Free Republic

<p>First lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are visiting Las Vegas after stopping in South Dakota on a family trip.</p>

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, who served as Speaker of the House and is now head of the House minority, is once again spending her Christmas at the exotic Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka'upulehu in Kona on the island of Hawaii. Pelosi reportedly plans to spend her Christmas Eve at midnight mass in St. Michael's Catholic Church in Kailua-Kona. Pelosi spent the last two Christmas holidays in Kona at the same hotel in an elaborate suite that rents for $10,000 a night.

Via the New York Post, which has an account of their angry exchange at LAX, 15 solid minutes of hippie-punching goodness. Skip ahead to 5:30 for the meaty bits. She wrote an open letter to Penn last year unloading on him for his cretinous Chavista apologetics and I guess he must have remembered because allegedly the word “pig” ended up being thrown around during their chat — and not by Alonso. Quoth the NYP: Penn, traveling from Haiti, told us: “I only knew that a hostile woman was nonsensically berating me. I didn’t realize it was that actress. I think...

Human rights groups have vowed to track George W Bush round the world after their success in forcing him to cancel a trip to Switzerland amid concerns over protests and a threatened arrest warrant. Katherine Gallagher, a lawyer with the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: "The reach of the convention against torture is wide. This case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. "Torturers, even if they are former presidents of the United States, must be held to account and prosecuted." Although Bush has travelled freely round the world since leaving the White...

Abortion Practitioner Killed Seven Babies With Scissors Today, abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell was charged with murder in the death of a woman from a botched abortion, but the charges also include seven horrifying cases of infanticide. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/19/abortion-practitioner-killed-seven-babies-with-scissors/

Police have just released this mugshot to RadarOnline.com... showing Arizona shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner smirking just moments after he was taken into custody. The alleged murderer is accused of gunning down 20 people - including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords - in a supermarket parking lot this weekend. And this disturbing mugshot, taken shortly after police stopped his rampage, will leave the American public with chills. With his shaved head, crazy looking eyes and smug grin, Loughner looks like a mad man. The booking photo was obtained the same day he appeared in court for the first time accused of killing...

The family of Jared Loughner barricaded themselves inside their Tucson home Monday and refused to allow FBI agents inside to continue an investigation into a deadly Saturday shooting, the Arizona Republic reported. Loughner, 22, was taken into custody Saturday after an attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) that left the lawmaker severely injured and six others dead. FBI agents attempted to gain access to the house at 12:25 p.m. Mountain time only to discover the family had erected a plywood barricade blocking access to the front porch. The family refused access to the agents, who banged on the barricade,...

Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker, the co-hosts of CNN's struggling 8 p.m. weeknight program, "Parker Spitzer," did some damage control in a New York Times piece last month to quiet rumors about how they've been at each other's throats behind the scenes. That flareup led to speculation that Parker might leave the show, but in the Times piece, Parker revealed she had just signed a two-year lease in New York, as if to say: "I'm not going anywhere."

LONDON (AP) -- He could have stayed in teaching. That's what his parents wanted: it was the safe, secure route for a young man with working-class roots and a face few would describe as handsome.Postlethwaite had little going for him when he started in an industry where good looks - think Robert Redford or George Clooney - are valued. He had few connections, a name that was hard to pronounce, and could distinguish himself only by his talent.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (still known as ATF) is considering a pilot program that would require gun dealers in the borders states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to report each sale of two or more rifles. Jim Pruett of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in Houston considers such a move simply a back door to gun registration. “It [would go] on record with the ATF forever,” Pruett says of the reported sales. “There’s no mention of purging the system. So what you basically have is ad-hoc gun registration.” It is hard to argue with...

Chris Matthews has fumbled his way right into the debate over President Obama's birth certificate. The liberal MSNBC host -- while declaring the controversy over the President's birth certificate "nonsense" -- nonetheless asked on Monday night why Obama has not demanded the release of a copy of his full birth certificate.

While attending an event billed as "open to the public", conservative blogger Adam Sharp was harassed, roughed up and forcibly removed. His "crime"? Someone at the Washington University at St. Louis thought Sharp worked for Fox News, and didn't like the questions he was asking Van Jones - the main speaker at the event. Gateway Pundit reported that "several university officials harassed the citizen journalists at the event. One university thug even roughed up Sharp and grabbed for his camera." Van Jones was recently ousted from his White House position as the so-called "green jobs czar" after his admitted communism...

Your tax dollars at work. Republican leaders are outraged that the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery, funded by U.S. taxpayers, feature controversial exhibits. These include homoerotic artwork, picture of Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a video in which Jesus Christ is being eaten by ants. After hearing of the exhibit, outraged Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, stated: “Absolutely we should look at their funds. If they’ve got money to squander like this – of a crucifix being eaten by ants, of Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, men in chains, naked brothers kissing –...

KABUL—A gunman in an Afghan Border Police uniform shot and killed six U.S. service members during a training mission in what appeared to be the latest and deadliest in a series of shootings of allied personnel by Afghan forces. The gunman was killed in a subsequent shootout with coalition forces. Afghan officials and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization task force here said they were investigating the incident, which occurred Monday in the eastern province of Nangarhar.But "such attacks will not deter our cooperation with [NATO] to provide security in Afghanistan," said Zemarai Bashary, the spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry,...

A shooting on the city's Southeast Side has people telling two entirely different stories. Neighbors said an elderly woman was fed up with constant harassment from a 12-year-old boy, so she took a gun and shot the child after he and his friends threw bricks into her home. Now, the boy is charged with a crime, while the 68-year-old woman is not. The boy who was shot, along with another boy, 13, are cited in juvenile delinquency petitions with one count each of misdemeanor aggravated assault to a senior citizen, according to police

Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage said he won't be afraid to tell President Barack Obama to "go to hell."

Tea Party-backed candidate Christine O'Donnell has taken the lead over Rep. Mike Castle in the bare-knuckle race for the Republican Senate nomination in Delaware, according to a new poll. The survey released by Public Policy Polling shows the race within the margin of error. O'Donnell leads Castle 47-44 percent. The surge comes just at the right time for O'Donnell, with Delaware's primary set for Tuesday along with contests in six other states. The Republican establishment in Delaware has engaged in a tough and personal battle with O'Donnell, criticizing her history of financial troubles while O'Donnell has described Castle as too...

FBI agents visited Thursday with a minister of a small Florida church that plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11, as public safety became a paramount concern and President Barack Obama added his voice to the chorus of opposition. Elsewhere, hundreds of angry Afghans burned an American flag and chanted "Death to the Christians" to protest the planned burning of Islam's holiest text.

NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) — A taxi cab driver was recovering Wednesday from a vicious attack that’s been labeled a hate crime. Police told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez the victim was repeatedly slashed because he’s Muslim. The attack happened around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in a busy commercial area on 40th Street and Third Avenue. Police said Michael Enright of Brewster, N.Y., while a passenger in a cab, blew up in a hate-filled rage against 43-year-old taxi driver Ahmed Sharif.

A "tolerant" lefty this one is: (language alert) [VIDEO AT SITE] or on this FR thread. This line from the nimrod is something: “I have no problem cursing out an unpatriotic, treasonous piece of garbage that wouldn’t know the (sacrilegious expletive) Constitution if it hit him in the (expletive) face, OK?” Uh, yeah.... Wasn't it patriotic not too long ago to protest against various things (Iraq, wiretaps, gitmo, etc.) when Bush was in office? Now, if someone feels this mosque shouldn't be built and wants to protest against it...it's now unpatriotic? And then he goes on to say the survivor...