Free Republic

Exclusive: Chen Guangcheng tells Channel 4 News he left the US embassy for hospital as part of an "agreement" with the Chinese government, but despite promises, no-one from the US embassy is with him. Chen had been under protection at the US embassy in Beijing after escaping from house arrest last Friday. He left the embassy for hospital on Wednesday morning, although he told Channel 4 News this was part of an agreement with the Chinese government rather than because of a medical emergency. "Nobody from the (US) Embassy is here. I don't understand why. They promised to be here,"...

It’s an Obama world… Barack Obama is going to take out his $1.1 million Canadian bus to push his American jobs plan.... CNN reported: Senior administration officials say the president will be making his case for Congress to pass his jobs plan for much of the rest of the year, taking his message outside Washington as he has in recent days, visiting Virginia Friday, Ohio Tuesday and North Carolina Wednesday. The push will include another bus tour, though it is not yet scheduled, officials say, and will target regional media, including local radio stations, with ads.

President Obama took off on a road trip across the Midwest last week in a brand new government-owned bus to talk with ordinary people about getting the economy going again. But Johnny Williams, an Alabama businessman who makes a living by leasing these kinds of buses to political figures, said the Obama tour was just a painful reminder of how the government is doing things that could hurt his business. That’s because this is the first presidential election where the incumbent president and the eventual Republican nominee will have the option of using a Secret Service-owned bus for campaign tours...

Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign: "I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can." This will be grand news to Schylar Capo, 11 years old, of Virginia, who made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days, and for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers)...

Mitt Romney slammed President Barack Obama in advance of the president's bus tour of midwestern states Monday, derisively calling it the "Magical Misery Tour," a play on the iconic 1967 Beatles album "Magical Mystery Tour." The NY Post called it The Magical Misery Tour, but I think the bus itself needs to be named.

He said Republicans had driven the economy into a ditch and then stood by and criticized while Democrats pulled it out. Now that progress has been made, he said, "we can't have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."... Obama can "take his endorsement and shove it," declared Democrat Frank Caprio, battling Republican-turned-independent Lincoln Chafee in a gubernatorial race rated tight in the polls. Chafee endorsed Obama during the 2008 campaign for the White House.