Free Republic

The Glenn Beck Early-Bird Thread for 4-15-09

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's cherished Blackberry slipped through his fingers Friday — but it was only a butterfingers moment. Obama, who has been reluctant to relinquish the device when he becomes president, dropped his Blackberry and its hard plastic case onto an airport tarmac as he emerged from his fortified vehicle. A Secret Service agent hustled to pick it up.

Despite legal and security hurdles, president-elect Barack Obama says he has a plan to retain his beloved Blackberry once he moves into the White House next week. Interviewed by CNN Friday, Obama said the smartphone was among the tools that he would use to stay in touch with real Americans and avoid becoming trapped inside the presidential "bubble." "I think we're going to be able to hang on to one of these. My working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an email could end up being on CNN," he said. "So I make sure...

(entitled "Friend Mao")

President-elect Barack Obama greets onlookers after working out at the Semper Fit Center at Marine Corp Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.

It's one of those things that sneaks up on you in politics, a sense of things happening not quite as you expected. It started in April when our Times colleague Louise Roug called with a quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The world's first male mother is pregnant again, hoping to enlarge the family he started after giving birth in June to a daughter. Thomas Beatie, a former Hawaiian beauty queen, caused a worldwide clamour last spring after announcing his first pregnancy.

Keith Olbermann's e-mail response to Time about the Saturday Night Live sketch in which Ben Affleck parodied him this past weekend is so patently Keith Olbermann that it almost seems like the SNL staff wrote it. He begins lightheartedly enough: SNL and my Football Night In America show share adjoining studios, so upon my arrival yesterday, awaiting me was one of the cue cards from the bit, with Ben writing of the sketch: "Keith - Remember, a) I didn't write this; b) it took years of study - fondly, Ben." Right, so we are duly informed that (a) Ben Affleck...

A conservative media watchdog says it's outrageous that Barack Obama is blaming a major cable news service for costing him two to three points in the polls. In a recently published interview for the New York Times Magazine, the Democratic presidential candidate said: "I'm convinced that if there were no FOX News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching FOX News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak!" The Illinois senator continued, explaining that he is being typecast as "the latte-sipping, New York...

An American man who was born female but underwent gender realignment surgery, has given birth to a female baby, US media have reported. Thomas Beatie, 34, is legally male but kept his female reproductive organs after having breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest. Both Mr Beatie and his daughter are reported to be doing well in a hospital in Bend, Oregon. He was inseminated using sperm from an anonymous donor. The birth was natural, a source at St Charles Medical Center in Bend told ABC News, and took place on Sunday. According to some reports, Mr Beatie...

Thomas Beatie, who was born a woman but after surgery and hormone treatment lives as a man, has given birth to a girl at an Oregon hospital, People magazine reported on Thursday. Beatie, 34, who kept female reproductive organs when he legally became a man 10 years ago, confirmed the birth to the magazine. The baby, conceived through artificial insemination using donor sperm and Beatie's own eggs, was born on June 29 and Beatie and the baby are "healthy and doing well," People reported. "The only thing different about me is that I can't breast-feed my baby. But a lot...

A CONTROVERSIAL boob op which gave model Maxi Mounds world record breaking breasts has been banned - over safety fears. Busty Maxi hit the record books after having the surgery which encouraged her breasts to GROW bigger. The porn actress grabbed the title for the largest artificial boobs in the world in 2005, when they grew to a staggering 36MMM. But now safety concerns have led the operation called polyproplyene string technique to be banned. So Maxi’s globes look like they will be the undisputed world’s breast for a while.

EASTON, Pa. - A former Bethlehem woman will serve up to 23 months in prison for having her 7-year-old son dress as a Cub Scout to collect money for a nonexistent cause. Sally Ann Gombocz, 51, told a Northampton County judge she wanted to apologize to anyone she hurt. She previously pleaded guilty to theft by deception and corruption of a minor. Gombocz had her son dress as a scout in 2003 and tell people he was raising money for a camping trip. A prosecutor says the family collected $69. Gombocz was sentenced Friday to six to 23 months in...

For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl? Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a "social transition" for their child. (Excerpt) Full story: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/20080503_School_challenge__Transgender_student_is_age_9.html The Haverford School District consulted experts on transgender children, then sent letters to parents advising them that the guidance counselor would meet with the school's 100 third-grade students to explain...

America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention. America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished. America is embarrassed to have put one one-ounce moisturizer too many in the see-through bag. America is irritated that the TSA...

The pregnant man completes the second phase of his media trifecta: he/she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show Thursday. The first phase is to call a press conference: check. The third phase involves the book deal and the TV movie. Then well-deserved obscurity, broken only by appearances as an answer to trivia questions and “Where are they now” stories 10 years later. Reactions to Thomas Beatie and wife Nancy’s second phase.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A transgender man who is six months pregnant said in an interview aired by Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he always wanted to have a child and considers it a miracle. "It's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human desire," a thinly bearded Thomas Beatie said. "I have a very stable male identity," he added, saying that pregnancy neither defines him nor makes him feel feminine. Beatie, 34, who lives in Oregon, was born a woman but decided to become a man 10 years ago. He began taking testosterone treatments and...

Craig Accepting Applications for Summer Interns Deadline Quickly Approaching WASHINGTON, D.C. - Idaho Senator Larry Craig is currently seeking intern applications for the summer term, which runs from May to August. The application deadline is March 15, however if more time is needed for the application process, please contact Senator Craig's office for an extension. Craig offers paid internships within the Washington, D.C., office. Preference is given to Idaho applicants attending Idaho schools who are in their junior or senior years of college (including graduating seniors). '"Interns have the chance to be an essential part of a working congressional office,"...

CONCORD – Sexual images a camp photographer created by combining the faces of young girls with women's bodies were not child pornography, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.The ruling overturned the child pornography conviction of Marshal Zidel, who was sentenced in June 2006 to up to seven years in prison. Zidel, 61, of Somerville, Mass., was a photographer at Camp Young Judea in Amherst, where authorities say he superimposed pictures of 15-year-old girls onto images of naked adults.The court ruled the pictures do not violate child pornography laws, partly because they did not involve sexual acts by actual children, and...

MJ goes shopping!