Free Republic

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the nomination of Robert Bacharach to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Tenth Circuit court in Oklahoma on Monday because they said it violated an election-year practice. The 56-34-3 vote came despite previously-stated support of Bacharach from the Oklahoma Republican Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe. They chose not to vote against what their party leadership urged, instead they voted present. Sixty votes were needed to clear the proceedural hurdle. “I cannot vote against this guy, but I can vote present,” Inhofe said before the vote. Republicans said ahead of time that they’d...

Cecile Richards, the CEO of Planned Parenthood, sent out an email asking: “Why is Rick Perry so cruel to women?” Richards complained, among other things, about Gov. Perry’s support of the Texas law that would require abortion providers to show an expectant mother a sonogram of her baby, along with a description and the heartbeat. All facts. No opinions. Just the information that correctly and completely explains the procedure as required for a fully educated choice. But Richards attacked these measures as “burdens” and “dangerous.” Why is Richards so upset? How is looking at a “clump of cells” a burden?...

Here’s hoping the slap on Cecil Newton’s wrist really stung. Then maybe he will remember it next time he tries to sell a son to the highest bidder in college football. Most likely it didn’t. Because the only punishment Cam Newton’s father got for peddling his son like a piece of meat was a public scolding and perhaps the loss of some choice seats in Saturday’s SEC championship game. Cam Newton made out even better. Thanks to the crackerjack sleuths at the NCAA, he will be behind center for Auburn in this weekend’s game. The masterminds behind the BCS cartel...

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was photographed as he appeared to shed a tear at the Kotel (Western Wall) Thursday (see photos below). President Shimon Peres hosted Emanuel with his wife Amy and their children, Zach (13), Ilana (11) and Leah (10) in the Presidential Residence Thursday. Peres gave presents to Emanuel's wife and children and taught Zach, who is in Israel to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah, a lesson about the weekly Torah portion.

U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton was stunned by the devastation. The former president remained hopeful that Haiti can recover and vowed to fight for more aid. PORT-AU-PRINCE -- As the United States moved to take over Haitian government-run aid distribution centers Monday, a teary-eyed former President Bill Clinton saw first-hand the destructive scars of Haiti's biggest natural disaster.

The Chief Marxist in the White House undoubtedly took notes on the teary eyed dramatics put on by the Australian Barrister/ Global Warming Thug. Tuvalu envoy makes tearful appeal; calls for strong agreement Betwa Sharma/PTI / Copenhagen December 12, 2009, 17:39 IST The chief climate change negotiator of the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu today made an emotional appeal for a strong agreement that would legally bind all countries to commitments to control carbon emissions. Ian Fry Australian Barrister/Attorney Representing Tuvalu in the Global Warming Caused by Man Hoax Speaking in the main hall of the Bella Centre where...

A U.S. tourist got more then he bargained for when he was attacked by a crocodile while attempting to answer the call of nature in the Mexican resort of Cancun this week. According to Mexican police 20-year-old Andrew Dales, from Dallas in Texas, confessed that he had been on a mission to relieve himself at the edge of the local Nicupté lagoon , in the popular tourist resort of Cancun, when the crocodile suddenly snapped at him. He suffered ‘multiple bite wounds’ to his leg and neck and was also left with a head injury after the reptile knocked him...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union. He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system. "We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still...

Tijuana - The double fence that separates Mexico from the United States near Tijuana is just a few hundred metres away from the Casa del Migrante - the migrant's house. The white church of Father Luis Kendzierski, which sits on a hill and is visible from the city centre, is always surrounded by scores of people. The men who approach the church have often lived and worked in the United States for up to 25 years before being picked up by police, taken before US immigration authorities and deported to Tijuana. In the migrants' home there is accommodation for up...

Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: I am sorry. Surely by now you know I am sorry. I am writing these words now, and in this form, as a bookend to 13 months of Duke lacrosse coverage, my role in which started with a March 27 column that began: "Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: You know. We know you know." That was when Durham police and District Attorney Mike Nifong were describing a "wall of silence" among the men who attended the now-vaunted lacrosse party at 610 Buchanan Blvd. Nifong, now described by the state attorney general...

Crowd laughs at Hillary in Iowa "I have a lot of experience dealing with evil bad men." Crowd erupts in laughter.Laughing at her, not with her. http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player06.html?012807/012807_studiob_cameron&FNL&Campaigning%20in%20Iowa&acc&Politics&-1&News&224&&&exp

"It's Humans for Oil...Democratic majorities don't redistribute wealth...give a Democratic majority another chance" - Randi Rhodes

In the months leading up to the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein did try to cooperate with United Nations inspectors, a decision that, paradoxically, helped convince the West that he was hiding weapons of mass destruction. By late 2002, Saddam finally tilted toward trying to persuade the international community that Iraq was cooperating with the inspectors of Unscom (the United Nations Special Commission) and that it no longer had W.M.D. programs. Saddam was insistent that Iraq would give full access to United Nations inspectors "in order not to give President Bush any excuses to start a war." Ironically, it now appears...

Aaron Broussard faced what should have been the greatest trial of his political career in 1982, when a jetliner slammed into Kenner eight days after he was sworn in as mayor and killed every person on board and eight on the ground. The new mayor earned his chops spearheading the grisly rescue and excoriating airline executives for not moving quickly to clean up the crash site, at one point screaming, with the mangled fuselage of the plane at his back, “Get your damned airplane out of my city!” Two decades later, the hurricane that dwarfed all other disasters has left...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has removed Kenner businessman Patrick Bossetta from the East Jefferson Levee District at the request of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, a decision that comes almost two months after the men began publicly trading allegations of mismanagement before and after Hurricane Katrina. Bossetta's removal clears the way for Broussard to fill the post with his long-time friend and current administrative aide, Bobby Bourgeois, who was the levee district's executive director for more than two years, until leaving that position in the summer of 2003 to work for Broussard. A Broussard spokesman said Monday that the administration will...

Demagogues: Jesse Jackson was in top form, flying into Caracas to take a cheap shot at Pat Robertson and sing the praises of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. But amid the huzzahs, something ugly was happening outside. Seems that Chavez was in top form, too, doing what dictators like his pal Fidel Castro do. Opposition leaders say that while Jackson was visiting over the weekend, Chavez's men sent mobs to ambush about 1,000 peaceful protesters with rocks, bottles and fireworks in downtown Caracas. Venezuelan media reported nine injured, two seriously. An eyewitness said those hit hardest, and often from behind, were vocal...

Fox News has hit a new low. I didn’t think it was possible. To insinuate that a grieving mother is a communist, a wacko or has a political agenda just shows how evil this cable network is. Cindy Sheehan is a hero who has every right to demand answers to why her son and so many other Americans lost their lives for a lie. Our servicemen pledge to serve and defend our nation. They do so out of a sense of moral obligation and a love for this country. Leaders of this administration and especially President Bush have shown time...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 02, 2005 21:25:35 ET XXXXX DEMS CONSIDER TORTURE SHOW 'N TELL AT GONZALES HEARING **Exclusive** During upcoming confirmation hearings for Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, senior Democrats want to screen infamous videotapes showing Iraqis being abused at Abu Ghraib prison, top sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The curtain is raised Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee's showdown with Gonzales. The Bush White House counsel will be grilled about his role in formulating the administration's legal policies on coercive techniques in interrogations -- techniques some Democrats believe led to outright torture! Yet it's the grainy prison...

I have been writing to numerous people ever since September 11, 2001. That event changed me. Before September 11, 2001 I assumed our government knew what it was doing in the world and I never questioned anything it did, but after September 11, 2001 i started to think ,why would anybody hate us so much as to try to kill as many Americans as possible. My quest for the truth lead me to one very sobering conclusion.........our policies, even before our independence in 1776, has gradually created a world in which we do not realize what people around the world...