Free Republic

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is said to be ready to admit that he fathered a love child. But Hades may have a skating rink before his wife, Elizabeth, signs off on such a confession. As a grand jury in North Carolina considers whether Edwards misused campaign funds to cover up the scandal, Elizabeth still can't abide his former mistress, Rielle Hunter. Word is Elizabeth vehemently opposed the plan, now in place, for Hunter and daughter Quinn to move from New Jersey to Wilmington, N.C., where the Edwardses have a beach house. For months now, Elizabeth, who is said to...

Is First Lady Michelle Obama sporting a taste for ultra-expensive fashion pieces, or is she cementing her status as a savvy shopper? Back in April she wore a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers at a Washington food bank. Earlier this week (while strolling the wooded landscape outside of Moscow), she carried a sexy black clutch, which Italian luxury house VBH boasts is their shiny black alligator manila bag – with a retail sticker price of $5,950. The White House flatly denies that Obama bought such a high-priced accessory, and says that she was carrying a patent clutch that retails for...

Life & Style reveals its exclusive 100% unretouched photo shoot of Internet star Kim Kardashian. After being called fat, Kim declares, ‘This is the real me, I love my body. You should love yours too.” The verdict is… A bold move by Life & Style. The magazine that launched Robert Pattinson into celebrity weekly cover fame, is trying to do it again with Kim Kardashian. I mentioned that Kim is an Internet star (Just like Pattinson). She’s often one of the most searched stars on CoverAwards. The big question is whether or not she can carry the cover of a...

<p>MAGNOLIA, Ark. -- Sheriff’s deputies say a Texas woman started a brawl at a wake in Arkansas when she arrived with a beer can in her hand.</p>

Last week I received the following e-mail, and I felt it would be best to share my response here on the blog. Dear Mr. White, For someone considering converting to Catholicism, what questions would you put to them in order to discern whether or not they have examined their situation sufficiently? Say, a Top 10 list. Thanks. When I posted this question in our chat channel a number of folks commented that it was in fact a great question, and we started to throw out some possible answers. Here is my "Top Ten List" in response to this fine inquiry....

NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- A former Norwin homecoming queen accused of attacking her sister with a prosthetic leg and threatening to burn down a neighbor's trailer was ordered on Wednesday to go to rehab. Donna Sturkie-Anthony showed up for her preliminary hearing before District Judge Douglas Weimer, but the 41-year-old woman's hearing was continued so she can go to Greenbriar Treatment Center. Police said Sturkie-Anthony's sister came to visit her at Lincoln Mobile Home Park on Route 30 in January, and the two started arguing about her alcohol abuse. Then, police said Sturkie-Anthony pulled off her sister's prosthetic leg and...

(Gov. David Paterson, with his wife, Michelle, at his side, publically addresses his past extramarital affairs - a story first reported by the Daily News.) In an extraordinary public confession less than 24 hours after taking office, Gov. Paterson said Tuesday he has had affairs with "a number of women" in the not-so-distant past - including a current state employee. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his grim-faced wife, Michelle, the governor said his "conscience is clear" - now that he has come clean about his private infidelities. He said he hopes now to focus on the public's business. "I...

WASHINGTON -- There always has been something delusional about the Clintons' project to make Hillary this country's next commander in chief. Start with the balderdash so frequently exuded through the media that she is, along with her husband, a "rock star." Well, they left the White House like rock stars. They trashed the place. Yet Hillary, a physically unprepossessing lady on the far side of middle age, is not a rock star. Agreed, when she and her bodyguards enter a room, she turns a lot of heads, but so does a roadside automobile accident or the clumsy waitress who just...

Tomorrow is the time when so many of us will make decisions of great importance in the ballot box. If voting for a Democrat, we will decide between a male candidate and what has been dubbed "Billary" - two heads to match a double set of sex organs. It also means certain kinds of trouble because it both affords the Republicans an almost certain victory and illuminates the confusion and lack of integrity that have always been the problem of "identity politics." There is nothing the Republicans would love more than running against the political hermaphrodite. Hushed word is that...

Campaign workers for Hillary Clinton left such a mess when they cleared out of their headquarters in Clinton, Iowa — that the building manager says he will never rent office space to a political candidate again. The Quad-City Times reports the campaign rented six rooms from last summer until after the Iowa caucuses early this month. Building manager Duane Jones says when the staff left — he found garbage, spoiled food, holes drilled in the walls for phone lines without permission, and stains on the carpets. He also says a smoke alarm was missing — and noticed that windows were...

It's hard to imagine that Scott McClellan's allegations that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were involved in the false exoneration of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame case will be treated as anything but another footnote in the truth-challenged history of the Bush administration. It will be the spring of 2008 before McClellan's book is published -- deep into a presidential race -- and we'll eat the paper this isn't printed on if either Democrats in Congress or Michael Mukasey will be willing to go to the wall then in a serious investigation of what really...

OAKS BLUFF, Mass. (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to her favorite family vacation spot Saturday to raise money for her presidential campaign at a celebrity-studded event where she took some pointed swipes at President Bush. Clinton—accompanied by her husband and their daughter Chelsea—smiled broadly and swayed to the music as singer Carly Simon and her two children, Ben and Sally Taylor, sang "Devoted to You" for a Martha's Vineyard crowd of more than 2,000. Simon, along with actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, showered the Clintons with praise and predicted the senator from New York will be elected...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When all else fails in Hollywood, blame it on "method acting." Pop star Britney Spears on Thursday explained why she furiously attacked a car with an umbrella -- she was rehearsing for a movie role. ADVERTISEMENT As the former pop princess reinvents her career after a failed marriage, a stint in rehabilitation and panty-less pictures taken in public, Spears posted a note on her Web site, www.britneyspears.com, apologizing to the paparazzi for the umbrella-bashing incident, calling it a "stunt." "I was preparing my character for a roll (sic) in a movie where the husband never plays...

...he was stunned to see two large Confederate flags flying from trucks...emblazoned with the words "The South Shall Rise Again." I'm stunned, too, that people still think it is cool to fly this flag. Our society should bury these flags -- not flaunt them...because the Confederate flag symbolizes racial tyranny to so many... ...This flag doesn't belong on city streets, in videos or in the middle of civil discussion. It belongs in our past -- in museums and in history books -- along with the ideas it represents.

Senator Clinton's Lawyers Seek to Halt Fraud Suit By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff Writer March 27, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Attorneys for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) are trying to keep her out of a lawsuit that may ultimately force her to testify under oath about an alleged violation of campaign finance laws. Washington lawyers David Kendall and Carolyn Utrecht and Los Angeles attorney Jan B. Norman -- all representing the apparent frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- filed legal briefs Friday in the California Court of Appeals focusing heavily on the criminal background of plaintiff Peter Paul, the Hollywood...

This is incredible. Listen to the audio. After listening to this blatant phony and fool, I thought to myself: "And the Democrats and the Media dare to criticize Bush?" I would be monumentally embarrassed to be a Democrat after listening to this.

"Clinton Fights to Keep Impeachment Taboo" headlined the Washington Post, with the following subheadline: "After Spat, Campaigns Know to Expect Swift Reprisal for any Hint of the Scandal." And the Post reported: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband." Can you believe this? The American people are now expected through all members of the media – and all election crowd questioners – to observe censorship. There are to be no questions regarding impeachment, trial and conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747605/posts Communication Professor Examines Media Bias in President's Speeches Virginia Tech News ^ | 11/30/06 | Jean Elliott Posted on 12/02/2006 5:28:58 PM CST by LS BLACKSBURG, VA., November 30, 2006 -- Jim A. Kuypers, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, reveals a disturbing world of media bias in his new book Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2006). Convincingly and without resorting to partisan politics, Kuypers strongly illustrates in eight chapters “how the press failed America in its...

Nevada's race for governor was barely a contest at all until it took a scandalous turn a few weeks ago, when a cocktail waitress accused Rep. Jim Gibbons of trying to sexually assault her in a parking garage after a night of drinking just off the Las Vegas Strip. The lurid allegations in the closing weeks of the campaign have put the race back in play and put the one-time Republican front-runner on the defensive. Policy issues have taken a back seat to dueling news conferences, a burgeoning criminal investigation and a mystery over what exactly is on the parking...

Teen Arrested for Raping His Mother Albertville, Ala. -- Police say a Marshall County teen raped his mother to get revenge on his brother. Police say 19-year-old Gary Helms, Jr., raped his 45-year-old mother this past weekend at Willow Terrace Trailer Park on Doyle Drive in Albertville. It's a twisted crime that police say Helms admits. "From what we understand the rape stemmed from an argument between him and his brother. And apparently they were arguing over a girlfriend. And the rape was some sort of retaliation towards his brother," said Sgt. Jamie Smith of the Albertville Police Department. It...

FLASH!!! Dixie Chicks Natalie Manes just now blamed the Free Republic for their downfall on "Hardball." She claims the FR had an organized effort to bring them down.

Hillary enemies find her cross just unbearable Hillary Clinton has appeared a handful of times this summer and fall with a cross around her neck, and it's an image that touches a nerve with the people who hate her. But Clinton is among the most religious Protestants seeking the presidency in 2008. If she gets the Democratic nod, she could well be matched against a less openly devout Republican. "She's actually the real deal, although a lot of people don't think of her as religious," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life...

  Did you see Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) suggest last week what her husband would have done if he had received the August 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Brief concerning bin Laden? Touching, wasn’t it? If only there was an ounce of truth to it.To refresh everyone’s memory, after former president Bill Clinton’s meltdown during an interview with Chris Wallace on September 24, the junior senator from New York felt compelled to come to his rescue: “I’m certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled `Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside United...

Sen. Hillary Clinton has spoken up in support of her husband Bill’s defense of his anti-terror efforts, saying she’s tired of Democrats being pushed around on national security issues. "I just think that my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take this,” she said on Monday in remarks reported by Newsday. In a heated discussion with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday,” Bill Clinton said that as president, he did more than many of his conservative critics to pursue al-Qaida, and alleged that President Bush didn’t try to stop terrorism in the eight...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

Former US president Bill Clinton listens to Bill Gates during a Symposium on "Priorities in Ending the Epidemic" at the XVI International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada.(AFP/Jorge Uzon)

ALBUQUERQUE -- Right in the middle of today’s deadly carjacker pursuit, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department arrested two members of Albuquerque’s famous Unser racing family. Both Al Unser Sr. and Bobby Unser Sr. were booked into the Metro Detention Center this afternoon charged with failure to obey a police officer and resisting arrest. Both walked out of the jail about 3:30 p.m. The brothers, who have a combined seven checkered flags at the Indianapolis 500 and are huge names in the racing world, apparently thought their celebrity status meant they were above the law. The police pursuit of a stolen...

HODE, Ky. — Two eastern Kentucky men are charged with animal cruelty in the deaths of each others' cats. David A. May, 20, and Arlon K. White, 27 — who each kept a cat at a trailer court in Hode, near the Kentucky-West Virginia border — allegedly killed the animals last week, Martin County Deputy Sheriff Arthur Bowen said Wednesday. May allegedly knocked White's cat off his car and shot the animal with a rifle, Bowen said.

WILLIAM Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark. After his mother remarried, he took the family surname, Clinton. Clinton was a good student. He enjoyed playing the saxophone and even considered a professional musical career. While in high school, a fortuitous meeting with President John Kennedy led him to choose a life of public service.

Angry boos greeted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at a liberal conference yesterday when she opposed fixing a date for withdrawing American forces from Iraq. The sour audience response, at the Campaign for America’s Future conference, hints at the 2008 presidential front-runner’s shaky standing with anti-war Democrats, who wield increasing power in the party. Clinton’s speech packed the room with a crowd billed as the nation’s largest gathering of progressives. But, although the left-leaning audience raucously cheered her domestic agenda, there was only a sprinkling of applause mixed with jeers when the senator refused to disavow her vote authorizing the...

June 13, 2006 -- THE ISSUE: Sen. Hillary Clinton's criticism of Ann Coulter for attacking the widows of 9/11 victims. Sen. Hillary Clinton recently blasted Ann Coulter by stating: "I felt it's unimaginable that anyone in the public eye could launch a vicious, mean-spirited attack on people who I've known in the last 4 1/2 years to be concerned deeply about the safety and security of our country" ("Give-'em-Hill Fury vs. Coulter," June 8). As a parade of Democrats have launched one vicious, heinous assault after another on President Bush, the troops and conservatives, Clinton has remained silent. From...

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Capitol Hill in 1994 in an effort to lobby support for a universal health care plan for which she was sharply criticized. WASHINGTON, June 9 — No policy issue has bedeviled Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more than health care. Ever since the collapse of her proposal for universal coverage in 1994, critics have used the issue as prime evidence in their case that she is, at heart, a big-government liberal with a zeal for social engineering. But now, as Mrs. Clinton heads into her re-election campaign and a possible bid...

In a development that got no media play over the weekend, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's defense lawyer announced on Friday that he has located five witnesses who will testify that Joe Wilson outed his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA employee before Robert Novak did so in his July 2003 column. According to the NationalReviewOnline's Byron York, Libby's lawyer Ted Wells told the court that his witnesses "will say under oath that Mr. Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA." Wells said that he expects Leakgate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to call Wilson to testify in a bid to...

WASHINGTON — The Republican congresswoman from Florida wanted to make one thing absolutely clear: Her argument was not whether the little house in Hope, Ark., should be designated as a national historic site. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite on Wednesday delayed for hours the House passage of a bill designating President Clinton's boyhood home as a national landmark. Brown-Waite said she wanted to draw attention to Clinton's involvement in a deal allowing a Dubai-owned company to help manage six U.S. seaports. "It is not against President Clinton, it is not against (the resolution), but rather I wish we had more time so...

Economically, every society needs children. Children are the producers of the future This means that children are in a sense a necessary economic good. A society that does not produce enough children, or that cannot produce enough children who grow into economically productive adults, is doomed to poverty. Every long-term investment we make, whether in the private or public sector, is predicated on the idea that there will be a future generation which will actually produce a return. It doesn't matter what economic or political system rules the present, it will need children to secure its future. Even the most...

Today's memorial service for civil rights activist Coretta Scott King -- billed as a "celebration" of her life -- turned suddenly political as one former president took a swipe at the current president, who was also lashed by an outspoken black pastor! The outspoken Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, ripped into President Bush during his short speech, ostensibly about the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. "She extended Martin's message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar. We know now that there were no weapons...

S VEGAS - Wading nearly knee-deep in the mattresses, sooted clothing and discarded tires dumped outside his trailer, Rubin Reams wants visitors to know he hasn't always lived this way. The 51-year-old poker dealer never had much of a financial cushion. But he worked full time and steadily, and owned a 40-foot double tip-out trailer he happily called home. ADVERTISEMENT Then the mobile home park he lived in was sold to a developer, and the rug — like the land — was pulled out from under him. "I've always been able to survive. But sometimes I can't believe I got...

Britney Spears kicked Kevin Federline out of her Malibu mansion because she allegedly 'wants to punish him'. Angry Britney booted Federline from their luxury home last week — sparking fears their marriage may be over. The couple's relationship has allegedly been on the rocks since Britney gave birth to their son Sean Preston in September. While she has been left caring for the baby, fun-loving Federline has carried on with his party hard lifestyle. Britney is 'furious' Kevin has not settled down to help her care for Sean Preston. She has even decided to repossess the $200,000 Ferrari sports car...

BRITNEY Spears and Kevin Federline reportedly fear a steamy home video is about to be made public. A member of the singer’s entourage is believed to have copied one of the couple’s personal video tapes – allegedly recorded while Britney was still expecting baby son Sean Preston - and is threatening to release it. A source told America’s US Weekly magazine: "He has threatened to release raunchy footage of the two taken before Spears looked pregnant.”

It was billed as a strategy session for student activists, but it turned into the launch of Bill Clinton's latest role in American politics. The one-time commander-in-chief is now cheerleader-in-chief for his wife's undeclared but unconcealed run for the White House in 2008. The last Democrat president abandoned his notes to announce that Hillary Clinton was ready to win back America's highest office for their party. He was speaking at a seminar of college liberals in front of fellow high-ranking Democrats in Washington, the day after his wife's office launched a revamped website. Officially, it is part of her bid...

Vandals Attack, Cause Tanker To Overturn In Atlanta The driver of a tanker carrying 7,500 gallons diesel fuel inadvertently flipped his truck trying to avoid a hail of rocks and lit fireworks, police said. Apparently, people were throwing chunks of concrete at and setting off fireworks toward the truck as it traveled eastbound along Donald Lee Holloway Parkway, the former Bankhead Highway, just a mile west of Interstate 285, witnesses said. The driver – whose name has not been released – swerved out of harm’s way, but ended up flipping the tanker. The tanker flipped completely over while careening down...

Don't get me wrong. I live in the south, and I love the south. I spend my Saturday afternoons watching the Georgia Bulldogs and other southern college football teams; I enjoy true quality peaches and real grapes known as scuppernongs; I eat my fatback and grits; and the people are very nice. I simply disagree with them about politics and religion. The political beliefs of white southerners drag this country down. It has always been this way throughout American history starting with the issue of slavery. Most northern states gave up slavery as early as 1800, but for economic reasons,...

Borrowing a page from President Bush, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton told a Boston audience this week that prayer has always played a meaningful role in her life - though accounts from her days as a student radical suggest that's probably not true. "I've always been a praying person," Clinton told a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza. According to the Boston Globe, the newly religious former first lady "invoked God more than half a dozen times" as she urged society to accommodate religious people who "live out their faith in the...

You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends tell us that the two are cheering Sis on and say she's making all the moves to get ready for the race--presuming she is re-elected by New Yorkers in 2006.

On the eve of President Bush's second inauguration, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is blasting him as the "fear factor" president who tries to sell his irresponsible agenda by scaring the voters. "The fear factor has become the overriding strategic approach that this administration uses," Clinton complained to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The likely 2008 presidential candidate told the paper that Bush has used scare tactics to rally public support on issues ranging from U.S. policy in Iraq to privatization of Social Security. On Iraq Clinton griped that Bush had even botched the election process, saying that regional balloting...

Hillary Clinton on Environment Supports oil reserve release & fund conservation Q: Do you support conserving energy?A: I’ve spoken about an energy policy that would include conservation tax credits that the Republicans have blocked. The administration has put forth an energy policy that we couldn’t get through that Republican leadership that my opponent is part of. We need a new Congress. I was pleased when the president did release some oil from the reserve. So we have work to do and it needs to be led by Democrats who understand that we shouldn’t be beholden to big oil. Source:...

WASHINGTON - Tomorrow night, with the nation's capital awash in inaugural events, Sen. Hillary Clinton will be delivering a high-profile speech in Boston about politics and youth. She is the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for a group headed by outspoken Boston minister, Rev. Eugene Rivers. Aides to Clinton, a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2008, said she agreed to give the speech a long time ago and said nothing should be read into the timing.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...