, Blair confesses he would have found it difficult to do the job of prime minister had he not been able to draw on his faith." "In The Blair Years, the former prime minister, who is expected to convert to Roman Catholicism soon, compares the differing attitude to religion in British politics with that in...

Tony Blair was on the brink of announcing his conversion to Catholicism on a visit to the Pope until a last-ditch intervention by Britain's Roman Catholic leader.   Tony Blair at an audience with Pope Benedict XVI The former Prime Minister was planning to make the historic statement on a trip to the Vatican, but was persuaded not to at the 11th hour.Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, advised Mr Blair that it would be unwise and inappropriate to use such a high-profile occasion for such an important private event, particularly coming just days before he was due to...