Free Republic

Arriving Down Under for my annual family get together last Christmas I was greeted by the usual line-up of my beaming brother, his wife and their three children. Only this time it was different. Instead of spotting their friendly faces in the crowd, all I could see was a row of ten of the ugliest, daftest, least flattering items of footwear I have ever seen in my life. And they were stuck to my darling family's feet, as if they were auditioning for the part of Krusty the Clown's less fashionable relatives. Scroll down for more... Amanda Platell can't stand...

Pressure on Larry Craig continues to mount as the national Republican Party apparatus builds an intense behind-the-scenes effort to suggest and perhaps order a resignation from the embattled Idaho senator...

Russia was partly responsible for the high tension between Israel and Syria at the outset of the summer, head of the Diplomatic-Security Bureau at the Israeli Defense Ministry, Gen. Amos Gilad (ret.) was quoted as saying on Thursday. During an interview with Israel's Army Radio, the senior Israeli official said that recent messages sent from Tel Aviv to Moscow have caused the Russians to cease their activity, thus easing the tensions in the occupied Golan Heights. "At a certain time, the Russians caused the Syrians to believe that Israel was preparing for war," Gilad said. "I think that they have...

<p>Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator whose flirtation with a presidential bid has frustrated some supporters, will file papers to officially enter the race next Thursday, his campaign manager told key backers this afternoon.</p> <p>"Fred is definitely is going to make the race," campaign manager Bill Lacy told members of the Thompson campaign's national finance team in a conference call. "We are in this race to win." Lacy said Thompson will also announce his campaign on a webcast next Thursday. After that he is expected to visit Iowa Sept. 7, New Hampshire on Sept. 8 and 9, and South Carolina after that. There will also be events Sept. 13-15 in Florida and Tennessee, Lacy said.</p>

Hollywood takes on Taliban tome "Lone Survivor" Universal Pictures has won the battle for the film rights to the nonfiction best-seller "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10." Peter Berg, who directed the studio's upcoming Middle East thriller "The Kingdom," will write and direct the adaptation, which did not come cheap. Sources said Universal paid a $2 million advance to acquire the rights to the tome as well as the underlying rights.

Libya is an authoritarian state with an abysmal human rights record, yet Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has embraced the Global War on Terror and is promoting his son’s charitable foundation to increase his influence and refurbish his reputation abroad...... Last week the State Department announced that Condoleezza Rice will visit Libya –probably in late October— becoming the first U.S. secretary of state to visit since 1953. Rice will meet with Gaddafi, the erratic Libyan dictator whom President Reagan called “the mad dog of the Middle East.” It is expected that Rice will discuss ways to fight terrorism and expand U.S....

UN Inspectors Find Chemical in UN Office Thursday, August 30, 2007 UNITED NATIONS - U.N. weapons inspectors discovered potentially hazardous chemical agents in their office near U.N. headquarters that were probably taken from Iraq's main chemical weapons facility 11 years ago, officials said Thursday. snip UNMOVIC has 1,400 linear feet of files and it took until Wednesday to find the inventory the number matched which indicated that the material was from Iraq's main chemical weapons facility at Muthana, near Samarra. http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20070830/46d640c0_3ca6_1552620070830482500886

FAIRFIELD — Poultry processor Koch Foods has resumed operations at its local plant, even though it lost a large number of workers Tuesday during a raid by federal agents and local police. Authorities from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Butler County Sheriff's Office and other state, federal and local agencies netted 161 alleged illegal immigrants at the chicken processing plant. Prior to the raid, the Fairfield plant employed more than 500.

How many FReepers out there are on Digg.com? I am interested in helping the right get a better presence there to help promote conservatism and libertarianism. You game?

The police officer who interviewed Sen. Larry Craig after arresting him at the Minneapolis airport repeatedly told Craig he was "very disappointed" that Craig wasn't telling the truth. In a tape broadcast this afternoon on MSNBC, Sgt. Dave Karsnia said Craig wasn't telling the truth when Craig denied running his hand under the wall between the adjoining stalls Craig and Karsnia occupied in the men's room where Karsnia was running a sting operation. "I just want to say I'm disappointed in you, sir, I really am," Karsnia said angrily after Craig insisted he wasn't trying to solicit sex from Karsnia....

CANMORE, Alta. -- A combination of warm winters and Alberta's population boom is causing a recent jump in cougar attacks, says a spokesman for the government agency that collects cougar-related data. The province's cougar population has jumped this year because recent warm winters have pushed up the population of deer, elk and moose -- the cougars' natural prey, said Darcy Whiteside with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. "These are natural fluctuations," Whiteside said on Wednesday. "But they're compounded by the fact that municipalities are expanding into natural areas. A lot more people are living, camping and hiking in those areas, too."...

Governor moves ahead with sales shutdown, saying there will never be an “ideal time” to inconvenience businesses. PENNSYLVANIA - Despite howls of protest from sportsmen's groups, gun-rights advocates and legislators, Pennsylvania State Police will go ahead with a 72-hour gun-sales freeze starting Sunday. A last-ditch effort to stop the gun-sales ban now shifts to a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court brought by three disgruntled Lancaster County gun shops and 23 others from around the state. A hearing is scheduled for Friday in Commonwealth Court on a motion for an injunction to stop the gun-sales prohibition. Among the plaintiffs are The Sportsman's...

Now that Hillary has been caught accepting illegal campaign contributions, how many in the media will stop asking about whether Sen. Craig will step down to ask the question "Will Hillary Step Down?" While they're at it, perhaps they will also ask the question about which "charity" Hillary has chosen for the redistribution of the illegal campaign contributions. Does anybody want to help with the counting of media heads who ask about these things? (sarcasm off)

RICHMOND, Va. - The gunman responsible for the April massacre at Virginia Tech was a sickly child — shy, frail and leery of physical contact by the time he was 3. His teachers said he began showing suicidal and homicidal tendencies by the eighth grade. ADVERTISEMENT A new report that provides the most comprehensive look yet at Seung-Hui Cho also shows his parents, teachers and mental health counselors wove a safety net that held him together through most of high school. Then, in his junior year, Cho declared "there is nothing wrong with me" and turned away from treatment, the...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Larry Craig denied soliciting an undercover police officer shortly after being arrested in a bathroom at a Minneapolis airport, an audio recording of the arrest revealed. Craig said on the June 11 recording, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Police Department, that he may have touched Investigative Sgt. Dave Karsnia's foot with his foot while they were in bathroom stalls. "You said our feet bumped. I believe they did," Craig said, adding that he was scooting over. "The next thing I knew, under the bathroom divider comes a card that says 'Police.'" The Republican senator from Idaho also...

PBS 'Sympathetic' to Radical Islamists, Filmmakers Say By Kevin Mooney CNSNews.com Staff Writer August 30, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - High level officials in the Public Broadcasting System are operating from a mindset that is overly sympathetic toward the concept of "parallel societies," where sharia (Islamist laws) holds sway over democratic norms, according to documentary filmmaker Martyn Burke. Burke, also a Hollywood producer, collaborated with some conservative national security experts to produce a documentary on moderate Muslims, entitled, "Islam versus Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center." WETA, the Washington, D.C., affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) declined to air the film...

Local campaign commercial draws debate again By Gerald Witt Staff Writer Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007 4:15 pm REIDSVILLE — In his run for the Rockingham County School Board, Christopher Knight made a campaign commercial of himself with a light saber — a’la Star Wars — defending the county’s schools against pressures of federal regulations for schools. That spot made news locally and nationally during the election season.

Dear Co Workers, Partners, Associates, and Friends, The United States Marine Corps and JWT are honored to announce that "The Few. The Proud. The Marines." has been nominated BEST SLOGAN for the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. More than just a slogan, these three sentences represent what Marines are all about, epitomizing the challenge of becoming (The Few), and the reward of being (The Proud), one of the elite (The Marines). Suffice it to say, Few slogans convey such a Proud tradition. With your help, we now have the opportunity to immortalize these words as an American cultural icon....

Des Moines, Iowa (AP) -- Republican Fred Thompson, whose entry into the presidential race has been long anticipated, will officially launch his candidacy Sept. 6 in a webcast on his campaign site, followed by a five-day tour of early primary states, The Associated Press has learned. The preliminary campaign of the former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" actor is to disclose details about how he will formally enter the race in a Thursday afternoon conference call with supporters. House parties will be held nationwide on Sept. 6. A tour of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will quickly follow...

Email from Move America ForwardFriends, we have just three days until Move America Forward launches the historic "Fight for Victory Tour" - at a time when the "mother of all battles" is taking place about whether to cut off support for the missions of our troops serving in the war on terrorism. We've posted the route we will take (with driving directions) for the first 3 days of the caravan at our website: http://www.MoveAmericaForward.org - that info is located via  link just below the map on the front page.  We'll also distribute directions for each day of the caravan...