Free Republic

After Michelle and Barry leave the White House – if they leave the White House, which is certainly up in the air – there are rumors afoot that they may emulate Bill and Hillary and take up residence as far away from each other as humanly possible.  To add intrigue to connubial conjecture, it is also alleged that Michelle may do a Hillary Clinton and run for a Senate seat in Illinois.Speculation abounds that when she’s not “playing politics with our kid’s health,” doing the Dougie on late-night talk shows, vacationing with mom and the girls, scolding schools begging to...

Watching the Tea Party consistently object to everything and anything the Obama administration has proposed over these 5 years has certainly been frustrating to those of us who believe that government can play a positive and valuable part in the lives of the citizenry. In another column I listed just some of the initiatives that could have had our economy singing, our people employed, and our citizens enjoying the equal treatment guaranteed to them under our constitution and our laws. Instead, we have the most ineffective congress in history, universal, unrelenting obstruction, and our people and economy continue to struggle....

First lady Michelle Obama and school lunch ladies used to be on the same team, but now they’re locked in a political war against each other. For the first three years of Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, the School Nutrition Association, a powerful group that represents 55,000 cafeteria professionals, was a close ally in the White House push to get kids to eat healthier. The group helped lobby for the legislation at the center of the debate: the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law championed by the first lady that mandates more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and less sodium...

Speculation Builds on Michelle Obama Senate Run First Lady could be positioning herself for a run at Mark Kirk's seat in 2016 FLOTUS for Senate? It wasn't that long ago that such a slogan would seem absurd, but political wags are beginning to wonder whether Michelle Obama is mulling a run for Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk's seat in 2016. A Thursday column in Reuters suggests that Obama would be the only candidate with a large enough profile to unseat the Republican. The column also points to Obama's recent willingness to debate the merits of her school lunch program with Republicans,...

Top labels that the US first lady wears would cost thousands of dollars a monthMichelle Obama’s fashionable clothing has become something of a given in her five-plus years as first lady. Yet her wardrobe still is the subject of endless public fascination and one long-simmering question: Who pays for those incredible outfits? It’s no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday, off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns can run into five figures.

First Lady Michelle Obama has agreed to sponsor a future submarine named after her home state that will be staffed by an all-female crew. The White House has announced that Mrs Obama has accepted an invitation to be the backer of the USS Illinois, a Virginia-class submarine being built in Groton, Connecticut, and Newport News, Virginia. The new nuclear-powered boat is expected to join the fleet in late 2015.

Michelle Obama’s fashionable clothing has become something of a given in her five-plus years as first lady. Yet her wardrobe still is the subject of endless public fascination and one long-simmering question: Who pays for those incredible outfits? It’s no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday, off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns can run into five figures. SNIP It takes money to pull that off, month after month. Those three dresses by themselves could add up to more than $15,000 retail, not to mention accessories such as shoes and jewellery. Is it the taxpayers...

It was eleven o’clock at night and the lady in front of me in the supermarket line was buying jars of baby food and bottles of Pedialyte. The cashier pulled some of the jars aside and told the lady they weren’t covered under the WIC program. “But you didn’t have the ones I can buy, the shelf is empty. I can’t buy the other ones because he won’t eat them,” the customer said. “I’m sorry, maybe if you call WIC you can get permission to buy these, but I can’t do anything about it,” the cashier responded. -snip- So when...

WHEN we began our Let’s Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy. To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked...

Michelle Obama’s intrusion into school lunches has come under fire from students, Republicans and even her husband’s executive branch. Mrs. Obama essentially wants government to dictate what people eat. Via her school lunch program, the government is insisting that schools feed kids food they won’t or don’t eat. The cost for schools is higher, student participation is lower. As is typical with government, the program is one size fits all. Calorie counts are based on elementary, middle and high school and don’t count for age differences. In other words, the program is a mess. Republicans want to cut into it,...

Today, the National Potato Council praised the House for considering a bill to include the potato in its WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) food nutrition ("food stamp") program. The Council also debunked First Lady Michelle Obama's claims that including the potato would "override science" and that Americans are already eating enough of them.The Potato Council notes that the First Lady's science is based on old data - not the latest government reports:"Opponents of adding fresh potatoes to the WIC package are picking and choosing the science. Instead of relying on a 2005 report that looks at data from the mid-1990s,...

WHEN we began our Let’s Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy. To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked...

There’s a hashtag filled with colorful commentary and color pictures of the devastation Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative has wrought on the plastic platters of America’s school children. There’s a GAO report showing participation in the school lunch program down more than 1 million students— the first such decline in years— while costs are up and the actual nutritional value of these allegedly improved meals remains in question. But none of this requires reevaluation. The real problem with Michelle Obama’s crusade and a top-down, inflexible federal mandate for students of varying sizes and tastes is that Republicans are pointing...

First lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday made a rare foray into a Capitol Hill dispute, using a White House event to rally support for school meal nutrition rules that Republicans are pushing to loosen. The first lady successfully lobbied for those standards in 2010, and has since become the public face of this and other initiatives aimed at improving the dietary habits of children. But some schools have complained the rules are too restrictive and costly -- and House Republicans have a new bill aimed at addressing those concerns. An agriculture spending bill approved by a House subcommittee last week...

With public school students using #ThanksMichelle to tweet photos of their skimpy, stomach-turning school lunches, I decided to look at what Michelle Obama's daughters are served at Sidwell Friends school, and it turns out the girls dine on lunches from menus designed by chefs. While the Obama daughters have enjoyed dishes like chicken coconut soup, local butternut squash soup, crusted tilapia, they also get their fill of what Mrs. Obama might consider junk food. This week, for example, they'll enjoy meatball subs, BBQ wings, and ice cream, in addition to chicken curry, deviled egg salad and the intriguing "Chef's Choice."...

Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi was downright benevolent compared to the Lunch Nazi: Sounding a new aggressive tone, first lady Michelle Obama vowed in a private conference call Monday to fight industry efforts at rolling back healthy school-lunch standards, an issue that could come up for a vote on Capitol Hill this week. It isn’t just “industry” that doesn’t want the national menu dictated by the Bitter Half. The kids who have to eat the widely caboosed authoritarian’s notion of healthy meals don’t like it either. Even liberal New York City dropped her school lunch scheme after determining it to be a...

Don’t like your school’s food menu? Does it waste way too much money in discarded food? The kids complaining a lot about the lousy flavor or miniscule servings? Well, the House of Representatives is about to vote this week on a new bill that will provide school systems with a possible way out of Michelle’s mandatory nutrition standards. The Congressmen and -women have been listening to schools, teachers, students and parents and have authored legislation that, with proper qualification and documentation, will allow each school system to regain control of their food programs. If a system can show they sustained...

A new survey reveals deep divisions in Israeli society that suggest unbridgeable gaps between three groups – Arabs, Haredim and all other Jews, running the gamut from secular to modern Orthodox.

Is it just me or is this obnoxious witch just a tad hypocritical? Sixty years after the Supreme Court outlawed “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, civil rights advocates say American schools are becoming increasingly segregated, while the first lady, Michelle Obama, lamented that “many young people are going to schools with kids who look just like them.” “Today, by some measures, our schools are as segregated as they were back when Dr. King gave his final speech,” Mrs. Obama told 1,200 graduating high school seniors Friday here in the city that gave rise to the landmark Brown...

For Immediate ReleaseMay 17, 2014Remarks by the First Lady at Topeka School District Senior Recognition Day Expo Center Topeka, Kansas 6:33 P.M. CDT      MRS. OBAMA:  Thank you, guys.  Thank you so much.  Wow!  (Applause.)  Look at you guys.  (Applause.)  All right, you all rest yourselves.  You’ve got a big day tomorrow.  I want you guys to be ready. It is beyond a pleasure and an honor, truly, to be with you here today to celebrate the class of 2014.  Thank you so much for having me.  I’m so proud of you guys.  (Applause.)  Days like this make me...