Free Republic

The perfect companion clip to Ace’s post yesterday on The One’s illusions about what his global charm offensive might actually accomplish. The key bit comes early, at about a minute in. Why hasn’t his glorious restoration of America’s “standing” translated into any foreign-policy achievements thus far? Simple, he says: We’re in the laying-the-groundwork stage right now. Softening up the people. Giving them a jolt of Hopenchange fee-vah that’s going to force their leaders to play ball with America whether they want to or not. Meanwhile, here’s what’s in the Times today: A week ago, when Mr. Obama kicked off his...

President Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Fox's attempt to smear ACORN Thursday September 10, 2009 is despicable, part of a coordinated, long-term campaign by Fox to damage ACORN, the premiere community organization of low- and moderate-income people in the United States. Every day ACORN members are working for health care reform, living wage jobs, to end the foreclosure crisis, and to strengthen our public schools. For its part, Fox is running a campaign to demonize ACORN. They will get attention, but they will not succeed. In July 2009, Fox agents attempted to enter ACORN offices in New York, in Philadelphia, in San Diego, in Los Angeles,...

Kate Walsh's hubby doesn't think Private Practice should also describe her accounting methods. The actress' soon-to-be ex-husband, studio honcho Alex Young, has filed court documents stating that the company that managed both his and Walsh's finances has engaged in "unlawful and unethical conduct" by refusing to hand over the documents he has requested pertaining to the couple's house and other assets.

WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account. The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices. "After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to...

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.” We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made...

On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama made a major gesture toward restoring the Constitution and the rule of law by signing two executive orders: one closed the prison at Guantánamo Bay, and the other restored America to the company of civilized nations by closing so-called “black sites” that facilitated state-sanctioned torture. Nice start, and the credit goes both to Obama and to the millions of Americans who stood up and took risks to fight against gathering tyranny. But it is not enough. There is a speech that we still need to hear, detailing five tasks that,...

CALGARY - U.S. President Barack Obama says Alberta's oilsands industry "creates a big carbon footprint" that leaves Canada and America facing an environmental dilemma about how to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from energy development. He also says he's eyeing carbon capture and storage as a possible solution. As the public-relations war between industry and environmental groups heats up over the oilsands - the second-largest oil reserves on the planet next to Saudi Arabia - the massive development in northern Alberta has clearly caught the eye of the 44th U.S. president. Obama has previously vowed to end America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling...

Who do you think would be an appropriate replacement for Alan Colmes on FOX News's Hannity & Colmes program?

Sarah Palin, the classic schoolyard bully Tuesday, October 07, 2008 By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Those of us with vivid memories of middle school have seen Gov. Sarah Palin's type before. She was the girl who was always the first to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the last to stop instigating fights in the cafeteria. She was the girl who always had just enough self-awareness to know when the boys were paying more attention to her than to other girls. Her specialty was flattering the alpha boys around her. Terrified of losing her exalted place, she quickly perfected...

With under a month until election day, Sen. John McCain's campaign stepped up its rhetoric against Sen. Obama. The latest charge this weekend from the McCain campaign was not that Obama will raise your taxes or will prematurely pull out of Iraq, but rather that Obama is not American enough. Such a line of attack is not only disappointing and disrespectful but is also a distraction from the issues that face our country. Speaking at rallies across Colorado and California on Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin repeatedly said, " Our opponent is someone who sees America, it seems, as being...

One in four of the world’s mammals is threatened with extinction and half are in decline, the most comprehensive assessment so far has found. The Tasmanian devil was one of 450 mammals described as endangered despite previously being regarded as of least concern Scientists who carried out the five-year survey of the 5,487 known mammal species described their findings that 1,139 face dying out as “bleak and depressing” and said that it was likely to get worse. Marine mammals were the worst affected, with more than one in three at risk of annihilation. For the Yangtse river dolphin, it may...

THE MORE I LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT “the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate,” the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. ---SNIP--

DETROIT - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama yesterday said he was outraged at being asked by the Bush Administration to bail out Wall Street for the financial crisis, but said it was a necessary measure that should be passed soon. Saying he supports the $700 billion bailout that was agreed to early yesterday, Mr. Obama nonetheless said the financial ruin threatening Wall Street was "the final verdict" on an era of greed that he laid at the feet of the current administration in the White House. And he attacked his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, for backing deregulation policies...

The Emperor has no clothes. If you want to know why American capitalism is on the brink of disaster, but also want to understand what will save it, then log on to the C-Span congressional website and watch the interrogations of Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, by the Senate and House banking committees. Until last week, I was in a minority of one in arguing that Mr Paulson was personally responsible for suddenly turning the painful but manageable credit crunch that had been grinding away 18 months in the background of the US economy into a global catastrophe. Mr...

Psalm 15 My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, please, please, please stop sending me things trying to convince me that I should vote for John McCain because he has anointed Sarah Palin as his running mate. Please understand this, I am not going to vote for either McCain or Obama. Now, let me agree with you that Sarah Palin is the best of the four on the ballot for President and Vice President. It is a sad day for the Republic and it is a sad commentary that the best the two major parties could come up with...

If John McCain and Sarah Palin were to say the moon was made of green cheese, we can be certain that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would pounce on it, and point out it's actually made of rock. And you just know the headline in the paper the next day would read: "CANDIDATES CLASH ON LUNAR LANDSCAPE." Why doesn't somebody call Neil Armstrong? He's been there. Or go to the Smithsonian and open the glass case that contains a piece of the moon. The moon is a rock. That's a fact, Jack. Facts are indeed stubborn things, but the McCain-Palin...

Upstaging the GOP presidential candidate who can't read a speech, the exuberant Gov. Sarah Palin exposed the nominee as a listless, 72-year-old senior citizen taking a tricky handoff from the nation's most unpopular commander-in-chief and likely its most incompetent. John McCain's GOP convention, lest we forget, was blessed at the outset with Hurricane Gustav offering a handy excuse for President George W. Bush to steer clear of St. Paul. The titular head of the party and his fearsome vice president had formed a Category 5 storm taking dead-aim at the Republican National Convention. The McCain-Palin team took to the attic,...

NEW YORK -- News executives Thursday tried to shake off the excoriations of the media emanating from the Republican National Convention, defending their coverage of GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as responsible and evenhanded. ______ "I really do take exception to it," NBC News President Steve Capus said. "These terms get thrown around in an awfully cavalier way, and they're incredibly damaging. We're in the business where words matter, and those are awfully, awfully strong accusations."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate after conservatives threatened a revolt if he went with his first choice, former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman. Senator McCain has defended his choice of Ms Palin to run for vice-president after news of her 17-year-old pregnant unmarried daughter dominated day one of the Republican national convention in St Paul, Minnesota. Now it has emerged that the shock announcement of the unknown Ms Palin was forced upon Senator McCain after conservatives threatened a revolt at the convention if he pushed ahead with his preferred vice-presidential pick, Independent...