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Latest Articles

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  • Freep This Poll: Should President Obama have given that pep talk to students?

    09/08/2009 12:54:27 PM PDT · by Man50D · 38 replies · 1,201+ views
    Ok Freepers! Go get 'em
  • Demi Moore Calls Perez Hilton A Child Pornographer

    09/08/2009 12:54:23 PM PDT · by Steelfish · 34 replies · 2,473+ views
    LATimes ^ | September 08, 2009
    Demi Moore Calls Perez Hilton A Child Pornographer Perez Hilton must be totally bored. Having made headlines for his public smackdowns with Will.i.am. and former Miss California Carrie Prejean, he’s now taking on bigger game: actress Demi Moore. On his Twitter site, he tweets that Demi is a bad mother for dressing her 15-year-old daughter Tallulah Willis in scanty outfits. Yeah, like moms have tremendous control over what 15-year-olds wear when the parents aren't looking. Demi, whose husband Ashton Kutcher is no stranger to Web war, is fighting back on her Twitter site, calling Perez a pornographer. Perez posted several...
  • Did the National Endowment for the Arts break any laws on controversial conference calls?

    09/08/2009 12:53:39 PM PDT · by paltz · 20 replies · 738+ views
    Syndicated columnist and ABC's This Week panelist George Will believes that the National Endowment for the Arts likely "broke some laws" after the federal agency recently hosted a controversial teleconference call of various artists. Mr. Will spoke about his concerns on the NEA this Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos (see video below). Big Hollywood's Patrick Courrielche was on the conference call and described what was being asked of them: Obama has a strong arts agenda, we were told, and has been very supportive of both using and supporting the arts in creative ways to talk about the issues...
  • Health Care Is Not a Privilege … Nor Is It a Right

    09/08/2009 12:53:29 PM PDT · by AJKauf · 17 replies · 603+ views
    Pajamas Media ^ | Sept. 8 | Brian T. Schwartz
    A popular but flawed argument is that “health care is a right, not a privilege.” Health care is neither a right nor a privilege. Rather, we all have the right to seek medical treatment through voluntary trade or charity. Ironically, those who claim health care is “a right and not a privilege” support policies that make it a privilege. When government enforces an alleged “right” to health care, the political class decides what health care is and when it’s appropriate for people to get it. That is, health care becomes a privilege granted by those in charge. For example, Canadian...
  • Ban on "Ave Maria" at graduation upheld

    09/08/2009 12:51:20 PM PDT · by pissant · 40 replies · 1,003+ views
    MYNW.com ^ | 9/8/09 | Tim Klass
    A federal appeals panel has upheld a decision to bar the instrumental performance of a Christian hymn at a high school graduation in Everett. The case arose after seniors in the Henry M. Jackson High School wind ensemble asked to play an instrumental version of "Ave Maria" at their commencement in June 2006. When school officials said no, one of the students, Kathryn Nurre, challenged them in court. U.S. District Judge Robert T. Lasnik upheld the school district, ruling that Nurre's First Amendment rights had not been violated.
  • Health care's public option tests Democrats' political muscle

    09/08/2009 12:50:40 PM PDT · by SmithL · 9 replies · 516+ views
    Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/8/9 | Rob Hotakainen
    WASHINGTON – As Congress ends its long summer recess today ready to tackle health care, both of California's senators support having the federal government compete with private companies to provide health insurance. The so-called public option – the centerpiece of a proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system – promises to be the first big test of Democratic muscle. Opponents say the public option would drive insurers out of business, while supporters say it would drive down premiums for everyone and provide coverage for the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. California is one of 15 states where both senators...
  • CDOC Reacts to State Senator Dean Florez' Defense of SB250

    09/08/2009 12:48:06 PM PDT · by missycocopuffs · 11 replies · 556+ views
    Reuters ^ | 9-4-2009
    WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- State Senator Dean Florez (D-Shafter), in an email to one of his supporters, defended his bill, SB250, the latest mandatory spay and neuter measure working its way through the State legislature, which he sponsored. Unfortunately, according to Cathie Turner, Executive Director of the nonprofit organization Concerned Dog Owners of California (CDOC), his defense is riddled with misstatements and inaccuracies.
  • NHL owner gets more than 8 years in prison (and pay back $67.4 million in restitution)

    09/08/2009 12:47:05 PM PDT · by NormsRevenge · 5 replies · 612+ views
    ap on SfGate.com ^ | 9/8/09 | AP
    SAN FRANCISCO, (AP) -- A federal judge has sentenced a Silicon Valley financier to more than 8 years in prison for bilking banks and investors out of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy a pro hockey team and finance a lavish lifestyle. William "Boots" Del Biaggio III was sentenced Tuesday in San Francisco. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of forging financial documents to obtain $110 million in loans from several banks and two NHL owners.
  • Teenager Invents £23 Solar Panel That Could Be Solution To Developing World's Energy Needs ...

    Teenager Invents £23 Solar Panel That Could Be Solution To Developing World's Energy Needs ... Made From Human Hair By Daily Mail Reporter 08th September 2009 A new type of solar panel using human hair could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, believes its teenage inventor. Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs. The young inventor says hair is easy to use as a conductor in solar panels and could revolutionise renewable energy. [Pic in URL] Hair-raising: Science student Milan Karki with his...
  • Obama mum on Wall Street bonuses as debate rages.

    09/08/2009 12:45:07 PM PDT · by STONEWALLS · 2 replies · 298+ views
    Reuters ^ | 09-08-09 | Steve Eder
    ""America's Bailout Barons," a report released last week by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based non-profit that has long criticized Wall Street pay, said the top five executives at 10 banks bailed out by taxpayers were rewarded with stock options at the height of the crisis that have grown in value by $90 million."
  • Obama advises caution in what kids put on Facebook ("It will be pulled up again later in your life")

    09/08/2009 12:45:03 PM PDT · by blueglass · 18 replies · 883+ views
    Ap Via Yahoo ^ | 9-8-09 | JULIE PACE
    He preceded his broad-scale talk by meeting with about 40 Wakefield students in a school library, where at one point he advised them to "be careful what you post on Facebook. Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life." "When I was your age," Obama said, "I was a little bit of a goof-off. My main goal was to get on the varsity basketball team and have fun."
  • Blue Dog Leader Backs Away From Support of Public Option

    09/08/2009 12:44:57 PM PDT · by La Lydia · 23 replies · 1,237+ views
    Washington Post ^ | September 8, 2009 | Paul Kane and Ben Pershing
    After a nearly 40-day recess that was anything but restful, House Democrats returned to work Tuesday still divided over health-care legislation as a leader of a group of fiscally conservative Democrats backed away from a proposal he supported before the recess. Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.) of the Blue Dog Coalition said he could no longer support any bill that included the creation of a public option, a key element of a proposal he helped craft in July in marathon negotiating sessions with party leaders and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "An overwhelming number of you oppose a government-run...
  • ADVICE FROM FR LEGAL EXPERTS WANTED (re. Van Jones)

    09/08/2009 12:41:44 PM PDT · by Scanian · 16 replies · 689+ views
    September 8, 2009 | Vanity
    OK, FReepers in the legal profession and experience in the federal government: If Van Jones can be shown to have worked on organizing the Color of Change boycott of Glenn Beck's TV show while employed by the White House, what are the legal ramifications? Can he be charged with anything? Can he be sued? What about the president? All comments will be appreciated.
  • Mexican cartels hire US teenage killers

    09/08/2009 12:41:43 PM PDT · by AuntB · 55 replies · 3,758+ views
    BBC ^ | Sept. 7, 2009 | Matthew Price
    Rosalio Reta: "I liked the lifestyle... killing people" Prisoner 1447523's name is Rosalio Reta. He was born and raised in Texas. By the age of 13 he was an assassin for one of Mexico's drug cartels. Convicted of two murders (he says he killed many more), he will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. Hanging around with his friends in Mexico (in the border areas many people frequently cross over on business and pleasure), one told him his brother worked for a cartel. "I thought it was cool. Got involved. That's how everything started. There's no way...
  • Wealthy British playboy Thanos Papalexis killed tenant to finish £2m deal (Hillary fundraiser)

    09/08/2009 12:40:30 PM PDT · by blueglass · 13 replies · 1,213+ views
    TImes Online UK ^ | 9-8-09 | Steve Bird
    A British playboy who held a fundraising event for Hillary Clinton is facing life imprisonment for the murder of a caretaker who stood in the way of a £2 million property deal. Thanos Papalexis, 37, tortured and killed Charalambos Christodoulides after he refused to move out of a flat in a North London warehouse that the struggling developer was trying to sell.Mr Christodoulides, 55, a shy loner known as Bambi, was hooded, tied to a chair, beaten and strangled. His body was wrapped in a sheet, covered with paint-stripper and hidden. The case against Papalexis was strengthened after a
  • EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE, AND UNCLE BART!

    09/08/2009 12:40:17 PM PDT · by Edisto Joe · 1 replies · 158+ views
    The Edisto Joe Outlook ^ | 09/08/2009 | Edisto Joe
    President Obama once again is taking to the airwaves to pitch himself, his political party and his policies to the American public. Desperate to revive his signature domestic policy, health care, and stop his downward skid in opinion polls, the “Master Of Disaster” will be gazing into the teleprompter for words of inspiration to address a joint session of Congress along with the American people on his latest revised outline for health care reform. According to press secretary Robert Gibbs, in the new version “Lines in the sand will be drawn.” For the President this could be a tough sell,...
  • Police say man arrested in serial killer case linked to 8 deaths

    09/08/2009 12:39:42 PM PDT · by Wally_Kalbacken · 1 replies · 568+ views
    JSOnline.com (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) ^ | 09-08-2009 | Ryan Haggerty
    A 49-year-old man suspected in the killings of at least eight women over 21 years in Milwaukee has been charged in connection with two of the homicides, authorities announced Monday. Walter E. Ellis of Milwaukee faces two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the killings of Joyce Mims, 41, and Ouithreaun Stokes, 28, who were strangled a decade apart. Ellis was arrested around noon Saturday at a motel in Franklin, one day after authorities linked DNA from his toothbrush with samples found on Mims' and Stokes' bodies, according to a criminal complaint. Ellis could be charged this week in connection...
  • Playing right into Obama's hands

    09/08/2009 12:35:59 PM PDT · by MattAMatt · 31 replies · 2,189+ views
    Myself | 09/08/09 | Matthew Council
    Obama's recent AFLCIO speech was too good for conservative talk radio to pass up. As was his national address to public school students. You know that old saying.... If it seems to good to be true it is. It was all a big setup. Obama will use the negativity about his education speech to paint a fear mongering picture of anyone who opposes his Healthcare Plan. He set his position up, "purposefully"at the AFLCIO picnic yesterday by saying (loosely quoted) "The special interests are using fear to prevent reform from happening". He knew that nobody could pass up an opportunity...
  • Another Day, Another ‘Birther’ Forgery

    09/08/2009 12:35:08 PM PDT · by trumandogz · 88 replies · 2,180+ views
    Washington Independent ^ | 9.8.09 | DAVID WEIGEL
    Josh Gerstein is all over the Justice Department’s filing in Orly Taitz’s latest “birther” lawsuit. Taitz’s suit includes — not as evidence, but as something she wants the court to verify — a ridiculously obvious forgery of a 1961 Kenyan birth certificate, obtained by a man who identifies himself as “Lucas Smith, an American,” who debuted the certificate via a shaky, “Blair Witch Project”-style video before submitting it to Taitz. How do we know it’s a forgery? Because in a lengthy article on the case, WorldNetDaily notes that it “has reported on an authentic 1961-era Kenyan birth certificate, which looks...
  • Obama open to 'sin tax' on fizzy drinks to stem obesity

    09/08/2009 12:33:11 PM PDT · by Pete · 55 replies · 1,453+ views
    Breitbart ^ | Sep 8 02:16 PM US/Eastern | AFP
    President Barack Obama hinted he could support a "sin tax" on fizzy drinks to help lower high rates of US obesity, but admitted it would be an uphill battle against corporate and economic interests. "I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring," Obama said in the forthcoming issue of Men's Health, regarding potential taxes levied on soft drinks such as colas and other sugar-filled products. "There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and...