Free Republic

First Lady Michelle Obama says Jane Fonda is one of her role models, and that she admires her political savviness. During an interview with People Magazine, Obama listed "Hanoi Jane," as one of the people she would like to look and live like when she's 70 or 80 years old. "There’s Jane Fonda, a beautiful, engaged, politically savvy, sharp woman," Obama said. The comment is likely to enrage Vietnam War veterans who still remember how Fonda, now 76, went to North Vietnam in 1972 and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft battery. Fonda denounced U.S. military leaders as "war criminals"...

Foreign Policy: The latest U.S. ally to openly sneer at us is a senior British defense adviser who says President Obama has "devalued the deterrent effect of American military capability" in the world. In his first campaign for president, in April 2007, Barack Obama complained George W. Bush's war in Iraq cost the U.S. "in influence and respect." Because of Iraq, he said, "many around the world are disappointed with our actions, and many in our own country have come to doubt either our wisdom or our capacity to shape events beyond our borders. Some have even suggested that America's...

Nelson Mandela: Israel Is Terrorist and Islamic Arabs Are Innocent By Julio Severo If you believe the leftist Christian press, Nelson Mandela was… a Christian! Sheer indoctrination by the mainstream secular media? No doubt. The secular press has portrayed Mandela as a hero. A major Protestant news site in Brazil published a list of nice quotes by Mandela. By reading exclusively these nice quotes, you could say that he was a hero and even a Christian. Yassir Arafat and Nelson Mandela Yet, what about the other quotes? Since the mainstream media and even the Christian press will not show...

I just saw a video shot of the White House and the flag is being flown at half staff. I can only assume this is due to Mandela's death. I am curious if it customary to fly the flag at half staff for death of foreign leaders.

Nelson Mandela, the revered statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of decades of apartheid, has died, South African President Jacob Zuma announced late Thursday. Mandela was 95. "He is now resting. He is now at peace," Zuma said. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father." "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves." Mandela will have a state funeral. Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be...

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday declared that a nearly 200-year-old policy which had governed Washington's relations with Latin America was finally dead. Known as the Monroe Doctrine after it was adopted in 1823 by former US president James Monroe, the policy had stated that any efforts by European countries to colonize land in North or South America would be views as aggressive acts and could require US intervention. “The doctrine that bears (Monroe’s) name asserted our authority to step in and oppose the influence of European powers in Latin America,” Kerry told an audience at the Organization...

Philadelphia city council members have approved a resolution that calls for socialist historian Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States” to be taught in public high schools. The resolution was backed by council members Jim Kenny and Jannie Blackwell, who believe that Zinn’s far-left socialist vision of American history is currently missing from high school textbooks. “Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States’ emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history; not simply the version retold by those powerful enough to ensure history remembers their actions...

On September 11, 1973 the Chilean military led by General Augusto Pinochet slapped Fidel Castro so smartly that his Stalinist regime (and its dutiful U.S. Media minions) are still sniveling and sniffling and wiping away tears of shock, pain and humiliation. True to form, The New York Times leads the sniveling. They just published an article decrying the Chilean “tragedy” (i.e. Chile saving itself from Castroism with a military coup and today the richest and freest nation in Latin America.) The article’s author Ariel Dorfman is a former advisor to Chile’s Marxist president and Castro acolyte Salvador Allende. This same...

Jane Fonda´s turn as Nancy Reagan has outraged fans of the former first lady but the actress says "The Gipper´s" wife is happy she landed the role. "I don´t think that whatever differences there might be in our politics really matters you know," says the actress in a new clip promoting the film ´The Butler´ which follows the life of a White House worker who served eight presidents. A vocal liberal, Fonda sparked outraged in the 1970´s when she toured North Vietnam, earning the moniker "Hanoi Jane" and critics blasted her casting as Nancy Reagan when it was announced

PRETORIA, South Africa - Nelson Mandela "opened his eyes" and smiled after being told of President Barack Obama's imminent visit to South Africa, his daughter said Tuesday, adding to speculation that the two men might meet. The 94-year-old remains in a critical condition, South Africa’s government said Tuesday as relatives gathered at his home for a family meeting that local media reports described as “urgent.” The anti-apartheid campaigner and democracy icon has been in hospital with a lung infection since June 8. His condition was downgraded over the weekend from "serious but stable" to “critical.” Obama is due to leave...

Last week, I reminded you about the bloody history of convicted Weather Underground terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, whom left-wing bleeding heart director Robert Redford pays homage to in his new fictional movie “The Company You Keep.” Boudin’s son, Chesa, was raised by America-bashing and flag-trashing Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. As I told you, he won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, graduated from Yale, and is now a Yale Law School fellow. Mama Boudin was paroled in 2003, and now the NYPost reports that she is teaching at Columbia (h/t JWF):

Venezuela's caretaker president, Nicolas Maduro, asked Barack Obama to halt a plot to kill the opposition candidate in next month's election. You see, it's complicated. Maduro - sort of a "Hugo-lite" - announced last week that his government had uncovered an insidious plot to kill Henrique Capriles, leader of the opposition which would be followed by a coup of army officers friendly to America. Obviously, Maduro is worried that he doesn't have the election in the bag. From Reuters: "I call on President Obama - Roger Noriega, Otto Reich, officials at the Pentagon and at the CIA are behind a...

If you drove by CITGO’s corporate headquarters yesterday you would have seen what many consider a disturbing sight. Many Houstonians are up in arms after driving by CITGO's Eldridge Parkway headquarters and noticing the U.S., Texas and Venezuelan flags being flown at half staff, and you let your feeling show on Matt Patrick's afternoon show. “I gave them a call, and the operator told me that it was in observance and respect of the death of Hugo Chavez,” Teddy told Matt Patrick on his afternoon show on The 9-5-0 yesterday. Teddy wasn’t satisfied with the company’s explanation. “I told the...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter mourned the death Tuesday of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, hailing his commitment to improving the lives of Venezuelans, and praising him for communicating “hope and empowerment” and for “his bold assertion of autonomy and independence for Latin American governments.” According to a statement posted at the Carter Center website, Mr. Carter and his wife Rosalynn “came to know a man who expressed a vision to bring profound changes to his country to benefit especially those people who had felt neglected and marginalized.” The 288-word statement included the 13-word caveat, “we have not agreed with all...

Jose Serrano is a Democratic congressman who represents the South Bronx of New York City (the 15th District). He is also an imbecile. Upon hearing the news of the death of Hugo Chavez, the tyrannical "President" of Venezuela, Serrano could not hold back his thoughts and emotions. He quickly went to twitter and posted this comment: Making certain that no one would misunderstand his sadness, Serrano released an official statement entitled “Chavez Changed the Conversation In Latin America” on his government website. Serrano explained, in part: “I met President Chavez in 2005 when he came to my district at my...

Politico reported this morning that "Henry R. Muñoz III of San Antonio -- an Obama bundler and a national chairman of the Futuro Fund, a group of Latino leaders who raised money for the president’s reelection -- is expected to be named DNC Finance Chair, the first Latino to hold the title." What's also interesting about Muñoz, though Politico omitted this fact, is that he at least once dined with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. "Muñoz’s clout has only expanded in the ensuing years — in politics, philanthropy and his profession," mysanantonio.com reported two years ago.

American candidates for president have a predictable trajectory. [snip] "...Obama has been going off the standard script -- most recently by attacking capitalism in radical terms. Namely, "If you've got a business -- you (you didn't build that) Somebody else made that happen." Democratic senators are reportedly "horrified" by Obama's behavior.[snip] If Breitbart is right, the (Obama raising money in China)

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign mocked Mitt Romney late Wednesday as being "scared" of Venezuela's anti-American President Hugo Chavez "like he's ten feet tall," the latest rhetorical broadside in an escalating war of words. "Hugo Chavez has become increasingly marginalized and his influence has waned," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement. "It's baffling that Mitt Romney is so scared of a leader like Chavez whose power is fading, while Romney continues to remain silent about how to confront al-Qaeda or how to bring our troops home from Afghanistan." The rhetorical rumble began late Tuesday when Obama told...

Per Severin, when Obama recently made an address regarding the Nazi concentration camps, he said that Auschwitz was run by the Polish Army. This from "the president who know more about Judaism than any other American president." Poland is not amused. Nor am I.

<p>One day, at the height of her fame in the mid-Seventies, Jane Fonda turned up on the doorstep of her ex-husband, Roger Vadim. She was lugging a bulging sack.</p> <p>Vadim’s glamorous new girlfriend let her in, thrilled to meet the movie icon at last. But her excitement soon turned to disbelief. The star of Julia, Klute and The China Syndrome had come to do her laundry. Why? Because her second husband, Tom Hayden, a Left-wing activist with a bulbous nose and acne-scarred cheeks, had forbidden her to have either a washing machine or dishwasher. Far too bourgeois.</p>