Free Republic

In this new gang intervention program, the LAPD teaches marksmanship to gang members...

Some stand in protest during President Bush's commencement speech at Furman University.

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA - Throughout her life, Linda Eggert, a 51-year-old stay-at-home mother, has been a staunch Republican. But on May 6, when the marathon Democratic primary comes to Indiana, Eggert will cast her ballot for Hillary Clinton. more stories like this * Obama making plans to attract voters and money for November * Obama, Clinton spend time in low-priority states * Poll: Obama, Clinton running tight race in Indiana poll * Pelosi: Clinton, Obama sharing the ticket not a good idea * Harvard Survey: Young voters favor Obama * "Everybody is kind of rethinking their politics because of everything...

Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth. ...SNIP... The meeting also reviewed what has been described as a Mecca watch, the brainchild of a French Muslim.br>

Joseph Manzanares accosted his girlfriend, Laquisha Bobo, in the Hollywood Video store in Commerce City, Colorado where she worked, knocked over several video displays and a computer and threatened to kill her – all because of a dispute over which gang their 4-year-old son should join. The mother is a member of the Crips. Manzanares belongs to the Westside gang. Each was adamant that their son be affiliated with his or her gang. “A man has the right to bring up his son the way he chooses,” Manzanares insisted. “It’s a matter of pride.” “A mother knows what’s best for...

WASHINGTON, April 2 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A Chinese diplomat has sent out an e-mail to U.S. congressional officials with a commentary alleging that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has close ties to Nazi Germany, a congressional member said Wednesday. Dennis Halpin, a Republican member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, revealed the e-mail by the diplomat in charge of congressional liaison at the Chinese Embassy in Washington during a forum on Asia. Halpin slammed the action, saying it is "counterproductive" for a Chinese diplomat to do such a thing at a time when the situation in...

On the front lines of the culture wars, where explosive salvos are fired routinely, accuracy is a requirement. Arguments cannot be won with major misstatements of fact. This is lost on Eric Alterman. In his new book “Why We’re Liberals,” he takes up the controversy generated by Hollywood, but only to malign and mischaracterize. Alterman decries "the hysterical language conservatives routinely employ when pontificating about Hollywood." His first example of a hysterical conservative is... me. Horror of horrors. I’m attacked because I’ve ridiculed "political dilettantes" and "leftist celebrities" whose qualifications as political advisers "include starring in Hello Dolly and The...

Today, Google has decided to celebrate "Earth Hour" in this way on their main page: Here is some text to explain their actions: Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the...

A criminal investigation focusing on three Mormon missionaries who were photographed defacing a Catholic shrine has been dropped after the Catholic bishop in the San Luis Valley of Colorado where the incident happened urged forgiveness. According to reports in the Denver Post and the Pueblo Chieftain, the three missionaries had been shown in photos posted on the Internet at the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs at the Chapel of All Saints on a butte overlooking the town of San Luis. The photographs were taken in 2006 and showed the men preaching from the Book of Mormon at the shrine's altar,...

Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute. Intelligent machines deployed on battlefields around the world -- from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones -- can already identify and lock onto targets without human help. There are more than 4,000 US military robots on the ground in Iraq, as well as...

ST. PETERSBURG -- Mitt Romney bought himself a victory in the straw poll for Republicans at a rain-shortened barbecue in Vinoy Park. Romney got 893 votes, besting second-place Ron Paul's 534 -- despite Paul's shuttling in supporters on a rented trolley and shuttle. The campaign had a plane sporting pro-Paul slogans and a boat touting him, too. In fact, Paul supporters dominated the crowd, which reached an estimated 1,000 people. Tickets for votes cost $20 each. So how did Romney do it? "I voted 20 times," Derek Gyongzois, 38, of St. Petersburg exclaimed after casting ballots. He said he works...

Last night's live feed of "Real Time With Bill Maher" was an unscripted wild ride, as host Bill Maher jumped into action as a group of people in the audience disrupted his show. Maher helped security give the boot to a rowdy protester from the studio of his weekly HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, and it was all captured on live television. Maher was talking science during one of his weekly panel discussions when a protester in his audience stood, held up a smuggled-in sign reading "9/11 is a cover up fraud" and shouted comments...

Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month...Google’s Web site states, “Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we’re happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners.” "...Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of company names such as Exxon, Wal-Mart, Cargill and Microsoft in advocacy ads. An anti-war ad currently running on Google asks “Keep Blackwater in Iraq?” and links to an article titled “Bastards at Blackwater — Should Blackwater Security be held accountable for the deaths of its employees?”

It has become apparent that some journalists covering President Bush either have a learning disability or work extra hard to twist his words until the reporters turn into novelists. The latest to prove this theory correct works for Reuters, which sent out a story that claimed George Bush thought that Nelson Mandela had died, when in fact Bush used an analogy that clearly sailed over Reuters' head. It also showed that some progressive bloggers don't do much research when jumping all over a news quote: (via Memeorandum, Instapundit, and Best of the Web) Nelson Mandela is still very much alive...

Some of the guys and I are presently at the camping lodge and we’ve got a problem that requires the help of a sensible woman. My brother-in-law managed to get something in his hair this morning, and he wanted to wash it out. I can’t tell you what that something was, because he’s refused to divulge that to us thus far (I suspect that he fabricated the “tainted hair” theory to save himself some embarrassment.) My brother-in-law believes that his wife has, at some point, told him that peanut butter is a useful household hair cleaner / conditioner. His wife...

Environment: Will Al Gore's "Live Earth" concerts to remind us of the global warming bogeyman be acoustic affairs played without lights and amplification? No? Then why not call them the Live Hypocrisy concerts? As many as 2 billion of us are expected to watch more than 150 pop and rock acts Saturday at various locations across the world. Gore sees the extravaganza as the "beginning of a three-year campaign worldwide to deliver information about how we solve the climate crisis." But there's no crisis here except for a crisis of credibility — and not just that of Gore, whose credibility...

Really, this again points out how very little the Democrats know about our military. This is simply basic stuff, but apparently not something any of Pelosi's staffers could be bothered to check out or most likely would know anyway. Take a look at the pic on Pelosi's website (it's a flash thing, so wait till it comes around but there is a screen cap below) where she touts how "the House is providing the largest increase in veterans’ funding in history". The picture? That of a Canadian officer. Unless written otherwise, all epaulets have "CANADA" in gold lettering on the...

A new study has found that many more women are leaving economically moribund Eastern Germany. The result is a new, frustrated and largely male underclass. And many of them find succor in the neo-Nazi scene. The problem has been well known for years: Ever since the mid-1990s, young Eastern Germans have been fleeing the region due to a lack of economic opportunity, hoping to find jobs in the western part of the country. Some 1.5 million have already left the region -- roughly 10 percent of the population of East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. Even worse, most of...

RealClearPolitics Poll Averages SM Congressional Job ApprovalPoll Date Approve Disapprove Spread RCP Average 05/07 - 05/23 32.6% 58.0% -25.4% RealClearPolitics Poll Averages SM President Bush Job ApprovalPoll Date Approve Disapprove Spread RCP Average 05/07 - 05/23 32.8% 61.7% -28.9%

Nicolas Sarkozy's record-breaking victory...goes beyond the statistics to the very heart and history of the French nation. Mr. Sarkozy promised, in the last days of the campaign, to "liquidate the heritage of May '68."... Mr. Sarkozy was the target of a gutter-slime anti-Sarko campaign, passed off as a citizen's movement against a dangerous fascist. His Jewish origins and trans-Atlantic affinities were slandered...Vicious lies about Mr. Sarkozy, his family, his program and his millionaire friends circulated from extremist Web sites to left-wing bobo mailing lists and turned up, freshly laundered, in Miss Royal's speeches... In fact, the new French president is...

Basically, three morons don't understand where the term "Magic Negro" came from in Rush's parody "Barack the Magic Negro."

22% Believe Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks in Advance Friday, May 04, 2007 Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure. Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view. Overall, 22% of all voters believe...

The resolution offered by the gentleman from Ohio reads sensibly. It alleges crimes high and low, misdemeanors galore - all of them representing an effort to mislead the American people and take them into war. It is Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment, directed at Dick Cheney. The vice president will, of course, deny he's a liar. As long as Kucinich is at it, add that to the articles. The congressman's case is persuasive, although his remedy may be too radical. He calls for Cheney to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, just as Bill Clinton was...

HOW do you pray facing Mecca five times a day when you are circling the Earth 16 times every 24 hours? This is one of the problems facing Malaysian authorities as they prepare to send their first man into space. There are others: how to hold the prayer position in zero gravity, ensure that only halal freeze-dried food is in your space cupboard and perform your ritual ablutions before worship? They have all been answered by a team of Islamic scholars and scientists that has spent more than a year working on guidelines for the astronaut.

Calculate your carbon footprint. Click on the link. Is your carbon footprint (boy am I glad I hit preview and was able to edit my original text here) bigger than mine? The average is 10.73 metric tons of CO2 per year

The weather forecast for Saturday's global warming rallies in Grand Rapids and Holland calls for snow and cold rain and temperatures in the 40s -- about 10 degrees below normal. For some, this might make global warming a tough sell. "I've thought of that," said Lisa Locke, associate director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, which is organizing the three Grand Rapids "Step it Up" rallies. "I think that's an easy excuse, but if we're really reasonable about it, we're not talking about individual weather on individual days," Locke said. "We're talking about something much larger, on a global...

Commerce: An ill wind is blowing through America's stalled trade treaties. New calls for tariffs and misplaced xenophobia are finding a home in the Democrat-led Congress. All that's going to do is make us poorer. Even respected liberal economists like former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder have started uttering nonsense against free trade, so there's no doubt a bad current of populist thought has taken hold. In Congress, the blight's the worst. Anti-free-trade Democrats like Charles Schumer of New York and Max Baucus of Montana, and Republicans like South Carolina's Sen. Lindsey Graham, are weighing in with encouraging Smoot-Hawley-like tariffs...

Some predict violent protest may be sign of things to come One day after 21 people were arrested during a demonstration that vandalized a U.S. Army recruiting office on Milwaukee's east side, Wisconsin peace activist groups on Tuesday said some protesters might increasingly turn to destruction as their frustrations mount. Violent Protest Photo/Rick WoodIt's the third time in about two years that Doug Mack, a glass installer for T&L Glass, has had to replace broken glass at the Army recruiting office on Oakland Ave. Mack replaced the glass Tuesday. Related Coverage Editorial: Protest just plain juvenile Monday night's violence was...

'Dukes of Hazzard' nixed in Cincinnati By LISA CORNWELL, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 19, 1:35 PM ET CINCINNATI - The Dukes of Hazzard are getting driven out of town over the Confederate imagery in their good ol' TV show. The stars of the series, John Schneider and Tom Wopat, have segued into musical careers since the show ended production in 1985. Schneider says the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra canceled a planned "Dukes"-themed appearance after contracts were signed because some in the community found the show racist and offensive.

ITHACA — Hours before attending a rally protesting the ongoing Iraq war, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey used a community forum Saturday at the Ithaca Town Hall to decry President Bush's foreign policy. More than 50 people gathered to hear Hinchey, D-22nd Dist., comment on a number of initiatives congressional Democrats are planning to advance, such as increasing the minimum wage, stopping tax breaks for oil companies and halting oil drilling on public lands. But as the forum continued, many of the audience's questions kept returning to the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq and even the idea of...

She not only is a lifelong Republican, but an anti-big government conservative Republican who campaigned for Robert Dole in 1996. Oh, and one other thing. The mere thought of Hillary Clinton becoming president makes her stomach churn. As her husband, Robert Stross - also a conservative Republican - puts it, "We don't believe anything Hillary says, and we think she'll do whatever it takes to get elected." All of which makes the Madison couple's recent decision all the more intriguing: They've joined the Wisconsin chapter of DraftObama.org, a grassroots movement to help the progressive Democratic senator from Illinois win the...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

Ford will announce on Wednesday plans to rename its Five Hundred mid-size sedan "Taurus," according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. The name change will be announced at the Chicago auto show. A month ago, a report in BusinessWeek suggested Ford could revive the Taurus name, but it seemed unlikely at the time. CEO Alan Mulally was quoted as saying Ford should have never dropped the nameplate in the first place. "I havent had time to do the deep dive on why we stopped investing in Taurus, but I'd like to," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. "The Ford Five...

Local fire crews are dealing with a big spike in accidental fires and some of them may be caused by compressed logs. Ramona Estay of Woodinville nearly lost her home because of the mistake she used a compressed log in her wood stove. "It was about ten o'clock and I noticed the fire was completely out of control and I went to open this up to push the log back, and the fire was literally coming out up to here. It was roaring," she said. Estay quickly closed the door and called the fire department. "It was so bad by...

http://wjz.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_010144726.html Father Of LSD Celebrating 100th Birthday (AP) GENEVA LSD is an unlikely subject for a 100th birthday party. Yet the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug and was its first human guinea pig is celebrating his centenary Wednesday — in good health and with plans to attend an international seminar on the hallucinogenic. "I had wonderful visions," Albert Hofmann said, recalling his first accidental consumption of the drug. "I sat down at home on the divan and started to dream," he told the Swiss television network SF DRS. "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures....

<p>LAGOS (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were burned alive on Tuesday when fuel spilling from a vandalized pipeline exploded in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, emergency workers said.</p> <p>"The number of dead is confirmed at 269. We have retrieved all the bodies," said Abiodun Orebiyi, secretary-general of the Nigerian Red Cross. Another 160 people were taken to two hospitals in Lagos suffering from burns, another Red Cross official said.</p>

Leaders Say They Will Fight For Liberal Talk Radio POSTED: 7:36 pm CST December 20, 2006 UPDATED: 9:42 pm CST December 20, 2006 MADISON, Wis. -- Some Air America supporters held a fake funeral procession Wednesday, saying that a Madison radio station pulling the plug on the liberal Air America Radio programming is the "Death of the free speech." VIDEO: Watch The Report A small group of supporters of the Mic 92.1 FM put signs that read "The death of free speech" on their backpacks, car dashboards, bumpers and windows for the procession. The fake funeral procession was also marked...

Short summary of a Spiegel article: After a private organisation of expelled persons who had to leave former eastern Germany in 1945 started a lawsuit against Poland for compensation, the Polish foreign minister, Mrs. Anna Fotyga said that Poland want to negotiate the treaty concerning the boarder. She obviously is backed by the Polish Prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Mr. Kaczynski said, that in Germany there is absolute stubbornness about to take on the liability of such lawsuits against Poland. The full article is in German. You can read it if you follow the link.

Massachusetts Democrats are Morons Found 77 days ago on chaosinmotion.blogspot.com Here's a bit from the Boston Globe: Democrat Deval L. Patrick holds a commanding lead over Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in the race for governor, even though a majority of voters oppose his positions on immigration, income taxes, and crime, a new Boston Globe/CBS4 poll indicates. ... Tagged:

If you had family in town for Thanksgiving, they may have mentioned how expensive it was to rent a car at Phoenix Sky Harbor. Nearly 30 percent of the average car-rental bill at Sky Harbor is taxes, the fourth highest in the nation. Ever wonder why they’re so high? Sky Harbor doesn’t hide the facts: the charges help pay for the University of Phoenix Stadium and a new multimillion-dollar car rental facility. Targeted excise taxes have proven regrettably popular across the nation. Since 1976, more than 80 car rental excise taxes have sprung up. They often fund things like minor...

Stanley Yaffe thought he was committing a random act of kindness Wednesday when he put a quarter in a stranger's expired parking meter. Not so, a Denver "vehicle control agent" informed Yaffe. The "VCA" - as they say in the bureaucratic heaven of puffed-up titles and silly acronyms - told Yaffe that he had committed a crime: "Interfering with the collection of city revenue." I searched the phrase in the Municipal Code. No luck. I called Public Works. "We use the services of the Denver Police Department if there is any interference with the parking enforcement staff," spokeswoman Patty Weiss...

UNITED Nations chiefs today felt the Force from two Jedi Knights fighting for interstellar 'human rights'. Self-proclaimed Jedis ‘Umada’ and ‘Yunyun’, joined by hairy wookie Chewbacca, called for official acceptance of their ‘religion’ at London’s UN headquarters.

If I told you that there was something in Washington called the Baker commission but didn't tell you what it was about, you still could probably name many of its members. If you are of a certain age, you might wonder, "Jim or Howard?" And you might have a quibble or two. Where is Dick Holbrooke? Does Sandra Day O'Connor's new availability mean that Madeleine Albright is out of luck from now on? Are they sure that Larry Eagleburger is still alive? But Vernon Jordan is there, along with Ed Meese and Alan Simpson and Lee Hamilton. This is one...

SAN FRANCISCO - Banks, clothing manufacturers and insurance companies will have to disclose any past connections to the slave trade if they want to do business with the city of San Francisco.The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a slavery era disclosure ordinance Tuesday that gives city contractors nine months to prove under oath that they searched for historical documents that would show ties to the slave trade and the results of that search.“It’s important that this country and San Francisco apologize and are aware of the slavery. We cannot just let it go and assume it didn’t happen,” said Supervisor...

DMV - Oregon accepts documents from foreigners but will not accept proof from out-of-state tribes It's easier for illegal immigrants to get a driver's license in Oregon than it is for Native Americans who show up at DMV counters with identification from out-of-state tribes. About half the states in the nation allow some form of tribal documentation to secure a driver's license or identification card. Some want federal proof, some require tribal proof and some will accept either. Of those 28 states, two -- Oregon and New York -- restrict that to documents from in-state tribes only, according to information...

The latest Sacramento resident to be questioned by federal agents in possible threats against President Bush is a 14-year-old girl with a heart on her backpack and braces on her teeth, a freckle-nosed adolescent who is passionate about liberal politics and cute movie stars. Her name is Julia Wilson, and she learned a vivid civics lesson Wednesday when two Secret Service agents pulled her out of biology class at McClatchy High School to ask about comments and images she posted on MySpace.

COLUMBUS – Congressman and former prison psychologist Ted Strickland yesterday told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Ohio is a “backwards state” because of restrictions on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Strickland, a strong abortion advocate, claims Ohio’s economic woes are a direct result of these restrictions. Further, he believes the state has an “image and attitude problem” as a result. “Ohio’s got a big problem with its image and with its attitude,” Strickland told the newspaper’s editorial board during a joint interview with gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. Referring to the restrictions, Strickland said, “All of these things paint a...

Jewish New Year Begins At SundownPolice removed swastika banners hung from two freeway overpasses Friday, the day that the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana begins, authorities said. One Nazi emblem was found hanging over state Route 78 at Escondido Avenue in Vista. A California Highway Patrol officer took it down just before 6 a.m., authorities said. A second swastika banner was reported hanging from the Sea World Drive overpass on southbound Interstate 5 in San Diego, according to the CHP. When officers arrive, the banner had already been removed, authorities said. A CHP representative said that the banner found in...

"The international press won't get their first look at the documentary Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing until its gala premiere at the Toronto Film Festival tonight. But EW.com got an early look at the sure-to-be-controversial doc in Los Angeles and can attest that the film will continue to bring the (ex?) country trio more plaudits from progressives and further condemnation from conservatives. And if you think singer Natalie Maines had some harsh words for President Bush in public, wait till you hear what she had to say about him behind the scenes. In one memorable scene, Maines watches news...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP)—At least 10 stingrays have been killed since “Crocodile Hunter� Steve Irwin was fatally injured by one of the fish, an official said Tuesday, prompting a spokesman for the late TV star's animal charity to urge people not take revenge on the animals. Irwin died last week after a stingray barb pierced his chest as he recorded a show off the Great Barrier Reef. Stingray bodies since have been discovered on two beaches in Queensland state on Australia's eastern coast. Two were discovered Tuesday with their tails lopped off, state fisheries department official Wayne Sumpton said.