Free Republic

Despicable Rep. Maxine Waters today said that the media should investigate the "birthers and teabaggers" at the rallies like the massive rally last weekend. "Teabagger", of course, is a offensive sexual term used by liberals to describe the freedom protesters who are against the record government spending. The Hill reported:

A PAIR of rabid rabbits has been caught killing a series of snakes near Cairns.For three weeks Armando Del Manso believed his dog was responsible for the dead snakes showing up with teeth marks all over them on his East Barron property’s lawn each morning.But it turns out it was a pair of rampaging rabbits killing the snakes.Pictures: Cairns snakesThe 42-year-old boilermaker first made the discovery Tuesday night when he spotted the two wild rabbits attacking a king brown snake.“The snake was raised up in the air in the striking position and the two rabbits worked their way around him and...

This Sunday, President Obama will be interviewed on five shows -- ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” CNN’s “State of the Nation”, CBS’s “Face the Nation”, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Univision’s “Al Punto with Jorge Ramos." It's a rare feat called "the Full Ginsburg." In modern media lore, the first time someone pulled a five-show feat was 11 years ago, in 1998, when Monica Lewinsky’s attorney William Ginsburg made the rounds to defend his client. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, did a Full Ginsburg in 2007 after launching her presidential bid. For both Ginsburg and Clinton, Fox News Sunday...

HOBART, Australia — A cat named Clyde was reunited with his owner on Wednesday after a mysterious three-year odyssey in which the long-haired Himalayan strayed 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers) into the Australian Outback.

In the Wall Street Journal today, Thomas Frank whines that the Left Should Reclaim 'Freedom'. He argues that those of us that are conservative or libertarian that are in uprising, as represented by the massive march on the National Mall on 9/12 this past weekend, against the idea of an ever-expanding federal government, are really people that should be identifying with the Left.

US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu twice on Wednesday. Senior Palestinian officials who met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after his meeting with the American statesman Tuesday told Ynet that the US commitment to reach a peace deal within two years was clarified during the meeting. The Palestinians estimate the Americans are adopting de facto the plan presented by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. PM's Office optimistic over settlement construction issue following Netanyahu's meeting with US special envoy. Meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas in New York yet to be...

A plea by California Representative Laura Richardson that House Democrats respond after Republican Joe Wilson shouted “you lie” at President Barack Obama last week helped spur her party’s leaders to action. The “careful but passionate” words delivered at a House Democratic caucus the morning after Wilson’s outburst by a black lawmaker who rarely speaks at such meetings carried such an impact that “you couldn’t ignore that message and that input,” Representative John Larson, the Democratic caucus chairman recalled yesterday. ______________snip Shown Disrespect Wilson “kind of winked at that element” of society that has shown disrespect to Obama because of his...

Obama said Wednesday there will be no quick decision on whether to send more U.S. troops into the widening war in Afghanistan, saying "my determination is to get this right."... The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, also has delivered a grim assessment of the war and is expected to follow up soon with a request for thousands of additional troops.

The sold-out Liberty Hotel, where two monkeys appearing in the film “The Zookeeper” are staying, has been evacuated because of elevated levels of carbon monoxide, said a Boston Fire Department spokesman.

CINCINNATI -- A volunteer religious teacher has been dismissed in Cincinnati after writing a letter to the editor backing a Roman Catholic nun ordered to stop teaching for supporting women priests.Dr. Carol Egner said she has been told she can longer teach her Old Testament class to sixth-graders at Our Lady of Lourdes parish.The archbishop of the Cincinnati Archdiocese recently banned a nun, Sister of Charity Louise Akers, from teaching at parishes and institutions after 40 years because she supports the ordination of women as priests. Akers says she refused to renounce her support of women priests as a matter...

It's not every day that you hear a Democratic senator charge that a fellow Democrat is proposing to raise taxes on the middle class, but that is what happened on Tuesday when Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ripped into the health-care bill developed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Baucus proposal would impose, starting in 2013, a 35 percent excise tax on insurance companies for "high-cost plans" -- defined as those above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for family plans. Health economists believe a tax on high-priced benefits could help slow the growth of...

These may well be the times that try the souls of Democrat politicians. In the 8 months since Obama took office, the fortunes of the Democrat Party have changed substantially. Voters, especially Independent voters, now favor Republicans on many issues and in Rasmussen’s Generic Congressional Ballot. It has been a remarkable turnaround – yet the worse is yet to come for Democrats in office.

If you thought the New Left was dead in America, think again. Walk through just about any of the nation’s inner cities, and you’re likely to find an office of ACORN, bustling with young people working 12-hour days to “organize the poor” and bring about “social change.” The largest radical group in the country, ACORN has 120,000 dues-paying members, chapters in 700 poor neighborhoods in 50 cities, and 30 years’ experience. It boasts two radio stations, a housing corporation, a law office, and affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. Not only big, it is effective, with some remarkable...

After Paris warned that new sanctions against Teheran remained an option despite the likelihood of negotiations with Iran, French President Nicolas Sarkozy maintained that the Islamic republic was still working on a nuclear weapons program.

Not... one... single... new... detail. But five minutes worth of telling us how great the bill is and how he hopes for bi-partisan support. "Bill is very similar to what Obama said in his recent address." Cue Twilight Zone music.

Country’s National Assembly passes draft law that kills illegal downloaders’ internet accessThe French National Assembly has passed one of the toughest laws against internet piracy that the world has ever seen.Under the new legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, illegal downloaders of games, music and movies will be sent two warnings - first by email and then by recorded delivery. Following these cautions, the offender's details will be passed to a judge – who now has the power to cut off Internet access and issue heavy fines or even prison sentences.The law was narrowly passed by 285 votes to 225....

Talk about a letdown. Max Baucus was saying for weeks that he was close to a bi partisan agreement in his committee on a bill. It turns out that this bi partisan agreement is an agreement of one. In fact, the long awaited bill isn't even clearly a bill. The bill still needs to be debated, changed, and ultimately marked up in his Finance Committee.

Row over Tory plans to axe £30bn defence projects Michael Evans, Francis Elliott and Philip Webster Three of Britain’s biggest defence projects with a combined value of nearly £30billion could face the axe if the Conservatives win the general election next year. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said in a speech on the economy that he would hold a Budget within weeks of a victory. Afterwards, he was asked to identify specific savings that an incoming Conservative government might make. In comments that surprised and dismayed his own colleagues, he cited the £20billion Eurofighter/Typhoon project, the £4billion project to build...

The Tarantula Zone Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason Explanation: The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years in diameter -- a giant star forming region within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). That cosmic arachnid lies left of center in this sharp, colorful telescopic image taken through narrow-band filters. It covers a part of the LMC over 2,000 light-years across. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are...

An Iraqi man who witnesses said shouted abuse before throwing a shoe at a US army vehicle was shot dead on Wednesday in what the American military said was a suspected grenade attack. Residents told an AFP reporter in Fallujah that Ahmed Latif, 32, whom they said was mentally disturbed, insulted the soldiers as they patrolled in the centre of the city, and then hurled a shoe at them. The US military told AFP that a convoy in Fallujah had been attacked with a suspected grenade. "Positive identification of the attacker was made, and US forces fired in self-defence wounding...