Free Republic

Michelle Obama is getting a new ally in her campaign to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. The first lady was expected to announce Thursday that the Subway sandwich chain will spend $41 million over three years to encourage finicky young eaters to eat more food that comes out of the ground or grows on trees. The announcement was being made at a Subway shop near the White House. Subway will only offer a kids' menu that mirrors federal standards for school lunches. That includes offering apples on the side and low-fat or nonfat plain milk or water...

The typical gun-control advocates don't have the president's and attorney general's backs this time. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has come under fire this week: evidence revealed he either ignored weekly reports in the summer of 2010 that discussed Operation Fast and Furious, or he committed perjury when he claimed he first found out about the program in early 2011. The former suggests incompetence, the later criminality — either would be legitimate reasons to see him removed from office. Despite recent developments, the Department of Justice is publicly pushing back in favor of their boss, even as a key source...

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama holds a piece of green onion as she conducts the fall harvest with local students in the White House Kitchen Garden in Washington, October 5, 2011 U.S. first lady Michelle Obama eats a pizza made with vegetables harvested from the White House Kitchen Garden.

Documents obtained under a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch detail costs incurred during the First Lady's trip to South Africa and Botswana in June - with the cost of firing up 'Air Force 2' alone amounting to $424,142. The White House earlier professed the purpose of the trip was to help 'youth leadership, education, health and wellness' in south Africa.

Politics: The hippie horde attempting to mob and "occupy" Wall Street this week has a method to its madness. It's all about getting President Obama re-elected by employing classic Alinskyite tactics. At first glance, the latest protests staged by left-wing rent-a-mobs in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and elsewhere don't look terribly different from the World Trade Organization and global debt-amnesty spectaculars of a decade ago. Radicals swarm against some hated totem, chant, break a few Starbucks windows and leave scads of garbage for someone else to clean up. But the "Occupy Wall Street" mob that shut down the Brooklyn...

A state lawmaker and a group of Democratic political donors with ties to Gov. Beverly Perdue are poised to sell land at a handsome profit for a tire plant that's being lured with $100 million in state and local incentives, according to public records reviewed by The Associated Press. As North Carolina's chief executive, the governor is a key decision maker in large incentives deals involving state money. She also helps appoint the board members of a foundation that's been asked to provide part of the tire plant's package. Perdue's campaign has received more than $52,000 from five men with...

Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive. The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue if they think a company of 15 more employees denied them a job because they were unemployed. The provision would ban employment ads that explicitly declare the unemployed ineligible, with phrases like "Jobless need not apply." As The Lookout has reported, such ads appear to...

In what seems an unthinkable move, MTV — the network that hosted a youth town hall last October called “A Conversation With President Obama“ and made ”Rock the Vote” famous — has reportedly declined a request by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign to help the president connect with young Americans. What’s more, the network allegedly did so on the grounds that it does not get involved with political campaigns. According to the New York Post, Obama’s Get Out the Vote campaign, run by Buffy Wicks, feared that the high unemployment rate among millennials will turn young voters off to the...

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

I don't know about the political ethics or math skills of the UC Berkeley students who came up with the idea for an Increase Diversity Bake Sale, but they certainly know how to draw a crowd. The student Republican group that sponsored a race-based bake sale set to be held on the campus today must have been counting on raising more than just the cookie dough. There are few places in America more reactionary than a college campus, and among them, UC Berkeley is a leader. A bake sale flyer posted on Facebook last week linked the price of pastries...

Chris Christie say he has finally made a definitive decision, once and for all, not to run for president in 2012, sources close to the New Jersey governor told Fox News on Tuesday. Despite the intensity that has heightened in recent days as the New Jersey governor prepares to deliver a speech Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, several people close to the governor insist he has not changed his mind to forego a presidential bid. Christie is on tour, attending seven fundraisers in three states, which has fueled speculation that he could be preparing for a 2012 bid....

Not content with going after the nation's children, its grocery stores, the food pyramid and McDonalds, Michelle Obama is now going after the country's most beloved restaurant chains Olive Garden, Red Lobster and its sister restaurants have pledged to serve healthier meals by cutting calories and sodium in its meals by 20 per cent over a decade. And if the little ones desire some French fries they will only be able to do so with adult supervision. Among promised changes for children, Darden Restaurants Inc said a fruit or vegetable side and low-fat milk will become standard with kids' meals...

“We can’t just leave it up to the parents," Michelle Obama We live in a golden age. A wondrous era where the government compels us to buy health insurance, whether we need it or not. And whether we want to or not. Where the First Lady is no longer in charge of the White House's meals, but of our meals. Where wise and generous czars in the nation's capital ponder day and night how to stop the flow of free information that's rotting our minds and filling our heads with critical thoughts about the government. Previous generations had to do...