Free Republic

A mother feeding the ducks with her two children was stunned when she was told off by a council warden - for giving the birds 'unhealthy' white bread. Lisa Taplin, 34, was told by the park ranger to bring granary or wholemeal bread next time as it was better for the ducks.

Lame duck dangersFriday, October 15, 2010 U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith When a football game goes into overtime or a baseball game goes into extra innings, fans are usually on the edge of their seats with excitement. Unfortunately, when Congress goes into extra innings it usually means bad things for American taxpayers. In Congress, such overtime is called a "lame duck" session, and one is set to take place shortly after the November elections. I am concerned this session will be used as an opportunity by some to bring up controversial issues without the possibility of being held accountable. House Speaker...

Democrats Scale Back Agenda on Their Own Termsby Wendell Goler | October 04, 2010 Even though the president's aides believe Democrats will retain control of the House and Senate, they're prepared for a scaled down legislative agenda after next month's elections. But officials say it's not because Republicans will be calling more of the shots. Part of the reason is that the largest items on Mr. Obama's agenda, including the Recovery Act, health care reform and financial regulatory reform, have already been passed by Congress. Another part of the reason is that few here expect Republicans to follow their likely...

Beware the lame duck appropriatorsBy Alex Cortes - The Daily Caller Updated: 8:49 AM 08/12/2010 Republicans have been raising the concern of a lame-duck session of Congress where the Democrats will attempt to shove Cap and Trade, Card Check, and other tired, statist policies down the American people’s throats. Although such new authorizations would be a slap in the face to a public that just issued a new governing mandate, this concern is misdirected and minuscule compared to an even greater lame duck challenge. The radical policies the Lame Duck Democrats may attempt to authorize honestly have little to no...

The Senate’s lame-duck session would begin the week of Nov. 15, according to an internal document obtained by The Hill. Under a scheduled laid out by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate would return on Monday, Nov. 15 for a single week before breaking for the week of Thanksgiving. The upper chamber would then return to business on Monday, Nov. 29. It is not clear how long the Senate would then remain in session. The House has not announced a preliminary schedule for post-election sessions. Congress could have to consider appropriations bills after the election, as well as what...

A Bosnian man who claims he is being targeted by extraterrestrials after a series of meteorite strikes on his house has now been hit by a sixth space rock in the space of a few years. Radivoje Lajic first came to international attention in 2008, shortly after the fifth meteorite had crashed into the roof of his house in the northern village of Gornji Lajici. And now, within the past month, another rock has hit the roof of his house, in defiance of all the odds - making it six strikes since the plague of meteorites began in 2007. Experts...

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December...

Union 'card-check,' cap and trade, and so much more Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an...

The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December they don't want to defend before November. Retiring or defeated members of Congress would then be able to vote for sweeping legislation without any fear of voter retaliation.

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority.

Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. The rush to recess gives Democrats little time to pass any major laws. That's why there have been signs in recent weeks that party leaders are planning an ambitious, lame-duck session to muscle through bills in December...

"An apparently hungry Chalmette man has been arrested for stealing a duck from a public park with the intent of cooking it up for a meal, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff`s Office said. The Sheriff`s Office said Ashmeer Tahir, 38, 3713 Juno Drive, was booked with theft of an animal Monday after someone saw him remove a muscovie duck from Sidney Torres Park in Chalmette. A sheriff`s deputy found Tahir at his home with a duck inside a bucket in his van, the Sheriff`s Office said in a news release." duck http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/06/chalmette_man_stole_duck_from.html If this dude can afford to live in...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

French police said on Thursday they had arrested the suspected military leader of the Basque separatist movement ETA in the south-western city of Bayonne. AFP - French anti-terrorist police on Thursday arrested the suspected military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA, Mikel Karrera Sarobe, police sources said. Two other suspected ETA members -- also Spanish nationals -- were arrested with Karrera Sarobe when detectives and anti-terrorist police raided a house in the southwestern French city of Bayonne at daybreak, the sources said. They were a man and a woman, and one of them is suspected of being the number-two...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.- A Florida couple have been charged with theft for capturing ducks from a community lake and arranging to have them killed at an animal shelter. Robert and Blain Aymond infuriated their Frenchman's Landing subdivision neighbors in Palm Beach Gardens, who showed up at a preliminary hearing en masse last month wearing yellow ribbons with pictures of ducks, The Palm Beach Post reported. One woman, Lorraine Lyon, tried to bring the ducks's ashes to the hearing but was unable to get them past security. While critics call the Aymonds duck-killers, their lawyer, Mitchell Beers, said there is...

A British lobbying group has criticized a fire department for spending six hours on the rescue of a pet duck trapped in a pond's overflow pipe. Chris and Karen Hutchens said a five-man team of Gloucestershire firefighters arrived at their Chalford Hill, England, home just before 9:30 a.m. and dug a trench to free their duck, Brownie, from the pipe, The Sun reported Monday. "It was such a relief when a fire engine turned up and they started digging the hole. The pipe was about 4 feet underground but they kept going, they were wonderful and really went beyond the...

President Barack Obama has been in office just nine months and already he is defending his legacy, pushing back more aggressively against criticism of his record on health care, climate change, closing Guantanamo, reforming immigration laws and financial regulations and managing the war in Afghanistan. For the past two weeks, as he’s jetted across the country to fill Democrats’ 2010 coffers, Obama has been test driving a new speech that sounds a lot like one he’d be giving if he were on the ballot next year: A line-item defense of his record so far, and a sober reminder to supporters...

The Justice Department's ethics office had recommended pursuing alleged prisoner-abuse cases, which could expose CIA employees and contractors to prosecution for their treatment of terror suspects. DEVELOPING After months of consideration, Attorney General Eric Holder plans to appoint a special prosecutor to examine allegations that terror suspects were abused at the hands of their CIA interrogators. The decision, confirmed by FOX News, comes as the Department of Justice releases a 2004 report from the CIA's inspector general detailing allegations of harsh interrogation practices. Several details in the review had already been reported. FOX News confirmed over the weekend that the...

President Obama's advisers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unprepared for the intraparty rift that occurred over the fate of a proposed public health insurance program, a firestorm that has left the White House searching for a way to reclaim the initiative on the president's top legislative priority. Administration officials insisted that they have not shied away from their support for a public option to compete with private insurance companies, an idea they said Obama still prefers to see in a final bill. But at a time when the president had hoped to be selling middle-class voters on how insurance reforms...

I don't know how to post youtube videos on this forum. So please excuse me. The video is at the link