Free Republic

Kudlow:Carly, welcome back. Congratulations. You really--stunning victory yesterday, just knocked off everybody. We've got--we invited, by the way, your opponent, Barbara Boxer. She politely declined. I'm not shocked by that, but she did. But what we do have is a sound bite from Miss Boxer. We have a sound bite from Barbara Boxer. She's already attacking you, and she's already getting into the mud. And what I...Ms. Fiorina: What a shock.Kudlow: I know. It's a shocking development. And I want to give you a chance. Let's put the sound bite from her making an attack on you. Let's let you...

The Man Who Would Be Czar: Treasury Department's Chief Auto Industry Advisor Takes Pragmatic Approach to Saving GM and Chrysler ... Nevertheless, Wagoner's firing, or even that of his replacement, Fritz Henderson, under GM chairman and now CEO Ed Whitacre, serves as ammunition for critics of Obama's "socialist" handling of the economy and business. Bloom describes his involvement with GM, postbankruptcy, as much more arm's length, in keeping with Obama's insistence that the federal government wants to run no car companies.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: The economist Paul Samuelson, who died yesterday at the age of 94, is quoted having said this: I don't care who writes a nation's laws or crafts its advanced treatises if I can write its economics textbooks. Paul Samuelson wrote the textbook "Economics," which was a global blockbuster. It was published in 1948, updated many times since. It was the bestselling U.S. textbook for decades and it was translated into 20 languages. And then there was his scholarly work. When the Nobel Prize for Economics was established, Paul Samuelson won the second prize ever awarded in 1970....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- He shows a fascination with science, an all-too deliberate decision-making demeanor, an adherence to logic and some pretty, ahem, prominent ears.

Bearing video cameras, laptops and cellphones, a small army of young activists flooded into a recent federal meeting in protest. Members of public-interest group Free Press weren't there to support a presidential candidate or decry global warming. The tech-savvy hundreds came to the Federal Communications Commission's hearing at Harvard Law School last month to push new rules for the Internet. For the first time, Congress and the FCC are debating wide-reaching Web regulations and policies that would determine how much control cable and telecommunications companies would have over the Internet. The issue has given rise to a new political constituency...

BOSTON, Mass. (CNN) - She was called "the littlest refusenik," one of the many Soviet Jews denied permission to leave the Soviet Union because her father had been exposed to government secrets. But the case of Jessica Katz was special because she was a baby born with a nutritional deficiency that stopped her from growing. She was a tiny baby dying in a Moscow hospital, getting weaker by the day. It was U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy who, her parents say, eventually saved her life. Jessica was born in Moscow in 1977 with malabsorption syndrome, which prevented her from digesting food...

Before the storm, said Louisiana resident James Madison, he had Mormons knock on his door just like everybody else and the object was to try to get rid of them as fast as possible; go away, not interested, don’t want to hear what you have to say. After the storm, “ . . . a little bit different now. They’re part of my family now. Always will be. They got into my heart. They’ll never stand on my doorstep again without being invited into my house.” They were hearing stories of troops coming in and heard helicopters were flying over,...

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim immigrants were seen as a potential threat in the United States. They have since become model citizens -- and now they want a greater say in politics. Why shouldn't we wear head scarves? It is almost 1 p.m., time for noon prayers, and Abdul Malik Mujahid, 55, is in his office on the second floor of Chicago's Downtown Islamic Center, preparing for his sermon. On his desk are a Koran, a pad of paper and a Blackberry. A telephone rings in the next room as people hurry through the corridors. Soon Mujahid...

The Senate’s phone system crashed last month during immigration reform debates, when thousands of people and anti-immigrant activists called their senators to protest the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants. The massive, unprecedented telephone campaign was sparked by a range of complex motives based on social and economic issues. Among them was a theme that promises to reappear if the issue is revisited: the perception that Latinos are too different to assimilate, do not learn English, and are unraveling the fabric of the identity of a nation that was, ironically, created by immigrants. “It is one of the ideas that...

Michelle Obama has a few gripes about her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and she's not shy about sharing them with thousands of people she doesn't know. He doesn't put his worn socks in with the dirty clothes. He's worse than a 5-year-old at making the bed. And after he eats, he doesn't put away the butter. "Today, he still didn't put the butter up after he made his breakfast. I was like, 'You're just asking for it, you know I'm giving a speech. Why don't you just put the butter up?'" she told a roaring crowd at a...

Like him or not, Ronald ("Tear Down This Wall") Reagan spoke in a clean, clear prose that almost always left listeners with a sense that he stood for something. It may thus be no accident that Jim Webb, Virginia's new Democratic senator, was once a Reaganite. In his reply to President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Webb defined the two central moral issues that animate most of the Democratic Party's rank and file: the mess in Iraq and the fact that the fruits of a growing economy are not being shared by all Americans. Then Webb...

About a year ago, before he was running for the Senate, James Webb took a colleague to the mountains of southwest Virginia to do some research for a movie they were working on. Rob Reiner , meet my cousin Jewel and her husband, Buck. Jewel made a home-cooked meal for Webb and his producer-director friend. She pointed across the way to a nearby hollow and said: "Ah wuz bawn rat ovah theyah." That's Reiner on the phone from Los Angeles, doing a mountain accent.

Subtitle: Andre Pitts Finds Success With An Iranian Basketball Team TEHRAN, (CBS) Sitting on a black leather sofa in his sparsely furnished North Tehran apartment, Andre Pitts speaks with a yearning for home. "I'm from America and I love my country." he says. "I miss my friends." Most of all, Pitts misses his wife and young daughter. "I'm scared of one thing: That I go home and she doesn’t recognize me," he says. "That would kill me. I am doing all this basically for her — to help better her life." Pitts is the American star of a champion Iranian...

Peace mom slips from public stage: Cindy Sheehan plans to return to presidents ranch for Thanksgiving SAN FRANCISCO — Peace mom Cindy Sheehan peered out a window 14 floors above the Civic Center on Friday and asked, Want to see my new car? She pointed to a sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible parked near City Hall. She explained she hasnt treated herself to much since her son, Casey, died in Iraq in April 2004, but shed always wanted such a car and recently decided it was time for a change. Sheehans life has changed profoundly since Caseys death — richer in...

FOR countless Democrats around America, the announcement last week of a new initiative linking Senator Hillary Clinton to one of her party’s most appealing new stars amounted to a match made in political heaven. Not since President George W Bush crushed the Democratic party’s hopes in last November’s election have two senators with perhaps the strongest chances of beating Republican rivals to the White House formed such an intriguing alliance. Clinton has been linked with Senator Barack Obama, the charismatic black Democrat from Illinois, in a healthcare initiative that unites two formidable and ambitious politicians who have their eyes on...

PENN YAN, NY--An 8-year-old Penn Yan girl handed Hillary Rodham Clinton a T-shirt yesterday and asked the senator to sign it. The girl had pinned a Hillary Clinton button on it, right next to the words “Someday, a woman will be president.” As clear an indication as that was of the child’s support, one woman in the crowd was even less subtle. “She’s going to be a great president,” the woman called out to a friend. Even though her supporters sometimes talked as if the former first lady’s next stop was the White House, her sights are set on being...

Voinovich sticks to his conscience -- White House shouldn't have been surprised at opposition By GEORGE E. CONDON Jr., Copley Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON – Sen. George Voinovich’s decision to oppose John Bolton came as a great shock to the White House. But it could not have surprised anyone who has watched the Republican senator’s long career in public office in Ohio. As a county auditor and commissioner, Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and now as senator, Voinovich has always insisted on civility and decent treatment of public employees, a trait he found woefully lacking in President Bush’s nominee to be...

With the holiday season upon us, American women will be shopping for extra groceries and the special outfits required for endless get-togethers -- not to mention gifts needed for under the tree. Women looking for good deals and savings should recognize that it isn't just coupons and holiday sales that are creating bargains -- free trade is helping to fulfill all of these needs. In fact, if you've gone shopping lately, you've gone global. American stores are teeming with imported products ranging from Australian lamb and Belgian chocolate to flowers from South America. Even without the holiday rush, free trade...

With his grades and high school activities, Pablo is an ideal candidate for college, except for one hitch: He's illegal. Four high school students in military uniforms were horsing around in a cinderblock corridor deep inside Coors Field. It was fifteen minutes before the Rockies would take on the Phillies, and two decades into the latest surge of immigration into the United States. One of the students was named Pablo. He had pale skin, short dark-brown hair, ears that stuck out a little, and a long face. A ribbon pinned to his green uniform indicated that he was an expert...

Heads up! (Or down as the case may be.) NBC's Dateline will be showing part one of a two part broadcast of an interview conducted by Today Show hostess Katie Couric at 7 p.m. EDT.Part two will be shown on Monday's Today Show.