Free Republic

President-elect Barack Obama says he will try to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name - Barack Hussein Obama - in his swearing-in ceremony. The U.S. image globally has taken a deep hit during President George W. Bush's two terms in office, primarily because of opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, harsh interrogation of prisoners, the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Obama promised during his campaign that one of his top priorities would be to...

I do not for a moment believe that President-Elect Barack Obama was directly involved in the corrupt behavior for which Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning. I even think it’s possible that he didn’t have first-hand knowledge of Gov. Blagojevich’s corrupt behavior. I find it very difficult to believe that he hadn’t heard of it from people who had reason to know. Jake Tapper outlines a timeline of Obama support for Blagojevich (and vice versa): According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama’s incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and...

Ahh, but wasn't it a party? America voted in her very first black president, not because he had new ideas or because he was the most experienced but because he was black. With all of his talk of change he has pretty much resurrected the Clinton administration, plans on holding a speech within his first 100 days in an Islamic capital to make them like us again. You would have thought that his first speech would be here in the good ole' USA to the people who voted for him but nope it will be in Islamic territory, wow I...

They are calling themselves the Mid-South Community Organizers, and if that name sounds a touch triumphant, the people formerly known as Shelby County's Obama-Biden '08 volunteers just want folks to know they are serious about this whole "change" thing. Nika Jackson, who served as the Obama camp's lone Shelby County campaign staffer for much of the general election campaign, got together with about 50 local campaign volunteers over the weekend to reflect on what was accomplished and to begin plotting a way forward. In conjunction with Obama operations in other Tennessee counties, Memphis' newest group of community activists adopted their...

The gun show at the Stillwater Armory on Thanksgiving weekend featured an unlikely salesman. A flier taped to the door featured a stern-looking picture of the president-elect, with the words: ''Barack Obama: Enemy of your gun rights." While the gun show had plenty of competition from retailers starting their Christmas sales, business was brisk as people streamed in and bought up shotguns, hunting knives and at least a few semiautomatic rifles -- the gun most gun-rights advocates think an Obama presidency might ban. "It's the Obama effect," said Joel Rosenberg, a gun law expert who teaches a gun course for...

In the outer cosmos of the blogosphere, the presidential election isn’t over. Barack Obama, now busily forming his administration, isn’t just the wrong person to lead the nation, claim Web sites such as America Must Know and Right Side News. He is, they contend, constitutionally ineligible to be president. The argument is over his place of birth — Hawaii, if you accept statements by Hawaiian officials, his 1961 birth notice in a Honolulu newspaper and a certified document his campaign obtained 18 months ago. Still, legions of anti-Obama bloggers are so convinced he was born in Kenya that they’ve filed...

Washington, D.C. - Funding alternative energy wouldn't provide the best bang for the buck in a U.S. economic stimulus package, some economists said. Peter Orszag, President-elect Barack Obama's chief budget adviser, wrote in January that some investments in alternative energy were "totally impractical" and others "could end up making the economic situation worse," USA Today reported Friday. Orszag wrote his comments in January while serving as head of the Congressional Budget Office, the newspaper reported. Economist Vincent Reinhart of the American Enterprise Institute has also said stimulus money would be better invested elsewhere. Funding for research adds few jobs and...

Poll to FReep: Do you think there is any merit to the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's citizenship? Yes No Unsure

HI folks: We have a great line up of show tonight for you. From 6:00 to 8:00 PM Central time, Plains Radio Netwok will present the Political Pastor show with your host Scott Oakland. Scott's guest tonight is none other than Pastor Manning. With Pastor Manning on a show, you know it will be interesting. So look forward to a great show with Scott tonight. Then 8:00 to 10:00 PM Central Time, listen to the Lion Den with your hostess and host Caren and Ed Hale. Caren and Ed;'s guest tonight will be none other than Leo Donofrio. Leo's case...

Barack Obama is considering making a major foreign policy speech in an Islamic capital during his first 100 days as president in an effort to mend rifts between the U.S. and the Muslim world. Helene Cooper of The New York Times spoke to several sources, including diplomats, about which Islamic capital Obama might choose, and the consensus was Cairo, Egypt. The reason: Process of elimination. A speech in Baghdad would appear to validate the Iraq war, which Obama opposed. A visit to Damascus, the Syrian capital, “would look as if he was rewarding the Syrians and it’s too soon for...

The men in Guantánamo represent fewer than 1% of the 27,000 prisoners being held by the US beyond the rule of law, says Clive Stafford Smith. In mid-2007 my mother sent me a George Bush Countdown Calendar. I have been tearing off the leaves, each with its quote from George W. That happy occasion, the final page, comes on January 20 2009. Happy for most in Guantánamo Bay, that is. The people remaining there find themselves in three groups - some 40 who will be taken to the US for a trial (somewhat fairer, at least, than the current military...

Barack Obama, soon to be the first black U.S. president, is on the road to making good his pledge to have a Cabinet and White House staff that are among most diverse ever, although some supporters are asking him to go even further. He added to the minority representation at the top of his administration Wednesday when he named New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, as Commerce Secretary. But some Latinos are grumbling it is not enough after all the support they gave him in the campaign, and gays and Asian-Americans are pushing for some representation in remaining Cabinet...

A group in San Francisco has launched a website dedicated to supporting LGBT representation in President-Elect Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural parade. The site makes it easy to contact members of the Inaugural Committee and congressional representatives via email to voice support in favor of a gay contingent marching in the 2009 inaugural parade. "President-Elect Obama’s message of hope was built on equality and unity. Real equality and unity means that the gay community is finally included at the table," said Paula Grace, co-organizer of intheparade.com. "On January 20th 2009 our President-Elect can demonstrate his sincerity and commitment to the true...

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press. Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to...

When Barack Obama assumes office, this is the kind of “community activist” who will be heralded, celebrated, and subsidized. It’s easy to be so charitable with other people’s property: Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. “All tile floor!” he says during a recent showing. “And the living room, wow! It has great blinds.” But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you’ve ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don’t have a dime...

Tired of your same old job? Frustrated fan of “The West Wing” and want to try your hand at the real thing? Or maybe you’ve just cracked the Plum Book, a glittering bible of soon-to-be-vacated federal jobs, and saw an opening on the International Boundary and Water Commission for a tidy $158,000 a year and thought, “Hey, I can do that.” Step right up, would-be public servant. Welcome to the great capital job fair, where every four or eight years — whenever a new president is elected — parts of the federal bureaucracy turn over and jobs become as available...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Gov. David Paterson has famous names to choose from in picking a replacement for Sen. Hillary Clinton, including a Kennedy, a Cuomo and even another Clinton, as in the former president of the United States. Paterson also may consider relative unknowns and give additional weight to a woman, a member of a minority group or someone not from New York City, experts say. Speculation over Bill Clinton, while intriguing, is largely dismissed as politically impractical and the consensus front-runner is Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. The younger Cuomo was...

Why are liberals nervous about President-elect Barack Obama? If you read and listen to them (we at HUMAN EVENTS do so you don’t have to), you’d hear many an anguished whine. Obama ran on a hard-left anti-war platform. He famously spoke to Joe the Plumber about his affinity for income redistribution and he proposed about $800 billion in new government spending including the Democrat platform proposal of universal healthcare. Add to this that many in his party want major reductions in the American military regardless of the fact that we are at war, and it’s not hard to see why...

I’m reasonably sure most people are completely unaware of what I’m about to discuss, but that’s not unusual considering most everyone depends on the mainstream media for their news. You’ve not heard anything about this on NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC or CNN. It’s not surprising they’ve been completely silent. There is a question that deserves an answer, cries out for an answer even. That question? Is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. constitutionally qualified to become the next president of the United States? The Constitution clearly states in Article II, Section 1 that "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or...

Push to end all private sales tops list “Universal background checks for EVERY gun sold in this country.” [NOTE: Don't forget to recognize and celebrate Bill of Rights Day, Dec. 15; in Phoenix we will be at the Wrigley Mansion starting at 5:30 p.m., you're invited, for details or to RSVP: http://www.gunlaws.com/newstuff.htm] Plenty of gun-ban speculation is flying. I have this quote direct from Sarah Brady in a letter addressed to me: “On Election Day, we helped deliver a strong victory for President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden. They will be two of the most powerful allies we have...