Free Republic

"Include me out!" Sam Goldwyn's dictum was the message sent by all 177 Republican congressmen to Barack Obama when they voted against his so-called stimulus package. The GOP got this one right, for two reasons. The first is that the Republicans have avoided the taint of complicity. When this Raw Deal goes belly-up, they can look their constituents in the eye and remind them: "We voted against it." It was also crucially important to say "No" to Obama - so few people do these days. The royal visit with which the Man of Destiny honoured his congressional opponents, in an...

Its well known that the clock on the top of the building read 1230 when the shots started I lifted this from the video I think its very possible someone is duping JFK chasers. Skinner Class of 04 Posts: 18,640 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sierra Nevada Mtns Pro Dea Et Patria 02-19-2007 , 10:41 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enhanced I call bullshit on this video portion of the building being taken prior to the shooting. Skinner Class of 04 Posts: 18,640 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sierra Nevada Mtns Pro Dea Et Patria 02-19-2007 , 10:48 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a...

North Koreans marched and sang as the country’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday, days after agreeing to shut down his country’s nuclear programme. But rumours and speculation abounded over the security of his regime. Hard information about the workings of the North Korean leadership is almost impossible to establish, but recently there have been unusually intense rumours about possible plots against the Dear Leader. The latest story doing the rounds of intelligence agencies is that his brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, a close aide who returned to public life last year after being purged, is emerging...

Dwayne Daniels was walking down the street one day, smoking a joint, when a man in Middle Eastern clothes stopped him. “He said, ‘What is that doing for you?’” Daniels recalls. “He said if I carried on in the drugs world I would either be killed or end up killing someone else. And God would not forgive me.” Daniels was a “bad boy drugs man” and convicted robber. He grew up in one of the roughest parts of south London, on a rundown urine-scented estate amid boarded- up shops. By day the streets were filled with children on bicycles who...

A package found in west London at the weekend may have been a fifth bomb intended for last Thursday's attacks. Police carried out a controlled explosion on the package found on Saturday in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, a park not far from the prison. The BBC's Daniel Sandford said: "It does look as if that was planned to be a fifth bomb for use last Thursday." It may mean a fifth bomber is on the run. Police have CCTV pictures of four suspects from Thursday's failed blasts. Three Tube trains and a bus were targeted on Thursday, two weeks...

A North Korean couple who fled to China in search of a better life have told how they spent two years hiding in a burrow dug in snowbound mountains to avoid being captured and sent home. Sung Kyung-il and his wife, Chu Myung-hee, survived bitterly cold winters and the threat of starvation after digging a cave in the side of Dokgol Mountain, in the rugged terrain of northeast China. Like many other North Koreans, the couple escaped the dictatorial Stalinist regime and a near constant famine under the mistaken impression that China would offer a better standard of living and...

British dentists are seeking to stop a teaching seminar in London by a prominent American cosmetic dentist after it emerged that he has a long history of complaints by patients over the quality of his treatments. Dr Larry Rosenthal, who styles himself in his promotional literature as the "dentist to the stars" and has a list of famous clients, including Normandie Keith, the model, and Matt Dillon, the actor, and Donald Trump, is due to give a one-day seminar on "aesthetic dentistry" for British dentists next month. The announcement of the seminar has resulted in a furore among dentists aware...

There is more than enough reality on television, without reality TV as well. Besides, there is something very odd about the idea of reality TV, as if the humiliation games played by gaggles of ditzy self-publicists were somehow as real, or perhaps even more real, than documentary footage of starving babies and bombed-out villages. That is an extremely odd idea of reality and I think it contributes to the increasing public mood of unreality. Besides, humiliation is not my idea of a spectator sport. At least, that is what I always used to feel — until last week. Last Wednesday...

IS AMERICA ready for David Brent? It seems it is. A US version of The Office, which will be broadcast for the first time next month, is an advance hit with critics, celebrity fans and even Ricky Gervais, its creator. The NBC remake appeared in jeopardy as test audiences walked out of previews last year. But focus groups have warmed to the first episodes of The Office: An American Workplace, which may spearhead a migration of “authentic” British sitcoms to the American screen. The first six episodes — three of which were previewed last week by critics for The Sunday...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - An Iraqi-born doctor was convicted Thursday of operating a charity that violated a former U.S. embargo and defrauding donors who gave $5 million to help his native country. The federal jury convicted Dr. Rafil Dhafir of conspiring to violate the embargo, money laundering, tax evasion and Medicare fraud after a trial that lasted more than three months. Dhafir, an oncologist, was acquitted on one of the 11 counts of money laundering. Defense attorney Deveraux Cannick said Dhafir was the victim of post-Sept. 11 anti-Muslim sentiment. ``If he were not a Muslim, he never would have been...

AN OBSCURE Marxist professor who has spent his entire academic life in Manchester has become the darling of the Washington right wing for his outspoken support of the war in Iraq. Despite his leanings Norman Geras, who writes a blog diary on the internet, has praised President George W Bush and says the invasion of Iraq was necessary to oust the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein. His daily jottings have brought him the nickname of “Stormin’ Norm” from the title of his diary, Normblog. The Wall Street Journal has reprinted one of his articles in its online edition and American...

A BRITON released from Guantanamo Bay has admitted being interviewed for advanced-level terrorist training in Afghanistan by two senior Al-Qaeda leaders and later volunteering for a “martyrdom operation”. Feroz Abbasi believes he was singled out because of his western background, which would have allowed him to plan an attack without arousing as much suspicion as Arab militants. He says he was prepared to take “actions” against Jewish and American military targets as part of his personal commitment to jihad, or holy war. Abbasi’s revelations are contained in a 150-page handwritten “autobiography” obtained by The Sunday Times from the US authorities....

LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.N. head Boutros Boutros-Ghali refused to take all the blame for Iraq's scandal-tainted oil-for-food program on Saturday, pointing the finger at his successor Kofi Annan. Boutros-Ghali was U.N. secretary-general at the start of the program which was designed to allow Iraq to buy food and medicines to ease hardships caused by U.N. sanctions. "I share the responsibility, but don't twist the whole operation," Boutros-Ghali told BBC radio. "The basis (of the program) was decided by the Security Council, approved by the Security Council, the execution was done during the mandate of my successor." Boutros-Ghali headed the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi security forces may have come close to capturing Iraqi al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the past two weeks and are weakening his support network, Iraq's interior minister said on Thursday. "We are following him," Interior Minister Falah al-Naquib told Pentagon reporters in a videoconference from Baghdad. "I think we missed him twice or three times, but hopefully next time we will be able to capture him." "I think we arrived a bit late. Maybe we missed him by one hour. ... You know, he is not staying in one place. He is...

A man with an addiction to sniffing petrol has been banned from every Asda store after being caught cutting fuel pump pipes. Brian Taylor, 36, has also been banned from going within 15 metres of any filling station on Teesside. Taylor terrorised supermarket staff and customers after sniffing petrol and cutting pipes at Asda in the South Bank area and dancing around the forecourt. Teesside Magistrates Court heard customers had been soaked in petrol. 'Safety risk' Cleveland Police and Redcar and Cleveland Council applied for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) which was granted at Teesside Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Taylor,...

The wicked queen in Snow White had a magic mirror that told the truth. French scientists have gone one better. They have a mirror that will tell the ugly truth - five years on. They have fashioned a thinking looking glass that will offer a reflection of the future, after years of binge drinking and junk food have taken their toll, according to New Scientist today. This mirror will know you better than you know yourself, and never fail to tell you so. Researchers at Accenture Technology, in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, have devised a flat liquid crystal display television...

Scientists have made them walk and talk. There are even robots that can run. But a South Korean professor is poised to take their development several steps further, and give cybersex new meaning. Kim Jong-Hwan, the director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Centre, has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing. He says the software, which will be installed in a robot within the next three months, will give the machines the ability to feel, reason and desire. Kim, a leading authority on technology and...

Baghdad - With many in Iraq regarding the first free vote in half a century as the rebirth of democracy, one woman who gave birth on Sunday named her baby girl "Intikhabat", Arabic for elections, a newspaper reported. "We called her Elections because she was born on this historic day when Iraqis elected their representatives at the national assembly," the baby's aunt was quoted as saying by the Al-Sabah newspaper on Wednesday. The Baghdad daily said the baby, born at Baghdad's Al-Alwiya hospital, was in good health.

POLICE are hunting for crooks who stole a family of three endangered Monkeys from a zoo. Tamarin monkeys Tommy, Tina and Terry were nicked from their enclosure at Drayton Manor Park near Tamworth, Staffordshire, on Monday night. Thieves jumped over a fence and then smashed up the monkey house to get their hands on the colourful Columbian trio. Tamarin monkeys are native to the rainforests and have long tongues to help them catch frogs. Tommy and Tina - a mating pair - have been at the zoo for 15 years while baby Terry was born in captivity six years ago....

TERRORIST suspects detained without trial under emergency legislation may refuse to leave jail rather than live under strict house arrest, their lawyers said yesterday. The 11 men currently interned are to be freed from prison after Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, dropped his objections to them being granted bail by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). Home Office lawyers announced their stance during bail applications by detainees known as A and P. Among those who will be released are the cleric Abu Qatada, regarded by the SIAC as “a truly dangerous individual”, and others linked to Islamist terror groups. The...