Free Republic

Lawyers and lobbyists are accusing regulatory agencies of unnecessarily blocking access to websites during the government shutdown. "I can't help wondering whether this is a political call," a Republican telecom lawyer said. "Is it really necessary to completely cut off Internet access?" Agencies including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have entirely shut down their websites, preventing the public from accessing regulations, filings and other documents. .......It appears there is “some sort of coordinated action with many of the basic sites going dark,” Joe Hall, senior staff technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology,...

RUSH: Let's go grab some phone calls and we'll go to Rochester, New York. We'll start with Phillip. Phillip, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here, sir. Hello. CALLER: Thank you. How you doing today? RUSH: I'm fine. How are you? CALLER: I just called to more or less let you know that I agree with Senator Dole. I think your party should close up and repair 'til next year. RUSH: You're a Democrat? CALLER: No. I'm an independent. RUSH: Oh, okay. CALLER: Now, to prove my point, the last election I think you had three Senate...

.......... the United States needs its conservative leaders and activists in the public square now more than at any time in our lifetimes. If we hold on, we'll win. Blue State America is doomed, and the blue-staters represented by President Obama and his party cannot save it. ...... we red-staters must remain fully involved and fully engaged in American politics and culture. This is especially true after a year like 2012 -- when we lose. Better to quote U.S. General Joseph Stilwell after the loss of Burma to the Japanese. "I claim," Vinegar Joe said, "we took a hell of...

[Head of IAEA said he was "confident" no sensitive information had been stolen during hacking incident.] The head of the U.N. atomic agency said Thursday that while the details of a hacking incident involving one of its servers have yet to be elucidated, he was "confident" that no sensitive information related to Iran"s nuclear activities had been stolen. "We are continuing to analyze this event and I don't claim that I have all the knowledge of what happened. We are continuing to analyze the case," said Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano. "We don't know...

Bloggers thrive on comments and traffic.  So when you go to these blogs do four simple things. Read the posts and find some that interest you.Comment on the posts and join the conversation. Share links to the stories that interest you by copying the web URLs and posting them on Facebook.Go back on a regular basis to stay up-to-date. Six Blogs to Add to Your Routine American Thinkerhttp://www.americanthinker.com/ Angry White Dude http://angrywhitedude.com/ iOwnTheWorld.comhttp://iowntheworld.com/blog/ NoisyRoom.nethttp://noisyroom.net/blog/ The Political Commentatorhttp://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/ The Rio Norte Linehttp://therionorteline.com/ Thank you for continuing the fight! Tea Party Patriots National Support Team

Imagine storing books in DNA and sending them across a biological Internet. It's already happening. As we reported here back in May, bioengineers are realizing that DNA is an excellent storage medium. They've started writing books in DNA letters. Now a research team at Harvard has just announced in Science the "Next-Generation Digital Information Storage in DNA":Digital information is accumulating at an astounding rate, straining our ability to store and archive it. DNA is among the most dense and stable information media known. The development of new technologies in both DNA synthesis and sequencing make DNA an increasingly feasible digital...

Launched in 2008, Bleacher Report meteorically rose to become one of the nation's most popular websites, and one of the three most-visited sports sites. Its dramatic success came via valuing site growth and pageviews over any semblance of journalistic "quality" or even readability.The site quickly earned a rep for expertly employing the Google search engine to inundate the web with horrible, lowest-common-denominator crap.The site's deft use of search engine optimization (SEO) — the tweaking of content and coding to increase online visibility — propelled its unpaid, amateur writers' fare to the top of Google's search engine results, placing it on...

Two significant insider accounts that would expand public knowledge about the government’s role in the Fast and Furious “gunwalking” criminal enterprise are being withheld from public dissemination because the sources fear reprisals, an “Armed American Radio” panel discussed on last night’s nationally syndicated program. This correspondent joined host Mark Walters, Producer Sean Young, guests Joe Weaver of WGUL 860 AM and blogger George “Mad Ogre” Hill, to examine the effects the slow pace of the investigation and a perceived lack of will to pursue serious legal consequences by the GOP leadership have had on discouraging a whistleblower and an industry...

Freedom of Information Day When : Always March 16th Freedom of Information Day celebrates and recognizes a valuable concept in American rights. March 16th is the birth date of James Madison, the 4th president of the United States of America. James Madison is recognized as the "Father of the Constitution", and the chief author of the "Bill of Rights". Freedom of information and individual rights was very important to James Madison. Did you Know? The Freedom of Information Act was passed into law in 1966. It opened up a wealth of information to American citizens. James Madison would be...

You probably visit the meat counter every time you go to the grocery store, but have you ever wondered about what goes on behind it? To learn the tricks of the butchery trade, we spoke with butchers from grocery-store chains, gourmet supermarkets and specialty shops. Read on to get the inside scoop on freezing, preparing, shopping and saving money on meats so you can carve out some savings next time you hit the counter.

The hotel maid who claims former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn raped her has been accused of working as a prostitute. Allegations have emerged that the 32-year-old cleaner was was taking extra money from male guests at the hotel for sex. 'There is information... of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it's not for bringing extra f**king towels,' a source close to the defence investigation told the New York Post. The woman also had 'a lot of her expenses – hair braiding, salon expenses – paid for by men not related to her,' the source added....

Freedom of information laws are being misused to harass scientists and should be re-examined by the government, according to the president of the Royal Society.

Democrats and Republicans not only vote differently and see the world differently, but they get their information and entertainment from very different places.A new study on media consumption in the Midwest illustrates how this works in individual media markets like Milwaukee.Heavy radio and Internet users here tend to skew Republican, while big television and newspaper users skew Democratic.Viewers of Fox News, the Golf Channel, the History Channel, the Speed Channel, ESPN and Country Music Television lean Republican.Viewers of MSNBC, CNN, Comedy Central, Lifetime and Bravo lean Democratic.“We know Wisconsin is polarized politically. We’re also polarized in how we pay attention...

Herb Meyer: We’re living through an information revolution. It’s wonderful—but we can drown in it if we don’t learn how to use this information properly. Information is the raw material of knowledge, and in How to Analyze Information I’m trying to explain the step-by-step process of turning information into understanding. In short, this is a guide that shows readers how to think...

Obama Administration Responds to Fewer Information Requests in 2010Published March 14, 2011 Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration handled fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information. The administration disclosed at least some of what people wanted at about the same rate as the previous year. People requested information 544,360 times last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act from the 35 largest agencies, up nearly 41,000 more than the previous year, according to an analysis...

The following is excerpted from an email sent out to my company: Google has set up a Person Finder in both English and Japanese: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/ The Japanese Red Cross Society (Nippon Sekijujisha) website is here, with links to both English and Japanese: www.jrc.or.jp/english/index.html NEWS RESOURCES Live coverage from BBC News are at the following two links, with automatic updates streaming on the first: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698 www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598 CNN provides coverage on the quake and Tsunami as well as warnings of other Pacific coast nations at threat: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/tsunami.hawaii.japan.warning The Diplomat's Tokyo Notes provide news on the Earthquake here: http://the-diplomat.com/tokyo-notes/2011/03/11/japan-earthquake-update Numerous major Japanese newspapers...

Driving to Anchorage, AK from South Carolina in Mid March. 4,288 miles one way!

Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, February 4, 2011, 11:49 AM Stunner. President Obama gets his Middle East news from the anti-Semitic anti-American Aljazeera channel. The Business Insider reported, via FOX Nation: The Daily Beast just posted an “exclusive” look inside the White House’s “scramble” to find the right response to the unfolding crisis in Egypt this week. The short version is that the crisis caught U.S. intelligence off guard and they were slow to react. But here’s the line that jumped out at me. Now, huddled in the big office of their boss—one of the administration policy-makers trying to...

Republican Congressman Proposes Tracking Freedom of Information Act RequestsBy ERIC LIPTON Published: January 28, 2011 WASHINGTON — Representative Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years. Mr. Issa, a California Republican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations....

Michael Mounir, spokesman of Hand-in-Hand for Egypt, has received calls from White House officials inquiring about the criminal blast that took place outside the Al-Qiddissine (The Saints) church on Saturday, killing 21 people and wounding 97 others. In an exclusive statement for Al Youm Al Sabe3, Munir said that Paul Monteiro, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, told him that the President Barack Obama "strongly condemns" the suicide attack, asserting that "Those behind it targeting faithful Christians do not show respect for human life and must be brought to justice, expressing his hope that the Egyptian...