Free Republic

When the new GI Bill kicks in Aug. 1, the government's best-known education program for veterans will get the biggest boost since its World War II-era creation. But the benefit is hardly the "Government Issue," one-size-fits-all standard the name implies. In fact, depending on where service members and veterans decide to attend college, they could receive a full ride, or very little. An Associated Press review of state-by-state benefits under the new bill shows huge discrepancies in the amount veterans can receive. (snip) But Congress also wanted to help veterans attend often pricier private schools. So the new bill offers...

Here is a video report about Fox News' interview with Sarah Palin. Palin also did interviews with CNN and NBC's Andrea Mitchell. Reporter Dan Springer says Palin seemed "bitter" as she talked to him about the unfair treatment she and her family received from the media. . . . . (Watch Video)

SNIPPET: "Each of the 52 victims is represented by a three-metre-high stainless steel pillar, with the pillars arranged in four groups which represent the locations of the bombings. A plaque with the victims' names has also been placed in the grass banks at the eastern end of the memorial."

Wal-Mart, the company the left loves to hate, has crawled in bed with Obama Recent press reports, including a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, have the news that Wal-Mart has signed a letter to President Obama endorsing the idea of an “employer mandate” – a requirement that employers offer health insurance to their employees.Why would Wal-Mart – the nation’s largest employer – endorse such an idea?Simple: It would cripple many of their competitors. (Source: Heritage Foundation) Back in the 80's and early 90's Wal-Mart and Microsoft prided themselves on staying far away from politics: No lobbyists and no...

A current events lesson from Gary North: The global warming movement is not about global warming. It is about the creation of an international political control arrangement by which bureaucrats who favor socialism can gain control over the international economy. This strategy was stated boldly by economist Robert Heilbroner in 1990. Heilbroner, the multi-millionaire socialist and author of the best-selling history of economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, wrote the manifesto for these bureaucrats. He did this in an article, "Reflections: After Communism," published by The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990). In this article, he made an astounding admission. He said...

Marion Barry—master politician, crack aficionado, crazy man, national treasure for reporters (and still married, btw!)—says he didn't really stalk his girlfriend last weekend, as much as he had a "spat" with her, but she's unstable. Or...something. So Marion Barry is still technically married but he and his wife have been separated for years, and he has an ex-girlfriend named Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, and she and Barry decided to take a drive up to Rehoboth Beach, but somewhere around Annapolis they got in a spat and decided to turn around and go home, and then a few hours later Marion Barry was...

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras. That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints. "I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Examiner. "It's designed to circumvent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives." The new technology streams to i-Phones and global positioning system devices, sounding off...

U.S. must be open to second economic stimulus: Hoyer Tue Jul 7, 2009 12:02pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday that leaders need to be open to the possibility of a second stimulus package to further boost the ailing economy.

Lindsay Lohan introduced her spray tanning product with much fanfare, claiming she and a colleague worked years perfecting it. But a St. Petersburg chemist claims the pair stole her formula after negotiations broke down for them to buy it. Jennifer Sunday is suing Lohan and the movie star's business partner, Lorit Simons, for lost profits and royalties, as well as punitive damages. "They were on notice [Sunday] had taken steps to protect her product, her formula, and they ignored it totally," Marcia S. Cohen, one of Sunday's attorneys, said this morning.

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out today by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United States,...

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here .

Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical -- Caritas in Veritate -- arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It's not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church's social teaching, "Love in Truth" will be a work of lasting significance.   Those who dig through the document to see whether it leans left or right will be disappointed: There is something here for everybody. For the Left, anxious to set the scene for President Barack Obama's meeting with Benedict in a few days, there are plenty of...

Jamie Kirchick, Rick Richman, and J.G. Thayer have offered persuasive comments on the Honduran crisis, which is rapidly turning into a kind of political Rorschach test. If you are the Christian Science Monitor, you sigh that “The fact a military coup occurred apparently against U.S. wishes suggests how American dominance in the region has waned,” a verdict that nicely condemns Zelaya’s ouster as a coup, insinuates that the U.S. may secretly have been involved in it, and uses the occasion to applaud the decline and fall of the American Empire. If, like the Obama Administration, you want to “engage” America’s...

The biggest number of Westerners arrived from Austria and Switzerland. Some were Communists, others had worked at institutions in Soviet-occupied Austria that were later closed. Many were scientists and medics whose expertise the GDR needed. "SOMETHING PRECIOUS" Rapoport, a pediatrician, was one of them. Born in 1912 in the former German colony of Cameroon, she grew up in Hamburg and studied medicine but emigrated to the United States in 1938 because the Nazis wouldn't let her complete her studies. Her family has Jewish roots and the horrors of fascism turned her toward Communism. "I was quite religious when I was...

We recently reported that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.) had introduced a resolution to honor Michael Jackson. (Oddly enough, the legislation was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.)The full text of that resolution has been published, and it's….long.The legislation lists Jackson's accomplishments in endless detail, from his #1 hits to the details of his charity work. At the conclusion, the legislation resolves that Congress (1) recognizes Michael Jackson as a global humanitarian and a noted leader in the fight against worldwide hunger and medical crises; and(2) celebrates Michael Jackson as an accomplished contributor to the worlds of arts and entertainment,...

Congressman John Murtha, the King of Congressional Pork acts may be losing his Teflon coating and his friends are getting a bit nervous. A few months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group. What they found suggested that Murtha and his buddies at the PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. A later report suggested that the FBI may be zeroing in on the relationship between Murtha and PMA. No worries for Mr. Murtha, despite the FBI putting the heat on his PMA relationship, the Porkmeister is is still accepting money from PMA clients and still...

There are two places you don't want to be if you value your safety. One is laid up in a trailer with Sweet Thang watching "Green Acres" reruns when a tornado strikes. The other is standing between the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a hot microphone when a black celebrity dies. Just think of a famous black person who has died within the past 30 years. Now try to picture Jesse not at the funeral. You can bet your last copy of "Thriller" that when Michael Jackson is laid to rest today, Jesse will be there. The reverend has become a...

When historians track the beginnings of the second American Revolution, their search will take them to Morristown, N.J., just like the first time. And like the first, it will have started with a tax revolt, and anger at an unresponsive government Something is happening in this country. And it would be not only arrogant, but unwise, for our elected officials to ignore it. In the past, movements like the July 4 national Tea Parties were usually sparsely populated by libertarians, radicals and reactionaries. This movement has them too, but with a whole lot more regular folks. The crowd Saturday at...

Governor Palin’s decision to resign as governor of Alaska so that she could, “advance in another direction,” was a brilliant political move. She senses, or sees, or grasps what few in politics understand today. Americans are tired of the same old, same old — be it Republican, Democratic, or even Green Party.

Iran's new government will suffer because it lacks credibility and protests against it will go on, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says. Appearing in public for the first time in nearly three weeks Monday, Mousavi did not call for street demonstrations against the disputed July 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but encouraged his backers to pursue change "within the framework of the law," The Washington Post reported. The newspaper said Mousavi made the remarks in front of about 200 guests at the Iranian Academy of the Arts during a holiday commemorating the Shiite saint, Imam Ali. A local journalist...