Free Republic

I have been a financial adviser for more than 25 years. I didn't vote for President-elect Barack Obama, but I wish to go on record as saying that this man will be our greatest president. He will accomplish the improbable. Mr. Obama will unite the disenchanted with the optimists. He will be a servant to all the people and teach us the basic reasons why this is the greatest country in the world. Mr. Obama won't be described as left, right or center. He will be a president who holds his morals in honor of his love of family to...

What's the one thing Las Vegas needs more of? Light, according to Carlos Santana, who figures he's just the guy to bring it during a Sin City residency he'll begin May 27 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Santana, the man and the band, will play about three shows a week through 2010 at the Hard Rock's expanded and refurbished concert theater, the Joint, which another classic rocker, Paul McCartney, will inaugurate April 19. "Santana is going to bring a lot of joy, light, peace and happiness into a place that is basically based on illusion," the multiple Grammy-winning...

You know you're in trouble when Old Europe chastises you for being too socialist. But, hey, nobody's perfect — except maybe Michelle Obama, who landed in London with a huge Obama entourage, wearing a daffodil yellow dress and looking like a confident ray of U.S.A. sunshine. As President Obama renegotiates the terms of American leadership this week in Europe, those of us left at home struggle to get over our affluenza. That condition, the bane of the middle class, is defined in a book of the same name as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed this week that the war is over. Namely, the death of the term "global war on terrorism." Like Sherlock Holmes' deduction of what didn't happen from the dog that didn't bark in "The Hound of the Baskervilles," observers have noted that former President George W. Bush's unifying rallying cry after the Sept. 11 attack was anathema in the "I'm OK, you're OK" world of the Obama administration. After all, the term is disliked overseas and wars are bad. Until now, however, the administration was reluctant to mention it. Mrs. Clinton, asked Monday about...

More Roosevelt… Less Jimmy Carter… that’s what this brand needs! Folks, there’s been a lot of scrutiny of President Obama in these first 100 days. It goes with the territory. The attention is brutal no matter who’s in the Oval Office and it always will be. Exposure is something most marketers covet . . .but over-exposure especially of the wrong features can be deadly for a personal brand. That is why, Barack Obama –whom I’ve called a first-rate poli-marketer (see the past few weeks FOX Forum posts here)– had better stop behaving like Jimmy Carter and start emulating Roosevelt. In...

Meghan McCain appeared on Larry King Monday night. This bright young lady now mediates. Meghan is news when she advocates reconciliation between Republicans and Democrats, which is what she believes should happen. Papa's probably proud. The great Senator from Arizona, John McCain, declares himself a maverick. His daughter reveals she is as well. If Meghan agrees with most of his political notions, but disregards others, that sounds like other folks her age, especially from families who support individuality in children. Meghan has taken center stage by appearing on a number of talk shows to give her point of view. Perhaps...

Obama and the case of the missing 'thesis' By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative ProducerJuly 24, 2008 excerpt: The hunt for Obama’s senior “thesis” began with a throwaway line in a newspaper article last October. The New York Times story, on Obama’s early New York years, mentioned in passing that the presidential contender had majored in political science at Columbia and had spent his time “writing his thesis on Soviet nuclear disarmament.” Journalists began hounding Columbia University for copies of the musty document. Conservative bloggers began wondering if the young Obama had written a no-nukes screed that he might...

The wackjob Moonbats continue to demonize their favorite target: former VP Dick Cheney. Earlier this month, Keith Olbermann made the same claim citing Sy Hersh. Surprisingly, Cheney's so called "assassins" are merely Joint Special Operations Command, a unit which continues to operate under Obama. And yes, they assassinate terrorists. Which is good because under Team "O", living terrorists are now being treated better than most American citizens.

United Church of Christ committee recommends condom distribution at churches Washington D.C., Mar 26, 2009 / 09:06 pm (CNA).- The HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) is advocating that condoms should be distributed at places of worship and faith-based educational settings. The network called for condom distribution in its March 19 statement issued at a presentation to the UCC Wider Church Ministries Board, the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports. UCC executive Michael Shuenemeyer argued: “The practice of safer sex is a matter of life and death. People of faith make condoms available because we...

Army specialist Terry Holdbrooks had been a guard at Guantánamo for about six months the night he had his life-altering conversation with detainee 590, a Moroccan also known as "the General." This was early 2004, about halfway through Holdbrooks's stint at Guantánamo with the 463rd Military Police Company. Until then, he'd spent most of his day shifts just doing his duty. He'd escort prisoners to interrogations or walk up and down the cellblock making sure they weren't passing notes. But the midnight shifts were slow. "The only thing you really had to do was mop the center floor," he says....

Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party dedicated to sabotaging the American future. Check out the sermon I just delivered about the Republican Party on CNN when being interviewed by D.L. Hughley -- and/or read on. You Republicans are the arsonists who burned down our national home. You combined the failed ideologies of the Religious Right, so-called free market deregulation and the Neoconservative love of war to light a fire that has consumed America. Now you have the nerve to criticize the "architect" America just hired -- President Obama -- to rebuild from the ashes. You do...

“I am an Obama supporter. I am also pro-life. In fact, without my family’s involvement in the pro-life movement it would not exist as we know it. Evangelicals weren’t politicized until after my late father and evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Koop (Reagan’s soon-to-be Surgeon General) and I stirred them up over the issue of abortion in the mid-1970s. Our Whatever Happened to the Human Race? book, movie series and seminars brought the evangelicals into the pro-life movement. “In 2000, we elected a president who claimed he believed God created the earth and who, as president, put car manufacturers and...

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence. At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred...

Best-selling author and former Republican Frank Schaeffer lets Rush Limbaugh and his Republican mates have it at HuffPo, in a piece called, "An Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (from a former Republican)": I have to say, love him or hate him, the Republicans have got to appreciate Schaeffer's helpful inclusion of related content. He's like their own personal AOL Dashboard.....

The GOP's identity crisis just got more interesting with the recent media splash of Meghan McCain. Young McCain, who began blogging during her father's presidential campaign, recently made waves at The Daily Beast when she picked a fight with conservative media mavens Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham. McCain, just 24, is one smart cookie. In a matter of weeks, she has created a brand, presenting herself as a fresh face of her daddy's party and a voice for young conservatives. Strategically speaking, what better way to launch herself than to challenge the reigning diva herself, Miz Coulter? McCain jammed traffic...

Despite the title, I have nothing against Meghan McCain. I am sure she is a very nice person, and I'm sure she will accomplish plenty before her life is complete. Frankly, I am sure that so far she has accomplished more than me. That said, at this point, her main resume point is a very accomplished dad. That's what I was thinking as I watched her exchange pot shots with several prominent conservative thinkers. Whatever her name, there is no reason why she has any more credibility speaking about the direction and future of the Republican party than any obscure...

Full transcript here. Yeah, granted, she’s the RINO to end all RINOs, but come on: She’s totally charming. How can my atheist heart not soar at back-handed digs like this?

It’s my party- And I’ll- Cry if I want to! Defy who I want to! Eat pie--one piece won’t do! You would whine too-If you hadn’t a clue. Daddy was running for President Against this way-cool black guy Now Obama’s a White House resident And I just whimper and sigh! Sarah Palin was Daddy’s running mate, Tho’ I thought she was way too right-wing Her politics are just what I hate Now all that I can do is sing…. It’s my party- And I’ll- Cry if I want to! Defy who I want to! Eat pie--one piece won’t do! You...

King: Does Obama seem like the same guy who ran against your dad? How do you view him? McCain: He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone. I support the president.

Evangelical Left potentates are now rallying to Obama's nomination of pro-abortion rights Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services Secretary. Describing themselves as "top Christian leaders" in their news release, they affirmed Sebelius as part of their ongoing dedication to "finding common ground solutions to reduce the number of abortions in America."