Free Republic

Lynn Samuels wants Brown to win in order to block the healthcare bill. Just heard on XM radio about 10 minutes ago.

They arrived in feather boas, glittering hair accessories, sparkling dresses and tutus over diapers. At the premiere of "Baby Loves Disco" in downtown Houston on Saturday afternoon, infants, toddlers, young children and parents boogied under a mirrored disco ball, floating bubbles and occasional "smoke" from a machine. The "bars" at Rich's Houston were lined with boxes of juice and healthy snacks, such as sliced veggies, apples, grapes, cheese, crackers and cheese pizza slices. Babies and older children danced alone — or in a parent's arms — to the beats of the '70s and '80s. They twirled, whirled and unfurled bright...

Houston State Rep. Borris Miles used a pistol to wound one of two men he told police were trying to steal materials from a house the lawmaker is building, police said. Miles was upstairs at the construction site at 3742 South MacGregor Way at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday when he heard a noise downstairs and went to investigate, police said. He spotted two men, Houston police spokeswoman Johanna Abad said this morning. "He yelled at them and one threw a small pocket knife," HPD spokesman Victor Senties said. Miles pulled his weapon and "struck the suspect in the lower left...

Congresswoman wants 100,000 spaces added at detention sites Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee joined the border security debate Monday by offering her own proposal to beef up Rio Grande patrols and add 100,000 spaces at detention centers. The Houston Democrat, best known for supporting immigrants, says a recent tour of the border left her convinced the federal government is not doing enough to secure the borders from drug runners and terrorists. "This government, the federal government, has failed," she said at a press conference attended by T.J. Bonner, the head of the National Border Patrol Council. Jackson Lee is not the...

If the human misery that followed Hurricane Katrina has been shocking and painful, the federal government's shifting explanations for its needless severity have been utterly shameful. That assessment is not part of some political, postdisaster "blame game," but an insistence that accountability for preparing for and responding to a major U.S. disaster be placed squarely where it belongs: the federal government and its emergency-response program, FEMA.

Political passions are burning white hot as Nov. 2 nears. Americans realize what is at stake: the United States' ability to lead in the world, protect its citizens at home, preserve its treasured liberties, and leave a legacy of hope and opportunity. George W. Bush's presidency has put all that at risk. Sen. John Kerry proposes a sharp course change.

Frenchmen 'held by Iraqi group' An Iraqi militant group has announced it is holding two missing French journalists, according to Arabic television station al-Jazeera. The group is reportedly demanding that the French government end a ban on Muslim headscarves in French schools in exchange for releasing them. The two missing men are Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro. The headscarf ban is due to come into effect in September. Al-Jazeera, quoting unidentified sources, named the militant group as the Islamic Army of Iraq. The station's newsreader said the group described the French law banning...

Hinzman will make his case on Wednesday (Photo: Mark Laking)"I'm coming for you," reads one threatening e-mail, laced with racism and obscenities. "Desserters [sic] should get shot in the back especially at war time," reads another. Vicious messages, mostly from Americans, have flooded the inbox of 25-year-old Jeremy Hinzman, an American soldier who deserted to seek refugee status in Canada after refusing to participate in the war in Iraq, which he has called a "criminal enterprise". Mr Hinzman, one of at least two US Army deserters to have fled north, now lives in a Toronto apartment with his wife and...

Editorial: Minimum wage/Time for a hefty increase July 4, 2004 ED0704A Every six or seven years, Congress takes stock of the American job market and decides that the economy is not performing well for the working poor. The nation has arrived at one of those moments. Since the current recovery started in 2001, corporate profits have grown by 58 percent, while private-sector earnings have actually fallen by 2 percent. By some measures, income inequality has reached its highest level since World War II. Roughly 17 million American children are growing up at or near the poverty line -- even though...

"Was Saddam Hussein a good man? It seems he was not. But that did not give us the right to go in there and invade a country, and insert our own torturers in place of his - Michael Berg Berg father 'had to let son go' By Becky Branford BBC News Online The father of Nick Berg, an American worker beheaded in Iraq, has said he was aware his son faced grave danger there but felt unable to try to prevent him from going. Michael Berg told BBC News Online his son "was a man and he did what he...

And in the US capital, Washington DC, women protested outside the French embassy in the city, one carrying a sign saying: "Is my scarf a threat to democracy?"

One Nation regrets no Hanson By TONY RAGGATT16jan04 THE One Nation party launched its North Queensland candidates yesterday, with parliamentary leader Bill Flynn declaring they were out "to make a difference". And while Pauline Hanson was not there in person, she was in spirit -- the party's advertising signs at the media conference carried a picture of the party founder. Mr Flynn said the party hoped to run 60 to 70 candidates throughout the State. He introduced candidates for the seats of Townsville, Thuringowa, Mundingburra, Burdekin, Charters Towers, Hinchinbrook and Mulgrave. They are retired policeman Ted Ive (Townsville), geologist John...

<p>December 30, 2003 -- COULD the winner of "World Idol" turn out to be a plumber with two kids and the face of a lawn gnome?</p> <p>The real surprise on last week's debut edition of "World Idol" - an ultimate showdown among the winners of 11 "Idol" contests from around the world - was the strong performance of Norwegian Kurt Nilsen.</p>

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said today that the capture of Saddam Hussein does nothing to change her opposition to the war in Iraq. "I believe we should have had a congressional vote before declaring war, and we should have allowed U.N. inspectors time to finish their work," Jackson Lee said during a news conference at Bush Intercontinental Airport. "As to WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), the fact they have not been found I believe shows I was right." One of the more outspoken congressional critics of the war in Iraq, Jackson Lee had returned to Houston from a...

Singer Michael Jackson has topped the UK album chart with his latest release, despite facing charges of child abuse. Jackson's Number Ones release beat Busted into second place, while Kylie Minogue's new album Body Language made its initial chart entry at number six....

A seven-year-old girl was shot in the back as she fled her father's killer, police believe. Toni-Ann Byfield and her father Bertram, 41, died following the shooting at a bedsit in Harrow Road, Kensal Green, north west London, at 0030 BST on Sunday. Detectives believe Toni-Ann witnessed her father being shot and was killed to stop her identifying the gunman. They have been releasing more details about the victims after speaking to relatives, although Interpol has yet to track down the girl's mother who is thought to be in Jamaica. Toni-Ann was a ward of court who was staying with...

THE death of Dr David Kelly is a sombre event in itself and should be a cautionary signal both to the BBC and the government. It surely ought to draw a line under the wrangle between the BBC and the government about the allegations by the BBC’s reporter, Andrew Gilligan, concerning the dossier issued by the government to add strength to its justification for going to war with Iraq. If Dr Kelly did indeed kill himself, then his death must without doubt be ascribed to this confrontation. And the instigator of that confrontation was undoubtedly the BBC. What cannot be...

A football fan who took part in racist chanting at a match has been convicted in a landmark court case. Two High Court judges ruled the 21-year-old fan should have been convicted of a criminal offence when he came before magistrates. In what is understood to be the first case of its kind to reach the High Court, the judges ruled Sean Ratcliffe, from Cross Heath, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was guilty of chanting in "a racialist nature". The chanting came under the 1991 Football (Offences) Act, they said. Ratcliffe was in a crowd of fans of second division Port Vale who...

A 64-year-old former boxer has been shot dead at the wheel of his car outside his Coventry home. Joe Montague was fired at several times in the early hours of Sunday as he parked his car. Police have not yet named the man, but neighbours confirmed his identity and said he had been visiting his daughter Joanne, who suffered from multiple sclerosis. They described Mr Montague as a caring, family man who trained young boxing hopefuls in the city. Among his charges were Neil Simpson, the former British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight champion, who lost a title fight against Nigerian Peter...

<p>Everyone understood, following Sept. 11, 2001, that many things had changed in America -- that, for example, law enforcement needed to move much more aggressively against possible terrorists. It stood to reason that agencies like the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) would be particularly interested in young men from Muslim countries, especially those whose visas had expired or who had never bothered to get one. But in New York and Newark, N.J., the FBI and INS stepped way over the line in how they treated their detainees. Thus says the U.S. Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, and bless him for it.</p>