Free Republic

Michelle Obama: It's a 'sacrifice' to travel to Europe to pitch for the Olympics. For Oprah and the president, too. But we're doing it for the kids. By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent09/30/09 5:12 PM EDT In her speech in Copenhagen today, First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her "dear friend" and "chit-chat buddy" Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow's visit by President Obama, is a "sacrifice" on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States. "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or...

Senator Boxer pushes book while crowds protest Senator Barbara Boxer at Book Passage Marin got a small dose of the health care protests on Wednesday evening when U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer made an appearance at Corte Madera's Book Passage to promote her newest work of fiction, Blind Trust. Holding hand-made signs, about two dozen protesters lined the entrance to the Book Passage's parking lot. Boxer protestor, Pam Silleman of Napa "She should be doing town hall meetings with her constituents instead of book tours," said Pam Silleman who was waving at cars and carrying a sign that read "Born Free...

"Let Them Eat Cake"The quote, as attributed to Marie Antoinette, was claimed to have been uttered during one of the famines that occurred in France during the reign of her husband Louis XVI. Upon being alerted that the people were suffering due to widespread bread shortages, she is said to have replied, "Then let them eat brioche" (not really cake but more of an egg bread).This type of callousness on the part of the monarchy has often been referred to in writings about the possible factors that led to the French Revolution The arrogance of the elitist progressive liberals in...

In a very orderly discussion of the Health care issue on Saturday 8/8/2009 Congressman Doggett was asked about mandating all Congressmen, Senators, government workers and the President to be required to use the same health plan as the American Public. His committee has studied health care for 2 years but says that such provisions are not part of the overall plan. Both sides of the healthcare reform issue cheered when this was brought up to the Congressman.

Click the source link to see our four-year-old-in-chief making fun of the tea party protesters. Obama should be grateful folks were just holding tea bags, signs and flags instead of what most of them felt like holding.Obama was at a town hall appearance in Missouri today when he made fun of Americans.

Holding signs reading "Stimulate Business, Not Government," "Families Against Porkulus" and "Say No To Generational Theft," protesters opposed to the $787 billion stimulus package have been mobilizing across the country. It started last Monday in Seattle, then moved Tuesday to Denver, where President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. That was followed by another one in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama unveiled a mortgage rescue plan. Another protest was planned for Saturday outside the office of Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, Kan. The Democrat voted for the stimulus. His office didn't return calls seeking comment. A New Populism? As...

Governor calls up record number of Guard troops Some 4,600 Kentucky National Guard troops are part of a record-setting effort to dig out from a paralyzing winter storm that continues to leave hundreds of thousands Kentuckians in the dark and is being blamed on a growing number of deaths. "We're in for a long haul here," said Gov. Steve Beshear at a Saturday night press conference at the Boone Guard Center in Frankfort. Kentucky "is in the middle of the biggest natural disaster this state has ever experienced in modern history." Beshear said state officials have confirmed seven deaths as...

There's a report out that The Dear Leader (Hussein Obama) REALLY, REALLY enjoys his new status as Emperor Of The World. Most of us thought that dietary items like arugula were a bit on the pricy (and eccentric) side. Now, however, The Dear Leader has added a new item to our national food lexicon:Wagyu Beef For you Saxon dog serfs out there, we're talking about a type of steak that runs over $100 a pound. In some instances, Wagyu beef can run over $100 a 6-8 ounce serving. You won't see this at your local McDonald's when they unchain you...

HAVANA - President Raul Castro's government is allowing ordinary Cubans to have cell phones. The luxury was previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state. Friday's decree officially lifts a major restriction on daily life in Cuba.

No tangerines for you? July 24, 2007 The politics of global warming got very concrete, and oddly difficult, In a meeting with local environmentalists in the coastal town of McClellanville today, where Elizabeth Edwards raised in passing the importance of relying on locally-grown fruit. "We've been moving back to 'buy local,'" Mrs. Edwards said, outlining a trade policy that "acknowledges the carbon footprint" of transporting fruit. "I live in North Carolina. I'll probably never eat a tangerine again," she said, speaking of a time when the fruit is reaches the price that it "needs" to be. Edwards had talked about...

March 31st is Al Gore's birthday (he's an Aries), and astrologer Shelley Ackerman has responded to my initial please-lose-the- grief-weight-Al post so intelligently, that I must quote her here. She posted this on her website KarmicRelief: "How about examining WHY we're so freaked out by weight in the first place? Do we really understand what causes it? Is it the same for everyone? "I've felt for a long time that, beyond the obvious benefits of diet and exercise, there is an "X" factor...I've noticed in my own life, and in the lives of other very sensitive friends and associates (especially...

LONDON - Prince Charles suggested Tuesday on a visit to the United Arab Emirates that banning McDonald’s fast food was crucial for improving people’s diets, a British news agency reported. Charles’s comments came while visiting the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi for the launch of a public health campaign, Britain’s Press Association news agency reported. ”Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s? Have you tried getting it banned? That’s the key,” Charles asked one of the center’s nutritionists, according to the news agency. A McDonald’s spokeswoman called the remark disappointing. ”This appears to be an off-the-cuff remark, in...

Six Arrested Outside of Sen. Clinton's Office Tuesday January 30, 2007 11:35am Capitol Hill (AP) - U.S. Capitol Police have arrested six people outside the offices of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sergeant Kimberly Schneider says the six people were demonstrating outside of the New York Democrat's suite of offices in the Russell Senate Office Building around 11 a.m. Senate rules prohibit such demonstrations inside of buildings located in the U.S. Capitol complex. Schneider says the people are being charged with disorderly conduct.

Just announced by MSNBC

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Disturbing statistics on the number of Hispanics who daily go hungry in America was released at a press conference on Wednesday by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). The national Hispanic civil rights group found that nearly one in five people lack nutritious food. NCLR officials said in a press release that increasing federal nutrition assistance programs would help decrease the growing "food insecurity" faced by 19.6 percent of Latinos in America. "Lack of access to resources is forcing far too many Latino families into choices no one should have to make, such as between...

My face time with John Kerry has been brief but choice. In 2003, I was at a campaign event in New Hampshire chatting with two old coots in plaid. The senator approached and stopped in front of us. The etiquette in primary season is that the candidate defers to the cranky Granite Stater's churlish indifference to status and initiates the conversation: "Hi, I'm John Kerry. Good to see ya. Cold enough for ya? How 'bout them Sox?" Etc. Instead, Kerry just stood there nose to nose, staring at us with an inscrutable semi-glare on his face. After an eternity, an...

WHEN he was president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing refused to let anybody sit opposite him at dinner, reviving a tradition dating from the court of Louis XIV. François Mitterrand thought nothing of dispatching his chef to Brittany for the day to buy fresh oysters for dinner.Ever since General Charles de Gaulle, French rulers have been famed for their enjoyment of absolute power and its trappings: Jacques Chirac’s pilot knows better than to land before le patron has had a good sleep, even if it means flying in circles. Like so many other French traditions, however, the extraordinary privileges of power are...

"U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, center, poses for a photograph with well-wishers outside the Helen B. Atkinson Health Center in Harlem, Monday, Aug. 7, 2006, in New York, following a press conference at the center calling for a decision on 'Plan B' emergency birth control by Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach, who, Clinton says, has delayed a decision on Plan B's application." "U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton , D-NY, third from right, greets well-wishers outside the Helen B. Atkinson Health Center in Harlem, Monday, Aug. 7, 2006, in New York, following a press conference calling for a decision...

KATIE Couric had fellow passengers aboard a New York-bound jet on the warpath this week when, as their plane was about to taxi to the runway, she got out of her seat and begged the pilot to allow one of her late-arriving producers to board. "It was like, 'Who the hell does she think she is?' " fumed one passenger who observed Couric's diva-like antics. "If you or I attempted something like this, we'd be cooling our heels at Guantanamo." The witness told Page Six that attendants on Wednesday's 6:30 p.m. Delta Shuttle flight out of Washington, D.C., had already...

It comes at little surprise that the House, again, passed the amendment to outlaw the burning of the American flag. But yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, among other Senate colleagues, announced their support for the June 26th Senate vote on the Flag Desecration Amendment. The announcement came on non-other than Flag Day. How quaint. But don't be too alarmed, it seems a 2/3 majority is still lacking in the Senate. The House has passed a similar amendment half a dozen times in the past few years. While it has never gained enough votes in the Senate, it gets closer...

President Bush's proposal for a guest worker program as a way of addressing illegal immigration is gaining support from Gov. Mitch Daniels, but doubts from officials with agencies that work with northwestern Indiana's growing immigrant population. Bush's desire for a guest worker program has been stalled in Congress since he proposed it while running for re-election, although at least two competing bills would establish temporary worker visas. He made immigration the subject of his weekly radio address Saturday and addressed the issue during appearances in Arizona and Texas last week, saying it will top his legislative agenda next year. "These...

According to Bob Geldof, two billion people watched his snazzy Live8 concert thingamajig. Therefore, he declared, "It's now for the leaders to act." He also added, "Now feel the force of the gale that's hit you." At the top of Geldof's gale-force demands: debt relief for African nations. O.K., so here's what I'm confused about. People watched a concert, which was chockablock with acts supposedly popular with the young 'uns and old 'uns alike. From Snoop Dogg, Will Smith, and Coldplay to the more aged likes of Madonna, Sting, and Bono. There were even a few troubadours with last names...

HAVILAH, Calif. — St. James and LaDonna Davis raised Moe the chimpanzee as their son. That was the word they used to describe him, and that was how they treated him — like a hairy, rambunctious child who was a pampered member of the family. They taught him to wear clothes, to take showers, to use the toilet and to watch TV in their West Covina home. They had their picture taken in bed with him. On Thursday, the day they marked as Moe's 39th birthday, their love for the chimp nearly cost them their lives. The Davises were visiting...

Chimps Shot Dead After Attacking Visitors At California Sanctuary POSTED: 8:08 am EST March 4, 2005 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A couple's plans for a birthday party for their former pet chimpanzee turned tragic when two other chimps at an animal sanctuary escaped from their cage and attacked. The man was critically injured with massive wounds to his face, body and limbs, and the attacking animals were shot dead. St. James and LaDonna Davis were at the Animal Haven Ranch in Caliente to celebrate the birthday of Moe, a 39-year-old chimpanzee who was taken from their suburban Los Angeles home in...

BORDEAUX, France, Jan 6 (AFP) - Bordeaux wine producers announced more depressing export figures Thursday, with sales to the United States down by more than a third in a year. Overall exports from the historic wine region of southwest France were down 10 percent in volume and 24 percent in value for the first three quarters of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003, according to the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wine (CIVB). Exports to the United States were down by a massive 35 percent in volume and 59 percent in value, and sales to Britain down by 21...

Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images, top Compared with the average Gulfstream jet, a Hummer H2 can seem downright fuel efficient. THERE are objects or possessions that scream "I'm better than you" - items that remind the average Joe of a cultural and economic divide that cannot be crossed. It's a $10,000 bottle of wine, a Hummer, a real Rolex. This year's conspicuous object seems to be the private jet. Once, this prized possession was associated with corporate executives and reclusive stars. Or with congressmen on a junket. There was nothing political, or at least nothing partisan, about them. But since...

<p>THERE'S nothing genteel about this finger food. Corporate bigwigs are forking over as much as $700 a head for dinner parties where guests are served sushi off a naked woman.</p> <p>The secret gourmet trend has taken off in the past six months in L.A., and now New York is getting on the act.</p>

BOOKING LAYOFFSPredictions in the slumping book industry that blockbusters like New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clintons tell-little biography would revive sales are dying fast. Washington Whispers is told that Simon and Schuster publisher of Clintons 'Living History,' is planning a second round of layoffs.One reason: Advances to Authors are too high.

<p>The liberals (Paul Begala) on Crossfire were demanding that Tucker eat his shoe because he said he would do so if Hiullarys book sold one million copies.</p> <p>Simon Schuster said that they passed the figure today and after websites started calling Tucker a 'metrosexual' demanding him to come clean Hillary then came on and gave him the cake which he ate.</p>

WASHINGTON, June 27 — In one of the first consequences of its landmark ruling on gay rights on Thursday, the Supreme Court today set aside the lengthy prison sentence imposed on a gay Kansas teenager for having had sex with a younger boy. In a brief order with little elaboration, the court vacated the 17-year sentence imposed in 2000 on the defendant, Matthew Limon, and returned the case to the Kansas courts "for further consideration in light of Lawrence v. Texas." The case of Lawrence v. Texas, which was decided on Thursday and overturned an Texas antisodomy law, upheld the...