Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Encouraged by the death of a top terrorist leader and continued progress on the formation of a new government in Iraq, President Bush is gathering his top military and civilian war advisers to plan the U.S. role in the country’s future. The president planned two days of meetings at the mountainous Camp David presidential retreat, with national security advisers on hand and top commanders in Iraq connected by videoconference. White House officials have said announcements of force reductions are not expected. Yet the top U.S. commander in Baghdad predicted on the eve of the meeting that coalition troops...

Police in Tulsa, Okla., are searching for a man who hid under a woman's car at a Wal-Mart parking lot and then licked her toes as she loaded groceries into the vehicle, according to a report. The woman said she was at the Tulsa Wal-Mart located near 81st Street and Lewis when she felt her toes being licked. She assumed it was a dog but when she looked down, she saw it was a man lying under her vehicle. "I felt something lick my foot," the woman said. "I looked at him and I said, 'What in the hell are...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel advanced a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on Thursday as the committee chairman shouted "good riddance" to a Democrat who walked out of the tense session."If you want to leave, good riddance," The Senate Judiciary Chairman, Republican Arlen Specter, told Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold, who refused to participate because, he said, the meeting was not sufficiently open to the public."I've enjoyed your lecture too. See you later, Mr. Chairman," Feingold told the Pennsylvania senator before storming out of the private room where the meeting took place. The testy exchange highlighted tensions over...