Free Republic

He hides, but craves attention. He is prurient and prudish, powerful and paranoid, an icon of the right who seems obsessed with making Hillary Clinton our next president. And he has America caught in the grip of his contradictions.

The good news is we’re doomed! by JohnHuang2 It is absurd and stupid to bet against the U.S. economy — which is precisely why liberals are betting against the U.S. economy. Liberals have been cheerleading recession for years — beginning right at the end of the Clinton recession that Bush inherited — but still haven’t produced a single recession since Bush cut taxes. For a recession, libbies would need two straight quarters of no economic growth. In fact, even in the midst of ‘The Worst Housing Slump In Human History’, these are the stats: * In July, capacity utilization...

RAIPUR: Red terror returned to haunt Chhattisgarh on Wednesday with Maoists ambushing a convoy of policemen travelling through the forests of Dantewada, killing at least 12 security personnel. It was the worst Naxal attack since the chilling July 10 offensive when Maoists killed 24 cops in a similarly brazen ambush. On March 15, this year, 55 policemen were massacred in Bijapur when Communist guerrillas attacked a police camp. Wednesday’s attack, obviously executed on specific and early information about police movement, was carried out by 100 armed Maoists who were waiting behind bushes and trees in the area, about 550 km...

  Links of Interest CSPAN ScheduleCSPAN Video ArchiveWhite House Briefing pageWhite House Setting the Record Straight Live LinksCSPAN1 Video: Windows Media    Real Player CSPAN1 Audio: Windows Media    Real PlayerCSPAN2 Video: Windows Media    Real Player CSPAN2 Audio: Windows Media    Real Player CSPAN3 Video: Windows Media    Real Player CSPAN3 Audio: Windows Media    Real PlayerA stream from whitehouse.gov may be availible here (Real Player) In order to play the Real Media links, you need a suitable player. All of the archives are in this format, so you may wish to get one. You can get the genuine article from Real Networks here. Many...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will. "It causes a lot of conflict on the playground," said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school. Running games are still allowed as long as students don't chase each other, she said.

A growing clamor among rank-and-file Democrats to halt President Bush's most controversial tactics in the fight against terrorism has exposed deep divisions within the party, with many Democrats angry that they cannot defeat even a weakened president on issues that they believe should be front and center. The Democrats' failure to rein in wiretapping without warrants, close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or restore basic legal rights such as habeas corpus for terrorism suspects has opened the party's leaders to fierce criticism from some of their staunchest allies -- on Capitol Hill, among liberal bloggers and at interest groups....

Condoleezza Rice may be willing to compromise at a Middle East negotiating table - but not at a jewelry counter. Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state's closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath. Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds. "Let's get one thing straight," he recalls her saying. "You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I'm on...

The actions of men are more detrimental to the environment than those of the fairer sex, a study by the Swedish Foreign Ministry purports to have determined. The ministry's study found that compared with women, men typically produce more greenhouse gas emissions by eating more meat and by spending more money on gasoline, The Local said Wednesday. "Three out of four cars in Sweden are today driven by men. Around 10 percent of all drivers, mainly men, account for 60 percent of car journeys," report author Gerd Johnsson-Latham said. The study, conducted for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Commission, suggests...

RICHMOND -- Virginia Republicans announced legislation Wednesday that would prohibit public colleges and universities from accepting illegal immigrants even if they attended a public high school and were brought to the United States at an early age by their parents. GOP leaders, who control both houses of the legislature, suggested that some Virginia residents are being denied access to college because too many illegal immigrants are taking available slots. "If a legal Virginia resident is applying to schools, should they be admitted? Or should that slot be set aside for someone who has arrived here illegally?" asked James K. "Jay"...

Meager Expectations We've long become accustomed to typical behavior from given groups. For example, when it comes to bureaucracies like the EPA, no one would be shocked to find it infested with anal-retentive types so focused on what they perceive as the crucial details of their job they long-ago lost sight of the big picture. With the EPA, there's at least a potential upside. The environment is far cleaner now than back when Richard Nixon signed it into existence. In the decades since, it has made major gains over pollution and have been proven at times to be a pyrrhic...

Muslim sect causes stir in Walkersville Group buying farm for retreat; town considers zoning change By Rona Marech Sun reporter August 30, 2007 WALKERSVILLE This small town of shady porches and green fields saw its last murder in 1929. The mayor runs a feed and seed store, where on Monday nights he presides over a long-running dominoes game. Many people live here because their parents and grandparents lived here before them. And they like things the way they are. So, a Muslim group's plan to purchase 224 acres of farmland to use for an annual convention and other activities has...

Federal District Judge Ronald Davies, transferred to the federal courthouse in Little Rock, dealt quickly with the state court ruling against the integration of Little Rock Central High School. NAACP lawyers filed an appeal of the August 27th injunction from the Cancery Court of Pulaski County. On Friday August 30th, 1957 Judge Davies overruled the state court and ordered the integration to proceed according to the plan of the Little Rock School Board. Davies issued an injunction enjoining "all persons, in any manner, directly or indirectly, from interfering with the plan of integration as approved by the United States District...

Deborah Haynes, the UK Times' correspondent in Baghdad, has recently put her finger on perhaps the greatest difficulty we face in Iraq today: The reluctance of many pro-American Iraqis to help us, because they fear we may cut and run. This is what Haynes wrote: US troops have had some success in winning the confidence of members of the community by pushing out into previously unexplored neighbourhoods as part of President Bush's surge plan. However, many Iraqis refuse to believe that the American presence will stay for very long. These people remain fearful of offering up tips on where they...

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said Wednesday it will release a major package of updates and fixes for the Windows Vista operating system in the first half of 2008. The company said a "beta" test version of Service Pack 1 will be released "in a few weeks to a moderate sized audience." The SP1 beta includes updates Microsoft has already made to the operating system it started selling to consumers at the end of January. The service pack fixes some common problems that cause computers to crash or freeze, Microsoft said, including compatibility problems with some newer graphics cards,...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - When a heavy knock came on the door of her Phoenix home, Mari knew that the immigration police had finally caught up with her. Arrested and held for a month in a U.S. jail, she was sent back to Guatemala on a prison flight. But four weeks later, after raising a $5,000 smuggling fee, she was back with her family in Arizona. As U.S. authorities step up deportations of illegal immigrants, a growing number of them, like Mari, are simply turning round and heading back stateside to rejoin families and resume their lives. "Guatemala is no longer...

The Bush administration has decided to sharply scale back its plan to screen U.S. foreign aid contractors around the globe for potential terrorism connections, deciding instead to begin with a pilot program involving aid recipients in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip... The decision... was made after lawmakers and several large aid organizations said that the global screening requirements were onerous and unwarranted. An official of the U.S. Agency for International Development had earlier promised to defer the program, which was to have taken effect Monday. The global screening program...would have required that all nongovernmental organizations seeking funds from...

An RAF serviceman has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said. A gunner from 51 Squadron RAF Regiment was killed in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, shortly after midnight local time (2030 BST). Personnel from the squadron, based at RAF Lossiemouth, Moray, were on a routine security patrol when one of its vehicles was caught in an explosion. Next of kin have been informed. Two other servicemen were hurt. A civilian interpreter was also killed in the blast during the patrol around Kandahar airfield, the main hub for British forces flying in and out of...

It’s hard to imagine a politician with lousier timing than New Jersey governor Jon Corzine. The day before the execution-style killing of three Newark students by several illegal immigrants—at least one sporting a long rap sheet—Corzine formed a commission to study ways of providing immigrants with greater access to public services. In announcing the panel, the governor said nothing about the state’s estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants, and the panel included no experts on law enforcement or national security who might recommend how the state could better protect itself in an era of porous national borders....................Back in the mid-1990s, Congress commissioned...

17th century baldness cure is chicken dung says Ye Olde Men's Goode Health By OLINKA KOSTER 30th August 2007 In our age of gyms and jogging, dental floss and deodorants, mouthwash and moisturisers, a chap can waft along with ease every day feeling fit and fragrant. But back in 1654, with Oliver Cromwell ruling England, good health and grooming for men was somewhat more basic. Then, no self-respecting male's medicine chest was apparently complete without liberal supplies of cat's dung, snail's blood and chicken droppings - not to mention arsenic and brimstone. Gruesome as they may sound, they were recommended...

The U.S. economy bounced back in the second quarter, growing at a 4% annual real growth rate, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The upward revision to second-quarter gross domestic product is likely to have a minimal impact on financial markets, however, which are preoccupied by the credit crunch.