Free Republic

The White House declined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request on Tuesday to meet U.S. President Barack Obama during a UN conference in New York at the end of the month.

When the state House proposed a Congressional map that eliminated a St. Louis district, Democratic U.S. Reps. Russ Carnahan and Lacy Clay issued a rare joint statement, speaking together to decry the loss of representation for the city.

It is the day of foolishness. Don't be somebody's prey, be a predator.

In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000:

If you've been wondering why Windows Vista has taken a long time to reach Beta 1, we can now tell you why: there are seven separate editions of Vista headed your way. OK, that's not the reason for the delay, but how else do you introduce that many OS versions, without invoking Snow White & friends? Join me know as I romp through the various editions, many of which you'll see are just barely differentiated. First up, there's Starter Edition, which like XP Starter Edition, is a crippled (and lame) product aimed at the two-thirds world. It will limit users...

Ball..Patch..Powder..Fire! There is a scripture that states that "there is a friend who is closer than a brother". My brother Jerry Harris went into the hospital yesterday with internal bleeding. Very serious and possibly deadly. My bro isn't a wimp. He's a veteran(nam), and has been fighting to recover from a serious accident 10 years ago this month that included having a leg removed last summer in July after losing it to infection from a bone graft. He and his wife Susan are uncle and aunt to my kids, as I am to his girls. We've camped, fished, hunted, argued,...

<p>The St. Louis region's jobless rate dropped to its lowest mark in 17 months in March, yet another sign that job growth may be back on track after stumbling in February.</p> <p>Between February and March, metro St. Louis added 14,000 jobs as better weather and new investment meant a return to work for thousands of Missouri construction workers, according to figures released Monday by the state Department of Economic Development.</p>

ANNISTON, Ala. — Imagine a fuel as cheap and available as gasoline that could get 150 kilometres to the gallon. If scientists at Auburn University have their way, cars of the near future may get just that — and the technology is already here. Fuel-cell technology is the future of the automotive industry, and soon could be part of the U.S. Department of Defence's next wave of combat systems. The cells run on the same thing rockets use — hydrogen. Fuel cell technology takes a regular fuel and pulls off its hydrogen molecules, which are stored as gas. The electrons...

HOOK-HANDED Abu Hamza is STILL in Britain — exactly a year after The Sun called for him to be booted out. British taxpayers are having to foot a monster bill for over £1MILLION to get rid of the Muslim fanatic. The cost of allowing the hook-handed cleric to remain here is soaring week after week — prompting angry MPs to demand WHY it is taking so long to boot him out. It is exactly 12 months since The Sun called for Hamza, 46, to be deported but he is still spongeing off the UK — while ranting against it at...

It is no longer a secret that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would much rather have Nancy Farmer as a colleague in the United States Senate than Kit Bond. So she is coming to lend a hand to help Nancy Farmer achieve that goal. Sen. Clinton will host a $1,000-a-plate brunch on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004 at the Starlight Roof of the Chase Park Plaza, 212 North Kingshighway Blvd. in St. Louis. More details of the event will be publicized as they are finalized. Sen. Clinton’s support of Nancy Farmer’s campaign is a clear indication that the Senate race is...

HALABJA, Iraq (AP) - Amna Abdulqader lost two sons, a daughter, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren when bombs carrying poisonous gases fell in a chemical attack Saddam Hussein ordered on this Kurdish town - killing 5,000 people. She and other survivors of the March 16, 1988, attack say the former dictator must face justice in an Iraqi court that could impose the death penalty. "If he had fallen into my hands, I would have bitten off his flesh with my teeth," Amna Abdulqader said yesterday. Some interim Iraqi leaders have suggested Saddam could be executed as early as this summer....

<p>When Gov. Bob Holden helped arrange a meeting between union officials and Rep. Richard Gephardt's top Missouri campaign advisers, the governor thought it would help patch up frayed relations between two powerful but divided political camps.</p> <p>Instead, it ended in a firestorm of explosive charges, sparked an even deeper rift among two forces key to Holden's re-election prospects, and threw the spotlight on Joyce Aboussie, the Gephardt campaign aide and political powerhouse.</p>

A pillar of the Kyoto Accord is based on flawed calculations, incorrect data and an overtly biased selection of climate records, an important new paper reveals This has been a nightmare of a year for aficionados of the Kyoto Accord. After Canada's ratification of the treaty in late 2002, environmentalists had every reason to believe that few climate experts would dare continue to publicly oppose Kyoto's science, Russia would quickly ratify the accord and it soon would become international law. Instead, as illustrated at this month's World Climate Change Conference in Moscow, exactly the opposite has happened. The growing number...

<p>A St. Louis circuit judge may rule today on whether Missouri's law allowing qualified residents to carry concealed guns should go into effect on Saturday.</p> <p>Judge Steven Ohmer, who heard initial arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the law, said he would conduct an additional hearing today on a claim that the law is unconstitutional.</p>

Ok folks, I need some advice on what has worked for you. Just got some results from the doctor that aren't serious but he would like them to improve and I'm seeing much conflicting information on the web about health issues. He doesn't want to give me a pill until he see's if we can bring these numbers under control with diet and exercise. For the record. I am 6' 197lbs. I don't smoke and my alcohol intake is minimal (1-2 beers a week). I have been under quite a lot of stress lately but that seems to be receding....

From the unintended-consequences dept. kevin lyda writes "The Howard Dean campaign is releasing software for web-based communities under the GNU GPL. The project apparently is based on drupal. See here for more info, and here for the software. Regardless if you're for Dean, against Dean, or you're not an american, it's great to see a american politician on the national level using and promoting free software. I wonder if RMS thought he'd see a US presidential candidate releasing stuff under the GPL when he founded GNU 20 years ago!"

More than 60,000 Missourians are expected to apply for permits for concealed guns beginning Oct. 11. And because training is a prerequisite, the expected rush for the right to bear hidden firearms could put tremendous pressure on Missouri's firearms instructors. Experience elsewhere suggests there will be an influx of applicants immediately after Missouri's concealed-gun law takes effect -- much like the crunch to get playoff tickets to a professional sporting event. Missourians already are getting on lists for training courses needed to qualify for concealed-gun permits. "We've already started a list of people who want to be put in a...

Many of the new tax cut benefits will start showing up in the form of a check or in your paycheck. The government contends this will drive the economy forward. What do you intend to do with your increased dollars? Poll is halfway down on the left side of the page! Sic em!

A team from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), in partnership with Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC), successfully conducted a static fire test of a 1000 lbf ablative annular aerospike rocket engine in the Mojave desert on June 21, 2003 using LOX and ethanol propellants. This test represents an important milestone in the team's efforts to ultimately perform the first powered flight test of such a liquid-propellant aerospike engine. Aerospike engines have received considerable attention by NASA, Rocketdyne and other aerospace organizations over the last forty years because of potential performance advantages over conventional rocket engines equipped with bell-shaped nozzles. These...

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops in Iraq have arrested a group of suspected Islamic militants who intelligence officials believe are associated with the al-Qaida terrorist network, administration officials said yesterday. The officials, who cautioned that the suspects are still being interrogated and that information about their identities remains "squishy," said U.S. soldiers acting on information supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency arrested the men in Baghdad several days ago. Although the officials also said that the United States so far has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein provided weapons or other material support to al-Qaida or cooperated in planning terrorist operations,...