Free Republic

Columnist, journalist, commentator and author George Will is supporting his fellow baseball fan, Rudy Giuliani, for the Republican presidential nomination and saying that Mr. Giuliani's eight years as mayor of New York were "the most successful episode of conservative governance" in America in the twentieth century. BUT, Mr. Giuliani was the candidate of New York's LIBERAL Party in each of his three mayoral races (the first a failure, the next two successful)! AND, when running for mayor, Mr. Giuliani pledged to "rekindle the Rockefeller/Javits/Lefkowitz tradition" of the Republican Party and "produce the kind of change New York City saw with...

allegedly included dog feces along with his payment for a parking ticket has been charged with disorderly conduct. The 22-year-old man was charged with the misdemeanor May 11 in a criminal complaint filed in Mower County District Court. The man's vehicle was ticketed on April 18 while it was parked in front of his residence. He put an envelope containing his payment and dog feces in a drop box at the law enforcement center, the complaint stated. On April 25, an office employee for the Austin Police Department smelled a rank odor as she gathered envelopes from the box. Opening...

OCALA, Fla. - The Florida Lottery is refusing to pay a $500,000 prize until it can inspect the $20 scratch-off ticket, which officials said Thursday appears to be a misprint. Joe Curcio, 56, says he got the ticket at a service plaza Sunday on Florida's Turnpike.

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — A Municipal Court judge will review a complaint that a citizen filed against Gov. Jon S. Corzine for not wearing a seat belt when he was injured in an April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway, the court administrator said Thursday. Larry Angel, of Mullica Township, long known for attending public meetings and being a gadfly to local officials, filed the complaint against the governor earlier this week in Municipal Court. The crash occurred on a section of the parkway in Galloway Township

The Black brothers, Earl and Merle, have become the chroniclers of the South’s rising political importance and its shift toward Republicanism. In their latest book, “Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics,” they take a broader view of how regions figure in the razor-thin balance between the two parties. The politically scientific brothers gave a summary of their latest research at an Emory-sponsored breakfast Wednesday. Earl, who teaches at Rice, and Merle, who teaches at Emory, still see the South as the most significant region in terms of its growing size and importance to the elctoral fate of...

Ticket to Ride?Astrophysicists mull a return to the moon Ron Cowen Scientists who study the moon and design the spacecraft to get there are typically worlds apart from astronomers who explore the realms of space beyond the solar system. The two groups attend different meetings, talk a different lingo, and usually get their funding from different divisions within NASA. But with a financially strapped space agency setting its sights—and the majority of its resources—on a highly publicized plan to return to the moon and establish a base there (SN: 12/9/06, p. 373: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061209/fob5.asp), astronomers are looking for ways to jump...

Louise Wood warms up her car every chilly morning so her 6-year-old son won't have to get into a cold car. After starting the engine, she locks her car, sets its alarm, and heads back into her home. Sounds basic, but Wood and more than a dozen other Forest Park residents have learned an expensive lesson about this common routine. It's against the law. A little-known state statute makes it illegal to leave a car running and unattended. The 33-year-old law was meant to prevent driverless cars from rolling away. But the law is finding new purpose in Wood's hometown...

Tickets For Officials Near $18 Million Despite Crackdown; Egypt, Kuwait Top Offenders Diplomats in New York City still have not paid a nearly $18 million tab for parking tickets despite a government crackdown four years ago and a fresh appeal from the new U.N. secretary-general to obey local laws. “It is important for diplomatic officials who enjoy diplomatic immunities and privileges to abide by and comply with all necessary regulations in force in the countries where one is working,” Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday when asked what he would say to diplomats to get rid of the backlog. According to the...

<p>1. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer.</p> <p>2. Sorry, Officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.</p> <p>3.Aren't you the guy from the Village People? 4. Hey, you must've been doin' about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job!</p>

I think I know a certain cop who'll find coal and sticks under his Christmas Tree this year.

Pulaski County - The Pulaski County Sheriff is found in contempt of court Friday by a Little Rock District Judge. This after the jail would not accept repeat traffic offenders because the jail was closed. Late Friday afternoon an appeal was filed in circuit court by the County Attorney Karla Burnett. Friday District Judge David Steward heard testimony as to why several repeat offenders were not picked up and taken to the Pulaski County detention facility as ordered by District Judge Vic Fleming. (Judge David Stewart, District Judge) "It’s a financial problem a legal problem and a constitutional problem and...

SACRAMENTO - One year after California joined the multistate Mega Millions lottery game, sales have fallen short of expectations and the new game has cannibalized some sales of the existing Super Lotto program. Combined sales of Super Lotto Plus and Mega Millions tickets are likely to reach about $1.2 billion this year, short of the $1.4 billion projected when California joined the 11-state game in June 2005, said California Lottery acting director Joan Borucki. "I think it's (because of) that initial start-up period that you have with a new product and getting your customers to feel comfortable with it and...

HIT, Iraq, June 2, 2006 – U.S. soldiers here not only perform combat operations, but also are working to train the Iraqi army -- and they know what success would mean. "The Iraqi army is our ticket home," Army Lt. Col. Thomas C. Graves, commander of U.S. forces in this city on the Euphrates River, said yesterday. Graves' 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, performs combat operations while helping train the Iraqi Army partner unit in the region. "Coalition forces in this area are still doing a lot of combat operations," Graves said. "But those (operations) are done with the idea...

ABC7 News has learned two top Illinois republicans are teaming up for the state's two top political positions. Illinois Republican Party officials tell ABC 7 News that gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka has asked DuPage County state's attorney Joe Birkett to be her running mate. Birkett has apparently accepted the offer. Topinka is a moderate republican, Birkett is more conservative. An official announcement is expected sometime next week.

[rant starts] I noticed a car headlights following me too closely last night while driving in the FAR right lane of a regular street, not on the freeway. After a while, I start to get paranoid so I start to slow down from 35 MPH to about 25 MPH. That car still tailgated me. I could practically see the headlights right at my tail. So I stepped on the brake a few times (no, I didn't SLAM on it, just tapped it so the brake light came on and off a few times). The moron still tailgated me, so I...

My rearview mirror exploded with blue and white lights. I glanced down at my speedometer -- I was pushing 80 mph. But the cars around me were going about the same speed. Could this cop really be pulling me over? I carefully navigated my way across six lanes of traffic. I pulled over on the shoulder and waited, my heart pounding. Moments later the motorcycle cop's helmeted face appeared in the passenger window. "License and registration," he said, raising his voice over the roar of the traffic. "What's the problem?" I asked. "You were doing 80 in a 65-mile-an-hour zone."...

It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.

NEW YORK It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children. The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a...

If the recent cover stories in National Review and the Weekly Standard are any indication, conservative opinion-mongers are taken with the idea of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney running for president in 2008. But, given his record of triangulation on abortion, will pro-life voters be equally enthusiastic? The answer will help determine the viability of Romney's candidacy. Not since Gerald Ford narrowly beat back Ronald Reagan's challenge at the 1976 Republican National Convention has the GOP had a pro-choice presidential nominee. Abortion advocacy reduced 1990s Republican rising stars Bill Weld and Christine Todd Whitman from vying for a place on the...

A Romanian traffic cop has been demoted after he fined a driver for “having a face like a moron and being a big monkey”. Marius Vlasceanu pulled over Gheorghe Tosa as he drove through Craiova in Romania, local daily Jurnalul National reported. But Tosa failed to see the funny side as Vlasceanu fined him £22 and handed him a ticket explaining the reason for the fine was “having a face like a moron and being a big monkey”. ananova