Free Republic

Camp Pendleton is apparently on the list of potential new homes for Guantanamo Bay detainees if and when President-elect Barack Obama makes good on his campaign promise to close the terrorist detention center. The Associated Press is reporting that Obama will issue an executive order during his first week in office. As soon as he signs it the new administration will have to figure out what to do with the 250 al Qaeda and Taliban combatants. And three House members from San Diego put Defense Secretary Bob Gates on notice this week that they don’t want to see Pendleton as...

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took a whack at the Bush administration on Wednesday for failing to disclose all of the financial institutions that are getting emergency loans under the $700 billion bailout. Boehner said the Treasury and Federal Reserve should comply with a Freedom of Information Act request into who is receiving taxpayer money, and “they must begin providing lawmakers and taxpayers all information about how they are using federal tax dollars.” Boehner said the bipartisan negotiations behind the financial bailout package stressed the need for meaningful oversight of how the money was being spent.

You know who you are. You're the one posting stupid comments about what a loser Johnny is. You're the one getting on the political chat shows and telling everyone that you think Obama is super great and that he's going to win! Yeay! And your supposed to be a conservative. Why don't you shut up! I'm talking to all the whiners who piled on and joined the Chris Matthews bandwagon and declared Johnny an old man and a big dull loser. He did fine last night. He was the boss on foreign policy. He's never been a dazzling public speaker...

WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Fred Merkle was born in Watertown, Wis., in 1888, but he spent only one year there before his family moved to Toledo, Ohio. Still, that didn't prevent Watertown resident David Stalker from claiming Merkle as the town's very own. He spearheaded an effort to erect a monument in Merkle's honor. Set in black marble with a baseball perched on top, the monument notes that Merkle was a "potent line-drive hitter and agile first-baseman." It says he was a member of six World Series teams. However, there is no mention on the monument of the play that earned...

Secular groups applauded Rep. Pete Stark for publicly acknowledging he does not believe in a supreme being. The declaration, they said, makes the California Democrat the highest-ranking elected official - and first congressman - to publicly claim to be an atheist. The American Humanist Association took out an ad in the Washington Post on Tuesday, congratulating Stark's stance. "With Stark's courageous public announcement of his nontheism, it is our hope that he will become an inspiration for others who have hidden their conclusions for far too long," the group's executive director, Roy Speckhardt, said in a statement. Stark's beliefs garnered...

Eliminating subway and bus fares could put local mass transit on the road to success. ___ CLOSE TO HALF the travel time on most L.A. bus routes is spent at the curb. Bus riders know the frustration of waiting to board while someone coaxes a floppy dollar bill into the fare box. Likewise, plenty of irritated local drivers have been stuck behind that bus in the right-turn lane. Oh, and the despair of the train rider left struggling with an uncooperative ticket vending machine as the train pulls away. So what would happen if, instead of hiking MTA fares as...

These days cable news is more about views than news. Keith Olbermann calls George Bush a sort of terrorist. Fox News pundits call CNN unpatriotic. Lou Dobbs calls for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Who took the news out of the news? Everyone but Wolf Blitzer, apparently. I've been monitoring cable news networks for dozens of hours a week ever since the Mark Foley scandal broke. I was hoping to provide a thorough reasoning of how the networks -- CNN, MSNBC and Fox News -- have been covering the midterm elections. But there's one basic thing going on. More than...

FOR a man who won popular support when he castigated the Irish government for its failure to spend our tax in the way that he saw fit, Bono now finds himself standing in a lonely place. Last week the rock-star-turned-campaigner was exposed for taking part in a decision that will deliberately reduce the amount of tax that he and his business partners in U2 will contribute from next year onwards. Since June, the band and its manager have engaged in what is known as ‘tax avoidance’, moving U2’s publishing empire to the Netherlands where it can avail of a near...

“I won’t get insulted by your stupidity…” This is how to respond when a reverse-minded liberal spouts his lunacy. Use it. Satisfaction Guaranteed!

(SYDNEY, Australia) -- The thin man is back behind bars. Police in Sydney, Australia, report recapturing an inmate who went on crash diet to escape from custody. Authorities charge Robert Cole dropped more than 30 pounds and squeezed through a hole in a wall just six inches wide. Cole escaped from a hospital Wednesday, but he wasn't on the street very long. Officers captured him over the weekend. They say Cole tried to disguise himself by drawing a beard on his face in pen. He's now in maximum security. No word, though, if guards are trying to fatten up Cole.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin apologized Tuesday for some of the comments that he made during a Martin Luther King Day Rally in the city Monday. Nagin said that his intention was to comfort African-American residents, especially those feeling unwanted during the rebuilding process, but he said in doing so he inadvertently offended others. “I apologize to any resident in this city that may have been offended,” he said. “That was not my intention. If I could take anything back, I thought the Uptown comment was inappropriate. If any people are working hard to rebuild this city, it’s the people...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Outlaw, druggie, Dunhill-smoking, Chivas Regal-drinking, anti-establishment literary icon Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide after becoming depressed about the United States' shift toward conservatism, said one longtime friend who spent the weekend at the Aspen, Colo., home of the late "gonzo" journalist. "He was depressed about the state of society," said Loren Jenkins, foreign editor for National Public Radio in Washington. A vehement opponent of President Bush, Mr. Thompson, 67, "was feeling maudlin about the current conservatism sweeping the country," Mr. Jenkins said. "He felt he'd had a long run, trying to create a freer society in the...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Prince Harry’s Nazi outfit would not have been tolerated in the Army and he would have been punished for his actions, a former British commander said today. Colonel Bob Stewart said he would have given the 20-year-old prince, who will join the forces later this year, two weeks’ worth of extra duties for being pictured dressed up in a fascist uniform, complete with swastika armband. The army hero, who led British UN troops in Bosnia, branded the antics “bad taste”, saying they had caused offence to many people. Harry is set to attend the prestigious Sandhurst military academy for officer...

Hoping to add news and DAILY rule changes by Nascar to this thread as they come along. Awards banquet information and any other silly off season rumors etc.

TWO DISASTEROUS MOVES BY KERRY [09/23 01:06 PM] Kerry just made two moves that I think are tremendously boneheaded mistakes. The left and the right agree that Iraq is Issue One, that you cannot be elected president unless the American people think you handle this difficult and important mission over there. Kerry came out as the anti-war candidate this week, and I thought that was a much stronger position than his "well, I support the troops, but not the mission, sort of, but, you see, this, but that", etc. But if you want to be the next president, and the...

After weeks in which the political discourse was nearly dominated by the scrutinizing of Sen. John F. Kerry's conduct in the Vietnam War era, President Bush now may find himself under the microscope and on the defensive for actions in his past. Kerry supporters are actively questioning Bush's spotty record as a stateside National Guardsmen during the Vietnam War. A former senior politician in Texas is telling people he pulled strings to get Bush into the guard. And an Associated Press investigation has concluded that key documents that should have been written to explain gaps in Bush's guard service are...

The notorious MoveOn.org has begun to fund raise by offering left wing celebrity items on eBay. So MoveOnPlease.org has done one better by offering an actual right-minded "celebrity" on ebay...sort of. Read Kato's letter as he volunteers to sleepover the highest bidder's house to raise money to pay for MoveOnPlease.org's trip to next week's convention where they will be reporting from the floor...or perhaps, as close to the floor as they will let anyone associated with National Lampoon. http://moveonplease.org/KatoOnEbay.asp

on Hannity John O' Neill said something to the effect that the people need to know the facts from our narrow point of view. nar·row ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nr) adj. nar·row·er, nar·row·est Painstakingly thorough or attentive; meticulous: narrow scrutiny. check it out at "www.dictionary.com" lol :)

Sorry but im a jr high student and half of my friends and people in my school wear the bracelets and dont play the game. just cuz some peeps wear them for that reason its kinda like prostitutes only doing that. our parents are always badgering us about the bracelets like do you know what those mean why do you where those? it usually winds up in i dont want you to wear them and that makes us wear them more! i doubt that anyone would lose sleep over them and if you did your just trying to prevent your...