Free Republic

Mecca, 25 Nov. (AKI) - The grandmother of US president Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the 'Hajj' or Islamic pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a Saudi daily said on Wednesday. Sarah Obama, 87, is being accompanied by a nephew and Obama's cousin, Omran. On Wednesday Sarah Obama was in the valley of Mina with an African delegation, according to the Saudi daily Okaz. Obama, the mother of the American president's father, lives in a village in Kenya and is one of the many guests of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud....

Sen. Barack Obama, would-be President of the United States, showed a breathtaking misunderstanding of the symbolism of the American flag yesterday when he explained why he does not display the Stars and Stripes on his jacket lapel. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Obama said, "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest," because he felt that supporters of the war in Iraq had, in effect, appropriated lapel flags and were using them as a "substitute for I think true patriotism." And he wanted none of it.