Free Republic

Katie Paul at Newsweek alerted me that Newsweek printed a correction to their story claiming that Palin cut funding for teen mothers and the state WIC program. I blogged about it here and had extensive conversations with Alaska officials about the claims. Ms. Paul was also diligent to work with Alaska officials to correct the story once I made her aware of the facts. Here is the correction (at the end of page 2): Clarification (updated Sept. 11, 2008) : A number of readers have challenged the assertion in this story that Gov. Palin “cut by 20 percent the funding...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a Nov. 7 story about homeless veterans, The Associated Press, relying on figures from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, gave an incorrect estimate of 495,400 veterans who were homeless at some point during 2006. Lowering its estimate, the alliance now says that 336,627 . . .

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has decided not to campaign for any of the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates, because none of the politicians in the running "inspire" him. The Blood Diamond star, 32, was a staunch advocate of Democratic hopeful Senator John Kerry during 2004's presidential election and even traveled across 14 states to rally support and raise funds for him. But DiCaprio admits the frontrunners for 2008's election - Democratic candidates Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican Ron Paul - have yet to catch his attention with their environmental policies. He says, "I'm still on the fence about it,...

BAQOUBA, Iraq: Dozens of U.S. Stryker combat vehicles roared into Baqouba at sunrise. The enemy was ready. As the dawn call-to-prayer fell silent, the streets blazed with insurgent fire. Within minutes of the start of their first mission in volatile Diyala province Wednesday a voice crackled across the radio: "Catastrophic kill, with casualties." Inside the rear of one Stryker, soldiers shushed one another and leaned closer to the radio. They all knew what it meant. A U.S. vehicle had been lost to enemy fire. Nearly 100 Strykers were called north from Baghdad into the province and its capital to try...

(CBS) LOS ANGELES A woman severely burned when her skirt caught fire while she was praying near a statue of a Catholic saint can seek punitive damages against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a judge ruled Wednesday. Josefina Martin, then 56, suffered third-degree burns to her ankles, legs, back, arms and hands during the Oct. 16, 2005, incident in a courtyard of Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima, according to her lawsuit. In January 2006, Martin and her husband, Salvador Martin, sued the archdiocese, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, Mary Immaculate Church and the manufacturer of the skirt...

WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of the 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less...

In February 1997, Palestinian English teacher Ali Abu Kamal went to the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, pulled out a gun, and opened fire, killing one person and wounding six others before killing himself. Even though he carried letters ranting about the US and Israel, the media heavily promoted the story that he was despondent and suicidal after a financial loss. Today the killer’s daughter—who works for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian “refugees” (UNRWA)—admitted that this story was a complete fraud. She wants the world to know that her father was “martyred...

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses. This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) continues to hold a narrow lead over Senator Hillary Clinton (D) and former Vice President Al Gore (D) in early Election 2008 polling. Giuliani leads Clinton 47% to 43% in the latest poll. That’s very similar to the 48% to 43% lead he enjoyed in late November. When matched against Gore, Giuliani now leads 46% to 43%. In November, he also enjoyed a three-point lead over the Democrats’ Election 2000 candidate.Against either Democrat, Giuliani leads among men but trails among women. The two Democrats lead among voters under 30, but trail among...

June 16, 2006: Al Qaeda in Iraq has been virtually wiped out by the loss of an address book. The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity...

I have no inside knowledge of what happened in Haditha, of course, but I can examine media stories for sourcing and quality of reporting. When the reports in Time Magazine and others are subjected to close scrutiny, there is much less solid evidence than one would expect a major media enterprise would require before making sensational charges against our military in wartime. All the more reason to presume the Marines’ innocence until proven guilty, and to read with suspicion reports that condemn Kilo Company’s actions in Haditha.

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his lawyer said. Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. [...] A corporal with the unit leaned over to Wuterich and said he saw the shots coming from a specific house, and...

This is a now all too familiar pattern with our one party media.The following "corrections" have been added to the very bottom of Time's two blockbuster exclusives on Haditha in their current online versions: Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?Last November, U.S. Marines killed 15 Iraqi civilians in their homes. Was it self-defense, an accident or cold-blooded revenge? A Time exclusiveBy TIM MCGIRK / BAGHDADSunday, Mar. 19, 2006In the original version of this story, TIME reported that "a day after the incident, a Haditha journalism student videotaped the scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – Fighting in Kandahar province yesterday inflicted the first major civilian casualties in Afghanistan in many months, causing the governor to say: “I urge people not to give shelter to the Taliban.” As many as 80 Taliban fighters and 16 civilians were reported killed early yesterday by U.S.-led forces attacking from the ground and air in Kandahar province, the epicenter of a broadening swath of fighting in southern Afghanistan. Weeping villager Zurmina Bibi told The Associated Press that about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. “There were dead people everywhere,” Bibi said,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle illegally over the weekend when he collided with a car in his Brentwood neighborhood, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday. Police Lt. Paul Vernon said Schwarzenegger does not have the proper motorcycle endorsement on his California driver's license, contradicting statements made by his spokeswoman since the Sunday accident that left the governor with 15 stitches in his upper lip. "He does not have the license," Vernon said. Police did not cite the governor because they arrived after the accident, Vernon said. Police referred their findings to the...

The AP along with the rest of the media continues to lie to the public about the actual numbers of this protest. So far I have only seen one photo from a distant shot. It looked no more than 2 to 3 thousand people. A far shot from the 100,000 the MSM is claiming, and pipe dream from the 300,000 ANSWER is claiming..

...U.S. companies, unlike their counterparts based in most other industrialized countries, are not required to cut emissions because President George W. Bush backed out of the Kyoto Protocol early in his first term. The pact went into force this year...

Rove breathes easier: The New York Times reports that Karl Rove learned the name of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame from columnist Robert Novak.

Against a backdrop of heightened public concern about government intrusions, six in 10 Americans favor extending the Patriot Act, but majorities oppose expanding it by adding new FBI powers to issue subpoenas and access U.S. mail. Fifty-nine percent in an ABC News/Washington Post poll favor continuing the additional investigative authority in terrorism investigations that was granted to the FBI starting in 2001. President Bush urged such an extension of the Patriot Act today. But there are some compunctions behind that support: Just half the public now says the United States government is doing enough to protect the rights of Americans...

68% of Christians favor DEATH over LIFE...? I wonder where FOX got that "fact" from.....