Free Republic

Nikki Haley has been busy. The former ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor has spent the past few months not discussing herself but rather conservative candidates running for office with voters across the country. Her goal is to encourage people to vote for candidates she believes best embody the populist conservative coalition. It's a coalition in which she has been active since she first ran for governor of South Carolina in a 2010 primary against four establishment rivals, right at the dawn of the Tea Party movement. "We're traveling all over the country, helping other candidates get...

Sooo…this is messed up. The New York Times recently published a piece called “Madonna at Sixty,” written by Vanessa Grigoriadis. It explores her ever-changing public persona and such. It’s kind of the typical fluff piece you’d imagine the New York Times would put out about a celebrity: The night before the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas in May, Madonna was sitting in the arena attached to the MGM Grand hotel, staring at a double of herself. The double, who was standing on the stage many yards away, was younger and looked Asian but wore a similar lace minidress and...

Here’s the breakdown of his personal pronoun use (based on a rush transcript of the event): “I” — 312 “Me” — 33 “My” — 43 “I’d” — 9 “I’m” — 61 “Myself” — 9 The former president’s comments began on his favorite topic: himself. “It’s been over ten years since I spoke to a slightly larger crowd in front of the Victory Column when I was running for president,” Obama said to a notably quiet crowd. “I had a little less gray hair then. And since then I’ve been back to Germany I think at least ten times. I’ve been...

“Can I put some of your blush on?” my six-year-old daughter Penny asks, expertly climbing onto the bathroom counter and sliding next to me. “Sure,” I answer, focusing on a steady hand as I not-so-expertly apply eyeliner to my top eyelid. We sit in companionable silence while I apply a subtle amount of makeup for my night out with some girlfriends, and she cakes on the blush until it achieves the exact effect she’s looking for. A few years ago, my kids started to take an interest in my makeup, a very small collection of tubes and compacts that I...

Former President Barack Obama took a moment during a Friday rally in Philadelphia to deliver a stern rebuke for some of the young people in the audience. “I’m talking to you, young people!” Obama snapped as he pointed into the crowd, where he said some young people were paying more attention to their phones than they were to him. “You! Pay attention!” he yelled. According to a scorecard kept by The American Mirror, part of what the young people might have been missing was Obama talking about himself. The site reported that Obama “said ‘I’ 56 times, ‘Me’ 5 times,...

A few months before my 42nd birthday, I was out to dinner with friends and found myself seated next to a well-known older male writer. I happened to be in the final stages of finishing a proposal for a memoir about being a single woman over 40 without children, and was inwardly marveling at the timing of our encounter. I was a fan of his. Perhaps he might offer some wisdom? Words of encouragement? As drinks were delivered I sketched the outline of the story: No one had prepared me for how exhilarating life could be on my own. I...

I posted this thread twice, and both times it got deleted. The Sidebar Moderator told me after the first time that it was deleted because of profanities. I tried to sanitize it, but it got yanked again. He or she has been very nice and I expressed my appreciation for the work the Sidebar Moderators do. Don't know if this thread will survive the person who has a bug up his or her butt, but I would like to know why it is offensive when I see so many other threads and posts that are at least, if not more...

"I call for the arrest of Jared Kushner. Now. pic.twitter.com/M5NW3JWkVw " — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 31, 2017 Keith Olbermann called for the "immediate arrest of Jared Kushner" in a video posted on Twitter Wednesday, saying there was ample evidence to implicate the president's son-in-law and adviser in the ongoing probes into Russian election interference. “I call for the immediate arrest of Jared Kushner. If he should not be suspected of money laundering, racketeering and influence peddling, then he should be suspected of obstruction of justice and espionage and possibly worse,” Olbermann, who has his own GQ web show, said....

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that one of her lowest points during the 2016 presidential election was when her 5-year-old daughter asked her what a “bimbo” was, referring to comments President-elect Donald Trump made about Kelly on social media. In her memoir “Settle for More,” Kelly explains how Trump harassed her on Twitter, calling her “lightweight,” a “bimbo” and “average in so many ways,” The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple wrote this week. She said Trump’s comments opened the door for others to say much worse.

Kelly said, “You may have heard that there was a dust-up involving yours truly, and presidential contender Donald Trump. Mr. Trump was upset with a question I asked him at the debate last week about his electability, and specifically comments he has made in the past about women, a few words on that. Apparently, Mr. Trump thought the question I asked was unfair, and felt I was attacking him. I felt he was asked a tough, but fair, question. We agreed to disagree. Mr. Trump did interviews over the weekend that attacked me personally, I’ve decided not to respond. Mr....

President Barack Obama, breaking his silence on the George Zimmerman acquittal, said Friday that many African-Americans believe that “both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different” if Trayvon Martin had been white. “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son,” Obama said somberly during a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. “Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” In searingly personal terms, Obama described his personal experience with race-based prejudice. “There are very few African-American men in this country...

<p>Supposed to commemorate this?</p>

By the time they're done with him, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich will look like a leading Democratic spokesman as the party moves quickly to harness his attacks on Republican plans to change Medicare. According to party sources, they plan to use Gingrich's assault on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's plan in a bid to knock down every Republican who voted for it. "By calling Paul Ryan's budget 'radical' and 'right-wing social engineering,' Newt merely echoed criticisms millions of Americans across the political spectrum have voiced at house Republicans' budget for weeks now," says Ryan Rudominer, a Democratic consultant...

This morning Republicans are just beginning to assess the damage that former House Speaker and current presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has done to the GOP budget plan currently before Congress. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Gingrich denounced House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's plan to restructure Medicare, saying, "I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate."

Watching the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound unfold last week from the White House Situation room was interminable, the president revealed to CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday evening. "It was the longest 40 minutes of my life," Obama told correspondent Steve Kroft during a conversation taped days after bin Laden's death. A photo of the national security team viewing the action remotely has quickly become a touchstone of the May 1 event, but officials have revealed little about what was going on behind the scenes, citing security concerns. Obama described the mood as "very tense,"...

Rosie O'Donnell says Donald Trump is a man obsessed. "It's the way I look. He can't resist. I love when people say you're fat like you don't know," O'Donnell joked Monday on ABC's "The View.""... It's always the first comment of someone who disagrees with you if you happen to be on the plus side." Trump has been hurling insults at O'Donnell since she criticized his news conference with Miss USA Tara Conner last month. Trump announced that Conner would be allowed to keep her title, which had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking. "Boy, did I hit a...

I am as Catholic as the moon is round. It's not visible, sometimes, the moon, my Catholicism, but it's there, pulling the tides, shaping the earth, pulling and shaping me. I knew who made me before I knew who I was. God made me. ''Why did God make you?" the catechism asked. ''God made me to show His goodness and to make me happy with Him in Heaven," the catechism taught me. I was a child who loved being a Catholic. I loved bowing my head at the name of Jesus, kneeling, lighting candles, inhaling incense, listening to Latin prayers...

In this stuning moment of post-Alito SCOTUS shock and awe, I trust that all my decent FReeper Friends will give this humble and heartfelt post the level of respect it deserves. I thank you all in advance for any help in restoring the full functionality of my classified CIA/NSA beebing device in case I meet any trolls, Sheehans, Bidens or Shumers.

Q: About a year ago, I made the heart-wrenching decision to leave a great job, house, friends and family to move to Hawaii with my fiancé. As part of this transition, I also chose to have my two beloved chow chow dogs put to sleep. I adored those dogs, but I justified their sacrifice to the greater good of a successful relationship. After six months, I am still tormented by memories of my dogs. The depths of anguish and loss make me think I got rid of them for purely selfish reasons, which is the kind of behavior I thought...

I am a conservative, I think there is no more fitting place to post this than here at FR, the only caveat I will say is that this post has nothing to do with my handle (rice08)   To quote Charles foster Kane, I have a statement of principles on our country and the world as a whole, here is what I believe in no particular order:     -          Cut taxes whenever possible for any reasonable cause -          Limit government spending, privatize when possible… You want Medicare? Here is a voucher for blue cross/blue shield, go nuts -         ...