Free Republic

MSNBC reports Harry Reid does not have enough votes to pass the cap-and-trade bill.

A Northwest Airlines jet traveling from Hong Kong to Tokyo last Tuesday suffered a series of equipment and computer malfunctions strikingly similar to those encountered by Air France Flight 447 just before it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on May 31. The Northwest plane and its passengers, however, emerged unscathed. Details of the harrowing incident – described in a memo by one of the Northwest pilots and confirmed Friday by others familiar with the matter – highlight how cockpit crews can safely cope with something that is almost never supposed to happen: a system breakdown that prevented the crew from...

"Seagulls have learned to feed on whales by landing on their backs and just pecking away at the skin and blubber -- something never seen in any other part of the world... "You see big open sores, which we thought were pock marks of infection. Some are half a metre across and the edges look like thousands of bites."

HB 2439, the AzCDL-requested CCW training reform bill that now includes “Petty Offense” language for carrying concealed without a permit, passed out of the Senate Committee of the Whole (COW) this evening (6/26/09). As a bonus, the Senate voted to add the language of SB 1243, the AzCDL-requested Defensive Display bill, via an amendment offered by Senator Russell Pearce. Like we mentioned in our last Alert, HB 2439 has the shortest path to go to get to the Governor before the session ends in just a few days. It’s critical that we keep the pressure on the Legislature. The Senate...

Ever since Barack Obama declared his candidacy for president, it’s been easy — and great fun — to spotlight when his promises and statements come with “expiration dates.” The list is long: Public financing. Renegotiating NAFTA. His promise to support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. His inability to disown Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The release of detainee photos. Denouncing Turkey for genocide. Flip-flops are nothing new in politics, but every once in a while, a president breaks a promise or an important pledge on such an epic level that it defines him, at least...

Twitter may have broke the story, but the increase in search traffic at Google Thursday was first seen as a malware attack Google admitted. The Google News site had to shut down briefly leaving a message that read: "We're sorry, but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now." Yahoo saw a record number of unique visitors for a day with 16.4 million visitors. It was also their single most visited story in their history.

COVE — What was supposed to be the first camping trip of the season for Wesley and Lisa Wynn of Cove unexpectedly turned into a nightmare on Mount Fanny that they will never forget. Road access to the Moss Spring campgrounds had just opened up, and the Wynns were eager to get away from it all and enjoy the quiet of the mountains for a couple of days. They arrived at the site mid-afternoon on Sunday, June 7, and set up camp. They brought their two quarterhorses with them and their dogs, Corona, an 8-year-old black lab, border collie mix...

I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson. I don't mean personally. Personally, I think he should have been institutionalized. I mean I was never a huge fan of his music. The last live concert I went to was a reunion of the Limeliters and the Kingston Trio which, I believe, was "Presented by Depends". Which is another reason why I never get invited out much. As for Farrah Fawcett, I never watched "Charlie's Angels" but any normally aspirated male couldn't help but take a second peek at that poster of her in that red one-piece swimsuit. She was...

Oscar Levant, a famous pianist and media star of the 1930s and ’40s, battled for decades against mental illness, surviving several painful hospitalizations. He once declared: “There is a fine line between insanity and genius. I have erased that line.” The late Michael Jackson erased the same line—and blurred many other distinctions in the course of his extraordinary career. In an unprecedented way, he obliterated the dividing line between black and white in terms of personal identity and mass appeal. He developed a vast crossover audience of white fans (and international fans in every continent), at the same time that...

We watched as he answered the truly stupid Ms. Kaptur… also from Ohio…without the urge to leap across the table and strangle her. It was Ms. Kaptur who only a year or so ago began her round of questions to Dr. Bernanke with the statement, “Mr. Treasury Secretary.” Dr. Bernanke said, very calmly, “I am not the Treasury Secretary.” Ms. Kaptur responded in a stament that should be entered into the Hall of Fame of Congressional faux pas, “Who are you then, Sir?” She did not recognize the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and she’s in a position of...

Finding new sources of revenue is a top priority for the happy-go-spendy Congress. But one taxation option that could have caused U.S. companies to cut millions of jobs just got taken off the table – for now. That option would have reversed a longstanding U.S. tax exemption for U.S. businesses that operate branches abroad and don’t bring those profits back stateside If the tax exemption were reversed, business owners could simply relocate their base operations abroad to avoid paying up – if they didn’t, they could risk losing a competitive advantage to foreign competitors who weren’t subject to the tax....

It seems every day there is another example of media deception in America. With the Fourth of July approaching, it is well worth remembering why the Founding Fathers gave the press special privileges. They wanted journalists to report honestly, to give the folks accurate, unbiased information so they could make informed decisions about who should hold power. Many of the Founders, like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, didn't much like the press, but they understood that, for a democratic Republic to work, voters need honest information. Unfortunately, the vision of a free and honest press is fast disappearing in America....

A leading Iranian religious leader has called for the execution of "rioters" who have led a series of anti-government protests following the country's disputed June 12 presidential election. Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, told worshippers during a sermon at Friday prayers that Iran's judiciary should charge such rioters as "mohareb", or one who wages war against God. "Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," Khatami said in the nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University. "We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests,...

“It is a small state, and yet there are those who love it.” Sen. Daniel Webster, arguing the Dartmouth case before the Supreme Court, actually said “college,” not “state.” But the paraphrase is apropos for my state and yours alike in a summer when the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has everyone talking about Senators and justices. We in Colorado do love this smallish state of ours, and folks probably have similar feelings in your state , whatever its size. Jealousy for each state's prerogatives of self-government is in order as Justice Souter departs and federal power metastasizes. “Don’t tread on...

CONGRESSIONAL VOTES...

Opening in select theaters today, "The Stoning of Soraya M." is a movie based on a true story, depicting how women behind the Muslim curtain are victimized by corrupt forces wielding Shariah law to justify and cover their tyranny. WND interviewed Stephen McEveety, maker of cutting-edge films such as "An American Carol" and "The Passion of the Christ" and producer of "The Stoning of Soraya M." "When we started this movie, I had no idea that it would be as relevant as it has become today, on the date we're releasing the film," McEveety said. "Now, with the elections turning...

With dozens of lawsuits filed over access to Barack Obama's certified long-form birth certificate, many more lawyers working on his behalf to keep it secret and the validity of the U.S. Constitution hanging in the balance, guess where a "certified copy" of the original Mombasa "document" has been found? On eBay. Item No. 160344374585, at least as of today, is described as "a certified copy of President Barack Obama's Kenyan Birth Certificate." The seller, identified by the user name " colmado_naranja," states, "President Barack Hussein Obama II was born in The Coast Provincial Hospital at Mombasa in Kenya at 7:24...

PRESIDENT Obama knows health-care policy. Give him an hour and a half to hold forth, as ABC News obligingly did this week, and he will invariably impress with his fluidity. This makes it all the more remarkable that he often appears unable to understand how his health-care program threatens private insurance. At a recent press conference, Obama argued that the very notion of it doesn't compute: "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best-quality health care, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government -- which they say can't...

As many of you know the House passed the Cap and Trade bill. There were eight pubs who helped the dems pass this thing; Bono Mack (CA), Castle (DE), Kirk (IL), Lance (NJ), Lobiondo (NJ) , McHugh (NY), Reichart (WA) and Chris Smith (NJ). It will now go to the Senate where let's pray it doesn't see the light of day.

The New York Times Company hopes to sell a newspaper in central Massachusetts along with The Boston Globe and wants the buyer of the papers to take on $59 million in pension liabilities. It intends to make a deal quite quickly, according to a letter sent to potential bidders. The confidential letter from the company’s investment bankers at Goldman Sachs, which was obtained by a Times reporter, says the company will focus on getting the highest price and “on the certainty and speed with which bidders can sign a definitive agreement and complete an acquisition.” It sets a July 8...