Free Republic

Late Monday, investigators say they found a bone fragment on the property next door to kidnapping and murder suspect Phillip Garrido. They had been searching the property since Saturday searching for possible links to unsolved crimes in the area. Few details on the bone were released, but NBC Bay Area's Jodi Hernandez reported that cadaver dogs were brought to the property in the afternoon. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were charged last week with kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991. They allegedly kept her captive in a backyard encampment of tents and sheds. They have pleaded not guilty. Garrido ran...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this week will begin accepting and rejecting the more than 1,070 invitations she has received for paid speeches and political appearances since she resigned from office, aides said. Twenty speakers’ bureaus made offers to represent her. She has signed with Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents everyone from George and Laura Bush to Bob Woodward and Katie Couric [ snort ] to Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani. More than 950 requests for speeches have poured in for Palin, and over 120 candidates for office have asked her to appear, including folks running for Senate,...

Axis Of Evil: North Korean arms bound for the Islamic Republic of Iran in violation of U.N. sanctions were intercepted, but Tehran will still be the first nuclear terror regime. No wonder Dick Cheney wanted to attack.The United Arab Emirates' seizure of a French-owned ship transporting 10 containers of North Korean-made explosives, rocket-launched grenades and other arms disguised as oil equipment to Iran is a welcome confirmation that the Muslim Middle East recognizes the Islamofascist threat in its midst. Disturbingly, however, it also confirms that the axis of evil that aligns North Korea, Iran and other bloodthirsty regimes against the...

Zhukovsky, Moscow Region: Russia's fifth-generation fighter planes, being developed by the Sukhoi design bureau in collaboration with India's Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd (HAL), is set to start flight trials in November, the Russian air force chief said Thursday. He also revealed that the fighters' engine development programme had run into some problems. Speaking at the MAKS air show outside Moscow, Col Gen Alexander Zelin said: "For the time being, the aircraft will use Saturn engines. There are problems, I admit, but research is continuing." The T-50 Advanced Frontline Aviation Complex (PAK-FA), going by the Russian designation of the 5th Gen fighter,...

The Friends of America Rally, set for Labor Day at Holden WV seems like its getting bigger and bigger. At least 50,000 tickets have already been requested for the concert/event. Ted Nugent is the emcee and Hank Williams Jr. will perform. Sean Hannity of Fox News will also speak. The event will take place on a reclaimed coal mine site at Holden WV near Logan WV. Last week during Hannity's radio show he said it's going to be "huge." A local DEMOCRAT politician was quoted in the Logan Banner newspaper as saying there could be as many as 100,000 in...

I see things very clear. Obama's health care plan will be, one, written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it -- that would be John Conyers -- his health care plan will be, two, passed by Congress that has not read it; number three, signed by a president who smokes; four, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes; five, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese; and, six, financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong with this?

Boston Globe: Now That Ted's Out of the Way, Hurry Up With That Cape Cod Wind Farm By Tom Blumer (Bio | Archive) August 30, 2009 - 20:58 ET On the very day Ted Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near his two brothers, a Boston Globe editorial argued to undo part of his legacy. The pertinent portion of Mr. Kennedy's legacy has to do with his strident opposition, despite a career of enthusiastically imposing environmental initiatives and costs on others, to the building of a wind farm on Cape Cod. The ever-opportunistic Globe wrote a 450-word editorial virtually...

Our guess, however, is that Cheney overstates when he says "so many Americans have doubts." We'd venture that for most people the Obama administration's see-no-evil approach is comforting. After years of fear and vigilance, it's nice to be able to relax and not worry so much about terrorism. It's nice--but potentially dangerous. If the Bush administration's policies really did keep us safe for 7½ years, then it stands to reason that the Obama administrations' policies may be endangering us now. Certainly that is how the public would see it in the event of another terrorist attack. If that happens, heaven...

Remember when Michael Moore depicted the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) as a superior health care system in his 2007 documentary "Sicko"? That romanticizing on the silver screen might have seemed like a good idea for the American society, but according to Lord Ara Darzi, it's not ideal for the United States. Darzi, a former British Health Minister, appeared on CNBC's Aug. 31 "Street Signs" to defend the NHS from attacks made in a TV spot, which had been rejected by ABC and NBC for airing because they were "too partisan." ...more (w/video)...

The nation’s largest labor union and some allied Democrats are pushing a new tax that would hit big investment firms such as Goldman Sachs reaping billions of dollars in profits while the rest of the economy sputters. The AFL-CIO, one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful allies, would like to assess a small tax — about a tenth of a percent — on every stock transaction. Small and medium-sized investors would hardly notice such a tax, but major trading firms, such as Goldman, which reported $3.44 billion in profits during the second quarter of 2009, may see this as a...

British Harrier drops an EPW2 (UK version of a JDAM) on a high-value target in Afghanistan.....

Even flies engage in the battle of the sexes, a new study says. Female fruit flies prefer to keep sex short and sweet, while males like it to last longer. Naturally, a fight ensues. After about a minute and a half [of mating], the female begins kicking and struggling," said study co-author Kirsten Klappert of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. That's because females get a reproductive boost from shorter sex: When mating lasts longer, female flies have less time to mate again with a different male, if they do so at all. That's good for the...

The White House was evidently listening when Senator Michael B. Enzi delivered the weekly Republican radio and Internet address Saturday. And the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, did not like what he heard on health care from the Wyoming lawmaker who is supposed to be part of bipartisan talks. “It appears that, at least in Senator Enzi’s case, he doesn’t believe there’s a pathway to get bipartisan support,” Mr. Gibbs said Monday. “Senator Enzi’s clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship and decided that it’s time to walk away from the table.” Mr. Enzi’s office was in turn not thrilled...

ABC News Exclusive: National Security Adviser Says President Obama Is Having Greater Success Taking Terrorists Out of Commission Than Bush Did August 31, 2009 6:00 PM Responding to criticism from former Vice President Cheney that President Obama is making the nation more vulnerable to terrorism, the president’s National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones (Ret.), told ABC News in an exclusive interview that actually the reverse is true: President Obama’s greater success with international relations has meant more terrorists put out of commission. “This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to...

A 16-year-old motocross racer from Nevada was killed in an accident Sunday night when the RV he was riding in apparently lost its brakes and rolled off a steep Powder Mountain Road. Tanner Krahenbuhl, from Henderson, Nev., was killed in the accident. He, along with racing teammate Zack Fussel, 17, and Mike Hutcherson, 34, also of Henderson, had started driving down from Powder Mountain about 8:20 p.m. following the conclusion of the three-day Monster Energy Powder Mountain Motocross event. The RV was pulling a large trailer with motorcycles and tools, said Weber County Sheriff's Capt. Klint Anderson. Because of the...

Great Video by a teen named Justin Holcomb.

[photo source] 4 June 1962. Navy chaplain Luis Padillo was giving last rites to dying soldiers as sniper fire surrounded him. A wounded soldier pulled himself up by clinging to the priest’s cassock, as bullets chewed up the concrete around them. Hector Rondón Lovera, who had to lie flat to avoid getting shot, later said that he was unsure how he managed to take this picture. [See all pictures he took that day]. Norman Rockwell eeriely used this photograph as a template for his Southern Justice painting, “Murder in Mississippi“. Thanks, Lucian, for the link.

Secretary of Defense to stop in Greenville By BRAD KELLAR Herald-Banner Staff GREENVILLE — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is scheduled to stop in Greenville today, to tour work being performed at the city’s largest employer. Gates will visit the L-3 Communications Integrated Systems plant as part of a two-part stop at defense contractors in North Texas. Reuters announced Gates is also scheduled to visit a Lockheed plant in Fort Worth before coming to Greenville. While in Greenville, Gates intends to inspect the ongoing Project Liberty reconnaissance program at the facility. The L-3 Mission Integration is modifying a total of...

Like many Americans, I watched as Senator Ted Kennedy was laid to rest over the weekend after his year-long battle with brain cancer. The day marked not only the end of the Camelot era, but seemed to signal the final passing of many things politically. I certainly didn't agree with Senator Kennedy's politics on many issues, but as I listened to his friends, family, and Senate colleagues—including my father—tell stories of the man they knew, what was so evident was that Ted Kennedy always believed you could find compromise on the really important matters. I remember meeting the senator around...

Here is a CNN report on a 15 year old that has baffled doctors by crying blood. The teen says it happens at least 3 times a day and can last anywhere from a few minutes up to an hour. (Watch Video)