Free Republic

Gasoline prices are high, and we need to make them go down! I have started a petition that can be downloaded at http://www.biggreenfish.com/gaspetition. This petition asks that the United States Congress do everything within its power to lower gas prices to a bearable level, and that it set the initiative for scientists and engineers to find the best alternative fuel source to gasoline and discover the best way to convert our nation to that new fuel source. Download it and pass it on to all your friends. I will turn the signed petitions for my area over to my congressional...

For anyone who is interested, here's a useful (free) utility from Microsoft that integrates with IE5+. When you select text/images on a web page (as though you were going to edit/copy them) then right-click, you'll have a 'View Partial Source' option in the popup context menu. Choosing this option will show you the HTML source in notepad. I've used this for a couple years and it's VERY useful for determining the URLs of pictures you might want to link & also for answering 'how'd they do that?' if you see interesting stuff on a page. Again, free. Very fast download....

Not having anything worthwhile to say for himself, John Kerry has his surrogates out starting nasty rumors about the Bush administration. Our liberal national media doesn't seem to mind when Kerry minions spout obvious mistruths. The large media news organizations never bother fact-checking and questioning Democrats about even the most blatant lies, so Democrats babble on with impunity. We, however, prefer to take notes and lie in wait until the actual candidate starts feeling confident the trial balloon sent up by minions is safe to follow. John Kerry, of course, is libel to say anything. So, it didn't take long...

OK, we shouldn't be surprised by now that Burkett is exposed as a fraud, but I found this contradiction so glaring I can't believe the press hasn't picked up on it: Burkett is claiming that he was given the documents by someone named Lucy Ramirez (or her shadowy courier). From USA Today: "Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March. But instead of being met at the show by Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted."...

Exerpt: NYT article on Bill Burkett; "In it, (a letter) Mr. Burkett complained of "severe retaliation" from General James for what he said was reporting "illegal acts" within the National Guard. He also complained about the government's failure to pay for his medical care after suffering from a tropical disease after a military assignment to Panama in 1997. Before finally winning medical benefits in July 1998, he said, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for depression." ENDIT

The Houston Chronicle takes a long, tough look at Bill Burkett, who has emerged as a possible CBS source for disputed memos about President Bush's Guard service. Read the whole thing. Also, many, many readers are pointing me to Burkett's op-ed from August 25th of this year in which he says that he had "reassembled" Bush's TANG file and specifically called out the years 1972 and 1973 - the same years that the Killian forgeries were purportedly written.

WASHINGTON - Bill Burkett, who has emerged as a possible CBS source for disputed memos about President Bush's Guard service, has a long history of making charges against Bush and the Texas National Guard. But Burkett's allegations have changed over the years, and have been dismissed as baseless by former Guard colleagues, state legislators and others. Even Burkett has admitted some of his allegations are false.

September 16, 2004 Ex-Guardsman Is Said to Be a CBS SourceBy RALPH BLUMENTHAL OUSTON, Sept. 15 - Bill Burkett once said his job was to make Gov. George W. Bush a hero. As a lieutenant colonel working on the readiness of the Texas National Guard, Mr. Burkett, a lay preacher's son from Portales, N.M., was brought in with a high commission in 1996 to work on mobilization plans that would make the Guard shine. "I was very supportive of Bush," he said in an interview this year.But it was not long before Mr. Burkett, whom colleagues call a stickler...

We, the people, the "guys in pajamas" can force the Rathergate forger into the open--if we only have the will to try. We can start a campaign that focuses on the two media outlets--ABC and USA Today--who got the same information as CBS. Apparently they have come around to the view that the documents probably are bogus. Therefore any confidentiality arrangement with the source is void.Our arguments should be the ethics rules of the Society of Professional Journalists. We can use their own rules against them. Go to the Society of Professional Journalists http://www.spj.org/ethics_code.asp and then to their ethics page....

I was listening to Scarborough Country and Howard Fineman said that they were looking into whether Bill Burkett was the source of the forged papers. from http://michael-friedman.com/archives/000139.html Who is Bill Burkett? Former Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett is the man who claims that Bush and the Texas National Guard cleaned out any damaging information in Bush's National Guard files in 1997. As Kevin Drum explains in an exhaustively researched post, Burkett has a major axe to grind - he blames Bush for the military denying him medical care during an illness in 1998. However, there is another reason to be skeptical...

Italian Mummy Source of 'The Scream'? By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Sept. 7, 2004 — An Inca mummy kept in a Florentine museum might have been a source of inspiration for Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream," an Italian anthropologist claims. The Inspirational Mummy. Bearing a striking resemblance to Munch's now stolen painting, the mummy was rediscovered as Florence's Museum of Natural History began to carry out scientific investigations such as CT scans on its collection of Peruvian mummies. "It"s the strong resemblance that struck us. Basically, the images of the 'The Scream' and the mummy can be overlapped," Piero Mannucci...

As Bill Clinton hit the operating table at 6:45 a.m. at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in upper Manhattan, MSNBC almost simultaneously was preparing a video package of the former president's obituary -- just in case. From: Hitchins, Charles (NBC Universal, MSNBC) Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 6:25 AM To: @MSNBC Newsforce Staff Subject: Clinton Obit Just in case it's needed Mitchell Obit on Clinton C1052 Trt 3:47

Finding open source software on the Internet can often seem like searching for a needle in a haystack. But with the development of a new search engine called AMOS, finding code has just become easier. Aimed at programmers and system integrators, but with the potential to be used by a broader public, the AMOS system applies a simple ontology and a dictionary of potential search terms to find software code, packages of code and code artefacts rapidly and efficiently. 'There is so much open source code and program elements available today that people often don't know what's available or where...

ISLAMABAD/BERLIN, February 29 (IslamOnline.net) - The "source" of a report which made a buzz around the world about the arrest of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, turned out to be a journalist based in the northern city of Peshawar, Pakistani authorities announced Sunday, February 29. The external Pashto-language service of Iranian state radio reported Saturday, February 28, quoting an "informed source" that Bin Laden had been "captured in a tribal area of Pakistan." The report, which was immediately denied by both Pakistani and U.S. authorities, said the arrest took place "some time ago" but gave no further details. Pakistani officials...

... Despite the above, the quality of the code is generally excellent. Modules are small, and procedures generally fit on a single screen. The commenting is very detailed about intentions, but doesn't fall into "add one to i" redundancy. There is some variety in the commenting style. Sometimes blocks use a // at every line, sometimes the /* */ style. In some modules functions have a history, some do not. Some functions describe their variables in a comment block, some don't. Microsoft appears not to have fallen into the trap of enforcing over-rigid standards or universal use of over-complicated automatic...

Net File-Swappers Snap Up Windows Source Code Fri Feb 13, 3:50 PM ET By Bernhard Warner and Lucas van Grinsven LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Internet users on Friday were ferociously downloading pirate versions of Microsoft Corp's Windows source code, stoking concerns hackers and virus writers could use it for a new wave of cyber attacks. The world's largest software maker alerted the public on Thursday that parts of its valuable source code for its Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems had been leaked to various online file-sharing networks. Microsoft said the released code amounted to a fraction of the entire...

<p>So now it has happened at USA TODAY. À la The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other newspapers and broadcast stations or networks. Anonymous-source misuse or abuse put USA TODAY star reporter Jack Kelley in the hot seat and led to his forced resignation. The newspaper's critics, some of its readers and many of its reporters and editors are in a tizzy.</p>

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday accused the Israeli government of following "the policies of escalation and extremism," making the Middle East a more dangerous place.In a speech at a banquet honoring Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Assad turned to Syria's recurring theme that Israel and its occupation of war-conquered Arab lands were at the core of Palestinian-Israeli violence and turmoil throughout the region. Assad accused Israel of rejecting an Arab willingness to make peace. He claimed that tension throughout the region was due to "the policies of escalation and extremism the Israeli government...

Terri's Threads on FreeRepublic.com - 18 Nov 2003 0351 PST I've got good news and I've got bad news................ THE GOOD NEWS There are now five hundred seventy-four ( 574 ) 'Terri' threads containing a total of sixty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-five ( 67,525 ) posts....that could be counted...I couldn't find eight of the threads previously posted.) THE BAD NEWS The blog I used seems to have nullified the URL's I pasted to each thread. If one of you is a wizkid and can tell me how overcome this situation - without having to do the whole thing over...

Terri's Threads on FreeRepublic.com - 13 Nov 2003 1035 PST Today, as of 1035 PST, a total of four hundred and ninety-five threads (495!!!) related to the Terri Schiavo life or death struggle taking place in Florida have been posted by one hundred and seventy-two (172) FReepers!!! Given the astonishing and incredible number of threads which focus on a wide variety issues all reated to the same subject, I thought it might be helpful to the FR membership, and those who occasionly review FR commentary, to have a source from which they could more easily access a particular item of...