Free Republic

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – After a four-month grounding of the space shuttle fleet, NASA's countdown clocks started ticking again Monday for Discovery's final ride into orbit. Discovery is scheduled to blast off Thursday afternoon to the International Space Station. Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 80 percent. When NASA tried to launch Discovery in early November with supplies and a humanoid robot for the space station, the countdown never got past the fueling phase. A hydrogen gas leak halted everything, then a more insidious problem cropped up: cracks in the external fuel tank.

Leslie Van Houten, the one-time Charles Manson follower long seen as the most likely of his ex-acolytes to win freedom someday, faces her 19th parole hearing on Tuesday with a new lawyer and new case law which may give her the best chance yet for release. Even if there is a finding of suitability for parole at the hearing, freedom would not be immediate. The entire state parole board would review the decision within 120 days and it would then be submitted to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for a final ruling. Van Houten, 60, remains incarcerated at the California Institution for...

Barack Obama's proclamation last July to being a "citizen of the world" was affirmed Monday as a new poll -- taken before the August conventions -- showed that in 16 out of 17 countries surveyed he was the overwhelming choice to be the next president of the United States. The lone country to prefer a John McCain presidency: the United States of America. The Reader's Digest magazine poll, released Monday, asked 17,000 people in 17 countries, including the U.S., whom they would like to see elected president. The poll also found that, counter to Obama's claims that America's reputation abroad...

Why is Hillary a flip-flopper? Only a cartoon can come up with the explanation, because let's face it, Hillary is a joke!

CIVIL RIGHTS THREATENED BY DANGEROUS DOG LAWS, AND BREED SPECIFIC LEGISLATION We citizens of the United States of America are still engaged in a civil rights struggle. This struggle knows no racial boundaries, it knows no social status, it knows no financial status. It affects every person, from the poorest, to the most affluent, from the city dweller, to the largest land owner. It goes to our most ancient and traditional property, and to our ownership and use rights in animals. Dog/animal ownership is as varied, as is the human tapestry that bonds our great nation. When we site the...