Free Republic

CNN story. Apparently Obama sent a letter to his pastor but that has yet to be released.

"I can no more disown [Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown my white grandmother." BARACK OBAMA, PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 18 Guess it's time to disown Granny, if Obama's famous Philadelphia "race" speech is to be believed. Of course, the speech was not just believed. It was hailed, celebrated, canonized as the greatest pronouncement on race in America since Lincoln at Cooper Union. A New York Times columnist said it "should be required reading in classrooms across the country." College seniors and first-graders, suggested the excitable Chris Matthews. Apparently there's been a curriculum change. On Tuesday, the good senator begged to extend...

A suicide bomber was killed early Sunday in southwestern Pakistan when the explosives belt he was wearing exploded prematurely, police said. No one else was injured in the blast in Hub, an industrial town in Baluchistan province, local police official Munir Hussain said. "This man was riding a cycle. He had strapped explosives to his body for a suicide attack and they exploded," Hussain said of the blast in Hub's Zehri Street neighborhood. The man's intended target was not immediately known, and police were investigating, Hussain said. Hub is about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of Quetta, Baluchistan's capital. Baluchistan...

Dad is a coward, a hypocrite and he deserves to rot in jail By Rajeev Syal In an exclusive interview, Donna Traverso tells The Times about the man who tore her family apart SHE knew him simply as Dad, a kindly presence in her life who would tell her that she was “his little girl” as she nestled in his muscular arms. Now Donna Traverso, 25, despises her former stepfather Abu Hamza al-Masri for shattering her family and abandoning her at the age of 5. In her first interview, she tells The Times how the Egyptian disappeared with her beloved...

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With all the focus on corruption in the UN’s Oil for Food program, there is yet another scandalous development at the UN, that has been barely noticed: how Syria, which served as a member of the UN Security Council from early 2002 through the end of 2003 decided that it could continue to back international terrorism and even turn itself into the main line of supply for the current insurgency in Western Iraq. How a Security Council member decided that such a dangerous line of policy would not compromise its special UN status raises serious questions about what kind of...

Why Kerry Must Lose From a slender red book called A Cultural History of the United States: The 1980s: The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest victory for freedom and democracy since the end of World War II. In the United States, some credited the hard-line anticommunist policies of President Reagan. Others pointed to the weaknesses inherent in the Soviet economic system. Former Soviet general Oleg Kalugin said, "American policy of the 1980s was a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration, Strobe Talbot, offers another perspective: The difference...

Key West city leaders wade into gay marriage debate Both county and state officials say Florida law prohibits gay marriage BY TIMOTHY O'HARA keysnews.com KEY WEST — Key West city leaders are entering the national showdown over the legitimacy of gay marriages by considering giving legal recognition to same-sex marriages. The city commission, which will review a resolution Tuesday that supports and gives legal recognition to same-sex marriages, could end up in a face-off with the state. Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt, sponsor of the resolution, and community leaders are calling the debate over same-sex marriages as the new civil rights movement....

<p>After weeks of pressure to drop out of the recall race, state Sen. Tom McClintock is about to feel the pinch in an unlikely place: a gathering of faithful Republicans who agree with him about issues and revere him as one of the party's truest members.</p>

<p>After 28 months in political limbo, Miguel Estrada has decided to withdraw his appellate court nomination and get on with his life. His decision, to be announced today, is a loss for the federal bench and a defeat for Senate Republicans who still haven't decided to make judgeships a fighting issue.</p>

<p>California voters -- some of them, anyway -- will decide three months hence whether Democratic Gov. Gray Davis wins another term or is replaced by Republican Bill Simon. Most voters probably wish that they had a broader array of choices.</p>