Free Republic

"He was swift-boated," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink and a San Franciscan who has known Jones for 15 years.

The committees appointed by the County Council on August 18 to write the voters pamphlet statements against proposed charter amendments 1 and 3 have pointed out to the Pierce County Auditor and the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's office that the ballot titles contain prejudicial language and are not consistent with past practice for ballot titles for charter amendments. The Auditor's office does not want to discuss the issue with the committees and is moving forward with using the prejudicial ballot titles.

WASHINGTON — At last, the secret to first lady Michelle Obama's sculpted arms? Tricep pushdowns and hammer curls.

Journalist Lubna Hussein, wearing the same pants in the courtroom, is convicted of public indecency and sentenced to a month in jail when she refuses to pay a $200 fine. She could have been lashed.A Sudanese woman was convicted today of public indecency for wearing pants at an outdoor cafe and jailed for one month when she refused to pay a fine. The case has stirred international outrage and spawned protests in Sudan over the Islamic-dominated government's treatment of women. Lubna Hussein, a journalist and former U.N. staffer based in Khartoum, the capital, could have received 40 lashes with a...

After the judgement of the Delhi High Court legalising gay sex, a number of parents have approached private detective agencies to spy on the sexual preferences of their children. The trend, which was going on covertly for past many years, has seen a significant increase especially after the court verdict, detective agencies say. "We have been approached by parents to help them in finding their children's sexual orientation. Our detectives spy on them to find out whether their wards are homosexuals or lesbians," said Sanjay Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Indian Detective Agency. Parents are even taking the help of...

t's Labor Day, but there's nothing to celebrate. On July 24 this year, the government raised the minimum wage to $7.25, which is another way of saying that unemployment is mandatory for anyone who is otherwise willing to work for less. You have no freedom to negotiate or lower the price for your service. You are either already valuable at this rate or you are out of the game.

BARACK OBAMA KIDS SING FOR THEIR LEADER (Obama Youth Movement Kicks off Tomorrow?)

I feel guilty because originally I supported the decision by the Associated Press to release the photo of the young Marine that was taken as he lay dying. I lost readers over that and I do not blame them. Sarah Palin weighed in on Facebook. "Many of us join Secretary Gates in condemning the Associated Press for its heartless and selfish decision to turn its back on the wishes of a grieving family in order to exploit the tragic death of a true American hero. Lance Corporal Joshua ‘Bernie’ Bernard was a selfless young American who sacrificed everything for our...

"This is Ludacris, and I'm giving away 20 free cars. ..." The famous rapper was pulling an Oprah in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. In the parking lot, the crowd was dancing. But the bass of Ludacris' latest single blasting from the dealership's loudspeakers was secondary inspiration for one Atlanta grandmother. "Lord Jesus. ... He brought this car to me, baby!" she shouted, arms raised. "This is God's work!"

Gibbs: Opponents of Obama starting 'Animal House food fight' By Eric Zimmermann - 09/07/09 02:09 PM ET White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted the president's critics for questioning the propriety of Obama's speech to schoolchildren Tuesday. "It's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an 'Animal House' food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school, to work hard, to engage parents to stay involved and to ensure that the millions of teachers that are making great sacrifices continue to be the best in the world," Gibbs told reporters on Monday....

Washington, DC – A distinguished group of Americans active in the foreign policy debate expressed support today for the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, and called upon President Obama to continue to provide the necessary resources requested by his commanders on the ground to ensure success. In an open letter organized by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the group offered its appreciation for the president’s decision earlier this year to deploy 21,000 additional U.S. troops to the country, and urged him to continue to properly resource the war effort. Given increasing public concern about the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan, the letter...

Luck runs out on Vegas boom Construction slows, tourism plummets, discounts pervade. Can the city keep believing that if it builds, visitors will come? Michael A. Hiltzik and Ashley Powers Los Angeles Times Staff Writers September 6, 2009 The Currans of Granada Hills have been taking family vacations on the Las Vegas Strip for years. They weren't about to pass it up just because Jeff Curran's business selling upscale cookware is down sharply. But this summer it would be a smart Vegas vacation. A year ago they plunked down $100 each for tickets to the Blue Man Group show at...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former first lady Laura Bush is defending President Obama's decision to address the nation's school children, telling CNN Monday that it is "really important for everyone to respect the President of the United States." "I think that there is a place for the President of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children, and I think there are a lot of people that should do the same," she told CNN's Zain Verjee. "And that is encourage their own children to stay in school and to study hard and to try to achieve the...

"To call a spade a spade," a phrase whose origin can be traced back to Plutarch, is defined by Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable as to be "outspoken, blunt, even to the point of rudeness." The question of when Catholics should be outspoken, in this sense, has arisen over the heated reactions to the funeral of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.   A number of commentators took issue with the funeral, specifically over the participation of Sean Cardinal O'Malley of Boston and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, retired, from Washington, D.C., who read from the letter written by Kennedy to...

Two things that would end hypocrisy and make the world a better place: Priests should be allowed to get married, and the New York Times should update its Ethics Policy. The venerable and vulnerable newspaper finally starts talking about the “Pogue Problem” out loud to its readers. For years David Pogue has covered Apple (and other tech companies). And for years he has been authoring books on Apple products. He doesn’t get paid by Apple for the books, but his bias is clear and he has been accused to conflicts of interest more than once by other mainstream media. Dan...

In Obama's fascist speech to your schoolchildren, he promotes J.K. Rowling as someone to admire. Of course, she is a self-admitted "Left-Wing" Socialist who teaches kids bad morals and Socialism via her fictional characters. Gee, imagine that... Just so you know that I'm not making this stuff up, I have copied the text from the Socialist Party of Australia: Potty about Harry Potter With over 325 million copies of all seven books sold worldwide, the last four books have also been, consecutively, the fastest selling in history. They have been translated into over 65 languages and author JK Rowling has...

Gary Samore, the WMD Czar is supposed to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Samore negotiated the original arms treaty with North Korea, under the Clinton administration. We know how well that worked out. http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Gary_Samore In interviews and articles, Samore has been openly skeptical of North Korea's willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons program. As a State Department official, Samore helped negotiate the original 1994 agreement with North Korea. But in an interview last October, he said that the latest agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration, which called for Washington to remove North Korea from the list...

Israel who has the right to decide what is best for them, has already told Obama and Co. that they reject Obama's call to suspend a housing plan in East Jerusalem. Now Israel has officially approved building 100's of new homes in the West bank.

SEATTLE — At least 2,000 students at Washington State University have reported symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus, university and local health officials said, in what appeared to be one of the largest outbreaks of the virus on a college campus. “It’s real,” Sally Redman, a registered nurse who works in student health services at Washington State, said Saturday. “We’ve had a constant stream of people.” So far, the cases at the university have been relatively mild, although at least two people in the area who are not students were hospitalized. The university, based in Pullman, in eastern Washington near...

In the aftermath of the Van Jones mess the questions about the White House vetting procedure still remained. Are there a other people working at the White House with credentials that are much worse than Van Jones? If Jones was properly vetted, who overruled the vetting team and sponsored him to become part of the government? If the POTUS and his staff knew about Jones and his off the chart opinions, what does that say about the White House? Beyond his provocative statements, Jones is self described communist. Even though the cold war is long gone, that is still disturbing...