Free Republic

The big winner was Cruz, and the big loser was Bush. See below. Just to get started on the right foot, let's state at the outset that "the moderators" could not be the winners of a national debate. They can certainly be the losers, however, if they impede, if they are biased, or if they are infantile. That describes the CNBC moderators and the first Fox News moderators, Kelly/Wallace/Baier. They were losers. But for moderators to 'win' means we have relegated the issues and the candidates to some kind of back row. Who were the real winners last night? I...

The pundit class is raising questions about whether Scott Walker’s lack of a college degree disqualifies him from being America’s 45th president. This is what educators call a “teachable moment,” because the issue goes much deeper than Governor Walker’s biography. Of course a college credential shouldn’t be a prerequisite for the presidency, but that’s also true for many jobs that today require a degree even when it’s not really necessary. That’s a big problem. Many American leaders are obsessed with college as the path to economic opportunity. President Obama, for instance, wants America to lead the world in college graduates...

The day after $1,000bn was briefly wiped off the market value of US equities, traders were still trying to work out what caused share prices to plunge and then rebound so dramatically in a matter of minutes. The conventional wisdom held that an incorrectly typed sell order – one that confused “billions” for “millions”, for example – was the likely culprit. “The trigger for the sell-off was most likely some kind of errant order, a fat-finger typo, which set off a chain reaction of selling,” said Sang Lee, managing principal at Aite Group. “I would be shocked if that was...

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2010 – The NATO training mission in Afghanistan is working with Afghan commandos on the road to self-sufficiency. "We do have a lot of challenges here, but a gem in the Afghan Army are the commandos," Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, the organization’s deputy commander for Army forces, said during an April 10 "DoD Live" bloggers roundtable. Hogg described the commandos as “high-end” fighters. Seven commando battalions perform the entire spectrum of military work, he said, including increasing counter-insurgency capabilities. “They do the full spectrum that would you expect from a high-end light infantry force,” he said....

SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo., April 2, 2009 – Marine Lance Cpl. Louis Stamatelos realized he had two choices after waking up two years ago with severe wounds in the intensive care unit at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Army Staff Sgt. Ramon Padillamunguia, one of three patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, D.C., attending this year’s National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic at Snowmass Village, Colo., skis down a slope proving the therapeutic benefit of a positive mental mindset. The six-day clinic wraps up April 3, 2009. VA photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Stamatelos...

HONOLULU, Feb. 20, 2008 – A person’s ability is far more important than a person’s disability, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen spoke to reporters while en route here after visiting the Wounded Warrior Battalion West at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He is on a six-day trip to California, Hawaii and Australia. “Those who have been injured served so well,” Mullen said. “One of the things they are asking is, ‘OK, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?’ They want to be as good and great as they...

The first high-level research center opened by Microsoft was in Cambridge, England. The second was in Beijing. The research and development center that was established in Beijing has served as a model center for the company as it expands to countries like India (last year) and Russia (??). Long before multinational companies had started taking China seriously, Microsoft was already there, thinking of China as NOT just a potential market, but as a source of talent. Microsoft often takes a beating for its bully attitude. What should be said about its attitude for being a forward thinker in developing countries?...

Comments in Middle East border on bizarre... Bill Clinton (in Qatar) called the cartoon depictions of Muhammad published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last fall "totally outrageous cartoons against Islam," ... In fact, the cartoons are pretty tame stuff -- the Islamic prophet is not shown as dirty, drooling, shaped like an animal or engaged in any unsavory acts, all standard for cartoon depictions of Jews in the modern Arab press. Mr. Clinton is entitled to his opinion, of course, though one wonders why he would want to gin up more hostility toward the West with an inflammatory characterization of...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's failed special election last month may trigger government reforms after all — but not those he intended. A report that a majority of voters now want to tweak the initiative system, and strip the governor of power to call a special election on his own, is fueling action on a politically sensitive topic. Two Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday that they plan separate constitutional amendments. And good-government groups said they are looking toward either legislation or an independent ballot initiative. One way or the other, the matter appears headed to voters. "If we had a law...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Senior Bush administration officials have warned in recent weeks that al-Qaida is regrouping for another massive attack, its agents bent on acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in a nightmare scenario that could dwarf the horror of Sept. 11. But in Pakistan and Afghanistan - where Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy are believed to be hiding - intelligence agents, politicians and a top U.S. general paint a different picture. They say a relentless military crackdown, the arrests last summer of several men allegedly involved in plans to launch attacks on U.S. financial institutions, and...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

The Denver Post Felons will get to cast special ballot By Susan Greene Denver Post Staff Writer Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - Secretary of State Donetta Davidson is asking Colorado counties not to turn felons away from the polls, but to let them cast emergency ballots that likely won't count on Election Day. "The goal is not to disenfranchise anyone needlessly or accidentally," she said at an emergency meeting held Monday, a legal holiday. Davidson convened the state's 64 county clerks after The Denver Post reported Sunday that Colorado's registration rolls include as many as 6,000 state prisoners and...

October is in our sights, and the two important teams from Massachusetts are confounding the experts. It's the Red Sox baseball club, not the Kerry presidential campaign, that's supposed to be in its pre-autumn swoon. But that's not the case. Sen. John F. Kerry (news, bio, voting record) is running against an incumbent presiding over an uncertain economy and a controversial war, and still Kerry is on the defensive. What gives? Part of it is the unusual nature of the economy and the war. The economy's not stuck in recession and it's not roaring into recovery. It's doing a little...

But then, the blocks that Wallace T. Wallington moves around near his home in a rural Flint area have weighed up to nearly 10 tons. And by himself, he moves these behemoth playthings, not with cranes and cables, but with wooden levers. "It's more technique than it is technology," Wallington says. "I think the ancient Egyptians and Britons knew this." Last October, a production crew from Discovery Channel in Canada came to Wallington's home to record him as he raised a 16-foot, rectangular, concrete block that weighed 19,200 pounds and set it into a hole. That taping was made into...

Why Male Leaders Cannot Have a Female Secretary?Sichuan Province in southwest China has recently formulated a new regulation forbidding male leaders to employ female secretaries, which has sparked heated discussions in various newspapers. An article in Nanfang Metropolitan Daily says the new regulation has significant meaning and can be taken as a reference by other local governments. The author of the article believes there are a few disadvantages of male leaders and female secretaries working together. In today's China, quite a few corruption cases are blamed to have been connected with female secretaries who've won the favour of their...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Excessive noise, such as jet aircraft flying overhead, impairs children's reading ability and long-term memory, a Cornell University environmental psychologist and his European colleagues conclude in a study of schoolchildren living near airports. "This is the first long-term study of the same children before and after airports near them opened and closed. It nails down that it is almost certain that noise is causing the differences in children's ability to learn to read," says Gary Evans, an international expert on environmental stress, such as noise, crowding and air pollution. In the past, a host of other studies...

French Mayor Bans Residents from Dying Thu Aug 22,10:25 AM ET LE LAVANDOU, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a French Mediterranean town, faced with a cemetery "full to bursting," has banned local residents from dying until he can find somewhere else to bury them. Gil Bernardi, mayor of Le Lavandou on the coast 15 miles west of Saint Tropez, introduced the ban after a court rejected his plans to build a cemetery in a tranquil setting by the sea. Bernardi said most locals had obeyed the edict so far, but he was desperately trying to find a resting place...