Free Republic

Pope Francis said Sunday he is “saddened” and worried that Roman Catholic Bishop Roland Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison for speaking out against the Nicaraguan government. Álvarez, 56, learned his fate from a Managua appeals court Friday after refusing to board a plane to the US with 222 other opponents of President Daniel Ortega. The bishop of Matagalpa was also stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

Former President George W. Bush on Monday said he is “deeply saddened” by the death of his first Secretary of State Colin Powell, calling the former diplomat and military leader "a great public servant.” “Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell. He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam,” Bush said in a statement issued shortly after Powell's family announced his death on Monday morning. Powell’s family issued a statement saying that the former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had died at...

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan mourned Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) decision not to seek re-election, describing his retirement as a loss for “the greater cause of conservatism.” “I’m saddened Congress is losing my friend Jeff Flake. Throughout his career in public service, Jeff has been a champion of constitutional, limited government and a trailblazer for fiscal restraint,” Ryan said in a statement. “He as much as anyone helped to end a corrosive earmarking process that enabled runaway spending. Jeff’s retirement is a loss to the Senate and the greater cause of conservatism. I wish him well as he continues to...

I just posted this to "The Oreilley Factor" on FoxNews.com: You should cancel the rest of your excellent "Legends & Lies - Patriots" series, as it no longer holds any relationship to our current government. I honestly believe that the last remnants of a Constitutional Republic were wiped away today. Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have answered "A republic, if you can keep it" the the question, "What sort of government have you given us?" Today, it's obvious that we haven't "kept it."

Great tits use advanced syntax, including speaking in phrases, to warn their fellow birds of incoming danger, a new research reveals. This linguistic trait was previously believed to be unique to human beings.

When MSNBC discarded Keith Olbermann, al-Qaida mourned. So reports David Ignatius, the Washington Post columnist who has gained exclusive access to some of the documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In his Wednesday column in the Washington Post, Ignatius reported on the details of a 21-page letter to bin Laden written by al-Qaida media adviser Adam Gadahn. Though the letter was undated, Ignatius says that it was likely written sometime after November 2010. Laying out the current media landscape for the now waterlogged terrorist kingpin, Gadahn, an American-born Jewish convert to Islam, lamented the “firing” of...

The question around Washington today is not whether Nov. 2 will be a difficult day for the Democrats who control Congress, but rather how bad it will be. Increasingly, it looks like the answer depends on which chamber of Congress you're following. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report now estimates that more than 90 Democratic House seats are potentially in play; on the Republican side of the aisle, it estimates that only nine appear in jeopardy. As a result, most leading forecasters say it is more likely that Republicans will win the 39 House seats they need to take control. On...

LOL!

We just went through this with Obama's treasury nominee Timothy Geithner .. and now we have yet another Obama appointee who has failed to properly do his taxes: Tom Daschle. At least Daschle will not be the head of the IRS, but he will most likely be our secretary of Health and Human Services. OK .. here are the details on the latest tax cheat the Obama wants to serve in his administration ... a tax cheat the Democrats are eager to confirm. First ... Daschle has some rather strong feelings about people who cheat on their taxes. Back in...

LONDON – The fate of the world economy hinges on what happens to house prices in America and that may not be a good thing, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday. Speaking at the Reuters headquarters in London, the former Fed chair delivered a gloomy prognosis on the state of the global economy – U.S. house prices are likely to fall further and they could drag the rest of the world with them. * * * “The critical variable in this judgement is the price of homes in the United States,” said Greenspan, who ran the U.S....

Former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, George McGovern, says he has encouraged Tom Daschle to run for president in 2008. McGovern lost to Republican Richard Nixon in the 1972 election. Eight years later he lost his bid for re-election to the Senate. McGovern expects up to a dozen people to run for the Democratic nomination for president, and he says Daschle has as good a chance as anyone. Daschle expects to make a decision by year's end on whether he'll run.

Media’s bad news bears deliver negative news 62 percent of the time despite economic expansion.* Economic news heavily negative: Coverage of economic news on the three broadcast networks was negative 62 percent of the time, despite ongoing good news of more jobs, low unemployment and economic growth. * Good news undermined: Even when good news made it to viewers, journalists undermined it with bad news 45 percent of the time. * Negative stories given more air time: Good news stories were relegated to briefs roughly two thirds of the time. Negative news received longer stories and outnumbered positive stories by...

Born on December 9, 1947. Birthday wishes, comments, and gloating welcomed . . .

The Sept. 11 Commission has found that the Bush administration's war on terror has severely impaired al Qaida's ability to organize another spectacular attack against the U.S. homeland by capturing or killing the deadly terror group's key leaders, drying up their financial resources and "severely limiting their ability to strategize, plan attacks, and dispatch operatives worldwide." The bombshell finding, buried at the end of the Commission's Staff Statement No. 15, should have been hailed in the press as evidence that we've at least turned the corner in the war on terror - and may indeed have the enemy on the...

A note from United States National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to President George W. Bush confirming the formal handover of power in Iraq on June 28, 2004 as seen in this White House Photo.The note was passed to President Bush during a NATO summit in Istanbul and reads, 'Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from US Administrator Paul Bremer at 10:26 AM Iraqi time-Condi.' Prompting Bush to scribble back: 'Let Freedom Reign.'

9 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The Labor Department (news - web sites) releases its report on unemployment for April at 8:30 a.m. EDT this morning. Reuters Photo Premium Video: Employment Report Roundtable(Platinum - fee) Related Quotes DJIANASDAQ^SPC 10241.261937.741113.99 0.000.000.00 delayed 20 mins - disclaimerQuote Data provided by Reuters Related Links • Productivity and Costs Report [PDF] (Labor Dept.)   The nation's employers added 308,000 new jobs in March, hiring at the fastest pace in four years and providing long-awaited evidence the weak jobs market may be gaining steam. At the same time, the civilian unemployment rate bumped up to 5.7...

<p>WASHINGTON — The economy roared ahead at an astounding 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace in nearly two decades and a much stronger performance than previously thought. It raises hope that a long spell of lackluster business activity is finally over.</p>

Swedish researchers claim to have found proscribed weapons in Iraq A group of Swedish researchers, travelling to Iraq without the knowledge of the Swedish government, is announcing that they have found missiles for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in a house in Baghdad. The finds will be presented in a forthcoming production by World Television Network (WTN). The information supposedly came to Swedish WTN reporter Maria Wera Cedrell, who has worked in Iraq for 15 years, through an Iraqi scientist. She was assisted by former arms inspector and WMD expert Åke Sellström from Swedish Defence Research Agency (Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut, FOI)....

I'm Deeply Saddened Taxes are due tomorrow...I'm deeply saddened. Daschle is still in the Senate...I'm deeply saddened A moose once bit my sister, I am deeply saddened Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, and Kuchinich (among others) think they can be president....I'm deeply saddened.

I guess you’ve heard the news. Tom Daschle is saddened. He’s saddened because his party doesn’t control the White House or Congress. He’s saddened because he and his comrades have run out of fuel for their faltering agenda. Most of all, he’s saddened because everything the Democrats have tried to do to President Bush since he took office has failed. Americans know who the foreign enemy is. Three out of four people--70%--approve of military action in Iraq, and President Bush’s job approval rating is holding at 71%. Whiny Democrats like Tom Daschle are the domestic enemy. They detest George W....