Free Republic

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...

ULTIMATE MARCH MADNESS MOMENT 2005 LONDON OIL TRADERS KICK GREENPEACE BUTT by R. Bastiat Greenpeace activists had their heads handed to them by some ferocious oil traders in the City of London when the eco-terrorists crashed the International Petroleum Exchange and briefly disrupted open-outcry trading in the oil futures pit. The well-organized intruders succumbed to a spontaneous counter-attack by their outraged targets and beat a hasty retreat. The trespassers said they were trying to paralyze oil trading as a protest against what they termed the inadequacy of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the alleged contribution of petroleum to...

FORT STEWART, Ga. -- An Army hearing officer has recommended a court-martial for a soldier charged with desertion after he refused to deploy to Iraq. In a Feb. 16 report, Lt. Col. Linda Taylor recommended that Sgt. Kevin Benderman face a general court-martial, the most serious type. The procedure requires approval from Fort Stewart's general court-martial convening authority. Benderman, 40, said he became opposed to war after serving in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. If convicted, he would face as many as seven years in prison, reduction in rank to private and a dishonorable discharge.