Free Republic

This past week, I've seen or read plenty of news analyses suggesting that the Republicans have a weak field of presidential hopefuls for 2012. Not so. I believe many of the potential candidates for the GOP nomination have strategically strong paths to the White House, assuming President Obama still is vulnerable next year. Last week in this column, I put forth an explanation as to why Newt Gingrich is a stronger political force than many imagine. This week, let's consider the Republicans' other potential major candidates for the White House. For starters, there's Mitt Romney. Some will contend his expected...

JaMarcus Russell's return to greatness isn't going as well as planned. The former No. 1 pick of the Oakland Raiders, famous for wearing mink coats and taxing a heavy toll on the team's bench, needs to find a job soon. Foreclosure proceedings have started on Russell's Oakland mansion, according to TMZ. If the former LSU star can't come up with $195,512.05 in backed mortgage payments in the next three months, his house will be auctioned off. Russell purchased the house in 2007 for $3 million before he even signed his contract with the Raiders. The 5,800-square-foot has six bedrooms, six...

Long ago Bill Buckley drummed the anti-Semites out of the conservative movement, and the movement thrived as a result. But the Jew-haters have returned. For years the Texas crackpot, Ron Paul, has been attacking America and Israel as imperialist powers — the Great Satan and the Little Satan, and calling for America’s retreat from the battle against our totalitarian enemies. At the recent CPAC conference Paul’s Jew-hating storm-troopers swarmed the Freedom Center’s table to vent their spleen against Israel as a Nazi state. Now Paul is making a priority of withdrawing aid for Israel — the only democracy in the...

A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

CHICAGO—A larger-than-expected exodus over the past 10 years reduced the population of Chicago to a level not seen in nearly a century. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that during the decade ended in 2010, Chicago's population fell 6.9% to 2,695,598 people, fewer than the 2.7 million reported back in 1920. Chicago's Exodus View Interactive ..After peaking at 3.62 million people in 1950, Chicago underwent a half century of decline that ended only when the 1990s boom years produced a small gain in the 2000 count. At that time, the city loudly celebrated its comeback. But the recent recession accelerated...

A Pontiac woman’s alleged theft attempt was foiled this week when her motorized cart became stuck at a Rochester Hills Meijer. Jerrie Perkins, 30, is charged with unarmed robbery, resisting and obstructing a police officer and second-degree retail fraud. Her bond was set at $15,000 by 52-3 District Magistrate Nick Camargo during arraignment Thursday. Investigators said Perkins was attempting to leave the Rochester Road Meijer with more than $600 worth of stolen electronic merchandise when her cart got stuck and she was unable to drive out the door. The door alarm was activated when Perkins passed through it around 9:20...

THOUSANDS of British women are so desperate for a bigger bottom they are risking their lives by taking pills designed to fatten up chickens. The poultry tablets are packed with hormones that have been linked to breast cancer and liver problems in humans. Originally they were used by farmers to bulk up chickens - but it was discovered that when taken by women they enhance the size of thighs, hips and bottom.

President Obama will be re-elected in 2012 unless New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie runs for president, said conservative pundit Ann Coulter at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday. “If we don’t run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we’ll lose,” Coulter said when asked about her predictions for the next presidential election (Snip) Coulter’s comments this year reveal a departure from the last election cycle, when she endorsed Romney in 2008, calling him “our strongest candidate.”

President Obama recounts an anecdote about the 2004 Democratic National Convention at White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' final press briefing:"The most challenging problem was what tie to wear. And this went up to the very last minute I mean, 10 minutes before we were about to go on stage we were still having an argument about ties. I had bought five, six ties. And Michelle didn't like any of them, Axelrod didn't like a couple of them -- him being one of the best dressed men in the world. So we really valued his opinion."And then somebody -- I...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The riots in Cairo are the result of United States policy gone bad. In fact, we — you, me, U.S. taxpayers — are to blame. Strategic policy, I am not speaking of. Political policy, I am not speaking of. Nor am I talking about defense policy or other such foreign relations. The uprising in Cairo is about U.S. tax dollars supporting farm programs that wreak havoc on food prices worldwide.

Oh, sorry; that headline isn’t really a New Tone entry. What shall we say, then? ObamaCare will crush 800,000 jobs into nonexistence? It will give 800,000 jobs a hug that, er, chokes the life out of them. Let’s take a cue from Mom and Dad after the dog disappeared — ObamaCare will send 800,000 to a nice farm where they can run free all day long and chase rabbits. I think you get the idea (via The Blaze):

He’s still speaking as I write this and the translation is rough, but it surrrre sounds like he’s planning to serve out his term until September. A money line: No outsiders can give him orders The country’s Information Minister denied earlier (see the 8:03 p.m. update) that he had agreed to step down, but everyone assumed that that was a formality while arrangements were being made for him to leave. He did say that he’s passed some of his duties to Suleiman and vowed that the much-loathed emergency law will be lifted — but even there, he didn’t give any...

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told House lawmakers that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is "largely secular" and has rejected violence and decried al-Qaida as a perversion of Islam. Congressional hearing on Thursday.

CAIRO — Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is to step down, two sources told NBC News Thursday, as widespread protests against his 30-year rule continue to grip the country. Following an all-day meeting of the country's supreme military council, state television reported that the army's supreme council had expressed its "support of the legitimate demands" of the people. NBC News reported that a high-ranking source inside the president's office said Mubarak would step down and the newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, would take over. This was then confirmed by a second source.

wo GOP sources confirm to Fox that 3-term Senator Jon Kyl will announce his retirement at a noon news conference Thursday in Phoenix. The Arizona lawmaker is the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. Kyl, 68, served four terms in the House before winning a Senate seat. In 2006, he was named one of the 10 best senators by Time Magazine.

Virginia Senator Jim Webb plans to announce today that he won't seek reelection, a senior Senate source said.

Huffington Post agrees to $315 million buyout from AOL By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, February 7, 2011; 2:00 AM Huffington Post, the liberal-leaning online news site that has been one of the Internet's start-up success stories, said it agreed to a $315 million buyout late Sunday night from AOL Inc., the elder statesman of online access and digital content. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who made the announcement on her site Sunday night, will become president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, which will put the news outlet she co-founded under the same...

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Aaron Rodgers has turned the Green Bay Packers into Super Bowl champions once again. Rodgers threw three touchdown passes and Nick Collins returned an interception for another score, leading the Packers to a 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. This was Green Bay's fourth Super Bowl title. The Packers won the first two Super Bowls with Vince Lombardi coaching Bart Starr, and captured another with Brett Favre in January 1997. The Steelers trailed 21-3 before halftime. Ben Roethlisberger got them within 28-25 midway through the fourth quarter with a touchdown pass and a nifty 2-point...

You could call it the White House Beer Summit, Part II ... The rest of the menu for the 100 or so guests at the White House bash is tailgate-friendly even if served inside the Executive Mansion: bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips.

Sean Hannity hosted radical Imam Anjem Choudary on his program last night. And, yes, the excruciating fifteen minute war-of-words did culminate with a flustered Hannity grumbling "you're one sick, miserable, evil SOB, but thank you for coming on anyway." But, in fairness to Hannity, Choudary's pretty far out there, admitting that he thinks adulterers should be stoned and that Sharia will one day be practiced worldwide. Nor is Hannity he only cable news anchor to dress down Choudary. Eliot Spitzer hosted the Imam before referring to him as a "heinous terrorist" and Fareed Zakaria remarked that debating with Choudary was...