Free Republic

An Arab television channel aired a silent 20-second videotape Tuesday night of hostage American reporter Jill Carroll and said an accompanying message gave the United States 72 hours to free female prisoners in Iraq or the journalist would be killed. Al-Jazeera would not tell The Associated Press how it received the tape, but issued its own statement calling for Carroll's release. The tape showed the 28-year-old reporter sitting in front of a white background and speaking, but her voice could not be heard. Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, has not been heard from since she was...

WASHINGTON - As Tom DeLay became a king of campaign fundraising, he lived like one too. He visited cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants — all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire. ADVERTISEMENT [0] Over the past six years, the former House majority leader and his associates have visited places of luxury most Americans have never seen, often getting there aboard corporate jets arranged by lobbyists and other special interests. Public documents reviewed by The Associated Press tell the story: at least 48 visits to golf clubs and resorts; 100 flights...

Whoever heard of spending $500,000 of American citizens' tax money to build a parking lot for a private business? Whoever heard of a supposedly conservative congressman perpetrating and defending such an abuse? And whoever heard of a businessman so brazen as to defend such crass patronage as being "the American system"? Well, Kentuckians have heard it all now, thanks to U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. The Somerset Republican has amassed such power as one of the U.S. House's appropriations "cardinals" that even the blatant misuse of public funds for a private parking lot slides quietly past all the paper tigers who...

With an estimated price tag of $40m, the three-day celebration that is President Bush's second inauguration will be the most expensive ever. The lavish dinners, parties and fireworks began on Tuesday and will continue through his swearing-in on Thursday, followed by a parade and nine official inaugural balls. The band Fuel perform at a pre-inauguration concert hosted by the president's daughters Concerts and balls are already underway The cost will be paid by individual and corporate donations, while the city of Washington is being asked to pay for an estimated $17m in security costs. Some have criticised the expense, questioning...