Free Republic

With Christmas fast approaching, even America's First Lady has to help out with a few festive tasks. And today, Michelle Obama pitched in to make seasonal decorations and treats after unveiling the newly decorated White House to specially invited guests from military families. 'It’s Christmas. It’s exciting!' she told the assembled press before helping her younger guests make festive crafts and cards.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama assailed North Korea Monday for new missile tests, saying the world must "stand up to" Pyongyang and demand that it honor a promise to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Palin won.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid watched Hillary Clinton endorse Barack Obama on Saturday and wholeheartedly approved. "I watched every word of it. I thought it was excellent," the Nevada Democrat said of Clinton's speech in Washington, D.C., which marked the official suspension of the New York senator and former first lady's presidential campaign. "I just think she did such a nice job passing the ball off for Obama." Wary of harming relationships in the Senate, Reid waited almost as long as Clinton to get behind Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and freshman senator from Illinois. Reid officially came...

Q: What causes sleep paralysis? Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t move or speak. It feels like someone is holding me down. Finally I just go back to sleep. A: Sleep paralysis is caused by a timing delay between our brain and body. It leads to an awareness of being awake, yet is accompanied by a frightening inability to move our arms or legs, utter a single word or cry out for help. It may be accompanied by unexplained sights and sounds, or even a feeling that someone else is in the room....

WASHINGTON - By dropping off the ballot, Republican Tom DeLay may have given a boost to a Libertarian candidate in the race for the former majority leader's House seat. Bob Smither said voters in the Houston-area district have been pledging support in phone calls. He also said he has seen a spike in contributions as the GOP wrangled over who to back as a write-in candidate. Smither now thinks there's possibility in a once-near impossible situation. "Clearly the fact Mr. DeLay has been removed from the ballot is a huge benefit to me," he said. "This is a very conservative...

Lieberman and the War 08/09 11:31 AM The "experts," i.e., anyone on TV, tell us that the Lieberman-Lamont race was about one issue and one issue only — the war. Well, then, since 48 percent of the Democrats voted for Lieberman, I guess 48 percent support the war. The national Democrats better hope that's not the case — Connecticut being a blue state — or their dreams of electoral victory in November and beyond will be just that ... dreams.

According to Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, the elections were "in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else." If so, President Bush has strong support in the Democratic Party since Lieberman received 48 Percent of the vote…

Daniel Defoe is best remembered today for creating the ultimate escapist fantasy, "Robinson Crusoe," but in 1727 he sent the British public into a scandalous fit with the publication of a nonfiction work called "Conjugal Lewdness: or, Matrimonial Whoredom." After apparently being asked to tone down the title for a subsequent edition, Defoe came up with a new one — "A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed" — that only put a finer point on things. The book wasn't a tease, however. It was a moralizing lecture.[snip] The sex act and sexual desire should not be...

Wollemi rock art shows Aboriginal Dreaming Judy Skatssoon ABC Science Online Friday, 2 December 2005 Some of the rock art found in Wollemi National Park is believed to represent paths associated with Dreamtime beings, such as the eagle ancestor (Image: Paul Taçon) Archaeologists surveying rugged bushland outside Sydney have discovered evidence that an ancient Aboriginal Dreaming track runs through wilderness where the Jurassic-era Wollemi Pine was found. Dreaming tracks record the journey of spirit ancestors as they moved through the landscape, transforming ancestral lands and laying down the laws. Around 1000 known tracks are believed to exist, mainly in central...

I realize we have not even arrived at the point where we can seriously consider the midterm elections in 2006. But even the thought of them, and then beyond, forces me to seriously consider 2008. If the midterms go as I expect, then 2008 is inevitable. Everything I said seems to be coming true. Kerry lost because of his own arrogance and the Democrats inability to respond to the shoot from the hip, hard line, inflexible Republican style. It was not yet fashionable to embrace the Tortise while the Hare was making his dash for the second of many finish...

Investor's Business Daily A True Master Of Invention Tuesday September 21, 7:00 pm ET Brian Deagon Ray Kurzweil believes that to be successful, he has to look far into the future. And the only way to do that well is to try to understand the past. "At the age of 5, I decided I would be an inventor and by age 12 I was heavily involved with computers," Kurzweil recalled recently. "I quickly realized that timing was the most important thing to invention. Most inventions fail because the timing is wrong." In order to get the timing right, Kurzweil became...

White House: New leadership in the Palestinian Authority needs to state clearly its opposition to terrorism (Reuters)

TODAY'S ICONOCLAST FEATURED COMMENTARY BAGHDAD BOB AND THE DEATH OF PROPAGANDAThe Wild Whoppers of Iraq's Weird and Wacky Minister of Information by Lin Anderson "Who are you going to believe," goes the old joke. "Me, or your own eyes and ears?" That could well provide a decent and fitting epitaph for Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's Minister of Information, although we harbor hope that he lives many years beyond the war. We sort of admire his hard-headed stubbornness to admit defeat -- indeed, not to accept anything other than sweet, sweet victory, 24 hours a day. He's one of a...

The Macker [DNC Chair McAuliffe] was due to add the following comments this morning at the Presidential Primary 'Politcs and Eggs' breakfast in Beford, New Hampshire.'Given this pattern, [of Lott's repeated racial statements] it is simply not credible for Senator Lott to continue to assert that the comments that he made in support of Senator Thurmond's segregationist campaign were anything more 'than a poor choice of words.' Sadly, it would rather appear that these comments reflect Senator Lott's true prejudices on race.''The time has come for leaders of the Republican Party to speak out against Senator Lott's remarks. I call...

Bay Area lawmakers look to push bills againWith Republicans in controlBy Lisa FriedmanWASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- They began the 107th Congress hoping to expand health care coverage, increase funding for renewable energy research and force federal agencies to buy fair-trade coffee. Overshadowed by the threat of terrorism and crippled by membership in a powerless political party, few Bay Area lawmakers' legislative priorities passed in the previous session. With Republicans holding an even tighter reign on power in the upcoming term that begins in January -- and all but one of Bay Area's representatives in Congress being Democrats and mostly liberal...