Free Republic

The Democratic Party of Japan won the Lower House election by a landslide Sunday and was poised to grab more than 300 seats in the 480-seat chamber. The victory by the main opposition party would end more than half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. It would also usher in DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama, 62, as the new prime minister by mid-September. As of 11:40 p.m., the DPJ-led opposition camp had already secured 296 seats against just 100 for the LDP-New Komeito ruling bloc, early results from Kyodo said. Flush with victory, DPJ executives started...

Attorney David T. Hardy sums it up nicely: The courtroom equivalent of "the dog ate my homework. Five times."... The prosecutor is trying to dodge and weave on why certain important documents were not disclosed to the defense, despite a court order, and neither the judge nor the defense attorney is giving him an inch of slack.

After calling for a regional military alliance under the banner of the Islam's messianic "Mahdi," Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, along with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is continuing the push for a regional "resistance" army against Israel and the United States. Last week, WND reported Ayatollah Khamenei had called on the nations of Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan to unite militarily in response to the imminent coming of the Mahdi. According to a report in Al Arabiya, the purpose for uniting was to raise up a unified regional resistance to fight Israel and the U.S. - seen as the two greatest...

American voters are not satisfied with the amount "Hopey Changey" they have gotten since election day. According to the latest Rasmussen Poll , 57% of voters would vote to fire the entire Congress and start all over by replacing them with a new set of "representatives." Only 25% would keep the group we have now. Even though they are the party in control, only a plurality of Democrats (43%) want to keep the entire Congress.On the other hand, the vast majority of Independents (70%) would "throw all the bums out." Republicans, not surprisingly, overwhelmingly support replacing everyone in the Congress.

I made the mistake of making a contribution to the RNC a couple of years ago. They called early one Sunday morning after I had just learned that a friend had passed away. I blessed out the caller and told them to never call my house again. Since then I get calls from them on every day of the week and all hours of the day and night. When I pick up the phone there is a long silence and then they hang up.

WEST TISBURY, Mass. — President Barack Obama spent his last day on a Martha's Vineyard vacation buying ice cream treats at a general store and a cookie at a nearby deli. Obama and his daughters took a quick Sunday morning trip to Alley's General Store. Wearing a White Sox cap and jeans, the president made an unscheduled stop at the small village just up the street from his rented Chilmark farm. The jaunt was one of the few times reporters have seen the president in public with his daughters.

As the palette of artificial sweeteners has grown and manufacturers have honed the skill with which they blend them to mimic sugar taste, debate has swirled around whether these sensory stand-ins really help people consume fewer calories and avoid weight gain. New research adds another dimension to the uncertainty: It suggests that even when artificial sweeteners fool the taste buds, they still don't fool the ultimate arbiter of our appetites -- our subconscious brains. The latest evidence for this comes from a brain scanning study performed in the Netherlands. Paul Smeets, a neuroscientist at University Medical Center Utrecht, used a...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin missed a great opportunity to personally kick off an issue of enormous importance to her state and to the nation.She was scheduled to appear with me at an Alaska Family Council event in Anchorage to launch Alaska’s Parental Involvement Initiative, which will require parental notification of teenage girls under age 18 before they can get an abortion. But, the schedules of we mortals cannot retard the imperatives of history, so, despite Mrs. Palin’s absence, we’ve gone to war with the army we have.Currently 35 states have laws that require either parental consent or notification in...

NEW YORK — Police say attackers used health care reform as a ruse to approach their victims and then shot two and pistol-whipped another in a Long Island home. Suffolk County police said Saturday that a 26-year-old woman was arrested on attempted murder and burglary charges in the attack Friday in Huntington. Two men were arrested on the same charges earlier. Information on the suspects' arraignments wasn't immediately available Saturday night. Police say the three told the home's residents they were selling insurance, referring to President Barack Obama's push to overhaul America's health care system. Police say the suspects then...

I read this letter and response, and tried to form something, anything in my head as commentary. I read both letters, went back to Sen. Kennedy's letter, re-read sentences ... then just closed the screen. "I'm not here to kick Teddy around," I told myself. "He did a good enough job himself." But I noticed the stated - against the death penalty - and the unstated - except when it came to children in the womb. I noticed how "human failings" covered a rather broad assortment of activities from sexual assault to habitual drunkenness to manslaughter.

The editors of The Fashion Time Magazine present this week’s glamour girls, the most couture-pleasing, stylishly appealing, best dressed celebs that garnered our attention. Katie Cassidy regaled us with her sexiness at Nylon Magazine’s TV Issue Launch Party opting for an animal printed Nicole Miller dress. She completed her look with Rock & Republic raspberry pumps.

MILFORD -- A 1907 catalog of the New Haven County Historical Society listed several rare and odd items, including a necklace from an Egyptian mummy, slave chains, a small block of wood from the Old South Bridge in Concord, Mass., which the British guarded at the start of the Revolutionary War. But lot 23 in the inventory -- "a skull of an American soldier, one of 42 who died of the 200 in a destitute and sickly condition that were brought from a British prison ship ... and suddenly cast upon the shore of the town of Milford on the...

I hope that President Obama and his family enjoyed their week's vacation on Martha's Vineyard, because what he faces on his return to Washington is sheer hell. Obama confronted a daunting situation when he took office back in January, with a sickening economic slide and the real threat of financial crisis. But he was buoyed then by the momentum of his historic election victory and the widespread hope that it stirred -- even among those who had not voted for him. He launched a series of ambitious initiatives and, while only the economic stimulus package came to quick fruition, there...

JAPAN'S Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked Taro Aso as its leader a year ago in the hope he would turn around its sagging fortunes and preserve its five-decade grip on power. Instead, he led the conservative, pro-business LDP to a historic defeat in a general election yesterday. Aso said he took responsibility for the loss after media projections showed the LDP had shed two-thirds of its seats in the lower house election, adding the party should pick a successor soon. After Mr Aso became the party's fourth leader in four years last September

Contact: Margaret, Priests for Life, 888-735-3448 ext. 251   STATEN ISLAND, NY, Aug. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, today issued the following statement on the passing of Robert Schindler, Sr., father of Terri Schiavo.   "Bob Schindler remains an inspiration. In spite of enduring the heartbreaking, court ordered killing of his daughter, Terry Schiavo, Bob never stopped fighting for the rights of others who were disabled or medically vulnerable. His quiet strength in the face of persecution and his compassion for those who were too weak to defend themselves will forever serve as examples...

...arlier this month the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office delivered its latest revenue-raising options for Senate and House consideration as they write this fall's tax and budget legislation. Tucked away in the report are several incendiary plans that could — if adopted — cost homeowners billions of dollars. Though not formal legislative proposals, the CBO's options represent a handy fiscal menu for legislators to pick and choose from to reduce the deficit — now at unprecedented levels — or to pay for new programs they might want to advance. Tops on the CBO's hit list for housing: Slash deductions for homeowner...

Worth watching.

Thousands of representatives of the world’s religions will convene in Australia for the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions. An estimated 8,000-12,000 people will meet in Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 3-9, 2009, to dialogue, build interfaith relationships, and discuss critical issues facing the global community. Adherents of a wide range of religious traditions will be present including: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i Jain, and Zoroastrian. “The Parliament event is a place where people come together to encounter ‘the other,’” organizers state in the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) website. “This encounter can lead to a...

CLICK ON EACH ONE OF THESE TO GET A FULL-SIZE PDF OF IT:..AND FIND MANY OTHER POSTERS HEREALSO -- Find links to the artwork to make 300dpi POSTERS at the bottom of that.

Amanda Kurowski is a 10-year-old homeschooled girl who performs well academically and is socially well-adjusted. But her strong Christian beliefs were reason enough for a New Hampshire court to order her out of homeschooling and into a public school. The daughter of divorced parents, Amanda has been homeschooled by her mother, Brenda Voydatch since first grade. Her father, Martin Kurowski, is opposed to homeschooling, arguing that it prevents "adequate socialization" for Amanda with other children. He requested that she be placed in a government school. In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the...