Free Republic

When Barack Obama first ascended to the presidency, his American supporters exulted: now that the hated Dubya Bush was out of the picture, the world would finally “like” us again! It’s as if they were all in junior high school and considered the United States a Facebook page, and nothing was more important than having the whole world click our “like” button. Now that the end of Obama’s tenure approaches, it is abundantly clear exactly which world leaders “like” him and why they want him to have a second term. After four years of apologizing for American arrogance, alternately either...

A CNN correspondent said Monday she was detained byChinese security guards in Shanghai for two hours for displaying a T-shirt on camera depicting US President Barack Obama as Mao Zedong. Emily Chang, a Beijing-based correspondent for the US television network, said in a blog post on CNN.com that she hunted down the shirt after hearing they had been banned amid fears they "may offend the American president." The shirt shows Obama, who is making his first visit to China as president, in a Red Army uniform staring into the distance in a pose made famous by the former Chinese leader....

Reading this is like watching an unassisted triple play in baseball. You see it, you pause to make sure you’ve seen what you think you’ve seen, and then you marvel at the sheer odds of it having happened. Would a big name at a big magazine like Mark Halperin really sign off on something so absurd, and so fawning in its absurdity, as to be instantly destined for infamy in the blogosphere? Of course not. The odds against it are a million to one. And yet. This is a magic moment, my friends. Instantly comfortable and highly skilled at the...

North Korea drops communism, boosts "Dear Leader" Mon Sep 28, 2009 4:21am EDT (For full coverage of North Korea, click [ID:nNORKOR]) By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim SEOUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - North Korea has revised its constitution to give even more power to leader Kim Jong-il, ditch communism and elevate his "military first" ideology, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Monday. Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim's power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity. "The chairman is the highest general of the entire...

Congratulations on an extraordinary history making election! We can think back with pride to decades of hard work toward our strategic goal of a big enough, broad enough and united enough labor and all-people’s movement that could overcome the ultra-right blockage to all progress. That all people’s movement has come to life, it is dynamic and it has the potential to keep growing. The election of Barack Obama and a strengthened Congress creates new conditions in our country. There is now the possibility to shift gears and move forward. This new day requires us to further develop our tactics in...

President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama’s presidential bid is a “revolutionary” phenomenon in the United States. “It’s not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. … but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change,” the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box. In statements broadcast on Sandinista Radio...