Free Republic

Professor Charles Fried, an advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, has announced that he can no longer support the McCain/Palin ticket. In a letter to the general counsel to the McCain/Palin campaign, he cited McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate as too dangerous "at a time of deep national crisis", and has asked for his name to be removed from several campaign committees on which he has served. Fried also publicly stated that he had voted for Obama via absentee ballot. Fried later clarified to The New Republic that he had voted for Obama because he no...

Who should take over the anchor slot after Brit Hume steps down? I don't know but I for one am sure going to miss him. He is, in my humble opinion, the best news anchor of this generation. Any thoughts out there?

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's qualifications to be president. U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick on Friday night rejected the suit by attorney Philip J. Berg, who alleged that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency. Berg claimed that Obama is either a citizen of his father's native Kenya or became a citizen of Indonesia after he moved there as a boy. Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father. His parents divorced, and his mother married an Indonesian man. Internet-fueled conspiracy theories...

Washington (AP) - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election. A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of inquiries in several states, including a raid on ACORN's office in Las Vegas, for any evidence of a coordinated national effort. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election. Two spokesmen for ACORN, the Association of...

How do you show support for your presidential candidate? Signs in your yard? Bumper stickers on your car? Maybe you just show up and vote on the first Tuesday in November? Whatever you do, I'll bet it doesn't compare to what this dad in Elizabethton, Tennessee did: he named his newborn daughter Sarah McCain Palin. Without his wife's knowledge. That's hardcore. Mark Ciptak and his wife had settled on the perfectly lovely name of Ava Grace for their third child. But Ciptak decided that he needed to "to get the word out" about the Republican ticket for president and vice...

Get this: Right in the middle of the hottest presidential primary in decades, both Obama and Hillary are sending their foreign policy honchos to Damascus. These advisors are people who have a chance of running US foreign policy in the next administration. They aren't shy. They are taking over our foreign affairs right now, because they are entitled to. They know better than our elected officials. What are they doing in Damascus? Not having a Christian conversion experience, for sure. Damascus is a world sanctuary for Islamic terrorists. One of them, Imad Mughniyeh, was just assassinated there. He ran Hezbollah's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce on Saturday that it will take North Korea off its terrorism blacklist in a bid to salvage denuclearization talks, a U.S. official familiar with the decision said. The official, who asked not to be named as the announcement is set to be made later in the day, said Pyongyang had provided assurances on verifying its nuclear activities and President George W. Bush decided to proceed with taking the North off the U.S. list of states considered sponsors of terrorism. The move, which will be unpopular with some conservative Republicans who see...

A U.S. missile attack by a pilotless drone killed at least six people on Thursday, including 3 Arabs, in a Pakistani tribal region regarded as a safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants, an intelligence official said. The target was a house in Tappi, a village 20 km east of Miranshah that has been hit before in recent days, according to an intelligence official in the region.

MoDo's off the plane Howard Kurtz hangs out in the press tent at Oxford, Miss., and learns that one famous columnist will not be flying on Straight Talk Air. Outside, on a summerlike evening, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs held forth for the likes of NBC's Chuck Todd and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who was wearing an Elvis T-shirt. (The company may have been more pleasant than that of McCain aides, who have barred Dowd from the candidate's plane.) http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0908/MoDos_off_the_plane.html Maureen Dowd Reacts To Being Tossed From McCain Plane http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/01/maureen-dowd-reacts-to-be_n_130863.html Earlier this week, we learned that the McCain campaign...

<p>It’s almost certainly just a case of the telephone game gone high-tech, but there’s an Internet rumor surging through inboxes and discussion boards that Joe Biden will drop out as Barack Obama’s running mate after his Oct. 2 debate with Sarah Palin — and that he’ll be replaced by Hillary Clinton on the Democratic presidential ticket.</p>

With extraordinary stakes on the line, President Bush has invited both presidential candidates and the leaders of the House and Senate to the White House on Thursday in hopes of securing a bill to rescue the economy. Bush took the unusual step Wednesday night of calling Democratic Sen. Barack Obama directly to invite him to the meeting, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. An Obama spokesman said the senator would attend. The White House has also invited Republican Sen. John McCain

Just got back from my local Republican Party headquarters and they were discussing a rumor that Joe Biden was dropping out of the race. The speculation was that it was due to health. Is this rumor circulating any where else?

Claim: Joe Biden is planning to step down from vice-presidential slot on the Democratic ticket in favor of Hillary Clinton. Status: Undetermined http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/vpchange.asp

Outrageous: Fake ebay Listing Selling Palin's Baby Trig as 'Political Prop' By Warner Todd Huston (Bio | Archive) September 9, 2008 - 06:16 ET **Image Below The Fold** This one was all over the net yesterday. Apparently, a poster at the radical nutroot site, DemocraticUnderground, created a fake listing for someone pretending to sell baby Trig on ebay. The faux listing read "Baby used prop newborn boy 3-6 months special needs," and included a description that called Governor Palin a "pushy social climber, unwilling to let pregnancy and children stand in the way of ambition." It also listed baby's Trig's...

It seems like the rumors, innuendo and smears thrown by the left against Governor Sarah Palin and her family will never stop. Apparently, the newest lie being casually thrown about by the DemocraticUnderground and the National Enquirer is that Palin's soldier son Track was involved as an unidentified vandal of Wasilla school buses in 2005. Worse, the rumormongers are denigrating Track's patriotism for joining the military and claiming that he was somehow "forced" to join to avoid prosecution. Naturally, they haven't a shred of proof. Fortunately, the New York Daily News has quickly debunked this lie. In a DU posting...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The leader of a statewide group of college Republicans has been forced to resign after posting racially insensitive comments about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on the Internet. Adam LaDuca, 21, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page in late July that Obama has "a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)" LaDuca, who previously had called Martin Luther King Jr. a "pariah" and a "fraud," also wrote: "And man, if sayin' someone has large lips...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 25, 2008) -- Out with the old, in with the blue. The Army has made it official; the green service uniform, which has defined the service since the mid-1950s, is on the outs. In place of the green uniform will be a variation of the blue uniform, something many Soldiers already own. Official word on the new "Army Service Uniform," or ASU, was released Aug. 20 in a message to all Army activities. The message defines the wear policy and the "bridging" strategy for transition to the new uniform. "It's a culmination of transformation efforts...

A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing Pope Benedict XVI, seeking more than $150 billion for assets seized by the Catholic Church seven centuries ago. They also want to restore the order's good name. Founded in 1119, the Knights Templar was a secretive order of Christian warriors who protected pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem during the Crusades. They fell out of favor years later, and members were accused of denying Christ, worshipping the devil and practicing sodomy. Many Templars were tortured and burned at the stake. In 1307, Pope Clement...

Here is some 'background' information on the ten men who went to lunch. The tenth man was wealthier than the other 9 men put together. In fact, if you change the story a little bit and so that there were 100 men going to dinner, the 100th man would be wealthier than the first 80 men combined. And to extend the story a bit...after the 100th man became embarrassed because he got the most money back although he already had more than nearly everyone else combined, he quit coming to the diner to eat his dinner. Instead, he began to...

Oops! An open microphone caught Republican political strategist Mike Murphy and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan trashing John McCain's choice of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. During a live MSNBC broadcast from the Republican National Convention, host Chuck Todd thought the coverage had moved to another report as he engaged in politcal banter with guests Murphy and Noonan. The blogosphere was abuzz with the recorded conversation late Wednesday as Palin took to the podium to accept her party's vice-presidential nomination. Here's the transcript: Peggy Noonan: Yeah. Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue...

Waiting for more info

Now the lefties are criticizing Sarah Palin for her ... earrings! EARRINGS[but I guess they had to do something, since that whole fake pregnancy rumor didn't work out for them]

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, issued the following statement yesterday from Denver, where the Democratic National Convention is under way.) “Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of Saint Augustine, who said: ‘... the law does not provide that [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation.’” “While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view. The Speaker agrees with the church that we should reduce the number...

Pictured on the credentials for the Thursday evening Barack Obama gala in Denver is an upside-down flag, signaling a sign of distress. Interesting.

WASHINGTON — The man whose lawsuit overturned Washington's handgun ban has successfully registered his revolver, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home.

A prominent Philadelphia attorney and Hillary Clinton supporter filed suit this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee and the Federal Election Commission. The action seeks an injunction preventing the senator from continuing his candidacy and a court order enjoining the DNC from nominating him next week, all on grounds that Sen. Obama is constitutionally ineligible to run for and hold the office of President of the United States.

On as we speak as breaking News, Text messages going out NOW

One of the presidential nominating season's most unusual ideas was proposed again Tuesday, this time by one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, when Sen. Joseph Biden advocated a "unity" ticket of Democratic Sen. John Kerry and Republican Sen. John McCain.

Two McCain offices evacuated after letter threat Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:45pm EDT By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Two offices of John McCain's U.S. presidential campaign, in Colorado and New Hampshire, were evacuated on Thursday, and several staffers were hospitalized, after threatening or suspicious envelopes arrived in the mail, one with an unidentified white powder. The first parcel, described as containing an unspecified threat and a powdery white substance, was opened by a staff member at the campaign's Centennial, Colorado, office, near Denver, at about 3 p.m. local time, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

FReep This Poll! "Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?" Yes. - It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state. No. - The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion. Click onto the link provided. Vote your choice. Thank you FReepers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103424/ Atheist challenges ‘In God We Trust’ Pledge of Allegiance foe Newdow sues to remove motto from U.S. currency updated 9:09 p.m. CT, Fri., Nov. 18, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO - An atheist who has spent four years trying to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited in public schools is now challenging the motto printed on U.S. currency because it refers to God. Michael Newdow seeks to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and...

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted. The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery.

President Bush has directed the U.S. military to lead a humanitarian mission to Georgia where tens of thousands have been forced out of their homes following a Russian invasion last week that has been described by Georgia's president as an "ethnic cleansing." A U.S. C-17 aircraft with humanitarian supplies already has arrived in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and another C-17 will arrive there Thursday with additional medical and humanitarian aid, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said after the president's announcement. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden with Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush...

Rielle Hunter, a 42-year-old who recently gave birth to a girl who Edwards says is not his, has long been said to be the inspiration for Alison Poole, the "cocaine-addled, sexually voracious" 20-year-old lead character in "My Life Story," Jay McInerney's novel of 1980s excess and degradation.

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extra-marital affair with a novice film-maker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today. In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her. Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test. Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth...

ohn Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extra-marital affair with a novice film-maker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

Judge Revokes Bond, Suspends Travel DETROIT -- Judge Ronald Giles sent Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to Wayne County Jail for failing to notify the court of his trip to Canada and violating the terms of his bond. Despite Kilpatrick's humble apologies to the court beforehand, Giles said he needed to treat Kilpatrick as an ordinary citizen and sent him immediately to jail. Giles revoked Kilpatrick's bond and suspended all travel. "What matters to me though is how the court overall is perceived and how if it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting...

Tyson’s new holiday schedule, seen in light of the Brotherhood agenda, strikes many Americans as yet another example of how Islamic supremacists are demanding that America adapt to Islam, rather than that Muslims adapt to and assimilate into American society. And since there is indeed such an initiative going on among many Muslims today, the Tyson decision is indeed short-sighted and ill-advised. Islamic law covers every aspect of life. Once the principle is accepted that Islamic law must be accommodated, and American customs and laws must give way in order to accommodate it, there is always more Islamic law to...

The NATIONAL ENQUIRER is releasing the photograph that the world has been waiting for – the first-ever picture of John Edwards and his love child! The stunning “spy photo” shows the former presidential contender holding his infant daughter Frances Quinn Hunter at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles – where the ENQUIRER caught him visiting the baby’s mother, his mistress Rielle Hunter.

By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 3, 4:15 PM ET CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida confirmed Sunday the death of a top commander accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole eight years ago. Abu Khabab al-Masri, who had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, is believed to have been killed in an airstrike apparently launched by the U.S. in Pakistan last week.

One of the more dangerous phenomena in aviation is an F-16 pilot whose marksmanship is better than his situational awareness. Two soldiers discovered this on the Utah Test and Training Range one night in April 2007. An F-16 pilot lost sight of his target while rolling into a strafing run using night-vision goggles, acquired their rented GMC Suburban instead, and converted it to Swiss cheese.

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city's gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes. The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes. However, Public Works spokeswoman Christine Downs told City Council members just hours before that host committee members were fueling up at the city pumps. The city does not...

I mean Barack H. Obama is doing some pretty wacky things on this tour. Sitting in Head of state chairs, negotiating foreign policy, utilizing terrorist organizations for security, issuing dress code to the paparazzi, I mean media, hehe, speaking from historic monuments in Germany, all as if he were the actual POTUS? But this must be the best (Worst) thing yet! Of course I hedge that bet as we are only into day two, so we do have some more fun in store I'm sure. That being said, it seems our Jr Senator has decided to remove the US flag...

Russian military "considering stationing bombers on Cuba" Jul 21, 2008 Moscow - The Russian military is considering deploying long- range bombers to Cuba to counter the perceived threat of the US missile defence shield planned to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland, according to Russian media reports Monday. 'At the moment, there are just thoughts - but that doesn't mean there isn't something concrete behind it,' an unidentified officer was quoted Monday as telling Izvestiya newspaper. He said the aircraft under consideration were Tu-160 and Tu-95 MC bombers. Russia gave up in 2001 a base in Lourdes, Cuba,...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a German magazine that he supports Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. The apparent endorsement of a cornerstone of Obama’s foreign policy drew swift praise from the Obama camp. But the White House stressed that any timelines are contingent on “security gains” in the region. “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” al-Maliki told the magazine Der Spiegel. He said he wants U.S. troops to leave...

Andy Dick is at it again with the law. I have recently learned that Andy Dick has been arrested and released on a $5,000 bond after allegedly being caught with marijuana and xanerax in his possession. This is only the tip of the iceberg, though; he was also arrested for allegedly fondling a 17-year-old in Murrieta, California, outside a restaurant, causing her bra to come down and expose her breast. This allegation was what led to the finding of the drugs, as reported by Los Angeles Times.

Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says. "What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said. The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the...

WASHINGTON — More than two and a half years after the disclosure of President’s Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program set off a furious national debate, the Senate gave final approval on Wednesday afternoon to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program. The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders...

CRANS-PRES-CELIGNY, Switzerland -- Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's . . . Fusion Man! Make that Yves Rossy, a 48-year-old Swiss daredevil also known as Jet Man, Rocket Man, the Bird Man of the Alps. Thanks to his homemade, jet-powered wing suit, Rossy can flash through the air at a Superman-like 186 mph. Imagine George Jetson, the futuristic cartoon character, pumped up with nuclear steroids and leaving his boy Elroy in the dust. "It's always been my dream, to fly like a bird," Rossy said in an interview at his home in this Swiss...

Sen. John McCain will choose businessman and former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney as Vice President, in his bid for the White House this November, a source closely connected with the McCain campaign, who asked to remain anonymous, told us earlier this afternoon. Though others were close in the running, the choice ultimately came down to the money–not the man. According to our source, the campaign narrowed their Vice Presidential options to Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, the two most successful opponents of McCain in the bid for the Republican nomination. But despite Huckabee’s sway with far Right conservatives and evangelical...