Free Republic

Searching old newspapers is one of my favorite pastimes, and I have tried to use them many times to shed light on current events - or to inform readers about how the past is prologue to our very interesting present-day quandaries. Recently, I came across a syndicated column from November 1979 that seemed to point 30 years into the future toward an obscure campaign issue that arose briefly in the 2008 presidential campaign. Though by no means definitive, it provides an interesting insight, at least, into how Chicago politics intersected with the black power movement and Middle Eastern money at...

A college tennis coach who also served as the personal instructor for former first lady Michelle Obama and her daughter, Malia, was among the 46 people charged by federal authorities in a sweeping college admissions bribery case announced Tuesday. According to the indictment unsealed Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, Gordon Ernst, the women’s tennis coach at the University of Rhode Island, is accused of conspiracy to commit racketeering during the years he served as a tennis coach at Georgetown University. There is no suggestion that Malia, a sophomore at Harvard, was implicated in the scandal in any way. Between...

Old Friends Recount Memories Of The Presidential Hopeful Before His Political Success (AP) The way Sohale Siddiqi remembers it, he and his old roommate were walking his pug Charlie on Broadway when a large, scary bum approached them, stomping on the ground near the dog's head. This was in the 1980s, a time when New York was a fearful place beset by drugs and crime, when the street smart knew that the best way to handle the city's derelicts was to avoid them entirely. But Siddiqi was angry and he confronted the bum, who approached him menacingly. Until his skinny,...

But on Tuesday’s live broadcast of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the former first lady joked about her 17-year-old daughter Sasha taking on Donald Trump. “I think, at this point, everybody’s qualified and everybody should run,” Obama told anchor Robin Roberts, prompting laughter from the audience. “I might even tap Sasha,” she added. “Sasha, you got some free time? I think you’d do a great job.” Roberts asked Obama if she was “saying that because of what we currently have.” Obama laughed. “You went there!” Roberts added. “You went there,” Obama replied.

Why do so many Americans still believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya? Maybe because he keeps insisting it's so. He did again last week, while visiting his ancestral homeland of Kogelo. Participating in the opening of Sauti Kuu Resource Center, a youth facility built by his half-sister, Auma Obama, he said: "Now, three years ago, I visited Kenya as the first sitting American president to come from Kenya. When I was president it was a little bit harder to get up here cause my plane didn't fit the tarmac up here." "While three years ago my sister Auma introduced...

Family ties! Obama arrives in his father's native Kenya for low-key trip to launch sports center founded by his half-sister Barack Obama arrived in Kenya on Sunday to assist his half-sister, Auma Obama The former president is helping his sister launch her sports and training center While in Nairobi, Barack met President Uhuru Kenyatta at the official residence Former US president Barack Obama arrived in Kenya on Sunday, the country of his father's birth, his first visit to this East African country since leaving office. Obama is in Kenya to help launch the sports and training center founded by his...

Adding to the growing list of books about President Barack Obama and his family is a new memoir by his sister who was raised in Africa. Auma Obama, who now works at CARE International in Nairobi, didn't meet Barack until the 1980s and it's unclear how much new ground the book breaks. But she did have an interesting vantage point: that of the Obama family in Africa and how her brother's political career impacted it. In published excerpts of "And Then Life Happens," she wrote about meeting Hillary Clinton after the nasty primary race in 2008 and the media frenzy...

Some names on the list of The Weinstein Company creditors are not unexpected, given the film company’s business dealings over the years: Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Dame Judi Dench. But some of the thousands of names on the 394-page list of people owed money by the bankrupt company jump off the page, among them David Bowie, Michael Bay, Malia Obama, Boris Becker, Ryan Coogler, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert De Niro and Darlene Love. Other creditors are less boldfaced but still eye-catching, including the film and television academies, the New York Fire Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. Another mentioned is...

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday amid thunderous applause of supporters even as pro-government forces fired on protesters angered by the contentious election process that kept him in power. The inauguration capped an incredibly fraught few months for Kenya that saw an election canceled, weeks of unrest, an opposition boycott and finally a new election that gave Kenyatta 98 percent of the vote... ...Kenyatta noted that the past few months “have been a trying time” but assured the country that the elections “are now firmly behind us.” So many people tried to push...

Former President Barack Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia, was accepted to Harvard last spring. According to reports, Melia has taken well to the campus in recent months. The 19-year-old has used the time to settle in to campus after a gap year filled with interesting news stories. Malia was filmed in a series of interesting circumstances at the music festival Lollapalooza in April. Her 2016 internship for now infamous sexual predator Harvey Weinstein’s company also made headlines in the midst of the movie mogul’s downfall. In recent days, the tabloids have reported on Malia allegedly smoking and making out with a...

Barack Obama’s daughter, Malia Obama, may have interned for Harvey Weinstein’s company, but don’t worry — he didn’t do anything inappropriate with her, according to multiple sources. Former first daughter Malia Obama, 19, completed an internship last summer at Harvey Weinstein‘s company when she was 18, but the film producer was on his “best behavior” around her, multiple sources told Page Six TV. The media outlet also spoke with Harvey on Oct. 10 and although Barack Obama and Michelle Obama issued a statement saying they are “disgusted” with the recent sexual harassment allegations against him, Harvey refused to comment. However,...

ABC news journalist and Barack Obama fangirl Robin Roberts on Monday’s Nightline gushed over a new book of pictures of the Obamas. Co-host Dan Harris deemed the collection of images “picture perfect.” Talking to former White House photographer Amanda Lucidon, Roberts fawned over a picture of the couple snuggling close to each other: “Didn't the President tweet this photo for Valentine's Day?” Harris hyped, “And picture perfect. The White House staff photographer getting candid about her years following First Lady Michelle Obama. The story behind this famous image.” In contrast, when Roberts interviewed Laura Bush in 2007, she wondered if...

When a scandal forces liberals to criticize both Hollywood and the Obamas, you know it’s bad. Hollywood and Washington are both freaked out over a New York Times report about mega-producer Harvey Weinstein and allegations of sexual harassment over nearly three decades. Several liberals raised a key point: Wasn’t this the same producer that gave Malia Obama an internship at the Weinstein company? The Daily Beast also asked: If Hollywood knew about Weinstein’s supposed harassment, why didn’t they speak out against him? Former New York Times writer Frank Rich, now executive producer for Veep, tweeted on October 6, “Biggest mystery...

Malia Obama just arrived at Harvard, but she's having trouble blending in, especially Saturday when she felt harassed by a woman hell-bent on getting a photo. Eyewitnesses tell TMZ, Malia was in Harvard Square with a friend. As she approached a salad shop, a woman ran up to her and said she wanted a photo for her grandchild. We're told Malia politely declined. The grandma was undeterred and staked out the salad joint, waiting for Malia to leave. When she did, we're told the grandma trained her camera on the former First Daughter and Malia fired back, "Are you gonna...

Malia Obama, the oldest daughter and child of former President Barack Obama, was recorded looking dazed as she was carted away from the Lollapalooza music festival Friday in Chicago, just hours after her dancing and flailing antics also were recorded on video, TMZ reported Tuesday. Two videos, the first published Saturday showing the 19-year-old writhing on the ground, are likely to increase scrutiny on the former first daughter and potentially up the attention paid to her younger sister Sasha. But, like many a first daughter before her, Malia’s likely struggle to enjoy the rigors of her youth out of the...

Has anyone else heard about Malia Obama being fired from her job as an intern at the Spanish Embassy?

The Obamas looked like ultimate tourists in Bali, as Sasha, Malia and Michelle covered up in bright yellow sarongs to visit Tirta Empul Temple, armed with cameras to document their family vacation. It’s an Obama family vacation! Former President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha, 16, and Malia, 18, were spotted taking in the sites in Bali on June 27 as they visited the Tirta Empul Temple. The Obama family reunited for their summer vacation, a 10-day trip to Indonesia. While we’re used to seeing the fashionable Obama women rock a slew of stylish frocks, on this occasion...

If you've ever had questions about what it's like working for Michelle Obama, one woman has all answers. That woman is Melissa Winters, Obama's long-time aide and current chief of staff. In an account to Cosmopolitan, Winters described her journey alongside the former first lady, which began during the 2008 presidential campaign.(snip) When Obama was in a bad mood, there was a simple solution: “Just put her in a room with children. She loves kids.” Of course, there was one bad mood that didn't seem to have an easy fix, and that was the night that Donald Trump got elected....

Former United States president Barack Obama arrived in Bali on Friday evening for a family vacation. His Gulfstream G-V N50JE aircraft landed at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali at 6.52 p.m. local time, or a bit late from its initial schedule of 5.55 p.m. Wearing a blue T-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers, Obama was seen relaxed and smiling when he embarked from the plane, witnesses reported. Meanwhile, former First Lady Michelle Obama, who wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans walked by his side. Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha, also joined the vacation. Journalists did not...

Looks like former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are putting down deeper roots in Washington: After renting a Kalorama home for their post-White House stint, the couple have purchased the eight-bedroom, nine-and-a-half-bath home for $8.1 million, according to property records. The Obamas have said they plan to remain in D.C. while their younger daughter, Sasha, finishes high school at Sidwell Friends. After leaving the executive mansion in January, the family settled into a rental home owned by Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart and his wife, Giovanna Gray Lockhart, an 8,200-square-foot home that was built in...