Free Republic

The Federal Stimulus Package has been distributed in many different ways around the nation, and now some people are getting an $8,000 tax credit for buying a souped up golf cart. Golf cart manufacturers have found a way to cash in by selling their carts as street legal, low speed vehicles. Under the president’s stimulus plan, those who buy one of the electric vehicles, can get a check back for up to $7,500. “I only came in because I was impressed with the fact of the rebate,” one customer said. “I could foresee using this for all our driving within...

U.S. helicopters watch as insurgents blow themselves up. Apache gunships with the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, TF Pegasus, observe insurgents in the act of emplacing an Improvised Explosive Device in southern Afghanistan. But before the Apaches moves in for the strike, the insurgents’ bomb goes off, killing them in the act.

Yet another example of the folly of assigning liberals to guard duty. Joining Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show Thursday to vent about that pesky wabbit Joe Lieberman was Fire Dog Lake blogger Jane Hamsher. Democrats wield considerable leverage over Lieberman, Hamsher opined, to keep him from joining a GOP filibuster of ObamaCare or punish him if he does -- MADDOW: ... I think you’re right to point out that other senators sort of gently expressing their disapproval of his proverbial toplessness at this point is a bigger deal than it would be in the real world, that their words...

WASHINGTON -- In a move that might be a sign of a truce after publicly blasting each other for weeks, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met this week with a top Fox News executive. The war against Fox News started when the White House said it would treat Fox as “an opponent” and that the network is a biased organization, a research arm of the Republican Party. “The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said recently....

The leader of an Islamic mosque in Detroit, Mich., was shot and killed during an FBI raid Wednesday-- now the search is on for others involved. Luqman Ameen Abdullah told his followers that a revolution on American soil could not succeed without violence. He said he was willing to fight the FBI, even if it meant death, to accomplish that goal. Abdullah got his wish on Wednesday. He was killed in a shootout with FBI agents at a warehouse in Dearborn, Mich., just outside of Detroit. Abdullah opened fire on the agents after they attempted to arrest him on charges...

President Obama continues to face criticism over what some say is a campaign that seems like it never ended. The London Telegraph’s U.S. editor, Toby Harnden, writes: “Beyond the grand announcements, fine speeches and his eager acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Obama has yet to achieve anything of substance. It is time for the campaign to end.” The Politico newspaper says the president’s trip to Florida this week: “Looks like a campaign swing... the strongest sign that Obama is in campaign mode is that his scheduled events sidestep controversial issues.” The stimulus and health care reform are not...

PORT CHARLOTTE - Two men, armed with a knife and tire iron, reportedly forced their way inside a Port Charlotte home Saturday night, only to find the occupants had guns. The botched home invasion robbery ended quickly when one of the suspects sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound to the stomach, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have arrested one man, and intend to charge the other upon his release from a Fort Myers-area hospital in connection to the attempted robbery at the 21000 block of Beaverton Avenue. The incident occurred around 10 p.m. as Peter L. Gilmore, 69,...

The Washington, D.C., City Council will hold hearings Monday on whether it should legalize gay marriage in the district. So far, city leaders have rejected the call for a public vote, saying marriage is a civil rights issue that should not be on the ballot. But some local pastors and other citizens believe the voters should decide in a referendum. Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, joined the CBN News Channel’s Midday program to discuss the national implications should the law be passed. Click play to watch the interview. Also, click here for more on concern surrounding gay...

Showing that the media sees every act by the Obamas as an historic achievement, at the end of Sunday’s Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer was amazed by the romping of First Lady Michelle Obama: “Michelle Obama took it to another level as she set records as the first First Lady to run barefoot across the White House lawn. She also became the first to jump rope there.”Schieffer began his pointless rambling by looking at how past first ladies, all wives of Democratic presidents, shaped the position: There was a time when presidential wives were seen on occasion but almost...

Authorities are now calling a spiritual sweat lodge ceremony that killed three people in Sedona, Ariz., a homicide. Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was at the center of the ceremony that promised spiritual rebirth but ended in tragedy. “We had actually been under the leadership of James Ray for four to five days,” said participant Beverly Bunn. “We trusted him. We trusted what he was teaching us.” Bunn was one of 50 participants who crowded into the dark sweat lodge for the the two-hour ceremony around burning rocks. “When everybody was actually throwing up, that was considered your body purging...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly growing increasingly frustrated with the Obama administration. A Reuters analysis piece says Sarkozy is shifting his focus from the U.S. to other international allies. Didier Billion of the Institute of International & Strategic Relations says: “Sarkozy has clearly been thrown off course in his relations with America.” Another foreign affairs expert, Bruno Tertrais from the Foundation for Strategic Research, adds: "There is an annoyance about what the French see as naivety in the Obama administration."One major sticking point has been President Obama’s softer stance on Iran, while President Sarkozy prefers a more hawkish approach....

An intruder broke into a home on Oscar Smith Drive in San Marcos Wednesday night and came out of the adventure with several gunshot wounds from a resident of the home. San Marcos police are investigating. Police responded to a call of someone trying to break into a home in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Drive. Three residents were inside when a man forced his way into the home through a back door. The suspect was armed with a BB gun resembling a real pistol. One of the residents fired numerous shots from a handgun, striking the intruder. The...

The 70-year-old woman who shot a would-be robber at a North Side motel last night is attending the All-American Quarter Horse Congress today and feels sick about the shooting, according to her son. Columbus police say the shooting occurred about 9:15 p.m. at the Continent Inn, 6225 Zumstein Dr., located at The Continent shopping center, off Rt. 161 near I-71. Sgt. Eric Pilya of the homicide squad said the woman was in a motel room with four or five others and they’d cracked open the door to get fresh air. Pilya said a man barged into the room, demanding money...

WASHINGTON -- Hopes of getting health care reform through the Senate look grim. Democratic leaders suffered a major blow Wednesday when some of their own voted against a Medicare rate bill seen as a test for broader reform. It’s called the “doc fix” -- legislation to increase Medicare payments to doctors with a price tag of $247 billion over the next decade. It was supposed to be part of the cost of health care. But in order to bring the health care reform bill in under budget, Democrats simply moved that expense out of health care into another part of...

BETHLEHEM - One of the untold stories of the Middle East is what is happening to the Christian population. Many are fleeing areas like the West Bank city of Bethlehem because Muslims are persecuting them. Bethlehem is the birthplace of Christ and was once a Christian city. But today Christians are only about 10 to 15 percent of the population. Some observers say if the mass exodus continues, within another generation it could become a city of Christian holy sites without any Christian residents. Justice Weiner believes that is happening. He has spent years investigating persecution and the exodus of...

The Eiffel Tower, which has become a global icon of France, was lit up with colors of Turkish flag under the ongoing “Season of Turkey” activities in France. The tower will be wearing Turkey’s colors (red and white) from 8:00 p.m. to dawn for five days The Paris Municipality, earlier, decided to make a gesture to President Abdullah Gul during his visit to Paris by lighting up the tower with colors of Turkish flag from October 6 to October 11. Turkish President Gul visited France on October 7 to attend opening of the exhibition “Istanbul through the Ages” at Grand...

FOREST GROVE, Ore. - Police have arrested a man after a woman was sexually assaulted in her own home in Forest Grove, just west of the Portland suburb of Hillsboro. Floyd Dale Elliott faces rape and burglary charges after being accused of entering the victim’s home in the middle of the night last month. Police said he then tried to rape her. The woman reportedly grabbed a gun, hidden near her bed, and started firing. No one was hurt. The victim’s friends identified Elliott in the investigation. Elliott was arrested without incident. UPDATE: KATU’s investigation has uncovered that Elliott is...

On Sept. 17, a Shin Bet-undercover police unit detained three Palestinians fabricating bombs and using pipes as components for rockets in a covert workshop in the Abu Dis village of Jerusalem, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report. They worked in the grocery storehouse under the direction of an engineer. The terror cell planned a rocket assault on Jerusalem and Maaleh Adummim. The facility also contained a large cache of side arms which the suspects admitted had been stocked ready for terror attacks in the city. Their questioning led to the arrest Thursday, Oct. 15 of a fourth Palestinian under orders to carry...

Several parents - named as victims in the indictment against three Baptist Union leaders now on trial in Tashkent - have told the court that statements that their children were taught the Baptist faith against their wishes were fabricated or dictated by Investigator Anatoli Tadjibayev, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The head of Uzbekistan’s Baptist Union Pavel Peichev and two colleagues went on trial on 24 September accused of teaching religion illegally to children at church-run summer camps and evading tax on profits from the camp. They deny all the charges - which carry punishment of up to three...

Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations. The allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days have given Obama a clear lead as Republicans struggled to fetch an alternative. Ryan’s campaign began to crumble on Monday following the release of embarrassing records from his divorce. In the records, his ex-wife, Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan, said her former husband took her to...