Free Republic

Libya is planning a celebrations on the scale of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Gaddafi to power. Libyan women walk in front of a billboard showing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi celebrating his 40th anniversary If anything, the superlatives will be even greater as Beijing 2008 did not boast the world's largest tent, 1,000 camels, Toureg nomads or 40 hot air balloons. Performers are being flown in from all over the planet, from dancers and fireworks specialists to brass band from Wales. The giant tent, and the stage within it,...

The more I do my own "watch-dogging" of progressive "watchdog" Media Matters the happier I am that I never got the researcher job that I applied for with them years ago when I was still a leftist. What a painfully boring, mind-numbing job it must be to be one of their "researchers" having to try and create something out of nothing. I can only try and put myself in the shoes of "J.K.F." the researcher who wrote up yesterday's "Conservative Media Call Review of Interrogations a 'War on the CIA": Following Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that a federal prosecutor...

Reporting from Mexico City - A Mexican lawyer who has represented some of the country's best-known drug suspects was stabbed to death outside his home, authorities said Saturday. Americo Delgado was ambushed Friday evening by at least three men in the city of Toluca, an hour or so outside Mexico City, police said. He was stabbed in the neck, officials said. They did not identify a possible motive. Over the years, Delgado, said to be 81, has represented a number of prominent drug figures, including Tijuana crime boss Benjamin Arellano Felix and Jesus Amezcua, one of the so-called "methamphetamine kings."...

You may remember the video of the police officer who tried to deny the man attending Moran's town hall meeting his right to carry his sign because he didn't like the picture on it. I wrote to the Fairfax County Police to complain about this and I received a reply today. Here is the reply. My original message follows: Wesley Cheeks is NOT a Fairfax County police officer, he is a security officer employed by the Fairfax County Public Schools. You may go to http://www.fcps.edu to contact the School's Department of Communication and Community Outreach concerning this matter. They may...

In a breaking story, The Louisiana Weekly and Bayoubuzz.com have learned that the hero of Hurricane recovery, General Russell Honore is seriously considering entering the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate seat against incumbent David Vitter. Honore, a Republican since the Reagan Administration and a registered Louisiana voter from his Zachary home, has spoken to friends and supporters in the last two weeks signaling that he is, according to one, "more than 50% sure that he will run." The news comes mere hours after Third District Congressman Charlie Melancon announced his firm intention to be the Democratic challenger to David...

Michael Vick's dog fighting was hideous, but what would you say to a blood sport that features animal combatants that are subjected to electrocution, burning and near drowning? Even more amazing, contestants fighting their animals are as young as 12! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the comic within this thread. Thanks a bunch!

Flashback to 9/11 and imagine the reaction if George Bush stood with the firemen amid the smoldering ruins and said the United States government will prosecute CIA interrogators for blowing cigar smoke in the face of the terrorist masterminds. The Bush administration would have been overthrown by the Honduran military. Seven years later and all common sense seems to be going up in smoke. Long gone are the images of Green Berets on horseback. Ranches, action heroes, and slap shots are out. Social media massages are in. The quitters can eat a hockey puck. The White House is white, not...

A former Guantánamo guard who had flown to the UK to address a support group for inmates of the camp is to be deported back to the US this morning after being denied entry on arrival at Heathrow airport yesterday. Terry Holdbrooks, who has been an outspoken critic of the US government over the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo, said that immigration officials told him he was being refused entry because he was unemployed and living in rented accommodation in the US, raising suspicions he would not leave the UK. The former soldier, who converted to Islam after discussions with...

The president marked the fourth anniversary of Hurrican Katrina by remarking on his administration's preparedness for the next storm and other disaster. He first used a dubious statistic. He claimed that over 1000 people died as a result of Hurrican Katrina, though he also once claimed that 10,000 people died from a tornado in Kansas.

Savor the silence of America's self-serving champions of privacy. For once, the American Civil Liberties Union has nothing bad to say about the latest case of secret domestic surveillance -- because it was the ACLU that did the spying. Last week, The Washington Post reported on a new Justice Department inquiry into photographs of undercover CIA officials and other intelligence personnel taken by ACLU-sponsored researchers assisting the defense team of Guantanamo Bay detainees. According to the report, the pictures of covert American CIA officers -- "in some cases surreptitiously taken outside their homes" -- were shown to jihadi suspects tied...

(WARNING: Extreme hypocrisy alert! If what you read below revolts you, don't say you weren't warned in advance).Did you know that there is a new religion out there? In addition to the Eastern Orthodox Catholics, Anglican Catholics, and Roman Catholics, there is now something called "Kennedy Catholics." At least according to the suddenly devout William Rivers Pitt in his DUmmie THREAD, "For any and all Kennedy Catholics on this page." Fasten your seatbelts because you will see the exact same folks who have no problem cursing out people who attend real (not Kennedy) Catholic churches suddenly become exceeding reverent,...

I was working as an intern in the office of then-Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale in the summer of 1969. Senator Kennedy's office was down the hall and around the corner from Mondale's on the fourth floor of the old Senate Office Building, if I remember correctly, but his cramped mail room was next door to Mondale's office. The Chappaquiddick accident that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne occurred that July. Last month, in connection with the fortieth anniversary of the accident, Robert George and Dermot Quinn revisited the basic facts of the Chappaquiddick story. In the immediate aftermath of...

Mark Steyn: Things only a Kennedy could get away with And by not calling his bluff on Chappaquiddick, Americans became complicit in it. We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation – or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture – declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists. In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a...

BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 28 -- In what has become a sadly familiar ritual, about 100 students huddled together Friday on the Drillfield at the heart of the Virginia Tech campus, weeping and singing hymns as they mourned two slain classmates. Heidi Childs, 18, and David Metzler, 19, bright and promising students who were active in Campus Crusade for Christ, were found fatally shot Thursday morning in a national park about 15 miles from campus. Police said Friday that they had no suspects.

The week in pictures: 28 August 2009 Hindu holy men chant mantras and pray in the Varuna Yajna ritual to appease the rain god at the Sankara Mattham in Mumbai

But don't worry. Obama would only take over the internet in an "emergency." Then why does it make me uneasy that this Chicago Way pol gets to define what an "emergency" might be? Declan McCullagh writing for CNET: They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. The new version would allow...

The palpable hunger for new leadership in the GOP makes most interesting the 2010 Senate run in Louisiana reportedly being mulled by Hurricane Katrina hero General Russell L. Honoré, for the seat currently held by David Vitter, seriously damaged by his name turning up in the client list of a prostitution ring in Washington DC, in 2007. One primary opponent announced yesterday, US Rep. Charlie Melancon. Shortly afterward, this intriguing post appeared in Bayoubuzz.com: The Louisiana Weekly and Bayoubuzz.com have learned that the hero of Hurricane recovery, General Russell Honore is seriously considering entering the Republican Primary for the U.S....

FERNDALE, Mich. (Aug. 28) -- Police say a first date went from bad to worse when a Detroit man skipped out on the restaurant bill, then stole his date's car...

While I was away, there was a big debate about how Barack Obama might sort out America’s healthcare system, which, say the critics, is chronically awful and fantastically unfair. It’s also bonkers. I was once denied treatment at a Detroit hospital because the receptionist’s computer refused to acknowledge that the United Kingdom existed. Even though I had a wad of cash, and a wallet full of credit cards, she was prepared to let me explode all over her desk because her stupid software only recognised addresses in the United States. Some say America should follow Canada’s lead, where private care...

I've made a decision. After thoughtful reflection I've come to the conclusion that my life can have no greater purpose than to sacrifice it for the sake of another. But this sacrifice cannot be for some Jack Nobody. No, I am looking to lay my life down for a very specific type of person. If you are a young person of privilege, perhaps the black sheep of your family, and have an alarming drinking problem and been thrown out of an ivy league university, you might be the person I am looking for! Oh, quick question, were you a legacy...