Free Republic

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday no one in his administration created the mess at insurance giant AIG, including the much-maligned executive bonuses, but that "the buck stops with me" to fix it. Standing on the White House lawn as he prepared to go to California, Obama vigorously defended his embattled Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner. Some have speculated that Geithner's job could be in danger over his handling of the millions of dollars in bonuses that American International Group Inc., is giving its executives — even in the midst of a massive federal bailout. "There has never been a...

Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race. "I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country," the Illinois senator said. His chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, also are strong proponents of universal health care and have promised to offer their plans. On Thursday, she criticized Bush's proposal to make health care more affordable through tax breaks, arguing...

SEATTLE - An ailing 9-month-old baby had surgery Friday to insert a catheter that will allow for future kidney dialysis. His mother had tried desperately to prevent the surgery, seeking to pursue alternative natural treatments. Earlier Friday, a Tacoma judge refused Tina Carlsen's request to block the surgery. Carlsen, 34, of Sumner, spent five days in jail after she took her son, Riley Rogers, out of a Seattle hospital on June 22, prompting a two-day statewide Amber Alert.

BEVERLY HILLS - Facing a state audit and possible criminal investigation of the state commission he chaired, movie director Rob Reiner on Monday said his opponents are targeting him for attacks to avoid discussing the merits of the universal preschool initiative he put on the June ballot. "They will do whatever it takes to knock this thing out," he said in an interview with The Bee. "So they will attack me because they know they can't talk about the initiative." Opponents responded that they have discussed the shortcomings of Proposition 82, including their argument that raising taxes on the wealthy...

In his Inaugural Address in 1965, Lyndon Johnson, coming off one of the great landslides, spread out the plans for his Great Society. It was the heyday of liberalism, and those were days of hope. After civil rights, education topped the agenda. On April 11, at the grammar school he attended, LBJ signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first federal education law in U.S. history, focused on disadvantaged children. And after 40 years and trillions of tax dollars plunged into public education at all levels, how stands public education? Well, it depends. Sam Dillon reports in Sunday's New...

HILLARY STOKES '08 FIRE WITH RED-HOT SPEECH By IAN BISHOP ----------------------------------------- HILLARY CLINTON Photo: Rick Dembow April 11, 2005 -- MINNEAPOLIS — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bowled over the Democratic faithful in the key 2008 presidential swing state of Minnesota with a fiery weekend stump speech that had fans hailing her as the "great hope" to take back the White House. "She speaks her mind and she's a leader," swooned Debra Manninen. "She's our great hope." Party faithful here devoured Clinton's brand-new, red-meat material in her first major political speech Saturday night since the November 2004 election, which aides said...