Free Republic

There he was again Wednesday -- Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha complaining out loud about the U.S. military presence in Iraq, squealing about a civil war and about how the result of America's abandonment of Iraq could not possibly be any worse than the current situation. As usual, he was flanked by military veterans, who like Murtha intend to use their service time as a qualification for obtaining national political office. These days, when Murtha hops around the country trying to further demoralize America's servicemen and women fighting World War III, he takes along like-minded liberals to defend the integrity of...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2006 – A Marine corporal quizzed top leaders at a recent Pentagon employees’ question-and-answer session about what the department can do to counter the reporting of negative news from Iraq and Afghanistan. “Negativity in the press is absolutely detrimental to the morale of our forces and our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cpl. John A. Stukins said to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Sept. 22 town hall meeting. “What are we doing to confront this problem and to better the morale of our...

BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - An American schoolteacher said he was with 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey when she died, but questions surfaced over his story a day after his arrest in Thailand. A Colorado prosecutor cautioned that more work remained in the case. John Mark Karr, 41, who was arrested in a dramatic breakthrough in the sensational 1996 murder, spoke to reporters on Thursday while being escorted by authorities in Bangkok. Asked if he was innocent, Karr shook his head and said, "No." JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26,...

OK, how come Liberals are against outsourcing yet for Illegal Immigration to take the jobs Americans won't do, yet are against ANWR even if the Unions want to drill there. How come Hollywood actors and actresses wear gowns that cost milliona and millions of dollars for one day, yet complain about Conservatives and charity? How come Liberals wear Che T-shirts, yet no Conservative wears an Augusto Pinochet T-shirt? How come Liberals even support somewhat a policy system that has led to the worst environmental, mass murder, dissent crushing and working records yet pledge to stand behind it? How come Liberals...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top campaign adviser is being paid to provide marketing strategy to AT&T at a time when the governor's office is involved in negotiations on legislation potentially worth billions of dollars to the telecommunications giant. Political consultant Matthew Dowd's involvement with the governor and AT&T at the same time presents, at minimum, the appearance of a conflict of interest, government watchdogs warned. Dowd and his consulting firm are currently assisting San Antonio-based AT&T with the rollout of its U-verse service in Texas. The product is designed to compete with cable TV by sending TV programming and a bundle...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger answered constituents questions that were sent in via computer Tuesday in his first-ever live online video question-and-answer session. The governor took nine questions on topics ranging from game wardens, to gay marriage, to illegal immigration, to his favorite color – which he revealed is red. “I like the color red because it is fire and I see myself as always being on fire and being charged up,” he said. The 20-minute Webcast, dubbed 'Ask Governor Schwarzenegger,” started at 10:38 a.m. and was moderated by political reporter Marcey Brightwell from Sacramento's KXTV News 10. Brightwell chose...

An idea struck me. Anybody want to join me? I think I'm going down to the office supply store and buy some printable stickers. On these I'm going to print: "Why do the democrats want us to lose in Iraq?" "Why do Democrats act like they want Bin Laden to win?" and things like that. And start sticking them wherever. We could start our own meme campaign!

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez appointed four people as alternates to the California Coastal Commission on Friday, a move the Sierra Club and at least one commissioner said he had no authority to do. The appointments came days before the coastal commission was scheduled to cast a final vote on a multimillion golf project in Pebble Beach, a high profile development backed by actor Clint Eastwood, former Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and retired golfer Arnold Palmer. The Pebble Beach Co. - which hosts the annual fundraiser for the Democratic Party - is pushing a plan to build an 18-hole...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials have altered their account of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, saying he was alive and partly conscious after bombs destroyed his hideout, and an Iraqi man raised fresh questions Saturday about the events surrounding the end of Iraq's most-wanted militant. The man, who lived near the scene of the bombing, claimed in an interview with AP Television News to have seen U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from the man's nose. When asked about the man's allegations, military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said he would check. In Washington,...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson says he still has many questions about President Bush's plan to send thousands of National Guard troops to help the U.S. Border Patrol along the country's southern border. The head of the National Guard Bureau, the office that coordinates military planning between the Pentagon and state Guard units, indicated to a congressional committee on Wednesday that an initial deployment could begin as early as next week. "My concern is that I want the Border Patrol to be the primary law enforcement on the border and not the National Guard," Richardson said...

NEW YORK - It's been 30 years, but Dick Tucker has no trouble recalling the French signs posted inside city buses that crisscrossed Montreal: "In French, we say it this way. We don't say it that way." Language is the words to the lullabies we were sung as babies, the fabric of our conversation around the dinner table, the whisper of prayer, the lessons of school. It clearly evokes strong feelings, framing not just our speech, but our thoughts. As U.S. lawmakers renew the long-standing debate over whether to make English the nation's official language, those bus placards make clear...

Welcome to all Posters/Hosts/Hostesses! This is for the hosts present, past, future to share information & be the “nuts & bolts”, housekeeping, sharing of issues etc. for the thread. I am putting it in an obscure “chat” category so we can escape some exposure as this is NOT a GENERAL chat thread but rather one of limited interest. Rather than post all the information ON THIS THREAD, I have provided links. This way I can change the material in the document when needed as updates or modifications. We as hosts can give ideas, help each other & use this...

HOUSTON - Federal prosecutors sought Thursday to torpedo Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay's image as a company champion, trying to show he used the ailing energy giant to bail himself out of personal financial woes in 2001. Lay obtained more than $70 million in loans from Enron throughout 2001 and repaid most with company stock, even as he encouraged employees to buy more shares. Lay didn't disclose those stock sales publicly because regulations required that sales of shares back to a company be reported only in the year after they occur. Unlike his co-defendant in his fraud and conspiracy trial,...

In championing the so-called “Frontier Line,” a Western states electric power development and transmission project, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed a memorandum of understanding on it yesterday, is embracing the newest frontier of the old energy economy. The Frontier Line is about coal-fired electric power. That’s why the Frontier Line would originate in coal producing Wyoming and is embraced by the coal lobby of the Mountain West. They have the coal power, we have the electricity market in need. The out-of-state wind farms that are talked up by Schwarzenegger and his energy czar, Joe Desmond -- who will depart his...

Stations Of The CrossFast and Abstinence Pope Benedict XVI Lenten Message April Reflections     Click here for clickable March calendar

I think that this would push most of the antique media right over the edge (LOL), and would ensure that an occasional question of merit was actually put to the President's Press Secretary. Perhaps a Freeper with an inside WH connection could suggest this idea. We could do a daily thread of possible questions and a poll of freepers to determine the one or two top choices.

WASHINGTON - House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says President Bush should have used his extensive authority under the law to monitor suspected terrorists rather than approve the National Security Agency's disputed monitoring program. "I would not want any president — Democrat or Republican — to have the expanded power the administration is claiming in this case," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview with The Associated Press. Pelosi did not say the NSA's surveillance program was illegal. But she said the administration should follow the procedures in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows government lawyers to ask a secretive...

Unfamiliar questions in the Arab air Nov 24th 2005 | CAIRO As al-Qaeda scores own-goals in its backyard, many Arabs, including some Iraqis, are beginning to rethink their position on violence in the name of resistance OF ALL the films to extol the fight for freedom from imperialism, one of the most cheering to Arab hearts is the rousing 1981 epic, “Lion of the Desert”. A richly bearded Anthony Quinn plays the role of Omar Mukhtar, the simple Koran teacher who became a guerrilla hero, and for 20 years, from 1911-31, harassed the Italian forces bent on subduing Libya. In...

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 10:17 a.m. EST Questions Raised about Tim Russert's Story NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert told Leakgate probers that he had no idea Joe Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA employee before her name surfaced in Robert Novak's fateful July 14, 2003 column, and that he was stunned upon learning that Lewis "Scooter" Libby claimed he got that information from him. But an account by senior NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell raises questions about whether Mr. Russert may have known about Plame's employment well before the Novak column. On Oct. 3, 2003, Mitchell was a guest...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday took his special election campaign before a hand-picked Hispanic audience that was more interested in asking him about amnesty and driver's licenses for illegal immigrants than his "year of reform" ballot measures. Schwarzenegger's appearance in the capital studio of Spanish-language television network Univision was another step in his attempt to connect with voters two weeks before they decide his proposals to change state government. He answered questions during a voter forum Monday night in Walnut Creek and has additional forums scheduled in Fresno and Los Angeles. Critics immediately assailed the Univision session...