Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD, United States (AFP) - Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is hoping his own unorthodox version of the American dream propels him from being a "skinny kid with a funny name" to being the most powerful man in the world. Obama, 45, who formally declared his candidacy in the 2008 White House race Saturday, has rocketed to political stardom in only two years, and has high hopes of becoming the first African-American president. "Today, together, we can finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth," Obama told...

Barack Obama’s free ride is ending. The charismatic Illinois senator has enjoyed a lifetime of hagiography, starting with an 800-word story in The New York Times the day after his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Now, Obama’s about to endure a going-over that would make a proctologist blush. Why has he sometimes said his first name is Arabic, and other times Swahili? Why did he make up names in his first book, as the introduction acknowledges? Why did he say two years ago that he would “absolutely” serve out his Senate term, which ends...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race. "The time has come for universal health care in America," Obama said at a conference of Families USA, a health care advocacy group. "I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said. Obama was previewing what is shaping up to be a theme of the 2008 Democratic...

Wisconsin is squarely in the eye of Obamamania this week with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama crossing the border to campaign for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, attorney general candidate Kathleen Falk and Congresswoman Gwen Moore. Two years ago, when Obama showed up at Milwaukee's Martin Luther King Park to campaign for Moore and Sen. Russ Feingold, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't even bother to run a story the next day. With every magazine and talk show in the nation now promoting the possibility of Obama becoming America's first black president, even the most oblivious local media have taken notice. That's why...

In recent years, The New Republic, one of the nation's leading magazines of political and cultural commentary, has been embarrassed by scandals involving two of journalism's original sins: fabrication of stories and plagiarism. But the latest scandal, involving the magazine's cultural critic Lee Siegel, has to do with a transgression peculiar to the Internet age: sock puppetry. A sock puppet, in Internet parlance, is a false Internet identity created for deceptive purposes. Siegel, who had been writing a culture blog for The New Republic, had started using the pseudonym "sprezzatura" on the blog's forums to praise himself and savage his...

US to double anti-missile ships in Pacific Reuters News, Wed Aug 16, 2006 By Jim Wolf HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) - The United States, concerned about North Korea, will double to six by the end of the year the number of its ships in the Pacific capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, the head of the Pentagon missile-defense project involved said on Wednesday. "I think it gives the nation more options," Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program manager for Aegis ballistic missile defense, told reporters here after speaking to a conference on the fledgling U.S. shield. In coming years, a growing...

: Report: China Won't Curb North Korean Missile Program Defense Daily International 07/21/2006 Author: Dave Ahearn Even as the United States implores China to use its leverage to restrain North Korean ambitions to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, China has no intention whatever of wielding its influence to that end, a new report states. In other words, the United States is left to its own devices, forced to erect its own missile defense when confronted by a rogue regime bent on acquiring awesome military powers. While China postures by voicing "concern" that North Korea on July 4 fired a series of...

SEX, LIES AND SOCK PUPPETS:HOW THE CLINTONS ARE HANDLING THE HILLARY DUD FACTOR 4 by Mia T, 3.22.06 FALSE TRUE illary-the-person isn't running. The idea of hillary is, the idea of hillary as put out on a daily basis by all manner of proxy, from simple spinner to elaborate Hollywood production.1 QUESTION: When was the last time you observed "the smartest woman in the world"2 partake in our process of political discourse, or, as Charles Kuralt once put it, relish in "the raucous give and take of American democracy?" ANSWER: Never. Hillary-the-person answers to no one.3 Hillary-the-person never shows...

-- NOW would be relieved to learn --CLINTON MISOGYNY IS FREE OF AGEISM(+ hillary-a-sock-puppet video) by Mia T, 03.17.06   It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem. G. K. Chesterton   ... While America appears not to be ready for a female president under any circumstances, the post-9/11 realities pose special problems for a female presidential candidate. Add to these the problems unique to missus clinton. The reviews make the mistake of focusing on the problems of the generic female presidential candidate running during ordinary times. These are not ordinary...

Give me one reason why "judicial extraordinaire" Harriet Miers is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court. One.

It's time for politicians to protect the film industry and implement stiff anti-piracy laws. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, "pirates are costing the film industry billions of dollars each year." Thank you, J. Scott Davis

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., warned President Bush on Monday not to play politics with homeland security, after the White House reportedly asked Congress to remove some immigration measures from a pending intelligence bill.The legislation is meant to overhaul the nation's intelligence services, implementing recommendations of the commission that studied the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.A House version of the bill includes provisions to speed the deportation of illegal immigrants and prevent them from obtaining driver's licenses.It would also ban official use of identification cards that some foreign governments issue.Tancredo said Bush has asked that those provisions be removed...

All three morning news shows gave prominent attention to the news that former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger is under investigation for alledegdly stealing classified information from the National Archives.Pierre Thomas handled Berger duties for 'Good Morning America,' Pete Williams for the 'Today Show, and Bill Plante's piece on CBS Early Show actually focused on the 9/11 Comission's report in general, not on the Berger news. David Gergen a former Clinton Democratic advisor vouched for Berger on NBC's Today program calling him a 'hero' in the war on terror, a man of 'utter integrity' and saying that is was 'suspicious'...

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry , right, and retired former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark greet the crowd at a Little Rock, Ark., airport political rally Wednesday, May 12, 2004. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

It isn't for nothing that Bill Clinton has Wesley Clark on his speed dial. What with Clinton running his campaign and all. No sooner had Clark pulled the plug on his presidential run last Tuesday night -- and started the firestorm surrounding stories of Kerry and his extramarital affairs -- than Clinton was on the horn telling him to shut his mouth and get in line behind Kerry. Clinton is thought to have once wanted Clark to at least be on the bottom of a Democratic ticket. But as the campaign wore on, doubts arose. "All of the reasons Clark...

<p>February 17, 2004 -- ALBANY - Former President Bill Clinton said yesterday he is not touting retired Gen. Wesley Clark for the No. 2 spot on a ticket with Sen. John Kerry. Clinton, denying a report in yesterday's Post, said he is staying clear of having any influence on the selection of a Democratic vice-presidential candidate. "It is a deeply personal decision who you pick as your running mate," Clinton told The Post.</p>

<p>February 16, 2004 -- FORMER President Bill Clinton, stung by how poor a presidential contender Wesley Clark turned out to be, worked aggressively behind the scenes late last week to pressure John Kerry to pick the retired general as his running mate. "The former president has been calling people, including elected officials in New York, saying that Clark would make a great vice-presidential candidate," a well-known Democratic activist told The Post.</p>

<p>White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday responded to a report in USA Today detailing how in the late 1990s, as Mr. Bush prepared to run for president, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details in his military records.</p>

After persuading Gen. Wesley Clark to enter the presidential sweepstakes last September and staffing his campaign with their closest advisors, Bill and Hillary Clinton are reportedly preparing to dump the former NATO Commander. "[The Clintons] are stepping away from [him] so fast, like rats from a ship," NBC's Chris Matthews said Sunday. "The Clintons deny any connection to the Clark campaign," he added, before predicting, "[Bill Clinton] will be the only man in history to fire Wesley Clark twice." The Clark campaign crashed and burned in New Hampshire with a disappointing fourth place finish after he refused to distance himself...

Hi, I hope that you can help me. I am in an argument with a friend that the Clark campaign is basically run by Clinton loyalists. I am looking for links to news articles that i use. I hope that this request is ok. Thanks in advance.