Free Republic

From an Email I just received: Being the Republican nominee for President was one of the great honors of my life and an experience I will never forget. Some have wondered, after my hard fought presidential campaign, if I plan to run for re-election to the United States Senate. Join my re-election team I want you to know that I do intend to seek re-election. The magnitude of the financial crisis that many American families are facing makes it clear to me that I want to continue to serve our country in the Senate. The economic challenges currently confronting our...

No one gets the fascination with Michelle Obama, fashion plate, more than her husband. Invoking another president with a glamorous wife—that would be, maybe, John F. Kennedy? — President Obama told military guests at the Commander in Chief Ball last night, “I have the special honor of being the guy who accompanied Michelle Obama to the ball.” That got a big laugh, but it would be a few minutes before the first lady made her entrance, in an ivory chiffon dress. But when she did, oh, what a roar. It was an amazing day for Mrs. Obama — chic and...

Her parents made their way to Chicago in the Great Migration, settling in the Near South Side ghetto then part of the city's Black Belt. Margie Edwards, 78, of Englewood, has vivid memories of growing up during segregation, of Jim Crow laws and the newcomer called King, of marching hand-in-hand with strangers in Selma. So when a newcomer came along 45 years later, she was skeptical. "I said, 'Boy, he don't stand a snowball's chance in hell,' " said Edwards, whose daughter Pamela Frazier is taking Edwards' eight grandchildren and great-grandchildren to Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration as president. "But...

Do you need Obama coverage 24 hours a day? In several markets, Comcast cable is launching an all-Obama, On Demand channel. (In D.C., it's channel 963). Leading up to Inauguration, the channel will offer a number of Obama-related programs, according to a release: "Barack Obama’s most famous speeches to date, from his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 through his election night victory speech in Grant Park; Barack Obama biography; Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech; a tour of the White House; and the history of Air Force One."

Maybe I'm just being too cynical, but somehow I doubt that Rep. Jose Serrano introduced HJ Res 5 in order to allow George W Bush to run for a third term in office. One week ago, the New York Democrat introduced a measure to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which provides the only term limit on federal office - the Presidency. The amendment, added in 1951, restricts anyone from seeking a third term in office, and Serrano wants that repealed. Why now? Apparently, the notion of Hope and Change has overwhelmed Serrano to the point that he just can't stand to...

Bobby Jindal talks too fast. That, both admirers and detractors agree, is the most noticeable flaw in the impressive presentation he offers as the first Indian-American governor and perhaps the best prospect for revitalising a Republican Party that has just started its tour of the wilderness, with little else to keep it going other than the sustenance provided by occasional caribou kills by its new folk hero, Sarah Palin. "He still speaks too fast," says Roy Fletcher, a Republican strategist in Jindal's unlikely proving ground: Louisiana, a state with a minuscule south Asian community, and where a white supremacist tried...

DELMAR BOULEVARD is an arterial road running through some of the poorest and richest, and most racially divided, neighbourhoods of St Louis, Missouri. Some city aldermen are now trying to rename the street after Barack Obama before he takes office.

WASHINGTON: The US administration is now asking Pakistan to ensure that those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks are punished inside the country instead of being extradited to India, US sources told Pakistan daily Dawn. (Watch)According to the Pakistani paper’s sources, the Bush administration has informed the government of Pakistan that it would like it to initiate “prosecution with sufficient efforts to ensure conviction”. This indicates a clear change in the US attitude which previously backed the Indian demand that some of the suspects be extradited to India, the Dawn reported. On Thursday external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters...

World reaction to Israel's sudden, massive strike against terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip ranged from immediate condemnation and a call to halt all attacks to cautious acknowledgement of Israel's right to defend its citizens. Some international powers spoke against Hamas's bombardment of communities in southern Israel since the cease-fire ended last week; others wrung their hands over the humanitarian suffering in the Strip. In a statement released Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate halt to all violence in both Gaza and southern Israel. "While recognizing Israel's security concerns regarding the continued firing of rockets from Gaza,...

Bobby Jindal is seen by many in his party as the Next Big Thing, a political comer who at 37 offers competence, reform and a fresh face for a Republican Party in dire need of all three. But even as he basks in the media glow from his maiden foray to Iowa last month, Jindal is far from a sure thing in 2012. Jindal, only elected governor last year, said flatly this month he’s not interested in being president and is only focused on a 2011 reelection bid — perhaps not surprising at a time when few will admit to...

With a record amount of commercial real-estate debt coming due, some of the country's biggest property developers have become the latest to go hat-in-hand to the government for assistance. They're warning policymakers that thousands of office complexes, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial buildings are headed into defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcies. The reason: according to research firm Foresight Analytics LCC, $530 billion of commercial mortgages will be coming due for refinancing in the next three years -- with about $160 billion maturing in the next year. Credit, meanwhile, is practically nonexistent and cash flows from commercial property are siphoning off.

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month.

Facing an increasingly ominous economic outlook, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are rapidly ratcheting up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years. That amount, more than the nation has spent over the past six years in Iraq, would rival the sum Congress committed last month to rescuing the country's financial system. It would also be one of the biggest public spending programs aimed at jolting the economy since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Hints of a hefty new spending program began emerging last week. New...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Could there be a third President Bush? The current chief said Wednesday that younger brother Jeb would make a great one, too, and has asked him about making a run. The first President Bush likes the idea as well. Jeb Bush the Republican governor of Florida, has one asset that his presidential brother doesn't right now — approval from most of his constituents. While George W. Bush's approval ratings are in the low 30s, some 55 percent of Florida voters surveyed last month by Quinnipiac University said Jeb was doing a good job. The governor has repeatedly...