Free Republic

Helen Thomas, reporter is 89-years-old and has been covering White House presidents since John F. Kennedy plus she is an ultra-Liberal so when she takes exception at the Obama administration’s relationship with the press, well it’s simply “Shocking!” In fact shocking is the word that Ms. Thomas used while describing what she and all other White House reporters are experiencing due to the machinations of the Obama White House. (see story) Ms Thomas told CNS News that the Obama White House, which is self proclaimed as the most open and transparent administration in American history, is in the contrary the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Finally joining the Senate, Democrat Al Franken envisions playing the "people's proxy" during Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court hearings. Franken, awaiting "an awfully emotional" Tuesday when he is sworn in, is joining the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is to begin hearings next week on President Barack Obama's first nominee to the high court. "..I kind of see myself as people's proxy, not that the other senators aren't, but certainly that's the kind of role I want to play," he said.

LOS ANGELES -- As millions prepared to watch a memorial service for Michael Jackson, at the Staples Center and via live feed on theater and arena screens around the world, details began to emerge about Jackson’s brain having been removed for transplantation into the skull of President Barack Obama. “This guy was elected under the guise of being the smartest president ever; six months into the job he’s demonstrated more stupidity than all of the previous 43 presidents combined,” said Harry Nosering, MD, chief neurosurgeon for St. Moonbat Hospital in Los Angeles, who will conduct the transplant. “Michael’s brain can’t...

IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Walid Muallem sarcastically agreed with President Shimon Peres’s statement Monday that Israel will not hand over the strategic Golan Heights to Damascus on a “silver platter.” He responded Tuesday morning that “silver” was not good enough and demanded, "We want to receive the Golan on a gold platter.” Powered by WebAds His comments have sent the prospects of a rapprochement with Syria further back in the deep freeze as Syria increasingly hardens its stand in tandem with overtures from the Obama administration to make it part of the peace process.

President Obama's job approval rating is now lower than his popular vote percentage, for the first time. Today's Rasmussen poll shows him approved by only 52% of the public. 47% disapprove. Initially, Obama was given a benefit of the doubt never extended to Bush, possibly because of the partisan contention over Bush's victory. A whopping 69% of Americans supported Obama in January. That quickly fell to 55% by early April, but his approval seemed to have recovered, as mainstream news sources hailed an alleged economic turnaround. In late May, it had risen to 58%. Obama and the Democrats may really...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate's top Republican is lashing out at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for ruling against white firefighters who alleged reverse discrimination. Sen. Mitch McConnell says Sotomayor's decision as a federal appeals court judge suggests she allows her own agenda to cloud her judgment and favors certain groups.

Bozeman Daily Chronicle Poll Six months into his presidency, how would you rate Barack Obama's performance?

A day before New York Rep. Peter King called Michael Jackson a “pervert” unworthy of nonstop media coverage, the aunt of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Jackson died asked why her nephew's death went virtually unnoticed while the King of Pop got memorial shrines across the country. "Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media," Martha Gillis wrote to the Washington Post. "Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?" Gillis' nephew, Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afganistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised...

NOVO-OGARYOVO, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to consider Russia's concerns on missile defense and to respect Moscow's interests in the post-Soviet space, a senior Russian government official said. "Obama said Russia's concerns would be given more consideration when discussing [missile defense plans]," said Yury Ushakov, a deputy chief of staff at the Russian government. Obama has shown less interest than President George Bush in opening a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, which Moscow fiercely opposes as a security threat. According to Ushakov, Obama and Russian...

Stocks fell Tuesday amid growing doubts about the economic recovery. There were some pockets of gains in the tech, banking and pharmaceutical sectors.

California's campaigns introduce candidates not only to the state's voters but also to its immensity. In Bakersfield, Meg Whitman, 52, the former CEO of eBay who is campaigning for the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination, learned about carrots. California's cascading crises prefigure America's future unless Washington reverses the growth of government subservient to organized labor. The state cannot pay its bills and poorly educates its young, and its taxation punishes whatever success that its suffocating regulatory regime does not prevent. Whitman, a Roman candle of facts and ideas, insists, "We do not have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem...

World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, was born in Naperville, Illinois. He was educated at Harvard Law School and worked at Goldman Sachs and the State Department but still has the directness of a Midwesterner. He recently wrote to the G8 members who are meeting in Italy, a place about as philosophically distant from the Midwest as anywhere could be, that “…2009 remains a dangerous year. Recent gains could be reversed easily, and the pace of recovery in 2010 is far from certain.” The reason that he may not have delivered the message in person is even though he had the...

The Jackson family has decided to bring Michael's body to the memorial service being held today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, putting off the announced plans for a private internment at Forest Lawn cemetery from 8 a.m. PDT to after the service.The 10 a.m. PDT service is being broadcast on all the major American broadcast and cable news networks, as well as in theaters across the country, the Times Square jumbotron in New York City and on TV screens around the world.From Entertainment Weekly, performers and friends expected at the service include: Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Berry Gordy,...

Former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney was released from Israeli custody Monday after being detained for trying to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. In an interview with the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, McKinney's mother Leola said the former congresswoman was released from Israeli custody and taken to Ben Gurion International Airport. McKinney and 20 activists from the "Free Gaza Movement" were arrested June 30 when their boat attempted to sail from Cyprus to Gaza to deliver three tons of aid to Palestinians -- a move meant to bring attention to the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on the territory...

Federal prosecutors filed corruption charges yesterday against a onetime defense contractor who has ties to both U.S. Rep. John Murtha and a suburban Johnstown defense contractor currently under criminal investigation. Richard S. Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., was accused of accepting $200,000 in kickbacks. He is charged through a criminal information and is expected to plead guilty. No date has yet been set. According to the court filing entered yesterday, Mr. Ianieri is accused of taking the kickbacks from a date unknown through January 2006 while an officer for Coherent, which was a prime contractor...

Again. Now, just to be clear, these don’t exist – yet. Cramer introduced the idea during Monday’s Mad Money as a way to offer people a healthy balance between risk and safety, growth and income. Investing options seem limited these days, and he doesn’t want people falling prey to the countless scams that promise 300% returns. So he called for the Treasury Department to issue 30-year, 5% bonds as a way to help families who are desperate to recover their savings. What am I talking about here? Cramer "suggested" that Treasury sell 30 year "special" bonds to people for use...

“In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much,” she said. “See, that’s why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, “ Michelle Obama Michelle Obama’s 22 hand servants. Let the underlings of this nation eat cake….

I warned people about this over a year ago..... This morning I had seen a third "notice" that there are widespread "critical shortfalls" in Union Pension Funds. I put up a short video on the topic and am now getting emails telling me that this is more widespread than has been reported - additional funds have been sending these deficiency notices out. And in that article I called for general strikes organized by the unions of this nation - what's left of them anyway. In fact, here's the original call: Yes, I am potentially calling for the Longshoremen to strike...

After his employer gets caught trying to peddle influence with the Obama administration, the Washington Post's blogging wunderkind Ezra Klein asks, "Should Newspapers Be Funded by the Government?": The question, then, is whether we want newspapers (and magazines, and so forth) so agonizingly vulnerable to these pressures. The news, after all, is not a market good. Among other things, it is not profitable to sell it. But we think society needs it. ... We have public universities and public centers for disease research and public firefighting departments and a public military and public roads. Why should news be different? You...

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