Free Republic

Cindy McCain's half sister is planning on voting for Barack Obama, she tells Usmagazine.com. "I'm not voting for McCain," Kathleen Hensley Portalski tells Us. "I have a different political standpoint. "I'm voting for Obama," the Phoenix resident says. "I think his proposals to improve the country are more positive and I'm not a big war believer." Portalski, 65, and the potential first lady, 54, have the same father: Jim Hensley, the founder of the beer distributor Hensley and Co. that Cindy McCain now chairs. In an interview with NPR News' All Things Considered last week, Portalski said she felt "like...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson slammed GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain today, calling his criticism of Barack Obama's trip to Europe and the Middle East as nothing more than "sour grapes." Richardson, one of Sen. Obama's most high-profile surrogates, also said that the Obama campaign was considering a trip to Latin America sometime prior to the November election. "There are discussions about it. He wants to emphasize that his administration would not be Europe-centric or only focused on the Middle East," said Richardson in an interview. The trip would also likely generate excitement among many of the country's Hispanic...

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war." McClellan includes the charges in a 341-page book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," that delivers a harsh look at the White House and the man he served for close to a decade. He describes Bush as demonstrating a "lack of inquisitiveness," says the White...

Groom, many guests of one wedding will be on call for another - that of the president's daughter Saturday, May 10, 2008 WEST — Nora Bartosh has been waiting for her wedding, scheduled for today, for the past six years. Now, the 34-year-old West drugstore clerk is worried that a president's daughter could steal her groom and thus her special day. The groom, all eight groomsmen and about 150 of the guests work in McLennan County law enforcement. That leaves Bartosh hoping that everything goes smoothly in and around President Bush's Crawford-area ranch today as first daughter Jenna says her...

I just got finished watching Mitt Romney's performance on "Meet the Press." Snip.. --On guns, he may have gotten himself in trouble, in an attempt to diffuse the flip-flop label, by standing by his support for the Brady Bill and the 1994 assault weapons ban. He even said he would have signed an extension of the assault weapons ban when it expired in 2004. He also employed the odd phrase "weapons of unusual lethality" to describe the type of guns he would ban. --On immigration, Romney was utterly Clintonian. He said that when in November 2005 he described the Bush/McCain...

Helen Mirren has described the traumatic moment that influenced her decision not to have children. The Oscar winning actress revealed in a new interview that a sex education film she watched as a convent school girl was so "disgusting" it put her off motherhood for life. She said: "I went to a single sex convent school, and even in Biology classes we weren't taught about sexual reproduction. I was about 13, 14, just at that age where you begin to be self conscious about your physicality and about boys and all of that. "They sat us all down, girls and...

House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) blamed “hate radio” for demeaning children who were being used to lobby for an expansion of federally funded health insurance in a press conference late Tuesday morning. In the run-up to a House vote to override President Bush’s veto of a $35 billion increase to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, children like the 12-year old Graeme Frost---who suffered brain injuries after a car accident-- have been pushed to the forefront of the debate. Frost’s position as a so-called “poster child” for SCHIP became controversial when his family’s assets were investigated. This reporter asked...

For the last 24 hours, I've not been able to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper without hearing about Clarence Thomas. I can't put my finger on the exact reason, but I find it unbecoming for a Supreme Court justice to publish a memoir to coincide with the new term of the court. I will concede, it's difficult to offer an intellectual argument to support my distaste; it's based on my emotional reaction rather than any wrongdoing on his part. I have a great appreciation for the Supreme Court and the justices. Their job is to operate...

The Associated Press NASHVILLE -- Tennessee's two Republican senators on Thursday voted in Washington against a non-binding resolution calling for continued support of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Sen. Bill Frist said the landmark decision is flawed; Sen. Fred Thompson said the Supreme Court should be left alone on the issue."I'm The vote came on a resolution by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. The resolution said: "It is the sense of the Congress that Roe v. Wade was an appropriate decision and secures an important constitutional right and such a decision should not be overturned." A...

Here is Fred Thompson speaking on why he is running for President. He was speaking to the Des Moines Register Editorial Board.

When two Tunisian men were sent home after five years in Guantanamo, they thought they would be free. Instead, they faced imprisonment, abuse, threats and solitary confinement. Now they say things were better back in the US prison camp.Many of the detainees sitting in Guantanamo Bay hail from countries with a terrible record of torturing and abusing prisoners. While they may want to see an end to their ordeal in the US prison camp, they also have reason to dread the treatment they could face back home. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US government is not doing enough...

Rove's Departure No Loss For America, Leaves Office Before Clearing the Air Karl Rove, chief architect of Bush's failed and reckless policies, resigns under a cloud of suspicion, refusing to testify before Congress regarding the US Attorneys scandal. Like so many senior Bush Administration officials before him, Rove's departure is marked by controversy -- not only over the US Attorneys scandal but his involvement in the Valerie Plame scandal where he leaked the name of the covert CIA agent. Undoubtedly, Rove's departure will not end the Bush White House's policies of putting what's best for the Republican Party ahead of...

WELLINGTON (AFP) - They say you are what you eat, and growing numbers of vegans are shunning sex with meat-eaters because they see them as "a graveyard for animals", a New Zealand researcher says. These vegans not only refuse to eat meat or animal products but refuse to have sexual contact with meat-eaters because their bodies are made up of dead animals, the researcher was reported saying in The Press newspaper on Tuesday. Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Human and Animal Studies at New Zealand's Canterbury University, said she coined the term vegansexuals during her research....

It's hard to believe that, in 2007, you can put 1,000 adults in one room and nobody is divorced. But that was the scene yesterday in the polished magnificence of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington, where more than 500 married couples from throughout Maryland and the District gathered to renew their wedding vows. And these weren't vows they had originally made five or 10 years ago. We're talking Olympic-level marriage achievement here. The ceremony for Catholic couples, hosted by the Archdiocese of Washington, was for couples who had been married 25 years...

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game. "I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said. This time, her advice was no joke. The single mother -- with nine maxed-out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate's degree -- bought what turned out to a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the...

War on Terror: Whatever ex-CIA chief George Tenet's book says he meant by "slam dunk" regarding pre-Iraq War intelligence, there always were lots of good reasons to oust Saddam Hussein — and to finish the job today. In the nearly 550 pages of Tenet's "At the Center of the Storm," there's no shortage of bitter complaints from the intelligence chief on whose watch 9/11 took place. He says the Washington Post's Bob Woodward distorted and took out of context the phrase that has come to define Tenet. While conceding the CIA believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction before...

Before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the false-pretense Iraq war, the American way of life was already a global symbol of gluttony. If anything, the post-9/11 period has resulted in even more hoarding. In 2000, the size of the average American home was 2,266 square feet. Now it is 2,434 square feet, according to Census data, with the highest regional average right here in the Northeast at 2,556 square feet. Our homes are on average double the size of those in other Top 10 richest nations such as Japan or Switzerland according to the New York Times and the...

NEW YORK - Randy Johnson could be leaving the New York Yankees after just two seasons. The Yankees have started trade talks with several teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, although it is too early to tell whether the discussions will lead to a deal. Talks were confirmed yesterday by a baseball official who had knowledge of them and spoke on condition of anonymity because they are in the preliminary stage. The Yankees’ discussions with the Diamondbacks, Johnson’s

The Washington Post recently published a harshly anti-Bush op-ed by Douglas Brinkley, who does not bother disclosing his John Kerry connections. Shortly after Thanksgiving I had dinner in California with Ronald Reagan's best biographer, Lou Cannon. Like many historians these days, we discussed whether George W. Bush is, conceivably, the worst U.S. president ever. Cannon bristled at the idea. Bush has two more years to leave his mark, he argued. What if there is a news flash that U.S. Special Forces have killed Osama bin Laden or that North Korea has renounced its nuclear program? What if a decade from...

[Final two pharagraphs] So in the nature of things conservatives and libertarians can conclude no friendly pact. Conservatives have no intention of compromising with socialists; but even such an alliance, ridiculous though it would be, is more nearly conceivable than the coalition of conservatives and libertarians. The socialists at least declare the existence of some sort of moral order; the libertarians are quite bottomless. It is of high importance, indeed, that American conservatives dissociate themselves altogether from the little sour remnant called libertarians. In a time requiring long views and self-denial, alliance with a faction founded upon doctrinaire selfishness would...

The "runaway bride," who took off days before her lavish wedding in 2005, is suing her former fiance for $500,000, claiming he defrauded her out of her share of their assets, including a ladder, a gold sofa and gifts. read more at foxnews.com http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,219125,00.html

Just About the Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read smalldeadanimals.com 21 September 2006 In its attempt to sway, manipulate, and form world opinion to fit with editorial boards, the MSM now has a new tool: World Opinion Polls. In case you missed that, I’ll rephrase it. The MSM now conducts WORLD opinion polls so that we can be enlightened by knowing what the world thinks. The concept is so flawed that I won’t insult the intelligence of readers here by even bothering to debunk it, but I will say this. What does it say of news media editorial boards, when...

Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx recalls a bitter night at the Oscars.ON THE sidewalk stood hordes of the righteous, some leaning forward like wind-bent grasses, the better to deliver their imprecations against gays and fags to the open windows of the limos - the windows open by order of the security people - creeping towards the Kodak Theatre for the 78th Academy Awards. Others held up sturdy, professionally crafted signs expressing the same hatred. The red carpet in front of the theatre was larger than the Red Sea. Inside, we climbed grand staircases designed for showing off dresses. The circular...

Chapter & worse Book finds plenty to rip Rudy for on 9/11 BY DAVID SALTONSTALL DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is taking a lot of hits in a new book about 9/11. Rudy Giuliani's image as America's Mayor is harshly questioned in a new book that takes to task the city's preparedness on 9/11 - with some of the most pointed criticism coming from current Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Kelly, who was dismissed from the post by Giuliani in 1993 and later reappointed by Mayor Bloomberg, offers several dramatic and remarkable observations in "Grand Illusion: The Untold...

About two-thirds of the 150 attendees at a Television Critics Association’s gathering walked out of the room before Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes took the stage for a news conference. Several critics even openly voiced their scorn for what they view as Fox News’ conservative spin. But Ailes was unfazed – and enjoyed gloating. He aired a promotional film featuring comments from critics who predicted a quick death for Fox News when it was launched in 1996, the Miami Herald reports. Ailes then gleefully reminded the critics who did remain that Fox News has led all cable...

At the confirmation hearings for John Roberts, there were two theories about what kind of a chief justice he would be. His critics maintained that he was an extreme conservative whose politics would drive his legal rulings. Judge Roberts, on the other hand, insisted that he was "not an ideologue," and that his judicial philosophy was to be "modest," which he defined as recognizing that judges should "decide the cases before them" and not try to legislate or "execute the laws." Judicial modesty is an intriguing idea, with appeal across the political spectrum. For all the talk of liberal activist...

No one who's seen Tom DeLay operate over the years could have expected the Texas Republican to go gently: The Hammer always comes down hard. But DeLay's farewell address on the House floor last week was nonetheless stunning for its sneering, belligerent partisanship. This was not the case of a politician who happened to hit a jarring note at just the wrong time. DeLay made clear that he wanted to leave the way he behaved throughout his 22 years in Washington -- contemptuous of the opposition and unrepentant about his cutthroat tactics. "In preparing for today, I found that it...

ONTARIO - The City Council is looking for ways to limit public comment after council members said one speaker's remarks at this week's meeting went too far. When Pastor John Sabbath, of Liv in Christ Christian Center, got up to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, he said he was placing a curse on City Manager Greg Devereaux, Devereaux's wife and his family. His comments were interrupted by Devereaux, and then Mayor Paul Leon admonished the pastor, as did Councilman Jason Anderson. "It touched a nerve for me," Anderson said in a later interview. "Not that criticism...

The results of the California 50th Congressional District special election have been in for only 8 business hours and ALREADY the DUmmies and the Leftist Blogosphere are crying "VOTE FRAUD" via their favorite culprits---Diebold Voting machines. Apparently the DUmmies were NOT satisfied with their "moral victory" and wanted a REAL victory. And the only way to achieve such a victory in this election is to act like sore losers and WHINE about vote fraud as you can see in this DUmmie THREAD petulantly titled, "Results of Busby/Bilbray U.S. House Special Election in Doubt!" Yes, there is no DOUBT about...

Disappointing airplay for the first two singles from the new album by the Dixie Chicks exposes a deep -- and seemingly growing -- rift between the trio and the country radio market that helped turn the group into superstars. "Taking the Long Way," due out May 23, is the band's first album since singer Natalie Maines sparked a major controversy in 2003 by declaring that she was ashamed to hail from the same state as fellow Texan President George W. Bush. Radio boycotts ensued, and many fans abandoned the band. The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," peaked at...

You and your iPod are just rude By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Published May 20, 2006 The "Podheads'' are everywhere . . . in the mall, at the beach, in Starbucks. As the iPod phenomenon has grown (more than 50-million sold), we need to lay down the etiquette rules. * Take both earbuds off when we're having a conversation. This is about as basic as it gets. Paying partial attention to someone who's talking to you is about as good as paying no attention at all. * If people are tapping their feet along to your music, IT'S TOO LOUD!...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Creative Technology Ltd. on Monday filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Apple Computer Inc., charging the maker of the market-leading iPod media player of infringing on Creative's patents for some of its own music-playing devices. Creative (CREAF : 5.46, -0.10, -1.8% ) said that it wants the ITC to investigate whether Apple (AAPL : 67.79, +0.09, +0.1% ) violated the Singapore-based patents for the former company's Zen brand-name device, and is asking the organization to force Apple to stop "engaging in sales, marketing, importation or sale after importation into the United States"...

Last week, three of the targeted lawmakers – New Braunfels Rep. Carter Casteel (who lost), Lubbock Rep. Delwin Jones and Longview Rep. Tommy Merritt (who both won) – were among several lawmakers and reform advocates who joined the press conference to support adding the bill to the governor's special-session call. In addition to Strama, Austin Democratic Reps. Elliott Naishtat and Donna Howard spoke in favor of the legislation. Casteel, whose vocal opposition to school vouchers during the 2005 debate made her an instant darling of teachers' groups and lefty Capitol bloggers, talked about being a target of Leininger's money. "I...

In just two weeks, six retired U.S. Marine and Army generals have denounced the Pentagon planning for the war in Iraq and called for the resignation or firing of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who travels often to Iraq and supports the war, says that the generals mirror the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more. This is not a Cindy Sheehan moment. This is a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the U.S. armed forces by senior officers once responsible for carrying out the orders of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, one of several high-ranking military men urging the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said Friday there is no coordinated effort to get him fired, calling a recent series of critical statements "absolutely coincidental." "I have not talked to the other generals," Batiste, interviewed from Rochester, N.Y., said on NBC"s "Today" show. Nevertheless, he said he thinks the clamor for Rumsfeld to step down is "happening for a reason." Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division forces in Iraq, said he declined an opportunity to get a promotion to the rank...

Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film Brokeback Mountain, has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss, reports The Associated Press. Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily. The best-picture Oscar went to Crash, which focuses on race relations in Los Angeles. Academy members who vote for the year's best film are ''out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment...

Will someone, anyone, tell me what the story is with people, especially men, wearing toxic levels of cologne.

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland -- The United States must rebuild the power of the United Nations and help "end the empire of oil" if it wants to win the "war on terror," U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Sunday. The Massachusetts Democrat avoided explicit criticisms of the Bush administration during a wide-ranging speech on the global dynamics of terror. But he said Bush's policy of imposing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan risked looking like a crusade. "If it is seen as the result of an army marching through Muslim lands, it will fail," Kerry told an audience at the University of Ulster...

If, as he ponders the Threat Matrix at his daily intelligence briefing, Cheney really sees himself as a modern Achilles or Hector on the plains at Troy, he is not just being grandiose. Cheney is often lauded as that rare No. 2 who, having no political ambition for himself, can give his all to the president. But Cheney's aloofness from the ebb and flow of politics and public opinion has apparently dulled his senses in a way that is not helpful to his boss, who has been busy lately defending his administration from criticism that it was badly out of...

A group of us Maryland wine lovers received this email. Action is needed.WOODHALL WINE CELLARS EMERGENCY NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 10, 2006 Woodhall is in dire trouble and we desperately need your help. And so do the other 21 wineries in Maryland, because the industry is threatened. Let me explain. Late last year, a Pennsylvania winery sued the State of Maryland, claiming that it is unconstitutional for small wineries in Maryland to deliver wine to retailers and restaurants in Maryland because out of state wineries cannot – they must go through a wholesaler. Maryland’s Attorney General agreed with the Pennsylvania winery and...

Before David Letterman got to shave Ben Roethlisberger's beard Monday night, he got the Steelers' Super Bowl-winning quarterback to admit a little something that might rankle Seahawks fans even more. Roethlisberger told Letterman that he didn't think he scored on a controversial play in the second quarter that put the Steelers ahead for good 7-3. Roethlisberger dove toward the end zone but didn't appear to get the ball to touch the goal line. But officials on the field signaled touchdown. "I told Coach, 'I don't think I got in,'" Roethlisberger told Letterman. "But we were getting ready to go for...

This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction. Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them.snip I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game. They were not the better team. O'Connor was right. Seattle was...

Seattle: Average annual temperature, 52.8; rainfall, 36.2 inches. Pittsburgh: Average annual temperature, 50.3; rainfall, 36.9 inches; acid rain, 35 inches; sewer backups, 30 inches. . Edge: Seattle. . LANDMARKS Seattle: Space Needle, Bill Gates' home, home of original Starbucks. Pittsburgh: Duquesne Incline, Station Square, large pile of tires burning since 1984 just outside downtown area. Edge: Seattle. EDUCATION Seattle: 31 colleges and universities. Pittsburgh: 29 colleges and universities, all offering majors in TV and VCR repair. Edge: Seattle. STANDARD OF LIVING Seattle: More than 75 percent of residents have Internet access in their homes. Pittsburgh: More than 75 percent of...

It is time to end the meaningless annual ritual of the State of the Union address. What began as a yearly survey of the nation's condition has deteriorated into a frivolous moment of political theater and continuous campaigning. On Tuesday night, President Bush, like his recent predecessors, will play his part in the gaudy spectacle of ballyhoo and hype that the State of the Union has become. From a Rocky-style entrance of the president through a gantlet of applauding solons to the introduction of mini-celebrities carefully situated in the gallery, the prime-time extravaganza will have all the spontaneity of --...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry has decided to support a filibuster to block the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, CNN's Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry reported Thursday. Kerry, in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, was marshaling support in phone calls during the day, Henry said.</p>

Voters in 3 major cities shut out Conservatives Updated Tue. Jan. 24 2006 5:46 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff With Stephen Harper prepared to become Canada's next prime minister, the political sun is assuredly rising in the West. "The West has wanted in; The West is in now," said the prime minister-designate in his victory speech after being awarded a slim minority Conservative government on Monday night. But Harper failed to win over any voters in the major urban centres of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, which has city officials concerned they will have no voice to address their concerns at...

Was the partisan vote justified, or is this "sour grapes on the part of the Democrats?

Al Gore sure was full of righteous indignation the other day in his speech denouncing the Bush administration for selectively eavesdropping on phone calls to Americans by suspected foreign terrorists....[snip] He suggested this was one of the worst abuses by federal officials in the history of our country. But while Gore denounced the selective and limited use of wiretaps by law enforcement officials on calls generated by suspected foreign terrorists, he had no problem – just a decade ago – calling for wholesale, mandatory surveillance on the phone calls and secure computer communications of every single American. In fact, beginning...

Jack Kelly: Shooting the new messenger An article about blogger Bill Roggio shows mainstream media running scared Sunday, January 01, 2006 It was the journalistic equivalent of a drive-by shooting. The targets of Washington Post reporters Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck were two of journalism's favorites: Web loggers and the U.S. military.           "Bloggers, Money, Now Weapons in Information War," read the headline over their story, which appeared Monday. "U.S. Recruits Advocates to the Front, Pays Iraqi TV Stations for Coverage," the subhed said. "Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey...

I noticed this today driving home and I want to know if anybody has heard (or not heard) what is going on in Commie Radio. I flip around the radio stations in Atlanta going to and from work and during lunch to get news, traffic to make my 3/4 - 1hr commute paletable. Air Amerika has a local affiliate that I come into range that is called Air Atlanta. Yesterday I was listening to them and during the time that they usually have the news on, the top of the hour and half way inbetween, just like everybody else, they...