Free Republic

I first have to admit to the fact that I am a total and complete pop culture drop-out; I have never seen an episode of "Sponge Bob", I didn't know what "I'd hit it." meant for the longest time and I really hadn't a clue about who Paris Hilton was, nor what she had done to become so incredibly famous. A word to the wise, DO NOT google Paris Hilton and if you do, make sure the kids are out of the room. Anyway, my daughter, who is 8 years old, came home from a playdate signing Taylor Swift songs....

NFL Hall of Famer busted for leaving scene of car accidentNFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was busted last night in Miami after he left the scene of an accident, according to police. The 50-year-old former NY Giant great was charged with "leaving the scene of accident/property damage" by the Florida Highway Patrol just before 10 p.m. According to the FHP, officers responded to a report of a hit and run on the Palmetto Expressway at 103rd St. just after 6:30 p.m. The officers searched the next exit and found Taylor driving a white car that matched the description of...

AS EVERYONE scrambles to predict a possible future outlook for war-ravaged Afghanistan, the negative variables continue to mount. The Taliban have boldly stepped up their attacks in the power vacuum created by the failed August elections and the countrywide apathy in anticipation of the upcoming Nov. 7 presidential run-off vote. October was by far the deadliest month of the war with 50 Allied soldiers killed, including yet another Canadian. The daring assault against the United States guest house in the fortified centre of Kabul last Tuesday — coincidental with an equally brash attack against the posh foreigners-only Serena Hotel —...

In this epsiode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program I interview Mike Yost, candidate for U.S. House of Reptesentatives. We play some of the lecture of Bob Basso as Thomas Paine at Kansas State University. We also talk to Kristinn Taylor, co-founder of the Wasington D.C. branch of the FreeRepublic on the resignation of green czar Van jones. We invite you to listen and comment.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor will not be attending Michael Jackson’s memorial at Staples Center on Tuesday. The legendary actress posted the news today on her Twitter page, confirming that she had been “asked to speak at Staples Center” but she could not “be part of the public whoopla.” “I said I wouldn’t go to the Staples Center and I certainly don’t want to become part of it. I love him too much,” Taylor continued. “I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others. How I feel is between us. Not a public event....

The trouble with many of the past ratings of America's presidents is that the "consensus" has been arrived at by academics who act alike, do alike, and think alike. In the view of many, they are suspect of viewing history exclusively through the prism of Ivy League faculty lounge discourse. Alvin Stephen Felzenberg (Ph.D.) — who has taken a fresh and comprehensive look at the nation's chief executives in his book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game — does not challenge the credentials of the conventional historians. Rather, as he explains in...

Dem blasts Obama's budgetPosted: 06:29 PM ET February 26, 2009 From CNN Congressional Producer Deirdre Walsh (CNN) – Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor blasted the budget outline President Obama submitted to Capitol Hill today, saying “I don’t like it…change is not running up even bigger deficits that George Bush did.” “That’s what George Bush did very well. Apparently that’s what President Obama is doing.” Taylor, a conservative “blue dog” who voted against the stimulus bill, noted he was still reviewing the plan but was troubled by the additional amount of spending for many government programs on top of the recent...

More on this later, but wanted to get the name of the 7 dems who voted "no" on the embarrassing porkulus bill in the House. D's No! Bright (AL) Griffith (AL) Peterson (MN) Shuler (NC) DeFazio (OR) Minnick (ID) Taylor (MS) Present: Lipinski (IL) Flood the phones to Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins' offices!!!!

D's No! Bright (AL) Griffith (AL) Peterson (MN) Shuler (NC) DeFazio (OR) Minnick (ID) Taylor (MS) Present: Lipinski

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-crm-021.html Roy Belfast Jr., A/K/A Chuckie Taylor, Sentenced on Torture Charges WASHINGTON – Roy M. Belfast Jr. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga today to 97 years in prison for crimes related to the torture of people in Liberia between April 1999 and July 2003, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta for the Southern District of Florida. Belfast, a/k/a Chuckie Taylor, Charles Taylor Jr., Charles Taylor II and Charles McArther Emmanuel, was convicted on October 30, 2008, by...

In an interview with the Taylor Daily Press, State Sen. Steve Ogden revealed a possible new course for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead of building superhighways across the state, Ogden said, the state may opt to augment the Texas Trunk System, a web of rural highways that includes U.S. 79. The plan would expand those highways to four-lane divided highways, while expanding urban infrastructure with toll roads. “We need to limit that concept to existing highways,” Ogden said of the proposed network of superhighways and tiered rail systems. “I passed a bill last session that did that, but [Gov. Rick...

Taylor used to be a player in Williamson County, with it and Georgetown vying for funds and the attention of passers-through. But no more, and despite what many city officials will tell you, it will not be a player unless something is done to counteract the rapid growth of surrounding communities. What needs to be done is, Taylor needs to forget its past and embrace something residents see as so vile, that when I first arrived here I thought its mere mention was a dirty word. I am speaking of Rick Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation (another...

Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to...

After Miami handyman Glenn Rudge was accused of shoplifting an $8 set of drill bits at Home Depot, he thought he'd settled the matter when he showed his receipt to prosecutors and they dropped the charge.But a few weeks later, a law firm hired by Home Depot began sending him letters demanding first $3,000, then a total of $6,000, implying he'd be sued if he didn't pay it. In an escalating battle against theft, retailers are going after anyone suspected of shoplifting, turning over their names to lawyers and collection firms, who pursue the suspects for stiff penalties and split...

KINSHASA, Congo -- A U.N.-backed body assigned to curb the sale of conflict diamonds suspended the Republic of Congo from the legitimate diamond trade on accusations the African nation sent millions of dollars in smuggled gems onto the world market. The suspension followed a May 31-June 4 mission to Republic of Congo that found the country was dealing in millions of carats of smuggled diamonds from other African countries. The West African country was sending the gems through the lesser diamond centers of Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates to avoid rigorous controls at the world's diamond hub, Antwerp, Belgium,...

Miami-Dade detectives have detained at least three people in Lee County for questioning in the death of Washington Redskins football star Sean Taylor. Investigators believe the young men learned of Taylor's house through someone who unwittingly set up the burglary by bragging about the football star's wealth. The suspects include a teenager and two men in their 20s who hail from the Fort Myers area.

MIAMI - Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor has died, says family friend Richard Sharpstein. The 24-year-old player was shot in the upper leg, damaging an artery and causing significant blood loss. Family members were concerned that he could have permanent brain damage. Miami-Dade Police were investigating the attack, which came just eight days after an intruder was reported at Taylor's home. Officers were dispatched about 1:45 a.m. Monday after Taylor's girlfriend called 911. Taylor was airlifted to the hospital. Sharpstein said Taylor's girlfriend told him the couple was awakened by loud noises, and Taylor grabbed a machete he keeps in...

The self-described “Land of Many Uses” will likely have several fewer in the coming years as the U.S. Forest Service explores closing 10 amenities in northern Colorado. The Forest Services employs the “Many Uses” slogan because national forests are home to logging, grazing, mining and recreational pursuits, but the point remains that the agency is the steward of public lands along much of the Front Range. The list for closure includes five sites in Larimer and Boulder counties, including the Tom Bennett Campground on the north flanks of the Mummy Range, picnic areas along the North Fork of the Big...

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MIDDLEWEIGHT KINGS GO SLUMMING? by William Dettloff For those inclined to believe that a good big man will beat a good little man every time, the announcement that the middleweight champion is facing a welter or junior middleweight champ moving up is never good news. It means to him that the middleweight is slumming a bit, taking on a man whom he knows he will beat. Alas, many fans feel this way and groan instantly at the news. Unkind words will follow for the middleweight, who, the thinking goes, is most assuredly sinking to new, modern lows...

Hollywood may be debating who to support in the 2008 presidential election, but Dame Elizabeth Taylor already has her woman -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a statement on Thursday, the actress said, "I have contributed to Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign because she has a mind of her own and a very strong one at that. I like the way she thinks. She is very savvy and a smart leader with years of experience in government, diplomacy and politics." A spokesman for the 74-year-old actress said she had contributed $2,100 to the New York Democratic senator, the legal limit an...

Beloved TV star Andy Griffith is reportedly fighting for his life after breaking his hip in a fall. The 80-year-old actor had hip surgery on September 5 and has been in hospital in Los Angeles ever since, where he's being monitored for heart problems, according to reports that have not been confirmed by his publicist. Griffith is a high-risk patient because he has suffered from heart problems and underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2000. A source tells the Globe, "He's in a lot of pain right now, but he's just trying to tough it out so he can get...

Even legal experts who agreed with a federal judge’s conclusion on Thursday that a National Security Agency surveillance program is unlawful were distancing themselves from the decision’s reasoning and rhetoric yesterday. They said the opinion overlooked important precedents, failed to engage the government’s major arguments, used circular reasoning, substituted passion for analysis and did not even offer the best reasons for its own conclusions. Discomfort with the quality of the decision is almost universal, said Howard J. Bashman, a Pennsylvania lawyer whose Web log provides comprehensive and nonpartisan reports on legal developments. “It does appear,” Mr. Bashman said, “that folks...

August 27, 2006 -- If there were any doubt that a federal judge's decision earlier this month declaring the Bush administration's warrantless-surveillance program unconstitutional was blatantly political, consider this: Judicial Watch reports that the judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, is an officer and trustee of a group that funds the American Civil Liberties Union's Michigan branch - which was a plaintiff in the case. Indeed, the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan's board of trustees, which includes Judge Taylor, makes all funding decisions for the group - and has given the local ACLU at least $125,000 since 1999. Legal-ethics experts disagree on...

Taylor Conflicted? The judge who ruled against the government and ruled the NSA terrorist surveillance program unconstitutional may have had an undisclosed conflict of interest. Anna Diggs Taylor also serves as a trustee and officer to an organization that donated $45,000 to the Michigan chapter of the ACLU -- which happened to be one of the plaintiffs in the case (via Hot Air): Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and judicial abuse, announced today that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who last week ruled the government’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional, serves as a Secretary and...

TO end her opinion in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency — the case that enjoins President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program — Judge Anna Diggs Taylor quoted Earl Warren (referring to him as “Justice Warren,” not “Chief Justice Warren,” as if she wanted to spotlight her carelessness): “It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of ... those liberties ... which makes the defense of the nation worthwhile.”

A judge’s first-year failing-grade opinion. The Honorable Anna Diggs-Taylor probably means well. The lone judge in American history to order a president to halt in wartime a foreign-intelligence-collection program that has undoubtedly saved lives probably sympathizes with the journalists, and others, who are suing to stop the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) in which NSA intercepts foreign-U.S. terrorist communications. She probably feels in her heart the program is wrong, and undoubtedly hears the footsteps of the federal judicial panel moving towards taking this case away from her and consolidating it with others. We can sympathize with her motives, and even share...

WASHINGTON – In a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and should be shut down, but legal scholars said federal authorities have a good chance of reversing the decision on appeal. "There are no hereditary kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution," U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of Detroit said in a 43-page opinion blasting the program. Judge Taylor said the program, which President Bush secretly approved after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, violated the rights of free speech and privacy and went...

In our current era of polarized politics, it was probably inevitable that some judge somewhere would strike down the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretaps as unconstitutional. The temptations to be hailed as Civil Libertarian of the Year are just too great. So we suppose a kind of congratulations are due to federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who won her 10 minutes of fame yesterday for declaring that President Bush had taken upon himself "the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself." Oh, and by the way,...

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor takes a rather peculiar view of the First Amendment. (Her view of the Fourth Amenmendment is more easily explicable, though comprehensively wrong, as will be shown in another column). She seems to think that the First Amendment not only guarantees freedom of speech, but immunises people against any consequences of what they say. If people fear that the government might be listening in on their telephone conversations it will make them afraid to speak their mind. Even this problem she addresses the wrong way round, by seeking to suspend the constitutional powers of the President, rather...

Judiciary: Detroit Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has agreed to the American Civil Liberties Union's demands to shut down the National Security Agency's wiretapping program. Terrorists everywhere are cheering. The 73-year-old Judge Taylor, appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1979, has a long history as a radical. In 1964, she helped set up a Mississippi office of the National Lawyers Guild, which Congress in 1950 called the "legal bulwark of the Communist Party." What happened Thursday was nothing less than a judicial disarmament of the U.S. — stripping away some of our most valuable weapons in the global war on terror.

MEL Gibson once had close links to the Australian League of Rights, a Far Right group notorious for its anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews. The Hollywood star's foray into Far Right activist politics in Australia occurred in 1987 when he campaigned for a friend, Rob Taylor, who stood unsuccessfully for the northern Victorian federal seat of Indi. Charles Pinwill, a former Queensland state director of the League of Rights, said he knew Gibson's father, Hutton, and said Gibson was interested in the league's ideas. "They were...

WASHINGTON, DC, MONDAY, JULY 3, 2006--The D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com and the online watchdog Accuracy in Media (www.AIM.org) held a press conference and demonstration Monday at the Washington, D.C., bureau of the New York Times to protest the newspaper's publishing of stories exposing national security intelligence programs. The two conservative groups called for the prosecution of New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Executive Editor Bill Keller and reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau for "giving aid and comfort to al-Qaida." The initial group of 14 FReepers, led by FreeRepublic's National Spokesman Kristinn Taylor, soon swelled to 29 protesters. They...

Excerpt - THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a war crimes trial on charges accusing him in the death, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa. An airport official said Taylor's U.N.-chartered plane landed after a direct flight from Sierra Leone, where he had been in detention since March 29. Two police vans and five motorcycle outriders were waiting on the tarmac at a small commercial airport south of The Hague. ~ snip ~

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi assailed Nigeria on Thursday for handing over former Liberian President Charles Taylor for trial, saying the move set an unacceptable precedent that threatened all African leaders. Nigeria deported Taylor on March 29 to Liberia, which promptly sent him on to Sierra Leone where he awaits trial on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for backing rebels during Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war. The United Nations is seeking to move the trial to the International Criminal Court in the Hague amid security fears, but the process has been stalled as no...

AUSTIN, Texas May 14, 2006 (AP)— Texas running back Ramonce Taylor, who scored a touchdown in the Longhorns' Rose Bowl win over Southern California, was arrested Sunday by Bell County sheriff's deputies who said they found marijuana in a backpack in his car. Taylor was arrested for possession of marijuana over five pounds, a second-degree felony. A second-degree felony could be punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Formal charges had not yet been filed. Taylor remained in custody in the Bell County Jail. Deputies said they also found a live round...

I was watching the videos of the American Idol performances and I saw something completely unexpected during the Taylor Hicks performance of "Play That Funky Music White Boy." One audience member is holding a sign that isn't rooting for a contestant - instead it is rooting for our president!Here's the "W" sign, plain as day...It ain't doctored folks - check the video yourself. Now... I wonder how that slipped in? ;)

NEW YORK -- Saddam Hussein's lawyer is walking in Greenwich Village, admiring the brave buds of a skeletal tree slowly stirring from winter sleep. In the twilight of his life, he notices such things: the advent of spring, the daily opera that plays on the streets of Manhattan, the small, simple pleasures that still stir his soul. He is an old man, untroubled by the fact that his latest client is a former dictator. In his 78 years, he has represented many infamous men and many divisive causes, the latest of which is to impeach President Bush and dispatch his...

MARION, Indiana (AP) -- A semitrailer crashed through a median on Interstate 69 and collided with a college van Wednesday night, killing five people, police said. The collision peeled open the side of the van, and several occupants were ejected, said state police Sgt. Rodger Popplewell. The semi driver was among five injured. About 2 miles of interstate in Grant County, midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, were closed.

An audience member who identified himself as Harry Taylor criticizes President Bush after he delivered a speech on the global war on terror at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C. Thursday April 6, 2006. Taylor said he has never been more ashamed of U.S. leadership. Audience members at left are reacting to Taylor's comments. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Fellow Republicans: You have been waiting for the other shoe to drop? Please go to http://www.tulsatoday.com Read David Arnett's article in full color with appropriate pictures. The article is below, but I encourage you to go to the Tulsa Today website for full details. YOU CANNOT MISS THIS ONE!!!! The Taylor/Stipe Corruption By David Arnett, Publisher Sunday, 02 April 2006 Tulsa Today has discovered that Tulsa mayoral candidate Kathy Taylor, in her first year as Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce, used taxpayer money to fund a questionable foundation with close ties to former Democrat state senator and convicted felon Gene Stipe...

Taylor 'looked like whipped dog' as justice caught up By Hans Nichols in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Filed: 02/04/2006) Slumped and sombre, Charles Taylor uttered not a single word as he sat in the United Nations helicopter that spirited him from Liberia, where he once ruled, to neighbouring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of committing war crimes. "He looked like a whipped dog. A look of total defeat," said a UN official, one of 16 passengers on the flight that brought Taylor to the tribunal he has eluded for three years. Charles Taylor in Freetown "You look at someone that...

March 26, 2006--In the race for the governor's mansion, Republican Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue still leads in projected match-ups with Democrats Secretary of State Cathy Cox and Lt. Governor Mark Taylor. But the latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds that both Democrats have gained ground compared to polls conducted earlier in the year. Perdue leads Cox 49% to 41% and leads Taylor 51% to 41%. A month ago, he led both Democrats by 20 points. He also held a double digit lead against both Democrats in January. Perdue, the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, remains a well-liked chief executive, viewed...

Tyrant of Liberia is captured in border raid By Katharine Houreld in Monrovia and Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 30/03/2006) Charles Taylor, once one of Africa's most murderous dictators, was arrested last night after two days on the run and handed over to United Nations officials to face trial for war crimes. The capture of the former Liberian president on the Cameroon/Nigeria border was greeted with delight in his homeland. Charles Taylor: Arrested Taylor was flown there briefly before being taken to a jail in neighbouring Sierra Leone where he faces multiple charges for crimes against humanity. His arrest followed...

ALARM - Charles Taylor arrived to Monrovia and transferred in a helicopter MONROVIA - former bast president Charles Taylor, expelled Wednesday of Nigeria, arrived at the Roberts airport of Monrovia on board an apparatus of the Nigerian presidency and was immediately led in a helicopter of the United Nations, noted a correspondent of AFP.

Taylor Taken to Liberia to Face Charges By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who vanished in Nigeria after authorities reluctantly agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal, was arrested trying to cross the border into Cameroon, Nigerian police said Wednesday. He then was flown back to Liberia. Taylor was captured Tuesday night by security forces in the far northeastern border town of Gamboru, in Borno State, nearly 600 miles from the villa in southern Calabar from which he reportedly disappeared Monday night, Information Minister Frank Nweke said in a statement. President Olusegun Obasanjo,...

AP News Alert ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian police say they have arrested Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.

Wanted tyrant of Liberia vanishes from Nigerian haven By David Blair, Africa Correspondent and Katharine Houreld in Lagos (Filed: 29/03/2006) The Nigerian government was accused of allowing Charles Taylor, Africa's most notorious fallen tyrant, to escape justice after he vanished from his grace-and-favour residence yesterday. Taylor, 58, the former Liberian dictator, had been living in the city of Calabar despite being the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant and an indictment on 17 counts of war crimes. Charles Taylor took refuge in Nigeria when he was deposed The Baptist lay preacher, who devastated Liberia and led a brutal rebel army...

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday agreed to surrender the exiled former Liberian president and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor to the government of his homeland. Taylor is accused of masterminding a policy of murder, torture, pillage and rape in Liberia and its neighbour Sierra Leone, where international prosecutors have lodged a 17-count indictment alleging crimes against humanity. In August 2003, in a bid to bring an end to 14 years of civil war in Liberia, Obasanjo invited him to step down as president, leave his besieged capital Monrovia and accept political asylum in Nigeria. But the Nigerian leader...

<p>Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic and Stephen Cleghorn of Military Families Speak Out appeared on Hardball this evening to discuss the pro-War and anti-War message. Free Republic supports the War, while Military Families Speak Out is against the war and wants to pull our troops out of Iraq immediately. Both guests have family members serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan.</p>

Angus Reid Global Scan) – Public support for Sonny Perdue remains high in the Peach State, according to a poll by Strategic Vision. 58 per cent of respondents in Georgia approve of their governor’s performance, down one point since January. Perdue—a Republican—has acted as Georgia’s governor since January 2003. The former state senator defeated Democrat incumbent Roy Barnes in the November 2002 election with 52 per cent of the vote, becoming the first GOP member to head the state’s government in 130 years. Earlier this month, the General Assembly passed a bill that establishes a $3 million U.S. grant program...