Free Republic

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – A group of golf enthusiasts plans to donate golf clubs, balls, tees, mats and other golf equipment to servicemembers at Camp Taji, a military base in Iraq. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado inside his living quarters at Camp Taji, Iraq. Soon Mercado and others at his base will have golf equipment donated by Golfers 4 Freedom. Courtesy photo    U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado, 36, of 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery, has been playing for 13 years. For the past eight months he has been deployed to Camp Taji and hasn't been...

TAMPA - It may have been the least likely place for a man who doesn't believe in God to receive a standing ovation, but it happened Sunday morning when Joe Redner went to church. Bishop Randy White, senior pastor at Without Walls International Church, invited the strip club owner to join him in the pulpit and talk about his campaign for the Hillsborough County Commission District 5 seat. "All right, he's not running for pastor. My job's not up," White jokingly told parishioners while introducing Redner, as their continued applause prompted Redner to stand and nod his head in thanks.

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 5, 2006) – Department of Defense ID cardholders are eligible for weekly condominium rentals at 3,500 resorts in 80 countries worldwide. Provided by Morale, Welfare and Recreation and sponsored by Resort Condominium International, the Armed Forces Vacation Club offers space-available condominiums for $299 a week. The program gives Soldiers and other DoD workers affordable accommodations in condominiums that would otherwise go empty, according to Verlin Abbott, RCI director of AFVC. While the program provides low-cost accommodations to vacation resorts across the globe, Abbott stressed that the condos are “space available” only. “Don’t expect to go...

FORT HUACHUCA — America’s history has been defined and shaped by what happened in the Old West. Part of that record was due to the achievement of black soldiers who help protect settlements in places such as Southern Arizona, Tom Stoney said Wednesday during the monthly luncheon hosted by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee. And part of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers legacy needs to be saved, Stoney said to nearly 90 people. That can be done by ensuring the World War II black officers club on the post remains, he told nearly...

SIERRA VISTA — This is no ordinary green thumb project. The Sierra Vista Garden Club has an ambitious goal of transforming the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Cemetery with drought-tolerant plants and trees — not only to improve the look, but honor veterans. The club wants to keep the state-run 147-acre burial ground as a place of dignity and honor, said Terri Nuti, the cemetery administrator. “Everybody is very enthusiastic about this,” said Janet Brady, club president. “This has sort of become my baby.” Nuti said the cemetery is so grateful to the garden club, because it frees up the small staff...

On a recent Friday morning, a line of bathing-suit clad students stood beside a campus swimming pool, waiting to jump in. They had come to persuade the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill they were worthy of a college degree — which they were not, in UNC's eyes, until they could swim 50 yards and tread water for five minutes.For many, it was an annoying inconvenience, for others a moment of pride in conquering their fear of water. But the scene also was a small slice of collegiate history. This was the last swim test day at one of...

A Washington watchdog group has called on Congress and the IRS to investigate Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, for a laundry list of what it calls the lawmaker's ethics violations.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- CREW -- on Thursday released a 13-count ethics complaint and a letter it sent to the Internal Revenue Service.Pombo called the charges a politically-motivated assault timed to appear just weeks before the June 6 primary election, where he has two opponents."I have never engaged in any illegal or unethical conduct whatsoever in my nearly 14-year career in the House, nor has any evidence been...

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2006 – The Blue Knights International Motorcycle Club is sponsoring a Purple Heart Ride April 23 to raise money for servicemembers and their families. Members of the Maryland IX Chapter of the Blue Knights will be riding to the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., near the nation's capital, to demonstrate their support for members of the armed forces who have valiantly served the country and have been wounded, according to an Armed Forces Foundation news release. Money from the ride will go to the Armed Forces Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving quality of...

Murtha tells City Club the war is lost Pa. congressman outlines failures Saturday, April 08, 2006 Donna J. Miller Plain Dealer Reporter U.S. Rep. John Murtha's booming Marine colonel's voice filled the tight spaces between Greater Clevelanders packed into the City Club Friday to hear him protest President Bush's war on Iraq. He repeated the message he began trumpeting in November: that American military efforts in Iraq are failing and will continue to fail, while costing taxpayers $450 billion by the year's end. The 37-year decorated Marine and 32-year congressman from Pennsylvania said: Iraqis with 80 percent of them wanting...

Canada's annual seal hunt, the focus of a major protest effort by animal activists, will start on Saturday and could last longer than usual because the ice floes on which the seals gather are in poor condition, officials said on Thursday. Canada says a total of 325,000 harp seal pups can be shot or clubbed to death this year. The first stage of the hunt, which takes place on ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's East Coast, will account for just over 90,000 animals. Activists, who say the killing is cruel and unnecessary, say they will film...

Dozens of donated plastic models are available for deployed service members to assemble in their free time. U.S. Army photo U.S. Soldier Starts Tikrit Chapter of Hobby Club The Tikrit chapter of the International Plastic Models Society has fifty members and that number is growing. By U.S. Army Spc. William Jones 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, March 2, 2006 — Some U.S. soldiers assigned to the 101st Airborne Division are passing the time during their deployment by doing something they enjoyed doing as kids – building plastic models. “It is something that totally immerses you in to...

PINE VALLEY, Calif. ­­–– (Feb 23, 2006) -- Fifteen members of the Pendleton Sportsman Club had a free day of hunting here on behalf of the Green Head Hunting Club when it hosted a military appreciation on its property Feb. 11. The event that united the Marines and Sailors, who appreciate the trio of guns, barbecue and hunting, for a day of sportsman activities was a way the club could show their military support, explained club member Al Hoyo, 58, of San Clemente. The Vietnam War veteran, who served with the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, understands the importance of showing...

Designer Julien Macdonald and heiress Paris Hilton were pelted with flour by anti-fur protesters after his show at London Fashion Week. They were attacked by campaigners from PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - after a catwalk show which featured a series of models dressed in fur. Macdonald was covered from head to toe in flour as he posed for pictures with Hilton, who escaped with a sprinkling on her shoulder. She had made a surprise appearance on the catwalk of Macdonald's show at Freemasons Hall in Covent Garden, wearing a number of his gowns. But when...

PHOENIX — The World War II-era black officers’ club on Fort Huachuca has been listed as one of 12 Arizona’s Most Endangered Historic Places by the Arizona State Preservation Foundation. The listing on Jan. 24 is seen as an additional positive step by the president of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers in the organization’s attempt to save Building 66050. “It (the listing) brings us more publicity and will help in fund-raising,” Tom Stoney Sr. said Monday. SWABS has also applied to the National Trust for placing the black officers’ club on its annual list of historic places in danger,...

56 schools now in $1 billion club The number of U.S. colleges with endowments topping $1 billion has jumped to 56, a new study says, with nine schools joining the elite club in what was an average year for university investments overall. Harvard remained the richest, with $25.5 billion, followed by Yale with $15.2 billion. For comparison, the University of Florida, the state's largest public institution, boasts an endowment of about $836 million. The wealthiest per student was Rockefeller University in New York, which has no undergraduates, followed by Olin College, a small engineering school in Massachusetts that opened in...

SIERRA VISTA — The path to saving the black officers club on Fort Huachuca is getting smoother, according to a man leading an effort to protect it. Harlan Bradford, chairman of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers’ project to save the World War II facility, also said his organization is hoping Building 66050 will be designated one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He said the building being listed would be a great help in saving the facility. Last year, SWABS tried to have the building listed as one of “America’s 11...

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who ripped Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for ties to a group that discriminates against women — says he’s going to quit a club notorious for discriminating against women “as fast as I can.” Kennedy was outed by conservatives late last week as a current member of The Owl Club, a social club for Harvard alumni that bans women from membership. In an interview with WHDH Channel 7’s Andy Hiller that aired last night, Kennedy said, “I joined when I . . . 52 years ago, I was a member of the Owl Club,...

Via Drudge... A couple who forced a plane to land in Bermuda after they attacked cabin crew who stopped them having sex are facing a $34,000 bill for their pleasure. SNIP Bermuda Airport manager Jim Howes said: "It's always the joke among us pilots, and I am a pilot, about have you joined the mile high club?" When asked if he had Mr. Howes said: "I can't comment – and you can quote me on that." Although he did say that on that long haul flight the couple had probably joined the seven-mile high club.

Users of a city mosque are angry after an advert for a "gentlemen's club" went up opposite their prayer room. The picture of a scantily-clad woman has been plastered across a billboard in Conduit Street, Leicester, opposite the Central Mosque. Muslims who worship there said they found it offensive. Owners of the Aviary club said they had not received an official complaint but did not want to cause offence. Gul Mohammed, who works at the mosque, said: "It's not the kind of thing you want to see when you are doing your prayers. "Also, when people - men, women and...

CEO disputes $241K tab at topless club Attorney says charges were fraudulent NEW YORK (AP) -- American Express is suing the CEO of a communications company for payment of $241,000 worth of disputed credit card charges at a Manhattan topless club. American Express says in papers filed in state court that Savvis Inc. chief executive officer Robert A. McCormick was in the club Scores in October 2003 with at least three other men. After McCormick got the $241,000 corporate credit card bill, Savvis called American Express and complained that some of the charges were fraudulent, the lawsuit says. The communications...