Free Republic

Authorities have confirmed the first case of alleged Pakistani involvement with Somali pirates in a revelation that has raised concerns here about a possible link between piracy and suspected terrorist groups. On April 28, a Russian warship apprehended 12 Pak nationals — along with Somali pirates — for attempting to attack a tanker off Somalia’s coast. An investigation, sources said, pointed to Pak nationals having played a 'lead' role. Their nationality was confirmed through identity cards and “evidence” was handed over on May 8 to MSS Rehmat, a Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship, 12 miles of Gwadar. It’s being examined...

Some wonder why Phillip Garrido, accused of taking Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, served only 11 years of a 50-year federal sentence for a similar 1976 crime.As details continued to emerge about Jaycee Lee Dugard's alleged kidnapper, questions intensified Monday over how Phillip Garrido could have served only 11 years in prison after a 1976 rape and kidnapping for which he had been given a 50-year federal sentence as well as a life term in Nevada. Garrido was convicted of kidnapping in federal court for abducting Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe on a November night nearly 33 years ago...

An 18 year old burglar was shot in self defense by the owner of an East St. Louis, IL home. Police reportedly say that just 18 year old Michael Holmes III and another person attempted to break in to a home. The home was being rehabbed by its owner, so that the owner, his wife, and their child could move in to the house. The owner, who is said to be a Navy service member, was working inside the house when the two men are said to have forced their way in. The homeowner opened fire in self defense, killing...

The Las Vegas Township Constable is for illegal immigration lets vote him out of office. On July 25, 2009 on www.alltalkradio.net the Clark County Las Vegas Township Constable Robert "Bobby G" Gronauer told the interviews on the Veterans in Politics talk show that illegal have a constitutional right to be in this country and every illegal should have a roof over their heads in this country visit and listen to the interview: http://www.alltalkradio.net/alt/show.php?folder=veteransinpolitics. Listen to the attached interview and let’s vote him out of office. E-mail this to everyone you know. If we let one elected official get away with...

The World Trade Organisation gave Brazil the green light on Monday to impose $295m (€206m, £181m) of sanctions on US goods over Washington’s failure to scrap illegal subsidies to its cotton farmers. However, the trade retaliation granted by a WTO arbitrator was barely a tenth of the $2.7bn Brazil had asked for. Brazil will also not be able to carry out its threat to break US drug patents or retaliate in services unless subsidies rise substantially from 2006 levels. Carol Guthrie, spokeswoman for the US trade representative’s office, said: “While we remain disappointed with the outcome of this dispute, we...

An Iranian official Sunday accused Israel of using psychological warfare to force Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programs, authorities said. That warfare includes Israel's assertion the International Atomic Energy Agency is hiding evidence of an Iranian military nuclear program, Amir Mousavi, a top Iranian affairs analyst said in an interview in Tehran with Israel Radio. Iran's nuclear intentions are peaceful, Mousavi said, noting Iran will have10,000 nuclear centrifuges in operation within two months. Mousavi said Iran is prepared to talk with the West about the nuclear programs but will demand Israel's nuclear stockpile be placed under international supervision, The...

Two men arrested Friday night during a bizarre shooting spree along Interstate 5 in North Seattle may have been planning to fire at vehicles driving up and down the freeway, police said Sunday. “One theory is that maybe they were going to snipe at people as they were driving by on I-5,” Seattle Police Department spokeswoman Renee Witt told KOMO News

It must have all looked so appealing back in the winter.  Why not publish The Death of Conservatism by New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus on September 1?  The book is, the Economist reviewer says, "an appeal for unilateral disarmament by the right."  It would appear just in time to celebrate the passage of health care reform, cap and trade, a robustly stimulated economy and the utter rout of the evil Republicans.  It all began when Tanenhaus published "Conservatism is Dead" in The New Republic in mid February.  He wrote that President Bush's presidency had failed because it...

How could four individuals, two of them captors and one of them an abducted little girl, come to live together as a family unit for eighteen years? If police have it right, not only did Phillip Garrido, Nancy Garrido, Jaycee Lee Dugard and Garrido's mother live as a family unit, but Phillip Garrido and Jaycee Lee Dugard also had two daughters together (now 11 and 15 years old). As a forensic psychiatrist, I am interested in how this can happen and what each of them must have been thinking over all those years. Although I have examined none of these...

LAS VEGAS -- In Room 519 of Kindred Hospital, Linda Rivera can no longer speak. Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7. The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine...

Gordon Brown is facing a Labour revolt over plans to cut the benefits of the poorest families by up to £15 a week, The Times can reveal. Proposals to be implemented next April, a month before a general election, could mean some people losing a fifth of their income. The move, which has provoked anger among Labour backbenchers, was compared last night with the fiasco over the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax. At the moment 300,000 people on low incomes are allowed to keep up to £780 a year of their housing allowance if they find accommodation...

President Barack Obama said today, that America needs government-run health care to provide low-cost medication to citizens who suffer from bouts of anger and depression. “Clearly there are mental health issues which are not receiving proper attention under our current health care system,” the president said during his weekly Saturday radio address. “I’ve seen the red-faced citizens, shouting themselves hoarse, even babbling incoherently about rationing, loss of liberty, socialism and the like. These folks need help that the big insurance companies won’t give them because they’d rather line the pockets of their fat-cat stockholders.”

Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights By CHARLIE SAVAGE Published: August 31, 2009 WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census. “I think the wounds that were inflicted on this division were deep, and it will take some time for them to fully heal,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. As part of this shift,...

TV's `Burn Notice' sets up explosion at Arch Creek East Nature Preserve in North Miami It started with a deafening boom. Then came the powerful flames taking over the wooden planks of a North Miami bridge. Before long the fire was under control. With that, Burn Notice -- a show that revolves around a CIA operative working in Miami -- finished up shooting an action-packed scene in North Miami's Arch Creek nature preserve on Aug. 17. The episode, which is part of the show's third season, will air in February or March. ``It was a very controlled explosion,'' the show's...

We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome. Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded. Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

Welcome to the FDIC's version of "let's screw the consumer" (again): To encourage banks to pick through the wreckage of their collapsed competitors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has agreed to assume most of the risk on $80 billion in loans and other assets. The agency expects it will eventually have to cover $14 billion in future losses on deals cut so far. The initiative amounts to a subsidy for dozens of hand-picked banks. Uh huh. And how are these "hand-picked" banks picked? Oh, that will never be disclosed, right? There will never be an open process on that, will...

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - A Lubbock woman is suing President Obama. Dr. Penny Kelso of Lubbock and other members of the Tatriot's Heart Media Group claim that Obama's real name is Barry Soetoro. They claim he is an Indonesian citizen and therefore not entitled to be President. Dr. Kelso has not returned a call from NewsChannel 11. Meanwhile, the local chairwoman of the Democratic Party says the lawsuit lacks merit. "The birth certificate is signed, sealed, and delivered. And there's simply no debate. But there is a sense of real desperation on the part of the extreme conservative fringe of...

Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for governor in Virginia, defended himself Monday after the Washington Post reported that his 1989 master’s degree thesis advocated a number of controversial, socially conservative positions. The Post reported Sunday that he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family and said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." McDonnell said repeatedly on a conference call with reporters that his views on many social issues have changed since he wrote the thesis, and blamed his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Creigh Deeds, for making polarizing social issues a “central issue...

Libya is set to flaunt the Lockerbie bomber’s release at the climax of today’s celebrations marking Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's 40 years in power. The Times gained access last night to the dress rehearsal of a spectacular two-hour show which extols Colonel Gaddafi for reviving his country and restoring Arab pride. As the finale approaches, the screen at the back of the giant stage in Tripoli’s Green Square shows Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi stepping off the plane which brought him home from his Scottish prison two weeks ago. His arms are raised aloft by Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Saif, as he acknowledges...

Dear Principal: In a recent interview with student reporter, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education.........so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens. This is the first time an American president has spoken directly to the nation's school children about persisting and succeeding in school. We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and...