Free Republic

Things Not to Say to a Cop 1. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer. 2. Sorry, officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in. 3. Aren't you the guy from the Village People? 4. Hey, you must've been going about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job! 5. Are you Andy or Barney? 6. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police oficer. 7. You're not going to check the trunk, are you? 8. I pay your salary! 9. Gee, officer! That's terrific. The last...

These are all great messages, videos and jokes which I have to share. Must also stop hitching a ride on other FReepers' threads;)

Donald Trump on Monday did not refute a report claiming he told The New York Times editorial board in an off-the-record meeting that his immigration views are in fact more flexible than he has made them seem throughout his presidential campaign. "Everything is negotiable," Trump said Monday on Fox News, responding to a question about whether the report, which undermines Trump's hardline stance on immigration, was accurate.

The U.S. Commerce Department is relinquishing its hold over the group that manages the Internet’s architecture amid pressure to globalize its functions in the wake of reports about NSA surveillance. The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, a Commerce Department agency, said Friday it is transitioning the function to the “global Internet community.” The decision marks a dramatic change. Since the Internet’s inception, the United States has played a leading role in the management of critical back-end Web work, including management of .com and other domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has performed those functions under...

Today in show business news: NBC is cleaning house while CBS is adding more clutter, including a Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar show. Yes, you read that right. More cancellation news from the Peacock as the network gets ready to present its new schedule to advertisers at next week's upfront presentation in New York. Yesterday it was Whitney and 1600 Penn, today it's Matthew Perry's freshman sitcom Go On and Brian Williams's weekly news magazine Rock Center. They are really cleaning house as they do yet another yearly overhaul, hoping that this is the one that works. This leaves The New...

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy. "I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan said later to his rival, referring to Democratic pressure on Biden to make up for President Barack Obama's listless performance...

On this we can agree with President Obama: Everything he stands for is at stake in 2012. Obama told 500 fawning sycophants in Chicago that he is unrepentant about his policy agenda and intends to treat us to more of the same, much more, in a second term. Obama said, "Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election." Lest there be no mistake, he repeated the message in the smaller settings of private homes. We can endlessly debate whether he is such a devoted ideologue that he's blind to his policy failures, whether he's willing to...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I don't know how you feel, but I just spent four absolutely wonderful, fabulous days at what I call pre-Obama America. From Wednesday night until, oh, I guess about nine o'clock last night I thought not one thought of Barack Obama. I paid not one bit of attention to any Barack Obama-related news, which meant I had to keep the news networks turned off. And it was bliss! And to realize this was only just two years ago.

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., has proposed a plan for eliminating the multi-trillion-dollar national debt: Tax everything. Earlier this year, Fattah introduced H.R. 4646, the "Debt Free America Act," which would impose a massive new tax for a period of seven years, while the national debt is being paid off. And once the debt is paid, the bill would eliminate the individual income tax, supplanting it with the new, "transaction" tax instead. Specifically, H.R. 4646 would levy a 1-percent tax on every transaction of any kind that uses check, cash or credit cards (with a path in place for also...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the government is in charge of the response to the Gulf oil spill, not the oil company BP. Obama says all steps BP takes to end the huge spill must be approved in advance by the government. Obama says his administration will do whatever is needed to protect and restore the Gulf Coast from this "unprecedented disaster."

Everything! Till we meet again! :)

NEW YORK – Inauguration Day? Nope. First puppy? Negative. Triumphal tour of Europe? Not even. First lady Michelle Obama called her appearance Tuesday on "Sesame Street" probably the best thing she's done since arriving in the White House. At the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, she thanked the diplomats and staff members promoting her husband's new foreign policy of global engagement. "I'm thrilled to be here, but I was just at 'Sesame Street' — I'm sorry," she said. "And I never thought I'd be on 'Sesame Street' with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled....

Acne, agricultural land increase, Africa devastated, African aid threatened,  air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, allergies increase, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end,  amphibians breeding earlier (or not),  anaphylactic reactions to bee stings,  ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, Antarctic grass flourishes, Antarctic ice grows, Antarctic ice shrinks, Antarctic sea life at risk,   anxiety treatment, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom, Arctic ice free, Arctic lakes disappear, Arctic tundra to burn, Atlantic less salty, Atlantic more salty,   atmospheric circulation modified, attack of the killer jellyfish, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, ...

If 2007 was shaped by anything, it was the scuffle to pay for information about Anna Nicole Smith. Before her death on Feb. 8, 2007, I had rarely, if ever, thought about Smith. I certainly had not written much about her. The birth of her baby the previous September was not that interesting. The death of her grown son was, but not that much. He wasn’t a celebrity. She was a Grade D personality, a buffoonish comic strip, a Marilyn Monroe pretender.

Random thoughts on the passing scene: A sense of logic underlies a sense of humor. The same professor who wrote the first treatise on symbolic logic also wrote "Alice in Wonderland." "A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years," said Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. If so, then we may be hearing about "diversity," "social justice" and "a living wage" for many years to come. Bill Clinton's attack on President Bush's commuting of Scooter Libby's prison sentence qualifies Clinton for the Guinness Book of World Records in chutzpa. Whenever I hear terrorists referred to in the media as "militants," it...

The world survived 2006 without a major economic catastrophe, despite sky-high oil prices and a Middle East spiralling out of control. But the year produced abundant lessons for the global economy, as well as warning signs concerning its future performance. Unsurprisingly, 2006 brought another resounding rejection of fundamentalist neo-liberal policies, this time by voters in Nicaragua and Ecuador. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Venezuela, Hugo Chávez won overwhelming electoral support: at least he had brought some education and healthcare to the poor barrios, which previously had received little of the benefits of the country’s enormous oil wealth. Perhaps most importantly for the...

The New York Times May 29, 2006 METROPOLITAN DIARY Dear Diary: The Everything bagel has always made me smile. It combines seasonings from sesame, garlic, poppyseed, onion and salt bagels -- and it's really delicious. In New York City, it makes perfect sense to order "Everything with nothing" -- an Everything bagel, plain, without butter or cream cheese. One morning this month, a mother and her boy were placing a breakfast order at the Market Cafe in Citigroup Center. The store was busy and ready to get busier, with fresh sandwiches, pizzas, fruit, rolls and salads stocked behind the counter....

May 20, 2000 marks the 7th anniversary of President Clinton's signing the National Voter Registration Act, popularly known as Motor Voter. The right to vote means nothing if people are not registered. Motor Voter works by reducing necessary and burdensome bureaucratic obstacles to voter registration. The law requires states to provide uniform registration services through drivers' license agencies, through public assistance and disability agencies and through mail-in registration. In 1995, the first full year of implementation, more than 11 million citizens registered to vote or updated their voting addresses under the law. This figure represents the largest single increase...

Things heard in Washington and elsewhere... Asbestos Reform -- "[The current asbestos bill is] an Armageddon of special interests." - Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). -- "Give me the benefit of the doubt." - Sen. Arlen Specter moments before the asbestos bill vote. -- "I think this trust fund is just doomed to fail." – Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). -- "We lost under the most extraordinary circumstances." - Sen. Arlen Specter after the vote on the $140 billion asbestos bill. Cheney Hunting Accident -- "I’ll calm down when I feel like calming down!" - NBC news correspondent...

827 Seattle students informed they will be freshmen again... Nearly one in four Seattle Public Schools sophomores is missing required credits and has been reclassified as a freshman, potentially delaying graduation. The move, effective this semester, was part of a package of changes the district announced in October to help better prepare high school students to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and graduate. Under district policy, high school students have to complete five credits a year to advance to the next grade. At some schools, the rate was far higher than one in four students. At Rainier Beach...