Free Republic

Out: Kate Bedingfield as White House Communications Director. In: Ben LaBolt, a veteran press adviser to former President Barack Obama. When White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that Bedingfield would leave the White House at the end of February and be replaced by Ben LaBolt, she made a point of saying this is a history-making move.According to KJP, it is important for everyone to know that Ben LaBolt is an openly gay man. The Biden administration is all about “representation”, you see, and LaBolt is further proof of that.Jean-Pierre: "Ben [LaBolt] is making history. Here at the Biden White...

Well folks, here I go again putting myself out there at risk of the Left dragging my Christian black conservative derriere into the public square and flogging me within an inch of my political life. But I just cannot seem to let it go. It sticks in my craw that Leftists get away with portraying themselves as victims of traditional America, while in reality, they are the relentless vicious aggressors forcing their socialist/progressive agenda down our throats; bullying people into submission and silence. Remember the Left's shock and awe campaign to destroy Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty for daring to...

At a time when publishers are scrambling to keep customers willing to pay $26 for a hardcover book instead of $9.99 for an electronic version, the publisher of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s forthcoming memoir is going in the opposite direction - issuing a limited edition it plans to sell for $1,000 a copy. Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, is planning to issue 1,000 copies of a leather-bound, electronically signed edition of “True Compass’’ and sell them through the website of Hachette Book Group, the parent company of Grand Central. Although publishers and licensed contractors do occasionally produce collectors’...

The United States has long thought itself to be the world's moral compass and "peace" keeper. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright proclaimed the United States to be the "indispensable'' country. Yet abroad or at home, the reality is different. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, produces 25 percent of the greenhouse gases. It leads the world in per capita consumption of five basic commodities: grain, meat, oil, coal and steel. President Bush, and most Americans, believe the United States to be the "greatest nation on Earth," or No. 1. But with no president...

Republicans expressed anger this past summer when U.S. Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, D-Chicago, used videotape of coffins of American soldiers killed in Iraq for a political advertisement. They accused Emmanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, of disrespecting American war dead for political purposes. Democrats answered criticism by pointing to a Bush presidential campaign commercial which aired footage of a firefighter's corpse carried on a stretcher from Ground Zero following 9-11. All of which brings up the delicate, painful but severely important matter of our troops, those American sons and daughters fighting in this war in which nearly 3,000 of...

If your favorite uncles dropped in from out of town for a rare visit, you'd probably be surprised if the mood turned somber and they started lecturing you. You'd be downright shocked to find yourself enthralled with the strange turn the evening had taken. That's probably how most people felt in the packed house at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young raged on for three hours Sunday night. The granddaddy of rock's "supergroups," touring for the third time as a quartet since Neil Young rejoined in 2000 after a 26-year absence, wore its...

Even though the war on terror dominates the headlines, the culture war in America is almost as intense. On one side you have traditionalists, people who believe the country was well-founded, does mostly good things, and has become the most powerful nation on earth by adhering to Judeo-Christian principles like generosity, justice, and self-sacrifice. On the other side of the culture war are the secular-progressives (S-P's) who believe that the USA is fundamentally a flawed country, which has caused considerable misery both within and outside our borders. The S-P's want drastic change and a new direction for America. The two...

Officials aren't sure whether the painting of a Nazi swastika on the garage door of a U.S. Air Force reservist being deployed to Germany today was a hate crime or vandalism. The man, who has asked to remain anonymous, reported the incident at his home in the 44500 block of Sandhurst Lane about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, sheriff's Lt. Gordon Carn said. When deputies arrived, the man already had washed off the swastika, Carn said, adding, "There was no visible damage." Deputies were investigating the incident as a "possible hate incident," although the actual motive remained unclear Sunday. "The man has...