Free Republic

It almost always comes when the audience least expects it: the moment Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brings a roaring crowd to a hush with a heart-rending anecdote. "I remember listening to a story about a young woman in a small town along the Ohio River, in Meigs County, who worked in a pizza parlor," the Democratic presidential candidate said during a stop in Cleveland, beginning a particularly grim tale. "She got pregnant, she started having problems. There's no hospital left in Meigs County, so she had to go to a neighboring county. She showed up, and the hospital said, 'You...

A couple of years ago, as part of his campaign to reassure conservatives of his ideological reliability, John McCain sat for an interview with Stephen Moore, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer and fervent advocate of supply-side economics. In the course of the interview, McCain acknowledged that not all his positions were acceptable to the right, but he hinted that further rightward evolution might be possible. "His philosophy is best described as a work in progress," wrote Moore somewhat hopefully. As McCain put it, "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about...

In the wake of reports that police are investigating whether a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo was taunted before attacking a trio of young men, the father of the teen who was killed doesn't think his son would "do such a foolish thing." "I don't see the proof or the evidence yet," Carlos Sousa Sr. said in a phone interview this morning following a national appearance on "Good Morning America." "But kids are kids and you can't be watching them all the time." Still, Sousa Sr. said he wanted to find out more information later today about what happened...

There is a lot of news and talk about the Stem Cell Amendment. Be informed. Read it for yourself. 2006 Ballot Measure Constitutional Amendment 2 Submitted October 11, 2005 NOTICE: You are advised that the proposed constitutional amendment may change, repeal, or modify by implication or may be construed by some persons to change, repeal or modify by implication, the following provisions of the Constitution of Missouri – Sections 2, 10, 14, and 32 of Article I; Section 1 of Article II; Sections 1, 21, 22, 23, 28, 36, 39, 40, 41, and 42 of Article III; Sections 1, 14,...

"Write something about how bad Bush is," demand various readers. Consider it done. Here's the official crazy-lefty presidential chronology, in which all assertions are false.November 2000: After losing all three television debates to Al Gore during a campaign marked by incompetence and deceit, uncharismatic business failure and draft dodger George W. Bush steals the election with help from corrupt Florida Republicans, his evil governor brother Jeb, a relative who worked for the Fox network, and racist officials who stopped blacks from voting. December 2000: Amazed email recipients learn that 16th-century prophet Nostradamus predicted 2000 would see “the village idiot ......

PRESIDENT BUSH was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling.

.. Some folks can be more racist, more bilious and far more incorrect than DeBerry has been accused of being AND GET AWAY WITH IT. And no one knows that better than news blogger Steve Gilliard, who is only one of black America's hordes of racial loyalty police. (snip)Late last month, Gilliard posted a picture of Steele on his blog that showed the lieutenant governor in minstrel makeup. The headline accompanying the picture read: "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house." (snip) Republicans condemned Gilliard's remarks. So did some Democrats. But other Democrats, while not using language as...

Last spring, when her obstetrician suggested an ultrasound test to see if she was carrying more than one baby, Jennell Dickens prayed that she wasn't carrying twins. When an ultrasound technician examined her belly, counting two, three and four heartbeats, she steeled herself for quadruplets. That was before a radiologist entered the room and found another heartbeat. Dickens cried for two months. Yesterday, she was the picture of composure, smiling and laughing at the University of Maryland Medical Center just two days after delivering four girls and a boy 10 weeks early. They weighed a combined 11 pounds, 14 ounces....

Atlantic current may be creating a hurricane hatchery. And the cycle may last 20 years. Back in 1995, surface waters in the north Atlantic Ocean warmed up a smidgen. The change was less than a degree, but it marked the first time in a quarter-century that waters were consistently warmer than average. Storm experts warned of more hurricanes. But nobody grasped the sweeping change that Mother Nature had signaled. The 10 years since then have been the stormiest decade in the recorded history of the Atlantic basin. Mitch tore up Central America. Four hurricanes hammered Florida last year. Katrina decimated...

The congratulations caught Judy Shaughnessy by surprise: She was a grandmother again. Her daughter, Lisa Montgomery, had left the courthouse in Lyndon, Kan., a few minutes earlier after proudly showing off a day-old infant, an acquaintance told Judy. Judy knew better. “I just said, ‘Yeah, right, she either stole it or bought it,” Judy recalled Tuesday. Lisa had been incapable of having children since a 1990 operation, but she fooled her husband, his parents and the whole community, Judy said. “I tried to tell them and tell them, but nobody listened,” she recalled. Even as Judy was hearing about the...

This is long, so if you are short of time scroll down to the bold section.If you've been following this series of articles, you might recall that in my last article, I wrote about the Captain of United flight 925 who discovered -- once he was half-way across the Atlantic -- that two passengers he was carrying were on the "no-fly" list. Many of you have written to WomensWallStreet.com wondering how, in the age of information, this could be possible? What exactly is the "no-fly" list anyway, some readers are asking? Who decides what names go on the list? Who...

Editor’s Note: Marine 1st Lt. Joshua Phares, the nephew of Ron Srygley of Carthage(MO), is among those Marines assigned to the ongoing Fallujah invasion. Phares has been injured and is recovering in a field hospital outside Fallujah.The following is a letter from his brother, MM3 Christopher Phares, who is serving aboard the submarine USS Charlotte in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Joshua Phares has carried this letter with him throughout the war in Iraq. To every Marine who has spent a long, cold, dark night in a fighting position. To every Marine who has charged a battlefield with artillery dropping all around...

Iraq Threat Quiz – Who said it? 1) “I’m an internationalist. I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.” a. George W. Bush b. John Kerry c. Dick Cheney d. John Edwards 2)Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition ... to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favor of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate...

An Oslo chauffeur will not have to pay a NOK 6,000 (USD 885) fine he received for using a knife to peel an apple in a public place. Sverre Moen, 50, was arrested by two police officers in May as he was returning to his car to pick up a handicapped passenger after peeling an apple. Police were reacting to a ban on carrying any kind of knives in Oslo. Moen, who had used a common tollekniv, a sheath knife that typically has a 10 centimeter (four inch) blade to peel an apple, was handcuffed and brought to Majorstua police...

Muskegon County emergency officials, along with school and hospital personnel, learned a lot from a mock terrorist exercise Tuesday, but the incident also became a lesson in sensitivity for one of the event organizers. In the exercise, a domestic terrorist group -- dubbed Wackos Against Schools and Education -- plants a bomb on a public school bus loaded with students. According to materials handed out to explain the fake scenario, the "Wackos" believe everyone should be home-schooled. But the name and scenario used in the exercise "bombed out" with home-schoolers across the nation. The Chronicle and local officials were deluged...

Text of John F. Kerry's testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on April 22, 1971.

Fresh off his 'Christmas in Cambodia' fairy tale, The Poodle has been caught in another whopper, this time regarding one of his Purple Hearts. This is separate from the questions surrounding his being awarded the Purple Heart in the first place. It looks like Kerry has contradicted himself in his own diary. In Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty," which is Kerry's official, approved war biography, The Poodle writes an entry after a mission. In that entry he says that after several missions he has not yet taken any enemy fire. Ok .. big deal. Big whoop, right? Sorry .. but...

Media Bias: When ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson said President Bush lied, it set off a media stampede. When he turned out to be wrong, the hoofbeats fell silent. In fact, as the chart below shows, that might be an understatement. The coverage is so one-sided that you might think something was at work here — something like, say, extreme media bias.For a recap, the CIA sent Wilson to Niger to look into charges that Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein sought nuclear materials from Africa. Wilson reported that, no, Saddam hadn't; it was all a fraud. For some, that was enough to debunk...

ATON ROUGE, La., May 8 — About 500 people, with plates of jambalaya and peppery beans still before them, rose and cheered Friday as Senator John Kerry was escorted along a security corridor carved through the enthusiastic throng. To applause and angry shouts, Mr. Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, told them not to be discouraged by Bush campaign efforts to paint him as an out-of-touch Northeast liberal. "You know why they're doing that?" he said. "Because he doesn't have a record to run away from." Last Tuesday, in an aging ice hockey arena on Cincinnati's north side, a banner...

The LEGAL EDGE Script Title: Home School Copyright 2002 Michel James Bryant YOU MAY SOMETIMES THINK YOU CAN DO A BETTER JOB TEACHING THAN YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL. BUT ATTORNEY MIKE BRYANT SAYS HOME SCHOOLING REQUIRES A LESSON IN THE LEGAL EDGE. (SNIP) ARE YOUR KIDS DOING AS WELL IN SCHOOL AS YOU'D LIKE? MAYBE IT'S THE SCHOOL. PUBLIC...PRIVATE... PAROCHIAL. MAYBE YOU DON'T LIKE ANY OF THEM. DO YOU HAVE TO SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL? THAT DEPENDS. MOST STATES REQUIRE THAT KIDS ATTEND SCHOOL BETWEEN THE AGES OF FIVE OR SIX AND FOURTEEN OR SIXTEEN. YOU ARE FREE TO DECIDE...