Free Republic

Most have now heard about the emails from soldiers in the field who were less than impressed by the fact that the Obamessiah failed to grace them with his holy presence. We posted on it yesterday.Well, one of the first emails to travel around the net has now been "recanted" by the sender. The email itself was genuine, but now he is asking that people stop sending it around and posting it. He said it was meant only for his family. The odds are good that what happened was that it got around, and since his name was attached, he...

LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST. HOUSE # 1: A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than...

A tourist who relieved himself over a live railway line at a south London station was electrocuted.

I have been looking at Snopes to "confirm" certain things out there about Obama. For instance, quotes from his books, and Snopes comes across as very liberal, defending Obama and making excuses for what he's said. Most of the quotes, he did in fact say but Snopes likes to say it was taken out of context, etc. Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked out his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What he almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father's New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud.

A Home Depot store in Utah plans to celebrate Gay pride in the Store with decorations of Rainbows and employee Tee shirts announcing gay pride. Inside sources say that this is something that will be devastating to business as most of the customer base tends to be on the Right side of the issue as they are mostly religious people. I am actively involved in this business and i dont want to be a part of it bacuae this is contrary to my belief and would like advice from more experienced FReepers on how best to disrupt these outrageous plans...

MONTGOMERY The state Senate may have been locked down for most of the year, but it did find time to endorse a widely discredited urban legend spread by the John Birch Society. The upper chamber passed a joint resolution April 10 sponsored by state Sen. Rusty Glover, R-Semmes, claiming that Canada, Mexico and the United States are moving toward a "North American Union" and working on construction of a "NAFTA Superhighway" to link the countries and report edly destroy their sovereignty. "It's about retaining independence," said John McManus, the president of the John Birch Society, in a phone interview Mon...

http://www.fdrs.org/quotes_of_gun_control.html "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing." - Adolf Hitler . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Weapons_Law German Weapons Law On November 11, 1938, the Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, passed Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons. This regulation effectively deprived all Jews of the right to possess firearms or other weapons. Source: http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/article-nazilaw.pdf

January 29, 2008 (Computerworld) A popular urban legend debunking site has stopped serving up adware downloads after the practice was criticized by security experts and users, according to one researcher. Snopes.com, a site that exposes urban legends, had until yesterday been funding its operation in part with revenues from a pop-up ad that posed the question "Do you want to block Junk emails?" That pop-up, said Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt Software, in turn shilled ad-serving software from Zango Inc., a well-known adware distributor that settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in late 2006 over charges it used unfair...

Caribou Coffee Claim: An Islamic bank is the majority owner of the Caribou Coffee chain. Status: True Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2002] As you will see from the links below, Caribou Coffee is owned 87.8% by the First Islamic Investment Bank which, among other things has the following philosophy: "Above all, ensuring that all activities conform to Islamic Shari'ah" The chairman of their Shari'ah supervisory board is: Dr. Yusuf Abdullah Al-Qaradawi Chairman, Seerah & Sunnah Center, Qatar University; Professor, Faculty of Shari'ah, Qatar University. As you will see from the links below he is also on the supervisory board...

I heard recently on the Rush Limbaugh show this quote. "What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender....

Converning Bill's ad for Hillary: By Dick Morris, former political advisor to President Bill Clinton If you happen to see the Bill Clinton five minute TV ad for Hillary in which he introduces the commercial by saying that he wants to share some things we may not know about Hillary's background . . beware . . As I was there for most of their presidency and know them better than just about anyone, I offer a few corrections; Bill says: "In law school Hillary worked on legal services for the poor." The facts are: Hillary's main extra-curricular activity in law...

We've just obtained a copy of the Obama Muslim smear email -- smear-mail? -- that the Iowa county chair volunteering for Hillary sent out. Key quotes: "Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii . When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia . When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia . Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta." And: "Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United...

We all get "those" emails from time to time-the ones making claims that are meant to be passed on. We've learned to check things on sites like snopes.com to make sure what we pass is true. When it comes to the movie The Golden Compass, whats going around is...true

A letter from a Canadian: Please take the time to read it so you can do whatever you wish....research, verify, etc., but please read it. I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives with the Canada health care plan, I thought I would give you some facts about this great medical plan that we have...

A year or two, and a PC, ago I read in Free Republic about this website where I could check if a story in an e-mail was fact or urband legend. Unfortunately, after changing PCs, I lost the link to that site. I have wished over and over I had saved that info when I changed PCs. Finally, I've decided to ask the same people who gave me the information at least a year ago. Freepers, do y'all know the website I'm talking about? How about its address? Thanks.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/budweiser.asp They apparently don't like to have their stuff copied, since they won't let me select the text. Therefore, link only.

Mexican flag flown OVER Old Glory, and the Stars n' Stripes are displayed upside down at Montebello High School in California, March 27, 2006. Full story here: http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp More pics here: http://michellemalkin.com/2006/03/29/the-american-flag-comes-second/

Claim:   Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin became a born-again Christian a few weeks before he died. Status:   False. Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006] Yes, we now have confirmation of Steve Irwin's decision for Christ. I want to inform Creation Ministries International, that Steve Irwin became a born again Christian two and a half weeks ago at the Kings Church AOG Buderim, Queensland Australia, going forward publicly before the congregation to ask Christ to become his Lord and Saviour. Many of us will now spend eternity with him. I am sure Terri is comforted as a Christian in the...

Hoax as it appears on the internet: Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claim that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and the federal government. However, you may NOT know that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months after that historic day, Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., Hillary Rodham, John F. Kerry, William Jefferson Clinton, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Charles E. Schumer, and...

.... The flags are France,Germany,and Russia.

I'm Your Worst Nightmare. I am a BAD Republican. I like big cars, big cigars and naturally big racks. I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid-level governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies. I don't care about appearing compassionate. I think playing with guns doesn't make you a killer. I believe its called the Boy Scouts for a reason. I think I'm better than the homeless. I am not the real Slim Shady, so I think that I’m gonna stay seated...

The following from a director with SW BELL in Mexico City. ( Bob Blaydon) I spent five years working in Mexico. I worked under a tourist visa for three months and could legally renew it for three more months. After that you were working illegally. I was technically illegal for three weeks waiting on the FM3 approval. During that six months our Mexican and US Attorneys were working to secure a permanent work visa called a FM3. It was in addition to my US passport that I had to show each time I entered and left the country. Barbara's was...

..."The credibility that they've established is based on the laziness of reporters who have used them as a source." That last quote is quite chilling: A Los Angeles-based husband and wife---just two people with goodness knows what agenda or leanings---have somehow managed to establish themselves as a pretty big boulder in the information stream. Most people accord the Mikkelsons a fair amount of credibility as the best source for confirmation or refutation of widely distributed Internet memes. Given how much reliance is being placed on their determinations, it seems like we do very well to know where they're coming from....

...For the Boudreaux photo, one would have to assume that Lance Cpl. Ted J. Boudreaux Jr. is pretty darned stupid to have 1) written a sign saying that he had killed the boy's dad and then impregnated his sister, 2) posed for a photo next the boy holding that sign, and 3) allowed the photo to become public. Given the disparity in the status assigned the two entries, one has to assume that the Mikkelsons believe that it is at least possible that LCpl. Boudreaux is that stupid, but that it is not at all possible that the Muslim protesters...

In the same explanation, she (Sheehan) also suggested that part of the reason for the lack of a headstone might be a dispute over monies paid to the mortuary that handled Casey's funeral services: (an offset quotation)We had a Casualty Officer who abandoned us when our mortuary refused to pay the cemetery and told us that the "government sent the money to the mortuary, so now it is your problem. You may have to sue the mortuary." (end quote) The owner of the mortuary, Steve Nadeau, has disputed this statement: Nadeau expressed hurt and disbelief at Sheehan's comments. He said...

On the wild and untamed Internet, he's an urban legend. But Joseph Olson wishes it would just go away. The Hamline University law professor, has been tied the past few years to a cryptic analysis of the 2000 election that predicts a timely end to American democracy. It's an apocalyptic vision that's turned up in thousands of Internet blogs and message boards and resurfaced in recent weeks. But it's false. Olson never wrote what's attributed to him. He doesn't know exactly how it happened. His only sin might have been passing on an e-mail with questionable information and somewhere someone...

September 2005, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Michael Burghardt, a 35-year-old native of Huntington Beach, California, who had served with the Marine Corps for 18 years (the last 15 of them in bomb disposal), was called upon to disarm some improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near Ramadi, Iraq. As a member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit, Sgt. Burghardt was tasked with locating, identifying, disarming and disposing of the IEDs that Iraqi insurgents have increasingly been using as offensive weapons against U.S. troops. ... The Omaha World-Herald photograph of Sgt. Burghardt displayed above — taken in the aftermath of the bomb blast...

Study pegs Democratic presidents as brighter By RICHARD ORR Herald Correspondent It´s really not all that hard finding GWB´s brain. It´s right there in the files of the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pa., which has been publishing its research on each new president since 1973. The GWB study published in October 2004 took four months to complete and compared him to all the presidents from Franklin Delano Roosevelt through Bill Clinton. Based on the report´s findings, Democrats are smarter than Republicans -- quite a bit so, in fact. The three smartest Democrats were -- in order of intelligence -- Bill...

Men. I can not confirm this with any searching/Googling yet but: It seams that the new recruits of Paris Island (Marine boot camp), will be issued a "sress card" to be used when a drill instructor stresses them out enough. All they need to do is pull out the card and wave it in the instructors face and the instructor needs to back off. Also, the thing called the crusible (hell week)is no more. I know this because I just needed to send back a PFC new Marine on Christmass day. We droped him off at Philly air port to...

Some of the following points (see comment below) are just a sarcastic reference to old religious practices. However, it is difficult for me to square the Bible's tolerance for slavery and violence with what it is supposed to be: a foundation for Judaism and Christianity (true religions of peace). Why does the Bible simply regulate slavery instead of coming out against this clear evil? And why does it prescribe such draconian measures (like stoning) for infractions against the Faith? Almost sounds... Islamic. You can't claim homosexuality is wrong with Biblical verses then ignore the Bible's tacit endorsement of slavery. How...

A video clip shows home Christmas lights synchronized to flash in time to a musical score, in this case Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizard in Winter" (from The Lost Christmas Eve album). I'm lousy at pasting web links, but it's worth your time to see what this guy has done to his house for the holidays. Essentially, some guy named Carson Williams, of Mason, Ohio, put together a little 'festival of lights', and using a combination of light controllers and a low-power radio station, choreographed the whole shebang to the score of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 'Wizard In Winter'. The video is available...

Claim: The character 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was created for the Montgomery Ward group of department stores. Status: True. Origins: To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer — immortalized in song and a popular TV special — has always been an essential part of our Christmas folklore. But Rudolph is a decidedly twentieth-century invention whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person. Rudolph came to life in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company (operators of a chain of department stores) asked one of their copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up...

School Buses Claim: Photograph shows school buses caught in a flooded New Orleans parking lot. Status: True.

Richard D. Lamm was a Democrat who served as governor of Colorado for twelve years from 1975 to 1987. Of the above-quoted third person account regarding his speech on the perils of multiculturalism, he told us in mid-June 2005: A Frightening Analysis We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, "Mexifornia," explaining how immigration —...

WHAT SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID > > > Things that make you think a little: > > > > There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. > In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the > month of January.That's just one American city, > about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. > > > > When some claim that President Bush shouldn't > have started this war, state the following: > > > > a. FDR led us into World War II. > > b. Germany never attacked us; Japan...

With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall. The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about...

"Recently Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees and to request that they send some of it to the troops there. Starbucks replied, telling the Marines thank you for their support in their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee. So as not to offend Starbucks, we should not support them by buying any of their products. As a war vet writing to fellow patriots, I feel we should get...

...Venezuelans would prefer at this time if the Carter Center stayed away from our country. The role the Center played in the recall referendum, before and after it, left a very bitter taste in all of those like me, who are certain that the outcome was fraudulent. ... Carter ... did not demand that the CNE do the “hot audits” on August 16th. ... There are lies in the reports from the Carter Center, such as that the boxes containing the ballots never left their sight. Thus, Venezuelans in the opposition think the Carter Center failed them completely by being...

Bwahahahah!!! Gasp! Bwahahahahahahah! (tears of laughter, blogger convulsing on the floor subject to one of the biggest laugh attacks recorded in blogdom). (Breathe, breathe deeply, garner composure, start writing again) Today we learn that Jennifer Mc Coy of the Carter Center will brave Venezuela to offer help in consolidating peace and democracy! The nerve! What is in store for us? Are they going to approve the new judicial system whose near uniform composition will ensure "peace" through a "uniform justice" (pun intended)? Will they offer to monitor the 2006 elections to validate yet another "fair" Chavez victory? ... I have...

Rumor: Osama bin Laden was captured long ago, but the U.S. government is keeping this news under wraps until just before the 2004 Presidential election. [snip] Yet to believe there is anything to the whispers of a previously-jailed Osama being served up as the 2004 U.S. presidential election's October surprise is to believe that any number of folks have kept news of such an arrest secret. Although the conspiracy-minded could convince themselves the American forces involved in such an operation could have been ordered to hold their tongues and all the paperwork associated with the mission and detainment destroyed, nothing...

The author of this stat was just interviewed by Fox TV: Ever since 1936 (in Boston) and when they became the Washington Redskins in D.C. in 1940, the outcome of their last home game before Election Day has predicted the winner. When they win, the party in office stays. If they lose, the party out of power takes over. Their record? 17 correct outcomes of 17. October 31st they play Green Bay. Both teams won their 2004 season opener and both have since lost 4 in a row. From Snopes...On 30 October 2000 the Washington Redskins lost a Monday night...

Claim: The outcome of Washington Redskins football games has correctly predicted the winner of every U.S. presidential election since 1936. Status: True.

Snopes attempts to cast John Kerry's egregious anti-Military voting record in a positive light. Ignoring his votes, for a moment, what has John Kerry said over the years that worries any security-conscious citizen? And what do these statements say about his track record on military and intelligence issues -- and the future safety of a country in his hands? Rest here

In recent weeks, The Heinz Endowments has been accused of using its funding of the Tides Center of Western Pennsylvania to advance a laundry list of partisan causes and fringe political groups. This accusation is simply wrong. It originated in an opinion column written by a researcher for the conservative, Washington, D.C.-based Capital Research Center. The crux of CRC’s argument is that money directed by the Endowments to Tides is "fungible." By supporting projects through Tides, CRC alleged that Heinz has secretly funneled money to every other organization that has ever received funding through Tides Center and the separate Tides...

Claim: The Communist Party USA is endorsing John Kerry for President. Status: Multiple — see below.

Here is the letter I sent to snopes.com Hello, I just wanted to tell you that you need to edit the entry http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/snuff.htm dealing with the existance of snuff films. It was last edited in 1999 and in case you missed it, since that date snuff films have become available in great quantity. Now through the technological miracle of the internet and our new global economy, we have easy access to middle eastern cinema. People being butchered on camera has become quite a common thing. The Here is good article on the subject. These snuff films are sold commercially in...

Dan Rather came under criticism after it was revealed by the Washington Post that he had given a keynote speech at a fund-raiser for Texas Democrats: GERALDO RIVERA: Let me just read you this news account, April 5th, USA Today: "Conservatives and pundits had a field day at Dan Rather's expense Wednesday after the CBS anchor apologized for being the star attraction at a recent Democratic fundraiser in Texas that raised 20 grand." Was that one of the worst mistakes you've made at least recently? DAN RATHER: Well, it certainly was one of the dumbest mistakes I ever made. But...

September 9, 2004 Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and RALPH BLUMENTHAL ASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard came under renewed scrutiny on Wednesday as newfound documents emerged from his squadron commander's file that suggested favorable treatment. At the same time, a once powerful Texas Democrat came forward to say that he had "abused my position of power" by helping Mr. Bush and others join the Guard. Democrats also worked to stoke the issue with a new advertisement by a Texas group that featured a former lieutenant colonel,...

Have at him!