Free Republic

Just kind of a tribute to John Palka. Marine (ca. 1965), blues lover, cat lover. Ornery. Not religious. Chicago boy. Missed by those who knew him.

Just days before voters decide whether to re-elect Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, he has admitted to having an affair with another man's wife. Harrison, and the woman's husband say they want to set the record straight. A spokesman for the sheriff tells Eyewitness News that when confronted with the allegation, the sheriff decided it was best to admit his involvement and point out that he doesn't believe he is responsible for the couple's subsequent divorce. Rumors have been rampant since Wednesday that an "alienation of affection" lawsuit was about to be filed by Andrew G. Cook, an eye doctor...

LONDON (Reuters) - James Blunt's "Goodbye My Lover" is the song most requested at British funerals and remembrance services, closely followed by Robbie Williams's "Angels," according to a survey released on Monday. Research for the Bereavement Register found just over a half (51 percent) of people ask for a specific song be played at their funeral and 79 percent have talked with family and friends about possible song choices. The survey of 5,000 people also uncovered some unusual final choices for the final goodbye with rock songs like "I'll Sleep When I am Dead" by Bon Jovi, competing with classical...

Wake Island may be small, but it stood up to a super typhoon in a big way last week. The U.S Coast Guard flew a reconnaissance mission over the weekend to check on the island just days after Typhoon Ioke roared through. When the crew approached the Island they weren't sure what they were going to find. "Our first assessment that we heard of the island could be pretty massive devastation. When we came to the island we flew over it at a thousand feet and we were pleasantly surprised that any significant hazards, fuel tanks, runway, general building conditions...

9/3/2006 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- Airmen and Sailors from Andersen will sail 1,500 miles to Wake Island to see how well the U.S. territory survived Super Typhoon Ioke. The Air Force evacuated all 188 island residents on two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft Monday before the typhoon arrived Thursday with 155 mph winds and gusts to 190 mph. The residents include Airmen, Department of Defense employees and Defense contractors. Members of Andersen's 36th Contingency Response Group and U.S. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 will sail Sept. 4 on an expected four-day trip to the island....

KHON TV - Super typhoon Ioke is barreling towards Wake Island It's big and packing quite a punch. Super typhoon Ioke is barreling towards Wake Island. The massive storm is churning around in the central pacific. It's packing winds of more than 160 miles per hour, a category five storm. Roy Matsuda from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center says, "it is projected to go along this track toward wake island as you can see and to reach Wake Island approximately Wednesday afternoon our time within 13 nautical miles." And because of that a team from Hawaii will head to Wake...

Massachusetts Marine Mark Vecchione was killed last week. At the wake, the representative of John Kerry showed up with a flag and simply walked up to the funeral home and handed it to the funeral director. He was asked to present the flag directly to the family on behalf of the Senator, but refused and started to leave the building. A retired Colonel started after this rep to explain how it is protocol to present the flag to the family. Kerry's rep refused to stop and talk. In fact, Kerry's rep kept walking to his car with the Col following...

AUSTIN - With their slate of fall candidates chosen, Texas Democrats are looking to rebuild their party with the help of a Republican: outgoing U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. Statewide Democratic candidates, gathering Wednesday for a sort of pep rally at the party's Texas headquarters, mentioned DeLay repeatedly while portraying top Texas Republicans as corrupted by big money donors. "We're stuck with Tom DeLay, Rick Perry and the rest of the corrupt Republican leadership who's auctioned off the state Capitol to the highest bidder," said Democratic state chairman Charles Soechting. "Their pay-to-play style of politics has put special interests over the...

The strange mixture of joy and grief that marks a traditional Irish funeral, with its week-long drink-fuelled wake, is under threat from a European directive. The Irish custom that sees corpses kept in an open coffin so the deceased can be viewed during the wake has been endangered by an edict issued by Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner. He wants chemicals used by embalmers to preserve the cadaver withdrawn under a new biocides directive. Such a move would see the end of the age-old ritual of "laying out" the body while games are played and food and drink are...

BAGHDAD, March 6, 2006 — The crisis generated by the bombing of the Golden Dome in Samarra has subsided. As I said last week, Iraq has passed a crucial test in their journey to becoming a democratic country. There is a terrorist threat here that will stop at nothing to undermine the formation of this constitutionally elected government, a government of national unity and a government that that represents all Iraqis. They tried to make the bombing of the Golden Dome mosque the straw that broke the camel’s back and it failed. Iraqis rose to the occasion. Have no doubt,...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2006 – Iraqi security forces are leaning forward to provide security in areas of sectarian strife prompted by this week's terrorist bombing of a prominent Shiite religious shrine, a U.S. military official said here today. "Iraqis are in the lead; coalition forces are prepared to support as required," DoD spokesman Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable said. The world-famed Golden Mosque, a Shiite religious shrine located in Samarra, Iraq, was bombed Feb. 22. The mosque's golden dome was blown off in the explosion, which touched off a round of Sunni-Shiite discord across the country. Some Shiites have accused...

Britons must 'wake up' to terror risk, says Brown (Filed: 12/02/2006) Opponents of tougher anti-terror measures must "wake up" to the scale of the security threat faced by Britain, Gordon Brown has warned. Mr Brown said ID cards were 'vital' The Chancellor is set to unveil a raft of new policies tomorrow, but the Government will this week face a tough task in the Commons to save two plans from embarrassing defeat. Both ID cards and proposals for a new offence of "glorifying terrorism" will be debated this week, measures dubbed "ineffective authoritarianism" by the Tories. David Cameron, the Conservative...

The city of Houston is appealing for emergency funding to help to fight a huge crime wave following the arrival of refugees from hurricane-hit New Orleans. The issue is highly sensitive as the majority of the hurricane's victims were drawn from New Orleans's black underclass.

PORT ORANGE — A man who woke up and found his head bleeding, drove to work and left a note for his boss before going to the hospital to find he had a bullet lodged in his brain, authorities said. His girlfriend later apparently killed herself when contacted by police. When Glen Thomas Betterley, 53, noticed the blood Thursday morning, he asked Emma Lorene Larsen if she had struck him. Larsen, 65, said she didn’t know. He cleaned himself up and laid down to rest, but when the bleeding wouldn’t stop he drove to work, left the note and then...

In 2005, Arnold identified the problems facing our State and courageously confronted those problems. Many of us worked tirelessly for those reforms because reform is sorely needed in this State. For the various reasons I explained in my column, “Why the CA Reform Bid Stumbled” the election was not successful. The lack of success, however, did not mean that his ideas were wrong or to be shelved. Indeed, Reform is often a function of patient resolve not instant reception. For the volunteer, the truth still can be seen amidst the lingering smoke of doubt that blankets many a defeat. In...

After years and years of reading about WWII in the Pacific, two days ago I was finally able to visit a place I've always wanted to see but figured I'd never be able to: Wake Island. I was a passenger on a C-20G (Gulfstream IV) on a flight from MCAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, to Okinawa, Japan. This is a long flight, about 12 hours total flight time, not including the refueling stop. But my spirits soared when the pilots told me the refueling location would be Wake Island! After a five hour flight from Hawaii, we descended toward Wake, at...

Living in the wake of Zimbabwe's urban 'tsunami' By Peta Thornycroft (Filed: 26/09/2005) "We live like pigs. No, pigs live better than us. We eat berries from the bush, which is food for baboons. That is our life since the tsunami," said Roderick Tchakayika, a father of five, outside the remains of his neighbours' house, which was knocked down on June 19. Mr Tchakayika, 48, was talking about what Zimbabweans call their own "tsunami" - a man-made event almost as extreme as the Asian disaster. The pitiful conditions in the Hatcliffe Extension It is three months since President Robert Mugabe...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Army News Service, Sept. 16, 2005) -- The nation watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast region, and then countless heart-wrenching stories stirred people to open their homes, wallets and hearts to the evacuees. But, as the disaster grew in proportion, so did the wave of Internet, e-mail and phone scams designed to rip off generous people. Rather than let a few criminals deter a nation’s generosity, the best way to counter the latest rash of crime is through education, said Timothy Haight, a legal assistance attorney with the Office of the...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Sept. 8, 2005) -- Marines from two Camp Pendleton-based units are participating in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in the devastated Gulf Coast region, joining the thousands of other U.S. servicemembers ordered to the disaster area this past week by the President of the United States. A detachment of Marines from the base's Communications and Information Systems unit arrived at the Naval Air Station and Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, La., Monday. The detachment of nine Marines, one civilian contractor, and two civilian truck drivers from CIS were dispatched to provide communications support to...

The famous investigative journalist Akbar Ganji is said to be dying. He has been urgently transferred from his cell in Evin to a hospital in Tehran. On July 16 it was the 36th day of his hunger strike as a protest not just against his own and his fellow-prisoners’ illegal detention, but also against the undemocratic Islamic Republic and its unelected Supreme Leader-for-Life, a harsh dictator with absolute power. Ganji’s hunger strike is a scream for the world’s attention for the persistent violations of the most fundamental human rights in his country. And for the fate of the vast number...