Free Republic

ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl on Sunday hyperbolically declared that the Kennedys are "America’s family." Reporting on the funeral of Ted Kennedy for the August 30 Good Morning America, the reporter read a letter from the Senator to the Pope about his Catholic faith and how it sustained him in life. Karl opined, "...Kennedy did a better job summing up his own life than any of the other hundreds of eulogies we have heard over the last days." Describing the assembled clan at the funeral, Karl boldly asserted, "In the front, the Kennedys, America's family. Four generations shaped by the man...

Law enforcement officers enforce all laws impartially. Stalinst thugs enforce selected laws selectively. The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Central Intelligence Agency for alleged abuses of captured terror suspects such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. ...We are sure that Mr. Holder agrees that a civilized country's laws must apply to all: high and low, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat alike. Enforcement of a country's laws against one segment of society but not another is characteristic of Third World dictatorships, banana republics, and military juntas that prosecute, purge, and even...

Let's see if we can get some folks to attend John Kerry's townhall this Wednesday evening. It's in Somerville, MA - city next to Cambridge and an old working class city that has become leftwing infested. The reason John Kerry is holding his here is that he knows there are not many of us left that are registered republicans. He knows he's going to have a very friendly audience...unless....we can jam in there. This is the 8th congressional district - Tip Oniel's old district and now Capuano's district. Left of left. If we can stop them here then we can...

A controversy is swirling in Boston over whether the city should have cleaned-up the area surrounding Edward Kennedy’s funeral service. The late Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would have wanted the city to refrain from cleaning up the neighborhood surrounding the “Mission Church,” which attracted the eyes of the world for his Saturday funeral, says a Boston City Councilor. “If something big happens then there’s a lot of effort to make it look really sparkling and have everybody impressed,” said Councilor Chuck Turner. “The reality is that I think Senator Kennedy would have thought it would have been appropriate to not do...

Yoshio Matsumoto was among the 110,000 Japanese-Americans seemingly bound for an internment camp soon after America entered World War II when a university he knew nothing about from a far off part of the country agreed to take him in.

In local German elections, the successor to East Germany's Communist Party makes major inroads, a potential challenge for Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of national elections in September. PARIS – Sunday’s local German elections favoring left parties were variously described as “a wake up call,” a “shock,” and a “setback” for Chancellor Angela Merkel. But while the results may affect her plans for Germany’s next governing coalition, few analysts expect the popular German leader will lose national elections scheduled for Sept. 27. Nevertheless, the former Communist Party of East Germany, now known as the Left Party, made startling gains in the...

MOSCOW, August 31 (Itar-Tass) - The events of the past must not darken relations between Russia and Poland that should be freed of the mistrust burden, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an article published by the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper on the eve of his working visit to the country. “The shadows of the past must not darken any more the present, and the more so, the tomorrow of our cooperation. It is our duty to the past generations, history itself, to do everything to free the Russian-Polish relations from the burden of mistrust and bias we inherited,...

Fortune magazine's cover says Zipcar is the best new idea. Zipcar has already persuaded hundreds of thousands of young urbanites to share wheels. Now the movement is going mainstream – and players like Hertz and Ford want in. Watch video and decide...

A new sunspot is emerging about 15o north of the sun's equator: map. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK: "It is small, but a welcome sight, especially after the current long run of no surface activity," he says. Indeed, if this active region consolidates into a true dark-cored sunspot, it will break a string of nearly 52 spotless days, one of the longest quiet spells of the current solar minimum. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

President Obama is expected to moderate a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in late September, a discussion that could lead to the resumption of peace negotiations, Israeli President Shimon Peres told FOX News. In an exclusive interview, Peres said plans are for Abbas and Netanyahu to meet at the end of September at the United Nations. "Yes, I think they will meet by the end of September. President Obama will chair it, and I think that at least there is a chance that they will decide they are going to reopen negotiations," Peres...

Andrew Sullivan, a writer for whom I once had great respect but whose work I long ago ceased following, throws his usual hit fit over my recent item on how the CIA is being reshackled in the war on terror. He claims that my reference to “aggressive interrogation of captured terrorists” is “The Latest Euphemism From the Torture Party” and challenges me to defend these interrogation practices in plain English.

Karen Inbody has just about three weeks to figure out Plan B. The 58-year-old divorcee has been getting by on unemployment compensation since her layoff in early 2008, but she’s nearly reached the end of her benefits. And even though she's applied for dozens of jobs, the former rental property manager has come up empty.

The womyn from Code Pink are traveling to Afghanistan for a week of treasonous actions under the guise of a womyn's rights field trip.Code Pink pitches the trip with a chance to get introduced to the Afghan resistance:Join CODEPINK's small delegation to Kabul, Afghanistan to witness the current situation and return home to speak about it on the 8th anniversary of the US invasion. Our trip will include a meaningful introduction to Afghanistan's rich history and culture, struggle and resistance,... Their pending presence must present a difficult choice for the Taliban: Heads up, or heads off?At any rate, or to...

Here is video of a Syracuse weatherman from WSYR-TV getting stung by a bee during a live broadcast outside. . . . . (Watch Video)

This tea's been brewing awhile Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff Where was the "Tea Party" movement before now? That was the incredulous, sniping demand of CNN "news" anchor Tony Harris, who gives almost as much opinion as news. Harris was interviewing an organizer of the Tea Party Express -- a caravan that will ride from Sacramento, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to dramatize growing concern among many Americans about the out-of-control federal government. Harris and Co. don't get it, largely because they don't want to get it. They want to couch this brewing revolt as a partisan thing, as an anti-Obama thing...

WAKE UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION! All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread!

RANCHO SANTA FE, CA - Carrie Prejean’s attorney, Charles S. LiMandri announced today that the former Miss California USA is filing a complaint in the Superior Court of California against Miss California USA officials Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, and publicist Roger Neal. The complaint cites damages to Miss Prejean including libel, public disclosure of private facts, religious discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Miss Prejean was fired from her role as Miss California USA in June of this year, following several months of controversy over her answer at the Miss USA pageant regarding...

THE number of homeowners whose mortgages exceed the value of their home — who are “underwater,” in industry parlance — recently hit a grim milestone.

Seeking to revive a lawsuit against a gun manufacturer over a teenager’s accidental but fatal shooting of a friend, lawyers for the Illinois parents of the dead boy have asked the Supreme Court to strike down a four-year-old federal law that shields the industry from many — but not all — lawsuits. The petition in Adames, et al. v. Beretta USA Corp., filed last Monday and docketed as 09-253, can be downloaded here [1]. That file includes the appendix. For a link only to the Illinois Supreme Court decison rejecting the constitutional challenge, click here [2]. The 2005 law –...

Have a hankering to visit a hospital in Hawaii? You could win a trip to tour the hospital where President Barack Obama was born. All you have to do is to submit the winning idea on how people can help Obama change the country for the better. Progress Now, a liberal grass roots group, launched a new program to urge people across the country to help Obama pass healthcare reform and enact his other core campaign promises. According to a press release, this campaign is the first part of the national launch of the ‘50 Ways You Can Help Obama...