Free Republic

On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog, but someone in the liberal media just informed me that the president of the U.S. is a black man. And as such cannot be criticized or joked about by conservatives. Obama is off limits! They can make all kinds of rude and crude jokes about George Bush, even comparing him in thousands of crude cartoons over the past eight years as a chimp, but man. If you were to follow suit comparing today's president to a smirking chimp you would be crucified! And Sarah Palin's family and children? Open season! Even...

A website aimed at combating so-called Internet "smears" about President Obama has disappeared from the Internet – including an alleged certification of live birth posted during his campaign – and archives for the website have been thoroughly scrubbed.

Barack Obama, Kenya’s most famous son, may have a deep attachment to his ancestral homeland but he is not letting emotions rule his head. On his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since his election, he has snubbed his father’s birthplace by choosing to go to Ghana. The Kenyan Government and its notoriously corrupt and quarrelsome ministers are not happy... Kenya has been left to ponder what might have been. In the heady days of Mr Obama’s ascent to the White House, politicians — particularly those from the Luo tribe of his late father — had envisioned an African-style “special relationship”....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31856235#31856235

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural address is one of the most anticipated speeches in decades, with many expecting his words to be chiseled into marble some day.

Reality is setting in: governing is much harder than campaigning, and President-elect Obama is not the infallible figure the media has made him out to be. In Washington there are dozens of ways to get knocked off course, especially when the captain of the ship lacks prior executive experience but has no shortage of bravado. How the president-elect navigates through the next couple of weeks will help determine the course for his first year. For now, it seems that it won’t be all smooth sailing. Even more than a rocky confirmation hearing, President-elect Obama’s fortunes may flounder on the shores...

Barack Obama on Sunday was dealt his first serious setback since the election when his choice for commerce secretary withdrew from nomination, as congressional leaders warned that an emergency $775bn fiscal stimulus package was unlikely to be passed before the presidential inauguration. Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and the only new member of Mr Obama’s cabinet with previous cabinet experience, said he was stepping aside because of a pending investigation of a company that had done business with in New Mexico. “Let me say unequivocally that I and my administration have acted properly in all matters and that...

It looks as if Barack Obama and his transition team know how badly Bill Richardson’s resignation reflects on them. They have started leaking to the press that Richardson’s to blame for the embarrassing spectacle this afternoon of his withdrawal as a Cabinet nominee. Jake Tapper has the details: "Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial...

WASHINGTON (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract. Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case. A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's...

BEIRUT — President-elect Barack Obama's silence on the weeklong conflict in Gaza is drawing criticism among Arabs who have grown skeptical about hopes that his administration will break with the Mideast policies of the Bush era. Obama has made no statements, either about Israel's bombing of Gaza or Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel. Arab commentators maintain that Obama did comment on foreign affairs when he condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. They suggest that his refusal to speak out on Gaza — where more than 400 Palestinians have died in the Israeli airstrikes, compared to four Israeli deaths from the...

The folowing statements were provided by Gilbert Gallegos, Gov. Bill Richardson's deputy chief of staff. STATEMENT OF PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA It is with deep regret that I accept Governor Bill Richardson's decision to withdraw his name for nomination as the next Secretary of Commerce.Governor Richardson is an outstanding public servant and would have brought to the job of Commerce Secretary and our economic team great insights accumulated through an extraordinary career in federal and state office. It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in...

Barack Obama's chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza. That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until January 20. But foreign wars don't wait for Washington inaugurations. Obama has remained wholly silent during the Gaza crisis. His aides say he is following established protocol that the US has only one president at a time. Hillary Clinton, his designated secretary of state, and Joe Biden, the vice-president-elect and foreign policy...

Mimicking the voice of the Rev. Al Sharpton, the song — which first aired on Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated radio show — begins like this: Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C. The L.A. Times, they called him that ‘Cause he’s not authentic like me. Yeah, the guy from the L.A. paper Said he makes guilty whites feel good. They’ll vote for him, and not for me ‘Cause he’s not from the hood. The tune is certainly provocative and amusing. The problem is that, for those who want to condemn it as racist — as many on the Left tried...

Jews worry for a living; their tragic history compels them to do so. In the next few years, there will be plenty to worry about, particularly when it comes to Israel. The current operation in Gaza won't do much to ease these worries or to address Israel's longer-term security needs. The potential for a nuclear Iran, combined with the growing accuracy and lethality of Hamas and Hizbullah rockets, will create tremendous concern. Anxiety may also be provoked by something else: an Obama administration determined to repair America's image and credibility and to reach a deal in the Middle East. Don't...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state. "Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," he said Sunday in a report by NBC News. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would