Free Republic

(CNN)Poll of the week: A new Gallup poll finds that 59.2% of Americans say they're thriving. Additionally, 73% of Americans said they experienced enjoyment for a lot of the previous day.The former is the highest rating Gallup has ever recorded on the measure dating back to when it was first taken more than 13 years ago. The latter is the highest since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year. What's the point: The last year has been tough for a lot of Americans. Among other issues, the coronavirus dominated our lives, and there was a very contentious presidential election. But...

Washington (CNN)First Lady Michelle Obama is making her third appearance on the cover of Vogue as her days in the White House draw to a close. The cover shows the first lady reclining on the grass in the South Lawn garden, her hair loose and her elbows propped up on a flower bed. Inside the magazine, Obama describes a wistfulness at leaving White House life behind. "You know, there are little ... moments," she said. "Looking out on the South Lawn and the Washington Monument and it had just rained and the grass was really green and everything popped a...

Jonathan Alter's report just the first chapter of presidential work in progress When this writer was a young boy, he overheard a woman of considerable age and learning remark, only half in jest, “I have to read Walter Lippmann every morning so I know what I think.” Go ahead. Admit it. You do something like that, too. We all do. It isn’t that we are Dittoheads. It isn’t that we are chumps. But we typically have favorite pundits we like to look to. Some news happens, a White House leak or a gulf oil spill, and even as we consider...

In a "Special Report" on the president's question-and-answer session with Republicans last Friday, MSNBC's jock-sniffers Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow produced a museum-quality show: MATTHEWS: Everybody agrees he could handle everything today. ... OLBERMANN: It almost felt like watching the stories of John L. Sullivan, the 19th-century boxer, who would volunteer to fight anybody and everybody in the house and knock them all out. ... MADDOW (imagining Obama thinking): You've brought a pet issue here, congressman, who is the ranking member of the Budget Committee, let me tell you 400,000 things about it, and invite you to continue...

Her job description says Madeline Adams is a social worker. But lately she's begun volunteering for tasks she never had before at the St. Louis marriage counseling agency where she works: planning events, ordering supplies, stocking shelves. She estimates she's put in hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime work. Adams isn't gunning for a promotion. She just wants to keep her job. Bosses around the country these days are discovering it's not too much ask for a little extra help around the office. Anything but. More employees seem to be showing up early, forgoing vacation time, taking on extra projects...

How media sucks up to White House By: Michael Calderone March 3, 2009 04:10 PM EST In a profile last month, The Washington Post described deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina as a “low-profile aide” who begins “fixing President Obama’s problems” before 7 a.m., works 14 hours straight and then hits the gym. Not to be outdone, POLITICO noted the next day that White House chief legislative liaison Phil Schiliro — another “low-profile” official but one possessing “Buddha-like Zen” — is already working in the West Wing by 6 a.m. Time says reporters admire White House press secretary...

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The most sought-after corporate board members are those who curry favor with fellow directors, not those who are active in standing up for shareholders, a new academic study has concluded. The study paints an unflattering picture of outside directors in corporate America, who have come under increased scrutiny in recent years following a series of major U.S. business scandals. boardroom_meeting.03.jpg NEWSMAKERS The study by business professors James Westphal of the University of Michigan and Ithai Stern of Northwestern University suggests that directors - who are supposed to be watchdogs for shareholders - still are not independent...

Latin America: Fidel Castro is dying, his 47-year tyranny is fading and who heads for Havana to offer aid and succor to its continuation? Congressman Bill Delahunt. There's something wrong here. Delahunt's trip is an outrage. Like congressional Democrats who defied a White House request to not visit Syria last week, the Massachusetts Democrat and the nine members of his delegation rolled into Cuba to undercut U.S. foreign policy, which right now is trying to encourage democracy. Delahunt argues that he's playing a constructive role, but that claim is belied by the contrast between the gentle tribute he paid to...

Last week, three US Senators, Florida's Bill Nelson, Connecticut's Thomas Dodd, and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee visited with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in Caracas, to try to assess the deteriorating state of US-Venezuelan relations. The three Senators left their meeting, reciting the need for improved relations, and describing how central was Venezuela's role in supplying oil to America. The identical statements could have been uttered had the three Senators visited the sheikhs and princes in Saudi Arabia, of course. However, other than the many paid shills for Saudi Arabia in the think tanks and Middle East studies institutes in this...

When staffers at the National Endowment for Democracy opened a letter asking about their programs in Venezuela last year, they never expected their response to trigger the persecution of democratic activists in that troubled country. Yet that's exactly what has happened, as Latin America's most ambitious strongman, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, has joined forces with American leftists to crack down on grassroots organizations that merely seek to promote free elections. The story begins with Jeremy Bigwood, a self-described journalist with a history of left-wing activism in Central America. He wanted to take a look at just about every scrap of...

As television and radio reel from new censorship laws in Venezuela, there are also signs of intimidation appearing against Venezuela's bloggers. We've recently reported that "media" like VHeadline* aligned with Venezuela's dictatorship have targeted the fearless Aleks Boyd, whose blog VCrisis.vom is a thorn in the side of the Chavez regime. They've now taken aim at essayist Gustavo Coronel, a retired Venezuelan oil executive who writes graceful, informative essays on VenezuelaToday. Coronel's deep well of knowledge has drawn the invective of chavistas in the past, but his latest work, directed at Global Exchange and at the Sandalista political tourists who...

More Runners-Up Quotes in MRC's Awards for the Worst Reporting      Monday's CyberAlert featured the winners and Tuesday’s the first runners-up. So today, the second and third runners-up quotes in the MRC's “Best Notable Quotables of 2003: The Sixteenth Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting.”      For the winners, see item #4 in the December 29 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org      For the first runners-up, see the December 30 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org      And for the names of the 46 judges, see item #5 in the December 29 CyberAlert: www.mediaresearch.org      Or, you can find it all on the MRC Web site...

<p>UNITED NATIONS — A contentious United Nations (search) debate is brewing — and this time it's not over Iraq. It's all about who pays to maintain the U.N. itself.</p> <p>The U.N.'s two 50-year-old buildings in New York City are basically falling apart — decaying pipes and crumbling ceilings are now commonplace — and the U.N. is seeking an interest-free loan worth more than $1 billion to renovate its headquarters.</p>