Free Republic

So, the other night, my friend Dr. Mo called to tell me about his close encounter with the tea party people, or 912 Patriots, or whatever those people who messed up traffic on Market Street last Saturday call themselves. Dr. Mo's real name is David Moyar, but if I were to identify him as that, at least half the people who know him wouldn't know who I was talking about. In the interest of full disclosure, Mo is an old friend, by which I mean he's old and a friend. (He has also taken money from me in poker games,...

The news might have set off alarms in some past administrations: The president's brother-in-law has written a book. But you won't find dirty laundry in a memoir from First Lady Michelle Obama's brother, Oregon State basketball coach Craig Robinson.(snip) Craig Robinson writes that he and his parents didn't think Barack Obama stood much of a chance with his sister when they met him.He and his parents were out on their porch on a hot summer night in Chicago when the couple stopped by to say hello on their way to a movie. "Well, he's tall," Marian Robinson said while Obama...

At least 10 Democratic members of Congress have been offered increased security attention in the wake of last weekend's health-care vote, House leaders said Wednesday, after some Democrats received death threats and others' congressional offices and Democratic Party campaign offices were vandalized. At least 10 Democratic members of Congress have been offered increased security attention in the wake of last weekend's health-care vote, House leaders said Wednesday, after some Democrats received death threats and others' congressional offices and Democratic Party campaign offices were vandalized.

When does bragging become illegal? Federal courts in California and Colorado will soon hear two cases that struggle with the question of whether lying about military service is a criminal offense. In California, Xavier Alvarez said during a public meeting that he received the Medal of Honor for his time in the Marines. Alvarez never served in the military and pleaded guilty to misrepresenting himself on the condition that he could appeal on the basis of the First Amendment. In Colorado, Rick Strandlof said he was a former Marine with a Purple Heart and Silver Star, claims which he used...

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute. “I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said. Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy.

The cover of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's new book "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" was intentionally doctored to exaggerate the appearance of hurricanes in the northern hemisphere as well as reduce the amount of ice present in the Arctic. Maybe even more ominously, Florida was so diminished it's almost totally gone. As reported by Florida State University hurricane expert Ryan Maue at the website Watts Up With That, the truth was apparently inconvenient for the Global Warmingist-in-Chief (h/t NBer Blonde): The cover opens and closes half and half - so you only see one hurricane...as in...

Don't question President Obama's focus. Consider: For his upcoming book Inside Obama's Brain, author Sasha Abramsky talked to many Obama friends and found this story. In Chicago, Obama started at a law firm located next to a Thai restaurant with a vermin problem. One day, during a meeting, Obama took a call as two rats entered the room. One ran up his leg. Firm partner Judson Miner tells Abramsky, "While we were all distracted by the rats, he focused on his conversation, finished his conversation, and then picked up on the conversation that we were having about the rats."

August 29, 2009 — Today’s Evolutionary Just-So Story is brought to you by New Scientist: “Girls Are Primed to Fear Spiders.” Once upon a time, while cavemen were out hunting and gathering, the women back home had to learn to avoid dangerous animals. David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University put this all into evolutionary terms for the rest of us:...

"This is the cause of my life - new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American - north, south, east, west, young, old - will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."

By Scott Malone – 20 mins ago BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a towering figure in the Democratic Party who took the helm of one of America's most fabled political families after two older brothers were assassinated, has died, his family said. He was 77. "Edward M. Kennedy, the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply, died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port (Massachusetts)," the Kennedy family said in a statement. One of the most influential and longest-serving senators in U.S. history -- a liberal standard-bearer who was also known as a consummate...

Video of Obama honoring Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin on the 40th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon and how he remembered watching the splash down from Hawaii, but as one the the commentators stated how could that be when Barry Soetoro lived in Indonesia as a child from 1967 to 1971 and was enrolled in Muslim classes when Apollo 11 splashed down in in the Pacific on July 24, 1969?

Over the weekend a tipster directed our attention to a part of the “President Obama’s African Journey” AC 360 special featuring the interviews Anderson Cooper conducted with President Barack Obama during his trip to Ghana. One line of the President’s stood out as possible fodder for criticism in much the same way Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment became a conservative talking point. Here’s the full passage: That’s part of the African American experience. You are, in some ways, connected to this distant land, but on the other end, you’re about as American as it gets in some ways. African...

All three of the liberal mainstream media morning shows (ABC, NBC, and CBS) were just having a collective orgasm this morning over President Obama killing a fly yesterday during an interview on CNBC. NewsBusters has compiled a video montage of this sickening slobbering over the man that ABC has sold out too. Wouldn't you have an orgasm too if you learned that your President is the karate kid?

- see the video - The president proved yesterday he will not tolerate distractions from his hefty political agenda -- at least not those coming from pesky insects. President Obama addressed issues ranging from health care to financial industry reform in a lengthy interview on CNBC on Tuesday, but he was interrupted by a fly persistently buzzing around his head. "Hey! Get out of here," Mr. Obama said. After a few irritated swats, the president zeroed in on the pest and patiently waited for it to land on his hand. He gave it a quick smack and watched it fall...

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

If you're not aware, Maxim recently released its list of the top-100 hottest women in the world. Of course on the list are people like Angelina Jolie and Heidi Klum. But on the top 100 is a woman who is definitely not what you would consider "hot:" Michelle Obama. I won't bad-mouth her too much, but the First Lady is not attractive, yet Maxim places her at 93.

BOSTON – Between doctors' appointments, Edward Kennedy has been working the phones, urging Senate colleagues to pass a health care bill. He's trying to finish his memoirs. And he's overseeing the design of a namesake building to stand next to his brother's presidential library. A year after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the 77-year-old last surviving Kennedy brother has defied some doctors' expectations and worked steadily to cement his personal and political legacies. [snip] He continues to chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and hopes to strike a deal on a health insurance bill before Congress...

President Obama marked Tax Day with a speech touting his tax policies. He made several claims about how his policies will improve the economy, most of which don’t hold up under close scrutiny. Here are a few of the more egregious examples: * President Obama claimed the tax cuts in the mis-labeled “stimulus” bill are the most progressive in history. This is true because the so-called stimulus created the Making Work Pay Credit and expanded the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. All these credits are refundable, so they send checks to tax filers who pay no...

The Ultimate Trip: "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" Heads to the Big Screen Film version of Tom Wolfe's book on Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters comes closer to reality The onscreen version of Tom Wolfe's literary cult hit The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is primed to hit theaters by 2010. When published in 1968, the book shattered cultural perceptions of the peaceful, passive hippie zeitgeist by introducing the Merry Pranksters, author Ken Kesey's roving gonzo army of LSD-fueled pioneers who tripped about the country, mixing it up with rowdy Oregonians, Bay Area hippies, Hollywood rockers, Hell's Angels and a flurry of left-handed...

Now, this has occurred before with Bill Clinton, and it quite possibly could have been the same with Bush - the issue is how the MSM spins this and how it will report one way if you are affiliated with one party versus the other way when you have the “scarlet” R next to your name. From Flopping Aces: “Cheered wildly by U.S. troops,” begins Jennifer Democratic Operative Loven’s AP report on Obama’s surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday. Quite a contrast to the silent treatment Marines gave Obama at his Camp LeJeune speech in late February. Just how did...