Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Two days from the White House, President-elect Barack Obama joined a vast throng Sunday at a roaring, rollicking pre-inauguration celebration staged before marble monuments to past heroes. "Anything is possible in America," declared the man who will confront economic crisis and two wars when he takes office. "Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead — I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure — that the dream of our founders will live on in our time," the president-elect said at the conclusion of a musical extravaganza that featured...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Votes were being counted after Iraq's legislative election saw a strong turnout with minimal violence, bringing hope for a nation wracked by sectarian conflict, with the prospect also of tempting minority Sunnis back to the political process. Electoral officials briefly extended Thursday's voting owing to the turnout, which preliminary estimates put at between 60 and 80 percent, surpassing an October referendum, with Sunni Arabs casting ballots in record numbers. "Turnout was very strong in all regions, even in Fallujah," a Sunni city in the rebel Al-Anbar province, senior electoral official Hussein Hindawi said. The huge task of...

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) today told tens of thousands supporters of Jewish life in Gaza to prepare for a "civil rebellion" to block the proposed evacuation of Jews from 21 Gaza communities. Organizers of the massive rally said 80,000 people came, while police, who usually minimize crowd estimates at right wing protests, said 50,000 people arrived. Earlier this week thousands of others visited Gush Katif, in southern Gaza, and thousands more stayed away because of fears of a rerun of last year's mammoth Independence Day traffic jam that choked roads leading to Gush Katif, turning them into the nation's...

`Texas 11' drawing supporters Well-wishers, volunteers throng to Albuquerque By RACHEL GRAVES Aug. 23, 2003, 11:53PM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Well-wishers have traveled hundreds of miles to see the 11 Texas senators in exile. The most unlikely visitor, though, simply drove across town. Marty the bellhop came by Monday and Wednesday nights for a few cocktails. "These guys are great kibitzers," Marty Lucker said after five hours of sipping Canadian Club and water with some of the senators. Lucker met the Democrats while serving them at the Marriott Pyramid, where they stayed for their first 18 days in Albuquerque, and came...