Free Republic

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

I don't think I ever get through a season without a couple of those Christmas letters. You know the ones. They really started coming with the computer revolution. Very easy to print out fifty letters as opposed to typing one. Most people send a card with a picture of their children. We hang them on our French doors. Most of these people we see maybe once a year but that's all right because a Yuletide card lets us know that we are still with each other in spirit. We wish each other the best, a merry Christmas, a happy new...

One useful fact all Americans should keep in mind is that they have no "right" to be protected by the police. American police are reactive, not proactive. They don't usually "prevent" crime. They catch lawbreakers after they have committed a crime. This was by design of the Founding Fathers. Because, as we see today with the anti-terrorism laws, in order to "prevent" crime, police would need all sorts of obnoxious powers that would trample all over our rights of life, liberty and property. Instead, Americans were intended to have the means of self defense. Put another way, the Constitution does...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Charges were dropped Thursday against a pregnant woman arrested and forced to the ground by Metro Transit Police for allegedly talking too loudly on a cell phone. "I'm happy that it's over with," Sakinah Aaron, the defendant, said of the incident that has raised questions about the conduct of the transit police force. The 23-year-old Aaron was arrested Sept. 9 at a subway station in the Maryland suburb of Wheaton and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Officials of the transit system had claimed that one of their officers heard Aaron yelling obscenities into a cell...

Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police. The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to speak into her cell phone. Their verbal dispute quickly escalated, and Saoutis grabbed Aaron by the arm and pushed her to the ground. He handcuffed the 23-year-old woman, called for backup and took her to a cell...

Park Street hate crime By Mike Miller and Steven Elbow September 25, 2004 Two men face hate crime charges after allegedly harassing an Asian couple downtown and shouting at them to "speak English." Jeffrey W. Scheidegger, 20, of Madison, and Jeffrey M. Jalinski, 19, no permanent address, were charged Friday with disorderly conduct as a hate crime and bail jumping in last Saturday's incident. Jalinski was charged with an additional count of disorderly conduct. According to a criminal complaint, a caller contacted police to complain that two men were hanging out at a bus stop on North Park Street near...

ENNIS, Ireland - The US administration confirmed it had axed an interview that US First Lady Laura Bush had been due to grant to Irish public television RTE, only two days after the broadcaster's exclusive interview with the US president himself. No explanation was given for the schedule change, but journalists travelling with the Bush entourage in Europe noted that the cancellation had come a day after George W. Bush's less-than-sunny showing in his RTE exclusive. During that interview, given on Thursday in Washington, Bush displayed annoyance and at one point lost his temper when he was contradicted by Irish...

SARASOTA -- Jan Mauck remembers years ago, long before she became the chief nursing officer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, doctors shaking their fingers at her and calling her stupid. She doesn't remember the particulars, but the emotions are still fresh: "You feel angry; you feel upset." Apparently, some doctors are still shaking their fingers, and worse. There are enough of them that Sarasota Memorial is taking problem doctors aside for private discussions and bringing in experts for lectures on conflict resolution.snipSarasota Memorial, which prides itself on its national standing in other areas, knew it had a problem when the rating...

<p>SCOTTSDALE - Randi Coy, the unwitting "star" of a Fox reality series that debuted last night, is in hot water with the school where she teaches. Last summer, between graduating from Arizona State University and beginning life as first-grade teacher at Pope John XXIII Catholic School Community, Coy, 23, attended an open casting call in Scottsdale.</p>

Americans who value the Constitution should stand with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and oppose George Bush's attempted power grab in conjunction with establishing a Department of Homeland Security. The Bushies are trying to frame the debate as either protecting bureaucracy or providing security for Americans. In fact, the debate is about preventing an authoritarian president from sacrificing the Constitution in the name of providing security. Let me remind you that those who prefer security to freedom will lose both. Bush wants to be able to disregard labor contracts and civil-service rules, as well as move money within the department as...

Top THESE Weird Photos if You Can! ! - Post 'em Here!Slow News Day? Nothin' better to do? Need to fill in your time? Well, check THIS out. I was surfin' the 'Net and found THESE Weird photos on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a.k.a. The "Startle-Gram" by folks that live in Fort Worth. World sumo champion Emanuel Yarbrough, of the United States, warms-up with Czech sumo woman wrestler Klara Janu in Prague. Yarbrough will take part in the open international sumo championships of the Czech Republic in Prague on April 6. PETRA MASOVA, AP, CTK A Hippopotamus named Boulette,...