Free Republic

Page 1 above the fold in yesterday's New York Times featured a photo (below) by our new acquaintance Adnan Hajj. I suspect that not all is as it appears to be in the photo, and somehow doubt that Times readers will ever learn why that might be the case.The Reuters caption reads: "A severely wounded Lebanese civilian is carried away on a stretcher at Maameltain bridge, after it was targeted by Israeli air strikes, in the north of Beirut August 4, 2006. (Adnan Hajj/Reuters)" (Thanks to reader David Butz.)

Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing. The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?” The White House press...

Ann Coulter...was definitely Friday’s biggest draw at CPAC 2006. From the get-go the conservative columnist had the crowd cheering and was frequently interrupted by applause. Many of Coulter’s talking points came from recent news events -- such as “the great Danish cartoon caper” and President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees. “Muslims are the only group who kill because people call them violent,” she said of Islam’s rage over the printing of Muhammad cartoons. Speaking about the nation's highest court, Coulter not only expressed elation at Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation, she also shared her feelings on Chief Justice John Roberts ... She...

$10 million spent annually by district for classroom subs... Driven by parental concerns about teacher absenteeism, the Chicago Public Schools for the first time will start scrutinizing schools with high numbers of teachers taking sick days. On any given school day in Chicago, an average of 1,500 teachers, about 6 percent of the teaching staff, call in sick or take a personal day, according to a Tribune analysis of teacher payroll records. The absentee rate is highest on Fridays, when an average of 1,800 teachers don't show... For each of the last six school years, Chicago teachers missed an average...

San Francisco seems an unlikely home for the man who in 1962 first proposed the privatization of Social Security. Asked why he dwells in liberalism's den, Milton Friedman, 92, the Nobel laureate economist and father of modern conservatism, didn't skip a beat. "Not much competition here," he quipped. Friedman is considered perhaps the most influential economist... It was Friedman who in 1962, with the publication of "Capitalism and Freedom," first proposed the abolition of Social Security, not because it was going bankrupt, but because he considered it immoral. Friedman calls Social Security, created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, a...

Eighteen months after the Chicago City Council torpedoed a South Side Wal-Mart, 24,500 Chicagoans applied for 325 jobs at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in south suburban Evergreen Park, one block outside the city limits. The new Wal-Mart at 2500 W. 95th is one block west of Western Avenue, the city boundary. Of 25,000 job applicants, all but 500 listed Chicago addresses... "we saw a little bit of everything -- people who hadn't worked for a long time, people who saw an opportunity to do something with themselves. That's the information I got from applicants."

General contractor Paul Wisecup thought everything was on schedule with the aircraft hangar he is building... The concrete foundation and floor had been poured, the metal building had been erected, and all that remained before the doors could be installed was the pouring of concrete for the ramp connecting the building to the taxiway. Then he heard he might not get all the concrete he expected on time... Cement is the powdered ingredient in concrete that causes the sand, gravel and other materials to stick together. Without cement, you don’t get concrete. Concrete contractors in Grand Junction said they are...

When asked by the media for his thoughts on the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former President Jimmy Carter replied that while they have a terrorist past, at least they're not corrupt. One of the complaints by many in the Middle East was the corruption within the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. Arafat himself squirreled away millions of dollars from aid packages that were intended to help the Palestinian people. However, Carter's comment appears to dismiss the years of death and destruction perpetrated by Hamas on the Jewish State. One of the first statements made by...

Democrats — at least those seeking the Democratic nomination for president and those who are desperate for money from extremist Left deep pockets — are trying to "out-Liberal" each other on the Alito nomination, even when it is clear a bipartisan majority of senators intend to make the Judge Alito "Justice Alito" in just a few days. John Kerry, after launching the first international filibuster from the slopes of the Swiss Alps with the help of Ted Kennedy, gave a speech earlier on the Senate floor that rivals Kennedy’s 1987 smear of Judge Bork. Kennedy claimed that in “Judge Bork’s...

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) failed today to address rumors that Nevada Senator Harry Reid will step down next month as Senate Minority Leader. Reid has been stung by revelations that his political action committee (PAC) accepted more than $60,000 in contributions from Indian tribes linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Biden avoided discussing either the Reid situation or any upcoming changes in Senate Democratic leadership. Reid is no stranger to scandal, having been the subject of a 1979 Justice Department probe into allegations that Reid — then Nevada Gaming Commission chairman — had received bribes...

Three environmental activists were cooking up plastic explosives and had planned to test a device the day they were arrested, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday as they indicted them. The three face five to 20 years in federal prison if they are convicted of conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage property. The suspects planned assaults this spring in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a 'loosey-goosey, sort of mist-of-the-fog kind of an organization' of environmental activists, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said. Eric McDavid, 28, Zachary Jensen, 20, and Lauren Weiner, 20, remain in jail. They could enter a...

CELEB Big Brother prat George Galloway is today exposed in his revolting true colours — fawning before Saddam Hussein’s murderous son Uday. An astonishing video shown in part on the Sun TV Bulletin depicts Galloway, 51, laughing and joking with the evil psychopath during a 20-minute meeting in an Iraqi palace. The Respect party MP, who Sun readers can boot off the Channel 4 show tonight, has sickened viewers with his antics in the BB house. Galloway’s crawling around the tyrannical old Iraqi regime was even more disgusting. He famously met dictator Saddam in 1994 and told him: “Sir, allow...

In the fog-shrouded forests of California's remote North Coast, winemakers believe they've found the perfect terrain to grow the notoriously fickle pinot noir grape prized by connoisseurs. Vineyard developers are snapping up thousands of acres of redwoods and firs in Sonoma County, with plans to clear the trees and plant the once-obscure varietal made famous by the wine-fueled road trip film "Sideways." Environmentalists and residents in Annapolis, a tiny town about 140 miles north of San Francisco, are trying to rein in the pinot lovers. "If you've seen the movie, you've seen the glassy-eyed stare they have when they talk...

Japan on Wednesday released a video in a bid to prove Greenpeace targeted its whaling ship in an Antarctic collision this week and accused the environmentalists of violent tactics. Japan's main whaling body put a video on its website that showed Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise moving steadily forward before hitting the whaling ship Nisshin Maru, whose movement was impeded by another whaling vessel nearby. "It was a deliberate action to get media coverage," Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research said in a statement. "The Arctic Sunrise could have avoided this collision. Instead the skipper turned the boat into the path of the...

The arrests could begin to close the book on one of Colorado’s enduring mysteries. At the time, the Vail firebombing was considered the costliest act of eco-terrorism in the country, causing $12 million in damage, destroying the Two Elk Lodge, a mountaintop restaurant, among other structures. "The indictment tells a story of four-and-a-half years of arson, vandalism, violence and destruction claimed to have been executed on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front or Earth Liberation Front, extremist movements known to support acts of domestic terrorism," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference today. Appearing with Gonzales, FBI Director...

In a further clarification of yesterday’s remarks that a rebuilt New Orleans would be a “chocolate” city, Mayor Ray Nagin today said he’s planning to recruit Hershey Foods to establish a candy manufacturing plant in the hurricane-ravaged region. The Democrat mayor’s latest clarification builds on yesterday’s explanation that his remarks are not racist because chocolate is made with dark chocolate and white milk forming “a delicious drink.” “We’re in the very, very early stages of discussions with Hershey,” Mr. Nagin said, “It’s still in the pre-meeting, pre-phone call stage. But that’s what this chocolate city concept is all about. It’s...

Serial killer David Maust who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering three teens and burying their bodies in a basement died Friday, a day after he was found hanging from a twisted bed sheet in his jail cell... Jail guards had found Maust, 51, hanging in his cell early Thursday, about 10 minutes after they told him that he was going to be transferred to a state prison later that day... Higgins said Maust used a bed sheet braided into a rope to hang himself. In a note found by the guards, Maust admitted to five killings.

The editors of most of California’s metro newspapers will gather in Santa Barbara next month to have a few drinks and compare notes. They will wring their hands wondering why their readers are fleeing. They will show each other the beautiful new products they’ve developed and the other-than-English material that they produce in an effort to retain subscribers. They will discuss in serious tones the threat from the liars on talk radio and the amateurs on the blogosphere. I could offer them some advice, but I have not been invited. Although I am a former colleague and remain friends with...

In front of a crowd of angry parents, teachers and students... San Francisco's Board of Education Thursday night voted to close, merge and relocate more than a dozen public schools...due to declining enrollment. The board did its work during a five-hour meeting before hundreds of angry parents, students and teachers who filled the Everett Middle School auditorium and occasionally shouted -- or wept aloud -- as the panel voted on a case-by-case basis. The first vote hardly caused a stir in the crowd: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program will be merged into Rosa Parks Elementary School... But when the board...

Researchers at the University of Missouri have mounted wireless video cameras on white-tailed deer to get a better idea of how the animals see their world and what's behind their behavior. The battery-run cameras with miniature transmitters were placed between the antlers of two bucks and round the neck of one doe. The images are sent electronically to VHS tape for recording. The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant for the work...