Free Republic

When former President Obama gave an hourlong speech on disinformation last week, it wasn’t just a one-off, sources around him say. Those close to Obama said the speech was a particularly important one for him and explained why he devoted so much time to the topic.

Crew members and passengers wrestled a 28-year-old man to the cabin floor after he began pounding on the cockpit of a plane approaching San Francisco. The man was yelling as he brushed past a flight attendant about 10 minutes before American Airlines Flight 1561 from Chicago was due to land on Sunday night, police said. Rageit Almurisi, 28, carried a Yemen passport but his nationality is not clear, a spokesman said. [Snip] Passengers told of how Almurisi was heard to shout 'Allahu Akbar'--or 'God is great'. Passenger Angelina Marty said: 'I kept saying to myself,

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Now that more than 1 billion people use the Internet, international policymakers and computing experts are struggling with how to link the world's other 5 billion to the increasingly crucial network. "Ten years ago, to talk about 1 billion Internet users sounded exaggerated, unthinkable, but now we talk about the next billion," said Markus Kummer, the official heading a U.N. forum here Tuesday on governing the Internet. "It is clear sooner or later we will reach that number. It is also clear that next billion will be poorer than the first." The U.N. created the...

Batboys usually don't get much glory. But Nate Reese has experienced, albeit briefly, the adulation that comes with completing a great play that gets shown again and again on television, sometimes in slow motion. On Wednesday night, the crowd at the Metrodome leapt to their feet with a roar when Reese leveled a fan who had scampered in from left field, done a head-first slide into home plate and was getting up to resume a rabbit run from security guards. "Play of the game," Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Joe Nathan said. In the aftermath of the tackle, Reese sat in...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Army News Service, June 8, 2006) – A new DVD aimed at reducing deployment stress for military teenagers is scheduled to be released worldwide this month. The 30-minute DVD, called “Teens Coping With Military Deployment – How’s Your Family Doing?,” addresses a variety of teen deployment-related concerns, including fear of injury or death, anxiety brought about by changes in the home and coping mechanisms for dealing with the absence of a parent. A mix of personal life experience and concern for fellow Soldiers and their families inspired Maj. Keith Lemmon to create the DVD. “I deployed...

2/28/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- A couple of Airmen sat in the base food court chatting about their return to the United States the next day. Excited to be going home, they compared flight times. Meanwhile, 3 feet away, a third-country national took mental notes. He knew someone who would pay for flight information. The aircraft takeoff time happened to be the last piece of information that an Al Qaeda terrorist needed to coordinate a deadly attack, killing hundreds of servicemembers on a flight home. The scenario presented by Capt. David Quinlan, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing plans officer, isn’t...

BAQUBAH, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2006 — He’s worn many hats throughout his military and civilian life – college football player, undercover narcotics police officer, expert field medic and Emmy-winning sports television producer. Now, Sgt. 1st Class Victor R. Fermin is playing yet another new role as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Public Affairs Office for the outgoing 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. While it’s been a different assignment for him, it’s one he has excelled at, said his supervisor, Maj. Steven Warren, public affairs officer. “He single-handedly doubled the PAO shop’s effectiveness and efficiency,” Warren said....

SACRAMENTO - Entering a re-election year with his popularity sagging, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faces a key political test tonight as he delivers a State of the State speech that seeks to strike a more populist stance. The governor is expected to address quality-of-life issues facing Californians - traffic, wages, education and prescription drugs - rather than the less-tangible government reforms he spotlighted last year, which voters ultimately rejected. "If it is successful, it can be a very public turning point," said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento. The governor also will...

The California Public Utilities Commission was holding a hearing last week on the future of the state's still-shaky electricity market, when one participant made an uncomfortable observation. It was 10 years ago to the day that the commission had published its now-infamous "Blue Book," a plan that set the course for California's disastrous detour into deregulation. "Why are we here again?" asked Mike Florio, senior staff attorney with The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco. "Are we that much smarter than the ones who launched the debacle?" In 2000 and 2001, a haywire energy market and stratospheric prices sent the...