Free Republic

When the Cox family of Novato unpacked from a weekend coast trip, they were initially humored by what looked like a small kitten that had sneaked in through a front door they had propped open as they brought bags inside. "My son J.D. said, 'Look, a kitten came in the house,'" said Kim Cox, recalling the events that occurred about noon Sunday. "We all thought it was a kitten, and he was wandering around the living room. But then it freaked out and hid underneath the couch." The Coxes, a self-described "dog family," then called friend Sue Hunt, who is...

Inquiry continues into Walpin firing Senator Chuck Grassley says President Obama has yet to provide Congress with a satisfactory explanation for why he fired Gerald Walpin from his position as Inspector General at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Some critics of the Walpin firing believe the inspector general was fired simply because he investigated Obama ally and Democratic Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for using AmeriCorps grant money illegally. However, in a letter to the Senate committee that oversees AmeriCorps, the White House claims Walpin was fired because he was "confused and disoriented," engaged in "inappropriate conduct," and had...

Border Patrol officials are celebrating the completion of a controversial border fencing project in a canyon called Smuggler's Gulch. As KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson tells us, Border Patrol agents say the new infrastructure makes their jobs easier. Smuggler's Gulch sits at the westernmost edge of the San Diego Tijuana border. It was a main thoroughfare for illegal crossings. But traffic has dwindled during the last decade. The majority of migrants try their luck further east. Nevertheless, in 2005, Congress allowed the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any laws that stood in the way of filling in Smuggler's Gulch to...

I think it’s a question a lot of us — both right and left — are asking right now. We originally had such high hopes for President Obama. While his wife obviously hates America, not even considering liking it until it looked like her husband might get the highest job in the land, it always seemed that Barack was at least apathetic about the existence of America. While he wouldn’t shed a tear if it was destroyed, he didn’t seem to mind it being around either. But his actions lately have shown that not to be true. First, there was...

Remember Nancy Pelosi standing in front of the House right before the vote? She was shrieking "Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs!" As it turns out, and as we suspected, this bill will NOT create jobs. It will kill jobs. It will send jobs overseas. It will stop jobs from being created. If this bill was going to create so many jobs, why is there this provision to compensate people who will lose their jobs?.......We still need oil and gas in this country. Ethanol and wind won't cut it. The cap and trade legislation and the 2010 budget both work against those...

MONTPELLIER, France (AP) — Lance Armstrong surged within a second of the Tour de France lead after his Astana squad won Tuesday's team time trial in a dramatic finish. Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara of the Saxo Bank team narrowly kept the yellow jersey lead following the fourth stage, a 24.2-mile ride in and around Montpellier. Astana needed to beat Saxo Bank by more than 40 seconds for Armstrong to take the yellow jersey. The seven-time champion started the stage in third place, and Astana exactly matched that 40-second deficit. Cancellara's team finished third. "That's Swiss timing," Cancellara said, laughing. "Time is...

Listen to the anger and betrayal at the end when she realizes that the government she has trusted her entire life screwed her over in her moment of need. Let's show this to Democrats before the vote on Nationalized health care. I'd really prefer not to have to post stories like this featuring distraught Americans who can't believe that Barack Obama's health care plan is responsible for the death their child solely because the waiting list for life-saving treatment from a specialist was too long.

"Pirates 'smuggling al-Qaeda fighters' into Somalia Somali Islamists bent on turning their land into an international haven for Al Qaeda are using pirate gangs to offer foreign militants safe passage into the country, The Sunday Telegraph has been told." SNIPPET: "The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates' services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile...

A former GOP state senator who narrowly lost a 2008 bid for Congress to Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy has formally announced he's seeking a rematch for the Columbus area seat. Republican Steve Stivers, who lost to Kilroy by a 2,312 vote margin after a month-long tallying of provisional ballots, says he expects a different 2010 result. Kilroy got 45.94 percent of the 2008 vote, while Stivers got 45.18 percent. Other candidates split the rest. "We need to put a stop to out-of-control spending, higher taxes and more debt and instead focus on helping Ohio families, encourage job creation and business...

There’s a debate about whether a government-mandated health care system would be cheaper for America.‭ ‬I thought this was obvious.‭ It’s understandably becoming hard to get to the bottom of this issue because of the words the administration uses‬.‭ ‬The administration calls it‭ “‬universal health care,‭” ‬veiling what it actually is,‭ ‬a government monopolized health care system.‭ ‬When you’re determining whether or not government ought to take over an industry,‭ ‬think of it this way:‭ ‬Which one is cheaper and provides more value‭? ‬A‭ ‬competitive free market or a monopoly‭? Everything the government has taken over has turned out wrecked,‭...

President Obama has a masterful ability to convince people he is their friend even while he attacks them. This talent was on display last Thursday July 2, when the President spoke to members of the Catholic press about conscience rights for pro-life doctors. Obama seems to be persuading even pro-life Catholics that he supports "robust" conscience rights. The theologically conservative National Catholic Register said it was "most noteworthy" that the President "dispell[ed] … the expectation of the worst regarding conscience clauses." Yet one of Obama's first actions was to repeal basic rules protecting conscience. Obama dismissed that action as an...

Basic firearms stuff:This is my rifle, this is my gun . . .” Generally speaking, the military refers to a shoulder fired firearms as rifles and uses the term gun to refer to artillery pieces. Aside from angry drill instructors, the distinction is meaningless. If someone chastises you for using the term gun, ask him what they use in a twenty one gun salute. Rules of gun safetyTreat all guns as if they are loaded. Never let the muzzle of a gun point at anything you do not want to destroy. Be absolutely sure of your target, and what is...

Vatican City, Jul 7, 2009 / 08:56 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI's highly anticipated social encyclical, titled “Love in Truth,” takes on the complex issue of what the global economy should look like. In his analysis, real development can be achieved by seeking to convert individual people, and not the economy, which is only an instrument. The global financial crisis places on display the “pernicious effects of sin,” the Holy Father said as he began the third chapter of his new encyclical. At the root of the current meltdown, the Pope explained that he finds three false convictions: that man...

Bought an aftermarket replacement battery from Ebay for $40 which is much more reasonable than the $130 Compaq charges. In any event I want to be able to maximize battery lifespan but also be able to use the battery to it's limits so as to near it's end of life so I can get a replacement if/when it fails to within a year. With the original laptop battery I tried to maximize the time the laptop was running off the battery to try this theory. I'd basically start from 100% full and then run it down to 8-10% and then...

Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor told the Puerto Rican ACLU that U.S. judges should consider foreign law in deciding unsettled issues. In an April speech, Judge Sotomayor said: “[I]nternational law and foreign law will be very important in the discussion of how we think about the unsettled issues in our own legal system....It is my hope that judges everywhere will continue to do so because . . . within the American legal system we’re commanded to interpret our law in the best way we can, and that means looking to what other, anyone, has said to see if it has...

SB 250 the Pet Responsibility Act has passed the California Assembly Committee on Business and Professions today. The vote was six for, three against. The next step for the bill is the Assembly Appropriations Committee. SB 250 requires that dogs be spayed or neutered unless their owner/guardian obtains an unaltered dog license when they license their animal. SB 250 also requires that roaming cats be spayed and neutered by their owner/guardian.

After receiving much warranted criticism for his support of the ousted Honduran president, Obama decided to defend himself. During his speech in Russia today, Obama unleashed his ‘rationalization’ for advocating Marxism...

'If You Choose To Live In This Country, You Live By Its Rules', Says Judge As She Jails Muslim Extremists For Arson Attack On Publisher's Home By Daily Mail Reporter 07th July 2009. Three men were today jailed for an arson attack on a publisher after discovering he was going to produce a book about the Prophet Mohammed and his child bride. Martin Rynja had the door to his home in Lonsdale Square, Islington, north London, doused in diesel and set ablaze in September last year. Ali Beheshti and Abrar Mirza admitted, and Abbas Taj was found guilty of, planning...

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), the organization where Barack Obama taught leadership conferences, is the noisemaker/ activist group behind a new organization. It’s officially called the “Muscle for Money” program within the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where it was started, and unofficially by the same name among activists of ACORN. Muscle for Money includes multiple techniques for creating highly aggressive, organized efforts both to pressure businesses and officials to support the activists’ agenda or to discredit and intimidate opponents of their agenda, according to present and former ACORN members, according to the San Francisco Examiner....

New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, today announced her intention to resign so that she can explore a run for the U.S. Senate, the Union Leader reports. "Recently, many New Hampshire citizens have urged me to run for United States Senate. I appreciate their confidence in me," she said in a statement. "After discussing this matter with my husband, Joe, and our family, I have decided to resign as Attorney General in order to explore a campaign." She said that the attorney general's office "has a long tradition as a nonpartisan, independent office," and she's resigning to preserve...